Trivia: For about 20 years from the mid-'50s until the mid-'70s, David Frankham was one of the most visible villains and second male leads on television -- and one of the more interesting British actors working in American horror and science fiction movies. Born in Kent, England, in 1926, Frankham studied architecture and served in the Far East as an army draftee for three years in the late '40s. It was while posted in Malaya that he won a contest in which the prize included a brief stint on radio as an announcer; he proved a natural at the microphone and, after an apprenticeship on Radio Malaya, landed a job with the BBC after returning to civilian life. By age 25, he was back in England making a comfortable living as an announcer, news reader, and radio talk-show host; but he also wanted to try his hand at acting and moved to the U.S. in 1955. Frankham landed a role on an NBC drama a few weeks after his arrival, and spent the next few years doing lots of television work, including live dramatic anthology shows and appearances on filmed syndicated series such as Ziv TV's Men Into Space. Frankham landed his first movie role when he was selected to play the principal villain in Edward Bernds' Return of the Fly (1959). This launched him on a career in which he mostly portrayed morally compromised leading characters in movies such as Disney's Ten Who Dared and American International Pictures' Master of the World (in which his character turns upon Charles Bronson -- the hero of the piece -- in betrayal). In addition to his film work, Frankham did some voice acting during this period: In the original 101 Dalmatians (1961), he voiced Sgt. Tibs, and he dubbed many of the voices in William Wyler's Ben-Hur (1959). Although he was born and raised in England, Frankham was able to do a credible American accent, which greatly expanded the roles he could play. He made the rounds of the studios, working in everything from low-budget horror (Tales of Terror [1962]) to big studio productions such as Columbia's King Rat (1965), and remained very active on television in such series as The Gallant Men, Thriller, Twelve O'Clock High, The Beverly Hillbillies, Dr. Kildare, The F.B.I., and The Outer Limits. In the latter -- in one of the creepiest shows ever done on the program -- he had an unusually upright and heroic role as the stubbornly uncorruptable Harvey Kry Jr. in "Don't Open Till Doomsday" (the show with the "box creature"), in which his would-be bride, separated by time and space, ages into the scary Miriam Hopkins. His other memorable appearance was in the third season Star Trek episode "Is There in Truth No Beauty?," playing Lawrence Marvick, a man who is destroyed by his jealousy of an alien visitor (oddly enough, another "box creature," and one so hideous that the mere sight of it drives humans insane). From the early '60s into the '70s, the actor did numerous commercials, though his most lasting public impression came from the work he did on science fiction, horror films and television shows. Frankham quit acting on a regular basis in 1976, though there were periodic roles in the decade that followed, including a stint on a CBS soap opera and appearances in the movies The Great Santini and Wrong Is Right.

Trivia: The son of actress Nan Kelly Yorke, Jack Kelly was the younger brother of stage and film star Nancy Kelly. Like Nancy, Jack was a professional from an early age, acting in radio and on stage before the age of 10, and in films from 1937 (he is quite prominent in a brace of 1939 20th Century-Fox films, Young Mr. Lincoln and The Story of Alexander Graham Bell). He reemerged as a leading man in the early 1950s, appearing in such films as Forbidden Planet (1956, as the ill-fated Lieutenant Farnam). Signed by Warner Bros. in 1955, Kelly starred as Dr. Paris Mitchell in the weekly TV version of the 1942 film King's Row. He went on to play gamblin' man Bart Maverick on the longer-running Warners western series Maverick. Though his popularity never matched that of his co-star James Garner, Kelly still developed a fan following as Bart; he remained with the series from 1957 until its cancellation in 1962, appearing opposite such Garner successors as Roger Moore and Robert Colbert. Kelly dabbled in a little bit of everything after that: hosting the anthology series NBC Comedy Playhouse (1973), emceeing the game show Sale of the Century (1969-71), and playing hard-nosed Lt. Ryan on the Teresa Graves series Get Christie Love (1974) and Harry Hammond on The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (1977-79). He revived the Bart Maverick character on 1978's The New Maverick and the 1990 TV movie The Gambler Returns: Luck of the Draw. Chances are that, had he lived, Jack Kelly would have been invited to co-star again with Garner in the 1994 Mel Gibson theatrical-feature version of Maverick.

Trivia: Actor's Studio graduate Arch Johnson was first seen off-Broadway in 1952's Down in the Valley, and on-Broadway the following year in Mrs. McThing. Johnson's most famous Broadway role was bigoted NYPD detective Schrank in West Side Story (1956). In films from 1953, the burly Johnson was usually cast as western heavies, occasionally with a swarthy tongue in cheek and a roguish twinkle in the eye. Some of his non-western movie assignments include The Sting (1973), Walking Tall (1977) and The Buddy Holly Story (1978). In the spring of 1961, Arch Johnson was seen as Captain Gus Honochek on the weekly TV version of The Asphalt Jungle.

Trivia: Roberta Shore was a busy child actor on television and, to a lesser degree, in movies during the 1950s and early '60s. Born Roberta Jymme Schourup in Monterey Park, CA, in 1943, she discovered early on that she was a natural singer and performer, and by age 10 was appearing at local event in San Gabriel, where she was raised, and the surrounding area. Billed variously as Jymme Shore and Roberta Shore, she passed through Tex Williams' television show and became a regular performer on The Pinky Lee Show at age 11. The following year, she was hired by Walt Disney Studios to play the foil to Annette Funicello in some of the filmed entertainments shown on The Mickey Mouse Club (although she was never a Mouseketeer, due in large part to her being considered too tall). She subsequently played in The Shaggy Dog as Funicello's rival for Tim Considine, in addition to singing the movie's theme song. Shore was heavily involved with the Disney organization for the next few years, doing voice work in animated films and recording for the Disneyland label. Shore also turned up in Father Knows Best as a girlfriend of older daughter Betty Anderson (Elinor Donahue), and played the rambunctious Hank (real name Henrietta) in The Bob Cummings Show (1961-1962), in addition to showing up in early '60s episodes of The Adventures of Ozzie And Harriet, as one of Ricky Nelson's girlfriends. Shore could also be seen in supporting roles in such feature films as A Summer Place and Blue Denim. In 1962, Shore was signed to play Betsy Garth, the daughter of Judge Henry Garth, in the 90-minute weekly western series The Virginian. She was 19 when the series went into production, but Betsy Garth was initially identified as a 15 year old (she celebrates her 15th birthday in the first episode), which, incidentally, takes place sometime in 1890 (specifically identified in episode two, which was focused on her character and gave Shore a lot to do dramatically). After the first season, however, the producers quietly advanced Betsy Garth's age, also giving her a love interest that audiences could accept in the person of new cast member Randy Boone, an actor/singer with whom she later recorded an album, in addition to singing with, in character, on the show. The series was a success, and Shore had a seven-year contract with the producers, and her future on network television seemed assured. But her religious background -- she was from a devout Mormon family -- was to take her out of The Virginian and performing earlier than most onlookers would have expected. Marriage and a family were always in the plan for her, sooner rather than later, and she decided during third season, when she was 21, that she was going to marry actor Ron Frederickson -- who was also a Mormon -- and leave the show. There was an episode written for the early part of the fourth season, entitled "The Awakening," in which Betsy Garth married a character played by Glenn Corbett and left the Shiloh Ranch, ending her tenure on the series. The producers also suspended Shore for the three years remaining on her contract, which had no actual effect on her, as she had walked away from acting to start and raise a family, which she did. Shore subsequently moved to Salt Lake City and, apart from an appearance in one movie in the 1970s and work as a disc jockey, maintained a private life for the next several decades. In 2003, she suddenly re-emerged in one corner of the performing world when she was cast in Gary Rogers' Book of Mormon film, along with her husband. In 2009, Shore and series star James Drury both did new on-camera interviews about The Virginian for the DVD release of the series' complete first season.

Trivia: Looking for all the world like a beardless Rumpelstiltskin, actor Raymond Hatton utilized his offbeat facial features and gift for mimicry in vaudeville, where he appeared from the age of 12 onward. In films from 1914, Hatton was starred or co-starred in several of the early Cecil B. DeMille productions, notably The Whispering Chorus (1917), in which the actor delivered a bravura performance as a man arrested for murdering himself. Though he played a vast array of characters in the late teens and early 1920s, by 1926 Hatton had settled into rubeish character roles. He was teamed with Wallace Beery in several popular Paramount comedies of the late silent era, notably Behind the Front (1926) and Now We're in the Air (1927). Curiously, while Beery's career skyrocketed in the 1930s, Hatton's stardom diminished, though he was every bit as talented as his former partner. In the 1930s and 1940s, Hatton showed up as comic sidekick to such western stars as Johnny Mack Brown and Bob Livingston. He was usually cast as a grizzled old desert rat, even when (as in the case of the "Rough Riders" series with Buck Jones and Tim McCoy) he happened to be younger than the nominal leading man. Raymond Hatton continued to act into the 1960s, showing up on such TV series as The Abbott and Costello Show and Superman and in several American-International quickies. Raymond Hatton's last screen appearance was as the old man collecting bottles along the highway in Richard Brooks' In Cold Blood (1967).

Trivia: Lanky character actor Tom Fadden first trod the boards when he joined an Omaha stock company in 1915. Fadden went on to tour in top vaudeville with his actress wife Genevieve. From 1932 to 1939, he was seen on Broadway in such productions as Nocturne and Our Town. He made his first film in 1939. Fadden's better-known screen roles include the tollhouse keeper in It's a Wonderful Life (1946)--which led to choice appearances in subsequent Frank Capra productions--and "possessed" townman Ira in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). In 1958, he was seen on a weekly basis as Silas Perry on TV's Cimarron City. Tom Fadden's cinematic swan song was 1977's Empire of the Ants.

Trivia: Lightweight American leading man Ray Walker moved from stage work to films in 1933. While he would occasionally earn a lead in a big-studio film -- he was Alice Faye's vis-à-vis in Music Is Magic (1935) -- Walker could usually be found heading the cast of programmers filmed at Hollywood's B-picture outfits. One of Walker's best screen roles was in Monogram's The Mouthpiece (1935), in which he was ideally cast as a swell-headed radio personality, brought down to earth by the loss of both his sponsor and his girlfriend (Jacqueline Wells). By the early '40s, Walker had eased into minor and supporting roles, even accepting the occasional short subject (he shows up as Vera Vague's ex-husband in the 1946 two-reeler Reno-Vated). Still, Ray Walker's previous reputation assured him a comfortable living; for his single scene as luggage shop proprietor Joe in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, Walker received his standard asking price of 1,000 dollars per day.