Fay Wray (1907-2004)

Birth name: Vina Fay Wray
Birthdate: Sunday, September 15th, 1907
Location: Alberta, Canada

Died: Sunday, August 8th, 2004
Location: New York City, USA
Cause of death: Natural causes

Best known for: Despite an acting career that spread across five decades, Fay was forever remembered for her principal role in the 1933 monster movie King Kong, whose shadow she never escaped - however, she earned a $10,000 salary for the film and the knowledge that the movie's success saved RKO from bankruptcy.

Fay had actually been acting since she was aged 16 but hit upon her big success playing Ann Darrow in 1933's King Kong. She never managed to escape the glare of success from that film, but did continue to enjoy a healthy acting career until the mid-1960s, when she retired from the screen at the age of 58 (she'd originally retired, aged just 35, after 1942's Not a Ladies' Man, but financial concerns forced her to return to acting 11 years later). Before this retirement she'd had TV success as Catherine Morrison in The Pride of the Family (1953-54) and various roles in Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Wagon Train and Perry Mason.

Harold Lloyd (1893-1971)

Birth name: Harold Clayton Lloyd
Birthdate: Thursday, April 20th, 1893
Location: Nebraska, USA

Died: Monday, March 8th, 1971
Location: Beverly Hills, California, USA
Cause of death: Prostate cancer

Best known for: His all-action, stunt-driven silent comedy films of the 1920s through to 1940s, most famously 1923's Safety Last! in which he is left suspended from a clock face high above the city.

Harold's heyday was during the 1920s when he produced a great many silent comedy shorts and films with Hal Roach, notably as the "Glass" character (he donned horn-rimmed spectacles as Roach believed Harold was too good-looking for comedy). But during the 1930s his popularity began to decline as the Great Depression promoted cynicism, which failed to match Harold's innate optimism and go-getting persona.

Vivien Leigh (1913-1967)

Birth name: Vivian Mary Hartley
Birthdate: Wednesday, November 5th, 1913
Location: Darjeeling, India

Died: Saturday, July 8th, 1967
Location: London, UK
Cause of death: Suffocation caused by tuberculosis

Best known for: British actress whose career was eclipsed by her early success as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind (1939), but whose other notable work included Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), Anna Karenina (1948) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). She won two Best Actress Oscars for Gone With the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire. Her personal claim to fame was that she was married to acting legend Sir Laurence Olivier between 1940-60.

Vivien's screen CV is actually relatively slight for a woman who made such an impact on Hollywood. She made only five films in the 1940s, just two in the 1950s and two more in the 1960s before her death, but she was extremely busy on the stage throughout these decades.

Steve McQueen (1930-1980)

Birth name: Terence Steven McQueen
Birthdate: Monday, March 24th, 1930
Location: Beech Grove, Indiana, USA

Died: Friday, November 7th, 1980
Location: Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico
Cause of death: Malignant pleural mesolethioma

Best known for: American actor who became known for his tough, action roles and anti-hero persona, and often referred to as the King of Cool. His most successful films included The Great Escape (1963), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and Bullitt (1968). He was nominated for an Oscar as Best Lead Actor for The Sand Pebbles (1966), but lost out to Paul Scofield. He was also nominated for six Golden Globes, winning two of them for World Film Favourite Male.

The mid to late 1960s were Steve McQueen's heyday, but following the huge success of The Sand Pebbles, The Thomas Crown Affair and Bullitt, he began to make fewer films as he became increasingly disillusioned with the Hollywood studio system. 1971's Le Mans was poorly received, but despite this, his role as Doc McCoy in 1972's The Getaway made him the world's highest paid actor.

Betty Hutton (1921-2007)

Birth name: Elizabeth June Thornburg
Birthdate: Saturday, February 26th, 1921
Location: Battle Creek, Michigan, USA

Died: Sunday, March 11th, 2007 (although her gravestone says March 12th)
Location: Palm Springs, California, USA
Cause of death: Colon cancer

Best known for: Bubbly Betty was a multi-talented personality who acted and sang on stage and screen, but was more comfortable in comedic roles or musicals. She had worked wonders entertaining the troops during World War Two. Her greatest hits included The Perils of Pauline (1947) and playing Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun (1950) - for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe for best musical actress, but beaten by Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday - as well as The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and even her own TV show in 1959-60. In 1944 she won a Golden Apple Award for Most Cooperative Actress, while in 1956 was awarded Mother of the Year by the City of Hope charity...

Edward G Robinson (1893-1973)

Birth name: Emanuel Goldenberg
Birthdate: Tuesday, December 12th, 1893
Location: Bucharest, Romania

Died: Friday, January 26th, 1973
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Cause of death: Bladder cancer

Best known for: Edward became most famous for his roles in numerous gangster films of the 1930s and 40s, most notably in Little Caesar (1931), Double Indemnity (1944) and Key Largo (1948). Edward was awarded an honorary Oscar in March 1973, two months after he had died. The award was accepted by his widow, Jane.

After achieving such great success in gangster and mobster flicks in the 1930s and 40s, Edward's career took a stumble in the early 1950s thanks to the House Unamerican Activities Committee. Despite a meticulous defense, and his name being ultimately cleared, his career suffered in its wake, until in 1956 he was thrust back onto the main stage by director Cecil B DeMille when he was cast as Dathan in The Ten Commandments.

Lillian Gish (1893-1993)

Birth name: Lillian Diana Gish
Birthdate: Saturday, October 14th, 1893
Location: Springfield, Ohio, USA

Died: Saturday, February 27th, 1993
Location: New York City, New York, USA
Cause of death: Heart failure

Best known for: Known as The First Lady of American Cinema, Lillian's career spanned 75 years, with her most notable work in the silent era, and partnership with director D W Griffith, such as on Birth of a Nation (1915), and later in Duel in the Sun (1946, for which she was nominated for an Oscar - beaten by Anne Baxter) and Night of the Hunter (1955). In 1971 she was awarded an honorary Oscar, at the age of 78.