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If you're under the age of 60, it's possible you don't know who Rin Tin Tin is. This is a pity, as there was a time when Rin Tin Tin was one of the biggest movie stars on the planet. Born in Fliery, France in 1918, Rin Tin Tin (sometimes called Rinty for short) was a German Shepherd found on a French battlefield by an American solider named Lee Duncan, fighting in World War I. Returning from the war, Duncan trained Rinty to perform on camera and merely walked the dog from studio to studio, asking if they were looking for a performing animal. Rin Tin Tin made his film debut in the 1922 film "The Man from Hell's River," replacing a persnickety wolf. He would go on to play a Wolf Dog in the 1923 film "Where the North Begins," launching the popular pooch into the mainstream.

Throughout the 1920s, Rin Tin Tin...

Gunsmoke the TV series was a staple of television for 20 years. The iconic Western starring James Arness, Amanda Blake, and Milburn Stone ran on the CBS network from 1955 to 1975, having itself been transitioned from a radio show that would run concurrently with the television series until 1961. But in 1955, the idea of a hard-driving Western action that would appeal to adults was not without detractors. The genre had been seen mostly as a vehicle for children, via such programs as Hopalong Cassidy and The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin.

Yet Gunsmoke transcended what could be considered, for the time, unacceptable concepts on primetime television. Tackling serious subjects such as race, religion, and violence, the sprawling narrative enabled the characters a chance to illustrate themes that laid the groundwork for future Western-driven development in television, movies, and books. From this diverse and long history, there are several highlights to be drawn in spotlighting the show's epic appeal.

Joe Camp, who wrote, produced and directed a series of films and TV shows that elevated a pooch stage-named Benji to Hollywood’s canine pantheon alongside Lassie and Rin Tin Tin, died today at his Tennessee home. He was 84.

His death was announced by his son, the director Brandon Camp, who told Deadline that his father died after a prolonged illness at his home in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, surrounded by family.

In addition to the long-lasting Benji franchise that began in 1974 and would continue well into the 21st Century, Camp co-wrote and directed Hawmps!, the 1976 Western comedy that replaced horses with camels, and 1979’s The Double McGuffin, a mystery film starring Ernest Borgnine and George Kennedy.

While he also wrote a series of books about horses, including the popular The Soul of a Horse and Why Horses Are Barefoot, Camp’s most enduring contribution to Hollywood was and remains the...

There were numerous superstars during the silent era from the clown princes of comedy Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd to such dramatic and action icons as Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, John Gilbert, Greta Garbo, Gloria Swanson and Lillian Gish. One was a good boy — the German Shepherd Rin Tin Tin. Not only is Rin Tin Tin, aka Rinty, credited with saving Warner Bros., but Hollywood lore also insists he, not Emil Jannings, was the first Best Actor Oscar winner.

With Warner Brothers celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and the Academy Awards just around the corner, it’s time to look at the Rinty phenomenon and its place in Hollywood history.

Rinty wasn’t the first canine star. Blair, the pet collie of British director Cecil Hepworth, headlined his 1905 thriller “Rescued by Rover.” The film was so popular it had to be shot twice because the...

From 1955 to 1961, the Western series “Gunsmoke” concurrently existed on radio and TV with two different casts and creative teams. The latter version would continue on CBS for 14 additional seasons, becoming the first live action primetime narrative series to last for two decades. While it held this and several other records, it missed out on earning the distinction of being the first-ever adult-themed Western show by just four days. The original program that added a dose of maturity to the landscape dominated by “The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin” and “The Lone Ranger” was ABC’s “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.”

Film actor Hugh O’Brian starred as Kansan lawman Wyatt Earp for six seasons and earned his only Emmy nomination for his work on the second. At 31, he was the youngest person to have been recognized for a dramatic performance up to that point. Over 60 years later, he still...

From 1955 to 1961, the Western series “Gunsmoke” concurrently existed on radio and TV with two different casts and creative teams. The latter version would continue on CBS for 14 additional seasons, becoming the first live action primetime narrative series to last for two decades. While it held this and several other records, it missed out on earning the distinction of being the first-ever adult-themed Western show by just four days. The original program that added a dose of maturity to the landscape dominated by “The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin” and “The Lone Ranger” was ABC’s “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.”

Film actor Hugh O’Brian starred as Kansan lawman Wyatt Earp for six seasons and earned his only Emmy nomination for his work on the second. At 31, he was the youngest person to have been recognized for a dramatic performance up to that point. Over 60 years later, he still...

Lee Aaker, best known for starring as Corporal Rusty of “B-Company” on the 1950s western series “The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin,” died on April 1. He was 77.

Paul Petersen, another former child actor, confirmed the news to Variety and posted a tribute on his Facebook page, along with a signed photo of a young Aaker with Rin Tin Tin, his onscreen canine pal.

“Saying Goodbye to Lee Aaker,” Peterson said. “You have to be a certain age to remember Rin Tin Tin. Lee Aaker passed away in Arizona on April 1st, alone and unclaimed…listed as an ‘indigent decedent.’ As an Air Force veteran Lee is entitled to burial benefits. I am working on that. God knows when a sparrow falls.”

Aaker was born on September 25, 1943. His mother, Myles Wilbour, was the owner of a dancing school in Los Angeles. He was singing and dancing at local clubs by the age of 4. At 8-years old,...

Veteran actor and former child star Lee Aaker has sadly passed away. Famous for starring as the orphan Rusty alongside his German shepherd pal on The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin in the 1950s, Aaker reportedly had a stroke and died on April 1 near Mesa, Arizona. The actor was 77 years old.

Paul Petersen, a former Donna Reed Show star who now serves as an advocate for former child stars, told THR that Aaker had been battling drug and alcohol abuse. By the end, the actor was left with one "surviving relative that could not help him," with Aaker's death certificate listing him as an "indigent decedent." Petersen was helping to get him a proper burial.

"You are around just to please everyone," Petersen added of former child actors, "and when there's nothing left, they are done with you."

Aaker is perhaps best known for playing Rusty, a young boy raised by U.

Lee Aaker, best known as the 1950s child star of The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin, has died at 77. The news comes via a social media post by former child actor and activist Paul Petersen. Petersen said Aaker “passed away in Arizona on April 1st, alone & unclaimed, listed as an ‘indigent decedent.'”

Aaker was 11 when The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin first appeared on ABC. The western’s original run on Friday evenings lasted from October 1954 to May 1959. Aaker played Rusty, a boy orphaned in an Indian raid being raised at Fort Apache. He starred opposite James E. Brown’s Lieutenant Ripley “Rip” Masters and, of course, a number of German shepherds who portrayed the titular canine.

Aaker’s career began propitiously. Even before Rin Tin Tin, at the age of 8 he had uncredited appearances in films such as The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and High Noon (1952). Aaker then appeared opposite Barbara Stanwyck...

Lee Aaker, who starred in the ABC series “The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin,” died this month near Mesa, Arizona of a stroke, according to a Facebook post from fellow former child actor Paul Petersen. He was 77.

Petersen confirmed Aaker’s passing to TheWrap and said that no service was currently planned.

Born in Inglewood, California, in 1943, Aaker was first found by director Fred Zinnemann and cast for his short film “Benjy,” which was commissioned as a fundraiser video by Los Angeles Orthopedic Hospital and featured Aaker as a boy with scoliosis who is offered the chance to undergo a medical procedure that could cure him, but must first get permission from his parents whom have rejected him because of his condition. Despite being based on dramatized scenes, it qualified for the Best Documentary Short category at the Oscars and won in 1951.

Later that year, Zinnemann brought Aaker back for...

Lee Aaker, a child actor in the 1950s who starred as the orphan Rusty alongside a German shepherd on ABC’s The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin and in films including Hondo and The Atomic City, has died. He was 77.

Aaker had suffered a stroke and died April 1 near Mesa, Arizona, Paul Petersen, the former Donna Reed Show star who serves as an advocate for former child actors, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Aaker had battled drug and alcohol abuse during this life and was alone with one “surviving relative that could not help him,” Petersen said, adding that Aaker’s death certificate ...

Lee Aaker, a child actor in the 1950s who starred as the orphan Rusty alongside a German shepherd on ABC’s The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin and in films including Hondo and The Atomic City, has died. He was 77.

Aaker had suffered a stroke and died April 1 near Mesa, Arizona, Paul Petersen, the former Donna Reed Show star who serves as an advocate for former child actors, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Aaker had battled drug and alcohol abuse during this life and was alone with one “surviving relative that could not help him,” Petersen said, adding that Aaker’s death certificate ...

Hollywood’s most famous dogs on TV

Giggy, “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Lisa Vanderpump’s Pomeranian, is perhaps one of TV’s most pampered pups, with his own personal chef and Twitter account. He has become such a fan favorite that he now makes his own red carpet appearances, rich owner in tow.

Gidget, the 12-pound chihuahua known for the ubiquitous catchphrase, “Yo quiero Taco Bell!” was propelled to stardom after landing the lucrative fast-food campaign in the late ’90s. She also starred as Bruiser’s mom in 2003’s “Legally Blonde 2” alongside Reese Witherspoon.

Brigitte, a five-year-old French bulldog “actress,” best known for her role as Stella on ABC’s hit comedy “Modern Family,” won Best Dog in a Television Series at the inaugural Golden Collar Awards in 2012. Yes, that’s a thing.

Even though Sadie isn’t exactly a TV star, Oprah Winfrey‘s cocker spaniel has...

Abby Singer, whose career in production management in film and television spanned over five decades, has died at the age of 96. He passed away at the Motion Picture and Television Country House on Thursday before 6 a.m. of cancer and old age, a Directors Guild of America spokesperson stated.  The longtime industry veteran worked on TV series' The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, Remington Steele, Hill Street Blues, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant and The Bob Newhart Show. He is also credited for having the second to last shot of the day on many sets being

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Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Sept. 17, 2013

Price: Blu-ray $24.95

Studio: Olive Films

Shadowy thrills rule in The Atomic City.

From 1952, The Atomic City is a classic Cold War thriller and quite representative of its paranoid, Communist-fearing era.

Directed by Jerry Hopper (TV’s The Fugitive), the movie stars Gene Barry (The War of the Worlds) as happily married family man/nuclear physicist Frank Addison, whose life turns into a nightmare when his son Tommy (Lee Aaker, TV’s The Adventures Of Rin Tin Tin) is kidnapped. The nefarious culprits’ demands, not surprisingly, concern the secrets behind the making of an H-bomb!

Featuring vivid locales ranging from the mean streets of Los Angeles to the rocky terrain of Santa Fe, The Atomic City makes its Blu-ray debut from Olive two years after the label premiered the title on DVD, freshly mastered in high definition from a 35mm archive print.

No bonus features are on the Blu-ray release.

The latest goody mined from the Paramount Pictures library by Olive Films is the 1952 Cold War thriller-drama The Atomic City, directed by Jerry Hopper and starring Gene Barry (The War of the Worlds) and Lydia Clark.

Shadowy thrills rule in The Atomic City.

It’s finally going to make its DVD debut on Aug. 30 from Olive for a list price of $24.95.

Barry stars as happily married family man/nuclear physicist Frank Addison, whose life turns into a nightmare when his son Tommy (Lee Aaker, TV’s The Adventures Of Rin Tin Tin) is kidnapped. The nefarious culprits’ demands, not surprisingly, concern the secrets behind the making of an H-bomb!

Featuring vivid locales ranging from the mean streets of L.A. to the rocky terrain of Santa Fe, The Atomic City premieres on DVD freshly mastered in high definition from a 35mm archive print.

There are no bonus features slated for the DVD release.

By Harris Lentz, III

Adele Mara was an actress in films in the 1940s and 1950s, and was John Wayne’s leading lady in the films Wake of the Red Witch and Sands of Iwo Jima. She also starred in the 1945 Republic horror film The Vampire’s Ghost with John Abbott and Peggy Stewart, and The Catman of Paris (1946) with Carl Esmond.

She was born Adelaide Delgado in Highland Park, Michigan, on April 28, 1923. She began her career in her teens as a singer and dancer with Xavier Cugat and His Orchestra in Detroit. She traveled to New York with Cugat, where she signed a contract with Columbia Pictures in 1942. She appeared in a handful of films over the next several years including Alias Boston Blackie (1942) with Chester Morris, Vengeance of the West (1942) with Tex Ritter, and Crime Doctor (1943) with Warner Baxter. She subsequently signed with Republic Studios, and continued her...