Trivia: His parents wanted him to be lawyer, but S. Yewell Tompkins decided instead to major in liberal arts at the University of Wisconsin. A professional actor from 1928, he toured in stock companies then spent several lean years in New York, during which time he changed his name to Tom Ewell. He appeared in the first of a string of Broadway flops in 1934, occasionally enjoying longer runs in such productions as Brother Rat and Family Portrait. A trip to Hollywood in 1940 led to a handful of bit parts but little else. After four years in the Navy, Ewell finally landed a bona fide Broadway hit starring in John Loves Mary in 1947. This led to his "official" screen debut as Judy Holliday's philandering husband in Adam's Rib (1949). Hardly the romantic lead type, Ewell's crumpled "everyman" countenance served him well in such screen roles as Bill Mauldin's archetypal G.I. Willie in Up Front (1951) and Willie and Joe Back at the Front (1952). Back on Broadway in 1954, he won a Tony Award for his peerless performance as a "summer bachelor" in George Axelrod's The Seven Year Itch, repeating this characterization opposite Marilyn Monroe in the 1955 screen version. He went on to play wry variations of this role in Frank Tashlin's The Lieutenant Wore Skirts (1955) and The Girl Can't Help It (1956), in which his screen partners included such lovelies as Sheree North, Rita Moreno, and Jayne Mansfield. In 1960, he starred in The Tom Ewell Show, a one-season sitcom in which he played a standard harried suburbanite. Various illnesses and recurrent alcoholism made it increasingly difficult for Ewell to find work in the 1970s; his best showing during this period was as Robert Blake's disheveled pal Billy on the weekly TVer Baretta. Tom Ewell retired in 1983, after a brief stint as Doc Killian in TV's Best of the West and a character role in the Rodney Dangerfield film Easy Money.

Trivia: Born into a poor San Francisco family, Raymond Bailey dropped out of school in the 10th grade to help make ends meet. He took on a variety of short-term jobs before escaping his lot by hopping a freight to New York. He tried in vain to find work as an actor, eventually signing on as a mess boy on a freighter. While docked in Honolulu, Bailey once more gave acting a try, and also sang on a local radio station. In Hollywood from 1932 on, Bailey took any nickel-and-dime job that was remotely connected to show business, but when World War II began, he once more headed out to sea, this time with the Merchant Marine. Only after the war was Bailey able to make a living as a character actor on stage and in TV and films. In 1962, he was cast as covetous bank president Milburn Drysdale on The Beverly Hillbillies, a role that made him a household name and one which he played for nine seasons (ironically, he'd once briefly worked in a bank during his teen years). After the show was cancelled in 1971, Bailey dropped out of sight and became somewhat of a recluse.

Trivia: When bandleader Ina Ray Hutton launched her TV series in 1956, much was made of the fact that the entire on-camera cast was female -- right down to the announcer, a lovely newcomer named Diane Brewster. Signed to a Warner Bros. contract shortly after the inauguration of the Hutton show, Brewster appeared in several decorative film roles, the best of which was Kate Lawrence in The Young Philadelphians (1959). She also showed up sporadically as bewitched confidence trickster Samantha Crawford on the Warner Bros. TV series Maverick (1957-1962), and later starred as Wilhelmina "Steamboat Willie" Vanderveer in the weekly Warners actioner The Islanders (1960). Devotees of Leave It to Beaver will remember Brewster as Beaver's teacher Miss Canfield during the series' inaugural 1957-1958 season (she'd played an entirely different role in the 1956 Beaver pilot episode, "It's a Small World"). Thirty-five years later, the still-gorgeous Diane Brewster reprised her Miss Canfield characterization in the 1983 TV-movie Still the Beaver.

Trivia: Actor Richard Collier was more a fixture in the realm of television, having made well over 1000 appearances on the small screen, but was nonetheless employed frequently for films. A native of Boston, Collier started acting as most people do, on stage in the theater circuit throughout Massachusetts. When World War II broke out, his acting career was put on hold as he served in the U.S. Army. Only after the war did Collier begin making appearances in film and the new medium of television. Some of the many television shows the actor appeared on include The Beverly Hillbillies, The Andy Griffith Show, and Batman. Collier died, at the age of 80, in early 2000.

Trivia: American general purpose actor Arthur Space was active in films from 1940. Tall, tweedy, and usually sporting a mustache, Space played just about every kind of supporting role, from Western banker to big-city detective to jewel thief. One of his largest film roles was as the delightfully eccentric inventor Alva P. Hartley in the 1944 Laurel and Hardy vehicle The Big Noise. As busy on television as in films, Arthur Space was seen on a weekly basis as Herbert Brown, the father of horse-loving teenager Velvet Brown, in the TV series National Velvet (1960-1961).

Trivia: Kay Stewart is best remembered for playing Mary Aldrich, the pragmatic, wise elder sister in the Henry Aldrich film series of the early 1940s. Later in her career, Stewart appeared on television and in commercials. She was typically cast as a wife or a mother.

Trivia: In films from 1935, American actor Norman Willis was almost invariably cast as a villain. With his eternal half-sneer, pencil mustache, and nasal, insinuating voice, Willis was a convincing menace in Westerns, serials, and detective melodramas. One of his most typical roles was Spider Webb (no kidding) in the 1937 serial Tim Tyler's Luck. He also showed up in several short subjects, including the Three Stooges' Out West (1947), Our Gang's Little Miss Pinkerton (1943), and a handful of MGM's Crime Does Not Pay entries. Active until 1957, Norman Willis occasionally billed himself as Jack Norman.