Trivia: With his passionate, deep-set eyes, classical features, and ultra-suave manner, it is small wonder that French actor Charles Boyer was known as one of the great cinematic lovers. During the 1920s, Boyer made a few nondescript silent films but was primarily a theatrical actor. From 1929-31 he made an unsuccessful attempt to make it in Hollywood, before returning to Europe until 1934 when his films began to win public favor. He became a true star with Garden of Allah (1936), and went on to play opposite the most alluring actresses of the '30s and '40s, including Ingrid Bergman and Greta Garbo. During World War II, he became active in encouraging French-American relations and established the French Research Foundation, for which he was awarded a special Academy Award in 1942 for "progressive cultural achievement" (he was nominated as an actor four times but never won). Later Boyer became an American citizen and went on to play more mature roles, including the occasional stage appearance (notably in Shaw's Don Juan in Hell). With actors Dick Powell and David Niven, Boyer co-founded Four Star Television in 1951, starring in many of the company's TV productions during the '50s and '60s. His career tapered off after the suicide of his 21-year-old son in 1965, after which he mostly made European films, though he returned to America to appear as the ancient High Lama in the musical remake of Lost Horizon (1973). He won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for his work in Stavisky, his final performance. Two days after his wife of forty-plus years, actress Patricia Peterson, died of cancer in 1978, he took his own life with an overdose of Seconal.

Trivia: The daughter of a commercial artist, Jean Arthur became a model early in life, then went on to work in films. Whatever self-confidence she may have built up was dashed when she was removed from the starring role of Temple of Venus (1923) after a few days of shooting. It was the first of many disappointments for the young actress, but she persevered and, by 1928, was being given co-starring roles at Paramount Pictures. Arthur's curious voice, best described as possessing a lilting crack, ensured her work in talkies, but she was seldom used to full advantage in the early '30s. Dissatisfied with the vapid ingenue, society debutante, and damsel-in-distress parts she was getting (though she was chillingly effective as a murderess in 1930's The Greene Murder Case), Arthur left films for Broadway in 1932 to appear in Foreign Affairs. In 1934, she signed with Columbia Pictures, where, at long last, her gift for combining fast-paced verbal comedy with truly moving pathos was fully utilized. She was lucky enough to work with some of the most accomplished directors in Hollywood: Frank Capra (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town [1936], You Can't Take It With You [1938], Mr. Smith Goes to Washington [1939]); John Ford (The Whole Town's Talking [1935]); and Howard Hawks (Only Angels Have Wings [1937]). Mercurial in her attitudes, terribly nervous both before and after filming a scene -- she often threw up after her scene was finished -- and so painfully shy that it was sometimes difficult for her to show up, she was equally fortunate that her co-workers were patient and understanding with her . Arthur could become hysterical when besieged by fans, and aloof and nonresponsive to reporters. In 1943, she received her only Oscar nomination for The More the Merrier (1943), the second of her two great '40s films directed by George Stevens (Talk of the Town [1942] was the first). After her contract with Columbia ended, she tried and failed to become her own producer. She signed to star in the 1946 Broadway play Born Yesterday -- only to succumb to a debilitating case of stage fright, forcing the producers to replace her at virtually the last moment with Judy Holliday. After the forgettable comedy The Impatient Years in 1944, Arthur made only two more films: Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair (1948), and George Stevens' classic Shane (1952). She also played the lead in Leonard Bernstein's 1950 musical version of Peter Pan, which co-starred Boris Karloff as Captain Hook. In the early '60s, the extremely reclusive Arthur tentatively returned to show business with a few stage appearances and as an attorney on ill-advised 1966 TV sitcom, The Jean Arthur Show, which was mercifully canceled by mid-season. Surprisingly, the ultra-introverted Arthur later decided to tackle the extroverted profession of teaching drama, first at Vassar College and then the North Carolina School of the Arts; one of her students at North Carolina remembered Arthur as "odd" and her lectures as somewhat whimsical and rambling. Retiring for good in 1972, she retreated to her ocean home in Carmel, CA, steadfastly refusing interviews until her resistance was broken down by the author of a book on her one-time director Frank Capra. She died in 1991.

Trivia: Leading man Colin Clive was born in France to a British colonel and his wife. Clive's own military career was cut short by a knee injury, which fortunately did not prevent him from becoming an actor. Clive was brought to Hollywood on the strength of his stage performance in Journey's End, duly committed to film in 1930. He spent the rest of his movie career hopscotching between England and America, his most significant work emanating from Hollywood. Clive has earned a niche in cinematic valhalla for his feverish, driven performance as Dr. Frankenstein in Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), both directed by his Journey's End mentor James Whale. He was also seen as Rochester in the first talkie version of Jane Eyre (1934). Never a well man, Colin Clive died of tuberculosis at the age of 39.

Trivia: Leo Carrillo was descended from a long-established, aristocratic California family. His great-grandfather was the first provisional governor of California, while his father was the first mayor of Santa Monica. His parents wanted him to be a priest, but Carrillo decided to go for an engineering degree while attending Loyola University. A talented caricaturist, Carrillo secured a job as a political cartoonist at the San Francisco Examiner. At the encouragement of his fellow employees, Carrillo decided to parlay his gift for mimicry and dialects into a vaudeville career. He went on to provide comedy relief for several stage plays and musical productions, starring in one tailor-made vehicle, Lombardi Ltd. In films from 1929, Carrillo was frequently cast as excitable, malaprop-ridden Spaniards and Italians; in only a few instances, notably John Ford's The Fugitive (1947), did Carrillo perform in his normal California cadence, sans dialect. From 1950 through 1955, Carrillo co-starred with Duncan Renaldo in the popular TV western series The Cisco Kid, playing Cisco's sidekick Pancho. Though well into his seventies, Carrillo claimed to be in his mid-fifties so that the Cisco Kid company would qualify for insurance coverage. As active in California politics and civic affairs as his forebears, Leo Carrillo was in charge of the annual Fiesta de Santa Barbara, and at one juncture was appointed to the State Park Commission; there still exists a California beach named in Carrillo's honor.

Trivia: Lithuanian-born actor Ivan Lebedeff was a graduate of the University of St. Petersburg and that same city's Military Academy. At one time, Lebedeff served as an officer of the Czar and later as a diplomat. After the Bolshevik revolution, he fled to Germany, where he began his film-acting career in 1922. He worked in the French movie industry for a while before settling in Hollywood in 1925. His screen assignments included a leading role in D.W. Griffiths Sorrows of Satan (1926), a villainous turn in Wheeler & Woolsey's The Cuckoos (1930), and top billing in RKO's The Gay Diplomat (1931). Thereafter he settled into supporting roles as hand-kissing noblemen, phony Russian counts, society cads, professional correspondents and gigolos. Even at the height of his activity, the thinly mustached, expressively eyebrowed Lebedeff had no qualms about accepting an occasional unbilled role, notably W. C. Fields' tuxedoed ping-pong opponent in You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939). When the demand for continental-cad characterizations diminished, Ivan Lebedeff eased into dignified character roles; one of his last appearances was as Dr. Gratzman in the sci-fi classic War of the Worlds (1953).

Trivia: Tall, handsome, wavy-haired character actor George Meeker was never in the upper echelons of Hollywood stardom; off-camera, however, he was highly regarded and much sought after -- as an expert polo player. Meeker switched from stage to screen in the silent era, playing leading roles in such important features as Four Sons (1928). In talkies, Meeker seemingly took every part that was tossed his way, from full secondary leads to one-line bits. In his larger roles, Meeker was frequently cast as a caddish "other man," a spineless wastrel who might be (but seldom was) the mystery killer, or the respectable businessman who's actually a conniving crook. He showed up frequently in the films of Humphrey Bogart, most memorably as the white-suited gent in Casablanca (1942) who turns to Bogart after the arrest of Peter Lorre and sneers "When they come to get me, Rick, I hope you'll be more of a help." Other significant George Meeker credits include the role of Robespierre in Marie Antoinette (1938) (cut down to a sniff and a single line -- "Guilty!" -- in the final release print), the supercilious dude who wins Mary Beth Hughes away from Henry Fonda in The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), and the smarmy would-be bridegroom of heiress Dorothy Lamour in The Road to Rio (1947).

Trivia: In films from 1929 to 1943, character actor Lucien Prival was able to parlay his vocal and physical resemblance to Erich von Stroheim into a sizeable screen career. Prival was at his most Stroheim-like in war films, notably Hell's Angels (1930), in which his Baron Von Kranz both set the plot in motion and brought things to a conclusion. He went on to play Teutonic menaces in films ranging from Sherlock Holmes (1932) and Return of Chandu (1934). Horror fans will remember Lucien Prival as the ill-tempered butler in James Whale's The Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

Trivia: French stage actor Georges Renavent made his first American film appearance in 1915's Seven Sisters. Fourteen years later, Renavent made an impressive talking-picture bow as the villainous Kinkajou in RKO's musical spectacular Rio Rita. He spent the rest of his Hollywood career playing roles of varying sizes, usually foreign ambassadors and international gigolos. An apparent favorite of producer Hal Roach, Renavent enjoyed a lengthy role in Roach's Turnabout (1940) as Mr. Ram, the ancient Indian god who performs a gender-switch on stars John Hubbard and Carole Landis. Sporadically during the 1930s and 1940s, Renavent managed his own touring Grand Guignol theatrical troupe. Georges Renavent was married to actress Selena Royle.

Trivia: In films from 1919, Dutch vaudeville comic George Davis played one of the featured clowns in Lon Chaney's He Who Gets Slapped (1924) and was also in Buster Keaton's Sherlock, Jr. that same year. In the sound era, Davis specialized in playing waiters but would also turn up as bus drivers, counter men, and circus performers, often assuming a French accent. When told that Davis' business as a hotel porter included carrying Greta Garbo's bags, the soviet envoy opined: "That's no business. That's social injustice." "Depends on the tip," replied Davis. He continued to play often humorous bits well into the '50s, appearing in such television shows as Cisco Kid and Perry Mason. The veteran performer died of cancer at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital.

Trivia: Before becoming a notable early director and actor on the silver screen, Oscar Apfel was a veteran opera producer and director. His career in cinema began in 1911 when became a director for Edison. Apfel also directed films for other studios including Selig. His work became popular in 1914 when he began co-directing feature-length films with the legendary Cecil B. De Mille for Lasky-Paramount Studios. In 1916, he moved to Fox and later continued director for smaller studios until his career began to wane in the 1920s. At the end of his directorial career, Apfel had been reduced to churning out low-grade melodramas for cut-rate studios. He directed his final film in 1927. One year later, Apfel appeared again as an actor known for playing distinguished characters in films such as Romance of the Underworld (1928), and the 1931 version of The Maltese Falcon.

Trivia: Bald, puckish vaudeville performer Harvey Clark entered films in 1916 with the New York Picture Company. Clark proved versatile enough to portray everything from greasy western gamblers to huffy British lords. Laurel and Hardy devotees will recall Clark as the long-suffering tailor in the team's early vehicle Putting Pants on Phillip (1927). In talkies, he was generally seen as pop-eyed, befuddled characters, with the spectacular exception of his "maniacal killer" turn in 1932's A Shriek in the Night. Harvey Clark is credited in many sources as having played Father William in Paramount's all-star Alice in Wonderland (1933), though his scenes were completely eliminated from the general-release print.