Featured in more than 130 roles in a career spanning more than 50 years Made his name playing tough guys in cowboy films Died in 1997.. Taking Flight, an aerial dance event shortly to tour Britain, includes a 20-minute performance of abseiling using rock-climbing harnesses. Mills was celebrated for his patriotic roles in films such as ‘The Colditz Story’.ROBERT MITCHUMPlayed schoolmaster Charles Shaughnessy. Died in 2002.SARAH MILES Oscar-nominated for her role as Rosy Ryan Starred as the lascivious Alice in White Mischief Twice married to the playwright Robert Bolt. Best known as bellowing barrister in ‘Rumpole of the Bailey’.

An Australian who moved to London aged 26, he starred in the ‘French Lieutenant’s Woman’. Jones was a brief cult star of the late Sixties counter-culture era. Turned down a role in Pulp Fiction in 1994.LEO McKERN Played Rosy’s father. We have lost a very great gentleman, and many of us have raised a glass to his memory this weekend.”The castBy Sri Carmichael TREVOR HOWARDPlayed Fr Collins, the tough local priest whose words are heeded by the villagers. Prolific British actor who increasingly played character parts Starred in ‘Superman’, ‘Gandhi’ and ‘White Mischief’. Died in 1988.CHRISTOPHER JONESPlayed the handsome but shellshocked major, Randolph Doryan, who falls for Rosy. He would often come in to the restaurant where I worked and stop for a pint and a chat He was a great actor, and, what’s more, and a fine man.

His weekly wages had risen from £15 to £100 when he landed his part: he had no complaints when his original contract of 12 weeks extended to 52.During the long waits, cast and crew would take refugee in local pubs O’Brien said: “They had our names engraved on the stools There was nothing else to do. I think it was the start of major alcohol problems for a lot of our young talent. Some didn’t live for many years after.”The scene, incidentally, was eventually pieced together from five separate storms, the last occurring in March 1970.Unpredictable weather also posed a problem for the filming of the love-making scenes between Rosy and the officer. Shooting was planned in a field of bluebells after the lovers dismount from horses and begin a passionate embrace.

Filming was hampered by two unanticipated events: a surprise downpour, and a flat refusal by the little-known American actor playing the officer to engage in a clinch with a stranger. O’Brien, now 72, said: “They had a cast and crew on standby for a year while they waited for the big seas”. It was convenient that all the rooms had a number because it was a useful way for him to remember who was who. He’d often say to me something like, ‘Number 11′s hot, she flew in last night’”.Another actor with a bit part said: “If someone couldn’t sleep, instead of giving them barbiturates, he gave them Mogadon.” What Londoners knew, but none of the locals did, was that after a few Mogadons and a glass of whiskey, as the actor put it: “You could fly without a plane.”Sir John, in contrast, was always immaculately behaved, and was adored by the locals. But he is known to have become frustrated with Mitcham’s antics, sparking tensions between them.Meanwhile, as the production ambled on, it was weather, rather than the excesses and trappings of fame, which preoccupied Lean and contributed to a budget £4m over its £9m limit, and dictated an ever-extending timetable.Lean insisted that many of the pivotal scenes as Rosy and the officer played out their love affair on the beach be shot in sunshine, a rarity on the west coast of Ireland in any season.

Heavy rain meant that for much of the time the cast and crew would be huddled up in caravans, and production was eventually moved to South Africa after a long search for a beach that looked similar enough to Dingle Bay.Then, back in Ireland, they were let down by insufficiently bad weather. A storm is the background of the scene in which a shipment of republican weapons are washed up after a shipwreck.Huge seas were required. On the first day, they went into the local garage and ordered six Land-Rovers and six Zephyrs.”While the rest of the crew took up residence in a local hotel, Mitchum took over Milltown House, a guest house overlooking Dingle Bay. She said: “Mitch’s girls would fly in from all over the place, real rough-looking birds.