Trivia: Descended from ten generations of European circus clowns, Anton Walbrook learned the rudiments of acting under such masters as Max Reinhardt. On stage from his teens, Walbrook first performed before the cameras in the 1922 German serial Mater Dolorosa. He hit his stride as a matinee idol in the early-talkie period, starring in such Mittel-European productions as Viktor und Viktoria (1933) and Maskerade (1933). He made his American film debut in a roundabout manner. When RKO Radio Pictures decided to utilize generous stock footage from Walbrook's French/German film Michael Strogoff (1937) for their own The Soldier and His Lady (1937), the actor was hired to reshoot his scenes in English. Walbrook was cast as Prince Albert in his first British film, Victoria the Great (1937), a characterization he repeated in Sixty Glorious Years (1938). His British popularity was cemented by his suavely villainous portrayal of the wife-murdering protagonist ("Zee roobies...zee roobies...") in the 1939 version of Gaslight. In the 1940s, Walbrook was virtually adopted by the production team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. He played the Paderewski-inspired Polish concert pianist in Dangerous Moonlight (1941), the Czech-Canadian patriot in 49th Parallel (1941) and German officer Theodor Krestchmer-Schuldorf (a surprisingly likable portrayal of a wartime enemy) in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943). The most famous of his Powell-Pressburger assignments was the showcase role of ruthless (but ultimately sympathetic) ballet impresario Boris Lermontov in The Red Shoes (1948). In the 1950s, Walbrook brilliantly essayed a brace of roles for director Max Ophuls: the worldly-wise "raconteur" in La Ronde (1950) and the ageing, foolhardy Ludwig I of Bavaria in Lola Montes. Anton Walbrook's last screen role was Major Esterhazy in I Accuse, a 1957 version of "l'affair Dreyfuss"; he then retired with such finality that many assumed he'd died long before his actual passing in 1967.

Trivia: Elegant and aristocratic British actress Diana Wynyard was on-stage from 1927, but made no films until she was brought "over the pond" to Hollywood in 1932. As Natasha in Rasputin and the Empress (1932), Wynyard managed to make an excellent impression despite the overshadowing presence of three Barrymores -- John, Lionel, and Ethel -- in the cast. It was the (offscreen) rape of Wynyard's character by Rasputin (Lionel) that led an expatriate Russian princess to sue MGM, claiming that Natasha was based on the princess -- which is why all subsequent American films carried the "any resemblance to any persons living or dead" disclaimer. In no danger of assault in her next film, the Oscar-winning Cavalcade, Wynyard played the gentle but strong-willed lady of a proper British household; required to age 30 years in the film, Wynyard was far more convincing in this endeavor than her much-older co-star, Clive Brook, and was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance. Cavalcade locked Diana Wynyard into Greer Garson-type roles for the rest of her Hollywood career, though she carried such subsequent films as Reunion in Vienna (1933) and One More River (1934) with class and dignity. Returning to England for good in the mid-'30s, Wynyard devoted most of her energies to stage work, with only intermittent film activity. One of her best performances was almost lost to the ages by legal decree: As the beleaguered wife in Gaslight (1940), Ms. Wynyard was superb, but the film was targeted for destruction by MGM when it remade Gaslight (with Ingrid Bergman in Wynyard's role) in 1944; fortunately, a few prints were illegally smuggled out of England and the film is still in existence. Wynyard continued her stage work into the late '50s, playing Gertrude to Paul Scofield's Hamlet and starring in the London productions of such Broadway hits as The Bad Seed and Toys in the Attic. She also made films on a sporadic basis until her final appearance in Island in the Sun (1957). Strangely enough, Diana Wynyard appeared in only one of the films directed by her husband, Carol Reed: Kipps (1941).

Trivia: Professionally, British actor Robert Newton was two people: The wry, sensitive, often subtle performer seen in such plays as Noel Coward's Private Lives and such films as This Happy Breed (1944), and the eye-rolling, chop-licking ham in such roles as Bill Sykes in Oliver Twist (1948) and Long John Silver (arr! arr!) in Treasure Island (1950). Born into a gifted family -- his mother was a writer, his father and his siblings painters -- Newton made his professional debut when he was 15 with the British Repertory Company. Before he was 25, Newton had toured the world as an actor and stage manager, making his Broadway bow when he replaced Laurence Olivier in Private Lives. There was little of Olivier (except perhaps the older Olivier) in most of Newton's movie roles; despite his wide actor's range, he seemed happiest tearing a passion to tatters in such films as Jamaica Inn (1939), Blackbeard the Pirate (1952) and The Beachcomber (1954). Ripe though his acting could be, it was clear Newton knew his audience. From 1947 through 1951 he was one of Britain's top ten moneymaking film stars, so who were the critics to tell him what to do? Newton's final film role was the dogged Inspector Fix in the blockbuster Around the World in 80 Days (1956). Less than one month after completing Around the World in 80 Days, Robert Newton died of a heart attack in the arms of his wife.

Trivia: British actor Jimmy Hanley was something of a manufactured star. The Rank Organisation, anxious to create a juvenile actor to carry the lightweight romances and musicals that were so much a part of the British filmgoing scene, developed the teenaged Hanley into what historian Leslie Halliwell described as "the boy next door." Hanley made his film bow at age 16 in The Red Wagon (1934), and continued to appear in such adolescent affairs as Boys will be Boys (1935) and There Ain't No Justice (1937). Jimmy's roles matured along with the actor, and in 1944 he could be seen as Williams in Laurence Olivier's Henry V. In 1949 Hanley settled down for two years' worth of appearances in the Huggett Family series costarring former musical hall headliner Jack Warner. Jimmy Hanley perservered in second leads and character parts until his final appearance in The Lost Continent (1968).