Margaret Dumont (1882 - 1965) was an American stage and film actress. She is best remembered as the comic foil to the Marx Brothers in seven of their films. Groucho Marx called her "practically the fifth Marx brother."
In 1925, Dumont came to the attention of theatrical producer Sam H Harris who recommended her to the Marx Brothers and writer George S Kaufman for the role of the wealthy dowager Mrs Potter alongside the Marxes in their Broadway production of The Cocoanuts. In the Marxes' next Broadway show Animal Crackers, which opened in October 1928, Dumont again was cast as foil and straight woman Mrs Rittenhouse, another rich society dowager. She appeared with the Marxes in the screen versions of both The Cocoanuts (1929) and Animal Crackers (1930).

With the Marx Brothers, Dumont played wealthy high-society widows whom Groucho alternately insulted and romanced for their money:


The Cocoanuts (1929) as Mrs Potter,
Animal Crackers (1930) as Mrs Rittenhouse,
Duck Soup (1933) as Mrs Gloria Teasdale,
A Night at the Opera (1935) as Mrs Claypool,
A Day at the Races (1937) as Mrs Emily Upjohn,
At the Circus (1939) as Mrs Susanna Dukesbury,
The Big Store (1941) as Martha Phelps

Sir Reginald "Rex" Harrison (1908 - 1990) was an English actor.
Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play French Without Tears, in what was his breakthrough role. He won his first Tony Award for his performance as Henry VIII in the play Anne of the Thousand Days in 1949. He won his second Tony for the role of Professor Henry Higgins in the stage production of My Fair Lady in 1957.

In addition to his stage career, Harrison also appeared in numerous films. His first starring role was opposite Vivien Leigh in the romantic comedy Storm in a Teacup (1937). Receiving critical acclaim for his performance in Major Barbara (1941), which was shot in London during the Blitz, his roles since then included Blithe Spirit (1945), Anna and the King of Siam (1946), The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947), Cleopatra (1963), My Fair Lady (1964), reprising his role as Henry Higgins which earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor, and the titular character in Doctor Dolittle (1967).

In 1975, Harrison released his first autobiography. In June 1989, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. He was married six times and had two sons: Noel and Carey Harrison. He continued working in stage productions until shortly before his death from pancreatic cancer in June 1990 at the age of 82. His second autobiography, A Damned Serious Business: My Life in Comedy,

Sir Anthony Hopkins CBE (born 1937) is a Welsh actor, film director, and film producer. He has received many accolades, including two Academy Awards for Best Actor.
After graduating from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in 1957, Hopkins trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and was then spotted by Laurence Olivier who invited him to join the Royal National Theatre in 1965. Productions at the National included King Lear, his favourite Shakespeare play.
In 1968, Hopkins achieved recognition in film, playing Richard the Lionheart in The Lion in Winter. In the mid-1970s, Richard Attenborough, who directed five Hopkins films, called him "the greatest actor of his generation." In 1991, he portrayed Hannibal Lecter in the psychological horror film The Silence of the Lambs, winning the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Other notable films include The Elephant Man (1980), 84 Charing Cross Road (1987), Howards End (1992), The Remains of the Day (1993),Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992),

Charles Laughton played a wide range of classical and modern parts, making an impact in Shakespeare at the Old Vic.
His film career took him to Broadway and then Hollywood, but he also collaborated with Alexander Korda on notable British films of the era, including The Private Life of Henry VIII, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the title character.
He portrayed everything from monsters and misfits to kings.
Among Laughton's biggest film hits were The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Mutiny on the Bounty, Ruggles of Red Gap, Jamaica Inn, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Big Clock.
In his later career, he took up stage directing, notably in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, and George Bernard Shaw's Don Juan in Hell, in which he also starred. He directed one film, the thriller The Night of the Hunter.

One of the most recognizable deep voices in all of film, radio or television.
Frequently wrote, directed, and/or starred in films that feature the rise and fall of the main character, often unmade by their own vices: Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane (1941), George Amberson Minafer in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Macbeth in Macbeth (1948), Othello in Othello (1951), Gregory Arkadin in Confidential Report (1955), Detective Hank Quinlan in Touch of Evil (1958), Sir John Falstaff in Chimes at Midnight (1965).

Already trained in dance and theater, Webb quit school at age 13 to study music and painting. By 19 he was a professional ballroom dancer in New York, and by his mid-twenties he was performing in musicals, dramas on Broadway and in London, and in silent movies.
His first real success in film came in middle age as the classy villain Waldo Lydecker in Laura (1944), followed by the part of Elliott Templeton in The Razor's Edge (1946) - both of which won him Oscar nominations.

His priggish Mr Belvedere in a series of films was supposedly not far removed from his fastidious, finicky, fussy, abrasive and condescending real-life persona. He was inseparable from his overbearing mother Maybelle, with whom he lived until her death at 91, six years before his own death.
The recent success of Titanic (1997) created brief interest due his having appeared with Barbara Stanwyck in the 1953 version of the story.

His elegant taste kept him on Hollywood's best-dressed lists for decades. His scrupulously-private gay life has also been respective one to his personality as a true gentleman.

Edward G Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg; Yiddish: עמנואל גאָלדנבערג

Golden Age Hollywood's ultimate , Edward Robinson made a living as a "tough guy" in a raft of iterations, from hardboiled newspaperman to intrepid G-man. In real life soft-spoken, intellectual and selfless, Robinson would nevertheless imprint himself as cold-eyed Machiavellian thugs in such film classics as "Little Caesar" (1931), "The Sea Wolf" (1941) and "Key Largo" (1948) - though he could also single-handedly lift films with his rapid-fire comic timing, as with such screwball outings as "The Whole Town's Talking" (1935) and "A Small Case of Murder", and with colourful, cerebral supporting roles, as in "Double Indemnity" (1944).
Able to command the screen by both verve and subtlety, he played his roles with such archetypal distinction and verbal flare that he would wind up inspiring a number of cartoon characters, from the shorts of Warner Bros. studio-mate Bugs Bunny while he was alive to lovably inept constable Chief Wiggum in American television's longest-running show, "The Simpsons" (Fox, 1989- ).

Bibi Andersson (1935 - 2019),ionally as Bibi Andersson (Swedish: [ˈbɪ̂bːɪ ˈânːdɛˌʂɔn]), was a Swedish actress who was best known for her frequent collaborations with filmmaker Ingmar Bergman.
Andersson's intense portrayal of a nurse in the film Persona (1966) - in which actress Elizabet Vogler (Liv Ullmann), suffering from a psychosomatic condition, is mostly mute - involved her delivering the majority of the dialogue. For her performance in Persona, she won the award for Best Actress at the 4th Guldbagge Awards.

Richard Burton, 1925 - 1984, was a Welsh actor noted for his mellifluous baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s, and he gave a memorable performance of Hamlet in 1964.

He was called "the natural successor to Olivier" by critic Kenneth Tynan. A heavy drinker, Burton's purported failure to live up to those expectations disappointed some critics and colleagues and added to his image as a great performer who had wasted his talent. Nevertheless, he is widely regarded as one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation.

Burton was nominated for an Academy Award seven times, but never won an Oscar. By the late 1960s, Burton was one of the highest-paid actors in the world, receiving fees of $1 million or more plus a share of the gross receipts.[ He remained closely associated in the public consciousness with his second wife, actress Elizabeth Taylor. The couple's turbulent relationship was rarely out of the news.

Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland (1917 - 2013), known professionally as Joan Fontaine, was a British-American actress who is best known for her starring roles in Hollywood films during the "Golden Age".
Fontaine appeared in more than 45 films in a career that spanned five decades. She was the younger sister of actress Olivia de Havilland. Their rivalry was well-documented in the media at the height of Fontaine's career.
She began her film career in 1935, signing a contract with RKO Pictures. Fontaine received her first major role in The Man Who Found Himself (1937) and in 1939 with Gunga Din. Her career prospects improved greatly after her starring role in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), for which she received her first of three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress. The following year, she won that award for her role in Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941). A third nomination came with The Constant Nymph (1943). She appeared mostly in drama films through the 1940s, including Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), which is now considered a classic.
In the next decade, after her role in Ivanhoe (1952), her film career began to decline and she moved into stage, radio and television roles. She appeared in fewer films in the 1960s, which included Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1960), and her final film role in The Witches (1966).

Caron began her career as a ballerina. She made her film debut in the musical An American in Paris (1951), followed by roles in The Man with a Cloak (1951), Glory Alley (1952) and The Story of Three Loves (1953), before her role of an orphan in Lili (also 1953).

As a leading lady, Caron starred in films such as The Glass Slipper (1955), Daddy Long Legs (1955), Gigi (1958), Fanny (1961), both of which earned her Golden Globe nominations, Guns of Darkness (1962), The L-Shaped Room (1962), Father Goose (1964) and A Very Special Favor (1965).

For her role as a single pregnant woman in The L-Shaped Room, Caron, in addition to receiving a second Academy Award nomination, won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama and a second BAFTA Award.

In 1935, still in her teens, Valerie Hobson appeared as Baroness Frankenstein in Bride of Frankenstein with Boris Karloff and Colin Clive. She played opposite Henry Hull that same year in Werewolf of London, the first Hollywood werewolf film. The latter half of the 1940s saw Hobson in perhaps her two most memorable roles: as the adult Estella in David Lean's adaptation of Great Expectations (1946), and as the refined and virtuous Edith D'Ascoyne in the black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).


In 1952 she divorced her first husband, film producer Sir Anthony Havelock-Allan (1904-2003). In 1954, she married Brigadier John Profumo (1915-2006), an MP, giving up acting shortly afterwards. Profumo was a prominent politician of Italian descent.

Hobson's last starring role was in the original London production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical play The King and I, which opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, on 8 October 1953. She played Mrs. Anna Leonowens opposite Herbert Lom's King. The show ran for 926 performances.
After Profumo's ministerial career ended in disgrace in 1963, following revelations he had lied to the House of Commons about his affair with Christine Keeler, Hobson stood by him, and they worked together for charity for the remainder of her life, though she did miss their more public personas.

Born in Larne, Northern Ireland and educated at RADA, Hobson's early films included The Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Following a brief contract with Universal Studios, Hobson returned to England and appeared with Douglas Fairbanks Jr in Jump for Glory (1937).
During the 1930s and 1940s she made The Drum (1938) and Q Planes (1939) for Alexander Korda and appeared in Michael Powell's The Spy in Black (1939) and Contraband (1940). In 1939 Hobson married Anthony Havelock-Allan, who produced several of her films.
They divorced in 1952. Hobson retired from the screen following her marriage to politician John Profumo in 1954.

Patricia Morison (1915 - 2018) was an American stage, television and film actress of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
She made her feature film debut in 1939. After several years on the stage, and amongst her most renowned were The Fallen Sparrow, Dressed to Kill opposite Basil Rathbone and the screen adaptation of The Song of Bernadette.
She was lauded as a beauty with large blue eyes and extremely long, dark hair.
During this period of her career, she was often cast as the femme fatale or "other woman". It was only when she returned to the Broadway stage that she achieved her greatest success as the lead in the original production of Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate and subsequently in The King and I.
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Sonia Dresdel (1909 - 1976) was an English actress, whose career ran between the 1940s and 1970s.
Her performance in the lead role of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler at the Westminster Theatre in 1942 "was legendary. It was the performance on which her reputation was founded. James Agate was ecstatic. For a decade Dresdel was regarded as one of England's foremost stage actresses.[Her leading role in the 1947 film While I Live also gained her a great deal of acclaim.
Her best remembered role is as Mrs. Baines in the film version of Graham Greene's The Fallen Idol (1948), which starred Ralph Richardson and Michèle Morgan.
While I Live (1947)
The Fallen Idol (1948)
The Third Visitor (1951)
The Clouded Yellow (1951)

Veronica Lake was an American film, stage, and television actress. Lake was best known for her femme fatale roles in film noirs with Alan Ladd during the 1940s and her peek-a-boo hairstyle.
By the late 1940s, Lake's career began to decline, due in part to her alcoholism.
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
The Glass Key (1942)
The Blue Dahlia (1946)

James Mason (1909 -1984) was an English actor.
He achieved considerable success in British cinema before becoming a star in Hollywood. He was the top box-office attraction in the UK in 1944 and 1945; his British films included The Seventh Veil (1945) and The Wicked Lady (1945).

He starred in a number of successful British and American films from the 1950s to the early 1980s, including The Desert Fox, A Star Is Born, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Lolita, North by Northwest, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Bigger Than Life, Julius Caesar, Georgy Girl, Heaven Can Wait, The Boys from Brazil and The Verdict.

Mason was nominated for three Academy Awards, three Golden Globes (winning the Golden Globe in 1955 for A Star is Born) and two BAFTA Awards throughout his career. Following his death in 1984, his ashes were interred near the tomb of his close friend, fellow English actor Sir Charlie Chaplin.

He starred in a number of successful British and American films from the 1950s to the early 1980s, including The Desert Fox, A Star Is Born, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Lolita, North by Northwest, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Bigger Than Life, Julius Caesar, Georgy Girl, Heaven Can Wait, The Boys from Brazil and The Verdict.

Dame Frances Margaret Anderson, AC, DBE, known professionally as Judith Anderson, was an Australian actress who had a successful career in stage, film and television. A pre-eminent stage actress in her era, she won two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award and was also nominated for a Grammy Award and an Academy Award.

Rebecca (1940) - Mrs. Danvers
Laura (1944) - Ann Treadwell
And Then There Were None (1945) - Emily Brent
The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946) - Madame Lanlaire
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) - Mrs. Ivers
Salome (1953) - Queen Herodias
Macbeth (1954, TV Movie) - Lady Macbeth
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) - Big Momma Pollitt
Don't Bother to Knock (1961) - Maggie Shoemaker

Robert Newton was one of the great character actors -- and great characters -- of the British cinema, best remembered today for playing Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1950) and its sequel for Walt Disney in the 1950s.
His portrayal of Long John Silver and of Blackbeard, the Pirate (1952) created a persona that was so indelible that his vocal intonations created the paradigm for scores of people who want to "Talk Like a Pirate".
The performance overshadows Newton's legacy, which is based on many first-rate performances in such movies as This Happy Breed (1944), Odd Man Out (1947) and Oliver Twist (1948), where his Bill Sykes is truly chilling.

Oliver Reed, who played Sykes in the Oscar-winning movie musical Oliver! (1968) was influenced by Newton.