Background: Davis was the only son of a Roman Catholic piano salesman. He was encouraged in his interest in the theatre by his mother. David went to school in Liverpool and after school he joined the Merchant Navy.

Work: Davis moved to London and changed his name to Noel, after Noël Coward. He established himself in the theatre as a character actor taking on effete roles. During his time in London in the 1950s he met John Schlesinger who was a young actor. Davis’s greatest acting success was as co-star with Eric Portman in The Creeper in 1965, but he soon decided to end his acting career although he still took on several roles, including in films.
From 1974 to 1976 he worked as Associate Director with Gyles Brandreth who was Festival Director running the Oxford Theatre Festival, first at the Oxford Playhouse and then the New Theatre. They presented eight plays using more than 60 actors including Michael Redgrave, Ian Carmichael, Charles Dance, and Sinead Cusack. Three of the plays transferred to the West End, namely: The Dame of Sark, The Little Hut, and Dear Daddy. During this time Noel Davis created the Festival Fringe which gave a start for such performers as Hinge and Bracket, Chris Langham, and several gay companies.
After this Noel Davis realised that his strength was in casting. In 1977 John Schlesinger asked him to cast the feature film, Yanks. He cast several other films for John Schlesinger, and also cast for the film directors Peter Yates, Ridley Scott, Franco Zeffirelli, Anthony Page, Clive Donner, Peter Medak, James Dearden, and Ron Howard. He was particularly pleased to cast John Gielgud in his final screen appearance in Merlin, (1998), for which Noel Davis was nominated for an Emmy.
Noel Davis had a reputation as an extraordinary raconteur who could tell many stories about people in film and theatre without repeating himself.
Towards the end of his life he had a long struggle with emphysema and was cared for by his friend Harry Audley. Three days before he died he was admitted to the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. He found himself in the Adele Dixon Ward, named after the musical comedy actor, and he was able to tell several funny stories about her.

Career: The Creeper, 1965, theatre acting role at the St Martin’s theatre, London. My Fat Friend, theatre acting role at Windsor. Fahrenheit 451, 1966, film acting role as the television personality Cousin Midge. The World In Silence, 1966, television film acting role as Davison. The Avengers, 1967, television series acting role as Secretary in the episode A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Station. Two a Penny, 1967, film acting role as Denis Lancaster. Isadora, 1968, film acting role. Clegg, 1969, film acting role as Max Ronieau. A Touch of the Other, 1970, film acting role as Seton. Macbeth, 1971, film acting role as Seyton. Young Winston, 1972, film acting role as Interviewer. Harry and the Hookers, 1975, film acting role. The Dame of Sark, 1974-1976, as Associate Director. The Little Hut, 1974-1976, as Associate Director. Dear Daddy, 1974-1976, as Associate Director. Yanks, 1979, as film casting director. Reds, 1981, as film casting director. The Return of the Soldier, 1982, as film casting director. Privates on Parade, 1982, as film casting director. An Englishman Abroad, 1983, as film casting director. The Dresser, 1983, as film casting director. A Christmas Carol, 1984, as television film casting director. The Shooting Party, 1984, film acting role. Legend, 1985, as film casting director. Revolution, 1985, as film casting director. Ishtar, 1987, as film casting director. Prick Up Your Ears, 1987, film acting role. Madame Sousatska, 1988, as film casting director. Without a Clue, 1988, as film casting director, (also called Sherlock and Me). Hanna’s War, 1988, as film casting director. Crusoe, 1988, as film casting director. The Krays, 1990, as film casting director. Absolute Hell, 1991, as television film casting director. Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, 1991, as film casting director. Year of the Comet, 1992, as film casting director. The Innocent, 1993, as film casting director. Swing Kids, 1993, as film casting director. Cold Comfort Farm, 1995, as television film casting director. Delta of Venus, 1995, as film casting director. Jane Eyre, 1996, as film casting director. The Hunchback, 1997, as television film casting director. The Odyssey, 1997, as television film casting director. Incognito, 1997, as film casting director. The Tale of Sweeney Todd, 1998, as television film casting director. Parting Shots, 1998, as film casting director. Merlin, 1998, as film casting director. Mary, Mother of Jesus, 1999, as television film casting director. In the Beginning, 2000, as television mini series casting director. David Copperfield, 2000, as television film casting director.

Education: Guy Burgess was educated at Eton, the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, and Trinity College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge he became a communist and met Donald Maclean, Kim Philby, and Anthony Blunt. He was recruited as a Soviet agent in the 1930s. 

Work: He worked for the BBC from 1936 until 1944, except for two years (1939-41) during which he worked on war propaganda with MI5. During his time at the BBC he produced the programme The Week in Westminster which broadcast fifteen-minute talks by MPs. Tom Driberg gave several of these talks when he was an MP.
In 1944 he was given an unestablished job with the Foreign Office News Department.
By 1947 he was established with the Foreign Office and was sent to Washington DC as a second secretary of the British Embassy under Kim Philby in 1950.
He got into trouble for lack of thoroughness, reckless driving, and carelessness with secret papers, and in May 1951 he was asked to resign from the foreign service. Kim Philby told him that Donald Maclean was under investigation. Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean defected to Moscow, on 23rd June, 1951, although apparently Guy Burgess was not under suspicion. The two disappeared from public view until 1956 when they read a prepared statement to a few invited correspondents at the National Hotel, Moscow. Tom Driberg visited Guy Burgess in Moscow.
Guy Burgess died at Botin Hospital, Moscow, of a heart disease.
(Rupert Everett played a part (Guy Bennett) based on Guy Burgess in the film Another Country (1984). Alan Bennett’s television play An Englishman Abroad is about Guy Burgess’s life in Moscow).

Background: Danilo Donati studied in Florence and became a muralist and fresco painter. In the mid 1940s he settled in Rome and shared lodgings with other anti-Fascists taking a diploma at the Academy of Fine Arts.

Work: For several years he was the supervising art director at RAI, Italy’s national television network. His first job as an assistant costume designer was for Luchino Visconti on his films La Vestale, (1954), and La Traviata, (1955).
In the mid 1950s Donati became an acolyte of Franco Zeffirelli and in 1963 he designed the costumes for Franco Zeffirelli’s production of La Traviata at La Scala. In 1964 Donati designed costumes for Pasolini’s black and white film The Gospel According to St Matthew, and received his first Oscar nomination.
His novel Il Coprifuoco, (2000), was about young gay men hiding from German forces in Florence in 1943 and is taken to be largely autobiographical. The book was among the five finalists for Italy’s literary award, the Strega.

Legacy: Many designs for some famous films. The Gospel According to St Mathew received an Oscar nomination.

Childhood: He was born into a family of dancers who had their own dancing company. His father was Thomas Laurentiyevich and his mother was Eleonora Bereda who were both celebrated dancers. At the age of nine, Nijinsky and his sister Bronislava Nijinska trained at the Imperial Ballet School in St Petersberg and after he had graduated in 1907 at the age of 18 he first appeared in ballet at the Maryinska Theatre.

Work: Nijinsky became the leading dancer in Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russe which performed in Paris in 1909. Nijinsky and Sergei Diaghilev became lovers. Nijinsky performed in Michel Fokine’s Pavilion d’Armide, (1909), and Michel Fokine’s Spectre de la Rose, (1911).
Nijinsky became very popular, and in 1911 he appeared as Petrushka in the first performance of Igor Stravinsky’s ballet. In 1912 Nijinsky began to choreograph his own performances and he produced landmark and controversial ballets such as Claude Debussy’s L’Après-midi d’un Faune, (1912, ‘The Afternoon of a Faun’) - this shocking to contemporary audiences as the dancer simulated masturbation and climax on stage (nice afternoon!), and Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, (1913, ‘The Rite of Spring’).
L’Apres Midi d’un Faune
His fourth and last choreography was Till Eulenspiegel, (1916). 

Greatest Achievement: His contemporary egyptian style choreography, involving the use of sideways views like the drawings in ancient Egyptian tombs.

Childhood: Fry was brought up in Norfolk. His mother was Marriane Fry, and his father was the physicist and inventor Alan Fry. At the age of seven Stephen Fry went to a prep school. He was at Uppingham School and Stout’s Hill. He was somewhat wild during his teenage years and at the age of 17 he ended up in Pucklechurch prison for three months after stealing credit cards.

Education: A year before going to university he taught at a prep school. He went to Queen’s College, Cambridge in 1979 and obtained an upper second class honours degree in English in 1981/2.

Work: Fry wrote his first play Latin! or Tobacco and Boys in 1980. It won the Fringe First at the 1980 Edinburgh Festival.
His writing partnership with Hugh Laurie began in 1981 and they produced Footlights revues for Mayweek, the Edinburgh Festival, and a three-month tour of Australia. They continued to perform together in various shows over a number of years. In 1984 he was asked to re-write Noel Gay’s musical Me an My Girl which made him a millionaire and earned him a nomination for a Tony Award in 1987.
From the mid 1980s Stephen Fry began to be a familiar performer on British radio and television. He appeared to be witty and erudite, and not one to suffer bigots gladly. He also wrote for newspapers including a weekly column in the Daily Telegraph.
In 1995 he became rector of Dundee University which also awarded him an honorary doctorate.
He made headline news in 1995 when he absconded and disappeared shortly before he was due to perform in Simon Gray’s play Cell Mates in London’s West End. It transpired that he had taken a ferry to Zeebrugge and travelled through Belgium, Holland, and to Germany, to escape the pressures of work and media attention.
He became a regular presenter of awards shows such as the 2001 and 2002 British Academy Awards (BAFTAS) and charity shows such as Hysteria for the Terrence Higgins Trust.

Friends & Relationships: For many years he claimed in interviews that he was gay but celebate. It was a relief to everyone when he acquired a boyfriend. While at university he was a member of the Cherubs drinking club and Footlights with Emma Thompson, Tony Slattery, Martin Bergmann, and Hugh Laurie. While at Cambridge Stephen Fry appeared in more than 30 plays. He has a passion for Apple Macintosh computers.

Childhood: His original name was Count Don Luchino Visconti Di Morone. Visconti was born into an aristocratic family as one of the seven offspring of the Duke of Modrone and had a priviledged and pampered upbringing. Despite being aristocratic and wealthy he turned into a Marxist.

Friends & Relationships: He was openly gay but his films have few explicitly gay characters. Instead there is often an undercurrent of homoeroticism. He favoured attractive leading men, whereas women did not often have strong roles in his films. Alain Delon’s career was launched by his role in Rocco and His Brothers, (1960). Dirk Bogarde received international acclaim for his performances in The Damned, (1969), and Death in Venice, (1971). Helmut Berger was the last love of Luchino Visconti who cast him in his films The Damned, (1969), Ludwig, (1972), and Conversation Piece, (1974).

Childhood: His father, Charlie, was a railway van boy, but later managed a hairdresser’s shop in Marchmont Street.

Education: At the age of 14 in 1940, Kenneth Williams was sent to the School of Lithography off Fleet Street. He was soon evacuated, with the start of the War, to Bicester in Oxfordshire. He returned to London to resume his lithography studies in 1941.

Work: In 1943 Kenneth Williams was briefly with an amateur dramatics troupe, the Tavistock Players. In February 1944 he was inducted into the armed forces with a period with the Border Regiment in Cumbria to improve his fitness. He was then posted to the Survey Section of the Royal Engineers. In April 1945 he was sent to Bombay via a troop ship from Greenock. In August 1945 he was sent to a map reproduction unit in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). He soon obtained a transfer to Combined Services Entertainments. He failed his first audition but his drawing skills were used for posters and gave him the opportunity to try again. He played the part as the detective in Seven Keys to Baldpate at the Victoria Theatre, Singapore, and he secured his place in the troupe.
He returned to London in December 1947 and took parts in a number of plays before starting to obtain parts in various BBC radio programmes. This led to parts in films and television programmes. Kenneth Williams became most well known for his roles in the Carry On films. The pool of actors who also played roles in this series of 30 films included the gay men Charles Hawtrey and Frankie Howerd. On BBC radio from 1955 to 1958 he was appearing in the comedy series Hancock’s Half Hour, and then from 1958 to 1963 he was in Beyond our Ken. From 1965 to 1969 he was, with Hugh Paddick, in Round the Horne, playing Julian and Sandy who were two obviously gay men and who released a flood of polari onto an unsuspecting public. Stop Messin’ About followed in 1969.
Kenneth Williams was a key member of the celebrity game show Just a Minute! on BBC Radio 4 from 1967 to 1987. He also appeared on several television chat shows. In 1984 he had his own show on television: An Audience with Kenneth Williams. He was on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs in 1961 and 1987. He was the Compére in the television series International Cabaret, from 1966 to 1968. Kenneth Williams acted in 26 Carry On films. He also wrote books and diaries.

Friend & Relationships: In 1965 he went on holiday to Morocco with Joe Orton (He was appearing as Inspector Truscott in Orton’s play Loot at the time) and he had liaisons there but his closest friend for all of life.

Finest Achievement: His appearances in the Carry On films and on Just A Minute and as Julian in Around The Horne.