Trivia: Todd Armstrong was an early-'60s leading man who is best remembered for his work in the title role of the fantasy epic Jason and the Argonauts (1963). Born John Harris Armstrong in Missouri in 1937, he moved to California and studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse in the second half of the 1950s. He had difficulty finding steady acting work, however, until he was discovered while working at his day job as a landscape gardener. Armstrong was at the home of Gloria Henry, a film and television actress who was signed to Columbia Pictures (where she was working on the series Dennis the Menace, playing the title character's mother). She was sufficiently impressed with his good looks to arrange for him to get a screen test at Columbia. He subsequently appeared in 13 episodes of the series Manhunt, starring Victor Jory. Armstrong had supporting roles in two movies during 1962: Walk on the Wild Side (where he was credited as Todd Anderson) and Five Finger Exercise. He broke into stardom in Jason and the Argonauts the following year; ironically, both his and co-star Nancy Kovack's voices were redubbed by other actors, owing to the fact that they were the only Americans in the otherwise all-British cast and would have sounded out of place amid a sea of English accents. Despite this handicap, he cut a commanding yet humane figure in the movie in the role of Jason, though all of the actors were eclipsed by Ray Harryhausen's special effects. Armstrong had one more leading role, in Bryan Forbes' King Rat (1965), and after that receded to supporting parts in pictures such as Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966), and moved back into television work during the remainder of the 1960s and the 1970s.

Trivia: Alternately blonde and brunette, American actress Nancy Kovack entered films with a Columbia contract in 1960. She had several good scenes as an imbibing suburbanite in Strangers When We Meet (1960), was killed off after an elaborate strip-tease in the Dean Martin spy spoof The Silencers (1966) and at one point even got to play Medea, albeit briefly, in the juvenile-oriented adventure film Jason and the Argonauts (1963). One of Nancy's oddest (but best remembered) Columbia assignments was as Annie Oakley in the Three Stooges' western comedy The Outlaws is Coming (1965) - in which her leading man, a gun-shy Easterner, was a pre-Batman Adam West. Despite the seductive nature of many of her screen roles, Ms. Kovack offscreen was well known for her sturdy moral values and her unwillingness to be sucked in by the Hollywood "swingers" scene. Nancy Kovack married Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra conducter Zubin Mehta early in the '70s, briefly maintaining her career under her married name but ultimately giving up acting to become a charming and highly respected social leader in New York and Los Angeles musical circles.

Trivia: The son of British music hall entertainers, Gary Barrymore Raymond was 11 years old when he won a scholarship to Gateway School in Leicester. Following his graduation at age 16, Raymond took on day jobs as a clerk and furrier, studying drama in his spare time through the auspices of the London County Council. He went on to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, then was signed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he made an auspicious stage debut. In films from 1955, Raymond essayed such important roles as Prince Charles Stuart ("The Pretender") in The Moonraker (1955), Cliff Lewis in Look Back in Anger (1958) and Peter in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). He also played the title character in 1962's Playboy of the Western World. In 1966, Raymond was cast as British sergeant Jack Moffitt on the American TV action series The Rat Patrol, which ran until 1968. Active into the 1990s, Gary Raymond was recently seen as Ol' Daniel O'Hara (that's how he was billed) in the 1994 TV miniseries Scarlet.

Trivia: Ex-Merchant Marine seaman Laurence Naismith made his London stage bow in the chorus of the 1927 musical production Oh, Boy. Naismith joined the Bristol Repertory at age 22, remaining with the troupe until joining the royal artillery at the outbreak of World War II; he spent nine years in military service, emerging with the rank of Acting Battery Commander. His officer's bearing served Naismith well in such authoritative film assignments as the ill-fated Captain Smith in A Night to Remember (1958). Other highlights in Naismith's lengthy movie career include the roles of the Prince of Wales in The Trial of Oscar Wilde (1960), Argus in Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and Merlin in Camelot (1967). A frequent visitor to Broadway, Naismith played Kris Kringle in Here's Love, Meredith Willson's 1963 musical adaptation of Miracle on 34th Street. Among Laurence Naismith's hundreds of television credits was the recurring role of Judge Fulton on the 1971 Tony Curtis-Roger Moore adventure series The Persuaders.

Trivia: Burly, ruddy-faced Irish actor Niall MacGinnis looked as though he'd be well suited for an alley fight, but most of his film and stage roles were of an intellectual bent. Active on stage with the Old Vic, MacGinnis made his first film in 1935. For many film buffs, MacGinnis' fame rests on two dymamic leading roles. He portrayed the crafty black-arts practitioner (based on Alisteir Crowley) who falls victim to his own deviltry in the 1958 chiller Night of the Demon. And, as every Lutheran who ever attended a church-basement "movie night" well knows, Niall MacGinnis essayed the title role in the 1953 film Martin Luther.

Trivia: British character actor Michael Gwynn first appeared onscreen in the '50s.

Trivia: After studying at RADA, London-born Douglas Wilmer made his 1945 stage debut in repertory at Rugby. One year later, Wilmer made his first London theatrical appearance. Though most closely associated with classical roles, he scored one of his biggest stage successes in a contemporary work, One Way Pendulum (1959). Wilmer's film work includes the role of Nayland Smith in two of Christopher Lee's Fu Manchu films. He also repeated his British-TV characterization of Sherlock Holmes in Gene Wilder's The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1977). In addition, Douglas Wilmer was seen in the Ray Harryhausen epics Jason and the Argonauts (1963, as Pelius) and Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1979, as the Vizier); his last film to date was the 1983 Bond flick Octopussy.

Trivia: British character actor Jack Gwillim first appeared onscreen in the '50s.

Trivia: British actress Honor Blackman began as a J. Arthur Rank contractee, where she was groomed for demure "English rose" types in films like Fame is the Spur (1947) and Quartet (1948). Honor would not realize major stardom until 1962, when she was cast as leather-clad karate expert Cathy Gale in the British TV adventure series The Avengers (until recently, U.S. audiences were permitted to see only the Avengers episodes featuring Ms. Blackman's successors, Diana Rigg and Linda Thorson). International stardom ensued when Honor was seen in another martial-arts gig as the gloriously yclept Pussy Galore in Goldfinger (1964). She has played a wide variety of roles since, with special emphasis on droll comedy. Honor Blackman's last picture was the 1978 remake of The Cat and the Canary, though she continues to appear in British television, most recently on the weekly series The Upper Hand (1990-93).

Trivia: Scotland-born lead and supporting actor John Cairney appeared onscreen from 1956.

Trivia: British stage actor Patrick Troughton made the transition to films in 1948's Escape. His movie credits included the Laurence Olivier Shakespearean productions Hamlet (1948) and Richard III (1955), Disney's Treasure Island (1950), Hammer Films' Curse of Frankenstein (1957), and the Ray Harryhausen special effects banquets Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. From 1966 through 1968, Troughton played the eccentric time traveler Doctor Who in the BBC TV series of the same name, succeeding the first Who William Hartnell. Patrick Troughton's association with this series assured him a standing ovation whenever he appeared at science fiction conventions in the 1970s and 1980s; it was while appearing at a Who convention in Georgia that the 67-year-old Troughton died of a heart attack.

Trivia: South Africa-born character actor Nigel Green appeared in British films from 1956. Typical Green roles of the 1950s and 1960s include Little John in The Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960) and Hercules in Jason and the Argonauts (1963); he was also more of a presence than a personality in the 1958 TV series William Tell. After an excellent showing in Zulu (1964), his film assignments improved noticeably; among his later characterizations were Nyland Smith in The Face of Fu Manchu (1965) and General Wolsely in Khartoum (1966). He is also listed in many reference works as having appeared as Tom Ayerton, aka "The Green Man," in Mysterious Island (1961), but his planned scenes were never filmed (Ayerton appears in the film only as a skeleton). Nigel Green died of an accidental barbiturate overdose at the age of 47.

Trivia: Character actor John Crawford has appeared on screen in many films since 1945.

Trivia: An art director with Gainsborough Pictures by the late 1940s, Chaffey started directing in 1950 with the award-winning children's film The Mysterious Poacher. Although he helmed many adult-oriented features, he remains best known for his work aimed at kids, such as the Disney films The Three Lives of Thomasina and Pete's Dragon. Above all, he brought polish and authenticity to Jason and the Argonauts, the classic fantasy/adventure by special-effects genius Ray Harryhausen.