Staying On

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.   Dame Celia Elizabeth Johnson DBE (18 December 1908 – 25 April 1982) was a British actress. She began her stage acting career in 1928, and subsequently achieved success in West End and Broadway productions. She also appeared in several films, including the romantic drama Brief Encounter (1945), for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She was nominated for BAFTA Awards on five occasions, and won twice, for her work in the film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), and for the television production Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, a BBC Play for Today broadcast in 1973. Much of her later work was for television, and she continued performing in theatre for the rest of her life. She died suddenly from a stroke. Description above from the Wikipedia article Celia Johnson licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Saeed Jaffrey OBE (1929 - 2015) was an Indian-born British actor, who made numerous British movies. He was born in Malerkotla, Punjab. His film credits included The Man Who Would Be King (1975), Shatranj Ke Khiladi (The Chess Players) (1977), Gandhi (1982), A Passage to India (1965 BBC version and 1984 film) and My Beautiful Laundrette (1985). He also appeared in many Bollywood films in the 1980s and 1990s. For television he has starred in Gangsters (1975–1978), The Jewel in the Crown (1984), Tandoori Nights (1985–1987) and Little Napoleons (1994). He also appeared as Ravi Desai on Coronation Street as the father of Vikram Desai, the cousin of Dev Alahan and in Minder (TV series) as Mr Mukerjee in Series 1 episode The Bengal Tiger. Description above from the Wikipedia article Saeed Jaffrey, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.