Trivia: Though it sounded like a Hollywood fabrication, Rod LaRocque was that particular American actor's real name. Stagestruck from childhood, LaRocque did his first stage work at age 9 with Willard Mack's Chicago stock company; the pay was a munificent one dollar per show. During a lull in stock company activity when he was 16, LaRocque entered vaudeville with a dramatic sketch, then broke into films as an extra when director E. H. Calvert was filming The Snowman at Chicago's Essanay Studios. When Essanay folded, LaRocque went to Fort Lee, New Jersey, where in the pre-1920 days films were still being made. After working briefly for Sam Goldwyn in Fort Lee and spending some time as a circus performer, LaRocque finally made it to Hollywood, where his prior experience and matinee-idol looks won him a contract with Cecil B. DeMille. The one silent DeMille picture that gets the most circulation today is The Ten Commandments (1923), which was divided into Biblical and modern scenes; LaRocque was in the latter, playing the weak-willed brother of Richard Dix and ultimately killing himself after contracting leprosy. When DeMille set up his own independent studio in the mid '20s, LaRocque became a stalwart of the operation, building up his box-office pull in such popular films as The Coming of Amos (1926) and Strong Heart (1927). In 1927, LaRocque fell in love with Vilma Banky, the lovely Hungarian star best remembered for her appearances in Rudolph Valentino's final films. They were married in a private ceremony, which infuriated Banky's boss Sam Goldwyn, who wanted to throw a big bash for his two favorite actors. To pacify Goldwyn, Rod and Vilma were married again in a royally lavish ceremony that lacked only one element: it was to have been a double wedding, but the other bride, Greta Garbo, failed to show up to marry her betrothed John Gilbert. LaRocque made an acceptable transition to sound, but Vilma Banky's thick Hungarian accent proved difficult to record; but by this time she was through with films (except for a few European productions), preferring to be Mrs. Rod LaRocque, period. By the late '30s, Rod LaRocque's career had waned, though he was seen to good advantage in character roles in such films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) and Meet John Doe (1940), but by the early '40s both LaRocque and his wife were too busily socially -- and too rich from real estate investments -- to care about the transience of fame.

Trivia: Actor Walter McGrail's birthdate is frequently given as 1899, but this hardly seems likely, inasmuch as he was playing adult leading roles in films as early as 1915. During his first decade before the cameras, McGrail was often cast as imperious scions of wealth in such films as Miss Ambition (1918), Girl Problem (1918) and The Country Cousin (1919). In the 1920s, he essayed scores of character roles, often playing a suave and/or villainous Latin type. The size of his roles decreased in the talkie era, though he occasionally played such meaty parts as Winsted Omstock in The Shadow Strikes (1937) and the leader of the "action" heavies in the 1940 serial Mysterious Dr. Satan. Walter McGrail retired in 1951.

Trivia: American actor Kenneth Harlan possessed the main prerequisite to succeed as a silent-movie leading man: he looked as though he'd just stepped out of an Arrow Collar ad. The nephew of rolypoly character actor Otis Harlan, Kenneth was on stage from the age of seven. He signed with D.W. Griffith's production company in the mid teens, though he was never actually directed by Griffith. Taking to the Roaring Twenties like a fish to water, Harlan spent as much time partying as he did acting; he also was quite a ladies' man, toting up seven marriages. Harlan's popularity was already on the wane when sound came in, so it didn't really matter that his voice had a surly edge to it which precluded future romantic leading roles. He remained in films as a supporting and bit actor in major features, and as a leading player in serials (Dick Tracy's G-Men [1937]) and short subjects (The Three Stooges' Movie Maniacs [1936]). It was clear that he couldn't muster much enthusiasm for the roles assigned him in the '30s; whenever appearing as a western villain, Harlan seldom bothered to dress the part, generally showing up on the set with a stetson hat and a modern business suit. Kenneth Harlan left acting in 1944 to become a reasonably successful actor's agent and restauranteur.

Trivia: British stage actor and producer Wilson Benge inaugurated his Hollywood career in 1922. From 1925's Lady Windemere's Fan onward, the slight, balding Benge was typecast in butler and valet roles. He played Ronald Colman's faithful retainer Denny in 1929's Bulldog Drummond, performed virtually the same function for Colman as Barraclough the valet in Raffles (1930), and portrayed Brassett in the 1931 version of Charley's Aunt, among many others. His "domestic" career extended to such two-reelers as Laurel and Hardy's Scram (1932). One of Benge's few non-servant roles was supposed murder victim Guy Davies in the 1945 Sherlock Holmes entry The House of Fear. He remained active in films until 1951, essaying still another manservant role in Royal Wedding (1951). Wilson Benge was married to actress Sarah L. Benge, who preceded him in death by one year.