Diana Quick

Born: November 1946
Where: London, UK

Hanging out as the teenage daughter of two am-dram fans at the same Dartford coffee bar as Mick Jagger gave Quick an early taste of glamour.

Then a lucky break at Oxford University got her into plays with the future Monty Python members Michael Palin and Terry Jones.

Her first (uncredited) appearance was in The Brothers Karamazov in 1958 and she went on to appear in Nicholas and Alexandra as well as The Duellists.

The latter and TV's Brideshead Revisisited, where she played Julia Flyte, opened up possibilities in America.

However, when she was in Los Angeles she collapsed outside a concert hall and suffered serious injuries to her face and neck.

The accident - in which she lost 16 teeth and damaged her voice box, lost her a lot of work she had lined up in the States.

Having a baby in her mid-30s meant another career break, and when she returned it was in France, to appear with Charlotte Rampling in Max, Mon Amour.

Roles followed in Vroom, Wilt, Nostrodamus, Vigo, the sleeper hit Saving Grace and overblown costume drama The Affair of the Necklace.

A succession of parts has come her way that she refers to as "bonking grannies": in AKA, and in both a reworking of The Revenger's Tragedy (also starring Eddie Izzard), and in The Discovery of Heaven with Stephen Fry and Greg Wise.