Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith was an English stage and screen actor. After varied work in the theatre, he achieved leading man star status in the film Brief Encounter (1945), followed by The Third Man (1949), portraying what BFI Screenonline called “a new kind of male lead in British films: steady, middle-class, reassuring…. but also capable of suggesting neurosis under the tweedy demeanour.”
Valentine Dyall was an English character actor. He worked regularly as a voice actor, and was known for many years as "The Man in Black", the narrator of the BBC Radio horror series Appointment with Fear.
Walter Jack Gotell was a German-British actor. He was well known for his role as General Gogol, head of the KGB, in the Roger Moore era of the James Bond film series as well as having played the role of Morzeny, a villain, in From Russia With Love. He also appeared as Gogol in the final part of The Living Daylights (1987), Timothy Dalton's debut Bond film.
Cecil Parker was an English actor with a distinctively husky voice, who usually played supporting roles, often characters with a supercilious demeanour, in his 91 films made between 1928 and 1969.
Private's Progress is a 1956 British comedy film directed by John Boulting and starring Ian Carmichael, Peter Jones, William Hartnell and Terry-Thomas. The script was by John Boulting and Frank Harvey based on the novel of the same name by Alan Hackney.
James Robertson Justice was an English actor. He often portrayed pompous authority figures in comedies, including each of the seven films in the Doctor series. He also co-starred with Gregory Peck in several adventure movies, notably The Guns of Navarone. Born in south-east London to a Scottish father, he became prominent in Scottish public life, helping to launch Scottish Television (STV) and serving as Rector of the University of Edinburgh.
William Inglis Lindon Travers was a British actor, screenwriter, director and animal rights activist. Before his show business career, he served in the British Army with Gurkha and special forces units.
Bernard James Miles, Baron Miles, CBE was an English character actor, writer and director. He opened the Mermaid Theatre in 1959, the first new theatre that opened in the City of London since the 17th century.
Malta Story is a 1953 British war film, directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, which is set during the air defence of Malta during the Siege of Malta in the Second World War. The film uses real and unique footage of the locations at which the battles were fought and includes a love story between an RAF reconnaissance pilot and a Maltese woman, as well as the anticipated execution of her brother, caught as an Italian spy. The pilot's character is loosely based on Adrian Warburton, and the Maltese woman's brother's is based on Carmelo Borg Pisani, who was executed in 1942.
The Guns of Navarone is a 1961 action adventure war film directed by J. Lee Thompson from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, based on Alistair MacLean's 1957 novel of the same name. Foreman also produced the film. The film stars Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn, along with Stanley Baker, Anthony Quayle, Irene Papas, Gia Scala, Richard Harris and James Darren. The book and the film share a plot: the efforts of an Allied commando unit to destroy a seemingly impregnable German fortress that threatens Allied naval ships in the Aegean Sea.
Operation Crossbow is a 1965 British espionage thriller set during the Second World War. This movie concerns an actual series of events where British undercover operatives targeted the German manufacturing facilities for experimental rocket-bombs.
The Guns of Navarone is a 1957 novel about the Second World War by Scottish writer Alistair MacLean that was made into the film The Guns of Navarone in 1961. The story concerns the efforts of an Allied commando team to destroy a seemingly impregnable German fortress that threatens Allied naval ships in the Aegean Sea and prevents over 1,200 isolated British Army soldiers from being rescued.
Sir Christopher George Rhodes, 3rd Baronet was an English film and television actor. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the United States Legion of Merit for his World War II service.
What a Whopper is a 1961 British comedy film directed by Gilbert Gunn and starring Adam Faith, Sid James and Carole Lesley. It was written by Terry Nation from an original script by Jeremy Lloyd.
George Mikell was a Lithuanian-Australian actor and writer best known for his performances as Schutzstaffel (SS) officers in The Guns of Navarone (1961) and The Great Escape (1963). Mikell appeared in over 30 British and American feature films and had numerous leading roles in theatre.
The Passage is a 1979 British action-war film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Anthony Quinn, James Mason, Malcolm McDowell and Patricia Neal. The film is based upon the 1976 novel Perilous Passage by Bruce Nicolaysen, who also wrote the screenplay for the film.
The Liquidator is a 1965 British thriller film directed by Jack Cardiff and starring Rod Taylor, Trevor Howard, and Jill St. John. It was based on The Liquidator (1964), the first of a series of Boysie Oakes novels by John Gardner.
Postman's Knock is a 1962 British comedy film directed by Robert Lynn starring Spike Milligan, Barbara Shelley, John Wood and Warren Mitchell. The screenplay, by John Briley and Jack Trevor Story, concerns a country postman who is transferred to London, where he manages to foil a major robbery.
Victor Beaumont was a German-born British film and television actor.
Michael Trubshawe was a British actor and former officer in the Highland Light Infantry Regiment of the British Army. Trubshawe was very close friends with fellow British actor David Niven, serving with him at Malta and Dover. He was best man for both of Niven's weddings, and is constantly referred to in Niven's memoirs The Moon's a Balloon. Niven refers to finding out he would be working with him in The Guns of Navarone as 'A lovely bonus for me.'
