The Offence

Sir Thomas Sean Connery (August 25, 1930 – October 31, 2020) was a Scottish actor and producer who won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards (one being a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award), and three Golden Globes, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a Henrietta Award. Connery was the first actor to portray the character James Bond in film, starring in seven Bond films (every film from Dr. No to You Only Live Twice, plus Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again), between 1962 and 1983. In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables. His films also include Marnie (1964), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Highlander (1986), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Dragonheart (1996), The Rock (1996), and Finding Forrester (2000). Connery was polled in a 2004 The Sunday Herald as "The Greatest Living Scot" and in a 2011 EuroMillions survey as "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure". He was voted by People magazine as both the “Sexiest Man Alive" in 1989 and the "Sexiest Man of the Century” in 1999. He received a lifetime achievement award in the United States with a Kennedy Center Honor in 1999. Connery was knighted in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to film drama. On 31 October 2020, it was announced that Connery had died at the age of 90. Description above from the Wikipedia article Sean Connery, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Howard was born in Cliftonville, Kent, England, the son of Mabel Grey (Wallace) and Arthur John Howard. He was educated at Clifton College (to which he left in his will a substantial legacy for a drama scholarship) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), acting on the London stage for several years before World War II. His first paid work was in the play Revolt in a Reformatory (1934), before he left RADA in 1935 to take small roles. Although stories of his courageous wartime service in the British Army's Royal Corps of Signals earned him much respect among fellow actors and fans alike, files held in the Public Record Office reveal that he had actually been discharged from the British Army in 1943 for mental instability and having a "psychopathic personality". The story, which surfaced in Terence Pettigrew's biography of the actor, published by Peter Owen in 2001, was initially denied by Howard's widow, actress Helen Cherry. Later, confronted with official records, she told the Daily Telegraph (24 June 2001) that his mother had claimed he was a holder of the Military Cross. She added that Howard had an honourable military record and "had nothing to be ashamed of".

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.   Vivien Merchant (born Ada Thompson 22 July 1929 – 3 October 1982) was a British actress. She performed in many stage productions and several films, including Alfie (1966) and Frenzy (1972). Her performance in Alfie earned her Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress, and the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was the first wife of the playwright Harold Pinter, whom she met when working as a repertory actress and married in 1956. Their son, Daniel, was born in 1958. Having performed the role of Rose in a production of his first play, The Room (1957) at the Hampstead Theatre in 1960, she also appeared in many of Pinter's subsequent works, including as Ruth in The Homecoming (1964) on stage (1965) and screen (The Homecoming, 1973). The last of his plays in which she performed was Old Times (1971) as Anna. Their marriage began disintegrating in the mid-1960s. From 1962 to 1969, Harold Pinter had a clandestine affair with Joan Bakewell, which informs Pinter's play Betrayal and his film adaptation, also called Betrayal. In 1975 Pinter began a serious affair with the historian Lady Antonia Fraser, the wife of Sir Hugh Fraser, which he confessed to his wife that March. At first, Merchant took it very well, saying positive things about Fraser, according to her friend artist Guy Vaesen (as cited by Billington); but, Vaesen recalled, after "a female friend of Vivien's trotted round to her house and poisoned her mind against Antonia ... Life in Hanover Terrace [where the Pinters then lived] gradually became impossible". Pinter left, and Vivien Merchant filed for divorce and gave interviews to the tabloid press, expressing her distress.The Frasers' divorce became final in 1977 and the Pinters' in 1980. In 1980 Pinter married Antonia Fraser. Vivien Merchant never overcame her grief and bitterness at losing Pinter, dying at the age of 53 on 3 October 1982, from acute alcoholism Description above from the Wikipedia article Vivien Merchant ,  licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Ian Bannen (29 June 1928 – 3 November 1999) was a Scottish character actor and occasional leading man. Description above from the Wikipedia article Ian Bannen, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Peter Bowles (16 October 1936 – 17 March 2022) was an English television and stage actor. He gained prominence for television dramas such as Callan: A Magnum for Schneider and I, Claudius. He is however, best remembered for his roles in sitcoms and television dramadies, including: Rumpole of the Bailey, Only When I Laugh, To the Manor Born, The Bounder, The Irish R.M., Lytton's Diary, Executive Stress and Perfect Scoundrels. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.   John William Francis Hallam (28 October 1941 – 14 November 2006[1]) was a Northern Irish character actor. Born John William Francis Hallam in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, he appeared in many film and television roles including Nicholas and Alexandra (1971),Murphy's War (1971), The Pallisers (1974), The Mallens (1979), Flash Gordon (1980), Dragonslayer (1981), the BBC television adaptations of Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1989) and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). He also appears in the director's cut of the 1973 film The Wicker Man as McTaggart. He appeared in the science fiction series Doctor Who as the memorable alien "Light" in the serial Ghost Light (1989). He was also known as Barnsey, the prison cell mate of Den Watts in EastEnders. On November 14, 2006, Hallam died in Clifton, Oxfordshire, England at age 65. He was divorced and had four children. Description above from the Wikipedia article John Hallam  licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Howard Jacob Goorney (11 May 1921 – 29 March 2007) was a Manchester born Jewish actor, committed communist and a founder member of Joan Littlewood's 'Theatre Workshop'. He wrote The Theatre Workshop Story, published by Methuen - a definitive account of the company's early years, including their move to the Theatre Royal in Stratford East. He is also known for numerous theatre roles, including Bill Bryden's The Mysteries and Lark Rise to Candleford at the National Theatre in the 1970s and 1980s, TV roles such as Knock Knock in Only Fools and Horses, and films like The Hill, The Offence, Blood on Satan's Claw and Fiddler on the Roof.

Fred Wood (born 26 October 1922, Rotherhithe, London), died January 2003, was an English actor. Wood was best known for roles in Star Wars (1977), Elephant Man (1980) and From Russia with Love (1963). Wood has appeared in a large number of American films, due to filming taking place partly or entirely in Britain. As a British-based actor and supporting artist, he worked extensively in British films since the late 1940s until 2001 and television since the 1950s. He appeared in a wide range of television shows including Dangerman, Gideon's Way, The Professionals, The Baron and Gone to Seed (1992). From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard Moore is a British stage, film and television actor.