Trivia: American actor Sterling Hayden was a Hollywood leading man of the '40s and '50s who went on to become a character actor in later years. At age 16 he dropped out of school to become a mate on a schooner, beginning a life-long love affair with the sea; by age 22 he was a ship's captain. Extremely good looking, he modeled professionally to earn enough money to buy his own vessel; this led to a movie contract with Paramount in 1940. Within a year he was famous, having starred in two technicolor movies, Virginia (1941) and Bahama Passage (1942); both featured the somewhat older actress Madeleine Carroll, to whom he was married from 1942-46. With these films, Paramount began trumpeting him as "The Most Beautiful Man in the Movies" and "The Beautiful Blond Viking God." Shortly after making these two films he joined the Marines to serve in World War II. After the war he landed inconsequential roles until a part as a hoodlum in The Asphalt Jungle (1950) demonstrated his skill as an actor. After this his career was spotty, marked for the most part by inferior films (with some notable exceptions, such as Dr. Strangelove [1964]) and frequent abandonment of the screen in favor of the sea. It was said that Hayden was never particularly interested in his work as an actor, vastly preferring the life of a sailor. His obsession with the sea and his various voyages are described in his 1963 autobiography, Wanderer, in which he also expresses regret for having cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Commission during the early '50s McCarthy-Era "witch trials." He published a novel in 1976, Voyage: A Novel of 1896; it was named as a selection of the Book of the Month Club.

Trivia: Described by one film historian as a "hand-wringing 'Oh-Jed-don't-go'" type actress, Coleen Gray did, in all fairness, have a few roles requiring more than sidelines suffering. After graduating with honors from the drama department of Hamline University, Gray was signed by 20th Century-Fox in 1945. There she enjoyed some of her best roles, including the female lead in Kiss and Death (1947) and the dumb-but-honest girlfriend of smart-but-shifty Tyrone Power in Nightmare Alley (1947). Free-lancing in the 1950s, Gray appeared in several westerns, getting the opportunity to play an adventuress of sorts in Tennessee's Partner (1955). Always willing to give her all for her art, Gray even managed to bring some artistry to such Grade-Z efforts as The Leech Woman (1960). In 1961, Coleen Gray played Miss Wycliffe on the short-lived Robert Young TV "dramedy" Window on Main Street.

Trivia: Usually grouped together in the 1960s with Hollywood's "Beach Boy" set, Keith Larsen was actually more the tennis-playing type. In fact, he was a tennis pro at the time he was tapped by a talent scout to play a small role in 1951's Operation Pacific. While Larsen's film career was negligible, he prospered on television as star of the weekly series The Hunter (1954), Brave Eagle (1955), Northwest Passage (1958) and The Aquanauts (1960). Because none of his TV projects survived their first seasons, Larsen referred to himself as a "professional failure," though in fact he worked longer and with more frequency than most of his beefcake contemporaries. In 1968, Larsen turned producer/director/screenwriter with the pinchpenny war melodrama Mission Batangas. From 1960 through 1973, Keith Larsen was the husband of actress Vera Miles.

Trivia: Unable to meet the exacting academic requirements of the Naval Academy, Colorado-born Tom Tully entered the service branch of his choice as a common seaman. Following this, Tully worked as a junior reporter for the Denver Post. He decided to become a radio actor simply because the money was better. After several theatrical flops, Tully managed to hitch himself to a success with Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness. In 1944, he arrived in Hollywood to appear in I'll Be Seeing You. Among his many tough-but-tender screen characterizations was the role of the first commander of the "Caine" in 1954's The Caine Mutiny, a performance which earned Tully an Oscar nomination. From 1954 through 1960, Tom Tully essayed the role of Inspector Matt Grebb on the TV detective series Lineup (aka San Francisco Beat).

Trivia: "Wakely," says one modern critic, "just never seemed comfortable as a movie cowboy." Yet, there he was in 1944, as low-budget Monogram's answer to Republic Pictures' singing cowboy sensations Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. Wakely, in fact, had reportedly been discovered by Autry and he later made his screen debut (with the Jimmy Wakely Trio) in a Rogers Western, Saga of Death Valley (1939). As a country & western balladeer, Wakely certainly had his merits and he would eventually be topped only by Autry in the amount of pop hits delivered. He was not a natural actor and although Monogram added several well-known sidekicks to their Jimmy Wakely music Westerns, the series remained decidedly also-ran in nature. Wakely was awarded no less than two sidekicks in his first two films -- Dennis Moore and elderly Lee "Lasses" White -- then counted on White alone to deliver comedic punch to the following ten. With Ridin' Down the Trail, White was replaced by Dub Taylor, who previously had rescued other, less-than-stellar cowboy heroes. Taylor, whose bucolic antics remain purely a matter of taste, stayed with Wakely for the duration of his Monogram contract, 16 Westerns in all. Leaving films in 1949, Jimmy Wakely continued to record and is perhaps best remembered for his collaboration with singer Margaret Whiting and for the Christmas song "Silver Bells." Jimmy Wakely comic books survived until 1952, but Wakely himself could never escape having once been Monogram's low-budget answer to Gene Autry. The performer, however, opted for a philosophic attitude: "Everybody reminds somebody of someone else until they are somebody. And I had rather be compared to Gene Autry than anyone else. Through the grace of God and Gene Autry, I got a career."

Trivia: Following a wartime tour with the Navy, New Jersey-born Lee Van Cleef supported himself as an accountant. Like fellow accountant-turned-actor Jack Elam, Van Cleef was advised by his clients that he had just the right satanic facial features to thrive as a movie villain. With such rare exceptions as The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1954), Van Cleef spent most of his early screen career on the wrong side of the law, menacing everyone from Gary Cooper (High Noon) to the Bowery Boys (Private Eyes) with his cold, shark-eyed stare. Van Cleef left Hollywood in the '60s to appear in European spaghetti Westerns, initially as a secondary actor; he was, for example, the "Bad" in Clint Eastwood's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). Within a few years, Van Cleef was starring in blood-spattered action films with such titles as Day of Anger (1967), El Condor (1970), and Mean Frank and Crazy Tony (1975). The actor was, for many years, one of the international film scene's biggest box-office draws. Returning to Hollywood in the late '70s, He starred in a very short-lived martial arts TV series The Master (1984), the pilot episodes of which were pieced together into an ersatz feature film for video rental. Van Cleef died of a heart attack in 1989.

Trivia: There was always something slightly sinister about American actor Carleton G. Young that prevented him from traditional leading man roles. Young always seemed to be hiding something, to be looking over his shoulder, or to be poised to head for the border; as such, he was perfectly cast in such roles as the youthful dope peddler in the 1936 camp classic Reefer Madness. Even when playing a relatively sympathetic role, Young appeared capable of going off the deep end at any minute, vide his performance in the 1937 serial Dick Tracy as Tracy's brainwashed younger brother. During the 1940s and 1950s, Young was quite active in radio, where he was allowed to play such heroic leading roles as Ellery Queen and the Count of Monte Cristo without his furtive facial expressions working against him. As he matured into a greying character actor, Young became a special favorite of director John Ford, appearing in several of Ford's films of the 1950s and 1960s. In 1962's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, it is Young, in the small role of a reporter, who utters the unforgettable valediction "This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact...print the legend." Carleton G. Young was the father of actor Tony Young, who starred in the short-lived 1961 TV Western Gunslinger.

Trivia: While maintaining his whole life that he was part Cree and part Cherokee, actor Iron Eyes Cody was in fact born Espera DeCorti, a second generation Italian-American. He started out as a Wild-West-show performer, like his father before him. His earliest recognizable film appearances date back to 1919's Back to God's Country. While his choice of film roles was rather limited in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, Cody made himself a valuable Hollywood commodity by offering his services as a technical advisor on Indian lore, customs, costuming and sign language. In between his TV work and personal appearances with the Ringling Bros. Circus and other such touring concerns, Iron Eyes continued accepting supporting roles in Hollywood westerns of the 1950s; he played Chief Crazy Horse twice, in Sitting Bull (1954) and The Great Sioux Massacre (1965). Far more erudite and well-read than most of his screen characters, Iron Eyes has in recent years become a popular interview subject and a fixture at western-movie conventions and film festivals. His famous appearance as the tear-shedding Indian in the "Keep America Beautiful" TV campaign of the 1970s recently enjoyed a "revival" on cable television. In 1982, Cody wrote his enjoyably candid autobiography, in which several high-profile movie stars were given the "emperor has no clothes" treatment. As well as being an actor, Cody owns an enormous collection of Indian artifacts, costumes, books and artwork; has written several books with Indian themes; is a member of the board of directors of the Los Angeles Indian Center, the Southwest Museum and the Los Angeles Library Association; is vice-president of the Little Big Horn Indian Association; is a member of the Verdugo Council of the Boy Scouts of America; and has participated as Grand Marshal of Native American pow-wows throughout the U.S.

Trivia: A busy presence in B-Westerns and serials from 1920-1950, Carl "Kansas" Moehring spent his first decade in films supporting his good friend Hoot Gibson in scores of that silent Western star's best vehicles for Universal. Rarely billed after the changeover to sound, Moehring (who hailed from Ohio despite his nickname) was often one of the villain's henchmen, a stage driver, or on rare occasions -- such as the 1947 Johnny Mack Brown oater Trailing Danger -- a lawman. Moehring passed away at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital.

Trivia: The husband of early Western star Mona Darkfeather, American stuntman/supporting player Art Ortego (born Arturo Ortega) played mostly Native American roles but also did his fair share of Mexican "greasers" in an amazing career that lasted from 1912-1951. Along the way, Ortego attempted to escape such typecasting by billing himself Art Ardigan. The ploy failed and he continued to play mainly villains up until his final credited film, 1951's Skipalong Rosenbloom.

Trivia: After some 15 years on the country & western circuit, singer/actor Sheb Wooley finally cracked popular music's Top Ten in 1958. It was Wooley who introduced the world to the "One Eyed, One Horned, Flying Purple People Eater," which remained the number one song for six straight weeks and stayed in the Top Ten for three weeks more. Thereafter, Wooley's recording career fluctuated between blue-ribbon country & western ballads and silly novelty songs. As an actor, Wooley was seen in such films as Little Big Horn (1951), High Noon (1952), Giant (1956), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), and several other films with a sagebrush setting and equestrian supporting cast. From 1961 through 1965, Sheb Wooley played Pete Nolan, frontier scout for the never-ending cattle drive on the weekly TV Western Rawhide.

Trivia: A graduate of the Nashville Conservatory and the model for U.S. Navy recruiting posters, John Pickard entered films in 1946 following a four-year stint in the navy. Pickard played supporting roles in scores of Westerns and action dramas before reaching stardom as Captain Shank of the U. S. Cavalry on the NBC television Western series Boots and Saddles. Filmed entirely on location at Kanab, UT, the series enjoyed a two-season run (1957-1958) and also featured Gardner McKay as Lieutenant Kelly. Pickard earned a second stab at small-screen stardom in Gunslinger (1961) and played supporting roles in nearly every other popular television drama, from Gunsmoke to Simon and Simon. He was tragically killed by a rampant bull while vacationing on a family farm in his home state of Tennessee.