His book 'The Films of Akira Kurosawa' raised the bar for film scholarship round the world

He believed he owed his life to a cotton wallet that slowed down a fragment of shrapnel

When the Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. fell out with the hit songwriting triumvirate of Lamont Dozier and Brian and Eddie Holland at the end of 1967, he resolved not to have any more “back room superstars.” He pushed Deke Richards, the white guitarist and songwriter he had recruited the previous year during a trip to Los Angeles, to take a commanding role in helping Diana Ross & the Supremes return to the top of the US charts.

His production of 'Everything I Own' for Ken Boothe topped the UK charts for three weeks

The New Journalism opened the floodgates for writers of non-fiction to use the materials of fiction. When Richard Ben Cramer produced his landmark study of the 1988 US presidential campaign, What It Takes, it was criticised widely for its perceived lack of seriousness. Reviewers seemed to expect Cramer's 1,000 page study of the six contenders, George Bush, Bob Dole, Michael Dukakis, Gary Hart, and Joe Biden, to creak under its accumulated gravitas. Instead they got Tom Wolfe typography and bursts of wild metaphor they'd expect from Hunter S Thompson, blinding them to the fact that, with his energy and empathy, Cramer was able to explore deeply these lives, and uncover the dilemma faced by all of them: the price they needed to pay to achieve their ultimate goal. Today, What It Takes is considered a classic.

He wanted to be an artist but when that didn't work out drifted into acting 'out of disappointment'

With the wheeler-dealing manner of the used-car salesman he was in his "day job", and a habit of blowing clouds of cigar smoke, Bill Bell resembled an old-school football chairman from central casting.

To become a full general or field marshal of the British Army is an achievement of which the sine qua non is an extremely unusual degree of drive and intelligence, with which Michael Gow was magnificently endowed.

Lord Thurlow was a lifelong civil servant who rose through the ranks, serving in many of the Empire's former colonial capitals, to become the High Commissioner in New Zealand and Nigeria. Upon retirement he sat in the House of Lords, where he specialised in foreign affairs and was a strong exponent of the need for a thorough education system in developing countries.

Over the past 33 years Iron Maiden have flown the flag for British heavy metal around the world, playing over 2,000 concerts and making such a strong connection with their fanbase that they have sold more than 85 million albums despite receiving little daytime radio airplay.

Peter Duckworth faced an agonising choice in 1951: should he lead the British modern pentathlon team to the Olympic Games in Helsinki, or should he go with his regiment, the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, to Korea?

If some journalists embody a newspaper's soul, then Anthony Lewis surely did so for The New York Times for most of the second half of the 20th century. As a reporter he twice won the Pulitzer Prize, America's top press award, before becoming one of the country's leading liberal columnists, an indefatigable defender of free speech, civil liberties and life's underdogs.

Glance at a photograph of George Petherbridge in his 1950s Bristol Rovers heyday and he appears old before his time. The expression is watchful, almost anxious, and when seen taking to the pitch in the flesh at Eastville – Rovers' much-missed former headquarters, now the site of a vast convenience furniture store – the 5ft 4in Devon-born winger might have seemed a vulnerable figure, especially in comparison to the full-backs charged with marking him, often muscular hulks who appeared capable of eating him alive.

Ieng Sary or "Brother No 3", was the co-founder, with his brother-in-law Pol Pot – "Brother No 1" – of the communist Khmer Rouge. They ruled Cambodia with unremitting cruelty and were responsible during the 1970s for the deaths in the "killing fields" of an estimated 1.7 to 2.2 million people. Decades later he was one of a clutch of former Khmer Rouge leaders to be put on trial by a UN-backed tribunal for crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.

It is rare for orchestral musicians to gain an independent reputation with the public, as opposed to the admiration they earn from their colleagues. In more popular styles, the same rules apply even more forcefully to backing musicians. The trumpeter Derek Watkins gained some recognition latterly, thanks to his enviable record of having performed on the soundtrack of every single James Bond film, playing for the first of these, Dr No (1962), at the age of 17.