Trivia: Known mostly for portraying Agatha Christie's Belgian detective Hercule Poirot for more than a decade, the short and stocky character actor David Suchet has also enjoyed a lengthy career on stage, screen, and television. Born in London, he studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and eventually joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. Throughout the 1970s, Suchet appeared in numerous stage productions and crime dramas on British television. His did his first film in 1980 with A Tale of Two Cities, but didn't play his first detective until the crime comedy Trenchcoat in 1983. For the rest of the '80s, the British actor played a Middle Eastern terrorist in The Little Drummer Girl, a Russian operative in The Falcon and the Snowman, and a French hunter in Harry and the Hendersons. He also occasionally portrayed real-life figures, including Sigmund Freud in the miniseries Freud, news reporter William L. Shirer in the HBO docudrama Murrow, and movie legend Louis B. Mayer in RKO 281. While the Poirot mysteries would dominate his career in the '90s, Suchet also played some other leading roles: double agent Verloc in miniseries The Secret Agent, based on the novel by Joseph Conrad; Aaron in the TNT television special Moses; and downsized New Yorker Oliver in the American independent film Sunday. Some standard Hollywood action thrillers followed with Executive Decision, Deadly Voyage, and A Perfect Murder being just a few. After 2000, he turned to costume dramas to play Napoleon in Sabotage!, Baron von Stockmar in Victoria & Albert, and upper-crust Augustus Melmotte in The Way We Live Now. He resumed the role of Poirot (after a short break from 1998-1999) just as he started up another detective character, DI John Borne of NCS: Manhunt and NCS 2. In 2003, he played gangster Leo Gillette in the action thriller Foolproof.

Trivia: Appeared in A-Ha's "Take On Me" video in 1985. In 1998, nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award for his role in Little Voice. Appeared as Chief Inspector Japp in the television adaptation of Poirot between 1989 and 2013. Starred as Willy Loman in the West Yorkshire Playhouse's 2010 production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. As of 2018, has starred as Jaz Milvane in long-running BBC Radio 4 series Ed Reardon's Week since its 2005 debut.

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: Is distantly related to both Jane Austen and Lord Byron. Great-great grandfather was H.H. Asquith, former Prime Minister, making her a second cousin, once removed of Helena Bonham Carter. Left the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts when she became pregnant with her daughter Poppy. In 1988, shocked TV hosts Richard and Judy, the audience and ITV bosses when she said the 'f' word while being interviewed. Met cameraman ex-husband Nigel Willoughby while filming for a beer advert in 1993. Met husband Redha Debbah when he was working as a taxi driver and took her to the West End while she was performing in The Real Inspector Hound in 1998. While appearing in an off-Broadway production of Creditors in New York in 2010, became stricken with a case of viral meningitis and had to be rushed to the hospital by the play's director, Alan Rickman. In 2013, won a nomination for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress for her performance in Private Lives. Patron of the London childen's charity, Scene and Heard.

Trivia: Though his name has never become a household word, distinguished English character actor David De Keyser boasts one impressive resumé. Adventurous filmgoers will doubtless recall De Keyser as one of the three contributors (alongside Miranda Richardson and Mike Nichols) to David Hare's riveting "filmed theater" piece The Designated Mourner (1997), but even the most diligent cinephiles may be surprised to discover that De Keyser's work stretches back several decades prior to this. The thespian actually racked up an overwhelming litany of roles in well-respected, A-list features during the late '60s, '70s, '80s, and '90s, typically playing colorful British or Jewish eccentrics. Throughout, De Keyser imbued his characterizations with multifaceted emotional and tonal nuances that more than rivaled the contributions of his onscreen contemporaries. Born in London, England, in 1927, De Keyser first attained recognition when he paired up twice with controversial filmmaker John Boorman, first as Zissell in that director's eccentric 1965 cinematic debut, Having a Wild Weekend (the Hard Day's Night-like screen venture of the Dave Clark Five), then as David in Boorman's failed, seriocomic social allegory Leo the Last (1970), alongside Marcello Mastroianni. De Keyser then contributed supporting roles to three key (albeit wildly different) British films of the '70s: he played physicians in Sean Connery's penultimate James Bond vehicle, Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Melvin Frank's sleeper romance A Touch of Class (1973), and essayed the role of Joseph Schenck in Ken Russell's opulent, erotic period piece Valentino (1977), alongside Rudolf Nureyev and Leslie Caron. The '80s marked a less active but equally relevant time for De Keyser -- relevant because while his roles grew more infrequent, they were typically parts of greater critical estimation -- such as Rabbi Zalman in Barbra Streisand's underrated musical Yentl (1983) and Janet Suzman's father in Euzhan Palcy's apartheid drama A Dry White Season (1993). As indicated, however, De Keyser didn't really receive full audience recognition until Mourner in 1997. In that film -- a series of enigmatic, elliptical theater monologues written by Wallace Shawn and delivered straight into the camera -- the actor portrays Howard, a dissident poet at odds with the oppressive political regime that holds power, and the father-in-law of Mike Nichols' loveless egoist Jack. De Keyser's next major role arrived when he signed on to portray Emmanuel, the patriarch of the Sonnenschein clan of Hungarian Jews, in István Szabó's three-hour historical epic Sunshine (1999). De Keyser then lent a supporting role (as Dom André) to Norman Jewison's fine, overlooked political thriller The Statement (2003). David De Keyser is the father of the late actor Alexei de Keyser, who died in 2004.

Trivia: Made his television debut in 1962, as Billy Broadbent In Bulldog Breed. Performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company between 1997 and 2000. Appeared as William in the 2009 BBC remake of Reggie Perrin between 2009 and 2010. Joined the cast of Not Going Out in 2011, taking over the role of Geoffrey Adams. As of 2019, has starred as Mr. Newbold in Still Open All Hours since 2015.

Trivia: A member of the BBC's repertory company in the 1940s, British character actor Preston Lockwood spent the bulk of his career on stage and only sporadically ventured into feature films. He made his film debut in David Lean's version of Great Expectations (1946) but did not appear in another film until 1970 when he portrayed Trebonius in Julius Caesar. Other film credits include Time Bandits (1981) and At Bertram's Hotel (1986). On television, he was a semi-regular on the mid-'80s series Tenko: he also appeared on Miss Marple and The Vicar of Dibley. Lockwood passed away in the actors' benevolent home, Denville Hall in Middlesex, England on April 24, 1996.