Trivia: Born William Anderson, this brawny, blond second lead had the looks of a Viking god. He worked as a band vocalist and trombone player, then gained a small amount of stage experience before debuting onscreen in a bit part (as a corpse) in Wanderer of the Wasteland (1935). Billed by Paramount as Glenn Erickson, he began his screen career as a leading man in Westerns. Because of his Nordic looks he was renamed Leif Erikson, which he later changed to Erickson. He played intelligent but unexciting second leads and supporting parts in many films. Erickson took four years off to serve in World War II and was twice wounded. He made few films after 1965 and retired from the screen after 1977. Also working on Broadway and in TV plays, he played the patriarch Big John Cannon in the TV series High Chaparral (1967-1971). From 1934 to 1942, he was married to actress Frances Farmer, with whom he co-starred in Ride a Crooked Mile (1938); later, he was briefly married to actress Margaret Hayes (aka Dana Dale).

Trivia: Argentinian actress Linda Cristal made her first American film in 1956. Typecast by virtue of her accent and her exotic Latino features, Linda could usually be found in westerns, notably Comanche (1956), The Fiend Who Walked the West (1958), The Alamo (1960) and Two Rode Together (1961). She also showed up in such European sword-and-sandal affairs as The Pharoah's Woman (1961). In 1959, Linda was given a rare opportunity to display her comic know-how as a temperamental Hollywood starlet in the Tony Curtis/Janet Leigh vehicle The Perfect Furlough. From 1967 through 1971, Linda Cristal played Victoria Cannon on the TV western The High Chaparral.

Trivia: Not wishing to be typecast in Latino roles, actor Henry Thomas Delgado changed his professional name to Henry Darrow -- only to spend his first dozen or so years in show business playing Hispanics. Darrow gained nationwide attention when briefly cast as a Mexican lawyer on the ABC daytime drama General Hospital; he had previously been active in Spanish-language soap operas, and as a Hollywood voice-over artist, dubbing Hispanic films into English. While appearing in an L.A.-based stage play in early 1967, Darrow was spotted by TV producer David Dortort, who was then in the process of casting the upcoming Western series The High Chaparral. Dortort created the character of aristocrat-turned-ranchhand Manolito Montoya with Darrow specifically in mind; the actor remained in this role until High Chapparal completed its four-season run in 1971. Darrow was then seen in a handful of films (Badge 373, Maverick, etc.) and a whole slew of weekly TV programs, including The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1973-1974 season, as stage manager Alex Montenez) and Time Trax (1993). He also returned to the daily-serial grind as Rafael Castillo on Santa Barbara (1984-1992). In 1983, Henry Darrow was starred on the spoofish series Zorro and Son as Zorro Sr. (aka Don Diego de la Vega), a character he'd previously played via voice-over on the Saturday morning cartoon weekly The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour (1981); and in 1989, he was seen as the title character's father on the Family Channel cable series Zorro.

Trivia: The son of a Pennsylvania minister, actor Cameron Mitchell first appeared on Broadway in 1934, in the Lunts' modern-dress version of Taming of the Shrew. He served as a bombardier during World War II, and for a brief period entertained thoughts of becoming a professional baseball player (he allegedly held an unsigned contract with the Detroit Tigers until the day he died). Mitchell was signed to an MGM contract in 1945, but stardom would elude him until he appeared as Happy in the original 1949 Broadway production of Death of the Salesman. He re-created this role for the 1951 film version, just before signing a long-term contract with 20th Century Fox. Throughout the 1950s, Mitchell alternated between likeable characters (the unpretentious business executive in How to Marry a Millionaire [1952]) and hissable ones (Jigger Craigin in Carousel [1956]); his best performance, in the opinion of fans and critics alike, was as drug-addicted boxer Barney Ross in the 1957 biopic Monkey on My Back. Beginning in the 1960s, Mitchell adroitly sidestepped the IRS by appearing in dozens of Spanish and Italian films, only a few of which were released in the U.S. He also starred in three TV series: The Beachcomber (1961), The High Chapparal (1969-1971), and Swiss Family Robinson (1976). Mitchell spent the better part of the 1970s and 1980s squandering his talents in such howlers as The Toolbox Murders, though there were occasional bright moments, notably his performance as a neurotic mob boss in 1982's My Favorite Year. A note for trivia buffs: Cameron Mitchell also appeared in the first CinemaScope film, The Robe (1953). Mitchell was the voice of Jesus in the Crucifixion scene.

Trivia: American character actor Milton Selzer trafficked in bookish types, sometimes with an undercurrent of menace. An ineluctable TV presence, Selzer guest-starred on virtually every major program of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He was a regular on Needles and Pins (1973) and The Famous Teddy Z (1989, second-billed as showbiz agent Abe Werkfinder); and on the popular spy spoof Get Smart (1965-70), he was brilliantly cast as a nervous special-weapons expert, who suffered a mild coronary every time dunderheaded Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) inadvertently destroyed Selzer's latest inventions. In films from 1959, Milton Selzer was given ample opportunity to shine as a sharkish movie mogul in Legend of Lylah Clare (1968) and as Nancy Spungen's grandfather in Sid and Nancy (1986).

Trivia: Born in Sweden, Bo Svenson moved to the U.S. at the age of 17. Before settling upon an acting career, the husky Svenson attended UCLA, served in the Marines for six years, then worked as a hockey player, race-car driver and 3rd Degree Black Belt judo champ. His first regular TV work was on the 1968 western series Here Come the Brides, in which he was cast to type as Big Swede (though by this time, he had lost all vestiges of his Scandinavian accent). After an impressive movie debut in the little-seen Maury (1974), Svenson was second-billed as Alex Olsson, competitor-cum-partner of barnstorming aviator Robert Redford, in The Great Waldo Pepper (1973). When Joe Don Baker, star of the 1973 sleeper Walking Tall, passed on the opportunity to play Sheriff Buford Pusser in the 1975 sequel, Svenson inherited the role; he would portray Pusser in both Part 2: Walking Tall (1975) and The Final Chapter: Walking Tall (1977), then repeated the assignment in the 1981 Walking Tall TV series. Perhaps someday, Bo Svenson will escape the sleazoid actioners in which he is usually starred, and receive a screen role worthy of his talents.

Trivia: A staple of Western-themed films and television series, veteran character actor Rayford Barnes began his onscreen career with John Wayne in Hondo, and in recent years appeared on television in Walker, Texas Ranger and ER. After beginning his career in New York training with Stella Adler and the Neighborhood Playhouse, Barnes moved to San Francisco to open his own theater, and later relocated to San Francisco, where he landed his role in Hondo. A veteran of WWII, Barnes made regular appearances on such TV series as Gunsmoke, The Virginian, and Little House on the Prairie while concurrently appearing in Westerns like The Wild Bunch and The Hunting Party. Rayford Barnes died on November 11, 2000, at St. Andrews Medical Center in Santa Monica, CA. He was 80.