Richard E Grant

Swazi-British actor whose autobiography With Nails was splendidly honest about the foibles of his fellow stars; one fine example being on Hudson Hawk, when David Caruso refused to talk to anyone on set for the duration of filming because his character was mute.

Grant himself hates Hudson Hawk - describing it as a "steaming pile of elephant's droppings." Mark and Kim Newman, however, were huge fans, laughing themselves silly throughout. When Mark told Grant that he had liked it, Grant replied "in that case, you're an imbecile."

As with Paul Bettany and Philip Seymour Hoffman, the Richard E Grant rule is that while he is sometimes in bad films, he never puts in a bad performance. This makes him the exact reverse of Julian Sands.

The brother of Simon's roommate at the University of Warwick tried to raise Grant's deceased father from the dead, jumping into his grave, opening the coffin lid and delivering incantations during the funeral. Although this reads like the sort of made-up fact that people try to sneak into wikis to catch out the unwary, it is absolutely true.