Trivia: Of Greek parentage, Alexander Scourby hid his natural Brooklynese cadence behind a "stage British" accent in his earliest stage appearance. After an apprenticeship with Eva LeGalliene's company, Scourby graduated to Broadway with a major role in Leslie Howard's 1936 production of Hamlet. In radio from 1937, Scourby became one of the busiest and most sought-after voice-over specialists in the business, functioning as narrator on innumerable TV documentaries and as commercial spokesman for a myriad of products (most notably Johnson & Johnson bandages). In his Broadway and film work, Scourby was frequently cast as a villain, such as the Italian-American gangster boss in Fritz Lang's The Big Heat (1953). One of his last assignments was as the host of the PBS broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera. The resonant voice of Alexander Scourby can still be heard on religious radio stations by virtue of his mid-'60s syndicated series "Alexander Scourby Reads the Scriptures."

Trivia: As a boy growing up in Sacramento, Robert Warwick sang in his church choir. Encouraged to pursue music as a vocation, Warwick studied in Paris for an operatic career. He abandoned singing for straight acting when, in 1903, he was hired by Clyde Fitch as an understudy in the Broadway play Glad of It. Within a few year, Warwick was a major stage star in New York. He managed to retain his matinee-idol status when he switched from stage to screen, starring in such films as A Modern Othello and Alias Jimmy Valentine and at one point heading his own production company. He returned to the stage in 1920, then resumed his Hollywood career in authoritative supporting roles. His pear-shaped tones ideally suited for talkies, Warwick played such characters as Neptune in Night Life of the Gods (1933), Sir Francis Knolly in Mary of Scotland (1936) and Lord Montague in Romeo and Juliet (1936). He appeared in many of the Errol Flynn "historicals" at Warner Bros. (Prince and the Pauper, Adventures of Robin Hood, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex); in more contemporary fare, he could usually be found in a military uniform or wing-collared tuxedo. From The Great McGinty (1940) onward, Warwick was a particular favorite of producer/director Preston Sturges, who was fond of providing plum acting opportunities to veteran character actors. Warwick's best performance under Sturges' guidance was as the brusque Hollywood executive who insists upon injecting "a little sex" in all of his studio's product in Sullivan's Travels (1942). During the 1950s, Warwick played several variations on "Charles Waterman," the broken-down Shakespearean ham that he'd portrayed in In a Lonely Place (1950). He remained in harness until his eighties, playing key roles on such TV series as The Twilight Zone and The Law and Mr. Jones. Robert Warwick was married twice, to actresses Josephine Whittell and Stella Lattimore.

Trivia: Actor Kenneth Haigh received his preliminary training at that cradle of top British talent, the Central School of Speech and Drama. Haigh's first professional job was in a 1952 Irish stage production. He joined the vanguard of Britain's "angry young man" movement when he originated the role of Jimmy Porter in both the London and Broadway productions of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger. He remained in the Jimmy Porter mode in most of his film appearances: exceptions included the part of Brutus in the mammoth 1963 version of Cleopatra and his hilarious uncredited cameo as a supercilious TV producer in the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night (1964). Kenneth Haigh's television credits include the British TV series Man at the Top (1971-75), a spin-off of the 1959 film Room at the Top, and the role of Sir Richard Burton in the internationally distributed miniseries Search for the Nile (1972).