Anthony Asquith

With his superb film version of Shaw's "Pygmalion" (1938; co-directed with Leslie Howard), Asquith also began turning out expertly crafted theatrical adaptations, one of the finest of which is the delicious "The Importance of Being Earnest" (1952). From 1938 he began a profitable collaboration with playwright-screenwriter Terrence Rattigan, creating emotional studies of people under stress including, perhaps their finest joint work, "The Way to the Stars" (1945) as well as "The Winslow Boy" (1948), and "The Browning Version" (1950), and continuing through Asquith's last film, "The Yellow Rolls Royce" (1964). Son of liberal prime minister Lord Herbert Asquith.