English actor Denholm Elliott was BOTD in 1922. Born in London to a prominent political family, his father was appointed solicitor-general to British-controlled Palestine, until his assassination in 1933. Elliott was educated at private schools, and began studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, though was asked to leave after his first term. During World War Two, he served as a bomber pilot in the Royal Air Force, and was taken prisoner, spending three years in a German prisoner-of-war camp. He formed a theatre group with fellow prisoners, touring other internment camps with a production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. He returned to England after the war and became a dependable character actor in theatre, television and film, often playing disreputable characters, including a sinister abortionist in the 1966 film Alfie. His film career had an unexpected boost in the 1980s with scene-stealing roles as an English butler in life-swap comedy Trading Places, Alan Bennett‘s wartime comedy A Private Function; and a befuddled doctor in the blockbuster Raiders of the Lost Ark. He is perhaps best known as the kindly patriarch of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory‘s adaptation of E. M. Forster‘s novel A Room With a View, earning him an Oscar nomination. He reteamed with Merchant-Ivory in 1987, playing a homophobic doctor in their adaptation of gay-themed love story Maurice. Elliott was married twice, and had two children. He lived in an open relationship with his second wife, discreetly pursuing relationships with men. Diagnosed with HIV in 1987, he died of an AIDS-related illness in 1992, aged 70. His bisexuality was revealed by his widow and children after his death, who set up an HIV/AIDS charity in his memory.