Trivia: Irish-born Stephen Boyd was performing on stage since his preteen years. Migrating to Canada in the 1940s, Boyd acted in stock and on radio on both sides of the U.S./Canada border. After several lean years, Boyd got his movie break in the 1955 British comedy An Alligator Named Daisy. His powerful portrayal of the treacherous Messala in 1959's Ben-Hur proved to be Boyd's career peak. Few of his subsequent movie assignments came within shouting distance of Messala. Cast as Marc Antony in 1963's Cleopatra, Boyd was forced by prior commitments to defer the role to Richard Burton; and though top-billed in 1966's Fantastic Voyage, Boyd was compelled to play second fiddle to the film's remarkable special effects. In 1977, Stephen Boyd suffered a fatal heart attack while playing golf.

Trivia: Crusty, craggy British leading man Jack Hawkins began as a child actor, studying at the Italia Court School of Acting. After his first film, 1930's Birds of Prey, Hawkins languished for several years in secondary roles before achieving minor stardom by the end of the '30s. During the war, Hawkins was a colonel in ENSA, the British equivalent of the USO. He became a major movie "name" in the postwar era, often as coolly efficient military officers in such films as The Cruel Sea (1953), Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), The League of Gentlemen (1961), and Lawrence of Arabia (1962, as General Allenby). He was considered an Academy Award shoe-in for his portrayal of Quintus Arrius in 1959's Ben-Hur, but the "Best Supporting Actor Oscar" went to another actor in that blockbuster, Hugh Griffith. Around this same time, Hawkins was one of four rotating stars in the J. Arthur Rank-produced TV series The Four Just Men; the other three were Vittorio de Sica, Dan Dailey and Richard Conte. In 1966, Hawkins underwent an operation for cancer of the larynx. Though the operation cost him his voice, publicity releases indicated that Hawkins was training himself to talk again with an artificial device -- and also that he defiantly continued chain-smoking. Hawkins remained in films until his death, but his dialogue had to be dubbed by others. In his next-to-last film Theatre of Blood (1973), he was effectively cast in a substantial role that required no dialogue whatsoever -- something that the viewer realizes only in retrospect. Ironically, Hawkins' biography was titled Anything for a Quiet Life. Jack Hawkins was married twice, to actresses Jessica Tandy and Doreen Lawrence.

Trivia: One of England's most respected actors and directors, Sir Richard Attenborough made numerous contributions to world cinema both in front of and behind the camera. The son of a Cambridge school administrator, Attenborough began dabbling in theatricals at the age of 12. While attending London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1941, he turned professional, making his first stage appearance in a production of Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! He made his screen debut as the Young Sailor in Noel Coward and David Lean's In Which We Serve (1943), before achieving his first significant West End success as the punkish, cowardly, petty criminal Pinkie Brown in Brighton Rock. After three years of service with the Royal Air Force, Attenborough rose to film stardom in the 1947 film version of Brighton Rock -- a role that caused him to be typecast as a working-class misfit over the next few years. One of the best of his characterizations in this vein can be found in The Guinea Pig (1948), in which the 26-year-old Attenborough was wholly credible as a 13-year-old schoolboy. As the '50s progressed, he was permitted a wider range of characters in such films as The Magic Box (1951), The Ship That Died of Shame (1955), and Private's Progress (1956). In 1959, he teamed up with director Bryan Forbes to form Beaver Films. Before the partnership dissolved in 1964, Attenborough had played such sharply etched personalities as Tom Curtis in The Angry Silence (1960) and Bill Savage in Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964); he also served as producer for the Forbes-directed Whistle Down the Wind (1962) and The L-Shaped Room (1962). During the '60s, Attenborough exhibited a fondness for military roles: POW mastermind Bartlett in The Great Escape (1963); hotheaded ship's engineer Frenchy Burgoyne in The Sand Pebbles (1966); and Sgt. Major Lauderdale in Guns at Batasi (1964), the performance that won him a British Academy Award. He also played an extended cameo in Doctor Dolittle (1967), and sang "I've Never Seen Anything Like It in My Life," a paean to the amazing Pushmi-Pullyu. This boisterous musical performance may well have been a warm-up for Attenborough's film directorial debut, the satirical anti-war revue Oh, What a Lovely War (1969). He subsequently helmed the historical epics Young Winston (1972) and A Bridge Too Far (1977), then scaled down his technique for the psychological thriller Magic (1978), which starred his favorite leading man, Anthony Hopkins. With more and more of his time consumed by his directing activities, Attenborough found fewer opportunities to act. One of his best performances in the '70s was as the eerily "normal" real-life serial killer Christie in 10 Rillington Place (1971). In 1982, Attenborough brought a 20-year dream to fruition when he directed the spectacular biopic Gandhi. The film won a raft of Oscars, including a Best Director statuette for Attenborough; he was also honored with Golden Globe and Director's Guild awards, and, that same year, published his book In Search of Gandhi, another product of his fascination with the Indian leader. All of Attenborough's post-Gandhi projects were laudably ambitious, though none reached the same pinnacle of success. Some of the best of his latter-day directorial efforts were Cry Freedom, a 1987 depiction of the horrors of apartheid; 1992's Chaplin, an epic biopic of the great comedian; and Shadowlands (1993), starring Anthony Hopkins as spiritually motivated author C.S. Lewis. Attenborough returned to the screen during the '90s, acting in avuncular character roles, the most popular of which was the affable but woefully misguided billionaire entrepreneur John Hammond in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993), a role he reprised for the film's 1997 sequel. Other notable performances included the jovial Kriss Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street (1994) and Sir William Cecil in Elizabeth (1998). The brother of naturalist David Attenborough and husband of actress Sheila Sim, he was knighted in 1976 and became a life peer in 1993. Attenborough has chaired dozens of professional organizations and worked tirelessly on behalf of Britain's Muscular Dystrophy Campaign.In 1998 the venerable screen legend has a small part in the Oscar-nominated Elizabeth, and in 1999 he directed Grey Owl. Then, in 2007, at the age of 84 he directed the seeping World War II epic romance Closing the Ring with a stellar cast that included Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer, Brenda Fricker, and Pete Postlethwaite. In 2008, he suffered several health setbacks and retired from filmmaking. He died in 2014, just before his 91st birthday.

Trivia: Pamela Franklin was born in Japan, where her British father was a busy importer/exporter. Spending her early years in several Far East ports of call, Franklin was bundled off to England to study at the Elmhurst School of Ballet. At age 11, she made her motion-picture bow as the enigmatic "possessed" child, Flora, in 1961's The Innocents. Her American TV debut occurred in the 1963 Wonderful World of Disney two-parter "The Horse Without a Head." There was nothing Disneyesque about Franklin's portrayals of teen murderesses in both 1964's The Third Secret and 1965's Our Mother's House. Her first grown-up role (near-nude scene and all) was as the kidnap victim in Night of the Following Day (1969), but she was back to adolescents in Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) as the rebellious, sexually inquisitive private-school student Sandy. Though still active in TV, Pamela Franklin made her last film in 1976.

Trivia: The daughter of prominent tropical-medicine authority Sir Ralph West Cilento and equally famous gynecologist Lady Cilento, Diane Cilento studied acting in London and New York. She made her first film, Wings of Danger, in 1952, and made his stage debut the following year. Among her more memorable films were The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp (1955), The Admirable Crichton (1957, retitled Paradise Lagoon in the U.S.), The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965), and Tom Jones (1963), in which she was Oscar-nominated for her portrayal of Tom's sluttish, mud-stained lady friend Molly Seagrim. In recent years, Diane has taken occasional breaks from her film and stage work to pen a brace of successful novels. Married to Sean Connery from 1962 to 1973, Diane Cilento is the mother of actor Jason Connery.

Trivia: Trained at the Chekhov Theater School, British actor Paul Rogers entered films on a small-time basis in 1932. Rogers' "real" career began when he made his London stage debut in 1938. Following World War II service in the Royal Navy, Rogers established himself as a versatile Shakespearean actor, playing everything from Hamlet to Bottom. A frequent visitor to Broadway, he won a Tony award in 1967 for his performance in The Homecoming. His film roles include William Pitt in Beau Brummel (1954), Irish journalist Frank Harris in Trial of Oscar Wilde (1960) and Lt. Ratcliffe in Billy Budd. In 1987, Paul Rogers starred on the British TV series Portherhouse Blue.

Trivia: British character actor.

Trivia: Rachel Kempson began her acting career playing a supporting role in Girl in Distress (1942). In 1955, she left acting until 1963 when she reappeared in Tom Jones. Kempson was married to the late Michael Redgrave and is the mother of distinguished actors Vanessa, Lynn, and Corin Redgrave.

Trivia: Timid-looking British character actor, onscreen from 1952 and best-known for voicing Wallace in the Wallace & Gromit films and starring in the long-running British series Last of the Summer Wine. Sallis died in 2017, at age 96.

Trivia: British lead/character actress Patience Collier appeared in many productions by the Royal Shakespeare Company and in the British National Theatre, on television and in scores of radio shows. In film she is best remembered for her deliciously wicked portrayal of Mrs. Poulteney in The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981).

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: One of Britain's most respected and popular actresses, Judi Dench can claim a decades-old career encompassing the stage, screen, and television. A five-time winner of the British Academy Award, she was granted an Order of the British Empire in 1970 and made a Dame of the British Empire in 1988.Born in York, England, on December 9, 1934, Dench made her stage debut as a snail in a junior school production. After attending art school, she studied acting at London's Central School of Speech and Drama. In 1957, she made her professional stage debut as Ophelia in the Old Vic's Liverpool production of Hamlet. A prolific stage career followed, with seasons spent performing with the likes of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Dench broke into film in 1964 with a supporting role in The Third Secret. The following year, she won her first BAFTA, a Most Promising Newcomer honor for her work in Four in the Morning. Although she continued to work in film, Dench earned most of her recognition and acclaim for her stage work. Occasionally, she brought her stage roles to the screen in such film adaptations as A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968) and Macbeth (1978), in which she was Lady Macbeth to Ian McKellen's tormented king. It was not until the mid-'80s that Dench began to make her name known to an international film audience. In 1986, she had a memorable turn as a meddlesome romance author in A Room with a View, earning a Best Supporting Actress BAFTA for her tart portrayal. Two years later, she won the same award for her work in another period drama, A Handful of Dust.After her supporting role as Mistress Quickly in Kenneth Branagh's acclaimed 1989 adaptation of Henry V, Dench exchanged the past for the present with her thoroughly modern role as M in GoldenEye (1995), the first of the Pierce Brosnan series of James Bond films. She portrayed the character for the subsequent Brosnan 007 films, lending flinty elegance to what had traditionally been a male role. The part of M had the advantage of introducing Dench to an audience unfamiliar with her work, and in 1997 she earned further international recognition, as well as an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe award, for her portrayal of Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown.While her screen career had taken on an increasingly high-profile nature, Dench continued to act on both television and the stage. In the former medium, she endeared herself to viewers with her work in such series as A Fine Romance (in which she starred opposite real-life husband Michael Williams) and As Time Goes By. On the stage, Dench made history in 1996, becoming the first performer to win two Olivier Awards for two different roles in the same year. In 1998, Dench won an Oscar, garnering Best Supporting Actress honors for her eight-minute appearance as Queen Elizabeth in the acclaimed Shakespeare in Love. Her win resulted in the kind of media adulation usually afforded to actresses one-third her age. Dench continued to reap both acclaim and new fans with her work in Tea with Mussolini and another Bond film, The World is Not Enough. For her role as a talented British writer struggling with Alzheimer's disease in Iris (2001), Dench earned her third Oscar nomination. Sadly, that same year Dench's husband died of lung cancer at the age of 66.The prophetic artist continued to act in several films a year, wowing audiences with contemporary dramas like 2001's The Shipping News and period pieces like 2002's Oscar Wilde comedy The Importance of Being Earnest. She reprised the role of M again that same year for Brosnan's last Bond film Die Another Day, before appearing in projects in 2004 and 2005 such as The Chronicles of Riddick, Pride & Prejudice, and an Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated performance as a wealthy widow who shocks 1930s audiences by backing a burlesque show in Mrs. Henderson Presents. In 2006, she followed the Bond franchise into a new era, maintaining her hold on the role of M as Brosnan retired from playing the title character and Daniel Craig took over. Casino Royale was the first Bond movie to be based on an original Ian Fleming 007 novel in 30 years, and it was a great success. In 2008, Dench rejoined the Bond franchise for Quantum of Solace.Dench shared the screen with Cate Blanchett for the critical smash Notes on a Scandal (2006). The film's emotional themes ran the gamut from possession and desire to loathing and disgust, and Dench rose to the challenge with her usual strength and grace, earning her a sixth Oscar nomination and seventh Golden Globe nomination.Dench joined the cast of 2011's Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides, as well as taking on the pivotal role of Mrs. Fairfax in Cary Fukunaga's adaptation of Jane Eyre. The actress also joined Leonardo DiCaprio to play the intimidating mother of J. Edgar Hoover in J. Edgar (2011). In 2012, Dench starred alongside fellow film great Maggie Smith in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a compassionate comedy-drama following a group of senior citizens' experience with a unique retirement program in India.

Trivia: British actor Peter Copley made his reputation as a stage performer, debuting in 1932 after dropping plans for a career in the navy. Balding, slightly withered and usually sporting glasses, he could be seen picking up an occasional paycheck in films. Copley made his first screen appearance in 1934, and in the years after the war settled into roles calling for everything from disgruntled meekness to downright villainy. Many of his films were readily available for American audiences in the early days of television. Among Copley's British-made films given wide U.S. distribution were The Golden Salamander (1949), Foreign Intrigue (1956), Victim (1961), The Knack and How to Get It (1966) and Jane Eyre (1971). Offscreen, Peter Copley was an sharp-witted law expert and part-time attorney who successfully handled several court cases in the '60s.

Trivia: A character player even in youth, British actor Nigel Davenport spent nearly fifty years in briskly businesslike stage, screen and TV roles. He made his film debut as the police sergeant in Michael Powell's notorious Peeping Tom (1959). Among his many colorful screen characterizations were the Duke of Norfolk in A Man For All Seasons (1966), Bothwell in Mary Queen of Scots (1971), Van Helsing in the 1973 Frank Langella version of Dracula and Lord Birkenbed in the Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire. Nigel Davenport's TV credits include the miniseries Prince Regent (1979, as King George III), and Masada (1981). Towards the end of his career, he made appearances in popular British TV series such as Keeping Up Appearances and Midsomer Murders, and played Dan Peggotty in a TV movie version of David Copperfield (2000). Davenport died in 2013 at age 85.

Trivia: American supporting actor of British stage and TV. He married Avril Eiger.

Trivia: A tall, rail-thin, charming British actress, she began training for the stage at age 15, and made her professional debut at 16. After joining the Old Vic Company under the direction of Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson, she rose to prominence in the late '40s; over the next decade she became a highly respected actress for her work in both London and Broadway, typically portraying fragile, neurotic women. For her performances in the Broadway plays Separate Tables (1956) and The Night of the Iguana (1962) she won Tony Awards. Onscreen from the late '40s, she appeared in numerous films over nearly three decades. For her work in The Go-Between (1971) she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. She was married to publisher Max Reinhardt, actor Laurence Harvey, and actor Michael Wilding. She died of multiple sclerosis at 53.