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One of the great movie villains, Clarence Leroy Van Cleef, Jr. was born in Somerville, New Jersey, to Marion Lavinia (Van Fleet) and Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef, Sr. His parents were of Dutch ancestry. Van Cleef started out as an accountant. He served in the U.S. Navy aboard minesweepers and sub chasers during World War II. After the war he worked as an office administrator, becoming involved in amateur theatrics in his spare time. An audition for a professional role led to a touring company job in "Mr. Roberts". His performance was seen by Stanley Kramer, who cast him as henchman Jack Colby in High Noon (1952), a role that brought him great recognition despite the fact that he had no dialogue. For the next decade, he played a string of memorably villainous characters, primarily in westerns but also in crime dramas such as The Big Combo (1955). His hawk nose and steely, slit eyes seemed destined to keep him always in the realm of heavies, but in the mid 1960s Sergio Leone cast him as the tough but decent Col. Mortimer opposite Clint Eastwood in For a Few Dollars More (1965). A new career as a western hero (or at least anti-hero) opened up, and Van Cleef became an international star, though in films of decreasing quality. In the 1980s, he moved easily into action and martial-arts movies and starred in The Master (1984), a TV series featuring almost non-stop martial arts action. He died of a heart attack in December 1989 and was buried at Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills.

In many ways the most successful and familiar character actor of American sound films and the only actor to date to win three Oscars for Best Supporting Actor, Walter Brennan attended college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying engineering. While in school he became interested in acting and performed in school plays. He worked some in vaudeville and also in various jobs such as clerking in a bank and as a lumberjack. He toured in small musical comedy companies before entering the military in 1917. After his war service he went to Guatemala and raised pineapples, then migrated to Los Angeles, where he speculated in real estate. A few jobs as a film extra came his way beginning in 1923, then some work as a stuntman. He eventually achieved speaking roles, going from bit parts to substantial supporting parts in scores of features and short subjects between 1927 and 1938. In 1936 his role in Come and Get It (1936) won him the very first Best Supporting Actor Academy Award. He would win it twice more in the decade, and be nominated for a fourth. His range was enormous. He could play sophisticated businessmen, con artists, local yokels, cowhands and military officers with apparent equal ease. An accident in 1932 cost him most of his teeth, and he most often was seen in eccentric rural parts, often playing characters much older than his actual age. His career never really declined, and in the 1950s he became an even more endearing and familiar figure in several television series, most famously The Real McCoys (1957). He died in 1974 of emphysema, a beloved figure in movies and TV, the target of countless comic impressionists, and one of the best and most prolific actors of his time.

Possessing one of TV's more identifiable mugs, Jewish-American character actor Milton Selzer was here, there and everywhere in the 1960s and 1970s, playing a host of usually unsympathetic mobsters, gamblers, and crooks with a sad, almost pathetic quality in about every popular crime story offered, notably The Untouchables (1959), The Fugitive (1963), Hawaii Five-O (1968) and Mission: Impossible (1966). Always in demand with his trademark glum face, bulb nose and spoon-shaped ears, Selzer went on to enjoy a five-decade plus career.

Milton was born in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1918 but moved with his family while young to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Graduating from Portsmouth High School in 1936, he studied at the University of New Hampshire before serving in World War II. Moving to New York, he trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and The New School in the 1940s and received his first big break with minor roles in the Broadway classical plays "Richard III", "Julius Caesar" and "Arms and the Man". In the late 1950s, Selzer turned to film and (especially) to TV's "Golden Age", making an early mark in solid ethnic roles (German, Arab, etc.)

He finally made a definitive move to Los Angeles in 1960. Occasional movies included The Last Mile (1959), The Young Savages (1961), Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968), In Enemy Country (1968) and Lady Sings the Blues (1972), but it was the small screen that proved a sounder medium for him. With hundreds upon hundreds of guest parts to his credit, he also was called upon to play more upstanding gents including store-owners, judges and colonels on occasion, always offering a solid, authentic presence to every sound stage he set foot on.

In later years Selzer managed a few regular series roles including Needles and Pins (1973) and The Famous Teddy Z (1989). Broaching 80 years old, he officially retired in the late 1990s and passed away of pulmonary and stroke complications just shy of age 88 in Oxnard, California.

Arthur Scofield Franz was born in Perth Amboy, NJ, to Dorothy and Gustav Franz, German immigrants. He was a reliable character actor in many 1940s and 1950s "B" pictures, often cast as a friendly small-town businessman or professional (as in The Doctor and the Girl (1949)) or the lead's sympathetic friend (as in Invaders from Mars (1953)). He wasn't confined to just "B" pictures, however. He had good parts in such major productions as Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and Alvarez Kelly (1966) and acquitted himself well. However, the film he's probably best remembered for is Edward Dmytryk's solid little "B" thriller The Sniper (1952), in which he turned in an outstanding performance as a mentally unstable ex-soldier in San Francisco who, after being rejected by a woman he was interested in, snaps and terrorizes the city by taking out his old army rifle and stalking and picking off women.

Alan Dexter was born on 21 October 1918 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor, known for Paint Your Wagon (1969), Gable and Lombard (1976) and Public Defender (1954). He was married to Sarah E. Ufford. He died on 19 December 1983 in Oxnard, California, USA.

Tom Kennedy was born on 26 February 1927 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He was an actor, known for Witness (1985), You Don't Say (1963) and Hardcastle and McCormick (1983). He was married to Betty Jane Gevedon. He died on 7 October 2020 in Oxnard, California, USA.

Donna Drew was born on 16 May 1932 in San Diego, California, USA. She was an actress, known for The Big Combo (1955), Captain Midnight (1954) and The Whistler (1954). She was married to Greg Roman. She died on 8 January 2004 in Oxnard, California, USA.

Warren Stanhope was born on 22 August 1929 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He was an actor, known for Department S (1969), BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950) and Man of the World (1962). He died on 14 February 2012 in Oxnard, California, USA.

Novelist, short-story writer, teacher -- and private detective. He wrote two novels that would be turned into theatrical films, "The Detective" (1966), which became The Detective (1968); and "Nothing Lasts Forever" (1979), which became Die Hard (1988). His 1986 novel "Rainbow Drive" was later produced as a made-for-TV movie. He taught literature and lectured on creative writing at schools and colleges in New Jersey and California, and wrote pieces for newspapers and magazines. Earlier, as a young college graduate, he had worked at a detective agency owned by his father.

George Barrows was born on 7 February 1914 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Robot Monster (1953), The Magical World of Disney (1954) and Frankenstein's Daughter (1958). He died on 17 October 1994 in Oxnard, California, USA.

A former railroad worker, Frank McDonald came to Hollywood after a career on the stage as an actor/producer/director. At first hired as a dialogue director, McDonald turned out some scripts and in the mid-'30s began directing. Working for almost every studio in Hollywood at one time or another, he did a lot of work for Republic, grinding out Gene Autry and Roy Rogers westerns, and at the Pine/Thomas "B" unit at Paramount, churning out westerns, action dramas and war pictures. Not entirely comfortable as a director--Evelyn Keyes once said, "I've never seen anyone as terrified of directing as Frank McDonald"--he nevertheless turned out more than 100 pictures in his career.

Robert Bain was born on 26 January 1924 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for The Great Race (1965), Sing Boy Sing (1958) and Night Gallery (1969). He was married to Helen Jean Meyer and Judith Ann Clark. He died on 21 June 2018 in Oxnard, California, USA.

Yolanda White was born on 22 April 1950 in Maywood, California, USA. She was an actress, known for All Mine to Give (1957), Leave It to Beaver (1957) and The Ed Sullivan Show (1948). She died on 18 November 2020 in Oxnard, California, USA.

Michael Lindsay was born on 1 June 1939 in Los Angeles, California, USA. Michael was a producer, known for The New Temperatures Rising Show (1972), The Paul Lynde Show (1972) and Jan & Dean: On the Run (1966). Michael was married to Karen J Bruce. Michael died on 25 August 2006 in Oxnard, California, USA.

Jeanne Carpenter was born on 1 February 1916 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for Through the Back Door (1921), Fighting Fate (1921) and A Man from Nowhere (1920). She was married to Robert Alvin Grimes and Robert Drysdale. She died on 5 January 1994 in Oxnard, California, USA.

Silent-screen actress Ethel Clayton was a convent-educated girl from Champaign, IL, who sought work as a stage actress after finishing her education. She secured small parts here and there, but hit the big time when she went to work for the Frawley Organization, which had several touring stock companies. She got small parts at first but then began getting bigger ones until finally she was getting star billing. Howver, the advent of motion pictures soon piqued her curiosity, and a visit to a film studio aroused her interest even more. Producer Siegmund Lubin offered to star her in one of his productions, she consented--"just this one, though"--and made her film debut in "The Great Divide". However, after she saw the completed film, she consented to do another, The Lion and the Mouse (1914), and soon she had given up the stage altogether in favor of pictures. It was the beginning of a career that lasted more than 30 years and comprised more than 180 films. Her last one was The Perils of Pauline (1947), in which she had an uncredited bit part, after which she left the screen. She died in Oxnard, CA, in 1966.

Laverne Thompson was born on 5 October 1925 in San Benito, Texas, USA. She was an actress, known for Gents Without Cents (1944), Youth Aflame (1944) and Showboat Serenade (1944). She died on 26 September 2015 in Oxnard, California, USA.

Russell Birdwell was born on 17 October 1903 in Texas, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Flying Devils (1933), The Girl in the Kremlin (1957) and Masquerade (1929). He was married to Mabel Birdwell. He died on 15 December 1977 in Oxnard, California, USA.

Don Peters was born on 19 May 1921. He was a writer, known for The Naked Prey (1965), Bloody Mama (1970) and Zeimers in Zambezi (1970). He died on 4 October 2002 in Oxnard, California, USA.

Red Stanley was born on 17 October 1900 in Denton, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Cocoanut Grove (1938), Love Detectives (1934) and Susie's Affairs (1934). He was married to Anita Garvin. He died on 18 April 1980 in Oxnard, California, USA.

Don Nygren was born on 13 September 1933. He is known for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and The Nutty Professor (1996). He died on 13 November 2001 in Oxnard, California, USA.

"Sandy" Barnett was working for the J. Walter Thomspson Agency when he switched careers in the 1930s and began work on the "Lux Radio Theatre" as a producer and director. He started writing for the program in the mid 1940s, and switched to the television version of the long running radio hit in the early 1950s. His television adaptations of novels and previous screenplays on "Lux" were well-respected because of his considerable skill in catching the flavor and spirit of the original work despite the more limited running time of the television show.

Glen Denning was born on 31 March 1927 in the USA. He was an actor, known for Space Patrol (1950), Lights Out (1946) and Kraft Theatre (1947). He died on 11 May 2021 in Oxnard, California, USA.

Frank Riggi was born on 17 December 1914 in Brooks, Oregon, USA. He was an actor, known for They Made Me a Criminal (1939). He was married to Evelyn Audrey Nichols. He died on 23 March 1994 in Oxnard, California, USA.

Cola Boyy was born on 14 February 1990 in Ventura County, California, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Nicolas Godin feat. Cola Boyy: The Foundation (2019), Cola Boyy: Penny Girl (2018) and Konbini (2013). He died on 17 March 2024 in Oxnard, California, USA.