Trivia: Not to be confused with the 1940s bit player of the same name, American leading man Peter Breck was the son of a bandleader. Majoring in drama and minoring in psychology at the University of Houston, Breck went the regional-theater route until selected by Robert Mitchum for a role in Mitchum's Thunder Road (1958). He paid a few further dues on network television, showing up now and then as Doc Holiday on the weekly Western Maverick. In 1959, Breck starred in his own sagebrush series, Black Saddle, in which he played gunslinger-turned-lawyer Clay Culhane. When the series was dropped after one season, he accepted a few low-paying theater assignments, making ends meet with whatever odd jobs came along. His tenacity paid off when, in 1969, Breck was cast as firebrand "number two son" Nick Barkeley on The Big Valley, which ran for four years. A decade later, he appeared in still another Western, playing a megalomaniac miner in the serialized Secret Empire. Peter Breck has devoted considerable time to teaching drama in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Trivia: A football star at Eastern Kentucky State College, Lee Majors came to Los Angeles armed with a physical education degree and possessed with a vague desire to break into films. He worked as a park recreation director for the City of Los Angeles before entering show business in 1963. Majors was promoted as "the New James Dean," though he personally aspired to become a new Steve McQueen or Paul Newman (he also retained his permit to work as a recreation director, just in case the world wasn't holding its breath for a new Dean, McQueen or Newman). Majors achieved stardom on his own merits in a variety of television series, the most recent of which was 1992's Raven. His best-known TV roles included Heath Barkley on The Big Valley (1965-69), bionic Steve Austin on The Six Million Dollar Man (1973-78) and stunt man Colt Seavers on The Fall Guy (1981-86). In addition, he has headlined a number of made-for-TV movies, essaying the old Gary Cooper part in the 1991 sequel to High Noon and portraying U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers in a 1976 biopic. Majors would continue to act in the decades to come, memorably appearing in Big Fat Liar and on The Game. For several years, Lee Majors was married to actress Farrah Fawcett.

Trivia: Actor Joseph Campanella's father, a Sicilian immigrant, was an early member of the American Federation of Musicians; perhaps as a result, the younger Campanella remained active in liberal "underdog" political causes all his life. At eighteen, Campanella became one of the youngest-ever skippers in the wartime navy. He went on to attend Columbia University, then began his acting career on the New York stage and in TV soap operas. Over the next three decades he would portray Joe Turino on The Guiding Light, Alec Fielding on The Doctors, Dr. Ted Steffen on the nighttime TV serial The Doctors and the Nurses and Senator Harper Devereaux on Days of Our Lives. Additional TV assignments for Campanella included the role of Mike Connors' boss on the first season (1967-68) of Mannix; attorney Brian Darrell on four seasons (1969-73) of The Bold Ones; and Hutch Corrigan on the 1985-86 season of The Colbys. He also narrated several National Geographic Specials, and was host of the syndicated 1983 revival of This is Your Life. A steadfast film supporting player, Campanella was finally awarded a lead in 1972's "rampaging rat" thriller Ben, only to find that his was the second name above the title: "Leave it to me," Campanella remarked with his usual self-deprecation, "to get second billing to a rat in my first big starring movie." Recent credits include a "guest voice" role as Dr. Thorne on the Fox Network's Batman: The Animated Series. Joseph Campanella is the brother of Frank Campanella, a character actor usually cast as uniformed big-city cops.

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: In an industry of prima donnas, actress Barbara Stanwyck was universally recognized as a consummate professional; a supremely versatile performer, her strong screen presence established her as a favorite of directors, including Cecil B. De Mille, Fritz Lang, and Frank Capra. Born Ruby Stevens July 16, 1907, in Brooklyn, NY, she was left orphaned at the age of four and raised by her showgirl sister. Upon quitting school a decade later, she began dancing in local speakeasies and at the age of 15 became a Ziegfeld chorus girl. In 1926, Stanwyck made her Broadway debut in The Noose, becoming a major stage star in her next production, Burlesque. MGM requested a screen test, but she rejected the offer. She did, however, agree to a supporting role in 1927's Broadway Nights, and after completing her stage run in 1929 appeared in the drama The Locked Door. With her husband, comedian Frank Fay, Stanwyck traveled to Hollywood. After unsuccessfully testing at Warner Bros., she appeared in Columbia's low-budget Mexicali Rose, followed in 1930 by Capra's Ladies of Leisure, the picture which shot her to stardom. A long-term Columbia contract was the result, and the studio soon loaned Stanwyck to Warners for 1931's Illicit. It was a hit, as was the follow-up Ten Cents a Dance. Reviewers were quite taken with her, and with a series of successful pictures under her belt, she sued Columbia for a bigger salary; a deal was struck to share her with Warners, and she split her time between the two studios for pictures including Miracle Woman, Night Nurse, and Forbidden, a major hit which established her among the most popular actresses in Hollywood. Over the course of films like 1932's Shopworn, Ladies They Talk About, and Baby Face, Stanwyck developed an image as a working girl, tough-minded and often amoral, rarely meeting a happy ending; melodramas including 1934's Gambling Lady and the following year's The Woman in Red further established the persona, and in Red Salute she even appeared as a student flirting with communism. Signing with RKO, Stanwyck starred as Annie Oakley; however, her contract with the studio was non-exclusive, and she also entered into a series of multi-picture deals with the likes of Fox (1936's A Message to Garcia) and MGM (His Brother's Wife, co-starring Robert Taylor, whom she later married).For 1937's Stella Dallas, Stanwyck scored the first of four Academy Award nominations. Refusing to be typecast, she then starred in a screwball comedy, Breakfast for Two, followed respectively by the downcast 1938 drama Always Goodbye and the caper comedy The Mad Miss Manton. After the 1939 De Mille Western Union Pacific, she co-starred with William Holden in Golden Boy, and with Henry Fonda she starred in Preston Sturges' outstanding The Lady Eve. For the 1941 Howard Hawks comedy Ball of Fire, Stanwyck earned her second Oscar nomination. Another superior film, Capra's Meet John Doe, completed a very successful year. Drama was the order of the day for the next few years, as she starred in pictures like The Gay Sisters and The Great Man's Lady. In 1944, she delivered perhaps her most stunning performance in Billy Wilder's classic noir Double Indemnity. Stanwyck's stunning turn as a femme fatale secured her a third Oscar bid and helped make her, according to the IRS, the highest-paid woman in America. It also won her roles in several of the decade's other great film noirs, including 1946's The Strange Love of Martha Ivers and 1949's The File on Thelma Jordon. In between, Stanwyck also starred in the 1948 thriller Sorry, Wrong Number, her final Academy Award-nominated performance. The 1950s, however, were far less kind, and strong roles came her way with increasing rarity. With Anthony Mann she made The Furies and with Lang she appeared opposite Marilyn Monroe in 1952's Clash by Night, but much of her material found her typecast -- in 1953's All I Desire, she portrayed a heartbroken mother not far removed from the far superior Stella Dallas, while in 1954's Blowing Wild she was yet another tough-as-nails, independent woman. Outside of the all-star Executive Suite, Stanwyck did not appear in another major hit; she let her hair go gray, further reducing her chances of winning plum parts, and found herself cast in a series of low-budget Westerns. Only Samuel Fuller's 1957 picture Forty Guns, a film much revered by the Cahiers du Cinema staff, was of any particular notice. It was also her last film for five years. In 1960, she turned to television to host The Barbara Stanwyck Show, winning an Emmy for her work.Stanwyck returned to cinemas in 1962, portraying a lesbian madam in the controversial Walk on the Wild Side. Two years later, she co-starred with Elvis Presley in Roustabout. That same year, she appeared in the thriller The Night Walker, and with that, her feature career was over. After rejecting a role in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, she returned to television to star in the long-running Western series The Big Valley, earning another Emmy for her performance as the matriarch of a frontier family. Upon the show's conclusion, Stanwyck made a TV movie, The House That Would Not Die. She then appeared in two more, 1971's A Taste of Evil and 1973's The Letters, before vanishing from the public eye for the remainder of the decade. In 1981, she was awarded an honorary Oscar; two years later, she was also the recipient of a Lincoln Center Life Achievement Award. Also in 1983, Stanwyck returned to television to co-star in the popular miniseries The Thorn Birds. Two years later, she headlined The Colbys, a spin-off of the hugely successful nighttime soap opera Dynasty. It was her last project before retiring. Stanwyck died January 20, 1990.

Trivia: While attending Hollywood High School, Linda Evanstad (born November 18, 1942) accompanied a nervous classmate to an audition for a Canada Dry TV commercial. Impressed by the brunette, wholesomely pretty Evans, the ad-agency director invited her to read as well. After this and two subsequent commercial spots, Evans began making the TV guest-star rounds on such series as Bachelor Father, Ozzie and Harriet, The Untouchables and The 11th Hour. Her fortunes improved when she cut the "stad" off her last name and dyed her hair blonde. As Linda Evans, she made her first important film appearance as kidnapped pop singer Sugar Kane in the 1963 confection Beach Blanket Bingo; that same year, she was signed to an MGM contract, though she spent much of it on loan-out to other studios. From 1965 to 1969, Evans was co-starred on the TV western The Big Valley as the ever-imperiled Audra Barkley. Thereafter, her life and career was under the strict guidance of her then-husband, actor/director John Derek. Once free of Derek's influence, Evans was compelled to virtually start all over again in such lower-berth film efforts as Mitchell (1975). When she was hired to play the long-suffering Krystle Carrington on the long-running (1981-89) nighttime serial Dynasty, Evans' comeback was full and complete. Evans reprised her role as Krystle Carrington for Dynasty: The Reunion, a television series that aired in 1991. After working in a variety of made-for-television movies throughout the 1990s, Evans decided to retire from screen acting towards the end of the decade. However, the actress wouldn't disappear from television entirely, and neither would her legendary Dynasty persona (in 2005, actress Melora Hardin portrayed Evans herself for Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure, a fictionalized television movie based on the production of Dynasty). The following year, Evans reunited with her Dynasty alumni for a non-fiction reunion special titled Dynasty: Catfights and Caviar. The actress appeared in -- and won -- the British television reality series Hell's Kitchen. Evans enjoys the reputation of being one of Hollywood's nicest and most gracious actresses. A persuasive spokesperson, she has endorsed several commercial products and worked tirelessly on behalf of the pro-environment movement.

Trivia: Well-muscled former 1935 New York City heavyweight boxing champ Mickey Simpson was typically cast as a villain in numerous low-budget actioners, adventures, and Westerns of the '40s, '50s, and '60s. Before making his screen debut with a bit part in Stagecoach, Simpson had been Claudette Colbert's personal chauffeur. He served with the military during WWII and then returned to Hollywood to continue his busy onscreen career.

Trivia: American general purpose actor Harlan Warde came to films in 1941 and remained before the cameras until the mid-'60s. During WWII, Warde played many a young man in uniform. Afterwards, he showed up in supporting roles as detectives, doctors, and ministers. One of Harlan Warde's last assignments was the recurring part of Sheriff Brannon on the TV Western series The Virginian (1962-1971).

Trivia: A former pro baseball player, Bing Russell eased into acting in the 1950s, appearing mostly in westerns. Russell could be seen in such bonafide classics as The Horse Soldiers (1959) and The Magnificent Seven (1960), and not a few bow-wows like Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (1966). From 1961 through 1973, Russell played the semiregular role of Deputy Clem on the marathon TV western series Bonanza. When time permitted, he also dabbled in screenwriting. The father of film star Kurt Russell, Bing Russell has acted with his son on several occasions, most memorably in the role of Vernon Presley in the 1979 TV-movie hit Elvis.

Trivia: With his slight built, narrow face and pencil-thin mustache, I. Stanford Jolley did not exactly look trustworthy, and a great many of his screen roles (more than 500) were indeed to be found on the wrong side of the law. Isaac Stanford Jolley had toured as a child with his father's traveling circus and later worked in stock and vaudeville, prior to making his Broadway debut opposite Charles Trowbridge in Sweet Seventeen (1924). Radio work followed and he arrived in Hollywood in 1935. Pegged early on as a gangster or Western outlaw, Jolley graduated to playing lead henchman or the boss villain in the '40s, mostly appearing for such poverty-row companies as Monogram and PRC. Although Jolley is often mentioned as a regular member of the Republic Pictures' stock company, he was never under contract to that legendary studio and only appeared in 25 films for them between 1936 and 1954. From 1950 on, Jolley worked frequently on television and remained a busy performer until at least 1976. According to his widow, the actor, who died of emphysema at the Motion Picture Country Hospital, never earned more than 100 dollars on any given movie assignment. He was the father of art director Stan Jolley.