Trivia: British character actor Ronald Lacey had a distinguished career in British cinema and television. Lacey's unique face -- some called his looks diabolical -- was his ticket to a number of roles as the wicked, comedic, or the weird. His appearances in American film were few but memorable, since a medical condition kept him from traveling much overseas. Health problems plagued his entire life, and he died of liver failure in 1991, but not before achieving film immortality in his role as the nefarious Nazi Toht, in Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark.Born in London, Lacey served in the military, and then studied drama at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. He landed his first part in the British film The Boys in 1962. Hollywood called, and he was cast in the 1964 film adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage. Thereafter, Lacey was called upon to play a variety of challenging roles, such as the village idiot in Roman Polanski's 1967 film The Fearless Vampire Killers, and a demented soldier in How I Won the War (1967). He also appeared in many BBC productions, including the starring role in the story of Dylan Thomas in 1978.His unusual persona brought him roles in fantasy productions, on both television and the big screen. Notable among these was his characterization of the crazed President of the United States in the 1984 cult film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, and as the Bishop of Bath in British television's satire Blackadder II. He also excelled at two turns as transvestites in Trenchcoat (1982) and Invitation to the Wedding (1985).While Lacey will always be remembered for his inimitable performance in Raiders of the Lost Ark, his legacy is being carried on by daughters Rebecca Lacey and Ingrid Lacey, who have both followed their father into the acting profession.

Trivia: British comic actor Roy Kinnear received his training at the Theatre Workshop, and made his film debut in 1962's Tiara Tahiti. Short and already balding in his 20s, Kinnear resigned himself early on to character roles; his comic gifts enabled the actor to expand his range as a writer/performer on the fabled early-'60s British TV satirical series That Was the Week That Was. Kinnear became an American favorite for his role as mad scientist Victor Spinetti's harried assistant in the 1965 Beatles film Help!. It was the launching pad of a film career comprised mostly of comic relief and cameo roles. One of Kinnear's most popular film appearances was a two-minute bit specially written for him in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1967), wherein the actor played a trainer of Roman gladiators who conducted his classes in the manner of a golf instructor. Richard Lester, director of both Help! and Forum, cast Kinnear as long-suffering lackey Planchet in the star-studded 1974 filmization of The Three Musketeers, and its sequel (shot simultaneously) The Four Musketeers (1974). With virtually every cast member -- especially Raquel Welch -- clowning it up in the Musketeers films, Kinnear's routines for the first time seemed intrusive. After a decade of variable roles, Kinnear was cast as The Common Man in the 1987 Charlton Heston remake of A Man for All Seasons; it was a brilliant tour de force, with Kinnear displaying a full and versatile range from low comedy to subtle pathos. While recreating his Planchet role in Return of the Musketeers, filmed on location in Spain, Roy Kinnear fell from a horse during a comic chase scene, suffered a heart attack, and died at the age of 54; that film premiered in 1989. Kinnear had completed work on his penultimate feature -- doing one of the voices for the kiddie cartoon The Princess and the Goblin -- not long before his death. It wrapped production in 1992 and took its stateside bow in 1994.