British & Irish Actors (Deceased)

1. Alastair Sim

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 ...

2. 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...

3. 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 ...

4. Diana Rigg

Actress | Last Night in Soho

British actress Dame Diana Rigg was born on July 20, 1938 in Doncaster, Yorkshire, England. She has had an extensive career in film and theatre, including playing the title role in "Medea", both in London and New York, for which she won the 1994 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

Rigg made her ...

5. Ray Stevenson

Actor | The Three Musketeers

An imposing figure (standing at 6'3") with intense, penetrating eyes and possessed of a larger-than-life personality, the actor George Raymond Stevenson began life as one of three sons, born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, to a British pilot in the Royal Air Force. Raised near Newcastle in ...

6. Haydn Gwynne

Actress | Beauty and the Beast

Haydn Gwynne was fluent in French and Italian. She studied Modern Languages at the University of Warwick before taking a five-year lectureship in Italy, where she taught English. She also drove across the United States before becoming an actress in her mid-twenties.

She first came to notice on ...

7. Ronan Vibert

Actor | Saving Mr. Banks

The name may not be familiar but the face surely would be. Ronan Vibert will be remembered as an incisive character actor who was noted for his television appearances on both sides of the Atlantic. The son of artists David Vibert and his wife Dilys (née Jackson), he was born in Cambridgeshire, but ...

8. John Boswall

Actor | Nineteen Eighty-Four

John Boswall was born on May 2, 1920 in Oxfordshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for 1984 (1984), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) and Three Men and a Little Lady (1990). He died on June 6, 2011 in South Woodchester, Gloucestershire, England, UK.

9. Charlotte Coleman

Actress | Four Weddings and a Funeral

Charlotte Coleman was born in Islington, London, England as Charlotte Ninon Coleman. She was an actress, known for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1989), Worzel Gummidge (1979-1982), Educating Marmalade (1983), Danger: Marmalade at Work (1984) and Beautiful ...

10. Elspet Gray

Actress | Four Weddings and a Funeral

Elspet Gray was born on April 12, 1929 in Inverness, Inverness Shire, Scotland, UK. She was an actress, known for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Six with Rix (1972) and Fly Away Peter (1948). She was married to Brian Rix. She died on February 18, 2013 in London, England, UK.

11. Philip Voss

Actor | Octopussy

Philip Voss was born on August 20, 1936 in Leicester, Leicestershire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Octopussy (1983), About Time (2013) and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). He died on November 13, 2020 in Watford, Hertfordshire, England, UK.

12. Kenneth Griffith

Actor | Four Weddings and a Funeral

Kenneth went to a grammar school in South Wales where the English literary teacher had the class read out parts in plays, which was the one thing he enjoyed; as a result, he was put in a play about Richard II. A local critic wrote, 'If this boy chooses to make the stage a career he should do well,'...

13. Corin Redgrave

Actor | A Man for All Seasons

Corin Redgrave, a towering, award-winning force on the British stage but a lesser universally recognized third-generation scion of the acting dynasty, was the reddish-haired middle brother of his more internationally famous sisters, Vanessa Redgrave and Lynn Redgrave who achieved widespread ...

14. Robert Lang

Actor | Four Weddings and a Funeral

Robert Lang was born on September 24, 1934 in Bristol, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), The Dance of Death (1969) and 1990 (1977). He was married to Ann Bell. He died on November 6, 2004 in Sutton, Surrey, England, UK.

15. Jeremy Kemp

Actor | Top Secret!

This fair-haired, craggy-faced English character actor was born Edmund Jeremy James Walker, scion of Yorkshire landed gentry. After national service with the Gordon Highlanders and the Black Watch, Kemp adopted his mother's maiden name as his stage moniker and studied acting at the Central School ...

16. Rosalie Crutchley

Actress | The Haunting

Acclaimed actress Rosalie Crutchley originally trained at the Royal Academy of Music. She made her acting debut in repertory in 1938 at the Liverpool Playhouse. She made her Broadway debut in 1950. The Guild of Television named her best actress of the year in 1956 for Armchair Theatre: Black ...

17. 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 ...

18. Julian Sands

Actor | A Room with a View

Tall, gaunt, and particularly effective in horror and drama films, British actor Julian Sands was born in Otley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, to Brenda and William Sands. He came to the attention of NBC when the network cast him in the TV miniseries The Sun Also Rises (1984) and then with Anthony Hopkins...

19. Fabia Drake

Actress | A Room with a View

Fabia Drake was born on January 20, 1904 in Herne Bay, Kent, England, UK. She was an actress, known for A Room with a View (1985), Valmont (1989) and The Good Companions (1957). She was married to Maxwell Joseph Hall Turner. She died on February 28, 1990 in London, England, UK.

20. Rosemary Leach

Actress | A Room with a View

English character actress with a penchant for genteel aristocrats and kindly mothers. The daughter of teachers, she "spent some time selling shoes in Reading" before entering the acting profession. Aged eighteen, she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made her debut in repertory ...

21. John Carson

Actor | Doomsday

John Carson was a hugely prolific actor who appeared constantly on UK screens throughout the mid-50s until the mid-80s. He has appeared alongside many of the UK's stars and became hugely popular as a villain or hero. The secret of John's success was his versatility and his wonderful silky voice. He...

22. Donald Eccles

Actor | The Wicker Man

Donald Eccles was born on April 26, 1908 in Nafferton, East Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Wicker Man (1973), The Theban Plays by Sophocles (1986) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968). He died on February 2, 1986 in Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK.

23. Constance Chapman

Actress | A Kind of Loving

Constance Chapman was born on March 29, 1912 in Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, England, UK. She was an actress, known for A Kind of Loving (1982), Born and Bred (1978) and The Avengers (1961). She was married to Travers Cousins. She died on August 10, 2003 in Bristol, England, UK.

24. Rosalind Knight

Actress | About a Boy

Born in Marylebone, London, versatile character actress Rosalind Marie Knight was born to theatrical parentage. Her father was the accomplished thespian Esmond Knight. Her mother, the comedienne Frances Clare, often featured in Ivor Novello operettas. Rosalind's interest in theatre was first ...

25. 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 ...

26. Rosemary Martin

Actress | Tess

Rosemary Martin was born on December 17, 1936 in Birmingham, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Tess (1979), Fox (1980) and Middlemarch (1994). She was married to Norman Boyack and Ron Eagleton. She died on August 14, 1998 in Camden, London, England, UK.

27. Peter Vaughan

Actor | Straw Dogs

A true character actor in the best sense of the word, offbeat British thespian Peter Vaughan's hefty frame could appear intimidating or benevolent; his mere presence menacing or avuncular. Adept at playing both sides of the law, his characters usually possessed a strange, somewhat wary countenance ...

28. John Mills

Actor | Great Expectations

Sir John Mills, one of the most popular and beloved English actors, was born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills on February 22, 1908, at the Watts Naval Training College in North Elmham, Norfolk, England. The young Mills grew up in Felixstowe, Suffolk, where his father was a mathematics teacher and his ...

29. Maurice Roëves

Actor | The Last of the Mohicans

Although born in Sunderland, he spent most of his life in Scotland and considers himself a true Scot. As a child he suffered from asthma and considers his recovery from it was due to playing the bugle in the Boys' Brigade. Educated in Glasgow, he toyed with the idea of becoming a teacher but after ...

30. Angela Thorne

Actress | To the Manor Born

Angela Thorne was born on January 25, 1939 in Karachi, Sindh, British India. She was an actress, known for To the Manor Born (1979), Mystery and Imagination (1966) and The BFG (1989). She was married to Peter Penry-Jones. She died on June 16, 2023 in Battersea, London, England, UK.

31. Mary Wimbush

Actress | K-9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend

Mary Wimbush was a stalwart actress of repertory and West End theatre, who played three separate roles in the long-running BBC Radio serial "The Archers".

She was born in Kenton, Middlesex in 1924. Her father was a schoolmaster and her mother trained at RADA, but did not pursue a career on the stage...

32. Paul Daneman

Actor | Zulu

Paul Daneman was born on October 29, 1925 in Islington, London, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Zulu (1964), Precious Bane (1957) and Corrigan Blake (1962). He was married to Susan Courtney and Meredith Kinmont. He died on April 28, 2001 in London, England, UK.

33. Isabel Dean

Actress | Sense and Sensibility

In a career spanning 50 years, Isabel Dean demonstrated talent and versatility while never fulfilling the great promise initially indicated. With large eyes and classically chiseled features, she became best known as an exponent of somewhat steely patrician ladies of elegance and breeding. That she...

34. Robert Flemyng

Actor | Funny Face

Robert Flemyng was born on January 3, 1912 in Liverpool, England, UK. He was an actor and producer, known for Funny Face (1957), Kafka (1991) and Battle of Britain (1969). He was married to Carmen Martha Sugars. He died on May 22, 1995 in London, England, UK.

35. Meriel Forbes

Actress | Home at Seven

Meriel Forbes was born on September 13, 1913 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Murder on Monday (1952), Blandings Castle (1967) and Young Man's Fancy (1939). She was married to Ralph Richardson. She died on April 7, 2000 in London, England, UK.

36. Ian Holm

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

Sir Ian Holm was one of the world's greatest actors, a Laurence Olivier Award-winning, Tony Award-winning, BAFTA-winning and Academy Award-nominated British star of films and the stage. He was a member of the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company and has played more than 100 roles in films and on ...

37. David Lodge

Actor | The Return of the Pink Panther

David was the son of a naval seaman at Gillingham and worked to help keep his family during the depression of the 30';s from working as a milkman to being a butchers boy. He found his acting talent in RAF concerts and later in music halls and pantomimes then a film casting agent who'd seen him as a...

38. Joe Melia

Actor | The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

While in the army he appeared in camp shows then when demobbed got a flat in London's West End and worked in morning jobs as a Covent Garden porter, in a bakery and on a railway, slept during the afternoon then in the evening with no actual training he more or less conned his way into doing bits in...

39. Guy Middleton

Actor | The Happiest Days of Your Life

Lean, jaunty British character actor with military-style moustache and easy manner who specialised in playing dapper scoundrels, philanderers, dissipated bon vivants and con artists in a career lasting three and a half decades. Born in Hove, East Sussex, he spent two years working on the London ...

40. Cecil Parker

Actor | The Lady Vanishes

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...

41. Natasha Parry

Actress | Romeo and Juliet

Natasha Parry was born on December 2, 1930 in Kensington, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Romeo and Juliet (1968), Midnight Lace (1960) and Crow Hollow (1952). She was married to Peter Brook. She died on July 22, 2015 in Saint-Nazaire, Loire-Atlantique, France.

42. Gerald Sim

Actor | Frenzy

A stalwart, subtle presence of British stage and screen, Gerald Sim's work was both prolific and varied. Nonetheless, he will be best remembered by the majority of viewers as the wily rector of To the Manor Born (1979). The son of a Barings Bank employee, Gerald was born in Liverpool on June 4, ...

43. Thorley Walters

Actor | Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes

Son of a clergyman, the British character actor Thorley Walters was born in 1913 in Teigngrace, Devonshire, England. After stage experience, in which he played Shakespearean and light leading roles, he made his film debut in The Love Test (1935) and continued his early film career with numerous ...

44. Anthony Ainley

Actor | Doctor Who

Anthony Ainley was a notable British actor and a member of a distinguished British acting family. His brother was Richard Ainley (1910-1967) and his father Henry Ainley (1879-1945). He worked in the theatre for many years and eventually found work in various historical film dramas in the 1970s. ...

45. Michael Bates

Actor | A Clockwork Orange

Michael Bates was born on December 4, 1920 in Jhansi, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, British India. He was an actor, known for A Clockwork Orange (1971), Frenzy (1972) and Patton (1970). He was married to Margaret M. J. Chisholm. He died on January 11, 1978 in Chelsea, London, England, UK.

46. Geoffrey Davies

Actor | Doctor in the House

Geoffrey Davies was born on December 15, 1938 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Doctor in the House (1969), Doctor at Large (1971) and Doctor in Charge (1972). He was married to Ann Wheeler. He died on July 13, 2023.

47. Peter Gilmore

Actor | Carry on Up the Khyber

German-born Peter Gilmore came to the UK at the age of six, to be raised by relatives. He quit school at age 14, and pursuing his dream of becoming an actor, attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts for a short time, before being expelled. A stint in the army led to the discovery that he had a ...

48. Norman Jones

Actor | You Only Live Twice

Norman Jones was born on June 16, 1932 in Donnington, Telford, Shropshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for You Only Live Twice (1967), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and Curtain of Fear (1964). He died on April 23, 2013 in Newport, Shropshire, England, UK.

49. Angus Lennie

Actor | The Great Escape

Angus Lennie was born on April 18, 1930 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for The Great Escape (1963), Doctor Who (1963) and Para Handy - Master Mariner (1959). He died on September 14, 2014 in Acton, London, England, UK.

50. Dirk Bogarde

Actor | The Servant

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...

51. Phyllis Calvert

Actress | Mandy

Phyllis Hannah Bickle was born in Chelsea in 1915 and studied dancing at the Margaret Morris school of dance, until an injury forced her to give up dancing and turn instead to acting. Her 70 year film career began with a bit part in The Arcadians (1927) when she was just 12 years old. Along with ...

52. John Clements

Actor | The Four Feathers

John Clements hailed from southern England and was educated at St Paul's School in London and St John's College, Cambridge. His acting aspiration prompted his first stage appearance at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in 1930 in the play "Out of the Blue". Through the 1930s, he continued to develop ...

53. John Gielgud

Actor | Arthur

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 ...

54. 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 ...

55. Kenneth More

Actor | The Longest Day

Kenneth Gilbert More C.B.E. (20 September 1914 - 12 July 1982) was one of Britain's most successful and highest paid actors of his generation, with a multi award-winning career in theatre, film and television spanning over 4 decades.

At the height of his fame during the 1950's More appeared in some ...

56. 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 ...

57. Michael Redgrave

Actor | The Lady Vanishes

Sir Michael Redgrave was of the generation of English actors that gave the world the legendary John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, Britain three fabled "Theatrical Knights" back in the days when a knighthood for thespian was far more rare than it is today. A superb actor, Redgrave ...

58. Ralph Richardson

Actor | Doctor Zhivago

Sir Ralph Richardson was one of the greatest actors of the 20th Century English-language theater, ascending to the height of his profession in the mid-1930s when he became a star in London's West End. He became the first actor of his generation to be knighted. He became Sir Ralph in 1947, and was ...

59. Susannah York

Actress | A Man for All Seasons

The lovely Susannah York, a gamine, blue-eyed, cropped-blonde British actress, displayed a certain crossover star quality when she dared upon the Hollywood scene in the early 1960s. A purposefully intriguing, enigmatic and noticeably uninhibited talent, she was born Susannah Yolande Fletcher on ...

60. Trevor Howard

Actor | The Third Man

The son of an insurance underwriter who represented Lloyd's of London in Ceylon, Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith was born in Margate, Kent. He spent his early childhood globetrotting with his mother, frequently left in the care of strangers. After attending private school he went on to study drama at ...

61. Ian Charleson

Actor | Chariots of Fire

Being born and raised in Edinburgh, Charleson attended the Royal High School and then went on to attend Edinburgh University. He initially studied architecture but switched to an MA degree after cultivating an interest in acting. He won a place at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art after ...

62. Ian Bannen

Actor | Waking Ned

Scottish character actor and occasional leading man who enlivened scores of fine films in Britain and America. His father was a lawyer in a small town in Lanarkshire. Bannen served in the army and attended Ratcliffe College, Leicestershire. His first acting role came in a 1947 Dublin production of ...

63. Michael Bryant

Actor | Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Michael Bryant was born on April 5, 1928 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), The Ruling Class (1972) and Nicholas and Alexandra (1971). He was married to Judith Coke and Josephine Martin. He died on April 25, 2002 in Richmond, London, England, UK.

64. Richard Griffiths

Actor | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The avuncular star character actor Richard Griffiths grew up in a council flat in less than prosperous conditions, the son of deaf and volatile parents in a dysfunctional family setting. According to an article in the Telegraph newspaper, his father Thomas was a steelworker 'who fought in pubs for ...

65. Nigel Hawthorne

Actor | The Madness of King George

Widely regarded as one of the greatest stage and screen actors both in his native UK and internationally, the unparalleled Nigel Hawthorne was born in Coventry, England on 5 April 1929, raised in South Africa and returned to the UK in the 1950s with his extensive work as a great gentleman of acting...

66. Bernard Hepton

Actor | Get Carter

Tall, dignified-looking Bernard Hepton enjoyed a six-decade-long career on both stage and screen during which he particularly excelled at subtle, self-effacing, or introspective roles. An electrician's son, Hepton grew up in the West Yorkshire city of Bradford. Due to poor eyesight, he missed out ...

67. Michael Hordern

Actor | Where Eagles Dare

Some of Hordern's finest work was not in films or television but on radio: His performance as Gandalf in the BBC's radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings was arguably the definitive portrayal of that character (contrast Hordern's Gandalf with that of Ian McKellen in the 3-part film adaptation of...

68. Richard Vernon

Actor | Goldfinger

Dignified, aristocratic-looking Richard Vernon was born to English parents in Kenya. He was educated at Reading and Leighton Park Schools and commenced his acting career near the end of his wartime service with the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, producing, directing and starring in a production of ...

69. Ken Hutchison

Actor | Ladyhawke

One of the most brilliant character actors of his generation, Hollywood's loss was British television's gain with Ken Hutchison. Born in Scotland, his handsome features and cheeky expression guaranteed him a career in character roles, but his dangerous streak led him early in his career into dark, ...

70. Avis Bunnage

Actress | Gandhi

Mildred Avis Bunnage (she later dropped her forename), daughter of William and Eveline (Ward) Bunnage, attended Manley Park Municipal School and Chorlton Central School in Manchester. She formerly worked as a secretary and nursery teacher before deciding to switch careers and become an actress. She...

71. David Markham

Actor | Tales from the Crypt

David Markham was born on April 3, 1913 in Wick, Worcestershire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Tales from the Crypt (1972), Day for Night (1973) and Tess (1979). He was married to Olive Dehn. He died on December 15, 1983 in Coleman's Hatch, East Sussex, England, UK.

72. Roger Hammond

Actor | The King's Speech

Roger Hammond (21 March 1936 - 8 November 2012) was an English character actor who appeared in many films and television series.

Hammond's father was a chartered accountant and managing director of a cotton mill. He attended Stockport Grammar School for two years followed by Bryanston School in ...

73. Michael Gambon

Actor | Gosford Park

Sir Michael Gambon was born in Cabra, Dublin, Ireland, to Mary (Hoare), a seamstress, and Edward Gambon, an engineer. After joining the National Theatre, under the Artistic Directorship of Sir Laurence Olivier, Gambon went on to appear in a number of leading roles in plays written by Alan Ayckbourn...

74. Helen McCrory

Actress | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2

Award-winning actress Helen Elizabeth McCrory was born in London, England, to Welsh-born Anne (Morgans) and Scottish-born Iain McCrory, a diplomat from Glasgow. After training at the Drama Centre London, Helen began her career on stage in the UK and won the Manchester Evening News' Best Actress ...

75. Benjamin Zephaniah

Actor | Peaky Blinders

Benjamin Zephaniah was born on April 15, 1958 in Handsworth, Birmingham, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Peaky Blinders (2013), Percy Lifar and EastEnders (1985). He was married to Amina. He died on December 7, 2023 in the UK.

76. Una Stubbs

Actress | Sherlock

Her dancing career started in Leicestershire where her father worked in an aircraft factory. She went into pantomime as a chorus girl and eventually became known when she did a chocolate commercial which led to work on television and films, Despite what other people say she doesn't think that shes ...

77. Olivia de Havilland

Actress | Gone with the Wind

Olivia Mary de Havilland was born on July 1, 1916 in Tokyo, Japan to British parents, Lilian Augusta (Ruse), a former actress, and Walter Augustus de Havilland, an English professor and patent attorney. Her sister Joan, later to become famous as Joan Fontaine, was born the following year. Her ...

78. Claude Rains

Actor | Casablanca

William Claude Rains, born in the Clapham area of London, was the son of the British stage actor Frederick Rains. The younger Rains followed, making his stage debut at the age of eleven in "Nell of Old Drury." Growing up in the world of theater, he saw not only acting up close but the down-to-earth...

79. Patric Knowles

Actor | The Adventures of Robin Hood

Fourteen-year-old Reginald Lawrence Knowles was being readied to take his place with other relatives in the family bookbinding business (in Leeds) when he ran off to become an actor. He was inevitably brought back home, but he made good his second escape a few years later - his willful Knowles ...

80. Melville Cooper

Actor | The Adventures of Robin Hood

Born George Melville Cooper on October 15, 1896, in Birmingham England, he was the son of non-professionals W.C.J. and Frances (Brennan) Cooper, and attended various English public schools, including King Edward's School in Birmingham. Attracted to the stage as a teenager, he made his debut at ...

81. Ian Hunter

Actor | The Adventures of Robin Hood

Ian Hunter was born in the Kenilworth area of Cape Town, South Africa where he spent his childhood. In his teen years he and his parents returned to the family origins in England to live. Sometime between that arrival and the early years of World War I, Hunter began exploring acting, then in 1917 -...

82. Una O'Connor

Actress | Bride of Frankenstein

Delightful character actress who held her own against such acting heavyweights as Charles Laughton, Boris Karloff, Tyrone Power, Barbara Stanwyck, and Sydney Greenstreet. Often cast by studio heads as comic relief thanks to her thick Irish accent and rubber-faced expressions, most notably in ...

83. Herbert Mundin

Actor | The Adventures of Robin Hood

Herbert Mundin was born on August 21, 1898 in St. Helens, Merseyside, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), David Copperfield (1935) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). He was married to Ann Shaw and Hilda Frances Hoyes. He died on March 5, 1939 in Van Nuys, ...

84. Montagu Love

Actor | Gunga Din

Montague Love - certainly an intriguing name - but his own - started his working life as a newspaper man in London. His primary expertise centered on being a field illustrator and cartoonist who covered the Boer War (1899-1902). His realistic battle sketches gained him popularity among readers, but...

85. Colin Kenny

Actor | The Adventures of Robin Hood

Already accomplished in his homeland, Irish actor Colin Kenny came to the US in 1917 to make his bid for film stardom. To the best of his memory, there would be over 150 of them. Silent movies were more generous in ladling out cast credit. He had steady roles from 1918 to the late 1920s. One of his...

86. Lester Matthews

Actor | The Adventures of Robin Hood

Lester Matthews was born on June 6, 1900 in Nottingham, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Werewolf of London (1935) and The Three Musketeers (1939). He was married to Cicely Walper and Anne Grey. He died on June 6, 1975 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

87. Harry Cording

Actor | The Adventures of Robin Hood

Harry Cording was born on April 26, 1891 in Wellington, Somerset, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Narcotic (1933) and Gypsy Wildcat (1944). He was married to Margaret Fiero. He died on September 1, 1954 in Sun Valley, California, USA.

88. Meg Wynn Owen

Actress | Gosford Park

Meg Wynn Owen was born on November 8, 1939 in Lancaster, Lancashire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Gosford Park (2001), Pride & Prejudice (2005) and Scoop (2006). She was married to William Wright. She died on July 16, 2022 in Cardiff, Wales, UK.

89. Frank Thornton

Actor | Are You Being Served?

He was the third child of William Ernest Ball, a bank manager and Rosina whose other children were Marjorie, who died in 1980 and John, Thornton was his mother's maiden name and his middle name, He played the cello in his school's orchestra and was a corporal in the Officer's Training Corps which ...

90. Dermot Morgan

Actor | Father Ted

Dermot went to University College Dublin, where he studied English and Philosopy. In 1974 he took up a teaching post, but left 2 years later to persue the comedy career that he had started at university. In 1979 his first introduction to TV came with an appearance on "Live Mike" on RTE television ...

91. Frank Kelly

Actor | Father Ted

Frank Kelly was born on December 28, 1938 in Blackrock, County Dublin, Ireland. He was an actor, known for Father Ted (1995), Evelyn (2002) and Rat (2000). He was married to Bairbre Neldon. He died on February 28, 2016 in the UK.

92. Alec McCowen

Actor | Never Say Never Again

Alec McCowen was born Alexander Duncan McCowan on May 26, 1925 in Tunbridge Wells, England. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he made his professional debut in 1942. He established his reputation in classical stage roles, appearing in the ensemble of Laurence Olivier's famed ...

93. Joe Robinson

Actor | Diamonds Are Forever

Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1927 (not 1929 as some references give) Joe Robinson came from a famous family of wrestlers. Both his father Joseph Robinson Senior and grandfather John were world champions. Following in their footsteps Joe Junior won the wrestling European Heavyweight Championship ...

94. Ben Cross

Actor | Star Trek

Ben Cross was born Harry Bernard Cross on December 16, 1947, in London, England. He was the son of Catherine (O'Donovan), a cleaning woman, from Keelraheen, Dunmanway, Ireland, and Harry Cross, an English doorman and nurse. He began acting at a very young age and participated in grammar school ...

95. Nigel Davenport

Actor | A Man for All Seasons

Nigel Davenport was born on May 23, 1928 in Shelford, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for A Man for All Seasons (1966), Chariots of Fire (1981) and The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977). He was married to Maria Aitken and Helena Margaret White. He died on October 25, 2013 ...

96. Patrick Magee

Actor | A Clockwork Orange

Born in Armagh, Northern Ireland, Patrick Magee is a classic example of how certain actors rate the stage far more highly than the screen. He was a favorite actor of Samuel Beckett, one of whose greatest plays, 'Krapp's Last Tape', was written specifically for him. He did outstanding work on film, ...

97. Jeremy Sinden

Actor | Star Wars

Jeremy Sinden was born on June 14, 1950 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Chariots of Fire (1981) and The Far Pavilions (1984). He was married to Delia Lindsay. He died on May 29, 1996 in London, England, UK.

98. John Young

Actor | Monty Python and the Holy Grail

John Young was born on June 16, 1916 in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Life of Brian (1979) and Chariots of Fire (1981). He died on October 30, 1996 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK.

99. Jack Smethurst

Actor | Chariots of Fire

Jack Smethurst was born on April 9, 1932 in Collyhurst, Manchester, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Chariots of Fire (1981), For the Love of Ada (1972) and A Kind of Loving (1962). He was married to Julie Nicholls. He died on February 16, 2022 in the UK.

100. Andrew Ray

Actor | The Mudlark

Andrew Ray was born on May 31, 1939 in Southgate, Middlesex, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Mudlark (1950), Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957) and Edward & Mrs. Simpson (1978). He was married to Susan Burnet. He died on August 20, 2003 in London, England, UK.