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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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David Niven
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(1910–83)
Actor who spent much of his career portraying a quintessentially elegant, tall, sardonic Englishman. Such a stereotype was seen at its best in such films as A Matter of Life and Death (1945), but his ability to act more complex roles was recognized by his Oscar as the self-deluding army officer in Separate Tables (1958). His way with an anecdote made a great success of his two volumes of memoirs (The Moon's a Balloon 1971, Bring on the Empty Horses 1975). He was born in London – a fact not worth mentioning except that the Hollywood publicity machine has slipped into the reference books a more romantic Scottish place of birth, Kirriemuir.
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