Trivia: Commenting on his notorious on-set irascibility in 1977, Jack Klugman replied that he was merely "taking Peter Falk lessons from Robert Blake," invoking the names of two other allegedly hard-to-please TV stars. Klugman grew up in Philadelphia, and after taking in a 1939 performance by New York's Group Theatre, Klugman decided that an actor's life was right up his alley. He majored in drama at Carnegie Tech and studied acting at the American Theatre Wing before making his (non-salaried) 1949 stage-debut at the Equity Library Theater. While sharing a New York flat with fellow hopeful Charles Bronson, Klugman took several "grub" jobs to survive, at one point selling his blood for $85 a pint. During television's so-called Golden Age, Klugman appeared in as many as 400 TV shows. He made his film debut in 1956, and three years later co-starred with Ethel Merman in the original Broadway production of Gypsy. In 1964, Klugman won the first of his Emmy awards for his performance in "Blacklist," an episode of the TV series The Defenders; that same year, he starred in his first sitcom, the 13-week wonder Harris Against the World. Far more successful was his next TV series, The Odd Couple, which ran from 1970 through 1974; Klugman won two Emmies for his portrayal of incorrigible slob Oscar Madison (he'd previously essayed the role when he replaced Walter Matthau in the original Broadway production of the Neil Simon play). It was during Odd Couple's run that the network "suits" got their first real taste of Klugman's savage indignation, when he and co-star Tony Randall threatened to boycott the show unless the idiotic laughtrack was removed (Klugman and Randall won that round; from 1971 onward, Odd Couple was filmed before a live audience). It was but a foretaste of things to come during Klugman's six-year (1977-83) reign as star of Quincy, M.E.. Popular though Klugman was in the role of the crusading, speechifying LA County Coroner's Office medical examiner R. Quincy, he hardly endeared himself to the producers when he vented his anger against their creative decisions in the pages of TV Guide. Nor was he warmly regarded by the Writer's Guild when he complained about the paucity of high-quality scripts (he wrote several Quincy episodes himself, with mixed results). After Quincy's cancellation, Klugman starred in the Broadway play I'm Not Rappaport and co-starred with John Stamos in the 1986 sitcom You Again?. The future of Klugman's career -- and his future, period -- was sorely threatened when he underwent throat surgery in 1989. He'd been diagnosed with cancer of the larynx as early as 1974, but at that time was able to continue working after a small growth was removed. For several years after the 1989 operation, Klugman was unable to speak, though he soon regained this ability. He continued working through 2011, and died the following year at age 90.

Trivia: Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1931, Robert Ito has spent his film career as a character actor, often in the science fiction genre. He enjoyed success on the long-running television series Quincy, and his voice has been used in many animated films, such as Batman and Superman.Robert Ito's first performances were on the stage as a dancer in the National Ballet of Canada. After a decade with the company, Ito moved to New York in the 1960s, to dance on Broadway in The Flower Drum Song.Ito moved to Hollywood and began his film career in 1966 with some forgettable science fiction vehicles, such as Women of the Prehistoric Planet and Dimension 5. The B-movie genre often turned to Ito when it wanted an actor to portray someone of his Japanese heritage. Over the years, he played many such roles, the most outstanding of which was his performance as Professor Hikita, the kidnapped scientist in the 1984 cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.Ito fared well in television, in which he was given roles that showcased his talents in made-for-television movies and series. He appeared in some memorable dramas, such as Helter Skelter (1976), American Geisha (1986), and The War Between Us (1996). The latter film starred Ito as a Canadian World War I veteran and patriarch of a family of Japanese descent, forced to leave his home in Vancouver during the dark days of Japanese resettlement following Pearl Harbor.Ito also gained distinction for his role as Fong in the Kung Fu series, as well as on popular show Quincy. He made cameo appearances in many other television shows including Magnum, P.I. and Star Trek, which featured him in a 2001 production.

Trivia: Joshua Shelley was one of the more enduring victims of Hollywood's blacklist, a fate that overtook him almost as soon as he'd made his big-screen debut. A New York native who began performing at the age of four (when he recited Lincoln's Gettysburg Address at a Brooklyn department store), he became a vaudeville bandleader while attending New York University (also working, in time, as a student journalist), and played in some touring shows before the war. Shelley was drafted in 1942 and served in a special services unit attached to the Tenth Mountain Division. After World War II, he was cast in the musical-fantasy One Touch of Venus, playing three roles in the stage production. In 1948, he was in the cast of Make Mine Manhattan, a hit stage revue written by Shelley's former NYU classmate Arnold B. Horwitt, with Oskar Homolka, Jessie Royce Landis, and Nancy Walker. Shelley's biggest role on stage during this period, however, was as Ozzie in On The Town (the part that Jules Munshin played in the movie). During the late '40s, Shelley also made hundreds of appearances on radio in dramatic roles, on programs such as Dick Tracy, Counterspy, and This Is Your F.B.I., and on early television, primarily in dramatic vehicles, including the ABC anthology series Actors' Studio. He also later served as a disc jockey on WINS. Shelley came to Hollywood in 1949, making his debut in the Universal Pictures college musical Yes Sir, That's my Baby (a sort of poor man's Good News). It was his second movie, however, in the role of Crazy Parrin in Maxwell Shane's City Across the River, that should have put Shelley on the map. He played a character who was both pathetic and terrifying: Crazy is a mildly retarded member of the street gang the Dukes, one minute vulnerable and exploited by the men and women around him, the next a knife-wielding would-be killer tormenting anyone, male or female, that he thinks has crossed him or the gang. Shelley gave the performance of a lifetime -- dominating every scene he is in from the opening shot -- but he was to reap precious little reward for it. He was named as a Communist after the movie's release, and that was to be his last film for more than 15 years. Shelley, who had played hundreds of radio and television parts, found the broadcast media closed to him as well, and he returned to theatrical work during the 1950s. Some of those theater projects were, themselves, fairly controversial and challenging, including the musical I Want You, staged by satirist Theodore J. Flicker (later the director of the films The Troublemaker and The President's Analyst). Later there were again television series like Barney Miller and Phoenix 55, a satire of the '50s middle class starring Shelley, Harvey Lembeck, and Nancy Walker. In the summer of 1955, Shelley was one of a group of witnesses (also including Lee Hays of the Weavers) called to testify before hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee, investigating supposed Communist infiltration of the entertainment industry. He never gave up on his career, despite the harassment that cut short his film and television work, and by the early '60s Shelley had re-emerged as a director, first on stage and then, as the influence of the Red Scare vanished, on television and in movies; he directed the extremely funny pilot to an unsold series called The Freudian Slip, written and created by Woody Allen, and co-directed the feature film release of The Perils of Pauline, starring Pat Boone and Pamela Austin. As an actor, he appeared in All The President's Men, Funny Lady, Billy Wilder's version of The Front Page, such TV movies as Kojak: The Marcus Nelson Murders, the mini-series Loose Change, and on series such as All In The Family and Kojak. He was also active as a director, on episodes of The Odd Couple, among other sitcoms. Shelley also gave a major supporting performance in Martin Ritt's comedy-drama about the blacklist era, The Front, starring Woody Allen and a cast of ex-blacklistees. In addition, he became a well-known teacher during the 1970s, and ironically, given the years of blacklisting, was given responsibility for training new acting talent at Columbia Pictures during the late '70s, in an attempt to revive the old Hollywood notion of contract players at the studio. Steven Spielberg and Martin Ritt were among the filmmakers who appeared as guest instructors under the program. Shelley died in his sleep, of a heart attack, early in 1990.

Trivia: The son of a court reporter, actor Lew Ayres began his performing career upon high school graduation when he attempted to make a living as a banjo player. Ayres' college-boy good looks led to extra work in the movies, and before he was 21 the young actor was starring opposite Greta Garbo in The Kiss (1929).Director Lewis Milestone, recognizing Ayres' natural talent and precocious self-confidence, cast him in the demanding role of disillusioned German soldier Paul Baumer in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), an intensely powerful antiwar film which went on to win an Academy Award. Ayres was superb, but his gentle demeanor and callow handsomeness resulted in his being stereotyped in film roles as a spoiled rich boy (though one of these roles, as Katharine Hepburn's perennially drunken younger brother in Holiday (1938), was among the actor's best work).Ayres' star status was boosted in 1938 when he was hired to play Dr. Kildare in MGM's long-running series of Kildare B-pictures. After appearing in nine Kildare films, he declared himself a conscientious objector and refused to bear weapons when called upon to serve in World War II; the actor was publicly perceived to be a coward, and MGM dropped his contract. After the war, the public learned of Ayres' bravery under fire as a non-combatant medical corpsman, and he was permitted to resume his career. He continued to work in character roles throughout the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s; he even portrayed one of Mary Richards' dates on a 1976 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. As active socially as he was professionally, Ayres was married three times; his second wife was Ginger Rogers. Two days after celebrating his 88th birthday, Ayres died in his sleep in his Los Angeles home.

Trivia: A veteran character actor of stage and screen, George O. Petrie will be recognized by fans of the NBC sitcom Mad About You as Paul Reiser's film editor. A native of New Haven, CT, and a 1934 graduate from U.S.C., Petrie's interest in acting led him to New York where he landed a role in the Broadway production of Cafe Crown. While serving in the military during WWII, Petrie appeared in the Broadway production of The Army Play by Play, a five-part anthology comprised of vignettes penned by soldiers from as many camps. The show ran for six months and played a command performance before President Roosevelt. Upon transferring to the Air Corps, Petrie was cast in Moss Hart's inspirational Winged Victory. Following its four-month run, Petrie went on to appear in George Cukor's film version. Petrie became a radio performer after his discharge and starred in several dramas, including The Amazing Mr. Malone. He turned to television acting in the '50s and began starring in live soap operas such as As the World Turns and Edge of Night as well as playing a semi-regular part on Jackie Gleason's The Honeymooners. Petrie would remain associated with Gleason on various projects through 1969. Petrie's filmography includes Hud (1963), Something in Common (1986), and Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987). Petrie died of lymphoma in his Brentwood, CA, home at the age 85.

Trivia: American actor Marland Proctor played supporting roles in a number of '70s exploitation films such as Chrome and Hot Leather. He got his start on-stage in the early '60s playing off-Broadway and in California. Proctor also appeared frequently on television.