Trivia: Robert Fuller spent his first decade in show business trying his best to avoid performing. After his film debut in 1952's Above and Beyond, Fuller studied acting with Sanford Meisner at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse but never exhibited any real dedication. He tried to become a dancer but gave that up as well, determining that dancing was "sissified." Fuller rose to nominal stardom fairly rapidly in the role of Jess Harper on the popular TV western Laramie (1959-63). Once he found his niche in cowboy attire, he stuck at it in another series, Wagon Train, turning down virtually all offers for "contemporary" roles. When westerns began dying out on television in the late 1960s, Fuller worked as a voiceover actor in commercials, earning some $65,000 per year (a tidy sum in 1969). On the strength of his performance in the Burt Topper-directed motorcycle flick The Hard Ride, Fuller was cast by producer Jack Webb as chief paramedic Kelly Brackett on the weekly TVer Emergency, which ran from 1972 through 1977. In 1994, Robert Fuller was one of several former TV western stars who showed up in cameo roles in the Mel Gibson movie vehicle Maverick.

Trivia: Sandy-haired, 6'1" leading man Will Hutchins established his reputation with "aw, shucks," country bumpkin roles -- even though he was born in a suburb of Los Angeles, won a Shakespearean festival Best Actor award while still in high school, and specialized in Greek drama at Pomona College. After military service, he took cinema classes at U.C.L.A., learning virtually every technical aspect of filmmaking. Discovered by TV producer Albert McCreery, he was signed to a Warner Bros. contract in 1956. The following year he was cast as the title character in the TV Western Sugarfoot, playing laconic, easygoing frontier lawyer Tom "Sugarfoot" Brewster (so named because he was "one grade lower than a tenderfoot") from 1957 through 1960. He continued appearing in guest roles on TV until his next series stint as Dagwood Bumstead in the short-lived 1968 revival of Blondie. Eventually Will Hutchins left films to write poetry and pursue a second career as a circus clown.

Trivia: An Emmy-nominated actor-singer who built a foundation in Hollywood before relocating to Broadway, Don Chastain's work as an actor and charismatic jazz singer found the multifaceted talent often switching gears and wearing numerous hats. Born in Oklahoma City, Chastain moved to Hollywood in the late 1950s, and landed an early role as a singer on The Ed Sullivan Show. With his six-foot-plus height and powerful build, he was frequently cast as heavies and authority figures -- he was a menacing bounty hunter in the Big Valley episode "Image of Yesterday", a police detective in the Raquel Welch exploitation vehicle Flareup, and gave a chilling performance as a serial rapist/murderer masquerading as a police officer in an episode of Hawaii Five-O; during the early 1970's, he also rather wisely got cast in lighter roles, starting with his co-starring role as Debbie Reynolds' sportswriter husband on The Debbie Reynolds Show, where the writers were sometimes able to use his height against Reynolds diminutive, perky persona to comic effect; he also played a recurring character on the sitcom Rhoda. Making the move to the bright lights of Broadway, Chastain found further success while landing the lead in No Strings before cast in Parade and 42nd Street, among others. A popular soap opera actor in the 1980s and '90s, Chastain appeared in Another World, One Life to Live, and As the World Turns before landing roles in such popular television series as The West Wing and Murder in Small Town X. Chastain was less well known as a writer, but his credits in that capacity included the thriller The Mafu Cage, and he was twice nominated for Daytime Emmy Awards as a writer. As a singer, Chastain performed with Jon Hendricks and Count Basie's Band. In early August 2002, Don Chastain died of cancer in a Los Angeles hospital. He was 66.

Trivia: Pamela Hensley's first TV job was as a "pointer" on the syndicated audience-participation series The New Treasure Hunt. Signed to a Universal Studios contract in 1973, Hensley seemed poised on the brink of the Big Time in 1975. That was the year that Hensley, in the role of Janet Blake, married Dr. Steve Kiley (James Brolin) on Marcus Welby MD. That same year, she played the Hispanic heroine in the expensive George Pal film Doc Savage: Man of Bronze (1975). While the Welby episode played to excellent ratings, Doc Savage sank like a stone; clearly, Hensley's future rested in the small rather than the large screen. Pamela Hensley's best post-Welby TV series assignments included the roles of the entrancing Princess Ardala on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979-80) and lawyer C. J. Parsons on the Lee Horsley private-eye series Matt Houston (1982-85).

Trivia: American general purpose actor George D. Wallace started "big" as high-flying hero Commando Cody in the 1950 Republic serial Radar Men from the Moon. While it was Judd Holdren who played Commando Cody in the eponymous 1955 TV series, Wallace remained gainfully employed in westerns and adventure films in supporting roles. He remained active into the 1970s, with small parts in films like Skin Game (1973) and Towering Inferno (1974). George Wallace's credits should not be confused with those of British music hall entertainer George Wallace or African American stand-up comedian George Wallace.

Trivia: Kim Richards began her acting career as a child, appearing on 70's TV shows like Nanny and the Professor, Here We Go Again, and Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, as well as movies like The Car and Escape to Witch Mountain. Richards retired from acting in the early 80's, but returned to the business as an adult, appearing in Black Snake Moan and a remake of her childhood hit, Race to Witch Mountain.