I Was a Communist for the FBI

Frank Lovejoy (Actor) .. Matt Cvetic

Born: March 28, 1914
Died: October 02, 1962

Trivia: Actor Frank Lovejoy was linked to show business before he was even born; his father was a salesman for the Pathe Film studio. After working as a Wall Street page, Lovejoy attended NYU, then acted in stock companies. He made his first Broadway appearance in 1934's Judgment Day. One of the busiest "Golden Age" radio actors, Lovejoy was heard in hundreds of soap operas, mystery programs and dramatic anthologies: from 1950 through 1952, he starred in the weekly radio crime drama Nightbeat. After his 1948 film debut in Black Bart, Lovejoy specialized in tough, cynical roles, such as the leading character in I Was a Communist For the FBI. From 1957 through 1959, he starred in the TV private eye series Meet McGraw. Frank Lovejoy died of a heart attack while appearing in a New Jersey production of The Best Man with his actress wife Joan Banks.

Dorothy Hart (Actor) .. Eve Merrick

Born: April 03, 1923
Died: July 11, 2004

Trivia: Earning a contract with Columbia in 1946 that stipulated "A-movies only," brunette Dorothy Hart blazed onto the screen in Gunfighters (1947), an above-average Western starring Randolph Scott. Hart was apparently too ambitious to remain with also-ran studios like Columbia and Universal for long, eventually signing with Warner Bros. Unfortunately, with the possible exception of Raton Pass (1951), yet another oater in which she was billed below Patricia Neal, that studio failed to provide her with a single standout film. She turned to television instead, starring on such popular game shows as Take a Guess and Pantomime Quiz. A former model and the winner of a 1944 National Cinderella Cover Girl Contest, Hart is today best remembered for appearing, all too briefly, as Howard Duff's innocent fiancée in The Naked City, the 1948 film noir that later became the basis for the popular television crime series. Retired since the late '50s, she should not be confused with the stand-up comedienne of the same name.

Philip Carey (Actor) .. Mason

Born: July 15, 1925
Died: February 06, 2009

Trivia: Beefy, muscular leading man Philip Carey entered films in 1951, shortly after his hitch in the Marines was up. Cutting quite a dashing figure in a 19th-century military uniform, Carey was most often cast as an American cavalry officer. In a similar vein, he appeared as Canadian-born Lt. Michael Rhodes on the 1956 TV series Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers. Curiously, he never appeared in any of director John Ford's cavalry films, though he did co-star in Ford's Mister Roberts (1955) and The Long Gray Line (1955). In 1959, Carey starred in a TV series based on Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled private eye Philip Marlowe. While no one could fault his performance in the role, the Philip Marlowe series survived but a single season. He is best known for his four subsequent TV assignments: as spokesperson for the regionally aired Granny Goose potato chips commercials, as forever-flustered Lt. Parmalee on the comedy Western Laredo (1966-1968), as narrator of the documentary series Untamed World (1968-1975), and, from 1980-2007, as eternally scheming patriarch Asa Buchanan on the daytime soap opera One Life to Live. One of Philip Carey's least typical TV appearances was on a 1971 All in the Family episode, in which he played Archie Bunker's macho-man bar buddy -- who turns out to be a homosexual.

James Millican (Actor) .. Jim Blandon

Born: January 01, 1910
Died: November 24, 1955

Trivia: Signed up by MGM's dramatic school directly after graduating from the University of Southern California, American actor James Millican was groomed for that studio's stable of young leading men. Instead, he made his first film, Sign of the Cross (1932), at Paramount, then moved on to Columbia for his first important role in Mills of the Gods (1934). Possessor of an athletic physique and Irish good looks, Millican wasn't a distinctive enough personality for stardom, but came in handy for secondary roles as the hero's best friend, the boss' male secretary, and various assorted military adjutants. According to his own count, Millican also appeared in 400 westerns; while such a number is hard to document, it is true that he was a close associate of cowboy star "Wild Bill" Elliott, staging a number of personal-appearance rodeos on Elliott's behalf. Fans of baseball films will recall James Millican's persuasive performance as Bill Killefer in the Grover Cleveland Alexander biopic The Winning Team.

Richard Webb (Actor) .. Crowley

Born: September 09, 1919
Died: June 10, 1993

Trivia: Recruited from the stage, Richard Webb was signed to a standard Paramount contract in 1941. After playing bits in such films as Among the Living (1941) Sullivan's Travels (1942) and I Wanted Wings (1942), Webb served as a Captain in World War II. Upon his return, he was briefly groomed for stardom. He played such sizeable supporting roles as Jim in Out of the Past (1947), Private Shipley in Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and Sir Galahad in A Connecticut Yankee in King's Arthur's Court, but his only top-billed assignment was the 1950 Republic serial The Invisible Monster. In 1952, Webb landed the role of Captain Midnight in the TV series of the same name, earning the hero worship of kids everywhere--and the animosity of the Captain Midnight producers when he refused to drink the sponsor's product, Ovaltine, in public (he hated the stuff!) Webb went on to star in the 1959 syndicated TVer US Border Patrol, then did guest spots on such series as Gunsmoke, Lassie and Get Smart. In the '70s Webb turned to writing, publishing four books on psychic phenomena, including the 1974 reincarnation study These Came Back. Suffering from cancer and a respiratory ailment, Richard Webb committed suicide in 1993.

Ron Hagerthy (Actor) .. Dick Cvetic

Born: March 09, 1932

Paul Picerni (Actor) .. Joe Cvetic

Born: December 01, 1922
Died: January 12, 2011
Birthplace: New York City, New York

Trivia: Loyola University grad Paul Picerni became an actor at a time when Arrow-collar leading men were giving way to blue-collar realistic types. Picerni never seemed too comfortable with his leading assignments in such films as House of Wax (1953); he appeared more at ease in down-to-earth supporting roles. His latter-day reputation rests on his four-year run as a federal agent on the slam-bang TV series The Untouchables. Paul Picerni is the brother of stunt man and stunt coordinator Charles Picerni.

Frank Gerstle (Actor) .. Tom Cvetic

Born: September 27, 1915
Died: February 23, 1970

Trivia: Tall, stony-faced, white-maned Frank Gerstle is most familiar to the baby-boomer generation for his many TV commercial appearances. In films from 1949 through 1967, Gerstle was generally cast as military officers, no-nonsense doctors and plainclothes detectives. His screen roles include Dr. MacDonald in DOA (1949), "machine" politician Dave Dietz in Slightly Scarlet (1954) and the district attorney in I Mobster (1959). Some of his more sizeable film assignments could be found in the realm of science fiction, e.g. Killers From Space (1953), The Magnetic Monster (1953) and Wasp Woman (1960). A prolific voiceover artist, Frank Gerstle pitched dozens of products in hundreds of TV and radio ads, and was a semi-regular on the 1961 prime-time cartoon series Calvin and the Colonel.

Hope Kramer (Actor) .. Ruth Cvetic

Kasia Orzazewski (Actor) .. Mrs. Cvetic

Edward Norris (Actor) .. Harmon

Born: May 10, 1910

Trivia: Despite his small-town charm and white-bread handsomeness, there was a queasy quality in the performances of American actor Edward Norris that suggested a basic inner weakness. As such, he was ideally cast as the average Joe accused of a crime he didn't commit, or as the outwardly helpful chap who turned out to be the calculating murderer in the last reel. A former reporter, Norris began making films in the early '30s. He did everything from Our Gang comedies (Teacher's Beau [1935]) to Garbo features (Queen Christina [1933]). His most conspicuous "innocent victim" role was as the schoolteacher falsely convicted of murdering high school student Lana Turner in They Won't Forget (1937). Norris' mockery of a trial and subsequent lynching were patterned after the real-life fate of Leo Frank; that 1915 lynching was obviously fueled by anti-Semitism, but Warners hedged its bets by casting the aggressively Anglo-Saxon Norris as the Leo Frank counterpart. Offscreen, Norris was as self-assured as his screen characters were put-upon; he was married five times, and three of his wives (Lona Andre, Ann Sheridan and Sheila Ryan) were Hollywood co-workers. Edward Norris quit movies cold in 1955 to become a businessman, never looking backward at his long career nor harboring any regrets at abandoning it.

Ann Morrison (Actor) .. Miss Nova

Born: January 01, 1915
Died: January 01, 1978

Konstantin Shayne (Actor) .. Gerhardt Eisler

Born: January 01, 1888
Died: January 01, 1974

Trivia: Hollywood character actor Konstantin Shayne generally played threatening internationals during the '40s and '50s.

Roy Roberts (Actor) .. Father Novac

Born: March 19, 1906
Died: May 28, 1975

Trivia: Tall, silver-maned character actor Roy Roberts began his film career as a 20th Century-Fox contractee in 1943. Nearly always cast in roles of well-tailored authority, Roberts was most effective when conveying smug villainy. As a hotel desk clerk in Gentleman's Agreement (1947), he suavely but smarmily refused to allow Jews to check into his establishment; nineteen years later, Roberts was back behind the desk and up to his old tricks, patronizingly barring a black couple from signing the register in Hotel (1966). As the forties drew to a close, Roberts figured into two of the key film noirs of the era; he was the carnival owner who opined that down-at-heels Tyrone Power had sunk so low because "he reached too high" at the end of Nightmare Alley (1947), while in 1948's He Walked By Night, Roberts enjoyed one of his few sympathetic roles as a psycho-hunting plainclothesman. And in the 3-D classic House of Wax, Roberts played the crooked business partner of Vincent Price, whose impulsive decision to burn down Price's wax museum has horrible consequences. With the role of bombastic Captain Huxley on the popular Gale Storm TV series Oh, Susanna (1956-1960), Gordon inaugurated his dignified-foil period. He later played long-suffering executive types on The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction and The Lucy Show. Roy Roberts last appeared on screen as the mayor in Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974).

Paul Mcguire (Actor) .. McIntyre

Born: March 13, 1913

Douglas Evans (Actor) .. Chief Agent

Born: January 01, 1903
Died: January 01, 1968

Trivia: Douglas Evans was a versatile American supporting actor who during his 30-year career appeared in close to 100 films. He also worked on stage and in radio.

Janet Barrett (Actor) .. Secretary

Karen Hale (Actor) .. Secretary

Joseph Smith (Actor) .. Goon

Jimmy O'Gatty (Actor) .. Goon

Born: January 01, 1898
Died: January 01, 1966

Frank Marlowe (Actor) .. Worker

Born: January 01, 1904
Died: March 30, 1964

Trivia: American character actor Frank Marlowe left the stage for the screen in 1934. For the next 25 years, Marlowe showed up in countless bits and minor roles, often in the films of 20th Century-Fox. He played such peripheral roles as gas station attendants, cabdrivers, reporters, photographers, servicemen and murder victims (for some reason, he made a great corpse). As anonymous as ever, Frank Marlowe made his final appearance as a barfly in 1957's Rockabilly Baby.

Barry Sullivan (Actor) .. Worker

Born: August 29, 1912
Died: June 06, 1994
Birthplace: New York City, New York

Trivia: Actor Barry Sullivan was a theater usher and department store employee at the time he made his first Broadway appearance in 1936. His "official" film debut was in the 1943 Western Woman of the Town, though in fact Sullivan had previously appeared in a handful of two-reel comedies produced by the Manhattan-based Educational Studios in the late '30s. A bit too raffish to be a standard leading man, Sullivan was better served in tough, aggressive roles, notably the title character in 1947's The Gangster and the boorish Tom Buchanan in the 1949 version of The Great Gatsby. One of his better film assignments of the 1950s was as the Howard Hawks-style movie director in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). Sullivan continued appearing in movie roles of varying importance until 1978. A frequent visitor to television, Barry Sullivan starred as Sheriff Pat Garrett in the 1960s Western series The Tall Man, and was seen as the hateful patriarch Marcus Hubbard in a 1972 PBS production of Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest.

Michael Ross (Actor) .. Foreman

Born: December 15, 1911

Lenita Lane (Actor) .. Principal

Died: March 15, 1995

Trivia: Actress Lenita Lane played supporting roles in numerous films of the 1930s and 1940s. She was married to silent film star Crane Wilbur, who directed Lane in her last two films, The Mad Magician (1954) and The Bat (1959). Upon their retirement, the Wilburs moved to Toluca Lake, CA.

Alma Mansfield (Actor) .. Teacher

Richard H. Gordon (Actor)

Born: January 01, 1892
Died: January 01, 1956

Anne Kimbell (Actor) .. Student

Born: June 28, 1932

Paula Sowl (Actor) .. Student

Charles Sherlock (Actor) .. Man

Trivia: American actor Charles Sherlock made his first film in 1935 and his last in 1952. Limited to bit roles, Sherlock showed up as reporters, photographers, longshoremen, cabbies, and doctors. Befitting his name, he also appeared as cops in such films as My Buddy (1944), In Society (1944), and The Turning Point (1952). Charles Sherlock enjoyed a rare credited role, again as a cop, in the 1945 Charlie Chan entry The Scarlet Clue.

George Magrill (Actor) .. Man

Born: January 05, 1900
Died: May 31, 1952

Trivia: George Magrill entered films in 1921 as a general-purpose bit player. Magrill's imposing physique and dexterity enabled him to make a good living as a stunt man throughout the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. From time to time, he'd have speaking roles as bank guards, cops, sailors, truck drivers and chauffeurs. On those rare occasions that he'd receive screen credit, George Magrill was usually identified as "Thug," a part he played to the hilt in westerns, crime mellers and serials.

Grace Lenard (Actor) .. Wife

Born: January 01, 1920
Died: January 01, 1987

Erik Neilsen (Actor) .. Jackie

Roy Engel (Actor) .. Jackie's Father

Born: September 13, 1913
Died: September 29, 1980
Birthplace: New York, New York, United States

Trivia: Craggy character actor Roy Engel made his first film appearance in the 1949 noir classic D.O.A. He quickly established himself as a regular in such science fiction films as The Flying Saucer (1950), Man From Planet X (1951), and The Colossus of New York (1958). When not dealing with extraterrestrials, he could be seen playing sheriffs, bartenders, and the like in such Westerns as Three Violent People (1955) and Tribute to a Bad Man (1956). Among Roy Engel's last films was Kingdom of the Spiders (1977) which combined elements of both sci-fi and Westerns.

William Lester (Actor) .. Brown

John Crawford (Actor) .. McGowan

Born: March 26, 1926

Trivia: Character actor John Crawford has appeared on screen in many films since 1945.

Ernest Anderson (Actor) .. Black Man

Born: August 25, 1915

Sugarfoot Anderson (Actor) .. Black Man

Johnny Bradford (Actor) .. Dobbs

James Gonzales (Actor) .. Brennan

David McMahon (Actor) .. Masonvitch

Born: January 01, 1908
Died: January 01, 1972

Charles Horvath (Actor) .. Good Leader

Born: January 01, 1920
Died: July 23, 1978

Trivia: Charles Horvath entered films in the immediate postwar years as a stunt man. From 1951 onward, Horvath began receiving speaking roles, most often in westerns. He occasionally accepted contemporary parts, playing rednecks and toughs in such films as Damn Citizen (1957). Charles Horvath spent his last decade playing featured roles in films like A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and The Domino Principle (1977).

Phil Tully (Actor) .. Irish Mick

Howard Negley (Actor) .. Union Chairman

Born: April 16, 1898

Trivia: American general purpose actor Howard Negley made his screen bow as Nelson in 20th Century Fox's Smokey. Negley went on to reasonably prominent character parts in such B-pictures as Charlie Chan in the Trap (1947). For the most part, he played nameless bit parts as police captains, politicians, and reporters. Howard Negley was last seen as the Twentieth Century Limited conductor in Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959).

Bobby Gilbert (Actor) .. Picket

James Adamson (Actor) .. Picket

Born: January 01, 1896
Died: January 01, 1956

Mary Alan Hokanson (Actor) .. Woman

Born: November 25, 1916

Mildred Boyd (Actor) .. Woman

Barry Reagan (Actor) .. Officer

Hugh Sanders (Actor) .. Garson

Born: January 01, 1911
Died: January 01, 1966

Lyle Latell (Actor) .. Cahill

Born: April 09, 1905
Died: October 24, 1967

Trivia: Open-faced, prominently chinned character actor Lyle Latell began surfacing in films in the late 1930s. Only occasionally did Latell rise above the status of bit player; he was most often seen as a wisecracking reporter, griping military man or cheerful cabbie. From 1945 through 1947, Latell was a regular in RKO's Dick Tracy "B"-picture series, playing Tracy's assistant Pat Patton. Lyle Latell was married to Mary Foy, one of the "Seven Little Foys" of vaudeville fame.

Charles Colean (Actor) .. Brakeman

Richard Gordon (Actor) .. Lawyer

William Norton Bailey (Actor) .. Lawyer

Born: September 26, 1886
Died: November 08, 1962

Trivia: Handsome, dark-haired William Norton Bailey was as easily cast in drawing rooms as in action melodramas. In films from 1912, Bailey directed Universal comedies prior to securing himself a place in action film history opposite the fragile Juanita Hansen in the serials The Phantom Foe (1920) and The Yellow Arm (1921). Despite the success of the chapterplays, Bailey spent most of the 1920s playing the "Other Man" or the hero's best friend. In 1926, independent producer Goodwill changed his name to the friendlier Bill Bailey and starred him in a series of Westerns. Defeated by low budgets and poor writing, the actor abandoned all hopes of stardom, embarking on a long career as a supporting player in talkie B-Westerns, which lasted well into the 1950s. Often playing a lawman, Bailey later portrayed the title role in the second and final season of the syndicated television series Cactus Jim (1951).

Paul Bradley (Actor) .. Lawyer

Robert 'Buddy' Shaw (Actor) .. Lawyer

Born: March 29, 1907
Died: August 29, 1976

Trivia: Mainly a bit player, Robert "Buddy" Shaw (born Wilfred Robert Shaw) turned up in scores of Hollywood films and television series from 1931 to the 1960s, in the early years mainly playing college students. His largest role was his first: Blanche Mehaffey's weak-willed brother, innocently accused of murder in Riders of the North (1931). This Robert Shaw should not be confused with the British star (1927-1978) of the same name.

William Forrest (Actor) .. Senator Wood

Born: January 01, 1904
Died: January 01, 1989

Trivia: Baby boomers will recall silver-maned actor William Forrest as Major Swanson, the brusque but fair-minded commander of Fort Apache in the 1950s TV series The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin. This character was but one of many military officers portrayed by the prolific Forrest since the late 1930s. Most of his film appearances were fleeting, and few were billed, but Forrest managed to pack more authority into 30 seconds' film time than many bigger stars were able to manage in an hour and a half. Outside of Rin Tin Tin, William Forrest is probably most familiar as the sinister fifth-columnist Martin Crane in the 1943 Republic serial The Masked Marvel.

Bert Moorhouse (Actor) .. Senator Gray

Born: November 20, 1894

Russ Conway (Actor) .. Frank Cvetic

Born: April 25, 1913

Trivia: American actor Russ Conway was most at home in the raincoat of a detective or the uniform of a military officer. Making his movie bow in 1948, Conway worked in TV and films throughout the '50s and '60s. Some of his films include Larceny (1948), My Six Convicts (1952), Love Me Tender (1956) (as Ed Galt, in support of Elvis Presley) Fort Dobbs (1958) and Our Man Flint (1966). TV series featuring Conway in guest spots included The Beverly Hillbillies, The Munsters and Petticoat Junction. Russ Conway settled down in 1959 to play Lieutenant Pete Kyle on David Janssen's private eye TV weekly Richard Diamond.

3:55 pm - 5:45 pm, Thursday, January 8 on WNYW Movies! (5.2)