Trivia: The son of British stage actor Frederick Rains, Claude Rains gave his first theatrical performance at age 11 in Nell of Old Drury. He learned the technical end of the business by working his way up from being a two-dollars-a-week page boy to stage manager. After making his first U.S. appearance in 1913, Rains returned to England, served in the Scottish regiment during WWI, then established himself as a leading actor in the postwar years. He was also featured in one obscure British silent film, Build Thy House. During the 1920s, Rains was a member of the teaching staff at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art; among his pupils were a young sprout named Laurence Olivier and a lovely lass named Isabel Jeans, who became the first of Rains' six wives. While performing with the Theatre Guild in New York in 1932, Rains filmed a screen test for Universal Pictures. On the basis of his voice alone, the actor was engaged by Universal director James Whale to make his talking-picture debut in the title role of The Invisible Man (1933). During his subsequent years at Warner Bros., the mellifluous-voiced Rains became one of the studio's busiest and most versatile character players, at his best when playing cultured villains. Though surprisingly never a recipient of an Academy award, Rains was Oscar-nominated for his performances as the "bought" Senator Paine in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), the title character in Mr. Skeffington (1944), the Nazi husband of Ingrid Bergman in Notorious (1946), and, best of all, the cheerfully corrupt Inspector Renault in Casablanca (1942). In 1946, Rains became one of the first film actors to demand and receive one million dollars for a single picture; the role was Julius Caesar, and the picture Caesar and Cleopatra. He made a triumphant return to Broadway in 1951's Darkness at Noon. In his last two decades, Claude Rains made occasional forays into television (notably on Alfred Hitchcock Presents) and continued to play choice character roles in big-budget films like Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).

Trivia: Open-faced, bulb-nosed character actor John Larch entered films in 1954, appearing mostly in westerns and outdoor adventures. During the "crime exposé" film cycle, Larch alternated between playing honest cops and dirty-palmed politicos. An old crony of actor/director Clint Eastwood, Larch appeared in such Eastwood efforts as Dirty Harry (1971) and Play Misty For Me (1972). His TV work has included weekly roles on two briefies of the 1960s, Arrest and Trial (1963) and Convoy (1965). Twilight Zone fans will instantly recognize John Larch as the walking-on-eggs father of malevolent telekinetic youngster Anthony Fremont (Billy Mumy) in the 1961 Zone chiller "It's a Good Life."

Trivia: One of the best child actors of the 1950s and 1960s, freckled-faced Billy Mumy performed with a directness and sincerity that put many an adult performer to shame. Before he was even ten years old, Mumy had played two of the most unforgettable juveniles in TV history: malevolently telekinetic Anthony Fremont on the 1961 Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life," and the pistol-toting protagonist of "Bang! You're Dead," an incredibly suspenseful 1962 installment of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, directed by Hitchcock himself. In films from 1963, Mumy's finest cinematic hour-and-a-half was as Erasmus Leaf, an 8-year-old math genius with an all-consuming crush on Brigitte Bardot, in 1965's Dear Brigette. From 1965 to 1968, Mumy appeared as Will Robinson on the popular TV sci-fi fantasy series Lost in Space. As Mumy matured, he found roles harder to come by, though he was given generous screen time in the 1971 Stanley Kramer production Bless the Beasts and Children and was a regular on the 1975 TV weekly Sunshine. He kept busy in the 1980s on the sci-fi convention lecture circuit and as a scriptwriter; he also played cameo roles in remakes of "It's a Good Life" (the middle section of the 1983 Twilight Zone feature film) and "Bang! You're Dead" (one of the components of the 1985 TV revival of Alfred Hitchcock Presents). The many fans of Bill Mumy's previous work in the realm of "fantastic television" were delighted in 1995 to find him playing the recurring role of Lennier on the syndicated TVer Babylon 5.

Trivia: Born in Washington State, Susan Hart moved with her family to Palm Springs, California, then attended acting classes at the Pasadena Playhouse. Her official film debut was 1964's Ride the Wild Surf -- a more attractive credit than her actual maiden effort, The Slime People (1963). After being trotted out at the annual Hollywood Deb Star ball, Hart was signed to a contract at American International Studios, home of the "Beach Party" bunch. An instinctive comedienne, Hart was seen to best advantage as an affable robot girl in Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965) and the spectral title character in Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966). After leaving films, Hart enjoyed a brief career as a popular singer. The widow of American-International executive James H. Nicolson, the still relatively youthful Susan Hart remarried, and for a while was a member of a precision ice-skating team.

Trivia: The daughter of actress Martha Daniels, Connie Gilchrist was herself on stage from the age of 16, touring both Europe and the U.S. Her theatrical credits include such long-runners as Mulatto and Ladies and Gentlemen, the latter featuring a contemporary of Gilchrist's named Helen Hayes. While acting in the pre-Broadway tour of Ladies and Gentlemen in 1939, Gilchrist was signed to a ten-year contract at MGM, where amidst the studio's patented gloss and glitter, the actress' brash, down-to-earth characterizations brought a welcome touch of urban reality. Usually cast as Irish maids, tenement housewives and worldly madams (though seldom designated as such), Gilchrist was given a rare chance to show off her musical talents in Presenting Lily Mars, where she sang a duet with Judy Garland. After her MGM tenure, Gilchrist free-lanced in such films as Houdini (1953), Auntie Mame (1958) (as governess Nora Muldoon) and The Monkey's Uncle (1965). Devoted TV fans will recall Connie Gilchrist as the bawdy pubkeeper Purity on the 1950s Australian-filmed adventure series Long John Silver.

Trivia: Charismatic character actor Sam Gilman first appeared onscreen in the '50s after much stage experience.

Trivia: On stage from 1957, American actor Andy Romano made his film bow two years later. Romano's earlier assignments included the part of J.D., a member of Eric Von Zipper's "Rat Pack," in several of American-International's Beach Party movies. He later played lawmen and crooks, both comic and otherwise. On TV, Andy Romano played Detective Joe Caruso in Get Christie Love! (1975) and Frank Richards in Friends (the 1979 "teen angst" sitcom, not the current NBC hit).