Malcolm McDowell

McDowell left school young to work in his family's pub before training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and breaking through in British theater and television, developing a reputation for playing charismatic, dangerous young men years before Kubrick came calling.

Forever Alex DeLarge — bowler hat, false eyelash, and a grin that made state-sponsored horror feel like a night at the opera — he had already explored similar class-conscious, satirical territory in the drama if.... a few years earlier, which is reportedly what caught Kubrick's attention for the role.

He performed most of his own stunts, including the notorious aversion-therapy sequence, and has said in interviews that a scratched cornea sustained during that scene, requiring a doctor on standby throughout filming, made it one of the most physically demanding shoots of his career. The role has followed him ever since as both his defining triumph and a professional shadow he has spoken about candidly.