Trivia: The 12th of 13 children of a Welsh miner, actor Richard Burton left his humble environs by winning a scholarship to Oxford. Blessed with a thrillingly theatrical voice, Burton took to the stage, and, by 1949, had been tagged as one of Britain's most promising newcomers. Director Philip Dunne, who later helmed several of Burton's Hollywood films, would recall viewing a 1949 London staging of The Lady's Not for Burning and watching in awe as star John Gielgud was eclipsed by juvenile lead Richard Burton: "He 'took' the stage and kept a firm grip on it during every one of his brief appearances." A few years after his film debut in The Last Days of Dolwyn (1949), the actor was signed by 20th Century Fox, which had hopes of turning him into the new Lawrence Olivier -- although Burton was not quite able to grip films as well as he did the stage. Aside from The Robe (1953), most of Burton's Fox films were disappointments, and the actor was unable to shake his to-the-rafters theatricality for the smaller scope of the camera lens. Still, he was handsome and self-assured, so Burton was permitted a standard-issue 1950s spectacle, Alexander the Great (1956). His own film greatness would not manifest itself until he played the dirt-under-the-nails role of Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger (1959). In this, he spoke the vernacular of regular human beings -- rather than that of high-priced, affected Hollywood screenwriters -- and delivered a jolting performance as a working-class man trapped by the system and his own personal demons. Following a well-received Broadway run in the musical Camelot, Burton was signed in 1961 to replace Stephen Boyd on the benighted film spectacular Cleopatra (1963). It probably isn't necessary to elaborate on what happened next, but the result was that Burton suddenly found himself an international celebrity, not for his acting, but for his tempestuous romance with co-star Elizabeth Taylor. A hot property at last, Burton apparently signed every long-term contract thrust in front of him, while television networks found themselves besieged with requests for screenings of such earlier Burton film "triumphs" as Prince of Players (1955) and The Rains of Ranchipur (1956). In the midst of the initial wave of notoriety, Burton appeared in a Broadway modern-dress version of Hamlet directed by John Gielgud, which played to standing-room-only crowds who were less interested in the melancholy Dane than in possibly catching a glimpse of the Lovely Liz. Amidst choice film work like Becket (1964) and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1966), Burton was also contractually obligated to appear with Taylor in such high-priced kitsch as The V.I.P.s, (1963) The Sandpiper (1965), and Boom! (1968). A few of the Burton/Taylor vehicles were excellent -- notably Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (she won an Oscar; he didn't, but should have) -- but the circus of publicity began to erode the public's ability to take Burton seriously. It became even harder when the couple divorced, remarried, and broke up again. Moreover, Burton was bound by contract to appear in such bland cinematic enterprises as Candy (1968), Villain (1971), The Assassination of Trotsky (1972), The Klansman (1974), and that rancid masterpiece Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). So low had Burton's reputation sunk that when he delivered an Oscar-caliber performance in Equus (1977), it was hailed as a "comeback," even though the actor had never left. (Once again he lost the Oscar, this time to Richard Dreyfuss.) Burton managed to recapture his old performing fire in his last moviemaking years, offering up one of his best performances in his final picture, 1984 (1984). He died later that year.

Trivia: Ava Gardner began her career first as a model, then as a contract player at MGM, where her gawky, unsophisticated demeanor was totally made over by the studio into an image of inaccessible glamour. Gardner toiled in tiny bit roles, finally getting a worthwhile one on loan-out to Universal in The Killers (1946). MGM was never very comfortable with the bad-girl persona she displayed so well in this film, and, thus, most of her starring appearances at her home studio were relatively sympathetic roles in The Hucksters (1947) and Show Boat (1951). Her cinema reputation as The World's Most Beautiful Animal (in the words of a '50s publicity campaign) was once again manifested in loan-out movies like Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) and The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952). MGM eventually came to terms with the elements that made Gardner popular, notably in the gutsy Mogambo (1953), in which she made an excellent partner to the equally earthy Clark Gable. Director George Cukor was much taken by Gardner and cast the actress in her best and most complex MGM role in Bhowani Junction (1956), in which she was torn not only by love but also clashing East Indian cultural values. Gardner was equally well served in The Barefoot Contessa (1954), which, in many ways, was a replay of her own rags-to-riches personal story. The actress was cast in some of her best parts during the '60s, notably in Seven Days in May and Night of the Iguana (both 1964), but the pace of her jet-setting lifestyle and increasing personal problems began to show. With roles and public appearances steadily decreasing, she died on January 25, 1990. She was married and divorced three times -- to Mickey Rooney, Frank Sinatra, and Artie Shaw.

Trivia: A cultured actress renowned for her elegance and dignity, Deborah Kerr was one of the leading ladies of Hollywood's Golden Age. Born Deborah Kerr-Trimmer in Helensburgh, Scotland, on September 30, 1921, she was first trained as a dancer at her aunt's drama school in Bristol, England. After winning a scholarship to the Sadlers Wells Ballet School, Kerr made her London stage debut at age 17 in Prometheus. Meanwhile, she developed an interest in acting and began getting bit parts and walk-ons in Shakespeare productions. While continuing to appear in various London stage plays, Kerr debuted onscreen in 1940 and went on to roles in a number of British films over the next seven years, often playing cool, reserved, well-bred young ladies. Her portrayal of a nun in Black Narcissus (1947) earned a New York Film Critics Best Actress award and led to an invitation from Hollywood to co-star opposite Clark Gable in The Hucksters. She remained in Hollywood, playing long-suffering, prim, proper, ladylike types until 1953, when she broke her typecast mold by portraying a passionate adulteress in From Here to Eternity, a part for which she had fought. Kerr's range of roles broadened further after that, and she began to appear in British films again. In 1953, Kerr debuted on Broadway to great acclaim in Tea and Sympathy, later reprising her role in the play's 1956 screen version. That same year, she starred as an English governess sent to tutor the children of the King of Siam in one of the most popular films of her career, The King and I. Kerr retired from the screen in 1969, having received six Best Actress Oscar nominations without an award, although she did receive an honorary Oscar in 1994. She had been honored with a special BAFTA award three years earlier in Britain, and, in 1998, she was further honored in her native land with a Companion of the Order of the British Empire. Kerr, who graced the screen one last time in the The Assam Garden (1985), died of complications related to Parkinson's Disease in October 2007. She was 86.

Trivia: "How could they make a movie out of Lolita?" screamed the print ads in 1962. By changing the 12-year-old object of Humbert Humbert's lust into a 15-year-old, that's how. Selected to portray Vladimir Nabokov's celebrated nymphet was Sue Lyon, who was 14 when she won the role. Unfortunately, Lyon was unable to live up to her Lolita publicity blitz in subsequent roles: any actress could have done as well as she did in films like Night of the Iguana (1965), The Flim Flam Man (1967), Tony Rome (1967) and Evel Knievel (1971). Beset with personal problems in the 1970s and 1980s, Sue Lyon's film appearances became increasingly infrequent; later she enjoyed another brief burst of press coverage when she married a prisoner who was serving a life sentence for murder.

Trivia: An actor-turned-producer who worked with some of the biggest names in the business in both respects, Skip Ward would step behind the camera for such successful television endeavors as The Dukes of Hazzard, though the lure of the lens drew him back in front of the camera when he later formed a close working relationship with filmmaker Andy Sidaris. A Cleveland native who served a stint as an air force pilot before making the move to Hollywood, Ward's film debut came in Robert Wise's 1958 war film Run Silent, Run Deep. Subsequent efforts such as The Nutty Professor (1963) and Night of the Iguana (1964) found the fledgling actor working with a series of A-list stars, and though Ward himself would never ascend to that status, he would continue in front of the camera until 1970's Myra Breckinridge. Though he would lose the lead role in The Wild Wild West series to actor Robert Conrad, Ward's numerous television appearances included such series as The F.B.I. and The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries. The late '70s found Ward gaining notice as a producer, and with efforts such as The Dukes of Hazzard and V, his status continued to rise. An association with Sidaris was established when Ward served as production coordinator for a series of Sidaris-produced ABC sports programs. Despite the fact that it had been quite some time since Ward had appeared onscreen, his relationship with Sidaris resulted in somewhat of a comeback with roles in Do or Die, Fit to Kill, and Hard Hunted. In late June of 2002, Skip Ward died of natural causes in Calabasas, CA. He was 69.

Trivia: Educated at Cornell University, American actress Grayson Hall established her reputation on stage. Among her many theatrical achievements were Six Characters in Search of an Author, under the direction of Tyrone Guthrie, and The Balcony, supervised by Jose Quintero. Hall's first film was Night of the Iguana (1964), for which she received an Oscar nomination. The actress then played the kidnapped bank teller in Disney's That Darn Cat (1965), probably the biggest moneymaker with which she was associated. In 1966, Grayson signed on for ABC's supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows, playing a doctor who tried to cure Barnabas Collins of his vampirism but who wound up falling in love with him instead. Grayson Hall left Dark Shadows in 1971 for a long stint on another, more sedate daytime drama, One Life to Live.

Trivia: Known to his devotees as "El Indio" because of his mixed parentage, Emilio Fernandez was not yet out of his teens when his participation as an officer in Mexico's Huerta rebellion earned him a 20-year prison sentence. Escaping to the United States in 1923, Fernandez worked as a Hollywood extra and bit player, returning to Mexico when granted amnesty in 1934. His directorial career began in 1941 with La Isla de la Pasion. Within a few years he was Mexico's foremost filmmaker specializing in populist dramas, many of them starring his wife, Columba Dominguez. His 1943 film Maria Candelaria won a Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize, while his 1946 adaptation of John Steinbeck's The Pearl, starring his favorite actor Pedro Armendariz and photographed by his longtime collaborator Gabriel Figueroa, earned several additional awards. His fame and prestige did nothing to quench his personal combustibility; notorious in cinematic circles as the only prominent director who ever actually shot a film critic, he later served six months of a four-and-a-half year sentence for manslaughter after killing a farm laborer during an argument. In the '50s Fernandez's prestige declined as the quality of his films slackened and he returned to acting; however, every few years he also directed. In the '60s and '70s he appeared in a number of American films.