Trivia: Arguably the most popular -- and certainly the busiest -- movie leading man in Hollywood history, John Wayne entered the film business while working as a laborer on the Fox lot during summer vacations from U.S.C., which he attended on a football scholarship. He met and was befriended by John Ford, a young director who was beginning to make a name for himself in action films, comedies, and dramas. Wayne was cast in small roles in Ford's late-'20s films, occasionally under the name Duke Morrison. It was Ford who recommended Wayne to director Raoul Walsh for the male lead in the 1930 epic Western The Big Trail, and, although it was a failure at the box office, the movie showed Wayne's potential as a leading man. During the next nine years, be busied himself in a multitude of B-Westerns and serials -- most notably Shadow of the Eagle and The Three Mesquiteers series -- in between occasional bit parts in larger features such as Warner Bros.' Baby Face, starring Barbara Stanwyck. But it was in action roles that Wayne excelled, exuding a warm and imposing manliness onscreen to which both men and women could respond. In 1939, Ford cast Wayne as the Ringo Kid in the adventure Stagecoach, a brilliant Western of modest scale but tremendous power (and incalculable importance to the genre), and the actor finally showed what he could do. Wayne nearly stole a picture filled with Oscar-caliber performances, and his career was made. He starred in most of Ford's subsequent major films, whether Westerns (Fort Apache [1948], She Wore a Yellow Ribbon [1949], Rio Grande [1950], The Searchers [1956]); war pictures (They Were Expendable [1945]); or serious dramas (The Quiet Man [1952], in which Wayne also directed some of the action sequences). He also starred in numerous movies for other directors, including several extremely popular World War II thrillers (Flying Tigers [1942], Back to Bataan [1945], Fighting Seabees [1944], Sands of Iwo Jima [1949]); costume action films (Reap the Wild Wind [1942], Wake of the Red Witch [1949]); and Westerns (Red River [1948]). His box-office popularity rose steadily through the 1940s, and by the beginning of the 1950s he'd also begun producing movies through his company Wayne-Fellowes, later Batjac, in association with his sons Michael and Patrick (who also became an actor). Most of these films were extremely successful, and included such titles as Angel and the Badman (1947), Island in the Sky (1953), The High and the Mighty (1954), and Hondo (1953). The 1958 Western Rio Bravo, directed by Howard Hawks, proved so popular that it was remade by Hawks and Wayne twice, once as El Dorado and later as Rio Lobo. At the end of the 1950s, Wayne began taking on bigger films, most notably The Alamo (1960), which he produced and directed, as well as starred in. It was well received but had to be cut to sustain any box-office success (the film was restored to full length in 1992). During the early '60s, concerned over the growing liberal slant in American politics, Wayne emerged as a spokesman for conservative causes, especially support for America's role in Vietnam, which put him at odds with a new generation of journalists and film critics. Coupled with his advancing age, and a seeming tendency to overact, he became a target for liberals and leftists. However, his movies remained popular. McLintock!, which, despite well-articulated statements against racism and the mistreatment of Native Americans, and in support of environmentalism, seemed to confirm the left's worst fears, but also earned more than ten million dollars and made the list of top-grossing films of 1963-1964. Virtually all of his subsequent movies, including the pro-Vietnam War drama The Green Berets (1968), were very popular with audiences, but not with critics. Further controversy erupted with the release of The Cowboys, which outraged liberals with its seeming justification of violence as a solution to lawlessness, but it was successful enough to generate a short-lived television series. Amid all of the shouting and agonizing over his politics, Wayne won an Oscar for his role as marshal Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, a part that he later reprised in a sequel. Wayne weathered the Vietnam War, but, by then, time had become his enemy. His action films saw him working alongside increasingly younger co-stars, and the decline in popularity of the Western ended up putting him into awkward contemporary action films like McQ (1974). Following his final film, The Shootist (1976) -- possibly his best Western since The Searchers -- the news that Wayne was stricken ill with cancer (which eventually took his life in 1979) wiped the slate clean, and his support for the Panama Canal Treaty at the end of the 1970s belatedly made him a hero for the left. Wayne finished his life honored by the film community, the U.S. Congress, and the American people as had no actor before or since. He remains among the most popular actors of his generation, as evidenced by the continual rereleases of his films on home video.

Trivia: The son of Irish immigrants, Thomas Mitchell came from a family of journalists and civic leaders; his nephew, James Mitchell, later became the U.S. Secretary of Labor. Following the lead of his father and brother, Mitchell became a newspaper reporter after high school, but derived more pleasure out of writing comic theatrical skits than pursuing late-breaking scoops. He became an actor in 1913, at one point touring with Charles Coburn's Shakespeare Company. Even when playing leads on Broadway in the 1920s, Mitchell never completely gave up writing; his play Little Accident, co-written with Floyd Dell, would be filmed by Hollywood three times. Entering films in 1934, Mitchell's first role of note was as the regenerate embezzler in Frank Capra's Lost Horizon (1937). Many film fans assume that Mitchell won his 1939 Best Supporting Oscar for his portrayal of Gerald O'Hara in the blockbuster Gone With the Wind; in fact, he won the prize for his performance as the drunken doctor in Stagecoach -- one of five Thomas Mitchell movie appearances in 1939 (his other films that year, classics all, were Only Angels Have Wings, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame). Those who watch TV only during the Christmas season are familiar with Mitchell's portrayal of the pathetic Uncle Billy in Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946). In the 1950s, Mitchell won an Emmy in 1952, a Tony award (for Wonderful Town) in 1954, and starred in the TV series Mayor of the Town (1954). In 1960, Mitchell originated the role of Lieutant Columbo (later essayed by Peter Falk) in the Broadway play Prescription Murder. Thomas Mitchell died of cancer in December of 1962, just two days after the death of his Hunchback of Notre Dame co-star, Charles Laughton.

Trivia: Trevor was born Claire Wemlinger. After attending Columbia and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she began her acting career in the late '20s in stock. By 1932 she was starring on Broadway; that same year she began appearing in Brooklyn-filmed Vitaphone shorts. She debuted onscreen in feature films in 1933 and soon became typecast as a gang moll, a saloon girl, or some other kind of hard-boiled, but warm-hearted floozy. Primarily in B movies, her performances in major productions showed her to be a skilled screen actress; nominated for Oscars three times, she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work in Key Largo (1948). In the '50s she began to appear often on TV; in 1956 she won an Emmy for her performance in Dodsworth opposite Fredric March.

Trivia: Though best known to modern filmgoers as a horror star, cadaverous John Carradine was, in his prime, one of the most versatile character actors on the silver screen. The son of a journalist father and physician mother, Carradine was given an expensive education in Philadelphia and New York. Upon graduating from the Graphic Arts School, he intended to make his living as a painter and sculptor, but in 1923 he was sidetracked into acting. Working for a series of low-paying stock companies throughout the 1920s, he made ends meet as a quick-sketch portrait painter and scenic designer. He came to Hollywood in 1930, where his extensive talents and eccentric behavior almost immediately brought him to the attention of casting directors. He played a dizzying variety of distinctive bit parts -- a huntsman in Bride of Frankenstein (1935), a crowd agitator in Les Miserables (1935) -- before he was signed to a 20th Century Fox contract in 1936. His first major role was the sadistic prison guard in John Ford's Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), which launched a long and fruitful association with Ford, culminating in such memorable screen characterizations as the gentleman gambler in Stagecoach (1939) and Preacher Casy ("I lost the callin'!") in The Grapes of Wrath (1940). Usually typecast as a villain, Carradine occasionally surprised his followers with non-villainous roles like the philosophical cab driver in Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938) and Abraham Lincoln in Of Human Hearts (1938). Throughout his Hollywood years, Carradine's first love remained the theater; to fund his various stage projects (which included his own Shakespearean troupe), he had no qualms about accepting film work in the lowest of low-budget productions. Ironically, it was in one of these Poverty Row cheapies, PRC's Bluebeard (1944), that the actor delivered what many consider his finest performance. Though he occasionally appeared in an A-picture in the 1950s and 1960s (The Ten Commandments, Cheyenne Autumn), Carradine was pretty much consigned to cheapies during those decades, including such horror epics as The Black Sleep (1956), The Unearthly (1957), and the notorious Billy the Kid Meets Dracula (1966). He also appeared in innumerable television programs, among them Twilight Zone, The Munsters, Thriller, and The Red Skelton Show, and from 1962 to 1964 enjoyed a long Broadway run as courtesan-procurer Lycus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Though painfully crippled by arthritis in his last years, Carradine never stopped working, showing up in films ranging from Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask (1972) to Peggy Sue Got Married (1984). Married four times, John Carradine was the father of actors David, Keith, Robert, and Bruce Carradine.

Trivia: Andy Devine was born in Kingman, Arizona, where his father ran a hotel. During his youth, Devine was a self-confessed hellraiser, and stories of his rowdy antics are still part of Kingman folklore (though they've undoubtedly improved in the telling). His trademarked ratchety voice was the result of a childhood accident, when he fell while carrying a stick in his mouth, resulting in permanent vocal-chord injuries. A star football player at Santa Clara University, Andy decided to break into movies in 1926; he was almost immediately cast in Universal's two-reel series The Collegians. When talkies came, Devine was convinced that his voice was unsuitable for the microphone. He reportedly became so despondent at one point that he attempted to commit suicide by asphyxiation, only to discover that his landlady had turned off the gas! Devine needn't have worried; his voice became his greatest asset, and from 1930 until his retirement, he was very much in demand for bucolic comedy roles. In 1937 he became a regular on Jack Benny's radio program, his howl of "Hiya, Buck!" becoming a national catchphrase. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, he was a popular comedy sidekick in the western films of Roy Rogers. Later film assignments included his atypical performance as a corrupt Kansas City cop in Jack Webb's Pete Kelly's Blues (1955). Most baby boomers retain fond memories of Devine's TV appearances as Jingles Jones on the long-running western series Wild Bill Hickock, and as host of the Saturday morning kid's program Andy's Gang. In his later years, Devine cut down his performing activities, preferring to stay on his Van Nuys (California) ranch with his wife and children. Made a very wealthy man thanks to real estate investments, Andy Devine abandoned moviemaking in 1970, resurfacing only to provide voices for a brace of Disney cartoon features; he remained active in civic and charitable affairs, at one juncture serving as honorary mayor of Van Nuys.

Trivia: For nearly two decades in Hollywood, Scottish-born actor Donald Meek lived up to his name by portraying a series of tremulous, shaky-voiced sycophants and milquetoasts -- though he was equally effective (if not more so) as nail-hard businessmen, autocratic schoolmasters, stern judges, compassionate doctors, small-town Babbitts, and at least one Nazi spy! An actor since the age of eight, Meek joined an acrobatic troupe, which brought him to America in his teens. At 18 Meek joined the American military and was sent to fight in the Spanish-American War. He contracted yellow fever, which caused him to lose his hair -- and in so doing, secured his future as a character actor. Meek made his film bow in 1928; in the early talkie era, he starred with John Hamilton in a series of New York-filmed short subjects based on the works of mystery writer S. S. Van Dyne. Relocating to Hollywood in 1933, Meek immediately found steady work in supporting roles. So popular did Meek become within the next five years that director Frank Capra, who'd never worked with the actor before, insisted that the gratuitous role of Mr. Poppins be specially written for Meek in the film version of You Can't Take It With You (1938) (oddly, this first association with Capra would be the last). Meek died in 1946, while working in director William Wellman's Magic Town; his completed footage remained in the film, though he was certainly conspicuous by his absence during most of the proceedings.

Trivia: An intelligent stage actress, Louise Platt's only memorable screen performance came as the pregnant army wife in John Ford's Stagecoach (1939). She was 24 at the time, not exactly the blushing ingenue type, and she much preferred Broadway. She later appeared in such plays as A Room in Red and White, Spring Dance, The Promise, and, alternating with her sister Jean, as Johnny Belinda. In 1948 Platt created the role of Anne Boleyn opposite Rex Harrison in Anne of a Thousand Days and, the following year, starred with Lee Tracy in The Traitor, the latter produced by her former husband Jed Harris. She later appeared in several television shows, including two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Trivia: A graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, 6'2," 195-pound George Bancroft briefly served in the Navy before entering show business as a theater manager. He worked in a minstrel show for a time then tried his luck (which turned out to be very good indeed) on Broadway. In 1921, he made his first film appearance, but it wasn't until his standout performance as likeable reprobate Jack Slade in James Cruze's Pony Express (1925) that Paramount Pictures executives began grooming him for stardom. He was especially effective in the ultra-stylish gangster pictures of Josef Von Sternberg, notably Underworld (1977) (as outlaw-with-a-heart Bull Weed) and Thunderbolt (which earned him a 1929 Academy Award nomination). Budd Schulberg, son of Paramount executive B. P. Schulberg, recalled in his autobiography Moving Pictures how fame and fortune inflated Bancroft's ego to monumental proportions. Schulberg particularly treasured the moment when the actor refused to obey his director's orders that he fall down after being shot by the villain, explaining, "One bullet can't kill Bancroft!" When his particular screen "type" became commonplace in the early '30s, Bancroft's stardom faded. By the middle of the decade, he was reduced to character roles, though some of them (the editor in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, the sheriff in Stagecoach, and the title character's father in Young Tom Edison) represent his best work in talkies. George Bancroft retired in 1942 to become a rancher, a profession he pursued until his death 14 years later.

Trivia: The apotheosis of Canadian-born Berton Churchill's film career might well have been 1939's Stagecoach, in which he was cast to perfection as the outwardly "solid citizen" banker whose pompous bluster hides the fact that he's actually absconding with his depositors' funds. On Broadway since the turn of the century, Churchill dabbled in filmmaking throughout the 1920s, settling in Hollywood for good in the talkie era, appearing in as many as 25 pictures per year! Often seen as small-town big shots, Churchill proved an excellent foil for the homespun homilies of Will Rogers in such films as The County Chairman (1935); he was also effectively cast as Joan Blondell's furtive "sugar daddy" in Dames (1934). Though generally forgotten today, Churchill exerted a great deal of influence on other character actors of his ilk. Indeed, radio star Harold Peary admitted that he based much of his famous character "The Great Gildersleeve" on the pompous pretensions of Berton Churchill.

Trivia: The son of actor Jack Holt and brother of actors David and Jennifer Holt, Tim Holt, born Charles John Holt III, debuted onscreen at age ten (playing his father's character as a child) in The Vanishing Pioneer (1928). He went on to play earnest teenagers in the mid-to-late '30s, moving into roles as boyish Western heroes in many B-movies; from 1941-43 and 1948-52 he was a top ten box office star, and at one point was very popular among teenage girls. He occasionally got higher quality roles, and will probably be best remembered as the arrogant aristocrat George Amberson in Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) and as Curtin, Humphrey Bogart's conscientious partner, in John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). During World War II, he was an oft-decorated B-29 bomber in the Pacific arena. He was rarely onscreen after 1952, and he retired from acting in the mid-50s to go into business; later he did occasional radio and TV work. He died of cancer in 1973.

Trivia: Athletically inclined, Tyler entered films at age 21 as a stuntman and extra. He went on to play supporting roles in several late silents, then signed a contract to star in Westerns. He soon became a popular screen cowboy, often accompanied by sidekick Frankie Darro; he survived the transition to sound, going on to star in a number of serials in the early '30s. He remained popular through the early '40s and occasionally played supporting roles in major films. In 1943 he was struck by a crippling rheumatic condition; although he appeared in a handful of additional films throughout the next decade, his career was effectively ended as he was relegated to minor roles. By the early '50s he was broke. He died of a heart attack at age 50.

Trivia: Born in the Arizona Territory to Mexican parents, Chris-Pin Martin developed a reputation as a laughgetter at an early age. He made his earliest film appearance in 1911, playing an Indian. During his heyday of the 1930s and 1940s, Martin earned his salary perpetuating a stereotype that nowadays would be the ultimate in political incorrectness: the lazy, dull-witted Hispanic comic foil. Chris-Pin Martin appeared in several Cisco Kid programmers, playing sidekick Pancho (sometimes named Gorditor) to such screen Ciscos as Warner Baxter, Cesar Romero, Gilbert Roland and Duncan Renaldo.

Trivia: Mainly remembered for offering younger brother John Ford his first opportunities in the movie business, Francis Ford (born Feeney) was a touring company actor before entering films with Thomas Edison in 1907. In the early 1910s, he served a tumultuous apprenticeship as a director/star for producer Thomas Ince -- who in typical Ince fashion presented many of Ford's accomplishments as his own -- before moving over to Carl Laemmle's Universal in 1913. A true auteur, Ford would direct, write, and star in his own Westerns and serials, often opposite Grace Cunard, the studio's top action heroine. Contrary to popular belief they never married, but their onscreen partnership resulted in such popular action serials as Lucille Love -- Girl of Mystery (1914), The Broken Coin (1915), and The Adventures of Peg o' the Ring (1916). Both Ford's and Cunard's careers declined in the 1920s, with Ford directing mostly poverty row productions. He kept working in films as a supporting actor through the early '50s, mainly due to the influence of John, who often made Francis Ford and Victor McLaglen supply the corny Irish humor for which he exhibited a lifelong fondness. Francis Ford's son, Philip Ford, also became a director of Westerns, and also like his father, mainly of the poverty row variety.

Trivia: Spindly, mustachioed character actor Cornelius Keefe was active in Hollywood from 1924 to 1958. When talkies came in, Keefe was engaged as a recurring player in Educational Studio's "Torchy" 2-reel comedy series. He landed sizable parts in films like Charlie Chan's Greatest Case (1933) and Lady with a Past (1934), and was also busy in the "B"-western field. For the most part, his roles were bits and walk-ons; in this capacity, he showed up in a number of John Ford pictures. Though Cornelius Keefe also billed himself as Jack Hill, his credits should not be confused with those of Hal Roach stock-company player Jack Hill.

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: Best known for having posed for the famous Indian head nickel, Chief John Big Tree (real name Isaac John) enjoyed a screen career lasting 1915-1950. Among his countless Westerns, large and small, Big Tree played important roles in the controversial The Spirit of '76 (1917) and such epics as The Big Trail (1930), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949).

Trivia: Kentucky-born Louis Mason enjoyed a long stage and screen career playing a vast array of rustic characters. In films from 1933, Mason could often as not be found portraying feuding hillbillies, backwood preachers, moonshiners and other assorted rubes. When he was given a character name, it was usually along the lines of Elmo and Lem. An off-and-on member of John Fords stock company, Mason showed up in Ford's Judge Priest (1934), Steamboat Round the Bend (1935) and Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), among others. Louis Mason remained active at least until 1953.

Trivia: Born into a circus family, Florence Lake and her younger brother Arthur Lake (later the star of the Blondie films) were performing on-stage before they knew how to read or write. Florence Lake began playing juvenile roles in films as early as 1916, occasionally appearing with Arthur in the Fox Kiddies series. She made her talkie debut in 1929, at first receiving sizeable supporting roles in such features as The Rogue Song (1930). By 1932, however, she was firmly established in two-reel comedies, appearing as the birdbrained, garrulous wife of Edgar Kennedy in a series of RKO Radio shorts which lasted until 1948. During this period she also essayed innumerable uncredited bits in features, usually playing a woebegone wallflower or motor-mouthed "best friend." In the early '50s, she could occasionally be seen in villainous roles on such TV series as The Lone Ranger. Active until the 1970s, Florence Lake made an unforgettable appearance as the octogenarian blind date of newly divorced Lou Grant (Edward Asner) on a 1973 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Trivia: A former member of the famous 101 Miller Ranch troupe, American supporting player Vester Pegg was the screen's second Cisco Kid, in Universal's Border Terror (1919). Plain looking and rather forbidding, Pegg was much closer to O. Henry's good-bad man than such flashy successors as Cesar Romero and Duncan Renaldo. Vester Pegg continued to appear in westerns well into the sound era and is today best remembered as one of the Plummer boys in Stagecoach (1939).

Trivia: Yakima Canutt was the most innovative stunt performer and coordinator ever to risk life and limb for the art of Hollywood illusion. Cheating death at every turn, many of the tricks of the trade he first developed in the Westerns of the silent era remain fixtures of the craft even today. Born Enos Edward Canutt on November 29, 1895, in Colfax, WA, he began working on ranches while in his youth and at the age of 17 signed on as a trick rider with a Wild West show, where he ultimately won the title of Rodeo World Champion. Billing himself as Eddie Canutt, "the Man From Yakima," in 1917 he met Hollywood cowboy star Tom Mix, who recruited him as a stunt man. Quickly he became one of the leading fall guys in the industry, with a knack for horse spills and wagon wrecks. Over and over again, Canutt brought Western reelers to a rousing finale by doubling as the hero as he leapt from his horse to tackle a villain attempting to flee from the long arm of the law. In 1920, Canutt first earned billing for his work in The Girl Who Dared. Soon his name was appearing in the credits of several Westerns each year, all highlighted by his daredevil antics. His reputation rested on his ability to mastermind larger-than-life sequences -- cattle stampedes, covered-wagon races, and the like -- as well as intricate battles between frontier settlers and their Indian rivals. He could also be counted on to leap from a cliff's top while on horseback, or from a stagecoach onto its runaway horse team. For his elaborately choreographed fight scenes, Canutt developed a new, more realistic method of throwing punches, positioning the action so that the camera filmed over the shoulder of the actor receiving the blow, with the punch itself coming directly toward the lens. With the addition of sound effects, the illusion of fisticuffs was complete, and the practice remains an essential component of the stunt man's craft today. Under Canutt's supervision, a number of rules and guidelines designed to improve stunt safety were established, all of them becoming industry standards. Indeed, to his credit no one was ever seriously injured in any of his films. Many of Canutt's most important innovations involved his use of rigging: In one such attempt to minimize the possibility of broken bones, he carefully rigged his stirrups to break open to allow his feet to release at the proper moment. He also rigged cable mechanisms to trigger stunt action, maintaining more control over his scenes to eliminate the possibility of catastrophe. Gene Autry, Roy Rogers -- nearly every major Western star -- owed much of his success to Canutt's daring; eventually, his mastery of the craft was such that scripts were penned without detailed descriptions of their fight scenes or chases, and "Action by Yakima Canutt" was simply written instead.By the mid-'20s, Canutt was starring in Westerns as well as handling stunts. However, as the sound era dawned he suffered an illness which stripped the resonance from his voice, effectively ending his career as a leading man and reducing him to turns as sidekicks and heavies. In 1932's serial The Shadow of the Eagle, he was cast alongside John Wayne, beginning a partnership that was to endure for many years; their most notable collaboration was the 1939 classic Stagecoach, where Canutt not only came aboard as the stunt supervisor but also appeared onscreen to take falls as a cowboy, an Indian, and even as a woman. In addition to keeping peace between Wayne and director John Ford, Canutt also performed one of the most legendary stunts in film history, a pulse-pounding pass under a moving stagecoach: Doubling as an Indian, he rode his horse ahead of the coach before attempting to leap over to its lead team and dropping to the ground; after a brief moment, he then released his grip and allowed the horses and the coach to pass over his body. As Canutt grew older, injuries began to take their toll, and he cut back on his rigorous schedule, making the transition from stunt performer to coordinator to, ultimately, director. However, he still found time to appear onscreen in noteworthy films like 1939's Gone With the Wind, not only standing in for Clark Gable during his wagon drive through the burning streets of Atlanta but also playing the renegade soldier who attacks Scarlett O'Hara and tumbles backward down a flight of steps. In his later years Canutt also served as a second-unit director, most notably aiding William Wyler on 1959's Ben-Hur, where he helped supervise the choreography of the famed chariot race (a sequence two years in the making). Canutt also oversaw the many animal action scenes in Old Yeller, as well as the car chase in The Flim-Flam Man.In 1966, Canutt received a special Academy Award for his lifetime of excellence as a stunt performer, winning kudos "for creating the profession of stunt man as it exists today and for the development of many safety devices used by stunt men everywhere." In 1975, he was also inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. Canutt remained active in films until 1976, ending his career as a consultant on Equus. His son later carried on in the family business. In 1979, Canutt published his memoirs, Stunt Man: The Autobiography of Yakima Canutt. Yakima Canutt died in Hollywood on May 24, 1986, at the age of 90.

Trivia: A film actor from 1925, Norway native Harry Tenbrook usually played such functionary roles as shore patrolmen, sailors, gangsters, and bartenders. The names of Tenbrook's screen characters ran along the lines of Limpy, Spike, and Squarehead. With his supporting appearance in The Informer (1935), the actor became a member of director John Ford's stock company. Harry Tenbrook's association with Ford ended with 1958's The Last Hurrah.

Trivia: American character actor Paul McVey was a Fox contract player from 1934 to 1939. McVey had a substantial role in the 1934 Will Rogers vehicle Judge Priest, then settled into bit parts as detectives, stage manager and express agents. One of his meatier roles of the 1940s was "The Excellency Zanoff" in the 1941 Republic serial King of the Royal Mounted (1941). Before his retirement in 1953, Paul McVey appeared in a supporting part in the first-ever 3-D feature film, Bwana Devil (1952).

Trivia: WWI-veteran Jack Pennick was working as a horse wrangler when, in 1926, he was hired as a technical advisor for the big-budget war drama What Price Glory? Turning to acting in 1927, Pennick made his screen bow in Bronco Twister. His hulking frame, craggy face, and snaggle-toothed bridgework made him instantly recognizable to film buffs for the next 35 years. Beginning with 1928's Four Sons and ending with 1962's How the West Was Won, Pennick was prominently featured in nearly three dozen John Ford films. He also served as Ford's assistant director on How Green Was My Valley (1941) and Fort Apache (1947), and as technical advisor on The Alamo (1960), directed by another longtime professional associate and boon companion, John Wayne. Though pushing 50, Jack Pennick interrupted his film career to serve in WWII, earning a Silver Star after being wounded in combat.

Trivia: The son of legendary Broadway actor DeWolfe Hopper and movie actress Hedda Hopper, William Hopper made his film debut as an infant in one of his father's films. The popular consensus is that the younger Hopper was given his first talking-picture break because of his mother's reputation as the most feared of the Hollywood gossips. Not so: Hopper was signed to his first Warner Bros. contract in 1937, a year or so before Hedda had established herself as the queen of the dirt-dishers. At first billing himself as DeWolfe Hopper Jr., Hopper languished in bit parts and walk-ons for several years. He wasn't able to graduate to better roles until the 1950s, by which time he was calling himself William Hopper. After a largely undistinguished film career (notable exceptions to his usual humdrum assignments were his roles in 20 Million Miles to Earth [1957] and The Bad Seed [1956]) Hopper finally gained fame -- and on his own merits -- as private detective Paul Drake on the enormously popular Perry Mason television series, which began its eight-season run in 1957. In a bizarre coincidence, Perry Mason left the air in 1966, the same year that William Hopper's mother Hedda passed away.

Trivia: After regional theatrical experience in Chicago and elsewhere, Bryant Washburn joined the Essanay film company as a leading man in 1913 or thereabouts. Washburn occasionally co-starred with his wife, Mabel Forrest; their son, Bryant Jr. (actually Bryant the fourth), also briefly pursued an acting career. Popular in the teens and early '20s, Washburn's star began to fade around 1925, when he could be found playing the supporting role of Prince Kynd in Larry Semon's version of The Wizard of Oz. Shortly afterward, he appeared in several of Hal Roach's "Comedy All-Stars" two-reelers, sharing screen space with such up-and-comers as Oliver Hardy and Jean Harlow. Bryant Washburn kept busy in features, Westerns, serials, and short subjects, often playing the first-reel murder victim, until his retirement in 1947.

Trivia: Nora Cecil's earliest known screen credit was 1918's Prunella. Chances are Cecil played then what she'd play in most of her talkie efforts: the tight-lipped, sternly reproving old biddy. She made a good living essaying dozens of battle-ax mothers-in-law, welfare workers, landladies, schoolmistresses and maiden aunts. One of her largest parts was boarding-house keeper Mrs. Wendelschaffer in W.C. Fields' The Old Fashioned Way (1934). Nora Cecil also served as an excellent foil for screen comedians as varied as Laurel and Hardy (1932's Pack Up Your Troubles) and Will Rogers (1933's Dr. Bull).

Trivia: Sources differ as to whether dark-haired American stunt woman/actress Helen Gibson actually enjoyed the benefit of clergy when "marrying" future cowboy star Hoot Gibson at the Pendleton Roundup in Oregon in 1911. Gibson herself always maintained that they were husband and wife and "The Hooter" certainly appeared the jealous husband when, in 1915, she replaced Helen Holmes in the long-running Hazards of Helen series and became the Gibson family's main breadwinner. Born Rose August Wenger but changing her name to fit her new role on and off the screen, Helen Gibson succeeded Helen Holmes after years as a stunt rider with the famous Miller 101 Wild West Show and as an eight dollars-a-week extra for film producer Thomas Ince. She was actually much livelier and arguably a better actress than her predecessor and the series made her a top action star. The Hazards of Helen finally ended in 1917 and Gibson would find the coming decade less hospitable. No longer with Hoot Gibson, she also suffered the indignity of going bankrupt in an attempt to produce her own starring vehicles. But despite setbacks, Helen Gibson persevered due to her superior riding skills and film work kept coming her way, right through to the 1960s and John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), for which she reportedly earned 35 dollars driving a team of horses. Helen Gibson lived long enough to become part of the nostalgia boom and often shared her recollections with readers of such publications as Films in Review.

Trivia: American silent screen cowboy Buddy Roosevelt came to Hollywood in 1914 with the C.B. Irwin Wild West Show. Working primarily as a stunt man in William S. Hart Westerns at Triangle, Roosevelt was earning 22 dollars a week plus board when World War I took him overseas. Working his way back to Hollywood after the Armistice, Roosevelt doubled Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik (1920), as well as William Desmond. Universal starred him as Kent Sanderson in the two-reeler Down in Texas (1923), but he somehow fell between the cracks at that studio, signing instead a personal contract with independent producer Lester F. Scott Jr. Scott didn't like the name Kent Sanderson and changed it to Buddy Roosevelt, in honor of former president Theodore Roosevelt. Making 25 fast-paced Westerns for Scott's Action Pictures, the former stunt man proved to be an acceptable actor who did not look the fool even with the heavy doses of comedy that Scott seemed to favor. Unfortunately, the Roosevelt budgets deteriorated as Scott brought Buffalo Bill Jr. and Wally Wales into the fold and Roosevelt bolted in January 1928, in favor of Rayart. With the veteran J.P. McGowan at the helm, Roosevelt continued to do strong work, but sound interrupted what could have been a career on the upswing. He was tested for the lead in the Fox Western In Old Arizona (1929), but a broken leg caused him to be replaced by Warner Baxter, who, of course, went on to earn an Academy Award for his role as the Cisco Kid. A chance to star in a new series reportedly went out the window when Mrs. Roosevelt, a cousin of Clark Gable, got into an argument with the producer, ex-stunt man Paul Malvern; John Wayne earned the berth instead and the rest, as they say, is history. There would be a few Western leads to come, but only for bottom-rung producers such as Jack Irwin and Victor Adamson. Roosevelt continued playing bits in Westerns through the early '60s, however; his final role -- a mere walk-on -- came in John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). Retiring to his hometown in Colorado, Buddy Roosevelt kept up a correspondence with Western fans from around the world.

Trivia: A former member of the Metropolitan Stock company and a riding double for Marion Davies, the old-fashioned, gallant Bill Cody became a star on the independent market in the 1920s and was especially well liked by those who steadfastly resisted the flamboyant style of showmen like Tom Mix. Veteran genre director Harry L. Fraser found him to be "one of the most unimpressive Western stars" he had ever worked with, adding that Cody "couldn't memorize lines no matter how hard he tried." Not surprisingly, Cody's starring Westerns in the 1930s are considered some of the era's worst. Looking emaciated, he last costarred with son Bill Cody, Jr. (1924-1989) in a no-budget series for Spectrum in 1934-1936, but was obviously no longer any threat to virile newcomers like John Wayne or Charles Starrett. Cody, a native of Minnesota and no relation to legendary Buffalo Bill Cody, left films in the late '30s to tour with "Bill Cody's Ranch Wild West Show." His final screen appearance was a bit in Joan of Arc (1948).

Trivia: Hawk-nosed character actor Ed Brady entered films around 1913. Brady spent most of the silent era working in serials and westerns, with a few big-budget diversions like Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings. He made a smooth transition to talkies as "Greasy" in The Virginian. One of his largest roles was as Marxist rabble-rouser and petty thief Max Helstrum in Son of Kong (1933), the semicomic sequel to the classic monster show King Kong. Occasionally billed as Edward J. Brady, the actor continued showing up in bits and featured roles until his death in 1941.

Trivia: Actor Robert Emmett Homans seemingly had the map of Ireland stamped on his craggy face. As a result, Homans spent the better part of his film career playing law enforcement officers of all varieties, from humble patrolmen to detective chiefs. After a lengthy stage career, Homans entered films in 1923. A break from his usual microscopic film assignments occured in Public Enemy (1931), where Homans is given an opportunity to deliver reams of exposition (with a pronounced brogue) during a funeral sequence. And in the 1942 Universal horror programmer Night Monster, Robert Emmett Homans is alotted a sizeable role as the ulcerated detective investigating the supernatural goings-on at the home of seemingly helpless invalid Ralph Morgan.

Trivia: Bearded and scruffy-looking, William Merrill McCormick became one of the busiest character actors in B-Western history. Beginning his screen career in the late 1910s, McCormick excelled at playing unshaven henchmen, rustlers, stage robbers, and a host of other less-than-desirable prairie varmints. Rarely the main villain, he could usually be spotted sneering in the background alongside such fellow bit part players as Jim Corey, Bill Gillis, and Al Ferguson. Taking time out to direct good friend Marin Sais in a couple of very inexpensive oaters in 1923, McCormick kept up a hectic acting schedule that lasted well into the television era. He died of a heart attack right after finishing a scene for the television series The Roy Rogers Show.

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: Mexican-born Esteban "Steve" Clemente (sometimes spelled Clemento) became a victim of Hollywood xenophobia. One of the screen's more perfidious villains -- and one of its best scene stealers -- Clemente would have been handsome had it not been for that trademark sneer considered essential for playing "greasers" and "half-breeds." Onscreen from the 1910s, Clemente's villainy continued well into the sound era and he is perhaps best remembered today for playing the witch doctor in King Kong (1933). The veteran screen villain's death was attributed to a cerebral hemorrhage.

Trivia: Hulking (six feet tall), mustachioed American supporting actor Theodore Lorch (or billed more simply Ted Lorch) first gained recognition onscreen as Chingachgook in Maurice Tourneur's handsome production of Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans (1920). During the following decades, Lorch would become a dependable Hollywood character actor who could play almost any role, from a Turkish merchant (1924's The Sea Hawk) to a Prime Minister (1929's The Royal Rider) or a coroner (1932's The King Murder). No role seemed too small (he was merely billed "Man" in 1934's Jealousy) or outrageous (the hissable Squire Cribbs in a hoary 1935 independent production of The Drunkard). Today, however, Lorch is best remembered for playing the High Priest in the serial Flash Gordon (1936) and for menacing the Three Stooges in countless two-reel comedies for ten years between 1937 and his death in 1947.

Trivia: A star for various independent producers as early as 1911, dark-eyed Fritzi Brunette (born Florence Brunet) later became a leading lady for Victor, Powers, and, in the last years of its existence, the Selig Polyscope Company, often appearing opposite her husband, actor/director William Robert Daly. She played supporting roles in the 1920s and was one of many fading silent stars to obtain work as a dress extra after the advent of sound. Never retiring, Brunette's final known appearance came in Universal's You're Telling Me (1942), in which she can be spotted along with her older sister, Vera.

Trivia: The son of actor John Wayne, Patrick Wayne made his earliest film appearances at 14, playing bits in The Quiet Man (1953) and The Sun Shines Bright (1953), both directed by "the Duke"'s mentor John Ford. The younger Wayne's first real film role was in Ford's The Long Gray Line (1955); the following year, as Lieutenant Greenhill, Wayne acted opposite his father in The Searchers (1956). After attending Loyola University, he was given an opportunity to co-star in The Young Land, a film which neither starred his dad nor was directed by John Ford. He wasn't bad, but he wasn't ready for stardom just yet, so it was back to supporting parts in The Alamo (1960), Donovan's Reef (1963), McClintock (1963), Cheyenne Autumn (1965), The Green Berets (1968) and Big Jake (1971). On his own, Patrick Wayne played leads in the special effects-laden adventures People That Time Forgot (1977) and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977), co-starred on the TV series The Rounders (1965) and Shirley (1979), and hosted the syndicated variety weekly The Monte Carlo Show (1980).

Trivia: Bald, lanky, laconic American actor Hank Worden made his screen debut in The Plainsman (1936), and began playing simpleminded rustics at least as early as the 1941 El Brendel two-reel comedy Love at First Fright. A member in good standing of director John Ford's unofficial stock company, Worden appeared in such Ford classics as Fort Apache (1948) and Wagonmaster (1950). The quintessential Worden-Ford collaboration was The Searchers (1955) wherein Worden portrayed the near-moronic Mose Harper, who spoke in primitive, epigrammatic half-sentences and who seemed gleefully obsessed with the notion of unexpected death. Never a "normal" actor by any means, Worden continued playing characters who spoke as if they'd been kicked by a horse in childhood into the '80s; his last appearance was a recurring role in the quirky David Lynch TV serial Twin Peaks. In real life, Hank Worden was far from addled and had a razor-sharp memory, as proven in his many appearances at Western fan conventions and in an interview program about living in the modern desert, filmed just before Worden's death for cable TV's Discovery Channel.

Trivia: A rugged and trustworthy Western hero from Boston, silent screen cowboy Franklyn Farnum's appeal was closer to William S. Hart than Tom Mix. Farnum's road to screen stardom began in vaudeville and musical comedy. While he was not related to stage and screen stars William Farnum and Dustin Farnum, two legendary brothers who also hailed from Boston, he never really dissuaded the name association, and while he never achieved the same success as the other Farnums, it was not for lack of trying. Onscreen from around 1914, Franklyn Farnum was usually found in inexpensive Westerns and reached a plateau as the star of the 1920 serial The Vanishing Trails and a series of oaters produced independently by "Colonel" William N. Selig, formerly of the company that bore his name. In 1918, Farnum received quite a bit of press for marrying screen star Alma Rubens, but the union proved extremely short-lived. As busy in the 1920s as in the previous decade, Farnum made the changeover to sound smoothly enough, but he was growing older and leading roles were no longer an option. He maintained his usual hectic schedule throughout the following three decades, more often than not playing villains and doing bit parts, working well into the television Western era. For many years, Farnum was the president of the Screen Extras Guild. In 1961, Franklyn Farnum died of cancer at the Motion Picture Country Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA.

Trivia: After years on the circus and vaudeville circuits, Si Jenks came to films in 1931. Virtually always cast as a grizzled, toothless old codger, Jenks was a welcome presence in dozens of westerns. In Columbia's Tim McCoy series of the early 1930s, Jenks was often teamed with another specialist in old-coot roles, Walter Brennan (17 years younger than Jenks). In non-westerns, Si Jenks played town drunks, hillbillies and Oldest Living Citizens usually with names like Homer and Zeke until his retirement at the age of 76.