Trivia: The only child of a London policeman, Roger Moore started out working as a film extra to support his first love, painting, but soon found he preferred acting, and so enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He began his film, radio and stage career just after World War II (his early credits are often confused with American actor Roger Moore, a minor Columbia contractee of the 1940s), and also performed with a military entertainment unit. Though in childhood Moore had been mercilessly teased by friends and family alike for being fat, by the time he was ready to start his career, he had become an exceptionally handsome man with a toned, well-muscled body. Signed on the basis of his good looks to an MGM contract in 1954, Moore began making appearances in American films, none of which amounted to much dramatically; his biggest success of the 1950s was as star of the British-filmed TV series Ivanhoe. Signed by Warner Bros. Television for the 1959 adventure weekly The Alaskans, Moore became the latest of a long line of James Garner surrogates on Maverick, appearing during the 1960-1961 season as cousin Beau. After a few years making European films, Moore was chosen to play Simon Templar in the TV-series version of Leslie Charteris' The Saint (an earlier attempt at a Saint series with David Niven had fallen through). Moore remained with the series from 1963-1967, occasionally directing a few episodes (he was never completely comfortable as simply an actor, forever claiming that he was merely getting by on his face and physique). After another British TV series, 1971's The Persuaders, Moore was selected to replace Sean Connery in the James Bond films. His initial Bond effort was 1973's Live and Let Die, but the consensus (in which the actor heartily concurred) was that Moore didn't truly "grow" into the character until 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me. Few of Moore's non-Bond movie appearances of the 1970s and 1980s were notably successful, save for an amusing part as a Jewish mama's boy who thinks he's Bond in Burt Reynolds' Cannonball Run (1981). Moore's last 007 film was 1985's A View to a Kill. In 1991, he was made a special representative of UNICEF, an organization with which he'd been active since the 1960s. Relegated mainly to a series of flops through the 1990s, Moore appeared in such efforts as The Quest (1996) and Spice World (1997) and gained most of his exposure that decade as a television talk show and documentary host. In early May of 2003, fans were dismayed to hear that Moore collapsed onstage during a Broadway performance of The Play That I Wrote. Rushed to a nearby hospital afer insisting on finishing his performance in the small role, reports noted that Moore's subsequent recovery seemed to be coming along smoothly. He lent his distinctive voice to family films such as Here Comes Peter Cottontail and Cats & Dogs, The Revenge of Kitty Galore. Moore died in 2017, at age 89.

Trivia: Her real name just wouldn't do for a marquee in the Bible Belt, so Canadian-born actress Lois Hooker became Lois Maxwell when she arrived in Hollywood. Maxwell appeared in one British picture and a handful of American programmers before she sought out better opportunities in the Italian film industry. She returned to Britain as a second lead and character actress in 1956. In 1970, Maxwell co-starred in the Canadian TV series Adventures in Rainbow County. Lois Maxwell is best remembered for her appearances as the coolly efficient, subtly predatory Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond films produced between 1962 and 1985 -- at least until she was unceremoniously dumped in favor of a younger actress for the two Timothy Dalton Bond epics of the late 1980s. Maxwell died at age 80 in September 2007.

Trivia: British supporting actor, onscreen from the '60s.

Trivia: Trained at RADA, spindly British actor Julian Glover made his film bow as Lt. Matherton in the Oscar-winning Tom Jones (1963). Glover has since proven equally adept at chop-licking villainy and eccentric comedy relief. His movie roles include Shrdlu in The Adding Machine (1968), Kristatos in For Your Eyes Only (1977), General Veers in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), King Richard in the made-for-TV Ivanhoe (1982), Walter Donahue in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Dr. Livesey in the Charlton Heston version of Treasure Island (1989) and King Gustav in King Ralph (1992). Julian Glover also appeared as megalomanic heavy Dr. Stefan Kilkis in the campy TV series QED (1982).

Trivia: At one time Israel's most popular film personality, Topol first learned to act in amateur theatricals while serving in the Army. Back in civilian clothes, Topol established a satirical theatre troupe in Tel Aviv, and in 1961 was one of the founding members of the Municipal Theatre of Haifa. He appeared in his first film in 1964, and two years later made his English-language screen bow as Abou Ibn Kaden in the big-budget Mickey Marcus biopic Cast a Giant Shadow (1966). His chief claim to fame is his portrayal of Tevye the Milkman in the long-running musical Fiddler on the Roof; he scored an enormous success in this role on the London stage, then earned an Academy Award nomination for his interpretation of Tevye in the 1971 film version of Fiddler. While criticized in some circles for relying upon "cute" acting tricks, Topol has managed to retain his stardom--and his home-grown fan following--for over three decades. Some of Topol's most notable post-Fiddler roles have included the title character in Brecht's Galileo (1975), Dr. Zarkhov in 1980's Flash Gordon and Berel Jastrow in the 1983 miniseries The Winds of War and its 1987 sequel War and Remembrance.

Trivia: Lead actress, onscreen from Ice Castles (1978). Former ice-skating champion.

Trivia: Australian-born actress Cassandra Harris was perhaps better known as the first wife of actor Pierce Brosnan. Harris's most recognizable role -- outside of Australia, of course -- came via her portrayal of Countess Lisl in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only. Her association with the Bond franchise would later prove tragically ironic when Brosnan assumed the role of James Bond in Goldeneye (1995), nearly four years after Harris died after a long battle with ovarian cancer.

Trivia: British actress Jill Bennett trained at the Amersham Repertory and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Her film debut in 1952's Moulin Rouge occurred shortly after her London stage bow. Married for several years to playwright John Osborne, Ms. Bennett starred in several of Osborne's plays, winning an Evening Standard award and a Variety Club of Britain Award for her performance in Time Present. Continually busy, Ms. Bennett described her notion of heaven as "to be eternally rehearsing." Jill Bennett committed suicide in 1990 at the age of 58.

Trivia: British lead and supporting actor Michael Gothard first appeared onscreen in the '60s.

Trivia: British lead and supporting actor, onscreen from the '50s.

Trivia: "Bond -- James Bond," would have been nothing without Llewelyn -- Desmond Llewelyn. Llewelyn played the tweedy technophile who invented the bizarre gadgetry 007 used to thwart the sinister machinations of Dr. No, Goldfinger, and other dastardly villains in 17 Bond movies. Llewelyn's character was named Geoffrey Boothroyd, but no one in the Bond movies called him that. Instead, they called him "Q," short for "quartermaster." Like an army quartermaster who equips troops, Q equipped Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and other Bonds with the supplies of the espionage trade. Desmond Wilkinson Llewelyn was born in South Wales on September 12, 1914, the son of a Welsh coal-mining engineer. Interested in acting at an early age, he first studied accounting and law enforcement before enrolling in the Royal Academy of Arts at age 20. After joining the Royal Welsh Fusiliers at the onset of World War II, he fought in France as a second lieutenant and fell into enemy hands after a two-day battle with a German panzer division. He spent the next five years in German POW camps at Rottenburg, Laufen, and Warburg. He once tried to tunnel his way to freedom, but failed. Llewelyn returned to acting and began his film career in 1950 with a part in They Were Not Divided, then went on to appear in 31 other films, including the Bond films. Among the non-Bond films he appeared in, sometimes in quite minor roles, were Cleopatra (1963), Silent Playground (1964), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), Merlin (1992), and Taboo (1997). Between 1963 and the year of his death, 1999, he played in all but two of the Bond films -- more than any of the actors who starred as James Bond, including Connery, Moore, George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnan. As Q, Llewelyn was always irascible and cranky in response to 007's carefree nonchalance. Like a professor with a flippant student, he scolded Bond to pay attention and tutored his charge in the use of "Q toys," as his booby-trapped marvels came to be known. Still, Q was a master of mischief, a gray-haired boy who concocted an endless variety of spy paraphernalia and bizarre weapons, like the Rolex watch that could alter the path of a speeding bullet; the pen grenade that, with three clicks of a button, could be set to detonate in four seconds; the key ring that could open almost any lock in the world, release nerve gas, or simply explode; and the Lotus sports car that doubled as a submarine, complete with torpedoes and surface-to-air missiles.In real life, Llewelyn was all thumbs when it came to technology, and he was kind and gentle to all he encountered. On the movie set, his co-workers and other fans crowded around to observe when it came time for him to introduce his new marvel to the Bond de jour, and he spent as long as it took to sign autographs for anyone who wanted one. Ironically, it was an automobile, a blue Renault Megane, that killed Llewelyn. He died in a hospital shortly after the Renault collided with another car near Firle in East Sussex, England, on December 19, 1999. The crash site was not far from his home, Bexhill-on-Sea, south of London. He was survived by his wife Pamela, whom he married in 1938, and two sons. His son Ivor told Britain's Sky Television, "He was a kind, very lovable man, and as a father he was great."

Trivia: The son of prominent stage actor Malcolm Keen, London-born Geoffrey Keen proved his talent in his own right when he won the Gold Medal at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. On stage from 1932 and in films from 1946, Keen established himself as one of the premiere purveyors of cold-edged corporate types. If a producer wanted a dryly sarcastic executive or intimidating attorney, Keen was the man. In this vein, Geoffrey Keen was the ideal replacement for the late Bernard Lee as "M" in the James Bond films, essaying the role in such Bond escapades as The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), A View to a Kill (1985) and The Living Daylights (1987).

Trivia: British character actor Walter Gotell spent most of his screen time as the "enemy." He was especially adept at portraying hissable Nazis in WWII dramas and equally odious KGB agents in Cold War films. His best-known role was Russian General Gogol in three of the James Bond epics: Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, and View to a Kill. Walter Gotell remained active in films and TV throughout the 1990s, as sinister as ever in such works as Puppet Master IV (1991).

Trivia: Tall, sandy-haired British actor Charles Dance trained for a career in graphic design at Plymouth College of Art and Leicester College of Art. Dance developed a taste for the theatre by listening to the reminiscences of two elderly actors who ran a pub in his Dover neighborhood. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company at the age of 29, and made his first film, the James Bond picture For Your Eyes Only, six years later. Dance's widest professional exposure came in 1984 when he appeared in "The Jewel in the Crown," a 14-part British TV production seen in the U.S. on Masterpiece Theatre. Charles Dance's best-remembered performances have been as D.W. Griffith in Good Morning Babylon (1987); the role of Meryl Streep's husband in Plenty (1985); the title part in the 1990 TV adaptation of Phantom of the Opera; and the displaced "imaginary" villain in Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Last Action Hero (1993).

Trivia: Canadian actress Toby Robins played supporting roles in several British films, including For Your Eyes Only (1981). She got her start working in North American and British theater.

Trivia: Gangling Scottish character actor Graham Crowden seemed born to play over-sanctimonious priests, looney scientists and cadaverous undertakers. Following Shakespearean stage work, Crowden made his film bow in 1961's Why Bother to Knock? He became a favorite of film director Lindsay Anderson, who showed Crowden to excellent if bizarre advantage in such films as If (1969), O' Lucky Man! (1973) (in several roles) and Brittania Hospital (1982). Among Graham Crowden's non-Lindsay Anderson films were The Ruling Class (1973), The Little Prince (1974), Jabberwocky (1981), For Your Eyes Only (1982) and The Company of Wolves (1984).

Trivia: Viva, also known as Viva Superstar and originally known on her birth certificate as Janet Susan Mary Hoffman, was one of the more famous members of the Andy Warhol entourage. A talented painter and novelist, Viva was less accomplished as an actress, though her screen appearances had the saving grace of humor. In recounting her explicit sex scene in Warhol's F**k (aka Blue Movie, 1968), one recalls not the penetration but the foreplay, wherein Viva blithely chatters away on a variety of social and political topics. Her most famous "mainstream" appearances include her semi-autobiographical turn as Greenwich Village reveller Gretchen McAlbertson in Midnight Cowboy (1969), and her portrayal of Jennifer, Woody Allen's nymphomaniac blind date (who, after prattling on about sexual liberation, reacts to Woody Allen's advances by screaming "What kind of a girl do you take me for???") in Play It Again, Sam (1972). Outlasting the fifteen minutes of fame proscribed by her mentor Andy Warhol, Viva was recently seen as Mrs. Cooper in Mel Gibson's Man Without a Face (1993). Hal Erickson, Rovi

Trivia: Scottish pop singer Sheena Easton made her acting debut as a regular on the hit television series Miami Vice in 1987. While her feature-film work has been sporadic, she has found continued success on television, primarily as a voice artist for such animated series as Disney's Gargoyles. Her feature-film voice work includes the animated All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 (1996). Easton has also appeared on-stage, notably in a Broadway revival of the musical Grease in which she played the peppery Rizzo.