Trivia: Born Sarah Jane Fulks, Jane Wyman tried to break into films as a child but was unsuccessful despite encouragement from her mother. A decade later, she began her show business career as a radio singer, using the name Jane Durrell. In 1936, she began appearing in films as a chorus girl and bit player. Eventually, she moved into secondary roles and occasional leads, usually playing brassy blondes in comic relief. She broke out of this mold with her performance in The Lost Weekend (1945), in which she demonstrated her talents as a serious actress; this led to better roles as a major star. For her work in The Yearling (1946), she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination, then won an Oscar for her portrayal of a deaf-mute rape victim in Johnny Belinda (1948). She went on to star in many films, demonstrating her versatility in both comedies and tearjerkers. She was twice more nominated for Oscars, for The Blue Veil (1951) and Magnificent Obsession (1954). After 1956, her screen work was infrequent. She returned from retirement in the early '80s to play a regular role on the TV series Falcon Crest. From 1940 to 1948, she was married to Ronald Reagan; their daughter, Maureen Reagan, was a singer-actress. After a long period of inactivity, Wyman died at age 93 in early September 2007.

Trivia: Born in Illinois, Howard Keel was raised in California by his widowed mother. Here he supported himself with odd jobs after high-school graduation, vaguely holding out hopes of becoming a professional singer. His first gig was as a singing busboy at a Los Angeles cafe for the princely wage of $15 per week. Temporarily discouraged, Keel took a job at Douglas Aircraft; the executive staff, impressed by Keel's movie-star looks and pleasant baritone, sent the young man out on a tour of Douglas' other plants, where as a "manufacturing representative" he entertained the workers while they hastened to meet their wartime quotas. After winning several singing contests, Keel was hired by Rodgers and Hammerstein; he replaced John Raitt in the Broadway production of Carousel and played Curley in the London staging of Oklahoma. It was while in England that Keel, billed as Harold Keel, made his film debut in a villainous role in The Small Voice (1949). He was brought back to Hollywood to play Frank Butler in MGM's filmization of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun. This led to leading roles in such subsequent big-budget MGM musicals as Showboat (1951), Lovely to Look At (1952), Kiss Me Kate (1953), Rose Marie (1954), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), Kismet (1955) and Jupiter's Darling (1955). Ever on the lookout for a straight, nonsinging role, Keel was occasionally satisfied with such films as Callaway Went Thataway (1951) (in which he essayed a dual role), Desperate Search (1953) and The Big Fisherman (1959). After parting company with MGM, Keel appeared in nightclub and touring companies, often in the company of his frequent MGM co-star Kathryn Grayson, and also starred in several medium-budget westerns; he also was cast in the British sci-fi classic Day of the Triffids (1963). Howard Keel's most recent on-camera credit was the sizeable supporting role of Clayton Farrow on the TV series Dallas.

Trivia: The quintessential blue-eyed, blonde-haired, freckle-faced Boy Next Door, Van Johnson was the son of a Rhode Island plumbing contractor. Making his Broadway bow in The New Faces of 1936, Johnson spent several busy years as a musical-comedy chorus boy. After understudying Gene Kelly in Pal Joey, he came to Hollywood to recreate his minor role in the film version of the Broadway musical hit Too Many Girls. Proving himself an able actor in the Warner Bros. "B" picture Murder in the Big House (1942), Johnson was signed by MGM, where he was given the traditional big buildup. He served his MGM apprenticeship as Lew Ayres' replacement in the "Dr. Kildare" series, latterly known as the "Dr. Gillespie" series, in deference to top-billed Lionel Barrymore. While en route to a preview showing of an MGM film, Johnson was seriously injured in an auto accident. This proved to be a blessing in disguise to his career: the accident prevented his being drafted into the army, thus he had the young leading-man field virtually to himself at MGM during the war years. Delivering solid dramatic performances in such major productions as The Human Comedy (1943) A Guy Named Joe (1943) and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Johnson rapidly became a favorite with the public--particularly the teenaged female public. He remained a favorite into the 1950s, alternating serious characterizations with lightweight romantic fare. One of his best roles was Lt. Maryk in The Caine Mutiny (1954), for which he was loaned to Columbia. When his MGM contract came to an end, Johnson free-lanced both in Hollywood and abroad. He also made his London stage debut as Harold Hill in The Music Man, a role he'd continue to play on the summer-theater circuit well into the 1970s. His TV work included the lead in the elaborate 1957 musical version of The Pied Piper of Hamelin (released theatrically in 1961) and his "special guest villain" turn as The Minstrel on Batman (1967). He staged a film comeback as a character actor in the late 1960s, earning excellent reviews for his work in Divorce American Style (1967). And in the mid-1980s, Van Johnson again proved that he still had the old star quality, first as one of the leads in the short-lived TVer Glitter, then in a gently self-mocking role in Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), and finally as Gene Barry's replacement in the hit Broadway musical La Cage Aux Folles (1985).

Trivia: Actor Barry Sullivan was a theater usher and department store employee at the time he made his first Broadway appearance in 1936. His "official" film debut was in the 1943 Western Woman of the Town, though in fact Sullivan had previously appeared in a handful of two-reel comedies produced by the Manhattan-based Educational Studios in the late '30s. A bit too raffish to be a standard leading man, Sullivan was better served in tough, aggressive roles, notably the title character in 1947's The Gangster and the boorish Tom Buchanan in the 1949 version of The Great Gatsby. One of his better film assignments of the 1950s was as the Howard Hawks-style movie director in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). Sullivan continued appearing in movie roles of varying importance until 1978. A frequent visitor to television, Barry Sullivan starred as Sheriff Pat Garrett in the 1960s Western series The Tall Man, and was seen as the hateful patriarch Marcus Hubbard in a 1972 PBS production of Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest.

Trivia: The wide eyes and cool smile of actress/model Phyllis Kirk graced many a magazine cover before she made her film debut in 1950. While her deep, sultry voice precluded most of the typical ingénue roles, Kirk nonetheless achieved film fame as a woman in peril, in André De Toth's 1953 3-D horror classic House of Wax. Born Phyllis Kirkegaard in Plainfield, NJ, on September 18, 1926, Kirk shortened her name after moving to the Big Apple during her teens to formally train as a thespian. She officially launched her career with a series of supporting turns on Broadway, then migrated to Hollywood in the early '50s, where she landed parts in such films as Johnny Concho (1956, opposite Frank Sinatra) and The Sad Sack (1957, opposite Jerry Lewis). During the '50s, Kirk appeared on television semi-frequently as well, guest-starring in dozens of live and prerecorded anthology series, and briefly appearing as Red Buttons' wife on the comedian's weekly variety series, The Red Buttons Show. From 1957 through 1959, Kirk starred as the inquisitive Nora Charles on the TV version of The Thin Man (Peter Lawford played her detective hubby Nick Charles). After 1960, Kirk concentrated on stage acting, but devoted the preponderance of her time to various social causes, such as establishing two inner-city preschools in south Los Angeles after the Watts riots. Kirk continued to crop up on television, however, as a celebrity contestant on such quiz shows as To Tell the Truth and Password. In 1965, she hosted an erudite ABC daytime talk show, The Young Set. A hip injury obliged Phyllis Kirk to curtail her acting career; she married a former CBS news executive and turned to the production end of the business, as a public-relations liaison for several TV specials of the 1970s.Following two decades of big- and small-screen inactivity, 79-year-old Phyllis Kirk died of a post-cerebral aneurysm at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA, on October 19, 2006.

Trivia: Miss Jeff Donnell, as she was often billed, was signed by Columbia Pictures almost immediately after her graduation from Yale Drama School. Though likeable and talented enough for leading roles, the toothy, frizzy-haired Ms. Donnell was most often seen as the heroine's best friend or as kooky comedy relief. Columbia certainly kept her busy during her ten-year stay at that studio, casting her in such "A" pictures as My Sister Eileen (1942) and In a Lonely Place (1952) and "B"s like The Boogie Man Will Get You (1942) and Thief of Damascus (1952); she is particularly amusing in the latter film as Scheherezade, garrulously insisting upon telling her Arabian Nights stories to a villainous caliph whether he likes it or not. From 1954 through 1956, Jeff was married to another longtime Columbia contractee, Aldo Ray. On television, Jeff spent four years on The George Gobel Show as Gobel's wife, "Spooky Old Alice." Jeff Donnell's last regular TV work was the recurring role of Sheila Fields on the daytime soap opera General Hospital.

Trivia: Herbert Heyes was somewhere between the ages of 10 and 13 when he first trod the boards as a member of the Baker Stock Company in Portland, Oregon. By 1910, Heyes was playing leads in the touring company run by actor/manager James K. Hackett. He was firmly established on Broadway when, in 1916, he was hired by Fox Films to play opposite Theda Bara in a series of steamy romances (Under Two Flags, Salome, etc.). Returning to New York, Heyes remained a busy stage and radio actor into the 1940s. He resumed his film career in the early 1940s, playing such character parts as department store magnate Mr. Gimbel in Miracle on 34th Street (1947), Ronald Reagan's prospective father-in-law in Bedtime for Bonzo (1951), and his favorite screen role, manufacturer Charles Eastman in George Stevens' A Place in the Sun (1951). Heyes' dignified demeanor kept him in demand throughout the 1950s for minor but pivotal roles like President Thomas Jefferson in The Far Horizons (1955) and General Pershing in The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955). Herbert Heyes was the father of writer/director Douglas Heyes, of Maverick and Twilight Zone fame.

Trivia: Former press agent Don McGuire turned to acting in 1945. McGuire's pencil-thin mustache and patronizing persona made him a useful screen antagonist to such stars as Red Skelton (The Fuller Brush Man) and Frank Sinatra (Double Dynamite). His friendship with Sinatra lead to his first screenwriting assignment, Meet Danny Wilson (1951). He was also a pal of comedian Jerry Lewis, collaborating on Jerry's "all star" home movies in the 1950s. After scripting several topnotch 1950s films--including a handful of Martin and Lewis efforts--he landed his first directorial job, the 1956 Frank Sinatra western Johnny Concho. He then directed Jerry Lewis' first solo effort, The Delicate Delinquent (1957). His third and last theatrical-feature directorial gig was 1957's Hear Me Good, a Runyonesque comedy starring TV game show host Hal March. In partnership with comedian Jackie Cooper, McGuire wrote, produced and directed Cooper's TV sitcom Hennessey. After splitting with Cooper, McGuire turned to writing novels. In 1982, Don McGuire shared an Academy Award - posthumously - with the eminent Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal - for his first draft of the Dustin Hoffman comedy blockbuster Tootsie.

Trivia: Though she played many diverse roles in films of the '50s before Leave It to Beaver (1957-1963), slim, blonde, and wholesome-looking Barbara Billingsley will always be best remembered as June Cleaver, one of the greatest mothers in the vast pantheon of television sitcom domestic goddesses. In addition to her filmwork, Billingsley also appeared on a number of television plays on such shows as Four Star Playhouse and Matinee Theater. Following the end of Beaver, Billingsley traveled extensively until the late '70s. She made her acting comeback playing the crazy "Jive Lady" in Airplane (1980). In 1983, she reprised her role as June Cleaver in the television reunion movie Still the Beaver, which spawned a television series by the same name two years later. In 1984, she gave voice to the character of Nanny in Jim Hanson's animated kids' show Muppet Babies. After that, she appeared occasionally in movies and made guest television appearances; in 1997, she played Aunt Martha in the big-screen version of Leave It to Beaver. Billingsley died in 2010 after a long illness.

Trivia: The son of actors, Percy Helton began his own career at age two in a Tony Pastor revue in which his parents were performing. The undersized Helton was a valuable juvenile player for producer David Belasco, making his film debut in a 1915 Belasco production, The Fairy and the Waif. Helton matured into adult roles under the stern guidance of George M. Cohan. After serving in the Army during World War I, Helton established himself on Broadway, appearing in such productions as Young America, One Sunday Afternoon and The Fabulous Invalid. He made his talkie debut in 1947's Miracle on 34th Street, playing the inebriated Macy's Santa Claus whom Edmund Gwenn replaces. Perhaps the quintessential "who is that?" actor, Helton popped up, often uncredited, in over one hundred succinct screen characterizations. Forever hunched over and eternally short of breath, he played many an obnoxious clerk, nosey mailman, irascible bartender, officious train conductor and tremulous stool pigeon. His credits include Fancy Pants (1950), The Robe (1953), White Christmas (1954), Rally Round the Flag Boys (1959), The Music Man (1962) and Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte (1965), as well as two appearances as sweetshop proprietor Mike Clancy in the Bowery Boys series. Thanks to his trademarked squeaky voice, and because he showed up in so many "cult" films (Wicked Woman, Kiss Me Deadly, Sons of Katie Elder), Helton became something of a high-camp icon in his last years. In this vein, Percy Helton was cast as the "Heraldic Messenger" in the bizarre Monkees vehicle Head (he showed up at the Monkees' doorstep with a beautiful blonde manacled to his wrist!), the treacherous Sweetieface in the satirical western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and the bedraggled bank clerk Cratchit on the TV series The Beverly Hillbillies.

Trivia: American general purpose actor Arthur Space was active in films from 1940. Tall, tweedy, and usually sporting a mustache, Space played just about every kind of supporting role, from Western banker to big-city detective to jewel thief. One of his largest film roles was as the delightfully eccentric inventor Alva P. Hartley in the 1944 Laurel and Hardy vehicle The Big Noise. As busy on television as in films, Arthur Space was seen on a weekly basis as Herbert Brown, the father of horse-loving teenager Velvet Brown, in the TV series National Velvet (1960-1961).

Trivia: Irish-born Matt Moore was the youngest of Hollywood's acting Moore brothers. After siblings Owen and Tom Moore had established themselves, Moore gave movies a try in 1913, and was almost immediately cast as one of the leads in the notorious Traffic in Souls (1913). His appeal fell somewhere in-between his brothers: he didn't have the charisma of Owen, but he was a far better actor than Tom. By avoiding the pitfalls of stardom, Matt Moore survived in Hollywood into the late '50s, though his leading-man days were over by 1930 and he had to be content with character parts. RKO's 1929 talkie Side Street gives modern viewers a rare opportunity to see all three Moore brothers in the same picture -- with Matt, the youngest, appearing to be the most mature of the group.

Trivia: Bookish-looking American actor King Donovan was first seen on Broadway in 1948's The Vigil and on screen in The Man From Texas (1950). Though he appeared in dozens of films, Donovan is best known for his participation in such sci-fi classics as Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953), Magnetic Monster (1953) and especially The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Musical comedy fans remember Donovan for his portrayal of the saturnine assistant director in Singin' in the Rain (1952). His many TV appearances include the recurring role of Harvey Helm on the Bob Cummings sitcom Love That Bob! and Herb Thornton on the 1965-66 family comedy Please Don't Eat the Daisies. Long married to comedienne Imogene Coca, King Donovan frequently co-starred with his wife in such stage productions as The Girls of 509 and his last theatrical effort, 1982's Nothing Lasts Forever.

Trivia: A nightclub dancer in her teens, Mae Clarke rose to prominence on the Broadway musical stage of the 1920s. In films, Clarke nearly always seemed predestined for tragedy and abuse: she played the long-suffering bride of the title character in Frankenstein (1931), the self-sacrificing trollop Molly Molloy in The Front Page (1931), and the streetwalker protagonist in Waterloo Bridge (1931). Clarke's most famous film role was one for which she received no onscreen credit: she was the recipient of James Cagney's legendary "grapefruit massage" in 1931's Public Enemy. Clarke went on to co-star with Cagney in such films as Lady Killer (1933) and Great Guy (1936); though the best of friends in real life, Cagney and Clarke usually seemed poised to bash each other's brains out onscreen. For reasons that still remain unclear, Clarke's starring career plummeted into bit roles and walk-ons by the 1950s. Her most rewarding work during that decade was on television -- it was Clarke who portrayed a middle-aged woman undergoing menopause on a controversial 1954 installment of the TV anthology Medic. Even during her career low points, Clarke retained her sense of humor. When applying for a role on one TV program, she advertised herself as a comedian, listing as a "qualification" the fact that she was at one time married to Fanny Brice's brother. Mae Clarke continued accepting minor film roles until 1970, when she retired to the Motion Picture Country Home at Woodland Hills, California.