Great European Lives

Even inside his own monogrammed funeral casket the writer of Don Quixote remains an enigma

His polymathic attitude to genres and prolific output mean he is rarely spoken of in the same awed tones as a Hitchcock or Capra, but Curtiz was as much of a craftsman as any Hollywood great

Her posthumous reputation dictated by centuries of almost exclusively male gatekeepers, history has not been kind to the queen of both France and England

With more than 100m albums sold, the Anglo-Italian could afford to be sanguine about critical coolness towards his work

Lili Damita began her life as a revue star, ended it as a broken-hearted recluse and married Errol Flynn in between

Few nations can boast a cultural figure so enmeshed with the very essence of their national identity as Taras Shevchenko, writes CHARLIE CONNELLY

CHARLIE CONNELLY on a charming and bewitchingly charismatic medical practitioner whose methods were declared hokum after long keeping the elite mesmerised

CHARLIE CONNELLY on a French cinema legend who always made something extraordinary out of the ordinary

CHARLIE CONNELLY on the actor behind the most terrifying cinematic performance of all time

CHARLIE CONNELLY on the committed revolutionary behind a scene which endures as one of the major turning points in the history of film

CHARLIE CONNELLY on the Viennese artist who shocked the laissez-faire populace of his native city

CHARLIE CONNELLY on a Jewish actress who considered a kick in the behind from Hitler the luck of her life

CHARLIE CONNELLY on a stick-up merchant whose victims were often left feeling almost flattered

CHARLIE CONNELLY on the chat show staple often described as the closest thing Munich had to royalty.

CHARLIE CONNELLY on arguably the most enigmatic figure to orbit the strange world of The Beatles

On Christmas Eve 33 years ago, he died a criminal, but perhaps Hans Gruber should've been remembered for something else...

Wolff was almost impossible to mistake for anyone else. Yet, he was in The Sun's obituary section.

It was in her art that she truly lost herself, but this didn't stop Amrita Sher-Gil from finding fault with her work.

The Austrian-American singer and actress shone on stage. But, her greatest role was a matter of the heart, and she undertook it out of obligation.

For all his undoubted literary genius, Marcel Proust was an underwhelming dinner guest.

Even without his leading role in the French Revolution, Bailly would have been remembered as an exceptional man.

She was the most Weimar of the Weimar figures, with scandal following her wherever she went.

The "Swedish Nightingale" soared to fame, burned brightly, but then burned out retiring in her early thirties.

His work stood out amongst Post-Impressionism, but the artist was still crippled by a lack of self-belief

From the Olympic field to Parisian concert calls, Micheline Ostermeyer never failed to provide that special something

The Belgian filmmaker believed all you ever really have in life is time and she took control of her own in the most definitive way she knew how.

His greatest character was weighed down by disillusionment and ennui, but the author behind Wallander was quite different.

She lived in an extraordinary time, among some of the most colossal figures of 20th Century Europe. But, Juliette Gréco outlived them all - and did so on her own terms.

The youngest UN secretary-general who changed the world and would have done so more had he lived a little longer

He spoke no English, and had never seen an American Football before but Toni Fritsch was a natural, and he went on to change the game forever.

The actor made his living selling fantasy, but this was far from the reality of Hervé Villechaize's life off-screen, writes CHARLIE CONNELLY

She was an actress and a writer, but more importantly Erika Mann spent her life witnessing and fighting injustice