Trivia: American actor Robert Conrad was a graduate of Northwestern University, spending his first few years out of school supporting himself and his family by driving a milk truck and singing in a Chicago cabaret. Conrad befriended up-and-coming actor Nick Adams during this period, and it was Adams who helped Conrad get his first Hollywood work in 1957. A few movie bit parts later, Conrad was signed for a comparative pittance by Warner Bros. studios, and in 1959 was cast as detective Tom Lopaka on the weekly adventure series Hawaiian Eye. Upon the 1963 cancellation of this series, Conrad made a handful of Spanish and American films and toured with a nightclub act in Australia and Mexico City. Cast as frontier secret agent James West in The Wild Wild West in 1965, Conrad brought home $5000 a week during the series' first season and enjoyed increasing remunerations as West remained on the air until 1969. There are those who insist that Wild Wild West would have been colorless without the co-starring presence of Ross Martin, an opinion with which Conrad has always agreed. The actor's bid to star in a 1970 series based on the venerable Nick Carter pulp stories got no further than a pilot episode, while the Jack Webb-produced 1971 Robert Conrad series The D.A. was cancelled after 13 episodes. When Roy Scheider pulled out of the 1972 adventure weekly Assignment: Vienna, Conrad stepped in--and was out, along with the rest of Assignment: Vienna, by June of 1973. Conrad had better luck with 1976's Baa Baa Black Sheep, aka Black Sheep Squadron, a popular series based on the World War II exploits of Major "Pappy" Boyington. Cast as a nurse on this series was Conrad's daughter Nancy, setting a precedent for nepotism that the actor practiced as late as his tenth TV series, 1989's Jesse Hawkes, wherein Conrad co-starred with his sons Christian and Shane. Though few of his series have survived past season one, Conrad has enjoyed success as a commercial spokesman and in the role of G. Gordon Liddy (whom the actor admired) in the 1982 TV movie Will, G. Gordon Liddy. As can be gathered from the Liddy assignment, Conrad's politics veered towards conservatism; in 1981, he and Charlton Heston were instrumental in toppling Ed Asner and his liberal contingent from power in the Screen Actors Guild. As virile and athletic as ever in the 1990s, Robert Conrad has continued to appear in action roles both on TV and in films; he has also maintained strong ties with his hometown of Chicago, and can be counted upon to show up at a moment's notice as a guest on the various all-night programs of Chicago radio personality Eddie Schwartz.

Trivia: Born in Grodek, Poland, the erudite actor received an M.A. in psychometrics and a law degree before he turned to performing as half of a comedy team known as Ross & West. On film, he was notable and frightening in Experiment in Terror (1962). Following an undistinguished but busy TV career in the '50s, Martin became one of television's most brilliant chararacter actors. As a regular on the charades-like game shows The Ad-Libbers (1951), Pantomime Quiz (1950-1963), and Stump the Stars (1962-63), he had the chance to show off his lightning mind and acting facility. After playing a supporting role on The Sheriff of Cochise (1956-1960), he costarred as Andamo on Mr. Lucky (1959-60). Martin finally found his niche as TV's "man of a thousand faces" -- Secret Service agent Artemus Gordon -- on the humorous cult spy spoof/western/science fiction series The Wild, Wild West (1965-1969) with Robert Conrad as James West. The show gave him an opportunity to display his acting virtuosity, as he used multiple disguises and accents in almost every episode. Sidelined by a major heart attack near the end of the series and replaced by look-alike Charles Aidman, Martin did mostly guest shots and cartoon voiceovers thereafter. His directing credits include Here's Lucy (1968-74).

Trivia: Had the Fates smiled upon her, the versatile Beverly Garland would have been one of the biggest female stars in films. She started out well, with a plum part in the noir classic DOA (1949), in which she was billed as Beverly Campbell. Alas, Garland was never one to keep her opinions to herself, and her pointed comments about some of her DOA colleagues turned her into a Hollywood pariah before her career had even begun. She eventually worked her way back up the ladder with supporting roles in theatrical features and guest-star assignments on television. Garland rapidly earned a reputation as a "good luck charm" for TV-pilot producers, who could usually count on a sale if Garland was featured in their product. She guested on the first episode of Medic as an expectant leukemia victim, and was co-starred in the pilots of no fewer than three Rod Cameron TV vehicles: City Detective, State Trooper and Coronado 9, all of which sold. In the mid-1950s, Garland was briefly the inamorata of quickie producer/director Roger Corman, who prominently cast her in such cheapies as It Conquered the World (1955) and Not of This Earth (1956). She starred in the 1957 syndicated TV series Policewoman Decoy, which permitted her to adopt a variety of convincing guises in the line of duty. From the 1960s on, Garland was everyone's favorite TV wife or mother: she played Bing Crosby's wife in The Bing Crosby Show (1964), Fred MacMurray's wife on the last three seasons (1969-72) of My Three Sons, Stephanie Zimbalist's mother in Remington Steele (1982-86) and Kate Jackson's mother on Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983-87). Active into the 1990s, Beverly Garland supplemented her acting income with her job as spokesperson for a major Midwestern travel agency. She died in 2008 at age

Trivia: Yale graduate Bradford Dillman began his career in the sort of misunderstood-youth roles that had previously been the province of Montgomery Clift and James Dean. His first significant stage success was as the younger son in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Eugene O'Neill play Long Day's Journey Into Night. Signed by 20th Century-Fox in 1958, Dillman at first played standard leading men; his subtle shift to villainy occurred after he was cast as a wealthy psychopath in Compulsion, the 1959 drama based on the Leopold-Loeb case. Compulsion won Dillman an award at the Cannes Film Festival, and also threatened to typecast him for the rest of his film career, notwithstanding his leading role in Fox's Francis of Assisi (1961). It was during his Fox years that Dillman married popular cover girl Suzy Parker. Bradford Dillman has remained much in demand as a television guest star, and in 1965 was the lead on the filmed-in-Britain TV drama series Court-Martial.