Trivia: Virtually every account of actor John Phillip Law's career included an early screen credit in The Magnificent Yankee, filmed when Law was 13. This "fact" has never been adequately confirmed; Law himself traced his involvement in acting to his amateur-theatrical days at the University of Hawaii. After working with New York's Lincoln City repertory, Law officially launched his film career in Europe. He made his Hollywood bow as a boyish, gangling Soviet sailor in The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming (1966). Later highlights of Law's extensive film work include the role of blind "guardian angel" Pygar in the kinky Jane Fonda vehicle Barbarella (1968), German air ace Baron Von Richtofen in Roger Corman's Von Richtofen and Brown (1970), and the title role in the Ray Harryhausen FX-fest The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973). John Phillip Law's infrequent TV work also included a mid-1980s stint on the CBS daytimer Young and the Restless. He died of undisclosed causes at age 70, in the spring of 2008.

Trivia: With her luxurious, sun-streaked, long mane of curly blond hair, voluptuous and beautiful Dyan Cannon is an actress who is hard to miss. She has been in films and occasionally on television since making her debut opposite Art Carney in The Ding-a-Ling Girl, a presentation on the television series Playhouse 90. Born Samille Diane Friesen in Tacoma, WA, Cannon got her start as a showroom model in L.A. following two years of study in anthropology at the University of Washington. Thanks to the help of writer/producer Jerry Wald, who came up with her stage name (which was originally Diane Cannon), she landed a contract at MGM and made her feature film debut playing Wiggles, a troubled high school student in This Rebel Breed (1960). She then appeared in The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960). After a couple appearances on Broadway and some work on television, Cannon met and fell in love with Cary Grant, who was 38 years her senior. While involved with him, she placed her acting career on hold. The two married in 1965 and she bore him a daughter. Three years later, Grant and Cannon went through a bitter public divorce. In 1969, Cannon returned to films in the then-controversial sex comedy Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and won the Best Supporting Actress award from the New York Film Critics. Her role also won her an Oscar nomination. The 1970s were her most active period as an actress and Cannon appeared frequently in films. In 1978, she earned another Best Supporting Actress nomination for playing a conniving, adulterous wife in Heaven Can Wait. By the early '80s, Cannon sharply curtailed her feature-film career, but did appear in a few television movies and miniseries. In 1976, Cannon wrote, produced, directed, and even helped edit a 42-minute film sponsored by the American Film Institute. Titled Number One, Cannon designed it to teach children about sexuality and their bodies. It earned an Oscar nomination for best live-action short. Cannon has since directed two more films, including The End of Innocence, which is based on her autobiography. Cannon returned to acting on a limited basis in the 1990s and continued to appear on television in such outings as Arnold Schwarzenegger's Christmas in Connecticut (1992) and features such as Out to Sea (1997).Cannon would appear in several films and TV shows over the coming years, memorably appearing on shows like Ally McBeal and Three Sisters.

Trivia: It was his failure as a playwright that led Robert Ryan to a three-decade career as an actor. He was a unique presence on both the stage and screen, and in the Hollywood community, where he was that rarity: a two-fisted liberal. In many ways, at the end of the 1940s, Ryan was the liberals' answer to John Wayne, and he even managed to work alongside the right-wing icon in Flying Leathernecks (1951). The son of a successful building contractor, Ryan was born in Chicago in 1909 and attended Dartmouth College, where one of his fraternity brothers was Nelson Rockefeller. He was a top athlete at the school and held its heavyweight boxing title for four straight years. Ryan graduated in 1932, during the depths of the Great Depression, and intended to write plays. Finding no opportunities available in this field, he became a day laborer; he stoked coal on a ship bound for Africa, worked as a sandhog, and herded horses in Montana, among other jobs. Ryan finally had his chance to write as a member of a theater company in Chicago, but proved unsuccessful and turned to acting. He arrived in Hollywood at the end of the '30s and studied at the Max Reinhardt Workshop, making his professional stage debut in 1940. He appeared in small roles for Paramount Pictures, but Ryan's real film career didn't begin until several years later. He returned east to appear in stock, and landed a part in Clifford Odets' Clash by Night, in which he worked opposite Tallulah Bankhead and got excellent reviews. Ryan came to regard that production and his work with Bankhead as the pivotal point in his career. The reviews of the play brought him to the attention of studio casting offices, and he was signed by RKO. The actor made his debut at the studio in the wartime action thriller Bombardier. It was a good beginning, although his early films were fairly lackluster and his career was interrupted by World War II -- he joined the Marines in 1944 and spent the next three years in uniform. Ryan's screen career took off when he returned to civilian life in 1947. He starred in two of the studio's best releases that year: Jean Renoir's The Woman on the Beach and Edward Dmytryk's Crossfire, the latter an extraordinary film for its time dealing with troubled veterans and virulent anti-Semitism, with Ryan giving an Oscar-nominated performance as an unrepentant murderer of an innocent Jewish man. He continued to do good work in difficult movies, including the Joseph Losey symbolic drama The Boy With Green Hair (1948) and with Robert Wise's The Set-Up (1949). The latter film (which Ryan regarded as his favorite of all of his movies) was practically dumped onto the market by RKO, though the studio soon found itself with an unexpected success when the film received good reviews, it was entered in the Cannes Film Festival, and it won the Best Picture award in the British Academy Award competition. Ryan also distinguished himself that year in Dmytryk's Act of Violence and Max Ophüls' Caught, Nicholas Ray's On Dangerous Ground in 1951, and then repeated his stage success a decade out in Fritz Lang's Clash by Night (1952). Along with Robert Mitchum, Ryan practically kept the studio afloat during those years, providing solid leading performances in dozens of movies. In the late '50s, he moved into work at other studios and proved to be one of the most versatile leading actors in Hollywood, playing heroes and villains with equal conviction and success in such diverse productions as John Sturges' Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), Anthony Mann's God's Little Acre (1958), Wise's Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), and Peter Ustinov's Billy Budd (1962). Even in films that were less-than-good overall, he was often their saving grace, nowhere more so than in Ray's King of Kings (1961), in which he portrayed John the Baptist. Even during the late '40s, Ryan was never bashful about his belief in liberal causes, and was a highly vocal supporter of the so-called "Hollywood Ten" at a time when most other movie professionals -- fearful for their livelihoods -- had abandoned them. He was also a founder of SANE, an anti-nuclear proliferation group, and served on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union. During the early '50s, he'd fully expected to be named in investigations and called by the House Select Committee on Un-American Activities or Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, but somehow Ryan was never cited, despite his public positions. In later years, he attributed it to his Irish last name, his Catholic faith, and the fact that he'd been a marine. Considering his career's focus on movies from the outset, Ryan also fared amazingly well as a stage actor. In addition to Clash by Night, he distinguished himself in theatrical productions of Shakespeare's Coriolanus in 1954 at Broadway's Phoenix Theater and a 1960 production of Antony and Cleopatra opposite Katharine Hepburn at the American Shakespeare Festival. (Hepburn later proposed him for the lead in the Irving Berlin musical Mr. President in 1962.) Ryan's other theatrical credits included his portrayal of the title role in the Nottingham (England) Repertory Theater's production of Othello, Walter Burns in a 1969 revival of The Front Page, and James Tyrone in a 1971 revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night. Not all of Ryan's later films were that good. His parts as the American field commander in Battle of the Bulge and Lee Marvin's army antagonist in The Dirty Dozen were written very unevenly, though he was good in them. He was also a strange choice (though very funny) for black comedy in William Castle's The Busy Body, and he wasn't onscreen long enough (though he was excellent in his scenes) in Robert Siodmak's Custer of the West. But for every poor fit like these, there were such movies as John Sturges' Hour of the Gun and Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, in which he excelled. His success in Long Day's Journey Into Night was as prelude to his last critical success, as Larry in John Frankenheimer's The Iceman Cometh (1973). Ironically, at the time he was playing a terminally ill character in front of the camera, Ryan knew that he was dying from lung cancer. During this time he also filmed a hard-hitting anti-smoking public service announcement that directly attributed his condition to his long-time heavy use of cigarettes.

Trivia: American actor Jackie Cooper was in movies at the age of three; his father had abandoned the family when Jackie was two, forcing his mother to rely upon the boy's acting income to keep food on the table. Shortly after earning his first featured part in Fox Movietone Follies of 1929. Cooper was hired for producer Hal Roach's "Our Gang" two-reeler series, appearing in 15 shorts over the next two years. The "leading man" in many of these comedies, he was most effective in those scenes wherein he displayed a crush on his new teacher, the beauteous Miss Crabtree. On the strength of "Our Gang," Paramount Pictures signed Cooper for the title role in the feature film Skippy (1931), which earned the boy an Oscar nomination. A contract with MGM followed, and for the next five years Cooper was frequently co-starred with blustery character player Wallace Beery. Cooper outgrew his preteen cuteness by the late 1930s, and was forced to accept whatever work that came along, enjoying the occasional plum role in such films as The Return of Frank James (1940) and What a Life! (1941). His priorities rearranged by his wartime Naval service, Cooper returned to the states determined to stop being a mere "personality" and to truly learn to be an actor. This he did on Broadway and television, notably as the star of two popular TV sitcoms of the 1950s, The People's Choice and Hennessey. Cooper developed a taste for directing during this period (he would earn an Emmy for his directorial work on M*A*S*H in 1973), and also devoted much of his time in the 1960s to the production end of the business; in 1965 he was appointed vice-president in charge of production at Screen Gems, the TV subsidiary of Columbia Pictures. From the early 1970s onward, Cooper juggled acting, producing and directing with equal aplomb. Modern audiences know Cooper best as the apoplectic Perry White in the Christopher Reeve Superman films. In 1981, Cooper surprised (and sometimes shocked) his fans with a warts-and-all autobiography, Please Don't Shoot My Dog. Cooper died in May 2011 at the age of 88 following a sudden illness.

Trivia: When the film version of the Broadway musical Camelot was released in 1967, critics had a jolly old time lambasting director Joshua Logan for casting non-singers in the leading roles. While it's certainly true that Lynn Redgrave, Richard Harris and Franco Nero seemed to suffer from Tin-Ear Syndrome, the critics were most unfair in picking on the fellow who played Mordred: David Hemmings. The son of a cookie merchant, Hemmings was a successful touring boy soprano at age nine, performing with the English Opera Group. He briefly left the musical world when his voice changed, studying painting at the Epsom School of Art and staging his first exhibition at 15. He returned to singing in his early 20s, first in nightclubs, then on the musical stage. Easing into acting, Hemmings appeared as misunderstood youths and belligerent "Teddy Boys" in a number of British programmers before attaining international stardom as the existential fashion photographer "hero"of Antonioni's Blow-Up (1966). With 1971's Running Scared, the indefatigable Hemmings began yet another new career as director; he has since helmed theatrical and made-for-TV films in England, Australia and Canada. With business partner John Daly, Hemmings formed the Hemdale Corporation for the express purpose of allowing the actor to do pretty much what he pleased both before and behind the cameras. In later years, he added novel writing to his considerable list of accomplishments. David Hemmings was the former husband of American actress Gayle Hunnicutt.

Trivia: Fans of the long-running CBS network soap opera Guiding Light will remember distinguished-looking actor William Roerick for playing Henry Chamberlain, the father of characters Vanessa Chamberlain Lewis and Quinton McCord Chamberlain from 1980 through his death in 1995, but his career extends much further back than that and includes many years as a highly regarded performer on Broadway and in Hollywood. Like many other actors, he received his basic training on stage. He made his debut in a 1936 production of Hamlet. During WWII, he was part of a touring production of Irving Berlin's This Is the Army; in 1943, he appeared in the film version. Roerick resumed his stage career and did not reappear in feature films until the mid-'50s, with The Harder They Fall (1956). He subsequently appeared sporadically in films until his final appearance in The Betsy (1978).

Trivia: Zaftig blonde comic actress Maureen Arthur gained a degree of fame on TV in the early 1960s for her dead-on impersonation of Marilyn Monroe. She was seen in this characterization on variety programs, talk shows and TV commercials until the real Monroe's death in 1962. Thereafter, Maureen trafficked in dumb-broad characters, notably as the "kept" secretary Hedy LaRue in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967). A poster from the 1968 spy flick A Man Called Dagger, depicting a bikinied Maureen chained and shackled to leading man Paul Mantee, has become a valuable collector's item in certain fetishist circles. In the early 1980s, Maureen Arthur was a semi-regular on TV's Mork and Mindy, playing a flirtatious middle-aged grade-school student.

Trivia: Veteran nightclub comedian Shecky Greene is more of a storyteller than a dispenser of one-liners, and this fact might be the secret behind his durability. Greene started out in his home turf of Chicago in 1947; within six years, he was headlining in Las Vegas and making the first of thousands of TV appearances. Not entirely comfortable playing anyone other than "himself," he has nonetheless essayed character parts in such films as Tony Rome (1968), The Love Machine (1970), History of the World Part One (1981), and Splash (1984, as Mr. Buyrite). He also played wisecracking Private Braddock on the first (1962-63) season of the TV war drama Combat. Shecky Greene has been the recipient of many honors and industry awards for his stand-up work.

Trivia: American actress Sharon Farrell first began making TV appearance in the early '60s. Farrell began studying dance at age seven, and before she was out of her teens had racked up a great many appearances with the American Ballet Company. Her musical comedy debut occurred at age 17 with a Denver production of Oklahoma. Moving to New York, Farrell immediately got a job with a children's theatre--which just as immediately folded. Modelling work followed, then several years as a guest actress on a variety of top network programs, among them Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and The Wild Wild West. Movie assignments included Marlowe (1969) and The Reivers (1969); despite several years' experience, she was voted "most promising newcomer" for the latter film. Farrell's career was tragically interrupted when her heart stopped beating for four minutes during childbirth. She incurred brain damage, and was virtually unable to read, write, or memorize. After extensive sessions of re-learning, Sharon returned to acting in the early '70s, her work load increasing as her recovery progressed. By the '90s, Farrell was seen as a regular on two series: The Young and the Restless and Matlock. Sharon Farrell's second husband was writer Dale Trevillon, whom she met on the set of the Mississippi-filmed The Premonition (1976).

Trivia: After leaving Hobart College, actor Greg Mullavey worked in advertising and insurance. Mullavey turned to acting in the early 1960s, making his first off-Broadway appearance in a revival of Ah, Wilderness. It would be 1979 before he'd make his Broadway debut in Romantic Comedy; in the interim, he'd established himself as a film actor (Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, The Love Machine) and TV performer. In the latter category, he was seen as Louise Lasser's gormless husband Tom on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976-77), a role he repeated on the follow-up series Forever Fernwood. Mullavey was later one of the many regulars on the raunchy sitcom Number 96 (1980).

Trivia: American actress Edith Atwater gained Broadway fame in 1939 as the original Maggie Cutler in Kaufman and Hart's The Man Who Came to Dinner. This role was played in the film version of Dinner by Bette Davis; it was Edith Atwater's fate (not unusual among theatrical performers) to be ideal for leading roles on stage, but to be consigned to supporting roles in films. The actress began her stage career at age 15; she made her first film, We Went to College, in 1935. Her best known film appearance was producer Val Lewton's The Body Snatcher (1945), as the mother of a crippled child. Fans of the 1970s TV series The Hardy Boys will remember Ms. Atwater as the Hardy brothers' Aunt Gertrude. Edith Atwater was married to actor Kent Smith, whom she outlived by only one year.

Trivia: Nightclub comedian and character actor, onscreen from 1943.

Trivia: Playboy magazine's "Playmate of the Year" for 1970, actress/model Claudia Jennings was at first cast in decorative bits in mainstream films like 40 Carats (1971). It was in her athletic, self-reliant roles in such drive-in action fare as Gator Bait, Truck Stop Women and Unholy Rollers that Jennings truly came into her own. Generally clad in little more than a halter top and cutoff jeans, Jennings presented quite an imposing figure (in every sense of the word) as she battled various and sundry thugs of both sexes, armed with bazooka, bowie knife and bare fists. Claudia Jennings was elevated to true cult status after her untimely death in a head-on car collision in 1979.

Trivia: From her film debut in 1966's Marlowe until she left Hollywood in 1969, brunette leading lady Gayle Hunnicutt was typecast in sexpot roles. She was often cast as a golddigger on the prowl for wealthy, older men, ranging from Raymond Burr in PJ (1968) to Jed Clampett (Buddy Ebsen) on TV's The Beverly Hillbillies. Upon relocating to England in 1970 with her then-husband David Hemmings, Hunnicutt began to be taken seriously as an actress. Among Gayle Hunnicutt's more prestigious credits are the TV miniseries A Man Called Intrepid (1979), The Martian Chronicles (1980) and A Woman of Substance (1985).

Trivia: A handsome, silver-crowned news anchor whose soothing baritone voice and warm familiarity helped him to endure as one of L.A.'s most beloved and trustworthy newscasters, Jerry Dunphy's remarkable 40 years as a broadcaster brought him both instant local recognition and numerous film roles in which he usually played a character fairly close to home. Born in Milwaukee in 1921, Dunphy served as a captain in the Army Air Corps during WWII before returning to his home state to finish college and begin his career as a broadcaster in Peoria, IL. Subsequently working for CBS Radio and ABC, Dunphy later moved to Los Angeles, which positioned him well for numerous roles as a broadcaster in film and television. Appearing in such television series as Batman and Roseanne and such features as Oh, God! (1977) and Independence Day (1996), Dunphy's persona was the definition of the distinguished and sincere newscaster. After suffering heart attacks in both 1978 and 1991, Dunphy died in May of 2002 after stricken by a third heart attack in front of his L.A. condo. He was 80.