Richard Briers

Highest Rated: 100% Henry V (1989)

Lowest Rated: 14% Unconditional Love (2002)

Birthday: Jan 14, 1934

Birthplace: Merton, Surrey, England, UK

This British character actor has had a long career in TV, but has enjoyed a late-career renaissance thanks to director-actor Kenneth Branagh, who has cast him in six features and one short since "Henry V" in 1989. Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Briers made his London debut in 1959 in "Gilt and Gingerbread." For the next 30 years, he alternated his TV and film work with such plays as "Present Laughter" (1965), "The Real Inspector Hound" (1968), "Butley" (1972), "Run for Your Wife" (1983), "Twelfth Night" (1987-88) and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (as Bottom, 1990).