Trivia: Born in a British seaside resort town, John Mills was the son of a mathematics teacher father. Mills' mother worked as a theatrical box office manager, and it was this world, rather than his father's academic milieu, which most attracted young Mills. After brief employment as a clerk in a corn merchant's office, Mills moved to London, where he enrolled at Zelia Raye's Dancing School. His first professional job was as a chorus dancer in The Five O'Clock Revue in 1929. Making as many contacts as possible, Mills was able to secure work on the legitimate stage, and in 1932 appeared in his first film, the Jessie Matthews vehicle The Midshipmaid. Learning his craft in "quota quickies," Mills rose to leading man in such prestige productions as Brown on Resolution (1935), Tudor Rose (1936), and The Green Cockatoo (1938). In 1939, he appeared in his first American film, Goodbye Mr. Chips, playing student Peter Colley. He starred in a number of morale-boosting World War II films, usually playing the personification of the calm, resourceful young British military officer; any chance for a real life career in uniform, however, was scuttled by Mills' duodenal ulcer. After the war, he starred in such international hits as Great Expectations (1946), Scott of the Antarctic (1949), Hobson's Choice (1954), and Above Us the Waves (1955). In 1970, Mills won a long overdue Oscar for his performance as the village idiot in Ryan's Daughter (1970), directed (as were several of Mills' earlier films) by David Lean. His Broadway work has included Ross, a 1961 dramatization of the life of T.E. Lawrence. In 1966, Mills directed Sky West and Crooked (aka Gypsy Girl), which starred his daughter, Hayley Mills, and was written by his wife, Mary Hayley Bell (Mills' other daughter, Juliet, is likewise an actress of note). One year later, he made his American series-TV debut as British attorney Dundee in the weekly Western Dundee and the Culhane. In 1977, John Mills was made a knight of the British Empire; his very full life, both offscreen and on, was summed up three years later in his autobiography Up in the Clouds, Gentlemen, Please.

Trivia: Yorkshire's own Eric Portman was on stage from 1924, mostly in Shakespearean roles. He kicked off his British film career in 1933, remaining within that country's film industry until his death, save for a brief visit to Hollywood in 1937 to play a minor role in The Prince and the Pauper. Shuttling from hero to villain and back again with finesse, Portman most strikingly demonstrated his versatility in a brace of Powell-Pressburger films of the war years: he played a scurrilous escaped Nazi in 49th Parallel (1941), then portrayed a heroic RAF officer in One of Our Aircraft is Missing (1942). As he grew older, Eric Portman harnessed his haughty bearing to play many a cashiered military officer and down-at-heels aristocrat; either way, his characters seldom removed their noses from the air.

Trivia: Burly, ruddy-faced Irish actor Niall MacGinnis looked as though he'd be well suited for an alley fight, but most of his film and stage roles were of an intellectual bent. Active on stage with the Old Vic, MacGinnis made his first film in 1935. For many film buffs, MacGinnis' fame rests on two dymamic leading roles. He portrayed the crafty black-arts practitioner (based on Alisteir Crowley) who falls victim to his own deviltry in the 1958 chiller Night of the Demon. And, as every Lutheran who ever attended a church-basement "movie night" well knows, Niall MacGinnis essayed the title role in the 1953 film Martin Luther.

Trivia: Baby-faced British character actor Jack Watling was trained at the Italia Conti school. On stage from age 12, Watling made his earliest appearances in such Christmas pantomimes as Where the Rainbow Ends. In 1938, he was cast in his first film, Sixty Glorious Years. Entering his teen years, Watling worked in Donald Wolfit's repertory company, then was cast in his favorite stage role, that of Flight Lieutenant Graham in the 1942 West End production Flare Path. Following three years' service in the RAF, he played his most celebrated role, cashiered naval cadet Dickie Winslow in The Winslow Boy, which he would repeat for the 1950 screen version. Among his choicer screen assignments of the 1950s was the wastrely Marquis of Rutleigh in Orson Welles' Mr. Arkadin. In the 1970s, Jack Watling was a semi-regular in the British TV series Father, Dear Father.

Trivia: British character actress and comedienne Marie Ault is best remembered for her fingernail-on-the-chalkboard portrayal of Rummy Mitchens in 1941's Major Barbara. In addition to appearing in feature films, Ault also played on the British stage. She was born Mary Cragg.

Trivia: British stage actor John Salew made the transition to films in 1939. The manpower shortage during WWII enabled the stout, balding Salew to play larger and more important roles than would have been his lot in other circumstances. He usually played suspicious-looking characters, often Germanic in origin. His screen assignments include such parts as William Shakespeare (yes, that William Shakespeare) in the comedy-fantasy Time Flies (1944), Grimstone in the Gothic meller Uncle Silas (1947), and the librarian in the psychological thriller Night of the Demon (1957). John Salew was active into the TV era, playing the sort of parts that John McGiver essayed in the U.S.

Trivia: British actor Philip Friend made his stage bow in 1935 and his film debut in 1939, after which he settled into his peculiar niche as the bargain-counter Errol Flynn. The titles of Friend's English and American films pretty much tell the whole story: Sword in the Desert (1949), Buccaneer's Girl (1950), The Story of Robin Hood (1958). Friend was cast in the potentially star-making title role in The Highwayman (1951), based on the famed Alfred Noyes narrative poem. Alas, this movie barely moved until the last five minutes--just long enough for Friend and leading lady Wanda Hendrix to get killed off and then reappear as ghosts. Philip Friend was active in movies, TV and Broadway until the '70s, always one tiny step away from true stardom.

Trivia: Cockney character actor John Slater entered films in 1941, remaining active until his death 34 years later, despite such setbacks as a life-threatening auto accident in 1946 and sporadic bouts of ill health. He could usually be seen as military officers, constables, and doctors. His voice was familiar to millions of moviegoers via his narration duties in the Mining Review documentary series. John Slater's later credits included a lengthy run as Sgt. Stone on the enormously popular TV weekly Z Cars.

Trivia: For a fan of British programmers of the 1930s and 1940s, it was hard to miss character-player Johnny Schofield. From 1934 onward, Schofield made more screen appearances than he cared to count, usually in such inexpensive crowd-pleasers as Mystery of Marie Celeste (1935) and Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1939). His larger roles included Joe in Went the Day Well? (1943) and Inspector Robson in Shop at Sly Corner (1947). Johnny Schofield made his final appearance in The Fake (1953).