Farley Granger
Granger was considered somewhat of a heartthrob during the 1940s and 1950s. He was spotted by an MGM casting director whilst appearing in a small production on stage, and was cast in a controversial pro-Russia movie called The North Star. A less controversial war movie, The Purple Heart, followed, before he joined a troop of Hollywood luminaries such as Bob Hope and Betty Grable in Honolulu where they entertained the troops on the American naval base. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Granger never tried to hide his sexuality, living an openly bisexual life in an era where homosexuality, if not frowned upon, was largely hidden when it came to Hollywood's sex symbols.
Granger first worked with Alfred Hitchcock in 1948 when he was cast in Rope, his performance bringing in constantly great reviews. Because of this, Hitchcock cast him in Strangers on a Train.This proved to be the biggest film of his career, and although he worked steadily into his seventies, he never enjoyed making a movie as much as he had enjoyed making the two alongside Hitchcock whom he considered to be the best director of his generation.
Farley Granger was the subject of a spoof Hitchcock character series by the British comedy duo Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, whose Adventures of Charlie Farley followed a Granger-like character on train journeys throughout the south of wartime England; it became one of the most popular sketches on their Two Ronnies television show.
Ruth Roman
Working in the theater convinced Roman that she wanted to pursue a film career, and she headed to Hollywood from New York in order to chase her dreams. She was an uncredited studio "bit player" before she was cast in Jungle Queen in her first named role, but really came to prominence in 1949 when she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her role in Champion, a film about a struggling boxer that was based on a short story by Ring Lardner. Still fulfilling her Warner Brothers contract in the 1950s she took the role of Anne Morton because she was contractually obliged to do so; after her contract expired she found that she preferred working in television and left the studio system entirely.
Robert Walker
Walker died shortly after making Strangers on a Train; his death affected his co-star Farley Granger deeply, and Granger admitted to never enjoying making movies quite so much after Walker passed away. Because it was his last film, it also turned out to be the one he was best known for making, but in fact his career began when starring opposite his first wife, actress Jennifer Jones in the World War II epic Since You Went Away. Walker was somewhat of a womanizer and was also an alcoholic, the latter exacerbating his mental illness, which ultimately caused his death.
