Trivia: An actor indelibly associated with classic Americana given his iconic portrayals of Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone, tall, tousle-haired Fess Parker began life in Fort Worth, Texas, and grew up in nearby San Angelo, where his parents farmed peanuts and watermelons, and raised cattle. Following service in the military during WWII (where he participated in "clean-up" operations in the Philippines), Parker returned to the United States, and attended both the University of Texas and the University of California. He soon discovered a flair for acting and hit the stage in the touring company of Mister Roberts, then entered films in 1952, enjoying his first sizeable role -- a Southern-accented ballplayer -- in The Kid From Left Field (1953). It was his one-scene bit as a terrified witness to an "alien close encounter" in the 1954 horror classic Them! (1954), however, that brought Parker to the attention of Walt Disney, and somewhat ironically. Disney had considered casting a major Hollywood star as Crockett (such as Glenn Ford or Sterling Hayden), but gave up on this idea and, it is said, briefly considered future Gunsmoke headliner James Arness. Walt went to see the Arness-starrer Them! for this reason, and passed on Arness for Crockett but felt instantly convinced (and supposedly shouted out "There's our Crockett!") when Parker appeared on the screen. The actor began by portraying Crockett on ABC's Disneyland television series, and the rest is history: during the period of 1954-6, Davy Crockett mania swept through the country, first with the smash single "The Ballad of Davy Crockett," then with a blizzard of Crockett-themed merchandise aimed squarely at small children - everything from lunchboxes, to action figures, to the quintessential Davy Crockett coonskin cap.Disney and Parker parlayed the Crockett success into features in 1955 and 1956, but two years after the Crockett popularity began, it fizzled. Parker remained on the Disney lot until 1958, starring in such films as The Great Locomotive Chase (1956), Westward Ho, the Wagons! (1957), Old Yeller (1957), and Light in the Forest (1958). His relationship with Disney more or less ended, however, when he refused to appear in the studio's Native American drama Tonka (1958) (a revisionist version of Custer's Last Stand) opposite Sal Mineo - and was promptly suspended for doing so.His film stardom leveling off after 1959, Parker started a family by marrying Marcella Rinehart in 1960, with whom he had numerous children and grandchildren. He began a television comeback in 1962 with an indifferent sitcom version of the old Capra drama Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1962). He was more successful, though, with his five-year tenure in the title role of the weekly NBC adventure-fest Daniel Boone, which lasted six seasons (1964-70), running consistently on Thursday nights from 7:30-8:30pm; at its peak, the program's popularity even topped that of Crockett. Parker signed for his last dramatic role in the 1972 Climb An Angry Mountain.In the years that followed, Parker bowed out of the limelight, and entered an entirely unrelated field: that of real estate. He became an entrepreneur in the mid-1970s, and built his holdings into a small yet phenomenally lucrative empire that included a mobile home park, luxury hotels, and a sprawling vineyard with a gift shop that sold Crockett memorabilia. Parker died of natural causes at the age of 85 in March 2010, at his home in California's Santa Ynez Valley.

Trivia: After serving in World War Two he began acting, training at the Dramatic Workshop of the American Theater Wing and at the Actors Studio. He performed off-Broadway and in live TV drama; in 1955 he appeared to much acclaim in Broadway's Bus Stop. He began appearing in films in 1958, going on to a sporadic but intermittently busy screen career; he often played cowpokes and "good ol' boys." Meanwhile, most of his work was done on TV. From 1956-63 he was married to actress Peggy Ann Garner. In 1990 he was found dead next to the body of his estranged wife; a police investigation suggested that he had killed his wife and then himself.

Trivia: An actress with the kind of versatile beauty that has allowed her to effortlessly alternate between earthy and glamorous roles, Veronica Cartwright's steel-blue eyes have a strange way of piercing through the screen and transcending their two-dimensional restraints. Having successfully made the transition from child actor to seasoned screen veteran, Cartwright continued a career which allowed her to explore roles that ran the gamut from straight drama to chilling horror. A native of Bristol, England, Cartwright's family emigrated to the United States when she was still very young. Following a series of modeling jobs and print ads, the aspiring actress became a familiar face to television viewers as the "Kellogg's Girl" in a series of breakfast cereal commercials. She made her screen debut in the 1958 war drama In Love and War, and, in the years that followed, alternated between film and TV work with roles in such features as The Children's Hour (1961) and The Birds (1963), in addition to a turn as Lumpy's sister on the small-screen classic Leave It to Beaver. From 1964-1968, the actress endeared herself to television viewers as Jemima Boone on the popular Daniel Boone series. Although the transition from adorable child star to serious adult actor has been a serious stumbling block for generations of young stars, Cartwright skillfully avoided this pitfall with a series of memorable roles in the 1970s. Playing opposite such heavies as Richard Dreyfuss in Inserts (1975) and Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Cartwright was well on her way to crafting an enduring film career. A role as the ill-fated navigator in the 1979 sci-fi horror classic Alien found her taking part in what would become one of the most lucrative and prolific franchises in cinema history, and a memorable performance in the 1983 space program drama The Right Stuff (in which she worked again with Body Snatchers director Philip Kaufman) helped to sustain her career through the '80s. Subsequent roles in Flight of the Navigator (1986) and Wisdom (1987) offered little in the way of dramatic depth, though Cartwright's winning performance in George Miller's The Witches of Eastwick (1987) found her nearly stealing the show from stars Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Despite the fact that Cartwright kicked off the '90s with a memorable turn in the popular weekly drama L.A. Law, the roles which followed were mostly comprised of thankless appearances in made-for-TV features and forgettable horror sequels. Although she remained busy, her parts just weren't as rich as they had been. Despite the dry spell, however, Cartwright was nominated for an Emmy for three memorable appearances in the popular small-screen chiller The X Files. The following decade found her edging back toward memorable film work with appearances in In the Bedroom (2001), Scary Movie 2 (2001), and Just Married (2003). After facing off against a cat-munching alien in the 2002 short Mackenheim, Cartwright essayed a substantial role in Richard Day's 2004 comedy Straight Jacket. She played the wife of famous sexual researcher Alfred Kinsey in the 2004 biopic of the man, and appeared in the 2007 sci-fi film The Invasion. In 2009 she returned to familiar ground with a part in the small-screen adaptation Eastwick, and she landed a major part in the 2011 thriller InSight.

Trivia: The eldest of seven children of a Brooklyn bank executive, Robert F. Logan was eight years old when his family moved to Los Angeles. During his high-school years, Logan aspired to a career in professional sports, but was habitually sidelined by injuries and poor grades. Eventually, however, he was awarded a baseball scholarship to the University of Arizona. His ball-playing career came to an abrupt end when he was spotted by a Warner Bros. talent agent. After his movie debut in Claudelle Inglish, Logan was cast as slang-slinging parking lot attendant J. R. Hale in the weekly TVer 77 Sunset Strip (he replaced "Kookie"--aka Edward Byrnes--who'd been promoted to private eye), remaining with the series until 1963. He went on to co-star as Jericho Jones during the 1965-66 season of TV's Daniel Boone. For several years thereafter, little was heard from Robert Logan; he reemerged in the 1970s as star of the Wilderness Family movie series, and as producer and writer of similar family-oriented films.

Trivia: A singer, one of the NFL's greatest football stars, a heroic body guard, an actor, social activist, and a minister of God, Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier has successfully worn many hats in his life. Born on a Georgia peanut farm, one of 13 children, Grier was 22 when he and his family migrated north to New Jersey. A track scholarship allowed Grier entrance into Penn State University. From there, he was recruited into the NFL where he was first a linebacker for the New York Giants and then a tackle for the Los Angeles Rams, where he became part of the legendary "Fearsome Foursome" that included Lamar Lundy, Merlin Olsen, and Deacon Jones. Retiring from football in 1968, Grier became a bodyguard for Senator Robert F. Kennedy during the 1968 presidential election. It was Grier who wrestled alleged assassin Sirhan Sirhan to the ground after the younger Kennedy was shot. Following the end of his football career, Grier turned to the entertainment industry. It was not his first foray into performing as he had signed a contract with a booking agency in 1959 and briefly toured the nightclub circuit as the "300-pound Perry Como." The 6'6" Grier was a popular guest on talk shows and loved talking about one of his favorite hobbies, needlework. In 1969, he made his first stab at an acting career in the failed television pilot Battle Brigade/Carter's Army. He then became a regular on Daniel Boone for its last season. Grier made his feature-film debut in Lee Frost's memorable low-budget exploitation film The Thing With Two Heads (1972), in which Grier's head was grafted alongside the head of racist scientist Ray Milland. It was a decidedly inauspicious beginning for a film career as a supporting actor that, while never prolific, became even more sporadic after 1980. Grier has done his most notable work in television in such miniseries as Roots: The Next Generation (1978) and telemovies as The Sophisticated Gents (1981). A devout Christian since the late '60s, Grier is also a minister who actively preaches all over the world. Between 1994 and 1995, Grier generated controversy when he became the spiritual counselor of accused murderer and former football star O.J. Simpson. Grier claims that during their many sessions together, Simpson never incriminated himself. Grier's philanthropic work includes a place on the board of directors for the Special Olympics, a position he has held since 1968, and a position as an activist director for the Milken Family Foundation, a large philanthropic organization that funds worthy social causes.