Lithuanian-English actor Laurence Harvey was BOTD in 1928. Born Larushka Mischa Skikne in Joniškis to Lithuanian Jewish parents, his family emigrated to South Africa when he was a child, and he was raised in Johannesburg. At 15, he joined the Entertainment Unit of the South African Army, performing for troops during World War Two. After the war, he moved to England, studying briefly at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts before leaving to work in repertory theatre. He made his screen debut in the 1948 thriller House of Darkness, changing his name to Laurence Harvey (reportedly in tribute to actor Laurence Olivier and the London department store Harvey Nichols). After several years in British films, he came to wider notice as the lead in the 1954 historical adventure King Richard and the Crusaders, and playing Christopher Isherwood in the 1955 film of John van Druten‘s play I Am a Camera. He became an international star in the 1959 English kitchen sink drama Room at the Top, co-starring Simone Signoret, earning him an Oscar nomination. Hollywood came calling, with roles in The Alamo with John Wayne, BUtterfield 8 with Elizabeth Taylor, the 1961 film of Tennessee Williams’ play Summer and Smoke and the queer-themed drama Walk on the Wild Side with Barbara Stanwyck and Capuchine. He is best known for his title role as a brainwashed soldier in the 1962 thriller The Manchurian Candidate, co-starring Angela Lansbury as his Freudian nightmare mother. Astutely tapping into American anxieties about the Cold War, it was a critical and commercial hit, significantly boosting his viability as a Hollywood star. His later career was uneven, in including an unsuccessful remake of W. Somerset Maugham’s novel Of Human Bondage, playing King Arthur in the London premiere of Lerner & Loewe’s musical Camelot, and brief roles in John Schlesinger’s romantic drama Darling with Julie Christie and Tony Richardson’s war epic The Charge of the Light Brigade. As his acting career slowed, he moved into directing, notably the 1974 horror film Welcome to Arrow Beach. Married three times, Harvey was secretly bisexual and had a long-term relationship with his manager John Woolf during his early career. Details of his sexual double life were confirmed after his death by the actor John Fraser and by Hollywood valet George Jacobs, who claimed that Harvey made passes at him while visiting Frank Sinatra.