Trivia: Born in a Welsh industrial village, Stanley Baker moved to London with his parents in the mid-1930s. As a juvenile player, Baker made his film debut in 1943's Undercover; one year later, he made his London stage bow in Druid's Rest. Following military service, Baker began his adult film career with All Over the Moon (1949). Thereafter he played secondary roles until attaining stardom as an over-the-hill boxer duped into a life of crime in The Good Die Young (1954). Projecting a "dangerous" image, Baker proved equally convincing as a rough-hewn hero or sadistic heavy. Finding his contract with the Rank Organisation confining, he became a free-lancer in 1959, spending the rest of his career making his own opportunities rather than depending on the generosity of others. Many of his starring films dealt with African themes, notably Zulu (1964), Dingaka (1965) and Sands of the Kalihari (1965). Forming Oakhurst Productions, Baker was his own producer for such vehicles as Robbery (1968) and The Italian Job (1969). Stanley Baker was knighted not long before his death from lung cancer in 1976.

Trivia: Character actor John Crawford has appeared on screen in many films since 1945.

Trivia: Balding, deceptively bland-looking British actor Donald Pleasence was first seen on the London stage in a 1939 production of Wuthering Heights. He then served in the RAF, spending the last years of World War II in a German POW camp. Resuming his career after the war, Pleasence eventually came to New York in the company of Laurence Olivier in 1950, appearing in Caesar and Cleopatra. And although he began appearing in films in 1954, Pleasence's British fame during the '50s was the result of his television work, notably a recurring role as Prince John in The Adventures of Robin Hood from 1955-1958. He also co-starred in TV productions of The Millionairess, Man in a Moon, and Call Me Daddy. Voted British television actor of the year in 1958, Pleasence produced and hosted the 1960 series Armchair Mystery Theatre, before creating the stage role for which he was best remembered: Davies, the menacing tramp in Harold Pinter's The Caretaker. The actor revived the character throughout his career, appearing as Davies for the last time in 1991. Pleasence was fortunate enough to be associated with the success of The Great Escape in 1963, which led to a wealth of American film offers. Four years later, the actor portrayed arch criminal Ernst Blofeld in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice -- the first time that the scarred face of the secretive character was seen onscreen in the Bond series. Firmly established as a villain, Pleasence gradually eased into horror films such as Halloween (1978), The Devonsville Terror (1979), and Buried Alive (1990); commenting on this phase of his career, Pleasence once mused "I only appear in odd films." One of his few "mainstream" appearances during this period was virtually invisible. Pleasence is seen and prominently billed as a rabbi in Carl Reiner's Oh, God! (1977), but the role was deemed dispensable and all the actor's lines were cut. Pleasence continued to work steadily in the 1980s and early '90s -- making 17 pictures alone in 1987-1989 -- before undergoing heart surgery in 1994; he died from complications two months later. Married four times, the actor was the father of six daughters, among them actress Angela Pleasence.

Trivia: Launching her career on radio at age 11, British actress Billie Whitelaw spent several seasons as an assistant stage manager before making her theatrical acting debut in 1950. The blonde, hypertense Whitelaw started out in films as a standard leading lady, but quickly distinguished herself in neurotic, single-purposed roles. She won a BFA award for her portrayal of Albert Finney's disgruntled ex-wife in Charlie Bubbles (1968). Billie Whitelaw's next screen assignment of note was as the smothering "monster mommy" of two of Britain's most vicious mob leaders in The Krays (1990). She played nurse Grace Poole in the 1996 version of Jane Eyre and appeared in the 1998 TV miniseries Merlin, playing Ambrosia. Whitelaw's final film appearance was Hot Fuzz (2007). She is also noted for having a close professional relationship with playwright Samuel Beckett, often being called his muse, and appeared in a number of his stage productions. Whitelaw died in 2014, at age 82.