IMBd
This is a very nice list except for one thing - no Matthew Macfadyen!!! Big mistake!!! Stupid!!!
(do like that Alastair Sim is included, one of my all time favorites)
100 Great British Actors
100 British actors from the last 100 years
1.
George Arliss George Arliss
Actor, Disraeli
One of the oldest actors on the screen in the 1920s and 1930s, George Arliss starred on the London stage from an early age. He came to the United States and starred in several films, but it was his role as British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in Disraeli that brought him his greatest success.
2.
Arthur Askey Arthur Askey
Self, Arthur Askey: Part 2
Arthur Askey was a diminutive British comedian, born in 1900. He began his professional career as a music hall performer in 1924, but it wasn't until 1938's Band Waggon (which lasted a full five seasons), that he became a household name in England. His film debut was in the 1937 British feature Calling All Stars...
3.
Rowan Atkinson Rowan Atkinson
Actor, The Lion King
Rowan Sebastian Atkinson was born on the 6th January, 1955, in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK, to Ella May and Eric Atkinson. His father owned a farm where he grew up with his two older brothers, Rupert and Rodney. He attended Newcastle University and Oxford University where he earned degrees in electrical engineering...
4.
Richard Attenborough Richard Attenborough
Actor, Jurassic Park
Lord Richard Attenborough was born in Cambridge, England, the son of Mary (née Clegg), a founding member of the Marriage Guidance Council, and Frederick Levi Attenborough, a scholar and academic administrator who was a don at Emmanuel College and wrote a standard text on Anglo-Saxon law. Attenborough...
5.
Felix Aylmer Felix Ayhmer
Actor, Henry V
British character actor Felix Aylmer was educated at Oxford and later studied drama, making his stage debut at the London Coliseum in 1911. During World War I he served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and resumed his stage career after the war ended. He entered films in 1930 and stayed in them for the next 40 years...
6.
Stanley Baker Stanley Baker
Actor, Zulu
Stanley Baker was unusual star material to emerge during the Fifties - when impossibly handsome and engagingly romantic leading men were almost de rigour. Baker was forged from a rougher mould. His was good-looking, but his features were angular, taut, austere and unwelcoming. His screen persona was taciturn...
7.
Christian Bale Christian Bale
Actor, The Dark Knight
The 10th Anniversary issue of "Entertainment Weekly" crowned Christian Bale as one of the "Top 8 Most Powerful Cult Figures" of the past decade, citing his incredible and legendary cult status on the Internet. EW also calls Bale one of the "Most Creative People in Entertainment" after his brilliant turn as the psychopathic yuppie serial killer in American Psycho...
9.
Ronnie Barker Ronnie Barker
Actor, My House in Umbria
Ronnie Barker's remarkable versatility as a performer can be traced back to his time in repertory theatre, where he was able to play a wide range of roles and develop his talent for accents, voices and verbal dexterity. It was during this time that he met Glenn Melvyn, who taught him how to stammer (something he would later use to great effect in the sitcom Open All Hours)...
10.
Alan Bates Alan Bates
Actor, Zorba the Greek
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...
11.
Jamie Bell Jamie Bell
Actor, Billy Elliot
Jamie Bell was born in 1986 in Billingham, England, UK, coming from a family of dancers including his grandmother, mother, aunt, and sister. It was at his sister's dance practices that he would stand outside the door and imitate the movements of the dancers inside. At age six, he was encouraged to step inside the door and...
12.
Brian Blessed Brian Blessed
Actor, Tarzan
Boisterous Brit Brian Blessed is known for his hearty, king-sized portrayals on film and TV. A giant of a man accompanied by an eloquent wit and booming, operatic voice, Brian was born in 1936 and grew up in the mining village of Goldthorpe in South Yorkshire. His father was a miner who wanted a better life for his son; Brian lost three uncles in the pit...
13.
Orlando Bloom Orlando Bloom
Orlando Bloom was born in Canterbury, Kent, England on January 13, 1977. The man he briefly knew as his father, Harry Bloom, was a legendary political activist who fought for civil rights in South Africa. But Harry died of a stroke when Orlando was only four years old. After that, Orlando and his older sister...
14.
Dirk Bogarde Dirk Bogarde
Actor, Death in Venice
Sir Dirk Bogarde, distinguished film actor and writer, was born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde on March 28, 1921, to Ulric van den Bogaerde, the art editor of "The Times" (London) newspaper, and actress Margaret Niven in the London suburb of Hampstead. He was one of three children...
15.
Kenneth Branagh Kenneth Branagh
Actor, Frankenstein
Kenneth Charles Branagh was born on December 10, 1960, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK, to parents William Branagh, a carpenter born in 1930, and Frances Branagh, also born in 1930. His brother, William Branagh Jr., was born in 1955 and sister, Joyce Branagh, was born in 1970. At 23, Branagh joined the Royal Shakespeare Company...
17.
Jim Broadbent Jim Broadbent
Actor, Moulin Rouge!
One of England's most versatile character actors, Jim Broadbent was born on May 24, 1949, in Lincolnshire, the youngest son of furniture maker Roy Broadbent and sculptress Dee Broadbent. Jim attended a Quaker boarding school in Reading before successfully applying for a place at an art school. His heart was in acting...
18.
Jack Buchanan Jack Buchanan
Actor, The Band Wagon
Born in Scotland, Jack Buchanan made his stage acting debut in Britain in 1912, and on Broadway in 1924. Though he made his film debut in 1917 during the silent film era, Buchanan is probably best remembered for The Band Wagon, co-starring with Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Nanette Fabray, James Mitchell, Oscar Levant and Robert Gist...
19.
Michael Caine Michael Caine
Actor, The Dark Knight
Born Maurice Micklewhite in London, Michael Caine was the son of a fish-market porter and a charlady. He left school at 15 and took a series of working-class jobs before joining the British army and serving in Korea during the Korean War, where he saw combat. Upon his return to England he gravitated toward the theater and got a job as an assistant stage manager...
20.
George Cole Goerge Cole
Actor, Cleopatra
George Cole has had an impressive career both in television and in film. His acting talents, however, have gone largely unsung. Which is a great shame, for he is responsible for creating one of the most endearing characters of recent times on British television. The character is of course "Arthur Daley"...
21.
Ronald Colman Ronald Coleman (the voice)
Actor, Lost Horizon
Born Richmond, Surrey, England on February 9, 1891. Height 5 feet 11 inches; dark brown hair and eyes; weight 158 pounds. Father: Charles Colman, not in the business. Educated at Littlehampton, Sussex, England. Hobbies: Tennis, motoring, reading and swiming. He was in the British Army during World War I. Two years on stage in England, UK
22.
Sean Connery Sean Connery
Thomas Sean Connery was born on August 25, 1930 in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh. His mother, Euphamia C. Maclean, was a cleaning lady, and his father, Joseph Connery, was a factory worker and truck driver. He also has a brother named Neil Connery, who works as a plasterer in Edinburgh. Before going into acting...
23.
Tom Courtenay Tom Courtenay
Actor, Doctor Zhivago
Acting chameleon Sir Tom Courtenay, along with Sirs Alan Bates and Albert Finney, became front-runners in an up-and-coming company of rebel upstarts who created quite a stir in British "kitchen sink" cinema during the early 60s. An undying love for the theatre, however, had Courtenay channeling a different course than the afore-mentioned greats and he never...
24.
Daniel Craig Daniel Craig
Actor, Casino Royale
Daniel Craig, one of British theatre's most famous faces who was waiting tables as a struggling teenage actor with the NYT, went on to star as "James Bond" in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. He was born Daniel Wroughton Craig on March 2, 1968, at 41 Liverpool Road, Chester, Cheshire, England. His father...
25.
Michael Craig Michael Craig
Actor, Mysterious Island
A veritable everyman of stage and screen, both big and small, but relatively unfamiliar to American audiences, Michael Craig is of Scots heritage, born in India to a father on military assignment. When he was three, the family returned to England, but by his eleventh year, they moved on to Canada - where he undoubtedly acquired his North American accent...
26.
Peter Cushing Peter Cushing
Actor, Star Wars
Peter Cushing was born in 1913 in Kenley, Surrey, England. He and his older brother David were raised first in Dulwich Village, a south London suburb, and then later back in Surrey by his mother Nellie Marie and father George Edward, who was a quantity surveyor. At an early age Cushing was attracted to acting...
27.
Timothy Dalton Timothy Dalton
Actor, The Living Daylights
At a consistently lean 6' 2", green-eyed Timothy Dalton may very well be one of the last of the dying breed of swashbuckling, classically trained Shakespearean actors who have forged simultaneous successful careers in theater, television and film. He has been comparison-shopped roundly for stepping into roles played by other actors...
28.
Daniel Day-Lewis Daniel Day-Lewis
Actor, There Will Be Blood
Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis was born in London, England, the second child of Cecil Day-Lewis (aka Nicholas Blake) (Poet Laureate of England) and his second wife, Jill Balcon. His maternal grandfather was Sir Michael Balcon, an important figure in the history of British cinema, head of the famous Ealing Studios...
29.
Denholm Elliott Denholm Elliott
Much-loved character actor who specialised in playing slightly sleazy/slightly eccentric and often flawed upper middle class English gentlemen. His career spanned nearly 40 years, becoming a well-known face both in Britain and in the States.
30.
Rupert Everett Rupert Everett
Actor, Shrek 2
British-born Rupert Everett grew up in privileged circumstances, but the wry, sometimes arrogant intellectual was a rebel from the very beginning. At the age of 7, he was placed into the care of Benedictine monks at Ampleforth College where he trained classically on the piano. He was expelled from the Central School of Speech and Drama in London for clashing with his teachers...
31.
David Farrar David Farrar
Actor, Black Narcissus
London-born David Farrar dropped out of school at 14 and became a writer for the Morning Advertisr newspaper, but it wasn't long before he decided to change careers and become an actor. He started out on the stage in 1932, and five years later made his film debut. Appearing at first in low-budget thrillers like Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror...
32.
Peter Finch Peter Finch
Actor, Network
Despite being one of the finest actors of his generation, Peter Finch will be remembered as much for his reputation as a hard-drinking, hell-raising womanizer as for his performances on the screen. He was born in London in 1916 and went to live in Sydney, Australia, at the age of ten. There, he worked in a series of dead-end jobs before taking up acting...
33.
Colin Firth Colin Firth
Actor, The King's Speech
Born into an academic family - his father is a history lecturer at Winchester University College (formerly King Alfred's College) in Winchester and his mother is a comparative religions lecturer at the Open University - Colin Firth's first acting experience came in infant's school when he played "Jack Frost" in a Christmas pantomime...
34.
John Gielgud John Gielgud
Actor, Gandhi
Born in London, England, John Gielgud trained at Lady Benson's Acting School and RADA, London. Best known for his Shakespearean roles in the theater, he first played Hamlet at the age of 26. He worked under the tutelage of Lilian Bayliss with friend and fellow performer Laurence Olivier and other contemporaries of the National Theatre at the "Old Vic"...
35.
Stewart Granger Stewart Granger
Actor, Scaramouche
Stewart Granger was born James Leblanche Stewart in London, the grandson of the actor "Luigi Lablache". He attended Epsom College but left after deciding not to pursue a medical degree. He decided to try acting and attended Webber-Douglas School of Dramatic Art, London. By 1935, he made his stage debut in "The Cardinal at Hull"...
36.
Cary Grant Cary Grant - Yay
Actor, North by Northwest
Once told by an interviewer, "Everybody would like to be Cary Grant," Grant is said to have replied, "So would I." His early years in Bristol, England, would have been an ordinary lower-middle-class childhood except for one extraordinary event. At age nine, he came home from school one day and was told his mother had gone off to a seaside resort...
37.
Hugh Grant Hugh Grant
Actor, About a Boy
Hugh Grant, one of Britain's best known faces who has been equally entertaining on-screen as well as in real life, and had enough sense of humor to survive a media frenzy, is best known for his roles in Notting Hill, opposite Julia Roberts, and in Music and Lyrics, opposite Drew Barrymore, among his other works...
39.
Alec Guinness Alex Guinness
Actor, Star Wars
While working in advertising, he studied at the Fay Compton Studio of Dramatic Art, debuting on stage in 1934 and played classic theater with the Old Vic from 1936. In 1941, he entered the Royal navy as a seaman and was commissioned the next year. Beyond an extra part in Evensong, his film career began after World War II with his portrayal of Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations...
40.
Tony Hancock Tony Hancock
Actor, Call Me Genius
Tony Hancock was born in Birmingham, England, the son of John and Lillian Hancock. He was educated at Durlston Court, Swanage, and Bradfield College, Reading. He served in the R.A.F. (ground crew) during the war. In 1942 he was in the R.A.F. Gang Show. He was de-mobbed in 1946. He appeared at the Windmill Theatre...
41.
Cedric Hardwicke Cedric Hardwicke
Actor, Rope
Sir Cedric Hardwicke, one of the great character actors in the first decades of the talking picture, was born in Lye, England on February 19, 1893. Hardwicke attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made his stage debut in 1912. His career was interrupted by military service in World War I, but he returned to the stage in 1922 with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre...
44.
Rex Harrison Rex Harrisoh
Actor, My Fair Lady
Born in 1908 in Lancashire, England, Reginald Carey Harrison changed his name to Rex as a young boy, knowing it was the Latin word for King. Starting out on his theater career at age 18, his first job at the Liverpool Rep Theatre was nearly his last - dashing across the stage to say his one line, made his entrance and promptly blew it...
45.
William Hartnell William Hartnell
Actor, This Sporting Life
William Hartnell was born on 8 January 1908, just south of St. Pancras station in London. In press materials in the 1940s he claimed that his father was a farmer and later a stockbroker; it turns out that he had actually been born out of wedlock, as his biography "Who's There?" states. At age 16 he was adopted by Hugh Blaker...
46.
Jack Hawkins Jack Hawkins
Actor, Ben-Hur
In Britain, special Christmas plays called pantomimes are produced for children. Jack Hawkins made his London theatrical debut at age 12, playing the elf king in "Where The Rainbow Ends". At 17, he got the lead role of St. George in the same play. At 18, he made his debut on Broadway in "Journey's End"...
47.
Will Hay Will Hay
Actor, Oh, Mr. Porter!
William Thompson Hay was probably one of the most versatile of entertainers. He was not only a character comedian of the first rank, but was also an astronomer of high repute - he discovered the spot on the planet Saturn in 1933 - and a fully qualified air pilot; he was once an engineer. Born at Stockton on Tees in 1888...
49.
Anthony Hopkins Anthony Hopkins
Actor, The Silence of the Lambs
Anthony Hopkins was born on 31 December 1937, in Margam, Wales. Influenced by Richard Burton, he decided to study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, he moved to London and joined the National Theatre, invited by Laurence Olivier, who could see the talent in Hopkins. In 1967, he made his first film for television, A Flea in Her Ear...
50.
Leslie Howard Leslie Howard
Actor, Gone with the Wind
Leslie Howard Stainer was born to Hungarian parents in London, and went to Dulwich College. After school, he worked as a bank clerk until the outbreak of World War I, when he went into the army. In 1917, diagnosed as shell-shocked, he was invalided out and advised to take up acting as therapy. In a few years...
52.
Jack Hulbert Jack Hulbert
Actor, Alias Bulldog Drummond
Jack Hulbert--the brother of actor Claude Hulbert--began his acting career at Cambridge, where he worked in various plays and variety revues. He later had a very successful career on the stage in comedies and musicals. His film debut was in Elstree Calling, in which he appeared with his wife, Cicely Courtneidge...
53.
Sid James Sid James
Actor, The Lavender Hill Mob
The star of the Carry On series of films, Sid James originally came to prominence as sidekick to the ground breaking British comedy actor Tony Hancock, on both radio and then television. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa and christened Solomon Joel Cohen, James arrived in England in 1946, second wife in tow...
54.
David Jason David Jason
Actor, Hogfather
David Jason was born in Edmonton, London, in 1940. He has become one of Britain's most famous and respected actors. He is a versatile actor who is most famously known for his role in Only Fools and Horses.... as Del Boy. He made his debut as DelBoy back in 1981 and was still playing the same role up to the Christmas special in 2002...
56.
James Robertson Justice James robertson Justice
Actor, The Guns of Navarone
James Robertson Justice was always a noticeable presence in a film with his large stature, bushy beard and booming voice. A Ph.D., a journalist, a naturalist, an expert falconer, a racing car driver, JRJ was certainly a man of many talents. He entered the film industry quite late in life (37) after he was spotted serving as MC for a local music hall...
57.
Jude Law Jude Law
Actor, Sherlock Holmes
Jude Law was born December 29, 1972, in south east London. He started acting with the National Youth Music Theatre at the age of 12, and, at 17, he dropped out of school completely, to star in a Granada daytime TV Soap called Families. In 1992, Jude began his stage career. He starred in many plays throughout London...
58.
Christopher Lee Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee is perhaps the only actor of his generation to have starred in so many films. Although most notable for personifying bloodsucking vampire, Dracula, on screen, he has portrayed other varied characters on screen, most of which were villains, whether it be Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film...
59.
Arthur Lucan Arthur Lucan
Actor, Old Mother Riley's Ghosts
Arthur Towle was in show business from 1900 when he left school until his dying day. He started as an "Irish" character comedian in British music halls; touring Ireland with this act in 1913, he met and married Kitty McShane (she was 15, he 26). They gradually evolved the act of "Old Mother Riley and her Daughter" (Arthur...
60.
David McCallum David McCallum
Actor, The Great Escape
David McCallum's father, David McCallum Sr., was first violinist for the London Philharmonic and his mother, Dorothy Dorman, was a cellist, so it's not surprising that David was originally headed for a career in music (oboe), studying briefly at the Royal Academy of Music. He left that, however, for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art...
61.
Patrick McGoohan Patrick McGoohan
Actor, Braveheart
Though born in America, Irish actor Patrick McGoohan rose to become the number-one British TV star in the 1950s to 1960s era. His parents moved to Ireland when he was very young and McGoohan acquired a neutral accent that sounds at home in British or American dialogue. He was an avid stage actor and...
62.
Ian McKellen Ian McKellen
On May 25th, 1939, in the town of Burnley in northern England, Ian Murray McKellen was born. His parents, Denis and Margery, soon moved with Ian and his sister Jean to the coal mining town of Wigan. It was in this small town that young Ian rode out World War II. He soon developed a fascination with acting and the theater...
63.
Patrick Macnee Patrick Macnee
Actor, A View to a Kill
The British actor Patrick Macnee was born in 1922 in London, England, into a wealthy and eccentric family. His father, Daniel Macnee, was a race horse trainer, who drank and gambled away the family fortune, leaving young Patrick to be raised by his lesbian mother, Dorothea Mary, and her female lover...
64.
Miles Malleson Miles Malleson
Actor, The Thief of Bagdad
An actor, playwright and screenwriter, Miles Malleson's list of credits reads like a history of the British cinema in the first half of the 20th century. Born in Croydon in Surrey, he attended Brighton College in Sussex before studying at Cambridge University with the intention of becoming a schoolmaster...
66.
Bernard Miles Bernard Miles
Actor, The Man Who Knew Too Much
The British character actor Bernard Miles was born in Uxbridge, Middlesex, England, in 1907; his father was a farm laborer and his mother was a cook. After graduation from Pembroke College, Oxford, he was a teacher for a while and then joined the New Theatre in London. In 1937, he worked in Herbert Farjeon's revue company and established his theatrical career...
67.
Roger Moore Roger Moore
Actor, The Spy Who Loved Me
Perhaps he will always be remembered as the guy who replaced Sean Connery in the James Bond series, arguably something he never lived down. Roger Moore was born in Stockwell, London, in 1927, the son of a policeman. He first wanted to be an artist, but got into films full time after becoming an extra in the late forties...
68.
Kenneth More Kenneth More
Actor, A Night to Remember
Affable, bright and breezy Kenneth More epitomised the traditional English virtues of fortitude and fun. At the height of his fame in the 1950s he was Britain's most popular film star and had appeared in a string of box office hits including Genevieve, Doctor in the House, Reach for the Sky and A Night to Remember...
69.
Robert Morley Robert Morley
Actor, The African Queen
English character actor Robert Morley was educated in England, Germany, France and Italy. His family planned for him to go into the diplomatic service but he liked the idea of acting more. After studying at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London he appeared on the London stage in 1929 and in 1938 he first appeared on Broadway as the lead in Ocsar Wilde...
70.
David Niven David Niven
Actor, The Pink Panther
David Niven was named after the Saint's Day on which he was born, St. David, patron Saint of Wales. He attended Stowe School and Sandhurst Military Academy and served for two years in Malta with the Highland Light Infantry. At the outbreak of World War II, although a top-line star, he re-joined the army (Rifle Brigade)...
71.
Ivor Novello Ivor Novello
Soundtrack, Atonement
His special gifts were in music and composing, but dapper, multi-talented Welsh actor Ivor Novello (born David Ivor Davies), with his leading-man good looks, had an affinity for the camera. Born in Cardiff, Wales, in 1893, he was the son of a tax-collector father and a mother who was a well-known singing teacher...
72.
Laurence Olivier LAURENCE OLIVIER
Actor, Rebecca
He could speak William Shakespeare's lines as naturally as if he were "actually thinking them", said English playwright Charles C. Bennett, who met Laurence Olivier in 1927. One of Olivier's earliest successes as a Shakespearean actor on the London stage came in 1935 when he played "Romeo" and "Mercutio" in alternate performances of "Romeo and Juliet" with John Gielgud...
73.
Bill Owen Bill Owen
Actor, Georgy Girl
This Britisher 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...
74.
Cecil Parker Cecil Parker
Actor, The Ladykillers
An air of almost smug disdain would hang over his characters like a grey cloud. Yet he could end up being a ray of sunshine with that cloud. Stage or screen, comedy or drama, playing butler or Lord Commander, Englishman Cecil Parker was born in 1897 and took an avid interest in performing following his discharge from World War I military service...
75.
Nigel Patrick Nigel Patrick
Actor, The Browning Version
This droll, dry-witted London-born gent came from a family of actors. He made his stage debut in 1932 and established his reputation in stylish plays. He progressed to films in 1939 but his career was immediately interrupted after only one movie appearance by WWII, serving as a lieutenant colonel in the infantry...
76.
Leslie Phillips Leslie Phillips
A much-loved comic actor who has specialized in playing plummy, quintessentially English stereotypes, Leslie Phillips' heart was in acting from a very young age. He received elocution lessons as a child in order to lose his natural cockney accent (at that time a regional British accent was a major impediment to an aspiring actor) and he attended the Italia Conti School...
77.
Donald Pleasence Donald Pleasence
Actor, Halloween
Donald Pleasence started acting on the London stage in 1939. He served in the RAF, was shot down and held in a POW camp. His balding, bland face and memorable voice made him the most popular actor on British TV He specialised in strange or menacing characters from Ernst Blofeld in You Only Live Twice to Dr. Loomis in the Halloween series.
78.
Dennis Price Dennis Price
Actor, Kind Hearts and Coronets
This tall (6' 2"), suave, elegant leading man of the 1940's and later character star of distinction, was born Dennistoun Franklyn John Rose-Price, the son of Brigadier General T. Rose-Price, on 23 June 1915, in Twyford, Berkshire, England. He was educated at Radley, and at Worcester College, Oxford...
80.
Daniel Radcliffe Daniel Radcliffe
Daniel Jacob Radcliffe was born on July 23rd, 1989 to Alan Radcliffe and Marcia Gresham. He began performing in small school productions as a young boy. Soon enough, he landed a role in David Copperfield, as the young David Copperfield. A couple of years later, he landed a role as Mark Pendel in The Tailor of Panama...
81.
Basil Radford
Actor, The Lady Vanishes
Though thoroughly British, actor Basil Radford actually began his film career in a couple of US films. Born in Chester, England, he made his stage debut in 1922 and continued to focus on the theatre until director Alfred Hitchcock memorably teamed Radford with actor Naunton Wayne in one of his early cinematic masterpieces - The Lady Vanishes...
83.
Michael Rennie Michael Rennie
The British actor Michael Rennie worked as a car salesman and factory manager before he turned to acting. A meeting with a Gaumont-British casting director led to Rennie's first acting job - that of stand-in for Robert Young in Secret Agent directed by Alfred Hitchcock. He put his film career on hold for a few years to get some acting experience on the stage...
84.
Cliff Richard Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard burst onto the rock'n'roll world in 1958 with his hit single Move It. He was then known as Britain's answer to Elvis Presley. His first film was Serious Charge followed by Expresso Bongo, Wonderful to Be Young! (retitled It's Wonderful To Be Young in the USA) and Summer Holiday. Wonderful to Be Young!...
86.
Peter Sellers Peter Sellers
Often credited as the greatest comedian of all time, Peter Sellers was born to a well-off English acting family in 1925. His mother and father worked in an acting company run by his grandmother. As a child, Sellers was spoiled, as his parents' first child had died at birth. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force and served during World War II...
87.
Robert Shaw Robert Shaw
Actor, Jaws
Robert Archibald Shaw was born on August 9, 1927 in Westhoughton, Lancashire, England. Robert was the eldest son of Doctor Thomas Archibald Shaw and Doreen Nora Avery. The former Miss Avery met Shaw's father while she was a nurse at the hospital in Truro, Cornwall. His father was an alcoholic and a manic depressive; he committed suicide when Robert was only 12...
88.
Alastair Sim ALASTAIR SIM - also the original Belles of St. Trinians
Actor, A Christmas Carol
The son of Alexander Sim JP and Isabella McIntyre, Alastair Sim was educated in Edinburgh. Always interested in language (especially the spoken word) he became the Fulton Lecturer in Elocution at New College, Edinburgh University from 1925 until 1930. He was invited back and became the Rector of Edinburgh University (1948 - 1951)...
89.
Donald Sinden
Actor, The Cruel Sea
The son of a country chemist, the British actor Donald Sinden intended to pursue a career in architecture but was spotted in an amateur theatrical production and asked to join a company that entertained the troops during World War II (Sinden was rejected for naval service because of asthma). Following a brief training at drama school...
90.
Terence Stamp Terrence Stamp
Actor, Wanted
Stamp was born and lived in Canal Road, Bow, until German bombers forced his family to move to Plaistow. An icon of the 1960s, he dated the likes of Julie Christie, Brigitte Bardot, and Jean Shrimpton. After an extremely successful early career, starring in Modesty Blaise, Poor Cow, and Far from the Madding Crowd...
92.
Richard Todd Richard Todd
Actor, A Man Called Peter
British leading man who achieved some success in American films, as well. Born in Ireland as the son of a British officer, Todd grew up in Devon and attended Shrewsbury Public School. His interest in theatre led him to small roles in stock in England and Scotland, following which he helped found the Dundee Repertory Theatre in 1939...
94.
Tommy Trinder
Self, Episode #2.14
A beloved Cockney cut-up from the 1930s on, London-born Tommy Trinder, the son of a tram driver, quit school and sought the stage, milking laughs at the tender age of 13 in a musical revue that was touring South Africa. Following that he became a boy vocalist at Collins' Music-Hall. The wry, rubber-faced comedian gradually built up his name in traveling variety shows...
95.
Tom Walls
Actor, A Cuckoo in the Nest
Comedy farceur Tom Walls is indelibly associated with the popular Aldwych Theatre farces of the 1920s and 1930s. Born in 1883, this English gent was a former constable and jockey before making his stage debut in 1905. As the star and producer of a succession of witty spoofs typically denigrating society's uppercrust...
97.
Naunton Wayne
Actor, The Lady Vanishes
Linked inextricably with actor Basil Radford, Welsh-born character actor Naunton Wayne, together with Radford, struck such a major chord with film audiences as an inept, uppercrust pair of cricket-obsessed British gents, that the two were invariably teamed up time and time again in a host of "veddy" popular film comedies. The perennial partners would prove equally popular on radio...
98.
Michael Wilding Michael Wilding
Actor, In Which We Serve
An urbane leading man of the British screen who burned at a lower magnitude of star-power than did his contemporary James Mason, Michael Wilding achieved cinematic immortality of sorts by becoming the second of the 20-years younger Elizabeth Taylor's seven or eight husbands. Like Grover Cleveland in the annals of the U.S...
99.
Emlyn Williams
Writer, The Man Who Knew Too Much
Born George Emlyn Williams in Pen-y-Ffordd, Mostyn, Flintshire in northeast Wales on November 1905, he lived in a rural village in which Welsh was spoken until he was 12-years-old, when his family moved to an English-speaking town, Connah's Quay. It changed the course of his life as it was there that the teacher...
100.
Norman Wisdom
Actor, Trouble in Store
Norman Wisdom has become the great British clown very much in the mould of Charles Chaplin with his "little man" in the ill fitting suit and cloth cap. His character is "everyman", much put upon but struggling through to a (usually) happy ending. He was brought up in an orphanage after his mother died and his father disowned him...
(I typed in the names - got tired near the end and I don't know who those guys are anyway. Bad list all in all no MATTHEW (MR. DARCY) MACFADYEN and no JAMES MASON?????????
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