Trivia: Seymour Hicks began his six-decade acting career in 1887. A fine comic singer and an even better farceur, Hicks headlined the first revue show ever staged in London, 1893's Under the Clock. Before he had reached his 35th birthday, Hicks had managed several thriving music-hall and "legitimate" theatres, including the legendary Aldwych, which he founded in 1906. One year later, he made his movie debut in a 30-second tableau about his publishing activities, titled Seymour Hicks Edits 'The Tatler'. His "official" entree into films was in 1913; thereafter, he frequently co-starred on screen with his wife, Ellailine Terris, who also served as the subject of his 1939 autobiography Me and the Missus (his first book of reminiscences, Between Ourselves, was published in 1930). Hicks was the first British actor to appear in France during World War I, repeating this accomplishment during World War II -- and winning the French Croix de Guerre on both occasions. In 1922, he collaborated with cinema novice Alfred Hitchcock on the direction of Always Tell Your Wife, based on Hicks' own screenplay. Hicks made his best-remembered talkie appearance as star and scenarist of Scrooge, the 1935 remake of Hicks' 1913 silent film; also in 1935, Hicks became Sir Seymour Hicks, and his wife Lady Hicks. Sir Seymour Hicks continued appearing in films and on stage up until a year before his death at the age of 78.

Trivia: Donald Calthrop came to acting as a birthright, descended as he was from 19th-century theatrical impresario Dion Boucicault. He made his theatrical debut in 1906 at age 18, and his screen debut in 1918. The gaunt, sharp-featured Calthrop, with his intense stare -- resembling his better-known younger contemporaries John Laurie and Duncan Macrae -- was most often cast as villains, and is probably best-remembered today for his sinister portrayals in Alfred Hitchcock's early work. He skulked his way through Blackmail (1929) as well as Hitchcock's non-thriller Juno and the Paycock (1930) and the suspense pieces Murder (1930) and Number Seventeen (1932), all of which are among the most widely seen of early British talkies, thanks to their director. Calthrop occasionally played sympathetic roles, such as Bob Crachit in the Seymour Hicks version of Scrooge (1935) -- which was heavily shown on public television and low-power television stations during the early 1980s -- and even comedic foils, as in the historical drama Fire Over England (1936). But he was more often seen as malevolent or disreputable characters, the latter most notably -- apart from the Hitchcock films -- in The Ghost Train (1931) and Rome Express (1932). The final decade of his personal and professional life was blighted by a tragic incident that took place during the shooting of the 1930 talkie Spanish Eyes. According to author Matthew Sweet in his 2006 book Shepperton Babylon, Calthrop had invited a young chorus girl named Nita Foy, who was also working on the film up to his dressing room for some brandy, and while there her costume caught fire. The young actress died, and the tragedy destroyed Calthrop's marriage, as well as turning the actor into a habitual alcoholic, which cost him a good deal of his career momentum. A decade later, he finally ascended to a movie role worthy of his talent with Gabriel Pascal's production of Major Barbara (1941), based on the George Bernard Shaw play. Calthrop was cast in the film as Peter Shirley, the angry, disillusioned fitter who has been forced out of his job because of his age, under doubly tragic circumstances (his age was revealed at the coroner's inquest for his daughter . . . ). The role allowed the actor some superb scenes with Robert Newton and Wendy Hiller, and he might well have gotten a new lease on life, at least professionally, from the acclaimed, prestigious production (and doubly so, as David Lean was actually responsible for a good deal of the direction credited to producer Pascal). Alas, Calthrop died of a heart attack very early in the production of the movie, in July of 1940 -- he had been deceased over a year at the time of Major Barbara's opening in the summer of 1941.

Trivia: British actor Garry Marsh began his stage career at the age of 15. In films from 1930, Marsh started out as an action hero, but later settled into self-important character roles. His more notable roles of the 1930s include Esterhazy in The Dreyfus Case (1931) and Belle's husband in Scrooge (1935). By the 1940s, he was often as not cast as detectives and smarmy theatrical agents. He continued working in films until the late 1960s (though the "Gary Marsh" credited for Camelot was actually a juvenile performer). Garry Marsh was married to actresses Adele Lawson and Muriel Martin-Havey respectively.

Trivia: British actress Athene Seyler began her career on-stage in 1908 and made her first silent film in the 1920s. Usually cast in comedies, Seyler's characters were notorious scene stealers. Toward the end of her career, she was designated a Commander of the British Empire. In 1944, she and co-writer Stephen Haggard published the still-popular guide The Craft of Comedy. Seyler died in 1990 at the age of 101.

Trivia: Internationally acclaimed British stage star Maurice Evans is celebrated for his lyrical speaking voice and his great performances in the classics. The son of an amateur playwright, he sang professionally as a boy and later acted in his father's adaptations of Thomas Hardy's novels. In 1926 he made his professional stage debut, and first appeared on the London stage the following year. While establishing his reputation he supported himself by running a cleaning and dyeing establishment. In 1929 his triumphant performance in Journey's End allowed him to become a full-time actor. He appeared in a handful of British films from 1930-35, but otherwise remained exclusively a stage actor. He joined the Old Vic company in 1934, then moved to the U.S. in 1935, when he began a long and illustrious career on Broadway; he was most revered for his work in plays by Shakespeare and Shaw. In 1941 he became a U.S. citizen. During World War II he was put in charge of the Army Entertainment Section, Central Pacific Theater; with the rank of major, he toured Pacific military bases in a streamlined version of Hamlet. He returned to the screen in 1951 in Kind Lady opposite Ethel Barrymore, but again went on to make only a few films over the next two decades, none of which matched the stature of his stage productions. His best-known role was as the ape Dr. Zaius in Planet of the Apes (1968) and Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970). He also did much work on TV, most memorably on the sitcom Bewitched, in which he played Elizabeth Montgomery's warlock father.

Trivia: A former civil engineer, Charles Carson established himself on the London stage of the 1920s as a superlative Shakespearean actor. In films from 1932, Carson seemed most at home in costume roles, appearing in such historical dramas as Fire Over England (1937), Victoria the Great (1937) and 60 Glorious Years (1939). He also flourished in contemporary roles such as "R" in Hitchcock's Secret Agent (1936), and on at least one occasion leaped some 100 years into the future, as the Great Grandfather in Things to Come (1936). During the war years, he directed at starred in ENSA productions on behalf of the British military troops, then settled into a long second career of playing distinguished elders. Charles Carson made his farewell film appearance in still another historical epic, Lady Caroline Lamb (1972).