Trivia: The boy who won one of the most coveted roles in film history, young Daniel Radcliffe beat out legions of aspiring bespectacled mini-wizards to fill the shoes of author J.K. Rowling's junior sorcerer Harry Potter in the much-anticipated film adaptation of Rowling's wildly popular book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001). Born July 23, 1989, in England, Radcliffe began to realize his love for acting at the age of five. Although his parents voiced objections, youthful enthusiasm soon won out and Radcliffe was on his way to stardom. Convincing his mother to send a picture to the BBC for consideration in an upcoming adaptation of David Copperfield, the precocious youth was quickly cast in the role of the young Copperfield, shortly thereafter turning up alongside Pierce Brosnan in John Boorman's The Tailor of Panama. It was his next role in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), however, that would launch the young actor directly into the heart of the public eye. Based on the first book in J.K. Rowling's enormously popular fantasy series that followed the adventures of young Potter as he attends Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the film faithfully captured the essence of the book in bringing the otherworldly exploits of the magical youngster to the screen. Radcliffe turned out one Harry Potter film after another; all were blockbusters, and all well received by the public and press. By the time the final film in the series was released to theaters -- 2011's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 -- Radcliffe had graduated to the ranks of adult actors, and was appearing in the gostly thriller The Woman in Black the next year.During his breaks from playing Harry, Radcliffe starred in the stage revival of Peter Shaffer's Equus, and had a lead performance in Rod Hardy's gentle 2006 coming-of-ager December Boys (set in rural Australia during the '60s). Radcliffe took on the starring role of barrister Arthur Kipps, a widower who discovers a supernatural presence after taking a job as caretaker to a crumbling estate in 2012's gothic horror The Woman in Black. Fresh off the 2011 conclusion of the Harry Potter films, many critics praised Radcliffe for readily handling the drastically different tone of The Woman in Black. He next played beat poet Allen Ginsberg in Kill Your Darlings (2013), followed by quirkier roles in the dark fantasy film Horns and the romantic comedy What If.

Trivia: Emma Watson made her big-screen debut in 2001's box-office smash Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, bringing to life Hermione Granger, friend to the famous protagonist Harry Potter of J.K. Rowling's children's novel. Born in Paris, where she lived for the first five years of her life, Watson acted only in school plays before breaking into Hollywood with this film, but her performance skills had been honed through dancing, singing, and poetry recitals, the latter of which she had already received recognition for by the age of seven. In the years following that blockbuster, she reprised her role alongside co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint for the subsequent beloved Harry Potter films. Her first foray into acting outside of the Harry Potter universe came with the made-for-TV movie Ballet Shoes in 2008, and after the phenomenally popular series came to an end in 2011 she could be seen in My Week With Marilyn. She took one of the leading roles in 2012's The Perks of Being a Wallflower. In 2013, Watson played a spoiled L.A. socialite in Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring, followed by a small role, playing herself, in This is the End. She had a supporting role opposite Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly in the big-budget epic Noah (2014).

Trivia: Rupert Grint made his big-screen debut in 2001's box-office smash Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, bringing to life Ronald Weasley, friend to the famous protagonist Harry Potter of J.K. Rowling's children's novel. Born in England in 1988, Grint had only performed in plays for school and local theater in Europe before making the giant leap into Hollywood with Harry Potter. He scored a role in the family comedy Thunderpants soon afterward, but was kept busy for the next several years as audiences saw him grow up alongside co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson while appearing in the ongoing Harry Potter sequels. He emerged in 2006 with a starring role in the well-received comedy drama Driving Lessons, alongside Hollywood heavyweights Julie Walters and Laura Linney. Though he appeared in the 2009 films Cherrybomb and Wild Target, he was still most well known as Harry Potter's best friend. The series came to a close in 2011.

Trivia: The second of three children, David Thewlis grew up in an apartment above his family's combination toy store and wallpaper shop. He received his training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. A veteran of the London stage and English television (Prime Suspect 3), Thewlis found his particular cinematic niche as the antihero of director Mike Leigh's Naked (1993). From the moment that Thewlis, playing an indigent from Manchester, showed up unannounced at the doorstep of his old girlfriend and immediately proceeded to verbally trash everyone in sight, the audience knew it wasn't in for a Noël Coward revival. The result of Thewlis's antisocial screen behavior was the unqualified praise of discriminating moviegoers, not to mention awards from the Cannes jury, the New York Film Critics, and the National Society of Film Critics. He went on to demonstrate his versatility in a number of diverse roles, including Paul Verlaine in 1995's Total Eclipse, an animated earthworm in James and the Giant Peach (1996), a mountaineer in Seven Years in Tibet (1997, a role for which the actor was subsequently banned from entering China), and an expatriate British composer living in Rome in Bernardo Bertolucci's Besieged in 1998. Also that year, Thewlis could be seen doing a brief but hilarious turn as a giggling conceptual artist in The Big Lebowski. As rare as it is for an actor to possess the versatility needed to alternate between such adult-oriented fare as director Mike Leigh's Naked and such innocent fun as James and the Giant Peach, Thewlis could be as effective in the former as he was endearing in the latter. Following a chilling performance as the leader of a London gang in the 2002 crime drama Gangster No. 1, Thewlis switched gears somewhat to portray the villain in the made-for-television family adventure Dinotopia shortly thereafter. In 2003, Thewlis expanded his resumé by making his feature directorial debut with Cheeky, a comedy drama concerning a mournful widower (Thewlis) whose life takes a change for the better after appearing in a popular game show of questionable taste. His profile steadily increasing thanks to roles in such high-profile releases as Timeline and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (as Professor Remus Lupin), the actor began to make as big a name for himself in large-scale Hollywood blockbusters as he previously had in intimate independent dramas. Of course, that's not to say that Thewlis had lost his taste for smaller-scale films, just that his skills were now in increased demand stateside as a direct result of his powerful early-career performances. After a busy year in 2005 with roles in the historical dramas Kingdom of Heaven and The New World, Thewlis drifted back into modern times to play a small but pivotal role in an American-shot segment of the international short anthology All the Invisible Children -- a powerful meditation on the modern mistreatment of youth by the increasingly jaded adult population. A brief turn as the Scotland Yard homicide detective trailing Sharon Stone in the belated and ill-fated sequel Basic Instinct 2 may have gone unseen by many fans after the film received considerably negative word of mouth, though a fun turn as the paranoid, bubblegum-chomping reporter hot on the trail of the young Antichrist in the 2006 remake of The Omen gave audiences much more to chew on and offered Thewlis the opportunity to have a bit of fun, to the delight of fans everywhere. The following year, Thewlis reprised his role of Prof. Lupin in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and appeared in the title role in The Inner Life of Martin Frost. He could next be seen in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, a film adaptation of the John Boyne Holocaust novel, which focuses on the friendship that develops between the child of a Nazi commander at a concentration camp and a young Jewish prisoner. Thewlis enjoyed a high-profile 2011 when the last of the Harry Potter films hit screens, as did other films he was cast in including the Shakespearean drama Anonymous, and Steven Spielberg's Oscar nominated War Horse.

Trivia: Whether playing a punk rocker, an assassin, a war vet, or a ghoul, Gary Oldman has consistently amazed viewers with his ability to completely disappear into his roles. Though capable of portraying almost any type of character, Oldman has put his stamp on those of the twisted villain/morally ambiguous weirdo variety, earning renown for his interpretations of the darker side of human nature.Born Leonard Gary Oldman in New Cross, South London, on March 21, 1958, Oldman was raised by his mother and two sisters after his father, an alcoholic welder, left them when Oldman was seven. Nine years later, Oldman left high school to work in a sporting goods store; in his spare time, he studied literature and later acting under the tutelage of Roger Williams. He went on to act with the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and, after attending drama school on a scholarship, worked with the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow. Oldman next worked in London's West End, where, in 1985, he won a Best Actor and a Best Newcomer award for his performance in The Pope's Wedding. By this time, he had made his film debut in Remembrance (1982) and had appeared in two television movies, notably Honest, Decent and True (1985). Oldman got his first big break when he was cast as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), Alex Cox's disturbing docudrama account of the punk rocker's tragic relationship with Nancy Spungen. Oldman's unnervingly accurate portrayal of the doomed rocker won rave reviews and effectively propelled him out of complete obscurity. The following year, he turned in a completely different but equally superb performance as famed playwright Joe Orton in Stephen Frears' Prick Up Your Ears and earned a Best Actor nomination from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for his work. After moving to the U.S. that same year, Oldman appeared in Nicolas Roeg's Track 29 (1988), and in 1990, he had one of his most memorable -- to say nothing of cultish -- roles as Rosencrantz opposite Tim Roth as Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard's brilliant Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.Oldman's first American role in a major Hollywood film was that of alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in Oliver Stone's JFK (1991). He then gave a creepy, erotic performance in the title role of Francis Ford Coppola's rendition of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), a lavish film that proved to be the most commercially successful (next to JFK) of Oldman's career to date. In addition to playing such eccentrics as Drexl Spivey, a white pimp with dreadlocks who tries to prove himself a black Rastafarian in True Romance (1993), Oldman went on to play more conventional characters, as evidenced by his straightforward portrayal of a crooked cop in Luc Besson's The Professional (1994), his performance as Beethoven in Immortal Beloved (1994), and his role as Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale in the disastrous 1995 adaptation The Scarlet Letter.In 1997, Oldman made his directorial bow with Nil by Mouth, a bleak, semi-autobiographical drama about a dysfunctional blue-collar London family that Oldman dedicated to his late father. The film proved to be a controversial hit at that year's Cannes Festival, and the first-time director won a number of international awards and a new dose of respect for his work. He subsequently returned to acting with Luc Besson's The Fifth Element that same year, made while he took a break from editing Nil by Mouth. He also gave an enduringly cheesy portrayal of the sinister Russian terrorist bent on wresting world domination from American president Harrison Ford in the blockbuster Air Force One (1997) and followed that up by playing yet another villain in the 1998 feature-film version of the classic TV series Lost in Space.Two years later, the veteran actor was earning accolades on screens big and small with both his critically acclaimed performance in Rod Lurie's Oscar-nominated political drama The Contender, and his Emmy-nominated guest appearance in the popular TV sitcom Friends. Meanwhile, after escaping the clutches of the silver screen's most notorious cannibal in Ridley Scott's Hannibal (2001), Oldman joined the casts of not one but two of the most successful film franchises of the 2000s: The Harry Potter Series and Christopher Nolan's brooding Batman saga. As benevolent wizard Sirius Black in the former, he helped Hogwarts' most famous student battle the forces of evil, and as Lt. Jim Gordon in the later, he aided The Dark Knight in defeating some of Gotham's most powerful supervillains. And while he wasn't performing exorcisms in The Unborn or searching unlimited power in The Book of Eli, Oldman was showing his versatility by voicing characters in such popular video games as The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning and Call of Duty: Black Ops. In 2011, as if to remind audiences that he could still be a compelling lead in addition to a strong supporting player, Oldman tackled the role of veteran MI6 spy George Smiley -- who comes out of retirement to sniff out a Russian mole in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. A highly stylized take on the classic John le Carre novel, the film not only drew rave reviews from critics, but also an Academy Award-nomination for Oldman. Oldman wrapped up his work in Harry Potter the same year, with a cameo in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 and Nolan's Batman trilogy finished the following year with The Dark Knight Rises. In 2014, he appeared in the remake of RoboCop, followed by a major role in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Trivia: Although he made his name playing ruthless, genteel villains like Die Hard's Hans Gruber and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' Sheriff of Nottingham, Alan Rickman proved himself equally remarkable in romantic, comic, and good-guy dramatic roles. An actor of brooding charisma who intones his lines in a deep, milky baritone, Rickman began his career on-stage, building up a sizable résumé before embarking on a film career.Of Irish and Welsh parentage, Rickman was born in London's Hammersmith district on February 21, 1946. His father, who was a painter and decorator, died of cancer when the actor was eight, leaving behind Rickman, his mother, and three siblings. After winning a scholarship to West London's Latymer Upper School, Rickman began acting at the encouragement of his teachers. He also developed an interest in art, and he went on to study graphic design at the Royal College of Art. He founded a Soho-based design company, but after deciding that his heart was in acting, he abandoned the company when he was 26 to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He spent three years there, serving as a dresser to such actors as Ralph Richardson and Nigel Hawthorne. After leaving RADA, Rickman began to make his name on the stage, first appearing in repertory and then landing lead roles in London productions. He gained particular acclaim for his portrayal of Valmont in a West End production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, eventually reprising his role for the Broadway production and winning a Tony nomination.In 1988, Rickman got his first dose of big-screen recognition with Die Hard. After the film's huge success, and praise for his delightfully nasty portrayal of the film's villain, he went on to make a couple of poorly received features, including 1989's The January Man and 1990s Quigley Down Under. Success greeted him again in 1991: playing Kevin Costner's nemesis, the vile and loathsome Sheriff of Nottingham, in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Rickman proved to audiences why being bad could be so much fun. The same year, he endeared himself as a markedly more sympathetic character in Truly, Madly, Deeply. As a deceased cellist who reappears to comfort his lover (Juliet Stevenson), Rickman proved himself adept at romantic comedy, and began to accrue a reputation as a thinking woman's sex symbol (something he vocally resented).The actor spent the remainder of the decade turning in solid performances in a number of diverse films: he could be seen as an actor with a troubled past in An Awfully Big Adventure (1994), a very sympathetic Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility (1995), Eamon de Valera in Michael Collins (1996), a has-been sci-fi television star in Galaxy Quest (1999), and a grumpy angel in Dogma (1999). In 1997, Rickman branched out into directing, making his debut with The Winter Guest. Starring real-life mother and daughter Phyllida Law and Emma Thompson as an estranged mother and daughter, the film won a number of positive notices, further establishing Rickman as a man of impressive versatility, both in front of and behind the camera. Though Rickman's voice would be featured on the animated television series King of the Hill in 2003, he wasn't truly absorbed into mainstream pop-culture among the kid circuit until after starring in the movie adaptations of author J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Rickman played the sinister Professor Snape in the films, one of the few post-pubescent constants in the franchise.In 2005, just months before the fourth installment in the Potter series, Rickman showed up in the first big-screen adaptation of another literary series with a rabid fan base, lending his voice to the character of Marvin the neurotic robot in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.He went on to appear in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, and in 2007 he played Judge Turpin in Tim Burton's adaptation of Sweeney Todd. E reteamed with the director for Alice in Wonderland in 2010, and the next year saw the final installment of the Harry Potter franchise hitting screens. In 2013, he played President Ronald Reagan in Lee Daniels' The Butler and club owner Hilly Kristal in CBGB. The following year, Rickman directed his second feature film, A Little Chaos, and also appeared in the film as King Louis XIV. Rickman died in 2016, at age 69.

Trivia: One of Britain's most revered stage performers, Michael Gambon (born October 19th, 1940) was described by the late Sir Ralph Richardson as "The Great Gambon." The fierce-looking Irish actor joined Britain's National Theatre in 1963 after being personally selected by Sir Laurence Olivier. He quickly worked his way up to leading parts and became particularly well known for his work in a number of Alan Ayckbourn plays. Gambon's career received a major boost in 1980, when he took the title role in John Dexter's production of The Life of Galileo; he subsequently became a regular player with both the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. The actor received particular acclaim for his work in A View from the Bridge, for which he won all of the major drama awards in 1987, and Volpone, for which he won the 1995 Evening Standard Award. Gambon made his Broadway debut in 1997 in New York's Royal Theatre production of David Hare's Skylight.While he was busy racking up an impressive number of plays, Gambon also found time to nurture a film career. Although he made his screen debut in a 1965 adaptation of Othello, the actor appeared only sporadically in films until the late '80s, when he began earning recognition for his work in such films as Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989), which cast him as the sadistic titular thief. He went on to do starring work in a number of diverse films, including A Man of No Importance (1994), The Browning Version (1994), Dancing at Lughnasa (1998), and Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow (1999). Extremely busy during the millennial turnover, Gambon once again caught the attention of audiences in Robert Altman's much-praised comedy Gosford Park before taking over the late Richard Harris's role as Albus Dumbledore in 2004's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, subsequently portraying the character for the remainder of the films. Gambon, who became a familiar face to PBS devotees via his title role in Dennis Potter's quirky TV serial The Singing Detective (1986-1987), was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1992.The actor would further demonstrate his range by appearing in 2004's highly stylized sci-fi adventure Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, the British crime thriller Layer Cake, and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, an edgy comedy from director Wes Anderson. Gambon continued in his role of Dumbledore until the Harry Potter film franchise came to an end in 2011 with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II.

Trivia: Born in post-war Germany to a British soldier and his wife, and raised in their native Wales until she was 13, when her family emigrated to New Zealand. Left school to become a full-time actress at age 16. One of her first professional jobs was as a dancer in an Auckland, New Zealand, production of John Osbourne's The Entertainer. Her costume consisted of three small, strategically placed Union Jack flags. Returned to England during her early 20s in order to push forward with acting. Among the jobs she supported herself with before her career took off were selling shoes and working in an antiques shop. A founding member of Actorum, the first actors' cooperative agency in Britain. Supports the Princess Royal Trust for Carers.

Trivia: Stumbling into acting after a family friend recognized his inherent talent and suggested he meet with an agent, it was a mere two weeks before then eight-year-old Tom Felton landed an international commercial campaign that launched his career. Born in September of 1987, Felton began singing in four choirs at the age of seven. The family friend was not the only one to recognize young Felton's talents, as he was offered a place in the Guildford Cathedral Choir shortly before launching his acting career. Beating out over 400 aspiring young actors for the coveted ad campaign, Felton made his feature debut in The Borrowers (1997), turned in a memorable performance as a witness to crime in television's Second Sight, and turned up alongside Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-Fat in Anna and the King (1999). In 2001, Felton took on his biggest challenge to date when he appeared in the much anticipated Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Felton continued his work in the Potter films until the series' conclusion in 2011), and has appeared in films such as The Disappeared (2008), Night Wolf (2011), and The Apparition (2012)

Trivia: One of the first ladies of contemporary British stage and cinema, Emma Thompson has won equal acclaim for her work as an actress and a screenwriter. For a long time known as Kenneth Branagh's other half, Thompson was able to demonstrate her considerable talent to an international audience with Oscar-winning mid-1990s work in such films as Howards End and Sense and Sensibility. Born April 15, 1959 in Paddington, West London, Thompson grew up in a household well-suited for creative expression. Both of her parents were actors, her father, Eric Thompson, the creator of the popular TV series The Magic Roundabout, and her actress mother, Phyllida Law, a cast member of This Poisoned Earth (1961), Otley (1968) and several other films. Thompson and her sister, Sophie (who also became an actress), enjoyed a fairly colorful upbringing; as Emma later said, "I was brought up by people who tended to giggle at funerals." She excelled at school, was well liked, and went on to enroll at Cambridge University in 1978. It was at Cambridge that Thompson started performing as part of the legendary Footlights Group, once home to various members of Monty Python, who provided a huge inspiration to the fledgling comedienne. Unfortunately, Thompson's studies and her work with fellow Footlights members Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry were interrupted when her father had a debilitating stroke. Thompson went home for a few months, where she taught him how to speak again. After her return to Cambridge, she graduated in 1980 with a degree in English, and she got her first break working for a short-lived BBC radio show. Personal tragedy struck for Thompson in 1982 when her father died of a heart attack. Ironically, it was in the wake of this turmoil that her professional life began to move forward: she got a job touring with the popular satire Not the Nine O'Clock News and worked with co-conspirators Fry and Laurie on the popular BBC comedy sketch show Alfresco. This led to Thompson's biggest break to date when she was picked for the lead in a revised version of the musical Me and My Girl. Coincidentally featuring a script by Fry, the show proved popular and established Thompson as a respected performer. She stayed with the show for over a year, after which she got her next big break when she was cast as one of the leads in the miniseries Fortunes of War (1988). The other lead happened to be Kenneth Branagh, and the two were soon collaborating off-screen as well as on. Following Thompson's BAFTA Award for her work on the series (as well as a BAFTA for her role on the TV series Tutti Frutti), she helped Branagh form his own production company, Renaissance Films. In 1989, the same year that she starred in the nutty satire The Tall Guy (which teamed her with Black Adder stalwarts Rowan Atkinson, Richard Curtis and Mel Smith)and in a televised version of Look Back in Anger with Branagh, she appeared as the French queen in Branagh's acclaimed adaptation of Henry V. Following the success of Henry V, Thompson had a droll turn as a frivolous aristocrat in Impromptu (1990) and then collaborated with Branagh on the noirish suspense thriller Dead Again in 1991. The film proved a relative hit on both sides of the Atlantic, and it further established the now-married Branagh and Thompson as the First Darlings of contemporary British theatre. The following year, Thompson came into her own with her starring role in Merchant Ivory's Howards End. She won a number of awards, including an Oscar, BAFTA, and Golden Globe for her portrayal of Margaret Schlegel, and she found herself an international success almost overnight.After a turn in the ensemble comedy Peter's Friends that same year, Thompson starred as Beatrice opposite Branagh's Benedict in his adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing in 1993. That year proved an unqualified success for the actress, who was nominated for both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Oscars, the former for her portrayal of a repressed housekeeper in Merchant Ivory's The Remains of the Day and the latter for her role as Daniel Day-Lewis's lawyer in In the Name of the Father. Although she didn't win either award, Thompson continued her triumphant streak when -- after starring in Junior in 1994 -- she adapted and starred in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility in 1995. Directed by Ang Lee, the film proved popular with critics and audiences alike, and it won Thompson a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar. She also earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination, a BAFTA Best Actress Award, and a Golden Globe for Best Adapted Screenplay.1995 also proved to be a turning point in Thompson's personal life, as, after a much-publicized separation, she and Branagh divorced. Just as well publicized was Thompson's subsequent relationship with Sense and Sensibility co-star Greg Wise. The somewhat tumultuous quality of her love life mirrored that of Dora Carrington, the character she played that year in Carrington. This story of the famed Bloomsbury painter was not nearly as successful as Sense, and Thompson was not seen again on the screen until 1997, when she starred in Alan Rickman's The Winter Guest. The film -- which featured the actress and her mother, Law, playing an estranged daughter and mother -- received fairly positive reviews. The following year, Thompson continued to win praise for her work with a starring role in Primary Colors and a guest spot on the sitcom Ellen, for which she won an Emmy. In 1999, Thompson announced her plans for semi-retirement: pregnant with Wise's child, she turned down a number of roles -- including that of God in Dogma -- in order to concentrate on her family. The two married in July 2003. In the years that followed Thompson would still remain fairly active onscreen, with roles as a frustrated wife in Love Actually (which found her BAFTA nominated for Best Supporting Actress) and a missing journalist whose husband (played by Antonio Bandaras) is looking for answers in Missing Argentina (which marked the second collaboration, after Carrington, between Thompson and director Christopher Hampton) serving to whet the appetites of longtime fans. For her role as a respected English professor who is forced to re-evaluate her life in Mike Nichols' made-for-television drama Wit (2001), the renowned veteran actress and screenwriter would earn Emmy nominations for both duties. Following an angelic turn in the HBO mini-series Angels in America, Thompson essayed a pair of magical roles in both Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Nanny McPhee - in which she potrayed a governess who utilizes supernatural powers to reign in her unruly young charges.Thompson then joined the cast of Marc Forster's fantasy comedy Stranger than Fiction, which Columbia slated for U.S. release in November of 2006. She plays Kay Eiffel, an author of thriller and espionage novels suffering from a massive writer's block. The central character in Eiffel's book (an IRS agent played by Will Ferrell) hears Kay's audible narration and - realizing that she's planning to kill him off - tries to find a way to stop her, with the help of Professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman). She appeared opposite Dustin Hoffman in Last Chance Harvey, and in 2009 had a memorable turn as the head of the school in An Education. In 2010 she wrote and starred in the sequel Nanny McPhee Returns. In 2012 she had a hand in tow big hits, playing Agent O in the third Men In Black film, and voicing the mother in Pixar's Brave.

Trivia: British character actress Julie Walters has made a career out of playing working-class women with good hearts and sharp tongues -- which should come as no surprise, given her background. Born in Birmingham, England, on February 22, 1950, Walters was raised in a strong, practical family where she was encouraged to study nursing. Walters did in fact enroll in the nursing program at Manchester Polytechnic, but in her second year of studies she developed an interest in acting, and eventually changed her major to theater. Walters soon made friends with fellow theater student Pete Postlethwaite, and they joined a small theater troupe with Matthew Kelly; Walters made her legitimate stage debut not long after in a Liverpool production of The Taming of the Shrew. Walters also began moonlighting as a comedian, performing as a standup act and with an improvisational troupe called Van Load. In 1976, Walters made her London stage debut in Funny Peculiar, and in 1980, she was cast in the title role of the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Willy Russell's play Educating Rita. Walters won rave reviews for her performance, and the comedy-drama became a major success; following her appearances in several well-received television productions, Walters was cast in the film version of Educating Rita opposite Michael Caine, and the movie was a solid critical and financial success in both Europe and the United States. Walters' budding film career seemed to have gotten off to a solid start when she was nominated for an Academy Award for her work in Educating Rita; while she didn't win, she did receive Golden Globe and British Film Academy awards for her performance. However, Walters opted to continue living and working in Britain, and while she maintained a busy schedule of television and stage work, it would be a few years before Walters became a regular presence in films. In 1987, she won the leading role in the fact-based comedy Personal Services, as well as a major supporting role in the Joe Orton biopic Prick up Your Ears, and the following year she starred opposite pop star Phil Collins in another comedy-drama drawn from real life, Buster. Over the next ten years, Walters continued to work steadily in British television (both in dramatic roles and in comedic appearances, frequently with English comedy star Victoria Wood), but her next major screen success wouldn't arrive until 2000, when she played dance instructor Mrs. Wilkinson in the international hit Billy Elliot; the role earned her another Academy Award nomination, as well as a British Film Academy nomination. The following year, Walters appeared in a small role in one of the year's biggest box-office blockbusters, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, as well as a number of TV projects. Offscreen, Walters is married to Grant Roffey, who operates a successful organic farm; they're the parents of a daughter, Maisie. In 1999, Walters received special recognition for her work in the arts when she was presented an Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth for her services to British drama. In the years to come, Walters would remain active on screen, appearing in moviesl ike Mama Mia!.

Trivia: A former martial arts champion, David Bradley played leads and supporting roles in low-budget or direct-to-video actioners since 1988.

Trivia: Stocky Scottish comic actor Robbie Coltrane was trained as an artist in Glasgow. During the 1970s, he rose to prominence as an improvisational nightclub comedian, usually working in ensemble groups (one of his partners was actress Emma Thompson). During the '80s, he was in a number of British features and made-for-TV movies. A regular at London's Comic Strip comedy club, he had a habit of appearing as himself in comedy specials like Secret Policeman's Third Ball. He also showed up in small comedic cameos in National Lampoon's European Vacation and Kenneth Branagh's Henry V. Though he was popular in the U.K. on TV shows like Alfresco, Tutti Fruitti, Black Adder, and The Young Ones, he wasn't widely known in the U.S. until his antic performance in Nuns on the Run with Eric Idle. He then starred as the title character in the satiric comedy The Pope Must Die (released in the U.S. as The Pope Must Diet). In 1993, he starred in the British TV detective series Cracker as Fitz, a nervous forensic psychologist who helps crack cases. He won a BAFTA TV award for the role, and he won a Cable ACE award when it was rebroadcast in the U.S. on A&E. When the show ended, he briefly joined up with the James Bond film series as Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky in GoldenEye and The World Is Not Enough. In the late '90s, he starred in a few independent films (Montana, Frogs for Snakes) and played Sgt. Peter Goldy in the Hughes brothers' thriller From Hell. However, he's been most successful in the area of family entertainment. He was delightful as the con man in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with Elijah Wood; he was Tweedledum to George Wendt's Tweedledee in Alice in Wonderland; and he found a fine place for himself as Hagrid the Giant in the Harry Potter film series. In 2002, he earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination from the British Academy for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. In 2003, he returned to British TV to play lawyer Jack Lennox in The Planman. Coltrane continued to work as Hagrid throughout the Harry Potter film series (2001-2011), and lent his voice to films including The Tales of Despereaux (2008) and Brave (2012).

Trivia: Perhaps the actor most closely associated with director Mike Leigh, Timothy Spall has acted in productions for the director on both the stage and screen. Spall made a particularly strong impression in Leigh's Life is Sweet (1991), which cast him as a socially awkward gourmet chef, and Secrets & Lies (1996), in which his starring performance as a portrait photographer struggling with marital problems earned him award nominations from the British Academy and the London Film Critics Circle. In addition to his work with Leigh, Spall has appeared in a number of disparate productions. He made his film debut with a supporting role in the Who's Quadrophenia in 1979 and spent the next decade splitting his time and energy between the stage and screen. He acted extensively for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre, and he also did acclaimed work on television, most notably as Mr. Venus in the BBC production of Charles Dicken's Our Mutual Friend, for which he received a BAFTA Best Actor nomination.Spall began to gain recognition and respect as a film actor in the 1990s, thanks in large part to his collaborations with Leigh. In addition to his work with the director, Spall was particularly memorable in Brian Gibson's Still Crazy (1998), a comedy that cast him as the drummer for a defunct 1970s rock band trying to make a come-back. In 1999, the actor enjoyed another collaboration with Leigh in Topsy-Turvy, an acclaimed drama about the partnership between Gilbert and Sullivan that featured Spall as an effeminate opera diva. The following year, he could be seen as Don Armado in Kenneth Branagh's musical adaptation of Love's Labour's Lost, and heard as a chicken farm denizen in Nick Park's animated Chicken Run. In recognition of his contributions to the arts, Spall was named an Officer of the Order of British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth on New Year's Eve, 1999.

Trivia: One of the most luminous actresses to grace the British screen, as well as those of the rest of the world, Julie Christie is known for both her onscreen magnetism, which has not faded as she has grown older, and her offscreen reclusiveness. The daughter of an India-based British tea planter, she was born in Chukua, Assam, India, on April 14, 1941, and grew up on her father's tea plantation. Educated in England and on the Continent, she planned to become an artist or a linguist before she altered her life's goals by enrolling in the Central School of Speech Training in London. In 1957, she first stepped on-stage as a paid professional with the Frinton Repertory of Essex.Celebrated less for her stage work than for her continuing role in a popular British TV serial, A for Andromeda, Christie made her film debut in a small role in Crooks Anonymous (1963). After a rather charming ingénue stint in The Fast Lady (1963) (the lady was a car, not the ingénue), she received her first prestige part in Billy Liar (1963), gaining critical acclaim for this and her subsequent supporting part in Young Cassidy (1965). Thus, Christie was not the "newcomer" that some perceived her to be when she shook film audiences to their foundations in Darling (1965), a poignant time capsule about a stylishly amoral sexual butterfly. Christie won numerous awards for Darling, not the least of which were the British Film Academy award and the American Oscar.Her star further ascended into box-office heaven when she was cast in the big-budget Doctor Zhivago (1965), in which she gave a radiant performance as the tragic Lara. She followed this with a dual role in Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 (1967) and a starring turn in John Schlesinger's acclaimed 1967 adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd. Roles of wildly varying quality followed, until in 1971 Christie began a professional and romantic liaison with Warren Beatty. The romance was over within a few years, but Beatty and Christie ultimately worked together on three major films of the 1970s: McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), Shampoo (1975), and Heaven Can Wait (1978).Few of Christie's films of the 1970s and 1980s seemed worthy of her talents -- The Go-Between (1971) and her cameo in Nashville (1975) being exceptions -- though, in fact, she was less interested in pursuing a career than in campaigning for various social and political causes. Christie's performance in the British TV movie The Railway Station Man (1992) was a choice example of her devotion to social issues -- in this case, the ongoing ideological (and shooting) war in Ireland. Indeed, Christie had become such an enigma that it was a surprise to many audiences when she turned up as Gertrude in Kenneth Branagh's 1996 adaptation of Hamlet. She won acclaim for the role, embellished the following year with her portrayal of Nick Nolte's estranged wife in Afterglow. Nominated for her third Best Actress Oscar for her performance, Christie convinced many that, although she had chosen to neglect the limelight for awhile, she hadn't chosen to neglect her talent.Christie's fifth decade as a performer found her continuing to work with a variety of collaborators, earning a Screen Actors Guild nomination as part of the ensemble of Finding Neverland. She worked with the young Canadian actress Sarah Polley on The Secret Life of Words, a role that led directly to Christie being cast in Polley's directorial debut - the alzheimer's drama Away From Her. Christie's work in that film earned her some of the strongest reviews of her lengthy career and garnered her numerous year end accolades including Best Actress awards from the Golden Globes, the New York Film Critics, and the Screen Actors Guild, as well as a nomination from the Academy in that same category.She was one of the many performers in the omnibus film New York, I Love You, and took the roll as Grandma in the modernized retelling of Red Riding Hood directed by Katherine Hardwicke.

Trivia: Met Charlie Higson at university in 1977 and the two became friends, working together in The Fast Show. Dropped out of university after a year and started working as a decorator. Was inspired to write comedy after working as a tradesman on a house that was shared by Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. Moved to an estate where he met Harry Enfield, who after winning Channel 4's 'Saturday Live' invited him and Higson to write for him. Two of his daughters, Molly and Sophie, had non-speaking roles in the 2004 film, 'Finding Neverland'. His catchphrase "Suits you, sir" was voted one of the greatest comedy catchphrases of all time by Channel 4 viewers in 2008. Is a keen angler and took part in a charity fundraiser for Sense with Chris Tarrant, where they competed to catch the biggest trout, in 2012. Changed his entire look for a television advertisment for Aviva, dressing as a biker with a full beard and tattoos in 2013. Supports Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Credits Harry Enfield as a great influence, and says if they had not met, he would not have enjoyed a long career in comedy.

Trivia: Falstaffian British character actor Richard Griffiths has been popping up in films since 1980. Griffiths played Sir Tom in The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), Captain Billings in Greystoke (1982) and Phipps in King Ralph (1981). An accomplished dialectician, Griffiths has essayed a wide variety of ethnic types: in Naked Gun 2 1/2 (1992), he outdid himself in his dual role as the German-accented Dr. Mannheimer and the Georgia-cracker Earl Hacker. British TV fans know Richard Griffiths best as Henry Crabbe in the weekly sitcom Pie and the Sky (1993-95), not to mention his appearances on such earlier series as Bird of Prey (1984), Nobody's Perfect (1980-82), Ffizz (1987-89) and A Kind of Living (1988-90).In 2001, Griffiths took on the recurring role of the imposing Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter film series, playing the role in five of the series' eight films. Griffiths spent the majority of his career alternating between the screen and stage, and in 2004, he took on one of his higher profile stage roles - the eccentric teacher Hector in Alan Bennett's award-winning play The History Boys. Griffiths originated the role in the 2004 West End production and the 2006 Broadway production and later reprised the role in the 2006 film, winning an Olivier Award, a Tony Award, and scoring a BAFTA Film nomination for his work.After completing his work in the Harry Potter series, Griffiths appeared in The Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) as King George II and played a limited engagement in the West End revival of Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys, opposite Danny DeVito. Sadly, his career was cut short, dying at age 65 in 2013 from complications following heart surgery.

Trivia: Robert Hardy is legendary in his native England for his skill and versatility as an actor. As an interpreter of fictional characters and historical personages, Hardy has received critical acclaim for roles in scores of outstanding films, TV programs, and plays presented throughout the English-speaking world. British, North American, and Australian audiences may remember him best for his roles as Winston Churchill in War and Remembrance (1989), Siegfried Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small (1990), Arthur Brooke in Middlemarch (1994), Sir Toby Belch in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (1981), and the Earl of Leicester in the heralded Elizabeth R (1971). But Hardy has also distinguished himself in many motion pictures, including Mrs. Dalloway (1997), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), The Shooting Party (1984), Young Winston (1972), 10 Rillington Place (1971), and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Hardy brings to all of his roles an acting savvy honed to a fine edge by years of study and training at the best British institutions. Timothy Sydney Robert Hardy was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, on October 29, 1925. At Oxford University, he studied under the great British author C.S. Lewis and graduated with honors, then joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1949. His experience there prepared him for roles in many Shakespeare productions, including A Midsummer Night's Dream (Royal Shakespeare Company, 1959), a live-TV production of Henry V (1960), and Coriolanus (BBC, 1963). The rhetorical skills he developed in those roles served him well as a narrator or host of documentary productions such as Castle Ghosts of Ireland, Horses in Our Blood, and The Picardy Affair, about the Battle of Agincourt. His classical training has also enabled him to wear the mantle of historical personages such as Pontius Pilate in The People's Passion (1999), Prince Albert in Edward the King (1975), and Nazi foreign minister Joachim Von Ribbentrop in The Gathering Storm (1974). Hardy has a special interest in medieval history -- in particular, in the use of the longbow. Regarded as one of Britain's leading experts on that weapon, he has written a book about it, serves as a consultant on the longbow for organizations involved in history projects, and handcrafts longbows himself. Hardy, who first performed in stage plays in the late '40s, has always maintained a busy schedule. For example, between 1998 and 2001, he performed in ten film and TV productions. He is married to Sally Pearson, a costume designer.

Trivia: Thin-lipped and statuesque Irish actress Fiona Shaw frequently takes the lead on the theatrical stage but steers her talents toward supporting roles in feature films. Born in County Cork, she studied philosophy before moving on to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. During the '80s she worked mainly on-stage as part of the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Some of her stage credits include As You Like It, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and a one-woman reading of T.S. Eliot's epic poem The Waste Land, just to name a few. She made her film debut in 1984 as one of the nuns in the WWII drama Sacred Hearts, but her breakthrough role came in 1989 as the doctor whom Christy Brown grows infatuated with in My Left Foot. The next year, she played the wife of an explorer in the British Empire film Mountains of the Moon. She also excelled at comedy with memorable roles in Three Men and a Little Lady, London Kills Me, Super Mario Bros., and Undercover Blues. In 1995, she turned to literary adaptations and costume dramas with Persuasion, Jane Eyre, and Anna Karenina. She then played Francie's sharp-tongued mother in Neil Jordan's childhood drama The Butcher Boy. Around this time, her longtime colleague Deborah Warner directed the controversial television adaptation of Richard II, with Shaw in the lead role of the young king. Also on television, she played Hedda Hopper in the HBO movie RKO 281 and Irma Prunesquallor in the BBC miniseries Gormenghast. She collaborated with director Warner again for The Last September, based on the novel by Irish author Elizabeth Bowen. In 2001, she received the honorary Companion of the British Empire award and portrayed the spinster scientist Leontine in Clare Peploe's The Triumph of Love. Returning to the stage to play Medea on Broadway, she found herself well-costumed once again as the wretched Aunt Petunia Dursely in the series of Harry Potter feature films. Though she returned as required for the many Potter films, she also appeared in The Triumph of Love, Catch and Release, and Terrence Malick's well-reviewed Tree of Life.

Trivia: A British character actor best known for two feats -- his lengthy tenure as a participant in the small-screen sketch comedy program The Fast Show, and his multi-film portrayal of the genial and sweet-natured patriarch Arthur Weasley in the Harry Potter movies -- Mark Williams in fact chalked up a lengthy series of feature roles that extended far beyond the scope of those projects, beginning in the early '80s. Throughout, he tended to specialize in average-looking everyman types but made his strongest impression in fantasy-themed material. He debuted on the big screen in the 1982 Privileged (during his early twenties) and subsequently signed for projects including The Master (1989), Kill Line (1991), and The Borrowers (1997). Fantasy lovers will invariably associate Williams with his Weasley characterization, but may also remember his portrayal of Billy (a goat who had been changed into human form) in the Robert De Niro-Michelle Pfeiffer fantasy adventure Stardust (2007).

Trivia: Performed as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company between 1995 and 1997. Is perhaps best known for playing James Potter in the Harry Potter franchise between 2001 and 2011. Nominated for the Best Supporting Actor/Actress award at the 2003 British Independent Film Awards, for his role in Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself. In 2015, became the artistic director of the East Riding Theatre. Played the role of Nikolai Fomin in the critically-acclaimed 2019 miniseries Chernobyl.

Trivia: Her grandfather was a Member of Parliament and was awarded a hereditary baronetcy; her father and mother were both titled. At age 8, boarded at the Arts Educational School in Tring Park to do ballet, drama and music; originally wanted to be a ballet dancer but soon realised she was better at acting. Her breakout role was as DS Jane Penhaligon in Cracker from 1993 to 1995; her co-star Robbie Coltrane's funny stories often made her corpse during filming. In 2003, played Henriette d'Angleterre in Lindsay Posner's staging of Power at the National Theatre, London. Was offered the role of Lily Potter in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone after JK Rowling turned it down; went on to appear in every film of the franchise.

Trivia: Known for his film, TV and stage work. Went to the same high school as John Simm (though Simm is several years older) and played his father in the final episode of Life on Mars. Appeared in London's West End as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2001. Wrote and starred in short film Cracks In The Ceiling in 2002. Known for his role as Detective Sergeant John Bacchus, later promoted to Inspector, in the BBC drama Inspector George Gently. In 2016, played the role of Paul Hughes, the father of an autistic son, Joe, in the BBC drama The A Word. Voiced the part of Phillip De Nicholay, Sheriff of Nottingham in Hood: Noble Secrets in 2013 on BBC Radio 4.

Trivia: Black comedy lead, onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: British actress Bonnie Wright ascended to fame by virtue of her recurring role as Ginny Weasley in the big-screen installments of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, beginning with the first film, the 2001 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Trivia: Actor Warwick Davis is best known for portraying the title character -- a role written especially for him by story writer George Lucas -- in Ron Howard's sword and sorcery fantasy Willow (1988). Davis made his film debut at age 11 playing the Ewok Wicket W. Warrick in Return of the Jedi (1983). Then only 2'11" tall, he auditioned the role after his grandmother overheard a casting call for little people on the radio. During production he began a friendship with director George Lucas and went on to reprise the role in a pair of made-for-television movies: The Ewok Adventure (1984) and The Battle of Endor (1986). When Davis married in 1991, he and wife, Samantha Burroughs, honeymooned on Lucas' Skywalker Ranch. Fans of horror fare will recognize Davis as the murderous, magical little person in the five Leprechaun (1993) films. In addition to his feature film work, which includes Prince Valiant (1997) and Star Wars: Episode 1, Davis has also appeared on television in movies and miniseries such as the BBC's popular Chronicle of Narnia and the American-made Gulliver's Travels (1996). In addition, he works occasionally on the British stage. Davis owns a production company, Inch High Productions, and for it has directed and produced musical and industrial videos. In 1994, he co-founded Willow Personal Management Ltd. with former castmate Peter Burroughs. They bill it as "The Largest Agency for Short Actors in the World."In the first decade of the 21st century Davis was cast as Professor Filius Flitwick in the Harry Potter films and he would go on to appear in every film in that highly successful franchise. He appeared in the 2004 biopic Ray, and in 2011 he joined forces with Ricky Gervais for the sitcom Life's Too Short.

Trivia: Actor Matthew Lewis (not to be confused with the middle-aged character player of the same name) achieved fame as an adolescent star, with a recurring portrayal of Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter films -- beginning with the first installment, 2001's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Trivia: First acting experience came from reading a sonnet at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London in 1997. Is fluent in Portuguese and Spanish. Reprised his role of Dean Thomas in the Harry Potter video games.. Made his professional stage debut on London's West End in the play Happy New in 2012.

Trivia: Best known as one-half of the British sketch comedy team French and Saunders and as the star of the long-running sitcom The Vicar of Dibley, the unabashedly full-figured, rubber-faced Welsh comedienne Dawn French began life in the harbor town of Holyhead, Anglesey, Wales, on October 11, 1957. As a young woman, French trained at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, where she famously met fellow student Jennifer Saunders, then another aspiring comic. The two not only forged a lifelong friendship, but teamed up at the tail end of the 1970s as a comedy act. French suggested that they audition in response to a Stage magazine ad for up-and-coming comedians; this led instantly to a niche at the infamous Comic Strip Club, performing alongside Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson, and others on a weekly basis. A regular gig with this troupe on its BBC "movie spoof" sketch comedy series The Comic Strip Presents -- which ran from 1982 to 1988, with a four-year revival in 1990 and a three-year revival in 1998 -- so furthered public awareness of French and Saunders and dramatically heightened their popularity that a spin-off series was naturally inevitable. French & Saunders debuted in 1987 to off-the-chart ratings and sensational critical reviews. The pair scripted and starred in episodes; French's most famous and beloved bits included caricatures of Catherine Zeta-Jones, Madonna, and Cher. French debuted in feature films circa 1987, alongside Saunders and many of her Comic Strip cohorts, in the jet-black comedy Eat the Rich -- a spoof of cannibalism with guest spots by Paul McCartney, Koo Stark, Robbie Coltrane, and others. The film, however, was understandably reviled by critics on both sides of the Atlantic and disappeared quickly, which may explain why French gravitated back to television. Alongside her ongoing involvement in French & Saunders as a writer and performer (which continued through the first several years of the new millennium), French launched a second series in 1994, The Vicar of Dibley. The program cast her as the supremely unconventional and irreverent (female) vicar of the title -- a new arrival in a village of eccentric people -- with a flair for devouring mounds of chocolate and tossing out potshots and double-entendres left and right. Vicar, like French & Saunders, scored with the public and press and lasted 13 years, finally wrapping in January 2007. In 2004, French -- perhaps having fully rebounded from the Eat the Rich debacle -- returned in full glory to feature films, this time more respectably and to improved critical reception. She lent a supporting role as The Fat Lady (in the painting) in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) and voiced Mrs. Beaver in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005). French also essayed the role of a therapist in Alek Keshishian's Love and Other Disasters, starring Brittany Murphy and Matthew Rhys. She voiced Miss Forcible in the 2007 animated fantasy Coraline. The characterization of The Fat Lady in Harry Potter is not a unique one for French. Early on, the comic actress used her weight (which has visibly increased over the years) as a key source of her schtick, not only in her BBC series but also in television advertisements. In late 2001, she did spots in the U.K. for Terry's Chocolate Orange segment candies which had her notoriously refusing to share, and an ad for Terry's Chocolate Orange Snowballs which had French rolling down a giant ski slope until she resembled a massive snowball. Off-camera, French is a vociferous proponent of "full-figured" women and markets the oversized female clothing line Sixteen 47 throughout Great Britain.

Trivia: British-born actor Jamie Waylett began his movie career at the age of 12, playing the role of Vincent Crabbe in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in 2001. He would reprise the role for all the subsequent Harry Potter films and voice the character for franchise video games.

Trivia: Breathes there a theatergoer or film fan on Earth who has not, at one time or another, fallen in love with the sublimely brilliant British comedic actress Dame Maggie Smith? The daughter of an Oxford University pathologist, Smith received her earliest acting training at the Oxford Playhouse School. In 1952, she made her professional stage bow as Viola in Twelfth Night. Four years later she was on Broadway, performing comedy routines in Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1956; that same year, she made her first, extremely brief screen appearance in Child in the House (she usually refers to 1959's Nowhere to Go as her screen debut).In 1959, Smith joined the Old Vic, and in 1962 won the first of several performing honors, the London Evening Standard Award, for her work in the West End production The Private Ear/The Public Eye. Her subsequent theatrical prizes include the 1963 and 1972 Variety Club awards for Mary Mary and Private Lives, respectively, and the 1990 Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway play Lettice and Lovage. In addition, Smith has won Oscars for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and California Suite (1978), and British Film Academy awards for A Private Function (1985), A Room With a View (1986), and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987).These accolades notwithstanding, Smith has had no qualms about accepting such "lightweight" roles as lady sleuth Dora Charleston (a delicious Myrna Loy takeoff) in Murder By Death (1976), the aging Wendy in Steven Spielberg's Peter Pan derivation Hook (1991), and the Mother Superior in Whoopi Goldberg's Sister Act films of the early '90s. During the same decade, she also took more serious roles in Richard III (1995), Washington Square (1997), and Tea With Mussolini (1999). On a lighter note, her role in director Robert Altman's Gosford Park earned Smith her sixth Oscar nomination. She earned a whole new generation of fans during the first decade of the next century when she was cast as Professor McGonagall in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, a part she would return to for each of the film's phenomenally successful sequels. She worked in other films as well including Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Becoming Jane, and Nanny McPhee Returns. In 2010 she earned rave reviews for her work in the television series Downton Abbey.Made a Dame Commander in 1989, Smith was elected to the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1994. Previously married to the late actor Sir Robert Stephens, she is the wife of screenwriter Beverly Cross and the mother of actors Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin.

Trivia: An instigator of some of the more groundbreaking developments in twentieth-century comedy, John Cleese is one of Britain's best-known actors, writers, and comedians. Famous primarily for his comic efforts, such as the television series Fawlty Towers and the exploits of the Monty Python troupe, he has also become a well-respected actor in his own right.Born John Marwood Cleese (after his family changed their surname from "Cheese") on October 27, 1939, Cleese grew up in the middle-class seaside resort town of Weston-Super-Mare. He enrolled at Cambridge University with the intention of studying law, but soon discovered that his comic leanings held greater sway than his interest in the law. He joined the celebrated Cambridge Footlights Society--he was initially rejected because he could neither sing nor dance, but was accepted after collaborating with a friend on some comedy sketches--where he gained a reputation as a team player and met future writing partner and Python Graham Chapman.Cleese entered professional comedy with a writing stint on David Frost's The Frost Report in 1966. While working for that BBC show, he and Chapman (who was also writing for the show) met fellow Frost Report writers Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. Continuing his writing collaboration with Chapman (with whom he wrote the 1969 Ringo Starr/Peter Sellers vehicle The Magic Christian), Cleese soon was working on what would become Monty Python's Flying Circus with Chapman, Idle, Jones, Palin, and Terry Gilliam. The show, which first aired in 1969, was an iconoclastic look at British society: its genius lay in its seemingly random, bizarre take on the mundane facets of everyday life, from Spam to pet shops to the simple act of walking. Cleese stayed with Monty Python for three series; after he left, he reunited with his fellow Pythons for three movies. The first, Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974), was a revisionist take on the Arthurian legend that featured Cleese as (among other things) the Black Knight, who refuses to end his duel with King Arthur even after losing his arms and legs. Life of Brian followed in 1979; a look at one of history's lesser-known messiahs, it featured lepers, space aliens, and condemned martyrs singing a rousing version of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" while hanging from their crucifixes. The Pythons' third outing, the 1983 Monty Python's the Meaning of Life, was a series of increasingly outrageous vignettes, including one about the explosion of a stupendously obese man and another featuring a dinner party with Death.In addition to his work with the Pythons, Cleese, along with first wife Connie Booth, created the popular television series Fawlty Towers in 1975. It ran for a number of years, during which time Cleese also continued to make movies. Throughout the 1980s, he showed up in films ranging from The Great Muppet Caper (1981) to Privates on Parade (1982) to Silverado (1985), which cast him as an Old West villain. In 1988, Cleese struck gold with A Fish Called Wanda, which he wrote, produced, and starred in. An intoxicating farce, the film won both commercial and critical success, earning Cleese a British Academy Award and an Oscar nomination for his screenplay, and an Oscar for co-star Kevin Kline. Cleese continued to work steadily through the 1990s, appearing in Splitting Heirs (1993) with Idle, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), The Wind in the Willows (1997) and George of the Jungle (1997). Fierce Creatures, his 1997 sequel to A Fish Called Wanda, proved a disappointment, but Cleese maintained his visibility, reuniting with the surviving Pythons on occasion and starring in The Out-of-Towners and The World is Not Enough, the nineteenth Bond outing, in 1999.As the new century got underway, Cleese wrote and hosted a documentary series about the human face, and he took a small but recurring role in the Harry Potter film series. In 2002 he appeared in the infamous Eddie Murphy turkey The Adventures of Pluto Nash, and showed up in another Bond film. In 2007 he was cast to voice the role of Fiona's father in Shrek 2, leading to a series of appearances for him in other animated films such as Igor, Planet 51, and Winnie the Pooh. He also appeared opposite Steve Martin in 2009's The Pink Panther 2.

Trivia: Esteemed British supporting actress and voice artist Miriam Margolyes has worked on radio, television, stage, and in many prestigious feature films. She launched her career in her native England but came to the U.S. after winning the Los Angeles Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Flora Finching in Little Dorrit (1988). After settling in L.A., Margolyes starred in the short-lived CBS television series Frannie's Turn. As a voice artist, Margolyes provided the characterization for Babe's mother in the Oscar-nominated Babe (1996), as well as voicing the role of the glowworm in James and the Giant Peach (1996), in which she also played one of the wicked aunties.