Trivia: The son of a chemical analyst, American actor William Holden plunged into high school and junior college sports activities as a means of "proving himself" to his demanding father. Nonetheless, Holden's forte would be in what he'd always consider a "sissy" profession: acting. Spotted by a talent scout during a stage production at Pasadena Junior College, Holden was signed by both Paramount and Columbia, who would share his contract for the next two decades. After one bit role, Holden was thrust into the demanding leading part of boxer Joe Bonaparte in Golden Boy (1939). He was so green and nervous that Columbia considered replacing him, but co-star Barbara Stanwyck took it upon herself to coach the young actor and build up his confidence -- a selfless act for which Holden would be grateful until the day he died. After serving as a lieutenant in the Army's special services unit, Holden returned to films, mostly in light, inconsequential roles. Director Billy Wilder changed all that by casting him as Joe Gillis, an embittered failed screenwriter and "kept man" of Gloria Swanson in the Hollywood-bashing classic Sunset Boulevard (1950). Wilder also directed Holden in the role of the cynical, conniving, but ultimately heroic American POW Sefton in Stalag 17 (1953), for which the actor won an Oscar. Holden became a man of the world, as it were, when he moved to Switzerland to avoid heavy taxation on his earnings; while traversing the globe, he developed an interest in African wildlife preservation, spending much of his off-camera time campaigning and raising funds for the humane treatment of animals. Free to be selective in his film roles in the '60s and '70s, Holden evinced an erratic sensibility: For every Counterfeit Traitor (1962) and Network (1976), there would be a walk-through part in The Towering Inferno (1974) or Ashanti (1978). His final film role was in S.O.B. (1981), which, like Sunset Boulevard, was a searing and satirical indictment of Hollywood. But times had changed, and one of the comic highlights of S.O.B. was of a drunken film executive urinating on the floor of an undertaker's parlor. Holden's death in 1981 was the result of blood loss from a fall he suffered while alone.

Trivia: Ohioan Eleanor Parker chose a career in acting when she was still in her teens and began appearing in professional stage productions in Cleveland and at California's Pasadena Playhouse. Signed at Warner Bros. in 1941, the red-haired actress was given the slow buildup in such B's as The Mysterious Doctor before graduating to leads in prestige pictures like Pride of the Marines (1945). As the sluttish Mildred in the 1946 remake Of Human Bondage, Parker was not nearly as effective as Bette Davis in the 1934 version, but she learned from this comparative failure and matured into a versatile actress, equally adept at comedy and heavy dramatics. She was Oscar nominated for Caged (1950), in which she plays an utterly deglamorized prison inmate; Detective Story (1951), wherein, as Kirk Douglas' wife, she agonizingly harbors the secret of a past abortion; and Interrupted Melody (1955), in which she portrays polio-stricken opera diva Marjorie Lawrence. Though she tended toward down-to-earth portrayals, Eleanor could be flamboyantly sexy if required, like her performance as a tempestuous lover in Scaramouche. Still regally beautiful into the 1960s and 1970s, Eleanor Parker was always worth watching no matter if the role was thankless (the Countess in Sound of Music [1965]) or "Baby Jane"-style horrific (the terrorized, elderly cripple in Eye of the Cat [1969]). Parker spent the majority of her career in the 1970s and '80s in TV movies and the occasional guest appearance on television series like Hawaii Five-O and The Love Boat before retiring from acting in 1991. She died in 2013 at age 91.

Trivia: A radio performer from the age of 14, Polly Bergen went the summer stock-nightclub route before heading for Hollywood in 1949. During her first months in the entertainment capitol, Bergen married actor Jerome Courtland, a union that was over virtually before it began; her later marriage to agent Freddie Fields endured for nearly 20 years. Though she could take some pride in having survived three Martin and Lewis films (At War With the Army, That's My Boy and The Stooge), Bergen chafed at the nondescript movie parts being offered her, and in 1953 walked out of a very lucrative studio contract. She headed for New York, where, while headlining in the Broadway revue John Murray Anderson's Almanac, she strained her voice and was forced to undergo a painful throat operation. Another serious career set-back occurred in 1959 when, while starring in the musical First Impressions, she nearly lost her life during a difficult pregnancy. Gamely surviving these and other personal travails, Bergen rose to stardom via her stage performance, her one-woman cabaret act, and her many TV appearances, notably her Emmy-winning turn in The Helen Morgan Story (1957). In 1962, she gave films a second chance when she played a North Carolina housewife threatened with rape by rampaging ex-con Robert Mitchum in Cape Fear (1962) (over 20 years later, she and Mitchum played husband and wife in the popular TV miniseries The Winds of War and War and Remembrance). Her bravura portrayal of a mental patient in The Caretakers (1963) was quite an eye-opener for those familiar with Bergen only through her appearances on TV's To Tell the Truth. Less aesthetically successful was Kisses for My President (1964), in which Bergen starred as the first female Chief Executive. Though busy with her show-business activities into the 1990s (she co-starred in the network sitcom Baby Talk), it is interesting to note that, in her Who's Who entry, Bergen listed herself as a business executive first, an actress second. There is certainly plenty of justification for this; for over 40 years, she maintained successful business ventures as Polly Bergen Cosmetics, Polly Bergen Jewelry, and Polly Bergen Shoes; she was also active as part-owner of and pitch person for Oil-of-the-Turtle cosmetics. Equally busy in nonprofit organizations, she served with such concerns as the National Business Council and Freedom of Choice. She also authored three books: Fashion and Charm (1960), Polly's Principles (1974), and I'd Love to, but What'll I Wear? (1977).In later years, Bergen had recurring roles on Commander in Chief and Desperate Housewives, and was nominated for an Emmy for Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2008. Bergen died in 2014 at age 84.

Trivia: Only a handful of American actors can lay claim to A-list popularity on the big and small screen in multiple decades, and even fewer have matched the good-natured, easygoing charm of John Forsythe. In lead or supporting roles, playing his standard everyman protagonist, or occasionally cutting against type to portray nasty villains, Forsythe is one to whom generations of viewers naturally gravitated, like a reliable old friend.The oldest son of a factory worker, John Lincoln Freund was born into inauspicious circumstances, in the middle-class community of Penns Grove, NJ, on January 29, 1918. Raised in Brooklyn, NY, while his father did business on Wall Street during the Great Depression, John graduated from high school two years earlier than most, at age 16, and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating two years later. A longtime worshiper of baseball, he almost immediately landed a highly coveted job as the Dodgers announcer at Ebbets Field after leaving UNC, but his father noticed his eldest's dramatic abilities and encouraged the boy to branch out into acting. Freund followed suit, making his Broadway bow in 1942 and latching on to a hit when cast in Moss Hart's 1943 production Winged Victory. He later moved to sunny Southern California, where he took the stage name John Forsythe, became a bit player for Warners, and landed supporting roles in several movies, including the heavily lauded WWII vehicle Destination Tokyo (1943) and the same year's Northern Pursuit. Meanwhile, he met and married actress Parker McCormick, by whom he had a son, Dall. Their troubled union lasted only a year.Around the time of the divorce, Forsythe put his career on the shelf and headed off to military service in Europe, where he worked as a speech pathologist in a hospital, helping to recuperate wounded soldiers who were having difficulty with articulation. Before the end of 1943, Forsythe's enlistment wrapped. That same year, Forsythe met stage actress Julie Warren, who became his second wife; the couple raised two daughters. He helped found The Actors Studio in the early '50s, at the time a hotbed of exciting young screen talent that included Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Richard Egan, and a 14-year-old prodigy from Great Britain named Joan Collins, with whom Forsythe would team up years later on Dynasty. Meanwhile, he appeared in two high-profile Broadway productions, Teahouse of the August Moon and Mister Roberts, both well on their way to becoming A-budget Hollywood films.The late '50s were an exciting period for Forsythe; he landed one of his most prominent big-screen spots -- as artist Sam Marlowe in Alfred Hitchcock's eccentric cult comedy The Trouble with Harry (1955) -- and, two years later, reeled in one of the most enduring small-screen roles of his career, as the titular uncle Bentley Gregg on the CBS/NBC/ABC series Bachelor Father. The cast included Noreen Corcoran, Sammee Tong, and Bernadette Withers; the ratings shot up and gave the series a five-year run. Scattered movie roles followed throughout the '60s, including Kitten with a Whip (1964) and In Cold Blood (1967), as well as the television series The John Forsythe Show (1965-1966) and To Rome with Love (1969-1971), but it would be another decade or so before Forsythe fully re-entered the public eye. In the early '70s, Forsythe began a periodic association with TV mogul Aaron Spelling, which yielded multiple telemovies (Cry Panic [1974], Cruise into Terror [1978]), and the two series for which the actor is best known. For the first, Spelling cast Forsythe in a prominent voice-only role -- that of Charlie Townsend, the reclusive head of a female detective agency, in Charlie's Angels (1976-1981). With sex symbols Jaclyn Smith, Kate Jackson, and especially Farrah Fawcett-Majors as the leads, the program invented "jiggle TV" and became a ratings smash. Spelling didn't forget the favor that Forsythe had done for him; seven months before Angels ended, he spun around and made the actor one of the three stars (alongside Joan Collins and Linda Evans) of Dynasty, a prime-time ABC soaper about oil zillionaire Blake Carrington (Forsythe), his ennui-ridden current wife, Krystle (Evans), and his shameless, ever-scheming ex-wife, Alexis (Joan Collins). Ratings shot through the roof and turned Dynasty into a Wednesday-night American institution.Meanwhile, Forsythe continued intermittent film appearances. He shocked just about everybody with his blackly comic portrayal of a judge with the morals of an alley cat in Norman Jewison's blithe satire ...And Justice for All, and contributed a memorably disgusting cameo to Richard Donner's overbaked Scrooged (1988). In the early 2000s, director McG brought him back for the two big-screen versions of Charlie's Angels, for which he reportedly received five million dollars.Hollywood insiders regarded Forsythe himself as one of Hollywood's few genuine "nice guys." A dedicated worker who respected his craft, he always refused to take himself too seriously, issuing such self-deprecating statements as "Being a 64-year-old sex symbol is a hell of a weight to carry." Forsythe entered semi-retirement following the death of his second wife, Julie, in 1994. He married for the third time, to Nicole Carter, in 2002. Following a year-long struggle with cancer, Forsythe died of pneumonia at age 92 in early April 2010.

Trivia: Famed for his ratchety voice and cold-fish stare, William Demarest was an "old pro" even when he was a young pro. He began his stage career at age 13, holding down a variety of colorful jobs (including professional boxer) during the off-season. After years in carnivals and as a vaudeville headliner, Demarest starred in such Broadway long-runners as Earl Carroll's Sketch Book. He was signed with Warner Bros. pictures in 1926, where he was briefly paired with Clyde Cook as a "Mutt and Jeff"-style comedy team. Demarest's late-silent and early-talkie roles varied in size, becoming more consistently substantial in the late 1930s. His specialty during this period was a bone-crushing pratfall, a physical feat he was able to perform into his 60s. While at Paramount in the 1940s, Demarest was a special favorite of writer/director Preston Sturges, who cast Demarest in virtually all his films: The Great McGinty (1940); Christmas in July (1940); The Lady Eve (1941); Sullivan's Travels (1942); The Palm Beach Story (1942); Hail the Conquering Hero (1944); Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944), wherein Demarest was at his bombastic best as Officer Kockenlocker; and The Great Moment (1944). For his role as Al Jolson's fictional mentor Steve Martin in The Jolson Story (1946), Demarest was Oscar-nominated (the actor had, incidentally, appeared with Jolie in 1927's The Jazz Singer). Demarest continued appearing in films until 1975, whenever his increasingly heavy TV schedule would allow. Many Demarest fans assumed that his role as Uncle Charlie in My Three Sons (66-72) was his first regular TV work: in truth, Demarest had previously starred in the short-lived 1960 sitcom Love and Marriage.

Trivia: Following his screen debut in 1949's Twelve O'Clock High, Richard Anderson was groomed for stardom at MGM. His stature in Hollywood seemed assured when he married the daughter of former MGM luminary Norma Shearer. But Anderson was -- by his own admission -- a less-than-noble figure in his younger days, losing both prestige and several plum film roles through his arrogance, his explosive temper, and his after-hours carousing. A kinder, mellower Richard Anderson resurfaced on television in the 1970s, gaining a modest but loyal fan following thanks to his weekly appearances as Oscar Goldman in The Six Million Dollar Man. Anderson also played Goldman on the spin-off series The Bionic Woman -- the result being that, for several years in the mid-1970s, he was simultaneously co-starring on two different TV series in the same role. Richard Anderson's additional TV-series stints included Mama Rosa (1950), Bus Stop (1961), Dan August (1970), Cover-Up (1984) and Dynasty (1986-87 season).

Trivia: Carl Benton Reid determined he wanted to be an actor and nothing else while still in high school. Graduating from the drama department at Carnegie Tech, Reid worked for several seasons with the Cleveland Playhouse in the 1920s. He appeared in abbreviated Shakespearean productions at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933, then went on to a fruitful Broadway career. Reid was brought to Hollywood in 1941 to re-create his stage role of Oscar Hubbard in the film version of Lillian Hellman's play The Little Foxes. Trafficking in "heavy" roles for most of his film career, Reid's favorite film assignment was also his least villainous: Clem Rogers, father of the title character in 1953's The Story of Will Rogers. As busy on television as he'd previously been on-stage and in films, Carl Benton Reid was seen regularly as "the Man," a shadowy espionage chief, in the 1965 TV series Amos Burke, Secret Agent.

Trivia: Born in Illinois, actor John Lupton was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where his father was a writer with the Milwaukee Journal. Upon graduation from New York's American Acamedy of Dramatic Arts, Lupton secured immediate stage work, then was signed as a contract player with MGM in Hollywood. Few worthwhile parts came from this alliance; Lupton was lanky and handsome in a Jimmy Stewart or Henry Fonda sort of way, but wasn't permitted to develop much of an on-screen persona of his own. His best opportunity came in 1956, when he was cast as Tom Jeffords on the two-season TV series Broken Arrow -- though most of the critical plaudits were directed at his costar Michael Ansara, who played the more colorful part of Cochise. A journeyman actor throughout the '60s, Lupton became one of the rotating "repertory" cast members of the TV series of Jack Webb (Dragnet, Adam 12, et al.) He is best known to latter-day viewers for his 14 year run as Tommy Horton on the daytime serial Days of Our Lives. John Lupton's offscreen pursuits included extensive volunteer work for the Multiple Sclerosis Association and the Special Olympics.

Trivia: Character actor Howard McNear made a name for himself on network radio in a vast array of characterizations, from snivelling murderers to dapper French detectives. McNear's best-known radio role was as Doc on Gunsmoke, which ran from 1955 to 1962; his spin on the character was slightly more ghoulish than the interpretation offered by Milburn Stone on television. In films from 1954, the bespectacled, mustachioed McNear was usually cast as a querulous fussbudget. He was spotlighted as Dr. Dompierre in Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959), and was prominently featured in three Billy Wilder comedies, Irma La Douce (1963), Kiss Me Stupid (1964) and The Fortune Cookie (1966). He appeared with frequency on TV in the 1950s and 1960s, often as a foil to such comedians as Jack Benny and Burns and Allen. Howard McNear's most beloved TV characterization was as Mayberry barber Floyd Lawson on The Andy Griffith Show; when McNear suffered a debilitating stroke in 1967, Griffith kept him on the payroll, re-writing the scripts to allow "Floyd" to be seated and non-ambulatory without drawing undue attention to McNear's affliction.

Trivia: With his crotchety persona, wrinkled visage, and nervous manner, Forrest Lewis is best remembered by most viewers for the neurotic and comical old man roles that he played in dozens of movies and television shows in the 1950s and '60s -- he was somewhere between Harry Carey Sr. and Strother Martin in his characterizations for over two decades. In reality, he'd been playing old men since the age of 20, in 1919. Born in Knightstown, IN, in 1899, Lewis was a linear descendant of Meriwether Lewis, the explorer immortalized by the Lewis and Clark expedition. Forrest Lewis was drawn to performing as a boy, and made his first appearance on a theatrical stage as a singer, at age 12. He made his professional acting debut at 20, with the Emerson Stock Company, portraying an 80-year-old man. Over the next decade, he toured the United States in vaudeville and stock companies, before landing on Broadway in Lulu Belle, starring Lenore Ulric. Radio began its boom years in the late '20s, and Lewis made his debut in the commercial broadcast medium in 1929. He had some small roles until fate took a hand; he inadvertently received a call for an audition that had been intended for another actor, and won the part. There was no looking back for Lewis, who was busy from then on, playing numerous key supporting roles, including Harry Freeman on the radio series Scattergood Baines and (with Van McCune) one half of the comedy team of Buck and Wheat, on the Aunt Jemima radio show. Lewis resisted offers to appear in movies until the mid-'40s, when he began playing character roles -- mostly far older (or acting far older) than his 44 years -- in movies such as Gildersleeve on Broadway (1943) and I'll Tell the World (1945). Lewis' career remained focused on radio, however, until that medium began retrenching in the early '50s. He jumped to television on Amos 'n' Andy and Dragnet, and also became downright ubiquitous on the big screen during the first half of the 1950s, playing a succession of doctors, judges, nit-picking public officials, police officers, and crotchety old men. Westerns predominated as a genre in his film career, but he also played in a few Disney movies (The Shaggy Dog, Son of Flubber) and even two minor B-horror classics, The Thing That Couldn't Die (1958) and The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959), the latter offering Lewis one of the biggest parts of his career, as the town constable faced with a series of grisly murders. And Howard Hawks used him in Man's Favorite Sport? (1964) and Red Line 7000 (1965). By the time of Riot on Sunset Strip (1967), in which he played a senior citizen seen in the movie's opening who expresses his anger over the behavior of the teenagers on the renowned stretch of Los Angeles real estate, Lewis had aged into the role. He died in 1977 of a heart attack at age 77, four years after his last television appearance.

Trivia: In films from the early 1930s, Fred Graham was one of Hollywood's busiest stunt men and stunt coordinators. A fixture of the Republic serial unit in the 1940s and 1950s, Graham was occasionally afforded a speaking part, usually as a bearded villain. His baseball expertise landed him roles in films like Death on the Diamond (1934), Angels in the Outfield (1951) and The Pride of St. Louis (1952). He was also prominently featured in several John Wayne vehicles, including She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Fighting Kentuckian (1949), The Horse Soldiers (1959) and The Alamo (1960). After retiring from films, Fred Graham served as director of the Arizona Motion Pictures Development Office.

Trivia: In films from 1935 to 1964, American character actor William "Billy" Newell was nearly always seen with his hat tilted backward and with a spent cigarette or wad of gum in his mouth. This is because Newell was usually cast as a wise-lipped reporter or news photographer. One of his largest assignments in this vein was as news-hound Speed Martin in the 1940 Republic serial Mysterious Dr. Satan. William Newell also essayed countless functional bit roles, such as the liquor-store proprietor in the 1945 Oscar-winner The Lost Weekend. Hal Erickson, Rovi

Trivia: A grandson of the legendary Apache chief Geronimo, Charles Stevens (often billed as Charles "Injun" Stevens because of his ethnic background) made his film bow as an extra in The Birth of a Nation (1915). The close friend and "mascot" of cinema idol Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Stevens appeared in all but one of Fairbanks' starring films, beginning with 1915's The Lamb. He was often seen in multiple roles, never more obviously than in Fairbanks' The Black Pirate (1926). His largest role during his Fairbanks years was Planchet in The Three Musketeers (1921) and its sequel The Iron Mask (1929). In talkies, Stevens was generally cast as a villain, usually an Indian, Mexican, or Arab. Outside of major roles in early sound efforts like The Big Trail and Tom Sawyer (both 1930), he could be found playing menacing tribal chiefs and bandits in serials and B-pictures, and seedy, drunken "redskin" stereotypes (invariably named Injun Joe or Injun Charlie or some such) in big-budget films like John Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946). He was also much in demand as a technical adviser on Native American lore and customs. Charles Stevens remained active until 1956, 17 years after the death of his pal and mentor Doug Fairbanks.

Trivia: A New Mexican of Native American extraction, actor Glenn Strange held down several rough-and-tumble jobs, from deputy sheriff to rodeo rider, before settling on a singing career. He made his radio bow on Los Angeles station KNX (the CBS-owned affiliate) as a member of the Arizona Wranglers singing group. Thanks to his husky physique and plug-ugly features, Strange had no trouble finding work as a stuntman/villain in western films and serials. He also displayed a flair for comedy as the sidekick to singing cowboy Dick Foran in a series of B-sagebrushers of the late '30s. During the war years, Strange became something of a bargain-basement Lon Chaney Jr., playing homicidal halfwits in a handful of horror pictures made at PRC and other low-budget studios. These appearances led to his being cast as the Frankenstein monster in the 1944 Universal programmer House of Frankenstein; he was coached in this role by the "creature" from the original 1931 Frankenstein, Boris Karloff. Given very little to do in House of Frankenstein and the 1945 sequel House of Dracula other than stalk around with arms outstretched at fadeout time, Strange brought none of the depth and pathos to the role that distinguished Karloff's appearances. Strange was shown to better advantage in his last appearance as The Monster in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) where he convincingly menaced the eternally frightened Lou Costello and even indulged in a couple of time-honored "scare" routines, while still remaining in character (Some scenes had to be reshot because Strange couldn't stop laughing at Costello's antics; towards the end of shooting, Strange broke his ankle and had to be replaced in a few shots by Lon Chaney Jr., who was costarring in the film as the Wolf Man). Though typecast as heavies in both movies and television -- he played the hissable Butch Cavendish in the Lone Ranger TV pilot -- Strange was well known throughout Hollywood as a genuine nice guy and solid family man. Glenn Strange's last engagement of note was his 11-year run (1962-73) as Sam, the Long Branch bartender on TV's Gunsmoke.

Trivia: In films from 1935 to 1964, American character actor William "Billy" Newell was nearly always seen with his hat tilted backward and with a spent cigarette or wad of gum in his mouth. This is because Newell was usually cast as a wise-lipped reporter or news photographer. One of his largest assignments in this vein was as news-hound Speed Martin in the 1940 Republic serial Mysterious Dr. Satan. William Newell also essayed countless functional bit roles, such as the liquor-store proprietor in the 1945 Oscar-winner The Lost Weekend. Hal Erickson, Rovi

Trivia: The brother of Buck Bucko, American screen actor Roy Bucko usually played ranch hands or rustlers in "B"-westerns. The Bucko brothers almost always appeared together in their films, including The Man from Black Hills (1952), their final (credited) work.

Trivia: American character actor Harry Cheshire was usually billed as "Pappy," and, like S. Z. "Cuddles" Sakall, he certainly lived up to his nickname, both visually and temperamentally. After a long career on stage and in radio, Cheshire came to films in 1940, appearing in many of Republic's "hillbilly" musicals and westerns. In larger-budgeted films, he was usually seen in minor roles as businessmen, ministers, justice of the peaces and the like. He played Dr. Campbell in the Yuletide classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946), the stage manager of the ill-fated Iroquois theater in The Seven Little Foys (1955) and the Elvis-hating mayor in Loving You (1957). He also showed up in a few of the Ma and Pa Kettle entries, and was afforded a rare opportunity at all-out villainy in Dangerous Mission (1954). TV western fans will remember Harry Cheshire as Judge Ben Wiley on the Gene Autry-produced weekly Buffalo Bill Jr. (1954).