Trivia: Born Albert Hedison, David Hedison billed himself as Al Hedison when he signed his 20th Century-Fox contract in 1958. He was still Al when he starred in his best-known film, The Fly, as the unfortunate researcher who ends up as lunch for a slavering spider ("Hellllp meeeeee"). By 1959, he was David Hedison, both as leading man of the 17-episode TV series Five Fingers and as romantic lead of still another fantasy film, The Lost World (1960). In 1964, Hedison worked off his Fox contract in the role of Captain Lee Crane in the weekly TVer Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964-67). The most amusing episode of that Irwin Allen production was a 1963 entry which utilized generous stock footage from Lost World, with Hedison "out of uniform" so that he could match shots of himself lensed three years earlier. In the last three decades, David Hedison has co-starred in numerous made-for-TV movies, and has been seen on two television soap operas: the daytime Another World and the nighttime The Colbys.

Trivia: Del Monroe has been a busy character actor and sometime secondary leading man in television and films from the early '60s through the beginning of the 21st century -- but he is best known for his four-year stint as crewman Kowalski on Irwin Allen's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Born in Santa Barbara, CA, in 1936, Monroe was bitten by the acting bug while serving in the peacetime army of the late '50s, and on returning to civilian life headed for the Pasadena Playhouse, working in repertory with them. He made his screen debut in 1959 in a pair of low-budget quickies, the Edward D. Wood-authored Western Revenge of the Virgins and the crime drama The Girl in Lover's Lane, playing a teenaged mugger in the opening minutes of the latter film. During the early '60s, he moved into television with roles in Westerns such as The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and The Dakotas, and the World War II action series The Gallant Men. In between those small-screen efforts, he also got what proved to be a small but very lucrative role in Irwin Allen's feature film Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961), which put the neophyte actor (billed as Delbert Monroe) into the midst of a cast that included such luminaries as Walter Pidgeon, Joan Fontaine, and Peter Lorre. In the movie, he played a brash (and later potentially mutinous) young seaman named Kowalski, and got to do one good scene with Pidgeon. Monroe went on to other work while the movie went on to become a hit at the box office, and a couple of years later, he was called back and cast in the series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, being produced by Allen. The series, starring Richard Basehart and David Hedison, ran for four seasons (1964-1968), longer than any non-anthology science-fiction network program until the 1990s. Monroe became a familiar figure to fans as the red-suited crewman Kowalski, his straightforward, unaffected acting style contrasting well with that of the more experienced performers around him. He also squeezed in a few appearances in series such as Gunsmoke and The Time Tunnel (the latter also produced by Allen) during this four years on Voyage. In the late '60s and '70s, he went back to Westerns (Lancer, The Virginian) and, when they disappeared, came to do a lot of supporting roles in crime shows (S.W.A.T., The Rockford Files, Hunter). Monroe also appeared in a few feature films, most notably Phil Karlson's Walking Tall (1973), in which he played a sadistic thug. He left acting for a time in the 1980s, but resumed working occasionally in films and on television, as well as in theater, in the late '90s.

Trivia: In films from the mid-'60s, American actor Richard Bull was seen in The Satan Bug (1965), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Secret Life of an American Wife (1969), Newman's Law (1971), and several other major Hollywood productions. Many of these roles were bits or atmosphere characters: guards, policemen, and the like. Television afforded Bull larger character roles, especially in the sitcom field. Within a ten-year period (1964-1974), he guested on Gidget, Family Affair, Gomer Pyle, USMC, The Andy Griffith Show, My 3 Sons, Room 222, and Bewitched (as pilgrim John Alden in a "flashback" episode). He also had a recurring role as a ship's doctor on the mid-'60s fantasy weekly Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. From 1974 through 1982, Richard Bull played store proprietor Nels Oleson, the even-tempered, long-suffering husband of overbearing Harriet Oleson on Little House on the Prairie. Bull continued to appear in films and episodes of TV shows until his death in 2014 at age 89.

Trivia: Actor, director, producer, and writer Terry Becker has been a familiar figure on television since the 1950s, on series such as The Twilight Zone, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Becker was born in New York City in 1930, and he discovered as early as elementary school that acting in plays helped keep him out of trouble. He later attended Morris High School in the Bronx (where his classmates included future actor Ross Martin, a close friend); it was there that he tried directing and discovered that he enjoyed it as well. Becker turned to drama after he graduated, studying at the American Theater Wing. His teachers included Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg, and he also made the acquaintance of playwright Paddy Chayefsky, who was to become a giant in the world of television in the 1950s. As an aspiring young actor in post-World War II New York, he crossed paths with such up-and-coming players as Marlon Brando, Ben Gazzara, and Tony Franciosa. Becker made his television debut on the same installment of Philco Playhouse that saw the debut of Ernest Borgnine. Becker went on to appear in parts of varying sizes, from bits to starring roles, in dozens of early live-television dramas. He never made the jump to series work, though, preferring instead his one-off performances on the small screen, interspersed with occasional film work and stage productions. Becker wanted to direct for television as well as the stage, but in those years he was getting far more offers as an actor. One of the few directing jobs that he did procure backfired: He went out to Hollywood to direct a pilot that was never made and was forced to turn back to acting in order to survive in the movie capital. Becker often played highly motivated characters, such as earnest villains, dedicated, selfless heroes, or victims; in the Twilight Zone episode "I Am the Night -- Color Me Black," he portrayed a man due to be hanged in a matter of hours for what even the sheriff conceded was a justifiable homicide. He also appeared in two feature films, Teacher's Pet (as Mr. Appino) and Compulsion (as Benson), during the late '50s. In 1965, Becker joined the cast of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea as Chief Francis Sharkey, the top noncommissioned officer aboard the submarine Seaview. Producer Irwin Allen gave Becker very little to do (and very little money) during his first season on the show, preferring that the actor find his own niche or leave the cast. Ironically, once Becker had established a rapport with the series' star, Richard Basehart, and turned his role into something more substantial, Allen tried to renege on his promise of more money. Becker vowed to leave the show, insisting that a death scene be written for his character, but Allen was unable to find a replacement actor and finally resigned Becker for more money. Becker brought an authentic working-class New York element to the role and his work with Basehart over the next two seasons was one of the highlights of the program; the two always made sure they had at least one good, interesting dialogue scene together on each show. Although he never directed any episodes of Voyage, Becker moved out of acting and into producing, writing, and directing following the series' cancellation in 1968. In collaboration with Gene Reynolds and James L. Brooks, Becker developed and later directed several episodes of the series Room 222, which won him an Emmy Award for directing during the 1969-1970 season; he subsequently helmed episodes of Mission: Impossible, M*A*S*H (which was co-produced by Reynolds) and The Courtship of Eddie's Father. Becker also went into partnership with Carroll O'Connor, an old friend from his days acting in New York, to form a production company. He wrote and directed the horror movie The Thirsty Dead (1975), but spent most of his time in the '70s shepherding various series into production, including Bronk (with Jack Palance). Becker continues to write, direct, and produce, and he makes occasional appearances at conventions devoted to '60s television and science fiction.