Trivia: A onetime lumberjack, Scott Brady distinguished himself as a Navy boxing champion during the war. After VJ Day, Brady took drama classes, appearing in his first film, Canon City, in 1948. Usually assigned rough-and-tumble roles (many villainous in nature), Brady exhibited a normally untapped comic prowess in the 1952 film The Model and the Marriage Broker. He continued taking lead roles in cheap westerns, horror films and science-fiction pictures into the 1960s, occasionally surfacing in "A" films like Marooned (1969) and Gremlins (1985, his last film). In 1959, Brady starred in a syndicated western series, Shotgun Slade, which allowed him the opportunity to act opposite several of his non-showbiz idols, including war hero Pappy Boyington and athlete Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch; he also had a recurring role in the 1970s anthology Police Story. Scott Brady is the younger brother of Lawrence Tierney, an actor best known for his gangster portrayals.

Trivia: Two things American actor John Russell was not: he was not cinematographer John L. Russell, nor was he the Johnny Russell who appears as Shirley Temple's brother in 20th Century-Fox's The Blue Bird (1940). He was however, a contract juvenile at Fox from 1937 through 1941. Interrupting his career for war service, Russell emerged from his tour of duty as a highly decorated marine. Busy in postwar films and TV as a secondary lead and utility villain, Russell was given costar billing with Chick Chandler in the 1955 syndicated TV adventure series Soldiers of Fortune. Four years later, Russell (now sporting a mustache) was cast as Marshal Dan Troop on the Warner Bros. weekly western series Lawman. This assignment lasted three years, after which Russell became a journeyman actor again. John Russell was well served with character parts in 1984's Honkytonk Man and 1985's Pale Rider, both directed by and starring another ex-TV-cowboy, Clint Eastwood.

Trivia: When Peggy Josephine Varnadow was signed by Universal Pictures in 1949, the public relations staff whittled down her name to the barest essentials, and thus Peggy Dow was born. The blonde actress was shown off to excellent advantage in her very first film, Undertow (1949), playing a witness to a gangland slaying. Peggy was also quite good in the thankless romantic-lead role in Harvey (1950), and even better as the steadfast girlfriend of blind war veteran Arthur Kennedy in Bright Victory (1951). Peggy Dow voluntarily ended her burgeoning film career when she married a wealthy Oklahoma oil man.

Trivia: Earning a contract with Columbia in 1946 that stipulated "A-movies only," brunette Dorothy Hart blazed onto the screen in Gunfighters (1947), an above-average Western starring Randolph Scott. Hart was apparently too ambitious to remain with also-ran studios like Columbia and Universal for long, eventually signing with Warner Bros. Unfortunately, with the possible exception of Raton Pass (1951), yet another oater in which she was billed below Patricia Neal, that studio failed to provide her with a single standout film. She turned to television instead, starring on such popular game shows as Take a Guess and Pantomime Quiz. A former model and the winner of a 1944 National Cinderella Cover Girl Contest, Hart is today best remembered for appearing, all too briefly, as Howard Duff's innocent fiancée in The Naked City, the 1948 film noir that later became the basis for the popular television crime series. Retired since the late '50s, she should not be confused with the stand-up comedienne of the same name.

Trivia: American actor Charles Sherlock made his first film in 1935 and his last in 1952. Limited to bit roles, Sherlock showed up as reporters, photographers, longshoremen, cabbies, and doctors. Befitting his name, he also appeared as cops in such films as My Buddy (1944), In Society (1944), and The Turning Point (1952). Charles Sherlock enjoyed a rare credited role, again as a cop, in the 1945 Charlie Chan entry The Scarlet Clue.

Trivia: A man often referred to as "the Henry Higgins of Hollywood," Robert Easton was one of the most sought-after dialect coaches in the movie industry for decades. In that capacity, he worked with A-list clients including Sir Laurence Olivier, Gregory Peck, Anne Hathaway, Ben Kingsley and Robert Duvall. Easton devoted the rest of his time to supporting character roles, that took advantage of his uncanny ability to slip from one regional or ethnic accent into another.In the beginning, Milwaukee native Easton earned much of his cinematic bread and butter playing Southerners. He first gained national attention as one of the "Quiz Kids" on the radio series of the same name. In films from 1949, the gangling Easton was often seen as a blank-faced, slow-talking hayseed. He appeared in guest spots on series including The Beverly Hillbillies, Get Smart, The Mod Squad and The Bionic Woman, voiced a regular character on the animated program Stingray from 1964 through 1965, and turned up in features such as Pete's Dragon, Working Girl, Pet Sematary II, Needful Things and Primary Colors. Easton died at age 81 in December 2011.

Trivia: American actor Rock Hudson was born Roy Scherer, adopting the last name Fitzgerald when his mother remarried in the mid-'30s. A popular but academically unspectacular student at New Trier High School in Winnetka, IL, he decided at some point during his high school years to become an actor, although a wartime stint in the Navy put these plans on hold. Uninspiring postwar jobs as a moving man, postman, telephone company worker, and truck driver in his new home of California only fueled his desire to break into movies, which was accomplished after he had professional photos of himself taken and sent out to the various studios. A few dead-end interviews later, he took drama lessons; his teacher advised him to find a shorter name if he hoped to become a star, and, after rejecting Lance and Derek, he chose Rock ("Hudson" was inspired by the automobile of that name). Signed by Universal-International, Hudson was immediately loaned to Warner Bros. for his first film, Fighter Squadron (1948); despite director Raoul Walsh's predictions of stardom for the young actor, Hudson did the usual contract player bits, supporting roles, and villain parts when he returned to Universal. A good part in Winchester '73 (1950) led to better assignments, and the studio chose to concentrate its publicity on Hudson's physical attributes rather than his acting ability, which may explain why the actor spent an inordinate amount of screen time with his shirt off. A favorite of teen-oriented fan magazines, Hudson ascended to stardom, his films gradually reaching the A-list category with such important releases as Magnificent Obsession (1954) and Battle Hymn (1957). Director George Stevens cast Hudson in one of his best roles, Bick Benedict, in the epic film Giant (1956), and critics finally decided that, since Hudson not only worked well with such dramatic league leaders as Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean -- but frequently outacted them in Giant -- he deserved better, less condescending reviews. Hudson's career took a giant leap forward in 1959 when he was cast in Pillow Talk, the first of several profitable co-starring gigs with Doris Day. Once again taken for granted by the mid-'60s, Hudson turned in another first-rate performance as a middle-aged man given a newer, younger body in the mordant fantasy film Seconds (1966). A longtime television holdout, Hudson finally entered the weekly video race in 1971 with the popular detective series McMillan and Wife, co-starring Susan Saint James, and appeared on the prime time soap opera Dynasty in the early '80s. Regarded by his co-workers as a good sport, hard worker, and all-around nice guy, Hudson endured a troubled private life; though the studio flacks liked to emphasize his womanizing, Hudson was, in reality, a homosexual. This had been hinted at for years by the Hollywood underground, but it was only in the early '80s that Hudson confirmed the rumors by announcing that he had contracted the deadly AIDS virus. Staunchly defended by friends, fans, and co-workers, Rock Hudson lived out the remainder of his life with dignity, withstanding the ravages of his illness, the intrusions of the tabloid press, and the less than tasteful snickerings of the judgmental and misinformed. It was a testament to his courage -- and a tragedy in light of his better film work -- that Hudson will be principally remembered as the first star of his magnitude to go public with details of his battle with AIDS. He died in 1985.

Trivia: Australian actress Marjorie Bennett made her first film appearances in the pre-World War I years at the suggestion of her sister, silent film star Enid Bennett. Marjorie wasn't yet under the spell of the acting bug, so she abandoned performing for several years, re-emerging as a stage rather than screen actress. She returned to films in the late 1940s as a character player, notably in Charles Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and Limelight (1952). A prolific film and TV performer of the 1950s and 1960s, Marjorie Bennett was usually cast as huffy society matrons and haughty domestics; her massive bulk and easily outraged demeanor made her a perfect straight woman for such iconoclastic comedians as Red Skelton and the Three Stooges.

Trivia: With her scrawny body and puckered-persimmon face, Almira Sessions successfully pursued a six-decade acting career. Born into a socially prominent Washington family, Sessions almost immediately followed her "coming out" as a debutante with her first stage appearance, playing a sultan's wizened, ugly wife in The Sultan of Sulu. She briefly sang comic songs in cabarets before pursuing a New York stage career. In 1940, she traveled to Hollywood to play Cobina of Brenda and Cobina, an uproariously if cruelly caricatured brace of man-hungry spinsters who appeared regularly on Bob Hope's radio show (Elvia Allman was Brenda). Sessions' first film was the 1940 Judy Garland vehicle Little Nellie Kelly. Until her retirement in 1971, she played dozens of housekeepers, gossips, landladies, schoolmarms, maiden aunts, and retirement-home residents. Usually appearing in bits and minor roles, Almira Sessions was always given a few moments to shine onscreen, notably as an outraged in-law in Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux (1947), the flustered high school teacher in the observatory scene in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and the hero's inquisitive neighbor in Willard (1971).