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Born in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England, the light-haired, aristocratically handsome Simon MacCorkindale's first career choice was to follow in his Air Force pilot father Peter's bootsteps by joining the Air Training Corps., but his deteriorating eyesight forced him to choose an alternative vocation. Taking drama classes following high school graduation, he attended the highly prestigious Haileybury and Imperial Service College in Hertfordshire in the late 60s. He subsequently put in much time on the repertory theatre stage, which culminated in a West End debut appearance in the highly acclaimed production of "Pygmalion" with Alec McCowen and Diana Rigg in 1974. Simon later appeared in several heralded TV miniseries productions such as I, Claudius (1976) and Jesus of Nazareth (1977).

His major breakthrough in film came with the role of the charming and cunning shipboard suspect in the all-star whodunnit Death on the Nile (1978), with similar shady roles in such films as The Riddle of the Sands (1979) keeping the momentum going. Hollywood became an option for him in the 80s and he found his patrician good looks well suited for TV, with series roles ranging from soap operas (Falcon Crest (1981)) to adventures (Manimal (1983)). Since then, Simon has delved into stage projects featuring him as both director and actor, more notably in "Macbeth" and "The Merchant of Venice". Much of the last decade was spent starring as a doctor in the British TV series Casualty (1999).

Divorced during his early career from actress Fiona Fullerton, he subsequently married Brit actress Susan George and produced a few of her films. They also raised Arabian horses together. He focused for a time as a producer/director/writer on a variety of personal projects, but has since concentrated again on performing. Simon lost his over four-year-old battle with bowel cancer in October 2010.

Wendy Richard, was born in Middlesborough to Henry and Beatrice Emmerton who moved to London when she was 5. and there they ran The Shepherds Tavern in Mayfair. Her father commited suicide due to depression when she was 11. She was educated at St Georges School in Mount Street, Mayfair, London and at a boarding school then while still in her teens became a shop assistant at Fortum and Masons but was fired on her second day for not selling anything. She then joined the Italia Conti stage school at 16 but refused elocution lessons as she didn't want to do voice exercises. Her first big break was when she did voice on the Mike Sarne record 'Come Outside' which went to number one in 1962 the charts but all she got out of it was £ 15. David Croft then cast her in the comedy series Hugh and I and nurtured her career resulting in appearances in such series as The Likely Lads, Newcomers, Up Pompeii, Dads Army and Eastenders. She had a part in the Beatles film Help but was cut out of it but survived in the comedy Bless This House. The day after her mothers funeral she married music publisher Leonard Black in May 1972 but it only lasted 5 months. Afraid of being on her own she then married advertising executive Will Thorpe but their relationship became turbulent and developed into violent abuse resulting in a divorce in 1984. Her 3rd marriage was to Paul Glorney, a carpet fitter, but they divorced in 1994. In February 1996 she met John Burns, a painter and decorator and they lived together before marrying in October 2008, In 1996 she had discovered a lump on her breast which turned out to be cancerous but she was given the all clear after an operation, There was a recurrence of it in 2002 and after further treatment she was again given a clean bill of health until in 2008 when a check up revealed that she had cancerous cells in her breast and that they had spread through her body. She made a half hour television Programme 'Wendy Richard: To Tell You the Truth' documenting the last few months of her life which was broadcast in March 2009

Sir Ralph Richardson was one of the greatest actors of the 20th Century English-language theater, ascending to the height of his profession in the mid-1930s when he became a star in London's West End. He became the first actor of his generation to be knighted. He became Sir Ralph in 1947, and was quickly followed by Laurence Olivier in 1948, and then by John Gielgud in 1953. Co-stars and friends, the three theatrical knights were considered the greatest English actors of their generation, primarily for their mastery of the Shakespearean canon. They occupied the height of the British acting pantheon in the post-World War II years.

Margaretta Scott was born on 13 February 1912 in Westminster, London, England, UK. She was an actress and writer, known for All Creatures Great & Small (1978), Things to Come (1936) and Where's Charley? (1952). She was married to John Wooldridge. She died on 15 April 2005 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.

British film director Anthony Asquith was born on November 9, 1902, to H.H. Asquith, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and his second wife. A former home secretary and the future leader of the Liberal Party, H.H. Asquith served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1908-1916 and was subsequently elevated to the hereditary peerage. His youngest child, Anthony, was called Puffin by his family, a nickname given him by his mother, who thought he resembled one. Puffin was also the name his friends called him throughout his life.

Asquith was active in the British film industry from the late silent period until the mid-1960s. As a director he was highly respected by his contemporaries and had a long and successful career; by the 1960s he was one of only three British directors (the others being David Lean and Carol Reed) who were directing major international motion picture productions. However, Asquith's proclivity for adapting plays for the screen caused an erosion in his critical reputation as a filmmaker after his death. He was faulted for what was perceived as his failure to focus, like his contemporary Alfred Hitchcock, on the cinematic. Asquith was known as an actor's director, and solicited some of the finest film performances from Britain's greatest actors, including Edith Evans and Michael Redgrave.

Although Asquith's first love was music, he lacked musical talent. He channeled his artistic ambitions toward the nascent motion picture, and was instrumental in the formation of the London Film Society to promote artistic appreciation of film. Asquith traveled to Hollywood in the 1920s to observe American film production techniques, and after returning to England, he became a director.

Among his best-known films is Pygmalion (1938), an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's stage play, which he co-directed with its star, Leslie Howard. The film was a major critical success, even in the United States, winning multiple Academy Award nominations. Nobel Prize-winner Shaw, who had been a co-founder of the London Film Society along with Asquith, won an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for the film. Asquith had a long professional association with playwright Terence Rattigan, and two of Asquith's most famous and successful pictures were based on Rattigan plays, The Winslow Boy (1948) and The Browning Version (1951). Asquith directed the screen version of Rattigan's first successful play, French Without Tears (1940), in 1940.

Asquith's most successful postwar film was, arguably, his adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest (1952). More than a half-century after it was made, Asquith's film remains the best adaptation of Wilde's work. Ironically, Asquith's father H.H., while serving as Home Secretary, ordered Wilde's arrest for his homosexual behavior. Wilde's arrest, for "indecent behavior", led to his incarceration in the Reading jail and destroyed the great playwright, personally. The Wilde incident stifled gay culture in Britain for the first two-thirds of the 20th century. Another irony of the situation is that H.H.'s youngest son, Anthony, himself was gay.

By the 1960s Asquith was directing Hollywood-style all-star productions, including the episodic The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964), once again from a screenplay by Rattigan, and the Richard Burton-Elizabeth Taylor potboiler The V.I.P.s (1963), also with a screenplay by Rattigan. It is based in an incident in the life of Laurence Olivier, a frequent Asquith collaborator. In 1967 Asquith was tipped to direct the big-screen adaptation of the best-selling novel The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) set to co-star Olivier and Anthony Quinn, but he had to drop out of the production due to ill heath. He died on February 20, 1968, at the age of 65.

The British Academy Award for best music is named the Anthony Asquith Award in his honor.

Glamorous, dark-eyed leading lady, touted as Britain's answer to Hollywood's Clara Bow, the 'It Girl'. She was also sometimes referred to as 'Britain's first female sex symbol', reflected by having her initially cast as vamps or flappers. Born Dorothy Irene Boucher, she started out as a typist and then joined her brother at Harrods department store, where she was employed as a fashion model. After being a finalist in a Daily Mirror beauty contest, she became a photographer's model, and, from there, segued into acting. Until 1934, she continued to be billed in some of her pictures as 'Dorothy Bouchier'. However, she had by then adopted her stage name 'Chili', derived from a novelty song, popularised by the Savoy Havana Band in 1923 ("I Love My Chili Bom Bom").

On screen from 1927, Chili was under contract to Herbert Wilcox at British & Dominions. She made a few modestly successful films at the studio, notably Venetian Nights (1931). However, her position as pre-eminent leading lady at the studio was eventually usurped by new discovery Anna Neagle (who was diligently mentored by Wilcox and later became his wife). Chili's film career thus went into decline. The situation was not helped by an unhappy interlude in Hollywood, which came about as a stipulation of her 1935 contract with Warner Brothers. Finding herself essentially unemployed, she returned to Britain, but was henceforth relegated to appearing in second features. She spent the war years entertaining troops as part of ENSA. Chili remained a busy performer on the London stage (into her eighties), interspersed with occasional character parts on screen until 1960.

Gillian Lynne was born on 20 February 1926 in Bromley, Kent, England, UK. She was an actress and director, known for The Phantom of the Opera (2004), National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985) and BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950). She was married to Peter Land and Patrick Back. She died on 1 July 2018 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.

Irene Browne was born on 23 February 1891 in Hendon, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Red Shoes (1948), I'll Never Forget You (1951) and Drink (1917). She died on 24 July 1965 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.

Herbert Beerbohm Tree was born on 17 December 1852 in Kensington, London, England, UK. He was an actor and director, known for King John (1899), Henry VIII (1911) and The Tempest (1905). He was married to Lady Tree. He died on 2 July 1917 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.

Attended the Royal Academy of Music beginning at the age of 17. His first American professional appearance occurred at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 3, 1959. He founded the London Symphony Orchestra's Pops Program and served as the orchestra's Pops Musical Director.

Lawrence Hanray was born on 16 May 1874 in Hampstead, London, England, UK. He was an actor and composer, known for Knight Without Armor (1937), The Good Companions (1933) and Scotland Yard Commands (1936). He was married to Lois Grace Heatherley and Dorothy Mary Chambers Farnsworth. He died on 28 November 1947 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.

Geoffrey Perkins, died aged just 55, was a comedy writer, producer and performer and, as head of comedy at BBC Television from 1995 until 2001, presided over such popular series as The Royle Family and Jonathan Creek; in a broadcasting career spanning more than 30 years he worked with stars including Harry Enfield, Angus Deayton and Catherine Tate.

He first made his mark as a radio producer with the cult classic The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and, also on Radio 4, the mystifyingly daft Mornington Crescent segment on I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue, the show billed as "the antidote to panel games". A relaxed, calm figure with a wry sense of humour, Perkins not only delivered a string of modern hit series during his six years in charge of the BBC television comedy output - including The Royle Family and The Fast Show - but also persuaded David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst to star in a fresh series of the 1980s classic Only Fools and Horses, the first of which was screened at Christmas 2001. Perkins often confessed himself frustrated by the corporation's "maddening" bureaucracy, and internal hostility towards situation comedy, which he often heard dismissed as "lowbrow fodder". After six years in the job, he returned to making programmes in the independent production sector.

Geoffrey Howard Perkins was born on February 22 1953 and educated at Harrow County Grammar School where his friends included Nigel Sheinwald (now, as Sir Nigel, British ambassador to Washington), Michael Portillo and Clive Anderson, with whom he ran the debating society. From an early age he took an active part in school drama and by the time he was a teenager was known as one of the school's comedians. In 1970 he and Clive Anderson wrote a revue, Happy Poison, which was produced as a Christmas entertainment to raise money for charity.

After Lincoln College, Oxford, where he read English as an exhibitioner, Perkins asked about joining the BBC but was advised to take a job in commercial shipping. Joining the Ocean Transport and Trading Company (in the same intake as his confrère Portillo), Perkins was put to work studying waste timber in Liverpool. Neither recruit lasted long. In 1977, having written and directed the Oxford University revues of 1974 and 1975, Perkins joined a vintage intake of talent to BBC Radio's light entertainment department that included Cambridge graduates such as John Lloyd and Griff Rhys-Jones. Encouraged by the new department head David Hatch, one of Perkins's first tasks was to rejuvenate I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue, launched in 1972, by introducing the deliberately incomprehensible Mornington Crescent round. It became one of the show's enduring highlights. Early in 1978 Perkins, at 25, took over from Simon Brett as producer of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the science-fiction based comedy being devised by Douglas Adams, a famously slow writer with a history of missed deadlines. Perkins had to chivvy Adams along, and while Adams's old Cambridge friend John Lloyd was drafted in to write large sections of the later episodes, it was Perkins who helped Adams finish the scripts. Drawing on the resources of the Radiophonic Workshop, Perkins also marshalled his sound sources into weird new forms, and devised a range of voice treatments for the actors playing aliens that broke new ground. The result was one of the funniest and most original comedies of postwar radio, winning critical and popular acclaim and - by appealing to both high- and low-brow tastes - managing to alter entrenched public perceptions of Radio 4. "The intellectuals compared it to Swift," noted Perkins, "and the 14-year-olds enjoyed hearing depressed robots clanking around."

With Angus Deayton, Perkins co-wrote and starred (as Mike Flex) in the sketch show Radio Active, which poked fun at the amateurishness of some local radio broadcasting, and which transferred to television as KYTV. In 1988 Perkins left the BBC to become a director of Hat Trick Productions, one of the leading independendent companies, whose comedy hits included Have I Got News For You, Spitting Image, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Drop The Dead Donkey, The Harry Enfield Television Programme and the Bafta award-winning Father Ted. He returned in 1995 to become head of comedy for BBC Television. Unusually, he insisted that his continued role as a programme producer was written into his contract. But Perkins came to despair of official BBC snootiness about comedy (one annual report dismissed it with the phrase "all the way from high-value costume drama right the way down to sitcom"). With some 30 new scripts crossing his desk every week (he was a meticulous script editor, carefully ticking every line he thought would raise a laugh), he not only found himself culturally marginalised at the BBC - "Unfortunately, the term sitcom implies a great disdain. People say it with a curl of their lips" - but also hamstrung by the inevitable bureaucracy which, he complained, hindered programme making. As the constraints of the John Birt era multiplied, Perkins spent more time on budgets rather than on creativity. What he called "seismic changes" in the way Birt ran the BBC had "set the people that produce programmes in direct opposition to the people responsible for actually paying for and broadcasting them. "There have been occasions when you say, 'Let's just make a deal', knowing everyone is unhappy; where no one gets the budget they want to make their programme. There are people who are inspired by that, but I'm not one of them." From 2001, after leaving his BBC management post, Perkins returned to the creative side of programme-making with Tiger Aspect, the independent production company behind such shows as Mr Bean and The Vicar of Dibley. He produced The Catherine Tate Show, The Fast Show and Father Ted for Channel 4, and Benidorm for ITV. His latest BBC production for Tiger Aspect, Harry and Paul, starring Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, starts next week.

Perkins received many awards in the course of his career, including a Sony award for Radio Active in the 1980s, and a grand prix and silver rose of Montreux in 1992 for its television spin-off KYTV. Geoffrey Perkins married, in 1986, Lisa Braun, a BBC studio manager on The Hitch-Hiker's Guide. She survived him with a daughter and a son. Their first child suffered a cot death in the 1980s.

Charles Hawtrey was born on 21 September 1858 in Eton, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for A Message from Mars (1913), The Private Secretary (1935) and Honeymoon for Three (1915). He was married to Katherine Elsie Emma Petre and Madeline 'Mae' Harriet. He died on 30 July 1923 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.

Henry Caldwell was born on 18 June 1918. He was a producer and writer, known for Balalaika (1948), Café Continental (1947) and Saturday-Night Revue (1950). He died on 28 November 1961 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.

Probably the most famous personality on British TV in the 1950s, Gilbert Harding was notorious for his rudeness and short temper as a panel member on the genteel parlor game What's My Line (1951), a program he occasionally presented. He also appeared in several British films, mostly playing himself. His most celebrated (if not infamous) appearance on film or TV was on the interview show Face to Face (1959), hosted by John Freeman, shortly before Harding's early death in 1960. A former policeman who was raised in the confines of a Victorian workhouse, he briefly broke down in tears during Freeman's relentless questioning. He was asked if he had ever been in the presence of someone dying. The only occasion he had been was with his mother, a fact Freeman was not aware of when this particular question came up. Freeman afterward said he very much regretted this action; indeed, a few minutes later in the interview Freeman assumed Harding's mother was still alive, and was promptly corrected by Harding. Revealingly, Harding admitted his bad temper and manners were "indefensible", "I'm profoundly lonely", "I'm not afraid of death . . . I would like to be dead . . . " and sadly, several weeks after the recording, he was.

A play based on Harding's life, starring Edward Woodward, was performed in London.

Rufus Cruickshank was born on 27 November 1915 in Inverurie, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for Kidnapped (1952), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955) and Lord Emsworth and the Little Friend (1956). He died on 20 December 1959 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.

Launce Maraschal was born on 26 October 1892 in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Detective (1954), The Six Proud Walkers (1962) and The Mulberry Accelerator (1955). He was married to Enid Olive Florence Ogden, Pax Walker, Anne Mould and Charlotte Bailey Montgomery. He died in 1972 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.

John Turnbull was born on 5 November 1880 in Dunbar, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950), Murder at the Baskervilles (1937) and Lord Edgware Dies (1934). He was married to Eve Marchew and Beatrice Alice Scott (actress). He died on 22 February 1956 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.

Robert Rendel was born on 2 December 1884 in St. Marys Abbots, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Four Feathers (1939), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1931) and Twice Branded (1936). He died on 9 May 1944 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.

Enoch Powell was a British Conservative MP for Wolverhampton. He later became a member of the Ulster Unionist party. At one time he was considered a likely Conservative Party leader and was admired by - among many others - Margaret Thatcher, but he is now remembered mainly for one thing: that he favoured the repatriation of black immigrants living in Britain. He ended his status as one of British politics' rising stars when he delivered his infamous anti-immigration speech, the "Rivers of Blood", on April 20th 1968. It saw him thrown out of Edward Heath's Shadow Cabinet and is seen as a turning point in race relations in Britain.

Peter Martyn was born on 19 October 1925 in Chelsea, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Folly to Be Wise (1952), Child's Play (1954) and Mr. Lord Says No (1952). He died on 15 February 1955 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.

Vi Kaley was born on 19 November 1878 in Lambeth, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Detective Lloyd (1932), My Brother Jonathan (1948) and On Velvet (1938). She was married to Alfred Artois. She died in 1967 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.

Steve Wright was born on 26 August 1954 in Greenwich, London, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Funny Man (1994), Happiness (2001) and Sorry About Last Night (1995). He was married to Cyndi Robinson. He died on 12 February 2024 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.

Mary Honer was born in 1913 in Lambeth, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for A Midsummer Night's Dream (1946), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1947) and Casse-Noisette (1937). She was married to Peter Bell and Harold Turner. She died on 6 May 1965 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.

As well as being an author, director, & one of the founders of the BBC, was one of the last known ace fighter pilots of the first World War. He served in No. 56 Squadron of the RFC/RAF. He is credited with victories over 8 German planes.