The striking, dark-haired beauty Zena Moyra Marshall was born 1st January 1925 in Nairobi, Kenya to a French mother and British father.
 
Her interest in the acting profession matured after a wartime theatrical tour with the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA), while still in her teens. After completing her training at RADA, her exotic looks led to a contract with the Rank Organisation where she was groomed by the so-called 'charm school' as a sultry temptress and second lead in costume films, romantic melodramas and thrillers.

Zena made her screen debut in the stagey, moribund epic Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). She had a bit-part as a handmaiden. Zena's subsequent career was anything but meteoric. For several years, she was given only minor supporting roles in productions by Rank affiliates, such as GFD/Two Cities and Gainsborough, including Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948), Snowbound (1948) and Helter Skelter (1949) – she played the role of Giselle (first photo)

A brief sojourn in Hollywood resulted in a lacklustre Allied Artists musical, Let's Be Happy (1957), as an amorous redhead, rivalling star Vera-Ellen for the affections of crooner Tony Martin. During the 1950's, she managed to rekindle her theatrical career and, by the end of the decade, went on tour through Germany and the Netherlands with "The Late Edwina Black". Zena was one of the first actresses to be featured in a British television commercial (for shampoo) on early ITV.  Television did, in the end, become her favoured medium. She had some of her better on-screen moments in three episodes of Danger Man (1960), opposite Patrick McGoohan, between 1961 and 1964.

Zena Marshall's main claim to fame rests on her portrayal of the Eurasian double agent, Miss Taro (see second image), in the first ever Bond film, Dr. No (1962). Her character was, incidentally, the first woman seduced by Bond, prior to his encounter with Ursula Andress in the part of Honey Rider. Another noted beauty, the reigning Miss Jamaica, Marguerite LeWars was originally slated to screen test for Miss Taro. However, Lewars declined for reasons of 'personal modesty' and is merely glimpsed in the film in a bit-part as an unnamed photographer. Zena herself, was at first unhappy with the script, but Terence Young, who had previously worked with her on the poorly-received costume biopic, The Bad Lord Byron (1949), lightened some of the dialogue with humour. In the end, the bedroom scene with Sean Connery took three days to shoot, because Zena struggled with the idea of having to spit in her co-star's face, after Bond has her character turned over to the superintendent of police. Miss Taro remains one of the most iconic of Bond villainesses.

Zena's last roles of note were as an Italian countess in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), and as a secretary fighting alien enemies (alongside incongruously cast accountant Charles Hawtrey in the sci-fi outing The Terrornauts (1967).

She died from cancer on 10th July 2009.

Roger Maxwell was born 1st January 1900 in London as Roger D. Latham. He died on November 24, 1971 in London shortly after his final performance – he played the part of the Peppery Old Gent in the 1971 Dad’s Army film (see 2nd image).
 
His film career started in the late 1920’s but it wasn’t until 1949 that his film acting career fully took off.  One of his first roles was as the uncredited ‘Director on the Humphrey, Fairfax & Sons Board character in Stop Press Girl (1949) – see first image.
 
Other notable films that he appeared in include Ha’penny Breeze (1950), Night Was Our Friend (1951), Deadly Nightshade (1953), Glad Tidings (1953), Heidi (1953), Reach for the Sky (1956), The Angry Silence (1960) and Dr Zhivago (1965).
 
His TV appearances include: Life with the Lyons (1957), It’s a Square World (1961). Bootsie and Snudge (1963), William (1963) and Danger Man (1965).
 

The British actor Charles Gordon McLeod was born 27 December 1890 in Devon. Balding, bespectacled and hard-boiled looking, he specialised in tough, no-nonsense characters typically as a figure of authority.

His first film appearances was in 1925’s The Only Way.  He made a number of appearances in further silent films but his career really took off in the 1930’s appearing on over 30 films during the decade.

Just a few of his more notable film appearances include: Death at Broadcasting House (1934), Treachery on the High Seas (1936), Victoria the Great (1937) and the follow up Sixty Glorious Years (1938) – in both films he played John Brown alongside Anna Neagle as Victoria, I See Ice (1938), Girl in the News (1940), The First of the Few (1941), Meet Sexton Blake (1945), He Snoops to Conquer (1945), Night Boat to Dublin (1946), Just William (1946), The Winslow Boy (1948), Chance of a Lifetime (1950), Johnny on the Rum (1953), The Million Pound Note (1954) and The House Across the Lake (1954).
He is probably best known for his role as Inspector Teal in The Saint films - The Saint in London (1939), The Saint’s Vacation (1941) and The Saint Meets the Tiger (1943),

In 1941 he played the part of Rossenger (pictured) in Crook’s Tour, the third outing for the Charters and Caldicott characters.

He died 16th October 1953.

Edmund Willard was born 19th December 1894 in Brighton. 

His first film role was as the Fourth Party in A Window in Piccadilly (1928). His other film appearances include The Private Life of Don Juan (1934) with Douglas Fairbanks and Merle Oberon, The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), The Mystery of the Mary Celeste (1935) with Bela Lugosi, the Chief Steward in Underneath the Arches (1937) with Bud Flanagan and the The Crazy Gang, the Chief of German Intelligence in Dark Journey (1937) with Vivien Leigh and Conrad Veidt and The Young Mr Pitt (1942) with Robert Donat and Robert Morley.
 
One of his last roles was as the character Ezekial in 1949’s Helter Skelter.  His final film appearance was as the Judge (pictured) in Norman Wisdom’s Up in the World film released in 1956.
 
The actor died 6th October 1956.