Merrill's Marauders

Jeff Chandler (Actor) .. Le Général Frank Merrill

Born: December 05, 1918
Died: June 17, 1961

Trivia: Born in Brooklyn, Jeff Chandler attended that borough's Erasmus High School, the spawning ground of many top stage and film personalities. He spent two years in summer stock before serving in World War II. After the war, he became a busy radio actor, co-starring as the clueless Professor Boynton on the popular Eve Arden sitcom Our Miss Brooks. His first film appearance was a one-line bit in Columbia's Johnny O'Clock (1947). He made a better impression as an Israeli freedom fighter in Universal's Sword in the Desert (1948)--so much so that the studio's executives ordered that Chandler's role be expanded during filming. In 1950, Chandler made the first of three screen appearances as sagacious Apache chief Cochise in Broken Arrow. Though he worried that he'd be typecast in Native American parts, Chandler became a top leading man of the 1950s, his sex appeal curiously heightened by his prematurely gray hair. Shortly after completing his role in Merrill's Marauders (1962), Jeff Chandler died at age 42, the victim of blood poisoning following spinal surgery.

Ty Hardin (Actor) .. Le lieutenant Stockton

Born: January 01, 1930

Trivia: Born Orson Whipple Hungerford, Jr., he was a virile, muscular, handsome leading man and supporting actor of Hollywood films of the '60s. He was billed "Ty Hungerford" in his first film, I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958). He starred in the TV series Bronco (1958-61) and Riptide (1965), but in the mid '60s his Hollywood career dried up; he moved to Europe for a decade, appearing in European films sporadically until the early '70s. For some time he lived in Los Boliches, Spain, where he owned a bar and a chain of laundromats. In the summer of 1974 he was jailed for a month and fined $9200 for drug-trafficking, having allegedly been found with 25 kilos of hashish hidden in his car. In 1977, back in the U.S., he converted to Born-Again Christianity; for some time he was a minister, preaching in tents around the country and heading his own congregation in Prescott, Arizona. He also filmed a half-hour religious program, Going Home, that aired three times a week in 39 states on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. He has been married six times and divorced five; his wives included actress Andra Martin, former Miss Universe Marlene Schmidt, and model Jeanette Atkins.

Peter Brown (Actor) .. Bullseye

Born: January 01, 1935

Trivia: Born Peter de Sappe, this lead actor appeared onscreen from 1958.

Andrew Duggan (Actor) .. Le major Nemeny

Born: December 28, 1923
Died: May 15, 1988
Birthplace: Franklin, Indiana

Trivia: Born in Indiana and raised in Texas, Andrew Duggan attended Indiana University on a speech and drama scholarship. He was starred there in Maxwell Anderson's The Eve of St. Mark, which was being given a nonprofessional pre-Broadway tryout; on the basis of this performance, Duggan was cast in the professional Chicago company of the Anderson play. Before rehearsals could start, however, Duggan was drafted into the army. After wartime service, Duggan began his acting career all over again, working at his uncle's Indiana farm in-between Broadway and stock engagements. In Hollywood in the late 1950s, Duggan was co-starred in the Warner Bros. TV series Bourbon Street Beat and was featured in such films as The Bravados (1958), Seven Days in May (1964) and In Like Flint (1967). He also was starred on the 1962 TV sitcom Room for One More and the 1968 video western Lancer. Because of his marked resemblance to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Duggan was frequently cast as generals and U.S. presidents. Andrew Duggan's last screen appearance was in The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover.

Will Hutchins (Actor) .. Chowhound

Born: May 05, 1932

Trivia: Sandy-haired, 6'1" leading man Will Hutchins established his reputation with "aw, shucks," country bumpkin roles -- even though he was born in a suburb of Los Angeles, won a Shakespearean festival Best Actor award while still in high school, and specialized in Greek drama at Pomona College. After military service, he took cinema classes at U.C.L.A., learning virtually every technical aspect of filmmaking. Discovered by TV producer Albert McCreery, he was signed to a Warner Bros. contract in 1956. The following year he was cast as the title character in the TV Western Sugarfoot, playing laconic, easygoing frontier lawyer Tom "Sugarfoot" Brewster (so named because he was "one grade lower than a tenderfoot") from 1957 through 1960. He continued appearing in guest roles on TV until his next series stint as Dagwood Bumstead in the short-lived 1968 revival of Blondie. Eventually Will Hutchins left films to write poetry and pursue a second career as a circus clown.

Claude Akins (Actor) .. Le sergent Kolowicz

Born: May 25, 1926
Died: January 27, 1994

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.

Luz Valdez (Actor) .. La jeune Birmane

Chuck Hicks (Actor) .. Doskis

Born: December 26, 1927

Trivia: Chuck Hicks was both a character actor and a stunt man who worked in feature films, television and television commercials. He later became a stunt coordinator and an instructor.

Charlie Briggs (Actor) .. Muley

Trivia: American actor Charlie Briggs played in a few films during the '60s and '70s. He also appeared in a number of television series, primarily westerns.

Chuck Roberson (Actor) .. Un officier

Born: January 01, 1919
Died: June 08, 1988

Trivia: Chuck Roberson was a rancher before serving in World War II. Upon his discharge, he sought out film work as a stunt man. While under contract to Republic Pictures, Roberson doubled for John Wayne in Wake of the Red Witch (1948). Thereafter, he worked in virtually all of Wayne's films as stunt double, action coordinator, second-unit director and bit actor. His best speaking part was Sheriff Lordin in the Duke's McClintock (1963). Chuck Roberson's career served as the inspiration for the Lee Majors TV series The Fall Guy (1981-86).

Vaughan Wilson (Actor)

Pancho Magalona (Actor) .. Taggy

John Hoyt (Actor) .. Gen. Stilwell

Born: October 05, 1905
Died: September 15, 1991
Birthplace: Bronxville, New York

Trivia: Yale grad John Hoyt had been a history instructor, acting teacher and nightclub comedian before linking up with Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre in 1937. He remained with Welles until he joined the Army in 1945. After the war, the grey-haired, deadly-eyed Hoyt built up a screen reputation as one of most hissable "heavies" around, notably as the notorious political weathervane Talleyrand in Desiree (1954). He was a bit kinder onscreen as the Prophet Elijah in Sins of Jezebel. Nearly always associated with mainstream films, Hoyt surprised many of his professional friends when he agreed to co-star in the softcore porn spoof Flesh Gordon; those closest to him, however, knew that Hoyt had been a bit of a Bohemian all his life, especially during his frequent nudist colony vacations. TV fans of the '80s generation will remember John Hoyt as Grandpa Stanley Kanisky on the TV sitcom Gimme a Break; those with longer memories might recall that Hoyt played the doctor who told Ben Gazzara that he had only two years to live on the pilot for the 1960s TV series Run For Your Life. Hoyt also holds a footnote in Star Trek history playing the doctor in the first pilot episode, "The Cage."

Chuck Hayward (Actor) .. Officer

Born: January 20, 1920

Jack Williams (Actor) .. Medic

Born: April 15, 1921

1:45 pm - 3:30 pm, Saturday, November 15 on Turner Classic Movies ()