Originally asked to play four members of the D’Ascoyne family in Robert Hamer’s Ealing classic, the 35-year-old Guinness insisted he play all eight – a comic tour de force that left him feeling understandably schizophrenic.

(“I had to ask myself from time to time, ‘Which one am I now?’” he would later recall.) That each emerges as a fully realised creation in their own right is a testament to both his protean ability and his patience – the scene where six D’Ascoynes appear in the same frame took two days to film.

Greatest Moment: Coming a cropper as Lady Agatha in a hot-air balloon.

Also See: Fagin (Oliver Twist), Colonel Nicholson (The Bridge On The River Kwai), Obi-Wan Kenobi (Star Wars).