Smiley's People

Cast & Crew

Alec Guinness (Actor) .. George Smiley

Michael Lonsdale (Actor) .. Anton Grigoriev

Bernard Hepton (Actor) .. Toby Esterhase

Rosalie Crutchley (Actor) .. Mother Felicity

Michael Byrne (Actor) .. Peter Guillam

Bill Paterson (Actor) .. Lauder Strickland

Patrick Stewart (Actor) .. Karla

Tusse Silberg (Actor) .. Alexandra

Lucinda Curtis (Actor) .. Sister Beatitude

Joe Praml (Actor) .. Skordeno

Eugene Lipinski (Actor) .. De Silsky

Julia McCarthy (Actor) .. Millie McCraig

Marion Garai (Actor) .. Litzi Meinertzhagen

Margrit Knecht (Actor) .. Dolly Meinertzhagen

Roswitha Dost (Actor) .. Sanatorium nurse

Simon Langton (Director)

(Writer)

John Hopkins (Writer)

Did You Know..

Alec Guinness (Actor) .. George Smiley

Michael Lonsdale (Actor) .. Anton Grigoriev

Bernard Hepton (Actor) .. Toby Esterhase

Rosalie Crutchley (Actor) .. Mother Felicity

Michael Byrne (Actor) .. Peter Guillam

Bill Paterson (Actor) .. Lauder Strickland

Born: June 03, 1945 in Glasgow

Best Known For: A number of small-screen TV roles.

Early-life: Bill Paterson was born on June 3, 1945, in Glasgow. He spent three years as a quantity surveyor before doing a teaching course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He was about to accept an educational role when he was offered a place with the Citizen's Theatre. His big break came at the Edinburgh Festival in The Great Northern Welly Boot Show, a satire by Billy Connolly about striking shipbuilders.

Career: Paterson's TV debut came in 1977's Bafta-winning Licking Hitler. A year later he appeared in The Vanishing Army and Smiley's People. He went on to feature in such films as The Killing Fields, A Private Function, Defence of the Realm, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Chaplin, Bright Young Things and Truly, Madly, Deeply. Other TV projects include The Singing Detective, Traffik, The Crow Road, Doctor Zhivago, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, and Law & Order: UK. He was also nominated for an Olivier Award for Bertolt Brecht's Schwekyk in the Second World War in 1982 and has done extensive voiceover work on TV and radio.

Quote: "I don't think acting has ever been my passion, but it's a very nice way of making a living."

Trivia: Paterson turned down one of the leads in Alien.

Patrick Stewart (Actor) .. Karla

Born: July 13, 1940 in Mirfield, West Yorkshire

Best Known For: Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Early-life: Born July 13, 1940, in Mirfield, West Yorkshire. He began acting at 12 in amateur groups (where he befriended a young Brian Blessed). He left school at 15 to work on a local newspaper, quitting after the editor told him to choose between the theatre and journalism. For a year he worked as a furniture salesman to fund his drama training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He landed his first professional job with Lincoln Repertory in 1959.

Career: A long association with the Royal Shakespeare Company began in 1966. Stewart's first small-screen role came in 1974's A Fall of Eagles, and his movie debut a year later in Tilney. His subsequent TV roles include I, Claudius, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Star Trek: The Next Generation, which made him a household name on both sides of the Atlantic. He returned to the stage when the series ended in 1994. Stewart has since appeared in the Star Trek movies Generations, First Contact, Insurrection and Nemesis. He's also starred in Conspiracy Theory and the blockbusting X-Men films. He made a memorable appearance in Extras, starred alongside David Tennant in Hamlet.

Quote: "I am not the archetypal leading man. This is mainly for one reason: as you may have noticed, I have no hair."

Trivia: He was knighted in 2010.