Trivia: Laurence Harvey was one of Hollywood's stranger success stories; never a major star, or even the subject of a cult following, his films were rarely hits, and those that were often seemed to achieve their popularity in spite of him. A cold, remote actor, he proved highly unsuited to the majority of the roles which came his way, and his performances were typically the subject of unanimous critical dismissal; even his co-stars frequently derided his abilities. At the same time, however, Harvey enjoyed a career much longer and more prolific than many of his more lauded contemporaries, and was one of the most prominent onscreen presences of the 1960s. Also to his credit, his resumé includes at least one certified classic, 1962's The Manchurian Candidate.Harvey was born Lauruska Mischa Skikne on October 1, 1928, in Joniskis, Lithuania. Raised in South Africa, he served in Egypt and Italy during World War II, and after performing in the army show The Bandoliers he returned to Johannesburg to begin his theatrical career. He later relocated to Britain, where he tenured with the Manchester Library Theater and also worked as a male prostitute. In 1948, Harvey made his feature debut in the horror thriller House of Darkness, and its success earned him a two-year contract with Associated British Studios, resulting in lead roles in 1949's Man on the Run and the following year's Cairo Road. Smaller turns in Landfall and The Black Rose followed before he appeared in a disastrous West End revival of Hassan. Harvey continued to languish in B-movies like 1951's There Is Another Sun before appearing in 1953's Women of Twilight. The picture was not a success, but the studio Romulus was so impressed by his performance that they made his career a top priority and cast him in the comedy Innocents in Paris. Harvey then appeared for the 1952 season with the Memorial Theatre at Stratford, earning almost unanimously poor notices. He responded by giving interviews which claimed that regardless of the critics, he was in fact a great actor, a game of cat-and-mouse with the press that went on for years. Despite his disappointing Shakespearean performances, Harvey was cast in a 1954 film treatment of Romeo and Juliet, delivering a virtually expressionless portrayal of the title hero. He then starred in the Warner Bros. production of King Richard and the Crusaders. Upon returning to Britain, Harvey again worked under the auspices of Romulus, where in 1955 he starred in The Good Die Young. Margaret Leighton, one of his co-stars in the picture, later became his wife. After starring in I Am a Camera, he appeared opposite popular television comedian Jimmy Edwards in 1957's Three Men in a Boat, which became Harvey's first real hit. However, a series of disappointments -- After the Ball, The Truth About Women, and The Silent Enemy -- were to follow before he could again taste success in 1959's Room at the Top. Hollywood again took interest in Harvey, and in 1960 he co-starred with John Wayne in The Alamo, followed by an appearance in the Elizabeth Taylor hit Butterfield 8. A role in the 1961 British production The Long and the Short and the Tall was next, trailed by a pair of Hollywood flops, Two Lovers and Summer and Smoke.Harvey remained a frequent target of reviewers' derision in all of these films, and even co-star Jane Fonda criticized his performance in 1962's Walk on the Wild Side. Finally, in John Frankenheimer's masterful The Manchurian Candidate, he found a role perfectly suited to his talents, portraying a brainwashed assassin shorn of emotion; the performance was the best of his career, but in a cruel twist of irony the film was pulled from distribution by producer/star Frank Sinatra when its plot too closely foreshadowed the tragic death of President John F. Kennedy. With 1963's The Ceremony, Harvey turned screenwriter and director as well as star. The result was a critical lambasting even more severe than usual, with response to both 1964's Of Human Bondage and The Outrage not much better. A small role in John Schlesinger's superb Darling followed in 1965, but both 1966's The Spy With the Cold Nose and 1967's A Dandy in Aspic (which Harvey finished directing upon the death of original helmer Anthony Mann) sank without a trace. He then filmed 1969's Rebus in Italy with Ann-Margret, remaining there to produce and star in L'Assoluto Naturale. Appearances in 1970's The Magic Christian and the next year's Paul Newman vehicle W.U.S.A. followed, but Harvey proved unable to revive his stalling career. After working with Elizabeth Taylor in 1972's Night Watch, he directed and starred in one final film, 1974's Welcome to Arrow Beach, but did not live to see its premiere; he died of cancer on November 25, 1973.

Trivia: British actress Dawn Addams launched her career in Hollywood, after completing her education in England, India, and the United States. She was briefly under contract to MGM, where she played supporting parts in such films as Night Unto Morning (1951) and Plymouth Adventure (1952), as well as a bit in Singin' in the Rain (1952). Even as a freelance actress, her roles were more decorous than substantial: she gets good billing in The Robe (1953) as one of Richard Burton's castaway lady friends, but disappears from the film before reel two. Dawn's stock in trade was the conveyence of icy, unobtainable beauty, a quality that Charles Chaplin utilized to the utmost in A King in New York (1957), wherein Dawn had her best role as an American commercial actress. Thanks to her lofty family lineage, Ms. Addams moved in the best English and European social circles during the 1950s and 1960s; from 1954 through 1971, she was married to Italian prince Vittorio Massimo. When American producer Sheldon Reynolds needed European bluebloods to appear in small roles in his TV series "Foreign Intrigue" and "Sherlock Holmes," Dawn acted as liason in rounding up upper-class talent -- hich may explain why she was a frequent guest star in Reynolds' various series. As her film career petered out in the 1960s, Dawn could be seen on television with increasing frequency: She was a semi-regular on the instructional series "En France" (1962) and the campy sci-fi serial "Star Maidens" (1977), and she was a ubiquitous leading lady in several episodes of "The Saint" (1963-67). Dawn Addams retired from films in the early 1980s, dividing her remaining years between Europe and United States.

Trivia: A practioner of the "enigmatic femme fatale" school of screen performing, Italian actress Gianna Maria Canale was signed for a film contract immediately after competing in the 1946 Miss Italy contest. Most of Canale's film appearances were exotic to the point of self-mockery, as witness Theodora Slave Empress (1954) and Queen of the Pirates (1960). She has also appeared in the American-produced war picture Go For Broke (1951), and in the British/American murder mystery The Whole Truth, archly cast as a temperamental Italian film star who is bumped off in reel two. Many of Gianna Maria Canale's earlier films were produced by Riccardo Freda, who later became her husband.

Trivia: Born in India to a British military officer, Michael Craig was in his teens when he entered films in 1949 as an extra, or, as Leslie Halliwell so euphemistically put it, a "crowd artist." That same year, Craig made his inaugural stage appearance in The Merchant of Venice. Groomed for stardom by the Rank Organisation, he began receiving speaking parts in 1954. On the whole, his stage work, which consisted largely of Shakespeare, was more rewarding than his film efforts. As leading man in such films as Upstairs and Downstairs (1959) and Mysterious Island (1961), Craig was required to do little more beyond looking handsome and dependable. One of his few movie roles of substance was in The Angry Silence (1960), which he co-wrote (he would later contribute to the script of 1981's The Killing of Angel Street). Michael Craig was seen to better advantage in later years as a character actor.

Trivia: One of the most distinguished and prolific actor/managers of the British stage, John Clements was surprisingly less successful in films. Clements' best-known movie role was as heroic coward Lt. Faversham in The Four Feathers (1939), one of several screen appearances under the aegis of producer Alexander Korda. In 1947, he served as writer, producer, and director of Call of the Blood. His last screen showing was a cameo role in Attenborough's Gandhi (1981). In 1968, he was knighted for his theatrical accomplishments. Sir John Clements was the husband of actress Kay Hammond.

Trivia: Hearty, backslapping South African comic actor Sidney James called England his home from 1946 until his death. James gained nationwide prominence as a supporting actor on Tony Hancock's popular BBC radio and TV series. In films, James was cast in leading roles in the long-running Carry On series, (Mark Antony in Carry on Cleo, for example) not so much out of devotion to his craft as to his constant financial difficulties due to his addiction to gambling. Carry On producer Peter Rogers, not normally known as "Mr. Nice Guy," proved to be James' principal benefactor during the actor's heaviest gambling binges. Sidney James was also a regular on the British TV series Taxi (no relation to the American sitcom of the same name) and Bless This House.

Trivia: Lean, incisive British actor Alec McCowen studied at the RADA before launching his stage career in 1942. McCowan's theatrical work has been devoted almost exclusively to Shakespeare and the classics; he regards Astrov in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya as his favorite role. In films from 1953, McCowen's most fondly remembered screen assignment was as mild-mannered Inspector Oxford in Hitchcock's Frenzy. The actor's expression of quiet desperation as he samples the horrendous gourmet dishes prepared by his wife was worth the admission price in itself. In the James Bond film Never Say Never Again (1982), McCowen was far more brusque and businesslike as "Q" than Desmond Llewellyn ever was or ever will be. Looking quite at ease in historical costume, Alec McCowen has flourished into the 1990s in lavish period films like Henry V (1989) and The Age of Innocence (1993).

Trivia: Billed by some historians as "the Maltese Menace" due to his land of birth and his occasional villain roles, actor Nigel Stock moved early in life from his native Malta to England, whence he began his stage career in 1931 as a child performer. In films since 1938's Lancashire Luck, Stock appeared in such major British releases as Brighton Rock (1946), The Dam Busters (1955) Damn the Defiant (1962) and Cromwell (1969). One of his last performances was a character part in the Spielberg-produced Young Sherlock Holmes (1986). Though possibly not intended, his appearance was something of an in-joke; Nigel Stock was at that time best known for his continuing performance as Dr. Watson in a BBC-TV series of Sherlock Holmes dramas.

Trivia: Virile Italian leading man Massimo Serato's film career extended from 1940 until 1986. At first the star of athletic costume pictures, Serato eased gracefully into robust character roles in the early 1960s. Highlights of his later work included such roles as Abner in David and Goliath (1960), Fanel in El Cid (1962), Richelieu in The Secret Mark of D'Artagnan (1962) and Armand's father in Camille 2000 (1969). Massimo Serato was at one time the lover of actress Anna Magnani, who bore him a son in 1942.

Trivia: A British character player of vast experience, Raymond Young began making films just after World War II. Adam and Evelyn (1949), The Assassination Bureau (1969), Scream and Die (1975), and the 1978 version of The 39 Steps are but four of Young's many film credits. In Goldfinger (1964), Young played Sierra, one of a roomful of high-profile gangsters liquidated by Mr. Goldfinger with a burst of poison gas. Raymond Young should not (and probably could not) be confused with Ray Young, who played the hirsute Bigfoot in the 1979 TV children's series Bigfoot and Wildboy.

Trivia: British actor Lee Montague was most active on stage and television. He averaged about one film per year after his 1959 movie debut in The Savage Innocents. In the mid '70s, Montague began showing up on American-financed TV miniseries which required European location shooting. Lee Montague was seen in Franco Zeffirelli's expensive, all star TV production Jesus of Nazareth (1977) and in the harrowing multipart historical drama Holocaust (1978).

Trivia: British character actor.

Trivia: British actor Peter Welch spent several years touring with a repertory company he founded. He began playing character roles in films during the mid-'50s.

Trivia: Lead actress, onscreen from the '50s.

Trivia: Born in New Zealand, actor Ewen Solon played character roles onscreen and in television. He is best remembered for playing the detective Maigret in a popular television series.

Trivia: Livepudlian Brian Oulton began his stage career with his home town's rep company. He made his 1939 film bow as a nominal leading man, served five years in the Army, then returned in 1946 as a character actor. Oulton made his mark in beetle-browed, pompous, easily deflatable character roles in films ranging from Last Holiday (1950) to Young Sherlock Holmes (1985); he also showed up as a faffling comic foil in several of the "Carry On" comedy series. Alternating his screen work with his stage activities, Oulton both wrote and acted such revues as Births, Marriages and Deaths (1975), For Entertainment Only (1976). Brian Oulton's radio credits include the role of Cyril on the long-running children's favorite Just William.

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

Trivia: The man who bravely took the helm for the groundbreaking comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus, director Ian MacNaughton proved an invaluable asset to the series in his tireless efforts to keep the show afloat despite the skepticism of BBC executives. A native of Glasgow who initially pursued a career in medicine, it wasn't until serving in the Royal Marines during World War II that MacNaughton began to harbor a love for show business. His association with the Globe Players (a Royal Marine amateur theater group) prompted the soldier to consider a career as an actor, and roles in such films as X the Unknown(1956) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962) found his career in front of the camera flourishing. Teaming with British comedy legend Spike Milligan in the early '60s, MacNaughton stepped behind the camera for Q5 (as well as subsequent installments Q6 through Q9). With the success of Monty Python's Flying Circus propelling him, MacNaughton also assumed directorial duties for the German version of the series, as well as the filmed sequences of Monty Python: Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982). In addition to his work with the Pythons, MacNaughton would take the helm for the feature Le Petomane (1979). The director resided in Germany with wife Ike Ott in his later years, where he would find frequent work in television and theater. After suffering massive injuries in a 2001 car accident, Ian MacNaughton died in Munich on December 10, 2002. He was 76.

Trivia: Character actor Jack May is best-remembered for playing Nelson Gabriel on the popular BBC radio series The Archers for over 45 years. He made his feature film debut in Give Me the Stars (1944). His subsequent screen appearances have run the gamut from science fiction, romance, and drama, to historical and animated television series. May first appeared on television in the movie One (1956).

Trivia: British actor Derren Nesbitt came to films in the late '50s, a time when characters exhibiting a crude or cruel streak were in vogue in English movies. Nesbett had an unsavory look about him, which became useful whenever producers needed a sadistic heavy or petty thief. Among Nesbitt's films were Room at the Top (1958), Victim (1961), The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965), The Naked Runner (1967) (in which he and most of the supporting cast were nastily killed off in the first two reels) and Burke and Hare (1971). Nesbett's marriage to film star Anne Aubrey made headlines thanks to an acrimonious breakup in 1973; some observers have speculated that his career never fully recovered from the adverse publicity. Whatever the case, Derren Nesbett was back in 1974, directing, writing and starring in The Amorous Milkman.