Richard Eastham (1916-2005) [Man on Fire (1957); Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)] was originally headed for a musical career. He was born Dickinson Swift Eastham in Opelousas, Louisiana. A student at Washington University, he was gifted with a fine sturdy baritone and performed with the St. Louis Grand Opera in the days before World War II. After finishing his wartime four-year army service, Eastham moved to New York and studied at the American Theatre Wing. His musical peak came after understudying singer Ezio Pinza as plantation owner Emile DeBecque in South Pacific, sharing the stage in the role with the likes of Mary Martin and (later) Janet Blair while using the name Dickenson Eastham. He also co-starred in an Ethel Merman production of Call Me Madam in the early 1950s and made his minor non-singing film bow with Merman in the Fox film musical There's No Business Like Show Business (1954). His TV debut came with a musical appearance on Toast of the Town (1948) (aka The Ed Sullivan Show) in 1949.

Charles Eaton (1910-2004) [Forever (1921); Under Your Hat (1940)] was born in Washington D.C., the youngest scion of a one-time respected family of stage and film actors. He was certainly the most prominent male performer of a clan that was once referred to as "The Seven Little Eatons." In 1940, he went into business with his sister Doris, who operated a thriving Arthur Murray Dance Studios franchise in Detroit. The franchise eventually grew to 18 studios. He served as a captain in the Army Air Corps and it may be that the service was during World War II.

Sam Edwards (1915-2004) [East Side Kids (1940); The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)] was born in Macon, Georgia, and grew up in a show business family, having made his debut on stage while he was just a baby (his mother, the actress Edna Park, was holding him). With his family, he acted on radio in The Adventures of Sunny and Buddy, and on his family's show, The Edwards Family. He worked in radio drama throughout the 1930s and 1940s and entertained troops in Africa, Italy, and Asia during his three-year tour of service during World War II.

Richard Egan (1921-1987) was an American actor. Born in San Francisco, California, Egan served in the United States Army during World War II. A graduate of the University of San Francisco and Stanford University, he studied and taught at Northwestern University for a time. Having studied theatre, he took a bit role in the 1949 Hollywood film The Story of Molly X. This start would lead to his signing of a contract with 20th Century Fox where his rugged physique and good looks made him an early 1950s leading man in mainly B-movies. In 1956, he starred as Elvis Presley's older brother in Presley's first film, Love Me Tender and in 1959 was the male lead opposite Dorothy McGuire in A Summer Place. In 1960, Egan appeared in such films as Pollyanna and with Joan Collins in Esther and the King.

Robert Ellenstein (1923- ) [The Garment Jungle (1957); Love at First Bite (1979)] is an American TV and film actor. The son of a Newark dentist, Robert grew up in that New Jersey city and saw his father go on to become its two-term mayor. He got his feet wet as an actor prior to serving the Air Corps during World War II. He was awarded a Purple Heart. After service, he began acting, directing and teaching in Cleveland, Ohio. A veteran of the Golden Age of live TV (he played Quasimodo in a live Robert Montgomery Presents (1950) version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame), Ellenstein made his first movie in 1954 (MGM's Rogue Cop) and is still going strong with jobs in TV and regional theater. He played the Federation President in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).

Leif Erickson (1911-1986) [Ride a Crooked Mile (1938); Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977)] was born William Y. Wycliffe Anderson in Alameda, California and died of cancer at age 74 in Pensacola, Florida. He was a brawny, blond second lead and had the looks of a Viking god. He worked as a band vocalist and trombone player, then gained a small amount of stage experience before debuting onscreen in a bit part (as a corpse) in Wanderer of the Wasteland (1935). Billed by Paramount as Glenn Erickson, he began his screen career as a leading man in Westerns. Because of his Nordic looks he was renamed Leif Erikson, which he later changed to Erickson. He played intelligent but unexciting second leads and supporting parts in many films. Erickson took four years off to serve in World War II and was twice wounded. He made few films after 1965 and retired from the screen after 1977. Also working on Broadway and in TV plays, he played the patriarch Big John Cannon in the TV series High Chaparral (1967-1971). From 1934 to 1942, he was married to actress Frances Farmer, with whom he co-starred in Ride a Crooked Mile (1938); later, he was briefly married to actress Margaret Hayes (aka Dana Dale). ~ Rovi (Edited to insert other info.)

Gene Evans (1922-1998) began his acting career while serving in World War II and performing with a theatrical troupe of GIs in Europe. [He served as a combat engineer and was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star for bravery in action.]. Evans, raised in Colton, California, made his film debut in 1947 and ended up appearing in dozens of movies and television programs. He specialized in playing tough guys like cowboys, sheriffs, convicts and Army sergeants. The near-sighted actor rarely wore his thick glasses in films, he did wear them while playing a doctor in the B-movie Donovan's Brain (1953).

Michael Evans (1920-2007) [The Six Men (1951); Olivia (1983)] was born John Michael Evans in Sittingbourne, England, to A.J. Evans, who wrote the 1926 novel The Escaping Club about his escape from a WWI prisoner of war camp, and the former Marie Galbraith, a concert violinist. Michael decided to become an actor at the age of 12 after seeing the great John Gielgud in one of his signature roles, Shakespeare's King Richard the Second (1978) (TV). Evans served as a navigator in the Royal Air Force during World War II. After studying acting at the Old Vic School in London, he made his theatrical debut on in the West End in 1948. By 1962 he was in Hollywood working in both tv and film and eventually died in Woodland Hills, California.

Jason Evers (1922-2005) [House of Women (1962); Dawn of Victory (1966)] was born Herb Evers in New York, New York. Although most of us know him as playing Dr. Bill Corter in the cult film The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962), Evers has done much more than meets the eye. Originally quitting school to join the Army during World War II, Evers later decided to act after seeing many Hollywood stars like John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart. His first big break was in 1960 in a TV series called Wrangler followed by several roles in Pretty Boy Floyd (1960), House of Women (1962) and another TV series called Channing (1963).

Tom Ewell (1909-1994) was born Samuel Yewell Tompkins in Kentucky. His family tried to steer him towards a law career but he chose the path of acting instead after becoming involved in college productions at the University of Wisconsin. Ewell made an inauspicious film debut with an unbilled bit in the comedy They Knew What They Wanted (1940) and continued that same year just as bleakly in the westerns Back in the Saddle (1941), Desert Bandit (1941) and The Kid from Kansas (1941). Better suited for Broadway, he found more challenging roles back East in Suzanna and the Elders (1940), Liberty Jones (1941) and Sunny River before his career was suddenly interrupted by World War II service. A return to The Great White Way happened almost immediately upon his discharge and Tom scored with the comedy hits Apple of His Eye (1946) and John Loves Mary, the latter earning him the Clarence Derwent Award.