Hywel Bennett

Highest Rated: 75% The Family Way (1967)

Lowest Rated: 31% Vatel (2000)

Birthday: Apr 8, 1944

Birthplace: Garnant, Carmarthenshire, Wales, UK

After an unusual, cross-dressing stage debut as Ophelia in "Hamlet," Welsh actor Hywel Bennett became the regular "angry young man" in stage productions before expanding his range for a wide variety of British film and TV parts. He took an early interest in acting and made the aforementioned London debut at age 15 with the Youth Theatre (where the old tradition of men playing female parts persisted). Several years later, he made the jump to television, first in a supporting part in the classic science fiction serial "Doctor Who." Features followed, including a notable early role as a beleaguered newlywed alongside former child star Hayley Mills in "The Family Way." Bennett had key roles in a couple of offbeat pictures, the comedic anti-war drama "The Virgin Soldiers" and the darkly comic crime caper "Loot." In the Cold War espionage miniseries based on the John le Carré novel "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," he filled another important supporting part. One of his most high-profile parts came at the helm of his own long-running series, "Shelley," as the title character, a sardonic, anti-establishment layabout. Bennett later had recurring roles in classic British shows playing a gangland boss on "EastEnders" and a serial-killer suspect on the astoundingly enduring police drama "The Bill."