Oscar-nominated British actor Albert Finney has died aged 82 after a short illness.

Oscar-nominated British actor Albert Finney has died aged 82 after a short illness.

He was a five-time Oscar nominee who began his career at the Royal Shakespeare Company before making his mark in film.

His big film break came as "angry young man" Arthur Seaton in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.

He went on to star in Tom Jones, as Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express, Erin Brockovich and Skyfall.

Finney's other memorable roles include Winston Churchill in The Gathering Storm, for which he won a Golden Globe and a Bafta.

He also played the title role in Scrooge, billionaire Daddy Warbucks in Annie, Ed Bloom Senior in Tim Burton's Big Fish and the mobster Leo O'Bannon in Miller's Crossing.

BBC News

Oscar Beat: Best Actor Predictions—It’s Gary Oldman Then Everyone Else

Collider
Adam Chitwood
October 16, 2017

Well folks, it’s that time. I’ve been covering some preliminary buzz and shakeups in this current awards season for the past couple of months, but as we head into November, the race starts taking a much more solid shape and predictions come into play. All this week I’ll be laying out my preliminary predictions for some of the biggest categories, and I’m kicking things off with the Best Actor race—which, actually, of all the major races is maybe the least exciting of all.

Indeed, while previous years saw various actors jockeying for the top position, this one very much seems like it’s Gary Oldman’s to lose. The beloved performer turns in a wholly transformative performance in Joe Wright’s World War II drama Darkest Hour, in which he plays Winston Churchill. Oldman is indeed as good as everyone’s saying, and bolstered by an Anthony McCarten script that gives him multiple explosive speeches—which he subsequently hits out of the park—this is a film chock full of “Oscar clip”-worthy scenes.

But beyond Oldman, it’s really not that competitive of a Best Actor race—this year Best Supporting Actor is where the real fight is. Timothee Chalamet should absolutely be in contention for his star-making turn in Call Me By Your Name, which continues to rack up critical support after first bowing at Sundance earlier this year. It’s a major contender in multiple big categories, and while younger performers don’t usually score Best Actor nominations, if the Academy takes to Call Me By Your Name the way audiences at Sundance, TIFF, and the New York Film Festival did, he should make the cut.

There’s also Jake Gyllenhaal giving one of the best performances of his career in Stronger, although his footing is less solid given that the film seems to have unperformed at the box office and, disappointingly, is at risk of being forgotten come Oscar time. Andrew Garfield could be back in the mix for his impressive turn as a paraplegic in director Andy Serkis’ true-story drama Breathe. That film has some mediocre reviews, which may stand in Garfield’s way, but the guy’s incredibly likeable and does a swell job in the film. And, let’s face it: if he can get nominated for Hacksaw Ridge, a nod for Breathe is entirely possible.

 BEST ACTOR PREDICTIONS: http://collider.com/oscars-best-actor-predictions-2018/

ROBERT PATTINSON, AIDAN TURNER AND THEO JAMES: KNOW THE CURRENT HEARTTHROBS AND FUTURE STARS

MOVIE NEWS GUIDE
ANSHUL HARDIKAR
April 20, 2016

The line up has changed and so has the trend. Gone are the days when Hollywood bigwigs were the only movie stars because a new generation has already taken over. Stars like Robert Pattinson, Aidan Turner and Theo James are currently some of the leading ones in the roster. They have incredible following and are worth every penny. Here is what puts them on the top of their game.

1. Talent. Solely the most important thing any future movie star might need. Talent is one thing that sets you apart from others. All the three heartthrobs have proved their mettle with “Twilight,” “Poldark” and “Divergent” series and hopefully will continue to do so.

2. Dedication. For any individual to become an actor, it needs dedication and for any actor to become a star, it needs even more dedication. There are no doubts about their dedication because each one of them has worked really hard to get their portrayal right. Normally, when they set out to prepare for their roles, they research, read up and then apply it to their roles.

3. Ability to get under the skin. As mentioned earlier because of the immense dedication that they have, their portrayal becomes so convincing that at times it gets hard to believe if fans are looking at the actor or the character. For instance, Robert’s Edward or Aidan’s Ross Poldark.

4. Good looks. This has got to do a thing or two with being a heartthrob, however, it is not the most important thing. Their looks are something worthy dying for and there is no one better than their female fan base to express it. It is also believed that it was Aidan’s mass appeal amongst female fans and performance in “And Then There Were None” that got him a meeting with the Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.movienewsguide.com/robert-pattinson-aidan-turner-theo-james-know-current-heartthrobs-future-stars/196897

Tom Hiddleston: Brits always play baddies (xpose)

Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch have been "laughing" about British actors playing villains in blockbuster movies.

Tom Hiddleston finds it hilarious that British actors are renowned for playing "the bad guy".

The actor was named Best Villain at the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday. Tom won the accolade for his portrayal of Norse god Loki in last year's box office smash The Avengers.

He loved playing the character, and often discusses the trend for Brits playing baddies with his pal Benedict Cumberbatch.

"I was talking about it with my friend Benedict, who is the villain in the new Star Trek film and we were laughing about it," he told UK TV show Lorraine. "It's as if there is a long line of British actors who have appeared in big American films as the bad guy. I think it all started with James Mason."

Tom is playing Loki for a third time in Thor: The Dark World, which will hit cinemas later this year.

As he collected his golden popcorn award at the MTV Movie Awards, he praised the cast and crew for making the movie such a memorable experience.

"I loved this film. I had the best time making it, and you know, obviously I'm not from this country as you can hear, but you were very hospitable to me, and I would like to thank Joss Whedon [director] first of all," Tom said in his acceptance speech. "Thank you, Chris Evans. Thank you to Sam Jackson. And absent friends, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr., Jeremy Renner, my brother from another mother, Chris Hemsworth, and a special thank you to Mark Ruffalo for smacking me like a ragdoll."

READ MORE: http://www.tv3.ie/entertainment_article.php?locID=1.803.874&article=100773

James Mason: The audacious Odd Man Out turns Britain’s biggest star into furniture in his own film BY MIKE D'ANGELO (AV CLUB)

In Scenic Routes, Mike D’Angelo looks at key movie scenes, explaining how they work and what they mean.

Imagine that you’re at the multiplex to see your favorite actor’s latest star vehicle. Doesn’t really matter who it is, but for the purposes of this exercise, let’s stipulate that it’s somebody very famous, a take-charge personality. Liam Neeson would be perfect, but it could be Matt Damon, Denzel Washington, Daniel Day-Lewis, whoever. Anyway, he’s playing the leader of a gang or a criminal organization of some kind, and early scenes show him planning a big heist. Maybe he and his confederates have noble motives for the robbery. Not important. What is important is that you came to see Neeson (or Damon, or whoever) do his badass thing… but his character is shot during the holdup, badly wounded, abandoned by the rest of the gang. He’s bleeding so much, he can barely stay conscious. And while he’s physically present for much of what follows, it’s only in the way that, say, Tim Roth is physically present for the first half of Reservoir Dogs. The actual movie is about the various people who come in contact with him, virtually none of whom are played by similarly well-known actors.

Sound plausible? That’s the gist of Carol Reed’s 1947 classic Odd Man Out, which stars James Mason—the most popular British actor for four years running at the time of its release—as IRA leader Johnny McQueen. (His group is called “The Organization” throughout, but it’s Northern Ireland, so who are we kidding?) Mason gets shot 14 minutes into the two-hour picture, and is only intermittently awake and coherent from that point forward; the drama revolves entirely around random citizens, mostly embodied by stage actors Reed drafted from the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. It’s a portrait of a community, exploring the ambivalence of people who sympathize with Mason’s cause, but not necessarily with his methods. In its finest, thorniest scene, a couple of middle-aged women gradually realize that the “accident victim” they’ve taken in won’t likely garner them awards for Samaritans Of The Year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqctI12CBzo

READ MORE: http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-audacious-odd-man-out-turns-britains-biggest-s,92587/

British roots of stars Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor published Robin Turner, WalesOnline Jan 4 2013

The British roots of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars including Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor have been published online for the first time.

Millions of United States census records are included in the collection, detailing British actors and actresses who moved to the US during the golden age of movies.

The 1940 US Federal Census Records, now being published by family history website Ancestry.co.uk, includes the names of Elizabeth Taylor, born in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London and Port Talbot’s Richard Burton.

The files also include London born Alfred Hitchcock, currently being played in a biopic of his life by another Port Talbot actor, Sir Anthony Hopkins, who moved to the US to direct some of the best-known films of all time, such as Psycho and The Birds.



Read more: Wales Online http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2013/01/04/british-roots-of-hollywood-stars-richard-burton-and-elizabeth-taylor-91466-32544953/#ixzz2H1BmTrbK

Eddie Redmayne discusses Les Miserables, the clicque of British Actors and cooking ham

http://www.aol.com/video/eddie-redmayne-on-his-clique-of-young-british-actors-with-rob/517621850/

Henry Cavill, Christian Bale: British Actors Cast as American Superheroes (NASDAQ)

http://www.nasdaq.com/video/video.aspx?vid=British-Actors-Cast-as-American-Superheroes-517471252


These heroes are hiding more than just their identities. In the latest Spider-Man, Batman and Superman movies, all three superheroes were played by British actors: Christian Bale starred as Batman in The Dark Night franchise, Andrew Garfield perfected his American accent for "The Amazing Spider-Man", and now Henry Cavill got the role of Superman in Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel", due to be launched in 2013.

Tom Hiddleston to appear in Family Guy Jul 30, 2012, 10:01 GMT (M & C)

Tom Hiddleston and Sean Bean are to appear together in a new episode of 'Family Guy'.

The British actors will both have guest roles in the hit US animated comedy and, according to Total Film, they will both play characters 'cut from the same cloth'.

No further information has been released about their roles.

Tom has recently lent his voice for another TV animation, 'Robot Chicken', in between shooting on Jim Jarmusch's vampire romance 'Only Loves Left Alive'.

Sean recently starred in fantasy drama 'Game of Thrones'.

READ MORE: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/news/article_1701527.php/Tom-Hiddleston-to-appear-in-Family-Guy

Emily Blunt talks about Salmon Fishing, Ewan McGregor and Colin Firth; by NEALA JOHNSON, (NEWS.COM.AU.)

> > Salmon Fishing in the Yemen has been described as "delightfully preposterous", which makes sense given it's about a sheik who wants to fish in the middle of the desert. What did you think when you got the script?

I probably thought that - delightfully preposterous! As preposterous as the idea is, I loved the dynamics of all the relationships. And it's quite hard to find an original story nowadays. So you have to go and write something as preposterous as Salmon Fishing in the Yemen to get something original (laughs).

 > > Was your chemistry with co-star Ewan McGregor immediate?

We became instant friends. We laughed and laughed on the film. It's lovely when you get to cry with laughter with someone. We're quite similar, Ewan and I, we work similarly. 

> > You've said he has no self-control ...

None! He's a giggler, he's really goofy.

> > So after you made a film about fishing, you then made a film about golf.

 (Laughs) Arthur Newman, Golf Pro, yeah. That's about these two incredibly weird social outcasts who embark on this crazy road trip across America. They take on new identities, break into people's houses ... it's a very bizarre, but really unlikely love story. And I got to get weird with Colin Firth!

 > > Did you click with Colin as easily as Ewan?

 I loved him very much, we had a blast. Colin is one of these people who is fantastic to tease because he's got no ego. He got tortured by me and the hair and make-up girls. And he's soooo British.

 > > Do you ever temper your Britishness while in LA? I never temper it! I use it (laughs).

It gets you places because it's more of a rarity. It's got me off speeding tickets, so I'll keep using it.


READ MORE:  http://www.news.com.au/news/being-a-brit-beneficial-for-blunt/story-fn6c8sdb-1226318923728

Ryan Gosling, Liam Hemsworth and Tom Hardy? Are Foreign Hunks Replacing American Stars? (E ON LINE)

Thu., Mar. 15, 2012 5:23 PM PDT
by Leslie Gornstein

All of the biggest male movie stars used to be from the good ol’ USA. Now American kids are swooning over Liam Hemsworth and Tom Hardy. Where have all the American idols gone?
 
                                                                                            —Sigh, via the inbox 


Oh, knock it off. If you look at the top 10 or so male stars of the moment, you'll see that Taylor Kitsch comes from...oh, wait. He comes from Canada. Well, there’s Ryan Gosling! He's...oh, scratch that. He's Canadian, too. So what is going on here?

I dug deep, and I found the one person you can blame for all this... Take a look at IMDB’s top 20 stars of right this very second. Then narrow it down to just the men. The list includes the aforementioned Kitsch, Hemsworth, Hardy and Gosling, plus Josh Hutcherson, Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Armie Hammer, Channing Tatum, Leonardo DiCaprio and Liam Neeson.

Of those 11 criminally beautiful souls, five come from outside these United States—the U.K. or Canada, to be precise. The other six salute the Stars and Stripes. Why so many foreigners? And why specifically from the U.K. and its historically linked offshoot, Canada?


READ MORE:  http://www.eonline.com/news/ask_the_answer_bitch/ryan_gosling_liam_hemsworth_tom_hardy/301501

Kenneth Branagh, Gary Oldman: British stars prepare for Academy Awards (SCOTSMAN.COM)

By BRIAN FERGUSON Published on Sunday 26 February 2012 00:52

 BRITAIN’S Oscar hopefuls were the toast of Los Angeles as they geared up for tonight’s Academy Awards ceremony.

 Victoria Beckham joined award contenders Kenneth Branagh and Gary Oldman on the red carpet for a special event at the British consulate to celebrate the UK industry.

Oldman laughed off his chances of an Oscar for his role as George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, saying he expected to lose out to Jean Dujardin, star of The Artist. But he said he was “thrilled” to be at the awards, describing his first Academy Award nomination as “extremely humbling, gratifying and delightful”. He added: “The Oscars are always something I’ve watched from my sofa.”

Branagh, 51, in the running for best supporting actor for his performance as Sir Laurence Olivier in My Week With Marilyn, is the first person to achieve five different nominations in five categories. He said: “Each time it feels like a once-in-a-lifetime thing, so you value and savour every moment.


Read More:  http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/film/british_stars_prepare_for_academy_awards_1_2139765

The British Invasion of Hollywood (The Celebrity Cafe)

1/2/2012      
 

Jackie Morrison

 

The British Are Coming Back!

Back in the '60s, people said that there was a British invasion when it came to music because of the Beatles and Rolling Stones. However, the British may have been kicked out of America back in 1776 but they still keep trying to overtake America through film. It's not just the accent that gets many people excited with some British actors. Part of the appeal is that British actors have been trained by the best. In England, acting has been seen as a profession and many performers have been trained on the stage. The following actors represent some of the best in British exports that have arrived in Hollywood.

Hugh Grant
In 1994, Hugh Grant became a household name when he starred in Four Weddings and A Funeral. His English schoolboy charm and baby blue eyes instantly made Grant a press favorite. His romance with Elizabeth Hurley also helped cement him as a leading man. His drama training at Oxford must have paid off.


Daniel Craig
The London native is currently James Bond and the star of Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Before his star turn as a 007, Craig was a fixture on the stage in England. Between his Bond roles, Craig appeared on Broadway with Hugh Jackman.



Tom Hardy
Inception may have been a film for Leonardo DiCaprio but it surprised many by introducing them to Tom Hardy. Hardy is a British actor who can shape shift with his face and body. In Warrior, if you didn't know he was from England, you might actually believe that he was once a US Marine. Hardy has a Brando look with the acting chops of fellow Drama Center alumni Sir Anthony Hopkins. He is an actor who brings back classic Hollywood glamour and combines it with his modern bad boy looks.



James McAvoy
This Scottish actor is best remembered for his role in Becoming Jane with Anne Hathaway. He has also made a name for himself for being able to speak with a perfect American accent. McAvoy appeals to a range of fans for his sensitivity and ability to be a nice guy type of sex symbol.



Gerard Butler
Gerard Butler is also from Scotland and his fame began when he had those awesome six pack abs in 300. Butler was once considered for James Bond, but has played more romantic comedy leads recently. He can also sing like a rock star, which gives him a bad boy appeal.

 

 

 

 

http://thecelebritycafe.com/feature/british-invasion-hollywood-01-02-2012

 

 

A tribute to British Actors - Youtube

100 Great British Actors

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

by glyntreharne-1 created 11 months ago | last updated - 10 months ago

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...

8.

Leslie Banks  Leslie Banks

Actor, The Man Who Knew Too Much

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

Actor, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

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...

16.

Richard Briers  Richard Briers

Actor, Much Ado About Nothing and Monarch of the Glen!!

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

Actor, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

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

Actor, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

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...

38.

John Gregson  John Gregson

Actor, Pursuit of the Graf Spee

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...

42.

Robertson Hare  Robertson Hare

Actor, One Wild Oat

43.

Gordon Harker  Gorden Harker

Actor, The Farmer's Wife

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...

48.

Stanley Holloway  Stanley Holloway

Actor, My Fair Lady

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...

51.

Trevor Howard  Trevor Howard

Actor, Gandhi

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...

55.

Mervyn Johns  Mervyn Johns

Actor, Dead of Night

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

Actor, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

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

Actor, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

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...

65.

Garry Marsh  Gary Marsh

Actor, Scrooge

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

Actor, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

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...

79.

Anthony Quayle

Actor, Lawrence of Arabia

80.

Daniel Radcliffe  Daniel Radcliffe

Actor, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

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...

82.

Oliver Reed  Oliver Reed

Actor, Gladiator

83.

Michael Rennie  Michael Rennie

Actor, The Day the Earth Stood Still

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

Self, An Audience with 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!...

85.

Ralph Richardson  Ralph Richardson

Actor, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes

86.

Peter Sellers  Peter Sellers

Actor, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

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...

91.

Terry-Thomas  Terry Thomas

Actor, Robin Hood

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...

93.

Bill Travers

Actor, Born Free

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...

96.

Jack Warner

Actor, The Ladykillers

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?????????