Trivia: He began acting while a college student, then became president of his school's Dramatic Club. In 1927 Tone began his professional stage career in stock, then soon made it to Broadway. He began appearing in films in 1932, going on to a busy screen career in which he was typecast as a debonair, tuxedo-wearing playboy or successful man-about-town. For his work in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) he received a Best Actor Oscar nomination. In the early '50s he gave up films to return to the stage; after appearing in an off-Broadway prouction of Uncle Vanya he returned to film in the play's screen version (1958), which he co-produced, co-directed, and starred in. He appeared in a handful of films in the '60s; meanwhile, onstage he got good reviews for his performance in the New York revival of Strange Interlude. In the mid '60s he costarred in the TV series "Ben Casey." He was married four times; his wives included actresses Joan Crawford, Jean Wallace, Barbara Payton, and Dolores Dorn-Heft.

Trivia: Pressured into an acting career by her ambitious parents, Mary Astor was a silent film star before she was 17 -- a tribute more to her dazzling good looks than anything else. Debuting in The Beggar Maid (1921), Astor appeared opposite John Barrymore in 1923's Beau Brummell with whom she had a romantic relationship and later starred with in Don Juan (1926), Anxious not to be a victim of the talking-picture revolution, the actress perfected her vocal technique in several stage productions for Edward Everett Horton's Los Angeles-based Majestic Theatre, and the result was a most successful talkie career. Things nearly fell to pieces in 1936 when, in the midst of a divorce suit, Astor's ex-husband tried to gain custody of the couple's daughter by making public a diary she had kept. In this volume, Astor detailed her affair with playwright George S. Kaufman; portions of the diary made it to the newspapers, causing despair for Astor and no end of embarrassment for Kaufman. But Astor's then-current employer, producer Sam Goldwyn, stood by his star and permitted her to complete her role in his production of Dodsworth (1936). Goldwyn was touched by Astor's fight for the custody of her child, and was willing to overlook her past mistakes. Some of Astor's best films were made after the scandal subsided, including The Maltese Falcon (1941), in which she played the gloriously untrustworthy Brigid O'Shaughnessy opposite Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade, and The Great Lie (1941), in which she played a supremely truculent concert pianist (and won an Academy Award in the bargain). Seemingly getting better as she got older, Astor spent the final phase of her career playing spiteful or snobbish mothers, with one atypical role as murderer Robert Wagner's slow-on-the-uptake mom in A Kiss Before Dying (1956). A lifelong aspiring writer, Astor wrote two entertaining and insightful books on her career, My Story and A Life on Film. Retiring after the film Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte (1966), Astor fell victim to health complications and financial tangles, compelling her to spend her last years in a small but comfortable bungalow on the grounds of the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital.

Trivia: Actress Carmen Mathews's long career encompassed stage, screen and television. Unlike many performers of her era who began their careers when they were quite young, Mathews did not take her first acting bows on stage until 1943 when she was in her early '30s. Prior to her American stage debut, Mathews had attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and had honed her skills in Shakespearean plays. Her more famous Broadway efforts include A Holiday for Lovers, Dear World and David Copperfield. Mathews made her film debut with an uncredited role in The Butterfield 8 (1960). Her television appearances include M*A*S*H (1972) and in the television movies The Last Best Years of My Life. When not working, Mathews ran a residential summer camp for underprivileged kids. She started the camp on her 100-acre West Redding, CT farm in 1975. A decade later, she set up an education center there. Just prior to her death in 1995, Mathews donated a significant amount of her land to the Redding Land Trust to insure that it will remain undeveloped. She was named one of Connecticut's Outstanding Women of 1987 by the United Nations.

Trivia: The background of Irish-born comic actor J. Pat O'Malley has frequently been misreported in source books because his credits have been confused with those of silent film star Pat O'Malley. J. Pat started out in the British musical halls, then came to the U.S. at the outbreak of WWII. Achieving radio fame for his versatile voicework, O'Malley carried over this talent into the world of animated cartoons, providing a multitude of vocal characterizations in such Disney cartoon features as Alice in Wonderland (1951) and 101 Dalmatians (1961), among others. The portly, leprechaunish O'Malley essayed on-camera character parts in films like Witness for the Prosecution (1957) and Mary Poppins (1965). He was a near-habitual TV guest star, with appearances in several fondly remembered Twilight Zone episodes; he also worked extensively on Broadway. J. Pat O'Malley had regular roles on the TV sitcoms Wendy and Me (1964) and A Touch of Grace (1973).