Edmond O'Brien (September 10, 1915 – May 9, 1985) was an American actor who is perhaps best remembered for his role in D.O.A. (1950) and his Oscar winning role in The Barefoot Contessa (1954). His many memorable films included The Killers, White Heat, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Wild Bunch.
Born in New York, New York of English and Irish stock, O'Brien made his film debut in 1938, and gradually built a career as a highly regarded supporting actor. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces and appeared in the Air Forces' Broadway play and film Winged Victory.
He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a harried publicity agent in The Barefoot Contessa (1954) and was also nominated for his role as an alcoholic U.S. senator in Seven Days in May (1964). Prior to that, O'Brien had an acclaimed role in 1950's D.O.A. as a poisoned man who sets out to find his own murderer before he dies.
His other notable films include The Killers (1946), White Heat (1949), The Girl Can't Help It (1956), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), The Longest Day (1962), Fantastic Voyage (1966), and The Wild Bunch (1969).
Frank Lovejoy (March 28, 1912 – October 2, 1962) was an American actor in radio, film, and television. He was born Frank Andrew Lovejoy Jr. in Bronx, New York, but grew up in New Jersey. His father, Frank Lovejoy Sr., was a furniture salesman from Maine. His mother, Nora, was born in Massachusetts to Irish immigrant parents.
A successful radio actor, Lovejoy was heard on the 1930s crime drama series Gang Busters. Lovejoy was a narrator for the show This Is Your FBI. He played the title character on the syndicated The Blue Beetle during the 1940s, and starred in the later crime drama series Nightbeat in the early 1950s.
In films of the 1940s and 1950s, Lovejoy mostly played supporting roles. Appearing in movies such as Goodbye, My Fancy (1951) with Joan Crawford, and The Hitch-Hiker (1953) directed by Ida Lupino, Lovejoy was effective playing the movie's everyman in extraordinary situations. He was in several war movies, notably Joseph H. Lewis' Retreat, Hell! (1952) which portrayed the United States Marine Corps' retreat from the Chosin Reservoir (aka the Changjin Reservoir) during the Korean War. In 1951, he had the title role in I Was a Communist for the FBI with co-stars Ron Hagerthy, Paul Picerni, and Philip Carey.
William Whitney Talman, Jr. (February 4, 1915 – August 30, 1968) was an American television and movie actor, who played Los Angeles District Attorney Hamilton Burger in the long-running series Perry Mason.
Talman was born in Detroit, Michigan to Ada Barber and William Whitney Talman, a vice president of an electronics company. His maternal grandparents, Catherine Gandy and James Wells Barber, were immigrants from England.
He founded the drama club at the Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He continued to act at Dartmouth College and the University of Michigan. After college he worked in summer stock and at an iron foundry, paper mills, boat yards, and as an automobile salesman.
He served for 30 months in the army in the Pacific in World War II, beginning his service as a private on February 4, 1942 at Camp Upton in Yaphank, (Long Island) New York. He was ultimately commissioned a major during the war.
Before his iconic television role, he worked on the Broadway stage and in movies. He played a sadistic psychopathic killer in Ida Lupino's 1953 film noir, The Hitch-Hiker. The New York Times said of him: "William Talman, as the ruthless murderer, makes the most of one of the year's juiciest assignments." But in the 1952 thriller Beware, My Lovely, about a war widow who is terrorized by a madman in her home, a photograph of Talman is used for the picture of her late, heroic husband.
Thoughts in time and out of season
The Hitchhiker
Stood by the side of the road
And leveled his thumb
In the calm calculus of reason
Hi. How you doin'? I just got back into town L.A.
I was out on the desert for awhile
"Riders on the storm"
Yeah. In the middle of it
"Riders on the storm"
Right...
"Into this world we're born"
Hey, listen, man, I really got a problem
"Into this world we're thrown"
When I was out on the desert, ya know
"Like a dog without a bone
An actor out on loan"
I don't know how to tell you
"Riders on the storm"
but, ah, I killed somebody
"There's a killer on the road"
No...
"His brain is squirming like a toad"
It's no big deal, ya know
I don't think anybody will find out about it, but...
" take a long holiday"
just, ah...
"Let your children play"
this guy gave me a ride, and ah...
"If you give this man a ride"
started giving me a lot of trouble
"Sweet family will die"
and I just couldn't take it, ya know
"Killer on the road"
And I wasted him
Yeah
I heard you favored another
And to me it came as no surprise
I had all I can take of feeling this way
knowing I was gone beyond goodbye
I hear a voice in the distance
Crying like a sorrowful ghost
There's a dark sky moving behind me
And I'm riding my thumb by the road
Or take me to the coast of California
There's a cold wind blowing here at home
Anywhere your restless wheels are rolling
Is better off than staying here alone
So i paid a price for the learning
Measured in the passing of time
Money can't buy back the years I've lost
Thoughts in time and out of season
The Hitchhiker
Stood by the side of the road
And leveled his thumb
In the calm calculus of reason
Hi. How you doin'? I just got back into town L.A.
I was out on the desert for awhile
"Riders on the storm"
Yeah. In the middle of it
"Riders on the storm"
Right...
"Into this world we're born"
Hey, listen, man, I really got a problem
"Into this world we're thrown"
When I was out on the desert, ya know
"Like a dog without a bone
An actor out on loan"
I don't know how to tell you
"Riders on the storm"
But, ah, I killed somebody
"There's a killer on the road"
No...
"His brain is squirming like a toad"
It's no big deal, ya know
I don't think anybody will find out about it, but...
" take a long holiday"
Just, ah...
"Let your children play"
This guy gave me a ride, and ah...
"If you give this man a ride"
Started giving me a lot of trouble
"Sweet family will die"
And I just couldn't take it, ya know
"Killer on the road"
And I wasted him
headlights stab into the night sky,
hands gripping tight to the wheel knuckles white
approaching a figure in the headlights
where are you headed get in we'll be on our way
i'll engage the conversation like i care
to set your fragile mind at ease
then tune you out like the radio,
songs fading in and out hissing dead melodies
hitchhiker roadside execution
midnight stranger,
come and take a ride with me
in all my misery
i would love some company
this long and winding road isn't safe for anyone.
now focus all your fear on the barrel of my gun
we are now experiencing technical difficulties
calm down close your eyes
it was all a bad dream
now go back to sleep
standing over your dead body
smiling at you
staring at you
midnight stranger,
come and take a ride with me
in all my misery
i would love some company
this long and winding road isn't safe for anyone.
now focus all your fear on the barrel of my gun
midnight stranger,
nothing can save you now
beneath the pale starlight
i'll take you out of this world,
lone hitchhiker i'll paint the highway with your blood,
in the morning light no one will recognize you