Trivia: Leading man and sex symbol, Selleck has a gentle, humorous manner. He attended college on an athletic scholarship, majoring in business. A drama coach suggested he become an actor; soon he began making the rounds of auditions. He won a part in the disastrous film Myra Breckinridge (1970), his screen debut, then appeared in small roles in a handful of films during the '70s. Meanwhile, Selleck was signed to a seven-year contract with Fox, leading to a great many TV roles, including appearances as a recurring character on the TV series "The Rockford Files." Eventually he was chosen as the lead for the TV series "Magnum P.I.;" the show became a hit, staying on the air from 1980-88, and he became a star and sex symbol, winning an Emmy, a Golden Globe award, and a star on Hollywood Boulevard. He suffered a serious career setback in 1981, when he was chosen to star in the Lucas-Spielberg blockbuster Raiders of the Lost Ark, but couldn't get released from his TV responsibilities. Beginning in 1983 he tried to break back into films, finally landing a major hit in a co-starring role in Three Men and a Baby (1987); although he appeared in a dozen films after 1983 he never firmly established himself as a screen star. He has also been active as a TV producer. He is married to English dancer Jillie Mack.

Trivia: Natty, mellifluous character actor John Hillerman may have spoken on screen with a pure Mayfair accent, but he hailed from Denison, Texas. Hillerman first gained notice for his fleeting appearances in the films of Peter Bogdanovich: The Last Picture Show (1971), What's Up Doc (1973), At Long Last Love (1975). He was also a semi-regular for director Mel Brooks, prominently cast in Blazing Saddles (1975) and History of the World, Part I (1981). A veteran of dozens of television series, John Hillerman was cast as the insufferable criminologist Simon Brimmer on Ellery Queen (1975), the star's director (and ex-husband) in The Betty White Show (1975), and most memorably as the ultra-correct Jonathan Quayle Higgins II, major domo to never-seen mystery writer Robin Masters, on Magnum PI (1980-88).

Trivia: While Beloit College may have been a mere punch line to a joke for the editors of the old National Lampoon, it was Dear Old Alma Mater to actor Jameson Parker. The son of a U.S. diplomat, Parker had wanted to get into Harvard like most of the rest of the men in his family, but his track record of getting kicked out of exclusive schools all over the world hardly worked in his favor. Inaugurating his theatrical career in a touring Passion Play, Parker began showing up on TV in the mid-1970s in miniseries like 79 Park Avenue and Once an Eagle, and in films like The Bell Jar (1979). On the soap-opera circuit, he enjoyed substantial runs as Brad Vernon in One Life to Live and Dale Robinson in Somerset. Jameson Parker's chief claim to fame was the role of clean-cut private eye Andrew Jackson (A.J.) Simon on the long running (1981-88) TV series Simon and Simon. Three years afetr Simon and Simon went off the air Parker made headlines when he was shot by a neighbor during a heated dispute -- an event the actor would later recount in his memoir An Accidental Cowboy.

Trivia: Gerald McRaney was 14 when he was possessed with the notion to become an actor. Five years later, McRaney landed a job with a New Orleans rep company, laboring away as an oil-field worker during the off-season. In 1969, he made his film bow in the Southern-fried cheapie The Night of Bloody Horror. Moving to LA in 1971, he took acting lessons with Jeff Corey, struggling to lose his Mississippi accent, and drove a cab between TV jobs. For nearly a decade, McRaney paid the rent by playing murderers, psychos and rapists. The actor was finally "humanized" as down-home, college-educated private eye Rick Simon on the breezy detective series Simon and Simon, which ran from 1981 to 1988. After this, he was briefly considered for the starring role in Coach; instead, he was cast as Marine major J. D. "Mac" McGillis in the long-running (1989-93) family sitcom Major Dad. He made his directorial debut with the 1991 TV movie Love and Curses...And All That Jazz, in which he also starred. In 1995, he was brought in to hypo the flagging CBS drama series Central Park West; when this series tanked, he resurfaced as the star of the "family values" weekly drama Promised Land (1996), a spin-off of his guest appearance on TV's Touched by an Angel. McRaney's second wife was Designing Woman co-star Delta Burke.

Trivia: Actress Morgan Fairchild was born Patsy McClenny, the daughter of an engineer father and high-school teacher mother. At age 14, she competed for the Miss Teenage Dallas crown by performing a scene from St. Joan (she lost). After a brief marriage, McClenny set her cap on professional show business; she chose the stage name "Morgan" from the 1966 British film of same name and "Fairchild" because it sounded nice. After a few seasons on the New York stage, Morgan Fairchild was cast as the truculent Jennifer Phillips on the Manhattan-based TV serial Search for Tomorrow. From there, she headed to LA, where, despite not having an agent or any tangible connections, she landed a TV job in less than two months. Briefly cast as Jenna Wade on the prime-time series Dallas, Fairchild chose not to be tied down to dramatics (at least not yet) and polished her comedy skills with several sitcom guest spots. She then was cast in her first starring TV role, as Constance Semple on the 1981 series Flamingo Road. After the series ran its course, Fairchild delivered a well-received star performance in the 1982 Broadway play Geniuses. Later series-TV assignments included the role of testy model agency owner Racine on Paper Dolls (1984) and the scheming Jordan Roberts on Falcon Crest (1985-86). Fairchild's TV-movie and miniseries credits include Honey Boy (1982), North and South, Book 2 (1986), and a return to comedy in The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood (1985). Morgan Fairchild's theatrical film work has been by and large unremarkable, save for an amusing extended cameo in 1985's Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.

Trivia: Until his death at 74 from a heart attack, Liam Sullivan was a very busy actor on television and in theater, and in the former medium, he made a career specializing almost exclusively in erudite villains (or, at least, luckless ambitious men). A native of Jacksonville, IL, Sullivan was descended from W.E. Sullivan, the founder of the renowned Eli Bridge Company; the latter conpany became famous for popularizing the Ferris wheel, and a century later remains a mainstay of the amusement ride industry. Liam Sullivan, however, decided to go into a different end of the entertainment field, acting in local theater while attending Illinois College and later studying drama at Harvard University. His patrician good looks and dashing persona, coupled with a good range, enabled him to take a large variety of parts: playboys, rogues, heroes. In his younger days, he'd have made a perfect Rupert of Hentzau in The Prisoner of Zenda. Sullivan's Broadway credits included The Constant Wife with Katherine Cornell, and Love's Labours Lost, both in the early 1950s; and, in the 1960s, Mike Nichols' production of The Little Foxes. Though he also did theatrical work in Los Angeles, Sullivan didn't make too many movie appearances: Disney's That Darn Cat (as Agent Sullivan, no less) and Bert I. Gordon's The Magic Sword were probably his two most widely seen films.His television career, however, which began at the start of the 1950s on live shows such as Lights Out, afforded Sullivan a busy career across four decades. He was on the soap opera General Hospital, but was also a familiar figure in prime-time series, including westerns such as Have Gun Will Travel, The Virginian, Bonanza, and The Monroes (a series in which he had a regular role as a villain); but also in science fiction (Lost In Space), crime dramas (The Fugitive, Dragnet), and comedies (Gomer Pyle, USMC). On Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, in the episode "Leviathan," he plays an ambitious scientist whose undersea discovery results in his undergoing a hideous transformation and a horrible fate; in the Star Trek episode "Plato's Stepchildren," he made a memorable impression as a humanoid alien (working opposite Barbara Babcock in a sadistic role), glib-tongued, erudite, and perfectly at ease manipulating and attempting to kill people with his telekinetic power. He also starred in one of the more widely remembered Twilight Zone shows, "The Silence," playing a man who accepts a bet from a social rival that he can go for a year without uttering a single word. Sullivan's best performance, however, was in the 1968 Dragnet episode "The Big Prophet," as William Bentley, an academic-turned-guru (obviously inspired by Timothy Leary) whose public espousal of drug use results in a confrontation with the police. Sullivan was at his most waspish (in a manner reminiscent of Clifton Webb's Waldo Lydecker from Laura) in the three-man drama, made up entirely of his verbal sparring with series stars Jack Webb and Harry Morgan. He was still working regularly in the 1990s, right up to the time of his death, a month before his 75th birthday.

Trivia: As a youth, made a prize-winning submission to the BBC art program Sketch Club; has since continued a successful second career as a painter. Pre-Rolling Stones work includes stints playing bass for the Jeff Beck Group, and guitar with the Birds, the Creation and the Small Faces/the Faces. Numerous solo albums include I've Got My Own Album to Do (1974), Now Look (1975) and Not for Beginners (2002). Replaced guitarist Mick Taylor for the Stones' 1975 tour, and contributed to several songs on the group's Black and Blue (1976), prior to becoming an official member. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Stones in 1989; inducted a second time (as a member of The Faces) in 2012. Has released several books, including the 2007 autobiography Ronnie.