Born on December 25, 1980

Fred Emney played butlers and pompous aristocrats so well that audiences assumed he was born wealthy. He wasn't. His father was a music hall performer who died when Fred was 12. The monocle that became his trademark? Started as a prop to hide stage fright in his twenties, became so identified with him that he wore it everywhere, even swimming. By the 1950s he'd appeared in over 100 films, always the sputtering upper-class twit. But off-screen he lived quietly in a small flat in Bognor Regis, collecting comic books. The monocle sold at auction for £47.