Trivia: While still a junior high student, American actress Jean Parker was discovered by MGM when she posed for a poster contest. Her first film under her MGM contract was Divorce in the Family (1932), and her first important film was Rasputin and the Empress (1933), in which the novice performer failed to wilt despite the formidable presence in the cast of Lionel, John and Ethel Barrymore. Pretty and vivacious, Parker became the queen of the MGM B-pictures but never quite made it in the studio's top-drawer productions. Gaining a reputation of working quickly, efficiently and inexpensively, she became a valuable commodity on the independent-film market; two of her free-lance appearance, in Laurel and Hardy's Flying Deuces (1939) and director Eddie Sutherland's ultra-sentimental Beyond Tomorrow (1940), are familiar public-domain additions to video stores throughout America. At Monogram in the mid '40s, Parker inagurated a comedy-mystery series as Detective Kitty O'Day, but only two films were made, with her performance overshadowed by costar Peter Cookson in both. The actress was a regular in B-plus Technicolor westerns of the '50s, seen to best advantage as a faded society belle in Randolph Scott's A Lawless Street (1955). Parker made her final appearance in a western, billed eleventh after several other movie veterans in Apache Uprising (1966), in which she had only one scene. While never a big star in films, Parker did considerably better on stage, appearing in the west-coast productions of such hits as Dream Girl and Born Yesterday. Jean Parker worked as an acting coach in the '60s and early '70s, but by the '80s she was a recluse, accepting few visitors outside of her grown son.

Trivia: American actor James Dunn's early career embraced bit parts in silent pictures, vaudeville, and Broadway before he made his talking picture bow in Bad Girl (1931). For the next several years, Dunn appeared in sentimental "lovable scamp" leading roles; he also helped introduce Shirley Temple to feature films by co-starring with the diminutive dynamo in Stand Up and Cheer, Baby Take a Bow, and Bright Eyes, all released in 1934. When Fox merged with 20th Century Pictures in 1935, the type of domestic comedy-dramas and free-wheeling musicals in which Dunn specialized came to an end; by the end of the 1930s Dunn's appearance were confined to "B" pictures and poverty-row quickies. Dunn was given a comeback chance as Peggy Ann Garner's irresponsible alcoholic father in the 1945 drama A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The actor won an Academy Award for his performance. Eight years passed before Dunn would be seen in films again, though he found occasional solace in TV work, including his tenure as the star of a 1955 sitcom, It's a Great Life. Dunn's final movie role, filmed two years before his death, was a minor part as an agent in the all-star "trash classic" The Oscar (1966).

Trivia: A longtime character actor/stuntman/leading man/director, Dave O'Brien (born David Barclay) was born in Big Springs, Texas, and entered movies in the early '30s as a stuntman and occasional character actor -- he is probably best remembered by college students of the late '60s and early '70s for his portrayal of the crazed marijuana smoker in the exploitation film Reefer Madness. During the late '30s and early '40s, O'Brien also played the title role in the serial Captain Midnight, and was the responsible adult in the East Side Kids series, but it was as the lead in MGM's Pete Smith Specialty comedy shorts -- which O'Brien also directed, under his real name David Barclay -- that he was best known to '40s moviegoers. The Pete Smith shorts, which were basically comedic looks at human foibles, took full advantage of O'Brien's background in stunt work, and hold up extremely well today. O'Brien still played occasional lead roles, especially in B-pictures such as The Man Who Walks Alone (1946), an unusual comedy with serious overtones about a veteran returning home from World War II, but by the early '50s had moved into supporting parts, such as that of the stage manager in Kiss Me Kate (1953), directed by his fellow Pete Smith alumnus George Sidney. O'Brien later became a writer for Red Skelton on television.

Trivia: American character actress Sarah Padden was active in films from 1926 to 1955. Usually cast in peppery maternal or spinsterish roles, Padden was seen to good advantage in the films of such B-entrepreneurs as Republic, Monogram, and PRC. Her larger roles include Sam Houston's mother in Man of Conquest (1939) and the philanthropic millionairess in Reg'lar Fellers (1940). During the late '40s, Sarah Padden was cast as Mom Palooka in Monogram's Joe Palooka series.

Trivia: Though never officially billed as Charles "Blackie" King, American actor Charlie King played so many "Blackies" in B-westerns that one is astounded to discover that it wasn't his middle name. Drifting into films in the '20s, the squat, stubble-chinned, mustachioed King picked up minor roles as chauffeurs, interns and bridegrooms in the two-reel comedies of such performers as Our Gang, the Three Stooges and Leon Errol. It was during the B-western boom of the early talkie era that King really came into his own, showing up in virtually every other poverty-row oater as a gang boss, lynch-mob leader or sinister henchman. Evidently King felt the day was wasted if he wasn't dynamiting a dam, setting fire to homesteaders' shacks, or engaging the hero in a fistic battle. Outtakes of these westerns have revealed that this "human monster" was actually shy and soft-spoken, never reverting to profanity when blowing his lines (more than can be said for some of the "clean-living" western heroes of the era). In fact, King's private life was governed by his formidable wife, who had spies posted at the studio to make certain that King came home right away with his paycheck without any side trips to bars or gaming tables. Gaining a beard and excess weight in the late '40s, King began appearing less frequently as villains and more often as roly-poly comedy relief. King literally died with his boots on, suffering a heart attack after shooting a 1957 episode of Gunsmoke -- in which he played a corpse! William K. Everson's 1964 coffee-table book The Bad Guys was affectionately dedicated to the scurrilously prolific Charles "Blackie" King.

Trivia: Pudgy character actor Gene Morgan started out as a utility player in Pathe's Folly comedies in the late teens, then worked for several years at Hal Roach studios. From 1935 to 1940, Morgan was under contract to Columbia Pictures, where he was usually cast as a perplexed cop or city detective. He was fleetingly but memorably seen in such Columbia's as She Couldn't Take It (1935), Meet Nero Wolfe (1936), The Devil's Playground (1937), and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). Gene Morgan made his last appearance in Warner Bros.' Meet John Doe (1941) under the direction of another longtime Columbia contractee, Frank Capra.

Trivia: American actor Selmer Jackson first stepped before the cameras in the 1921 silent film Supreme Passion. Silver-haired and silver-tongued, Jackson so closely resembled such dignified character players as Samuel S. Hinds and Henry O'Neill that at times it was hard to tell which actor was which -- especially when (as often happened at Warner Bros. in the 1930s) all three showed up in the same picture. During World War II, Jackson spent most of his time in uniform as naval and military officers, usually spouting declarations like "Well, men...this is it!" Selmer Jackson's final film appearance was still another uniformed role in 1960's The Gallant Hours.

Trivia: Strappingly handsome leading man Grant Withers worked as an oil company salesman and newspaper reporter before he turned to acting in 1926. One of the more popular second echelon stars of the early '30s, Withers was unable to sustain his celebrity. By the end of the 1930s, Withers was pretty much limited to character roles and bits, with such notable exceptions as the recurring role of the brash Lt. Street in Monogram's Mr. Wong series. In 1930, Withers eloped with 17-year-old actress Loretta Young, but the marriage was later annulled. Some of Withers' later screen appearances were arranged through the auspices of his friends John Ford and John Wayne. Grant Withers committed suicide in 1959, leaving behind a note in which he apologized to all the people he'd let down during his Hollywood days.