Union Station

William Holden (Actor) .. Lt. William Calhoun

Born: April 17, 1918
Died: November 16, 1981
Birthplace: O'Fallon, Illinois

Trivia: The son of a chemical analyst, American actor William Holden plunged into high school and junior college sports activities as a means of "proving himself" to his demanding father. Nonetheless, Holden's forte would be in what he'd always consider a "sissy" profession: acting. Spotted by a talent scout during a stage production at Pasadena Junior College, Holden was signed by both Paramount and Columbia, who would share his contract for the next two decades. After one bit role, Holden was thrust into the demanding leading part of boxer Joe Bonaparte in Golden Boy (1939). He was so green and nervous that Columbia considered replacing him, but co-star Barbara Stanwyck took it upon herself to coach the young actor and build up his confidence -- a selfless act for which Holden would be grateful until the day he died. After serving as a lieutenant in the Army's special services unit, Holden returned to films, mostly in light, inconsequential roles. Director Billy Wilder changed all that by casting him as Joe Gillis, an embittered failed screenwriter and "kept man" of Gloria Swanson in the Hollywood-bashing classic Sunset Boulevard (1950). Wilder also directed Holden in the role of the cynical, conniving, but ultimately heroic American POW Sefton in Stalag 17 (1953), for which the actor won an Oscar. Holden became a man of the world, as it were, when he moved to Switzerland to avoid heavy taxation on his earnings; while traversing the globe, he developed an interest in African wildlife preservation, spending much of his off-camera time campaigning and raising funds for the humane treatment of animals. Free to be selective in his film roles in the '60s and '70s, Holden evinced an erratic sensibility: For every Counterfeit Traitor (1962) and Network (1976), there would be a walk-through part in The Towering Inferno (1974) or Ashanti (1978). His final film role was in S.O.B. (1981), which, like Sunset Boulevard, was a searing and satirical indictment of Hollywood. But times had changed, and one of the comic highlights of S.O.B. was of a drunken film executive urinating on the floor of an undertaker's parlor. Holden's death in 1981 was the result of blood loss from a fall he suffered while alone.

Nancy Olson (Actor) .. Joyce Willecombe

Born: July 14, 1928

Trivia: The daughter of a Milwaukee physician, Nancy Olson attended UCLA, then briefly acted on stage before signing a Paramount Pictures contract in 1949. Her best screen assignment at Paramount was as self-effacing script clerk Betty Schaffer in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard. She went on to be teamed with her Boulevard co-star William Holden in Union Station (1950), Force of Arms (1951) and Submarine Command (1951). Olson briefly retired in the mid-1950s when she married songwriter Alan Jay Lerner (they later divorced; her second husband was record executive Alan Livingston). In 1960, Olson went back before the cameras as Betty Carlisle, ever-patient fiance of would-be inventor Ned Brainard (Fred MacMurray) in Disney's The Absent Minded Professor; she repeated this characterization in the 1963 sequel Son of Flubber. She went on to do a smattering of TV films, including the 1967 pilot of the Darren McGavin private eye series The Outsider. Nancy Olson also played continuing roles in the 1977 weekly Kingston: Confidential and the 1984 prime-time soaper Paper Dolls.

Barry Fitzgerald (Actor) .. Inspector Donnelly

Born: March 10, 1888
Died: January 14, 1961
Birthplace: Portobello, Dublin, Ireland

Trivia: Dublin-born Barry Fitzgerald discounted his family's insistence that he was a descendant of 18th-century Irish patriot William Orr, but he readily admitted to being a childhood acquaintance of poet James Joyce. Educated at Civil Service College, Fitzgerald became a junior executive at the Unemployment Insurance Division, while moonlighting as a supernumerary at Dublin's famed Abbey Theatre. His first speaking role was in a 1915 production; his only line was "'Tis meet it should," which unfortunately emerged as "'Tis sheet it mould." A gust of laughter emanated from the audience, and Fitzgerald became a comedian then and there (at least, that was his story). By 1929, Fitzgerald felt secure enough as an actor to finally quit his day job with Unemployment Insurance; that same year, he briefly roomed with playwright Sean O'Casey, who subsequently wrote The Silver Tassle especially for Fitzgerald. In 1936, Fitzgerald was brought to Hollywood by John Ford to repeat his stage role in Ford's film version of The Plough and the Stars. It was the first of several Ford productions to co-star Fitzgerald; the best of these were How Green Was My Valley (1941) and The Quiet Man (1952). In 1944, Fitzgerald (a lifelong Protestant) was cast as feisty Roman Catholic priest Father Fitzgibbon in Leo McCarey's Going My Way, a role which won him an Academy Award. He spent the rest of his career playing variations on Fitzgibbon, laying on the Irish blarney rather thickly at times. His last film role was as a 110-year-old poacher in the Irish-filmed Broth of A Boy (1959). Barry Fitzgerald was the brother of character actor Arthur Shields, whose resemblance to Barry bordered on the uncanny.

Jan Sterling (Actor) .. Marge Wrighter

Born: April 03, 1921
Died: March 26, 2004

Trivia: Born into a prosperous New York family, Jan Sterling was educated in private schools before heading to England, where she studied acting with Fay Compton. Billed as Jane Sterling, she made her first Broadway appearance at the age of fifteen; she went on to appear in such major stage offerings as Panama Hattie, Over 21 and Present Laughter. In 1947, she made her movie bow--billed as Jane Darian for the first and last time in her career--in RKO's Tycoon. Seldom cast in passive roles, Sterling was at her best in parts calling for hard-bitten, sometimes hard-boiled determination. In Billy Wilder's searing The Big Carnival (1951), she played Lorraine, the slatternly, opportunistic wife of cave-in victim Richard Benedict, summing up her philosophy of life with the classic line "I don't go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons." In 1954, Jan was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Sally McKee, a mail-order bride with a questionable past, in The High and the Mighty. In a prime example of giving one's all to one's art, Sterling submitted to having her eyebrows shaved off for a crucial scene; her brows never grew back, and she was required to pencil them in for the rest of her career. Also in 1954, Sterling travelled to England to play Julia in the first film version of George Orwell's 1984; though her character was a member of "The Anti-Sex League," Sterling was several months pregnant at the time. Having no qualms about shuttling between films and television, she showed up in nearly all the major live anthologies of the 1950s. She was also a panelist on such quiz programs as You're In the Picture (1961) and Made in America (1964). Married twice, Sterling's second husband was actor Paul Douglas. Jan Sterling retired from films in favor of the stage in 1969; she returned before the cameras in 1976 to portray Mrs. Herbert Hoover in the TV miniseries Backstairs at the White House.

Lyle Bettger (Actor) .. Joe Beacom

Born: February 13, 1915
Died: September 24, 2003

Trivia: Frequently cast as Western heavies due to his steely gaze, longtime character actor Lyle Bettger traveled the well-worn path from stage to screen, making a name for himself on such small screen oaters as Rawhide and Bonanza before stepping into a more contemporary setting with frequent appearances on Hawaii Five-O. A Philadelphia native and graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, subsequent work in theater and summer stock eventually lead Bettger to Broadway, and later a contract with Paramount. In 1950, Bettger made his screen debut with the film noir drama No Man of Her Own,and the fruitful following decade found him building a solid resumé with roles in Union Station (1950) and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), among numerous others. Success followed the actor to the small screen, with Bettger donning his spurs as numerous baddies and even moving on to starring roles in the series The Court of Last Resort and The Grand Jury in the late '50s. Later work on Hawaii Five-O found the easygoing actor warming to the hospitable climate in which the show was set, and after appearing in the show's 1979 series finale, Bettger retired and made a home for himself in Paia. Lyle Bettger died of natural causes September 24, 2003, in Atascadero, CA. He was 88.

Allene Roberts (Actor) .. Lorna Murcall

Born: January 01, 1928

Herbert Heyes (Actor) .. Henry Murcall

Born: August 03, 1889
Died: May 30, 1958

Trivia: Herbert Heyes was somewhere between the ages of 10 and 13 when he first trod the boards as a member of the Baker Stock Company in Portland, Oregon. By 1910, Heyes was playing leads in the touring company run by actor/manager James K. Hackett. He was firmly established on Broadway when, in 1916, he was hired by Fox Films to play opposite Theda Bara in a series of steamy romances (Under Two Flags, Salome, etc.). Returning to New York, Heyes remained a busy stage and radio actor into the 1940s. He resumed his film career in the early 1940s, playing such character parts as department store magnate Mr. Gimbel in Miracle on 34th Street (1947), Ronald Reagan's prospective father-in-law in Bedtime for Bonzo (1951), and his favorite screen role, manufacturer Charles Eastman in George Stevens' A Place in the Sun (1951). Heyes' dignified demeanor kept him in demand throughout the 1950s for minor but pivotal roles like President Thomas Jefferson in The Far Horizons (1955) and General Pershing in The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955). Herbert Heyes was the father of writer/director Douglas Heyes, of Maverick and Twilight Zone fame.

Don Dunning (Actor) .. Gus Hadder

Fred Graham (Actor) .. Vince Marley

Born: January 01, 1918
Died: October 10, 1979

Trivia: In films from the early 1930s, Fred Graham was one of Hollywood's busiest stunt men and stunt coordinators. A fixture of the Republic serial unit in the 1940s and 1950s, Graham was occasionally afforded a speaking part, usually as a bearded villain. His baseball expertise landed him roles in films like Death on the Diamond (1934), Angels in the Outfield (1951) and The Pride of St. Louis (1952). He was also prominently featured in several John Wayne vehicles, including She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Fighting Kentuckian (1949), The Horse Soldiers (1959) and The Alamo (1960). After retiring from films, Fred Graham served as director of the Arizona Motion Pictures Development Office.

James Seay (Actor) .. Detective Shattuck

Born: January 01, 1914
Died: January 01, 1992

Trivia: James Seay was groomed for romantic leads by Paramount Pictures beginning in 1940. After several nondescript minor roles, Seay finally earned a major part--not as a hero, but as a villainous gang boss in the Columbia "B" The Face Behind the Mask (1941). Never quite reaching the top ranks, Seay nonetheless remained on the film scene as a dependable general purpose actor, appearing in such small but attention-getting roles as Dr. Pierce, the retirement-home physician who explains the eccentricities of "Kris Kringle" (Edmund Gwenn) in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). In the 1950s, James Seay joined the ranks of horror and sci-fi movie "regulars;" he could be seen in films like The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Killers from Space (1954), The Beginning of the End (1957), and--as the luckless military officer who is skewered by a gigantic hypodermic needle--The Amazing Colossal Man (1957).

Parley Baer (Actor) .. Detective Gottschalk

Born: August 05, 1914
Died: November 22, 2002
Birthplace: Salt Lake City, Utah

Trivia: A leading light of network radio in the 1940s and 1950s, actor Parley Baer appeared on virtually every major program emanating from Los Angeles. Baer is most closely associated with the radio version of Gunsmoke, in which, from 1955 to 1961, he played Dodge City deputy Chester Proudfoot. Those who worked on Gunsmoke have had nothing but the kindest words for Baer, who endeared himself to his colleagues via his dedication, professionalism, and weekly purchase of donuts for the rehearsal sessions. The jowly, prematurely balding Baer began free-lancing in films around 1949. He played a number of small parts at 20th Century-Fox (his largest, and least typical, was the Nazi sergeant in 1957's The Young Lions), and later showed up in such films as Warner Bros.' Gypsy (1963) and Universal's Counterpoint (1993). On television, Baer portrayed Darby on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Mayor Stoner on The Andy Griffith Show (1962-63 season) and Mr. Hamble on the 1966 Red Buttons sitcom The Double Life of Henry Phyfe. Active into the 1990s--he was seen as the Senate Majority Leader in 1993's Dave--Parley Baer is most familiar to the public as the voice of commercialdom's Keebler Elf.

Ralph Sanford (Actor) .. Detective Fay

Born: May 21, 1899
Died: June 20, 1963

Trivia: Hearty character actor Ralph Sanford made his first screen appearances at the Flatbush studios of Vitaphone Pictures. From 1933 to 1937, Sanford was Vitaphone's resident Edgar Kennedy type, menacing such two-reel stars as Shemp Howard, Roscoe Ates, and even Bob Hope. He moved to Hollywood in 1937, where, after playing several bit roles, he became a semi-regular with Paramount's Pine-Thomas unit with meaty supporting roles in such films as Wildcat (1942) and The Wrecking Crew (1943). He also continued playing featured roles at other studios, usually as a dimwitted gangster or flustered desk sergeant. One of his largest assignments was in Laurel and Hardy's The Bullfighters (1945), in which he plays vengeance-seeking Richard K. Muldoon, who threatens at every opportunity to (literally) skin Stan and Ollie alive; curiously, he receives no screen credit, despite the fact that his character motivates the entire plot line. Busy throughout the 1950s, Ralph Sanford was a familiar presence on TV, playing one-shot roles on such series as Superman and Leave It to Beaver and essaying the semi-regular part of Jim "Dog" Kelly on the weekly Western Wyatt Earp (1955-1961).

Richard Karlan (Actor) .. Detective George Stein

Born: April 24, 1919
Died: September 10, 2004

Bigelow Sayre (Actor) .. Detective Ross

Charles Dayton (Actor) .. Howard Kettner

Jean Ruth (Actor) .. Pretty Girl

Born: September 10, 1917

Paul Lees (Actor) .. Young Man Masher

Born: January 14, 1923

Harry Hayden (Actor) .. Conductor Skelly

Born: November 08, 1882
Died: July 24, 1955

Trivia: Slight, grey-templed, bespectacled actor Harry Hayden was cast to best advantage as small-town store proprietors, city attorneys and minor bureaucrats. Dividing his time between stage and screen work from 1936, Hayden became one of the busiest members of Central Casting, appearing in everything from A-pictures like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) to the RKO 2-reelers of Leon Errol and Edgar Kennedy. Among his better-known unbilled assignments are horn factory owner Mr. Sharp (his partner is Mr. Pierce) in Laurel and Hardy's Saps at Sea (1940) and Farley Granger's harrumphing boss who announces brusquely that there'll be no Christmas bonus in O. Henry's Full House (1951). Hayden's final flurry of activity was in the role of next-door-neighbor Harry on the 1954-55 season of TV's The Stu Erwin Show (aka The Trouble with Father), in which he was afforded the most screen time he'd had in years -- though he remains uncredited in the syndicated prints of this popular series. From the mid '30s until his death in 1955, Harry Hayden and his actress wife Lela Bliss ran Beverly Hills' Bliss-Hayden Miniature Theatre, where several Hollywood aspirants were given an opportunity to learn their craft before live audiences; among the alumni of the Bliss-Hayden were Jon Hall, Veronica Lake, Doris Day, Craig Stevens, Debbie Reynolds, and Marilyn Monroe.

Ralph Byrd (Actor) .. Priest

Born: April 22, 1909
Died: August 18, 1952

Trivia: Though he only vaguely resembled Chester Gould's jut-jawed comic strip detective Dick Tracy, Ralph Byrd played the character with such assurance and authority that it is well-nigh impossible to envision anyone else in the role. In films from 1936 after several years on stage, Byrd first appeared as Tracy in the 1937 Republic serial Dick Tracy, then reprised the role in the follow-up serials Dick Tracy Returns (1938) and Dick Tracy's G-Men (1939). When the film rights to the character shifted from Republic to RKO Radio in 1945, RKO attempted to create its own Tracy in the person of Morgan Conway. Fans protested, and Byrd was back in Tracy's fedora and trenchcoat in Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947) and Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947). Ralph Byrd died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 43, shortly after filming 39 episodes of the Dick Tracy TV series.

Edith Evanson (Actor) .. Mrs. Willecombe

Born: January 01, 1899
Died: November 29, 1980

Trivia: American character actress Edith Evanson began showing up in films around 1941. Cast as a nurse, it is Evanson who appears in the reflection of the shattered glass ball in the prologue of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941). Her larger screen assignments included Aunt Sigrid in George Stevens' I Remember Mama (1948) and Mrs. Wilson the housekeeper in Hitchcock's Rope (1948). Hitchcock also directed her in Marnie (1964). Edith Evanson is best remembered by science fiction fans for her lengthy, uncredited appearance as Klaatu's landlady Mrs. Crockett in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951).

Queenie Smith (Actor) .. Landlady

Born: January 01, 1897
Died: August 05, 1978

Trivia: Pixieish stage and screen soubrette Queenie Smith was a Broadway favorite in the 1920s, most notably as star of the 1925 George Gershwin musical Tip Toes (1925). She came to films in the mid-1930s, playing virtually the same role in two period musicals, the 1935 Bing Crosby/W.C. Fields concoction Mississippi and the 1936 version of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's Show Boat. As her youthful rambunctiousness matured into middle-aged feistiness, Queenie was seen in dozens of tiny roles, usually cast as a nosy neighbor, landlady, housekeeper or (in later years) retirement-home resident. In 1970, she and nonagenarian actor Burt Mustin were teamed as a long-married couple on the TV comedy-sketch series The Funny Side. One of the last and best of Queenie Smith's film roles was the scatological scrabble player in the 1978 Goldie Hawn-Chevy Chase vehicle Foul Play (1978).

George Lynn (Actor) .. Moreno

Born: January 28, 1906
Died: December 03, 1964

Trivia: American general-purpose actor George Lynn played scores of younger characters in Hollywood film during World War II, sometimes billing himself Peter Lynn and George Peter Lynn, a fact that makes tracking his many screen credits something of an ordeal. He was George Peter Lynn as Professor Fisher in the Republic serial Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941), George Lynn as the heavy in Laurel & Hardy's A-Haunting We Will Go (1943), and Peter Lynn as a reporter in Suddenly It's Spring (1947). To confuse matters even further, the actor used his real name, George M. Lynn, playing bit parts in Something to Live For (1952) and The Bushwackers (1952). Lynn also guest-starred on television shows such as The Lone Ranger and Adventures of Rin Tin Tin.

Richard Barron (Actor) .. Halloran

Joe Warfield (Actor) .. Manny

Born: November 06, 1937

Trevor Bardette (Actor) .. Patrolman

Born: January 01, 1902
Died: November 28, 1977

Trivia: American actor Trevor Bardette could truly say that he died for a living. In the course of a film career spanning three decades, the mustachioed, granite-featured Bardette was "killed off" over 40 times as a screen villain. Entering movies in 1936 after abandoning a planned mechanical engineering career for the Broadway stage, Bardette was most often seen as a rustler, gangster, wartime collaborator and murderous backwoodsman. His screen skullduggery carried over into TV; one of Bardette's best remembered video performances was as a "human bomb" on an early episode of Superman. Perhaps being something of a reprobate came naturally to Trevor Bardette -- or so he himself would claim in later years when relating a story of how, as a child, he'd won ten dollars writing an essay on "the evils of tobacco," only to be caught smoking behind the barn shortly afterward.

Robert Wood (Actor) .. Patrolman

Mike Mahoney (Actor) .. Patrolman

Born: March 16, 1918
Died: January 01, 1988

Robert Cornthwaite (Actor) .. Orderly

Born: April 28, 1917
Died: July 20, 2006

Trivia: Already a character player in his 30s, American actor Robert Cornwaithe was frequently called upon to play scientific and learned types in such films as War of the Worlds (1953) and The Forbin Project (1971). He was also busy on TV, portraying lawyers, officials and the like on such series as The Andy Griffith Show, Batman (in the "Archer" episode with Art Carney), Gidget, Laverne and Shirley and The Munsters. Cornwaithe earned his niche in the Science Fiction Film Hall of Fame for his performance in The Thing (1951); grayed up, bearded, and looking suspiciously Russian, the actor played the foolhardy Professor Carrington, whose insipidly idealistic efforts to communicate with the extraterrestrial "Thing" nearly gets him killed. In honor of this performance, Robert Cornwaithe was cast as a similar well-meaning scientist in "Mant," the giant-insect film within a film in Joe Dante's Matinee (1993), wherein Cornwaithe shared screen time with two equally uncredited horror-film icons, William Schallert and Kevin McCarthy.

Clifton Young (Actor) .. Ambulance Driver

Born: January 01, 1916
Died: January 01, 1951

Freddie Zendar (Actor) .. Ambulance Driver

Howard Negley (Actor) .. Conductor

Born: April 16, 1898

Trivia: American general purpose actor Howard Negley made his screen bow as Nelson in 20th Century Fox's Smokey. Negley went on to reasonably prominent character parts in such B-pictures as Charlie Chan in the Trap (1947). For the most part, he played nameless bit parts as police captains, politicians, and reporters. Howard Negley was last seen as the Twentieth Century Limited conductor in Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959).

Dick Elliott (Actor) .. Employee

Born: April 30, 1886
Died: December 22, 1961

Trivia: Short, portly, and possessed of a high-pitched laugh that cuts through the air like a buzzsaw, Massachussetts-born Dick Elliott had been on stage for nearly thirty before making his screen bow in 1933. Elliott was a frequent visitor to Broadway, enjoying a substantial run in the marathon hit Abie's Irish Rose. Physically and vocally unchanged from his first screen appearance in the '30s to his last in 1961, Elliott was most generally cast in peripheral roles designed to annoy the film's principal characters with his laughing jags or his obtrusive behavior; in this capacity, he appeared as drunken conventioneers, loud-mouthed theatre audience members, and "helpful" pedestrians. Elliott also excelled playing small-scale authority figures, such as stage managers, truant officers and rural judges. Still acting into his mid 70s, Dick Elliott appeared regularly as the mayor of Mayberry on the first season of The Andy Griffith Show, and was frequently cast as a department-store Santa in the Yuletide programs of such comics as Jack Benny and Red Skelton.

Douglas Spencer (Actor) .. Stationmaster

Born: January 01, 1890
Died: October 06, 1960

Trivia: From 1939 until his death in 1960, gangly, balding Douglas Spencer could be spotted in unbilled film roles as doctors and reporters. By the early '50s, Spencer had graduated to supporting parts, often in films with a science fiction or fantasy theme. One of his lengthier assignments was Simms, the seance-busting reporter in Houdini (1953). Douglas Spencer's best-ever film role was bespectacled reporter Ned "Scotty" Scott in the 1951 sci-fi classic The Thing, wherein he closed the film with the immortal cautionary words "Keep watching the skies!"

Byron Foulger (Actor) .. Horace

Born: January 01, 1900
Died: April 04, 1970

Trivia: In the 1959 Twilight Zone episode "Walking Distance," Gig Young comments that he thinks he's seen drugstore counterman Byron Foulger before. "I've got that kind of face" was the counterman's reply. Indeed, Foulger's mustachioed, bespectacled, tremble-chinned, moon-shaped countenance was one of the most familiar faces ever to grace the screen. A graduate of the University of Utah, Foulger developed a taste for performing in community theatre, making his Broadway debut in the '20s. Foulger then toured with Moroni Olsen's stock company, which led him to the famed Pasadena Playhouse as both actor and director. In films from 1936, Foulger usually played whining milksops, weak-willed sycophants, sanctimonious sales clerks, shifty political appointees, and the occasional unsuspected murderer. In real life, the seemingly timorous actor was not very easily cowed; according to his friend Victor Jory, Foulger once threatened to punch out Errol Flynn at a party because he thought that Flynn was flirting with his wife (Mrs. Foulger was Dorothy Adams, a prolific movie and stage character actress). Usually unbilled in "A" productions, Foulger could count on meatier roles in such "B" pictures as The Man They Could Not Hang (1939) and The Panther's Claw (1943). In the Bowery Boys' Up in Smoke (1957), Foulger is superb as a gleeful, twinkly-eyed Satan. In addition to his film work, Byron Foulger built up quite a gallery of portrayals on television; one of his final stints was the recurring role of engineer Wendell Gibbs on the popular sitcom Petticoat Junction.

Edgar Dearing (Actor) .. Detective

Born: May 04, 1893
Died: August 17, 1974

Trivia: Edgar Dearing was a full-time Los Angeles motorcycle cop in the '20s when he began accepting small roles in the 2-reel comedies of Hal Roach. These roles hardly constituted a stretch, since he was often cast as a motorcycle cop, principally because he supplied his own uniform and cycle; the best-remembered of these "performances" was in Laurel and Hardy's Two Tars (1928). Hal Roach cameraman George Stevens liked Dearing's work, and saw to it that the policeman-cum-actor was prominently featured in Stevens' RKO Wheeler & Woolsey features Kentucky Kernels (1934) and The Nitwits (1935). When he moved into acting full-time in the '30s, Dearing was still primarily confined to law-enforcement bit roles, though he achieved fourth billing as a tough drill sergeant in the Spencer Tracy/Franchot Tone feature They Gave Him a Gun (1937). Dearing's performing weight was most effectively felt in the Abbott and Costello features of the '40s, where he provided a formidable authority-figure foe for the simpering antics of Lou Costello (notably in the "Go Ahead and Sing" routine in 1944's In Society). Dearing also showed up in a number of '40s 2-reelers; he was particularly amusing as strong man Hercules Jones (a "Charles Atlas" takeoff) in the 1948 Sterling Holloway short Man or Mouse? Edgar Dearing's last screen assignment was a prominent role as townsman Mr. Gorman in Walt Disney's Pollyanna (1960).

Thomas Jackson (Actor) .. Detective

Born: July 04, 1886

Al Ferguson (Actor) .. Detective

Born: April 19, 1888
Died: December 14, 1971

Trivia: Enjoying one of the longest screen careers on record, Irish-born, English-reared Al Ferguson became one of the silent era's busiest Western villains, his wolf-like features instantly recognizable to action fans everywhere. According to the actor himself, Ferguson had entered films with the American company as early as 1910, and by 1912, he was appearing in Selig Westerns under the name of "Smoke" Ferguson, often opposite action heroine Myrtle Steadman. In 1920, Ferguson played Hector Dion's henchman in the partially extant The Lost City, the first of more than 40 serials, silent and sound, in which he would appear. Still reasonably good-looking by the early '20s, Ferguson even attempted to become an action star in his own right, producing, directing, and starring in a handful of low-budget Westerns filmed in Oregon and released to the States' Rights market by Poverty Row mogul J. Charles Davis. None of these potboilers, which included The Fighting Romeo (1925), with Ferguson as a ranch foreman rescuing his employer's kidnapped daughter, made him a star, however, and he returned to ply his nefarious trade in low-budget oaters featuring the likes of Bob Steele and Tom Tyler. Today, Ferguson is perhaps best remembered as the main heavy in two Tarzan serials, Tarzan the Mighty (1928) and Tarzan the Tiger (1929), both starring Frank Merrill. The later survives intact and Ferguson emerges as a melodramatic screen villain at the top of his game.Like most of his contemporaries, including Bud Osborne and the silent era James Mason, Al Ferguson saw his roles decrease in stature after the advent of sound. Not because of his Irish accent, which had become all but undetectable, but mainly due to changing acting styles. Ferguson, however, hung in there and appeared in scores of sound Westerns and serials, not exclusively portraying villains but also playing lawmen, peaceful ranchers, townsmen, and even a Native American or two. By the 1950s, he had included television shows such as Sky King to his long resumé, but B-Westerns and serials remained Ferguson's bread and butter, the now veteran actor appearing in the cast of both Perils of the Wilderness (1956) and Blazing the Overland Trail (1956), the final chapter plays to be released in America.

Howard Mitchell (Actor) .. Detective

Born: December 11, 1883
Died: October 09, 1958

Trivia: Howard M. Mitchell's screen acting career got off to a good start with a pair of silent serials, Beloved Adventurer (1914) and The Road of Strife (1915). Mitchell kept busy as a director in the 1920s, returning to acting in 1935. His roles were confined to bits and walk-ons as guards, storekeepers, judges, and especially police chiefs. Howard M. Mitchell closed out his career playing a train conductor in the classic "B" melodrama The Narrow Margin (1952).

Sumner Getchell (Actor) .. Police Car Driver

Born: October 20, 1906

Robert Easton (Actor) .. Cowboy

Born: November 23, 1930
Died: December 16, 2011

Trivia: A man often referred to as "the Henry Higgins of Hollywood," Robert Easton was one of the most sought-after dialect coaches in the movie industry for decades. In that capacity, he worked with A-list clients including Sir Laurence Olivier, Gregory Peck, Anne Hathaway, Ben Kingsley and Robert Duvall. Easton devoted the rest of his time to supporting character roles, that took advantage of his uncanny ability to slip from one regional or ethnic accent into another.In the beginning, Milwaukee native Easton earned much of his cinematic bread and butter playing Southerners. He first gained national attention as one of the "Quiz Kids" on the radio series of the same name. In films from 1949, the gangling Easton was often seen as a blank-faced, slow-talking hayseed. He appeared in guest spots on series including The Beverly Hillbillies, Get Smart, The Mod Squad and The Bionic Woman, voiced a regular character on the animated program Stingray from 1964 through 1965, and turned up in features such as Pete's Dragon, Working Girl, Pet Sematary II, Needful Things and Primary Colors. Easton died at age 81 in December 2011.

Bob Hoffman (Actor) .. Messenger

Ralph Montgomery (Actor) .. City Slicker

Died: January 01, 1980

Trivia: American actor, singer, and dancer Ralph Montgomery played character roles in vaudeville, radio, and television. Montgomery also appeared in numerous feature films from the '40s through the mid-'70s. In addition to performing, he also worked as a drama coach. His daughter is an actress and his son, Phil Montgomery, is an actor and producer.

Jerry James (Actor) .. City Slicker

Bernard Szold (Actor) .. Counterman

Joe Recht (Actor) .. Messenger

John Crawford (Actor) .. Hackett

Born: March 26, 1926

Trivia: Character actor John Crawford has appeared on screen in many films since 1945.

Gil Warren (Actor) .. Doctor

Eric Alden (Actor) .. Doctor

Charles Sherlock (Actor) .. Doctor

Trivia: American actor Charles Sherlock made his first film in 1935 and his last in 1952. Limited to bit roles, Sherlock showed up as reporters, photographers, longshoremen, cabbies, and doctors. Befitting his name, he also appeared as cops in such films as My Buddy (1944), In Society (1944), and The Turning Point (1952). Charles Sherlock enjoyed a rare credited role, again as a cop, in the 1945 Charlie Chan entry The Scarlet Clue.

Jack Gargan (Actor) .. Police Stenographer

Born: February 08, 1900

Bill Meader (Actor) .. Projectionist

Hans Moebus (Actor) .. Charles

Born: January 01, 1902
Died: January 01, 1976

Jack Roberts (Actor) .. Freddie

Born: March 05, 1979

Mike Pat Donovan (Actor) .. Watchman

Laura Elliott (Actor) .. Clerk

Born: January 01, 1926
Died: July 06, 2006

Trivia: Kasey Rogers is best known for her four seasons portraying Louise Tate, the wife of advertising-agency boss Larry Tate (David White), on Bewitched. Between 1949 and 1964, however, she also appeared in nearly two dozen movies under the name Laura Elliot, ranging from leading roles to uncredited support parts, by filmmakers from Alfred Hitchcock down. Additionally, she was in over 200 episodes of the prime-time soap opera Peyton Place between 1964 and 1968. She was born Imogene Rogers in Morehouse, MO, in 1926, and began studying acting, elocution, and music at age seven. For a time, however, Rogers' most visible attribute was her prowess with a baseball bat, which earned her the nickname "Casey." It stuck, with a little change in the spelling, and she continued using it as an adult. Shortly after World War II, Rogers was spotted by a talent scout and got a screen test at Paramount Pictures. She was signed up, given the name Laura Elliot (sometimes spelled Laura Elliott), and put into her first movie a week later. Her early appearances included such major films as Chicago Deadline, Samson and Delilah, and The File on Thelma Jordan; she also got a leading role, on loan-out, in the fantasy adventure film Two Lost Worlds (1950), in which she played the female lead opposite James Arness. Rogers later recalled that film (which mixed a pirate story and dinosaurs) as being every bit as confusing to make as it is to watch, with one of the characters' names even changing midway through. As it happened, 1951 was Rogers' big year in movies; she got her biggest role in the most enduringly popular film of her career, playing Farley Granger's estranged wife in Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train. Her character, wearing glasses with lenses as thick as the base of shot glasses (so thick that, 50 years later, she recalled not even being able to see through them), is murdered by the cold-blooded psychopath portrayed by Robert Walker. She also appeared in George Stevens' A Place in the Sun, Rudolph Maté's classic sci-fi drama When Worlds Collide, the Bob Hope vehicle My Favorite Spy, and the Western Silver City. From there, however, Rogers receded to lesser movies such as The French Line and About Mrs. Leslie (both 1954). Starting in 1955, she was making regular appearances on television, alternating between the names Laura Elliot (or Elliott) and Kasey Rogers, across a range of programming that included Westerns such as Lawman, Bat Masterson, Trackdown, and Wanted: Dead or Alive, the dramatic anthology series Alcoa Presents, Goodyear Theater, and Stage 7, and the crime dramas Perry Mason and Richard Diamond, Private Detective. Rogers' first regular television role was on the night-time drama Peyton Place (1964-1968) as Julie Anderson, the mother of Barbara Parkins' Betty Anderson, the soap opera's resident bad girl. Rogers left the series in 1968 and was immediately offered the role of Louise Tate on Bewitched, which had previously been played by Irene Vernon. She was forced to cover her dark auburn hair with a black wig for the first few seasons so that she resembled her predecessor, and it was only at the end of the run that her own hair was revealed. Regardless of her coloring, however, she made a charming, funny, gorgeous, and unique TV "trophy wife" amid a decade of pretty, wholesome TV moms. Rogers has remained active intermittently as an actress and has pursued a writing career as well, including screenplays and a cookbook built around Bewitched as a thematic link. She appears at nostalgia conventions under both of her screen names, using Laura Elliot (the name under which she did most of her oaters) at Western shows and Kasey Rogers at television-oriented events.

Barbara Knudson (Actor) .. Clerk

Gerry Ganzer (Actor) .. Clerk

Charmienne Harker (Actor) .. Clerk

Fred Zendar (Actor) .. Clerk

Isabel Cushin (Actor) .. Clerk

June Earle (Actor) .. Nurse

Betty Corner (Actor) .. Woman

Thomas E. Jackson (Actor) .. Detective

Born: January 01, 1894
Died: September 08, 1967

Trivia: Thomas Jackson's first stage success was in the role of the non-speaking Property Man in the original 1912 production of Yellow Jacket. He was starring as police detective Dan McCorn in the lavish Broadway production Broadway when he was tapped to repeat his role in the even more spectacular 1929 film version. For the rest of his career, which lasted into the 1960s, Jackson more or less played variations on Dan McCorn, notably as the soft-spoken "copper" Flaherty in 1931's Little Caesar. When he wasn't playing detectives, Thomas Jackson could be seen in dozens of minor roles as newspaper editors, bartenders, doctors and Broadway theatrical agents.

Bob Easton (Actor) .. Hayseed

2:00 pm - 3:30 pm, Tuesday, October 28 on WIVN-LD (29.1)