Fritz Dinkhauser

Friedrich Josef Lienhard "Fritz" Dinkhauser is an Austrian politician.

Born in Innsbruck, he competed in sports in his youth and won the Tyrol state championship in the hammer throw on six occasions and represented Austria at the 1968 Winter Olympics in the bobsleigh. At that competition he placed eighth in the two-man bob with Max Kaltenberger and 13th in the four-man event.

After retiring from sports he entered politics through the labour movement, working as secretary for ÖAAB Tyrol, which was a socialist Christian[citation needed] trade union body associated with the Austrian People's Party. He worked as kammerrat for the Tyrol-level Austrian Chamber of Labour in 1979 and served as the vice-chairman of that body from 1985 to 1989. He became regional chairman in 1991 then, after a brief period as national vice chairman, rose to head the ÖAAB nationally in 1994.

He founded Citizens' Forum Austria in 2008 for the Tyrolean state election that year and became a member of the Tyrolean Parliament. He later stood nationally, but his party did not receive sufficient votes to enter Austrian Parliament.

He was given the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria in 2007.

Witold Zacharewicz

Witold Zacharewicz was a Polish film actor of the 1930s. During the German occupation of Poland he was arrested and murdered at Auschwitz.

In 1938 Witold Zacharewicz got an offer to sign a deal with the Hollywood studio United Artists. He was fluent in several languages, including English, French and German. Zacharewicz was starring in what became his last film, Gehenna. He tried to defer his military service in order to go to Hollywood, but on September 1, 1938, Zacharewicz enlisted in the Polish Army.

On October 1, 1942, Zacharewicz was arrested by the Gestapo, the secret police of Nazi Germany, for aiding Jews. With ten other people, including his mother, he had been involved in the production of false documents for Jews hiding in Warsaw. In November 1942, he was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he was murdered on February 16, 1943.

Vittorio Feltri

Vittorio Feltri (Bergamo, born 25 June 1943) is an Italian journalist and editor in chief of daily Libero.

Feltri was born in Bergamo, Italy. He graduated with a degree in Political Science and then started his career as journalist in 1962, writing film reviews for the local newspaper L'Eco di Bergamo. In 1977 he moved to Corriere della Sera.

In 1993 Feltri refused the offer of Silvio Berlusconi to get involved in Fininvest. The next year he agreed to become editor of il Giornale, which was owned by Berlusconi, after its founder Indro Montanelli left. He was its editor until 1997. In the same period, he contributed to other newspapers and magazines, including Panorama, Il Foglio and Il Messaggero. In 2000, he founded the right-wing newspaper Libero, which he ran until 2009. In August 2009, he once again became the editor of Berlusconi's il Giornale.

Sean McClory

Séan Joseph McClory was an Irish actor whose career spanned six decades and included well over 100 films and television series. He was sometimes billed as Shawn McGlory or Sean McGlory.

McClory was born Séan Joseph McClory on 8 March 1924 in Dublin, Ireland, but spent his early life in County Galway. He was the son of Hugh Patrick McClory, an architect and civil engineer, and Mary Margaret (née Ball), a model.

McClory studied at St. Ignatius Jesuit College and at the National University of Ireland Medical School. He served in the Irish Army Medical Corps during World War II.

After the War McClory was drawn to acting. When out of work, he turned to other employment, including washing dishes, driving trucks, working at a gold mine on the California-Nevada border and sailing around the world. At one point, he sold his blood to obtain money for food and drinks.

McClory began his career on stage, specializing in comedy at the Abbey Theatre. On Broadway, McClory portrayed Rory Commons in The King of Friday's Men (1951). His acting in regional theater included Dial "M" for Murder (1955) at the Sombrero Playhouse in Arizona and Shadow of a Gunman (1984) with the California Artists Repertory Theatre. He also acted in a summer theater in La Jolla, California.

Jack Votion, a representative of RKO Pictures who was based in Europe, discovered McClory performing at the Abby Theatre, after which McClory went to Hollywood in 1947 and began acting in films. His work included the role of an Irish policeman in Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome and Dick Tracy's Dilemma. He was part of the John Ford Stock Company, appearing in the Ford productions What Price Glory, The Long Gray Line, The Quiet Man, and Cheyenne Autumn. McClory portrayed a ringmaster in Ring of Fear (1954) and a chauffeur in the comedy My Chauffeur (1986).

On television, McClory portrayed Captain Clary on the NBC adventure series Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers,  Pat McShane on the CBS crime drama Kate McShane,  Myles on the CBS adventure series Bring 'Em Back Alive, and Jack McGivern on NBC's western television series, The Californians.

McClory appeared twice in the 1960 NBC western series, Overland Trail, starring William Bendix and Doug McClure. He was a guest star in the syndicated western series, Pony Express and in 1960 on ABC's western drama, The Man from Blackhawk, starring Robert Rockwell as a roving insurance investigator. Another 1960 role was as Quinn in "Talent for Danger" on the ABC adventure series, The Islanders, set in the South Pacific. In 1960 and 1961, McClory appeared in the episodes, "Heads, You Lose" and "Appointment at Tara-Bi", of another ABC series, Adventures in Paradise, starring Gardner McKay. McClory was a guest star in episodes of the television Western The Rifleman, "Knight Errant" (1961) and "I Take This Woman" (1962), playing an Irish romantic rival to star Chuck Connors' lead character of Lucas McCain.

McClory appeared as Jaimie MacDonald in the 1963 episode "Commando" of the CBS anthology series, GE True, hosted by Jack Webb. He was cast thereafter in a second-season episode of Irwin Allen's CBS science fiction series Lost in Space called "The Astral Traveller", as a Scottish bagpiping "ghost" named Hamish. He made several guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the 1961 episode, "The Case of the Malicious Mariner", the defendant in the 1962 episode, "The Case of the Unsuitable Uncle," and the title character and husband of the defendant in "The Case of the Scandalous Sculptor." McClory made two appearances on NBC's Bonanza, as Mark Connors in the 1962 episode "The Tall Stranger" and as Professor James Aloysuis McCarthy in the 1963 comedic episode "Hoss and the Leprechauns".

In 1965, McClory was cast as the poet Joaquin Miller, first poet laureate of California, in the episode "Magic Locket" of the syndicated western series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Ronald W. Reagan. In a later Death Valley Days episode, "Talk to Me Charley", McClory played gold prospector Charley Gentry.

Sean played Scott Winters in CBS's Mannix episode "Then the Drink Takes the Man", which first aired on 30 December 1967.

McClory was married four times. His third marriage, to Sue Alexander, ended with her death in 1979. He married actress Peggy Webber in 1983. On 10 December 2003, McClory died of a heart condition at his home in Hollywood Hills, California.

Rolfe Sedan

Rolfe Sedan was an American character actor, best known for appearing in bit parts, often uncredited, usually portraying clerks, train conductors, postmen, cooks, waiters, etc.

Born Edward Sedan in New York City, his mother was a Broadway theatre fashion designer and his father an orchestra conductor.

Sedan began his career in show business as a vaudeville and nightclub performer and began acting in East Coast theatre. Sedan debuted on Broadway in 1916 and appeared in his first motion picture for Metro Pictures Corporation in 1921.

In 1922 and 1923, Sedan was a featured actor with the Leith-Marsh Players in El Paso, Texas.

Sedan became a prolific character actor in films and is probably best remembered by movie buffs as the hotel manager in Ninotchka (1939) starring Greta Garbo; he appeared in an uncredited role in the musical remake of Ninotchka, Silk Stockings (1957). He also made uncredited appearances in several other Garbo films. He appeared in another uncredited role as the Emerald City's Balloon Ascensionist in The Wizard of Oz (1939). He made uncredited appearances in bit parts in several films starring The Marx Brothers, with somewhat larger parts in Monkey Business (1931) and A Night at the Opera (1935).

Sedan returned to Broadway, performing in several different shows during the first half of the 1940s and in the 1950s began a sequence of guest roles in television series such as I Love Lucy, where he played the chef at a Parisian restaurant in "Paris at Last" (episode 145), The Jack Benny Program, and The Tab Hunter Show. Sedan's most frequent TV work came from recurring roles as hapless mail carriers (25 episodes as Mr. Beasley on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show; four episodes as Mr. Briggs on The Addams Family). He was also seen as the train conductor in the film Young Frankenstein (1974), and in bit parts in two other Gene Wilder pictures. Rolfe Sedan remained active throughout a career that spanned more than six decades.

Sedan struggled to be accepted as an actor in radio, gaining his first role after six months of unsuccessful auditions, even though by then he had acted in films for 22 years. His initial broadcasting role came in an episode of Big Town when his voice best suited a specific part in the program. He went on to act in radio dramas that included The Adventures of Ellery Queen, Grand Central Station, Lux Radio Theatre, The March of Time, The Screen Guild Theater, and Silver Theater.

Sedan died in 1982 in Pacific Palisades, California, from heart problems at age 86.

Charles Farrell

Charles David Farrell was an American film actor of the 1920s silent era and into the 1930s, and later a television actor. Farrell is probably best recalled for his onscreen romances with actress Janet Gaynor in more than a dozen films, including 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Lucky Star.

Later in life, he starred on TV in the 1950s sitcoms My Little Margie and played himself in The Charles Farrell Show. He was active in business and civic affairs in Palm Springs, California, serving for a time as mayor.

Born in Walpole, Massachusetts,[2] he began his career in Hollywood as a bit player for Paramount Pictures. Farrell did extra work for films ranging from The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Lon Chaney, Sr., Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments, and The Cheat with Pola Negri.

Farrell continued to work throughout the next few years in relatively minor roles without much success until he was signed by Fox Studios and was paired with fellow newcomer Janet Gaynor in the romantic drama 7th Heaven. The film was a public and critical success, and Farrell and Gaynor would go on to star opposite one another in more than a dozen films throughout the late 1920s and into the talkie era of the early 1930s. Unlike many of his silent screen peers, Farrell had little difficulty with "voice troubles" and remained a publicly popular actor throughout the sound era.

During the early 1950s, a decade after his career in motion pictures had ended, Farrell regained popularity as a co-star on the television series My Little Margie, which aired on CBS and NBC between 1952 and 1955. He played the role of the widower Vern Albright, the father of a young woman, Margie Albright, with a knack for getting into trouble, portrayed by Gale Storm. In 1956, Farrell starred in his own television program, The Charles Farrell Show.

Farrell was romantically involved with Janet Gaynor, with whom he starred in twelve films, from 1926 until her first marriage in 1929. Shaken by the death of his close friend, actor Fred Thomson, Farrell proposed marriage to Gaynor around 1928, but the couple was never married. Years later, Gaynor explained her breakup with Farrell: "I think we loved each other more than we were 'in love.' He played polo, he went to the Hearst Ranch for wild weekends with Marion Davies, he got around to the parties – he was a big, brawny, outdoors type... I was not a party girl... Charlie pressed me to marry him, but we had too many differences. In my era, you didn't live together. It just wasn't done. So I married a San Francisco businessman, Lydell Peck, just to get away from Charlie."

Farrell married former actress Virginia Valli on February 14, 1931; the couple was married until Valli's death from a stroke on September 24, 1968.

In the 1930s, Farrell became a resident of the desert city of Palm Springs, California. In 1934, he opened the popular Palm Springs Racquet Club in the city with his business partner, fellow actor Ralph Bellamy.

A major player in the developing prosperity of Palm Springs in the 1930s through the 1960s, Farrell was elected to the city council in 1946 and served as mayor from 1947 to 1955. The Jack Benny Program regularly featured Farrell when they broadcast from Palm Springs, always reminding the audience he had starred in "7th Heaven".

Farrell died May 6, 1990, at the age of 89 from heart failure in Palm Springs where he was interred at the Welwood Murray Cemetery.

Jack McDonald

Jack McDonald (September 17, 1880 – 1962) was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in more than 70 films between 1912 and 1930. He was born in San Francisco, California.

Robert Allen

Robert Allen was an American actor in both feature films and B-movie westerns between 1935 and 1944.

Allen was born in Mount Vernon, New York and graduated from the New York Military Academy in 1924, where he rode in the academy cavalry. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1929 with a degree in English. In vacations he had driven a truck as a labourer. He worked for a bank which soon failed in the Great Depression. He flew briefly with the Curtis Flying service as a commercial pilot. He first came to the screen in 1926 before signing a standard acting contract with Paramount Pictures, in 1929. He appeared in the Marx Brothers movie Animal Crackers and several other small parts. Then, he signed with Columbia Pictures in 1935.

Allen's first notable role was the male lead in Love Me Forever (1935), for which he won a Box Office Award.

After the departure of cowboy star Ken Maynard, Allen was plugged into producer Larry Darmour's formulaic Ranger pictures. Along with sidekick Wally Wales (played by Hal Taliaferro), he redefined the role, starring in six films for director Spencer Gordon Bennet in that year alone. The star was billed as Bob Allen. However, the great success of Wild Bill Elliott in Columbia's 1938 serial The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok prompted Columbia to drop Bob Allen and replace him with Elliott.

Allen continued to work in pictures, as Robert Allen or Robert "Tex" Allen. He had acted on Broadway in the original productions of Show Boat and Kiss Them for Me. In 1956 he appeared in the original production of Auntie Mame, opposite Rosalind Russell, and later Greer Garson. He appeared in other Broadway plays, in touring productions, in soap operas, documentaries and commercials. He became a real estate broker in 1964 but returned to the stage from time to time, including an appearance as J.B. Biggley in the 1972 Equity Library Theatre revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Allen was married twice; the first was to movie actress Evelyn Peirce until her death in 1960. They had two children. Their son, Ted Baehr (born 1946) is a prominent Christian minister and movie critic. They also had a daughter, Katherine Meyer.

Allen died on October 9, 1998, aged 92.

Pran

Pran Krishan Sikand better known by his mononym, Pran, was an Indian actor, known as the greatest villain ever in the history of Indian cinema and character actor in Hindi cinema from the 1940s to the 1990s. He has been one among the most highly successful & respected veteran actors in the history of Indian cinema. He was also one among the highest paid actors of his time.

He played hero roles from 1940 to 1947, negative character from 1942 to 1991, and played supporting and character roles from 1967 to 2007. The decades of late 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s were the peak periods of Pran's stint as a negative character actor, especially 1950s & 1960s. Pran was the first true personification of "evil" on the Indian screen. The intensity of his portrayal of negative/villainous characters on the screen was effective enough to desist the Indian people from naming their children "Pran" in the 1950s & 60s & subsequently thereafter (when Pran was at the peak of his villainy). In a long and prolific career Pran appeared in over 362 films. He played the leading man in works such as Khandaan (1942), Pilpili Saheb (1954) and Halaku (1956). He is known for his roles in Madhumati (1958), Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai (1960), Upkar (1967), Shaheed (1965), Purab Aur Paschim (1970), Ram Aur Shyam (1967), Aansoo Ban Gaye Phool (1969), Johny Mera Naam (1970), Victoria No. 203 (1972), Be-Imaan (1972), Zanjeer (1973), Majboor (1974), Don (1978), Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) and Duniya (1984).

Pran has received many awards and honours in his career. He won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1967, 1969 and 1972 and was awarded the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. He was awarded as the "Villain of the Millennium" by Stardust in 2000. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2001 for his contributions to the arts. He was honoured in 2013 with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest national award for cinema artistes, by the Government of India. In 2010, he was named on the list of CNN's Top 25 Asian actors of all time.

Pran died on 12 July 2013 at the age of 93 of old age after suffering from a prolonged illness in Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital.

Frank Craven

Frank Craven was an American stage and film actor, playwright, and screenwriter, best known for originating the role of the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder's Our Town.

Craven's parents, John T. Craven and Ella Mayer Craven, were actors, and he first appeared on stage when he was three years old, in a child's part in The Silver King, in which his father was acting. His next appearance on stage occurred 13 years later in another production of the same play. That experience stirred an interest in acting as a career.

Before he acted in films, Craven worked in stage productions, not limiting his activity to acting. "I would do anything around the place," he said. He found later that work with carpentry, painting, and other backstage activities proved "invaluable" to him. His initial success in New York came in the role of James Gilley in Bought and Paid For (1911). He also played the same role in a production in London. He also was a playwright, penning hits such as Too Many Cooks (1914) and The First Year (1920).

Craven was a character actor who often portrayed wry, small-town figures. His first film role was in We Americans (1928), and he appeared in State Fair (1933), Penrod and Sam (1937), Jack London (1943), and Son of Dracula (1943), among many others. He wrote numerous screenplays, most notably for the Laurel and Hardy film Sons of the Desert (1933). 

In 1938, Craven played the Stage Manager in Our Town on Broadway, and reprised the role in the 1940 film version of the play. His son John Craven starred as George Gibbs in the stage version, a role played by William Holden in the 1940 film.

Craven died in 1945, shortly after finishing his work in Colonel Effingham's Raid.

Laurence Reavell-Carter

Laurence Reavell-Carter CBE (27 August 1914 – 4 October 1985) was an English discus thrower. He was born in Brentford. He competed at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, and at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London.

Reavell-Carter was a Wing Commander of the Royal Air Force, and was decorated Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

José Vento Ruiz

José Vento Ruiz was a Spanish painter .

Vento studied at the San Carlos School of Fine Arts , in Valencia, and later, thanks to a scholarship from the Valencia Provincial Council, he furthered them in Madrid. He was a co - founder of the Hondo group together with Juan Genovés , and a promoter of the Nueva Figuración during the 1950s . He was also a founder of the artistic Group Z . From 1954 to 1960 he lived in Madrid , where he worked on various mural paintings.

His works can be seen in the Museums of Contemporary Art in Madrid and Seville , in the Museum of Modern Art in Alexandria , in the Museum of Abstract Art in Cuenca and in the Museum of Fine Arts in Valencia .

John Milton Potter

John Milton Chase Potter, Jr. was the president of Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

He was born on October 22, 1906, in Idaho Springs, Colorado on October 22, 1906, to John Milton Chase Potter Sr. and Camilla Parthenia Barber. He graduated from Harvard University. He became president of Hobart and William Smith Colleges on September 1, 1942. He died on January 9, 1947, in Geneva, New York of a coronary occlusion.

Finlay Currie

William Finlay Currie was a Scottish actor of stage, screen, and television.

 He received great acclaim for his roles as Abel Magwitch in the British film Great Expectations (1946) and as Balthazar in the American film Ben-Hur (1959).

In his career spanning 70 years, Currie appeared in seven films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, of which Around the World in 80 Days (1956) and Ben-Hur (1959) were winners.

Currie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He attended George Watson's College and worked as organist and choir director. In 1898 he got his first job in Benjamin Fuller's theatre group, and appeared with them for almost 10 years.

After emigrating to the United States in the late 1890s, Currie and his wife, Maude Courtney, did a song-and-dance act on the stage. He made his first film , The Old Man, in 1931. He appeared as a priest in the 1943 Ealing Second World War film Undercover (1943). His most famous film role was the convict, Abel Magwitch, in David Lean's Great Expectations (1946). He also earned praise for his portrayal of Queen Victoria's highland attendant John Brown in The Mudlark (1950).

In the following years he appeared in Hollywood film epics, including such roles as Saint Peter in Quo Vadis (1951), as Balthazar, one of the Three Magi, in the multi-Oscar-winning Ben-Hur (1959); the Pope in Francis of Assisi (1961); and an aged, wise senator in The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964). He appeared in People Will Talk with Cary Grant; and portrayed Robert Taylor's embittered father, Sir Cedric, in MGM's Technicolor version of Ivanhoe (1952). But Ivanhoe also gave Currie one of his most delightful roles, highlighting his comic capabilities, as well as a willingness to still do some action scenes, even in his 70s. In 1962, he starred in an episode of NBC's The DuPont Show of the Week, The Ordeal of Dr. Shannon, an adaptation of A.J. Cronin's novel, Shannon's Way.

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in February 1963, when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre in London.

In 1966, Currie played Mr. Lundie, the minister, in the television adaptation of the musical Brigadoon. His last performance was for the television series The Saint which starred Roger Moore. Currie played a dying mafioso boss in the two-part episode "Vendetta for the Saint", which was shown posthumously in 1969.

Late in life, he became a much respected antiques dealer, specialising in coins and precious metals. He was also a longtime collector of the works of Robert Burns.

Currie was married to American actress Maude Courtney. They had two children, George and Marion.

Currie died on 9 May 1968 in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire at age 90.

James Maxwell McConnell Fisher

James Maxwell McConnell Fisher was a British author, editor, broadcaster, naturalist and ornithologist. He was also a leading authority on Gilbert White and made over 1,000 radio and television broadcasts on natural history subjects.

Fisher was the son of Kenneth Fisher (also a keen ornithologist and headmaster of Oundle School from 1922 to 1945); his maternal uncle was the Cheshire naturalist Arnold Boyd. He was educated at Eton, and began studying medicine at Magdalen College, Oxford, but later switched to zoology. He took part in the Oxford Arctic expedition in 1933 as ornithologist.

After university he joined London Zoo as an assistant curator, and during the war studied rooks for the Ministry of Agriculture. He later became a leading member of the RSPB and IUCN, a member of the National Parks Commission and vice-chairman of the Countryside Commission.

He presented the BBC Radio series Birds In Britain from its inception in March 1951 until its end, twelve years later.

Fisher was one of the members of the small party that on 18 September 1955 raised the Union Flag and took official possession for the UK of the tiny, uninhabited, rocky islet of Rockall, in the North Atlantic.

As well as writing his own books, he was an editor of Collins' New Naturalist series. He was the resident ornithologist in the regular "Nature Parliament" series broadcast in the 1950s on BBC radio as part of Children's Hour. It is likely that his writing and broadcasting played a significant role in the growth of interest in birdwatching in the United Kingdom in the post-Second World War period.

He was awarded the British Trust for Ornithology's Bernard Tucker Medal in 1966.

He was married to Margery Lilian Edith Turner, and they had six children, including the publisher Edmund Fisher. He died in a car crash in September 1970.

Raaj Kumar

Raaj Kumar was an Indian actor who worked in Hindi films. He appeared in the Oscar-nominated 1957 film Mother India and starred in over 70 Hindi films in a career that spanned over four decades.

Kulbhushan Pandit was born in Loralai, Baluchistan, British India (now Pakistan) in a Kashmiri Pandit family. In the late 1940s, he moved to Bombay, where he became a sub-inspector under Bombay Police. He married Jennifer Pandit, an Anglo-Indian, whom he met on a flight where she was an air hostess. She later changed her name to Gayatri Kumar as per Hindu customs. They had three children, sons Puru Raaj Kumar (an actor), Panini Raaj Kumar and daughter Vastavikta Pandit, who made her screen debut in 2006 film Eight: The Power of Shani.

Raaj Kumar made his acting debut in the 1952 film Rangili and appeared in films like Aabshar, Ghamand and Lakhon Mein Ek, but it was as Prince Naushazad in Sohrab Modi's Nausherwan-E-Adil (1957) that he became famous. In 1957, he achieved prominence with his brief role as the husband of Nargis in Mother India. He also worked alongside Shammi Kapoor in Ujala (1959). He followed this with the unglamorous role of a mill worker in Paigham (1959) alongside Dilip Kumar. In Sridhar's Dil Ek Mandir (1963), Raaj Kumar played the role of a cancer patient for which he won the Filmfare Award in the Best supporting actor category. He was cast with Sunil Dutt, Shashi Kapoor and Balraj Sahni in Yash Chopra's family drama Waqt in 1965. He became known for his distinct style of dialogue delivery.

His other notable films included Hamraaz (1967), Heer Raanjha (1971), Maryada (1971), Lal Patthar (1971) and Pakeezah (1972). After a period of flops in the late 1970s and early 1980s, he had notable successes as a supporting actor in Kudrat (1981), Ek Nai Paheli (1984), Marte Dam Tak (1987), Muqaddar Ka Faisla (1987) and Jung Baaz (1989). In 1991, he reunited with fellow veteran actor Dilip Kumar after 32 years in Subhash Ghai's Saudagar. His last hit film was the 1992 film Tirangaa and his final film was 1995's God & Gun.

Kumar died at the age of 69 on 3 July 1996

Ron Moody

Ron Moody was an English actor, composer, singer and writer. He was best known for his portrayal of Fagin in Oliver! (1968) and its 1983 Broadway revival. Moody earned a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for the film, as well as a Tony Award nomination for the stage production. Other notable projects include The Mouse on the Moon (1963), Mel Brooks' The Twelve Chairs (1970) and Flight of the Doves (1971), in which Moody shared the screen with Oliver! co-star Jack Wild.

Moody was born on 8 January 1924 in Tottenham, Middlesex, the son of Kate (née Ogus; 1898–1980) and Bernard/Barnett Moodnick (1896–1964), a studio executive. His father was a Russian Jew and his mother was a Lithuanian Jew; said Moody, "I'm 100% Jewish—totally kosher!" He was a cousin of director Laurence Moody and actress Clare Lawrence. His surname was legally changed to the more anglicised Moody in 1930.

Moody was educated at Southgate County School, which at the time was a state grammar school, and based in Palmers Green, Middlesex, followed by the London School of Economics in Central London, where he trained to become an economist. During World War II he enlisted in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and became a radar technician.

Despite training to be an economist, Moody began appearing in theatrical shows and later decided to become a professional actor.

"My proudest moment was the number "Reviewing the Situation". I suspect that, because I gave my all to the role, and because I was working with such a fine team of people, it inhibited my future career. I turned down quite a few offers afterwards because I thought the people didn't come close to those I'd worked with on Oliver!—which in retrospect was a mistake."

—Moody on his acclaimed role as Fagin and subsequent career.

Moody worked in a variety of genres, but is perhaps best known for his starring role as Fagin in Lionel Bart's stage and film musical Oliver! based on Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. He created the role in the original West End production in 1960, and reprised it in the 1984 Broadway revival, receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical. For his performance in the 1968 film Oliver!, he received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor (Musical/Comedy), the Best Actor award at the 6th Moscow International Film Festival and an Academy Award nomination in the same category. Reflecting on the role, Moody states: "Fate destined me to play Fagin. It was the part of a lifetime. That summer of 1967 [during filming] was one of the happiest times of my life". He reprised his role as Fagin in the 1983 Channel 4 television programme The Other Side of London, and again at the 1985 Royal Variety Performance in Theatre Royal, Drury Lane before Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh.

Moody appeared in several children's television series, including the voice of Badger and Toad in the TV Adaptation of Colin Dann's The Animals of Farthing Wood, Noah's Island, Telebugs, and Into the Labyrinth. Among his better known roles was that of Prime Minister Rupert Mountjoy in the comedy The Mouse on the Moon (1963), alongside Margaret Rutherford, with whom he appeared again the following year in Murder Most Foul (1964), one of Rutherford's Miss Marple films. He played French entertainer and mime artist The Great Orlando in the 1963 Cliff Richard film Summer Holiday. He acted again with former Oliver! co-star Jack Wild in Flight of the Doves (1971).

In 1969, Moody was offered, but declined, the lead role in Doctor Who, following the departure of Patrick Troughton from the part. He later told many people (including Doctor Who companion Elisabeth Sladen) that declining the role was a decision he subsequently regretted. He played Ippolit Vorobyaninov alongside Frank Langella (as Ostap Bender) in Mel Brooks' version of The Twelve Chairs (1970). In 2003, he starred in the black comedy Paradise Grove alongside Rula Lenska, and played Edwin Caldecott, an old nemesis of Jim Branning on the BBC soap EastEnders. In 2005, he acted in the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio play Other Lives, playing the Duke of Wellington. He made several appearances in BBC TVs long running variety show, The Good Old Days, enacting pastiche/comic Victorian melodramas.

Moody wrote a novel, The Devil You Don't, which was published by Robson Books, London, in 1980.

In 2004, the British ITV1 nostalgia series After They Were Famous hosted a documentary of the surviving cast of the film Oliver! Several of the film's musical numbers were reenacted. Moody, then 80 but still spry, and Jack Wild (seriously ill with oral cancer at the time) recreated their dance from the closing credits of the film.

Moody appeared in an episode of BBC1's Casualty (aired on 30 January 2010) as a Scottish patient who had served with the Black Watch during the Second World War. On 30 June 2010, Moody appeared on stage at the end of a performance of Cameron Mackintosh's revival of Oliver! and made a humorous speech about the show's 50th anniversary. He then reprised the "Pick a Pocket or Two" number with the cast.

Moody married a Pilates teacher, Therese Blackbourn, in 1985. The couple had six children.

Moody died of natural causes while in a London hospital on 11 June 2015, aged 91.

Walter Fitzgerald

Walter Fitzgerald Bond was an English character actor.

Fitzgerald was born on May 18, 1896 in Stoke, Plymouth. Fitzgerald was a former stockbroker before he began his theatrical training at RADA. He joined the British Army during World War I, serving with the Worcestershire Regiment, the Devonshire Regiment, and the Somerset Light Infantry.

Fitzgerald made his professional stage bow in 1922 and his first film appearance in 1930. He toured with Sir John Martin-Harvey and Sir Seymour Hicks. He was understudy to Sir Gerald du Maurier (1928–29). Fitzgerald appeared in films from the 1930s, often in 'official' roles (policemen, doctors, lawyers). He appeared on British television in the 1950s and 1960s before his retirement. His best-remembered film roles include Simon Fury in Blanche Fury (1948), Dr. Fenton in The Fallen Idol (1948), and Squire Trelawney in Treasure Island (1950). In the opening scenes of H.M.S. Defiant (1962) he played the admiral who listens to – and then disregards – Captain Crawford's complaints about maritime cruelty.

Fitzgerald married Rosalie Constance Grey in 1924. They had one son, Michael Lewis Fitzgerald-Bond. His second marriage was to Angela Kirk in 1938, and they had three sons (Jonathan, Timothy, and Charles) and one daughter (Julia). He died on December 20, 1976.

Sir Donald Wolfit

Sir Donald Wolfit was an English actor-manager, known for his touring wartime productions of Shakespeare. He was especially renowned for his portrayal of King Lear.

Wolfit was born at New Balderton, near Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, and attended the Magnus Grammar School. He made his stage début in 1920 and first appeared in the West End in 1924, playing in The Wandering Jew. He was married three times. His first wife was the actress Chris Castor, and their daughter Margaret Wolfit (1929–2008) was also an actor. He had two children by his second marriage - Harriet Graham, actor and writer, and Adam Wolfit, a photographer.[citation needed] An active Freemason, he became Master of Green Room Lodge in 1965.

He played some major supporting roles at the Old Vic Theatre in 1930, appearing in Richard of Bordeaux with John Gielgud, and finally gained prominence at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1936 as Hamlet, whereupon he tried to persuade the management to finance him on a tour of the provinces. They declined the invitation, so he withdrew his savings and in 1937 started his own touring company, which he would lead for many years, prompting Hermione Gingold's bon mot: "Olivier is a tour-de-force, and Wolfit is forced to tour."

Wolfit's speciality was Shakespeare. He was known especially for his Shakespearean touring company which he set up with his own money touring in many countries Far East (Asia) Arabia Australia USA And England Not only was he a director he also acted in many of his plays alongside his main leading principle Pamella Carrington Coutte He was also well know in King Lear and Richard III. He also played Oedipus, and the lead roles in Ben Jonson's Volpone and Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine. His touring company performed in London during the Battle of Britain in 1940 and Wolfit staged a very successful series of abridged versions of Shakespeare's plays in London during the Second World War in the early afternoon for lunchtime audiences. In January 1942, by arrangement with Lionel L. Falck, Donald Wolfit presented Richard III at the Strand Theatre in London. Wolfit played King Richard; others in the production included Eric Maxon (King Edward IV), and Frank Thornton (Sir William Catesby). In 1947 Wolfit proved unpopular with American critics when he took the company to Broadway. He appeared at Stratford during the 1950s in his signature role of King Lear, and was invited to play Falstaff at the RSC in 1962 but turned the offer down when he discovered Paul Scofield would be playing Lear there at the same time, saying "Lear is still the brightest jewel in my crown!" Edith Sitwell wrote to Wolfit: "The cosmic grandeur of your King Lear left us unable to speak. ... all imaginable fires of agony and all the light of redemption are there."

Amongst his many other theatrical roles were appearances in A Murder Has Been Arranged by Emlyn Williams, Agatha Christie's Black Coffee, Constance Cox's The Romance of David Garrick and Bill Naughton's All in Good Time.

Although Wolfit was primarily a stage actor, he appeared in over thirty films, such as Svengali (1954), Blood of the Vampire (1958), Room at the Top (1959), Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Becket (1964). He worked a good deal for the BBC, performing as King John and Volpone on television, and as Lear, Falstaff and Richard III for radio – as well as modern parts like Archie Rice in The Entertainer.

Wolfit was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1950 for his services to the theatre, and knighted in 1957.

Wolfit died on February 17, 1968, at the age of 65 in Hammersmith, London, of cardiovascular disease. His final two films, Decline and Fall... of a Birdwatcher and The Charge of the Light Brigade, were released posthumously

Guru Dutt

Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone,  better known as Guru Dutt, was an Indian film director, producer, actor, choreographer, and writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of Indian cinema.

Dutt was lauded for his artistry, notably his usage of close-up shots, lighting, and depictions of melancholia. He directed a total of 8 Hindi films, several of which have gained a cult following internationally. This includes Pyaasa (1957), which made its way onto Time magazine's 100 Greatest Movies list, as well as Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960), and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), all of which are frequently listed among the greatest films in Hindi cinema. He was included among CNN's "Top 25 Asian Actors" in 2012.

Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone was born on 9 July 1925, in Padukone in the present-day state of Karnataka in India into a Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family. His name was changed to Gurudatta Padukone following a childhood accident, the belief being that it was an auspicious choice. His father, Shivashanker Rao Padukone, was a headmaster and a banker; his mother was Vasanthi, a teacher and writer. Both parents were originally settled in Karwar but relocated. Dutt spent his early childhood in Bhowanipore, Kolkata, and spoke fluent Bengali.

He had one younger sister—Lalita Lajmi, who is an Indian painter—and 3 younger brothers, Atma Ram (a director), Devi (a producer), and Vijay. Likewise, his niece Kalpana Lajmi was also a well known Indian film director, producer and screenwriter; and his second cousin Shyam Benegal is a director and screenwriter. He is also a second cousin twice removed of Amrita Rao, whose grandfather and Dutt were second cousins.

Beginning in 1942, he studied at Uday Shankar’s School of Dancing and Choreography in Almora,  but was taken out in 1944 after getting involved with the company's leading lady. From there, gaining employment at a telephone operator at a Lever Brothers factory in Calcutta (now Kolkata), Dutt wired home to say he had got the job. However, soon after, he was disenchanted by the job and left it.

Dutt briefly returned to his parents in Bombay before his uncle found him a job under a 3-year contract with the Prabhat Film Company in Pune later that year. This once-leading production company had already seen the departure of its best talent, V. Shantaram, who had by then launched his own production company called Rajkamal Kalamandir.[citation needed] It was at Prabhat that Dutt met two people who would remain his lifelong good friends—actors Rehman and Dev Anand, the latter of whom would later go on to produce Dutt's directorial debut.

In 1945, Dutt made his acting debut in Vishram Bedekar's Lakhrani (1945), as Lachman, a minor role. In 1946, he worked as an assistant director and choreographed dances for P. L. Santoshi's film, Hum Ek Hain, in which Dev Anand made his acting debut.

While his contract with Prabhat ended in 1947, Dutt's mother got him a job as a freelance assistant with the company's CEO, Baburao Pai. Dutt once again lost his job after getting involved with the assistant dancer, Vidya, whom he eloped with as she already had a fiancé. (The Vidya's fiancé threatened police action, after which, the matter was resolved.) From there, Dutt was unemployed for almost 10 months and stayed with his family at Matunga in Bombay. During this time, Dutt developed a flair for writing in English and wrote short stories for The Illustrated Weekly of India, a local weekly English language magazine.

After his time with Prabhat failed in 1947, Dutt moved to Bombay, where he worked with two leading directors of the time: Amiya Chakravarty in Girls' School (1949); and Gyan Mukherjee in the Bombay Talkies film Sangram (1950). Around this time, Dev Anand offered Dutt a job as a director in his new company, Navketan. Back in their time at Prabhat while both still new to the industry, Anand and Dutt reached an agreement that if Dutt were to become a filmmaker, he would hire Anand as his hero, and if Anand were to produce a film, he would use Dutt as its director. Keeping that promise, the duo made two super-hit films together in a row.

First, Anand hired Dutt for Baazi (1951), starring Anand himself and marking Dutt's directorial debut. With its morally ambiguous hero, the transgressing siren, and shadow lighting, the film was a tribute to the 1940s film noir genre of Hollywood, and defined the noir genre for the following decade in Bollywood. Baazi, which was an immediate success, was followed by Jaal (1952), also directed by Dutt and starring Anand, and was again successful at the box office.

Dutt went on to cast Anand in C.I.D. (1956). For his next project, Dutt directed and starred in Baaz (1953). Though the film did not perform very well at the box office, it brought together what would be known as the Guru Dutt team, who performed well in subsequent films. The team included various filmmakers discovered and mentored by Dutt, including: Johnny Walker (actor-comedian), V.K. Murthy (cinematographer), Abrar Alvi (writer-director), Raj Khosla (writer), Waheeda Rehman (actress), among others.

Dutt's next films, however, were blockbusters: Aar Paar in 1954; Mr. & Mrs. '55 in 1955; C.I.D. then Sailaab in 1956; and Pyaasa in 1957. Dutt played the lead role in three of these five films.

In 1959 came the release of Dutt's Kaagaz Ke Phool, the first Indian film produced in CinemaScope. Despite the innovation, Kaagaz—about a famous director (played by Dutt) who falls in love with an actress (played by Waheeda Rehman, Dutt's real-life love interest)—was an intense disappointment at the box office. All subsequent films from his studio were, thereafter, officially headed by other directors, since Dutt felt that his name was anathema to the box office. It would be the only film produced by Dutt that was considered a box office disaster, for which Dutt lost over Rs. 17 crore, a large amount by the standards of that time.

In 1960, Dutt's team released Chaudhvin Ka Chand, directed by M. Sadiq and starring Dutt alongside Waheeda Rehman and Rehman. The film was a box-office smash hit, and more than recovered Dutt's losses from Kaagaz. The film's title track, "Chaudhvin Ka Chand Ho", is in a special colour sequence and is the only time one can see Guru Dutt in colour.

In 1962, his team released Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, a critically successful film which was directed by Dutt's protégé, Abrar Alvi, who won the Filmfare Best Director Award for the film. The film starred Dutt and Meena Kumari, along with Rehman and Waheeda Rehman in supporting roles.

In 1964, Dutt acted opposite Meena Kumari in his last film, Sanjh Aur Savera, directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. After his death in October 1964, he left several films incomplete. He was cast as the lead in K Asif's film Love and God but was replaced by Sanjeev Kumar when the film was revived years later. He was also working opposite Sadhana in Picnic which was left incomplete and shelved. He was set to produce and star in Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi but was replaced as the lead by Dharmendra and the film released in 1966 as his team's last production.

In 1953, Dutt married Geeta Roy Chowdhuri (later, Geeta Dutt), a well-known playback singer whom he met during the making of Baazi (1951). The couple had been engaged for three years, overcoming a great deal of family opposition in order to marry. After marriage, in 1956, they moved to a bungalow in Pali Hill, Mumbai. They eventually had three children, Tarun, Arun, and Nina; after the death of Guru and Geeta, the children grew up in the homes of Guru's brother Atma Ram and Geeta's brother Mukul Roy.

Dutt had an unhappy marital life. According to Atma Ram, he was "a strict disciplinarian as far as work was concerned, but totally undisciplined in his personal life." He smoked and drank heavily and kept odd hours. Dutt's relationship with actress Waheeda Rehman also worked against their marriage. At the time of his death, he had separated from Geeta and was living alone. Geeta Dutt died in 1972 at age 41, after excessive drinking, which resulted in liver damage.

On 10 October 1964, Dutt was found dead in his bed in his rented apartment at Pedder Road in Bombay.

Lawson Butt

Wilfred Lawson Butt (4 March 1880 – 14 January 1956) was a British actor and film director of the silent era.

William Russell

William Russell was an American actor, film director, film producer and screenwriter. 

He appeared in over two hundred silent-era motion pictures between 1910 and 1929, directing five of them in 1916 and producing two through his own production company in 1918 and 1925.

Born in the Bronx borough of New York City, Russell began his acting career on the stage when he was eight years old. He appeared with such notables as Ethel Barrymore, Chauncey Olcott, Blanche Bates, Maude Adams and others.

Russell's Broadway credits include Princess Flavia (1925), Cyrano de Bergerac (1923), and The Tenderfoot (1904).

His career came to a stop when he was 16, however, when he became an invalid. Through rigorous physical therapy, he recovered his health six years later. He then became an amateur boxing champion.

Russell began his screen career in New York with the Biograph Company, where he worked for nine months before signing with the Thanhouser Company. He was also part of the company of players for the American Film Manufacturing Company and its Flying "A" Studios in Santa Barbara.

In 1917, he and actress Charlotte Burton were married. They divorced in 1921. He and actress Helen Ferguson were married on June 21, 1925, at the Wilshire Boulevard Congregational Church, after a six-year romance.

William Russell died at the age of 44 from pneumonia at Hollywood Hospital in Los Angeles.

Bernard Lee

John Bernard Lee was an English actor, best known for his role as M in the first eleven Eon-produced James Bond films. 

Lee's film career spanned the years 1934 to 1979, though he had appeared on stage from the age of six. He was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Lee appeared in over one hundred films, as well as on stage and in television dramatisations. He was known for his roles as authority figures, often playing military characters or policemen in films such as The Third Man, The Blue Lamp, The Battle of the River Plate, and Whistle Down the Wind. 

He died on January 16, 1981 at the age of 73.

Richard Maibaum

Richard Maibaum was an American film producer, playwright and screenwriter best known for his screenplay adaptations of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels.

Maibaum was born to a Jewish family on May 26, 1909 in New York City, and attended New York University. In 1930, he came to The University of Iowa's Speech and Dramatic Arts Department, where he studied under E.C. Mabie. He was graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1931, and in 1932 he received a master's degree, all the while writing plays and acting.

He was twenty-two and still at the University of Iowa when his anti-lynching play, The Tree, became a 1932 Broadway production under the direction of the young Robert Rossen, later known for Body and Soul (1947) and a life destroyed by the Hollywood blacklist.

Back in New York after graduation, Maibaum spent 1933 as an actor in the Shakespearean Repertory Theater on Broadway. He appeared in fifteen different roles in many productions.

As a young playwright in the early 1930s in New York City, Maibaum was involved with the challenging politics of the Depression. In 1933, the year in which Hitler ascended to his dictatorial powers in Germany, Maibaum attacked Nazism in his play, Birthright, also directed by Rossen. This was the first of several anti-Nazi plays to appear that year.

Maibaum then wrote Sweet Mystery of Life (1935) a stage comedy which eventually became the film Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936). His rapid rise as a playwright soon earned him a contract as a writer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, then the most powerful and prestigious studio in Hollywood.

While moving to LA and under contract to MGM, he wrote another play, See My Lawyer which was produced in New York by George Abbott and which starred Milton Berle. This was Maibaum's most successful play, running for 224 episodes from 1939 to 1940.

Maibaum's first credit was The Old School Tie (1936) at MGM. He did They Gave Him a Gun (1937) which he worked on with Cyril Hume. They worked on Live, Love and Learn (1937) and The Bad Man of Brimstone (1937) and Stablemates (1938) for Wallace Beery.

At Columbia he wrote The Lady and the Mob (1938), Coast Guard (1939), The Amazing Mr. Williams (1939).

Back at MGM he did The Ghost Comes Home (1940) and 20 Mule Team (1940) for Beery. He was one of many writers on Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940).

Maibaum went to Paramount where he worked on I Wanted Wings (1941), a huge hit. He did some uncredited work on Hold Back the Dawn (1941).

At 20th Century Fox he wrote Ten Gentlemen from West Point (1942).

Maibaum joined the U.S. Army in 1942 and, like many other Hollywood writers and directors, was commissioned as a captain in the Signal Corps, During his four and one-half years in the army, he produced war morale films, assembled and disseminated combat film footage (presumably while stationed overseas) and supervised a documentary history of World War II, whose title, length, whereabouts, and, indeed, purpose, are currently unknown. He eventually achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel.

He contributed to the story for the Olsen-Johnson film See My Lawyer (1945).

With this experience under his belt, Maibaum returned to Hollywood for a contract at Paramount as a producer and screenwriter.

He wrote and produced his first picture, O.S.S. (1946), which starred Alan Ladd in a fictional story of the newly formed Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA. This was the beginning of his fruitful association with Alan Ladd.

Maibaum was producer on the John Farrow-directed The Big Clock (1948). He produced The Sainted Sisters (1948) with Veronica Lake, and Bride of Vengeance (1949) for director Mitchell Leisen.

He wrote and produced The Great Gatsby (1949) also with Alan Ladd and co-written with Yale-educated Cyril Hume. John Farrow, original director of the project, quit after a casting dispute with Maibaum and was replaced by Elliott Nugent.

Maibaum wrote and produced Song of Surrender (1949) for Leisen. He produced Dear Wife (1949), then did two more with Leisen: No Man of Her Own (1950) and Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950) with Ladd.

In the 1950s, American producers Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli were making action films in the UK under their Warwick Films banner. When Broccoli signed Ladd on for a three-picture deal for Warwick, Ladd insisted on Maibaum co-writing the screenplays.

Maibaum moved his family to England in order to do this. The first Warwick Film, The Red Beret (1953) was a bit hit. It was followed by Hell Below Zero (1954).

He also began writing for the new medium of television, including short teleplays for The Kate Smith Evening Hour, and the critically acclaimed Emmy nominated "Fearful Decision" starring Ralph Bellamy and Sam Levene which he also co-wrote with Cyril Hume for The United States Steel Hour.

Maibaum returned to The University of Iowa in 1954 for one semester to teach and supervise the "Footsteps of Freedom" project, a teleplay writing course. For Warwick, he worked on the war story, The Cockleshell Heroes (1955) which starred Jose Ferrer.

Maibaum returned to Hollywood in 1955. He and Hume adapted "Fearful Decision" for the big screen in Ransom! (1956) with Glenn Ford.

He co-wrote "Bigger Than Life," (1956) with Hume along with its star and producer, the British actor James Mason.

Maibaum did another for Warwick, Zarak (1956), directed by Terence Young and starring Victor Mature. He and Young collaborated on the script for Warwick's No Time to Die (1958) with Mature and he did some uncredited work on Warwick's The Man Inside (1959). He wrote some episodes of Wagon Train (1958) and provided the story for Warwick's The Bandit of Zhobe (1959) and Killers of Kilimanjaro (1959).

Maibaum became executive producer at M.G.M.-TV in 1958, for whom he wrote and produced the TV series The Thin Man (1957–59). He also produced a pilot for a TV series Maisie (1960), based on the film series, and worked on the script for The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (1960). His strong ties to the Writer's Guild and the writing profession led him to resign in 1960 during a writer's strike.

Maibaum wrote and produced a war film for 20th Century Fox starring Audie Murphy, Battle at Bloody Beach (1961). He then was invited by Albert Broccoli to write the first James Bond movie. And thus his future career was sealed.

Maibaum was brought on to write the first Bond movie, Dr. No (1962), sharing credit with Johanna Harwood and Berkely Mather. He wrote the episode "The Medal" for Combat! (1963), then wrote From Russia with Love (1963), sharing credit with Harwood.

Maibaum worked on Goldfinger (1964), on which Paul Dehn also did work. He was one of several writers on Thunderball (1965).

You Only Live Twice (1967) was the first Bond film on which Maibaum was not credited as a writer, the producers using Roald Dahl. Albert Broccoli wanted to produce a non-Bond movie, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), and Maibaum did some work on the script.

Maibaum received sole script credit for On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), starring George Lazenby. He did an early draft of Diamonds Are Forever (1971), then the producers wanted an American writer and hired Tom Mankiewicz to rework it.

Mankiewicz was the sole screenwriter on Live and Let Die (1973), Roger Moore's first Bond movie. Instead, Maibaum wrote and produced a TV movie, Jarrett (1973), starring Glenn Ford.

Maibaum was brought back to the Bond movies to work on Mankiewicz's draft of The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). He was one of the many writers who worked on The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), sharing credit with Christopher Wood. Maibaum was not used on Moonraker (1979), the producers preferring Wood. Instead, Maibaum worked on a Bond spoof, S.H.E: Security Hazards Expert (1980).

Maibaum was brought back to work on the Bonds in association with Michael G. Wilson, Broccoli's step-son. Their first movie together was For Your Eyes Only (1981). It was followed by Octopussy (1983), on which George MacDonald Fraser also did a draft; A View to a Kill (1985), Moore's last Bond; The Living Daylights (1987), the first Bond from Timothy Dalton, whom Maibaum considered the best actor of the four Bonds;[9] and Licence to Kill (1989).

Maibaum once told an interviewer that writing for Bond is "a case of Walter Mitty. I'm law-abiding and non-violent. My great kick comes from feeling that I'm a pro, that I know my job, and that I have enough experience that I can write a solid screenplay."

On writing the Bonds Maibaum said "The real trick of it is to find the villain's caper. Once you've got that, you're off to the races and the rest is fun." Maibaum is credited with adding the essential ingredient of humor to the James Bond films, an element lacking in the original Fleming novels.

Maibaum continued working on Bond films until the end of his life. He died on January 4, 1991 at the age of 81.

Fred Guiol

Fred Guiol was an American film director and screenwriter. 

Guiol worked at the Hal Roach Studios for many years, first as a property man, later as assistant director and finally writer and director. He directed Laurel and Hardy's earliest short films, as their famous comic partnership gradually developed during 1927. Guiol directed many of Hal Roach's Streamliners in the 1940s.

Guiol had worked closely with another Roach employee, cameraman George Stevens. When Stevens became a director in the 1930s, he often engaged Guiol as a screenwriter, Guiol, along with Ivan Moffat,was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for adapting Edna Ferber's novel Giant into the George Stevens production of Giant.

Fred Guiol is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Stephen Longstreet

Stephen Longstreet was an American writer and artist.

Born Chauncey (later Henri) Weiner (sometimes Wiener), he was known as Stephen Longstreet from 1939. He wrote as Paul Haggard, David Ormsbee and Thomas Burton, and Longstreet, as well as his birth name.

The 1948 Broadway musical High Button Shoes was based on Longstreet's semi-autobiographical 1946 novel, The Sisters Liked Them Handsome.

Under contract at Warner Bros. in the 1940s, Longstreet wrote The Jolson Story and Stallion Road, based on his novel of the same name and starring Ronald Reagan. He later wrote The Helen Morgan Story, and as a television writer in the 1950s and 1960s he wrote for Playhouse 90.

Longstreet's book, Nell Kimball: Her Life as an American Madam, by herself, is a hoax biography that was partly plagiarized from the works of Herbert Asbury, as was his novel The Wilder Shore from Asbury's The Barbary Coast.

Longstreet's nonfiction works include San Francisco, '49 to '06 and Chicago: 1860 to 1920, as well as A Century on Wheels, The Story of Studebaker and a Jewish cookbook, The Joys of Jewish Cooking, that he wrote with his wife and occasional collaborator, Ethel.

The world of jazz was a constant theme throughout Longstreet's life. A number of his books dealt with jazz, Including Jazz From A to Z: A Graphic Dictionary, his 100th book, published in 1989.

He died on February 20, 2002.