This Russian-born producer and executive emigrated to England with his family in 1912. A former music hall dancer turned impresario, Lord Lew Grade calls himself "the last Charleston dancer" but is better known as one of the pioneers and leading figures in the development of commercial television in Great Britain, a major worldwide distributor of such series as the classic "The Avengers," and as financier and/or executive producer of adaptations ranging from Barbara Cartland novels to such acclaimed features "On Golden Pond" (1981) and "Sophie's Choice" (1982).

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