Denholm Elliott

One of the most accomplished character actors of the 20th century, Denholm Elliott was an award-winning performer who embodied the extraordinary lives of ordinary men in films ranging from "Nothing But the Best" (1964) and "The Doll House" (1973) to "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981), "Trading Places" (1983) and "Room with a View" (1985), which earned him an Oscar nomination. Elliott's stock in trade was his enormous capacity to strike an emotional chord within his characters, which tended towards officious professionals or outsiders contending with past regrets. He rose to fame in the early 1960s as a wayward aristocrat in "Nothing but the Best" and soon established himself as a versatile character actor on television and in numerous films. Elliott reached his apex in the early 1980s with a string of high-profile hits including "Raiders," "Trading Places" and "Room" before he was diagnosed with the HIV virus in 1987. He would spend the remaining years of his life active in features and TV before his death in 1992, which brought to a close a remarkable and well-respected career.