Trivia: Rugged, handsome, stalwart, taciturn leading man George Montgomery (born George Montgomery Letz) began appearing under his given name in low-budget films as an extra, stuntman, and bit player in 1935. He changed his name in 1940 when he began getting lead roles, going on to a busy screen career primarily in westerns and action films. For a time Montgomery was very popular, receiving much publicity for his offscreen romances with such stars as Ginger Rogers, Hedy Lamarr, and Dinah Shore; he and Shore were married from 1943-62. Service in World War II interrupted his career, and after the war he was assigned mostly to minor productions. He starred in the late '50s TV series Cimarron City. In the early '60s Montgomery directed, produced, and wrote several low-budget action films shot in the Philippines. He was rarely onscreen after 1970.

Trivia: The son of a Poughkeepsie garment manufacturer, Richard Denning majored in foreign trade and accounting at Woodbury College with the intent of taking over his father's business. Coming to Hollywood after winning a minor-league radio talent contest, Denning was signed to a Paramount stock-player contract in 1937. He made his debut in Hold Em Navy. Handsome and virile, Denning wasn't given much of an opportunity to display anything beyond his physical attributes in his first film appearances. He continued as a competent if colorless leading man into the postwar years where one of his best known roles was the human lead in The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). Denning was seen to better advantage on television as the star of the popular comedy/mystery series Mr. and Mrs. North (1952-54); he later played the title roles in the weekly The Flying Doctor (1959) and Michael Shayne, Private Detective (1960). He also co-starred on radio with Lucille Ball in My Favorite Husband, the late-1940s precursor to I Love Lucy While living in semi-retirement in Hawaii with his wife, actress Evelyn Ankers, Denning made sporadic appearances as the governor of that state on the long-running TV police drama Hawaii 5-0. Richard Denning has spent the last three decades serving as a lay minister in the Lutheran church.

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: Character actor John Crawford has appeared on screen in many films since 1945.

Trivia: Trained at Iowa's Morningside College for a career as a musician, American actor Emory Parnell spent his earliest performing years as a concert violinist. He worked the Chautauqua and Lyceum tent circuits for a decade before leaving the road in 1930. For the next few seasons, Parnell acted and narrated in commercial and industrial films produced in Detroit. Determining that the oppurtunities and renumeration were better in Hollywood, Emory and his actress wife Effie boarded the Super Chief and headed for California. Endowed with a ruddy Irish countenance and perpetual air of frustration, Parnell immediately landed a string of character roles as cops, small town business owners, fathers-in-law and landlords (though his very first film part in Bing Crosby's Dr. Rhythm [1938] was cut out before release). In roles both large and small, Parnell became an inescapable presence in B-films of the '40s; one of his better showings was in the A-picture Louisiana Purchase, in which, as a Paramount movie executive, he sings an opening song about avoiding libel suits! Parnell was a regular in Universal's Ma and Pa Kettle film series (1949-55), playing small town entrepreneur Billy Reed; on TV, the actor appeared as William Bendix' factory foreman The Life of Riley (1952-58). Emory Parnell's last public appearance was in 1974, when he, his wife Effie, and several other hale-and-hearty residents of the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital were interviewed by Tom Snyder.

Trivia: Not to be confused with variety-show host Willie Bryant, American general purpose actor William Bryant kept busy in outdoors films. He was featured in such westerns as Ride Beyond Vengeance (1966), Heaven with a Gun (1969) and John Wayne's Chisum (1970). His additional non-western credits include Gable and Lombard (1976), Mountain Family Robinson (1977) (in a leading role) and Corvette Summer (1977). From 1976 through 1978, William Bryant costarred as Lieutenant Shilton on the Robert Wagner/Eddie Albert TV detective series Switch, and also appeared for a time as Lamont Corbin on the daytime serial General Hospital.

Trivia: American actor Lee Roberts spent most of his time in Westerns and actioners. Roberts essayed roles of all sizes in such films as the Trail Blazers series at Monogram and the Lash LaRue and Eddie Dean vehicles at PRC. Over at Republic, he showed up with regularity in the studio's serial product. Lee Roberts remained in films until the late '50s, playing the leading role in Hollywood's final serial effort, Columbia's Blazing the Overland Trail (1956).

Trivia: American character actor Frank Sully worked as a vaudeville and Broadway comedian before drifting into movies in 1935. Often typecast as musclebound, doltish characters, the curly-haired, lantern-jawed Sully was seen in a steady stream of hillbilly, GI and deputy sheriff roles throughout the '40s and '50s. He was prominently cast as Noah in John Ford's memorable drama The Grapes of Wrath (1940), one of the few times he essayed a non-comic role. During the '50s, Sully accepted a number of uncredited roles in such westerns as Silver Lode (1954) and was a member in good standing of the Columbia Pictures 2-reel "stock company," appearing as tough waiters, murderous crooks and jealous boyfriends in several short comedies, including those of the Three Stooges (Fling in the Ring, A Merry Mix-Up etc.) Frank Sully's last screen appearance was a bit as a bartender in Barbra Streisand's Funny Girl (1968).

Trivia: American actor Jimmy Lloyd was but one of many handsome contract players who did what he was told and was seldom given a chance to shine. Lloyd was allowed to act rather than just pose as Pvt. Spencer in United Artists' The Story of GI Joe (1944), but most of his appearances during his long contract with Columbia Pictures ranged from "who's he?" to "ho hum." The actor had small roles in such Columbia A-pictures as Gallant Journey (1944), Down to Earth (1947) and Walk a Crooked Mile (1948), and slightly better opportunities in the studio's B-musicals and westerns. But Jimmy Lloyd was considered so far down on the Columbia totem pole that the studio had no compunction about casting him in Hokus Pokus (1949), a Three Stooges two-reeler in which he had all of one scene.

Trivia: Authoritative, sandy-haired character actor Willis Bouchey abandoned a busy Broadway career in 1951 to try his luck in films. Bouchey's striking resemblance to Dwight D. Eisenhower enabled him to play roles calling for quick decisiveness and unquestioned leadership; he even showed up as the President of the United States in 1952's Red Planet Mars, one year before the "real" Ike ascended to that office. The actor's many judge, executive, military, and town-marshal characterizations could also convey weakness and vacillation, but for the most part there was no question who was in charge when Bouchey was on the scene. A loyal and steadfast member of the John Ford stock company, Willis Bouchey was seen in such Ford productions as The Long Gray Line (1955), The Last Hurrah (1958), Sergeant Rutledge (1960), Two Rode Together (1961), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and Cheyenne Autumn (1962).