Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down: How One Generation of British Actors Changed the World

Jaw-dropping tales of the legendary excess and bad behavior of Michael Caine, Sean Connery, and more stars of the 1950s and 60s—this is Easy Riders, Raging Bulls for the Brits

The trail-blazing period of theater and film from 1956-1964 is brought alive in this history, through the vibrant exploits of a revolutionary generation of stars who bulldozed over austerity Britain and paved the way for the swinging 60s. Alan Bates, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Tom Courtenay, Albert Finney, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole, Robert Shaw, and Terence Stamp—they are the most formidable acting generation ever to stare into a camera, and their anti-establishment attitude changed the cultural landscape of Britain. This was a new breed, many from the working class industrial towns of Britain, and nothing like them has been seen before or since. Their raw earthy brilliance brought realism to a whole range of groundbreaking theater from John Osborne's Look Back in Anger to Joan Littlewood and Harold Pinter and the creation of the National Theatre. They ripped apart the staid, middle-class British film industry with kitchen-sink classics like Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, This Sporting Life, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, A Kind of Loving, and Billy Liar before turning their sights on international stardom: Connery with James Bond, O'Toole as Lawrence of Arabia, Finney with Tom Jones, and Caine in Zulu.