Trivia: Growing up in Florida, American actress Peggy Stewart naturally gravitated to the water, and distinguished herself as a swimming champ in high school. Her family moved to California in the mid '30s, where she made the acquaintance of character actor Henry O'Neill. Aware that Paramount Pictures was looking for a new face to play the part of Joel McCrea's and Frances Dee's daughter in Wells Fargo (1936), O'Neill recommended Stewart. The assignment led to numerous other roles for the teenaged actress, who by the end of 1940 was not only established in Hollywood but the wife of actor Don "Red" Barry (Stewart was also the sister-in-law of another actor, Wayne Morris). At about the time her marriage was breaking up in 1944, Stewart signed with Republic Studios, where, starting with Tucson Raiders (1944), she became resident leading lady for many of Republic's western stars. She also appeared in serials at Republic but preferred westerns because the shooting schedules were shorter and she was able to wear a more varied wardrobe. Leaving Republic in 1948, she freelanced until 1953, when she briefly gave up acting to become a casting director at NBC television; she also married again, to actor Buck Young. As the '50s progressed Stewart eased back into acting, but only in roles that would provide a challenge to her. In 1974, she won the Los Angeles Drama Circle award for her stage performance in Picnic. Long retired, Peggy Stewart has in the last two decades become one of the favorite guest speakers on the nostalgia convention and western film festival circuit.

Trivia: American character actor Joe Bernard has worked on stage, screen and television. He has also worked as a drama coach and occasionally directs and writes scripts.

Trivia: Michael Burns went from playing boyish male ingénues in the early '60s to a somewhat less successful career as a male lead in such offbeat movies as That Cold Day in the Park. Born in Mineola, NY, in 1947, he was raised in Yonkers, NY, and later in Beverly Hills, CA. His father, Frank Burns. had been a pioneering engineer in the field of television during the '30s and was later a director. It was through a chance encounter with the father of a classmate in his Beverly Hills school (who knew of an opening for a boy actor) that Michael Burns began a television career in August 1958 at the age of nine. His subsequent small-screen appearances included Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Loretta Young Show, The Twilight Zone, and G.E. Theatre before he landed the role of Barnaby West, a young orphan adopted by the crew of the wagon train, in the MCA-produced series Wagon Train. He later appeared in episodes of Bonanza and other dramatic series. In 1969, he graduated to adult roles in the drama That Cold Day in the Park, directed by Robert Altman, in which he was obliged to portray some sexual situations that would have been unheard of in movies at the time he entered the business. Despite pursuing his acting career into adulthood, Burns is best remembered for roles during his teenage years. He served in production capacities beginning in the '80s, notably as an executive producer of Monster's Ball in 2001.

Trivia: On stage from his teens (as part of the "Dancing Verselle Sisters" troupe), Jack Albertson worked in almost any form of live entertainment you could name: vaudeville, burlesque, legitimate stage, even opera. For two years he was straight man to comedian Phil Silvers on the Minsky's Burlesque Circuit, carrying over this partnership in Silvers' hit Broadway musicals High Button Shoes (1947) and Top Banana (1953). Albertson began taking bit roles in films in 1938; among his many fleeting film parts was the postal worker who redirected all of Santa Claus' mail to the New York Courthouse in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). On television, Albertson was a frequent guest star on the Burns and Allen Show and had regular roles on The Thin Man (1957-59) and Ensign O'Toole (1963). He also co-starred with Sam Groom on the 1971 syndicated series Dr. Simon Locke--at least until angrily walking off the series due to its severe budget deficiencies. Albertson became an "overnight success" with his portrayal of Martin Sheen's taciturn father in the 1964 Broadway play The Subject Was Roses, which earned him a Tony Award; he repeated the role in the 1968 film version, winning an Oscar in the process. Albertson added a pair of Emmies to his shelf for his performance as crotchety garage owner Ed Brown on the TV sitcom Chico and the Man (1974-77), and for his guest appearance on a 1975 episode of the variety series Cher. Jack Albertson was the brother of character actress Mabel Albertson.

Trivia: Sandy Kenyon's name won't be familiar to too many people, but his face will be instantly recognizable to filmgoers and television viewers for the hundreds of roles that he has played -- cops and criminals, cowboys and government officials, and just about everything else that television or movies have had to offer since the late 1950s. Born in New York City on August 5, 1922, Kenyon served in the United States Army Air Force during World War II as a pilot, organizing shows in his spare time. He attended drama school on the G.I. Bill and formed the Town and Country Players with five friends in Hartford, CT, in 1946, performing eight seasons of summer stock work. His New York theater credits included Katherine Ann Porter's Pale Horse, Pale Rider, Sean O'Casey's Purple Dust, Ibsen's Peer Gynt, and Clifford Odets' Rocket to the Moon. Kenyon's screen career began in 1957 on television series such as Studio One, Kraft Playhouse, The Twilight Zone, Gunsmoke, and Have Gun, Will Travel. His movie debut took place in Al Capone (1959), in the role of Bones Corelli -- Kenyon's later screen credits have included roles in Nevada Smith (1966), Easy Come, Easy Go (1967), Something for a Lonely Man (1968), Rancho Deluxe (1975), and MacArthur (1977). He also got his first starring television role in 1958, working with Forrest Tucker in the adventure series Crunch and Des, based on the writings of Philip Wylie. In 1964, Kenyon made his Broadway debut as Pygmalion in Conversation at Midnight, which closed after only four performances. He is most familiar to audiences for his television work, which has included guest supporting roles on series ranging from All in the Family (as Dave the Cop in "Archie Is Worried About His Job") to Knots Landing; he was good at playing tough but fair-minded lunkheads, sleazy movie directors (Bracken's World), and single-minded public servants (Mod Squad). He has also done voice-over work in cartoons. The actor Sandy Kenyon is not to be confused with the entertainment correspondent of the same name.

Trivia: After attending the University of Minnesota, actor Larry Gates made his Broadway bow in 1939. In middle age, Gates was seen in numerous movie and TV productions, usually cast in mercantile or executive roles. His average-man demeanor and personality was put to good use in The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), wherein Gates played "pod person" Dr. Dan Kaufmann. On television, Larry Gates spent several years in the role of H. B. Lewis on the CBS daytime drama The Guiding Light and was cast as President Herbert Hoover in the 1979 miniseries Backstairs at the White House.

Trivia: He was born John Williams, but there already was a John Williams in show business (several of them, in fact), so the Canadian-born actor selected John McLiam as his professional moniker. McLiam's man-on-the-street countenance could be molded into a vast array of characterizations, ranging from a cockney low-life (My Fair Lady) to a Southern redneck (Cool Hand Luke). The actor's bland normality was a key factor in his being cast as real-life murder victim Herbert Clutter in 1967's In Cold Blood. John McLiam accepted more TV guest-star assignments than can possibly be listed here; he was also a regular on the weekly series Men From Shiloh (1970) and Two Marriages (1983).