Trivia: American actor Rock Hudson was born Roy Scherer, adopting the last name Fitzgerald when his mother remarried in the mid-'30s. A popular but academically unspectacular student at New Trier High School in Winnetka, IL, he decided at some point during his high school years to become an actor, although a wartime stint in the Navy put these plans on hold. Uninspiring postwar jobs as a moving man, postman, telephone company worker, and truck driver in his new home of California only fueled his desire to break into movies, which was accomplished after he had professional photos of himself taken and sent out to the various studios. A few dead-end interviews later, he took drama lessons; his teacher advised him to find a shorter name if he hoped to become a star, and, after rejecting Lance and Derek, he chose Rock ("Hudson" was inspired by the automobile of that name). Signed by Universal-International, Hudson was immediately loaned to Warner Bros. for his first film, Fighter Squadron (1948); despite director Raoul Walsh's predictions of stardom for the young actor, Hudson did the usual contract player bits, supporting roles, and villain parts when he returned to Universal. A good part in Winchester '73 (1950) led to better assignments, and the studio chose to concentrate its publicity on Hudson's physical attributes rather than his acting ability, which may explain why the actor spent an inordinate amount of screen time with his shirt off. A favorite of teen-oriented fan magazines, Hudson ascended to stardom, his films gradually reaching the A-list category with such important releases as Magnificent Obsession (1954) and Battle Hymn (1957). Director George Stevens cast Hudson in one of his best roles, Bick Benedict, in the epic film Giant (1956), and critics finally decided that, since Hudson not only worked well with such dramatic league leaders as Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean -- but frequently outacted them in Giant -- he deserved better, less condescending reviews. Hudson's career took a giant leap forward in 1959 when he was cast in Pillow Talk, the first of several profitable co-starring gigs with Doris Day. Once again taken for granted by the mid-'60s, Hudson turned in another first-rate performance as a middle-aged man given a newer, younger body in the mordant fantasy film Seconds (1966). A longtime television holdout, Hudson finally entered the weekly video race in 1971 with the popular detective series McMillan and Wife, co-starring Susan Saint James, and appeared on the prime time soap opera Dynasty in the early '80s. Regarded by his co-workers as a good sport, hard worker, and all-around nice guy, Hudson endured a troubled private life; though the studio flacks liked to emphasize his womanizing, Hudson was, in reality, a homosexual. This had been hinted at for years by the Hollywood underground, but it was only in the early '80s that Hudson confirmed the rumors by announcing that he had contracted the deadly AIDS virus. Staunchly defended by friends, fans, and co-workers, Rock Hudson lived out the remainder of his life with dignity, withstanding the ravages of his illness, the intrusions of the tabloid press, and the less than tasteful snickerings of the judgmental and misinformed. It was a testament to his courage -- and a tragedy in light of his better film work -- that Hudson will be principally remembered as the first star of his magnitude to go public with details of his battle with AIDS. He died in 1985.

Trivia: The daughter of a Texas judge, Martha Hyer majored in speech and drama at Northwestern University. Her work at the Pasadena Playhouse led to a 1946 contract with RKO. Free from her contract in 1951, Hyer free-lanced in films made both in the U.S. and abroad. In 1954, she played the role of William Holden's fiancée in Sabrina. She earned an Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of a prim small schoolteacher in Some Came Running (1958), but has also played "hot to trot" roles in films like Pyro (1966) and spoiled-little-rich-girl types in films such as The Happening (1967). She retired from acting in the '70s. The widow of producer Hal B. Wallis, Martha Hyer has set forth her life story in the 1990 autobiography Finding My Way. Hyer died in 2014 at age 89.

Trivia: India-born actress Anna Kashfi had a brief Hollywood film career in the mid to late 1950s. She was usually cast as an exotic beauty. In 1957, Kashfi gained notoriety for marrying Marlon Brando. It was a tumultuous unhappy union that fell apart in 1960. Kashfi made her screen comeback in 1979 with The Violent Women. Earlier that year she had written an acidic memoir of her brief marriage titled Breakfast with Brando.

Trivia: Character actor Don Defore was the son of an Iowa-based locomotive engineer. His first taste of acting came while appearing in church plays directed by his mother. Defore briefly thought of becoming an attorney, but gave up a scholarship to the University of Iowa to study at the Pasadena Playhouse. He began appearing in films in 1937 and in professional theatre in 1938, billed under his given name of Deforest. Defore's career turning point was the Broadway play The Male Animal, in which he played a thickheaded college football player; he repeated the role in the 1942 film version, and later played a larger part in the 1952 remake She's Working Her Way Through College. In most of his film assignments, Defore was cast as the good-natured urbanized "rube" who didn't get the girl. For several years in the 1950s, Defore played "Thorny" Thornberry, the Nelson family's well-meaning next door neighbor, on TV's Ozzie and Harriet. Don Defore's best-known TV role was George Baxter on the Shirley Booth sitcom Hazel (1961-65).

Trivia: Hissable movie heavy Dan Duryea was handsome enough as a young man to secure leading roles in the student productions at White Plains High School. He majored in English at Cornell University, but kept active in theatre, succeeding Franchot Tone as president of Cornell's Dramatic Society. Bowing to his parents' wishes, Duryea sought out a more "practical" profession upon graduation, working for the N. W. Ayer advertising agency. After suffering a mild heart attack, Duryea was advised by his doctor to leave advertising and seek out employment in something he enjoyed doing. Thus, Duryea returned to acting in summer stock, then was cast in the 1935 Broadway hit Dead End. The first of his many bad-guy roles was Bob Ford, the "dirty little coward" who shot Jesse James, in the short-lived 1938 stage play Missouri Legend. Impressed by Duryea's slimy but somehow likeable perfidy in this play, Herman Shumlin cast the young actor as the snivelling Leo Hubbard in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes. This 1939 Broadway production was converted into a film by Sam Goldwyn in 1941, with many members of the original cast -- including Duryea -- making their Hollywood debuts. Duryea continued playing supporting roles in films until 1945's The Woman in the Window, in which he scored as Joan Bennett's sneering "bodyguard" (that's Hollywoodese for "pimp"). Thereafter, Duryea was given star billing, occasionally in sympathetic roles (White Tie and Tails [1946], Black Angel [1946]), but most often as a heavy. From 1952 through 1955, he starred as a roguish soldier of fortune in the syndicated TV series China Smith, and also topped the cast of a theatrical-movie spin-off of sorts, World for Ransom (1954), directed by Duryea's friend Robert Aldrich. One of the actor's last worthwhile roles in a big-budget picture was as a stuffy accountant who discovers within himself inner reserves of courage in Aldrich's Flight of the Phoenix (1965). In 1968, shortly before his death from a recurring heart ailment, Duryea was cast as Eddie Jacks in 67 episodes of TV's Peyton Place. Dan Duryea was the father of actor Peter Duryea, likewise a specialist in slimy villainy.

Trivia: Following his graduation from the University of Iowa and World War II service, Jock Mahoney came to Hollywood as a stuntman. Quickly establishing a reputation as one of the best and most courageous purveyors of his trade, Mahoney graduated to speaking roles in 1946. Billed as Jacques O'Mahoney, he played villains and secondary roles in Republic and Columbia westerns, showed up as a parodied "strong and silent" leading man in a handful of Three Stooges 2-reelers, and, while doubling for Errol Flynn, performed the legendary staircase leap in 1949's The Adventures of Don Juan. In 1951, Gene Autry hired Mahoney (who was now billing himself as Jack Mahoney) to star in the popular TV western series The Range Rider. This led to leading roles in such features as Overland Pacific (1954), Showdown at Abilene (1956) and I've Lived Before (1956). In 1958, Mahoney starred in another weekly TV western, Yancey Derringer. Two years later he played the villain in a Tarzan picture starring Gordon Scott, succeeding Scott as the "lord of the jungle" in Tarzan Goes to India (1962) -- during the filming of which he fell deathly ill, a fact that is painfully obvious in the completed picture. Suffering a severe stroke in 1973, Mahoney made a near-complete recovery in the last five years of his life, performing his final stunt (tumbling from a wheelchair) in Burt Reynolds' The End. Reynolds exhibited his admiration for Mahoney in his 1980 vehicle Hooper, in which the stuntman character played by Brian Keith was named "Jocko." Mahoney's last film work was as stunt coordinator for John Derek's otherwise wretched 1981 remake of Tarzan of the Apes. Married for many years to actress Mary Field, whom he'd met while filming Range Rider, Jock Mahoney was the stepfather of Oscar-winning actress Sally Field.

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: African American leading man James Edwards came to acting by way of a near-tragedy. Seriously injured in an accident while serving in World War II, Edwards went through a painful convalescence as surgeons completely restructured his face. His vocal chords were also severely damaged, and it was suggested by his doctors that Edwards take elocution lessons to restore his voice. Upon recovering, Edwards decided to celebrate his "rebirth" by becoming an actor. After touring in the stage production Deep are the Roots, Edwards made his film debut as a boxer in RKO's The Set-Up (1949). He was starred in his next film, Home of the Brave (1949), appropriately cast as a wounded soldier. James Edwards' last film was the 1970 Best Picture winner Patton, starring George C. Scott; he died on January 4, 1970.

Trivia: Carl Benton Reid determined he wanted to be an actor and nothing else while still in high school. Graduating from the drama department at Carnegie Tech, Reid worked for several seasons with the Cleveland Playhouse in the 1920s. He appeared in abbreviated Shakespearean productions at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933, then went on to a fruitful Broadway career. Reid was brought to Hollywood in 1941 to re-create his stage role of Oscar Hubbard in the film version of Lillian Hellman's play The Little Foxes. Trafficking in "heavy" roles for most of his film career, Reid's favorite film assignment was also his least villainous: Clem Rogers, father of the title character in 1953's The Story of Will Rogers. As busy on television as he'd previously been on-stage and in films, Carl Benton Reid was seen regularly as "the Man," a shadowy espionage chief, in the 1965 TV series Amos Burke, Secret Agent.

Trivia: Though he was the personification of the cruel, calculating Japanese military officer in many a wartime propaganda film, Richard Loo was actually born in Hawaii of Chinese parents. The holder of a Business Studies degree from the University of California, Loo ran a successful importing firm until his assets were wiped out in the 1929 stock market crash. He launched his acting career in 1931, first in California-based stock companies, then in films, beginning with Frank Capra's Dirigible (1931). His movie career picked up momentum after the attack on Pearl Harbor, with villainous roles in such films as Wake Island (1942) and The Purple Heart (1944). In all, Richard Loo toted up some 200 film appearances in his five-decade career.

Trivia: Though often cast as a Japanese or Chinese character, LA-born actor Philip Ahn was of Korean extraction. In films from 1936, Ahn spent the war years portraying dozens of heartless Japanese spies and military officers; ironically, the actor's father was a Korean diplomat who died in a Japanese concentration camp. After the war, Ahn was occasionally permitted to play a sympathetic role, minus stereotypical accent and mannerisms; cast as a lab technician in 1950's The Big Hangover, he has almost as much screen time as nominal star Van Johnson. One of his most substantial roles was as Chinese businessman Po Chang, foster father of young Caucasian tycoon Frank Garlund (Charles Quinlivan) on the brief 1960 TV weekly The Garlund Touch. At the time of his death from lung cancer at age 66, Philip Ahn was best known to American TV addicts as Master Kan on the TV series Kung Fu.

Trivia: Manhattan native Bartlett Robinson headed to Los Angeles in the mid-'30s for the express purpose of becoming a radio actor. He appeared in innumerable soap operas and anthologies, and starred as Erle Stanley Gardner's super-lawyer Perry Mason in a 1943 radio series. His stage credits on both coasts included Sweet River, Merchant of Yonkers, and Point of No Return. In films from 1956 to 1973, he was often cast as doctors and military officials. Bartlett Robinson's TV credits include the recurring roles of Willard Norton in Wendy and Me (1964) and Frank Campbell in Mona McCluskey (1965).

Trivia: There was always something slightly sinister about American actor Carleton G. Young that prevented him from traditional leading man roles. Young always seemed to be hiding something, to be looking over his shoulder, or to be poised to head for the border; as such, he was perfectly cast in such roles as the youthful dope peddler in the 1936 camp classic Reefer Madness. Even when playing a relatively sympathetic role, Young appeared capable of going off the deep end at any minute, vide his performance in the 1937 serial Dick Tracy as Tracy's brainwashed younger brother. During the 1940s and 1950s, Young was quite active in radio, where he was allowed to play such heroic leading roles as Ellery Queen and the Count of Monte Cristo without his furtive facial expressions working against him. As he matured into a greying character actor, Young became a special favorite of director John Ford, appearing in several of Ford's films of the 1950s and 1960s. In 1962's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, it is Young, in the small role of a reporter, who utters the unforgettable valediction "This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact...print the legend." Carleton G. Young was the father of actor Tony Young, who starred in the short-lived 1961 TV Western Gunslinger.

Trivia: William Hudson was a character actor and sometime leading man on television and in movies. Born William Woodson Hudson, Jr. in Gilroy, California in 1925, he was the younger brother of future actor John Hudson, though he actually seemes to have entered movies first, during the mid-1940's, appearing in uncredited roles while in his teens, in such distinguished productions as Destination Tokyo (1943) and Objective, Burma! (1945), as well as lesser movies such as Weird Woman (1944). His late 1940's appearances included work in Allan Dwan's Sands Of Iwo Jima and R. G. Springsteen's early Red Scare drama The Red Menace (both 1949). Hudson didn't get a credited screen appearance until 1951, in Ida Lupino's drama Hard, Fast And Beautiful, in which he played an intern. He started doing television around this time, including supporting roles in series such as Racket Squad and Dragnet, but it was his role in the series I Led Three Lives, as FBI agent Mike Andrews, that gave him his first taste of stardom. He also played the recurring role of Ranger Clark on Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, which seemed to herald a move toward science fiction focused roles in his broader career. Most of his subsequent work was confined to television and lower-budgeted movies, usually as well-intended if sometimes weak or less-than-resourceful figures. His major film performances included the B-science fiction staples The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), The Man Who Turned To Stone (1957), and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958), the latter offering him a rare chance to do something different, in terms of playing a villain. In between pictures like that, and an important supporting role in one installment of Man Into Space, he played much smaller parts in the major Universal releases Man Of A Thousand Faces and My Man Godfrey (both 1957). Hudson continued working into the 1970's, and his last performances included a small role in Ross Hunter's sprawling production of Airport (1970). Among the oddest work that Hudson -- or any other actor -- ever did, were his two performances in the series Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea. In the 1964 pilot episode, "Eleven Days To Zero", he was seen as the doomed first commander of the submarine Seaview, Capt. John Phillips, who is killed in an attempt on the life of Admiral Nelson (Richard Basehart); in "The X Factor", an episode from the following season, Hudson played the role of Captain Shire, who is killed off using the exact same footage depicting his character's death in the pilot episode. Thus, Hudson may well have had the odd distinction of being the only actor in television history to play two completely different characters on the same series killed off using the exact same filmed sequences. He died in 1974 of cirrhosis, at the age of 49.

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.