Golfer Nick Faldo and veteran horror actor Christopher Lee have been knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List today.

Awards also go to Royle Family actress Sue Johnston (OBE), Hollywood star Alan Cumming (OBE), celebrity hairdresser Vidal Sassoon (CBE) and Delia Smith (CBE), the TV chef hailed for teaching Britain how to cook.

Poetry, too, is recognised in the list, with knighthoods for former poet Laureate Andrew Motion and Christopher Ricks, who is about to step down as Oxford University professor of poetry.

Faldo (51) is Britain’s most successful golfer and adds his knighthood to his tally of six major championship wins.

The father of four, who grew up in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, and now lives near Windsor, Berkshire, became the youngest player to qualify for the Ryder Cup at the age of 20.

He went on to win three Opens and three US Masters, and spent 92 weeks as the world’s number one golfer. Faldo is renowned for his single-minded dedication to his game, although controversy surrounded his captaincy of Europe’s losing Ryder Cup team last year.

Lee, 87, made his name terrifying cinema-goers in blood-curdling roles opposite Peter Cushing in the Hammer Horror movies.

He is one of the most prolific screen actors of all time, with more than 250 film and TV credits to his name.

As well as appearing in horror films such as 1958’s Dracula and 1959’s The Mummy, London-born Lee also played Scaramanga in 1974 James Bond classic The Man With The Golden Gun.

In recent years he starred as Saruman in Peter Jackson’s The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels.

Johnston, 65, will meet a member of the real Royal family when she collects her OBE.

She spent eight years playing Sheila Grant in Brookside before taking the part of long-suffering mother Barbara Royle in the BBC sitcom about a working-class family in Manchester.

Johnston, who was born in |Warrington, also starred in police cold case review drama Waking The Dead and has appeared in a number of films, including 1996’s Brassed Off.

Scottish-born Cumming, 44, receives an OBE in the Diplomatic List for services to film, theatre and the arts and for his work as a gay rights campaigner.

His wide-ranging career includes blockbuster movies such as 2003’s X2: X-Men United and the Spy Kids trilogy, as well as TV appearances in Sex And The City, Frasier and Third Rock From The Sun.

Cumming won an Olivier award in 1991 for his performance in Accidental Death Of An Anarchist at the National Theatre in London and a Tony for his role in Cabaret on Broadway in 1998.

A CBE in the Diplomatic List goes to Sassoon, 81, who styled the hair of royalty, models and film stars during a career which revolutionised hairdressing.

Smith, 67, whose cookery books have sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, is awarded a CBE for services to the food industry.

She was born in Surrey but now lives near Stowmarket in Suffolk, close to her beloved Norwich City Football Club.

The knighthoods for Motion and |Professor Ricks follow a tumultuous period for poets and poetry in Britain.

Motion, 56, published several volumes of verse and biographies of fellow poets Philip Larkin and John Keats before being made poet laureate in 1999.

After extensive speculation about who would succeed him, Carol Ann Duffy took over as the first female Laureate |last month. Prof Ricks is a celebrated scholar who has written about Bob Dylan as well as English poets including Milton, Keats and Tennyson.

His tenure as Oxford’s professor of poetry comes to an end in September – but it is not clear who will take over from him after his elected replacement Ruth Padel was forced to stand down amid allegations of a smear campaign against rival candidate Derek Walcott.

In the arts, acclaimed Japanese classical pianist Mitsuko Uchida, who lives in London, is made a dame, and Graham Vick, artistic director of the Birmingham Opera Company, receives a CBE.

In the acting world, there are CBEs for Edinburgh-born Lindsay Duncan, 58, who played Baroness Thatcher in a |recent BBC TV film, and Welsh-born Jonathan Pryce, 62, who has |appeared in the Pirates Of The Caribbean films.