David Niven along with a card that read: 'To the finest gentleman who ever walked through these halls. He made a porter feel like a king.'" In 1985, Niven was included in a series of British postage stamps, along with Sir Alfred Hitchcock, Sir Charles Chaplin, Peter Sellers and Vivien Leigh, to commemorate "British Film Year". David Niven James David Graham Niven (; 1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983) was an English actor, memoirist and novelist. His many roles included Squadron Leader Peter Carter in "A Matter of Life and Death", Phileas Fogg in "Around the World in 80 Days", and
A Matter of Life and Death (film) were set on Niven playing the part, and eventually told Goring that the Conductor was his only choice: if he turned it down, they would approach Peter Ustinov to play the part. Powell and Pressburger went to Hollywood to cast the role of June with no possible actress in mind except, possibly, Betty Field, who was in a play in New York at the time. The suggestion of Kim Hunter came from Alfred Hitchcock, who had recently used her to read lines from behind the camera for Ingrid Bergman's screen test for "Spellbound". Hunter had stage experience and had been