"Drawing from the archives of the Dictionary of National Biography, renowned for its critical observation and entertaining prose, Michael Billington has made a personal selection of over 100 pen portraits of some of the men and women who have left their mark on the world of theatre, film, and television in the 20th century." "The contributors of these articles are often as eminent as the people they have written about and many of them knew their subjects personally. It is this fact, together with the soundness of judgement and reliability of information, for which the DNB is justly famous, that provides for a highly entertaining and varied read."--BOOK JACKET.