Blacklisted: Cliff Carpenter & Jean Rouverol

Cliff Carpenter, 97, a prolific film, radio, theater and TV actor, is best remembered for voicing Terry on the popular Terry and the Pirates radio show for years until the outbreak of World War II, at which point he left to serve his country. A founding member of AFRA, the radio union, he first got himself into hot water at a 1942 meeting of the TvA, the pre-AFTRA television union, when he spoke out against the unjust treatment of fellow actor Philip Loeb, who had been listed in Red Channels. The sponsors of The Goldbergs, the show on which Loeb was starring, demanded his termination; Loeb eventually accepted a payoff and resigned. (Not long after, he committed suicide.) The situation prompted Carpenter -- who was an active member of the Communist Party -- to submit a motion calling for blacklisting to be labeled an unfair labor practice. "I was so disturbed by what was happening to Phil that I had to do it," he has said, "though I knew it could take me down a treacherous road from which I might never return." The motion passed by an overwhelming margin, he was elected chairman of the committee and, shortly thereafter, his own name was added to the Blacklist, rendering him unemployable for years. Carpenter got the last laugh, though, as he continues to do voiceover work for radio and occasionally appears on TV shows such as The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and in films like 2008's Synecdoche, New York. Today, he lives with fellow Blacklist victim Jean Rouverol, whom he met nine years ago. He says, "It is a happy ending."