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Clinton Eastwood Jr. was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood (née Margret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took interest in music and mechanics, but was an otherwise bored student; this resulted in being held back a grade.

In 1949, the year he graduated from high school, his parents and younger sister Jeanne moved to Seattle. Clint spent a couple years in the Pacific Northwest himself, operating log broncs in Springfield, Oregon, with summer gigs life-guarding in Renton, Washington. Returning to California in 1951, he did a two-year stint at Fort Ord Military Reservation and later enrolled at L.A. City College, but dropped out to pursue acting.

During the mid-1950s he landed uncredited bit parts in such Z movies as La Revanche de la créature (1955) and Tarantula (1955) while digging swimming pools and driving a garbage truck to supplement his income. In 1958, he landed his first consequential acting role in the long-running TV show Rawhide (1959) with Eric Fleming. Although only a secondary player the first seven seasons, he was promoted to series star when Fleming departed--both literally and figuratively--in its final year, along the way becoming a recognizable face to television viewers around the country.

Eastwood's big-screen breakthrough came as The Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's trilogy of excellent spaghetti westerns: Pour une poignée de dollars (1964), ...et pour quelques dollars de plus (1965), and Le Bon, la Brute et le Truand (1966). The movies were shown exclusively in Italy during their respective copyright years with Enrico Maria Salerno providing the voice of Eastwood's character, finally getting American distribution in 1967-68. As the last film racked up respectable grosses, Eastwood, 37, rose from a barely registering actor to sought-after commodity in just a matter of months. Again a success was the late-blooming star's first U.S.-made western, Pendez-les haut et court (1968). He followed that up with the lead role in Un shérif à New-York (1968) (the loose inspiration for the TV series Un shérif à New York (1970)), before playing second fiddle to Richard Burton in the World War II epic Quand les aigles attaquent (1968) and Lee Marvin in the bizarre musical La Kermesse de l'Ouest (1969). In Sierra torride (1970) and De l'or pour les braves (1970), Eastwood leaned in an experimental direction by combining tough-guy action with offbeat humor.

1971 proved to be his busiest year in film. He starred as a sleazy Union soldier in Les Proies (1971) to critical acclaim, and made his directorial debut with the classic erotic thriller Un frisson dans la nuit (1971). His role as the hard edge police inspector in L'Inspecteur Harry (1971), meanwhile, boosted him to cultural icon status and helped popularize the loose-cannon cop genre. Eastwood put out a steady stream of entertaining movies thereafter: the westerns Joe Kidd (1972), L'Homme des hautes plaines (1973) and Josey Wales hors-la-loi (1976) (his first of six onscreen collaborations with then live-in love Sondra Locke), the Dirty Harry sequels Magnum Force (1973) and L'inspecteur ne renonce jamais (1976), the action-packed road adventures Le Canardeur (1974) and L'Épreuve de force (1977), and the prison film L'évadé d'Alcatraz (1979). He branched out into the comedy genre in 1978 with Doux, dur et dingue (1978), which became the biggest hit of his career up to that time; taking inflation into account, it still is. In short, La sanction (1975) notwithstanding, the 1970s were nonstop success for Eastwood.

Eastwood kicked off the 1980s with Ça va cogner... (1980), the blockbuster sequel to Every Which Way but Loose. The fourth Dirty Harry film, Sudden Impact - Le retour de l'inspecteur Harry (1983), was the highest-grossing film of the franchise and spawned his trademark catchphrase: "Make my day." He also starred in Bronco Billy (1980), Firefox : L'Arme absolue (1982), La corde raide (1984), Haut les flingues! (1984), Pale Rider, le cavalier solitaire (1985) and Le maître de guerre (1986), all of which were solid hits, with Honkytonk Man (1982) being his only commercial failure of the period. In 1988, he did his fifth and final Dirty Harry movie, La dernière cible (1988). Although it was a success overall, it did not have the box office punch the previous films had. About this time, with outright bombs like Pink Cadillac (1989) and La relève (1990), it seemed Eastwood's star was declining as it never had before. He then started taking on low-key projects, directing Bird (1988), a biopic of Charlie Parker that earned him a Golden Globe, and starring in and directing Chasseur blanc, coeur noir (1990), an uneven, loose biopic of John Huston (both films had a limited release).

Eastwood bounced back big time with his dark western Impitoyable (1992), which garnered the then 62-year-old his first ever Academy Award nomination (Best Actor), and an Oscar win for Best Director. Churning out a quick follow-up hit, he took on the secret service in Dans la ligne de mire (1993), then accepted second billing for the first time since 1970 in the interesting but poorly received Un monde parfait (1993) with Kevin Costner. Next was a love story, Sur la route de Madison (1995), where Eastwood surprised audiences with a sensitive performance alongside none other than Meryl Streep. But it soon became apparent he was going backwards after his brief revival. Subsequent films were credible, but nothing really stuck out. Les pleins pouvoirs (1997) and Space Cowboys (2000) did well enough, while Jugé coupable (1999) and Créance de sang (2002) were received badly, as was Minuit dans le jardin du bien et du mal (1997), which he directed but didn't appear in.

Eastwood surprised again in the mid-2000s, returning to the top of the A-list with Million Dollar Baby (2004). Also starring Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman, the hugely successful drama won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood. He scored his second Best Actor nomination, too. His next starring vehicle, Gran Torino (2008), earned almost $30 million in its opening weekend and was his highest grosser unadjusted for inflation. 2012 saw him in a rare lighthearted movie, Une nouvelle chance (2012), as well as a reality show, Mrs. Eastwood & Company (2012).

Between acting jobs, he chalked up an impressive list of credits behind the camera. He directed Mystic River (2003) (in which Sean Penn and Tim Robbins gave Oscar-winning performances), Mémoires de nos pères (2006), Lettres d'Iwo Jima (2006) (nominated for the Best Picture Oscar), L'échange (2008) (a vehicle for Angelina Jolie), Invictus (2009) (again with Freeman), Au-delà (2010), J. Edgar (2011), Jersey Boys (2014), American Sniper (2014) (2014's top box office champ), Sully (2016) (starring Tom Hanks as hero pilot Chesley Sullenberger) and Le 15h17 pour Paris (2018). Back on screens after a considerable absence, he played an unlikely drug courier in La Mule (2018), which reached the top of the box office with a nine-figure gross, then directed Le Cas Richard Jewell (2019). At age 91, Eastwood made history as the oldest actor to star above the title in a movie with the release of Cry Macho (2021).

Away from the limelight, Eastwood has led an aberrant existence and is described by biographer Patrick McGilligan as a cunning manipulator of the media. His convoluted slew of partners and children are now somewhat factually acknowledged, but for the first three decades of his celebrity, his personal life was kept top secret, and several of his families were left out of the official narrative. The actor refuses to disclose his exact number of offspring even to this day. He had a longtime relationship with similarly abstruse co-star Locke (who died aged 74 in 2018, though for her entire public life she masqueraded about being younger), and has fathered at least eight children by at least six different women in an unending string of liaisons, many of which overlapped. He has been married only twice, however, with a mere three of his progeny coming from those unions.

His known children are: Laurie Murray (b. 1954), whose mother is unidentified; Kimber Eastwood (b. 1964) with stuntwoman Roxanne Tunis; Kyle Eastwood (b. 1968) and Alison Eastwood (b. 1972) with his first ex-wife, Margaret Neville Johnson; Scott Eastwood (b. 1986) and Kathryn Eastwood (b. 1988) with stewardess Jacelyn Reeves; Francesca Eastwood (b. 1993) with actress Frances Fisher; and Morgan Eastwood (b. 1996) with his second ex-wife, Dina Eastwood. The entire time that he lived with Locke she was legally married to sculptor Gordon Anderson.

Eastwood has real estate holdings in Bel-Air, La Quinta, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Cassel (in remote northern California), Idaho's Sun Valley and Kihei, Hawaii.

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 of tuberculosis as a teenager ended his aspirations to a rugby career, but he became fascinated with the theater and skipped a local dance one night to attend a performance of "Henry IV". He was hooked and went on to learn his craft at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), then spent several years in stage productions. He debuted on screen in L'épopée dans l'ombre (1959) and quickly scored regular work in films, including Cargaison dangereuse (1959), Les Combattants de la nuit (1960) and a good role as a frustrated Australian bomber pilot in Les Canons de Navarone (1961).

However, his breakthrough performance was as the quintessential "angry young man" in the sensational drama Le prix d'un homme (1963), which scored him an Oscar nomination. He then appeared in the WW II commando tale Les héros de Télémark (1965) and in the Sam Peckinpah-directed western Major Dundee (1965). He next showed up in Hawaï (1966) and played King Arthur in Camelot (1967), a lackluster adaptation of the famous Broadway play. Better performances followed, among them a role as a reluctant police informer in Traître sur commande (1970) alongside Sir Sean Connery. Harris took the lead role in the violent western Un homme nommé Cheval (1970), which became something of a cult film and spawned two sequels. As the 1970s progressed, Harris continued to appear regularly on screen; however, the quality of the scripts varied from above average to woeful.

His credits during this period included directing himself as an aging soccer player in Bloomfield (1970); the western Le shérif ne pardonne pas (1973); the big-budget "disaster" film Terreur sur le Britannic (1974); the strangely-titled crime film Refroidi à 99% (1974); with Connery again in La rose et la flèche (1976); Gulliver's Travels (1977); a part in the Les Dents de la mer (1975); Orca (1977) and a nice turn as an ill-fated mercenary with Richard Burton and Roger Moore in the popular action film Les oies sauvages (1978).

The 1980s kicked off with Harris appearing in the silly Bo Derek vanity production Tarzan l'homme singe (1981) and the remainder of the decade had him appearing in some very forgettable productions. However, the luck of the Irish was once again to shine on Harris's career and he scored rave reviews (and another Oscar nomination) for The Field (1990). He then locked horns with Harrison Ford as an IRA sympathizer in Jeux de guerre (1992) and got one of his best roles as gunfighter English Bob in the Clint Eastwood western Impitoyable (1992). Harris was firmly back in vogue and rewarded his fans with more wonderful performances in Deux drôles d'oiseaux (1993); Pleure ô pays bien-aimé (1995); The Great Kandinsky (1995) and This Is the Sea (1997). Further fortune came his way with a strong performance in the blockbuster Gladiator (2000) and he became known to an entirely new generation of film fans as Albus Dumbledore in the mega-successful Harry Potter à l'école des sorciers (2001) and Harry Potter et la Chambre des secrets (2002). His final screen role was as "Lucius Sulla" in Jules César (2002).

Harris died of Hodgkin's disease, also known as Hodgkin's lymphoma, in London on October 25, 2002, aged 72.

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 proved the doubters wrong, becoming one of the most notable film actors of his generation, with a host of great movies to his name. This arguably culminated in his greatest acclaim in 1988, when Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as an Irish cop in Les Incorruptibles (1987), stealing the thunder from the movie's principal star Kevin Costner. Connery was polled as "The Greatest Living Scot" and "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure." In 1989, he was proclaimed "Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine, and in 1999, at age 69, he was proclaimed "Sexiest Man of the Century."

Thomas "Sean" Connery was born on August 25, 1930 in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh. His mother, Euphemia Maclean, was a cleaning lady, and his father, Joseph Connery, was a factory worker and truck driver. He also had a brother, Neil Connery, a plasterer in Edinburgh, who was eight years younger. Before going into acting, Sean had many different jobs, such as a milkman, lorry driver, a laborer, artist's model for the Edinburgh College of Art, coffin polisher and bodybuilder. He also joined the Royal Navy, but was later discharged because of medical problems. At the age of 23, he had a choice between becoming a professional soccer player or an actor, and even though he showed much promise in the sport, he chose acting and said it was one of his more intelligent decisions.

Les criminels de Londres (1957) was Sean's first major movie role, and it was followed by several made-for-TV movies such as Anna Christie (1957), Macbeth (1961) and Anna Karenina (1961) as well as guest appearances on TV series, and also films such as Train d'enfer (1957), Je pleure mon amour (1958), Darby O'Gill et les farfadets (1959) and L'Enquête mystérieuse (1961). In 1962 he appeared in Le Jour le plus long (1962) with a host of other stars.

His big breakthrough came in 1962 when he landed the role of secret agent James Bond in James Bond 007 contre Dr. No (1962). He played James Bond in six more films: Bons Baisers de Russie (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Opération Tonnerre (1965), On ne vit que deux fois (1967), Les diamants sont éternels (1971) and Jamais plus jamais (1983).

After and during the success of the Bond films, he maintained a successful career as an actor and has appeared in films, including Alfred Hitchcock's Pas de printemps pour Marnie (1964), La Colline des hommes perdus (1965), Le crime de l'Orient-Express (1974), L'homme qui voulut être roi (1975), Le Lion et le Vent (1975), Bandits, bandits... (1981), Highlander (1986), Le Nom de la rose (1986), Indiana Jones et la Dernière Croisade (1989), À la poursuite d'Octobre Rouge (1990), Soleil levant (1993), Rock (1996), À la rencontre de Forrester (2000) and La Ligue des gentlemen extraordinaires (2003).

Sean married actress Diane Cilento in 1962 and they had Sean's only child, Jason Connery, born on January 11, 1963. The couple announced their separation in February 1971 and filed for divorce 2½ years later. Sean then dated Jill St. John, Lana Wood, Magda Konopka and Carole Mallory. In 1975 he married Micheline Roquebrune and they stayed married, despite Sean's well-documented love affair with Lynsey de Paul in the late '80s. Sean had three stepchildren through his marriage to Micheline, who was one year his senior. He is also a grandfather. His son, Jason and Jason's ex-wife, actress Mia Sara had a son, Dashiell Connery, in 1997.

Sean Connery died at the age of 90 on October 31, 2020, in Nassau, the Bahamas, where he resided for many years.

David Huddleston was born on 17 September 1930 in Vinton, Virginia, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for The Big Lebowski (1998), Le shérif est en prison (1974) and Les producteurs (2005). He was married to Sarah C. Koeppe and Carole Ann Swart. He died on 2 August 2016 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.

British actor Edward Woodward made a highly successful transition into Hollywood TV stardom in the mid 1980s thanks to a popular dramatic series. Possessing a magnetic, yet coldly handsome demeanor in the same mold as Christopher Plummer, he was born Edward Albert Arthur Woodward on June 1, 1930, in London and received his early education at various schools before becoming a student at Commercial College.

Trained in acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), Woodward made his stage debut in a 1946 production of "A Kiss for Cinderella," and gained valuable experience in repertory companies throughout England and Scotland. He took his first London curtain call portraying "Ralph Stokes" in 1954 with "Where There's a Will," and subsequently made his movie debut recreating his stage part in the film version of Where There's a Will (1955). The actor continued grandly on stage in such Shakespearean productions as "Hamlet" (Laertes)," "Romeo and Juliet" (Mercutio), "Pericles" (Thaliard), "Much Ado About Nothing" (Claudio), and "Measure for Measure" (Lucio), but scored a major success portraying Percy in "Rattle of a Simple Man" in 1961, making his Broadway debut in the play two years later. Woodward would make fine use of his mastery of the spoken word by putting out a host of audio books.

A gifted singer who produced over a dozen musical recordings, Edward displayed his excellent singing pipes on Broadway as Charles Condomine in "High Spirits" (1963), the musical adaptation of Noël Coward's "Blithe Spirit," that also starred Tammy Grimes, Louise Troy and the legendary Beatrice Lillie. He also went on to win the Variety Award ("Best Performance in a Musical") for his lead role of Sydney Carton in a musical version of the Dickens classic "Two Cities." Other non-musical stage work would include the comedy "The Best Laid Plans," an acclaimed title role in "Cyrano de Bergerac," as well as noble appearances in "The White Devil," "Babes in the Wood" (as Robin Hood), "The Wolf," "The Male of the Species," "The Beggar's Opera" (as Macheath), "Private Lives" and "The Dead Secret."

Although in movies from 1955, it was TV that earned him his initial star in England. Feature film roles in such acclaimed period costumers as Becket (1964) and Les griffes du lion (1972) were overshadowed by his more successful work on the smaller screen, especially his weary spy in the popular series Callan (1967). A brilliant performance in the film The Wicker Man (1973) and in a few others led to international stardom as court-martialed Lt. Harry Morant in the classic Aussie-made historical drama Héros ou salopards (1980) directed by Bruce Beresford.

Woodward was finally granted some attention in the States at age 55, earning his own popular series, the noirish espionage series Equalizer (1985). Served up best in crime, historical and political intrigue, he has been completely at home playing no-nonsense authoritarians and brooding loner types. Following the series' cancellation, he returned to British TV with the mystery In Suspicious Circumstances (1991), but was never far away from the US shores. Maturing roles in advancing years included a wide range of characters -- everything from Merlin to the Ghost of Christmas Present in mini-movie formats.

Woodward continued to work here and abroad up until his death. Later feature films included a top-billed role in the horror film The Appointment (1982); a top brass role in the action thriller Commando (1982); a featured role in the horse-racing biopic Champions (1984); as King Saul in the biblical story Le roi David (1985); another Bruce Beresford directed film with Mister Johnson (1990); the ghost of a murderer in the black comedy Deadly Advice (1994); the 18th century patriarch of The House of Angelo (1997), which he produced and also featured his three children; a lord in the action adventure Le club des ravisseurs (2002); a featured part in the comedy action Hot Fuzz (2007) and, his last, a reverend in the drama A Congregation of Ghosts (2009). TV appearances included recurring/regular roles in the British series: Nice Work (1980), Five Days (2007) and EastEnders (1985); plus the American series Pas de faire-part pour Max (1990) and the Canadian series Nikita (1997).

Woodward married actress Venetia Barrett (nee Collett) in 1952 and had three children, all of whom went into acting: Tim Woodward, Peter Woodward and Sarah Woodward. After his tabloid divorce (after over 30 years) from his first wife, he quickly married lovely actress Michele Dotrice in 1987, the sister of former 1960s' Disney child star Karen Dotrice of Mary Poppins (1964) fame. He and Michele produced one child, Emily. The subject of This Is Your Life (1955) on two separate occasions, the actor survived two major heart attacks before dying of pneumonia at age 79 on November 16, 2009, in Cornwall, England.

Eugene Allen Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Ann Lydia Elizabeth (Gray) and Eugene Ezra Hackman, who operated a newspaper printing press. He is of Pennsylvania Dutch (German), English, and Scottish ancestry, partly by way of Canada, where his mother was born. After several moves, his family settled in Danville, Illinois. Gene grew up in a broken home, which he left at the age of sixteen for a hitch with the US Marines.

Moving to New York after being discharged, he worked in a number of menial jobs before studying journalism and television production on the G.I. Bill at the University of Illinois. Hackman would be over 30 years old when he finally decided to take his chance at acting by enrolling at the Pasadena Playhouse. Legend says that Hackman and friend Dustin Hoffman were voted "least likely to succeed."

Hackman next moved back to New York, where he worked in summer stock and off-Broadway. In 1964 he was cast as the young suitor in the Broadway play "Any Wednesday." This role would lead to him being cast in the small role of Norman in Lilith (1964), starring Warren Beatty. When Beatty was casting for Bonnie et Clyde (1967), he cast Hackman as Buck Barrow, Clyde Barrow's brother. That role earned Hackman a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, an award for which he would again be nominated in Je n'ai jamais chanté pour mon père (1970). In 1972 he won the Oscar for his role as Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in French Connection (1971). At 40 years old Hackman was a Hollywood star whose work would rise to new heights with La Fugue (1975) and La Chevauchée sauvage (1975), or fall to new depths with L'aventure du Poséidon (1972) and Eureka (1983). Hackman is a versatile actor who can play comedy (the blind man in Frankenstein junior (1974)) or villainy (the evil Lex Luthor in Superman (1978)). He is the doctor who puts his work above people in Mesure d'urgence (1996) and the captain on the edge of nuclear destruction in USS Alabama (1995). After initially turning down the role of Little Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood's Impitoyable (1992), Hackman finally accepted it, as its different slant on the western interested him. For his performance he won the Oscar and Golden Globe and decided that he wasn't tired of westerns after all. He has since appeared in Geronimo (1993), Wyatt Earp (1994), and Mort ou vif (1995).

Richard Donner was born on 24 April 1930 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Superman (1978), Ladyhawke, la femme de la nuit (1985) and L'Arme fatale (1987). He was married to Lauren Shuler Donner. He died on 5 July 2021 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Robert Prosky was born on 13 December 1930 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Le solitaire (1981), Broadcast News (1987) and Madame Doubtfire (1993). He was married to Ida Hove. He died on 8 December 2008 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.

He was the ultra-cool male film star of the 1960s, and rose from a troubled youth spent in reform schools to being the world's most popular actor. Over 40 years after his untimely death from mesothelioma in 1980, Steve McQueen is still considered hip and cool, and he endures as an icon of popular culture.

McQueen was born in Beech Grove, Indiana, to mother Julian (Crawford) and father William Terence McQueen, a stunt pilot. His first lead role was in the low-budget sci-fi film Danger planétaire (1958), quickly followed by roles in Hold-up en 120 secondes (1959) and La Proie des vautours (1959). The young McQueen appeared as Vin, alongside Yul Brynner, in the star-laden Les 7 mercenaires (1960) and effectively hijacked the lead from the bigger star by ensuring he was nearly always doing something in every shot he and Brynner were in together, such as adjusting his hat or gun belt. He next scored with audiences with two interesting performances, first in the World War II drama L'enfer est pour les héros (1962) and then in L'homme qui aimait la guerre (1962). Riding a wave of popularity, McQueen delivered another crowd pleaser as Hilts, the Cooler King, in the knockout World War II P.O.W. film La Grande Évasion (1963), featuring his famous leap over the barbed wire on a motorcycle while being pursued by Nazi troops (in fact, however, the stunt was actually performed by his good friend, stunt rider Bud Ekins).

McQueen next appeared in several films of mixed quality, including La dernière bagarre (1963); Une certaine rencontre (1963) and Le sillage de la violence (1965). However, they failed to really grab audience attention, but his role as Eric Stoner in Le Kid de Cincinnati (1965), alongside screen legend Edward G. Robinson and Karl Malden, had movie fans filling theaters again to see the ice-cool McQueen they loved. He was back in another Western, Nevada Smith (1966), again with Malden, and then he gave what many consider to be his finest dramatic performance as loner US Navy sailor Jake Holman in the superb La canonnière du Yang-Tsé (1966). McQueen was genuine hot property and next appeared with Faye Dunaway in the provocative crime drama L'Affaire Thomas Crown (1968), next in what many consider his signature role, that of a maverick, taciturn detective in the mega-hit Bullitt (1968), renowned for its famous chase sequence through San Francisco between McQueen's Ford Mustang GT and the killer's black Dodge Charger.

Interestingly, McQueen's next role was a total departure from the action genre, as he played Southerner Boon Hogganbeck in the family-oriented Les reivers (1969), based on the popular William Faulkner novel. Not surprisingly, the film didn't go over particularly well with audiences, even though it was an entertaining and well made production, and McQueen showed an interesting comedic side of his acting talents. He returned to more familiar territory, with the race film Le Mans (1971), a rather self-indulgent exercise, and its slow plot line contributed to its rather poor performance in theaters. It was not until many years later that it became something of a cult film, primarily because of the footage of Porsche 917s roaring around race tracks in France. McQueen then teamed up with maverick Hollywood director Sam Peckinpah to star in the modern Western Junior Bonner : Le Dernier Bagarreur (1972), about a family of rodeo riders, and again with Peckinpah as bank robber Doc McCoy in the violent Guet-apens (1972). Both did good business at the box office. McQueen's next role was a refreshing surprise and Papillon (1973), based on the Henri Charrière novel of the same name, was well received by fans and critics alike. He played a convict on a French penal colony in South America who persists in trying to escape from his captors and feels their wrath when his attempts fail.

The 1970s is a decade remembered for a slew of "disaster" movies and McQueen starred in arguably the biggest of the time, La tour infernale (1974). He shared equal top billing with Paul Newman and an impressive line-up of co-stars including Fred Astaire, Robert Vaughn and Faye Dunaway. McQueen does not appear until roughly halfway into the film as San Francisco fire chief Mike O'Halloran, battling to extinguish an inferno in a 138-story skyscraper. The film was a monster hit and set the benchmark for other disaster movies that followed. However, it was McQueen's last film role for several years. After a four-year hiatus he surprised fans, and was almost unrecognizable under long hair and a beard, as a rabble-rousing early environmentalist in Un ennemi du peuple (1978), based on the Henrik Ibsen play.

McQueen's last two film performances were in the unusual Western Tom Horn (1980), then he portrayed real-life bounty hunter Ralph "Papa' Thorson (Ralph Thorson) in Le Chasseur (1980). In 1978, McQueen developed a persistent cough that would not go away. He quit smoking cigarettes and underwent antibiotic treatments without improvement. Shortness of breath grew more pronounced and on December 22, 1979, after he completed work on 'The Hunter', a biopsy revealed pleural mesothelioma, a rare lung cancer associated with asbestos exposure for which there is no known cure. The asbestos was thought to have been in the protective suits worn in his race car driving days, but in fact the auto racing suits McQueen wore were made of Nomex, a DuPont fire-resistant aramid fiber that contains no asbestos. McQueen later gave a medical interview in which he believed that asbestos used in movie sound stage insulation and race-drivers' protective suits and helmets could have been involved, but he thought it more likely that his illness was a direct result of massive exposure while removing asbestos lagging from pipes aboard a troop ship while in the US Marines.

By February 1980, there was evidence of widespread metastasis. While he tried to keep the condition a secret, the National Enquirer disclosed that he had "terminal cancer" on March 11, 1980. In July, McQueen traveled to Rosarito Beach, Mexico for an unconventional treatment after American doctors told him they could do nothing to prolong his life. Controversy arose over McQueen's Mexican trip, because McQueen sought a non-traditional cancer treatment called the Gerson Therapy that used coffee enemas, frequent washing with shampoos, daily injections of fluid containing live cells from cows and sheep, massage and laetrile, a supposedly "natural" anti-cancer drug available in Mexico, but not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. McQueen paid for these unconventional medical treatments by himself in cash payments which was said to have cost an upwards of $40,000 per month during his three-month stay in Mexico. McQueen was treated by William Donald Kelley, whose only medical license had been (until revoked in 1976) for orthodontics.

McQueen returned to the United States in early October 1980. Despite metastasis of the cancer through McQueen's body, Kelley publicly announced that McQueen would be completely cured and return to normal life. McQueen's condition soon worsened and "huge" tumors developed in his abdomen. In late October, McQueen flew to Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico to have an abdominal tumor on his liver (weighing around five pounds) removed, despite warnings from his American doctors that the tumor was inoperable and his heart could not withstand the surgery. McQueen checked into a Juarez clinic under the alias "Sam Shepard" where the local Mexican doctors and staff at the small, low-income clinic were unaware of his actual identity.

Steve McQueen passed away on November 7, 1980, at age 50 after the cancer surgery which was said to be successful. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea. He married three times and had a lifelong love of motor racing, once remarking, "Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting.".

The cinema took a while to discover him. Born in England, the son of an insurance agent, RADA-trained Donald Moffat first appeared on the Shakespearean stage with the Old Vic. In 1954, he stage managed the popular revue "Salad Days". Then, 'discontentment' (which, he later explained, had much to do with the class system in Britain) prompted a permanent relocation to the United States. Accompanying his American actress wife to her home state in Oregon, Moffat initially tried his hand at bartending and as a lumberjack. After six months, he concluded that he was not cut out for outdoorsy pursuits and decided to return to his original muse. A "motivating stimulus", as he would later explain, was that "America seemed much more theatrically vibrant than things were at home".

Modest beginnings with an amateur theatre group in Princeton provided a meagre income of $25 a week which necessitated temporarily making ends meet as a carpenter. That situation improved in the wake of Moffat's 1957 debut on Broadway in "Under Milkwood". From then on, he managed to keep himself exceedingly busy for some three decades -- both on and off-Broadway -- in roles ranging from O'Neill and Chekhov to Ibsen and Miller. Stops along the way included the Ohio Shakespeare Festival in Akron, as well as theatres in New York (where he made a memorable Falstaff in 1987), Cincinnati, Chicago and Los Angeles. In the early 60s, Moffat enjoyed a lengthy tenure as a member of the ensemble of the Association of Producing Artists (APA) Phoenix Repertory Company.

Having lost his British accent early on, Moffat excelled at slotting into diverse roles as totally believable Americans, be they dignified, self-effacing, doleful, tough or acerbic. This was very much in keeping with his working credo: "respect the text - you fit the part, not the other way around". Instantly recognisable in appearance -- lean, long-faced and bushy-browed -- he was a subtle actor who made good use of a mellow but resonant voice which combined with a strong stage presence. On the screen, Moffat began as a TV supporting player with numerous guest roles in hit shows, including Hawaii police d'état (1968), Bonanza (1959), Mission impossible (1966), Mannix (1967) and À la Maison Blanche (1999), playing an assortment of judges, doctors, reverends, politicians and army officers, even a quirky android named Rem in the short-lived CBS series L'âge de cristal (1977). His cinematic debut did not eventuate until 1968 as the (deceased) father of Joanne Woodward's titular protagonist in Rachel, Rachel (1968). Other memorable roles include the shady president in Tom Clancy's Danger immédiat (1994), the ill-fated station commander Garry in John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) and Lyndon B. Johnson in L'étoffe des héros (1983).

Described as a consummate professional, Obie award-winning actor Donald Moffat retired in 2005 and passed away on 20 December 2018 at the age of 87.

Alvin Greenman was an American actor, dialogue coach and script supervisor whose career in the movie and television business spanned over 50 years.

Born in 1930 in New York City, his last television appearance was in 2001 where he appeared in "Backstory," a documentary series, as himself. He is the only actor to appear in both Le Miracle sur la 34ème rue (1947) and the remake, Miracle sur la 34ème rue (1994). In the former, he appeared in the uncredited role of the young janitor of Macy's whereas in the latter, he played the doorman. Both characters are named Alfred.

While most of his work involved script supervision and dialogue coaching, Greenman continued to take on minor television and film roles throughout his career. As as dialogue coach and script supervisor, he worked on such films as The Longest Yard, the Karate Kid and Uncommon Valor as well as successful television series and miniseries including Doogie Howser, Hill Street Blues, and Roots.

However, by far, as an actor Greeman is best known for his good-natured portrayal of Alfred in Miracle sur la 34ème rue (1994). Although a minor character, it was a memorable one with memorable lines such as: "There is a lot of bad ism's floating around this world and one of the worst is commercialism. Make a buck, make a buck. Even in Brooklyn it's the same -- don't care what Christmas stands for, just make a buck, make a buck."

Born and raised in New York City, Robert Loggia studied journalism at the University of Missouri before moving back to New York to pursue acting. He trained at the Actors Studio while doing stage work. From the late 1950s he was a familiar face on TV, usually as authoritative figures. Loggia also found work in movies such as La plus grande histoire jamais contée (1965), Scarface (1983) and Big (1988). Always in demand, Loggia worked until his death, at 85, from complications of Alzheimer's.

R.J. Wagner was born 1930 in Detroit, the son of a steel executive. His family moved to L.A. when he was six. Always wanting to be an actor, he held a variety of jobs (including one as a golf caddy for Clark Gable) while pursuing his goal, but it was while dining with his parents at a Beverly Hills restaurant that he was discovered by a talent scout. After making his uncredited screen debut in Années de jeunesse (1950), Wagner was signed by 20th Century Fox, which carefully built him up toward stardom. He played romantic leads with ease, but it was not until he essayed the two-scene role of a shell-shocked war veteran in Un refrain dans mon coeur (1952) that studio executives recognized his potential as a dramatic actor. He went on to play the title roles in Prince Vaillant (1954) and Jesse James, le brigand bien-aimé (1957), and portrayed a cold-blooded murderer in L'étreinte fatale (1956). In the mid-'60s, however, his film career skidded to a stop after La Panthère rose (1963). Several years of unemployment followed before Wagner made a respectable transition to television as star of the lighthearted espionage series Opération vol (1968). He also starred on the police series Switch (1975), but Wagner's greatest success was opposite Stefanie Powers on the internationally popular Pour l'amour du risque (1979), which ran from 1979 through 1984 and has since been sporadically revived in TV-movie form (another series, Le gentleman mène l'enquète (1985), was quickly canceled due to the tragic death of Wagner's young co-star, Samantha Smith). Considered one of Hollywood's nicest citizens, Robert Wagner has continued to successfully pursue a leading man career; he has also launched a latter-day stage career, touring with Stefanie Powers in the readers' theater presentation "Love Letters". He found success playing Number Two, a henchman to Dr. Evil in Austin Powers (1997) and its sequels, and in 2007, he began playing Teddy Leopold, a recurring role on the CBS sitcom Mon oncle Charlie (2003). Wagner is married to Jill St. John and lives in Aspen.

Anne Francis got into show business quite early in life. She was born on September 16, 1930 in Ossining, New York (which is near Sing Sing prison), the only child of Phillip Ward Francis, a businessman/salesman, and the former Edith Albertson. A natural little beauty, she became a John Robert Powers model at age 6(!) and swiftly moved into radio soap work and television in New York. By age 11, she was making her stage debut on Broadway playing the child version of Gertrude Lawrence in the star's 1941 hit vehicle "Lady in the Dark". During this productive time, she attended New York's Professional Children's School.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer put the lovely, blue-eyed, wavy-blonde hopeful under contract during the post-war World War II years. While Anne appeared in a couple of obscure bobbysoxer bits, nothing much came of it. Frustrated at the standard cheesecake treatment she was receiving in Hollywood, the serious-minded actress trekked back to New York where she appeared to good notice on television's "Golden Age" drama and found some summer stock work on the sly ("My Sister Eileen").

Discovered and signed by 20th Century-Fox's Darryl F. Zanuck after playing a seductive, child-bearing juvenile delinquent in the low budget film Les dépravées (1950), Anne soon starred in a number of promising ingénue roles, including Enlevez-moi, Monsieur (1951), Lydia Bailey (1952), and Un grand séducteur (1952) but she still could not seem to rise above the starlet typecast. At MGM, she found promising leading lady work in a few noteworthy 1950s classics: Un homme est passé (1955); Graine de violence (1955); and the science fiction cult classic Planète interdite (1956). While co-starring with Hollywood's hunkiest best, including Paul Newman, Dale Robertson, Glenn Ford and Cornel Wilde, her roles still emphasized more her glam appeal than her acting capabilities. In the 1960s, Anne began refocusing strongly on the smaller screen, finding a comfortable niche on television series. She found a most appreciative audience in two classic La quatrième dimension (1959) episodes and then as a self-sufficient, Emma Peel-like detective in Aaron Spelling's short-lived cult series Honey West (1965), where she combined glamour and a sexy veneer with judo throws, karate chops and trendy fashions. The role earned her a Golden Globe Award and Emmy Award nomination.

The actress returned to films only on occasion, the most controversial being Funny Girl (1968), in which her co-starring role as Barbra Streisand's pal was heartlessly reduced to a glorified cameo. Her gratuitous co-star parts opposite some of filmdom's top comics' in their lesser vehicles -- Jerry Lewis' Cramponne-toi Jerry (1969) and Don Knotts' The Love God? (1969) -- did little to show off her talents or upgrade her career. For the next couple of decades, Anne remained a welcome and steadfast presence in a slew of television movies (The Intruders (1970), Haunts of the Very Rich (1972), Little Mo (1978), A Masterpiece of Murder (1986)), usually providing colorful, wisecracking support. She billed herself as Anne Lloyd Francis on occasion in later years.

For such a promising start and with such amazing stamina and longevity, the girl with the sexy beauty mark probably deserved better. Yet in reflection, her output, especially in her character years, has been strong and varied, and her realistic take on the whole Hollywood industry quite balanced. Twice divorced with one daughter from her second marriage, Anne adopted (as a single mother) a girl back in 1970 in California. She has long been involved with a metaphysical-based church, channeling her own thoughts and feelings into the inspirational 1982 book "Voices from Home: An Inner Journey". Later, she has spent more time off-camera and involved in such charitable programs as "Direct Relief", "Angel View" and the "Desert AIDS Project", among others. Her health declined sharply in the final years. Diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007, the actress died on January 2, 2011, from complications of pancreatic cancer in a Santa Barbara (California) retirement home.

Born in Boise City, Oklahoma, Vera Miles attended school in Pratt, Kansas and Wichita, Kansas. The patrician beauty of Miss Miles won her the title of "Miss Kansas" in 1948, leading soon to small roles in Hollywood films and television series. Fame came to the forthright, spirited Miles when she attracted the attention of two master directors, Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford. Ford cast her in the classic western La Prisonnière du désert (1956) and Hitchcock, who put her under personal contract and hailed her as his "new Grace Kelly", paired her with the great Henry Fonda in Le faux coupable (1956). Hitchcock cast Miles in the potentially star-making role of Judy Barton in Sueurs froides (1958), but Miles withdrew from the film when she became pregnant. Hitchcock gave Miles a supporting role in another masterpiece Psychose (1960), as did Ford when he cast her opposite John Wayne and James Stewart in L'homme qui tua Liberty Valance (1962), She also starred in such films as L'ingrate cité (1957) opposite Bob Hope, La police fédérale enquête (1959) opposite Stewart, Histoire d'un amour (1961) opposite Susan Hayward and John Gavin and L'odyssée d'un sergent (1968) opposite Lee Marvin, as well as showing her consistently remarkable and versatile talent on dozens of popular television movies and series including Suspicion (1962), La quatrième dimension (1959), Au-delà du réel (1963), Le fugitif (1963), My Three Sons (1960), Bonanza (1959), Columbo (1971) and Arabesque (1984). In 1983, she reprised her role as "Lila Crane" in the film sequel Psychose II (1983), starring Anthony Perkins. Although, too often, the stunningly beautiful Miles' gifts were underutilized, before her retirement in 1995, hers was a most intriguing and enduring Hollywood career.

Tall, slim and exceedingly good-looking American leading man Robert Culp, a former cartoonist in his teen years, appeared off-Broadway in the 1950s before settling into polished, clean-cut film leads and "other man" supports a decade later. Hitting the popular TV boards in the hip, racially ground-breaking espionage program Les espions (1965), he made a slick (but never smarmy), sardonic name for himself during his over five-decade career with his sly humor, casual banter and tongue-in-cheek sexiness. Though he had the requisite looks and smooth, manly appeal (not to mention acting talent) for superstardom, a cool but cynical and somewhat detached persona may have prevented him from attaining it full-out.

He was born Robert Martin Culp on August 16, 1930, in Oakland California. The son of attorney Crozie Culp and his wife, Bethel Collins, who was employed at a Berkeley chemical company, he offset his only-child loneliness by playacting in local theater productions. Culp also showed a talent for art while young and earned money as a cartoonist for Bay Area magazines and newspapers in high school, but the fascination with becoming an actor proved much stronger. He attended Berkeley High School and graduated in 1947. The athletically-inclined Culp dominated at track and field events and, as a result, earned athletic scholarships to six different universities. He selected the relatively minor College of the Pacific in Stockton, California primarily because of its active theater department. Transferring to various other colleges of higher learning (including San Francisco State in 1949), he never earned a degree. After performing in some theatre in the San Francisco area, he moved to Seattle and then New York in 1951.

Studying under famed teacher Herbert Berghof and supporting himself during this time teaching speech and phonetics, Bob eventually found work on the theatre scene, making his 1953 Broadway debut (as Robert M. Culp) in "The Prescott Proposals" with Katharine Cornell. He eventually returned to Broadway with "Diary of a Scoundrel" starring Blanche Yurka and Roddy McDowall in 1956 and with a strong role in "A Clearing in the Woods" (alongside Kim Stanley) a year later. He earned an off-Broadway Obie Award for his very fine work in "He Who Gets Slapped" in 1956, and also appeared in the plays "Daily Life" and "Easter".

Gracing a few live-TV dramas during his New York days, he returned to his native California for his first major TV role. It was an auspicious one as post-Civil War Texas Ranger "Hoby Gilman" in the western series Trackdown (1957). He earned widespread attention in the series that based many of its stories from actual Texas Ranger files, and the show itself received the official approval not only of the Rangers themselves but by the State of Texas. The series led to a CBS spin-off of its own: Au nom de la loi (1958), which made a TV star out of Steve McQueen.

From there, Culp guested on a number of series dramas: Bonanza (1959), L'homme à la carabine (1958), Rawhide (1959), The Detectives (1959), Ben Casey (1961), Au-delà du réel (1963), Naked City (1958) and Combat! (1962). He also starred in the two-part Disney family-styled program "Sammy the Way Out Seal" (1962), which was subsequently released as a feature in Europe. He and Patricia Barry played the hapless parents of precocious Bill Mumy and Michael McGreevey whose "adopted" pet animal unleashes major chaos in their suburban neighborhood.

During this time, Bob began to seek lead and supporting work in films. Despite his co-starring with Cliff Robertson, Rod Taylor and the very perky Jane Fonda (as her straight-laced boyfriend) in the sparkling Broadway-based sexcapade Un dimanche à New-York (1963); playing Robertson's naval mate in the popular John F. Kennedy biopic Patrouilleur 109 (1963); recreating the legendary "Wild Bill" Hickok in the western tale Les Téméraires (1963); and heading up the adventurous cast of the Ivan Tors' African yarn Sur la piste du rhinocéros blanc (1964) (which included Harry Guardino and the very fetching British import Shirley Eaton), Culp wasn't able to make a serious dent in the medium.

TV remained his best arena and gave him more lucrative offers, professionally. It rewarded him quite richly in 1965 with the debonair series lead "Kelly Robinson", a jet-setting, pro-circuit tennis player who leads a double life as an international secret agent in Les espions (1965). Running three seasons, Culp co-starred with fellow secret agent Bill Cosby, who, as "Alexander Scott", posed as Culp's tennis trainer. The role was tailor-made for the suave, Ivy-League-looking actor. He looked effortlessly cool posing in sunglasses amid the posh continental settings and remained handsomely unflinching in the face of danger. It was the first U.S. prime-time network drama to feature an African-American actor in a full-out starring role and the relationship between the two meshed perfectly and charismatically on screen. Both were nominated for acting Emmys in all three of its seasons, with Cosby coming out the victor each time. Filmed on location in such cities as Hong Kong, Acapulco and Tokyo, Culp also wrote and directed certain episodes of the show He also met his third wife, the gorgeous Eurasian actress France Nuyen, while on the set. They married in 1967 but divorced three years later. At this stage, the actor already had four children (by second wife, sometime actress Nancy Ashe).

Following the series' demise, Culp took on perhaps his most-famous and controversial film role as Natalie Wood's husband "Bob" in the titillating but ultimately teasing "flower power" era film Bob et Carole et Ted et Alice (1969), with Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon as the other-half couple who examine the late 60s "free love" idea of wife-swapping. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards (two went to supporting actors Gould and Cannon). The movie did not reignite Culp's popularity on the large screen, but it did lead to his rather strange pairing with buxom Raquel Welch in the violent-edged western Un colt pour 3 salopards (1971) and a reunion with his Les espions (1965) pal Cosby in the far-more entertaining Requiem pour des gangsters (1972), which reestablished their great tongue-in-cheek rapport as two weary-eyed private eyes. Culp also directed the film while his real-life wife, actress Sheila Sullivan, played his screen wife as well.

The late 1970s produced a flood of routine mini-movies and B-pictures, the latter including L'Enlèvement (1975), Intervention Delta (1976), Coup de sang (1976), Un cow-boy en colère (1976), Déluge sur la ville (1976), De l'or au bout de la piste (1979) and Hot Rod (1979). While he remained a sturdy and standard presence in such mini-movies as Houston, We've Got a Problem (1974), Spectre (1977) and Calendrier sanglant (1984), his better TV-movie roles were in Terreur dans la montagne (1973), Outrage (1973), A Cry for Help (1975) and as "Lyle Pettyjohn" in the acclaimed mini-series sequel Racines 2 (1979).

Bob returned to series TV as stern FBI Special Agent "Bill Maxwell", whose job was to work with handsome William Katt, who starred as an ersatz Ralph Super-héros (1981). The show lasted three seasons. Other series guest spots, both comedic and dramatic, included Hôtel (1983), Les routes du paradis (1984), Les craquantes (1985) and an episode of his old buddy's show Cosby Show (1984). He was also a guest murderer in three of the "Columbo" episodes. Although he was relegated to appearing in such film fodder as Turk 182 (1985), Super nanas II (1987) and Pucker Up and Bark Like a Dog (1989), the 1990s offered him one of his best film roles in years as the ill-fated President in the Denzel Washington/Julia Roberts political thriller L'affaire Pélican (1993). A year later, he again reteamed with Cosby in the TV-movie I Spy Returns (1994).

Culp became very active in the 1960s Civil Rights movement and later became a prominent face in local civic causes, joining in a lawsuit to cease construction of an elephant exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo and accusing officials there of mistreatment. In the long run, however, the construction was given the green light. Culp also married a fifth time to Candace Faulkner and, by her, had daughter Samantha Culp in 1982. Older sons Jason Culp (born 1961) and Joseph Culp (born 1963) became actors, while another son, Joshua Culp (born 1958), entered the visual effects field. Daughter Rachel, an outré clothing designer for rock stars, was born in 1964.

In later years, Culp could be seen occasionally as Ray Romano's father-in-law on the hugely popular Tout le monde aime Raymond (1996). His last film, the family drama The Assignment (2010), was unreleased at the time of his death. On March 24, 2010, the 79-year-old Culp collapsed from an apparent heart attack while walking near the lower entrance to Runyon Canyon Park, a popular hiking area in the Hollywood Hills. Found by a hiker, Culp was transported to a nearby hospital where he died from the head injuries he sustained in the fall. Five grandchildren also survive.

Sally Ann Howes grew up in a show business family led by her father, famous English comedian/actor Bobby Howes, her mother Patricia Malone and grandfather, Broadway director Capt. J.A.E. Malone. She had her first screen test offer on her 12th birthday and went on to star in several films before she turned 20, including Anna Karénine (1948) with Vivien Leigh.

At 20, she received her first starring stage role in Glasgow in the Sandy Wilson musical Caprice. This led to other musicals including an 18-month run of Paint Your Wagon opposite her father Bobby Howes at Her Majesty's Theatre, Haymarket in 1953. This was followed by the plays Romance by Candlelight, A Hatful of Rain (non-musical) and 148 performances of the musical Summer Song. She continued to make the occasional film during the 1950's but the stage was her main focus. In 1958 she accepted the role of Eliza Doolittle in Broadway's My Fair Lady, taking over from Julie Andrews. The role had been offered to her three times previously, but film and stage commitments kept her from assuming the part that would skyrocket her fame in America.

Just before taking on My Fair Lady, she married composer Richard Adler, and he wrote the musical Gift of the Magi for her. It aired on CBS TV in December of 1958. Adler later wrote Kwamina for her, which she performed after her run in My Fair Lady. It was a short-lived run of the musical, and she went on to perform on Broadway in "Brigadoon", which earned her a Tony nomination in 1963. Afterwards she starred in the critically acclaimed musical, "What Makes Sammy Run" opposite Steven Lawrence. Soon after she landed the TV version of Brigadoon (1966) co-starring Robert Goulet and Peter Falk which went on to win seven Emmy Awards.

After she and Adler divorced in 1966, she began filming the movie that would become a mega-hit, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). Despite her large volume of work before and after the movie, she will always be most fondly remembered and loved around the world for her portrayal as the very lovely Truly Scrumptious. Producer Albert R. Broccoli wrote of her: "We wanted a typical English beauty. And to me, Sally Ann represents that ideal. She is also one of the finest musical comedy stars today, a rare combination of the right kind of beauty and the right kind of talent." Dick Van Dyke said of her in his documentary "Remembering Chitty Chitty Bang Bang": "They couldn't have picked a better Truly Scrumptious than Sally. They came up with Sally Ann and I heard her voice, and it was the richest contralto. She auditioned with the Lovely Lonely Man, and I thought, my God, this girl is great and then she was stunningly beautiful. She loved those kids and they loved her, which I think comes across on the screen. They just thought a great deal of her, and she spent a lot of time with them, you know, between shots... telling stories and playing games during all those long waiting periods."

Filming took place in England, France and Bavaria over 14 months. Critics were mixed about the film, but children were fanatical about it. The movie spawned a mass marketing phenomenon with everything from Truly Scrumptious Barbie dolls, to Jemima dress patterns, lunch-boxes, countless toys, and many other things all of which still enjoy a thriving collectible life on the secondary market. The Truly Scrumptious costumes in the film even sparked a mini-revival in Edwardian fashions, especially reflected by designer Laura Ashley.

Unfortunately, the movie came out at a time when musicals were beginning to be box office dead weight, including Julie Andrews ' Star! (1968) and Darling Lili (1970), which nearly sank Paramount. This nailed the lid shut on filmed musicals for a long time, leaving no filmed musical outlet for performers like Howes. Her film roles became very sporadic after Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). She was a frequent and popular guest panelist on many game shows throughout the 1960s, and even up until the early 1980s, and she made several guest appearances on television series during the early 1970s. However, the theatre called her back, and with the exception of a few films, she has devoted her career almost entirely to the musical stage. Her last appearance was in 1992. She remains very active in musical theatre even today and is considered one of the grand dames of the American and British musical stage.

Other musicals and plays she has starred in Camelot; Blossom Time; The Sound of Music; King and I; Robert and Elizabeth; Man and Superman; I Do, I Do; Hans Anderson; A Little Night Music; Cinderella; Where's Charley?; James Joyce's The Dead.

She has sung at the White House for three US Presidents - Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

She is a naturalized U.S. citizen and resides in New York. She has been married for over 30 years to Douglas Rae.

Dark-haired, usually-mustachioed American actor with a cheeky grin, who achieved pop culture status through his portrayal of the kooky patriarch "Gomez Addams" in the hit TV series La famille Addams (1964), John Astin was born on March 30, 1930 in Baltimore, Maryland. He studied mathematics at Johns Hopkins University, but he discovered a passion for the theater and began to perform in minor plays and do voice-over work for commercials. He first got noticed thanks to a small role in West Side Story (1961), then appeared in several other films before being cast as "Gomez Addams". While "The Addams Family" was initially a huge hit, its popularity petered out after two years, and Astin moved on to other work including the offbeat Bunny O'Hare (1971), playing a grizzled but not- particularly-bright gunfighter in the Western spoof Evil Roy Slade (1972), an appearance in the Disney comedy Un vendredi dingue, dingue, dingue (1976) and dual roles in Bonjour les vacances 2 (1985).

He has since lent his comedic talents to numerous appearances as "Dr. Gangreen" in several corny "Killer Tomato" movies, and has contributed his voice to recreate "Gomez Addams" in the animated series La Famille Addams (1992), then played "Grandpa Addams" in the successful TV series La nouvelle famille Addams (1998). In addition, Astin has contributed voices to several animated shows, and he still appears in films regularly.

Jean-Luc Godard was born in Paris on December 3, 1930, the second of four children in a bourgeois Franco-Swiss family. His father was a doctor who owned a private clinic, and his mother came from a preeminent family of Swiss bankers. During World War II Godard became a naturalized citizen of Switzerland and attended school in Nyons, Switzerland. His parents divorced in 1948, at which time he returned to Paris to attend the Lycée Rohmer. In 1949 he studied at the Sorbonne to prepare for a degree in ethnology. However, it was during this time that he began attending with François Truffaut, Jacques Rivette, and Éric Rohmer.

In 1950 Godard, with Rivette and Rohmer, founded "Gazette du cinéma", which published five issues between May and November. He wrote a number of articles for the journal, often using the pseudonym "Hans Lucas". After Godard worked on and financed two films by Rivette and Rohmer, Godard's family cut off their financial support in 1951, and he resorted to a Bohemian lifestyle that included stealing food and money when necessary. In January 1952 he began writing film criticism for "Les cahiers du cinéma". Later that year he traveled to North and South America with his father and attempted to make his first film (of which only a tracking shot from a car was ever accomplished).

In 1953 he returned to Paris briefly before securing a job as a construction worker on a dam project in Switzerland. With the money from the job, he made a short film in 1954 about the building of the dam called Opération 'Béton' (1958). Later that year his mother was killed in a motor scooter accident in Switzerland. In 1956 Godard began writing again for "Les cahiers du cinéma" as well as for the journal "Arts". In 1957 Godard worked as the press attache for "Artistes Associés", and made his first French film, Charlotte et Véronique, ou Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick (1959).

In 1958 he shot Charlotte et son Jules (1958), his homage to Jean Cocteau. Later that year he took unused footage of a flood in Paris shot by Truffaut and edited it into a film called Une histoire d'eau (1961), which was an homage to Mack Sennett. In 1959 he worked with Truffaut on the weekly publication "Temps de Paris". Godard wrote a gossip column for the journal, but also spent much time writing scenarios for films and a body of critical writings which placed him firmly in the forefront of the "nouvelle vague" aesthetic, precursing the French New Wave.

It was also in that year Godard began work on À bout de souffle (1960). In 1960 he married Anna Karina in Switzerland. In April and May he shot Le Petit Soldat (1963) in Geneva and was preparing the film for a fall release in Paris. However, French censors banned it due to its references to the Algerian war, and it was not shown until 1963. In March 1960 À bout de souffle (1960) premiered in Paris. It was hugely successful both with the film critics and at the box office, and became a landmark film in the French New Wave with its references to American cinema, its jagged editing and overall romantic/cinephilia approach to filmmaking. The film propelled the popularity of male lead Jean-Paul Belmondo with European audiences.

In 1961 Godard shot Une femme est une femme (1961), his first film using color widescreen stock. Later that year he participated in the collective effort to remake the film Les sept péchés capitaux (1962), which was heralded as an important project in artistic collaboration. In 1962 Godard shot Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux (1962) in Paris, his first commercial success since "Breathless". Later that year he shot a segment entitled "Le Nouveau Monde" for the collective film Rogopag (1963), another important work in the history of collaborative multiple-authored art.

In 1963 Godard completed a film in homage to Jean Vigo entitled Les carabiniers (1963), which was a resounding failure with the public and stirred furious controversy with film critics. Also that year he worked on a couple of collective films: Les Plus Belles Escroqueries du monde (1964) (from which Godard's sequence was later cut) and Paris vu par... (1965). In 1964 Godard and his wife Anna Karina formed their own production company, Anouchka Films. They shot a film called Une femme mariée (1964), which censors forced them to re-edit due to a topless sunbathing scene shot by Jacques Rozier. The censors also made Godard change the title to "Une femme marié" so as to not give the impression that this "scandalous" woman was the typical French wife. Later in the year, two French television programs were produced in devotion to Godard's work.

In the spring of 1965 Godard shot Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965) in Paris; in the summer he shot Pierrot le fou (1965) in Paris and the south of France. Shortly thereafter he and Anna Karina separated. Following their divorce, Godard shot Made in U.S.A (1966), "Deux ou trois choses que je sais d'elle (1966)", "L'amour en l'an 2000" (1966) (a sequel to "Alphaville" shot as a sketch for the collective film "L'amour travers les ages" (1966)).

In 1967 Godard shot La Chinoise (1967) in Paris with Anne Wiazemsky, who was the granddaughter of French novelist François Mauriac. During the making of the film Godard and Wiazemsky were married in Paris. Later in the year he was prevented from traveling to North Vietnam for the shooting of a sequence for the collective film Loin du Vietnam (1967). He instead shot the sequence in Paris, entitled "Camera-Oeil". Also during 1967 Godard participated (as the only Frenchman) on an Italian collective film called La contestation (1969).

In 1968 Godard was commissioned by French television to make Le gai savoir (1969). However, television producers were so outraged by the product Godard produced that they refused to show it. In May of that year Henri Langlois was fired by the head of the French Jean-Pierre Gorin to form the Dziga-Vertov group, infuriating Godard. He became increasingly concerned with socialist solutions to an idealist cinema, especially in providing the proletariat with the means of production and distribution. Along with other militantly political filmmakers in the Dziga-Vertov group, Godard published a series of 'Ciné-Tracts' outlining these viewpoints. In the summer of 1968 Godard traveled to New York City and Berkeley, California, to shoot the film "One American Movie", which was never completed. In September he made a trip to Canada to start another film called "Communication(s)", which also went unfinished, and then made a visit to Cuba before returning to France.

In 1969 Godard traveled to England, where he made the film British Sounds (1970) for BBC Weekend Television, but the network later refused to show it. In the late spring he traveled with the Dziga-Vertov group to Prague to secretly shoot the film "Pravda". Later that year he shot Luttes en Italie (1971) ("Struggle for Italy") for Italian television. It was never shown, either.

In 1970 Godard traveled to Lebanon to shoot a film for the Palestinian Liberation Organization entitled "Jusque à la victoire" (1970) ("Until Victory"). Later that year he traveled to dozens of American universities trying to raise money for the film. In spite of his efforts, it was never released.

Kathie Browne was born Jacqueline Sue Browne on September 19, 1930 in San Luis Obispo, California. She got her break in TV after appearing in a Los Angeles production of Tennessee Williams's play, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", making her TV debut in 1957 in The Gray Ghost (1957), The Sheriff of Cochise (1956), and Gunsmoke (1955). The following year, she made her movie debut in the B-movie, Meurtre sous contrat (1958), but it was mostly television that was her métier. She made numerous guest appearances on a plethora of TV shows. The blonde haired, blue-eyed beauty played mainly ingénue parts, and was a very busy TV actress of the 1960s and 1970s.

One of her most famous acting role was as the prospective bride of "Adam Cartwright", during the 1963-64 season of Bonanza (1959). She had appeared on the series twice before, as different characters, in 1961 and 1962, but was cast as the pretty widow, Laura Dayton, in 1963, appearing in 4 episodes broadcast between December 8, 1963 and May 17, 1964, which was the penultimate show of the season. Laura was supposed to marry Adam and ride off with him into the sunset as Pernell Roberts was unhappy with the show and threatening to leave. The producers, at the demand of NBC (which owned the show), hired Guy Williams as a potential replacement for Roberts. Instead of leaving after the 1963-64 season, Roberts signed on for one more year on the Ponderosa, and Browne (as Laura) rode off with Adam's cousin, Will Cartwright, instead (played by Williams). A year after her turn as a regular on the short-lived western series, Hondo (1967), Browne gave another memorable performance, in the Star Trek (1966) episode, Wink of an Eye (1968), in which she played the beautiful Scalosian who (what else?) falls in love (or at least lust) with Captain Kirk.

Browne married actor Darren McGavin in 1969, and they were frequent co-stars, including his starring series, Dossiers brûlants (1974), during the 1970s. She retired from acting in 1980.

Kathie Browne (legally Jacqueline K. McGavin) died on April 8, 2003 in Beverly Hills, California, aged 72.

Virginia Cathryn "Gena" Rowlands is an American film, stage, and television actress, whose career in the entertainment industry has spanned over six decades. A four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner, she is known for her collaborations with her late actor-director husband John Cassavetes in 10 films, including Une femme sous influence (1974) and Gloria (1980), which earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also won the Silver Bear for Best Actress for Opening Night (1977). In November 2015, Rowlands received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of her unique screen performances.

Raised in Washington, D.C., the great-granddaughter (on her father's side) of German immigrants, Frances Hussey Sternhagen taught acting, singing and dancing to young schoolchildren before first performing herself with the Arena Stage Group.

Since then, she was seen in numerous Broadway and Off-Broadway shows.

She was nominated seven times for a Tony Award (winning 2 times, once for her performance in "The Good Doctor" and once for "The Heiress"). Other shows in which she appeared include "Equus", "On Golden Pond", "Angel", and "You Can't Take it with You".

Among many other appearances Off-Broadway, including the original production of "On Golden Pond", Sternhagen delighted Off-Broadway audiences for over two years with her feisty portrayal of the title character in "Driving Miss Daisy".

Her film debut was in Escalier interdit (1967). Since then her credits have included Fedora (1978), Merci d'avoir été ma femme... (1979), Outland... Loin de la Terre (1981) and Communion (1989).

She appeared on the very popular long-running television series Cheers (1982) as Esther Clavin, mother of John Ratzenberger's character, the pedagogical know-it-all mailman Cliff Clavin.

She played wealthy philanthropist and society matron Millicent Carter, the grandmother of John Carter (Noah Wyle) on Urgences (1994). She also appeared in episodes of Sex and the City (1998) and Becker (1998).

Lois Smith was born on 3 November 1930 in Topeka, Kansas, USA. She is an actress, known for Minority Report (2002), Lady Bird (2017) and Twister (1996). She was previously married to Wesley Dale Smith.

Despite being in just seven episodes, Nita Talbot is best remembered for her Emmy-nominated role as the crafty Russian spy Marya Parmanova in the iconic 60s wartime sitcom Papa Schultz (1965). Her character was the only one in the show capable of outmaneuvering Bob Crane's shrewd Colonel Hogan.

Nita was born Anita Sokol of Hungarian/Jewish ancestry in the Bronx, New York. Determined to break into show business, she often accompanied her older sister, Gloria Stone, to auditions at the various studios. On one of these outings, she was spotted by a talent scout and signed under contract by Warner Brothers, making her screen debut, aged eighteen, in 1949. This was followed two years later with her first curtain call on Broadway. Sultry, blonde, husky-voiced and with her gray/green eyes, Nita was proclaimed by studio publicists to resemble Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall. With that in mind, she was usually cast during the early years of her career as hard-boiled, street-wise chicks and ambitious career girls.

Nita's first recurring character role was that of Gloria in one of the first ever private detective serials, Man Against Crime (1949). She had to wait a decade for her next co-starring turn as an enterprising aide-de-camp to the star in Hot Off the Wire (1960), a sitcom which revolved around a second-rate news service. In addition to numerous anthology dramas, Nita regularly featured in prime time shows like Perry Mason (1957), Monsieur et Madame détective (1957), Mike Hammer (1958), Johnny Staccato (1959) and Bonne chance M. Lucky (1959), often as gals named Blondie, Mimi, Narcissa, Kitten, Belle or Delilah (one cannot omit from this list her French Quarter nightclub singer and dancer 'Lusti Weather' in four episodes of Bourbon Street Beat (1959)).

In Dossiers brûlants (1974)'s The Werewolf, her Paula Griffin helped Darren McGavin take down the creature with the requisite silver bullets during a swinging sixties cruise. She was Mickey Rooney's ex-flame in an episode of Le fugitif (1963) and the pawn in a cat-and-mouse game between Peter Falk and Leonard Nimoy in the Columbo (1971) episode A Stitch in Time. Nita fared rather less well in Alfred Hitchcock présente (1955) (strangled), Un shérif à New York (1970) (poisoned), Les incorruptibles (1959) and Mannix (1967) (shot in both).

In the 70s and 80s, Nita was co-star in a couple of half-hour sitcoms: as a conceited socialite and magazine editor in Here We Go Again (1973), and as Rose, the acerbic receptionist of veterinarian Bill Daily in Starting from Scratch (1988). She also featured as a semi-recurring character in the soap Hôpital central (1963). Never short of work, Nita remained steadily engaged in television guest appearances right up to her retirement in 1997.

Her roles on the big screen seem to have paralleled those on TV: nightclub singer 'Saturday Night' in L'inconnu du gang des jeux (1962), Sunny Daze in the Elvis beach party musical La Strip-teaseuse effarouchée (1965), tycoon Roddy McDowall's Girl Friday (Dee Dee Howitzer!) in the perfectly awful comedy The Cool Ones (1967) and brassy Madam Esther in the blaxploitation western Buck et son complice (1972). She had a small part in the acclaimed satirical drama Le Jour du fléau (1975) (set in 1930s Hollywood) as the pretentious and hedonistic Joan Schwartzen.

The prolific Miss Talbot has racked up an impressive tally of 153 acting credits (according to IMDB). She was formerly married to actors Don Gordon and Thomas A. Geas. Both unions ended in divorce.

Carolyn Sue Jones was born in 1930, in Amarillo, Texas, to homemaker Chloe (or Cloe) Jeanette Southern (1906-1979), and Julius Alfred Jones (1897-1979), a barber. Her sister was Bette (later Mrs. Moriarty). Carolyn was an imaginative child, much like her mother; she and her mother shared the same birthday (April 28).

In 1934, her father abandoned the family and her mother moved them in with her own parents, also in Amarillo. As a child, Carolyn suffered from severe asthma. Although she loved movies, she was often too sick to attend, so she listened to her favorites, Danny Kaye and Spike Jones and read as many movie fan magazines as she could. She dreamed of attending the famed Pasadena Playhouse and received many awards at school for speech, poetry, and dramatics. In 1947, she was accepted as a student at the Pasadena Playhouse, and her grandfather agreed to pay for her classes. She worked in summer stock to supplement her income, graduating in 1950.

She gave herself a complete head-to-toe makeover, including painful cosmetic nose surgery to make herself ready for movie roles. Working as an understudy at the Players Ring Theater, she stepped in when the star left to get married. She was seen by a talent scout from Paramount and given a screen test, which went well. She made her first appearance in Le cran d'arrêt (1952). She did some other work during her 6-month contract, but when it ended, Paramount, suffering from television's impact, let it lapse. She quipped, "They let me and 16 secretaries go!"

She started working in television but kept busy on stage as well. There, she met a fellow Texan, a young man named Aaron Spelling, and they became a couple. She made a breakthrough in the 3-D movie L'Homme au masque de cire (1953) and garnered excellent reviews. Aaron was still struggling, so he felt he wasn't able to propose to Carolyn; she finally proposed to him. They were married in April 1953. Neither was earning much, but they really enjoyed each other and their life. Many saw them as an ideal couple. She decided against having children as she felt she could not juggle the demands of both a career and a family.

Columbia Pictures saw her and wanted to test her for the part of prostitute Alma Burke in Tant qu'il y aura des hommes (1953), but she got extremely sick with pneumonia and the part went to Donna Reed, nine years older, who won an Academy Award. Jones did, however, achieve success in the science-fiction classic L'Invasion des profanateurs de sépultures (1956), a subtle allegory of the times (McCarthyism). And the famous filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock cast her in L'homme qui en savait trop (1956) opposite James Stewart and Doris Day. Meanwhile, Aaron had little success as an actor and Carolyn pushed him to become a writer, even threatening to leave him. She constantly promoted his scripts whenever she could and he was ultimately hired by Dick Powell. Carolyn, meanwhile, was successful once more in La nuit des maris (1957) (famous line, "Just say you love me--you don't have to mean it!"). For this role, she surprised cast members by dyeing her hair black and cutting it short. This stunning look served her well for a number of roles. For her eight minutes on screen, she received glowing reviews and was nominated for an Academy Award but lost. However, she did win the Golden Globe Award and the Laurel Award for La fureur d'aimer (1958). She followed this with an impressive appearance in Bagarres au King Creole (1958), generally regarded as Elvis Presley's best film. She then gave arguably her best performance ever in En lettres de feu (1959), but the film was not commercially successful. She played a serious role in this, leaving the kooky role she might have played to Shirley MacLaine.

As Aaron's career soared, the marriage started to fail. They separated in October 1963 and amicably divorced in August 1965, with Carolyn asking for no alimony. They remained friends. She worked at various roles including two episodes of L'homme à la Rolls (1963) for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. Soon, she got the part for which she will best be remembered, that of Morticia Addams in La famille Addams (1964). She spent two years in this role. Her costume was designed to copy the cartoon drawings and no doubt inspired such imitators as Cassandra Peterson (Elvira, Mistress of the Dark). The show went head-to-head with Les monstres (1964) and Ma sorcière bien aimée (1964).

The show was a hit and she received all the fame she had craved. However, the network decided to cancel the show, despite its success, after only two years. Typecast as Morticia but without the income that a few more years would have provided, she found life difficult and roles few. While acting on the road, she married her voice coach, Herbert Greene, a well-known and respected Broadway conductor and musical director, and they moved together to Palm Springs, California. After seven years, she left him and returned to Hollywood, determined to try to restart her career. She was surprisingly successful and performed in several shows, including Wonder Woman (1975), where she played Hippolyta, the mother of Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter) and Wonder Girl (Debra Winger). She also appeared in the landmark miniseries Racines (1977). She appeared in four episodes of L'île fantastique (1977) and one episode of La croisière s'amuse (1977), two shows produced by her former husband, Aaron Spelling. In 1979, both of Jones's parents died; her mother from pancreatic cancer. She took on the role of Myrna Clegg on the soap Capitol (1982) from 1982 to 1983, despite having been diagnosed with colon cancer in 1981. She underwent aggressive treatment for the cancer, but it returned during her time on the show and she was told it was terminal.

She played some scenes despite being confined to a wheelchair and working in great pain. Knowing time was short, she married her boyfriend of five years, Peter Bailey-Britton, in September 1982. She died on August 3, 1983, aged 53. She had told her sister Bette that she wanted her epitaph to be "She gave joy to the world." She certainly had many friends who loved her greatly, and many fans who enjoyed her wonderful performances.