Trivia: Robert Fuller spent his first decade in show business trying his best to avoid performing. After his film debut in 1952's Above and Beyond, Fuller studied acting with Sanford Meisner at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse but never exhibited any real dedication. He tried to become a dancer but gave that up as well, determining that dancing was "sissified." Fuller rose to nominal stardom fairly rapidly in the role of Jess Harper on the popular TV western Laramie (1959-63). Once he found his niche in cowboy attire, he stuck at it in another series, Wagon Train, turning down virtually all offers for "contemporary" roles. When westerns began dying out on television in the late 1960s, Fuller worked as a voiceover actor in commercials, earning some $65,000 per year (a tidy sum in 1969). On the strength of his performance in the Burt Topper-directed motorcycle flick The Hard Ride, Fuller was cast by producer Jack Webb as chief paramedic Kelly Brackett on the weekly TVer Emergency, which ran from 1972 through 1977. In 1994, Robert Fuller was one of several former TV western stars who showed up in cameo roles in the Mel Gibson movie vehicle Maverick.

Trivia: Sultry blues vocalist Julie London began her film career long before she achieved fame as a recording artist. In 1945, 18-year-old London was selected to play a bargain-basement jungle princess, appearing opposite a gorilla in the PRC cheapie Nabonga. She was pretty bad, but no worse than the film itself. By the time she was cast as a sexy teenager in The Red House (1947), her acting had improved immensely, and by the time she played the female lead in the 1951 programmer The Fat Man, it looked as though she actually had a future in films. Still, London's greatest claim to fame was her long string of hit records ("Cry Me a River" et. al.) of the 1950s; many male admirers bought her albums simply to gaze upon her come-hither countenance on the dust jacket. Her status as every red-blooded American boy's wish dream was gently lampooned in Frank Tashlin's The Girl Can't Help It (1956), in which she appears as a spectral vision who transfixes a wistful Tom Ewell. Her best dramatic film appearances of this period include her leading-lady gigs in Voice in the Mirror (1958) and Man of the West (1958). From 1945 through 1955, Julie London was the wife of actor/producer Jack Webb; years after the divorce, London played Nurse Dixie McCall on the popular Jack Webb-produced TV series Emergency, in which she co-starred with her second husband, actor/jazz musician Bobby Troup.

Trivia: Actor Robert Alda studied architecture at NYU, briefly working in this field until choosing show business. He started performing in vaudeville, and in burlesque as a tenor and straight man; by 1934, he was well established on radio. He made a spectacular film debut in Warner Bros.' 1945 biopic Rhapsody in Blue (1945), essaying the role of George Gershwin over the objections of director Irving Rapper, who'd wanted to hold off production until Tyrone Power was available. Alda did as good a job as possible, given the banalities of the scripts, though his piano-playing sequences are obviously faked and tricked up. Alda's starring career faded out rather quickly; he was more successful with second leads and villainous roles, and in the early 1960s became a fixture of Italian sword-and-sandal and spy films. Returning to Broadway in 1950, Alda created the role of Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, winning a Tony Award in the process. In 1954, he starred in the syndicated TV series Secret File USA. Robert Alda was the father of Alan Alda, with whom he appeared in a poignant MASH TV episode of the late 1970s.

Trivia: Funnyman Jack Carter (as he is invariably billed) was a successful nightclub comedian when he decided to dive headlong into the infant medium known as television. In January of 1949, Carter was hired to host ABC's minstrel-show effort Pick and Pat. By the spring of that year, Carter presided over the ABC variety program Jack Carter and Company. Later that same year, he was the first emcee of the DuMont Network's Cavalcade of Stars, remaining with the series until being replaced by Jackie Gleason in 1950. His last "regular" TV assignment was as host of 1956's Stage Show, though he kept busy as a sitcom guest star into the 1980s, frequently playing abrasive con artists (e.g. "Friendly Freddie" on Gomer Pyle USMC). In 1971, Carter made his directorial debut with an episode of Lucille Ball's Here's Lucy. Jack Carter's movie roles have ranged from comedy relief to raffish villain in such pictures as The Extraordinary Seaman (1969), The Amazing Dobermans (1976) and The Funny Farm (1982). Carter continued to work steadily into his 90s, with guest appearances on shows like Desperate Housewives, Parks & Recreation, New Girl and Shameless. Carter died 4 days after his 93rd birthday, in 2015.

Trivia: American actor Arnold Stang was a professional almost all his life -- but unlike other "professional kids," he actively sought a career and wasn't strong-armed into it by ambitious parents. Winning an audition at age nine on radio's Horn and Hardart's Children's Hour, Stang launched a two-decade stint as one of radio's most stalwart supporting players. He appeared as a regular on Let's Pretend, and later was generously featured on Gertrude Berg's serialized family drama The Goldbergs. As his skills increased, Stang discovered he could get laughs, and worked steadily with such comedians as Eddie Cantor, Jack Benny, and especially Milton Berle, with whom Stang continued his association on television. On the satirical Henry Morgan Show, Stang was a regular member of the comedy stock company, most often as a nerdy teenager named Gerard. Stang started doing cartoon voiceovers in the '40s, beginning with Popeye the Sailor's pal Shorty, then moving into a lengthy hitch as "Hoiman" the mouse in Paramount's Herman and Katnip series; he also performed in 24 episodes of Hanna-Barbera's 1961 cartoon series Top Cat, playing the title role in a "Phil Silvers" manner until the sponsors demanded less of Silvers and more of Stang. In films since 1942's My Sister Eileen, Stang had his best movie role in Man with the Golden Arm (1955) where he played Frank Sinatra's skuzzy but loyal pal Sparrow - a characterization eerily reminiscent of Dustin Hoffman's Ratso Rizzo in the much-later film Midnight Cowboy (1969). During the '50s, Stang was the TV spokesman for Chunky candy, fondly remembered by today's baby boomers for his enthusiastic "Chunky...what a chunk o' chocolate!" Still active in the '90s, the owlish, bespectacled Arnold Stang delighted his long-time fans with an amusing character role in the John Hughes film Dennis the Menace (1993). Stang died at age 91 in December 2009.

Trivia: An actor and director who worked on stage, radio, television, and in feature films, Ezra Stone is still best remembered for having played the well-meaning but troublesome adolescent Henry Aldrich, from 1939 to 1953, on the radio series The Aldrich Family. This popular program was based on a hit Broadway play, What a Life (1938), in which Stone originated the role of Henry. When the radio series ended, he turned toward directing plays and television episodes for shows ranging from Lassie to The Munsters to Lost in Space. Stone played small roles in numerous films. He learned to act at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and his professional career began on stage, in the mid-'30s.

Trivia: Actor Dub Taylor, the personification of grizzled old western characters, has been entertaining viewers for over 60 years. Prior to becoming a movie actor, Taylor played the harmonica and xylophone in vaudeville. He used his ability to make his film debut as the zany Ed Carmichael in Capra's You Can't Take it With You (1938). He next appeared in a small role in the musical Carefree(1938) and then began a long stint as a comical B-western sidekick for some of Hollywood's most enduring cowboy heroes. During the '50s he became a part of The Roy Rogers Show on television. About that time, he also began to branch out and appear in different film genres ranging from comedies, No time for Sergeants (1958) to crime dramas, Crime Wave (1954). He has also played on other TV series such as The Andy Griffith Show and Please Don't Eat the Daisies. One of his most memorable feature film roles was as the man who brought down the outlaws in Bonnie and Clyde. From the late sixties through the nineties Taylor returned to westerns.