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Peter Lorre was born László Löwenstein in Rózsahegy in the Slovak area of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the son of Hungarian Jewish parents. He learned both Hungarian and German languages from birth, and was educated in elementary and secondary schools in the Austria-Hungary capitol Vienna, but did not complete. As a youth he ran away from home, first working as a bank clerk, and after stage training in Vienna, Austria, made his acting debut at age 17 in 1922 in Zurich, Switzerland. He traveled for several years acting on stage throughout his home region, Vienna, Berlin, and Zurich, including working with Bertolt Brecht, until Fritz Lang cast him in a starring role as the psychopathic child killer in the German film M (1931).

After several more films in Germany, including a couple roles for which he learned to speak French, Lorre left as the Nazis came to power, going first to Paris where he made one film, then London where Alfred Hitchcock cast him as a creepy villain in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), where he learned his lines phonetically, and finally arrived in Hollywood in 1935. In his first two roles there he starred as a mad scientist in Mad Love (1935) directed by recent fellow-expatriate Karl Freund, and the leading part of Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment (1935), by another expatriate German director Josef von Sternberg, a successful movie made at Lorre's own suggestion. He returned to England for a role in another Hitchcock film, Secret Agent (1936), then back to the US for a few more films before checking into a rehab facility to cure himself of a morphine addiction.

After shaking his addiction, in order to get any kind of acting work, Lorre reluctantly accepted the starring part as the Japanese secret agent in Thank You, Mr. Moto (1937), wearing makeup to alter his already very round eyes for the part. He ended up committed to repeating the role for eight more "Mr. Moto" movies over the next two years.

Lorre played numerous memorable villain roles, spy characters, comedic roles, and even a romantic type, throughout the 1940s, beginning with his graduation from 30s B-pictures The Maltese Falcon (1941). Among his most famous films, Casablanca (1942), and a comedic role in the Broadway hit film Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).

After the war, between 1946 and '49 Lorre concentrated largely on radio and the stage, while continuing to appear in movies. In Autumn 1950 he traveled to West Gemany where he wrote, directed and starred in the critically acclaimed but generally unknown German-language film The Lost Man (1951), adapted from Lorre's own novel.

Lorre returned to the US in 1952, somewhat heavier in stature, where he used his abilities as a stage actor appearing in many live television productions throughout the 50s, including the first James Bond adaptation Casino Royale (1954), broadcast just a few months after Ian Fleming had published that first Bond novel. In that decade, Lorre had various roles, often to type but also as comedic caricatures of himself, in many episodes of TV series, and variety shows, though he continued to work in motion pictures, including the Academy Award winning Around the World in 80 Days (1956), and a stellar role as a clown in The Big Circus (1959).

In the late 50s and early 1960s he worked in several low-budget films, with producer-director Roger Corman, and producer-writer-director Irwin Allen, including the aforementioned The Big Circus and two adventurous Disney movies with Allen. He died from a stroke the year he made his last movie, playing a stooge in Jerry Lewis' The Patsy (1964).

Alan Walbridge Ladd was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the only child of Ina Raleigh (aka Selina Rowley) and Alan Harwood Ladd, a freelance accountant. His mother was English, from County Durham. His father died when he was four. At age five, he burned his apartment playing with matches, and his mother moved them to Oklahoma City. He was malnourished, undersized and nicknamed Tiny. His mother married a house painter who moved them to California--a la "The Grapes of Wrath"--when he was eight. He picked fruit, delivered papers, and swept stores. In high school he discovered track and swimming. By 1931 he was training for the 1932 Olympics, but an injury put an end to those plans. He opened a hamburger stand called Tiny's Patio, and later worked as a grip at Warner Brothers Pictures. He married his friend Midge in 1936, but couldn't afford her, so they lived apart. In 1937, they shared a friend's apartment. They had a son, Alan Ladd Jr., and his destitute alcoholic mother moved in with them, her agonizing suicide from ant poison witnessed a few months later by her son. His size and coloring here regarded as not right for movies, so he worked hard at radio, where talent scout and former actress Sue Carol discovered him early in 1939. After a string of bit parts in "B" pictures--and an unbilled part in Orson Welles' classic Citizen Kane (1941)--he tested for This Gun for Hire (1942) late in 1941. His fourth-billed role as psychotic killer Raven made him a star. He was drafted in January 1943 and discharged in November with an ulcer and double hernia. Throughout the 1940s his tough-guy roles packed audiences into theaters and he was one of the very few males whose cover photos sold movie magazines. In the 1950s he was performing in lucrative but unrewarding films (an exception being what many regard as his greatest role, Shane (1953)). By the end of the 1950s liquor and a string of so-so films had taken their toll. In November 1962 he was found unconscious lying in a pool of blood with a bullet wound near his heart, a probable suicide attempt. In January 1964 he was found dead, apparently due to an accidental combination of alcohol and sedatives.

Sir Cedric Hardwicke, one of the great character actors in the first decades of the talking picture, was born in Lye, England on February 19, 1893. Hardwicke attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made his stage debut in 1912. His career was interrupted by military service in World War I, but he returned to the stage in 1922 with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, distinguishing himself as Caesar in George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, which was his ticket to the London stage. For his distinguished work on the stage and in films, he was knighted by King George V in 1934, a time when very few actors received such an honor.

Hardwicke first performed on the American stage in 1936 and emigrated to the United States permanently after spending the 1948 season with the Old Vic. Hardwicke's success on stage and in films and television was abetted by his resonant voice and aristocratic bearing. Among the major films he appeared in were Les Misérables (1935), Stanley and Livingstone (1939), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), Suspicion (1941), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949), and The Ten Commandments (1956).

His last film was The Pumpkin Eater (1964) in 1964. Cedric Hardwicke died on August 6, 1964 in New York City, New York.

Kate Manx was born on 19 October 1930 in Akron, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for Hero's Island (1962), Private Property (1960) and Philip Marlowe (1959). She was married to Leslie Stevens and Anthony Brady Farrell. She died on 15 November 1964 in Torrance, California, USA.

With poofy, curly red hair, a top hat and a horn, the lovable mute was the favorite of the Marx Brothers. Though chasing women was a favorite routine of his in the movies, Harpo was a devoted father and husband. He adopted the mute routine in vaudeville and carried it over to the films. Harpo was an accomplished self-taught harpist whose musical numbers would many times bring tears to the eyes of the audience of an otherwise hilarious movie.

William Bendix was not a son of Brooklyn, New York, although because of his stereotypical "Brooklyn accent" it has been widely supposed that he was. Bendix was actually born in the Borough of Manhattan (New York City proper), in a midtown flat hard by the tracks of the long-since defunct Third-Avenue Elevated Railway. (Manhattan sections of the "El," as New Yorkers called it, were demolished circa 1956.)

Jut-jawed, broken-nosed and burly, Bendix began his acting career after the ravages of the Great Depression had killed his erstwhile grocery business. Having performed in nightclubs even while grocer, and having portrayed taxicab drivers in a series of Broadway flops, he enjoyed his first notable performance on the Broadway stage in 1939, portraying the cop Krupp in William Saroyan's "The Time of Your Life." His Hollywood feature debut came about in one of his few starring roles, in Hal Roach's Brooklyn Orchid (1942). But more often than not, in his movies Bendix received less than top billing, inasmuch as so many of his film assignments involved supporting roles. Despite (or perhaps on account of) his looks he was often called upon to supply comedic support, as in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949), when, portraying Sir Sagramore of King Arthur's Round Table in full suit of armor and pageboy wig, he waxeth eloquent, in his Brooklyn accent but in the most incongruent of Middle English dialects! On the other hand, that same craggy appearance had him in such roles as that of the thug Jeff in The Glass Key (1942), in which he repeatedly and gleefully uses his fists to beat star Alan Ladd's face to a pulp and then sadistically challenges Ladd, once he is healed, to come back and receive further "treatment"! Although he will always be fondly remembered for his light-comedy portrayals (in *three* of the mass media!) of Chester A. Riley in The Life of Riley (1949) and The Life of Riley (1953), perhaps William Bendix's finest and most memorable dramatic performance came in Lifeboat (1944), when he touchingly interprets the role of Gus, the shipwreck survivor whose gangrenous limb has to be removed, the absence of anesthesia notwithstanding.

Pina Pellicer was, and still is, one of the most beloved Mexican actresses of all time. She set a standard for realism in a time when "melodrama" and "artificial" acting still ran rampant. She was best known for her groundbreaking performance in One-Eyed Jacks (1961) with Marlon Brando. She is greatly missed. Fans still wonder why she left us so soon.

Frank Albertson entered the film industry in 1922 as a prop boy, but soon graduated into acting. He was a prolific and reliable character actor who occasionally played the lead in a "B" picture, but was used mainly as a supporting actor in scores of films, often cast as a wisecracking cab driver, a cop or a reporter.

Natalie Lynn was born on 4 January 1888 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. She was an actress, known for The Nudist Story (1960), BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950) and International Detective (1959). She was married to Percy Parsons. She died on 3 December 1964 in Isleworth, London, England, UK.

He had a long career in theater before making movies, playing hundreds of roles, mostly rustic bumpkins, in stage and stock. His film career included two isolated early films: White Woman (1933) and Soak the Rich (1936). It began in earnest with the part of Orion Peabody in the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn wartime drama Keeper of the Flame (1942); Kilbride was already fifty-four by then. The movie public really came to recognize him when he played the part of Pa Kettle (against Marjorie Main's Ma) in The Egg and I (1947), a role he reprised for seven more "Ma and Pa Kettle" movies, the last of which, and the last of his career, was in 1955.

Gage Clarke was born on 3 March 1900 in Vassar, Michigan, USA. He was an actor, known for The Bad Seed (1956), I Want to Live! (1958) and Gunsmoke (1955). He died on 23 October 1964 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Born into a wealthy and influential English family, Ian Fleming spent his early years attending top British schools such as Eton and Sandhurst military academy. He took to writing while schooling in Kitzbuhel, Austria, and upon failing the entrance requirements for Foreign Service joined the news agency Reuters as a journalist -- winning the respect of his peers for his coverage of a "show trial" in Russia of several Royal Engineers on espionage charges. Fleming briefly worked in the financial sector for the family bank, but just prior to the Second World War, was recruited into British Naval Intelligence where he excelled, shortly achieving the rank of Commander. When the war ended, Fleming retired to Jamaica where he built a house called "Goldeneye," took up writing full-time and created the character that would make him famous -- British Secret Service agent James Bond, in a novel called "Casino Royale." Fleming spent the rest of his life writing and traveling the world, but as his Bond character reached new heights of popularity on movie screens, Fleming was in ailing health. He died of a heart attack (his second) in England in August 1964 at the age of 56.

Gloria McGehee was born on 9 January 1922 in Meadville, Mississippi, USA. She was an actress, known for Broadway Television Theatre (1952), Man Against Crime (1949) and Rocky King, Detective (1950). She was married to Dail Dunaway, Basil Heatter and Alfred Earnest Bruch Jr.. She died on 4 May 1964 in Meadville, Mississippi, USA.

A graduate of the University of Southern California School of Law, Morris Ankrum was an attorney and an economics professor before switching careers and joining the theater. He was a veteran stage actor by the time he entered the film industry in the 1930s. His film career spanned 1933-64, during which time he played in 279 films and TV shows. Ankrum spent much time in westerns, playing everything from Indian chiefs to crooked bankers. Among his best remembered parts are his numerous villainous roles in Paramount's highly popular Hopalong Cassidy film series. The Hoppy films in which he appears include North of the Rio Grande (1937), Hills of Old Wyoming (1937), Pirates on Horseback (1941), Three Men from Texas (1940), Borderland (1937), and Hopalong Cassidy Returns (1936), among others.

He was cast in many other films throughout the '30s, '40s, and '50s, varying from small appearances to co-starring roles. He can be seen in low-budget "B" pictures and big-budget blockbusters alike. It was in the 1950s, though, that he hit his stride in the science-fiction genre, where his gruff, no-nonsense demeanor and authoritative voice perfectly fit the role of the military officer helping scientists fight off outer-space menaces, most memorably as Col. Fielding in the classic Invaders from Mars (1953).

Later in his career he did much TV work, in such series as Bonanza (1959), The Rifleman (1958), Rawhide (1959), Cheyenne (1955), Gunsmoke (1955), The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1955), Maverick (1957), Have Gun - Will Travel (1957), Sea Hunt (1958), and over a dozen more. At the end of his career from 1957-64, he had a recurring role as a judge in 22 episodes on the Perry Mason (1957) TV series.

Sultry-eyed, dark-haired and exquisite-looking, New York City native Renee Godfrey certainly had the earnestness and requisite beauty to catapult herself to the top of the film industry but, in the end, fell short of her initial potential. She later put her career on the back burner to raise a family and, sadly, fell ill with cancer before she could resurrect it, dying at the young age of 44.

She was born Renee Haal on September 1, 1919, and discovered early on that she had a natural gift for singing. The highly photogenic young teen gave serious thoughts to an entertainment career after entering and winning the "Miss New York State" contest (the talent portion, of course, was her singing). She then vied for but lost the 1937 "Miss America" crown. The resulting attention certainly didn't hurt and, by age 19, she found herself singing in London as a part of Danny Kaye's nightclub act. While there she met British actor/playwright/director/screenwriter Peter Godfrey, who worked both in London and Ireland at the time. He was almost 20 years her senior. The couple arrived in the US in the late 1930s and married in 1941.

Renee began her starlet career as Renee Haal at RKO, making her unbilled debut in Kitty Foyle (1940), the film that garnered Ginger Rogers her Oscar. She continued obscurely as chorus girl types in such films as Let's Make Music (1940) and Danny Kaye's Up in Arms (1944), and even played a nurse in Citizen Kane (1941). Renee's stunning looks were soon put on display pitching Coca-Cola on billboards while decorating military barracks as a soldier's pin-up favorite. During WWII she and her husband put together a vaudeville act and entertained the troops on USO tours. In their show Peter played an amateur magician while Renee supported him as his lovely and leggy assistant.

Renee tried to take advantage of her husband's escalating career at RKO as a medium-budget director. She appeared to charming effect as a secondary femme in his dramedy Unexpected Uncle (1941) in which elderly Charles Coburn narrated and stole the film right from under ingénue leads Anne Shirley and James Craig. Renee's performance earned her a contract at RKO. At around this time she changed the last name of her stage moniker to her married name. After appearing in a couple of Leon Errol comedy shorts, she was featured once again in one of her husband's pictures, the romantic drama Highways by Night (1942), but it did not improve her Hollywood stock.

Renee's career picked up briefly in postwar "Poverty Row" films as a "second lead" supporting such female stars as Ruth Hussey in Bedside Manner (1945), Martha O'Driscoll in Down Missouri Way (1946) and Lynne Roberts in Winter Wonderland (1946). Her only co-starring parts came with the above-average Sherlock Holmes entry Terror by Night (1946) and the mild comedy French Leave (1948) starring former child stars Jackie Cooper and Jackie Coogan. In the long run, most of Renee's movie roles emphasized her beauty, not her talent, and that took her only so far. An unbilled role in her husband's picture The Decision of Christopher Blake (1948) saw pretty much the end of her already flagging career.

With primary focus now on raising her three children (which included a set of twins), Renee was seen very sporadically on TV during the 1950s with guest roles on former film stars Loretta Young and Jane Wyman's tailor-made showcases. For the most part, however, Renee was out of view. Her director-husband, who had flourished on 50s TV, was in ill health by the end of the decade. Taking secretarial and real estate classes to help support the family income, Renee tried making a comeback of sorts, finding bit roles in Can-Can (1960), Inherit the Wind (1960) and Tender Is the Night (1962). Still a robust beauty, she was also a guest player on such popular shows as Perry Mason (1957), Hazel (1961), The Donna Reed Show (1958) and Wagon Train (1957). In the early 1960s, however, before she could get completely back on track, she was diagnosed with cancer. After a long, exhaustive battle, she died at the age of 44 on May 24, 1964, in Los Angeles. Survived by her husband and children, her last film, an unbilled part in Walt Disney's feature Those Calloways (1965), was released posthumously. Her husband died in 1970.

Gracie Allen was born on 26 July 1895 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939), A Damsel in Distress (1937) and Honolulu (1939). She was married to George Burns. She died on 27 August 1964 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Earle Hodgins was born on 6 October 1893 in Payson, Utah, USA. He was an actor, known for Oregon Trail (1945), The Sagebrush Family Trails West (1940) and Heroes of the Alamo (1937). He was married to Elizabeth Birss Ogilvie and Sue Henley. He died on 14 April 1964 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Kathryn Card was born on 4 October 1892 in Butte, Montana, USA. She was an actress, known for I Love Lucy (1951), Born to Kill (1947) and The Hucksters (1947). She was married to Erwin Foster Card. She died on 1 March 1964 in Costa Mesa, California, USA.

An imposing Austrian import-turned-matinée idol on the silent screen, Hollywood actor Joseph Schildkraut went on to conquer talking films as well -- with Oscar-winning results. Inclined towards smooth, cunning villainy, his Oscar came instead for his sympathetic portrayal of Captain Alfred Dreyfus in The Life of Emile Zola (1937). His most touching role on both stage and screen would come as the Jewish father-in-hiding, Otto Frank, in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959).

Born on March 22, 1895, in Vienna, Austria, Joseph was the son of famed European/Yiddish stage actor Rudolph Schildkraut and his wife, the former Erna Weinstein. Nicknamed "Pepi" as a boy, the affectionate tag remained with him throughout his life. The family moved to Hamburg, Germany, when Joseph was 4. Joseph studied the piano and violin and grew inspired with his father's profession. On stage (with his father) from age 6, the family again relocated to Berlin where his father built a strong association with famed theatrical director Max Reinhardt.

Following Joseph's graduation from Berlin's Royal Academy of Music in 1911, the family migrated to America and settled in New York in 1912. His father continued making his mark in America's Yiddish theater while Joseph was accepted into the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Offered lucrative theatre work back in Germany, Rudolf and family returned to Europe where Joseph began to grow in stature on the stage with the help of mentor Albert Bassermann. Joseph, like his father, would become well known not only for his prodigious talents on stage, but his marriage-threatening, Lothario-like behavior off-stage.

World War I and a call to the Austrian Army could have interrupted his career but his theatrical connections helped exempt him from duty. A thriving member of the Deutsches Volkstheatre (1913-1920), work became difficult to find in the post-war years so once again the family returned to America in 1920. Now an established stage player, Joseph was handed the title role in the Guild Theatre production (and American premiere) of "Liliom" opposite his leading lady of choice Eva Le Gallienne. It made stars out of both actors and both revisited their parts together on stage many years later in 1932.

Having appeared in a few silent pictures in Germany and Austria, Joseph was handed a prime role in the silent screen classic Orphans of the Storm (1921) starring the Gish sisters. This alone established him as an exotic matinée figure along the lines of a Valentino and Navarro. Preferring the stage, he nevertheless continued making films while conquering (on screen) Hollywood's loveliest of actresses, including Norma Talmadge in The Song of Love (1923), Seena Owen in Shipwrecked (1926), Marguerite De La Motte in Meet the Prince (1926), Bessie Love in Young April (1926) (which also co-starred father Rudolf), Lya De Putti in The Heart Thief (1927), and Jetta Goudal in The Forbidden Woman (1927). Most notable was his participation in the Cecil B. DeMille epics The Road to Yesterday (1925) and The King of Kings (1927), the latter co-starring as Judas Iscariot, with father Rudolf playing the high priest Caiaphas.

Joseph met his first wife, aspiring actress Elise Bartlett, during a herald run as "Peer Gynt" (1923) on Broadway. The impulsive romantic swept her off her feet, proposed to her on the day he met her, and married her the following week. The couple separated a few years later and his first wife fell to drink, dying at a fairly young age of an alcohol-related illness. His second marriage to Marie McKay was much happier and lasted almost three decades.

The actor's sturdy voice and strong command of the stage led to an easy transition into talking films. Among others, Joseph won the role of Gaylord Ravenal in the Kern and Hammerstein musical Show Boat (1929) opposite Laura La Plante as Magnolia. Despite his preference for the theater, Depression-era finances forced him to relocate to Los Angeles for more job security. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Joseph evolved into one of Hollywood's most distinctive character actors.

He played Wallace Beery's nemesis, General Pascal in MGM's Viva Villa! (1934), King Herod opposite Claudette Colbert in DeMille's Cleopatra (1934), and stole scenes as the cunning and underhanded Conrad, Marquis of Montferratin, in DeMille's The Crusades (1935). Joseph received his Oscar for his portrayal of Captain Dreyfus, a proud and robust French Jew wrongly convicted of treason and subsequently exiled to Devil's Island, in the biopic The Life of Emile Zola (1937). He soon became a Hollywood fixture appearing in everything from sumptuous costumers (Marie Antoinette (1938), The Three Musketeers (1939), The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), Monsieur Beaucaire (1946)), to action adventure (Lancer Spy (1937), Suez (1938)) to potent drama (The Rains Came (1939), The Shop Around the Corner (1940)). His film output slowed down considerably at the outbreak of WWII in 1941, however; nevertheless he continued to show vitality on the stage with notable successes in "Clash by Night" (1941) with Tallulah Bankhead, "Uncle Harry" (1942) and "The Cherry Orchard" (1944) (again with Eva Le Gallienne).

His Hollywood downfall happened when he signed his career away to the low budget Republic Pictures studio...for financial reasons. The films were unworthy of his participation and his roles secondary in nature to the storyline. His final Broadway appearance and greatest stage triumph would occur in 1955 as Otto Frank and he repeated his role on film but The Diary of Anne Frank (1959). In one of Hollywood's bigger missteps, he was not even nominated for an Academy Award. Sporadic appearances followed on stage and film -- his last movie role wasted on the trivial role of Nicodemus in the epic failure The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). The film was released posthumously. On TV, however, he played Claudius to Maurice Evans' Hamlet in 1953 and filmed a memorable "Twilight Zone" episode in 1961.

Following his beloved second wife's death in 1961, he married one more time, in 1963, to a much younger woman named Leonora Rogers. Joseph died of a heart attack only months later at his New York City home on January 21, 1964, He was 68, almost the exact same age his father Rudolf was when he too suffered a fatal heart attack. Joseph was interred in the Beth Olam Mausoleum of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.

A dark-haired, durably handsome and dependable cowboy actor equipped with a strong stance and taciturn seriousness both on and off camera, Dennis Moore was cast as both hero and villain in his three-decade-long career. A player in well over 200 "B"-level oaters and serials during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, Moore never reached the rugged heights of top-flight stardom but did manage to find steady employment until only a few years before his death at age 56.

Moore was born Dennis Price Meadows on January 26, 1908, in Fort Worth, TX, the son of Texas-born Dennis Wesley Meadows and Tennessee-born Bessie Bebe Price Meadows. His initial interest in show business may have been sparked while employed as an usher at a movie theater. He eventually learned the tools of the trade performing on the dramatic stage in Texas and in stock companies in the early 1930s. His film career began in 1932 with uncredited appearances for a time in a variety of cliffhangers and westerns as various henchmen and cowhands, and he even worked as a stuntman on occasion. Billed first as Denny Meadows, he changed his stage name to the more catchy, marquee-friendly Dennis Moore by 1936, and legally changed his last name to Moore in the early 1950s. An avid flyer (he was once a transport pilot and flight instructor), a few of his roles reflected this passion. He played a pilot in the Tailspin Tommy (1934) serial and, while signed at Warner Brothers for a time, played Humphrey Bogart's flight engineer in China Clipper (1936).

By the 1940s he was freelancing at various minor studios and was occasionally given the action lead, such as in Fangs of the Wild (1939). He also appeared opposite stalwart cowboys Gene Autry, Buster Crabbe and Buck Jones, among others, and was seen in both the "Three Mesquiteers" and "Rough Riders" series.

Moore hit his peak in films during WW II when many of the big stars had enlisted or been drafted into the military (serious injuries incurred in a plane crash rendered him ineligible for military service). During this productive period he co-starred with Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune in the "Range Buster" series at Monogram Pictures and then co-starred with Tex Ritter and Jimmy Wakely in some of their popular western entries. He also was front and center in the Raiders of Ghost City (1944) and The Purple Monster Strikes (1945) serials, among others.

In mid-career, Moore turned from granite-jawed heroes to black-hatted bad guys and henchmen in many "Poverty Row" westerns, yet still snagged a couple of leads and co-leads in serials every now and then, including Perils of the Wilderness (1956) and Blazing the Overland Trail (1956). He also was seen quite frequently on TV western series (Tombstone Territory (1957), Sky King (1951), The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (1954), Bat Masterson (1958)) in standard guest spots. One of his last was a recurring part in Disney's The New Adventures of Spin and Marty (1957) on the "Mickey Mouse Club" series. He pretty much hung up his gun belt shortly thereafter.

A highly private man who was considered a loner by nature, little is known about his private life. He was married more than once, perhaps up to four times according to surviving relatives. His final marriage, in 1947 to Marilyn Mason, produced one daughter, Linda, and lasted until his death. He subsequently moved to Big Bear Lake, CA, where he operated a gift shop for the last few years of his life. He died on March 1, 1964, at age 56 of rheumatic heart disease combined with circulatory problems.

Addison Richards was born on 20 October 1902 in Zanesville, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for The Ten Commandments (1956), Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939) and Ball of Fire (1941). He was married to Patricia Anne Sarazln and Anna Vivian Eccles. He died on 22 March 1964 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

King Calder was born on 21 April 1897 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He was an actor, known for Time Table (1956), The Best of Broadway (1954) and Martin Kane (1949). He was married to Ethel Wilson. He died on 28 June 1964 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Born and raised on a farm in Michigan in 1890, Irish-American character actor Harry Shannon had the credentials for becoming a staple player in westerns. He started off his career traveling around with repertory and stock companies and developed his musical abilities in tent shows, burlesque houses and such tuneful Broadway shows as "Oh, Kay!" (1926), "Hold Everything" (1928), "Simple Simon" (1931), and "Pardon My English" (1933). A company member of Joseph Schildkraut's Hollywood Theater Guild, Shannon broke into films at the advent of sound and started things off in comedy film shorts opposite such celebrated players as Bert Lahr, Shemp Howard, and Leon Errol. In the 1940s Shannon established himself in feature-length movies and although he remained a minor, second-string player, he proved himself a durable presence in westerns usually remaining on the good side of the law as sheriffs and bucolic dads. In lighthearted entertainment he could be found as a friendly Irish cop or bartender. He made a slight but memorable impression as Kane's alcoholic father in the classic Citizen Kane (1941), while his last role would be as the grandfather in the musical Gypsy (1962). In between were small parts in such notable films as The Fighting Sullivans (1944), The Jolson Story (1946), High Noon (1952), Touch of Evil (1958), and The Buccaneer (1958). 1950s TV westerns such as Cheyenne (1955), Have Gun - Will Travel (1957), Rawhide (1959), and Gunsmoke (1955) made consistent use of his rustic demeanor. Shannon died in 1964 at age 74.

Ben Hecht, one of Hollywood's and Broadway's greatest writers, won an Oscar for best original story for Underworld (1927) at the first Academy Awards in 1929 and had a hand in the writing of many classic films. He was nominated five more times for the best writing Oscar, winning (along with writing partner and friend Charles MacArthur, with whom he wrote the classic play "The Front Page") for The Scoundrel (1935) (the other nominations were for Viva Villa! (1934) in 1935, Wuthering Heights (1939) (shared with MacArthur), Angels Over Broadway (1940) and Notorious (1946), the latter two for best original screenplay). Hecht wrote fast and wrote well, and he was called upon by many producers as a highly paid script doctor. He was paid $10,000 by producer David O. Selznick for a fast doctoring of the Gone with the Wind (1939) script, for which he received no credit and for which Sidney Howard won an Oscar, beating out Hecht and MacArthur's Wuthering Heights (1939) script.

Born on February 28, 1894, Hecht made his name as a Chicago newspaperman during the heady days of cutthroat competition among newspapers and journalists. As a reporter for the Chicago Daily News, he wrote the column "1001 Afternoons in Chicago" and broke the "Ragged Stranger Murder Case" story, which led to the conviction and execution of Army war hero Carl Wanderer for the murder of his pregnant wife in 1921. The newspaper business, which he and MacArthur famously parodied in "The Front Page", was a good training ground for a screenwriter, as he had to write vivid prose and had to write quickly.

While in New York in 1926 he received a telegram from friend Herman J. Mankiewicz, who had recently arrived in Hollywood. The telegram read: "Millions are to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots. Don't let this get around." Hecht moved to Hollywood, winding up at Paramount, working uncredited on the script for Lewis Milestone's adaptation of Ring Lardner's story The New Klondike (1926), starring silent superstar Thomas Meighan. However, it was his script for Josef von Sternberg's seminal gangster picture Underworld (1927) that got him noticed. From then until the 1960s, he was arguably the most famous, if not the highest paid, screenwriter of his time.

As a playwright, novelist and short-story writer, Hecht always denigrated writing for the movies, but it is for such films as Scarface (1932) and Nothing Sacred (1937) as well The Front Page (1931), based on his play of the same name, for which he is best remembered.

He died on April 18, 1964, in New York City from thrombosis. He was 70 years old.

Cambridge-educated Paul Cavanagh appeared in pictures as the epitome of the debonair, well-dressed Englishman. The former barrister and Royal Canadian Mountie turned to acting in 1924 and had a starring role on Broadway in 'Scotland Yard' (1929). His film career began in 1928 and lasted just over three decades. During that time, he portrayed charming grifters (The Notorious Sophie Lang (1934), stalwart leading men (Mae West's love interest in Goin' to Town (1935), as well as the occasional murder victim or dastardly swine (as Martin Arlington in Tarzan and His Mate (1934). He was at his best however, as the urbane older husband of Joan Crawford in the brilliant Humoresque (1946), tolerating the antics of his neurotic wife - and Oscar Levant's wisecrack ("Does your husband interfere with your marriage?") with nothing but bemused languor.