Trivia: A versatile, commanding, leathery character actor, he learned to raise and ride broncos on his family's ranch during his youth. He attended college for two years, became a seaman, then began his performing career as a radio announcer; he became nationally known as an announcer on the "March of Time" broadcasts. Onscreen from the late '40s, he often portrayed law officers; he was also convincing as a villain. He was well-known for his TV work; he starred in the series Naked City and Wagon Train. He was married to actress Jeanette Nolan, with whom he appeared in Saddle Tramp (1950) and Two Rode Together (1961); they also acted together on radio, and in the late '60s they joined the cast of the TV series The Virginian, portraying a married couple. Their son was actor Tim McIntire.

Trivia: Michael Burns went from playing boyish male ingénues in the early '60s to a somewhat less successful career as a male lead in such offbeat movies as That Cold Day in the Park. Born in Mineola, NY, in 1947, he was raised in Yonkers, NY, and later in Beverly Hills, CA. His father, Frank Burns. had been a pioneering engineer in the field of television during the '30s and was later a director. It was through a chance encounter with the father of a classmate in his Beverly Hills school (who knew of an opening for a boy actor) that Michael Burns began a television career in August 1958 at the age of nine. His subsequent small-screen appearances included Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Loretta Young Show, The Twilight Zone, and G.E. Theatre before he landed the role of Barnaby West, a young orphan adopted by the crew of the wagon train, in the MCA-produced series Wagon Train. He later appeared in episodes of Bonanza and other dramatic series. In 1969, he graduated to adult roles in the drama That Cold Day in the Park, directed by Robert Altman, in which he was obliged to portray some sexual situations that would have been unheard of in movies at the time he entered the business. Despite pursuing his acting career into adulthood, Burns is best remembered for roles during his teenage years. He served in production capacities beginning in the '80s, notably as an executive producer of Monster's Ball in 2001.

Trivia: American actress Laraine Day, born Laraine Johnson, a descendant of a prominent Mormon pioneer leader, moved with her family from Utah to California, where she began her acting career with the Long Beach Players. In 1937 she debuted onscreen in a bit part in Stella Dallas; shortly afterwards she won lead roles in several George O'Brien westerns at RKO, in which she was billed as "Laraine Hays" and then "Laraine Johnson." In 1939 she signed with MGM, going on to become popular and well-known (billed as "Laraine Day") as Nurse Mary Lamont, the title character's fiancee in a string of seven "Dr. Kildare" movies beginning with Calling Dr. Kildare (1939); Lew Ayres played Dr. Kildare. During the '40s and '50s she played a variety of leads in medium-budget films made by several studios. She rarely appeared in films after 1960, but later occasionally appeared on TV, portraying matronly types. She was married to famous baseball player Leo Durocher from 1947-60, when she was sometimes referred to as "the first lady of baseball." Her first husband was singer Ray Hendricks, and her third, TV producer Michael Grilkhas. She is the author of a book of memoirs, Day With Giants (1952), and an inspirational book, The America We Love; in the '70s she was the official spokeswoman for the Make America Better program of the National Association of Real Estate Boards, traveling across the country speaking on environmental issues. Day died at age 87 in November 2007.

Trivia: Richard Carlson received his M.A. at the University of Minnesota and taught there briefly before working in the theater as an actor, director, and writer. He appeared on Broadway, then was brought to Hollywood in 1938 by David O. Selznick, who hired him as a writer assigned to work on the film The Young at Heart; Janet Gaynor, the film's star, urged that he appear in the movie, which became his debut. After that, he had lead and costarring roles in many films of the '30s, '40s, and '50s. Typecast early in his career as a diffident juvenile, he had trouble breaking out of the mold and landing more mature roles; he tended to appear in monster flicks and B-movies in the '50s. He turned to directing in that decade, beginning with Riders to the Stars (1954), which he also wrote and in which he acted. Besides acting and directing, he also became a magazine writer and wrote scripts for TV. Carlson starred in the TV series I Led Three Lives and McKenzie's Raiders and appeared in episodes of numerous others.

Trivia: One of seven children of MGM studio policeman Bill Corcoran, Kevin Corcoran was five years old when he followed the lead of his older siblings, Bill Jr., Noreen, Donna, and Hugh, by becoming an actor. Corcoran's first film appearance, in the company of his sisters, Noreen and Donna, was as one of Quaker farmer Ernest Borgnine's children in Violent Saturday. In 1957, he was featured in Adventures in Dairyland, a serialized component of Walt Disney's daily TVer The Mickey Mouse Club. Corcoran's character name was Moochie, a tag that stuck when he was signed to a Disney contract. One of the busiest child actors of the late '50s, Corcoran was co-starred in such Disney theatrical features as Old Yeller (1957), The Shaggy Dog (1960), Pollyanna (1960), and Savage Sam (1963). He also played the title role in 1960's Toby Tyler, and was top-billed in the Disney TV projects Moochie of the Little League (1959), Moochie of Pop Warner Football (1961), and Johnny Shiloh (1963). After outgrowing his natural cuteness, Corcoran found roles harder to come by, and called it quits after a minor role in Blue (1968). Upon attaining adulthood, Corcoran returned to Disney as an associate producer, working on such films as Superdad (1977) and Pete's Dragon (1977). Kevin Corcoran's brother, Brian, and sister, Kerry, also showed up in several films and TV programs of the 1950s and 1960s.After retiring from acting, Corcoran moved behind the camera, beginning as an associate producer on Return from Witch Mountain in 1978. He continued his Disney association by producing fare Herbie Goes Bananas and on the '80s TV show Herbie, the Love Bug. Corcoran also worked extensively as an assistant director on series such as Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Baywatch, Murder, She Wrote and Providence. In later year, he turned to more mature fare, producing The Shield and Sons of Anarchy. He was honored as a Disney Legend in 2006. Corcoran died in 2015, at age 66.

Trivia: Bald, hook-nosed character actor John Harmon launched his film career in 1939. Harmon's screen assignments ranged from shifty-eyed gangsters, rural law enforcement officials and hen-pecked husbands. He was seen in films as diverse as Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and the "B" horror flick Monster of Piedra Blancas. Star Trek fans will remember John Harmon for his supporting role in the 1967 episode "City on the Edge of Forever."

Trivia: Beefy, bulldog-visaged actor Robert Strauss was the son of a theatrical costume designer. Strauss tried his hand at a number of odd jobs before he, too, answered the call of the theater. His best-known Broadway role was the dimwitted, Betty Grable-loving Animal in Stalag 17, a role that he recreated for the 1953 film version, and was Oscar nominated for his efforts. Though he'd been seen onscreen as early as 1942, Strauss' film career didn't really take off until he garnered positive notices for Animal. He spent most of the 1950s at Paramount, working with everyone from William Holden to Jerry Lewis. In 1971, after several distinguished years in the business, Robert Strauss found himself the object of showbiz-column scrutiny when he agreed to co-star in the Danish "soft core" sex farce Dagmar's Hot Pants.

Trivia: Redheaded leading man Robert Horton attended UCLA, served in the Coast Guard during World War II, and acted in California-based stage productions before making his entree into films in 1951. Horton's television career started off on a high note in 1955, when he was cast in the weekly-TV version of King's Row as Drake McHugh (the role essayed by Ronald Reagan in the 1942 film version). The series barely lasted three months, but better things were on the horizon: in 1957, Horton was hired to play frontier scout Flint McCullough in Wagon Train, which became the highest-rated western on TV. Horton remained with Wagon Train until 1962. He then did some more stage work before embarking on his third series, 1965's The Man Called Shenandoah. When this one-season wonder ran its course, Horton toured the dinner-theatre circuit, then in 1982 accepted a major role on the popular daytime soap opera As the World Turns. Horton continued acting until the late 1980s. He died in 2016, at age 91.

Trivia: American actor Barry Atwater was tall enough but not handsome enough to be a leading man, so his film and TV career found him playing villains, authority figures and medical men. A stage and TV veteran, Atwater's first film appearance was in Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956) though you'd never know it from the opening credits. Longtime fans of the ABC daytime drama General Hospital will recall Atwater's performances as Dr. John Prentice, who married nurse Jessie Brewer (Emily McLaughlin) and later was unceremoniously murdered. Barry Atwater's most spectacular acting assignment was as Janos Skorzeny, the modern-day vampire terrorizing Las Vegas in the classic made-for-TV chiller The Night Stalker (1956).