Trivia: Portly, tight-jawed John McGiver had intended to become a professional actor upon graduating from Catholic University in Washington D.C., but he became an English teacher at New York's Christopher Columbus High School instead. One day in the mid-1950s, McGiver bumped into one of his old Catholic University classmates, who'd become an off-Broadway producer; the star of the producer's newest play had just walked out, and would McGiver be interested in taking his place? This little favor led to a 20-year career in TV and films for the balding, bookish McGiver. He was featured in such films as Love in the Afternoon (1957), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Mame (1974). McGiver's funniest screen portrayal was the thick-eared landscaper in The Gazebo (1959), who insisted upon referring to the title object as a "GAZE-bow". In 1964, John McGiver starred as Walter Burnley, supervisor of a department store complaint department, on the weekly TV sitcom Many Happy Returns.

Trivia: A professional magazine model at age four, American actress Anne Francis made some 3000 appearances on network radio before she was ten. She was under film contracts to both MGM and 20th Century-Fox as a teenager; in the days of publicity-agent pigeonholing, the actress was dubbed variously as "The Fragile Blonde with the Mona Lisa Smile" and "The Palomino Blonde," labels that she intensely despised. Usually cast in sullen bad-girl or troublemaker roles, Francis suffered from a volcanic private life; throughout these years her one source of comfort was her pet dog Smidgeon, whom she'd named after Walter Pidgeon, her co-star in the science-fiction film classic Forbidden Planet (1956). In 1965, Francis found herself with a more contentious pet, an ocelot named Bruce Biteabit, when she starred in the TV adventure series Honey West, in which she played a glamorous private detective. The series was meant to cash in on the gimmicky James Bond movies of the time (Honey West was a judo expert, had exploding earrings, and a microphone hidden in a martini olive), and like many such imitations, the program was on and off in a single year. Francis' film and TV career continued unabated after that, though a potentially good role in the 1968 movie musical Funny Girl was mostly consigned to the cutting-room floor in order to intensify the spotlight on the film's star, Barbra Streisand. Active in guest star spots into the early '90s, Anne Francis--billing herself in recent years as Anne-Lloyd Francis--enjoyed a brief co-starring turn as Mama Jo on the 1984 action series Riptide.

Trivia: German-born John Ericson trained for an acting career at New York's American Academy of the Dramatic Arts. Ericson possessed a brash, bristly personality and handsome, sensitive features. He appeared in a series of popular films including the outlaw drama Pretty Boy Floyd (1960) and the lyrical romances Teresa (1952) and Rhapsody (1953). In 1965, Ericson co-starred with Anne Francis on the TV private eye series Honey West.

Trivia: General purpose actor Norman Alden was first seen by filmgoers in 1960's Operation Bottleneck. Most often seen in take-charge roles, Alden was critically acclaimed for his portrayal of a middle-aged retarded man in the NYC-filmed Andy (1965). The actor's series-TV credits include the thankless role of "Frank" on the "Electra Woman/Dynagirl" segments of Saturday morning's The Krofft Supershow. More artistically satisfying was Norman Alden's brief tenure as lawyer Al Cassidy on the Lee Grant TV sitcom Fay (1975).

Trivia: Likeable blonde leading lady Irene Hervey entered films as an MGM contract player in 1933. For her first few years before the camera, she did yeoman work as a bit player in features and supporting actress in MGM's short subjects. Free-lancing in the mid-1930s, Hervey worked her way up to leads; one of her more offbeat performances was as a Gilbert and Sullivan actress in 1936's The Girl Said No. From 1938 through 1943, Hervey worked at Universal, where she seemingly did everything she was asked: she appeared opposite James Stewart in the big-budget Destry Rides Again (1939), was top-billed in such "B"s as Frisco Lil (1942), looked frightened in the bottom-bill horror film Night Monster (1942), and even did a stint as a dauntless serial heroine in Gangbusters (1940). She took several years off to devote herself to her family, then returned before the cameras in supporting parts in the late 1940s. In 1965, Hervey was featured on a weekly basis as meddlesome Aunt Meg on the tongue-in-cheek private eye TV series Honey West. Married for several years to film star Allan Jones, Irene Hervey is the mother of singer Jack Jones.