Trivia: Born Thelma Ford, Shirley Booth began appearing in amateur plays at age 12, then made her professional stage debut four years later; her Broadway debut, in 1925, was opposite Humphrey Bogart in Hells' Bells. Booth toiled on Broadway for a decade before being cast in her first significant role. Ultimately, her work on stage and radio led to a lead role in Come Back, Little Sheba (1950), for which she won the Tony Award and the New York Drama Critics Award; she made her screen debut in the film version of that play (1952) and won the Best Actress Oscar for her efforts. Booth did a number of other films, but in her later years she was best-known as the maid Hazel in the TV series Hazel (1961-66). She retired after appearing in the TV series A Touch of Grace (1973).

Trivia: Character actor Don Defore was the son of an Iowa-based locomotive engineer. His first taste of acting came while appearing in church plays directed by his mother. Defore briefly thought of becoming an attorney, but gave up a scholarship to the University of Iowa to study at the Pasadena Playhouse. He began appearing in films in 1937 and in professional theatre in 1938, billed under his given name of Deforest. Defore's career turning point was the Broadway play The Male Animal, in which he played a thickheaded college football player; he repeated the role in the 1942 film version, and later played a larger part in the 1952 remake She's Working Her Way Through College. In most of his film assignments, Defore was cast as the good-natured urbanized "rube" who didn't get the girl. For several years in the 1950s, Defore played "Thorny" Thornberry, the Nelson family's well-meaning next door neighbor, on TV's Ozzie and Harriet. Don Defore's best-known TV role was George Baxter on the Shirley Booth sitcom Hazel (1961-65).

Trivia: An attractive blonde actress who scoffed at early typecasting as the pretty ingenue, Kathie Browne was the wife of popular actor Darren McGavin, and a notable talent in her own right. Born in San Luis Obispo, CA, Browne attended L.A. City College while honing her acting skills in numerous local theaters. Spotted by a television director while performing as the lead in a production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, it wasn't long before Browne began working frequently on television. Browne's early roles included appearances in such popular television Westerns as Bonanza and Gunsmoke, and after making her film debut in 1958's Murder by Contract she began a successful film career. Though at first succumbing to the casting agents wishes and appearing in roles where a pretty face and little more was needed, Browne began to branch out in the 1960s with such roles as a scientist on Sea Hunt and a deft grifter in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Married to McGavin in 1969, the young actress slowly began her fade from the limelight in order to better promote the career of her husband. In addition to being a driving force behind the success of The Night Stalker, Browne would join McGavin in founding their own production company, Formed Taurean Films. Frequently appearing onscreen together, Browne and McGavin would acquire nearly 50 credits together, between film and television. Diagnosed with breast cancer later in life, the strong-willed Browne would make a full recovery and, at age 70, go into full retirement. On April 8, 2003, Kathie Browne-McGavin died in Beverly Hills following a brief illness. She was 63.

Trivia: An imposing presence in films of the late '40s, as well as early television shows such as The Aldrich Family (1949), New York stage actor Howard I. Smith actually made his screen debut as far back as 1918, in Young America. Relocating to Hollywood in 1946, Smith usually played overbearing politicos or other figures of authority, but is perhaps best remembered today as Uncle Charley in the 1951 screen version Death of a Salesman.