Trivia: With an actor father and an artist mother, it might be presumed that fame was in the cards for pinup sensation cum respectable actor and best-selling author Dirk Bogarde. Though a colorful background and a remarkable talent elevated Bogarde to the status of one of Britian's most prolific actors, his phenomenally successful career is ultimately a testament to being in the right place at the right time. Born Derek van den Bogarde in Hampton, England, in 1921, Bogarde and brother Gareth spent much of their childhood in Sussex being raised by thier older sister Elizabeth and their beloved nanny Lally. Receiving his early education at Allen Glen's School in Glascow before attending University College in London, Bogarde went on to study commercial art at Chelsea Polytechnic before nurturing his inherited affection for acting. Though he initially met with some degree of disappointment, leading to his questioning a career as a thespian, Bogarde made his stage debut with the Amersham Repertory Company in 1939 at the age of 19, the same year he made his screen debut in a bit role in Come on George. The next year Bogarde began his career in the Queens Royal Regiment.Popular among his peers in the military, Bogarde (affectionately nicknamed "Pip") quickly rose through the ranks with his position in the Air Photographic Intelligence Unit and soon earned the rank of major. Serving in the war and stationed in the Far East, Bogarde foreshadowed his later success as a writer when a poem he had written titled Steel Cathedrals was published in 1943. Returning from the war as a successful veteran with seven medals, Bogarde would soon move from the nightmares of war to his childhood dreams of becoming a successful actor.Finding out the literal meaning of the phrase "timing is everything," Bogarde walked into the wrong room on his way to a BBC audition, a mistake that quickly landed him in the successful stage role that fueled the flames of his impending stardom. It was with Dancing With Crime (1947) that Bogarde began gaining consistent roles in film, two years before fatefully taking the lead in Wessex Films' Ester Waters after star Stewart Granger dropped the project. His successful turn in Waters prompted Wessex to offer Bogarde a lucrative 14-year contract during which Bogarde would appear in such memorable films as The Blue Lamp before his role as Doctor Simon Sparrow in Doctor in the House (1953) launched him to pin-up status among the hordes of nubile young women who flocked to the film and its numerous sequels. Though thankful for his status and grateful to the fans that had elevated him to the status of heartthrob, Bogarde felt he had outgrown the image that he had fallen into and began to seek more challenging roles in films that dealt with more sensitive subjects. Shattering England's taboos associated with its anti-sodomy laws and the stigma of homosexuality with his risky, typecast-shattering performance in Victim (1961), Bogarde's bold turn resulted in a maturing image for the actor. In 1963, Bogarde expanded his new image and began a successful working relationship with director Joseph Losey in the cutting study of the British class system, The Servant (1963) (a role that won him the British Academy's Best Actor award). Bogarde's roles in such Losey films as King and Country (1964) and Accident (1967), along with his role in John Schlesinger's Darling (1965) and later, 1974's The Night Porter, brought him the critical acclaim that cemented his status as one of Britian's most prolific and respected stars. In the late '60s Bogarde moved to Europe, opting for a career path outside of the English and American system before purchasing a farmhouse in Southern France in the 1970s.Pursuing childhood dreams of farming and writing for the next two decades, Bogarde chose his films roles carefully and infrequently in favor of a turn as a successful novelist. With seven best sellers and a seven-volume autobiography, Bogarde recalled his life and experiences in such works as Snakes and Ladders, and injected real-life experience into such vividly written novels as A Gentle Occupation. It was in France that Bogarde lived in a 15th century farmhouse with longtime friend and manager Tony Forwood, returning to London only after Forwood became stricken with cancer. Bogarde nursed him until his death in 1988 (a period Bogarde would sentimentally recall in his book A Short Walk From Harrods). A fervent supporter of rights regarding Euthanasia, Bogarde became vice-president of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society before making his final film appearance in 1990's Daddy Nostalgia. Suffering a severe stroke in 1996, Bogarde was partially paralyzed, spending the final years of his life in seclusion and requiring 24-hour nursing up to his death from a heart attack in 1999.

Trivia: London-born Dorothy Tutin went directly from the classrooms of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to her 1949 stage debut as Princess Margaret in The Thistle and the Rose. Tutin spent the next two seasons at the Old Vic, then scored a personal triumph in the 1953 Graham Greene play The Living Room. During her first flush of stardom, the petite, gaminelike actress was frequently compared to Broadway's Julie Harris; indeed, two of Ms. Tutin's best-known stage roles were Sally Bowles in I Am a Camera and Joan in The Lark, both of which had been introduced in America by Ms. Harris. Tutin's film work has included such parts as Cecily Cardew in The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) and Polly Peachum in The Beggar's Opera (1953); her co-star in the latter endeavor was Laurence Olivier, who in 1984 would play Lear opposite Tutin's Goneril in an internationally syndicated television production of King Lear. Tutin was also seen on TV as Anne Boleyn in 1971's Six Wives of Henry VIII, as Lady Fenton in the 1994 Gone With the Wind sequel Scarlet, and as star of the weekly British series Body and Soul. When not acting, Dorothy Tutin could often be found on the Continent, pursuing her hobby of mountain climbing.

Trivia: A British stage actor from 1933, Stephen Murray was seldom seen to best advantage in his film appearances. Making his movie debut in 1938 as a constable in Pygmalion, he went on to play more substantial roles like Gladstone in 1941's The Prime Minister and Dr. Manette in the 1958 version of A Tale of Two Cities. Otherwise, he was often wasted in such one-scene assignments as Lewis Carroll in the bizarre English-French production Alice in Wonderland (1951). Stephen Murray closed out his screen career in the 1960s, some two decades before his death.

Trivia: Sandpaper-voiced British character actor Cecil Parker was able to channel his stuffy, aristocratic demeanor into characters of both authority and menace. Kicking off his stage career after World War I, Parker made his stage bow in 1922 and his first film appearance seven years later. In his film roles, he was frequently addressed as "Colonel," "Your Majesty," or "Your Lordship," though these titles were not always an indication of his character's basic integrity. American filmgoers of the 1930s were most familiar with Parker's portrayal of the philandering, cowardly businessman in Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938). He played leads in such post-World War II films as Captain Boycott (1947), The Weaker Sex (1948), The Amazing Mr. Beecham (1949), Tony Draws a Horse (1950), and I Believe in You (1952). He also played such prominent supporting roles as Britannus in Caesar and Cleopatra (1946), the usurping king in Danny Kaye's The Court Jester (1956), Lord Loam in The Admirable Crichton (1957), and Jarvis Lorry in A Tale of Two Cities (1958). Cecil Parker's last film appearance was a comedy cameo in Oh, What a Lovely War (1969).

Trivia: British actress Athene Seyler began her career on-stage in 1908 and made her first silent film in the 1920s. Usually cast in comedies, Seyler's characters were notorious scene stealers. Toward the end of her career, she was designated a Commander of the British Empire. In 1944, she and co-writer Stephen Haggard published the still-popular guide The Craft of Comedy. Seyler died in 1990 at the age of 101.

Trivia: A respected character actor and occasional leading man of the stage, screen, and television, Scottish-born Ian Bannen acted in over 80 productions during his long career. Shortly after enrolling at Ratcliffe College, Bannen, who was born in Airdrie, Scotland, on June 29, 1918, made his first stage appearance at Dublin's Gate Theatre. A year after making his 1955 London theatrical debut, he entered films with A Private's Progress and Battle Hell. A prolific stage actor (with a special fondness for the works of Eugene O'Neill), Bannen nonetheless found time for quite a few impressive film characterizations. One of these, the cynical Crow in Flight of the Phoenix (1965), earned him an Academy Award nomination. His later screen assignments ranged from a cameo as a policeman in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982) to the irascible Grandfather George in John Boorman's Hope and Glory (1987) to a turn as Robert the Bruce's leprous father in Braveheart (1995). It was with the 1998 comedy Waking Ned Devine that Bannen earned some of his best notices, playing a loveably crafty Irishman. Sadly, Bannen's life was cut short the following year, as he died in an auto accident on November 3, 1999, near Loch Ness, Scotland. He was survived by his wife of 23 years, as well as a rich theatrical legacy that stretched over almost half a century.

Trivia: Cockney of birth and Cockney in nature, actor Alfie Bass made his first stage appearance in 1939, in the Unity Theatre production Plant in the Sun. Bass began acting before the camera in wartime British documentaries. While his stage career embraced Shakespeare and Shaw, Bass usually showed up in films as slang-spewing, pragmatic working class types. His movie credits include The Boys in Brown (1950) The Hasty Heart (1950), The Night My Number Came Up (1952), Help (1965), Alfie (1966), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) and Moonraker (1979). Alfie Bass was starred in the award-winning 1955 short subject The Bespoke Overcoat, and in 1967's The Fearless Vampire Killers he raised many a chuckle as the Jewish vampire who is impervious to the traditional crucifix.

Trivia: A one-time newspaper reporter, British actor Ernest Clark gave up the Fourth Estate when he joined a provincial repertory company. His London stage debut occurred in 1939, while he first appeared in films with 1949's Private Angelo. Clark generally appeared in small parts as narrow-minded clerks or heartless officials: his more popular films include The Dam Busters (1955), A Tale of Two Cities (1957), Sink the Bismarck (1960), Arabesque (1966) and Gandhi (1982). Ernest Clark achieved some American fame in the early '70s with his role as humorless anatomy professor Loftus on the British comedy series Doctor in the House.

Trivia: On stage since age 17, British actress Rosalie Crutchley established her predilection for gloomy, tragic roles early on. She set a precedent for her film career by being killed off halfway through her first film Take My Life (1948). Slight, dark and sharp-featured, Rosalie found herself typed as mystery women, wronged wives and sinister housekeepers; among her best film assignments were A Tale of Two Cities (1958) (as Madame LeFarge), and The Return (1974). Like many "pigeonholed" film actors and actresses, Rosalie Crutchley enjoyed a wider range of roles on stage and in TV.

Trivia: Educated at the University of England at Nottingham, Freda Jackson made her professional stage bow in 1934. In films, Jackson cornered the market in spiteful (or at the very least, disgruntled) middle-aged shrews. She played such well-known literary harpies as Mistress Quickly in Henry V (1944), Mrs. Joe Gargery in Great Expectations (1947), and "Vengeance" in Tale of Two Cities (1958). Freda Jackson's final film was Clash of the Titans (1981), in which she played three blind witches.

Trivia: Though born in Portugal, Duncan Lamont was a bone-bred Scotsman; and though a Scotsman, he effectively curbed his burr to appear in British films. After considerable stage experience, Lamont inaugurated his movie career during World War II. His resumé includes such popular United Kingdom efforts as The Man in the White Suit (1954) as well as such internationally produced films as Ben Hur (1959), in which he was featured in the role of Marius. Lovers of swashbucklers have reserved a special place in their hearts for Duncan Lamont's portrayal of Count William De la Marck, "The Wild Boar of Ardennes", in 1955's Quentin Durward.

Trivia: After several years in secondary film roles, the skeletal, menacing Christopher Lee achieved horror-flick stardom as the Monster in 1958's The Curse of Frankenstein, the second of his 21 Hammer Studios films. Contrary to popular belief, Lee and Peter Cushing did not first appear together in The Curse of Frankenstein. In Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948), in which Cushing plays the minor role of Osric, Lee appears as the cadaverous candle-bearer in the "frighted with false fires" scene, one of his first film roles. In 1958, Lee made his inaugural appearance as "the Count" in The Horror of Dracula, with Cushing as Van Helsing. It would remain the favorite of Lee's Dracula films; the actor later noted that he was grateful to be allowed to convey "the sadness of the character. The terrible sentence, the doom of immortality...."Three years after Curse, Lee added another legendary figure to his gallery of characters: Sherlock Holmes, the protagonist of Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes. With the release eight years later of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Lee became the first actor ever to portray both Holmes and Holmes' brother, Mycroft, onscreen. Other Lee roles of note include the title characters in 1959's The Mummy and the Fu Manchu series of the '60s, and the villainous Scaramanga in the 1974 James Bond effort The Man With the Golden Gun. In one brilliant casting coup, the actor was co-starred with fellow movie bogeymen Cushing, Vincent Price, and John Carradine in the otherwise unmemorable House of Long Shadows (1982). Established as a legend in his own right, Lee continued working steadily throughout the '80s and '90s, appearing in films ranging from Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) to Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow (1999).In 2001, after appearing in nearly 300 film and television productions and being listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the international star with the most screen credits to his name, the 79-year-old actor undertook the role of Saruman, chief of all wizards, in director Peter Jackson's eagerly anticipated screen adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Thought by many to be the millennial predecessor to George Lucas' Star Wars franchise, audiences thrilled to the wondrous battle between Saruman and Gandalf (Ian McKellen) atop the wizard's ominous tower, though Lee didn't play favorites between the franchises when Lucas shot back with the continuing saga of Anakin Skywalker's journey to the dark side in mid-2002. Wielding a lightsaber against one of the most powerful adversaries in the Star Wars canon, Lee proved that even at 80 he still had what it takes to be a compelling and demanding screen presence. He lent his vocal talents to Tim Burton's Corpse Bride in 2005, and appeared as the father of Willy Wonka in the same director's adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic. He appeared as Count Dooku in Revenge of the Sith, and voiced the part for the animated Clone Wars. He appeared in the quirky British film Burke & Hare in 2010, and the next year he could be seen Martin Scorsese's Hugo. In 2012 he teamed with Tim Burton yet again when he appeared in the big-screen adaptation of Dark Shadows.Now nearly into 90s, Lee returned to Middle Earth in 2012 with Jackson's Hobbit trilogy, appearing in the first (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey) and third (The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies) films. He also reprised the role in a number of video games based on the two series. Lee was still actively working when he died in 2015, at age 93.

Trivia: Jowly, curmudgeonly Australian actor Leo McKern was seen in over 200 stage productions during his five-decade career. After several comic-villain film assignments, McKern briefly became an icon of the Swingin' '60s with his portrayal of the blustering cult leader in the Beatles' Help (1965). He has since been seen as Cromwell in A Man For All Seasons (1966), as Professor Moriarty in Gene Wilder's The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1986), and as a pigheaded ex-communist civil engineer in Travelling North (1986), a role which won him several industry awards. In the late 1970s, Leo McKern scored an enormous hit as the title character in the British TV series Rumpole of the Bailey, which ran off and on from 1977 through 1992. Rumpole has been both bogy and blessing to McKern, as he revealed to Vanity Fair magazine in 1995: "I consider that my best performance ever was as Peer Gynt. But if I get an obit in the London Times, they will say, '...of course, known to millions as Rumpole.'"

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: In 1938, Viennese-born character actor Eric Pohlmann left Austria and relocated in England where he launched his film career. Gaining pride of place after World War II, he played dozens of criminal masterminds, enemy spies and corpulent Arab sheiks. Pohlmann was also an expert at portraying self-indulgent royalty: he was seen as George I in Rob Roy (1954) and George III in John Paul Jones (1959). When he wasn't playing a villain, he could often be found as an excitable Italian, notably as the Mayor in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965). Towards the end of his life, Eric Pohlmann returned to his roots, appearing in several Austrian and German productions.

Trivia: Ralph Thomas -- elder brother of director Gerald Thomas -- was educated at Middlesex University College and entered the movie industry as a clapper boy in 1932. By 1934, he had advanced to assistant editor but gave up the picture business to pursue a career in journalism that lasted until World War II, during which he served with the Ninth Lancers. After World War II, he returned to motion pictures as the head of the trailer department for the Rank Organisation. He became a director soon after, and established himself as an efficient and occasionally inspired filmmaker whose best work cut across genres -- among his finest films is the Hitchcockian thriller The Clouded Yellow (1951), which in many ways anticipated the plot line of the television series The Equalizer, with Trevor Howard portraying a former British intelligence agent forced out of the service for some unknown indiscretion, who hires himself out as an assistant to a scientist, only to find himself helping the man's niece (Jean Simmons) flee the police from a murder charge, using his former agent's skills to help them both elude capture. He found even greater success, however, as a maker of comedies, most notably the Doctor in the House series starring Dirk Bogarde, beginning with the film of that title in 1954 and continuing through three more films (with Michael Craig taking over Bogarde's part). Thomas also distinguished himself as an action film director with Above Us the Waves, a re-enactment of an actual World War II British sabotage mission against the German battleship Tirpitz, starring John Mills. At the end of the '50s, he also directed respectable if unexceptional remakes of two '30s film classics, A Tale of Two Cities starring Bogarde, and The Thirty-Nine Steps with Kenneth More. During the '60s, Thomas also tried his hand successfully at topical filmmaking (The High Bright Sun aka McGuire Go Home, about the strife on the island of Cyprus) and even entered the James Bond-based spy thriller fray late in the '60s with two modern-day Bulldog Drummond adaptations, Deadlier Than the Male and Some Girls Do, both starring Richard Johnson as the updated Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond. His 1971 science fiction film Quest for Love, based on a short story by John Wyndham (best remembered as the author of Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos, both of which were made into major science fiction movies), about a scientist who passes between two parallel Earths, was one of the most intelligent films in its genre at the time, and also features one of the finest performances ever given by Joan Collins. Alas, Thomas' career slowed down drastically following his unsuccessful sex satire Percy (1970), about the world's first penis transplant (a film best remembered today for having been scored by Ray Davies and the Kinks) and its even more dire sequel, Percy's Progress.