Trivia: Leading man Colin Clive was born in France to a British colonel and his wife. Clive's own military career was cut short by a knee injury, which fortunately did not prevent him from becoming an actor. Clive was brought to Hollywood on the strength of his stage performance in Journey's End, duly committed to film in 1930. He spent the rest of his movie career hopscotching between England and America, his most significant work emanating from Hollywood. Clive has earned a niche in cinematic valhalla for his feverish, driven performance as Dr. Frankenstein in Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), both directed by his Journey's End mentor James Whale. He was also seen as Rochester in the first talkie version of Jane Eyre (1934). Never a well man, Colin Clive died of tuberculosis at the age of 39.

Trivia: The long-reigning king of Hollywood horror, Boris Karloff was born William Henry Pratt on November 23, 1887, in South London. The youngest of nine children, he was educated at London University in preparation for a career as a diplomat. However, in 1909, he emigrated to Canada to accept a job on a farm, and while living in Ontario he began pursuing acting, joining a touring company and adopting the stage name Boris Karloff. His first role was as an elderly man in a production of Molnar's The Devil, and for the next decade Karloff toiled in obscurity, traveling across North America in a variety of theatrical troupes. By 1919, he was living in Los Angeles, unemployed and considering a move into vaudeville, when instead he found regular work as an extra at Universal Studios. Karloff's first role of note was in 1919's His Majesty the American, and his first sizable part came in The Deadlier Sex a year later. Still, while he worked prolifically, his tenure in the silents was undistinguished, although it allowed him to hone his skills as a consummate screen villain.Karloff's first sound-era role was in the 1929 melodrama The Unholy Night, but he continued to languish without any kind of notice, remaining so anonymous even within the film industry itself that Picturegoer magazine credited 1931's The Criminal Code as his first film performance. The picture, a Columbia production, became his first significant hit, and soon Karloff was an in-demand character actor in projects ranging from the Wheeler and Woolsey comedy Cracked Nuts to the Edward G. Robinson vehicle Five Star Final to the serial adventure King of the Wild. Meanwhile, at Universal Studios, plans were underway to adapt the Mary Shelley classic Frankenstein in the wake of the studio's massive Bela Lugosi hit Dracula. Lugosi, however, rejected the role of the monster, opting instead to attach his name to a project titled Quasimodo which ultimately went unproduced. Karloff, on the Universal lot shooting 1931's Graft, was soon tapped by director James Whale to replace Lugosi as Dr. Frankenstein's monstrous creation, and with the aid of the studio's makeup and effects unit, he entered into his definitive role, becoming an overnight superstar. Touted as the natural successor to Lon Chaney, Karloff was signed by Universal to a seven-year contract, but first he needed to fulfill his prior commitments and exited to appear in films including the Howard Hawks classic Scarface and Business or Pleasure. Upon returning to the Universal stable, he portrayed himself in 1932's The Cohens and Kellys in Hollywood before starring as a nightclub owner in Night World. However, Karloff soon reverted to type, starring in the title role in 1932's The Mummy, followed by a turn as a deaf-mute killer in Whale's superb The Old Dark House. On loan to MGM, he essayed the titular evildoer in The Mask of Fu Manchu, but on his return to Universal he demanded a bigger salary, at which point the studio dropped him. Karloff then journeyed back to Britain, where he starred in 1933's The Ghoul, before coming back to Hollywood to appear in John Ford's 1934 effort The Lost Patrol. After making amends with Universal, he co-starred with Lugosi in The Black Cat, the first of several pairings for the two actors, and in 1936 he starred in the stellar sequel The Bride of Frankenstein. Karloff spent the remainder of the 1930s continuing to work at an incredible pace, but the quality of his films, the vast majority of them B-list productions, began to taper off dramatically. Finally, in 1941, he began a three-year theatrical run in Arsenic and Old Lace before returning to Hollywood to star in the A-list production The Climax. Again, however, Karloff soon found himself consigned to Poverty Row efforts, such as 1945's The House of Frankenstein. He also found himself at RKO under Val Lewton's legendary horror unit. A few of his films were more distinguished -- he appeared in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Unconquered, and even Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer -- and in 1948 starred on Broadway in J.B. Priestley's The Linden Tree, but by and large Karloff delivered strong performances in weak projects. By the mid-'50s, he was a familiar presence on television, and from 1956 to 1958, hosted his own series. By the following decade, he was a fixture at Roger Corman's American International Pictures. In 1969, Karloff appeared in Peter Bogdanovich's Targets, a smart, sensitive tale in which he portrayed an aging horror film star; the role proved a perfect epitaph -- he died on February 2, 1969.

Trivia: If the stories about his activities as an Allied spy in Europe and Turkey during World War I can be believed, American actor John Boles had a far more exciting real life than he'd ever have in "reel" life. Whatever the case, the Texas-born Boles abandoned espionage for a stage career as a singer and actor. His screen bow was in the silent film So This is Marriage (1925), but he was shown to better advantage in talking pictures, beginning with his costarring role opposite Bebe Daniels in the 1929 musical blockbuster Rio Rita. A little more appealing and a lot more animated than most movie baritones, Boles was much in demand in the early 1930s, usually in parts originally intended for his Fox Studios coworker (and near-lookalike) Warner Baxter. Freelancing after his Fox contract ended in 1936, Boles experienced a dip in popularity, redeemed somewhat with a strong part as poverty-stricken Barbara Stanwyck's society husband in Stella Dallas (1937). When John Boles' film career wound down in 1943, he went back to the stage, making a somewhat melancholy return to Hollywood in the execrable low-budget farce Babes in Baghdad (1952), wherein he was trapped with fellow faded luminaries Paulette Goddard and Gypsy Rose Lee.

Trivia: His Teutonic cadence has led many to assume that Edward Van Sloan was German-born, but in fact he hailed from San Francisco. After a lengthy career as a commercial artist, Van Sloan turned to the stage in the World War I years. He came to Hollywood in 1930 to repeat his stage role as dour vampire hunter Professor Van Helsing in Dracula (1930), a role he'd reprised in 1936's Dracula's Daughter. Surprisingly, this most famous of Van Sloan's screen characterizations was his least favorite: he considered himself hopelessly hammy as Van Helsing (even though he seems a model of restraint opposite the florid Bela Lugosi). Van Sloan went on to essay Van Helsing-type characters in Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), and Before I Hang (1940). He also was given a few opportunities to play the evil side of the fence as the "surprise killer" in such quickies as Behind the Mask (1932) and Death Kiss (1933). For the most part, Van Sloan's film career was limited to bit roles; he was especially busy during World War II, playing everything from resistance leaders to Nazi diplomats. Edward Van Sloan retired in 1947, emerging publicly only to grant an interview or two during his remaining 15 years on earth.

Trivia: Born in Kansas and raised in Colorado, Dwight Frye studied for a career in music, and by his mid-teens was a talented concert pianist. He switched to acting when he joined the O.D. Woodward stock company in 1918. During his years on Broadway, Frye specialized in comedy parts. When Hollywood called, however, the actor found himself typed as a neurotic villain. The role that both made and broke him was the bug-eating lunatic Renfield in 1931's Dracula. Though he begged producers to allow him to play comic or "straight" parts, he was hopelessly typed as Renfield, and spent the bulk of his career portraying murderers, grave robbers, crazed hunchbacks and mad scientists. When the first "horror" cycle subsided, Frye found himself accepting nondescript bit roles in films like The People vs. Dr. Kildare (1939). During the 1940s, Frye bounced from one "B" factory to another, doing his usual in such cheap thrillers as Dead Men Walk (1942). In between acting jobs, he supported himself and his family as a designer in an aircraft factory. Dwight Frye was about to undertake the stereotype-breaking role of Secretary of War Newton D. Baker in the lavish 20th Century-Fox biopic Wilson when he died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 44.

Trivia: Stout, bushy-eyebrowed British actor Lionel Belmore capped a lengthy theatrical career with his entry into Hollywood films at the dawn of the talkie era. He was most often cast as innkeepers and burgomeisters, generally appearing in films set in England and Europe. Belmore was an off-and-on regular in Universal's Frankenstein films, appearing as the huffy-puffy mayor in the original Frankenstein (1931) and later showing up on the village council in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and Ghost of Frankenstein (1942). (He was killed off in Son, but reappeared in the same role in Ghost as though nothing had happened). The actor also came in handy in Warner Bros.' Errol Flynn swashbucklers, notably Prince and the Pauper (1936) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Belmore's oddest part was also one of his shortest. Though given good billing in Laurel and Hardy's Bonnie Scotland (1935) -- and made the subject of several lengthy write-ups in the film's promotional material -- Lionel Belmore's role as a blacksmith was cut down to a single gag, wherein he taps out the Laurel and Hardy theme song on his anvil!

Trivia: Russian-born Michael Mark spent his first two decades in America as a vaudeville and legit-theatre director/producer. In films from 1924, Mark played featured roles until his retirement 25 years later. A fixture of Universal's horror-film output, he is best remembered as the father of the little drowned girl in the original Frankenstein (1931). During the late 1940s, Michael Mark was a semi-regular in Monogram's "Joe Palooka" series, playing the title character's father.

Trivia: The winner of a Hollywood screen test competition, brunette Arletta Duncan was awarded a contract with Universal and made her screen debut as Mae Clarke's bridesmaid in Frankenstein (1931). Like most Hollywood starlets, Duncan went on to play supporting roles in Grade-A pictures (Back Street [1932]) while enjoying leading assignments in such poverty row productions as The Fighting Champ (1932) and The Gallant Fool (1933), both starring Bob Steele. She later played a socialite in the sound version of the old syphilis melodrama Damaged Goods (aka Marriage Forbidden [1937]).

Trivia: The winsome loveliness and Jean Arthur-esque voice of American actress Pauline Moore graced the screen from 1932 to 1941. After a handful of bit roles, Moore landed a 20th Century Fox contract in 1937. Her career shifted into gear in 1938, when she played one of the title characters in the "looking for rich husbands" opus Three Blind Mice (the other two were Loretta Young and Marjorie Weaver). She went on to such plum roles as Ann Rutledge in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), Constance de Winter in The Three Musketeers (1939), and, best of all, psychic Eve Cairo in Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939). For reasons best known to Darryl F. Zanuck, Fox summarily dropped Moore from their payroll in 1940. She spent the next year in such less-than-impressive efforts as the Republic serial King of the Texas Rangers (1940) and the PRC meller Double Cross (1941). The last-named film proved to be the last for Pauline Moore, save for a brief appearance as a nurse in 1958's The Littlest Hobo.

Trivia: Mainly remembered for offering younger brother John Ford his first opportunities in the movie business, Francis Ford (born Feeney) was a touring company actor before entering films with Thomas Edison in 1907. In the early 1910s, he served a tumultuous apprenticeship as a director/star for producer Thomas Ince -- who in typical Ince fashion presented many of Ford's accomplishments as his own -- before moving over to Carl Laemmle's Universal in 1913. A true auteur, Ford would direct, write, and star in his own Westerns and serials, often opposite Grace Cunard, the studio's top action heroine. Contrary to popular belief they never married, but their onscreen partnership resulted in such popular action serials as Lucille Love -- Girl of Mystery (1914), The Broken Coin (1915), and The Adventures of Peg o' the Ring (1916). Both Ford's and Cunard's careers declined in the 1920s, with Ford directing mostly poverty row productions. He kept working in films as a supporting actor through the early '50s, mainly due to the influence of John, who often made Francis Ford and Victor McLaglen supply the corny Irish humor for which he exhibited a lifelong fondness. Francis Ford's son, Philip Ford, also became a director of Westerns, and also like his father, mainly of the poverty row variety.

Trivia: A nightclub dancer in her teens, Mae Clarke rose to prominence on the Broadway musical stage of the 1920s. In films, Clarke nearly always seemed predestined for tragedy and abuse: she played the long-suffering bride of the title character in Frankenstein (1931), the self-sacrificing trollop Molly Molloy in The Front Page (1931), and the streetwalker protagonist in Waterloo Bridge (1931). Clarke's most famous film role was one for which she received no onscreen credit: she was the recipient of James Cagney's legendary "grapefruit massage" in 1931's Public Enemy. Clarke went on to co-star with Cagney in such films as Lady Killer (1933) and Great Guy (1936); though the best of friends in real life, Cagney and Clarke usually seemed poised to bash each other's brains out onscreen. For reasons that still remain unclear, Clarke's starring career plummeted into bit roles and walk-ons by the 1950s. Her most rewarding work during that decade was on television -- it was Clarke who portrayed a middle-aged woman undergoing menopause on a controversial 1954 installment of the TV anthology Medic. Even during her career low points, Clarke retained her sense of humor. When applying for a role on one TV program, she advertised herself as a comedian, listing as a "qualification" the fact that she was at one time married to Fanny Brice's brother. Mae Clarke continued accepting minor film roles until 1970, when she retired to the Motion Picture Country Home at Woodland Hills, California.