Trivia: Arguably the most popular -- and certainly the busiest -- movie leading man in Hollywood history, John Wayne entered the film business while working as a laborer on the Fox lot during summer vacations from U.S.C., which he attended on a football scholarship. He met and was befriended by John Ford, a young director who was beginning to make a name for himself in action films, comedies, and dramas. Wayne was cast in small roles in Ford's late-'20s films, occasionally under the name Duke Morrison. It was Ford who recommended Wayne to director Raoul Walsh for the male lead in the 1930 epic Western The Big Trail, and, although it was a failure at the box office, the movie showed Wayne's potential as a leading man. During the next nine years, be busied himself in a multitude of B-Westerns and serials -- most notably Shadow of the Eagle and The Three Mesquiteers series -- in between occasional bit parts in larger features such as Warner Bros.' Baby Face, starring Barbara Stanwyck. But it was in action roles that Wayne excelled, exuding a warm and imposing manliness onscreen to which both men and women could respond. In 1939, Ford cast Wayne as the Ringo Kid in the adventure Stagecoach, a brilliant Western of modest scale but tremendous power (and incalculable importance to the genre), and the actor finally showed what he could do. Wayne nearly stole a picture filled with Oscar-caliber performances, and his career was made. He starred in most of Ford's subsequent major films, whether Westerns (Fort Apache [1948], She Wore a Yellow Ribbon [1949], Rio Grande [1950], The Searchers [1956]); war pictures (They Were Expendable [1945]); or serious dramas (The Quiet Man [1952], in which Wayne also directed some of the action sequences). He also starred in numerous movies for other directors, including several extremely popular World War II thrillers (Flying Tigers [1942], Back to Bataan [1945], Fighting Seabees [1944], Sands of Iwo Jima [1949]); costume action films (Reap the Wild Wind [1942], Wake of the Red Witch [1949]); and Westerns (Red River [1948]). His box-office popularity rose steadily through the 1940s, and by the beginning of the 1950s he'd also begun producing movies through his company Wayne-Fellowes, later Batjac, in association with his sons Michael and Patrick (who also became an actor). Most of these films were extremely successful, and included such titles as Angel and the Badman (1947), Island in the Sky (1953), The High and the Mighty (1954), and Hondo (1953). The 1958 Western Rio Bravo, directed by Howard Hawks, proved so popular that it was remade by Hawks and Wayne twice, once as El Dorado and later as Rio Lobo. At the end of the 1950s, Wayne began taking on bigger films, most notably The Alamo (1960), which he produced and directed, as well as starred in. It was well received but had to be cut to sustain any box-office success (the film was restored to full length in 1992). During the early '60s, concerned over the growing liberal slant in American politics, Wayne emerged as a spokesman for conservative causes, especially support for America's role in Vietnam, which put him at odds with a new generation of journalists and film critics. Coupled with his advancing age, and a seeming tendency to overact, he became a target for liberals and leftists. However, his movies remained popular. McLintock!, which, despite well-articulated statements against racism and the mistreatment of Native Americans, and in support of environmentalism, seemed to confirm the left's worst fears, but also earned more than ten million dollars and made the list of top-grossing films of 1963-1964. Virtually all of his subsequent movies, including the pro-Vietnam War drama The Green Berets (1968), were very popular with audiences, but not with critics. Further controversy erupted with the release of The Cowboys, which outraged liberals with its seeming justification of violence as a solution to lawlessness, but it was successful enough to generate a short-lived television series. Amid all of the shouting and agonizing over his politics, Wayne won an Oscar for his role as marshal Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, a part that he later reprised in a sequel. Wayne weathered the Vietnam War, but, by then, time had become his enemy. His action films saw him working alongside increasingly younger co-stars, and the decline in popularity of the Western ended up putting him into awkward contemporary action films like McQ (1974). Following his final film, The Shootist (1976) -- possibly his best Western since The Searchers -- the news that Wayne was stricken ill with cancer (which eventually took his life in 1979) wiped the slate clean, and his support for the Panama Canal Treaty at the end of the 1970s belatedly made him a hero for the left. Wayne finished his life honored by the film community, the U.S. Congress, and the American people as had no actor before or since. He remains among the most popular actors of his generation, as evidenced by the continual rereleases of his films on home video.

Trivia: One of the most glamorous superstars of Hollywood's golden era, Lana Turner was born February 8, 1921, in Wallace, ID. At the age of 15, while cutting school, she was spotted by Hollywood Reporter staffer Billy Wilkinson in a Hollywood drugstore; enchanted by her beauty, he escorted her to the offices of the Zeppo Marx Agency, resulting in a bit part in 1937's A Star Is Born. Rejected by RKO, Fox, and any number of other studios, Turner next briefly showed up in They Won't Forget. Mervin LeRoy, the picture's director, offered her a personal contract at 50 dollars a week, and she subsequently appeared fleetingly in a series of films at Warner Bros. When LeRoy moved to MGM, Turner followed, and the usual series of bit parts followed before she won her first lead role in the 1939 B-comedy These Glamour Girls. Dancing Co-Ed, a vehicle for bandleader Artie Shaw, followed that same year, and after starring in 1940's Two Girls on Broadway, she and Shaw married. Dubbed "the Sweater Girl" by the press, Turner was touted by MGM as a successor to Jean Harlow, but audiences did not take her to heart; she did, however, become a popular pin-up, especially with American soldiers fighting overseas. In 1941 she starred opposite Clark Gable in Honky Tonk, her first major hit. They again teamed in Somewhere I'll Find You the next year. Upon separating from Shaw, Turner married actor Stephen Crane, but when his earlier divorce was declared invalid, a media frenzy followed; MGM chief Louis B. Mayer was so incensed by the debacle that he kept the now-pregnant Turner off movie screens for a year. Upon returning in 1944's Marriage Is a Private Affair, Turner's stardom slowly began to grow, culminating in her most sultry and effective turn to date as a femme fatale in 1946's The Postman Always Rings Twice. The film was a tremendous success, and it made Turner one of Hollywood's brightest stars. Both 1947's Green Dolphin Street and Cass Timberlane were hits, but a 1948 reunion with Gable in Homecoming failed to re-create their earlier sparks. After appearing in The Three Musketeers, she disappeared from screens for over a year, resurfacing in the George Cukor trifle A Life of Her Own. Turner's box-office stock was plummeting, a situation which MGM attempted to remedy by casting her in musicals; while the first, 1951's Mr. Imperium, was an unmitigated disaster, 1952's The Merry Widow was more successful. However, a string of failures followed, and after 1955's Diane, MGM opted not to renew her contract.When Turner's next project, The Rains of Ranchipur, also failed to ignite audience interest, she again took a sabbatical from movie-making. She returned in 1957 with Peyton Place, director Mark Robson's hugely successful adaptation of Grace Metalious' infamous best-seller about the steamy passions simmering beneath the surface of small-town life. Turner's performance won an Academy Award nomination, and the following year she made international headlines when her lover, gangster Johnny Stampanato, was stabbed to death by her teenage daughter, Cheryl Crane; a high-profile court trial followed, and although Crane was eventually acquitted on the grounds of justifiable homicide, Turner's reputation took a severe beating. The 1959 Douglas Sirk tearjerker Imitation of Life was Turner's last major hit, however, and after a string of disappointments culminating in 1966's Madame X, she did not reappear in films for three years, returning with The Big Cube. Also in 1969, she and George Hamilton co-starred in the short-lived television series The Survivors. After touring in a number of stage productions, Turner starred in the little-seen 1974 horror film Persecution, followed in 1976 by Bittersweet Love. Her final film, Witches' Brew, a semi-comic remake of the 1944 horror classic Weird Woman, was shot in 1978 but not widely released until 1985. In 1982, she published an autobiography, Lana: The Lady, the Legend, the Truth, and also began a stint as a semi-regular on the TV soap opera Falcon Crest. After spending the majority of her final decade in retirement, Lana Turner died June 29, 1995, at the age of 74.

Trivia: With that fabricated name and those Malibu-beach good looks, Tab Hunter really couldn't hope to be taken seriously as an actor, but he certainly worked hard -- and at times was very good indeed. An early starter, Hunter lied his way into the Coast Guard at the age of 15. Three years later, he was selected on the basis of his physique to appear in a supporting role in the 1950 tale of racial prejudice The Lawless. At 21, Hunter became a major "beefcake" personality after shedding most of his clothes in the low-budget Island of Desire (1952). He was signed to a Warner Bros. contract in 1953, which didn't bring him much in the way of substantial roles but which gave him leeway to work on live television, where he turned in a few creditable performances. Critics wailed when he was selected to star opposite Gwen Verdon and Ray Walston in the 1958 film version of Damn Yankees, but his presence brought in a lot more business from the teenage filmgoing contingent than might otherwise have been possible; besides, he looked like a young Mickey Mantle, which was qualification enough for his role as a baseball player. In 1960, Hunter starred as a bachelor newspaper cartoonist in his own sitcom, The Tab Hunter Show, which opened in an excellent timeslot but failed to please the masses. By the mid-1960s, Hunter was considered something of a "Sonny Tufts" type, best suited for campy, self-mocking roles. Happily, he survived on these terms, proving he could kid himself better than any wiseguy scriptwriter. He was co-starred in several films starring the corpulent female impersonator Divine, including the deathless Lust in the Dust (1985). In 1977, Tab Hunter replaced Philip Bruns on the satirical TV series Forever Fernwood; to answer those who might wonder how the still-handsome Hunter could possibly replace the wizened, chinless Bruns, the scripters contrived to have Bruns fall into a chemical vat, require plastic surgery...and then emerge from the bandages looking just like Tab Hunter.

Trivia: Frequently cast as Western heavies due to his steely gaze, longtime character actor Lyle Bettger traveled the well-worn path from stage to screen, making a name for himself on such small screen oaters as Rawhide and Bonanza before stepping into a more contemporary setting with frequent appearances on Hawaii Five-O. A Philadelphia native and graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, subsequent work in theater and summer stock eventually lead Bettger to Broadway, and later a contract with Paramount. In 1950, Bettger made his screen debut with the film noir drama No Man of Her Own,and the fruitful following decade found him building a solid resumé with roles in Union Station (1950) and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), among numerous others. Success followed the actor to the small screen, with Bettger donning his spurs as numerous baddies and even moving on to starring roles in the series The Court of Last Resort and The Grand Jury in the late '50s. Later work on Hawaii Five-O found the easygoing actor warming to the hospitable climate in which the show was set, and after appearing in the show's 1979 series finale, Bettger retired and made a home for himself in Paia. Lyle Bettger died of natural causes September 24, 2003, in Atascadero, CA. He was 88.

Trivia: Formerly a journalist, David Farrar took to the stage in 1932, then to the movies in 1937. Handsome and authoritative, Farrar flourished as a dashing romantic lead in the 1940s. He moved effortlessly from the "B"-picture intrigues of Sherlock Holmes-clone Sexton Blake to the more prestigious environs of Black Narcissus (1946) and The Wild Heart (1950). In Hollywood from 1951 to 1959, he was generally cast as a sardonic villain; a rare exception was his anguished portrayal of Alfred Dreyfus' justice-seeking brother in I Accuse (1958). In the 1960s, he showed up in such crusty character roles as Emperor Xerxes in Rudolph Mate's The 300 Spartans (1962). Shortly after this film, he retired from acting, resettling in South Africa. In 1948, he published his autobiography, No Royal Road. David Farrar was married to actress Irene Elliot.

Trivia: American actor James Arness had an unremarkable Minneapolis childhood, but his wartime experiences shattered that normality - literally. During the battle of Anzio, Arness' right leg was peppered with machine gun bullets, and when the bones were set they didn't mend properly, leaving him with a slight but permanent limp. The trauma of the experience mellowed into aimlessness after the war. Arness became a "beach bum," lived out of his car, and worked intermittently as a salesman and carpenter. Acting was treated equally lackadaisically, but by 1947 Arness had managed to break into Hollywood on the basis of his rugged good looks and his 6'6" frame. Few of his screen roles were memorable, though one has become an object of cult worship: Arness was cast as the menacingly glowing space alien, described by one character as "an intellectual carrot," in The Thing (1951). For a time it looked as though Arness would continue to flounder in supporting roles, while his younger brother, actor Peter Graves, seemed destined for stardom. John Wayne took a liking to Arness when the latter was cast in Wayne's Big Jim McLain (1953). Wayne took it upon himself to line up work for Arness, becoming one of the withdrawn young actor's few friends. In 1955, Wayne was offered the role of Matt Dillon in the TV version of the popular radio series Gunsmoke. Wayne turned it down but recommended that Arness be cast and even went so far as to introduce him to the nation's viewers in a specially filmed prologue to the first Gunsmoke episode. Truth be told, Arness wasn't any keener than Wayne to be tied down to a weekly series, and as each season ended he'd make noises indicating he planned to leave. This game went on for each of the 20 seasons that Gunsmoke was on the air, the annual result being a bigger salary for Arness, more creative control over the program (it was being produced by his own company within a few years) and a sizeable chunk of the profits and residuals. When Gunsmoke finally left the air in 1975, Arness was the only one of the original four principals (including Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone and Dennis Weaver) still appearing on the series. Arness made plans to take it easy after his two-decade Gunsmoke hitch, but was lured back to the tube for a one-shot TV movie, The Macahans (1976). This evolved into the six-hour miniseries How the West Was Won (1977) which in turn led to a single-season weekly series in 1978. All these incarnations starred Arness, back in the saddle as Zeb Macahan. The actor tried to alter his sagebrush image in a 1981 modern-day cop series, McClain's Law -- which being set in the southwest permitted Arness to ride a horse or two. It appeared, however that James Arness would always be Matt Dillon in the hearts and minds of fans, thus Arness obliged his still-faithful public with three Gunsmoke TV movies, the last one (Gunsmoke: The Last Apache) released in 1992. In between these assignments, James Arness starred in a 1988 TV-movie remake of the 1948 western film classic Red River, in which he filled the role previously played by his friend and mentor John Wayne.

Trivia: In films from 1945, Wilton Graff carved a screen career out of playing judges, doctors, DAs and the like. Graff's movie assignments ranged from bits in "A" pictures to sizeable supporting roles in programmers. He could be seen as the maitre d' in the crucial Gregory Peck-John Garfield restaurant scene in Gentleman's Agreement (1947), and as Baron Fitzwalter, Robin Hood's father-in-law, in Rogues of Sherwood Forest (1950). Wilton Graff's only starring role was as Dr. Belleau, the crazed sportsman who hunted human quarry in the 1961 Most Dangerous Game knock-off Bloodlust.

Trivia: American actor Richard Davalos might have been a star had it not been for the formidable competition in his star-making movie. Davalos was cast as Aron the upright, dutiful son of Raymond Massey in the expensive 1955 filmization of East of Eden. The film, however, belonged to the boy playing Cal, Aron's supposedly ne'er-do-well younger brother: James Dean. One recent magazine article figuratively robbed Davalos of the best scene in the movie, wherein, after learning that his mother was a prostitute, he taunts his erring father by laughingly smashing his head through a glass window; the magazine attributed this unforgettable moment to James Dean! It's too bad, since Davalos was actually a lot more versatile than Dean (if not as charismatic), having proven this in a multitude of TV guest roles. As for movies, except for the meaty role of Blind Dick in Cool Hand Luke (1967), the best Davalos could do after Eden were such negligible starring stints as Pit Stop (1969) and indifferent character roles in films like Kelly's Heroes (1971). In 1961, Richard Davalos co-starred with Darryl Hickman on the short-lived television Civil War series The Americans. His last film was 2008's Ninja Cheerleader. Davalos died in 2016, at age 85.

Trivia: The son of a Norwegian pastor, John Qualen was born in British Columbia. After his family moved to Illinois, Qualen won a high school forensic contest, which led to a scholarship at Northwestern University. A veteran of the tent-show and vaudeville circuits by the late '20s, Qualen won the important role of the Swedish janitor in the Broadway play Street Scene by marching into the producer's office and demonstrating his letter-perfect Scandinavian accent. His first film assignment was the 1931 movie version of Street Scene. Slight of stature, and possessed of woebegone, near-tragic facial features, Qualen was most often cast in "victim" roles, notably the union-activist miner who is beaten to death by hired hooligans in Black Fury (1935) and the pathetic, half-mad Muley in The Grapes of Wrath (1940). Qualen was able to harness his trodden-upon demeanor for comedy as well, as witness his performance as the bewildered father of the Dionne quintuplets in The Country Doctor (1936). He was also effectively cast as small men with large reserves of courage, vide his portrayal of Norwegian underground operative Berger in Casablanca (1942). From Grapes of Wrath onward, Qualen was a member in good standing of the John Ford "stock company," appearing in such Ford-directed classics as The Long Voyage Home (1940), The Searchers (1955), Two Rode Together (1961), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). John Qualen was acting into the 1970s, often appearing in TV dramatic series as pugnacious senior citizens.

Trivia: The son of a brewery owner, steely-eyed American character actor Paul Fix went the vaudeville and stock-company route before settling in Hollywood in 1926. During the 1930s and 1940s he appeared prolifically in varied fleeting roles: a transvestite jewel thief in the Our Gang two-reeler Free Eats (1932), a lascivious zookeeper (appropriately named Heinie) in Zoo in Budapest (1933), a humorless gangster who puts Bob Hope "on the spot" in The Ghost Breakers (1940), and a bespectacled ex-convict who muscles his way into Berlin in Hitler: Dead or Alive (1943), among others. During this period, Fix was most closely associated with westerns, essaying many a villainous (or at least untrustworthy) role at various "B"-picture mills. In the mid-1930s, Fix befriended young John Wayne and helped coach the star-to-be in the whys and wherefores of effective screen acting. Fix ended up appearing in 27 films with "The Duke," among them Pittsburgh (1942), The Fighting Seabees (1943), Tall in the Saddle (1944), Back to Bataan (1945), Red River (1948) and The High and the Mighty (1954). Busy in TV during the 1950s, Fix often found himself softening his bad-guy image to portray crusty old gents with golden hearts-- characters not far removed from the real Fix, who by all reports was a 100% nice guy. His most familiar role was as the honest but often ineffectual sheriff Micah Torrance on the TV series The Rifleman. In the 1960s, Fix was frequently cast as sagacious backwoods judges and attorneys, as in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).

Trivia: Luis Van Rooten, he of the velvet voice and Mephistopholean countenance, was born in Mexico City and educated at the University of Pennsylvania. Van Rooten was a moderately successful architect before he decided upon an acting career. He was busiest in radio, playing the title role in The Adventures of Nero Wolfe, and appearing regularly on such series as Box 13, Bulldog Drummond, Chandu the Magician, The Damon Runyon Theater, Escape, John's Other Wife, and X Minus One. On television, Van Rooten was prominently featured on One Man's Family, Major Dell Conway of the Flying Tigers, and Wonderful John Acton, and was the frequent narrator of the 1960s documentary series Perspectives on Greatness. Off camera, Van Rooten enjoyed a reputation as an expert horticulturalist. Luis Van Rooten's film career began with 1944's The Hitler Gang and ended with 1961's Operation Eichmann; he played the same character, Nazi chieftan Heinrich Himmler, in both.

Trivia: Burly character actor Peter Whitney was under contract to Warner Bros. from 1941 to 1945. Whitney spent much of that time on loan-out, playing a variety of moronic thugs and henchmen. His best-ever screen role (or roles) was as identical twin hillbilly murderers Mert and Bert Fleagle in the 1944 screwball classic Murder He Says. He enjoyed a rare romantic lead in the 1946 horror film The Brute Man (the title character was played by Rondo Hatton). Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Whitney supported himself by portraying some of TV's most scurrilous and homicidal backwoods villains. Peter Whitney essayed a more comical characterization as rustic free-loader Lafe Crick in several first-season episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies.

Trivia: The son of a patent medicine manufacturer, American actor Alan Hale chose a theatrical career at a time when, according to his son Alan Hale Jr., boarding houses would post signs reading "No Dogs or Actors Allowed." Undaunted, Hale spent several years on stage after graduating from Philadelphia University, entering films as a slapstick comedian for Philly's Lubin Co. in 1911. Bolstering his acting income with odd jobs as a newspaperman and itinerant inventor (at one point he considered becoming an osteopath!), Hale finally enjoyed a measure of security as a much-in-demand character actor in the 1920s, usually as hard-hearted villains. One of his more benign roles was as Little John in Douglas Fairbanks' Robin Hood (1922), a role he would repeat opposite Errol Flynn in 1938 and John Derek in 1950. Talkies made Hale more popular than ever, especially in his many roles as Irishmen, blusterers and "best pals" for Warner Bros. Throughout his career, Hale never lost his love for inventing things, and reportedly patented or financed items as commonplace as auto brakes and as esoteric as greaseless potato chips. Alan Hale contracted pneumonia and died while working on the Warner Bros. western Montana (1950), which starred Hale's perennial screen cohort Errol Flynn.

Trivia: A suave-looking, wavy-haired supporting actor who always seemed more British than American despite his Midwest origins, Lowell Gilmore had appeared in a host of successful Broadway productions, including Autumn Crocus (1932) and the 1935 Theatre Guild revival of The Taming of the Shrew, before making his screen debut as Gregory Peck's second-in-command in Days of Glory (1944). Often cast as a cad, Gilmore added numerous television guest appearances to his list of credits in the 1950s, including the role of Pontius Pilate in the "Crucifixion and Resurrection" episode of The Living Christ Series (1951).

Trivia: Whenever actor Ed Platt blew one of his lines in his role of "The Chief" in the TV comedy series Get Smart, star Don Adams would cry out "Is John Doucette available?" Adams was kidding, of course, but he was not alone in his high regard for the skill and versatility of the deep-voiced, granite-featured Doucette. In films on a regular basis since 1947 (he'd made his official movie debut in 1943's Two Tickets to London), Doucette was usually cast in roles calling for bad-tempered menace, but was also adept at dispensing dignity and authority. He was equally at home with the archaic dialogue of Julius Caesar (1953) and Cleopatra (1963) as he was with the 20th-century military patois of 1970's Patton, in which he played General Truscott. John Doucette's many TV credits include a season on the syndicated MacDonald Carey vehicle Lock-Up (1959), and the role of Captain Andrews on The Partners (1971), starring Doucette's old friend and admirer Don Adams.

Trivia: Trained at Northwestern University's drama department, onetime salesman Claude Akins was a Broadway actor when he was selected by a Columbia talent scout for a small role in the Oscar-winning From Here to Eternity (1953). With a craggy face and blunt voice that evoked memories of Lon Chaney Jr., Akins was a "natural" for villainous or roughneck roles, but was versatile enough to play parts requiring compassion and humor. A television actor since the "live" days, Akins achieved stardom relatively late in life via such genial adventure series as Movin' On (1974), B.J. and the Bear (1979), The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo (1979) and Legmen (1984). In his last decade, Claude Akins was a busy-and most genial-commercial spokesperson.

Trivia: Born in Northern Australia, Gil Perkins distinguished himself in his teen years as a champion athlete, trackman and swimmer. Perkins left his homeland at age 18 to go to sea; nearly a decade later he found himself in Hollywood, where he sought out acting roles, the first of which was in The Divine Lady (1928). Though a personable screen presence, he found that his true forte was stunt work. Over a period of thirty years, he doubled for dozens of male stars, from William Boyd ("Hopalong Cassidy") to Red Skelton (whom he closely resembled). While he was willing to tackle the riskiest of stunts, Perkins was far from reckless, always working out in advance the safest and least painful method of pulling off his "gags." He was especially in demand for slapstick comedies, eventually receiving so many pies in the face that the very sight of the pastry made him physically ill. Perkins did more acting than stunting in the latter stages of his career (he can be seen as Jacob of Bethlehem in 1965's The Greatest Story Ever Told), and also kept busy as a stunt coordinator. A most engaging and candid interview with Gil Perkins can be found in Bernard Rosenberg and Harry Silverstein's 1970 book of Hollywood reminiscences, The Real Tinsel.

Trivia: Actor and stunt man Fred Stromsoe worked in both television and feature films. His television credits include a regular role as Officer Woods on Adam-12 between 1974 and 1975. He also appeared in segments of Wild, Wild West and Gunsmoke.

Trivia: A former boxer, John Indrisano entered films via the sponsorship of several Hollywood sports fans, notably Mae West, who cast Indrisano in a small role in Every Day's a Holiday (1937). Sometimes typecast as a pugilist, Indrisano was more often seen as a trainer or referee. Non-boxing fans can spot him in such "civilian" roles as the chauffeur in Murder My Sweet (1944), one of his many film noir appearances. He also served as a technical advisor for the prizefight scenes in such films as The Kid From Brooklyn (1946) The Set Up (1949) and Carmen Jones (1954). John Indrisano was 62 years old when he hung himself in his San Fernando Valley home.

Trivia: Though he frequently adopted a British accent, actor Gavin Muir was a Chicago boy. After stage work, Muir went to Hollywood for Mary of Scotland (1936), then spent the next quarter century menacing various stars as sly, slow-speaking villains. His indeterminate nationality made him useful in war films like The Master Race (1945), while his tendency to look as though he was hiding some awful secret enabled him to shine in such melodramas as Nightmare (1942). A more benign but still not altogether above-board Muir appeared in the role of a scientist coerced into inflicting invisibility upon Arthur Franz in Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951). As late as 1959, Muir was throwing roadblocks in the way of sweetness 'n' light as a snooty butler on TV's The Betty Hutton Show. Gavin Muir's last film before slipping into retirement was Night Tide (1963), an appropriately glum ghost story.

Trivia: A debonair, mustachioed supporting actor from France, Jean De Briac played prominent roles in the silent era -- Fred Thomson's fisherman brother in Mary Pickford's The Love Light (1921), the notorious "The Knifer" in Clara Bow's Parisian Love (1925), the stage director in Greta Garbo's The Divine Woman (1928) -- but mainly bit parts thereafter. De Briac, whose career continued well into the '50s, even turned up in a 1949 episode of television's The Lone Ranger.

Trivia: Irish stage actor Patrick O'Moore began his film career in 1934, playing a few leads in English films before settling in Hollywood. A close friend of actor Humphrey Bogart, O'Moore was seen to good advantage in such Bogart features as Sahara (1943) and Conflict (1945). Otherwise, most of his film roles were unbilled bits as clerks, constables, government officials, and military men. He kept active into the 1980s, playing small parts in such TV productions as QB VII and theatrical features as The Sword and the Sorcerer. Patrick O'Moore was at one time married to Broadway musical-comedy star Zelma O'Neal.

Trivia: One look at Alan Hale Jr. and no one could ever assume he was adopted; Hale Jr. so closely resembled his father, veteran character actor Alan Hale Sr., that at times it appeared that the older fellow had returned to the land of the living. In films from 1933, Alan Jr. was originally cast in beefy, athletic good-guy roles (at 6'3", he could hardly play hen-pecked husbands). After the death of his father in 1950, Alan dropped the "Junior" from his professional name. He starred in a brace of TV action series, Biff Baker USA (1953) and Casey Jones (1957), before his he-man image melted into comedy parts. From 1964 through 1967, Hale played The Skipper (aka Jonas Grumby) on the low-brow but high-rated Gilligan's Island. Though he worked steadily after Gilligan's cancellation, he found that the blustery, slow-burning Skipper had typed him to the extent that he lost more roles than he won. In his last two decades, Alan Hale supplemented his acting income as the owner of a successful West Hollywood restaurant, the Lobster Barrel.