Trivia: One of the few movie "superstars" truly worthy of the designation, actor Sean Connery was born to a middle-class Scottish family in the first year of the worldwide Depression. Dissatisfied with his austere surroundings, Connery quit school at 15 to join the navy (he still bears his requisite tattoos, one reading "Scotland Forever" and the other "Mum and Dad"). Holding down several minor jobs, not the least of which was as a coffin polisher, Connery became interested in bodybuilding, which led to several advertising modeling jobs and a bid at Scotland's "Mr. Universe" title. Mildly intrigued by acting, Connery joined the singing-sailor chorus of the London roduction of South Pacific in 1951, which whetted his appetite for stage work. Connery worked for a while in repertory theater, then moved to television, where he scored a success in the BBC's re-staging of the American teledrama Requiem for a Heavyweight. The actor moved on to films, playing bit parts (he'd been an extra in the 1954 Anna Neagle musical Lilacs in the Spring) and working up to supporting roles. Connery's first important movie role was as Lana Turner's romantic interest in Another Time, Another Place (1958) -- although he was killed off 15 minutes into the picture. After several more years in increasingly larger film and TV roles, Connery was cast as James Bond in 1962's Dr. No; he was far from the first choice, but the producers were impressed by Connery's refusal to kowtow to them when he came in to read for the part. The actor played the secret agent again in From Russia With Love (1963), but it wasn't until the third Bond picture, Goldfinger (1964), that both Connery and his secret-agent alter ego became a major box-office attraction. While the money steadily improved, Connery was already weary of Bond at the time of the fourth 007 flick Thunderball (1965). He tried to prove to audiences and critics that there was more to his talents than James Bond by playing a villain in Woman of Straw (1964), an enigmatic Hitchcock hero in Marnie (1964), a cockney POW in The Hill (1965), and a loony Greenwich Village poet in A Fine Madness (1966). Despite the excellence of his characterizations, audiences preferred the Bond films, while critics always qualified their comments with references to the secret agent. With You Only Live Twice (1967), Connery swore he was through with James Bond; with Diamonds Are Forever (1971), he really meant what he said. Rather than coast on his celebrity, the actor sought out the most challenging movie assignments possible, including La Tenda Rossa/The Red Tent (1969), The Molly Maguires (1970), and Zardoz (1973). This time audiences were more responsive, though Connery was still most successful with action films like The Wind and the Lion (1974), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), and The Great Train Robbery (1979). With his patented glamorous worldliness, Connery was also ideal in films about international political intrigue like The Next Man (1976), Cuba (1979), The Hunt for Red October (1990), and The Russia House (1990). One of Connery's personal favorite performances was also one of his least typical: In The Offence (1973), he played a troubled police detective whose emotions -- and hidden demons -- are agitated by his pursuit of a child molester. In 1981, Connery briefly returned to the Bond fold with Never Say Never Again, but his difficulties with the production staff turned what should have been a fond throwback to his salad days into a nightmarish experience for the actor. At this point, he hardly needed Bond to sustain his career; Connery had not only the affection of his fans but the respect of his industry peers, who honored him with the British Film Academy award for The Name of the Rose (1986) and an American Oscar for The Untouchables (1987) (which also helped make a star of Kevin Costner, who repaid the favor by casting Connery as Richard the Lionhearted in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves [1991] -- the most highly publicized "surprise" cameo of that year). While Connery's star had risen to new heights, he also continued his habit of alternating crowd-pleasing action films with smaller, more contemplative projects that allowed him to stretch his legs as an actor, such as Time Bandits (1981), Five Days One Summer (1982), A Good Man in Africa (1994), and Playing by Heart (1998). Although his mercurial temperament and occasionally overbearing nature is well known, Connery is nonetheless widely sought out by actors and directors who crave the thrill of working with him, among them Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas, who collaborated with Connery on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), where the actor played Jones' father. Connery served as executive producer on his 1992 vehicle Medicine Man (1992), and continued to take on greater behind-the-camera responsibilities on his films, serving as both star and executive producer on Rising Sun (1993), Just Cause (1995), and The Rock (1996). He graduated to full producer on Entrapment (1999), and, like a true Scot, he brought the project in under budget; the film was a massive commercial success and paired Connery in a credible onscreen romance with Catherine Zeta-Jones, a beauty 40 years his junior. He also received a unusual hipster accolade in Trainspotting (1996), in which one of the film's Gen-X dropouts (from Scotland, significantly enough) frequently discusses the relative merits of Connery's body of work. Appearing as Allan Quartermain in 2003's comic-to-screen adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the seventy-three year old screen legend proved that he still had stamina to spare and that despite his age he could still appear entirely believeable as a comic-book superhero. Still a megastar in the 1990s, Sean Connery commanded one of moviedom's highest salaries -- not so much for his own ego-massaging as for the good of his native Scotland, to which he continued to donate a sizable chunk of his earnings.

Trivia: Although not too well known outside his native Italy, white-haired, robust Adolfo Celi gained renown as a "renaissance" man of theater and films, doing triple duty as an actor, writer and director. His first film was 1946's Un Americano in Vacanza, after which he left Italy to spend nearly two decades working on the stage in Argentina and Brazil. He returned to films with the Brasilia-lensed That Man From Rio (1964), then achieved American fame as megavillain Largo in the 1965 James Bond flick Thunderball. Two years later, he appeared with Sean Connery's brother Neil in the Bond rip-off Operation Kid Brother (1967). Though he could speak several languages, Celi's accent was so pronounced that his voice was usually dubbed, never more noticeably than in the cult favorite King of Hearts (1966), in which he played a pompous British military officer. In addition to his acting credits, Adolfo Celi directed three South American films: Ciacara, Aliba, Tico Tico No Fuba.

Trivia: An alumnus of the Paris Drama Conservatory, well-proportioned brunette actress Claudine Auger made her screen debut in 1960. Five years later, she played Domino, mistress of master villain Largo (Adolpho Celi), in the 007 epic Thunderball. The most immediate by-product of Claudine's "overnight" stardom was a Playboy spread and a guest shot on an American TV special starring Danny Thomas and Bob Hope. After worthwhile roles in such trendy European films as Triple Cross (1966) and The Killing Game (1967), Claudine Auger's starring career settled into such time-killers as Black Belly of the Tarantula (1972).

Trivia: Actress Luciana Paluzzi was one of many voluptuous Italian brunettes groomed for international stardom in the wake of Gina Lollobrigida. Working both sides of the Atlantic in the '50s in such films as Three Coins in the Fountain (1954) and Sea Fury (1958), Ms. Paluzzi was given a chance at American TV stardom in the role of Simone Genet on the 1959 espionage weekly Five Fingers. Little was required of Paluzzi other than looking gorgeous in low-cut evening gowns; while this kept Five Fingers alive in the fan magazines, it wasn't enough to sustain the series beyond 17 episodes. Her career in a slump in 1965, she accepted a villainess role in the James Bond epic Thunderball. She portrayed Fiona, one of the few women on this planet able to resist the charms of Mr. Bond; perhaps as punishment for this, Fiona is killed on the dance floor by her own companions, whereupon James deposits her body at a nearby table and says "Do you mind if my partner sits this one out? She's just dead." This fleeting association with a box-office blockbuster enabled Luciana Paluzzi to extend her European starring career well into the '70s.

Trivia: New Zealand-born character actor Guy Doleman performed in numerous British and American television shows and movies. Fans of Len Deighton's Harry Palmer spy trilogy -- it began with The Ipcress File in 1965 -- will remember Doleman for playing Colonel Ross opposite Michael Caine. Doleman launched his career in Tom McCreadle's tribute to the Australian Royal Navy in Always Another Dawn (1948). His television credits include appearances on The Avengers, The Prisoner, Murder She Wrote, and General Hospital.

Trivia: One of Great Britain's foremost pin-up girls, the delightful Martine Beswicke has managed the neat trick of being kinky and classy all in one. Billed as "Martin Beswick," Beswicke made her first film appearance as one of the fighting gypsy girls in the 1963 James Bond flick From Russia With Love; she returned to Bondland with a more substantial role in Thunderball (1965). After drawing attention away from a near-naked Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C. (1966), Beswicke was awarded with the leading role in the similar Prehistoric Women (1967). She attracted the notice of the intelligentsia with her performance as a leather-clad lesbian in 1967's Penthouse, then went on to play half the title role in Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971). By contrast, her portrayal of Xaviera Hollander in The Happy Hooker Goes to Hollywood was a model of restraint. American TV viewers were given ample opportunity to drink in the charms of Martine Beswicke in the 1979 miniseries The Innocent and the Damned -- not to mention her brief but impressive (and fully clothed) appearance in a well-circulated beer commercial of the early '80s.

Trivia: Born into a theatrical family, British actor Bernard Lee first trod the boards at age six. Supporting himself as a fruit salesman, Lee attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, making his West End stage bow in 1928. In films from 1934, Lee showed up in dozens of bits and minor roles, his screen time increasing throughout the 1950s. He showed up prominently as the resident police inspector in several of the "Edgar Wallace" "B"-picture series of the early 1960s. In 1962, Lee was cast as M, the immediate superior to Secret Agent 007 James Bond, in Dr. No. Bernard Lee continued to portray M in all subsequent Bond endeavors, up to and including 1979's Moonraker; he also essayed the role in the 1967 Bond spin-off, Operation Kid Brother, which starred Sean Connery's younger brother Neil.

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: 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: A native of Cyprus, actor Paul Stassino appeared in many British films of the '60s and early '70s. He also appeared on British television. He eventually left films to open a casino in Athens.

Trivia: Versatile Czechoslovakian actor George Pravda played character roles in many British films of the '60s, '70s, and '80s. Fluent in six languages, he got his start working on-stage in France and Australia. He moved to England in 1956.

Trivia: Royal Academy of Dramatic Art graduate and ex-Royal Air Force pilot Roland Culver quietly pursued a stage career from 1925 and a film career from 1930, reliably if unspectacularly playing a steady stream of leading roles. By the mid-'40s, Culver developed into a dry-witted, low-key character actor turning in memorable work in such films as On Approval (1943) and Dead of Night (1945). He moved to Hollywood in 1946, where for the next five years he essayed such "dependable" gentlemanly characterizations as Heavenly emissary Mr. Jordan in Down to Earth (1947). Back in England in the early '50s, he continued to play prominent parts in films like The Holly and the Ivy (1953). Working regularly in TV, he could be seen as Menenius in Spread of the Eagle, a 1962 BBC series based on the Roman plays of Shakespeare. Roland Culver persevered in small but impressive roles until his retirement in 1982.

Trivia: A one-time steeplejack jockey, British actor Edward Underdown began his film career in 1934, but the starring roles didn't come until the mid '40s. Tall and good looking in a bookish sort of way, Underdown built his reputation on such postwar films as The October Man (1947), The Dark Man (1952), Shadow Man (1954), and the Humphrey Bogart/John Huston/Truman Capote cult collaboration Beat the Devil (1954). In the latter film Underdown was cast as Jennifer Jones' dull, plodding husband; while this characterization worked to the benefit of Beat the Devil, unfortunately most of Underdown's '50s performances were equally dull and plodding. By the mid '60s, Edward Underdown was playing such one-scene parts as his "Air Vice Marshall" in the 1965 James Bond thriller Thunderball.

Trivia: British actor/writer Reginald Beckwith was a playwright and film critic in the years before the war. From 1941 through 1945, Beckwith was a BBC war correspondent; coincidentally, his first film as an actor was the 1940 flag-waver Freedom Radio. His best known play was the serio-comedy Boys in Brown, concerning a British borstal (boys' reformatory) and its kindhearted headmaster; apparently Beckwith had written the latter role with himself in mind, though it would be played by Jack Warner in the film version. From the late 1940s onward, Reginald Beckwith was a full-time character actor, playing variations on the fussy, nervous upper-class and executive types so popular in British films of the period.

Trivia: Willowy blonde British actress Suzy Kendall studied for a career in clothing design at Derby College. After briefly laboring in the English fashion industry as both designer and model, she was cast in the 1966 spy thriller The Liquidator. The next year, she gained international renown for her role in To Sir With Love (1967) and the semi-willing victim of a gang of S&M freaks in The Penthouse (1967). Kendall then settled into roles in a series of indifferent English and European productions, remaining in this artistic rut into the late 1980s. Suzy Kendall was one of several high-profile wives of comic actor Dudley Moore.

Trivia: British character actor Jack Gwillim first appeared onscreen in the '50s.