Director Menahem Golan was born Menahem Globus and took his surname from Israel's Golan Heights.

Golan was once a pilot for the Israeli Air Force.

Along with Francis Ford Coppola and Robert Towne, Golan worked as an assistant director for Roger Corman during the shooting of The Young Racers (1963).

To make use of existing locations and equipment, Corman offered the direction of a new project to both Coppola and Golan. Corman preferred Coppola's ideas, which became Dementia 13 (1963).

With his cousin Yoram Globus, Menahem Golan founded Noah Films in 1963.

In 1979, the partners bought the failing Cannon Film Group for $500,000. They reaped millions from backing several Chuck Norris action films and Death Wish sequels starring Charles Bronson.

In the mid-1980s, Cannon acquired the rights to Marvel Comics' Spider-Man although their film adaptation was never made.

Actor Vladek Sheybal was born Wladylaw Sheybal in Zgierz, Poland, on March 12, 1923. His father was a professor at Warsaw's Academy of Fine Arts.

During the Nazi occupation of Poland, Sheybal spent time in a concentration camp.

Sheybal's first big English language film appearance was as a villain in From Russia with Love (1963).

Sheybal worked several times with director Ken Russell, whom he met when both were on the payroll of London's BBC Television.

Sheybal was a semi-regular on the cult TV series UFO.

Sheybal supplied voice work for Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977).

Catherine Mary Stewart was born Catherine Mary Nursall in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on April 22, 1959. Her father was a marine biologist and her mother was a physiologist.

Catherine Mary Stewart went from starring in The Apple to a bit as a shopgirl blown up by terrorist Rutger Hauer in Nighthawks (1981).

She auditioned for the lead role in Flashdance (1983) but the part went to Jennifer Beals.

Subsequent films for Catherine Mary Stewart include The Last Starfighter (1984), Night of the Comet (1984), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Weekend at Bernie's (1989) and more recently The Girl Next Door (2007).

British veteran stage, film and television actor Joss Ackland is probably best remembered for his villainous turns in Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) and Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey (1991).

Ackland was born Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland in London's North Kensington on February 29, 1928.

A graduate of London's Central School of Speech and Drama, Ackland lived for two years in South Africa before returning to London to become a member of the Old Vic repertory.

A busy character actress since the 1960s, Miriam Margolyes would later turn up in Frank Oz's Little Shop of Horrors (1986) and Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (1993). She was the voice of Fly the Sheepdog in Babe (1995) and Babe: Pig in the City (1998) and played Hogwarts professor Pomona Sprout in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).

Production designer Hans Jürgen Kiebach's resume includes art direction on such diverse films as the West German Bryan Edgar Wallace adaptations The Mad Executioners and The Phantom of Soho (both 1964) as well as Cy Endfield's De Sade (1969) and Bob Fosse's Cabaret (1972).

Composer George S. Clinton was a former Nashville session musician and songwriter for Warner Brothers Music. For Cannon films, he scored several ninja movies and later the soundtrack for Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and its sequels (however, the famous theme song, "Soul Bossa Nova", was actually by Quincy Jones and was originally recorded in 1962).

Clinton's wife at the time was Francesca Poston, who appears as the front desk receptionist for Boogalow's International Music and a vampire in the production number set in Hell. Francesca Poston is the daughter of the late comedian Tom Poston.

Choreographer Nigel Lythgoe later created the hit reality TV series American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance.

Actor/singer Allan Love became a restaurateur whose Brighton eatery Love's Fish Restaurant was featured on a fiery episode of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares.

Compiled by Richard Harland Smith

Sources:
Cannon Films: The Rise and Fall by Patrick Runkle
Vladek Sheybal Interview by Tim Mallett and Glenn Pearce, FAB Magazine No. 8, 1992
Vladek Sheybal Interview by David Del Valle, Psychotronic Video No. 31, 1999
"In Step with Catherine Mary Stewart," by James Brady, Parade, 1993
Joss Ackland Interview by Andrew Gulli, Strand Magazine
Roger Corman: Metaphysics on a Shoestring by Alain Silver and James Ursini