• A Game of Death
• Achilles
• Aeneas
• Agamemnon
• Ajax (mythology)
• AllRovi
• Andromache
• Audrey Rose (film)
• Barbara Cavan
• Blood on the Moon
• Brigitte Bardot
• Cassandra
• Cedric Hardwicke
• Cinecittà
• Cinema of Italy
• Destination Gobi
• Diomedes
• Eduardo Ciannelli
• Elysium
• English language
• Epic film
• Esmond Knight
• Executive Suite
• France
• George Zoritch
• Guido Notari
• Harry Andrews
• Harry Semels
• Harry Stradling
• Hector
• Hecuba
• Helen of Troy
• Helen of Troy (film)
• Homer
• Hugh Gray
• I Want to Live!
• Iliad
• Italy
• Jacques Sernas
• Janette Scott
• John Twist
• Marc Lawrence
• Max Steiner
• Maxwell Reed
• Menelaus
• Mystery in Mexico
• N. Richard Nash
• Nestor (mythology)
• Niall MacGinnis
• Nora Swinburne
• Odysseus
• Paris (mythology)
• Patricia Marmont
• Patroclus
• Priam
• Robert Wise
• Ronald Lewis (actor)
• Rooftops (film)
• Rossana Podestà
• Run Silent, Run Deep
• Sir Cedric Hardwicke
• So Big (1953 film)
• Stanley Baker
• Star! (film)
• Template Robert Wise
• Terence Labrosse
• The Captive City
• Thomas Reilly
• Three Secrets
• Tonio Selwart
• Torin Thatcher
• Tribute to a Bad Man
• Two Flags West
• Two People (film)
• United States
• Until They Sail
• Warner Bros.
• 
  

• 
  Cinecittà
  Cinecittà (Italian for Cinema City) is a large film studio in Rome that is considered the hub of Italian cinema.
  The studios were founded in 1937 by Benito Mussolini and his head of cinema Luigi Freddi for propaganda purposes, under the slogan "Il cinema è l'arma più forte" (Cinema is the most powerful weapon). The studios were bombed by the Western Allies during World War II. Following the war, between 1945 and 1947, the studios of Cinecittà were used as a displaced persons' camp --see "History of Cinecitta" under External Links below. In the 1950s, Cinecittà was the filming location for several large American film productions like Ben-Hur, and then became the studio most closely associated with Federico Fellini.
  After a period of near-bankruptcy in the 1980s, Cinecittà was privatized by the Italian government.
  It hosted the 1991 Eurovision Song Contest. The venue had been changed from Sanremo because of security concerns.
  Pink Floyd performed, on three consecutive nights, at the studio during The Division Bell Tour on September 19-21, 1994.
  
  wn.com/Cinecittà
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  France
  France (English ⁱ/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km² (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km² / 4,383,000 sq mi).
  Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
  
  wn.com/France
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  Italy
  Italy ⁱ/ˈɪtəli/ (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a unitary parliamentary republic in south-central Europe. To the north, it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south, it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia–the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea–and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some 301,338 km² (116,347 sq mi) and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.6 million inhabitants, it is the fifth most populous country in Europe, and the 23rd most populous in the world.
  Rome, the capital of Italy, was for centuries a political and religious centre of Western civilisation as the capital of the Roman Empire and site of the Holy See. After the decline of the Roman Empire, Italy endured numerous invasions by foreign peoples, from Germanic tribes such as the Lombards and Ostrogoths, to the Byzantines and later, the Normans, among others. Centuries later, Italy became the birthplace of Maritime republics and the Renaissance, an immensely fruitful intellectual movement that would prove to be integral in shaping the subsequent course of European thought.
  
  wn.com/Italy
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  United States
  The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
  At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
  
  wn.com/United_States

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  Achilles
  In Greek mythology, Achilles (Ancient Greek: Ἀχιλλεύς, Akhilleus, pronounced [akʰillěu̯s]) was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.
  Plato named Achilles the most handsome of the heroes assembled against Troy.
  Later legends (beginning with a poem by Statius in the 1st century AD) state that Achilles was invulnerable in all of his body except for his heel. As he died because of a small wound on his heel, the term Achilles' heel has come to mean a person's principal weakness.
  Achilles' name can be analyzed as a combination of ἄχος (akhos) "grief" and λαός (Laos) "a people, tribe, nation, etc." In other words, Achilles is an embodiment of the grief of the people, grief being a theme raised numerous times in the Iliad (frequently by Achilles). Achilles' role as the hero of grief forms an ironic juxtaposition with the conventional view of Achilles as the hero of kleos (glory, usually glory in war).
  Laos has been construed by Gregory Nagy, following Leonard Palmer, to mean a corps of soldiers, a muster. With this derivation, the name would have a double meaning in the poem: When the hero is functioning rightly, his men bring grief to the enemy, but when wrongly, his men get the grief of war. The poem is in part about the misdirection of anger on the part of leadership.
  
  wn.com/Achilles
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  Aeneas
  In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas ( /ɪˈniːəs/; Greek: Αἰνείας, Aineías, derived from Greek Αἰνή meaning "to praise") was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. His father was the second cousin of King Priam of Troy, making Aeneas Priam's second cousin, once removed. The journey of Aeneas from Troy (with help from Aphrodite), which led to the founding of a hamlet south of Rome, is recounted in Virgil's Aeneid. He is considered an important figure in Greek and Roman legend. Aeneas is a character in Homer's Iliad, Quintus Smyrnaeus' Posthomerica, and Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida.
  In the Iliad, Aeneas is the leader of the Trojans' Dardanian allies (Trojans — descendants of Dardanus), as well as a third cousin and principal lieutenant of Hector, son of the Trojan king Priam. In the poem, Aeneas' mother Aphrodite frequently comes to his aid on the battlefield; he is a favorite of Apollo. Aphrodite and Apollo rescue Aeneas from combat with Diomedes of Argos, who nearly kills him, and carry him away to Pergamos for healing. Even Poseidon, who normally favors the Greeks, comes to Aeneas' rescue after he falls under the assault of Achilles, noting that Aeneas, though from a junior branch of the royal family, is destined to become king of the Trojan people. Aeneas killed 28 people in the Trojan War.
  
  wn.com/Aeneas
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  Agamemnon
  In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (Ancient Greek: Ἀγαμέμνων; modern Greek: Αγαμέμνονας, "very steadfast") was the son of King Atreus and Queen Aerope of Mycenae, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra, and the father of Electra and Orestes. Mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area. When Helen, the wife of Menelaus, was abducted by Paris of Troy, Agamemnon commanded the united Greek armed forces in the ensuing Trojan War.
  On Agamemnon's return from Troy he was murdered (according to the fullest version of the oldest surviving account, Odyssey Book 11, l.409f.) by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife Clytemnestra. In old versions of the story: "The scene of the murder, when it is specified, is usually the house of Aegisthus, who has not taken up residence in Agamemnon's palace, and it involves an ambush and the deaths of Agamemnon's followers too". In some later versions Clytemnestra herself does the killing, or they do it together, in his own home.
  
  wn.com/Agamemnon
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  Andromache
  In Greek mythology, Andromache (/ænˈdrɒməkiː/; Ancient Greek: Ἀνδρομάχη) was the wife of Hector and daughter of Eetion, and sister to Podes. She was born and raised in the city of Cilician Thebe, over which her father ruled. The name means "battle of a man", from ἀνδρός (andros) "of a man" and μάχη (machē) "battle".
  During the Trojan War, Hector was killed by Achilles, and their son Astyanax was thrown from the city walls by the Greek Herald Talthybius. Neoptolemus took Andromache as a concubine and Hector's brother, Helenus, as a slave. By Neoptolemus, she was the mother of Molossus, and according to Pausanias, of Pielus and Pergamus. When Neoptolemus died, Andromache married Helenus and became Queen of Epirus. Pausanias also implies that Helenus' son, Cestrinus, was by Andromache. Andromache eventually went to live with Pergamus in Pergamum, where she died of old age.
  Homer's rendering of Andromache portrays her as a perfect wife, giving Hector sound advice regarding the defense of Troy which he disregards in favor of meeting the Greeks in the field of battle. When she hears of Hector's death, she is embroidering flowers into a purple cloak, demonstrating her distinction from Helen, who is portrayed embroidering a battle scene earlier in the epic.
  
  wn.com/Andromache
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  Brigitte Bardot
  Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot ( /ˈbrɪdʒɨt bɑrˈdoʊ/; French: [bʁiʒit baʁdo]; born 28 September 1934) is a former French fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist. She was one of the best-known sex symbols of the 1960s. Starting in 1969, Bardot's features became the official face of Marianne (who had previously been anonymous) to represent the liberty of France.
  Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer in early life. She started her acting career in 1952 and, after appearing in 16 films, became world-famous due to her role in her then-husband Roger Vadim's controversial film And God Created Woman. She later starred in Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 cult film Contempt. Bardot was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress for her role in Louis Malle's 1965 film Viva Maria!. Bardot caught the attention of French intellectuals. She was the subject of Simone de Beauvoir's 1959 essay, The Lolita Syndrome, which described Bardot as a "locomotive of women's history" and built upon existentialist themes to declare her the first and most liberated woman of post-war France.
  
  wn.com/Brigitte_Bardot
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  Cassandra
  
  In Greek mythology, Cassandra (Greek Κασσάνδρα, also Κασάνδρα, also known as Alexandra) was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Her beauty caused Apollo to grant her the gift of prophecy. In an alternative version, she spent a night at Apollo's temple, at which time the temple snakes licked her ears clean so that she was able to hear the future (this is a recurring theme in Greek mythology, though sometimes it brings an ability to understand the language of animals rather than an ability to know the future). When she did not return his love, Apollo placed a curse on her so that no one would ever believe her predictions. She is a figure both of the epic tradition and of tragedy, where her combination of deep understanding and powerlessness exemplify the ironic condition of humankind.
  Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba and the twin sister of Helenus. She was said to have had red hair kept in curls, blue eyes,and fair skin and she was very beautiful, intelligent, charming, desirable, elegant, friendly, and gentle, but she was considered to be insane. Cassandra was described as the "second most beautiful woman in the world." Her beauty was even compared to that of Aphrodite and Helen of Troy.
  
  wn.com/Cassandra
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  Cedric Hardwicke
  Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke (19 February 1893 – 6 August 1964) was a noted English stage and film actor whose career spanned nearly fifty years. Hardwicke's theatre work included notable performances in productions of the plays of William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw, and his film work included leading roles in a number of adapted literary classics.
  Hardwicke was born in Lye, Worcestershire, the son of Jessie (née Masterson) and her husband Dr. Edwin Webster Hardwicke. He attended Bridgnorth Grammar School in Shropshire and then trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
  In 1928, he married English actress Helena Pickard. Hardwicke's son was the actor Edward Hardwicke, a well-known television actor in the UK.
  He made his first appearance on stage at London's Lyceum Theatre in 1912 during the run of Frederick Melville's melodrama The Monk and the Woman, when he took up the part of Brother John. During that year he was at Her Majesty's Theatre understudying, and subsequently appeared at the Garrick Theatre in Charles Klein's play Find the Woman, and Trust the People. In 1913 he joined Benson's Company and toured in the provinces, South Africa, and Rhodesia. During 1914 he toured with Miss Darragh (Letitia Marion Dallas, d. 1917) in Laurence Irving's play The Unwritten Law, and he appeared at the Old Vic in 1914 as Malcolm in Macbeth, Tranio in The Taming of the Shrew, and the gravedigger in Hamlet, among many other roles.
  
  wn.com/Cedric_Hardwicke
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  Diomedes
  Diomedes or Diomed (Ancient Greek: Διομήδης Diomēdēs ""God-like cunning" or "advised by Zeus"") is a hero in Greek mythology, known for his participation in the Trojan War.
  He was born to Tydeus and Deipyle and later became King of Argos, succeeding his maternal grandfather, Adrastus. In Homer's Iliad Diomedes is regarded alongside Ajax as one of the best warriors of all the Achaeans (behind only Achilles in prowess). In Virgil's Aeneid he is one of the warriors who entered the Trojan Horse shortly before the sack of Troy.
  Diomedes was, on his father’s side, an Aetolian, and on his mother's an Argive. This is so because his father Tydeus left Calydon and fled to Argos in order to avoid being persecuted by his uncle Agrius. He married King Adrastus's daughter Deipyle.
  Tydeus participated in the expedition, known as the Seven Against Thebes. This expedition failed and all leaders, including Tydeus were killed. Tydeus was Athena’s favourite warrior at the time, and when he was dying she wanted to offer him a magic elixir (which she had obtained from her father) that would make him immortal. However, she withdrew the intended privilege in apparent disgust when Tydeus gobbled down the brains of the hated enemy who had wounded him.
  
  wn.com/Diomedes
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  Eduardo Ciannelli
  Eduardo Ciannelli, sometimes credited as Edward Ciannelli, (30 August 1889 - 8 October 1969), was an Italian baritone and character actor with a long career in American films, mostly playing gangsters and criminals.
  Ciannelli was born on the island of Ischia, in the Gulf of Naples, the son of a doctor who owned a health spa. He studied surgery at the University of Naples, and worked briefly as a doctor, but his love of grand opera and the dramatic stage won out and he became a successful baritone, singing at La Scala and touring Europe.
  He went to America after the end of World War I and appeared on Broadway in Oscar Hammerstein II's first musical Always You and later in Rose-Marie. He appeared in Theatre Guild productions in the late 1920s, co-starring with the Lunts (Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne), and Katharine Cornell. During that period, he appeared in Uncle Vanya, The Inspector General, The Front Page. In 1935, he played Trock Estrella in Maxwell Anderson's Winterset on Broadway and repeated his performance in the film version (1936). He played Cauchon in Shaw's Saint Joan in 1936, after which he left Broadway permanently, except for one notable occasion when he returned to play in Dore Schary's The Devil's Advocate in 1961 and win the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor.
  
  wn.com/Eduardo_Ciannelli
• Esmond Knight
  Esmond Penington Knight (4 May 1906 – 23 February 1987) was an English actor.
  He was an accomplished actor with a career spanning over half a century. For much of his career Esmond Knight was virtually blind. He had been badly injured in 1941 whilst on active service on board HMS Prince of Wales when she fought the Bismarck at the Battle of the Denmark Strait, and remained totally blind for two years, though he later regained some sight in his right eye.
  During this period, Esmond dictated an early autobiography to his secretary, Annabella Cloudsley, Seeking The Bubble (Hutchinson & Co. 1943). He played the captain of the HMS Prince of Wales in the 1960 film Sink the Bismarck!
  He starred as Professor Ernest Reinhart in the 1961 British science fiction television series, A for Andromeda, alongside Patricia Kneale and Peter Halliday.
  Knight died of a heart attack and was cremated. His daughter is the actress Rosalind Knight.
  
  wn.com/Esmond_Knight
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  George Zoritch
  George Zoritch (June 6, 1917 – November 1, 2009) was a dancer born in Moscow. He joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1935 and toured with them in the United States after WWII. He appeared in a number of films, including Night and Day (1946) and Samson and Delilah (1949).
  In 1994 George Zoritch was among the first American dancers, choreographers and writers honored by being awarded the Vaslav Nijinsky Medal, sponsored by the Polish Artists Agency in Warsaw, for work in honor of Nijinsky. Other awardees were Gerald Arpino, Ann Barzel, Oleg Briansky, Vladimir Dokoudovsky, Illaria Ladre, Peter Ostwald, Richard Philp, Jennie Schulman, Mr. Turnbaugh, and Anatole Vilzak.
  Zoritch appears in the documentary Ballets Russes. George Zoritch spent his last years in Tucson, Arizona, where he died at the age of 92.
  
  
  
  
  
  wn.com/George_Zoritch
• Harry Andrews
  Harry Fleetwood Andrews, CBE (10 November 1911 – 6 March 1989) was an English film actor known for his frequent portrayals of tough military officers. His performance as Sergeant Major Wilson in The Hill alongside Sean Connery earned Andrews the 1965 National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor and a nomination for the 1966 BAFTA Award for Best British Actor. He made his film debut in The Red Beret in 1953.
  Prior to his film career, Andrews was an accomplished Shakespearean actor, appearing at such venues as the Queen's Theatre, the Lyceum Theatre, and the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in England as well as theatres in New York City, Paris, Antwerp and Brussels. Andrews made his London theatre debut in 1935 at the St James's Theatre and his New York debut in 1936 at the since-demolished Empire Theatre.
  Harry Andrews was born on 10 November 1911, in Tonbridge, Kent. He was the son of Henry Arthur Andrews and Amy Diana Frances (née Horner). Andrews attended Wrekin College in Wellington, Shropshire. From October 1939 to October 1945, Andrews served with the Royal Artillery during the Second World War. Andrews died at the age of 77 on 6 March 1989, at his home in Salehurst, leaving behind his long-term romantic partner Basil Hoskins.
  
  wn.com/Harry_Andrews
• Harry Semels
  Harry Semels (November 20, 1887 - March 2, 1946) was an American film actor. He appeared in over 315 film between 1917 and 1946.
  Semels was born in New York City.
  Semels appeared in his first film in 1917. He began to achieve fame after arriving at Columbia Pictures, appearing several Three Stooges shorts including Disorder in the Court, Wee Wee Monsieur and Three Little Sew and Sews. He also appeared in features films like Road to Morocco, The Princess and the Pirate and The Kid from Brooklyn. A versatile character actor, Semels often appeared as serial villains, waiters, soldiers, lawyers, et al.
  Semels had two children, Ruth and David. David was killed in action during World War II.
  Semels died of a heart attack on March 2, 1946.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Harry_Semels
• Harry Stradling
  Harry Stradling Sr., A.S.C. (September 1, 1901 - February 14, 1970) was an American cinematographer with over 130 films to his credit.
  His uncle Walter Stradling and son Harry Stradling Jr. were also cinematographers.
  Stradling was born Henry A. Stradling in Newark, New Jersey (some sources suggest Nesen, Germany[1], or England)[2], the nephew of cameraman Walter Stradling(died 1918) who had worked with Mary Pickford. Confined to two-reelers in Hollywood, he left for France and Germany in the early 1930s. He made contributions to several Jacques Feyder films, Le Grand Jeu (1934), La Kermesse héroïque (Carnival in Flanders) (1935), Die Klugen Frauen (1936) and Knight Without Armour (1937), his first under producer Alexander Korda in England. Other English films include Action for Slander (1937), The Divorce of Lady X (1938), South Riding, The Citadel (1938), Pygmalion (1938), The Lion Has Wings, Jamaica Inn (1939), Q Planes (1939).
  Stradling moved to the United States at the beginning of World War II. Alfred Hitchcock engaged him for Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) and Suspicion (1941). Stradling's last four films starred Barbra Streisand, including her Oscar winning debut Funny Girl.
  
  wn.com/Harry_Stradling
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  Hecuba
  Hecuba (also Hekábe, Hecabe, Hécube; Ancient Greek: Ἑκάβη) was a queen in Greek mythology, the wife of King Priam of Troy during the Trojan War, with whom she had 19 children. These children included several major characters of Homer's Iliad such as the warriors Hector and Paris and the prophetess Cassandra.
  Ancient sources vary as to the parentage of Hecuba. According to Homer, Hecuba was the daughter of King Dymas of Phrygia, but Euripides and Virgil write of her as the daughter of the Thracian king Cisseus. The mythographers Pseudo-Apollodorus and Hyginus leave open the question which of the two was her father, with Pseudo-Apollodorus adding a third alternate option: Hecuba's parents could as well be the river god Sangarius and Metope. Some versions from non-extant works are summarized by a scholiast on Euripides' Hecuba: according to those, she was a daughter of Dymas or Sangarius by the Naiad Euagora, or by Glaucippe the daughter of Xanthus (Scamander?); the possibility of her being a daughter of Cisseus is also discussed. A scholiast on Homer relates that Hecuba's parents were either Dymas and the nymph Eunoe or Cisseus and Telecleia; the latter option would make her a full sister of Theano, which is also noted by the scholiast on Euripides cited above.
  
  wn.com/Hecuba
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  Helen of Troy
  In Greek mythology, Helen of Troy (in Greek, Ἑλένη, Helénē), also known as Helen of Sparta, was the daughter of Zeus and Leda (or Nemesis), step-daughter of King Tyndareus, wife of Menelaus and sister of Castor, Polydeuces and Clytemnestra. Her abduction by Paris brought about the Trojan War.
  The etymology of Helen's name has been a problem to scholars until the present. Georg Curtius related Helen (Ἑλένη) to the moon (Selene Σελήνη). Émile Boisacq considered Ἑλένη from the noun ἑλένη meaning "torch". It has also been suggested that the λ of Ἑλένη arose from an original ν, and thus the etymology of the name is connected with the root of Venus. Linda Lee Clader, however, says that none of the above suggestions offers much satisfaction.
  If the name has an Indo-European etymology, it is possibly a suffixed form of a root *wel- "to turn, roll", or of *sel- "to flow, run". The latter possibility would allow comparison to the Vedic Sanskrit Saraṇyū, a character who is abducted in Rigveda 10.17.2. This parallel is suggestive of a Proto-Indo-European abduction myth. Saraṇyū means "swift" and is derived from the adjective saraṇa ("running", "swift"), the feminine of which is saraṇā; this is in every sound cognate with Ἑλένα, the form of her name that has no initial digamma. The possible connection of Helen's name to ἑλένη ("torch"), as noted above, may also support the relationship of her name to Vedic svaranā ("the shining one").
  
  wn.com/Helen_of_Troy
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  Homer
  In the Western classical tradition, Homer ( /ˈhoʊmər/; Ancient Greek: Ὅμηρος, Hómēros) is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.
  When he lived is unknown. Herodotus estimates that Homer lived 400 years before Herodotus' own time, which would place him at around 850 BC; while other ancient sources claim that he lived much nearer to the supposed time of the Trojan War, in the early 12th century BC. Modern researchers appear to place Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC.
  The formative influence played by the Homeric epics in shaping Greek culture was widely recognized, and Homer was described as the teacher of Greece. Homer's works, which are about fifty percent speeches, provided models in persuasive speaking and writing that were emulated throughout the ancient and medieval Greek worlds. Fragments of Homer account for nearly half of all identifiable Greek literary papyrus finds.
  
  wn.com/Homer
• Hugh Gray
  Hugh Gray (19 April 1916 – 1 April 2002) was a British Labour Party politician and lecturer at the University of London.
  He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Yarmouth from 1966 to 1970, when he lost to the Conservative Anthony Fell.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Hugh_Gray
• Jacques Sernas
  Jacques Sernas (Lithuanian: Jurgis Šernas; sometimes credited as Jack Sernas; born 30 July 1925) is a Lithuanian-born French actor with an international film career.
  He was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, the son of Jokūbas Šernas, a signatory of the 1918 Act of Independence of Lithuania, who died when Sernas was a year old. His mother took him to Paris, France, where Sernas received his formal education. During World War II, he joined the French Resistance and was captured and interned at the Nazi Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar, Germany.
  Sernas worked first as a leading man and later as a character actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as Paris in the epic film Helen of Troy (1956).
  His more recent appearances have included appearing as a Cardinale Feltin in the television biographical film Pope John XXIII (2002) and as Ambasciatore in the television comedy film Regina dei fiori (2005).
  
  wn.com/Jacques_Sernas
• Janette Scott
  Thora Janette Scott (born 14 December 1938) is an English actress. She was born in Morecambe, England. She is the daughter of actors Jimmy Scott and Thora Hird. She started her acting career as a child actress known as Janette Scott, and was briefly (along with Jennifer Gay) one of the so-called "Children's Announcers" providing continuity links for the BBC's children's TV programmes from the Lime Grove Studios in the early 1950s. She became a popular leading lady, one of her best known roles being April Smith in the 1960 film School for Scoundrels, based on the "One-upmanship" books by Stephen Potter, in which Ian Carmichael and Terry-Thomas competed for her attention. Scott wrote her autobiography at the age of 14. Her film appearances include The Day of the Triffids; her appearance there is referenced in The Rocky Horror Picture Show:
  She has been married three times:
  
  wn.com/Janette_Scott
• John Twist
  John Twist (July 14, 1898 – February 11, 1976) was an American screenwriter whose career spanned four decades.
  Born John Stuart Twist in Albany, Missouri, he began his career in the silent film era, providing the story for such films as Breed of Courage, Blockade, and The Big Diamond Robbery. He earned his first screenwriting credit for The Yellowback in 1929.
  Twist died in Beverly Hills, California.
  
  wn.com/John_Twist
• Marc Lawrence
  Marc Lawrence (December 17, 1909 – November 28, 2005) was an American character actor who specialized in underworld types. He has also been credited as F. A. Foss, Marc Laurence and Marc C. Lawrence.
  Lawrence was born as Max Goldsmith in New York City, the son of a Polish Jewish mother, Minerva Norma (née Sugarman), and a Russian Jewish father, Israel Simon Goldsmith. He participated in plays in school, then attended the City College of New York. He married novelist and screenwriter Fanya Foss, with whom he had two children; she died on December 12, 1995. Lawrence died of heart failure on November 28, 2005 at the age of 95. He was buried at Westwood Memorial Park in Westwood, California. His son, Michael Lawrence, is a writer and artist based on the Greek island of Hydra, whose book, My Voyage In Art, details his meetings with various of his father's actor friends; while at UCLA he befriended the singer-songwriter James Douglas "Jim" Morrison. His daughter, actress Toni Lawrence, was once married to actor Billy Bob Thornton and starred in his film "Daddy's Girl".
  
  wn.com/Marc_Lawrence
• 
  Max Steiner
  Max Steiner (May 10, 1888 – December 28, 1971) was an Austrian composer of music for theatre productions and films. He later became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Trained by the great classical music composers Brahms and Mahler, he was one of the first composers who primarily wrote music for motion pictures, and as such is often referred to as "the father of film music". Along with such composers as Franz Waxman, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Alfred Newman and Miklós Rózsa, Steiner played a major part in creating the tradition of writing music for films.
  Steiner composed hundreds of film scores, including The Informer (1935), Now, Voyager (1942), and Since You Went Away (1944), which won him Academy Awards. He was nominated for the Academy Award a total of twenty-four times. He was also the first recipient of the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, which he won for his score to Life with Father.
  Steiner was one of the best-known composers in Hollywood, and is widely regarded today as one of the greatest film score composers in the history of cinema. He was a frequent collaborator with some of the most famous film directors in history, including John Ford and William Wyler. Besides his Oscar-winning scores, some of Steiner's popular works include King Kong (1933), Little Women (1933), Jezebel (1938), Casablanca (1942), and the film score for which he is possibly best known, Gone with the Wind (1939). Despite being one of the most popular film soundtracks ever written, Gone with the Wind failed to win an Oscar for him.
  
  wn.com/Max_Steiner
• Maxwell Reed
  Maxwell Reed (2 April 1919, Larne, Northern Ireland – 16 August 1974) was a British actor who became a matinee idol during the 1950s with the Rank Organisation in Britain. He trained at the Rank Organisation's "charm school".
  He was the first husband of Joan Collins whom he married on 24 May 1952. The marriage ended in divorce in 1956. Collins later claimed in her 1978 autobiography Past Imperfect that the divorce was a result of Reed's alleged attempt to sell her to an Arab sheik.
  Reed was best known for his roles in the films The Dark Man, Blackout, Daybreak, The Clouded Yellow, There Is Another Sun and The Brain Machine. He also appeared to good effect in non-genre films such as Helen of Troy, Sea Devils, The Brothers, and The Square Ring (in a role later played on television by Sean Connery).
  Reed drifted to the U.S. in the late 1950s and appeared in a few films and was a guest star on many television programs such as Bonanza, Perry Mason and Daniel Boone. He portrayed the title role in the 1950s television series Captain David Grief, based on short stories by Jack London.
  
  wn.com/Maxwell_Reed
• 
  Menelaus
  In Greek mythology, Menelaus (Ancient Greek: Μενέλαος, Menelaos) was a legendary king of Mycenaean (pre-Dorian) Sparta, the husband of Helen of Troy, and a central figure in the Trojan War. He was the son of Atreus and Aerope, and brother of Agamemnon king of Mycenae and, according to the Iliad, leader of the Spartan contingent of the Greek army during the War. Prominent in both the Iliad and Odyssey, Menelaus was also popular in Greek vase painting and Greek tragedy; the latter more as a hero of the Trojan War than as a member of the doomed House of Atreus.
  Although early authors such as Aeschylus refer in passing to Menelaus' early life, detailed sources are quite late, post-dating 5th-century BC Greek tragedy. According to these sources, Menelaus' father Atreus had been feuding with his brother Thyestes over the throne of Mycenae. After a back-and-forth struggle that featured adultery, incest and cannibalism, Thyestes gained the throne after his son Aegisthus murdered Atreus. As a result, Atreus’ sons, Menelaus and Agamemnon, went into exile. They first stayed with King Polyphides of Sicyon, and later with King Oeneus of Calydon. But when they thought the time was ripe to dethrone Mycenae's hostile ruler, they returned. Assisted by King Tyndareus of Sparta, they drove Thyestes away, and Agamemnon took the throne for himself.
  
  wn.com/Menelaus
• Niall MacGinnis
  Niall MacGinnis (29 March 1913 – 6 January 1977) was an Irish actor who made 80 screen appearances.
  MacGinnis was born in Dublin in 1913. He was educated at Stonyhurst College in England, and studied medicine at Dublin University. He qualified as a house surgeon. During World War II, MacGinnis served as surgeon in the Royal Navy.
  In 1941, MacGinnis played a not-very-dedicated Nazi sailor in the British war film 49th Parallel with Laurence Olivier, Leslie Howard, Eric Portman and Raymond Massey. He portrayed Captain MacMorris in Olivier's 1944 version of Henry V and the title character in the 1953 film Martin Luther. In 1957, he played the villainous Julian Karswell opposite American actor Dana Andrews in the British horror film Night of the Demon (released in the United States as Curse of the Demon). He also played Zeus opposite Honor Blackman's Hera in Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and had a supporting role in John Huston's film The Kremlin Letter (1969).
  Once while returning to Holyhead, Wales from Ireland during the Second World War, MacGinnis was stopped by police and searched. They thought they had captured a German spy when they found a picture in his wallet showing him in a German uniform standing next to a U-boat. He was arrested. MacGinnis was not released until documents were produced that proved he had actually been acting in 49th Parallel.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Niall_MacGinnis
• 
  Nora Swinburne
  Nora Swinburne (24 July 1902 – 1 May 2000) was a British actress, born Leonora Mary Johnson in Bath, Somerset, daughter of Henry Swinburne Johnson and his wife Leonora Tamar (née Brain).
  She married English character actor Francis Lister in 1924, actor Edward Ashley-Cooper in 1934, and actor Esmond Knight in 1946. Her stepdaughter is the actress Rosalind Knight.
  She was educated at Rosholme College, Weston-super-Mare and studied for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. As a member of Clive Currie's Young Players in 1914, she appeared at the Grand, Croydon, Court and Little Theatres, during that year.
  While still a student at the Academy she appeared at the New Theatre on 11 April 1916 as The Wild Flowers in Paddly Pools; appeared at the Comedy Theatre, September 1916, as a dancer in the revue, This and That; and in October 1916 appeared in Samples at the Globe Theatre (now the Gielgud Theatre). She also appeared at the Globe in March 1917 as Gabrielle in Suzette. Other early roles included Lulu in Yes, Uncle! at the Prince of Wales Theatre in December 1917, and Regina Waterhouse at the Strand Theatre in December 1918.
  
  wn.com/Nora_Swinburne
• Patricia Marmont
  Patricia Marmont (born 9 August 1922) is an American actress. She is the daughter of Percy Marmont and was married to Nigel Green.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Patricia_Marmont
• 
  Patroclus
  In Greek mythology, as recorded in Homer's Iliad, Patroclus, or Patroklos (Ancient Greek: Πάτροκλος Patroklos "glory of the father"), was the son of Menoetius, grandson of Actor, King of Opus, and was Achilles' beloved comrade and brother-in-arms.
  Menoetius was a member of the Argonauts in his youth. He had several marriages, and in different versions of the tale four different women are named as the mother of Patroclus. The Bibliotheca names three wives of Menoetius as possible mothers of Patroclus: Periopis, daughter of Pheres, founder of Pherae; Polymele, daughter of Peleus, King of Phthia and older half-sister of Achilles; and Sthenele, daughter of Acastus and Astydameia. Gaius Julius Hyginus names Philomela as Patroclus' mother; although Hyginus gives no origin for Philomela, she might be related to her namesake daughter of Pandion I, King of Athens and Zeuxippe.
  Menoetius was a son of Actor, King of Opus in Locris by Aegina. Aegina was a daughter of Asopus and mother of Aeacus by Zeus. Aeacus was father of Peleus, Telamon and Phocus.
  
  wn.com/Patroclus
• 
  Priam
  Priam (/ˈpraɪ.əm/, Greek Πρίαμος Priamos) was the king of Troy during the Trojan War and youngest son of Laomedon. Modern scholars derive his name from the Luwian compound Priya-muwa-, which means "exceptionally courageous".
  Priam had a number of wives; his first was Arisbe, who had given birth to his son Aesacus, who met his death before the Trojan War. Priam later divorced her in favor of Hecuba (or Hecebe), daughter of the Phrygian king Dymas. By his various wives and concubines Priam was the father of fifty sons and many daughters. Hector was Priam's eldest son by Hecuba, and heir to the Trojan throne. Paris (also known as Alexander), another son, was the cause of the Trojan War. Other children of Priam and Hecuba include the prophetic Helenus and Cassandra; eldest daughter Ilione; Deiphobus; Troilus; Polites; Creusa, wife of Aeneas; Laodice, wife of Helicaon; Polyxena, who was slaughtered on the grave of Achilles; and Polydorus, his youngest son.
  
  wn.com/Priam
• 
  Robert Wise
  Robert Earl Wise (September 10, 1914 – September 14, 2005) was an American film director, producer and editor. He twice won Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture, for West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965). He was also nominated for Best Film Editing for Citizen Kane (1941) and Best Picture for The Sand Pebbles (1966).
  Among his other films are The Body Snatcher; Born to Kill; The Set-Up; The Day the Earth Stood Still; Destination Gobi; Run Silent, Run Deep; I Want to Live!; The Haunting; The Andromeda Strain; The Hindenburg; and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
  Wise was the president of the Directors Guild of America from 1971 to 1975 and later became the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
  Often contrasted with 'auteur' directors such as Stanley Kubrick who tended to bring a distinctive directorial "look" to a particular genre, Wise is famously viewed to have allowed his (sometimes studio assigned) story to dictate style. Later critics such as Martin Scorsese expanded that characterization, insisting that despite Wise's notorious workaday concentration on stylistic perfection within the confines of genre and budget, his choice of subject matter and approach still functioned to identify Wise as an artist and not merely an artisan. Through whatever means, Wise's approach brought him critical success as a director in many different traditional film genres: horror, noir, western, war, science fiction, musical and drama, with many repeat successes within each genre. Wise's tendency towards professionalism led to a degree of preparedness which, though nominally motivated by studio budget constraints, nevertheless advanced the moviemaking art, with many Academy Award-winning films the result. Robert Wise received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1998.
  
  wn.com/Robert_Wise
• Rossana Podestà
  Rossana Podestà (born 20 June 1934 in Tripoli) is a former Italian actress.
  She was born in the Italian colony of Libya, where she spent her first years in Tripoli and later moved to Rome after World War II. Rossana Podesta still lives in Italy, in Dubino (Sondrio province). She lived with the famous mountain climber, explorer and journalist Walter Bonatti; he died on September 13, 2011.
  Podestà's most memorable role was as Helen in Helen of Troy, produced by Robert Wise in 1956. She could not speak English so she learned her lines by rote with a voice coach. The movie gave Podestà international exposure, and she performed alongside a young Brigitte Bardot. Thanks to her starring in the Mexican film Rosanna (film), she became very popular in Latin America.
  Podestà also worked in the movie Ulisse, directed by Mario Camerini, and in the sixties and seventies she acted in some romantic movies, including Paolo il caldo and Il prete sposato. Her last performance was in 1985's Segreti segreti, directed by Giuseppe Bertolucci.
  
  wn.com/Rossana_Podestà
• Stanley Baker
  Sir Stanley Baker (28 February 1928 – 28 June 1976) was a Welsh actor and film producer.
  William Stanley Baker was born in Ferndale, Rhondda Valley, Wales, the youngest of three children. His father was a coal miner who lost a leg in an accident and got work as a truck driver. Baker grew up a self-proclaimed a "wild kid" only interested in "football and boxing" but his artistic ability was spotted at an early age by a local teacher, Glynne Morse, who encouraged Baker to act. When he was 14 he was performing in a school play when seen by a casting director from Ealing Studios, who recommended him for a role in Undercover (1943), a war film about the Yugoslav guerrillas in Serbia. He was paid £20 a week and caught the acting bug, deciding to become a professional actor. Six months later Banker appeared with Emlyn Williams in a play on the West End called The Druid's Rest, appearing alongside a young Richard Burton.
  Baker worked for a time as an apprentice electrician then through Morse's influence he managed to secure a position with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1944. He stayed there for three years, until called up to do his National Service in 1946. He served in the Royal Army Service Corps until 1948, achieving the rank of sergeant. After demobilisation he moved to London determined to resume hie acting career. He was eventually cast at Richard Burton's recommendation in a small role in a play on the West End, Adventure Story by Terrence Rattigan. He began appearing in films and on television, as well performing on stage for the Middlesex Repertory Company. He impressed when cast as the bosun's mate in the Hollywood-financed Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951).
  
  wn.com/Stanley_Baker
• Thomas Reilly
  Thomas F. Reilly (born February 14, 1942) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 45th Massachusetts Attorney General. He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts to Irish immigrant parents.
  He was one of three candidates who sought the Democratic nomination for governor of Massachusetts in the 2006 election. Former U.S. Assistant Attorney General Deval Patrick won the party's nomination and the general election, defeating Reilly and businessman Chris Gabrieli.
  Reilly, a native of Springfield, Massachusetts, described himself as a "misguided youth" the year his father, Mortimer "Murty" Reilly, was found dead at home from a heart attack when Reilly was 16. Reilly was arrested for public drunkenness when he was 20. By age 22, he was focused with driving ambition, much to the credit of his friend Wayne Budd's father, an ex-Marine turned policeman in Springfield who took him under his wing and encouraged him to go to school.
  Reilly attended Cathedral High School in Springfield, Massachusetts. He graduated in 1959. After graduating high school, he went off to college in Nova Scotia at St. Francis Xavier University. He stayed there only a year, transferring to American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he graduated on June 7, 1964. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.
  
  wn.com/Thomas_Reilly
• 
  Tonio Selwart
  Tonio Selwart (June 9, 1896 – November 2, 2002) was a Bavarian actor and stage performer.
  Named Antonio Franz Theus Selmair-Selwart at birth, Tonio Selwart was born in Wartenberg, Bavaria, Germany, and raised in Munich. After studying medicine like his father (a well known surgeon), he decided instead to become an actor, following a life-long interest in theater. Selwart thereafter studied acting and appeared in many plays throughout Europe. He appeared in a variety of stage productions, including classics such as Shakespeare and modern popular works like Heinrich von Kleist's romantic dream play, The Prince of Homburg, in which he played the title role.
  After further honing his skills as a director, Selwart decided to try his luck in the United States of America. His luck panned out in New York City, where he landed the lead part in Lawrence Langner's and Armina Marshall's play The Pursuit of Happiness for the Theatre Guild in 1930. The comedy proved to be his first big success in America, running from 1933 to 1934, and made him, as he often put it, "a matinee idol for a whole year!" Riding high on this success, Selwart decided to emigrate permanently and became an American citizen.
  
  wn.com/Tonio_Selwart
• Torin Thatcher
  Torin Thatcher (15 January 1905 – 4 March 1981) was an English actor born in Bombay, British India, to English parents. He was an imposing, powerfully built figure noted for his flashy portrayals of screen villains.
  He was educated in England at Bedford School, Bedford, Bedfordshire and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He worked as a schoolmaster before first appearing on the London stage in 1927 and then entering British films in 1934. He appeared in the 1937 Old Vic stage production of Hamlet, in which Laurence Olivier made his first appearance in the title role, opposite Vivien Leigh as Ophelia. During the Second World War, he served with the Royal Artillery and was demobilised with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
  Thatcher appeared in classic British films of the late 1930s and 1940s, including Major Barbara (1941) and Great Expectations (1946), in which he played Bentley Drummle. He moved to Hollywood in the 1950s. He was constantly in demand, invariably lending his looming figure and baleful countenance to sinister or stern roles in popular costume thrillers such as The Crimson Pirate (1952), Blackbeard the Pirate (1952), The Robe (1953) (as the disapproving father of Marcellus), The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), Helen of Troy (1956), Darby's Rangers (1958) and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958). He also appeared in the Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard 1962 remake of Mutiny on the Bounty.
  
  wn.com/Torin_Thatcher

Helen of Troy (1956)

Genres

• Action
• Adventure
• Drama
• Romance
• War

Taglines:

Its towering wonders span the age of titans!

Quotes:

Priam: [on seeing the Greek naval fleet approaching] The face that launched a thousand ships!

Paris: Make me immortal with a kiss!

Helen: [seeing the Trojan horse] Beware Greeks bearing gifts.

Helen: Forgive me Helen. You're two women. Both wise and good. I am two men, one fairly good, I try to believe and the other very bad indeed.::Helen: One is a man, the other just a boy I think... Paris, let him be so always... Never let him grow old.

Paris: Oh Goddess come to Earth. Make me a mortal with your kiss and we'll live on nectar and ambrosia... [kiss]... But I am not sure I like being so ethereal.

Helen: There's away Gods have... To give with one hand and take with two.

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