Trivia: Throughout his film career, Richard Benjamin trafficked in neurotic, high-strung, self-involved upper-middle-class characterizations. While attending the New York High School of Performing Arts, Benjamin made his first professional stage appearances, and reportedly showed up in a handful of movie bit roles. He continued his theatrical training at Northwestern University, where he met actress Paula Prentiss, whom he married in 1961. At first, Hollywood was more interested in Paula than in Dick; thus, while Paula was co-starring with Jim Hutton at MGM, her husband was still performing on stage. In 1965, Benjamin directed the London production of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park; the following year, he made his Broadway acting bow in Simon's The Star Spangled Girl, earning a Theatre World Award in the bargain. Co-starring with wife Paula, Benjamin appeared in the 1967 TV situation comedy He and She, which gained a loyal cult following but was considered too New Yawk-ish for the hinterlands. Even so, He and She made Benjamin a name-above-the-title star, and it was in this capacity that he made his film adult screen appearance as angst-driven collegiate Neil Klugman in Goodbye Columbus (1969). He went on to play Major Danby in the all-star Catch-22 (1969), monumentally insensitive husband Jonathan Balser in Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970), the self-abusive (in every sense of the phrase) title character in Portnoy's Complaint (1972), the hero-by-default in Westworld (1973), ulcerated agent Ben Clark in The Sunshine Boys (1976) and erstwhile vampire hunter Dr. Jeff Rosenberg in Love at First Bite (1980). Benjamin participated in another cult-TV item in 1978, when he starred in the 6-episode sci-fi lampoon Quark. In 1982, he made his film directorial bow with My Favorite Year (1982), a rollicking nostalgiafest inspired by TV's Golden Age. Since that time, Benjamin has favored directing over performing.

Trivia: When James Brolin was 15, his parents invited Hollywood producer/director William Castle to dinner. Impressed by Brolin's self-confidence and teen-idol looks, Castle invited him to audition for a film role at Columbia Pictures. When he failed to land the part, Brolin decided to "show 'em" by studying diligently for an acting career, eventually logging 5,000 hours of class time. While still attending U.C.L.A., he landed a small role on the Bus Stop TV series, which led to a 20th Century Fox contract. For the next five years, he marked time with bits and minor roles in such Fox features as Take Her, She's Mine (1963), Goodbye Charlie (1964), Von Ryan's Express (1965), Our Man Flint (1966), and Fantastic Voyage (1966). His first real break came with a peripheral but noticeable recurring role on the 1966 TV Western The Monroes. In 1968, Brolin finally attained stardom with his Emmy-winning characterization of Dr. Steve Kiley on the popular TV medical series Marcus Welby, M.D. During his five years with Welby, Brolin returned to films to play such choice roles as the unbalanced Vietnam vet in Skyjacked (1972) and ill-fated vacationer John Blaine in Westworld (1973). The most conspicuous of his post-Welby film assignments was 1976's Gable and Lombard, a cinematic atrocity redeemed only slightly by Brolin's earnest portrayal of Clark Gable. His most endearing screen assignment was his extended cameo as P.W. in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985), and in 1992 he had one of his strongest roles to date as a wayward father in Allison Anders' Gas Food Lodging. Periodically returning to television, Brolin has starred on the weekly series Hotel (1983), Angel Falls (1993), and Extremities (1995). James Brolin is the father of actor Josh Brolin, who co-starred with his dad in the made-for-cable Finish Line (1989). In 1998, Brolin assumed one of his most high-profile real-life roles to date as the husband of Barbra Streisand, whom he married in July of that year.He remained one of the most respected actors of his generation and continued to work steadily for directors all over the world. In 2002 he was cast in Martin Scorsese's epic historical drama Gangs of New York. In 2003 he took a cameo part in Bright Young Things. In 2004 he returned for the Bridget Jones sequel, and took a bit part in Mike Leigh's Vera Drake. He worked in a number o animated films including Doogal, Valiant, and Robots. In 2007 he had the title role in Longford, a historical drama about the infamous Moor Murders, and the next year he was part of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls.He became part of the Harry Potter family with Half-Blood Prince, and played King William in the costume drama The Young Victoria, all in 2009. In 2010 he reunited with Mike Leigh and earned excellent reviews yet again for Another Year, and the next year he helped support Meryl Streep to an Oscar play the dutiful husband to The Iron Lady.

Trivia: During his lifetime, it was hard to determine when and where actor Yul Brynner was born, simply because he changed the story in every interview; confronted with these discrepancies late in life, he replied, "Ordinary mortals need but one birthday." At any rate, it appears that Brynner's mother was part Russian, his father part Swiss, and that he lived in Russia until his mother moved the family to Manchuria and then Paris in the early '30s. He worked as a trapeze artist with the touring Cirque D'Hiver, then joined a repertory theater company in Paris in 1934. Brynner's fluency in Russian and French enabled him to build up a following with the Czarist expatriates in Paris, and his talents as a singer/guitarist increased his popularity. And when Michael Chekhov hired Brynner for his American theater company, he added a third language -- English -- to his repertoire. After several years of regional acting, Brynner was hired by the Office of War Information as an announcer for their French radio service. In 1945, Brynner was cast as Tsai-Yong in the musical play Lute Song, which starred Mary Martin; the production opened on Broadway in 1946, and, though its run was short, Brynner won the Most Promising Actor Donaldson award. He went on to do theater in London and direct early live television programs in the States, including a children's puppet show, Life With Snarky Parker. In 1949, the actor made his movie debut as a two-bit smuggler in a Manhattan-filmed quickie Port of New York, which has taken on a video-store life of its own since lapsing into the public domain. On the strength of his Lute Song work of several years earlier, Brynner was cast as the King of Siam in Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1951 musical The King and I. The play was supposed to be a vehicle for Gertrude Lawrence, with the king an important but secondary role; but so powerful was Brynner's work that the role was beefed up in rehearsal, causing supporting actor Murvyn Vye to quit the show when Vye's only song was cut to give more stage time to Brynner. The King and I was an enormous hit, supplying Brynner with the role of a lifetime, one in which he would repeat brilliantly in the 1956 film version -- and win an Oscar in the process. Cecil B. DeMille, impressed by Brynner's King performance, cast the actor as the Egyptian Pharoah Rameses I in DeMille's multimillion-dollar blockbuster The Ten Commandments (1956). It became difficult for Brynner to play a "normal" character after this, so he seldom tried, although he came close to subtle believability in Anastasia (1956) and The Journey (1959). The first baldheaded movie idol, Brynner occasionally donned a wig or, as in Taras Bulba (1962), a Russian pigtail, but his fans (particularly the ladies) preferred him "scalped," as it were. Outside of his film work, Brynner was also an accomplished photographer, and many of his pictures appeared in major magazine spreads or were used as official studio production stills. Hollywood changed radically in the '70s, and the sort of larger-than-life fare in which Brynner thrived thinned out; so, in 1972, the actor agreed to re-create his King and I role in an expensive weekly TV series, Anna and the King. But it lasted all of eight weeks. Brynner's last major film role was in the sci-fi thriller Westworld (1973) as a murderously malfunctioning robot, dressed in Western garb reminiscent of the actor's wardrobe in 1960's The Magnificent Seven. What could have been campy or ludicrous became a chilling characterization in Brynner's hands; his steady, steely-eyed automaton glare as he approached his human victims was one of the more enjoyably frightening filmgoing benefits of the decade. In 1977, Brynner embarked upon a stage revival of The King and I, and though he was dogged by tales of his outrageous temperament and seemingly petty demands during the tour, audiences in New York and all over the country loved the show. The actor inaugurated a second King tour in 1985; this time, however, he knew he was dying of lung cancer, but kept the news from both his fans and co-workers. Unable to perform the "Shall We Dance" waltz or get all the words out for the song "A Puzzlement," Brynner nonetheless played to packed audiences willing to shell out 75 dollars per ticket. Two months after the play closed in 1985, Brynner died in a New York hospital -- still insisting that his public not know the severity of his condition until after his death, although he had recorded a dramatic public-service announcement to be broadcast afterward that blamed the illness on smoking.

Trivia: Supporting actor Norman Bartold appeared in numerous films of the 1970s. He also worked on television as a guest star and in television movies. He made his film debut in The Littlest Hobo (1958).

Trivia: Through eight decades, actor Dick Van Patten retained the cherubic, chipmunk-cheeked countenance of his child-star days. Born into a family of actors, Van Patten was seven when he made his Broadway bow, playing Melvyn Douglas' son in Tapestry in Gray; that same year, he first stepped before a radio microphone. He would ultimately appear in over 20 Broadway productions, including Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth. His co-star in this endeavor was Tallulah Bankhead, who declared that "Dickie" was the only child actor she could tolerate because he could read The Racing Form. In 1941, Van Patten and his younger sister Joyce made their joint film debut in Reg'lar Fellers, repeating their roles from the radio version of the same property. He would not again appear in a film until 1968's Charly, by which time he had played eldest son Nels Hansen in the pioneering TV sitcom Mama had made a smooth transition to adult parts in the role of Mister Roberts' Ensign Pulver, and had co-starred in such New York stage presentations as The Tender Trap, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and Don't Drink the Water. An avid tennis player, Van Patten met producer/director Mel Brooks on the courts; their personal relationship blossomed into a professional one, with Van Patten playing Friar Tuck in Brooks' 1975 TV series When Things Were Rotten and appearing in several of Brooks' theatrical features. From 1977 through 1981, Van Patten starred as Tom Bradford on the TV "dramedy" Eight is Enough. His other series-TV assignments include The Partners (1971), The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1973-74 season) and WIOU (1990). In addition to his sibling relationship with Joyce Van Patten, Dick Van Patten is the half-brother Timothy Van Patten and the father of James and Vincent Van Patten--actors all. Van Patten died in 2015, at age 86.

Trivia: American actor Steve Franken was the son of a Hollywood press agent, thus he grew up discoursing in the highly stylized trade-magazine lingo that every show-business functionary was required to learn in the '40s and '50s. Sustaining himself as a stage actor in 1960, Franken was appearing in a Los Angeles production of Say Darling when he was spotted by Rod Amateau, producer-director of the TV sitcom Dobie Gillis. Amateau was looking for someone to play the insufferable rich-boy nemesis of Dobie, a role recently vacated by Warren Beatty. Thus Franken's first assignment on a Hollywood soundstage was in the role of Chatsworth Osborne Jr., snotty young millionaire overachiever (the character had been called "Milton Armitage" when Beatty played it). The character's trademark was a pained look of condescension, which Franken attributed to an ulcer that he'd suffered since the age of 14, when his mother died. Not really a regular on Dobie Gillis, Franken found himself at the unemployment office between his "Chatsworth" stints, and understandably grew to resent the character he played so well. When he did receive an outside job, it was generally as a Chatsworth type, so when Dobie Gillis ended its run in 1963, Franken sought out as many villainous roles as possible--after another "rich buddy" stint on the short-lived series Tom, Dick and Mary. Some of the actor's best work can be caught in reruns of such '60s TV series as Perry Mason and The Wild Wild West. Still, Franken didn't work as often as he should, and it was his contention that Dobie Gillis had all but ruined his career. Steve Franken persevered into the '70s and '80s, notably as an actor/director on the popular religious TV anthology Insight, with frequent appearances on the Jerry Lewis Telethons and in occasional character roles in such films as Westworld (1973).

Trivia: A popular supporting player whose background performances in such films as MASH (1970) and Westworld (1973) always lent the films that extra personal dimension, actor Thomas V. Falk was active in film and television from the early '60s to the late '70s. A Brooklyn native who discovered his love for acting early in life, it wasn't until later that Falk would discover that he was equally gifted as a writer as well. Putting ink to paper for nearly three decades, Falk penned numerous film and television scripts before segueing into a career as an art director for television commercials. On August 23, 2003, Thomas V. Falk died of natural causes in Woodland Hills, CA. He was 65.

Trivia: American actor Davis Roberts played character roles on stage, television, and in feature films for nearly 40 years. Between 1983 and 1984, he had a regular role as a blind bluesman on the television series Boone. He made his final film appearance in To Sleep With Anger. In addition to acting, Roberts served as an advisor for the Western division of the Actor's Equity Association. He also founded the Beverly Hills-Hollywood NAACP Image Award.

Trivia: For years, character actor Howard Platt qualified as one of the small screen's most familiar faces. Devoted viewers of 1970s television will easily remember Platt; he played Hoppy the Cop, the quintessentially weird, by-the-book white police officer who made frequent stops at Fred Sanford's junkyard on the hit NBC sitcom Sanford and Son (1972-1977). Additional recurring roles included Dr. Phil Newman on The Bob Newhart Show and Marvin the Jewelry Salesman on Alice. Platt briefly enjoyed a main starring role as airline pilot Captain Doug March on the CBS adventure drama Flying High (1978) opposite Pat Klous and Connie Sellecca; unfortunately, it was canceled in late January 1979, soon after it premiered. He remained active for the following several decades, however, and extended his work into occasional features such as The Cat from Outer Space (1978), Nixon (1995), and The Rock (1996) while establishing himself as a nearly constant presence in theater as an actor and director. In 2008, Platt starred opposite Tim Robbins and Rachel McAdams in the Iraq veteran-themed drama The Lucky Ones.

Trivia: Lead, onscreen from the '60s. He was best known as Dusty Farlow in the TV series Dallas. Martin died in 2017, at age 75.

Trivia: With several years' modeling experience to her credit, Victoria Shaw made her screen bow in her native Australia in 1955. Discovered by Bob Hope while he was touring Down Under, Victoria was brought to Hollywood and signed to a contract at Columbia Pictures. Her best showing under the Columbia banner was as the second wife of Tyrone Power in 1958's The Eddie Duchin Story; around the same time, she became the first wife of actor Roger Smith. Victoria Shaw's final appearance on film was the fleeting role of "Medieval Queen" in the 1973 sci-fier Westworld; she died of complications resulting from asthma at the age of 53.

Trivia: Alan Oppenheimer is one of the busiest of that breed of character actors who so expertly blend into the roles they're playing that they don't seem to be acting at all. Generally cast in "management" roles in films (the chief supervisor in 1973's Westworld, for example), Oppenheimer has also been a regular or semi-regular on several TV series. He was Dr. Rudy Wells during the first season of The Six Million Dollar Man (1974-75) ex-gangster Sheldon Leonard's brother Jessie on Big Eddie (1975), Captain Finnerty on Eischeid (1979-83) and Ben Brookstone on Home Free (1993), and was seen on an occasional basis as Dr. Raymond Auerbach on Murder She Wrote and network president Eugene Kinsella on Murphy Brown. Alan Oppenheimer's most lasting legacy rests in his innumerable cartoon voiceovers for Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, Disney and other studios: He was heard as Ming the Merciless on New Adventures of Flash Gordon (1979), Sidney Merciless in the "Shake Rattle and Roll" component of CB Bears (1977), Mighty Mouse in The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle (1979 Filmation version), Big D on The Drak Pack (1980), Tawky Tawney and Uncle Dudley in Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam (1981), Vanity on The Smurfs (1981-90), Sheriff Pudge on The Trollkins (1981), Skeletor in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983), the King of Gummadon in Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears (1985), Colonel Trautman in Rambo (1986), Pa Kent on Superman (1988 Ruby-Spears version), Merlin in The Legend of Prince Valiant (1991), and so many others.

Trivia: Lead actor, onscreen from 1963.