My favourite British Actors of all Time

1. Patrick Stewart

Actor | Logan

Sir Patrick Stewart was born in Mirfield, Yorkshire, England, to Gladys (Barrowclough), a textile worker and weaver, and Alfred Stewart, who was in the army. He was a member of various local drama groups from about age 12. He left school at age 15 to work as a junior reporter on a local paper; he ...

2. David Jason

Actor | Only Fools and Horses

David Jason was born in Edmonton, London, in 1940. He has become one of Britain's most famous, versatile and respected actors, who is most famous for his role in Only Fools and Horses (1981) as Del Boy. He made his debut in the series in 1981 and was still playing the same role up to the Christmas ...

3. George Cole

Actor | Cleopatra

George Cole OBE was a veteran British film, television and stage actor whose impressive career spanned over 60 years. For many, he will perhaps be best remembered for playing one of the most endearing characters of recent times on British television, "Arthur Daley", the shifty but very likable "...

4. Hugh Grant

Actor | Love Actually

Hugh Grant, one of Britain's best known faces, has been equally entertaining on-screen as well as in real life, and has had enough sense of humor to survive a media frenzy. He is known for his roles in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), with Andie MacDowell, Notting Hill (1999), opposite Julia ...

5. Alan Rickman

Actor | Die Hard

Alan Rickman was born on a council estate in Acton, West London, to Margaret Doreen Rose (Bartlett), of English and Welsh descent, and Bernard Rickman, of Irish descent, who worked at a factory. Alan Rickman had an older brother (David), a younger brother (Michael), and a younger sister (Sheila). ...

6. Bill Nighy

Actor | Love Actually

Bill Nighy is an award-winning British character actor. He was born William Francis Nighy on December 12, 1949 in Caterham, Surrey, England, to Catherine Josephine (Whittaker), a psychiatric nurse from Glasgow, and Alfred Martin Nighy, who was English-born and managed a garage in Croydon.

At school,...

7. Bob Hoskins

Actor | The Long Good Friday

Bob Hoskins was described by the director John Mackenzie as "an actor from the British tradition but with an almost American approach, an instinctive approach to acting and knowing how to work with the camera". He was born on October 26, 1942, in Bury St. Edmund's, Suffolk, where his mother was ...

8. Julie Walters

Actress | Billy Elliot

For decades, British actress and comedienne Dame Julie Walters has served as a sturdy representation of the working class with her passionate, earthy portrayals on England's stage, screen and television. A bona fide talent, her infectious spirit and self-deprecating sense of humor eventually ...

9. John Thaw

Actor | Inspector Morse

He was the working class boy from Manchester whose intensity and natural honesty made him British television's most bankable actor. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His first starring role on TV was as Sgt John Mann in Redcap (1964). His first great success, though, was as Detective...

10. Michael Caine

Actor | The Dark Knight

Michael Caine was born as Maurice Joseph Micklewhite in London, to Ellen (née Burchell), a cook, and Maurice Micklewhite Sr., a fish-market porter. He had a younger brother, Stanley Caine, and an older maternal half-brother named David Burchell. He left school at age 15 and took a series of ...

11. Richard Attenborough

Actor | Jurassic Park

Richard Attenborough, Baron Attenborough of Richmond-upon-Thames, 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 ...

12. Roger Moore

Actor | Moonraker

Roger Moore will perhaps always be remembered as the man who replaced Sean Connery in the James Bond series, arguably something he never lived down.

Roger George Moore was born on October 14, 1927 in Stockwell, London, England, the son of Lillian (Pope) and George Alfred Moore, a policeman. His ...

13. Ray Winstone

Actor | The Departed

Ray Winstone was born on February 19, 1957, in Hackney Hospital in London, England, to Margaret (Richardson) and Raymond J. Winstone. He moved to Enfield, at age seven, where his parents had a fruit and vegetable business. He started boxing at the age of twelve at the famous Repton Amateur Boxing ...

14. Judi Dench

Actress | Skyfall

Dame Judi Dench was born Judith Olivia Dench in York, England, to Eleanora Olive (Jones), who was from Dublin, Ireland, and Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor from Dorset, England. She attended Mount School in York, and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She has performed with the ...

15. Liam Neeson

Actor | Kinsey

Liam Neeson was born on June 7, 1952 in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, to Katherine (Brown), a cook, and Bernard Neeson, a school caretaker. He was raised in a Catholic household. During his early years, Liam worked as a forklift operator for Guinness, a truck driver, an assistant architect and an ...

16. Norman Wisdom

Actor | A Stitch in Time

Sir Norman Wisdom has become the great British clown in the mold of Sir Charles Chaplin with his little man in the ill fitting suit and cloth cap. His character is an everyman, much put upon but struggling through to a (usually) happy ending. He was brought up in an orphanage after his mother died ...

17. Tom Wilkinson

Actor | Michael Clayton

Popular British character actor Tom Wilkinson was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, and came from a long line of urban farmers. He was the son of Marjorie (Percival) and Thomas Wilkinson. Economic hardships forced his family to move to Canada for a few years when Wilkinson was a child; then, ...

18. Robert Carlyle

Actor | The Full Monty

Robert Carlyle was born in Maryhill, Glasgow, Scotland, to Elizabeth, a bus company employee, and Joseph Carlyle, a painter and decorator. He was raised by his father after his mother left him when he was four. At the age of 21, after reading Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," he enrolled in acting ...

19. Ian McKellen

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

Widely regarded as one of greatest stage and screen actors both in his native Great Britain and internationally, twice nominated for the Oscar and recipient of every major theatrical award in the UK and US, Ian Murray McKellen was born on May 25, 1939 in Burnley, Lancashire, England, to Margery ...

20. Colin Firth

Actor | A Single Man

Colin Andrew Firth was born into an academic family in Grayshott, Hampshire, England. His mother, Shirley Jean (Rolles), was a comparative religion lecturer at the Open University, and his father, David Norman Lewis Firth, lectured on history at Winchester University College (formerly King Alfred's...

21. Jason Statham

Actor | Crank

Jason Statham was born in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, to Eileen (Yates), a dancer, and Barry Statham, a street merchant and lounge singer. He was a Diver on the British National Diving Team and finished twelfth in the World Championships in 1992. He has also been a fashion model, black market salesman ...

22. Rowan Atkinson

Actor | Johnny English

Rowan Sebastian Atkinson was born on 6 January, 1955, in Consett, Co. Durham, UK, to Ella May (Bainbridge) and Eric Atkinson. His father owned a farm, where Rowan grew up with his two older brothers, Rupert and Rodney. He attended Newcastle University and Oxford University where he earned degrees ...

23. Dennis Waterman

Actor | New Tricks

Dennis Waterman was born on February 24, 1948 in Clapham, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for New Tricks (2003), Sweeney 2 (1978) and Minder (1979). He was married to Pam Flint, Rula Lenska, Patricia Maynard and Penny Dixon. He died on May 8, 2022 in Spain.

24. Phil Daniels

Actor | Chicken Run

Born 1958, to a caretaker father and a mother who was an accounts clerk. He trained at Anna Scher's Childrens Theatre school in London. and worked professionally from the age of 13, became a member of the R S C and made his debut as a director with a fringe production of Caryl Churchill's Fen. His ...

25. Emma Thompson

Actress | Sense and Sensibility

Emma Thompson was born on April 15, 1959 in Paddington, London, into a family of actors - father Eric Thompson and mother Phyllida Law, who has co-starred with Thompson in several films. Her sister, Sophie Thompson, is an actor as well. Her father was English-born and her mother is Scottish-born. ...

26. John Hurt

Actor | Nineteen Eighty-Four

One of stage, screen and TV's finest transatlantic talents, slight, gravel-voiced, pasty-looking John Vincent Hurt was born on January 22, 1940, in Shirebrook, a coal mining village, in Derbyshire, England. The youngest child of Phyllis (Massey), an engineer and one-time actress, and Reverend ...

27. 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 Laverick Broadbent and sculptress Doreen "Dee" (Findlay) Broadbent. Jim attended a Quaker boarding school in Reading before successfully applying for a ...

28. Stan Laurel

Actor | Saps at Sea

Stan Laurel came from a theatrical family, his father was an actor and theatre manager, and he made his stage debut at the age of 16 at Pickard's Museum, Glasgow. He traveled with Fred Karno's vaudeville company to the United States in 1910 and again in 1913. While with that company he was Charles ...

29. Helen Mirren

Actress | The Queen

Dame Helen Mirren was born in Queen Charlotte's Hospital in West London. Her mother, Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda (Rogers), was from a working-class English family, and her father, Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov, was a Russian-born civil servant, from Kuryanovo, whose own father was a diplomat. ...

30. Sean Connery

Actor | The Rock

The tall, handsome and muscular Scottish actor Sean Connery is best known as the original actor to portray James Bond in the hugely successful movie franchise, starring in seven films between 1962 and 1983. Some believed that such a career-defining role might leave him unable to escape it, but he ...

31. Sidney James

Actor | Carry on Cleo

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 named Solomon Joel Cohen, James arrived in England in 1946, second wife ...

32. John Cleese

Actor | A Fish Called Wanda

John Cleese was born on October 27, 1939, in Weston-Super-Mare, England, to Muriel Evelyn (Cross) and Reginald Francis Cleese. He was born into a family of modest means, his father being an insurance salesman; but he was nonetheless sent off to private schools to obtain a good education. Here he ...

33. Alec Guinness

Actor | Star Wars

Alec Guinness was an English actor. He is known for his six collaborations with David Lean: Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations (1946), Fagin in Oliver Twist (1948), Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor), Prince Faisal in Lawrence...

34. Rex Harrison

Actor | My Fair Lady

Rex Harrison was born Reginald Carey Harrison in Huyton, Lancashire, England, to Edith Mary (Carey) and William Reginald Harrison, a cotton broker. He 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 ...

35. Daniel Craig

Actor | Casino Royale

One of the British theatre's most famous faces, Daniel Craig, who waited tables as a struggling teenage actor with the National Youth Theatre, has gone on to star as James Bond in Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2021).

He was born ...

36. Stephen Fry

Actor | Gosford Park

Writer, actor, comedian, doer of good works, excellent good friend to the famous and not, Fry lives in his London SW1 flat and his Norfolk house when not traveling. Famous for his public declaration of celibacy in the "Tatler" back in the 1980s, Emma Thompson has characterised her friend as "90 ...

37. Hugh Laurie

Actor | House M.D.

Hugh was born in Oxford, England on June 11, 1959, to Patricia (Laidlaw) and William George Ranald Mundell "Ran" Laurie, a doctor, both of Scottish descent. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge. Son of an Olympic gold medalist in the sport, he rowed for the England youth team (1977) and for ...

38. Timothy Spall

Actor | Mr. Turner

Timothy Leonard Spall is an award-winning classical character actor who was born on February 27, 1957, and raised in London. The son of blue-collar parents, Joseph L. Spall, a postal worker, and Sylvia R. (Leonard), a hairdresser, his interest in acting happened early and Spall auditioned and ...

39. Oliver Reed

Actor | Gladiator

Robert Oliver Reed was an English actor known for his well-to-do, macho image and "hellraiser" lifestyle. His notable films include The Trap (1966), playing Bill Sikes in the Best Picture Oscar winner Oliver! (1968), Women in Love (1969), Hannibal Brooks (1969), The Devils (1971), Revolver (1973), ...

40. David Tennant

Actor | Doctor Who

Widely considered as one of the greatest stage and screen actors of his generation both in his native Scotland and internationally, David Tennant was born David John McDonald in West Lothian, Scotland, to Essdale Helen (McLeod) and Sandy McDonald, who was a Presbyterian minister. He is of Scottish ...

41. Keira Knightley

Actress | Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Keira Christina Knightley was born March 26, 1985 in the South West Greater London suburb of Richmond. She is the daughter of actor Will Knightley and actress turned playwright Sharman Macdonald. An older brother, Caleb Knightley, was born in 1979. Her father is English, while her Scottish-born ...

42. Richard Harris

Actor | Unforgiven

Richard St John Harris was born on October 1, 1930 in Limerick, Ireland, to a farming family, one of nine children born to Mildred (Harty) and Ivan Harris. He attended Crescent College, a Jesuit school, and was an excellent rugby player, with a strong passion for literature. Unfortunately, a bout ...

43. Denholm Elliott

Actor | A Room with a View

Denholm entered RADA at the age of 17, but dropped out after a year having hated every minute being there. He joined the RAF in 1940, trained as a gunner/radio operator, and was shot down over Germany in 1942. In the POW camp he and his fellow prisoners staged various productions in a theatre ...

44. Robbie Coltrane

Actor | Cracker

Robbie Coltrane, one of Britain's most popular comedians who was head of debating society at school and won prizes for his art, is now a film star who played in two James Bond films and in the "Harry Potter" franchise.

Coltrane was born Anthony Robert McMillan on March 30, 1950, in Rutherglen, a ...

45. 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 ...

46. Maggie Smith

Actress | Gosford Park

One of the world's most famous and distinguished actresses, Dame Maggie Smith was born Margaret Natalie Smith in Essex. Her Scottish mother, Margaret (Hutton), worked as a secretary, and her English father, Nathaniel Smith, was a teacher at Oxford University. Smith has been married twice: to actor ...

47. 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 rigueur. Baker was forged from a rougher mould. His was good-looking, but his features were angular, taut, austere and unwelcoming. His screen persona ...

48. Anthony Hopkins

Actor | The Silence of the Lambs

Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937, in Margam, Wales, to Muriel Anne (Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His parents were both of half Welsh and half English descent. Influenced by Richard Burton, he decided to study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, ...

49. Sacha Baron Cohen

Actor | Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

British actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen was born in Hammersmith, London. He is the son of Daniella (Weiser), a movement instructor, and Gerald Baron Cohen, a clothing store owner. His father, born in England and raised in Wales, was of Eastern European Jewish descent, while his mother was born...

Star of Ali G, Borat, and The Diktator.

50. Michael Palin

Writer | Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Michael Palin is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter. He was one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python.

After the Monty Python television series ended in 1974, the Palin/Jones team worked on Ripping Yarns, an intermittent television comedy series broadcast over ...

51. Harry H. Corbett

Actor | Carry on Screaming!

Harry H Corbett (he added the "H" to avoid being confused with Sooty's friend) was born in Burma in 1925. His father was an officer in the army. His mother died when he was very young and he moved to England as a child and was brought up in Manchester by an aunt.

After his war service, he joined a ...

One of the stars of Steptoe And Son

52. Tom Hardy

Actor | Inception

With his breakthrough performance as Eames in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi thriller Inception (2010), English actor Tom Hardy has been brought to the attention of mainstream audiences worldwide. However, the versatile actor has been steadily working on both stage and screen since his television debut...

53. Bernard Cribbins

Actor | Frenzy

An actor since the age of 14, Bernard Cribbins had become a major star on the London stage by his mid-20s, but it was another ten years before he became a national star by his success in film comedies and with a string of hit records. He appeared in several of the "Carry On" series, and also ...

54. Leonard Rossiter

Actor | 2001: A Space Odyssey

Leonard Rossiter was born on October 21st, 1926 in Liverpool. Unable to afford to go to university, he worked in an insurance office until he was 27, when he joined Preston repertory company and made his professional stage debut in "The Gay Dog". After Preston, he starred in productions at ...

55. Lennard Pearce

Actor | Only Fools and Horses

Lennard Pearce was born on February 9, 1915 in Paddington, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Only Fools and Horses (1981), Only Fools and Horses: Christmas Trees (1982) and Only Fools and Horses: Licensed to Drill (1984). He died on December 15, 1984 in Archway, London, England, UK.

56. Stephen Graham

Actor | This Is England

Stephen Graham was born August 3, 1973, in the small town of Kirkby, Lancashire, to a pediatric nurse mother and a social worker father. His paternal grandfather was Jamaican, and one of his grandmothers was Swedish. After years of small parts, he finally got his big break in an unexpected way, ...

57. Vinnie Jones

Actor | Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Vincent Peter Jones was born on January 5, 1965 in Watford, England. He first came to public notice as a professional footballer, playing in the English Football League. Noted as one of football's hard men, he leaped to fame when a photographer, at a match, snapped him "marking" Newcastle United's ...

58. Paul Barber

Actor | The Full Monty

Paul Barber was born on March 18, 1951 in Liverpool, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Full Monty (1997), Formula 51 (2001) and The Long Good Friday (1980).

59. Roger Lloyd Pack

Actor | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

A superbly versatile character actor of lugubrious countenance and strong physical presence, Roger was the son of Charles Lloyd Pack, a frequent supporting actor in British films of the '50s and '60s. Roger was educated at Bedales, a prestigious co-educational school in Hampshire, noted for a ...

60. Dawn French

Actress | French and Saunders

Dawn was educated at a weekly boarding school in Plymouth and spent the weekends with her grandparents who lived nearby She never felt at home at the school as it was too posh. She met Jennifer Saunders while training to be a teacher at the Central School of Speech and Drama and became flat mates ...

61. Buster Merryfield

Actor | Only Fools and Horses

Buster Merryfield was born on November 27, 1920 in Battersea, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Only Fools and Horses (1981), The Citadel (1983) and Only Fools and Horses: Only Fools Cutaway (1997). He was married to Iris M Mountford. He died on June 23, 1999 in Poole, Dorset, England...

62. Gary Oldman

Actor | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Gary Oldman is a talented English movie star and character actor, renowned for his expressive acting style. One of the most celebrated thespians of his generation, with a diverse career encompassing theatre, film and television, he is known for his roles as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), ...

63. Frank Harper

Actor | Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Frank Harper was born in 1962 in London, England, UK. He is an actor and director, known for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), The Football Factory (2004) and Bend It Like Beckham (2002).

64. Gwyneth Strong

Actress | Only Fools and Horses

Gwyneth was born in London to English/Welsh parents who both worked for the BBC - her father, Colin, directed The Old Grey Whistle Test (1971) and Late Night Line-Up (1964) - but they weren't keen on her becoming an actress. She didn't go to drama school but had acting lessons at her school. She ...

65. Kenneth Connor

Actor | Carry on England

The son of a naval officer who ran what were called "concert parties", Kenneth Connor made his stage debut at age two, and by 11 was performing in both a solo act and a doubles act with his brother in various revue shows. He later decided to become a serious actor rather than just a revue performer...

66. Tim Healy

Actor | A Perfect Spy

The younger son of Timothy Malcolm Healy and Sadie Wilson, as a young lad Tim Healy's family lived in Coulson Street, Benwell, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where his mother had a small shop. When he was 10 years old, they moved to Ouston. He was educated at Pelton Modern School, where he obtained 2 Grade 4...

67. Emma Watson

Actress | The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson was born in Paris, France, to British parents, Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson, both lawyers. She moved to Oxfordshire when she was five, where she attended the Dragon School. From the age of six, Emma knew that she wanted to be an actress and, for a number of years,...

68. Craig Fairbrass

Actor | Cliffhanger

Craig Fairbrass is a leading British actor born in East London who made his feature film debut opposite Academy Award winner Denzel Washington as Challoner in Working Title's powerful British thriller For Queen & Country (1988).

Craig has since gone onto star in some fifty feature films, ...

69. Bernard Bresslaw

Actor | Krull

A RADA scholar who was spotted by Laurence Olivier, Bernard Bresslaw got professional security from the "Carry On" films but was typecast (as TV's The Army Game (1957) had done earlier). He was beginning to extend himself through stage work when, in 1993, just before a performance in "The Taming Of...

70. Danny Dyer

Actor | The Football Factory

Danny Dyer was born in the Custom House area of east London, England, on 24th July 1977. Danny was spotted at a Sunday Drama School for underprivileged kids, in Kentish Town, by the agent Charlotte Kelly who got him an audition for the part of Martin Fletcher in the Granada Television series Prime ...

71. Joanna Lumley

Actress | Absolutely Fabulous

Joanna Lumley was born on 1 May, 1946 in Kashmir, India, to British parents, Thya Beatrice Rose (Weir) and James Rutherford Lumley. Her father was a major in the Gurkha Rifles, and she spent most of her early childhood in the Far East where her father was posted.

An aspiring actress, she first came ...

72. Ricky Gervais

Writer | The Office

Ricky Dene Gervais was born in a suburb of Reading, Berkshire, to Eva Sophia (House) and Lawrence Raymond Gervais, who was a hod carrier and labourer. His father was born in Ontario, Canada, of French-Canadian descent, and his mother was English. He was educated at Ashmead Comprehensive School and ...

73. Alec Guinness

Actor | Star Wars

Alec Guinness was an English actor. He is known for his six collaborations with David Lean: Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations (1946), Fagin in Oliver Twist (1948), Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor), Prince Faisal in Lawrence...

74. Anthony Hopkins

Actor | The Silence of the Lambs

Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937, in Margam, Wales, to Muriel Anne (Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His parents were both of half Welsh and half English descent. Influenced by Richard Burton, he decided to study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, ...

75. Steven Berkoff

Actor | Octopussy

Highly acclaimed English actor, playwright, author and director continues to set the benchmark in stunning, intense performances on both stage and screen. Berkoff was born in Stepney, London in August 1937 and received dramatic arts training in both Paris and London and then moved on to performing ...

76. Joan Sims

Actress | Carry on Up the Khyber

Joan Sims, the "First Lady of Carry On", was born Irene Joan Marion Sims on 9 May 1930. The daughter of an Essex railway station master, Joan was interested in pursuing show-business, and soon became a familiar face in a growing number of amateur productions. In 1946, Joan first applied to RADA, ...

77. Charles Hawtrey

Actor | Don't Lose Your Head

Coming from a theatrical family (although not related to the famous Edwardian actor Sir Charles Hawtrey, he did "borrow" his last name), Charles Hawtrey made his stage debut at age 11 after having spent several years in a prestigious acting school. A string of stage roles followed, and by 1929 his ...

78. Kenneth Williams

Actor | Carry on Cleo

The acting bug bit Kenneth Williams when, as a student, his English teacher suggested he try out for a school play. He found that he enjoyed it tremendously, but when he raised the possibility at home of becoming an actor, his father forbade it. Williams was eventually sent to art school in London ...

79. Kenneth Connor

Actor | Carry on England

The son of a naval officer who ran what were called "concert parties", Kenneth Connor made his stage debut at age two, and by 11 was performing in both a solo act and a doubles act with his brother in various revue shows. He later decided to become a serious actor rather than just a revue performer...

80. Daniel Radcliffe

Actor | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Daniel Jacob Radcliffe was born on July 23, 1989 in Fulham, London, England, to casting agent Marcia Gresham (née Jacobson) and literary agent Alan Radcliffe. His father is from a Northern Irish Protestant background, while his mother was born in South Africa, to a Jewish family (from Lithuania, ...

81. Nicholas Lyndhurst

Actor | Only Fools and Horses

Nicholas Lyndhurst was born on April 20, 1961 in Emsworth, Hampshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Only Fools and Horses (1981), Goodnight Sweetheart (1993) and Rock & Chips (2010). He has been married to Lucy Smith since September 1, 1999. They have one child.

82. Terry Stone

Producer | The Last Heist

Terry Stone began his Acting & Producing career in May 2003 and over the past 20 years has carved an impressive career on both sides of the camera. Terry's naturalistic style of acting has seen him play some memorable leading roles such as a corrupt cop Detective Sargent Andy White in the Bafta ...

83. Brian Conley

Actor | Equilibrium

Brian Conley was born on August 7, 1961 in Paddington, London, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Equilibrium (2002), The Grimleys (1999) and Time After Time (1994). He has been married to Anne-Marie Aindow since August 4, 1996. They have two children.

84. Marina Sirtis

Actress | Star Trek: The Next Generation

Marina Sirtis was born in London, England, to Greek parents, Despina (Yianniri), a tailor's assistant, and John Sirtis. Her parents did not want her to become an actress. As soon as Marina completed high school, she secretly applied to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After her graduation, ...

85. Benny Hill

Soundtrack | The Benny Hill Show

He was born Alfred Hawthorn Hill. It was his grandfather who introduced him to Burlesque Shows and the theatre from where the young Benny Hill was to draw much of his comic inspiration. After his national service with the army during WW2, Benny came to London, adopted the stage name Benny Hill (in ...

86. Johnny Vegas

Actor | Bleak House

Johnny Vegas was born on September 11, 1971 in St. Helens, Merseyside, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for Bleak House (2005), The Libertine (2004) and Happiness (2001). He has been married to Maia Dunphy since March 2011. They have one child. He was previously married to Catherine ...

87. P.H. Moriarty

Actor | Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

The English native P.H. Moriarty began acting late in life, having worked for many years in other professions, including as a boxer and a longshoresman. While a film crew was shooting a scene on the English docks one day, the production crew discovered Moriarty working there, and they asked him to ...

88. Billy Murray

Actor | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Billy Murray has entertained British Television audiences for over thirty years.

He is perhaps best known for his role as DS Don Beech in ITV series The Bill (1984), and has also appeared in EastEnders (1985) as the crime boss "Johnnie Allen".

His on-screen presence is very much underrated and thanks...

89. Alan Ford

Actor | Snatch

Alan Ford was born on February 23, 1938 in Camberwell, London, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for Snatch (2000), An American Werewolf in London (1981) and Cockneys vs Zombies (2012).

90. Mike Reid

Actor | Snatch

Mike Reid was born on January 19, 1940 in Hackney, London, England, UK. He was an actor and producer, known for Snatch (2000), EastEnders (1985) and Doctor Who: Dimensions in Time (1993). He was married to Shirley Collins and Sheila A Axe. He died on July 29, 2007 in Marbella, Spain.

91. Maggie Smith

Actress | Gosford Park

One of the world's most famous and distinguished actresses, Dame Maggie Smith was born Margaret Natalie Smith in Essex. Her Scottish mother, Margaret (Hutton), worked as a secretary, and her English father, Nathaniel Smith, was a teacher at Oxford University. Smith has been married twice: to actor ...

92. Charles Chaplin

Writer | The Great Dictator

Considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular character, the Little Tramp; the man with the ...

93. Laurence Olivier

Actor | Sleuth

Laurence Olivier could speak William Shakespeare's lines as naturally as if he were "actually thinking them", said English playwright Charles Bennett, who met Olivier in 1927. Laurence Kerr Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey, England, to Agnes Louise (Crookenden) and Gerard Kerr Olivier, a High ...

94. Tom Hiddleston

Actor | The Avengers

Thomas William Hiddleston was born in Westminster, London, to English-born Diana Patricia (Servaes) and Scottish-born James Norman Hiddleston. His mother is a former stage manager, and his father, a scientist, was the managing director of a pharmaceutical company. He started off at the preparatory ...

95. Ewan McGregor

Actor | Moulin Rouge!

Ewan Gordon McGregor was born on March 31, 1971 in Perth, Perthshire, Scotland, to Carol Diane (Lawson) and James Charles McGregor, both teachers. His uncle is actor Denis Lawson. He was raised in Crieff. At age 16, he left Morrison Academy to join the Perth Repertory Theatre. His parents ...

96. Daniel Day-Lewis

Actor | There Will Be Blood

Born in London, England, Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is the second child of Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate of the U.K., and his second wife, actress Jill Balcon. His maternal grandfather was Sir Michael Balcon, an important figure in the history of British cinema and head of the famous Ealing ...

97. Ben Kingsley

Actor | Sexy Beast

Ben Kingsley was born Krishna Bhanji on December 31, 1943 in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England. His father, Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, was a Kenyan-born medical doctor, of Gujarati Indian descent, and his mother, Anna Lyna Mary (Goodman), was an English actress. Ben began to act in stage plays during ...

98. Idris Elba

Actor | Beasts of No Nation

An only child, Idrissa Akuna Elba was born and raised in London, England. His father, Winston, is from Sierra Leone and worked at Ford Dagenham; his mother, Eve, is from Ghana and had a clerical duty. Idris attended school in Canning Town, where he first became involved in acting, before he dropped...

99. Miriam Margolyes

Actress | The Age of Innocence

A veteran of stage and screen, award-winning actress Miriam Margolyes has achieved success on both sides of the Atlantic. Winner of the BAFTA Best Supporting Actress award in 1993 for The Age of Innocence (1993), she received Best Supporting Actress at the 1989 LA Critics Circle Awards for her role...

100. Eddie Redmayne

Actor | Les Misérables

British actor Eddie Redmayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor (for The Theory of Everything (2014)).

Edward John David Redmayne was born and raised in London, England, the son of Patricia (Burke) and Richard Charles Tunstall Redmayne, a businessman. His great-grandfather was Sir Richard ...