Trivia: American actor John Garfield, when judged by looks and attitude alone, seemed more the pugnacious, defiant urban thug than one of Hollywood's most respected dramatic actors of the '30s and '40s. As evidence of his popularity, despite the fact that many insiders considered Garfield's personal ways and beliefs a bit radical, the attendance at his funeral in 1952 broke the records set at Rudolph Valentino's funeral. He was born Julius Garfinkle, the son of poor Jewish immigrants from New York's Lower-East-Side ghettos. Poverty was the norm there, and life was tough. Young Garfield's juvenile delinquent tendencies landed him in a special school for problem children. Still, it was almost inevitable that he would get involved with neighborhood street gangs. He may have remained on those streets struggling to survive, had Garfield not had a special gift for debate, a talent that won him a state-wide contest sponsored by the New York Times. The ensuing scholarship gained him entrance into the Ouspenskaya Drama School and an apprenticeship in repertory theater. Afterward, Garfield hit the road and became a freight-train-hopping hobo and transient worker, but by the late 1930s he returned home to join the Group Theater.Following a role in Odet's production of Golden Boy, Garfield landed a contract with Warners and made his film debut in the melodramatic tragedy Four Daughters (1938). He played a cynical, embittered piano prodigy who finds redemption through a young woman's love, and for her well-being he makes the ultimate sacrifice. It was a powerful multi-textured performance that led to his receiving a nomination for "Best Supporting Actor." Following that success, he appeared in a brief series based on the film and then continued playing assorted angry young men and ill-fated outsiders in such films as Dust Be My Destiny. Though his appearance and demeanor locked him into playing tough outsiders and anti-heroes, Garfield was a versatile actor who unsuccessfully fought with studio heads to play different kinds of roles to demonstrate his true range. Glimpses of it can be seen in such powerful films as Pride of the Marines (1945) in which he plays a real-life war hero who must cope with his battle-caused blindness back home.Beginning with MGM's classic The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), Garfield began to establish himself in film noir. He is still considered one of the best actors in that genre, with one of his best films being Force of Evil in which he played a corrupt attorney. Following the end of his Warner's contract, Garfield founded Enterprise Productions and began free-lancing. His distinctly leftist views and staunch support of the working class lead to his being labeled a communist sympathizer by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. He did not cooperate at the official hearings and suddenly found it difficult to find work. Though he returned briefly to the theater, Garfield did not flourish. At the age of 39, he died of coronary thrombosis, a condition that some have attributed to the stress the Committee placed upon him. His two surviving children, Julie Garfield and David Patton Garfield (aka John David Garfield or John Garfield Jr.), both became actors during the 1960s.

Trivia: The son of British stage actor Frederick Rains, Claude Rains gave his first theatrical performance at age 11 in Nell of Old Drury. He learned the technical end of the business by working his way up from being a two-dollars-a-week page boy to stage manager. After making his first U.S. appearance in 1913, Rains returned to England, served in the Scottish regiment during WWI, then established himself as a leading actor in the postwar years. He was also featured in one obscure British silent film, Build Thy House. During the 1920s, Rains was a member of the teaching staff at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art; among his pupils were a young sprout named Laurence Olivier and a lovely lass named Isabel Jeans, who became the first of Rains' six wives. While performing with the Theatre Guild in New York in 1932, Rains filmed a screen test for Universal Pictures. On the basis of his voice alone, the actor was engaged by Universal director James Whale to make his talking-picture debut in the title role of The Invisible Man (1933). During his subsequent years at Warner Bros., the mellifluous-voiced Rains became one of the studio's busiest and most versatile character players, at his best when playing cultured villains. Though surprisingly never a recipient of an Academy award, Rains was Oscar-nominated for his performances as the "bought" Senator Paine in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), the title character in Mr. Skeffington (1944), the Nazi husband of Ingrid Bergman in Notorious (1946), and, best of all, the cheerfully corrupt Inspector Renault in Casablanca (1942). In 1946, Rains became one of the first film actors to demand and receive one million dollars for a single picture; the role was Julius Caesar, and the picture Caesar and Cleopatra. He made a triumphant return to Broadway in 1951's Darkness at Noon. In his last two decades, Claude Rains made occasional forays into television (notably on Alfred Hitchcock Presents) and continued to play choice character roles in big-budget films like Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).

Trivia: Born Mary Robison. In her late teens she moved to the U.S. with no intention of becoming an actress; a few years later she became a widow, and in 1884 she took up acting to support her three children. She played both leads and supporting roles on the road and on Broadway, and over several decades she became highly respected as a character actress. From 1914-19 she appeared in a few silent films (sometimes billed as Mrs. Stuart Robson), then returned to the screen for good in 1926 and fourished in the subsequent sound era. She was usually cast as crusty, gruff, domineering society matrons or grandmothers. For her portrayal of Damon Runyon's Apple Annie in Frank Capra's Lady for a Day (1933), one of her rare starring roles, she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Ultimately she appeared in more than 60 films, the last of which was released the year of her death.

Trivia: American actress Gloria Dickson, born Thais Dickerson in Pocatello, Idaho, began acting in stock and touring companies when she was only twelve. In 1937 she made her feature-film debut in Mervyn LeRoy's They Won't Forget. As a contract player for Warner Bros, she went on to play leads in minor films and supporting leads in "A" movies. Tragically, at the age of 28, Gloria Dickson died in a fire at her home.

Trivia: Ann Sheridan was born Clara Lou Sheridan, the name under which she was billed in 1934 and part of 1935. At 18 she won a "Search for Beauty" contest, and was rewarded with a bit part in a film by that name (1934). Signed to a contract, she appeared in small roles in more than 20 films throughout the next two years. She changed her first name and, in 1936, switched studios to Warner Bros., which launched a publicity campaign hyping her as the sexy "Oomph Girl." Sheridan went on to a very busy career in better roles, usually cast as a wise, practical girl; her work in King's Row (1942) best demonstrated her acting ability and opened the door to a wider variety of parts. She remained popular and busy through the early '50s, when available roles began drying up for her; by the mid '50s her screen career was over. She later starred in the TV soap opera "Another World" and on "live" TV dramatic shows, and also worked in stock. At the time of her death from cancer she was starring in the TV series Pistols 'n' Petticoats. She was married three times: to actors Edward Norris, George Brent, and Scott McKay.

Trivia: The original leader of the original "Dead End Kids," American actor Billy Halop came from a theatrical family; his mother was a dancer and his sister Florence was a busy radio actress. After several years as a well-paid radio juvenile, Billy was cast as Tommy Gordon in the Broadway production of Sidney Kingsley's Dead End (1935), where thanks to his previous credentials he was accorded star status. Travelling to Hollywood with the rest of the Dead End Kids when Samuel Goldwyn produced a film version of the play in 1937, Billy had no trouble lining up important roles, specializing in tough kids, bullies and reform school inmates in such major pictures as Dust be My Destiny (1939) and Tom Brown's School Days (1940). A long-standing rivalry between Halop and fellow Dead-Ender Leo Gorcey (both actors wanted to be the leader of the gang) led to Billy's breakaway from the Dead End Kids and its offspring groups, the East Side Kids and the Bowery Boys, though Halop briefly starred in Universal's "Little Tough Guys" films. After serving in World War II, Halop found that he'd grown too old to be effective in the roles that had brought him fame; at one point he was reduced to starring in a cheap "East Side Kids" imitation at PRC studios, Gas House Kids (1946). Diminishing film work, marital difficulties and a drinking problem eventually ate away at Halop's show business career. In 1960, he married a multiple sclerosis victim, and the nursing skills he learned while taking care of his wife led him to steady work as a registered nurse at St. John's Hospital in Malibu. For the rest of his life, Billy Halop supplemented his nursing income with small TV and movie roles, gaining a measure of latter-day prominence as Archie Bunker's cab-driving pal Bert Munson on the '70s TV series All in the Family.

Trivia: Juvenile actor Bobby Jordan worked in radio, industrial films and as a child model before making his Broadway bow at age seven. He attended New York's Professional Children's School, making an excellent impression along with several of his classmates in Sidney Kingsley's 1935 play Dead End. This assignment took Jordan to Hollywood, along with fellow "Dead End Kids" Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Billy Halop, Gabriel Dell and Bernard Punsley. Though he most often appeared on screen with his Dead End companions, Jordan occasionally took a meaty solo supporting role, such as "Douglas Fairbanks Rosenbloom" in the 1938 gangster farce A Slight Case of Murder. Jordan went along for the ride when the Dead End Kids became the East Side Kids at Monogram studios in the early 1940s; in these cheap but endearing films, Jordan usually played the character who got into deep trouble, obliging Gorcey, Hall and the rest of the ever-aging "Kids" to bail him out. He left the East Side aggregation for military service in 1943, returning to the fold in 1946, by which time the group had reinvented himself as the Bowery Boys. Unhappy that his career as a leading man had never truly gained any momentum, Jordan left films in the late 1940s, taking on several odd jobs, ranging from bartender to oil-field worker; he re-emerged on screen as Robert Jordan for a bit in the 1956 western This Man is Armed. The rest of Jordan's life was blighted with marital problems, drunkenness, and continual run-ins with the law. Bobby Jordan died of cirrhosis of the liver at age 42.

Trivia: The shortest and most pugnacious of the original Dead End Kids, American actor Leo Gorcey was the son of character player Bernard Gorcey. The elder Gorcey encouraged Leo to audition as one of the tough street gang in the 1935 stage production of Sidney Kingsley's Dead End, which Leo did reluctantly; he was content with his apprentice job at his uncle's plumbing shop. When he temporarily lost that position, Leo was cast in a bit role in Dead End, eventually working his way up to the important part of Spit, the gang stool pigeon. Producer Samuel Goldwyn decided to make Dead End into a movie in 1937, further deciding to hire Leo and his fellow "kids" Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Bernard Punsley and Bobby Jordan for the movie version. The six streetwise hooligans scored an immediate hit with the public, paving the way for several films starring or featuring "The Dead End Kids", the best of which was Angels With Dirty Faces (1938).In 1939, the kids splintered off into subgroups, some of them heading for Universal Studios as the "Little Tough Guys". The following year, Leo Gorcey was signed by bargain-basement Monogram Pictures for a new series of "B" pictures produced by Sam Katzman--"The East Side Kids". Gorcey assumed the leading role of Muggs McGuiness, and by the time the series had run its course after 22 pictures in 1945, he'd been joined by his old Dead End buddies Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan and Gabe Dell. Determined to get a bigger piece of the financial pie and to have more say over production, Gorcey and Hall teamed with their agent Jan Grippo to reorganize the East Side Kids as the less scruffy but no less trouble-prone "Bowery Boys". In 1946, the first Bowery Boy picture, Live Wires, was released, launching a lucrative series of low-budget features that lasted for 48 installments. Despite the furious pace of production on those two films series, Gorcey also took on outside acting jobs during the first decade or so of his career -- he turned up in supporting roles of varying sizes in a multitude of movies, including the drama Out Of the Fog, the Nancy Drew-style programmer Down in San Diego (both 1941), the musical Born To Sing (1942), the World War II action film Destroyer (1943), and the comedy So This Is New York (1948), the latter the first movie produced by Stanley Kramer (who would use Gorcey in a bit role in his gargantuan comedy It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World some 15 years later). The Bowery Boys personnel fluctuated in size and prominence over the next twelve years, but Leo Gorcey as malaprop-spouting, two-fisted Slip Mahoney and Huntz Hall as lame-brained Sach Jones were clearly the stars. Gorcey stayed with the series until the 1955 death of his father Bernard, who'd been cast in the supporting role of gullible sweet-shop proprietor Louie Dumbrowski in most of the films. Too grief stricken to continue, Leo bowed out of the series with Crashing Las Vegas (1956), leaving Huntz Hall to co-star in the remaining six "Bowery Boys" films with Stanley Clements. Working in films only fitfully over the next 14 years, Leo was content with managing his land holdings. He also missed the chance for some fresh pop-culture immortality on the original cover of the Beatles' 1967 Sergeant Pepper album -- Gorcey and Huntz Hall were originally depicted side-by-side in the cover design, but Gorcey's insistence upon being paid resulted in his image being airbrushed out. By the time of his death in 1969, Leo Gorcey was financially secure thanks to TV residual payments from his 42 "Bowery Boys" features.

Trivia: The 14th of 16 children born to a New York air-conditioner repairman and his wife, Henry Richard Hall was nicknamed "Huntz" because of his Teutonic-looking nose. At the ripe old age of one year, Huntz made his stage debut in Thunder on the Left. He went on to attend New York's Professional Children's School, perform in radio programs and at least one experimental TV broadcast, and sing with a youthful quintette; the last activity came to an end when he "ruined" his voice hawking peanuts at Madison Square Garden. In 1935, Hall was cast as slum-kid Dippy in Sidney Kingsley's Dead End, repeating the role in the 1937 screen version. Together with his fellow "Dead End Kids" Leo Gorcey, Gabriel Dell, Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan and Bernard Punsley. Hall was signed by Warner Bros in 1938. In between such Warners' assignments as Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) and They Made Me a Criminal (1939), Hall co-starred with Halop, Dell, Punsley and Leo Gorcey's brother David in Universal's Little Tough Guy, the first of many "Dead End Kid" spin-offs. During his years at Universal, Hall began developing his trademarked goofy comic style, which came to full fruition when he was reunited with Leo Gorcey in Sam Katzman's East Side Kids series at Monogram. Previously, his character name (and character) had changed from film to film: at Monogram, Hall was consistently cast as Gorcey's perennial punching bag Glimpy. Occasionally, he accepted non-"East Side Kids" assignments in the mid-1940s, earning high critical praise for his performance as Carraway in Lewis Milestone's A Walk in the Sun. In 1946, Hall, Gorcey and producer Jan Grippo created the Bowery Boys series for Monogram. Hall played the increasingly buffoonish Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones in 48 inexpensive but profitable "Bowery Boys" entries, graduating to top billing when Gorcey left the series in 1955. After the final Bowery Boys entry in 1958, he appeared in nightclubs and dinner-theater productions. Thanks to his 10% ownership of the Bowery Boys series and his investments in offshore oil, Hall was wealthy enough to retire in the early 1960s, but he was never able to completely divest himself of the urge to perform. His post-"Sach" appearances include a semi-heavy role in Ivan Tors' Gentle Giant (1977), regular stints in the weekly TV series The Chicago Teddy Bears (1971), The Ghost Busters (1975) and Uncle Croc's Block (1977), his unexpectedly effective portrayal of movie mogul Jesse Lasky in Ken Russell's Valentino (1977), and any number of supporting roles in such R-rated fare as Gas Pump Girls and Auntie Lee's Meat Pies. He also turned director for the made-for-TV feature Lost Island (1979). Hall was appointed by Princess Grace to Monaco's Council on Drug Abuse in the 1970s. Huntz Hall remained active on the nostalgia-convention circuit into the 1990s until his death in early 1999.

Trivia: The third oldest of the original "Dead End Kids," Gabriel Dell was the only member of that group to enjoy a truly successful solo career. As a reward for his academic achievements, young Dell was permitted to enter New York's Professional Children's School, with his Italian-immigrant father paying his tuition. His first Broadway play was Sidney Kingsley's Dead End, in which he played the sickly street punk "T.B." Together with his Dead End co-stars Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan and Bernard Punsley, Dell was brought to Hollywood for the 1937 film version of the Kingsley play. This led to several other appearances with the Dead End Kids in such Warner Bros. productions as Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) and They Made Me a Criminal (1939). He also worked with two of the "Kid's" splinter groups, the Little Tough Guys and the East Side Kids. Unlike his cohorts Gorcey and Hall, Dell's character changed from picture to picture. After serving in World War II, Dell rejoined his old cinematic gang, now renamed The Bowery Boys. As "Gabe Moreno," Dell generally played the most mature member of the bunch, often a law enforcement officer or crusading reporter. Tired of playing third fiddle to Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall, Dell quit the Bowery Boys cold in 1950, accepting a role in the Broadway Revue Tickets Please. Deciding to learn to be a "real" actor rather than an overgrown juvenile, Dell studied at the Actors' Studio and took dancing lessons. In the late 1950s, Dell achieved fame as a supporting comedian on The Steve Allen Show, participating in comic sketches with the likes of Tom Poston, Don Knotts, Dayton Allen and Bill Dana. During this period, he developed his famous Bela Lugosi impression, which he'd later repeat in nightclub appearances and on the best-selling record album Famous Movie Monsters Speak. Dell's Broadway career thrived in the 1960s, with well-received appearances in such plays as The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, Luv and Adaptation. Dell's post-Bowery Boy film appearances included Who is Harry Kellerman and Why is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971) and a starring role in the The Manchu Eagle Murder Caper Mystery (1975). A prolific TV guest star, Gabe Dell was starred in the 1972 sitcom The Corner Bar, and five years later was cast as the son of the Devil (Mickey Rooney) in Norman Lear's short-lived comedy-fantasy A Year at the Top.

Trivia: Bernard Punsly (sometimes misspelled Punsley) was 13 years old when he landed his very first acting job in the Broadway play Dead End. Young Punsly played Milty, the gormless new inductee into the street gang which figures so prominently in the play's proceedings. When Dead End was filmed by Sam Goldwyn in 1937, Punsly was brought to Hollywood to repeat his role, along with his fellow Dead End Kids Billy Halop, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, and Bobby Jordan. Unlike the others, who strived to uphold their tough-guy images in real life, Punsly was of a gentler nature, insisting that he was a "punk" only when the cameras were rolling. He also wasn't all that interested in pursuing a show-business career; outside of his work in the Dead End Kids and Little Tough Guys spin-off films, he made only one other movie appearance, playing a caddy in The Big Broadcast of 1938. His last film was the Little Tough Guys entry Mug Town. Punsly left movies behind permanently when he joined the Army medical corps in WWII. Completing his internal-medicine studies at the University of Georgia, he became Bernard Punsly, M.D., which he remained until his retirement in the late '80s.

Trivia: Trained for an industrial career but sidetracked into showbiz by a few seasons at Pasadena Playhouse, "Mr. Average Man" utility player John Ridgely spent most of his Hollywood years at Warner Bros. From his first film Submarine D-1 (1937), Ridgely was one of the studio's most reliable and ubiquitous supporting players, portraying first-reel murder victims, last-reel "surprise" killers, best friends, policemen, day laborers, and military officers. One of his largest film roles was the commanding officer in Howard Hawks' Air Force (1943), in which he was billed over the more famous John Garfield. His indeterminate features could also convey menace, as witness his portrayal of blackmailing gangsters Eddie Mars in Hawks' The Big Sleep (1946). Freelancing after 1948, John Ridgely continued to essay general-purpose parts until he left films in 1953; thereafter he worked in summer-theater productions and television until his death from a heart attack at the age of 58.

Trivia: A specialist in hard-boiled dame roles, Barbara Pepper made her first film appearances as a Goldwyn Girl; she was prominent among the nubile slaves who were garbed only in floor-length blonde wigs in Goldwyn's Roman Scandals (1933). Pepper's one shot at stardom came in King Vidor's Our Daily Bread, in which she played the sluttish vamp who led hero Tom Keene astray; unfortunately, the film was not successful enough, nor her performance convincing enough, to lead to larger parts. She spent the next 30 years in supporting roles and bits, most often playing brassy goodtime girls. A radical weight gain in the 1950s compelled Pepper to alter her screen image; she quickly became adept at portraying obnoxious middle-aged tourists, snoopy next-door neighbors, belligerent landladies, and the like. Pepper's best friend in Hollywood was Lucille Ball, another alumna of the Goldwyn Girl ranks. At one point in 1951,Pepper was a candidate for the role of Ethel Mertz on I Love Lucy. In her last decade, Barbara Pepper gained a whole new crop of fans thanks to her recurring appearances as Doris Ziffel on the TV sitcom Green Acres.

Trivia: Blunt, burly American actor William B. Davidson was equally at home playing gangster bosses, business executives, butlers and military officials. In films since 1914, Davidson seemed to be in every other Warner Bros. picture made between 1930 and 1935, often as a Goliath authority figure against such pint-sized Davids as James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson. In the early '40s, Davidson was a fixture of Universal's Abbott and Costello comedies, appearing in In the Navy (1941), Keep 'Em Flying (1941) and In Society (1944). In Abbott & Costello's Hold That Ghost (1941), Davidson shows up as Moose Matson, the dying gangster who sets the whole plot in motion. An avid golfer, William B. Davidson frequently appeared in the all-star instructional shorts of the '30s starring legendary golf pro Bobby Jones.

Trivia: American actor Ward Bond was a football player at the University of Southern California when, together with teammate and lifelong chum John Wayne, he was hired for extra work in the silent film Salute (1928), directed by John Ford. Both Bond and Wayne continued in films, but it was Wayne who ascended to stardom, while Bond would have to be content with bit roles and character parts throughout the 1930s. Mostly playing traffic cops, bus drivers and western heavies, Bond began getting better breaks after a showy role as the murderous Cass in John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln (1939). Ford cast Bond in important roles all through the 1940s, usually contriving to include at least one scene per picture in which the camera would favor Bond's rather sizable posterior; it was an "inside" joke which delighted everyone on the set but Bond. A starring role in Ford's Wagonmaster (1950) led, somewhat indirectly, to Bond's most lasting professional achievement: His continuing part as trailmaster Seth Adams on the extremely popular NBC TV western, Wagon Train. No longer supporting anyone, Bond exerted considerable creative control over the series from its 1957 debut onward, even seeing to it that his old mentor John Ford would direct one episode in which John Wayne had a bit role, billed under his real name, Marion Michael Morrison. Finally achieving the wide popularity that had eluded him during his screen career, Bond stayed with Wagon Train for three years, during which time he became as famous for his offscreen clashes with his supporting cast and his ultra-conservative politics as he was for his acting. Wagon Train was still NBC's Number One series when, in November of 1960, Bond unexpectedly suffered a heart attack and died while taking a shower.

Trivia: In films from 1911, American actor Robert Strange was largely confined to walk-on roles as bankers, landlords, lawyers, and doctors. Cast as Kettler in the 1929 serial King of the Kongo, Strange launched his lengthy career in "chapter plays." He went on to play such serial roles as John Malcolm in The Adventures of Captain Marvel (1940) and Professor Gordon in The Perils of Nyoka (1942). Robert Strange's grandfatherly facial features were cast in a satanic light when he was cast as the court clerk for the "jury of the damn'd" in 1941's The Devil and Daniel Webster.

Trivia: It was once said of the versatile Louis Jean Heydt that he played everything except a woman. Born in New Jersey, the blonde, chiseled-featured Heydt attended Worcester Academy and Dartmouth College. He briefly served as a reporter on the New YorkWorld before opting for a stage career. Among his Broadway appearances was the lead in Preston Sturges' Strictly Dishonorable, establishing a long working relationship with Sturges that would extend to the latter's film productions The Great McGinty (1940) and The Great Moment (1942). Heydt's film characters often seemed destined to be killed off before the fourth reel, either because they were hiding something or because they'd just stumbled upon important information that could prove damaging to the villains. He was knocked off in the first three minutes of Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939) and was shot full of holes just before revealing an important plot point to Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946) (this after an unforgettable interrogation scene in which Heydt is unable to look Bogart straight in the eye). Heydt's many other assignments include the hungry soldier in Gone with the Wind (1939), Mentor Graham in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), a frustrated general practitioner in Tortilla Flat (1941), a squadron leader in Gung Ho (1943) and a loquacious rural family man in Come to the Stable (1949). Our Gang fans will recall Heydt as Bobby Blake's stepfather in the MGM "Gang" shorts Dad For a Day (1939) and All About Hash (1940). A ubiquitous TV actor, Louis Jean Heydt was seen on many anthology series, and as a semi-regular on the 1958 syndicated adventure weekly MacKenzie's Raiders.

Trivia: A child prodigy from New Zealand, Ra Hould (born Richard Arthur Hould) began his long screen career as a sort of poor man's Freddie Bartholomew at Republic Pictures, for whom he starred in Dangerous Holiday (1937). He basically played himself, a ten-year-old violinist, and several commented on his likeness to MGM's Bartholemew, Variety opining: "Likeness may bring Hould attention for a time but will probably react against his chances in the end." When Bartholomew became entangled in a contract dispute with Metro, Hould replaced him in Thoroughbreds Don't Cry (1937), earning above-title billing along with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. The studio changed his name to Ronald Sinclair and under that moniker he went on to portray Edward IV as a boy in Universal's quasi-horror show Tower of London (1939) and Jasper King, the rich boy in Columbia's Five Little Peppers series (1939-1940). Adolescence, however, reared its ugly head and Hould/Sinclair eventually found a new career as a film editor. From 1954, he worked closely with maverick producer/director Roger Corman and low-budget director Bert I. Gordon, editing such camp classics as Swamp Woman (1955), The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (1958), and Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965).

Trivia: After a substantial stage career, American actor Cliff Clark entered films in 1937. His movie credits ranged from Mountain Music to the 1953 Burt Lancaster/Virginia Mayo affair South Sea Woman. The weather-beaten Clark usually played surly city detectives, most frequently in RKO's Falcon series of the 1940s. In 1944, Clark briefly ascended from "B"s to "A"s in the role of his namesake, famed politico Champ Clark, in the 20th Century-Fox biopic Wilson. And in the 1956 TV series Combat Sergeant, Cliff Clark was second-billed as General Harrison.

Trivia: American actor Dick Wessel had a face like a Mack Truck bulldog and a screen personality to match. After several years on stage, Wessel began showing up in Hollywood extra roles around 1933; he is fleetingly visible in the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup (1933), Laurel and Hardy's Bonnie Scotland (1935), and the Columbia "screwball" comedy She Couldn't Take It (1935). The size of his roles increased in the '40s; perhaps his best feature-film showing was as the eponymous bald-domed master criminal in Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946). He was a valuable member of Columbia Pictures' short subject stock company, playing a variety of bank robbers, wrestlers, jealous husbands and lazy brother-in-laws. Among his more memorable 2-reel appearances were as lovestruck boxer "Chopper" in The Three Stooges' Fright Night (1947), Andy Clyde's invention-happy brother-in-law in Eight Ball Andy (1948), and Hugh Herbert's overly sensitive strongman neighbor in Hot Heir (1947). Wessel was shown to good (if unbilled) advantage as a handlebar-mustached railroad engineer in the superspectacular Around the World in 80 Days (1956), and had a regular role as Carney on the 1959 TV adventure series Riverboat. Dick Wessel's farewell screen appearance was as a harried delivery man in Disney's The Ugly Dachshund (1965).

Trivia: Irving Bacon entered films at the Keystone Studios in 1913, where his athletic prowess and Ichabod Crane-like features came in handy for the Keystone brand of broad slapstick. He appeared in over 200 films during the silent and sound era, often playing mailmen, soda jerks and rustics. In The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938) it is Irving, as a flustered jury foreman, who delivers the film's punchline. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Irving played the recurring role of Mr. Crumb in Columbia's Blondie series; he's the poor postman who is forever being knocked down by the late-for-work Dagwood Bumstead, each collision accompanied by a cascade of mail flying through the air. Irving Bacon kept his hand in throughout the 1950s, appearing in a sizeable number of TV situation comedies.

Trivia: The older brother of actresses Etta and Hattie McDaniel, Sam McDaniel began his stage career as a clog dancer with a Denver minstrel show. Later on, he co-starred with his brother Otis in another minstrel troupe, this one managed by his father Henry. Sam and his sister Etta moved to Hollywood during the talkie revolution, securing the sort of bit roles usually reserved for black actors at that time. He earned his professional nickname "Deacon" when he appeared as the "Doleful Deacon" on The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour, a Los Angeles radio program. During this period, Sam encouraged his sister Hattie to come westward and give Hollywood a try; he even arranged Hattie's first radio and nightclub singing jobs. McDaniel continued playing minor movie roles doormen, porters, butlers, janitors while Hattie ascended to stardom, and an Academy Award, as "Mammy" in Gone with the Wind (1939). During the 1950s, McDaniel played a recurring role on TV's Amos 'N' Andy Show.

Trivia: Mountainous American actor Bert Roach reportedly launched his film career at the Keystone Studios in 1914. The porcine Mr. Roach remained in comedy during his years of comparative prominence in the '20s, providing jovial support to the romantic leads in such films as Tin Hats (1927). In talkies, Roach occasionally enjoyed a substantial role, notably as Leon Waycoff's whining roomate in Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932). In general, Bert Roach's talkie career consisted of featured and bit parts, often as a sentimental inebriate (e.g. 1932's Night World and 1934's The Thin Man).

Trivia: Stocky character actor Eddy Chandler's movie career stretched from 1915 to 1947. In 1930, Chandler was afforded a large (if uncredited) role as Blondell, partner in crime of villain Ralf Harolde, in the RKO musical extravaganza Dixiana. Thereafter, he made do with bit parts, usually playing cops or military officers. His brief appearance in Frank Capra's It Happened One Night as the bus driver who begins singing "The Man on a Flying Trapeze"--and plows his bus into a ditch as a result--assured him choice cameos in all future Capra productions. Chandler can also be seen as the Hospital Sergeant in 1939's Gone with the Wind. One of Eddy Chandler's few billed roles was Lewis in Monogram's Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944).

Trivia: After establishing himself on the New York stage, Elliott Sullivan headed to Hollywood in 1937, where over the next dozen years he would appear in nearly 80 films. Somewhat forbidding in appearance, Sullivan specialized in gangster roles, impersonating such characters as "Lefty" and "Mugsy" in films like King of the Underworld (1938) and The Man Who Talked Too Much (1942). He managed to squeeze in a few early TV assignments before falling victim to the Hollywood Blacklist. Sullivan spent the 1950s working in England as a dialogue coach. In the years just prior to his death, Elliot Sullivan made a brief comeback in such films as On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), The Spikes Gang (1974) and The Great Gatsby (1974).

Trivia: Silent film star Frank Mayo was in movies as early as 1913 when he began a long association with the World Film Company of New Jersey; later he was most closely linked with Universal Pictures. Equally impressive in a dinner jacket or rugged outdoor garb, Mayo was a dependable strong-and-stalwart hero in such Hollywood films as The Brute Breaker (19), Afraid to Fight (22) and Souls for Sale (23). Toward the end of the silent era, Mayo married actress Dagmar Godowsky, whose star began ascending even as her husband's eclipsed; the marriage was annulled in 1928. Confined to bit and extra roles in the 1930s and 1940s, Frank Mayo was frequently hired by producer Jack Warner and director Cecil B. DeMille, both of whom regularly employed the faded stars of the silent years; Mayo's final appearance was in DeMille's Samson and Delilah (49).

Trivia: A film actor from 1914, Cliff Saum was much in demand during WWI as scurrilous Teutonic types. Saum also served as assistant director for By Whose Hand? (1927) and other silent productions. From 1930 to 1942, he essayed dozens of bits and supporting roles, usually at Warner Bros. Amidst many one-day roles as detectives, truck drivers, and the like, Cliff Saum played a comic Native American named Chief Thunderbird in 1940's Ladies Must Live.

Trivia: Stage and vaudeville alumnus John Sheehan joined the American Film Company in 1914. After a handful of starring roles, Sheehan went back to the stage, returning to films in 1930. For the next 20 years, he played scores of minor roles, usually as raffish tuxedoed types in speakeasy and gambling-parlor scenes. As a loyal member of the Masquers' Club, a theatrical fraternity, John Sheehan starred in the Masquers' two-reel comedy Stout Hearts and Willing Hands (1931), then went on to appear in support of such short-subject stars as Charley Chase and Clark McCullough.

Trivia: British actor Leyland Hodgson launched his theatrical career at the advanced age of six. From 1915 to 1919, Hodgson toured the British provinces of the Orient with the Bandmann Opera Company, then retraced most of this tour as head of his own stock company. A star of the Australian stage from 1920 to 1929, Hodgson moved to Hollywood, where he made his film bow in RKO's The Case of Sergeant Grischa (1930). Largely confined to minor roles in films, Hodgson enjoyed some prominence as a regular of Universal's Sherlock Holmes films of the 1940s. Otherwise, he contented himself with bits as butlers, military officers, hotel clerks, reporters and chauffeurs until his retirement in 1948. Either by accident or design, Leyland Hodgson was frequently teamed on screen with another busy British utilitarian player, Charles Irvin.

Trivia: Formidable stage leading lady Doris Lloyd transferred her activities from British repertory to Hollywood in 1925. She was prominently cast as an alluring spy in George Arliss' first talkie Disraeli (1929); one year later, at the tender age of 30, she was seen as the matronly Donna Lucia D'Alvadorez in Charley's Aunt. Swinging back to younger roles in 1933, Lloyd was cast as the tragic Nancy Sykes in the Dickie Moore version of Oliver Twist. By the late 1930s, Lloyd had settled into middle-aged character roles, most often as a domestic or dowager. Doris Lloyd remained active until 1967, with substantial roles in such films as The Time Machine (1960) and The Sound of Music (1965).

Trivia: It is probably correct to assume that American actor Stuart Holmes never turned down work. In films since 1914's Life's Shop Window, Holmes showed up in roles both large and microscopic until 1962. In his early days (he entered the movie business in 1911), Holmes cut quite a villainous swath with his oily moustache and cold, baleful glare. He played Black Michael in the 1922 version of The Prisoner of Zenda and Alec D'Uberville in Tess of the D'Ubervilles (1923), and also could be seen as wicked land barons in the many westerns of the period. While firmly established in feature films, Holmes had no qualms about accepting bad-guy parts in comedy shorts, notably Stan Laurel's Should Tall Men Marry? (1926) In talkies, Holmes' non-descript voice tended to work against his demonic bearing. Had Tom Mix's My Pal the King (1932) been a silent picture, Holmes would have been ideal as one of the corrupt noblemen plotting the death of boy king Mickey Rooney; instead, Holmes was cast as Rooney's bumbling but honest chamberlain. By the mid '30s, Holmes' hair had turned white, giving him the veneer of a shopkeeper or courtroom bailiff. He signed a contract for bits and extra roles at Warner Bros, spending the next two decades popping up at odd moments in such features as Confession (1937), Each Dawn I Die (1939) and The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944), and in such short subjects as At the Stroke of Twelve (1941). Stuart Holmes remained on call at Central Casting for major films like Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) until his retirement; he died of an abdominal aortic aneurism at the age of 83.

Trivia: Character actor Bob Perry made his film debut as Tuxedo George in 1928's Me Gangster. For the rest of his Hollywood career, Perry popped up in brief roles as bartenders, croupiers, referees, guards, and the like. Many of his characters were on the wrong side of the law, and few of them spoke when shooting or slugging would do. Bob Perry kept busy in films until 1949, when he retired at the reported age of 70.

Trivia: The screen's premiere "Old Codger," American actor Clem Bevans didn't make his movie debut until he was 55 years old. His acting career was launched in 1900 with a vaudeville boy-girl act costarring Grace Emmett. Bevans moved on to burlesque, stock shows, Broadway and light opera. In 1935, Bevans first stepped before the movie cameras as Doc Wiggins in Way Down East. It was the first of many toothless, stubble-chinned geezers that Bevans would portray for the next 27 years. On occasion, producers and directors would use Bevans' established screen persona to throw the audience off the track. In Happy Go Lucky (1942), he unexpectedly shows up as a voyeuristic millionaire with a fondness for female knees; in Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942), he is a likeable old desert rat who turns out to be a Nazi spy! Clem Bevans continued playing farmers, hillbillies, and "town's oldest citizen" roles into the early 1960s. The octogenarian actor could be seen in a 1962 episode of Twilight Zone ("Hocus Pocus and Frisby") looking and sounding just the same as he had way back in 1935.