Trivia: Rugged, handsome, stalwart, taciturn leading man George Montgomery (born George Montgomery Letz) began appearing under his given name in low-budget films as an extra, stuntman, and bit player in 1935. He changed his name in 1940 when he began getting lead roles, going on to a busy screen career primarily in westerns and action films. For a time Montgomery was very popular, receiving much publicity for his offscreen romances with such stars as Ginger Rogers, Hedy Lamarr, and Dinah Shore; he and Shore were married from 1943-62. Service in World War II interrupted his career, and after the war he was assigned mostly to minor productions. He starred in the late '50s TV series Cimarron City. In the early '60s Montgomery directed, produced, and wrote several low-budget action films shot in the Philippines. He was rarely onscreen after 1970.

Trivia: American actor Bruce Cowling appeared in numerous films during the '40s and '50s. Many of those films were actioners or westerns.

Trivia: Sharp-featured character actor James Griffith set out in life to be a professional musician. He eased into acting instead, working the little-theatre route in his hometown of Los Angeles. In 1939, Griffith appeared in his first professional production, They Can't Get You Down. Following World War II service, he made his first film, Black Ice (1946). Steadily employed in westerns, James Griffith was generally cast as an outlaw, save for a few comparative good-guy assignments such as Sheriff Pat Garrett in The Law vs. Billy the Kid (1954).

Trivia: Teenaged actress Nancy Gates had already accrued a respectable string of stage and radio credits when she was signed by RKO Radio studios in 1942. She served a short apprenticeship in 2-reelers and "B"-pictures (and also showed up very briefly in Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons) before being promoted to such RKO "A"s as This Land is Mine (1943) and The Spanish Main (1945). Though a pleasant and attractive screen personality, Gates never exuded true star quality, and by the 1950s she was free-lancing in low-budget films like The Atomic City and in television. Retiring from films in 1960 to spend more time with her family, Nancy Gates began making occasional TV appearances again in such series as The Twilight Zone and Mod Squad.

Trivia: Actress Jean Willes spent the first ten years of her life shuttling up and down the West Coast; born in Los Angeles, she was raised in Salt Lake City, then moved with her family to Seattle. In 1943, she made her film debut in So Proudly We Hail. Shortly afterward, she was signed by Columbia Pictures, billed under her given name, Jean Donahue. She was busiest in Columbia's B-pictures, Westerns, and two-reel comedies, playing a statuesque brunette foil for such comedians as the Three Stooges, Sterling Holloway, Hugh Herbert, and Bert Wheeler. In 1947, she changed her billing to her married name, Jean Willes. Some of her most memorable feature-film roles included the hostess at the New Congress Club who delivers a bored, by-rote recitation of the club's rules in From Here to Eternity (1953); Kevin McCarthy's "zombie-fied" nurse in The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956); one of Clark Gable's quartet of leading ladies in A King and Four Queens (1956); the lady lieutenant who chews out Andy Griffith in No Time for Sergeants (1958); and Ernest Borgnine's would-be-sweetheart in McHale's Navy (1964). Jean Willes also made some 400 TV appearances (often as a sharp-tongued, down-to-earth blonde) in such series as The Jack Benny Show, The Twilight Zone, Perry Mason, and The Beverly Hillbillies.

Trivia: Benny Rubin inaugurated his career as a 14-year-old tap dancer in his hometown of Boston. He worked in stock and on showboats during the WWI years, breaking into burlesque as a dialect comedian in 1918. A vaudeville headliner throughout the 1920s, Rubin seemed a sure bet for movie stardom when he was signed by MGM in 1927. According to one source, however, the powers-that-be decided that Rubin looked "too Jewish" for movies. Nonetheless, he entered films during the talking era, starring in a brace of Tiffany Studios musicals -- Sunny Skies and Hot Curves, both filmed in 1930 -- before freelancing as a character actor. Though he was top-billed in a handful of two-reelers and was given prominent screen credit as one the scenarists for the Wheeler and Woolsey films Off Again -- On Again (1937) and High Flyers (1937), Rubin had to settle for bits and minor roles as a feature-film actor. He would later claim that his fall from grace was due to his bad temper and his chronic gambling. Far more successful on radio, Rubin became one of the most prominent members of Jack Benny's "stock company," usually playing an obnoxious information desk attendant ("I dunno! I dunno! I dunno!). During the 1950s and 1960s, Rubin worked steadily in TV programs, feature films, and two-reel comedies; he also worked in animated cartoons and TV commercials as a voice-over artist, truthfully proclaiming that he could convincingly convey any foreign accent -- "except Arabian." In 1973, Rubin produced a self-published, self-serving autobiography, Come Backstage With Me, in which he made innumerable specious claims about his show biz accomplishments; for example, he stated that it was he who advised fledging film director Orson Welles to hire cameraman Gregg Toland for the 1941 classic Citizen Kane (in truth, Rubin's contribution to the film was confined to a one-scene bit as a typesetter, which was cut from the final release print). Benny Rubin's final appearance was in the TV miniseries Glitter.

Trivia: William (Bill) Henry was eight years old when he appeared in his first film, Lord Jim. During his teen years, Henry dabbled with backstage duties as a technician, but continued taking roles in student productions while attending the University of Hawaii. As an adult actor, Henry was prominently billed in such films as Geronimo (1939), Blossoms in the Dust (1941) and Johnny Come Lately (1943); he also briefly starred in Columbia's "Glove Slingers" 2-reel series. In the last stages of his movie career, William Henry was something of a regular in the films of John Ford appearing in such Ford productions as Mister Roberts (1955), The Last Hurrah (1958), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and Cheyenne Autumn (1964).

Trivia: Northwestern graduate David Bruce seemed a sure bet for stardom when signed by Warner Bros. in 1940. Bruce's somewhat haunted, sallow features prevented him from being cast in traditional leading man roles, though he was ideally suited for such melodramatic fare as Calling Dr. Death (1943) and The Mad Ghoul (1943), playing a scientist turned zombie in the latter. He remained a reliable supporting actor until deciding to retire from show business in 1955. Twenty-one years later, David Bruce resolved to make a film comeback, but died of a heart attack before those plans could come to fruition.

Trivia: A mixed-blood Mohawk Indian, Jay Silverheels was the son of a Canadian tribal chief. Silverheels excelled in sports during his youth and it was this prowess that brought him to Hollywood in 1938 as a stunt man. Though most of Silverheels' earliest film appearances went uncredited, it was difficult to ignore him in such roles as the Osceola boy in Key Largo (1948) and Geronimo in Broken Arrow (1950). In 1949, Silverheels was cast as Tonto on the pilot episode of TV's The Lone Ranger. Until the series shut down production in 1956, Silverheels essayed the role of the masked man's "faithful Indian companion," while Clayton Moore (and, briefly, John Hart) was seen as the Ranger. Silverheels also co-starred in two spin-off Lone Ranger theatrical films and reprised the Tonto role in a memorable Jeno's Pizza Rolls advertisement of the 1960s ("Have-um pizza roll, kemo sabe?"). Silverheels' other film credits include a cameo in the all-star fiasco The Phynx (1970) and a pivotal role in 1973's The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing. In the 1970s, Silverheels established himself as a prize-winning horse breeder and harness racing driver. During the period, he was asked if any of his new horses were faster than Tonto's Scout, whereupon Silverheels replied, "Heck, I can beat Scout." One of Jay Silverheels' last public appearance was on a comedy sketch on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, wherein Silverheels summed up his relationship with the Lone Ranger as "30 lousy years."