Great Lives

One scene, for which she was not prepared, defined the career of an actress who never wanted to be a star

Nothing in the life of Alexandra, Princess of Greece and Denmark, Queen of Yugoslavia, was ever truly her own

The Russian always insisted she could never envision a life without dancing

The French director's obsessive desire for perfection proved ultimately self-destructive

The riptide of 20th century politics had pulled him from his homeland and set him adrift. A tumultuous period that soon defined his work

In death as well as in life, the Rasputin story is shrouded in an awed mythology

His was acting of remarkable subtlety and nuance, especially when sharing the screen with some of cinema’s most magnetic women

The Dane had a reputation as a vamp but in truth was as fragile as a gazelle

The German spent a lifetime seeking a creative place as far as possible from the vivid horrors of his past

The Italian's conducting was so intense a friend swore he'd seen a white glow around him

Nobody stuck a poster of Niels Bohr, wild-haired and with his tongue out, on their wall, but the Dane did as much for expanding the range of scientific knowledge in the modern age as Albert Einstein

To this day, despite his ambitions and desires, the legendary actor is considered a key figure in French cinema

Named after its creator, the theremin became one of the sounds of the 20th century, from The Day the Earth Stood Still to Scooby Doo

For all Fellini is held up as the ultimate chronicler of Rome in the 20th century, it’s Rimini that made him and Rimini that inhabits his films

The one-time middleweight Greco-Roman wrestling champion of Europe was a a surprisingly nuanced screen presence

From the very beginning, Sylvia Kristel’s life thrummed with an undercurrent of impermanence

For all the remarkable events and achievements of his life, Brynner was always content for mythologies to propagate around him

He still dabbled in the art world, but the last four decades of the Frenchman’s life were focused almost entirely on the game

Even at the age of 87, Irving was pondering if he had achieved enough during his career

Popper never accepted the idea that people did not know about the Holocaust or the gulags, rather they chose not to know. For him, knowledge was a moral obligation

There was far more to Anna Maria Pierangeli than what cinema-goers saw on the screen and friends saw off it

He baffled and fascinated his critics, but the actor somehow became the absolute personification of insouciant cool

City skylines of tower blocks, motorway networks, urban plazas - everywhere you look today there are traces of the Swiss-French architect

Individually their fates were an immeasurable tragedy for two families, together they were a cause

The Italian's driving walked the line between skill and recklessness but never crossed it

Celebrated as one of Europe’s leading fashion writers, the Italian was better known for her sheer presence on the scene

The Frenchman was no newshound but had a knack of witnessing some of the 20th century’s key episodes

The Dutch actor brought depth at a time when the industry expected little more from roles than grunting henchmen, murderous Nazis or ring fodder for Rocky Balboa

The Austrian-American composer was convinced atonality was the future of music. Sadly, his fear of the number 13 led to his death before this day could arrive

The presenter managed to stay at the top for six decades, winning hearts whether baring her monochrome midriff to a startled nation or holding that same nation’s politicians to account in full colour

One of the greatest portrait photographers of all time, Halsman was able to easily win the trust of some of the greatest figures in modern cultural and political history

The 1954 West Germany captain will always be remembered for the Miracle of Bern but an earlier game was far more important