Trivia: While still of high-school age, Marjorie Lord was a contract ingenue at RKO, playing the deadpan leading lady in two Wheeler and Woolsey comedies: Off Again On Again (1937) and High Flyers (1937). She moved to Universal Pictures in the 1940s, where she was decorative (and little else) in the studio's serials, westerns, and "B" pictures (notably 1942's Sherlock Holmes in Washington). Her best role during this period was opposite James Cagney in Johnny Come Lately (1943); she later had the chance to essay a villainous characterization in the independently produced The Strange Mrs. Crane (1948). Full stardom eluded Lord until 1957, when she replaced Jean Hagen as Mrs. Danny Williams on TV's The Danny Thomas Show (aka Make Room for Daddy). She played Kathy Williams until the series' cancellation in 1964, then re-created the role in the 1969 "revival" series Make Room For Granddaddy. She continued acting until the mid-1980s. The mother of actress Anne Archer, with whom she appeared in the 1978 TV movie Harold Robbins' The Pirate., Lord died in 2015, at age 97.

Trivia: Though she was best known as a young TV star, Angela Cartwright also appeared in perennial movie musical favorite The Sound of Music (1965). Born in England, Cartwright's family moved to Los Angeles when she was three. Cartwright soon made her film debut, at the ripe old age of three and a half, in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956). Cast in 1957 as stepdaughter Linda on Danny Thomas' TV hit Make Room for Daddy, retitled The Danny Thomas Show, Cartwright stayed with the series until it ended in 1964. It was Cartwright's two mid-'60s credits, though, that captured the most devoted fans. As The Sound of Music's pretty Brigitta Von Trapp, Cartwright became one of the seven children taught to sing and love life by buoyant nun/stepmother Julie Andrews. With its Rodgers & Hammerstein songs and unbridled sentiment, The Sound of Music broke box office records, becoming a beloved classic. Cartwright then joined the cast of Irwin Allen's low-tech TV series Lost in Space as young teen daughter Penny Robinson. Though the show only ran from 1965 to 1968, Lost in Space attracted a durable cult following; Cartwright had a cameo in the 1998 film version. After Lost in Space ended, Cartwright made sporadic appearances in films and TV in the subsequent decades, including Irwin Allen's disaster flick sequel Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979). Married since 1976, Cartwright has two children and made a career outside of acting as a photographer, writer, and boutique owner. Her older sister is actress Veronica Cartwright.

Trivia: The archetypal side-of-the-mouth Runyonesque gangster, Sheldon Leonard's actual mean-streets experience was confined to travelling with a fairly benign teenaged gang in a New York suburb. In fact, if we are to believe his future business partner Danny Thomas, Leonard never met a bonafide gangster until Thomas introduced him to one in the mid-1950s! A graduate of Syracuse University, Leonard began his acting career on radio and the stage, appearing in such Broadway productions as Kiss the Boys Goodbye and Having Wonderful Time. Starting with 1939's Another Thin Man, Leonard made a good living as a movie mob boss, henchman, and all-around tough guy. He played a rare leading role (and a romantic lead, to boot) in PRC's Why Girls Leave Home (1944). Leonard was also a regular on radio's Jack Benny Program, playing a laconic racetrack tout. During the 1950s and 1960s, Leonard became a successful television producer, overseeing such sitcoms as The Danny Thomas Show, The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show and Gomer Pyle USMC. He also spearheaded I Spy, the first TV action series with an African American star (Bill Cosby). His television activities extended to the domain of Saturday morning cartoons, as the voice of animated character Linus the Lionhearted. Sheldon Leonard continued producing into the mid-1970s, renaming his production company Deezdemandoze, in honor of his patented gangster patois. Leonard passed away in his home at age 89.

Trivia: Diminutive, jug-eared comic actor Sid Melton cut his acting teeth in the touring companies of such Broadway hits as See My Lawyer and Three Men on a Horse. Though he once listed his film debut as being 1945's Model Wife, Melton showed up onscreen as early as 1942, playing one of the students in Blondie Goes to College. Mostly showing up in bits and minor roles in big-studio features, Melton enjoyed starring assignments at bargain-basement Lippert Studios, notably the 1951 "sleeper" The Steel Helmet. His film career extended into the 1970s, when he was seen in a sizeable role in the Diana Ross starrer Lady Sings the Blues (1975). Sid Melton's TV credits include the cult-favorite roles of Ichabod Mudd ("with two D's!") on Captain Midnight and nightclub owner Charley Halper on The Danny Thomas Show.

Trivia: Educated at Catholic University, American actress Pat Carroll trained for a career in musical comedy. From her 1950 off-Broadway debut in Come What May onward, the blonde, full-figured comedienne seldom lacked work. A busy television actress in the 1950s, Carroll won a 1956 Emmy for her work on Caesar's Hour. After starring in a 1959 Broadway revival of On the Town, Carroll settled in for a three-season run (1961-64) as Bunny Halper, wife of nightclub manager Charlie Halper (Sid Melton), on The Danny Thomas Show. The episode wherein Bunny has a baby garnered some of Danny Thomas' biggest ratings, encouraging the producers to develop a spin-off series for Carroll and Melton; this never materialized, nor did Carroll provide the voice of Jane Jetson on the cartoon series The Jetsons, as had been announced by Hanna-Barbera. Since the 1964 cancellation of Danny Thomas, Carroll has been a regular on such series as Getting Together (1971), Bustin' Loose (1977), The Ted Knight Show (1978) and She's the Sheriff (1986). During the last decade, Pat Carroll starred in the one-woman stage show Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein, and provided the speaking and singing voice of flamboyant sea-witch Ursula in Disney's 1989 animated feature The Little Mermaid.