Trivia: The younger brother of Gunsmoke star James Arness, American actor Peter Graves worked as a musician and radio actor before entering films with 1950's Rogue River. At first, it appeared that Graves would be the star of the family, since he was cast in leads while brother Jim languished in secondary roles. Then came Stalag 17 (1953), in which Graves was first-rate as a supposedly all-American POW who turned out to be a vicious Nazi spy. Trouble was, Graves played the part too well, and couldn't shake the Nazi stereotype in the eyes of most Hollywood producers. Suddenly the actor found himself in such secondary roles as Shelley Winters' doomed husband in Night of the Hunter (1955) (he was in and out of the picture after the first ten minutes), while sibling James Arness was riding high with Gunsmoke. Dissatisfied with his film career, Graves signed on in 1955 for a network kid's series about "a horse and the boy who loved him." Fury wasn't exactly Citizen Kane, but it ran five years and made Graves a wealthy man through rerun residuals--so much so that he claimed to be making more money from Fury than his brother did from Gunsmoke. In 1966, Peter Graves replaced Steven Hill as head honcho of the force on the weekly TV adventure series Mission: Impossible, a stint that lasted until 1973. Though a better than average actor, Graves gained something of a camp reputation for his stiff, straight-arrow film characters and was often cast in films that parodied his TV image. One of the best of these lampoonish appearances was in the Zucker-Abrahams comedy Airplane (1980), as a nutty airline pilot who asks outrageous questions to a young boy on the plane (a part the actor very nearly turned down, until he discovered that Leslie Nielsen was co-starring in the film). Peter Graves effortlessly maintained his reliable, authoritative movie persona into the '90s and 2000s, and hosted the Biography series on A&E, for which he won an Emmy; he also guest-starred on programs including Cold Case, House and American Dad. Graves died of natural causes in March 2010, at age 83.

Trivia: Born in France, blonde leading lady Andrea King was educated in the United States. In 1944, King was signed to a Warner Bros. film contract. She spent much of her time in femme fatale assignments, with the occasional sympathetic lead in films like The Beast With Five Fingers (1946). The best of her Warners efforts was Hotel Berlin (1945), in which King plays a Nazi sympathizer who pays for her treachery when she is shot to death by underground operative Helmut Dantine. After her many tough, vitriolic 1940s assignments, it was a little depressing to watch King play a humorless Christian zealot in the 1952 sci-fier Red Planet Mars. Ostensibly retired by 1973, Andrea King made an unexpected but welcome return appearance in the off-the-wall comedy The Linguini Incident (1992).

Trivia: Born in Colorado and raised in Oregon, actor Walter Sande was a music student from age six. He dropped out of college to organize his own band, then for many years served as musical director for the West Coast Fox Theater chain. In 1937, Sande entered films with a small role in Goldwyn Follies (1938). He fluctuated thereafter between bits in films like Citizen Kane (1941), in which he played one of the many reporters, and supporting roles in films like To Have and Have Not (1944), in which he portrayed the defaulting customer who is punched out by a boat-renting Humphrey Bogart. On television, Walter Sande played Horatio Bullwinkle on Tugboat Annie (1958) and Papa Holstrum on The Farmer's Daughter (1963-1966).

Trivia: Blessed with a mellifluous speaking voice, Marvin Miller went into radio straight out of college; he appeared in more West Coast-based network programs than can possibly be catalogued here. In films, the heavyset Miller was often cast as a villain, usually oriental (e.g., Blood on the Sun). He is perhaps best remembered by mystery buffs as crime boss Morris Carnovsky's sadistic henchman in the 1947 Humphrey Bogart vehicle Dead Reckoning. Miller continued as both a seen and unseen actor into the 1970s, recording several long-playing albums in which he read classic poetry and literature, and providing voice-overs for the cartoon output of the Disney and UPA studios. Miller's best-known TV role was as Michael Anthony, secretary to the "late, fabulously wealthy John Beresford Tipton" on TV's The Millionaire. From 1955 through 1960, Miller, as Anthony, handed out one million-dollar check per week to unsuspecting fictional recipients; the series brought Miller headaches as well as stardom, inasmuch as he was bombarded with thousands of requests from real-life millionaire wannabes who had trouble separating fact from fiction. Like his voice-artist colleague, Paul Frees (who was the voice of Millionaire's John Beresford Tipton), Marvin Miller eventually grew very rich -- and very corpulent -- on residuals for his extensive TV and commercial work.

Trivia: A graduate of the University of Vienna and the Vienna State Academy of Dramatic Art, Austrian-born Herbert Berghof spent the greater portion of his theatrical career in the United States. He was seen in such stage productions as The Andersonville Trial and In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer; his rare film appearances include Five Fingers (1952) and Cleopatra (1963). Berghof is better known for his accomplishments as a director and acting teacher. His many directorial credits include the first New York staging of Beckett's Waiting for Godot, starring Bert Lahr and E.G. Marshall, in 1956. Among Herbert Berghof's acting students were such illustrious alumni as Geraldine Page, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Anne Bancroft and Matthew Broderick.

Trivia: American actor Morris Ankrum graduated from the University of Southern California with a law degree, then went on to an associate professorship in economics at the University of California at Berkeley. Here he founded a collegiate little theatre, eventually turning his hobby into a vocation as a teacher and director at the Pasadena Playhouse. (He was much admired by his students, including such future luminaries as Robert Preston and Raymond Burr.) Having already changed his name from Nussbaum to Ankrum for professional reasons, Ankrum was compelled to undergo another name change when he signed a Paramount Pictures contract in the 1930s; in his first films, he was billing as Stephen Morris. Reverting to Morris Ankrum in 1939, the sharp-featured, heavily eyebrowed actor flourished in strong character roles, usually of a villainous nature, throughout the 1940s. By the 1950s, Ankrum had more or less settled into "authority" roles in science-fiction films and TV programs. Among his best known credits in this genre were Rocketship X-M (1950), Red Planet Mars (1952), Flight to Mars (1952), Invaders From Mars (1953) (do we detect a subtle pattern here?), Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) and From the Earth to the Moon (1958). The fact that Morris Ankrum played innumerable Army generals was fondly invoked in director Joe Dante's 1993 comedy Matinee: the military officer played by Kevin McCarthy in the film-within-a-film Mant is named General Ankrum.

Trivia: Like Dick Wilson (Mr. Whipple) and Jan Miner (Madge), actor House Peters, Jr. attained most widespread recognition via his iconic role in American television commercials, plugging a domestic product -- in his case, Procter & Gamble's "Mr. Clean" line of household cleaners. Peters set himself apart from the pack, however, for actually playing the brand's nominal character, replete with his barrel chest, bald pate (courtesy of a latex cap and makeup), and trademark gold earring. The New Rochelle, NY, native also built up a fairly substantial litany of dramatic roles alongside his promotional work. After growing up in Beverly Hills, CA, Peters signed for roles in such projects as the television series Flash Gordon and the features Public Cowboy No. 1 and Hot Tip. After a brief service in the Army Air Corps during World War II, he hearkened back to Los Angeles, commenced occasional stage work, and resumed work in features, specializing in supporting roles in dozens of westerns such as Oklahoma Badlands (1948) and Cow Town (1950). Small portrayals in the Hollywood classics The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and Rebel Without a Cause (1955) represented a significant step up for Peters in terms of profile and recognition, though he continued to be most commonly associated with Mr. Clean, an assignment held from the late '50s into the early '60s. As the years rolled on, Peters did additional television work via guest spots on shows including The Twilight Zone and Perry Mason, then retired in the late '60s and spent the next four decades off-camera. Peters died of pneumonia in 2008, at the age of 92.

Trivia: Burly American utility actor Gene Roth appeared in nearly 200 films, beginning around 1946. He was initially billed under his given name of Gene Stutenroth, shortening his surname in 1949. Most often cast as a hulking villain, Roth growled and glowered through many a Western and serial (he was the principal heavy in the 1951 chapter play Captain Video). He also showed up in several Columbia two-reel comedies, starting with the Shemp Howard/Tom Kennedy film Society Mugs (1946). A frequent foil of the Three Stooges, Columbia's top short-subject stars, Roth extended his association with the comedy trio into the 1962 feature The Three Stooges Meet Hercules. A ubiquitous TV actor, Roth was frequently cast as a judge or bailiff on the Perry Mason series and essayed two roles in the 1961 Twilight Zone classic "Shadow Play." An active participant on the nostalgia-convention circuit of the 1970s, Gene Roth died in 1976 when he was struck down by a speeding automobile.

Trivia: A former truck driver, stock broker, and radio announcer, handsome Bill Kennedy (born Willard A. Kennedy) played supporting roles in World War II melodramas before embarking on a career in B-Westerns. It began well, with Kennedy and George Dolenz sharing top billing in the 1945 Universal serial The Royal Mounted Rides Again, but Kennedy was always a bit too glib for comfort and would soon become one of Hollywood's younger Boss Villains, as well as a thorn in the side of Johnny Mack Brown in four of that veteran star's better vehicles. In the 1950s, Kennedy was busy on television becoming a guest star on such popular programs as The Lone Ranger, The Cisco Kid, The Gene Autry Show, and Death Valley Days. In addition to acting assignments, he was the announcer for the entire 1953-1957 run of Adventures of Superman.

Trivia: Vince Barnett was the son of Luke Barnett, a well-known comedian who specialized in insulting and pulling practical jokes on his audiences (Luke's professional nickname was "Old Man Ribber"). Vince remained in the family business by hiring himself out to Hollywood parties, where he would insult the guests in a thick German accent, spill the soup and drop the trays--all to the great delight of hosts who enjoyed watching their friends squirm and mutter "Who hired that jerk?" The diminutive, chrome-domed Barnett also appeared in the 1926 edition of Earl Carroll's Vanities. He began appearing in films in 1930, playing hundreds of comedy bits and supporting parts until retiring in 1975. Among Vince Barnett's more sizeable screen roles was the moronic, illiterate gangster "secretary" in Scarface (1931).

Trivia: Authoritative, sandy-haired character actor Willis Bouchey abandoned a busy Broadway career in 1951 to try his luck in films. Bouchey's striking resemblance to Dwight D. Eisenhower enabled him to play roles calling for quick decisiveness and unquestioned leadership; he even showed up as the President of the United States in 1952's Red Planet Mars, one year before the "real" Ike ascended to that office. The actor's many judge, executive, military, and town-marshal characterizations could also convey weakness and vacillation, but for the most part there was no question who was in charge when Bouchey was on the scene. A loyal and steadfast member of the John Ford stock company, Willis Bouchey was seen in such Ford productions as The Long Gray Line (1955), The Last Hurrah (1958), Sergeant Rutledge (1960), Two Rode Together (1961), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and Cheyenne Autumn (1962).

Trivia: Born in an upstate New York rural community, George Duryea was raised by relatives when both his parents died young. Educated at Columbia University and Carnegie Tech, Duryea embarked upon an acting career, first with a Maine stock company, then on Broadway. He played Abie in the hit comedy Abie's Irish Rose in New York, then toured with the production for several seasons. In 1928, he was brought to films as a young leading man, appearing in such "A"-list productions as Cecil B. DeMille's The Godless Girl (1929). By 1930, however, he was having trouble securing work that is, until he changed his name to Tom Keene and signed on as RKO-Pathe's resident cowboy star. Throughout the early 1930s, Keene's western vehicles played profitably if not spectacularly in neighborhood houses throughout the country. He made a brief return to dramatic roles as the leading character in King Vidor's populist classic Our Daily Bread (1934), but returned to westerns when his performance was drubbed by the critics. When George O'Brien succeed Keene at RKO, the latter moved on to smaller studios, retaining his popularity into the early 1940s. In 1944, he adopted a new nom de film, Richard Powers, and flourished as a character actor into the 1950s. He briefly returned to his "Tom Keene" persona in the all-star western "special" Trail of Robin Hood (1950) and the 1958 Rowan & Martin cowboy spoof Once Upon a Horse (1958). One of George Duryea/Tom Keene/Richard Powers' final appearances was in the deathless Ed Wood Jr. opus Plan 9 From Outer Space.

Trivia: The son of playwright/theatrical director Bayard Veiller and actress Margaret Wycherly, Anthony Veiller received a liberal arts education at Ohio's Antioch College. After experience as a theater manager and film publicist, Veiller turned to screenwriting in 1932. Eight years later he became a producer at Paramount Pictures. He co-scripted a handful of the Why We Fight propaganda films of the 1940s, narrating the 1942 entry The Battle of Russia. From 1949 to 1952, he was a staff producer at Warner Bros. After the independently produced Red Planet Mars (1952), Veiller returned exclusively to screenwriting until his retirement in 1962; among his later credits were the John Huston efforts The List of Adrian Messenger (1963) and Night of the Iguana (1964). Anthony Veiller shared Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar nominations for Stage Door (1937) and The Killers (1946).