Perlmonks, newbie having trouble with regular expression, I know it should be easy but .......... looking for the most efficient way to parse the following types of input so that i can place then into the three vars below. Thought 'split' might be the way to go but having difficulties! Many thanks

'   Smith, John'
'   Thompson, Frank A'
'   Smith, John A JR'
'   Smith, John A III'
'   Smith, John A (Johnny)'
[download]

just need last name, first name and middle initial, like so:

$last_name = 'Smith'
$first_name = 'John'
$middle_initial = 'A'
[download]