American actor Wally Cox was BOTD in 1924. Born in Detroit, Michigan, he was raised in Evanston, Illinois, becoming close friends with his teenaged neighbour Marlon Brando. During World War Two, he and his family moved to New York City, where he attended the City College of New York. He served in the US Army for four months, discharged after four months after exhibiting effeminate behaviour. He returned to New York, studying at New York University where he shared a room with Brando, and began performing comedy monologues in nightclubs. Encouraged by Brando, he studied at the Actors’ Studio with Stella Adler. He made his professional debut in 1949 in the radio show Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, followed by work in Broadway musical reviews. He rose to national attention as the star of the 1952 TV sitcom Mister Peepers, and appeared in The Ford 50th Anniversary Show, a televised live comedy show attracting 60 million viewers. He followed Brando to Hollywood, appearing in the films Spencer’s Mountain, The Bedford Incident and opposite Brando in the war film Morituri. Much of his career was spent in television, including the game shows Hollywood Squares and What’s My Line? and the sitcoms Here’s Lucy, The Beverly Hillbillies, Lost in Space and The Twilight Zone. Married three times and with two children, he remained lifelong friends with Brando, who was widely assumed to have been his lover. Cox died in 1973, aged 48, after suffering a heart attack. Brando was reported to have kept Cox’s ashes in his bedroom, conversing with them nightly, and later told a journalist that Cox had been the love of his life.