Trivia: Brooklyn-born actor John Joseph Patrick Ryan borrowed his stage name "Jack Lord" from a distant relative. Spending his immediate post-college years as a seafaring man, Lord worked as an engineer in Persia before returning to American shores to manage a Greenwich Village art school and paint original work; he flourished within that sphere (often signing his paintings "John J. Ryan,") and in fact exhibited the tableaux at an array of prestigious institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Modern Museum of Art. Lord switched to acting in the late 1940s, studying under Sanford Meisner at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse. In films and television from 1949, Lord (a performer with stark features including deep-set eyes and high cheekbones) played his share of brutish villains and working stiffs before gaining TV fame as star of the critically acclaimed but low-rated rodeo series Stoney Burke (1962). At around the same time, Lord played CIA agent Felix Leiter in the first James Bond film, Dr. No. From 1968 through 1980, Lord starred on the weekly cop drama Hawaii Five-O; producers cast him as Steve McGarrett, a troubleshooter with the Hawaii State Police who spent his days cruising around the islands, cracking open individual cases, and taking on the movers and shakers in Hawaiian organized crime, particularly gangster Wo Fat (Khigh Dhiegh), who eluded capture until the program's final month on the air. Lord also wrote and directed several episodes. After Hawaii 5-0 folded, Jack Lord attempted another Hawaii-based TV series, but M Station: Hawaii (1980) never got any farther than a pilot film. Lord died of congestive heart failure in his Honolulu beachfront home at the age of 77, in January 1998. He was married to Marie Denarde for 50 years.

Trivia: American actor James MacArthur was the adopted son of stage legend Helen Hayes and playwright Charles MacArthur. Despite his mother's insistence that James have a normal childhood, it was difficult not to be intoxicated by the theatre when growing up around the greatest acting and literary talent in the '40s. At age 8, young MacArthur appeared in a stock-company production of The Corn is Green. Fresh out of Harvard, MacArthur became a movie juvenile, specializing in tortured-teen roles in such films as The Young Stranger (1957) and Disney's Light in the Forest (1958). Outgrowing his somewhat charming awkwardness, MacArthur was less satisfying as a standard leading man, and by 1967 he was wasting away in pictures like The Love Ins. That same year, the pilot film for a new Jack Lord cop series, Hawaii Five-O, was screened for a test audience. The group liked the film but not the young man (Tim O'Kelly) who played Lord's assistant, deeming him too young for the part. Hawaii producer Leonard Freeman then called upon 30-year-old MacArthur, with whom Freeman had worked on the Clint Eastwood vehicle Hang 'Em High. From 1968 through 1979, MacArthur played Hawaii Five-0's detective Danny Williams, always handy whenever Jack Lord felt the need to snap "Book 'em, Danno." Though the series enriched MacArthur and made him a vital member of the Honolulu society and business world, the actor finally packed it in after 11 seasons, when it seemed as though he'd be Danno forever (the show continued for one more season). Too wealthy to care about a career at this point, James MacArthur still took an occasional role into the '80s; his most prominent post-Hawaii assignment was the 1980 TV movie Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story, in which he played a rare non-sympathetic character. MacArthur died in October 2010 of natural causes at age 72.

Trivia: Diminutive musical prodigy Paul Williams worked as an apprentice jockey, professional skydiver and insurance salesman before turning to acting. Williams' size and puckish countenance enabled him to play adolescents well into his twenties; one of the best of his early film roles was the surly teenaged genius in The Loved One (1965). Though he kept a hand in acting throughout the 1970s, he was better known for his songwriter accomplishments. Working with such collaborators as Biff Rose, Roger Nichols and Charles Fox, he turned out such enduring song hits as The Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun," Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World," Three Dog Night's "Old Fashioned Love Song" and Dionne Warwick's "That's What Friends Are For." In films, Williams was Oscar nominated for his musical contributions to 1974's Phantom of the Paradise (in which he also starred), 1975's Bugsy Malone and 1979's The Muppet Movie. In 1976, Williams and collaborator Barbra Streisand won an Academy Award for the hit tune "Evergreen," the highlight of the Streisand remake of A Star is Born. As mentioned, Williams was never too busy to accept an occasional acting role. He played Little Enos in the first two Smokey and the Bandit movies, camped it up as Dr. Miguelito Loveless Jr. in the 1979 TV movie The Wild Wild West Returns, and could be heard as the voice of the Penguin in TV's Batman: The Animated Series (1992). Paul Williams was also a popular guest on talk shows, quiz programs and variety series.

Trivia: Born in Grodek, Poland, the erudite actor received an M.A. in psychometrics and a law degree before he turned to performing as half of a comedy team known as Ross & West. On film, he was notable and frightening in Experiment in Terror (1962). Following an undistinguished but busy TV career in the '50s, Martin became one of television's most brilliant chararacter actors. As a regular on the charades-like game shows The Ad-Libbers (1951), Pantomime Quiz (1950-1963), and Stump the Stars (1962-63), he had the chance to show off his lightning mind and acting facility. After playing a supporting role on The Sheriff of Cochise (1956-1960), he costarred as Andamo on Mr. Lucky (1959-60). Martin finally found his niche as TV's "man of a thousand faces" -- Secret Service agent Artemus Gordon -- on the humorous cult spy spoof/western/science fiction series The Wild, Wild West (1965-1969) with Robert Conrad as James West. The show gave him an opportunity to display his acting virtuosity, as he used multiple disguises and accents in almost every episode. Sidelined by a major heart attack near the end of the series and replaced by look-alike Charles Aidman, Martin did mostly guest shots and cartoon voiceovers thereafter. His directing credits include Here's Lucy (1968-74).

Trivia: Making an appearance on the 1950 TV anthology series Magnavox Theater, American actor Robert Clarke was billed as "that fast-rising leading man." What audiences didn't know was that Clarke had been on a very slow ascension for nearly six years. Signed to an RKO contract in 1944, Clarke was seen in such budget-conscious productions as The Body Snatcher, Bedlam, and Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome. Beginning with 1951's The Man From Planet X, he became a fixture of inexpensive horror and sci-fi epics. His film manifest includes such jewels as Captive Women (1952), The Incredible Petrified World (1962), and Terror of the Bloodhunters (1962). Upon completing The Astounding She-Monster (1958), Clarke, by now convinced that any film could attain a release no matter how wretched, made his directorial debut with The Hideous Sun Demon (1958). With such lofty credits to his name, Clarke was bound to achieve cult-idol status at some point or another; he became a much sought-after interview subject and movie-convention guest speaker during the 1980s and 1990s. In 1995, Robert Clarke, in collaboration with film historian Tom Weaver, penned an entertaining autobiography, To "B" or Not to "B": A Filmmaker's Odyssey.