British stage and screen actor Alan Badel flourished from his debut in the early 1940s to the late 1970s. He made both his English and American film bows in 1953, with Britain's The Stranger Left No Card and Hollywood's Salome (as John the Baptist). One film historian has commented that the versatile but plain-looking Badel was not easy to cast in leading roles, but the actor enjoyed at least one starring part, as German composer Richard Wagner, in the 1956 biopic Magic Fire.