Trivia: Jamaican-born Frank Silvera attended Northeastern Law School before inaugurating his acting career. One of the few black actors of the 1950s who was able to avoid being typecast by the color of his skin, Silvera played a wide variety of ethnic types, from Latin to Middle Eastern to Oriental. He made his film bow in 1952's Viva Zapata, and shortly thereafter was prominently cast in two of Stanley Kubrick's seminal films, Fear and Desire (1953) and Killer's Kiss (1955). Silvera was founder of The Theatre of Being, which was devoted to helping young African-American actors get started in show business; he also directed several stage plays in New York and Los Angeles. Frank Silvera was electrocuted in his home at the age of 56, while trying to repair an electrical appliance. At the time of his death, he was a regular on the TV series The High Chapparal.

Trivia: Of Hungarian-Philippine heritage, Barbara Luna was a stage actress from childhood. In 1949, Luna was cast as one of Ezio Pinza's children in South Pacific; she can be heard on the original cast album, singing the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical's opening number "Dites Moi, Pourquoi?" She went on to appear in such Broadway productions as The King and I, Teahouse of the August Moon and A Chorus Line. In films from 1958, Luna has usually been seen in exotic ethnic roles in films like The Devil at Four O'Clock (1961) and Five Weeks in a Balloon (1961). Star Trek fans still send her complimentary letters for her performance as Marlene Moreau in the 1967 ST installment "Mirror Mirror." Her most recent film credit was 1992's Lady Against the Odds. Barbara Luna has been married to actors Doug McClure and Alan Arkin.

Trivia: Billy Crystal notwithstanding, Argentine actor Fernando Lamas did not spend his entire career saying "You...look...MAHHHHvelous". A well-established film star in his native Buenos Aires, Lamas was brought to Hollywood in 1950 with an MGM contract. He went on to play several variations on the standard "Latin Lover" type, with occasional opportunities to display his well-trained singing voice. Beginning with the 1961 Spanish film The Magic Fountain, Lamas entered a whole new phase of his career as a director. In this respect, he was busiest on television, directing episodes of such series as Mannix, Alias Smith and Jones, Gavilan, and Falcon Crest. This last-named series starred Lorenzo Lamas, the son of Fernando and his third wife Arlene Dahl. At the time of his death, Fernando Lamas was married to wife number four, aquatic film star Esther Williams.

Trivia: Not wishing to be typecast in Latino roles, actor Henry Thomas Delgado changed his professional name to Henry Darrow -- only to spend his first dozen or so years in show business playing Hispanics. Darrow gained nationwide attention when briefly cast as a Mexican lawyer on the ABC daytime drama General Hospital; he had previously been active in Spanish-language soap operas, and as a Hollywood voice-over artist, dubbing Hispanic films into English. While appearing in an L.A.-based stage play in early 1967, Darrow was spotted by TV producer David Dortort, who was then in the process of casting the upcoming Western series The High Chaparral. Dortort created the character of aristocrat-turned-ranchhand Manolito Montoya with Darrow specifically in mind; the actor remained in this role until High Chapparal completed its four-season run in 1971. Darrow was then seen in a handful of films (Badge 373, Maverick, etc.) and a whole slew of weekly TV programs, including The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1973-1974 season, as stage manager Alex Montenez) and Time Trax (1993). He also returned to the daily-serial grind as Rafael Castillo on Santa Barbara (1984-1992). In 1983, Henry Darrow was starred on the spoofish series Zorro and Son as Zorro Sr. (aka Don Diego de la Vega), a character he'd previously played via voice-over on the Saturday morning cartoon weekly The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour (1981); and in 1989, he was seen as the title character's father on the Family Channel cable series Zorro.

Trivia: Born William Anderson, this brawny, blond second lead had the looks of a Viking god. He worked as a band vocalist and trombone player, then gained a small amount of stage experience before debuting onscreen in a bit part (as a corpse) in Wanderer of the Wasteland (1935). Billed by Paramount as Glenn Erickson, he began his screen career as a leading man in Westerns. Because of his Nordic looks he was renamed Leif Erikson, which he later changed to Erickson. He played intelligent but unexciting second leads and supporting parts in many films. Erickson took four years off to serve in World War II and was twice wounded. He made few films after 1965 and retired from the screen after 1977. Also working on Broadway and in TV plays, he played the patriarch Big John Cannon in the TV series High Chaparral (1967-1971). From 1934 to 1942, he was married to actress Frances Farmer, with whom he co-starred in Ride a Crooked Mile (1938); later, he was briefly married to actress Margaret Hayes (aka Dana Dale).

Trivia: Argentinian actress Linda Cristal made her first American film in 1956. Typecast by virtue of her accent and her exotic Latino features, Linda could usually be found in westerns, notably Comanche (1956), The Fiend Who Walked the West (1958), The Alamo (1960) and Two Rode Together (1961). She also showed up in such European sword-and-sandal affairs as The Pharoah's Woman (1961). In 1959, Linda was given a rare opportunity to display her comic know-how as a temperamental Hollywood starlet in the Tony Curtis/Janet Leigh vehicle The Perfect Furlough. From 1967 through 1971, Linda Cristal played Victoria Cannon on the TV western The High Chaparral.