Postmark for Danger

Terry Moore (Actor) .. Alison Ford

Born: January 07, 1929

Trivia: Terry Moore was born Helen Koford; during her screen career she was billed as Helen Koford, Judy Ford, Jan Ford, and (from 1949) Terry Moore. She debuted onscreen at age 11 in 1940 and went on to play adolescent roles in a number of films. As an adult actress, the well-endowed Moore fell into the late-'40s/early-'50s "sexpot" mold, and was fairly busy onscreen until 1960; after that her screen work was infrequent, though she ultimately appeared in more than a half-dozen additional films. She claimed she was secretly wed to billionaire Howard Hughes in 1949, and that they were never divorced; for years she sued Hughes's estate for part of his will, and finally was given an undisclosed sum in an out-of-court settlement. She wrote a book detailing her secret life with Hughes from 1947-56, The Beauty and the Billionaire, in 1984. For her work in Come Back, Little Sheba (1952) she received a "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar nomination. She co-produced the film Beverly Hills Brat (1989), in which she also appeared.

Robert Beatty (Actor) .. Tim Forrester

Born: October 19, 1909
Died: March 03, 1992

Trivia: Robert Beatty spent his early adulthood in Canada as a gas-company cashier, salesman and amateur actor. Upon arriving in London, Beatty enrolled at the RADA, making his film debut as an extra and stand-in. During World War II, Beatty achieved fame through his eyewitness radio reports of the nightly London bombings. In most of his postwar film, stage, radio and TV work, Beatty was cast as a rough-hewn American or Canadian. One of his favorite stage roles was rude 'n' crude American junk dealer Harry Brock in Garson Kanin's Born Yesterday. He also played more than his share of detectives, most prominently as radio's Phillip O'Dell, and on the 1958 TV series Dial 999. Beatty was given a chance to demonstrate his versatility in the dual role of a milquetoast British hubby and a slick Italian gangster in Her Favorite Husband (1950). Later film roles included Lord Beaverbrook in The Magic Box (1951), Halvorsen in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and two separate characters in Superman III (1980) and Superman IV (1984). On television, Robert Beatty was seen in the miniseries Jesus of Nazareth (1977, as Proculus) and The Martian Chronicles (1980), and as President Ronald Reagan in the 1987 PBS special Breakthrough at Reykajavik.

William Sylvester (Actor) .. Dave Forrester

Born: January 31, 1922
Died: January 25, 1995

Trivia: American-born actor William Sylvester relocated to England just after World War II. For the next quarter of a century, Sylvester was a fixture in British radio, TV and films, graduating from roles of the "two-bit hood" variety to full-leading man status. His most famous movie assignments included the lead in the ventriloquist-controlled-by-dummy yarn The Devil Doll (1964), and the crucial expository role of Dr. Heywood Floyd in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Returning to the U.S. in the late 1970s, William Sylvester continued essaying secondary character parts in films, and was seen as Dr. Leonard Driscoll on the 1976 TVer Gemini Man.

Josephine Griffin (Actor) .. Jill Stewart

Born: December 01, 1928

Geoffrey Keen (Actor) .. Inspector Colby

Born: January 01, 1918

Trivia: The son of prominent stage actor Malcolm Keen, London-born Geoffrey Keen proved his talent in his own right when he won the Gold Medal at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. On stage from 1932 and in films from 1946, Keen established himself as one of the premiere purveyors of cold-edged corporate types. If a producer wanted a dryly sarcastic executive or intimidating attorney, Keen was the man. In this vein, Geoffrey Keen was the ideal replacement for the late Bernard Lee as "M" in the James Bond films, essaying the role in such Bond escapades as The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), A View to a Kill (1985) and The Living Daylights (1987).

Allan Cuthbertson (Actor) .. Henry Carmichael

Born: April 07, 1920
Died: February 08, 1988
Birthplace: Perth

Trivia: In the fine tradition of such Hollywood players as Douglas Dumbrille and Richard Deacon, Australian actor Allan Cuthbertson was expert in portraying icy, glaring officials at odds with more warmhearted heroes and heroines. Cuthbertson was suitably condescending and sometimes downright nasty in such films as Carrington VC (1954), The Man Who Never Was (1956), Room at the Top (1959), The Running Man (1964), The Railway Children (1974) and The Sea Wolves (1981). The actor was also seen as a foil to several British TV comedians of the '60s and '70s. Allan Cuthbertson always came in handy whenever American movie companies filming abroad needed someone to personify cold-blooded British propriety; the Guns of Navarrone (1961) and The Mirror Crack'd (1982) feature the actor at his supercilious best.

Henry Oscar (Actor) .. John Smith

Born: January 01, 1890
Died: January 01, 1969

William Lucas (Actor) .. Reg Dorking

Born: April 14, 1925

Trivia: British leading man William Lucas came to films at age 30, after a decades' worth of stage experience. Lucas' first important movie role was an unusually complex part in X the Unknown (1955). While he made occasional film appearances thereafter, most of his time was taken up by stage and TV work. In the 1990s, William Lucas was a regular on two British TV series: The New Adventures of Black Beauty (1990) and Eldorado (1992).

Terence Alexander (Actor) .. Fenby

Born: March 11, 1923

Terry Alexander (Actor) .. Fenby

Born: March 11, 1923
Died: May 28, 2009

Trivia: British actor Terence Alexander made his debut in provincial repertory at age 16. A film actor since 1950, Alexander has specialized in slightly dissipated aristocrats. He was, for example, ideally suited for the role of shabby but proud ex-military officer Rupert Rutland-Smith in The League of Gentlemen. Alexander has also proven to be an apt foil for the broad comedy antics of Norman Wisdom in On the Beat (1962) and the Carry on Gang. In the 1980s, Terence Alexander enjoyed a measure of TV popularity as one of the co-stars of the long-running Bergerac.

12:00 am - 01:45 am, Sunday, November 30 on Turner Classic Movies ()