Jack Kruschen earned an Oscar nod for his performance as Jack Lemmon's kindly and concerned neighbor in The Apartment, but before that he was a busy and very versatile radio performer. With a knack for accents and dialects, it wasn't uncommon for Kruschen to play multiple roles in the same thirty minutes. We'll hear him as a gangster who prepares an explosive Christmas gift for a rival in "A Present for Benny" (originally aired on CBS on December 14, 1955). Then, he's a nightclub mind reader who tries to use his powers to find the man who killed his wife in "With Murder in Mind" (originally aired on CBS on June 24, 1962). Plus, as a holiday bonus, we'll hear an adaptation of "Back for Christmas" from Escape (originally aired on CBS on December 24, 1947).

Episode 364 - Jack Kruschen

Presenting the biggest legends of Hollywood starring in "Suspense," radio's outstanding theater of thrills! Each week, we'll hear two chillers from this old time radio classic featuring one of the all-time great stars of stage and screen.

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Possessing one of the all-time great voices of the radio era, Hans Conried was equally effective in comedies and dramas as characters both old and young from all parts of the world. We'll hear him as the king's executioner in "The Groom of the Ladder" (originally aired on CBS on March 13, 1956), a refugee looking for a new life in America in "Freedom This Way" (originally aired on CBS on January 27, 1957), and as a black marketeer trying to stay out of sight of the Nazis in "Crossing Paris" (originally aired on CBS on June 2, 1957). Plus, Conried plays a traveling actor with a deadly past in "Shakespeare" from Gunsmoke (originally aired on CBS on August 23, 1952).

Episode 374 - Hans Conried

John Lund joins our five-timer's club as he makes his final four appearances on Suspense. First, he's a Marine who may have discovered paradise in the middle of the war in the Pacific in "The Island" (originally aired on CBS on January 12, 1958). Then he's a gambler who bets too much on his own system in "Winner Lose All" (originally aired on CBS on April 27, 1958). A bank robber gone straight is caught on the scene when his old gang stages a hold-up in "For Old Time's Sake" (AFRS rebroadcast from December 14, 1958), and he's a reporter trapped in the middle of a prison riot in "Eyewitness" (AFRS rebroadcast from July 12, 1959). Plus, we'll hear him as Johnny Dollar in "The Walter Patterson Matter" (originally aired on CBS on December 26, 1952).

Episode 373 - John Lund (Part 5)

Though she never found the fame of her sister Margaret, Barbara Whiting had a run in Hollywood as a Fox contract player. We'll hear her in "The Rim of Terror" (originally aired on CBS on December 2, 1956) as a woman who picks up a hitchhiking defector and in "One Way Trip," a story from Romance (originally aired on CBS on December 17, 1955). Plus, she reprises her breakout big screen role in Junior Miss on Hollywood Star Time (originally aired on CBS on March 24, 1946).

Episode 372 - Barbara Whiting

We've got two stars for the price of one in each of these Suspense shows! For this bonus episode, I'm sharing my favorite installments of "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" that featured a pair of big name stars at the microphone. J. Carrol Naish and Joseph Cotten are hunter and hunted in "The Most Dangerous Game" (originally aired on CBS on February 1, 1945) and Hume Cronyn and Keenan Wynn hope a big bet will bail them out of trouble in "Double Entry" (originally aired on CBS on December 20, 1945). Vincent Price joins Lloyd Nolan on a "Hunting Trip" (originally aired on CBS on September 12, 1946) and walks the streets of London with Claude Rains in "The Hands of Mr. Ottermole" (originally aired on CBS on December 2, 1948). Finally, Fibber McGee and Molly are joined by an armed and unwelcome passenger in "Backseat Driver" (originally aired on CBS on February 3, 1949), and Phil Harris and Alice Faye try to escape a small town's harsh justice in "Death on My Hands" (originally aired on CBS on May 10, 1951).

BONUS - Best Two-Handers

Virginia Gregg was one of the radio era's busiest and best performers. The versatile and talented actress could be heard on everything from detective dramas to westerns, often playing multiple characters in the same episode. We'll hear her as a woman held captive by a maniac in "Goodnight, Mrs. Russell" (originally aired on CBS on August 3, 1954) and as half of a murderous pair of newlyweds in "When the Bough Breaks" (originally aired on CBS on December 6, 1955). Plus, we'll hear her in a thriller from the typewriter of the great Arch Oboler - "Come to the Bank With Me" (originally aired on NBC on October 31, 1964).

Episode 364 - Jack Kruschen

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