Career: At the age of 19, Finch toured Australia with George Sorlie's travelling troupe. His first screen performance was in the 1935 short The Magic Shoes. He made his feature film debut in Rudd Family Goes to Town (1938). He enlisted in the Australian army in 1941 and served in the Middle East. After the war, Finch worked in radio and put on a number of theatre productions in Sydney. He left Australia for London in 1948 and Laurence Olivier became his mentor. His first big break came when he was cast in Daphne Laureola at the Old Vic. In 1954, Finch began making films for Rank. In 1956 he appeared in box office hits A Town Like Alice and The Battle of the River Plate, and went on to become an international star with the success of The Nun's Story (1959). He had considerable success in the 1960s and 1970s in The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), No Love for Johnnie (1961) and Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971). He won a posthumous Academy Award for Network (1976). He died in Beverly Hills on January 14, 1977 at the age of 60.

Career: After the Second World War, Owen went on to appear in a number of films, including The Way to the Stars (1945), School for Secrets (1946), When the Bough Breaks (1947), and Once a Jolly Swagman (1949). His film career would also see him appear in a number of early Carry On films and several Lindsay Anderson movies, including O Lucky Man! (1973) and In Celebration (1974). On the stage, he starred alongside Katherine Hepburn in As You Like It, and with Spike Milligan in Son of Oblomov. Owen wrote the lyrics for the musical The Matchgirls. TV came knocking in 1973 when he landed the role of Compo Simmonite in Roy Clarke's Last of the Summer Wine. Owen played a central role in the success of the sitcom and appeared in the show for 26 years until his death in 1999. Away from acting, he was a strong supporter of the Labour Party.