Trivia: The son of an Oklahoma carpet layer, James Garner did stints in the Army and merchant marines before working as a model. His professional acting career began with a non-speaking part in the Broadway play The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (1954), in which he was also assigned to run lines with stars Lloyd Nolan, Henry Fonda, and John Hodiak. Given that talent roster, and the fact that the director was Charles Laughton, Garner managed to earn his salary and receive a crash course in acting at the same time. After a few television commercials, he was signed as a contract player by Warner Bros. in 1956. He barely had a part in his first film, The Girl He Left Behind (1956), though he was given special attention by director David Butler, who felt Garner had far more potential than the film's nominal star, Tab Hunter. Due in part to Butler's enthusiasm, Garner was cast in the Warner Bros. TV Western Maverick. The scriptwriters latched on to his gift for understated humor, and, before long, the show had as many laughs as shoot-outs. Garner was promoted to starring film roles during his Maverick run, but, by the third season, he chafed at his low salary and insisted on better treatment. The studio refused, so he walked out. Lawsuits and recriminations were exchanged, but the end result was that Garner was a free agent as of 1960. He did quite well as a freelance actor for several years, turning in commendable work in such films as Boys' Night Out (1962) and The Great Escape (1963), but was soon perceived by filmmakers as something of a less-expensive Rock Hudson, never more so than when he played Hudson-type parts opposite Doris Day in Move Over, Darling and The Thrill of It All! (both 1963).Garner fared rather better in variations of his Maverick persona in such Westerns as Support Your Local Sheriff (1969) and The Skin Game (1971), but he eventually tired of eating warmed-over stew; besides, being a cowboy star had made him a walking mass of injuries and broken bones. He tried to play a more peaceable Westerner in the TV series Nichols (1971), but when audiences failed to respond, his character was killed off and replaced by his more athletic twin brother (also Garner). The actor finally shed the Maverick cloak with his long-running TV series The Rockford Files (1974-1978), in which he played a John MacDonald-esque private eye who never seemed to meet anyone capable of telling the truth. Rockford resulted in even more injuries for the increasingly battered actor, and soon he was showing up on TV talk shows telling the world about the many physical activities which he could no longer perform. Rockford ended in a spirit of recrimination, when Garner, expecting a percentage of the profits, learned that "creative bookkeeping" had resulted in the series posting none. To the public, Garner was the rough-hewn but basically affable fellow they'd seen in his fictional roles and as Mariette Hartley's partner (not husband) in a series of Polaroid commercials. However, his later film and TV-movie roles had a dark edge to them, notably his likable but mercurial pharmacist in Murphy's Romance (1985), for which he received an Oscar nomination, and his multifaceted co-starring stints with James Woods in the TV movies Promise (1986) and My Name Is Bill W. (1989). In 1994, Garner came full circle in the profitable feature film Maverick (1994), in which the title role was played by Mel Gibson. With the exception of such lower-key efforts as the noir-ish Twilight (1998) and the made-for-TV thriller Dead Silence (1997), Garner's career in the '90s found the veteran actor once again tapping into his latent ability to provoke laughs in such efforts as Space Cowboys (2000) while maintaining a successful small-screen career by returning to the role of Jim Rockford in several made-for-TV movies. He provided a voice for the popular animatedfeature Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and appeared in the comedy-drama The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002). Garner enjoyed a career resurgance in 2003, when he joined the cast of TV's 8 Simple Rules, acting as a sort of replacement for John Ritter, who had passed away at the beginning of the show's second season. He next appeared in The Notebook (2004), which earned Garner a Screen Actors Guild nomination and also poised him to win the Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award. His last on-screen role was a small supporting role in The Ultimate Gift (2007). In 2008, Garner suffered a stroke and retired acting. He died in 2014, at age 86.

Trivia: American actress Pat Crowley was the daughter of a coal mine foreman. Pat' s older sister Ann took the plunge into acting first, and it was during Ann's appearance in a Chicago musical production that ten-year-old Pat was given a walk-on. Ann introduced her sister to a stock company producer, and from then on Pat was one of the busiest ingenues in New England, finally making her Broadway bow in Southern Exposure; Crowley was still only 16. Two years later, following a run on the live TV series A Date With Judy, Crowley was hired for a major role in Forever Female (1953), in which she and Ginger Rogers vied for the affections of William Holden. After becoming the center of much publicity at that time, Crowley then experienced a long spell of unemployment. When jobs became plentiful again, Crowley worked on both the stage and on TV, usually in one-shot guest roles; she had the distinction of being Robert Vaughn's first "leading lady" on the premiere episode of Man From U.N.C.L.E. in 1964. One year later, Crowley was cast as an unorthodox housewife on the NBC sitcom Please Don't Eat the Daisies. After two years of Daisies, Crowley's work load subsided; she did more supporting work until 1974, when she received a sizeable role on the Lloyd Bridges cop show Joe Forrester. Since that time, Patricia Crowley has confined her activities to TV character roles, notably a season's worth of appearances as Emily Falmont on the '80s nighttime serial Dynasty.

Trivia: The son of actress Nan Kelly Yorke, Jack Kelly was the younger brother of stage and film star Nancy Kelly. Like Nancy, Jack was a professional from an early age, acting in radio and on stage before the age of 10, and in films from 1937 (he is quite prominent in a brace of 1939 20th Century-Fox films, Young Mr. Lincoln and The Story of Alexander Graham Bell). He reemerged as a leading man in the early 1950s, appearing in such films as Forbidden Planet (1956, as the ill-fated Lieutenant Farnam). Signed by Warner Bros. in 1955, Kelly starred as Dr. Paris Mitchell in the weekly TV version of the 1942 film King's Row. He went on to play gamblin' man Bart Maverick on the longer-running Warners western series Maverick. Though his popularity never matched that of his co-star James Garner, Kelly still developed a fan following as Bart; he remained with the series from 1957 until its cancellation in 1962, appearing opposite such Garner successors as Roger Moore and Robert Colbert. Kelly dabbled in a little bit of everything after that: hosting the anthology series NBC Comedy Playhouse (1973), emceeing the game show Sale of the Century (1969-71), and playing hard-nosed Lt. Ryan on the Teresa Graves series Get Christie Love (1974) and Harry Hammond on The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (1977-79). He revived the Bart Maverick character on 1978's The New Maverick and the 1990 TV movie The Gambler Returns: Luck of the Draw. Chances are that, had he lived, Jack Kelly would have been invited to co-star again with Garner in the 1994 Mel Gibson theatrical-feature version of Maverick.

Trivia: The only child of a London policeman, Roger Moore started out working as a film extra to support his first love, painting, but soon found he preferred acting, and so enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He began his film, radio and stage career just after World War II (his early credits are often confused with American actor Roger Moore, a minor Columbia contractee of the 1940s), and also performed with a military entertainment unit. Though in childhood Moore had been mercilessly teased by friends and family alike for being fat, by the time he was ready to start his career, he had become an exceptionally handsome man with a toned, well-muscled body. Signed on the basis of his good looks to an MGM contract in 1954, Moore began making appearances in American films, none of which amounted to much dramatically; his biggest success of the 1950s was as star of the British-filmed TV series Ivanhoe. Signed by Warner Bros. Television for the 1959 adventure weekly The Alaskans, Moore became the latest of a long line of James Garner surrogates on Maverick, appearing during the 1960-1961 season as cousin Beau. After a few years making European films, Moore was chosen to play Simon Templar in the TV-series version of Leslie Charteris' The Saint (an earlier attempt at a Saint series with David Niven had fallen through). Moore remained with the series from 1963-1967, occasionally directing a few episodes (he was never completely comfortable as simply an actor, forever claiming that he was merely getting by on his face and physique). After another British TV series, 1971's The Persuaders, Moore was selected to replace Sean Connery in the James Bond films. His initial Bond effort was 1973's Live and Let Die, but the consensus (in which the actor heartily concurred) was that Moore didn't truly "grow" into the character until 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me. Few of Moore's non-Bond movie appearances of the 1970s and 1980s were notably successful, save for an amusing part as a Jewish mama's boy who thinks he's Bond in Burt Reynolds' Cannonball Run (1981). Moore's last 007 film was 1985's A View to a Kill. In 1991, he was made a special representative of UNICEF, an organization with which he'd been active since the 1960s. Relegated mainly to a series of flops through the 1990s, Moore appeared in such efforts as The Quest (1996) and Spice World (1997) and gained most of his exposure that decade as a television talk show and documentary host. In early May of 2003, fans were dismayed to hear that Moore collapsed onstage during a Broadway performance of The Play That I Wrote. Rushed to a nearby hospital afer insisting on finishing his performance in the small role, reports noted that Moore's subsequent recovery seemed to be coming along smoothly. He lent his distinctive voice to family films such as Here Comes Peter Cottontail and Cats & Dogs, The Revenge of Kitty Galore. Moore died in 2017, at age 89.

Trivia: Classically handsome film leading man Neil Hamilton was trained in stock companies before making his 1918 film bow. He rose to stardom under the guidance of D. W. Griffith, who cast Hamilton in leading roles in The Great Romance (1919), The White Rose (1923), America (1924) and Isn't Life Wonderful? (1924). In an era when sturdy dependability was one of the prerequisites of male stardom, Hamilton was one of the silent screen's most popular personalities, as well suited to the role of faithful Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby (1925) as he was to the Foreign Legion derring-do of Beau Geste (1927). His pleasant voice and excellent diction enabled Hamilton to make the transition to sound with ease. Unfortunately, he always seemed a bit of a stick in his talkie portrayals, and it wasn't long before he found himself shunted off to "other man" assignments (Tarzan and His Mate) and villainous characterizations (The Saint Strikes Back). By the early 1940s, he had lost both fame and fortune -- and, as he'd ruefully observe later, most of his so-called industry friends. Only the love of his wife and his rock-solid religious convictions saw him through his darkest days. Hamilton made a comeback as a character actor, playing brusque, businesslike types in TV series like Perry Mason and Fireside Theatre. From 1966 through 1968, Neil Hamilton co-starred as poker-faced Commissioner Gordon on the TV series Batman.

Trivia: Throughout Hollywood's golden age and TV's "typecasting" era of the '50s and '60s, there would always be a demand for American actor Dan Tobin. After all, somebody had to play all those stuffed-shirt executives, snotty desk clerks, officious male secretaries, tight-fisted bankers and tuxedoed, mustachioed stiffs to whom the heroine was unhappily engaged before the hero came along. Tobin was a welcome if slightly pompous presence in such films as Woman of the Year (1941), Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer (1947) The Big Clock (1948) and The Love Bug Rides Again (1973). On television, Tobin had semiregular stints on I Married Joan, My Favorite Husband and Perry Mason, as well as innumerable guest bits on sitcoms and anthologies. Dan Tobin was also a frustrated screenwriter, at least according to scenarist George Clayton Johnson; while working together on a 1960 episode of Twilight Zone, Tobin cornered Johnson and described his concept for a fantasy script about a gambler who could read his opponent's minds -- a talent which failed when he came up against an opponent who couldn't speak English!

Trivia: Veteren performer Sandra Gould was probably best known for her recurring role as Gladys Kravitz on the popular TV series Bewitched. Gould started her acting career at the age of nine, appearing on stage and on radio. She was a very prolific presence on radio as an adult performer. When she made the switch to television, she was just as hardworking. Some of the many programs she was featured on include The Twilight Zone, The Flintstones (on which she voiced the character of Betty Rubble), and My Three Sons. Later in life, she made appearances on the Kirstie Alley sitcom Veronica's Closet, as well as on another, more popular NBC sitcom, Friends. She passed away from a stroke, in Burbank, CA, on July 20, 1999, shortly before her 83rd birthday.

Trivia: Producer William Allyn was born in 1927 in New York, where he began his career in entertainment as an actor on the stage. He played opposite such notables as Marlon Brando and Julie Harris in theatrical roles before developing an interest in working behind the scenes. In the early '60s, he took up producing for television, eventually overseeing nearly 350 episodes of Peyton Place. In 1971, he moved up to producing movies for television, beginning with The Last Child, and in 1981, produced his first theatrical feature, Rich and Famous. He died from complications relating to heart disease in 1999.

Trivia: Muscular leading man Ed Nelson started out as a member of quickie-filmmaker Roger Corman's stock company, appearing in such drive-in fodder as Hot Rod Girl (1956), Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957) and Cry Baby Killer. In these and other low-budgeters of the late 1950s, Nelson not only starred, but doubled on the technical crew: he was one of several production assistants portraying the title crustacean in The Attack of the Crab Monsters (1956), and designed and operated the parasite props in 1958's The Brain Eaters, which he also produced. Eventually outgrowing such things, Nelson rose to TV stardom as Dr. Michael Rossi on the prime time soap opera Peyton Place, which ran from 1964 through 1969. He later starred as Ward Fuller on The Silent Force (1970) and as Dr. Michael Wise in Doctor's Private Lives (1979). In 1969, Nelson hosted a daily, syndicated talk show, which he was ultimately forced to give up when he decided to enter politics ("conflict of interests" and "equal time" were still considerations back then). He played President Truman several times, including the 1980 TV movie Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb, in the 1992 Brooke Shields flick Brenda Starr and onstage in Give 'Em Hell, Harry. Nelson died in 2014 at age 85.

Trivia: Gangly L.A.-born Rand Brooks made his first film appearance in 1938. The following year, he gained a small niche in film history with his performance as Charles Hamilton, ill-fated first husband of Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), in Gone With the Wind (1939). He spent the next several years in Westerns, most frequently appearing as Lucky Jenkins in the Hopalong Cassidy series. On television, Brooks was seen as Corporal Boone on The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (1956-1958). Rand Brooks was at one time married to comedian Stan Laurel's daughter Lois, with whom he operated a successful emergency ambulance service. As the 1970s wound to a close, Brooks disappeared entirely from the screen.On September 1, 2003, the man who gave legendary bombshell Marilyn Monroe her first screen kiss died of cancer at his Santa Ynez, CA home. He was 84.