Born Beverly Fessenden in California in October 1926, Beverly Garland has sustained an amazing 50+ year career in Hollywood, acting in numerous cult-classic "B" films in the 1950s, then switching to television in the 1960s. (Garland was billed as "Beverly Campbell" in a few of her early film appearances.) In 1949, before making her first film D.O.A. with Edmond O'Brien, she married actor Richard Garland. However, the marriage didn't work out, and the couple dissolved the union in 1953, at about the point that Beverly Garland's career kicked into high gear.

For the next six years, Garland worked hard, making more than 20 films and starring in the TV series Decoy, in which she portrayed a female undercover cop. Following her 1959 film The Alligator People, Garland cooled her film career and married businessman and developer Fillmore Crank. By the mid 1960s, Garland began making many television appearances and took roles in several successful series, including The Bing Crosby Show and My Three Sons. Garland has maintained her acting career to today, even with her business interests---Garland owns and runs the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn in Los Angeles, just a few blocks from the entrance of Universal Studios. Garland's hotel is also the Los Angeles site of Ray and Sharon Court's famed autograph conventions.

Credit: briansdriveintheater.com