Trivia: Barry Gordon was seven years old when he entered the ranks of the record industry, singing the novelty hit "I'm Gettin' Nuthin for Christmas" (1955). Gordon followed this triumph with "Rock N Roll Mother Goose," which was no chart-buster but did land him a spot in the 1956 Frank Tashlin-directed feature The Girl Can't Help It (though his song was cut from the final release version, he can be seen as a wise-beyond-his-years paper boy, ogling Jayne Mansfield as she swivels by). By the late 1950s, Gordon was best known for his guest appearances on The Jack Benny Program, expertly impersonating that series' venerable star. At age 14, he was nominated for a Tony award for his portrayal of Nick in Herb Gardner 's Broadway hit A Thousand Clowns, a role he repeated in the 1965 film version. In 1967, he essayed his only film-starring role, playing a brainy high school nerd in Out of It (his on-screen nemesis was none other than Jon Voight). Developing into an Woody Allen-esque comic supporting player, Gordon appeared regularly in such sitcoms as The New Dick Van Dyke Show, A Family For Joe, Archie Bunker's Place and Good Time Harry. More recently, Gordon has carved himself a niche as one of the busiest and most versatile voiceover artists in the TV animation industry: one of his better-known characterizations is Donatello in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Barry Gordon is a past president of the Screen Actors Guild.

Trivia: A successful supporting and occasional leading actor of stage, screen and television, John Craven starred as Bob MacDonald in the first live television series, The Egg and I (1951), a sitcom based on Betty MacDonald's humorous autobiography. Craven launched his career playing George in the 1938 Broadway version of Our Town with his father Frank Craven, a playwright who worked as an actor and a stage manager of the production. While serving in the military during WW II, Craven was appointed the USO's theater director and placed in charge of putting on productions for U.S. troops stationed in Italy. Craven made his feature-film debut in Over the Goal (1937). He did not appear in another until The Human Comedy (1943). His other film credits include Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case (1943), Let's Make Love (1960) and Ocean's Eleven (1960). On television, Craven guest-starred on a variety of series ranging from Playhouse 90, to Wyatt Earp, to Big Valley. At the end of the 1960s, Craven moved to Spain where he continued to appear on stage. He also took up drama teaching and stage directing. He remained there through the mid '70s and then returned to the U.S.

Trivia: Relatively few people remember the name Biff Elliot today, but as an actor, he carved a special place for himself in popular culture during the '50s -- in a role that he spent years living down. Born Leon Shalek in Lynn, MA, a working-class town, he aspired to an acting career and came to New York in pursuit of that goal. He got some stage and television work, mostly playing tough, working-class characters, and then a seemingly big break in Hollywood playing the lead role in the crime thriller I, The Jury (1953), directed by Harry Essex. In the history of popular culture, Ralph Meeker might have earned a place playing Mike Hammer in the best movie ever made from one of Mickey Spillane's books; Spillane himself may have played the best Mike Hammer on the big-screen (and Brian Keith the best Mike Hammer on the small-screen); but Biff Elliot had the honor of being the first actor to portray Mike Hammer anywhere in that 1953 movie (made in 3-D) based on the first of the Hammer books. It should have been a breakthrough role, but the movie ended up being an albatross around his neck. Over the next few years, there were other offers for more roles in which, in the manner of Spillane's hero, he was mostly pummeling other characters. Elliot did get some film work in movies such as Between Heaven and Hell, Good Morning, Miss Dove, and The Enemy Below (as the ship's quartermaster) at Fox, and Pork Chop Hill for Lewis Milestone at United Artists, but mostly he worked in television. In 1959, Elliot got a seemingly good break when playwright Clifford Odets happened to see I, The Jury and offered him a role in The Story on Page One, which Odets wrote and directed. Alas, the latter movie fizzled -- mostly thanks to Odets's convoluted approach to directing -- and did nothing to help the career of anyone in it. Elliot was mostly seen on television over the next decade or so in roles of varying sizes -- in the Star Trek episode "The Devil in the Dark" as Schmitter, the mining colony crewman joking about the anticipated arrival of the Starship Enterprise who is dissolved by the title creature in the pre-credit sequence. During the '70s and '80s, he was once again seen regularly in movies, including the Jack Lemmon vehicles Save the Tiger (1973), The Front Page (1975) and That's Life (1986). Elliot died of natural causes at age 89 in 2012.

Trivia: Best known for his roles on such television dramas as Dallas and the macabre Dark Shadows, actor Dennis Patrick also carried the distinction of being the small screen's first vampire. Born in Philadelphia, PA, in March 1918, Patrick began a prolific and enduring television career with roles in Star Tonight and Kraft Television Theater. Subsequently appearing in a handful of features and a slew of made-for-television movies, Patrick's roles in Dark Shadows and Dallas brought him the greatest success of his career. Married to actress Barbara Carson, Patrick was left a widower following his wife's death in 1990. On October 13, 2002, Dennis Patrick died in a home fire in the Hollywood Hills with his dog by his side. He was 84.

Trivia: Character actor, onscreen from 1949.

Trivia: Charismatic character actor Sam Gilman first appeared onscreen in the '50s after much stage experience.