Joss Ackland
Born: February 29 1928
Where: London, UK
The distinguished former tea plantation manager has made more than 100 films including White Mischief and Lethal Weapon 2.
A stage and TV veteran, it wasn't until the late 1960s that he began to regularly appear on the big screen.
After attending London's Central School of Speech and Drama, the 17-year-old Ackland made his professional stage debut in The Hasty Heart in 1945.
He made his (uncredited) big screen debut in 1950 in the Boulting Brothers' Oscar-winning thriller Seven Days to Noon and followed it with a featured role in Ghost Ship.
However, he then opted to work on the stage in the provinces and in 1955 moved to Africa, where he managed a tea plantation.
Whilst abroad he wrote plays and worked as a DJ before returning to Britain in 1957 to join the Old Vic company.
He worked as associate director of London's Mermaid Theatre while also making a name for himself in musicals such as Peter Pan and Evita.
Towards the end of the 1960s he began getting regular film roles including horror films The House That Dripped Blood and Crescendo.
Subsequent outings during the 1970s included The Three Musketeers, One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing and Operation Daybreak.
Offscreen, he suffered a personal tragedy when his eldest son Paul died of a heroin overdose in 1982.
In 1985, he delivered a critically-acclaimed portrayal of the writer CS Lewis in the TV movie Shadowlands and followed it with Peter Greenaway's A Zed & Two Noughts.
His chilling turn as Greta Scachii's scheming husband in White Mischief received plaudits and he also featured in the Pet Shop Boy's movie - reportedly for a bet - It Couldn't Happen Here.
In 1989, he memorably played a South African villain in the action yarn Lethal Weapon II and played a Russian official in submarine drama The Hunt for Red October.
Throughout the 1990s he worked solidy as a supporting actor in movies ranging from The Mighty Ducks to a turn as Henri Matisse in Surviving Picasso.
He was named a CBE for his 50 years of service to the English stage, cinema and television in December 2000.
In 2002, he reprised a role of a Russian official in another submarine drama K:19 The Widowmaker alongside Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson.
Recent work includes the drama Asylum and the romantic drama These Foolish Things alongside Anjelica Huston and Lauren Bacall.
