Trivia: A rugged, craggy-faced, bushy-browed lead actor and character player, he began his stage career in 1937, which was interrupted by service in World War Two. He debuted onscreen in Winged Victory (1944), but did not begin regularly appearing in films until 1949; he was usually cast as grim, determined, humorless men in action features. From 1950-60 he was married to actress Bette Davis, with whom he appeared in three films. His many TV credits include a role in the series Young Dr. Kildare. He was politically active in liberal causes, and played a part in rejuvenating Maine's Democratic party; he also helped elect Edmund Muskie to governor of that state in 1953. In 1965 he took part in the Selma-Montgomery civil rights march. At odds with President Johnson's Vietnam policy, he switched parties and in 1968 tried unsuccessfully to win a Republican nomination to the Maine legislature as an anti-war, pro-environmentalist primary candidate. He authored an autobiography, Bette, Rita and the Rest of My Life (1989); "Rita" refers to actress Rita Hayworth, with whom he'd had a romantic affair.

Trivia: The daughter of film star Robert Montgomery, Elizabeth Montgomery made her television bow on her father's popular 1950s anthology series. Her first film was 1955's The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell, for which she was generously reviewed as one of the most dynamic young actresses of her time. Often cast in hypertense roles, Montgomery won an Emmy for her portrayal of a conniving gun moll on a 1959 episode of TV's The Untouchables. She shifted to domestic comedy with ease in the role of Samantha Stephens, the attractive witch heroine of the long-running (1964-1973) TV sitcom Bewitched. After this project folded, Montgomery returned to dramatic roles with a vengeance, spending the next two decades starring as abused, beleaguered women in such TV movies as A Case of Rape (1974) and The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975). In her last made-for-TV project, Montgomery portrayed real-life reporter Edna Buchanan. Among Elizabeth Montgomery's husbands were actors Gig Young, producer/director William Asher, and Robert Foxworth.

Trivia: Character actor, onscreen from the '50s; he often played military men, sheriffs, or policemen.

Trivia: Manhattan native Bartlett Robinson headed to Los Angeles in the mid-'30s for the express purpose of becoming a radio actor. He appeared in innumerable soap operas and anthologies, and starred as Erle Stanley Gardner's super-lawyer Perry Mason in a 1943 radio series. His stage credits on both coasts included Sweet River, Merchant of Yonkers, and Point of No Return. In films from 1956 to 1973, he was often cast as doctors and military officials. Bartlett Robinson's TV credits include the recurring roles of Willard Norton in Wendy and Me (1964) and Frank Campbell in Mona McCluskey (1965).

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: Born to a Syrian-Lebanese family in Brooklyn, Victor Tayback grew up learning how to aggressively defend himself and those he cared about, qualities that he'd later carry over into his acting work. Moving to California with his family, the 16-year-old Tayback made the varsity football team at Burbank High. Despite numerous injuries, he continued his gridiron activities at Glendale Community College, until he quit school over a matter of principle (he refused to apologize to his coach for breaking curfew). After four years in the navy, Tayback enrolled at the Frederick A. Speare School of Radio and TV Broadcasting, hoping to become a sportscaster. Instead, he was sidetracked into acting, working as a cab driver, bank teller and even a "Kelly Girl" between performing gigs. Shortly after forming a little-theatre group called the Company of Angels, Tayback made his movie debut in Door-to-Door Maniac (1961), a fact he tended to exclude from his resumé in later years. His professional life began to improve in 1967, when he won an audition to play Sid Caesar's look-alike in a TV pilot. Throughout the early 1970s the bulging, bald-domed actor made a comfortable living in TV commercials and TV guest-star assignments, and as a regular on the detective series Griff (1973) and Khan (1975). In 1975, he was cast in the secondary role of Mel Sharples, the potty-mouthed short-fused owner of a greasy spoon diner, in the theatrical feature Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. When the film evolved into the weekly TV sitcom Alice in 1976, Tayback was engaged to recreate his "Mel" characterization. He remained with the program for the next nine years. In contrast to his gruff, abusive screen character, Tayback was dearly loved by the rest of the Alice cast, who regarded him a Big Brother and Father Confessor rolled into one. Five years after Alice's cancellation, Vic Tayback died of cancer at the age of 61; one of his last screen assignments was the voice of Carface in the animated feature All Dogs Go to Heaven.