John Randolph Webb was an American actor, television producer, director, and screenwriter, most famous for his role as Joe Friday in the Dragnet franchise, which he created. He was also the founder of his own production company, Mark VII Limited.
William Broderick Crawford was an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Willie Stark in the film All the King's Men (1949), which earned him an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Often cast in tough-guy or slob roles, he later achieved recognition for his starring role as Dan Mathews in the crime television series Highway Patrol (1955–1959).
Richard Ewing Powell was an American actor, singer, musician, producer, director, and studio head. Though he came to stardom as a musical comedy performer, he showed versatility and successfully transformed into a hardboiled leading man, starring in projects of a more dramatic nature. He was the first actor to portray private detective Philip Marlowe on screen.
John Leonard Olson was an American radio personality and television announcer. Olson is perhaps best known for his work as an announcer for game shows, particularly the work he did for Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions. Olson was the longtime announcer for the original To Tell the Truth and What's My Line?, and spent over a decade as the announcer for both Match Game and The Price Is Right, working on the latter series at the time of his death.
Gordon Hill Jenkins was an American arranger, composer, and pianist who was influential in popular music in the 1940s and 1950s. Jenkins worked with The Andrews Sisters, Johnny Cash, The Weavers, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Harry Nilsson, Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald.
Hugh Milburn Stone was an American actor, best known for his role as "Doc" on the Western series Gunsmoke.
Sheldon Leonard Bershad was an American film and television actor, producer, director, and screenwriter.
William Nettles Goodwin, was for many years the announcer and a recurring character of the Burns and Allen radio program, and subsequently The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show on television from 1950–1951. Upon his departure, he was replaced by Harry von Zell.
John Joseph Francis Mulhall was an American film actor beginning in the silent film era who successfully transitioned to sound films, appearing in over 430 films in a career spanning 50 years.
Martin Kane, Private Eye is an American crime drama radio and television series sponsored by United States Tobacco Company. It aired via radio from 1949 to 1952 and was simultaneously a television series on NBC from 1949 to 1954. It was the "earliest of successful cops-and-robbers series" on television.
Willard "Bill" Kennedy was an American actor, voice artist, and host of the long-running Detroit-based television show, Bill Kennedy at the Movies. He began his career as a staff announcer in radio; Kennedy's voice narrates the opening of the television series Adventures of Superman.
Elliott Lewis was an American actor, writer, producer, and director who worked in radio and television during the 20th century. He was known for his ability to work in these capacities across all genres during the golden age of radio, which earned him the nickname "Mr. Radio". Later in life, he wrote a series of detective novels.
Richard Lane was an American actor and television announcer/presenter. In movies, he played assured, fast-talking slickers: usually press agents, policemen and detectives, sometimes swindlers and frauds. He is perhaps best known to movie fans as "Inspector Farraday" in the Boston Blackie mystery-comedies. Lane also played Faraday in the first radio version of Boston Blackie, which ran on NBC from June 23, 1944 to September 15, 1944. Lane was an early arrival on television, first as a news reporter and then as a sports announcer, broadcasting wrestling and roller derby shows on KTLA-TV, mainly from the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles.
Donald Hugh MacBride was an American character actor on stage, in films, and on television who launched his career as a teenage singer in vaudeville and went on to be an actor in New York.
Basil Spaulding Millspaugh, known as Basil Ruysdael, was an American actor and opera singer.
Larry Thor was a radio newscaster and announcer, an actor in film and radio, and a university professor. He "was noted for his distinctive voice ... his rich resonant tones."
Dragnet was an American radio series, enacting the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show took its name from the police term dragnet.
Steve Randall is an American detective television series starring Melvyn Douglas that ran on the DuMont Television Network from November 7, 1952, to January 30, 1953, and on CBS from June 16, 1953, to August 11, 1953.
The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR) is a major archive of motion picture, television, radio, and theater research materials. Located in the headquarters building of the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin, the WCFTR holds over three hundred collections from motion picture, television, and theater writers, producers, actors, designers, directors, and production companies. These collections include business records, personal papers, scripts, photographs, promotional graphics, and some twenty thousand films and videotapes of motion picture and television productions.
Franklin Parker, also known as Frank Parker or Franklyn Parker, was an American character actor who appeared in over 100 films during his twenty-five year career. Born in Fillmore, Missouri on November 8, 1902, he began his show business career on the vaudeville and Broadway stages, where he proved himself an admirable singer. During those years he would often be billed as Pinky. His final screen performance was on television, on The Donna Reed Show in 1961, where he was credited as Franklin Pinky Parker. His film career included appearances in such classic films as They Were Expendable, It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, Mighty Joe Young, and Pat and Mike. Occasionally he would have a larger role, such as the lead in the 1935 film, Sweet Surrender. He died of a heart attack in Hollywood, California on June 12, 1962.
