Trivia: American actor Ward Bond was a football player at the University of Southern California when, together with teammate and lifelong chum John Wayne, he was hired for extra work in the silent film Salute (1928), directed by John Ford. Both Bond and Wayne continued in films, but it was Wayne who ascended to stardom, while Bond would have to be content with bit roles and character parts throughout the 1930s. Mostly playing traffic cops, bus drivers and western heavies, Bond began getting better breaks after a showy role as the murderous Cass in John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln (1939). Ford cast Bond in important roles all through the 1940s, usually contriving to include at least one scene per picture in which the camera would favor Bond's rather sizable posterior; it was an "inside" joke which delighted everyone on the set but Bond. A starring role in Ford's Wagonmaster (1950) led, somewhat indirectly, to Bond's most lasting professional achievement: His continuing part as trailmaster Seth Adams on the extremely popular NBC TV western, Wagon Train. No longer supporting anyone, Bond exerted considerable creative control over the series from its 1957 debut onward, even seeing to it that his old mentor John Ford would direct one episode in which John Wayne had a bit role, billed under his real name, Marion Michael Morrison. Finally achieving the wide popularity that had eluded him during his screen career, Bond stayed with Wagon Train for three years, during which time he became as famous for his offscreen clashes with his supporting cast and his ultra-conservative politics as he was for his acting. Wagon Train was still NBC's Number One series when, in November of 1960, Bond unexpectedly suffered a heart attack and died while taking a shower.

Trivia: Redheaded leading man Robert Horton attended UCLA, served in the Coast Guard during World War II, and acted in California-based stage productions before making his entree into films in 1951. Horton's television career started off on a high note in 1955, when he was cast in the weekly-TV version of King's Row as Drake McHugh (the role essayed by Ronald Reagan in the 1942 film version). The series barely lasted three months, but better things were on the horizon: in 1957, Horton was hired to play frontier scout Flint McCullough in Wagon Train, which became the highest-rated western on TV. Horton remained with Wagon Train until 1962. He then did some more stage work before embarking on his third series, 1965's The Man Called Shenandoah. When this one-season wonder ran its course, Horton toured the dinner-theatre circuit, then in 1982 accepted a major role on the popular daytime soap opera As the World Turns. Horton continued acting until the late 1980s. He died in 2016, at age 91.

Trivia: Finnish actress Taina Elg's earliest professional engagements were as a dancer with the Sadler's Wells and Marquis de Cuevas troupes. She was brought to Hollywood in the wake of the success of fellow Scandinavia Anita Ekberg. Elg's first film role was in MGM's The Prodigal (1955) and she went on to play worthwhile roles in such MGM efforts as Les Girls (1957), which gave her an opportunity to display her dancing skills, and Imitation General (1959). More recently, Taina Elg was seen as "Nemesis" in the 1970 muscleman spoof Hercules in New York, which starred the inimitable Arnold Strong (aka Schwarzenegger).

Trivia: Character actress Ann B. Davis is best known among baby boomers for her alter ego, Alice Nelson, the spinster housekeeper and glue that kept the Brady Bunch family from descending into sitcom anarchy. Among older television viewers she is remembered as Schultzy, Bob Cummings' loyal, love-struck assistant on The Bob Cummings Show (1955-1959; later retitled Love That Bob for syndication). Like the other cast members of The Brady Bunch (1969-1974), Davis has made a living capitalizing on her character and has appeared in all the subsequent Brady Bunch television movies and made a cameo as Schultzy, the wise truck driver who counsels would-be runaway Jan Brady in the Brady Bunch Movie (1995). Other than that last appearance, Davis, a born-again Christian, spent much her last two decades deeply involved in a tiny Christian community led by Bishop William Frey, serving the homeless. Davis also lectured and testified before church groups around the country. She died in 2014, at age 88.

Trivia: A former violinist, character actor Simon Oakland made his Broadway debut in 1948's The Skipper Next to God. Oakland's later stage credits include Light Up the Sky, The Shrike and Inherit the Wind. In films from 1957, Oakland was often cast as an outwardly unpleasant sort with inner reserves of decency and compassion. In I Want to Live (1958) for example, he played a journalist who first shamelessly exploited the murder trial of death-row inmate Susan Hayward, then worked night and day to win her a reprieve. And in Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), he had a memorable curtain speech as a jumpy, jittery, apparently neurotic psychiatrist who turned out to be the only person who fully understood transvestite murderer Anthony Perkins. Conversely, Oakland played his share of out-and-out villains, notably the bigoted Officer Schrank in West Side Story (1961). Far busier on television than in films--he once estimated that he'd appeared in 550 TV productions--Oakland was seen almost exclusively on the small screen after 1973. Within a five-year period, he was a regular on four series: Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Toma, Black Sheep Squadron and David Cassidy, Man Undercover. After a long losing bout with cancer, Simon Oakland died one day after his 63rd birthday.

Trivia: Peter Leeds played straight man to some of the most popular comedians of the mid- to late 20th century, including Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Milton Berle, Carole Burnett, and Johnny Carson. Leeds was also a fine dramatic actor. He spent most of his 40-plus-year career on television, appearing an astonishing 8,000 times on situation comedies and variety shows. Leeds has appeared on Broadway, in feature films, and on over 3,000 radio shows and was a popular voice-over artist. A native of Bayonne, NJ, Leeds received his training at the Neighborhood Playhouse. He made his film debut with a bit part in Public Enemies (1941). Leeds hooked up with Bob Hope in 1954 for a television special and continued working with Hope on specials and 14 U.S.O. tours through 1991. During the '70s, Leeds spent five years as the president of the Los Angeles chapter of AFTRA and later served on the actors' union's national and local Board of Directors. In 1992, AFTRA repaid his many years of service with its highest honor, the Gold Card. Leeds later served on the Board of Governors for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Leeds died of cancer on November 12, 1996, at age 79.

Trivia: Craggy character actor Roy Engel made his first film appearance in the 1949 noir classic D.O.A. He quickly established himself as a regular in such science fiction films as The Flying Saucer (1950), Man From Planet X (1951), and The Colossus of New York (1958). When not dealing with extraterrestrials, he could be seen playing sheriffs, bartenders, and the like in such Westerns as Three Violent People (1955) and Tribute to a Bad Man (1956). Among Roy Engel's last films was Kingdom of the Spiders (1977) which combined elements of both sci-fi and Westerns.

Trivia: Robert Fuller spent his first decade in show business trying his best to avoid performing. After his film debut in 1952's Above and Beyond, Fuller studied acting with Sanford Meisner at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse but never exhibited any real dedication. He tried to become a dancer but gave that up as well, determining that dancing was "sissified." Fuller rose to nominal stardom fairly rapidly in the role of Jess Harper on the popular TV western Laramie (1959-63). Once he found his niche in cowboy attire, he stuck at it in another series, Wagon Train, turning down virtually all offers for "contemporary" roles. When westerns began dying out on television in the late 1960s, Fuller worked as a voiceover actor in commercials, earning some $65,000 per year (a tidy sum in 1969). On the strength of his performance in the Burt Topper-directed motorcycle flick The Hard Ride, Fuller was cast by producer Jack Webb as chief paramedic Kelly Brackett on the weekly TVer Emergency, which ran from 1972 through 1977. In 1994, Robert Fuller was one of several former TV western stars who showed up in cameo roles in the Mel Gibson movie vehicle Maverick.