Richard Burton once said that his ambition was simply to be a millionaire. David Niven was expelled from public school for stealing. A young Charlie Chaplin worked as a glass blower to keep his family from poverty. Alfred Hitchcock appreciated good food. Eric Morecambe wrote a book on fishing, appropriately titled Eric Morecambe on Fishing. At nine years old Diana Dors declared, I am going to be a film star, with a swimming pool and a cream telephone. The public has always been interested in the lives of those who choose entertainment as a career. We seem constantly thirsty to find out what makes these people tick and we envy their lifestyles. For this collection, Michael Billington, writer, presenter and drama critic, has selected from the Dictionary of National Biography around 100 such lives from 100 years of the world of entertainment.