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Ava Lavina Gardner was born on December 24, 1922 in Grabtown, North Carolina, to Mary Elizabeth (née Baker) and Jonas Bailey Gardner. Born on a tobacco farm, where she got her lifelong love of earthy language and going barefoot, Ava grew up in the rural South. At age 18, her picture in the window of her brother-in- law's New York photo studio brought her to the attention of MGM, leading quickly to Hollywood and a film contract based strictly on her beauty. With zero acting experience, her first 17 film roles, 1942-1945, were one-line bits or little better. After her first starring role in B-grade Whistle Stop (1946), MGM loaned her to Universal for her first outstanding film The Killers (1946). Few of her best films were made at MGM which, keeping her under contract for 17 years, used her popularity to sell many mediocre films. Perhaps as a result, she never believed in her own acting ability, but her latent talent shone brightly when brought out by a superior director, as with John Ford in Mogambo (1953) and George Cukor in Bhowani Junction (1956).

After three failed marriages, dissatisfaction with Hollywood life prompted Ava to move to Spain in 1955; most of her subsequent films were made abroad. By this time, stardom had made the country girl a cosmopolitan, but she never overcame a deep insecurity about acting and life in the spotlight. Her last quality starring film role was in The Night of the Iguana (1964), her later work being (as she said) strictly "for the loot". In 1968, tax trouble in Spain prompted a move to London, where she spent her last 22 years in reasonable comfort. Her film career did not bring her great fulfillment, but her looks may have made it inevitable; many fans still consider her the most beautiful actress in Hollywood history. Ava Gardner died at age 67 of bronchial pneumonia on January 25, 1990 in Westminister, London, England.

Alan Bates decided to be an actor at age 11. After grammar school in Derbyshire, he earned a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Following two years in the Royal Air Force, he joined the new English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre. His West End debut in 1956, at 22, was also the company's first production. In the same year Bates appeared in John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger," a play that gave a name to a generation of postwar "angry young men." It made Bates a star and launched a lifetime of his performing in works written by great modern playwrights -- Harold Pinter, Simon Gray, Storey, Bennett, Peter Shaffer and Tom Stoppard (as well as such classic playwrights as Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg and William Shakespeare). Four years later Bates appeared in his first film, a classic: The Entertainer (1960), in which he plays one of Laurence Olivier's sons. More than 50 film roles have followed, one of which, The Fixer (1968) (from a novel by Bernard Malamud) earned an Academy Award nomination for Bates. He married Victoria Ward in 1970. Their twin sons, Benedick and Tristan, were born in 1971. Tristan died during an asthma attack in 1990; Ward died in 1992. Bates threw himself into his work to get through these tragedies, and spoke movingly about the effects of his losses in interviews. He was the Patron of the Actors Centre in Covent Garden, London; Bates and his family endowed a theatre there in memory of Tristan Bates, who, like his father and brother, was an actor. With few exceptions, Bates performed in premium works, guided by intuition rather than by box office. For each role he created a three-dimensional, unique person; there is no stereotypical Alan Bates character. Women appreciate the sensitivity he brought to his romantic roles; gay fans appreciate his well-rounded, unstereotyped gay characters; and the intelligence, humor and detail - the smile that started in the eyes, the extra pat or squeeze, the subtle nuances he gave to his lines, his beautiful, flexible voice - are Bates hallmarks that made him special to all his admirers. The rumpled charm of his youth weathered into a softer but still attractive (and still rumpled) maturity. In his 60s Alan Bates continued to divide his time among films, theatre and television. His 1997 stage portrayal of a travel writer facing life's big questions at the bedside of his comatose wife in Simon Gray's "Life Support" was called "a magnificent performance, one of the finest of his career" (Charles Spencer, Sunday Telegraph, 10 August 97). His last two roles in New York earned critical praise and all the Best Actor awards Broadway can bestow. He was knighted in January 2003, and only a few weeks later began treatment for pancreatic cancer. He was positive that he would beat the disease, and continued to work during its course, only admitting to being "a bit tired." His courage and strength were remarkable, and even in his final days his humor remained intact. After his death, there was an outpouring of affection and respect. As Ken Russell said in his Evening Standard tribute, "The airwaves have been heavy with unstinted praise for Alan Bates since his untimely death . . . All the tributes were more than justified for one of the great actors ever to grace the screen and stage."

David Tomlinson is best known for his role as George Banks in Walt Disney's Mary Poppins (1964). As a youth he spent a short spell in the guards. He joined the RAF in WW2 where he survived the trauma of a plane crash on his first solo flight due to engine failure, then becoming a flying instructor for the remainder of the war. He began his film career in the pre-war British film Quiet Wedding (1941) and followed that with Leslie Howard's 'Pimpernel' Smith (1941). Altogether he has made over 50 films and on stage he has had long-running successes in many plays including "The Little Hut" with Robert Morley and Roger Moore as his understudy. During the 1930s he understudied Alec Guinness. By the time he went to Hollywood to make Mary Poppins (1964) he was a veteran film and stage actor. David returned to Disney to great success in The Love Bug (1969) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). David was close friends with Errol Flynn, Robert Morley and Peter Sellers. He also spent time with Walt Disney whilst they discussed his role in Mary Poppins (1964). He retired in the early 1980s after an exemplary career on film and stage, and will always be remembered as one of the centuries greatest character actors.

Lynda Bellingham played many roles during her five-decade professional career, but became synonymous with one. "Being a mum making gravy was not quite how I had seen my career advancing," she said once. But between 1983 and 1999 that's what she did in 42 "episodes" of an award-winning TV ad. Since the early 1980s, her name was rarely mentioned in print without it being prefaced with "Oxo mum".

During her career, though, she starred on TV as the vet's wife Helen Herriot in All Creatures Great and Small in the 80s and as one of two divorcees trying to forge a relationship in the 90s sitcom Second Thoughts, opposite James Bolam. On stage she was best known for playing the lead in a touring production of Calendar Girls between 2008 and 2012. She was also, for four years between 2007 and 2011, a regular member of the team on Loose Women, the daytime TV chat show. She had few regrets about how her career turned out, summarizing its trajectory thus on her website: "Arrived in London at the Central School [for Speech and Drama] in 1966 and never looked back. I had a ball!"

Bellingham, though, knew that gravy, like Lady Macbeth's damned spot, left an indelible mark. "In many ways I was very proud of what we did, but there is no doubt that my credibility as an actress was knocked," she reflected. "Certain people in the industry would never employ me as a serious actress after it. On the other hand, it gave me the financial security to go off and work in the theatre for very little money." Her performances as Mrs Oxo were reportedly responsible for a 10% increase in stock cube sales.

But being typecast in the role of, as she put it in her autobiography, "the nation's favorite mum", wasn't the only reason she missed out on roles that could have sent her career in a different direction. Her friend the writer Lynda La Plante once rang to ask her if she was interested in playing a detective for television. Too busy with sitcom and advertising jobs, she turned down the chance to play DI Jane Tennison, later taken by Helen Mirren. Bellingham used her autobiography, Lost and Found (2010), to complain about the fact that she was never allowed to reprise her 1986 role as a time lord on Doctor Who during its revival under Russell T Davies.

She was born Meredith Lee Hughes in Montreal, Quebec. Her Canadian birth mother, Marjorie Hughes, gave her daughter up for adoption to an English couple. Her biological father, Carl Hutton, was a crewman whom Marjorie met on board ship as she sailed from Canada to New Zealand to meet the parents of her husband, a pilot who was missing in action during the second world war.

Her adoptive parents, Don and Ruth Bellingham, had been staying in Canada, where Don was training pilots for the British Overseas Airways Corporation. The couple returned to the UK and raised the girl they called Lynda on their farm near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, with their two biological daughters, Barbara and Jean. Lynda found out she was adopted only when she was in her teens. She recalled the revelation in her autobiography: "One day, when I skipped school to go to the pictures, my mother blurted out: 'The trouble is, Lynda, we just don't know who you are any more. God knows where you come from. We'll never know. We've dreaded this moment.'" In 1990, she met her birth mother in Canada and they stayed in touch until Marjorie's death.

She developed an enthusiasm for acting at school and in local theatre clubs, but gave her best early performance at the Central School, where, after receiving a rejection letter, she turned up in person and demanded of George Hall, head of stage, that he reconsider. Hall told her he would not but, when she returned home dejectedly, her parents told her that they had just got off the phone - he had changed his mind and given her a place. Why? Bellingham reported it was because Hall believed that "even if I was the worst actress in the world, I would always work because I was so pushy".

Bellingham proved just as dogged as Hall hoped. After graduating she worked in Frinton and Crewe, amassing the 40 weeks of theatre necessary to get an Equity card. Then, she believed, TV and cinema stardom would follow. She was rejected for a role on ITV's early 70s afternoon soap General Hospital because, as she put it, they were casting a pretty nurse and a fat nurse and "I fell into neither category". Undaunted, she put her hair in a bun, rouged her cheeks, sported flat shoes, and wore a dress that cut her legs across the calves, making them look twice their normal size. Thus attired, she demanded a second audition as the fat nurse - and got the part, as Nurse Hilda Price.

Her romantic life, which she detailed unflinchingly in her autobiography, included two disastrous marriages. She married the film producer Greg Smith in 1975. Shortly after the wedding, he cast her in the film Confessions of a Driving Instructor. "I had only been married a few weeks and my husband, the Big Producer, was screwing his way through all the female artists," she recalled. "Just not me." They divorced soon afterwards.

Her second marriage, in 1981, was to a Neapolitan restaurant owner, Nunzio Peluso, with whom she had two children, Michael and Robbie. This turned out worse. He submitted her to 15 years of physical and mental abuse and after their divorce in 1996 was subject to a restraining order. She wrote, with understatement: "Playing the nation's favorite mum on screen and going home to an unhappy and abusive relationship was extremely stressful."

On her 60th birthday, in 2008, she was married for a third time, to a mortgage broker Michael Pattemore, with whom she later ran a property business based in London.

Among the roles she was particularly proud of were playing opposite Janet Suzman and Maureen Lipman in the Old Vic's production of The Sisters Rosensweig at the Old Vic (1994-95) and in the Royal Court production of a drama about sex tourism, Sugar Mummies (2006). She also played the Empress Alexandra in Gleb Panfilov's Russian film The Romanovs: A Crowned Family (2000), about the last year and a half of the lives of Tsar Nicholas II and his family until their execution in July 1918. Her voice was dubbed into Russian. In 2009, she appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, and was eliminated in the fourth week. In 2012, she presented a daytime cookery series, My Tasty Travels, and in 2013 Country House Sunday.

In 2013, she disclosed on Twitter that she had been diagnosed with cancer.

She was made OBE in the 2014 New Year's honors list.

In 2014 she announced that the cancer had spread to her liver and lungs and that she had opted to stop having chemotherapy.

On 3 November 2014, her funeral took place at St Bartholomew's Church in Crewkerne, attended by family and friends. Afterwards, Bellingham was buried in Crewkerne Townsend Cemetery.

Bellingham was survived by her third husband and her two sons Michael and Robert.

Yootha Joyce was born on 20 August 1927 in Wandsworth, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Having a Wild Weekend (1965), Man About the House (1973) and George and Mildred (1980). She was married to Glynn Edwards. She died on 24 August 1980 in Westminster, London, England, UK.

Wilfrid Brambell was born on 22 March 1912, in Dublin, Ireland. His first acting experience was when he was aged just two, entertaining wounded soldiers returning from action during the First World War. On leaving school he worked part-time as a reporter for The Irish Times and part-time as an actor at the Abbey Theatre. During World War II he joined the British military forces entertainment organisation ENSA. On his return Wilfrid began performing with various repertory companies across the UK in Swansea, Bristol and Chesterfield. It was also during this time that he began breaking into films. His television career began in the 1950s, when he was cast in small roles in the BBC Television productions: "The Quatermass Experiment", "Nineteen Eighty-Four" and "Quatermass II". These roles earned him a reputation for playing old men, though he was only in his forties at the time. Wilfrid was just 49 when he first played Albert Steptoe. The role immediately launched him to fame and notoriety and made him into a national figure. His film work continued with a role in the 1962 Walt Disney film "In Search of the Castaways" and playing Paul McCartney's granddad in The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night". "Steptoe and Son" finished in 1974 after eight series and two hit spin-off films. Wilfrid and Co-Star Harry H. Corbett continued to revive the characters for special one off performances and events including a 1977 tour of Australia. He continued to take small roles in various television series and films during the late 1970s and 1980s before losing his battle against cancer on 18th January 1985.

This English actor was born of humble, working class beginnings and became well-known for playing the same kind of blokes on both film and TV. Born William Rowbotham, he was the son of a tram driver and laundress. He knew early on that entertaining was the life for him. He worked in odd jobs as a printer's apprentice and band vocalist to make do and, when he became of legal age, started playing drums in London nightclubs and toured music halls with his own cabaret act to pay for acting classes. He entertained at Butlin's holiday camps and performed in repertory, joining the Unity Theatre where he attained respect as a stage producer. His career was interrupted by military service with the Royal Army Ordinance Corps and was injured in an explosion during battle training course.

Returning to acting, he was taken to post-war films after notice in a play. He started making a blue-collar character name for himself in such films as Johnny in the Clouds (1945), Secret Flight (1946), When the Bough Breaks (1947), Maniacs on Wheels (1949), The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), The Square Ring (1953) and PT Raiders (1955). He continued to perform in the theatre limelight and peaked in roles with Katharine Hepburn in "As You Like It" in 1950, and with "The Threepenny Opera" and "The Mikado", which made sturdy use of his musical talents. A writer at heart, he penned songs, musicals and plays over the years. Partnered with Mike Sammes, he wrote songs recorded by Pat Boone, Harry Secombe, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Sir Cliff Richard, who made a hit of his 1980 song "Marianne". In the 60s, he produced the stage musical, "The Matchgirl", and focused heavily on film slapstick with the "Carry On" series, adding also to the lowbrow fun found in the comedy On the Fiddle (1961). TV stardom and a sense of renewed career came late after landing the role of "Compo" in the BBC's Last of the Summer Wine (1973) series in 1973, his scruffy, mischievous charm endearing audiences for decades.

Bill was awarded the MBE in 1976 for his steadfast work for the National Association of Boys Clubs and for his role as chairman of the Performing Arts Advising Panel. He was also awarded an honorary degree by Bradford University in 1998. For the rest of his life, Bill would be identified with the lovable scamp "Compo", complete with woolly hat and threadbare jacket.

Most fittingly, when he died of pancreatic cancer in 1999, he asked to be buried in the Yorkshire village of Holmfirth, where the TV series was filmed and the townspeople had taken him close to their hearts. Married twice, his actor/son Tom Owen joined the "Last of the Summer Wine" series in 2000.

Known for her small yet earthy Brit portrayals on film, Eleanor Summerfield was born in London on March 7, 1921, initially trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (1937). The hard-looking, blue-eyed blonde began in films in 1947 but created some waves first on stage opposite Cicely Courtneidge in "Her Excellency" at the London Hippodrome in 1949. She followed that with a top role in a rather mediocre musical entitled "Golden City." Musicals would be a strong suit for her in the ensuing years, including a more glamorous role in "When in Rome" (1959) alongside June Laverick. Summerfield made her last West End musical in 1974 in a show based on the cartoon characters of Osbert Lancaster. A popular radio actress and a regular on BBC Radio Four panel show "Many a Slip," she positively shone on TV in a number of comedy series as she entered her matronly years. She had the difficult task of replacing Dora Bryan in the established program "Our Dora" when Bryan abruptly left the series after the sudden death of her first child. Soon retitled My Wife's Sister (1956), the show, and Summerfield, succeeded quite well. During her five-decade career, she added bite to a number of films, often raucous comedies, including Laughter in Paradise (1951), Uncle Willie's Bicycle Shop (1953), Dentist in the Chair (1960), On the Fiddle (1961) and Some Will, Some Won't (1970), which was a remake of the earlier film Laughter in Paradise (1951). Wed to actor Leonard Sachs in 1947, they produced two sons; one son, Robin Sachs, became an actor in his own right. Her husband died in 1990, and Summerfield followed him a decade later on July 13, 2001, in London. She was 80.

Murray Melvin was born on 10 August 1932 in St. Pancras, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Phantom of the Opera (2004), A Taste of Honey (1961) and Barry Lyndon (1975). He died on 14 April 2023 in Westminster, London, England, UK.

Michael Staniforth was born on 15 December 1942 in Selly Oak, Birmingham, England, UK. He was an actor, known for No Strings (1974), Rentaghost (1976) and Great Big Groovy Horse (1975). He died on 31 July 1987 in Westminster, London, England, UK.

Ballard Berkeley made his professional stage debut in 1928, and performed for many years in London's West End and in New York theatres. He is best remembered as Major Gowen in the British television series "Fawlty Towers" (1975).

Actor, playwright and screenwriter Miles Malleson's list of credits reads like a history of British cinema in the first half of the 20th century. Born in Croydon in Surrey, he was educated at Brighton College in Sussex and Emmanuel College Cambridge. He had intended to become a schoolmaster but he opted instead for the stage and went into repertory theatre in Liverpool and then onto the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London.

He wrote his first play in 1913 and, in contrast to the characters he often portrayed on screen, held socially progressive views which were often reflected in his work. His output included two plays about the First World War, "D Company" and "Black Eill", and one about the Tolpuddle Martyrs. He also worked as a screenwriter on two documentaries for Paul Rotha, Land of Promise (1946) and World of Plenty (1943).

Following the outbreak of The Great War in July 1914 Malleson enlisted in the British Army as a Private (No. 2227) in the 1/1st (City of London) Battalion (Royal Fusiliers). He served from 5th September 1914 until receiving a medical discharge in 1915, which included a period spent in Egypt. Malleson made no secret of his objection to the war as both a member of the Independent Labour Party and a supporter of the No-Conscription Fellowship.

His most prolific period as a screenwriter was in the 1930s and 1940s, initially on historical subjects like Nell Gwyn (1934), Rhodes (1936), and Victoria the Great (1937). In many of these films he also began appearing in supporting roles, and from the mid-'30s onward he found himself in increasing demand as an actor as well as a writer. Over the next 30 years he appeared in nearly 100 films, featuring in everything from Alfred Hitchcock thrillers and Ealing comedies to Hammer horrors.

Usually cast as a befuddled judge or a doddering old doctor, academic or other local eccentric, he first caught audiences' imagination as the hearse driver in the Ealing chiller compendium Dead of Night (1945), after which he began to get bigger and better parts. He was particularly memorable as the philosophical hangman in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), Canon Chasuble in The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), Dr. McAdam in Folly to Be Wise (1952), the barrister Grimes in Brothers in Law (1957) and as Windrush Sr. in Private's Progress (1956) and I'm All Right Jack (1959).

Towards the end of his career he continued to appear in cameo roles in comedy films, and made several appearances in Hammer horror films including Horror of Dracula (1958) and The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), before failing eyesight forced him into retirement in his late 70s.

Simon Cadell was born on 19 July 1950 in Marylebone, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Watership Down (1978), The Cold Light of Day (1996) and Enemy at the Door (1978). He was married to Rebecca Croft. He died on 6 March 1996 in Westminster, London, England, UK.

British platinum blonde with leads in 1950s, later in supporting roles, but always with special 'presence'. Husky-voiced, "blonde bombshell" was a popular pinup early in her career. Appeared in some 35 films, many teleplays, specialized in mystery, suspense and horror titles.

John Normington was a distinguished English actor and a veteran of stage and screen. He also trained as an opera singer at the Northern School of Music. He made his theatrical debut in the 1950 production of "The Happiest Days of Your Life". He later became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company (1962-1966).

Perhaps his most prominent and enduring film role was in the classic British comedy A Private Function (1984), where he holds his own among a heavyweight supporting cast that included Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott, Richard Griffiths, Alison Steadman, Jim Carter and Pete Postlethwaite. His television appearances were also vast. He is fondly remembered by science fiction fans for his role as the scheming villain Morgus in one of the most popular Doctor Who (1963) serials ever produced, The Caves of Androzani: Part One (1984).

He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004 but continued working, making his final screen appearance in Atonement (2007), which was released in the UK following his death. Tributes were paid by Old Vic artistic director Kevin Spacey, National Theatre artistic director Nicholas Hytner and Royal Shakespeare Company artistic director Michael Boyd. Normington was gay and was survived by John Anderson, his partner of almost 40 years.

Britisher Yvonne Mitchell was born on July 7, 1915, in London and was first and foremost a stage actress who, after being educated at St Paul's Girls School in London and The London Theatre Studio, began her theatrical career in the late 1930s. By the time of her death, she had performed under the theatre lights for over four decades. Her output in films and TV paled in comparison, but the work she put out in those mediums were of unusually high quality with mature themes.

The dark-haired actress made her starring film debut in The Queen of Spades (1949) and proceeded to become a moving, thoughtful, often anguished presence throughout the 1950s, winning the British Film Award for her touching, sterling performance as the biological mother of a foster child in The Divided Heart (1954). Her slovenly, cuckolded wife in Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957) won her the Berlin International Film Festival Award.

Other important films included Escapade (1955), Sapphire (1959), The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960) and Johnny Nobody (1961).

On the sly, Yvonne was a novelist of both children and adult books and an award-winning playwright. She also penned an enormously successful biography entitled "Colette--A Taste for Life" based on the famed French writer. The wife of film and stage critic Derek Monsey, she wrote her biography in 1957.

She died of cancer on March 24, 1979, in London.

Actor, playwright and game show panellist, the son of an antiques dealer. Jones was educated at Ellesmere College where he first performed in school plays. At age sixteen he made an unsuccessful stab at acting on the professional stage at the Wolverhampton Grand but was fired after just one performance. Putting in the hard yards to improve on his acting skills he subsequently worked for BBC radio and then in regional repertory theatre, prior to making his debut at London's West End Haymarket Theatre in a 1942 production of George Bernard Shaws 'The Doctor's Dilemma'. During the 1950's and 60's, Jones also contributed scripts for BBC radio, as well as writing and directing plays, though none of the latter met with more than moderate success. There were also a handful of film appearances, invariably in small parts. A tendency for understating his performances possibly limited his chances for a more substantial career in this medium. Just prior to playing a barman in Dead of Night (1945), Jones suffered a bout of pneumonia and was told by a doctor at Brompton hospital, that he'd have to give up acting altogether. Luckily, he ignored that advice...

His breakthrough finally arrived in the shape of a highbrow radio comedy -- "In All Directions" -- which he co-wrote and acted in alongside Peter Ustinov. This witty, much improvised program (1952-55) foreshadowed the future Jones screen personae and, over the years, acquired a cult status akin to 'The Goon Show'. His penchant for unhesitating delivery and cultivated banter also made him a popular long-running contestant on the BBC game show "Just a Minute". His fame on radio effectively flowed on to television, where, from the 1960's, he appeared in a variety of droll, frustrated or mildly befuddled roles.

Jones's characters were often avuncular or affable. This applied even to his would-be criminal mastermind Eddie of BBC 1's sitcom Mr. Big (1974), in which he co-starred with Prunella Scales. One of his most memorable parts was that of clothing manufacturer Harold Fenner, perpetually pinned on the defensive by his combative shop steward Miriam Karlin in The Rag Trade (1961). He appeared to good effect in several other comedy series, which have fared rather less well in re-runs, but are little gems, nonetheless: as junior executive Gerald Garvey, earning rather less (much to his chagrin) than working class neighbour Harry Butt (Reg Varney) in a comedy of class distinction and jealousy, Beggar My Neighbour (1966); as pompous Gatling-Fenn in a very British comedy of manners, doing One-Upmanship (1974) with Richard Briers; and as Kevin Pork, the fruity ultra-left British Prime Minister of Whoops Apocalypse (1982) who thinks he is Superman. Back on the 'cult' side of things, Peter Jones was the smooth, matter-of-fact voice of 'The Book' in both radio and TV versions of The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981). The resulting popularity of the show led to further voice-over and radio work, notably a series of comic monologues 'by an ex-theatrical thespian', detailed in 'J. Kingston Platt's Showbiz Handbook'.

During the 1990's, Jones made only sporadic TV appearances, often in non-comedic parts. His last recurring character was that of Inspector Bradley in a little-seen, idiosyncratic crime series called The Mixer (1992), set in 1930's London. A truly genuine original in British TV comedy, Peter Jones died in St Mary's Hospital, Westminster, London, in April 2000 at the age of 79 after contracting septicaemia following surgery. At the time of his death, he was also suffering from lymphatic leukaemia and heart disease.

Veddy, veddy British stage and film actor Basil Radford (once dubbed "The Eternal Englishman") would actually become best remembered for his droll work in a couple of US films. Specializing in playing stuffy, mustachioed, well bred gents, he was a delightful presence in light, sophisticated comedies and breezy whodunnits.

He was born Arthur Basil Radford in Chester, England on June 25, 1897. He entered military service in 1915 and would serve as a commissioned officer for the British Army during World War I. He suffered a facial wound in the trenches that would later be obscured by clever camerawork and makeup over the years. Following military duty in 1918, he pursued an acting career and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Making his stage debut in 1924 with "Collusion." he subsequently appeared in such shows as "The Ghost Train," "The Love Pirate," "Night Must Fall," "Spring Tide," "Blind Goddess," "The White Falcon" and "A Man's House." By 1929, Radford was adding film work to his acting resume with his debut in Ain't It the Truth (1929). He subsequently found upper-class support parts in both comedies and dramas -- Seven Days Leave (1930) starring a young Gary Cooper, Leave It to Smith (1933) Foreign Affaires (1935), Broken Blossoms (1936), Dishonour Bright (1936), When Thief Meets Thief (1937) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Alfred Hitchcock's murder mystery Young and Innocent (1937).

Films became an even stronger focus when Hitchcock rehired Radford and memorably teamed him with actor Naunton Wayne. In one of his early cinematic masterpieces The Lady Vanishes (1938), the dry twosome hilariously portrayed a pair of cricket enthusiasts (Charters and Caldicott) who seem much more interested in reading and commenting on their favorite sport than they are concerned with the alarming number of bodies piling up aboard their train. They clicked so well with audiences in this classic whodunnit that they were asked to successfully reprise their roles in two more films: Night Train to Munich (1940) and Crook's Tour (1940) (in the latter the pair were top billed). Radford and Wayne would pair up again in seven more film outings: Millions Like Us (1943), Dead of Night (1945), Quartet (1948), Passport to Pimlico (1949), It's Not Cricket (1949) and Stop Press Girl (1949). They also showed up together in wartime shorts and radio programs.

Appearances sans Mr. Wayne include the films Dead of Night (1945), Johnny in the Clouds (1945), The Captive Heart (1946), The Winslow Boy (1948) and the comedy Whisky Galore! (1949), the last finding himself top billed. Following two top-billed character parts as a pompous boss in the working class comedy Chance of a Lifetime (1950) and the major in the racehorse yarn The Galloping Major (1951), the latter which he also co-wrote, Radford's health went into a severe decline and, by the summer of 1951, was forced to leave the screen. On the verge of a modest return in 1952, he suddenly collapsed from a heart attack on the set of the radio adventure "Rogues' Gallery" (which happened to pair him again with Naunton Wayne. He was taken to a London hospital where he died on October 20, 1952.

Only 55, a marvelous character career was lost much too soon. Long married (from 1926) to Shirley Deuchars, the couple had one son.

Gwen Watford was born on 10 September 1927 in Islington, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Cleopatra (1963), ITV Saturday Night Theatre (1969) and The Company of Five (1968). She was married to Richard Bebb. She died on 6 February 1994 in Westminster, London, England, UK.

Birmingham-born Raymond Huntley was one of those instantly recognisable, mannered types that popped up in classic British films of the 1940's and 50's. Tall and austere, he had a somewhat mean, sour-faced look, accentuated whenever staring with icy disdain from behind horn-rimmed spectacles. This, and his trademark dry delivery, made Huntley such perfect casting for an extensive array of ever-so-superior, humourless civil servants, mean-spirited bank managers, dullish clubroom snobs, smug business types, dour undertakers or sinister cold war spooks. Earlier in his career, Huntley essayed rather more overtly menacing characters, effectively typecast during the war years as Nazi officers ('Pimpernel' Smith (1941)) or German spies (Inspector Hornleigh Goes to It (1941)). It is hard to pick out two outstanding performances above all others, but he was arguably at his best as the local bank manager Wix in Passport to Pimlico (1949), emphatic in his greed to reap whatever benefits from the Burgundian declaration of independence; as the irascible boffin Laxton-Jones in Secret Flight (1946); and as Henry Chester, made resentful by his illness, in the Sanatorium segment of Trio (1950). Towards the end of his career, Huntley achieved his greatest popularity when he was cast as the grumpy family solicitor, Sir Geoffrey Dillon, in TV's Upstairs, Downstairs (1971).

Educated at King Edward's School, Raymond Huntley made his theatrical debut with the Birmingham Repertory Company in 1922. By the age of twenty-one, he played a septuagenarian farm labourer and was consequently hired as a comedian by a North Country revue for a starting salary of ten pounds a week. Huntley was reputedly the first actor to play Dracula on stage (in Hamilton Deane's hit 1927 London adaptation of the original novel), though it is fair to point out that an earlier reading of the play took place on May 18th, 1897, at the Lyceum Theatre, arranged by none other than the author Bram Stoker himself. In any event, Huntley's superb handling of the character established the direction his future career would take.

Princess Margaret was born on 21 August 1930 in Glamis Castle, Glamis, Tayside, Scotland, UK. She was married to Antony Armstrong-Jones Snowdon. She died on 9 February 2002 in King Edward VII's Hospital Sister Agnes, City of Westminster, London, England, UK.

Genteel London-born actress Joyce Carey came from a distinguished theatrical family. Her own lengthy career on the stage began in 1916 when she played Princess Katherine in an all-female ensemble of "Henry V". She made her debut on the legitimate stage in a small part in the West End production of the exotic melodrama "Mr.Wu". During the 1920's, Joyce became a well-known interpreter of Shakespearean roles in Stratford-upon-Avon (including Miranda in "The Tempest" and Perdita in "The Winter's Tale"), as well as acting in several fashionable drawing room comedies in London. She came to be best known, however, for her long association with Noël Coward whom she met (and befriended) during a rehearsal for his play "The Vortex" in 1924. Coward liked her so much, that he cast her in the leading role of Sarah Hurst in "Easy Virtue" the following year. The play went from London to Broadway, opening at the Empire Theatre and enjoying a successful run of 147 performances. Joyce's career was now made and she regularly featured in Coward plays for the remainder of her life on stage.

In 1934, Joyce added another string to her bow as the author of the comedy "Sweet Aloes", written under the pseudonym 'Jay Mallory'. She also took on the key role of Lady Farrington. The play did better on the West End than on Broadway. Warner Brothers, nonetheless, bought the rights and filmed it as a teary melodrama entitled Give Me Your Heart (1936), starring Kay Francis and George Brent. Following wartime tours with the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) in Coward plays, she later repeated her stage successes in the filmed versions of the same, notably in Johnny in the Clouds (1945), Blithe Spirit (1945) and The Astonished Heart (1950). Her best remembered role was that of the train station buffet manageress Myrtle Bagot in David Lean's Brief Encounter (1945).

During Joyce's later career, her air of quiet authority and ladylike manner were perfectly suited to a gallery of aristocratic dowagers, doting or confused aunts or mothers. A true professional, she still performed at the age of 90 - on stage, unsurprisingly, in a minor Coward play, "Semi-Monde". On the screen she achieved critical acclaim for her role as an elderly lady facing eviction, in Michael Palin's BBC play Number 27 (1988). In 1982, Joyce was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

Joan Benham was born on 17 May 1918 in Fulham, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Murder Ahoy (1964), Child in the House (1956) and Upstairs, Downstairs (1971). She was married to Martin Case. She died on 13 June 1981 in Westminster, London, England, UK.

Margaret Irving was born on 18 January 1898 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Animal Crackers (1930), San Francisco (1936) and The People's Choice (1955). She was married to William Frederick James. She died on 5 March 1988 in Westminster, California, USA.

Roger Brierley (2 June 1935 - 23 September 2005) was an English actor. Brierley appeared in many television productions over a forty-year period. He twice appeared in Doctor Who, as Trevor in The Daleks' Master Plan (1965) and as the voice of Drathro in The Mysterious Planet (1986). Brierley appeared in the biopic Jinnah based on the life of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in the Granada television series Jeeves and Wooster as Sir Roderick Glossop, and as Michael Palin's Latin teacher in an episode of Ripping Yarns called Roger of the Raj, which first shown on BBC television in 1979. He played the part of Osborne in the 1977 episode "Suddenly At Home" in the TV series Rising Damp. He was also in an Only Fools and Horses episode (1982). Later work included portraying John Biffen in the TV dramatisation of The Alan Clark Diaries (2004). He also played the hotel manager in "Mr. Bean in Room 426" and appeared in A Fish Called Wanda as Archie Leach's secretary Davidson.

His acting was elegant and precisely tuned to figures of authority enjoying a brief moment of power. His arrival on screen promised either a crisp, professional denouement (from a judge, solicitor or doctor) or a piece of expert bloodymindedness (some bank manager, vicar or civic apparatchik). It was ironic that they were all upholding some kind of established system, since in life he prided himself on his stroppiness, questioning, curiosity and mischief. He managed to combine all these qualities - plus a near-legendary resistance to foreign travel and unfamiliar food - while retaining the love of his many friends. Well to the left of centre, he became a formidable negotiator for Equity, persuading the other side, by his scrupulously pinstriped appearance, that he must, surely, be one of them.

He was the son of Arthur, a chartered accountant, and Adela, an adjudicator of amateur drama. Adela's family had kept the Blossoms Hotel, a large pub on the main road south out of town, but her first love was the theatre. The implicit deal was that Roger was allowed to act on condition that he studied accountancy on leaving Cheadle Hulme school, where he was a pupil from 1943 to 1953. Being red-haired, skinny and tall for his age, he was mercilessly bullied at school, but it was a generous, broad-based institution and he suffered no lasting harm. By the time he did leave, he already had Shakespeare's Claudio (Much Ado About Nothing) and Oberon (Midsummer Night's Dream) under his belt, and had joined the student group of Stockport Garrick Society, a refuge for stage-struck adolescents and leading pioneer of the Little Theatre movement at the start of the century.

Not even National Service stopped him acting. After qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1959, he rejected the Pay Corps (too like accountancy), military intelligence (oxymoronic) and chose the education corps. Sent to teach at the Army Apprentice school in Carlisle, he discovered other middle-class boys trying to get thrown out of the army by behaving badly. In vain. The army in Carlisle welcomed diversity. They even faked his rifle-test to give him the sergeant's stripes, without which he could not teach. Roger always made it sound like a frontier-posting between Privates on Parade and MASH.

After two years at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, he joined Hornchurch Rep in 1963. Despite his great height (6ft 5in), commanding presence on stage and a season with Peter Brook's RSC ensemble, he never had much of a theatre career. He remained highly sceptical about Brook's methods of preparation for US (1966), the company-devised show about Vietnam. Television work - The Likely Lads, Doctor Who - came quickly. By 1966, he had settled in London and met the actress Gillian McCutcheon, with whom he enjoyed many years of happiness. They split in the 1990s.

Their son Oliver has followed his father's passion for Manchester United and become a spokesman for Shareholders United, which Roger had helped found to fight Murdoch's 1998 bid. Roger's passion for United was no nerdy sideline, but a serious cause: the continued independence of a great football club. The procedural clarity of his accountant's mind was as much a source of wonder to fellow shareholders and supporters as it had been to members of Equity a few years before.

He was a member of the Equity Council from 1984 to 1986, and actively involved in union affairs between 1977 and 1996. Most members thought acting had nothing to do with politics, but several issues threatened to drive them into civil war: fees for commercials; how to deal with apartheid South Africa; how actors should be paid for repeats of old programmes sold off to the new cable stations. In the end, most of the battles were lost, but they would have been lost far sooner if Roger and his colleagues in the Centre Forward group had not fought every inch of the way. For many years, he was also an invaluable joint treasurer of TACT, The Actors' Charitable Trust.

All his life Roger retained his enthusiasms and loyalties. While under no illusions about showbiz, he remained star-struck by the great comic actors with whom he had worked. Being introduced to the somewhat intimidating Coronation Street cast by Doris Speed, who played landlady Annie Walker, was as iconic a moment for him as when he saw Don Bradman come on with the drinks tray at Old Trafford in 1948.

Brierley featured regularly on British television. He appeared in the BBC series Casualty three times and also made appearances in The Ruth Rendell Mysteries and Shine on Harvey Moon (1982). He often played typical character actor roles such as vicars, judges, barristers or hotel managers.

He worked with Victoria Wood on several occasions over the years. Firstly on her series Wood and Walters (1981) in the early eighties, later in the mid eighties on the series Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV (1985), then again in the late eighties in the series Victoria Wood (1989). Brierley worked with Wood a final time in 1994 in her TV film Pat and Margaret (1994).

Wood later remembered her previous work with Brierley and in her TV film Housewife, 49 (2005), she named a character after him. The character was played by Jason Watkins.

Brierley met Joan in 2001, an old school-friend on whom he had once had a crush. They decided to set up house together. It was like a sequel to Much Ado - not boring old Claudio this time, but a senior Benedick and Beatrice, after years of mutual loneliness, sparked up for an adventurous eighth decade. But Roger had lived with angina for 20 years and it was not to be. Brierley died of a heart attack on September 23, 2005.