Love, American Style - "Love and the Logical Explanation; Love and the Groupie" - 08:30 am Saturday, November 1 on WJLP MeTV+

Bob Crane (Actor)

Born: July 13, 1928
Died: June 29, 1978
Birthplace: Waterbury, Connecticut, United States

Trivia: American actor Bob Crane is best remembered for playing the crafty POW Col. Hogan on the 1960s television comedy Hogan's Heroes, but he also played leads in a few films during the '50s and '60s. Crane was born in Waterbury, Connecticut. He began his career as a drummer and played with dance bands and a symphony orchestra. He also worked as a radio announcer at various stations around the U.S. before hosting a morning talk show in Hollywood. Next Crane began appearing regularly on the Donna Reed Show. In 1978, he was mysteriously murdered, and the case remains unsolved. He was married to Sigrid Valdis, an actress.

Carmen Zapata (Actor)

Born: July 15, 1927
Died: January 05, 2014

Warren Berlinger (Actor)

Born: August 31, 1937
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, United States

Trivia: Trained at New York's Professional Children's School, Warren Berlinger made his first stage appearance at the age of 11. At 17, Berlinger was showered with critical praise for his performance in the 1955 Broadway production A Roomful of Roses, in which he appeared with his future wife, actress Betty Lou Keim. Both Berlinger and Keim repeated their roles in the 1956 film version of Roses, retitled Teen-age Rebel. In 1958, he won a Theatre World Award for his performance in Blue Denim, again re-creating his role in the 1959 film adaptation. He scored a huge hit in the 1963 London production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, essaying his favorite role, J. Pierpont Finch. In films, Berlinger's stock-in-trade has been the portrayal of plump, good-natured schmoes; he was still conveying this image into the 1980s and 1990s in films like The World According to Garp (1982) and Hero (1992). On television, he played the lead in the "Kilroy" episodes of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color(1965) and had regular roles on The Joey Bishop Show (1961), as Joey's brother Larry, The Funny Side (1971), A Touch of Grace (1973), Operation Petticoat (1977) and Small and Frye (1983). Distantly related to comedian Milton Berle, Warren Berlinger appeared with "Uncle Miltie" in the 1975 feature Lepke.

Angel Tompkins (Actor)

Born: December 20, 1942
Birthplace: Albany, California

Trivia: After a few seasons' work as a model in the Chicago area, golden-haired Angel Tompkins began showing up in supporting roles on such TV series as Dragnet. In 1970, Tompkins was honored with the "most promising newcomer" Golden Globe Award for her performance as Elliott Gould's mistress Helen Donnelly in I Love My...Wife (1970). Her nude scenes as gangster moll Clarabelle in Prime Cut (1972) earned Tompkins a three-page spread in Playboy magazine; around the same time, she was cast as telemetry specialist Gloria Harding on the TV weekly Search. She spent much the mid-1970s headlining such tickle-and-tease exploitationers as The Teacher (1974). Some of her best work during this period can be found in Little Cigars (1973), an underrated crime caper which cast her as the "brains" behind a gang of crooked midgets! Briefly retiring from show business in 1976, Tompkins made a comeback in the John Sayles-scripted terrorfest Alligator (1980); since that time, she has been seen as one of psycho killer Carrie Snodgress' victims in Murphy's Law (1985), and in a self-mocking cameo in Amazon Women of the Moon (1987).

Richard Dawson (Actor)

Born: November 20, 1932
Died: June 02, 2012
Birthplace: Gosport, Hampshire, England

Trivia: Trained in British repertory, actor Richard Dawson achieved prominence in the late '50s as a cabaret and TV comedian. Arriving in the U.S. in 1961, Dawson made the variety-show rounds with an act consisting largely of quickie celebrity impressions. One of his first acting assignment was as Peter Sellers' takeoff Racy Tracy Rattigan in a 1963 episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. A solid dramatic role as a military prisoner in King Rat led to a longer stint as resourceful cockney POW Peter Newkirk on the popular sitcom Hogan's Heroes (1965-1971). After appearing as a regular on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and The New Dick Van Dyke Show, Dawson settled into his true niche as a wisecracking game-show host. From 1976 through 1985, he emceed TV's The Family Feud, winning an Emmy Award for his troubles (he later resumed his Family Feud hosting chores in the 1994 syndicated version). Fittingly enough, Richard Dawson's first feature-film role after Feud was as the smarmy host of a futuristic life-or-death quiz program in Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Running Man (1989).

Love, American Style: Love and the Logical Explanation; Love and the Groupie

08:30 am - 09:00 am, Saturday, November 1 on WJLP MeTV+ (33.8)

Love and the Logical Explanation; Love and the Groupie