Trivia: With an actor father and an artist mother, it might be presumed that fame was in the cards for pinup sensation cum respectable actor and best-selling author Dirk Bogarde. Though a colorful background and a remarkable talent elevated Bogarde to the status of one of Britian's most prolific actors, his phenomenally successful career is ultimately a testament to being in the right place at the right time. Born Derek van den Bogarde in Hampton, England, in 1921, Bogarde and brother Gareth spent much of their childhood in Sussex being raised by thier older sister Elizabeth and their beloved nanny Lally. Receiving his early education at Allen Glen's School in Glascow before attending University College in London, Bogarde went on to study commercial art at Chelsea Polytechnic before nurturing his inherited affection for acting. Though he initially met with some degree of disappointment, leading to his questioning a career as a thespian, Bogarde made his stage debut with the Amersham Repertory Company in 1939 at the age of 19, the same year he made his screen debut in a bit role in Come on George. The next year Bogarde began his career in the Queens Royal Regiment.Popular among his peers in the military, Bogarde (affectionately nicknamed "Pip") quickly rose through the ranks with his position in the Air Photographic Intelligence Unit and soon earned the rank of major. Serving in the war and stationed in the Far East, Bogarde foreshadowed his later success as a writer when a poem he had written titled Steel Cathedrals was published in 1943. Returning from the war as a successful veteran with seven medals, Bogarde would soon move from the nightmares of war to his childhood dreams of becoming a successful actor.Finding out the literal meaning of the phrase "timing is everything," Bogarde walked into the wrong room on his way to a BBC audition, a mistake that quickly landed him in the successful stage role that fueled the flames of his impending stardom. It was with Dancing With Crime (1947) that Bogarde began gaining consistent roles in film, two years before fatefully taking the lead in Wessex Films' Ester Waters after star Stewart Granger dropped the project. His successful turn in Waters prompted Wessex to offer Bogarde a lucrative 14-year contract during which Bogarde would appear in such memorable films as The Blue Lamp before his role as Doctor Simon Sparrow in Doctor in the House (1953) launched him to pin-up status among the hordes of nubile young women who flocked to the film and its numerous sequels. Though thankful for his status and grateful to the fans that had elevated him to the status of heartthrob, Bogarde felt he had outgrown the image that he had fallen into and began to seek more challenging roles in films that dealt with more sensitive subjects. Shattering England's taboos associated with its anti-sodomy laws and the stigma of homosexuality with his risky, typecast-shattering performance in Victim (1961), Bogarde's bold turn resulted in a maturing image for the actor. In 1963, Bogarde expanded his new image and began a successful working relationship with director Joseph Losey in the cutting study of the British class system, The Servant (1963) (a role that won him the British Academy's Best Actor award). Bogarde's roles in such Losey films as King and Country (1964) and Accident (1967), along with his role in John Schlesinger's Darling (1965) and later, 1974's The Night Porter, brought him the critical acclaim that cemented his status as one of Britian's most prolific and respected stars. In the late '60s Bogarde moved to Europe, opting for a career path outside of the English and American system before purchasing a farmhouse in Southern France in the 1970s.Pursuing childhood dreams of farming and writing for the next two decades, Bogarde chose his films roles carefully and infrequently in favor of a turn as a successful novelist. With seven best sellers and a seven-volume autobiography, Bogarde recalled his life and experiences in such works as Snakes and Ladders, and injected real-life experience into such vividly written novels as A Gentle Occupation. It was in France that Bogarde lived in a 15th century farmhouse with longtime friend and manager Tony Forwood, returning to London only after Forwood became stricken with cancer. Bogarde nursed him until his death in 1988 (a period Bogarde would sentimentally recall in his book A Short Walk From Harrods). A fervent supporter of rights regarding Euthanasia, Bogarde became vice-president of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society before making his final film appearance in 1990's Daddy Nostalgia. Suffering a severe stroke in 1996, Bogarde was partially paralyzed, spending the final years of his life in seclusion and requiring 24-hour nursing up to his death from a heart attack in 1999.

Trivia: Born in Japan to a British patent attorney and his actress wife, Olivia de Havilland succumbed to the lure of Thespis while attending high school in Los Gatos, CA, where she played Hermia in an amateur production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The older sister of actress Joan Fontaine, de Havilland was spotted by famed director Max Reinhardt, who cast her in his legendary Hollywood Bowl production of the play. This led to her part in the Warner Bros. film adaptation of Midsummer in 1935, and being signed to a long-term contract wiht the company. Considering herself a classical actress, de Havilland tried to refuse the traditional ingenue roles offered her by the studio, which countered by telling her she'd be ruined in Hollywood if she didn't cooperate. Loaned out to David O. Selznick, de Havilland played Melanie Hamilton in Gone With the Wind (1939), earning an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in the process. Although she didn't come out on top that year, she would later win two Best Actress Oscars, the first for 1946's To Each His Own, and then again for 1949's The Heiress. De Havilland also made news when she sued Warner Bros. for extending her seven-year contract by tacking on the months she'd been on suspension for refusing to take a part. The actress spent three long years off the screen, but she ultimately won her case, and the "De Havilland Law," as it would become known, effectively destroyed the studios' ability to virtually enslave their contractees by unfairly extending their contract time. After completing The Heiress, de Havilland spent several years on Broadway, cutting down her subsequent film appearances to approximately one per year. In 1955, she moved to France with her second husband, Paris Match editor Pierre Galante; she later recalled her Paris years with the semiautobiographical Every Frenchman Has One. De Havilland showed up in a brace of profitable fading-star horror films in the '60s: Lady in a Cage (1964) and Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1965), in which she replaced Joan Crawford. During the next decade, she appeared in a number of TV productions and in such all-star film efforts as Airport '77 (1977) and The Swarm (1978). After a number of TV appearances (if not always starring roles) in the '80s, de Havilland once more found herself in the limelight in 1989, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Gone With the Wind. As one of the only surviving stars from this film, she was much sought after for interviews and reminiscences, but graciously refused almost every request.

Trivia: A charming, rotund, portly, double-chinned character actor of British and American stage and screen, Robert Morley tended to be cast in jovial or pompous comedic roles. He was educated in England, Germany, France, and Italy, intending to go into diplomacy. He switched to acting and studied theater at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Morley debuted on the London stage in 1929, and on Broadway in 1938 when he reprised his London performance in the title role of Oscar Wilde. Also in 1938, he debuted onscreen in the Hollywood film Marie Antoinette, portraying the feeble-minded Louis XVI opposite Norma Shearer; for that performance he received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. He went on to play supporting roles in many films on both sides of the Atlantic. He was also a playwright; one of his plays, Edward My Son (written with Noel Langley), became a film in 1949. He was frequently seen as a witty, erudite guest on TV talk shows, and he was the TV commercial spokesman for British Airways.

Trivia: British actor Wilfred Hyde-White entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art upon graduation from Marlborough College. After some stage work, he made his first film in 1934 and became a stalwart in British movies like Rembrandt (1936) and The Demi-Paradise (1943), often billed as merely "Hyde White" and specializing in benign but stuffy upper-class types. Hyde-White received a somewhat larger role than usual in The Third Man (1949), principally because his character was an amalgam of two characters who were originally written for the erstwhile British comedy team Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne. Working both sides of the continent, Hyde-White appeared in such American productions as In Search of the Castaways (1962) and Gaily, Gaily (1969). His best-loved role was as Colonel Pickering in the 1964 Oscar-winner My Fair Lady, wherein he participated in two musical numbers, "The Rain in Spain" and "You Did It." Remaining in films until 1983, Hyde-White was still inducing audience chuckles in such films as The Cat and the Canary (1979), in which he appeared "posthumously" in a pre-filmed last will and testament.

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.

Trivia: British actress Millicent Martin primarily worked on the stage and on television, but she also appeared in a few feature films during the '60s.

Trivia: The son of British stage actor Willard Shine, Bill Shine first trod the boards at age six, playing the Stork in the pantomime Princess Posey. At fifteen, Shine made his first London stage appearance, and at eighteen was seen in the first of many films, Under the Greenwood Tree. Most often cast as an upper-class twit, Shine has also shown up in many a one-scene movie assignment as various reporters, commissioners, ticket sellers and executives. While seldom rising above the featured cast in films, Bill Shine achieved star status in the role of Conn in the 1950 production The Shaugran.

Trivia: Welsh character actor Kenneth Griffith was the archetypal "little man with big ideas" in most of his films. He spent his younger days playing weaklings and cowards then graduated to petty thieves, blackmailers and abusive parents as the character lines increased on his face. Historian William K. Everson has described Griffith as "the English equivalent to Elisha Cook Jr." -- true enough, especially since Griffith's characters, like Cook's, seldom lived long enough to be around at fadeout time. On both stage and screen since his teens, Kenneth Griffith was seen in such films as Love on the Dole (1941), The Shop at Sly Corner (1947) (perhaps his definitive screen appearance, as a lecherous extortionist), I'm All Right Jack (1959), Payroll (1962), The Whisperers (1967), and S.P.Y.S. (1974).

Trivia: The daughter of stage favorite Lillian Brainwaithe, Joyce Carey made her first theatrical appearance at age 18. In films from 1942, Carey made her mark in incisive character roles, playing everything from warmhearted lower-class types (Brief Encounter) to bitchy bourgeoisie (Way to the Stars). In her 70th year, she launched a new phase of her career as a co-star on the TV sitcom Father Dear Father. Active well into her eighties, Joyce Carey died just a month away from her 95th birthday.

Trivia: Raised in Scotland and then Cornwall, Robert Shaw was drawn to acting and writing from his youth. Shaw trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. In 1949 he debuted onstage at the Shakespeare Memorial Theater at Stratford-on-Avon. From 1951 he appeared in British and (later) American films as a character actor, frequently playing heavies. He became better known internationally after appearing in the James Bond movie From Russia with Love (1963), and he received a "Best Supporting Actor" Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Henry VIII in A Man for All Seasons. (1966). In the mid '70s he suddenly became a highly paid star after his appearances in several blockbuster movies, including The Sting (1973), Jaws (1975), and The Deep (1977). He wrote a play and several novels, including The Man in the Glass Booth (1967), which he adapted into a play; it was successful in both London and New York, and in 1975 was made into a film. His novel The Hiding Place (1959) was the source material for the screen comedy Situation Hopeless -- But Not Serious (1965). He died of a heart attack at age 51. His second wife (of three) was actress Mary Ure.

Trivia: A British character actor, Bayldon was onscreen from the '50s.

Trivia: The younger brother of stage and film star Leslie Howard, Arthur Howard began his own screen career in 1947. Never as big a name as his brother, Howard was generally seen in minor roles as clerks, schoolmasters, and the like. Undoubtedly his best film opportunity was as Arthur Ramsden in the droll Ealing comedy The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950). He also enjoyed a measure of fame as fussy Professor Pettigrew on the BBC radio and TV comedy series Whack-O. Arthur Howard continued popping up in fleeting cameos in films like Another Country (1984) until the early '90s.