Gig Young (1913-1978) [The Three Musketeers (1948); The Hindenburg (1975)]. Born Byron Elsworth Barr in St. Cloud, Minnesota, his parents John and Emma Barr raised him and his older siblings in Washington D.C. He developed a passion for the theater while appearing in HS plays, and after some amateur experience he applied for and received a scholarship to the acclaimed Pasadena Community Playhouse. While acting in Pancho, a south-of-the-border play by Lowell Barrington, he and the leading actor in the play, George Reeves, were spotted by a Warner Brothers talent scout and both actors were signed to supporting player contracts. His early work was uncredited or as Byron Barr (not to be confused with actor Byron Barr (1917–1966) from Iowa), but after appearing in the 1942 film The Gay Sisters as a character named "Gig Young", the studio decided he should adopt the name professionally. Young appeared in supporting roles in numerous films during the 1940s, and came to be regarded as a popular and likable second lead, playing a brother or friend to the principal character. He took a hiatus from his movie career and enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1941 where he served as a pharmacist's mate until the end of World War II. -- [Excerpted from Wikipedia]

Terence Young (1915-1994) [Directed: One Night with You (1948); The Jigsaw Man (1983)]. Film director best known for his three films in the James Bond series including: Dr. No (1962); From Russia With Love (1963); and Thunderball (1965). During World War II, he was a paratrooper in the British army, and took part in the battle of Arnhem, Holland, where he was wounded. Young was transferred to a Dutch hospital, where he was nursed back to health. One of the volunteer nurses who took care of him was a 16-year-old Dutch girl named Audrey Heenstra - who became better known as Audrey Hepburn. In 1967 he directed her in Wait Until Dark.

Victor Sen Yung (1915-1980) [Mr. Moto Takes a Chance (1938); Kung Fu (1972)] was born Sen Yew Cheung in San Francisco of Chinese immigrant parents. To contribute to the family income, young Sen Yung was employed as a houseboy at age 11 and managed to earn his way through college at the University of California at Berkeley with an interest in animal husbandry and receiving a degree in economics. Following a move to Hollywood for some post graduate work at UCLA and USC, Victor gained an entrance into films. Victor enjoyed playing Jimmy, the earnest rookie detective who, to his chagrin, was always under the watchful eye of his famous father [Charlie Chan] while trying to help solve murder cases. His career was interrupted for U.S. Air Force duty as a Captain of Intelligence during World War II. His part in the Chan pictures was taken over by actor Benson Fong.

Darryl F. Zanuck (1902-1979) [Producer: The Jazz Singer (1927); The Longest Day (1962)]. One of the kingpins of Hollywood's studio system, Zanuck was the offspring of the ill-fated marriage of the alcoholic night clerk in Wahoo, Nebraska's only hotel and the hotel owner's promiscuous daughter. Both parents had abandoned him by the time he was 13. At 15, he joined the U.S. Army, and fought in Belgium in World War I. Mustered out, he kept himself alive with a series of desultory jobs -- steelworker, foreman in a garment factory, professional boxer -- while pursuing a career as a writer. He turned his first published story (for "Physical Culture," a pulp magazine) into a film scenario for William Russell; his next important sale was to Irving Thalberg. In 1933, after the Warners made it clear that Zanuck would never be more than an employee, he quit to form Twentieth Century Films (with backing from Louis B. Mayer and Joseph M. Schenck). In 1935, Twentieth absorbed a bankrupt giant, Fox. Zanuck ruled the combined studio for decades. During World War II he served as supervisor for Signal Corps training films and the photographic record of the North Africa invasion, and was awarded the Legion of Merit.

Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (1918- ) [House of Strangers (1949); Hot Shots! (1991)] was born in NYC, the son of concert violinist Efrem Zimbalist Sr. and opera singer Alma Gluck. He trained at both the Yale School of Drama and the Neighborhood Playhouse, and was an NBC radio page at the onset. Following World War II service in which he earned a Purple Heart for a severe wound received at Huertgen Forest, director and friend of the family Garson Kanin gave the aspiring actor his first professional role in his Broadway production of The Rugged Path (1945) which starred Spencer Tracy. But the dogged inspector Lewis Erskine on TV's The F.B.I. (1965) would be his ultimate claim to fame.