James David Graham Niven was a British actor, soldier, memoirist, and novelist. Niven was known as a handsome and debonair leading man in Classic Hollywood films. He received an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award.
Margaret Leighton, CBE was an English actress, active on stage and television, and in film. Her film appearances included Anthony Asquith's The Winslow Boy, Alfred Hitchcock's Under Capricorn, Powell and Pressburger's The Elusive Pimpernel, George More O'Ferrall's The Holly and the Ivy, Martin Ritt's The Sound and the Fury, John Guillermin's Waltz of the Toreadors, Franklin J. Schaffner's The Best Man, Tony Richardson's The Loved One, John Ford's 7 Women, and Joseph Losey's The Go-Between and Galileo. For The Go-Between, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Laurence Naismith was an English actor. He made numerous film and television appearances, including starring roles in the musical films Scrooge (1970) and the children's ghost film The Amazing Mr. Blunden (1972). He also had memorable roles as Captain Edward Smith of the RMS Titanic in A Night to Remember (1958), the First Sea Lord in Sink the Bismarck! (1960), and Argus in Jason and the Argonauts (1963).
The Elusive Pimpernel is a 1950 British period adventure film by the British-based director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on the novel The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) by Baroness Emmuska Orczy. It was released in the United States under the title The Fighting Pimpernel. The picture stars David Niven as Sir Percy Blakeney, Margaret Leighton as Marguerite Blakeney and features Jack Hawkins, Cyril Cusack and Robert Coote. Originally intended to be a musical, the film was re-worked as a light-hearted drama.
William Maurice Denham OBE was an English character actor who appeared in over 100 films and television programmes in his long career.
The Happiest Days of Your Life is a 1950 British comedy film directed by Frank Launder, based on the 1947 play of the same name by John Dighton. The two men also wrote the screenplay. It is one of a stable of classic British film comedies produced by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat for British Lion Film Corporation. The film was made on location in Liss and at Riverside Studios, London. In several respects, including some common casting, it was a precursor of the St. Trinian's films of the 1950s and 1960s.
Allan Darling Cuthbertson was an Australian-British actor. He was best known for playing stern-faced military officers in British films of the 1950s and 1960s.
The 8th British Academy Film Awards, given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 1955, honored the best films of 1954.
Calling Bulldog Drummond is a 1951 British crime film directed by Victor Saville and featuring Walter Pidgeon, Margaret Leighton, Robert Beatty, David Tomlinson and Bernard Lee. It featured the character Bulldog Drummond created by the novelist Herman Cyril McNeile, which had seen a number of screen adaptations. A novel tie-in was also released in 1951. It was made by the British subsidiary of MGM at Elstree Studios. The film's sets were designed by the art director Alfred Junge.
Bonnie Prince Charlie is a 1948 British historical film directed by Anthony Kimmins for London Films depicting the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion and the role of Bonnie Prince Charlie within it. Filmed in Technicolor, it stars David Niven, Jack Hawkins, and Margaret Leighton.
Carrington VC is a 1953 stage play by husband and wife playwrights Campbell and Dorothy Christie. The production premiered on the West End in London at the Westminster Theatre. It was directed by Michael MacOwan and starred Alec Clunes, John Wood, John Garside, Allan Cuthbertson, Lionel Jeffries, and Rachel Gurney. A resounding success, the play was adapted for film in 1954.
Time Bomb is a 1953 British film noir thriller film directed by Ted Tetzlaff and starring Glenn Ford, Anne Vernon and Maurice Denham. It was produced by MGM at the company's Elstree Studios with sets designed by the art director Alfred Junge. In the United States it was released under the title Terror on a Train.
The Purple Plain is a 1954 British war film directed by Robert Parrish, with Gregory Peck playing a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot serving in the Royal Air Force in the Burma campaign in the closing months of the Second World War, who is battling with depression after having lost his wife to German bombing in London. The cast also included Win Min Than, Maurice Denham and Lyndon Brook. The film was shot at Pinewood Studios and on location in Ceylon. The film's sets were designed by the art director Jack Maxsted. It was nominated for two BAFTA awards. The film was based on the 1947 novel of the same name by H. E. Bates.
Happy Ever after is a 1954 British comedy film directed by Mario Zampi and starring David Niven, Yvonne De Carlo, Barry Fitzgerald and George Cole. Its plot concerns the accidental death of an Irish landowner who bequeaths his estate to his cousin. It was released in the United States under the title Tonight's the Night.
Home at Seven is a 1952 British mystery drama film directed by and starring Ralph Richardson, featuring Margaret Leighton, Jack Hawkins, Campbell Singer and Michael Shepley. It is based on the 1950 play Home at Seven by R. C. Sherriff. The film is Richardson's only work as director. Guy Hamilton was assistant director.
It's Hard to Be Good is a 1948 British comedy film directed by Jeffrey Dell and starring Jimmy Hanley, Anne Crawford and Raymond Huntley. In the film, an ex-army officer finds his altruistic attempts to improve the world are unsuccessful.
Raymond Francis was a British actor best known for his role as Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart in the Associated-Rediffusion detective series Murder Bag, Crime Sheet and No Hiding Place. He played the role of Lockhart in these series from 1957 to 1967, and the character was one of the first recurring television detectives.
John Evans Hunter was an American-born, BAFTA-nominated screenwriter in the British film industry. The son of actress Millicent Evans and producer/director Ernest J. Carpenter, Hunter was born in New York on 23 August 1911. He later claimed to be the illegitimate son of Douglas Fairbanks. His parents divorced in 1917 and his mother married director T. Hayes Hunter in Los Angeles in 1919. He graduated from Hollywood High School in 1927 and the family moved to England, where Hunter attended Trinity College, Cambridge. At Trinity, he was a member of the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club and an editor of the college paper.
Evelyn Noelle Woodeson was an Irish actress and one of the first BBC television announcers. She was also a leading lady of the 1950s British films.
The British actor David Niven (1910–1983) performed in many genres of light entertainment, including film, radio and theatre. He was also the author of four books: two works of fiction and two autobiographies. Described by Brian McFarlane, writing for the British Film Institute (BFI), as being "of famously debonair manner", Niven's career spanned from 1932 until 1983.
