Stanley Baker

Commanding Welsh leading man who began his career as a teen in 1943 and bristled through a series of British actioners and crime thrillers of uneven merit as tough villains and criminals throughout the 1950s. "The Cruel Sea" (1953) established Baker as a screen presence and won him a long-term Rank contract.

In the late 1950s and early 60s he broke out of his typecasting in several exceptional films by both Cy Endfield and Joseph Losey ("Blind Date" 1959, "Accident" 1967) and co-produced several of his own films. He was knighted in 1976, just before his death.