Trivia: Born Dorothy Mullican, she was playing piano at age twelve in cinemas as accompaniment to silent films. She studied at a music conservatory for two years, then went to New York with her sister Leota; they appeared in the Gus Edwards vaudeville revue and debuted on Broadway in Greenwich Village Follies. In 1928 Lola starred opposite George Jessel in Broadway's War Song, after which she was signed to a film contract by Fox; she debuted onscreen in Speakeasy (1929). Until the late '30s she appeared as brassy leads, mostly in minor productions; she became more successful with a string of films in which she was cast with her sisters Priscilla and Rosemary Lane. She retired from the screen in 1946. She was married five times; her husbands included actor Lew Ayres and directors Alexander Hall and Roland West.

Trivia: A Rice Institute graduate, James Craig took his first acting lessons from prominent character player Cyril Delevanti. After taking a few extra jobs, Craig was given a speaking role in 1937's Sophie Lang Goes West. He appeared in the serials Fighting G-Men (1938) and Winners of the West (1940), and showed up in such two-reelers as the Three Stooges'Oil's Well that Ends Well (1939), before landing his first important "A" picture role opposite Ginger Rogers in Kitty Foyle (1940). Craig was then showered with critical praise for his portrayal of Jabez Stone, the New Hampshire farmer who sells his soul to the Devil in 1941's All That Money Can Buy (aka The Devil and Daniel Webster). During the war, Craig became an MGM leading man, chiefly by virtue of his resemblance to Clark Gable; his best films during this period include Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945) and a few interesting program westerns. His films declined in importance throughout the 1950s. By the mid-1960s, Craig was of one of several old-timers appearing in the inexpensive Technicolor westerns being produced by A.C. Lyles and Alex Gordon. After retiring from films, James Craig became a successful real estate agent.

Trivia: Lanky character actor Tom Fadden first trod the boards when he joined an Omaha stock company in 1915. Fadden went on to tour in top vaudeville with his actress wife Genevieve. From 1932 to 1939, he was seen on Broadway in such productions as Nocturne and Our Town. He made his first film in 1939. Fadden's better-known screen roles include the tollhouse keeper in It's a Wonderful Life (1946)--which led to choice appearances in subsequent Frank Capra productions--and "possessed" townman Ira in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). In 1958, he was seen on a weekly basis as Silas Perry on TV's Cimarron City. Tom Fadden's cinematic swan song was 1977's Empire of the Ants.

Trivia: Italian-born actor Eduardo Ciannelli was mostly known for his sinister gangster roles, but he first rose to fame as an opera singer and musical comedy star! The son of a doctor who operated a health spa, Ciannelli was expected to follow his father's footsteps into the medical profession, and to that end studied at the University of Naples. Launching his career in grand opera as a baritone, Ciannelli came to the U.S. after World War I, where he was headlined in such Broadway productions as Rose Marie and Lady Billy. He switched to straight acting with the Theatre Guild in the late 1920s, co-starring with luminaries like the Lunts and Katherine Cornell. Cianelli's resemblance to racketeer Lucky Luciano led to his being cast as the eloquent but deadly gangster Trock Estrella in Maxwell Anderson's Winterset, the role that brought him to Hollywood on a permanent basis (after a couple of false starts) in 1936. He followed up the film version of Winterset with a Luciano-like role in the Bette Davis vehicle Marked Women (1937), then did his best to avoid being typed as a gangster. After inducing goosebumps in Gunga Din (1939) as the evil Indian cult leader ("Kill for the love of Kali!"), Ciannelli did an about-face as the lovable, effusive Italian speakeasy owner in Kitty Foyle (1940)--and was nominated for an Oscar in the process. During the war, the actor billed himself briefly as Edward Ciannelli, and in this "guise" brought a measure of dignity to his title role in the Republic serial The Mysterious Dr. Satan (1945). He returned to Italy in the 1950s to appear in European films and stage productions, occasionally popping up in Hollywood films as ageing Mafia bosses and self-made millionaires. In 1959, he was seen regularly as a nightclub owner on the TV detective series Johnny Staccato. Had he lived, Eduardo Ciannelli would have been ideal for the starring role in 1972's The Godfather, as he proved in a similar assignment in the 1968 Mafia drama The Brotherhood.

Trivia: A veteran stage actor of German descent, in America from the early 1910s, Robert C. Fischer became one of Broadway's busiest supporting players in the first two decades of the 20th century. Between stage assignments, Fischer appeared in such silent films as the 1916 Dorothy Donnelly version of Madame X. (as Merivale) and the British-produced Sherlock Holmes (1922). Only occasional film appearances would follow until 1937, when the stocky, mustachioed character actor settled permanently in Hollywood after playing the opera director in the Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy songfest Maytime. Fischer would continue to play German-accented supporting roles through the early '40s, including Von Schulenburg in the later vilified Mission to Moscow (1943).

Trivia: Born in England but raised in Germany, Henry Victor began his film career in 1916. During the silent era, the tall, muscular Victor played leads in such literary adaptations as Portrait of Dorian Gray (1917) and She (1925). When talkies came in, Victor's thick Teutonic accent precluded future leading roles, though he enjoyed a substantial career as a character actor, specializing in brutish Nazis during WWII. Henry Victor's best-known talkie roles include the sadistic strong-man Hercules in 1932's Freaks and the beleaguered Nazi adjutant Schultz in the Ernst Lubitsch classic To Be or Not to Be (1942).

Trivia: Black actor of Hollywood films, onscreen from 1929. He graduated from law school, but in his early '30s he abandoned law to work as an actor in New York with the Lincoln Players; he co-founded his next acting company, the Lafayette Players. He was offered a role in the all-black film musical Hearts in Dixie (1929), and accepted after the studio signed him for $1250 a week. He made films for almost five decades, and much of the time he was busy almost constantly; he often played Uncle Tom types, but also gave many performances that were invested with considerable dignity and intelligence. In 1973 he was inducted in the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.

Trivia: Raspy-voiced, distinguished-looking actor Samuel S. Hinds was born into a wealthy Brooklyn family. Well-educated at such institutions as Philips Academy and Harvard, Hinds became a New York lawyer. He moved to California in the 1920s, where he developed an interest in theatre and became one of the founders of the Pasadena Playhouse. A full-time actor by the early 1930s, Hinds entered films in 1932. Of his nearly 150 screen appearances, several stand out, notably his portrayal of Bela Lugosi's torture victim in The Raven (1935), the dying John Vincey in She (1935), the crooked political boss in Destry Rides Again (1939) and the doctor father of Lew Ayres in MGM's Dr. Kildare series. He frequently co-starred in the films of James Stewart, playing Stewart's eccentric future father-in-law in You Can't Take It With You (1938) and the actor's banker dad in the holiday perennial It's a Wonderful Life (1946). One of Samuel S. Hinds' final film roles was an uncredited supporting part in the 1948 James Stewart vehicle Call Northside 777.

Trivia: American stage-actor Oscar O'Shea made his first screen appearance in the 1937 MGM musical Rosalie. O'Shea spent most of the rest of his movie career as an MGM utility player. One of his best-remembered roles, however, was for producer Hal Roach: O'Shea appeared as the ranch boss in 1939's Of Mice and Men. Otherwise, Oscar O'Shea was generally consigned to one- or two-scene roles, usually as salty sea captains.

Trivia: Born in Milwaukee, Abner Biberman migrated to Philadelphia, where after a he launched his acting career at the Hedgerow Theatre. Biberman wrote magazine articles and taught acting classes while establishing himself as both an actor and director on Broadway. His shifty eyes and disreputable appearance enabled Biberman to play villains of all nations: an Italian gangster in His Girl Friday (1940) an East Indian fanatic in Gunga Din (1939), a hostile Native American in any number of films. From the mid-1940s onward, Biberman was drama coach at Universal Pictures, which led to his first film directorial assignment, The Looters (1955). While Abner Biberman's theatrical films were mostly routine melodramas, his TV work embraced such prestige programs as The Twilight Zone, Ben Casey and Ironside. Abner Biberman was the husband of actress Joanna Barnes.

Trivia: The very picture of an English gentleman officer, monocle and all, Lionel Pape came to Hollywood in 1935 after a distinguished career on stage and screen in his home country. Usually seen as a member of the horsy set, Pape played Major Allardyce in Shirley Temple's Wee Willie Winkie (1937), Lord Harry Droopy in The Big Broadcast of 1938, Lord Melrose in Raffles (1940), and Babberly in Charlie's Aunt (1941). Pape died at the then newly founded Motion Picture Country House and Hospital.

Trivia: In films from 1935, Scottish character actor Alec Craig perpetuated the stereotype of the penny-pinching Highlander for nearly 15 years. Craig's wizened countenance and bald head popped up in quite a few mysteries and melodramas, beginning with his appearance as the inept defense attorney in the embryonic "film noir" Stranger on the Third Floor. He essayed small but memorable roles in a handful of Val Lewton productions, notably the zookeeper in Cat People (1942). Later, he was a general hanger-on in Universal's horror films and Sherlock Holmes entries. Craig's showiest assignment was his dual role in RKO's A Date with the Falcon. The legions of fans of Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be know Alec Craig best as the Scottish farmer who, upon being confronted by Hitler look-alike Tom Dugan, mutters to his fellow farmer James Finlayson "First it was Hess...now it's him."