Trivia: Commenting on his notorious on-set irascibility in 1977, Jack Klugman replied that he was merely "taking Peter Falk lessons from Robert Blake," invoking the names of two other allegedly hard-to-please TV stars. Klugman grew up in Philadelphia, and after taking in a 1939 performance by New York's Group Theatre, Klugman decided that an actor's life was right up his alley. He majored in drama at Carnegie Tech and studied acting at the American Theatre Wing before making his (non-salaried) 1949 stage-debut at the Equity Library Theater. While sharing a New York flat with fellow hopeful Charles Bronson, Klugman took several "grub" jobs to survive, at one point selling his blood for $85 a pint. During television's so-called Golden Age, Klugman appeared in as many as 400 TV shows. He made his film debut in 1956, and three years later co-starred with Ethel Merman in the original Broadway production of Gypsy. In 1964, Klugman won the first of his Emmy awards for his performance in "Blacklist," an episode of the TV series The Defenders; that same year, he starred in his first sitcom, the 13-week wonder Harris Against the World. Far more successful was his next TV series, The Odd Couple, which ran from 1970 through 1974; Klugman won two Emmies for his portrayal of incorrigible slob Oscar Madison (he'd previously essayed the role when he replaced Walter Matthau in the original Broadway production of the Neil Simon play). It was during Odd Couple's run that the network "suits" got their first real taste of Klugman's savage indignation, when he and co-star Tony Randall threatened to boycott the show unless the idiotic laughtrack was removed (Klugman and Randall won that round; from 1971 onward, Odd Couple was filmed before a live audience). It was but a foretaste of things to come during Klugman's six-year (1977-83) reign as star of Quincy, M.E.. Popular though Klugman was in the role of the crusading, speechifying LA County Coroner's Office medical examiner R. Quincy, he hardly endeared himself to the producers when he vented his anger against their creative decisions in the pages of TV Guide. Nor was he warmly regarded by the Writer's Guild when he complained about the paucity of high-quality scripts (he wrote several Quincy episodes himself, with mixed results). After Quincy's cancellation, Klugman starred in the Broadway play I'm Not Rappaport and co-starred with John Stamos in the 1986 sitcom You Again?. The future of Klugman's career -- and his future, period -- was sorely threatened when he underwent throat surgery in 1989. He'd been diagnosed with cancer of the larynx as early as 1974, but at that time was able to continue working after a small growth was removed. For several years after the 1989 operation, Klugman was unable to speak, though he soon regained this ability. He continued working through 2011, and died the following year at age 90.

Trivia: A former violinist, character actor Simon Oakland made his Broadway debut in 1948's The Skipper Next to God. Oakland's later stage credits include Light Up the Sky, The Shrike and Inherit the Wind. In films from 1957, Oakland was often cast as an outwardly unpleasant sort with inner reserves of decency and compassion. In I Want to Live (1958) for example, he played a journalist who first shamelessly exploited the murder trial of death-row inmate Susan Hayward, then worked night and day to win her a reprieve. And in Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), he had a memorable curtain speech as a jumpy, jittery, apparently neurotic psychiatrist who turned out to be the only person who fully understood transvestite murderer Anthony Perkins. Conversely, Oakland played his share of out-and-out villains, notably the bigoted Officer Schrank in West Side Story (1961). Far busier on television than in films--he once estimated that he'd appeared in 550 TV productions--Oakland was seen almost exclusively on the small screen after 1973. Within a five-year period, he was a regular on four series: Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Toma, Black Sheep Squadron and David Cassidy, Man Undercover. After a long losing bout with cancer, Simon Oakland died one day after his 63rd birthday.

Trivia: American actor Michael de Lano has appeared on television and in feature films. In the former medium, he has worked as a guest star on such series as Taxi, The Rockford Files, and Buck Rogers in the 21st Century. He has also had regular roles in a couple of series, including Rhoda and the short-lived Firehouse (1974). De Lano made his feature-film debut playing a supporting role in Sam Wannamaker's Catlow. Since that time de Lano has played small and supporting roles in a number of feature films.

Trivia: Georgia-born leading lady Cassie Yates has kept busy in films and TV since 1976. Yates' TV-series roles have included detective Jennifer Dempsey in Ron Moody's 1980 sitcom Nobody's Perfect and Diane Wyman, wife of would-be private eye Press Wyman (Judd Hirsch) in Detective in the House (1985). Soap opera fans will remember Yates as Sarah Curtis in the 1987 episodes of Dynasty. Cassie Yates' most appealing film role was as the philandering friend of Nastassja Kinski in the 1982 remake of Unfaithfully Yours.

Trivia: A stocky character actor, Dennis first appeared onscreen in 1953; he often plays no-nonsense heavies.