Trivia: Born Monica Freeman, Mona Freeman was a tiny (5' 1"), spunky, blond actress with an ever-youthful face. While still in high school she became a professional model and soon was signed to a movie contract by Howard Hughes, who then sold her contract to Paramount. She began appearing in films in 1944, becoming one of movie's most popular teenage stars; as the years passed, she slowly matured on the screen from teens and ingenues to leading-lady roles. In adult roles she had less success, appearing mostly in "B"-movies. Her screen career came to an end in the late '50s, but she went on to act in over 80 TV shows. Her daughter, Monie Ellis, had a brief career as a TV actress in the mid '70s. She died in 2014 at age 97.

Trivia: June Duprez (pronounced "Du-Pray") seemed to live a charmed life for her first 22 years. Born in London in 1918 (some sources said 1921), she was the daughter of Fred Duprez, an American comedian who made his career in England's music halls. She was a natural musician, with a proficiency at the piano that seemed to make her destined for a career in the concert hall. But at 17, she decided to aim for a theatrical career instead; she joined the Coventry Repertory Company and spent eight months on the stage. In 1938, she reportedly paid for her own screen test and arranged for producer Alexander Korda, the founder and head of London Films, to see it. As a result, she was cast in two movies: a small but important role in Michael Powell's The Spy in Black (1939) and as Ethne, the romantic lead, in The Four Feathers (1939). The latter -- shot in Technicolor -- was among the largest-scale adventure films of the 1930s. Those roles led to Duprez's being cast as the Princess in Korda's grandest production of the decade, The Thief of Bagdad (1940), which proved a defining role for the actress. Her haunting beauty and understated elegance, coupled with the exotic setting of the Arabian Nights fantasy epic, made her one of the more memorable elements in a movie that was brimming over with visual splendors. As a result of the outbreak of the Second World War and Korda's financial situation, the production was moved from London to Hollywood in the spring of 1940, and when shooting was finished in September of that year, Duprez remained in Hollywood. Although she was under contract to Korda, the producer was unable to sustain a full-time independent production company in the United States, and Duprez soon found herself stranded in the film capital. Duprez was unable to get work in films initially because of her contract with Korda, and his demands (echoed by her own agent) for a very high price for her work (reportedly 50,000 dollars a picture). Once he released her, it was no less difficult for her -- The Thief of Bagdad had made such an impact that she found herself typecast in exotic Oriental roles. She couldn't find anything more than bit parts and roles in decidedly lower-ranking productions such as the serial Don Winslow of the Coast Guard. Additionally, she had lost her father just before shooting on The Thief of Bagdad had started, and all of the family's money was frozen in England, a situation that only became worse when her mother passed away soon after a voyage to Australia. (According to some contemporary accounts, her family situation was further complicated by the plight of her brother Charles, a pilot who, after being turned down by the Royal Air Force because of a vision problem, joined the Finnish Air Force. That led to his flying missions against the Soviets, but when the Germans became allied with Finland, Charles Duprez was arrested as an enemy alien and imprisoned; he managed to escape and make his way to Iceland before returning to England.) Stranded and impoverished -- and divorced, having parted with her first husband -- June Duprez would periodically hock pieces of jewelry to sustain herself, and was working at a sales job to earn enough to eat, when she crossed paths with the wife of actor Nigel Bruce. The Bruces took matters into their hands by giving the actress the couple's daughter's room to live in. She became a part of the family's extended circle, and through them she chanced to meet Cary Grant, who was a guest for dinner one night in their home. He was in the process of putting together a movie that he hoped would redefine his image on a more serious level, None But the Lonely Heart, based on a novel by Richard Llewellyn (How Green Was My Valley), and arranged for her to take a screen test. That led not only to her being cast as the female lead, but to a contract with RKO. Duprez followed that up with the starring role in And Then There Were None (1945), but she was never really comfortable with Hollywood or its demands, or its tendency to type actors, and in 1946 she joined the American Repertory Theater. She spent a major part of her career working on-stage, including a stint with Margaret Webster's drama company, and appeared in three Broadway productions, Henry VIII, What Every Woman Knows, and Androcles and the Lion. She married a second time in the late '40s and had two daughters. In later life, she lived in Rome and later in London.

Trivia: American actor James Dunn's early career embraced bit parts in silent pictures, vaudeville, and Broadway before he made his talking picture bow in Bad Girl (1931). For the next several years, Dunn appeared in sentimental "lovable scamp" leading roles; he also helped introduce Shirley Temple to feature films by co-starring with the diminutive dynamo in Stand Up and Cheer, Baby Take a Bow, and Bright Eyes, all released in 1934. When Fox merged with 20th Century Pictures in 1935, the type of domestic comedy-dramas and free-wheeling musicals in which Dunn specialized came to an end; by the end of the 1930s Dunn's appearance were confined to "B" pictures and poverty-row quickies. Dunn was given a comeback chance as Peggy Ann Garner's irresponsible alcoholic father in the 1945 drama A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The actor won an Academy Award for his performance. Eight years passed before Dunn would be seen in films again, though he found occasional solace in TV work, including his tenure as the star of a 1955 sitcom, It's a Great Life. Dunn's final movie role, filmed two years before his death, was a minor part as an agent in the all-star "trash classic" The Oscar (1966).

Trivia: Chicago-born William Marshall worked as a vocalist for orchestra leader Fred Waring before forming his own band in 1937. Marshall came to Hollywood as an actor in 1940; during his Tinseltown years, he was married to actresses Michèle Morgan and Ginger Rogers respectively. In 1950, he became a producer through the auspices of Errol Flynn, with whom he'd acted in Santa Fe Trail. Marshall and Flynn's newly formed Silver Productions came forth with Hello God, a 64-minute semi-documentary starring Flynn and produced, directed, written and narrated by Marshall. While looking for a distributor for Hello God (they never found one), the Flynn-Marshall team commenced work on the 1951 costume drama The Adventures of Captain Fabian; Robert Florey was slated to direct, but he dropped out of the project, obliging Marshall to finish the direction himself. Silver Productions was dissolved during an acrimonious legal battle, and Marshall was not heard from professionally for several years. William Marshall re-emerged in 1961 as director of the undistinguished sci-fier Phantom Planet.

Trivia: From 1922 through 1934, Iowa-born performer Frank Jenks was a song and dance man in vaudeville. He began picking up day work in Hollywood films in 1933, and by 1937 had worked his way up to a contract with Universal Pictures. Jenks was seen in sizeable character roles in films ranging from the sumptuous Deanna Durbin vehicle 100 Men and a Girl to several entries in the Crime Club B-series. He portrayed sardonic sleuth Bill Crane (a creation of mystery writer Jonathan Latimer) in the Crime Club entries The Westland Case (1937) and Lady in the Morgue (1938). Jenks' familiar Hibernian grin and salty delivery of dialogue graced many a feature of the '40s and '50s; most of the roles were supporting, though Jenks was allowed full leads in an informal series of PRC detective films of the mid '40s. Frank Jenks' most conspicuous assignment of the '50s was as Uthas P. Garvey, the Runyonesque assistant of lovable con artist Alan Mowbray on the TV series Colonel Humphrey Flack, which ran live in 1953-54 and was resurrected for 39 filmed episodes in 1958.

Trivia: In films from 1936, Dorothy Vaughan spent the next 14 years playing scores of bits and featured roles. Vaughan was at one time or another practically everyone's "mom" or "grandma," devoting the rest of the time to playing nurses, maids, governesses, and charwomen. In Westerns, she could be seen playing such no-nonsense matriarchs as the Commodore in Trail to San Antone (1947). From 1939 to 1942, Dorothy Vaughan was a regular in The Glove Slingers, a two-reel comedy series produced at Columbia.

Trivia: Indiana native Charles Arnt attended Princeton University, where he was president of the Triangle Club and where he earned a geological engineering degree. Short, balding and with an air of perpetual suspicion concerning his fellow man, Arnt seemed far older than his 30 years when he was featured in the original Broadway production of Knickerbocker Holiday. In the movies, Arnt was often cast as snoopy clerks, inquisitive next-door neighbors or curious bystanders. Charles Arnt was seen in such films as The Falcon's Brother (1942), The Great Gildersleeve (1943) and That Wonderful Urge (1948); he also played one top-billed lead, as an obsessive art dealer in PRC's Dangerous Intruder (1946).

Trivia: British actress Rosalind Ivan gained most of her fame on the Broadway and London stages, but she also appeared in several memorable Hollywood films. At age ten, Ivan was a musical prodigy who gave piano recitals in London. This early experience performing led to her become a distinguished character actress in British Theater. In 1912, she first appeared on Broadway. In addition to acting, Ivan also wrote magazine articles, and book reviews; in 1927, she translated The Brothers Karamazov for a Theatre Guild production. In film, she first gained notice for her portrayal of a nagging wife in The Suspect (1945). This led her to be cast as unpleasant women in several other films; she was so convincing in her roles that some in Hollywood called her "Ivan the Terrible."

Trivia: Even in her twenties, American actress Fay Helm exuded a clear-minded maturity that enabled her to avoid traditional ingenue roles. Signed by Columbia in 1938, Helm played Mrs. Fuddle in several of the early "Blondie" entries. At Universal in 1941, she was seen briefly as Jenny Williams, the first victim of the title character in The Wolf Man. Two years later, she was the frosty, elusive title character in the film noir classic Phantom Lady. Fay Helm also worked at Warner Bros. and RKO before her all-too-soon retirement from films in 1946.

Trivia: A former truck driver, stock broker, and radio announcer, handsome Bill Kennedy (born Willard A. Kennedy) played supporting roles in World War II melodramas before embarking on a career in B-Westerns. It began well, with Kennedy and George Dolenz sharing top billing in the 1945 Universal serial The Royal Mounted Rides Again, but Kennedy was always a bit too glib for comfort and would soon become one of Hollywood's younger Boss Villains, as well as a thorn in the side of Johnny Mack Brown in four of that veteran star's better vehicles. In the 1950s, Kennedy was busy on television becoming a guest star on such popular programs as The Lone Ranger, The Cisco Kid, The Gene Autry Show, and Death Valley Days. In addition to acting assignments, he was the announcer for the entire 1953-1957 run of Adventures of Superman.

Trivia: A kind-looking character actress from the Broadway stage (Salt Water [1929], After Tomorrow [1931], and many others), Edythe Elliott entered films in 1935 and played scores of housekeepers, nurses, housewives, and mothers. Very busy at RKO Radio in the 1940s, Elliott later turned up in a host of television guest spots in the 1950s.

Trivia: American character actress Sarah Padden was active in films from 1926 to 1955. Usually cast in peppery maternal or spinsterish roles, Padden was seen to good advantage in the films of such B-entrepreneurs as Republic, Monogram, and PRC. Her larger roles include Sam Houston's mother in Man of Conquest (1939) and the philanthropic millionairess in Reg'lar Fellers (1940). During the late '40s, Sarah Padden was cast as Mom Palooka in Monogram's Joe Palooka series.

Trivia: Born Peggy Carroll Sproul, Jean Stevens began her screen career as a chorus girl/dancer in such Columbia Pictures Grade-A productions as Bachelor Mother (1939), The More the Merrier (1943), and The Lady Takes a Chance (1943). The studio changed her name to Jean Stevens for The Return of the Durango Kid (1944), where she played a goodhearted saloon belle with much more pizzazz and verve than the stereotypical assignment called for. Despite the Western's "B" status, Columbia should have taken notice; sadly, they didn't and Stevens played out her contract in what could only generously be termed supporting parts. She was reunited with the Durango Kid (Charles Starrett) in her final film, 1946's Frontier Gunlaw.

Trivia: Versatile character actor Lucien Littlefield attended a military academy before making his first stage appearance at the age of 17, and his first film in 1913. Short and balding even in his teens, Littlefield began impersonating old men before he was of voting age. In 1925, he played the grizzled comedy relief sidekick of William S. Hart (27 years Littlefield's senior!) in Tumbleweeds; three years later he portrayed the sore-footed father of Mary Pickford (born two years before Littlefield) in My Best Girl. His most memorable silent role was as the menacing red-herring doctor in the "old dark house" mystery The Cat and the Canary (1927). When talkies came in, Littlefield was able to provide a fresh new voice for each characterization. He starred in his own Vitaphone short subjects series, The Potters, and played roles both large and small in any number of feature films. He was veterinarian Horace Meddick in Laurel and Hardy's Sons of the Desert (1934), a prissy office manager in W.C. Fields' The Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935), the snobbish Belknap-Jackson in Ruggles of Red Gap (1935), and an ancient rustic sheriff in Whistling in Brooklyn (1942). In Paramount's Henry Aldrich "B"-picture series of the 1940s, Littlefield played the recurring role of ill-tempered schoolteacher Mr. Crosley. He also wrote several screenplays, most notably the Charlie Ruggles/Mary Boland vehicle Early to Bed (1936). Reversing the usual process, Lucien Littlefield's characters became younger as he grew older, as witness his spirited performances on such TV series as Superman and The Abbott and Costello Show.

Trivia: The brassiest platinum blonde of them all, Marion Martin turned up in numerous films of the 1930s and 1940s, usually only for a moment or two but long enough to make an impression. Reportedly hailing from Philadelphia's Main Line, Martin had made her Broadway bow in a 1927 revival of Lombardi Ltd. but was rather more noticeable in burlesque where she vowed 'em with a voluptuous body and with a throaty singing voice to match. She began popping up in films around 1935 and went on to play a host of characters named Blondie, Fifi, Lola, and Dixie, rarely awarded a last name and usually only a line or two. But she almost always made the line count, as in Sinner in Paradise (1938), when he-man Bruce Cabot introduces himself with a terse "the name is Malone." "Does it make you happy," she quips, with that bored look she had come to favor. Martin's screen career lasted well into the 1950s but by then her once-statuesque build had turned quite blowsy. In her later years as the wife of a Southern California physician, she occasionally expressed a desire to return to show business but no projects materialized.