Trivia: The son of world-famous violinist Efrem Zimbalist and opera star Alma Gluck, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. received an expensive prep-school education in New England, and at age 16 he briefly studied at Yale University. He became a page at the NBC radio studios in New York City, then took acting lessons at Neighborhood Playhouse. Just before serving in World War II (in which he earned a Purple Heart), Zimbalist married another aspiring performer, Emily McNair. After the war, he began toting up Broadway acting credits, and in 1949 made his film debut as Richard Conte's brutish brother in House of Strangers (1949). After his wife died of cancer in 1950, Zimbalist briefly retired from acting, moving with his two children to Philadelphia; there he became a researcher at the Curtis Institute of Music, where his father was director. Shortly after returning to acting in 1954 with a recurring role on the TV soap opera Concerning Miss Marlowe, Zimbalist married East Coast socialite Stephanie Spaulding; the union produced a daughter, also named Stephanie, who grew up to become a popular actress in her own right (Zimbalist's son, Efrem III, has likewise earned a place in "Who's Who" as a publishing company executive). Signed to a long-term Warner Bros. contract, Zimbalist achieved full stardom in the role of suave private detective Stuart Bailey on the weekly TV series 77 Sunset Strip (1958-1964). He went on to another popular Warners series in 1965, playing inspector Lew Erskine in the long-running (nine seasons) The FBI. His later TV roles included Charles Cabot in the 1986 episodes of Hotel, Don Alejandro de la Vega in the first-season installment of the Family Channel's Zorro (1990-1992), and silver-tongued con artist Daniel Chalmers on his daughter Stephanie's weekly series Remington Steele (1982-1987). Generally cast in sophisticated or serious roles, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. has on occasion been permitted to display his flair for zany comedy, as witness his villainous portrayal in the 1990 action-flick satire Hot Shots! In his later years, he voiced a number of animated characters, such as Dr. Octopus in Spider-Man and Alfred Pennyworth in The New Batman Adventures and Justice League. Zimbalist's final acting role was in the 2008 short film The Delivery. He died in 2014 at age 95.

Trivia: In British films from her teens, actress Patricia Medina came to Hollywood in the company of her first husband, actor Richard Greene, in 1946. Invited to film a screen test at MGM by studio president Louis B. Mayer, the raven-haired actress was signed to a contract -- then promptly ignored when Mayer left the studio on an extended business trip. Spending much of her MGM contract on loan-out, Medina appeared in 20th Century-Fox's Moss Rose (1948) and The Foxes of Harrow (1948), and at Universal in Francis (1950) and Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950). With the 1951 Columbia quickie The Magic Carpet, Medina established herself as the queen of the "B" costume pictures. One of her more worthwhile film assignments was as a femme fatale in Orson Welles' Mr. Arkadin (1955). She was also an impressive wicked queen in Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961), and surprisingly adept at portraying a predatory lesbian in The Killing of Sister George (1968). On television, Medina guest-starred on such series as Thriller, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Man From UNCLE, usually as black-widow villainesses. Patricia Medina is the widow of actor Joseph Cotten, whom she married in 1960.

Trivia: British actor Roddy McDowall's father was an officer in the English merchant marine, and his mother was a would-be actress. When it came time to choose a life's calling, McDowall bowed to his mother's influence. After winning an acting prize in a school play, he was able to secure film work in Britain, beginning at age ten with 1938's Scruffy. He appeared in 16 roles of varying sizes and importance before he and his family were evacuated to the U.S. during the 1940 Battle of Britain. McDowall arrival in Hollywood coincided with the wishes of 20th Century-Fox executive Darryl F. Zanuck to create a "new Freddie Bartholomew." He tested for the juvenile lead in Fox's How Green Was My Valley (1941), winning both the role and a long contract. McDowall's first adult acting assignment was as Malcolm in Orson Welles' 1948 film version of Macbeth; shortly afterward, he formed a production company with Macbeth co-star Dan O'Herlihy. McDowall left films for the most part in the 1950s, preferring TV and stage work; among his Broadway credits were No Time for Sergeants, Compulsion, (in which he co-starred with fellow former child star Dean Stockwell) and Lerner and Loewe's Camelot (as Mordred). McDowall won a 1960 Tony Award for his appearance in the short-lived production The Fighting Cock. The actor spent the better part of the early 1960s playing Octavius in the mammoth production Cleopatra, co-starring with longtime friend Elizabeth Taylor. An accomplished photographer, McDowall was honored by having his photos of Taylor and other celebrities frequently published in the leading magazines of the era. He was briefly an advising photographic editor of Harper's Bazaar, and in 1966 published the first of several collections of his camerawork, Double Exposure. McDowall's most frequent assignments between 1968 and 1975 found him in elaborate simian makeup as Cornelius in the Planet of the Apes theatrical films and TV series. Still accepting the occasional guest-star film role and theatrical assignment into the 1990s, McDowall towards the end of his life was most active in the administrative end of show business, serving on the executive boards of the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. A lifelong movie collector (a hobby which once nearly got him arrested by the FBI), McDowall has also worked diligently with the National Film Preservation Board. In August, 1998, he was elected president of the Academy Foundation. One of Hollywood's last links to its golden age and much-loved by old and new stars alike -- McDowell was famed for his kindness, generosity and loyalty (friends could tell McDowall any secret and be sure of its safety) -- McDowall's announcement that he was suffering from terminal cancer a few weeks before he died rocked the film community, and many visited the ailing actor in his Studio City home. Shortly before he was diagnosed with cancer, McDowall had provided the voiceover for Disney/Pixar's animated feature A Bug's Life. A few days prior to McDowall's passing, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named its photo archive after him.