Trivia: Born Harold Albershart, he played football and modeled before working as a stage actor in the late '20s. He debuted onscreen in Not Quite Decent (1929), playing the romantic lead; he had similar roles in 25 films made during the '30s at various studios. He began starring in serials in 1940. In 1944 he made his first starring Western, and for almost a decade he was a Western star, twice appearing (1951 and 1953) on the Top Ten Western Money-makers list and appearing in over 100 features and serials, often with his "wonder" horse Blackjack; he portrayed Red Ryder in eight films, then adopted the name "Rocky" Lane in 1947. After B-movie Westerns fizzled out in 1953 his career came to a virtual halt, and he had supporting roles in just three more films. In the '60s he was the dubbed voice of the talking horse on the TV sitcom Mr. Ed.

Trivia: Wide-eyed little Bobby Blake began his acting career as an Our Gang kid and eventually matured into one of Hollywood's finest actors. Born Michael Gubitosi, the boy was two years old when he joined his family vaudeville act, "The Three Little Hillbillies." The act was doomed to failure, as were most of the pipe dreams of the Gubitosi family. Relocating from New Jersey to California, Michael's mom found work for her kids as extras at the MGM studios. The young Gubitosi impressed the producers of the Our Gang series, and as a result the six-year-old was elevated to star status in the short subjects series. Little Mickey Gubitosi whined and whimpered his way through 40 Our Gang shorts, reaching an artistic low point with the execrable All About Hash (1940). During his five-year tenure with the series, the boy anglicized his professional name to Bobby Blake. Freelancing after 1944, Blake's performing skills improved immeasurably, especially when he was cast as Indian sidekick Little Beaver in Republic's Red Ryder series. He also registered well in his appearances in Warner Bros. films, playing such roles as the younger John Garfield in Humoresque (1946) and the Mexican kid who sells Bogart the crucial lottery ticket in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). Though sporadically happy in his work (one of his most pleasurable assignments was the otherwise forgettable Laurel and Hardy feature The Big Noise, 1944), Bobby Blake was an unhappy child, weighed down by a miserable home life. At 16, Blake dropped out of sight for a few years, a reportedly difficult period in his life. Upon claiming a 16,000-dollar nest egg at age 21, however, Blake began turning his life around, both personally and professionally. He matriculated into a genuine actor rather than a mere "cute" personality, essaying choice dramatic roles in both films and TV. He starred in the Allied Artists gangster flick The Purple Gang (1960), played featured roles in such films as PT 109 (1963), Ensign Pulver (1964), and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), and guest starred on dozens of TV shows. In 1963, he was one of 12 character actors amalgamated into the "repertory company" on the weekly anthology series The Richard Boone Show; he spent the next 26 weeks playing everything from agreeable office boys to fevered dope addicts. His true breakthrough role came in 1967, when he was cast as real-life multiple murderer Perry Smith in Richard Brooks' filmization of In Cold Blood. Even after this career boost, Blake often found the going rough in Hollywood, due as much to his own pugnacious behavior as to typecasting. He did, however, star in such worthwhile efforts as Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969) and Electra Glide in Blue (1973). Blake achieved full-fledged stardom at last with his three-year (1975-1978) starring stint on the TV cop series Baretta, adding to his already sizeable fan following via several lively, tell-all guest appearances on The Tonight Show, The Merv Griffin Show, and several other video chat fests. Despite his never-ending battles with the ABC executives during the Baretta run, Blake stuck out the series long enough to win an Emmy, and even got to direct an episode or two.Forming his own production company, Blake made several subsequent tries at TV-series success: Hell Town (1985), in which he starred as a barrio priest, lasted 13 weeks, while the private-eye endeavor Jake Dancer never got past its three pilot films. He has been more successful with such one-shots as the TV miniseries Hoffa (1983), in which he played the title character with chilling accuracy, and the 1993 TV biopic Judgment Day: The John List Story, which earned him another Emmy. His later film appearances were in hard-nosed character parts, such as 1995's The Money Train, and he landed a plum (albeit terminally odd) lead role in David Lynch's postmodern thriller Lost Highway (1997), as a clown-faced psychopath who plays bizarre mind games with a suburban couple. Though he's managed to purge some of his personal demons over the years, Robert Blake remains as feisty, outspoken, and unpredictable as ever, especially when given an open forum by talk show hosts. In 2001, Blake generated headlines once again, though this time off-camera and in an extremely negative vein. The mysterious murder of wife Bonnie Lee Bakely sent the tabloids into a furious frenzy of speculation and accusation. Arrested for the murder of Bakely in April 2002, Blake's future looked increasingly grim as evidence continued to mount against him. Nevertheless, in March 2005 the actor was completely exonerated of all accusations surrounding Bakely's death and narrowly escaped a life sentence in prison. His on-camera activity remained extremely infrequent, however. Late in 2005, the press reported the outcome of a civil trial involving Bakely's homicide, in which Blake was required to pay an estimated $30 million to her children.

Trivia: Growing up in Florida, American actress Peggy Stewart naturally gravitated to the water, and distinguished herself as a swimming champ in high school. Her family moved to California in the mid '30s, where she made the acquaintance of character actor Henry O'Neill. Aware that Paramount Pictures was looking for a new face to play the part of Joel McCrea's and Frances Dee's daughter in Wells Fargo (1936), O'Neill recommended Stewart. The assignment led to numerous other roles for the teenaged actress, who by the end of 1940 was not only established in Hollywood but the wife of actor Don "Red" Barry (Stewart was also the sister-in-law of another actor, Wayne Morris). At about the time her marriage was breaking up in 1944, Stewart signed with Republic Studios, where, starting with Tucson Raiders (1944), she became resident leading lady for many of Republic's western stars. She also appeared in serials at Republic but preferred westerns because the shooting schedules were shorter and she was able to wear a more varied wardrobe. Leaving Republic in 1948, she freelanced until 1953, when she briefly gave up acting to become a casting director at NBC television; she also married again, to actor Buck Young. As the '50s progressed Stewart eased back into acting, but only in roles that would provide a challenge to her. In 1974, she won the Los Angeles Drama Circle award for her stage performance in Picnic. Long retired, Peggy Stewart has in the last two decades become one of the favorite guest speakers on the nostalgia convention and western film festival circuit.

Trivia: The son of an itinerant sharecropper, Roy Barcroft harbored dreams of becoming an army officer, and to that end lied about his age to enter the service during World War I. Discouraged from pursuing a military career by his wartime experiences, Barcroft spent the 1920s in a succession of jobs, ranging from fireman to radio musician. In the 1930s he and his wife settled in California where he became a salesman. It was while appearing in an amateur theatrical production that Barcroft found his true calling in life. He eked out a living as a movie bit player until finally being signed to a long contract by Republic Pictures in 1943. For the next decade, Barcroft was Republic's Number One villain, growling and glowering at such cowboy stars as Don "Red" Barry, Wild Bill Elliot, Sunset Carson, Allan Lane, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. His best screen moments occurred in Republic's serial output; his favorite chapter-play roles were Captain Mephisto in Manhunt of Mystery Island (1945) and the invading Martian in The Purple Monster Strikes (1945). In the 1948 serial G-Men Never Forget, Barcroft played a dual role--an honest police commissioner and his less-than-honest look-alike--ending the film by shooting "himself." In contrast to his on-screen villainy, Barcroft was one of the nicest fellows on the Republic lot, well-liked and highly respected by everyone with whom he worked. When the "B"-picture market disappeared in the mid-1950s, Barcroft began accepting character roles in such A-pictures as Oklahoma (1955), The Way West (1967), Gaily Gaily (1969) and Monte Walsh (1970). Heavier and more jovial-looking than in his Republic heyday, Roy Barcroft also showed up in dozens of TV westerns, playing recurring roles on Walt Disney's Spin and Marty and the long-running CBS nighttimer Gunsmoke.

Trivia: Former radio actress Martha Wentworth played the Duchess, Allan Lane's robust-looking aunt, in seven of Republic Pictures' popular Red Ryder Westerns from 1946-1947. The original Duchess, Alice Fleming, had left the series along with William Elliott, who was being groomed for Grade-A Westerns. As the new Duchess, Wentworth joined Lane, Elliott's replacement, and little Bobby Blake (later Robert Blake), the former Our Gang star, who played Indian sidekick Little Beaver in all the Republic Red Ryder films. For a great majority of the series' fans, the Lane-Wentworth-Blake combination turned out the quintessential Red Ryder films, the trio becoming one of the most successful combinations in B-Western history. Republic sold the Red Ryder franchise to low-budget Eagle-Lion in 1948 and four additional films were produced, but Wentworth was replaced with former silent-action heroine Marin Sais. In her later years, Wentworth did quite a bit of voice-over work for Walt Disney.

Trivia: Whether in vaudeville, burlesque, "legit" theatre or radio, Emmet "Pop" Lynn played variations on the toothless-old-reprobate roles that brought him screen fame. Though he'd made a tentative foray into films as a teenager in 1913, Lynn truly came into his own after 1940, playing the cantankerous sidekick to such western heroes as Don Barry and Allan "Rocky" Lane. In non-westerns, he could usually be spotted as a janitor, night watchman or rural rustic. He enjoyed a longtime association with Columbia Pictures' short-subject unit, where he was harmoniously teamed with such comics as Andy Clyde and Slim Summerville. Emmet Lynn made his final screen appearance as a downtrodden Hebrew peasant in DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956).

Trivia: Almost reptilian in appearance and disposition, B-Western heavy Ted Adams came out of a show business family and was reportedly born in the proverbial trunk. On-stage from childhood, Adams segued into films soon after the transition to sound, using several variations of his real name, Richard Theodore Adams. By the mid-'30s, he chose the friendlier Ted but there was nothing friendly about the characters he was given to play: He was sometimes the lead villain and often scruffy-looking so-called "dog heavies," the kind the audience could easily imagine kicking a dog. A constant presence in the low-budget Johnny Mack Brown and Bob Steele Westerns from producer A.W. Hackel, he later worked mainly for PRC and Monogram, the nether regions of sagebrush moviemaking. By the time of his retirement in the early '50s, Adams had added such television Westerns as The Lone Ranger, The Cisco Kid, and Cowboy G-Men to his lengthy resumé.

Trivia: The grandson of a governor of New Mexico, pioneering screen cowboy Edmund Cobb began his long career toiling in Colorado-produced potboilers such as Hands Across the Border (1914), the filming of which turned tragic when Cobb's leading lady, Grace McHugh, drowned in the Arkansas River. Despite this harrowing experience, Cobb continued to star in scores of cheap Westerns and was making two-reelers at Universal in Hollywood by the 1920s. But unlike other studio cowboys, Cobb didn't do his own stunts -- despite the fact that he later claimed to have invented the infamous "running w" horse stunt -- and that may actually have shortened his starring career. By the late '20s, he was mainly playing villains. The Edmund Cobb remembered today, always a welcome sign whether playing the main henchman or merely a member of the posse, would pop up in about every other B-Western made during the 1930s and 1940s, invariably unsmiling and with a characteristic monotone delivery. When series Westerns bit the dust in the mid-'50s, Cobb simply continued on television. In every sense of the word a true screen pioneer and reportedly one of the kindest members of the Hollywood chuck-wagon fraternity, Edmund Cobb died at the age of 82 at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA.

Trivia: Distinguished-looking character actor Tom Chatterton was one of early Western star William S. Hart's first directors (His Hour of Manhood [1914], Jim Cameron's Wife [1914]) and was a top supporting star, himself, during the late '10s. After a long stint in vaudeville and legitimate theater, Chatterton returned as a Hollywood bit player in the late '30s, often cast in Western B- movies, usually playing professional men, doctors, lawyers, military officers, and the like. Among his more memorable performances was that of the aged lawman Bat Matson in the Sunset Carson oater Code of the Prairie (1944), a character undoubtedly inspired by Bat Masterson. He also played the sheriff in the 1947 serial Jesse James Rides Again. Chatterton died in Hollywood in 1952.

Trivia: With his articulate speech patterns and his wide range of facial nuances, George Cheseboro was a cut above the usual western supporting player. He began his career with a stock company in 1907; three years later, he toured the Orient with another acting troupe. Vaudeville experience followed, and then in 1915 Cheseboro made his first motion picture. With 1918's Hands Up, Cheseboro became a popular serial star, extending his repertoire to western leads after serving in World War I. Though his star had faded by the time talkies arrived, Cheseboro prospered as a character actor in the many "B" westerns clogging the market in the 1930s, usually playing a scuzzy henchman, barroom bully or lynch-happy bystander. One of the actor's most satisfying screen moments occurred in the 1950 Roy Rogers feature Trail of Robin Hood. The climax contrives to have several popular western stars ride on the scene to rescue movie-star-turned-rancher Jack Holt from rustlers. As Allan Lane, Rex Allen, Monte Hale et. al. greet each other effusively, Cheseboro rides up to offer his help--whereupon he is roundly snubbed. A little girl steps out of the crowd to reprimand Cheseboro for spending his cinematic career on the wrong side of the law. "I know, honey," replies George Cheseboro with a warm smile. "But after being beaten up by Jack Holt in twenty pictures, he's reformed me!"

Trivia: Steely-eyed, mustachioed Edward Cassidy (or plain Ed Cassidy) bore a striking resemblance to Theodore Roosevelt, whom he played three times onscreen, including a brief appearance in the MGM musical Take Me out to the Ball Game (1949). But the McGill University graduate was more at home in B-Westerns and serials, of which he did an impressive total of 218. Cassidy could occasionally be found on the wrong side of the law, but more often than not, he would portray the heroine's (or hero's) beleaguered father, the stern sheriff, or a troubled rancher. Retiring after his 1957 appearance in the television series Circus Boy, the veteran supporting player died from undisclosed causes at the Motion Picture House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA.

Trivia: In films from 1929, mustachioed, businesslike actor Wheaton Chambers could frequently be found in serials, including Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1939), The Adventures of Red Ryder (1940), The Purple Monster Strikes (1945) and The Crimson Ghost (1946). In bigger budgeted pictures, he played more than his share of bailiffs, guards and desk clerks. In the 1951 sci-fi masterpiece The Day the Earth Stood Still, Chambers plays the jeweller who appraises Klaatu's (Michael Rennie) extraterrestrial diamonds. When he was afforded screen billing, which wasn't often, Wheaton Chambers preferred to be identified as J. Wheaton Chambers.

Trivia: Veteran American character actor Forrest Taylor is reputed to have launched his film career in 1915. His screen roles in both the silent and sound era seldom had any consistency of size; he was apt to show up in a meaty character part one week, a seconds-lasting bit part the next. With his banker's moustache and brusque attitude, Taylor was most often cast as a businessman or a lawyer, sometimes on the shadier side of the law. Throughout his 40 year film career, Taylor was perhaps most active in westerns, appearing in such programmers as Headin' For the Rio Grande and Painted Trail. From 1952 through 1954, Forrest Taylor costarred as Grandpa Fisher on the religious TV series This is the Life.

Trivia: An amiable, big-nosed former vaudevillian from Tennessee, Brit Wood's main claim to cinematic fame was his brief 1939-1940 stint as William Boyd's comic sidekick Speedy in the long-running Hopalong Cassidy B-Western series. Although he was summarily replaced with the better-known (and plain better) Andy Clyde, Wood wasn't too annoying and could actually play dramatic scenes better than most B-Western rubes. An accomplished harmonica virtuoso, Wood supplied hillbilly tunes to several B-Westerns, including "The Covered Wagon Rolled Right Along" from Gene Autry's Saddle Pals (1947).

Trivia: American character actor Stanley Price reportedly launched his screen career in 1922. Possessed of a sharkish smile and luminescent stare, Price was usually seen as a villain, often of the psychotic variety. He was a "regular" in the serial field, appearing in such chapter plays as The Miracle Rider (1935), Red Barry (1938), Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941), Holt of the Secret Service (1942), Batman (1943), Captain America (1944), Superman (1948), and King of the Rocket Man (1949). His flair for comedy was well represented in such films as Road to Morocco (1942), in which he played the blithering idiot in the opening bazaar scene, and his many appearances with the Three Stooges. According to at least one source, Stanley Price was briefly a dialogue director at Lippert Studios.

Trivia: A member of the posse as early as Ken Maynard's Cheyenne (1929), New York cowboy Charles M. "Chuck" Baldra later joined the music group The Arizona Wranglers (aka The Range Riders), which also included fellow B-Western regulars Jack Kirk and Oscar Gahan. With his thin mustache and threatening airs, Baldra was usually cast as a henchman, rarely receiving onscreen billing and often working in very low-budget Gower Gulch oaters.

Trivia: Perennial western supporting actor Budd Buster acted under his own, somewhat show-bizzy given name, and briefly under the "nom de stage" of George Selk. His earliest recorded screen credits occur in 1935. Buster continued laboring in B westerns for the next quarter century, spending a great deal of his time at such Poverty Row concerns as Grand National and PRC (where he showed up in 44 oaters over an eight-year period). Budd Buster's final appearance was a bit in the Alan Ladd big-budgeter Guns of the Timberland (1960).

Trivia: A typical B-Western "dog heavy," burly Chick Hannon almost never received onscreen billing and was more often than not merely observed scowling in the background, an anonymous member of the gang. A rare exception was the 1934 Jack Randall/Monogram oater Stars Over Arizona, in which his character actually had a name: Yucca Bill. But he was still a henchman, a member of Warner Richmond's Tuba City gang. Hannon had begun turning up in westerns and serials in the mid-'30s and would go on to appear in nearly 200 films before his retirement in the late '50s.

Trivia: A onetime stage actor, Frank O'Connor was a prolific writer/director in the silent era. During his busiest period as a director (1921-1929), he wrote and helmed such enjoyable time-fillers as Lawful Cheaters (1926). Returning to acting when sound came in, he played innumerable bit roles as cops, commissioners, clerks, and such until his retirement in 1953. This Frank O'Connor should not be confused with the thesp of the same name who was married to novelist Ayn Rand.

Trivia: Taking her professional name from the beautiful Northern California county of her birth, American action heroine Marin Sais appeared in vaudeville prior to making her screen debut with the Vitagraph company in 1909. She became a star at the rival Kalem company, headlining several two-reel action series, including Stingaree (1915-1916) and The Girl From Frisco (1916-1917), both opposite True Boardman, and The American Girl (1917). A young cowboy from Oklahoma, Jack Hoxie, appeared opposite Sais in the latter and she became Mrs. Hoxie in 1920. As Jack's career began to take off in the mid-'20s, Marin's was rapidly declining. She often appeared in her husband's Westerns and, surprisingly, usually played villainesses. Increasingly blowsy, Sais turned to supporting roles and bit parts after the changeover to sound, almost always in B-Westerns. Working in obscurity for most of the next decade and a half, she enjoyed a brief renaissance in 1949 when cast as The Duchess in the long-running Red Ryder series of low-budget oaters. Retired from the screen since the early '50s, Sais later resided at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA.