David Janssen was born David Harold Meyer in 1931 in Naponee, Nebraska, to Berniece Mae (Graf) and Harold Edward Meyer, a banker. He was of German, and some Swiss-German and Scottish-Irish, descent. David took the surname of his stepfather, Eugene Janssen.
Madge Sinclair was born Madge Dorita Walters on April 28 1938 in Kingston, Jamaica, married young and had two sons. Madge worked as a teacher in Jamaica until she was 30. She left her two boys with their father and went to New York City to be an actress. She began modeling and later acted with the New York Shakespearean Festival and at Joseph Papp's Public Theatre. In 1974, Madge made her film debut, playing Mrs. Scott in Conrack (1974). She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance as Bell Reynolds in the miniseries Roots (1977). In the early 1980s, shortly after joining the cast of Trapper John, M.D. (1979), she was diagnosed with leukemia. She continued to work outliving the doctors' predictions by several years. On December 20, 1995, Madge Sinclair died at age 57 in Los Angeles, California.
