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: Born in Grodek, Poland, the erudite actor received an M.A. in psychometrics and a law degree before he turned to performing as half of a comedy team known as Ross & West. On film, he was notable and frightening in Experiment in Terror (1962). Following an undistinguished but busy TV career in the '50s, Martin became one of television's most brilliant chararacter actors. As a regular on the charades-like game shows The Ad-Libbers (1951), Pantomime Quiz (1950-1963), and Stump the Stars (1962-63), he had the chance to show off his lightning mind and acting facility. After playing a supporting role on The Sheriff of Cochise (1956-1960), he costarred as Andamo on Mr. Lucky (1959-60). Martin finally found his niche as TV's "man of a thousand faces" -- Secret Service agent Artemus Gordon -- on the humorous cult spy spoof/western/science fiction series The Wild, Wild West (1965-1969) with Robert Conrad as James West. The show gave him an opportunity to display his acting virtuosity, as he used multiple disguises and accents in almost every episode. Sidelined by a major heart attack near the end of the series and replaced by look-alike Charles Aidman, Martin did mostly guest shots and cartoon voiceovers thereafter. His directing credits include Here's Lucy (1968-74).

Trivia: The "sweetheart" of TV's The Mickey Mouse Club, American entertainer Annette Funicello began performing at age 10. The Disney people themselves sensed that Funicello had star quality, building several musical numbers around her on The Mickey Mouse Club and fashioning her own Club show-within-a-show miniseries, appropriately titled "Annette." Funicello's post-Mickey Mouse career was far more successful than that of many of her fellow Mouseketeers--and the reasons cannot be charged up to looks alone. She also was guest-starred on the Disney TV series Zorro and Wonderful World of Color, and was given sizeable roles in such Disney theatrical features as The Shaggy Dog (59) and Babes in Toyland (61). While still under contract to Disney, Funicello began appearing in American-International's Beach Party series, usually co-starring with Frankie Avalon. Though these films were distinguished by undulating, bikinied females, Walt Disney decreed that Funicello never be involved in any "suggestive" sequences--nor were her two-piece bathing suits permitted to uncover her navel. After playing an extended cameo role as Davy Jones' sweetheart in The Monkees' film vehicle Head (68), Funicello cut down on her professional appearances, preferring to spend time with her family. During the 1970s, she became spokeswoman for a popular brand of peanut butter, her commercial appearances constituting the bulk of her on-camera time during this period. In 1987, she and onetime cohort Frankie Avalon co-financed and starred in the nostalgic musical film Back to the Beach. In her later years, Funicellostruggled against the ravages of multiple sclerosis; her courage and high spirits in the face of intense pain and decreasing mobility were inspirational, as well as beneficial in helping to raise funds for further research of degenerative diseases. In 1994, Annette Funicello published her autobiography, the tone of which perfectly reflected the actress herself: discreet, ladylike and boundlessly cheerful. After suffering from multiple sclerosis for more than two decades, Funicello died from complications from the disease in 2013 at the age of 70.

Trivia: The older sister of actor Marlon Brando, Jocelyn Brando first set foot on stage under the direction of her mother, the leading light of an Omaha community theatre group. Jocelyn's career has been mostly confined to stage work ever since, though she has occasionally surfaced on film. Her best-known movie role (if not her largest) was detective Glenn Ford's murdered wife in the 1953 gangster melodrama The Big Heat. Jocelyn has also appeared in two of brother Marlon's films, The Ugly American (1962) and The Chase (1966). In the early 1970s, Jocelyn Brando succeeded Frances Sternhagen in the role of Mrs. Krakauer on the long-running daytime drama Love of Life.

Trivia: After a few desultory movie appearances in the mid-1930s, rotund American actor Stanley Adams came to films permanently in 1952, to re-create his stage role as the bartender in the movie version of Death of a Salesman. His busiest period was 1955-1965, when he appeared on virtually every major TV series in America. His video roles ranged from a pompous time-travelling scientist on Twilight Zone to a wisecracking witch doctor on Gilligan's Island. Shortly after completing his last film, 1976's Woman in the Rain, Stanley Adams committed suicide at the age of 62.

Trivia: A versatile, commanding, leathery character actor, he learned to raise and ride broncos on his family's ranch during his youth. He attended college for two years, became a seaman, then began his performing career as a radio announcer; he became nationally known as an announcer on the "March of Time" broadcasts. Onscreen from the late '40s, he often portrayed law officers; he was also convincing as a villain. He was well-known for his TV work; he starred in the series Naked City and Wagon Train. He was married to actress Jeanette Nolan, with whom he appeared in Saddle Tramp (1950) and Two Rode Together (1961); they also acted together on radio, and in the late '60s they joined the cast of the TV series The Virginian, portraying a married couple. Their son was actor Tim McIntire.

Trivia: Redheaded leading man Robert Horton attended UCLA, served in the Coast Guard during World War II, and acted in California-based stage productions before making his entree into films in 1951. Horton's television career started off on a high note in 1955, when he was cast in the weekly-TV version of King's Row as Drake McHugh (the role essayed by Ronald Reagan in the 1942 film version). The series barely lasted three months, but better things were on the horizon: in 1957, Horton was hired to play frontier scout Flint McCullough in Wagon Train, which became the highest-rated western on TV. Horton remained with Wagon Train until 1962. He then did some more stage work before embarking on his third series, 1965's The Man Called Shenandoah. When this one-season wonder ran its course, Horton toured the dinner-theatre circuit, then in 1982 accepted a major role on the popular daytime soap opera As the World Turns. Horton continued acting until the late 1980s. He died in 2016, at age 91.