Movie Star Debuts on Television -

• Humphrey Bogart - The only television appearance (in an acting role) of Humphrey Bogart was on May 30, 1955 for the TV version of the Robert Sherwood's play The Petrified Forest broadcast on NBC's PRODUCER'S SHOWCASE with a cast that included Jack Klugman, Richard Jaeckel, Henry Fonda and Lauren Bacall. He was paid $50,000 for the performance. The television play recreated the role of Duke Mantee, the gangster he had portrayed on Broadway that made him a star. It was rumored that Hollywood was angry at Bogie for letting people see him for free instead of paying for movie tickets.

• Marlon Brando - The first (and rare) TV appearance of then twenty-four year old Marlon Brando was on ACTOR'S STUDIO on January 9, 1949 in the teleplay I'm No Hero. Thirty years later Marlon Brando returned to TV in the Emmy-winning role of George Lincoln Rockwell, the leader of the American Nazi Party in episode seven of the Alex Haley's $18-million-sequel ABC miniseries Roots: The Next Generation (February 18-25, 1979).

• Leslie Caron -  Born in Paris on July 1, 1931, French actress Leslie Caron made her American debut on television in the 1974 miniseries QB VII. In 1987, she returned to American television for the second time to appear as a beautiful French philanthropist who came to California to stir up marital problems with Chase Gioberti on the prime time soap opera FALCON CREST/CBS/1981-90. She made her screen debut as the star of An American In Paris (1951).

• Claudette Colbert - Veteran film star, Claudette Colbert made her first television appearance in 25 years on February 8, 1987 on the NBC made-for-TV movie The Two Mrs. Grenvilles based on the best selling novel by Dominic Dunne. She played Alice Grenville, a high society matriarch who tenaciously fought to prove that her son was murdered by his new wife Ann Arden, a woman whom she never accepted as "appropriate" for her son and his social circles. Claudette Colbert made a few rare appearances in the early days of television on such anthology series as THE BEST OF BROADWAY, FORD THEATRE, ROBERT MONTGOMERY PRESENTS, and TELEPHONE TIME.

• Lillian Gish - Veteran actress of both silent and talkie motion pictures, Lillian Gish made her television debut on May 1, 1976 in the made-for-television movie Twin Detectives which starred identical twins Jim & Jon Hager who created confusion among the suspects in a criminal investigation.

• Audrey Hepburn -  Audrey Hepburn, veteran movie actress of such film classics as Roman Holiday (1953) Breakfast At Tiffany's (1961) and My Fair Lady (1964) made her TV movie debut opposite Robert Wagner on the ABC MONDAY NIGHT MOVIE Love Among Thieves (2/23/87), a Hitchcock-styled blend of mystery, sophisticated comedy and romance. According to the movie advertisement "He took her jewels. Lifted her spirits. And stole her heart." Hepburn played Baroness Caroline DuLac, a widow and classical pianist who was forced to steal three jewel-encrusted Faberge eggs from a San Francisco museum to meet the demands of kidnapers holding her fiancé hostage in Mexico.

• Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin - These two popular comedians made their television debuts on the first show of the original Ed Sullivan program called TOAST OF THE TOWN broadcast June 20, 1948 on the CBS network. For their trouble, they received a salary of $200, which they split.

• Marilyn Monroe - This sexy, blonde bombshell made her network television debut on THE JACK BENNY SHOW on Sunday September 13, 1953. She wore black fish net stockings, a sequined one-piece bathing style suit, black arm-length cloth gloves, top hat and cane. Marilyn Monroe was also one of the many personalities to chat informally with host Edward R. Murrow on his celebrity interview program PERSON TO PERSON/1953-61. An early black and white TV commercial for Union Oil of California found Marilyn surrounded by a group of admiring young men as she stood at a gas station pump. Her lines read: "This is my first car I ever owned. I call her Cynthia. She's going to have the best care a car ever had. Put Royal Triton in Cynthia's little tummy. Cynthia will just love that Royal Triton."