Trivia: Born in Missouri, entertainer Dick Van Dyke was raised in Danville, Illinois, where repeated viewings of Laurel & Hardy comedies at his local movie palace inspired him to go into show business. Active in high school and community plays in his teens, Van Dyke briefly put his theatrical aspirations aside upon reaching college age. He toyed with the idea of becoming a Presbyterian minister; then, after serving in the Air Force during World War II, opened up a Danville advertising agency. When this venture failed, it was back to show biz, first as a radio announcer for local station WDAN, and later as half of a record-pantomime act called The Merry Mutes (the other half was a fellow named Philip Erickson). While hosting a TV morning show in New Orleans, Van Dyke was signed to a contract by the CBS network. He spent most of his time subbing for other CBS personalities and emceeing such forgotten endeavors as Cartoon Theatre. After making his acting debut as a hayseed baseball player on The Phil Silvers Show, Van Dyke left CBS to free-lance. He hosted a few TV game shows before his career breakthrough as co-star of the 1959 Broadway review The Girls Against the Boys. The following year, he starred in the musical comedy Bye Bye Birdie, winning a Tony Award for his portrayal of mother-dominated songwriter Albert Peterson (it would be his last Broadway show until the short-lived 1980 revival of The Music Man). In 1961, he was cast as comedy writer Rob Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show, which after a shaky start lasted five seasons and earned its star three Emmies.He made his movie bow in the 1963 filmization of Bye Bye Birdie, then entered into a flexible arrangement with Walt Disney Studios. His best known films from that era include Mary Poppins (1964), Lt. Robin Crusoe, USN and The Comic, in which he played an amalgam of several self-destructive silent movie comedians. His TV specials remained popular in the ratings, and it was this fact that led to the debut of The New Dick Van Dyke Show in 1971. Despite the creative input of the earlier Dick Van Dyke Show's maven Carl Reiner, the later series never caught on, and petered out after three seasons. A chronic "people pleaser," Van Dyke was loath to display anger or frustration around his co-workers or fans, so he began taking solace in liquor; by 1972, he had become a full-fledged alcoholic. Rather than lie to his admirers or himself any longer, he underwent treatment and publicly admitted his alcoholism -- one of the first major TV stars ever to do so. Van Dyke's public confession did little to hurt his "nice guy" public image, and, now fully and permanently sober, he continued to be sought out for guest-star assignments and talk shows. In 1974, he starred in the TV movie The Morning After, playing an ad executive who destroys his reputation, his marriage and his life thanks to booze. After that Van Dyke, further proved his versatility when he began accepting villainous roles, ranging from a cold-blooded wife murderer in a 1975 Columbo episode to the corrupt district attorney in the 1990 film Dick Tracy. He also made several stabs at returning to weekly television, none of which panned out--until 1993, when he starred as Dr. Mark Sloan in the popular mystery series Diagnosis Murder. He made a few more movie appearances after Diagnosis Murder came to an end, most notably as a retired security guard in the hit family film Night at the Museum. As gifted at writing and illustrating as he is at singing, dancing and clowning, Van Dyke has penned two books, Faith, Hope and Hilarity and Those Funny Kids. From 1992 to 1994, he served as chairman of the Nickelodeon cable service, which was then sweeping the ratings by running Dick Van Dyke Show reruns in prime time. Van Dyke is the brother of award-winning TV personality Jerry Van Dyke, and the father of actor Barry Van Dyke.

Trivia: The daughter of popular British musical comedy entertainer Bobby Howes, Sally Ann Howes made her first film at the age of 13. That film was Thursday's Child (1943), in which Howes was copacetically cast as a juvenile star whose fame wreaked havoc upon her family. At 15, Howes was given an opportunity for well-modulated hysterics in the multistoried horror classic Dead of Night (1945). She went on to play Kate Nickelby in Nicholas Nickelby (1947) and Kitty in Anna Karenina (1948) before finally graduating to adult roles. In 1958, Howes took time out from her film career to replace Julie Andrews in the long-running Broadway hit My Fair Lady; her "Henry Higgins" was Edward Mulhare. Sally Ann Howes was at one time the wife of composer Richard Adler, of Pajama Game and Damn Yankees fame.

Trivia: Lantern-jawed, mustachioed, phlegmatic British actor Lionel Jeffries was trained at RADA following military service. In films from 1949, Jeffries hit his stride in the 1960s, playing a variety of ineffectual cops, bumbling bureaucrats, petty criminals and absent-minded professors. He was shown to best advantage in such films as Wrong Arm of the Law (1962) First Men in the Moon (1963) and Spy with a Cold Nose (1966). He was also adept at more sober-sided characterizations, such as the Marquis of Queensbury in The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960). In 1971, Lionel Jeffries turned to directing with The Railway Children, the first of several efforts aimed at the family trade: his other directorial assignments in this vein included Baxter (1972) The Amazing Mr. Blunden (1972), The Water Babies (1978) and Wombling Free (1978). Jeffries died at age 83 in February 2010.

Trivia: From boyhood, British entertainer Benny Hill dreamed of being the principal comedian in a stage review, but the immediacies of eating interfered, so he took such jobs as milkman, bridge operator and drummer. At 16, Hill landed his first gig as a comic, headlining a troupe of 12 lovely young ladies. He played the provinces for years, somehow always missing out on his target arena of London. Hill learned his distinctive down-to-earth style from watching American comedians like Danny Thomas and Danny Kaye, performers who slid into the comic punch line rather than hammering it to death like most British musical hall comics. As his jobs increased in stature, Benny tried briefly to be a film star, but his first movie Who Done It? (1956) turned out to be a "who saw it?" His popularity growing thanks to a series of antic television commercials, Hill began performing regularly on the BBC-TV network, taking time out for the occasional film part in such international productions as Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1969). Thanks to the loose British-TV standards in regards to feminine nudity and ribald humor, Hill maintained his following with a potpourri of smirky, suggestive jokes and comic sketches - always redeemed by the performance's bad-little-boy ingenuousness. Tired of the weekly grind, Hill moved to Thames Television in 1969, where he agreed to turn out only five or six specials per year. It was from these specials that the weekly, half-hour syndicated The Benny Hill Show was gleaned. This package was introduced on Los Angeles TV in early 1979, scored an instantaneous hit, and soon became one of the most sought-after syndicated properties in America. While prudes and bluenoses ranted, raved and tore their hair, Benny Hill scampered about pinching female bottoms and leering at the remaining portions of the anatomy on a Monday-through-Friday basis in most markets. Hill's fame was international by the early '80s, but unlike other major comics he preferred to confine his work to the TV studio, disdaining personal appearances and nightclubs. An utter extrovert on camera, Benny Hill was exceedingly private in real life, so much so that he tried to avoid public places as much as possible, even though one of his great passions in life was travelling from country to country. He also avoided any long term romantic relationships, at least until late in his life. Benny Hill remained a number-one syndicated TV attraction into the late '80s, at which time his series was transferred to cable TV, where it remains as of this writing as a fixture of the Comedy Network. Suffering a sudden heart attack, Benny Hill died in April of 1992 - one day after the death of another highly-regarded "racy" British comedian, Frankie Howerd, whose own TV series was distributed in America on the coattails of Benny Hill's success.

Trivia: Like the stalwart medieval castles that still dominate the hillsides of his childhood home in southwestern Scotland, James Robertson-Justice was imposing. His cavernous chest, his resonant voice, his full beard, and his stately bearing all suggested the regality of a mighty king. In fact, in the Sword and the Rose in 1953, Robertson-Justice portrayed the most lordly of British kings, Henry VIII, winning critical acclaim. Physically, he was the near mirror image of Henry as depicted in the 1538 portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger. More important, though, Robertson-Justice wore the mantle of Henry's personality, mimicking the king's authoritarian demeanor and legendary appetite for all things worldly. That he was at home in the role of Henry VIII was not surprising. Like the Tudor king,Robertson-Justice loved athletics, dancing, politics, and learning (he held two doctor's degrees: a Ph.D. and a doctorate in law). Moreover, he had mastered the royal sport of falconry, and even taught young Prince Charles the finer points of the ancient pastime. Official biographies say Robertson-Justice was born in the maritime community of Wigtown in the southernmost shire in Scotland. However, the town of Langholm, also in southern Scotland, proudly proclaims that he was actually born there in the Crown Hotel during an emergency stop when his mother was traveling. There is no argument, though, about when he was born: June 15, 1905. His education at Marborough College in England and Bonn University in Germany equipped him with the skills necessary to succeed in a variety of pursuits. Heeding one of Plato's ancient admonitions, he balanced mental activity with physical activity, becoming a netminder for the London Lions in the British Ice Hockey Association. After a skiing injury waylaid him, he refereed matches. Though he had the desire and talent to become an actor, he first pursued a career in Canada as a journalist, then fought in the Spanish Civil War and WWII. In 1944, he made his first film, Fiddlers Three, a fanciful comedy about time travelers in ancient Rome, where Robertson-Justice was a centurion. That stint was the first of many roles in films set in the distant past, including The Black Rose (1950), David and Bathsheba (1951), Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951), Les Misérables (1952), The Story of Robin Hood (1952), Rob Roy (1953), The Sword and the Rose (1953), Land of the Pharaohs (1955), and Moby Dick (1956). However, in spite of his ability to wield swords, wear crowns, and dodge cannonballs, his signature role -- the one that earned him a warm niche in the hearts of Britons everywhere -- was that of Sir Lancelot Spratt, a chief surgeon in the celebrated series of zany Doctor films. The first in the series, Doctor in the House, was Britain's biggest moneymaker in 1954. It was Spratt's job to rule unruly medical students with an appetite for women, money, and fast cars. Remarkably, while making five more Doctor films over the next 16 years, Robertson-Justice had the time and energy to serve as rector of the University of Edinburgh. He died in 1975 at King's Somborne, England.

Trivia: At age 11 he began appearing in the Australian ballet, and later appeared in stage musicals and toured with Pavlova's dance company. In 1933 he moved to England and joined the Sadler's Wells Ballet; soon he became that company's principal dancer, and in the '40s he choreographed many of its productions. He devoted most of the '50s to acting, appearing with the Old Vic in productions of Shakespeare, then returned to ballet in the '60s; in 1965 he was appointed co-director of the Australian Ballet company. Beginning in the early '40s, he appeared sporadically in films; some of his work involved dancing -- such as The Red Shoes (1948), which he also choreographed -- and some involved straight dramatic roles. He co-directed (with Rudolf Nureyev) and played the title role in the ballet-film Don Quixote (1973). He was knighted in 1950.

Trivia: British comic actress Barbara Windsor was celebrated less for her acting than for her blonde hair, piled atop her head like a high-rise beehive. She made her screen debut as a tiny, squealy voiced student in The Belles of St. Trinian's (1955), then performed variations of this character in such films as Too Hot to Handle (1960), Operation Snafu (1961), and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1963). From 1964 on, Windsor was a regular in the wacky Carry On series, comporting about in various stages of dishabille in Carry on Spying (1964), Carry on Doctor (1967), Carry on Camping (1969), Carry on Girls (1974), and other films of a similar aesthetic and intellectual bent. Barbara Windsor's films diminished in the early '80s, when it became unfashionable to be a dumb blonde.

Trivia: Of Anglo-American descent, Malaya-born actor Peter Arne was generally cast as a hissable, thoroughly unregenerate villain. In wartime films, Arne was usually "the enemy," both German and Italian (he reportedly spoke both languages quite well). His roles ranged from Menas in Antony and Cleopatra (1973) to supporting menaces in Blake Edwards' Pink Panther films. Peter Arne was 63 when he was bludgeoned to death in his London apartment, a murder that has remained unsolved; his last appearance in the TV miniseries The Far Pavillions was released posthumously.

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: From his first film role in Seven Days to Noon (1949) onward, Victor Maddern was typecast as a cockney serviceman. Sometimes a soldier, Maddern was usually seen as a sailor, notably in the 1960 British TV sitcom Mess Mates. He also showed up in several of the "Carry On" farces, the last being Carry On Emmanuelle. American TV viewers got to see Maddern on a weekly basis as sporting-goods salesman Thomas Finch in the 1962 Anglo-American sitcom Fair Exchange. When not appearing before the cameras, Victor Maddern has been tirelessly active as a fundraiser for religious charities.

Trivia: British actor Arthur Mullard played comedic character roles in films and on television during the '70s. A former pugilist, he started out as an extra and as a stunt double for Scottish funnyman Archie Duncan.

Trivia: Actor John Heawood specialized in theatrical musical productions and spent most of his career on the British stage as an actor and a choreographer. He also occasionally appeared in films, such as Oliver! (1968) and The Slipper and the Rose (1976). Heawood chronically suffered from ill health and retired from show business in the early '80s.

Trivia: For almost 40 years, from the end of the 1930s to the mid-'70s, Richard Wattis enjoyed a reputation as one of England's more reliable character actors, and -- in British films, at least -- developed something akin to star power in non-starring roles. Born in 1912, as a young man he managed to avoid potential futures in both electric contracting and chartered accountancy, instead becoming an acting student in his twenties. His stage career began in the second half of the 1930s, and in between acting and sometimes producing in repertory companies, Wattis became part of that rarified group of British actors who appeared on the BBC's pre-World War II television broadcasts. He made his big-screen debut with a role in the 1939 feature A Yank at Oxford, but spent the most of the six years that followed serving in uniform. It was after World War II that Wattis came to the attention of critics, directors, and producers for his comic timing and projection, and began getting cast in the kinds of screen and stage roles for which he would ultimately become famous, as pompous, dry, deadpan authority figures, snooping civil servants, and other comical pests. Beginning with Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat's The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950), his roles and billing got bigger, and he was cast to perfection as Manton Bassett in the "St. Trinian's" films of Launder and Gilliat. Wattis became so well liked by audiences in those kinds of parts -- as annoying government officials, in particular -- that producers would see to it, if his part was big enough, that he was mentioned on posters and lobby cards. He remained very busy in films right up until the time of his death in the mid-'70s.