Trivia: The daughter of Norman Bel Geddes, the noted architect and theatrical set designer, Barbara Bel Geddes was a professional stage actress from age 18. She gained prominence as the ingenue in the original Broadway production of that summer-stock perennial Out of the Frying Pan. Other accomplishments in Barbara's years on stage included the New York critics circle award in 1945, and her performance as Maggie "The Cat" in the original 1955 production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Ms. Bel Geddes enjoyed a promising beginning in films in 1947's The Long Night (remake of Marcel Carne's Le Jour se Leve); one year later, she was nominated for an Oscar for her performance as Irene Dunne's daughter in I Remember Mama (1948). The House UnAmerican Activities Committee investigations effectively ended Ms. Bel Geddes' starring career in films. She returned before the cameras thanks to a few brave souls like Alfred Hitchcock, who cast Barbara in his famous "Lamb to the Slaughter" episode in his weekly TV anthology (as well as three additional installments), and in a strong supporting role in his theatrical feature Vertigo (1958). Beginning in 1978, Barbara Bel Geddes played Miss Ellie Ewing on the nigthttime TV serial Dallas, a role which earned her an Emmy award; she remained with Dallas until its cancellation in 1991, save for the 1984-85 season, when she temporarily retired due to heart surgery (the role of Miss Ellie was filled that year by Donna Reed).

Trivia: Busy character actor Frank Ferguson was able to parlay his pinched facial features, his fussy little moustache, and his bellows-like voice for a vast array of characterizations. Ferguson was equally effective as a hen-pecked husband, stern military leader, irascible neighbor, merciless employer, crooked sheriff, and barbershop hanger-on. He made his inaugural film appearance in Father is a Prince (1940) and was last seen on the big screen in The Great Sioux Massacre (1965). Ferguson proved himself an above-average actor by successfully pulling off the treacly scene in The Babe Ruth Story (1948) in which Babe (William Bendix) says "Hi, kid" to Ferguson's crippled son--whereupon the boy suddenly stands up and walks! Among Franklin Ferguson's hundreds of TV appearances were regular stints on the children's series My Friend Flicka (1956) and the nighttime soap opera Peyton Place (1964-68).

Trivia: German actor Curt Bois took to the stage at age seven. After experience as a cabaret performer, Bois worked with the legendary impresario Max Reinhardt and appeared in 25 German films. He left Germany to escape Hitler in 1933, then re-established himself on the Broadway stage. His first film, in which he was seen in his standard characterization of a slick, self-important European, was 1937's Tovarich. Bois' best-known film appearance was brief: he played the obsequious pickpocket ("There are vultures everywhere) in the 1942 classic Casablanca. As a result, he spent many of his last years being interviewed on the subject of that film, his stories improving with each telling. Bois went on to work with such directors as Lubitsch and Ophuls before returning to Germany in 1950. Here he continued to appear in films, and in 1955 directed the feature Ein Polterabend. One of Curt Bois' last performances was as the wizened historian who endlessly wanders Berlin in hopes of properly capturing the city on paper in Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire (1988).

Trivia: Though born in New York, actress Natalie Schafer built her stage reputation upon playing British aristocrats. She entered films in 1944, co-starring with Lana Turner and Robert Walker in Marriage Is a Private Affair. Her most famous role was as social butterfly Lovey Howell on the zany TV sitcom Gilligan's Island, a part she essayed from 1964 through 1967, then reprised in the many Gilligan TV-movie and cartoon sequels of the 1970s and 1980s. From 1934 through 1942, Natalie Schafer was the wife of actor Louis Calhern.

Trivia: Though she played many diverse roles in films of the '50s before Leave It to Beaver (1957-1963), slim, blonde, and wholesome-looking Barbara Billingsley will always be best remembered as June Cleaver, one of the greatest mothers in the vast pantheon of television sitcom domestic goddesses. In addition to her filmwork, Billingsley also appeared on a number of television plays on such shows as Four Star Playhouse and Matinee Theater. Following the end of Beaver, Billingsley traveled extensively until the late '70s. She made her acting comeback playing the crazy "Jive Lady" in Airplane (1980). In 1983, she reprised her role as June Cleaver in the television reunion movie Still the Beaver, which spawned a television series by the same name two years later. In 1984, she gave voice to the character of Nanny in Jim Hanson's animated kids' show Muppet Babies. After that, she appeared occasionally in movies and made guest television appearances; in 1997, she played Aunt Martha in the big-screen version of Leave It to Beaver. Billingsley died in 2010 after a long illness.

Trivia: Singer/actress Bernadene Hayes was known in Chicago as the "Queen of Radio" before moving to Hollywood where she appeared in many films, frequently opposite Gene Kelly and Clark Gable.

Trivia: A pleasant, young leading man of the early '20s, Harold Miller was something unusual in the film business, a native Californian. In films from 1920, the dark-haired, brown-eyed Miller played opposite such relatively minor stars as Edith Roberts and Marie Prevost, but was rather more famous for partnering Alene Ray in a couple of well-received Pathé serials, Way of a Man (1921) and, in the title role, Leatherstocking (1924). Perhaps Miller was a bit too immature for lasting serial stardom and when Pathé opted for the more seasoned Walter Miller to star opposite the indefatigable Ray, Harold Miller's career took a nosedive from which it never recovered. He hung in there, however, and played hundreds of bit parts through the 1950s.