Trivia: A Yankee Doodle dandy born on the fourth of July, actor George Murphy was the son of an Olympic track coach. He tried the Navy at age 15, but soon returned home to complete his high school and college education. He never finished college, choosing instead to pursue a dancing career. In 1927, Murphy and his partner-wife Julie Johnson made it to Broadway; by the early 1930s Mrs. Murphy had retired and George had become a star solo dancer. He made his screen bow in support of Eddie Cantor, Ethel Merman, and Ann Sothern in Kid Millions (1934). Never a major star, Murphy was an agreeable presence in several big-budget musicals of the 1930s and 1940s, and later essayed straight dramatic parts in such films as Border Incident (1949) and Battleground (1949). He also crossed paths with two of his future fellow Republican politicos, dancing with Shirley Temple in Little Miss Broadway (1938) and playing the father of Ronald Reagan (nine years Murphy's junior!) in This Is the Army (1943). Like Reagan, Murphy was a Democrat until becoming involved in intra-Hollywood politics. Changing to Republicanism in 1939, Murphy worked to cement relationships between local government and the movie industry, and in 1945 he served the first of two terms as President of the Screen Actors Guild (Reagan was, of course, one of his successors). After his last film, an odd MGM second feature about mob mentality titled Talk About a Stranger (1952), Murphy retired from show business to devote his full time to political and business activities. He was instrumental in getting Desilu Studios, the TV factory created by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, off the ground in the late 1950s, serving for several years on its board of directors. Murphy became one of the first actors to throw his hat into the political arena in 1964 when he was elected to the U.S. Senate. Despite throat surgery which prevented him from speaking above a hoarse whisper, Murphy remained active in Republican circles into the 1970s, helping smooth the path to several elections of increasing importance for his old pal Ronald Reagan.

Trivia: Though perhaps best remembered for playing the suave, mysterious Mr. Roarke on the popular television series Fantasy Island (1978-1984), and for his car commercials in which he seductively exhorted the pleasures of the upholstery ("Rich, Corinthian leather") in his distinctive Spanish accent, Ricardo Montalban once played romantic leads in major features of the '40s and '50s. He also had a successful career on-stage. Born Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalban y Merino in Mexico City, Montalban spent part of his youth in the U.S. The tall, dark, handsome, and curly haired actor first worked as a bit player on Broadway before returning to Mexico in the early '40s and launching a film career there. By 1947, he had returned to the States and signed with MGM. That year, Montalban played his first leading role opposite Cyd Charisse in the romantic musical Fiesta (1947). It would be the first of many roles in which he would play a passionate singing and dancing "Latin Lover." He and Charisse again teamed up as dancers in the Esther Williams musical water extravaganza in On an Island With You (1948). At one point, it was a toss-up between Montalban and fellow MGM "LL" Fernando Lamas as to which was more popular. It would not be until 1949 before Montalban had the opportunity to play a non-romantic role as a border agent who gets revenge upon the killers of his partner in Border Incident. His second serious role in Battleground (1949) ranks among his best performances. By the late '50s, he had become a character actor, often cast in ethnic roles, notably that of a genteel Japanese Kabuki actor in Sayonara (1957). He had occasionally appeared on television since the late '50s, but did not appear regularly until the mid-'70s. In 1976, Montalban earned an Emmy for his portrayal of a Sioux chief in the television miniseries How the West Was Won. In the early '70s he was part of a touring troupe that read dramatic excerpts from Shaw's Don Juan in Hell. In 1982, Montalban reprised a role he had made famous on the original Star Trek TV series as the ruthless Khan to star in the second Star Trek feature, The Wrath of Khan. In the '80s, Montalban only sporadically appeared in feature films. His television career also slowed, though he occasionally appeared on series such as The Colbys (1985-1987) and Heaven Help Us! (1994). Montalban has written an autobiography, Reflections: A Life in Two Worlds (1980). Confined to a wheelchair after a 1993 spinal operation left him paralyzed from the waist down, Montalban remiained in good health despite being in constant pain, and continued to play an active role in promoting Nostros - a non-profit organization founded by Montalban in 1970 and dedicated to improving the image of Latinos within the entertainment industry. In the late 1990s and early 2000s Moltalban's career recieved something of a second wind when he began performing vocal work on such animated television series' as Freakazoid!, Dora the Explorer, and Kim Possible, with a role as the kindly grandfather in Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over even giving the wheelchair-bound actor an opportunity to triumphantly rise once again thanks to the magic of special effects. Additional vocal work in the 2006 animated family adventure The Ant Bully continued to keep Montalban busy despite his physical limitations. His brother, Carlos Montalban, was also an actor.

Trivia: Howard Da Silva worked the steel mills of Pennsylvania to pay his way through Carnegie Institute. After finishing his acting training, Da Silva went to work for Eva Le Galliene's theatrical troupe. He brought attention to himself by staging a one-man show, Ten Million Ghosts, which led to several years' work with Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre. On Broadway, the stocky, booming-voiced Da Silva created the roles of Jack Armstrong in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (a part he re-created in the 1940 film version) and Jud Frye in Oklahoma. His earliest movie appearance was in the Manhattan-filmed Jimmy Savo vehicle Once in a Blue Moon (1934), but Da Silva didn't gain cinematic prominence until signed by Paramount in the 1940s, where among many other choice assignments he was cast as the bartender in the Oscar-winning The Lost Weekend (1945). As one of most vocal and demonstrative of Hollywood's Left Wing, Da Silva became a convenient target for the House Un-American Activities Commission, and he was blacklisted. Unable to find movie or TV work, DaSilva returned to the stage in the 1950s, not facing the cameras again until 1962's David and Lisa (1962). Among his many memorable portrayals of the 1970s were Benjamin Franklin in stage and film versions of 1776, Nikita Khrushchev in the 3-hour TV drama Missiles of October, and his award-winning supporting performance in PBS' Verna: The USO Girl. Howard Da Silva also appeared in both the 1949 and 1974 versions of The Great Gatsby, playing the tragic garage owner Mr Wilson in the first version, and the Arnold Rothstein-like gambler Meyer Wolfsheim in the second.

Trivia: Broadway musical comedy performer James Mitchell made his first screen appearance in a non-musical role in 1944's Cobra Woman. His most celebrated screen assignment was as Gordon MacRae's dancing counterpart in the Agnes DeMille's "Dream Ballet" sequence in Oklahoma (1955). Nearly 25 years later, he gained a loyal daytime-drama following as Palmer Cortland on ABC's All My Children. James Mitchell remained active in films and TV until 1990.

Trivia: Upon receiving a master's degree in teaching at New York University, American actor Arnold Moss decided that the life of a teacher wasn't for him and set to find theatre work. Moss was engaged by the LeGallienne Civic Repertory Theatre, where he played his first villainous role in Peter Pan. Radio provided a great deal of work for Moss, whose deep, mellifluous voice was perfect for narration and commercial assignments; additionally, he produced and wrote for various radio series. The actor's first film was Temptation; with his Satanic eyebrows and raven-like features Moss was generally cast as high-born villains or sinister foreigners. Moss made two memorable appearances in Bob Hope films, first as Hope's Casablanca contact in the espionage spoof My Favorite Spy and then as a conniving Venetian doge in Casanova's Big Night. Arnold Moss was also shown to good advantage as the usurping Antonio in the 1960 Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Shakespeare's The Tempest, which starred Maurice Evans and Richard Burton.

Trivia: Beaming, heavily mustached Mexican actor Alfonso Bedoya was sent by his family to a private school in Texas, but he grew bored with the routine and dropped out. Forcibly brought back to Mexico by his older brother, Bedoya became an actor on his home turf, During the war years, he was seen in choice character roles both mirthful and menacing in a reputed 175 Mexican films. Alfonso Bedoya's unforgettable American film debut was in 1948's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; as vicious bandit leader Gold Hat, Bedoya entered the standard repertoire of impressionists everywhere by spewing the immortal line "Idon't have to show you any steenkin' badges!!!"

Trivia: Gravel-voiced, granite-faced stage actor Charles McGraw made his first film The Moon is Down in 1943. At first it seemed as though McGraw would spend his movie career languishing in villainy, but while working at RKO in the late 1940s-early 1950s, the actor developed into an unorthodox but fascinating leading man. His shining hour (actually 72 minutes) was the role of the embittered detective assigned to protect mob witness Marie Windsor in the 1952 noir classic The Narrow Margin. McGraw continued being cast in the raffish-hero mold on television, essaying the lead in the 1954 syndicated series Adventures of Falcon and assuming the Bogartesque role of café owner Rick Blaine in the 1955 weekly TV adaptation of Casablanca (1955) (his last regular TV work was the supporting part of Captain Hughes on the 1971 Henry Fonda starrer The Smith Family). Active until the mid-1970s, Charles McGraw growled and scowled his way through such choice character roles as gladiator trainer Marcellus in Spartacus (1960), Sebastian Sholes in Hitchcock's The Birds (1963), and The Preacher in the cult favorite A Boy and His Dog (1975).

Trivia: Trained for an industrial career but sidetracked into showbiz by a few seasons at Pasadena Playhouse, "Mr. Average Man" utility player John Ridgely spent most of his Hollywood years at Warner Bros. From his first film Submarine D-1 (1937), Ridgely was one of the studio's most reliable and ubiquitous supporting players, portraying first-reel murder victims, last-reel "surprise" killers, best friends, policemen, day laborers, and military officers. One of his largest film roles was the commanding officer in Howard Hawks' Air Force (1943), in which he was billed over the more famous John Garfield. His indeterminate features could also convey menace, as witness his portrayal of blackmailing gangsters Eddie Mars in Hawks' The Big Sleep (1946). Freelancing after 1948, John Ridgely continued to essay general-purpose parts until he left films in 1953; thereafter he worked in summer-theater productions and television until his death from a heart attack at the age of 58.

Trivia: One of the youngest "old codgers" in show business, Arthur Hunnicutt left college when funds ran out and joined an acting troupe in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. His first important New York engagement was in the Theatre Guild's production of Love's Old Sweet Song. Hunnicutt entered films in 1942, specializing in grizzled western sidekicks even though he was only in his early 30s. When Percy Kilbride retired from the "Ma and Pa Kettle" series in 1955, Hunnicutt, still a youngster in comparison to Kilbride's sixtysomething co-star Marjorie Main, filled the gap in The Kettles in the Ozarks (1955). And when director Howard Hawks needed someone to play a Walter Brennan-type role when Brennan wasn't available for The Big Sky (1952) and El Dorado (1967), Hunnicutt was the man of the hour (his work in Big Sky won him an Oscar nomination). Arthur Hunnicutt was last seen in 1975's The Moonrunners, at long playing someone closer to his own age.

Trivia: Born in Germany, actor Sig Rumann studied electro-technology in college before returning to his native Hamburg to study acting. He worked his way up from bits to full leads in such theatrical centers as Stettin and Kiel before serving in World War I. Rumann came to New York in 1924 to appear in German-language plays. He was discovered simultaneously by comedian George Jessel, playwright George S. Kaufman, and critic Alexander Woollcott. He began chalking up an impressive list of stage roles, notably Baron Preysig in the 1930 Broadway production of Grand Hotel (in the role played by Wallace Beery in the 1932 film version). Rumann launched his film career at the advent of talkies, hitting his stride in the mid 1930s. During his years in Hollywood, he whittled down his stage name from Siegfried Rumann to plain Sig Ruman. The personification of Prussian pomposity, Rumann was a memorable foil for the Marx Brothers in A Night at the Opera (1935), A Day at the Races (1937), and A Night in Casablanca (1946). He also was a favorite of director Ernst Lubitsch, appearing in Ninotchka (1939) as a bombastic Soviet emissary and in To Be or Not to Be (1942) as the unforgettable "Concentration Camp Ehrardt." With the coming of World War II, Ruman found himself much in demand as thick-headed, sometimes sadistic Nazis. Oddly, in The Hitler Gang (1944), Rumann was cast in a comparatively sympathetic role, as the ailing and senile Von Hindenburg. After the war, Rumann was "adopted" by Lubitsch admirer Billy Wilder, who cast the actor in such roles as the deceptively good-natured Sgt. Schultz in Stalag 17 (1953) and a marinet doctor in The Fortune Cookie (1966); Wilder also used Rumann's voice to dub over the guttural intonations of German actor Hubert von Meyerinck in One, Two, Three (1961). In delicate health during his last two decades, Rumann occasionally accepted unbilled roles, such as the kindly pawnbroker in O. Henry's Full House (1952). During one of his heartier periods, he had a recurring part on the 1952 TV sitcom Life with Luigi. Rumann's last film appearance was as a shoe-pounding Russian UN delegate in Jerry Lewis' Way... Way Out (1967).

Trivia: With his learned countenance and a correct Germanic manner that could be avuncular or threatening, Otto Waldis was one of the more familiar European character actors in Hollywood and on television in the years after World War II. Born Otto Brunn in Vienna, Austria, in 1901, he turned to acting in his twenties and made his screen debut in an uncredited role in Fritz Lang's M in 1931. He worked in one more movie that year -- Kinder Vor Gericht -- and then was unseen in films until after the war. Waldis' career resumed in 1947 in Hollywood under the aegis of his fellow European expatriate, director Max Ophüls, in the latter's The Exile. He was fully employed over the next decade, working constantly in television and movies, his performances covering a wide swath of entertainment. In 1948 alone, before he'd even made the jump to television, Waldis worked in popular, big studio productions like Henry Hathaway's Call Northside 777, Jacques Tourneur's Berlin Express, and independent films such as Ophüls' Letter From an Unknown Woman. He went on to play character roles in lighter fare, including the comedies I Was a Male War Bride and Love Happy (both 1949). With his wizened, bespectacled presence and correct Austrian bearing, Waldis was suited to roles ranging from valets to scientists; in The Whip Hand (1951), he played an unrepentant Nazi germ-warfare expert, while in Unknown World (1951) and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958), he played more benign scientists. But in 5 Fingers (1952), he was a Pullman porter, and in the Adventures of Superman episode "The Whistling Bird," he was part of a criminal conspiracy. He would occasionally play much more offbeat parts, such as Patch-Eye in Prince Valiant (1954). He closed out the 1950s portraying a police officer in Edward Dmytryk's disastrous remake of The Blue Angel (1959). Waldis' activity slackened considerably in the '60s, a period in which he made his first appearances in German films since the '30s. He was back in Hollywood during the '70s and had just been signed to appear in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein at the time of his death from a heart attack in early 1974.

Trivia: American character actor Harry Antrim is noted for his versatility. He primarily appeared in films of the '40s and '50s following extensive theatrical and opera experience.

Trivia: When diehard American movie fans speak of Jack Lambert, they are generally not referring to the British character actor of that name, but of the New York-born supporting player who was most often seen in gangster roles. Following Broadway experience, Lambert came to Hollywood in 1943, to menace Kay Kyser in the MGM musical comedy Swing Fever. Usually a secondary bad guy, Lambert was the main menace -- a scarfaced thug with a hook for a hand -- in Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947). A less malevolent Jack Lambert was seen on a weekly basis as Joshua on the 1959-60 TV adventure series Riverboat.

Trivia: In films from the early 1930s, Fred Graham was one of Hollywood's busiest stunt men and stunt coordinators. A fixture of the Republic serial unit in the 1940s and 1950s, Graham was occasionally afforded a speaking part, usually as a bearded villain. His baseball expertise landed him roles in films like Death on the Diamond (1934), Angels in the Outfield (1951) and The Pride of St. Louis (1952). He was also prominently featured in several John Wayne vehicles, including She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Fighting Kentuckian (1949), The Horse Soldiers (1959) and The Alamo (1960). After retiring from films, Fred Graham served as director of the Arizona Motion Pictures Development Office.

Trivia: Husky actor Mitchell Lewis attended Annapolis and Syracus University before making his stage debut in 1902. Lewis went on tour with such theatrical heavyweights as William Collier, Dustin Farnum and Alla Nazimova. He made his film bow in 1914 at the old Thanhouser Company. Specializing in ethnic roles, Lewis spent both the silent and talkie era playing menacing gypsies (The Cuckoos, The Bohemina Girl), Arab potentates (he was horse-loving Sheik Iderim in the 1926 version of Ben-Hur), East Indian warriors and Native American chiefs. He even donned blackface to portray "Tambo" in Al Jolson's Big Boy (1930). In 1937, Lewis was signed to an MGM lifetime contract, which assured him steady if not always stellar work for the next eighteen years. One of his many MGM bit-part assignments was the green-skinned Winkie Captain ("You've killed her! She's dead! Long live Dorothy!") in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Active throughout his career in charitable pursuits, Mitchell Lewis served on the original board of the Motion Picture Relief Fund.

Trivia: His European/Scandinavia heritage notwithstanding, actor Martin Garralaga was most effectively cast in Latin American roles. Many of his screen appearances were uncredited, but in 1944 he was awarded co-starring status in a series of Cisco Kid westerns produced at Monogram. Duncan Renaldo starred as Cisco, with Garralaga as comic sidekick Pancho. In 1946, Monogram producer Scott R. Dunlap realigned the Cisco Kid series; Renaldo remained in the lead, but now Garralaga's character name changed from picture to picture, and sometimes he showed up as the villain. Eventually Garralaga was replaced altogether by Leo Carrillo, who revived the Pancho character. Outside of his many westerns, Martin Garralaga could be seen in many wartime films with foreign settings; he shows up as a headwaiter in the 1942 classic Casablanca.

Trivia: Muscular actor William "Bill" Phillips attended George Washington University, where he distinguished himself in such contact sports as football and boxing. After cutting his acting teeth with Eva Le Galienne's Civic Repertory group, Phillips made his film debut in 1940. He landed a long-term MGM contract after registering well in a small role in See Here Private Hargrove (1944). By the 1950s, Phillips was typed as a Western actor, usually in such secondary roles as the barber in High Noon (1952). William "Bill" Phillips made his last appearance in the Ronald Reagan-Nancy Davis starrer Hellcats of the Navy (1957).

Trivia: Onscreen with RKO from 1945, this Spanish-born starlet began her career as Isabelita, performing the usual screen chores demanded of Latin beauties, exotic jungle sirens, cantina girls, and so on. A starring role opposite stunt man Fred Coby in PRC's Zorro wannabe Don Ricardo Returns (1946) led nowhere and she changed her name to Lita Baron in the 1950s. Baron is perhaps best remembered today for marrying handsome action lead Rory Calhoun, a union that lasted from 1948 to 1970 and produced three children. She appeared opposite her husband in Red Sundown (1956), then retired.

Trivia: Mexican-born utility actor Joe Dominguez claimed to have entered films in 1913, and to have appeared in over 300 pictures. Primarily a bit player, Dominguez usually showed up in Westerns, serials, and historical films with South-of-the-Border settings. Among Joe Dominguez' larger roles were Gonzalez in Fritz Lang's Rancho Notorious (1952) and the Grandfather in I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1970), his last film.