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: Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1931, Robert Ito has spent his film career as a character actor, often in the science fiction genre. He enjoyed success on the long-running television series Quincy, and his voice has been used in many animated films, such as Batman and Superman.Robert Ito's first performances were on the stage as a dancer in the National Ballet of Canada. After a decade with the company, Ito moved to New York in the 1960s, to dance on Broadway in The Flower Drum Song.Ito moved to Hollywood and began his film career in 1966 with some forgettable science fiction vehicles, such as Women of the Prehistoric Planet and Dimension 5. The B-movie genre often turned to Ito when it wanted an actor to portray someone of his Japanese heritage. Over the years, he played many such roles, the most outstanding of which was his performance as Professor Hikita, the kidnapped scientist in the 1984 cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.Ito fared well in television, in which he was given roles that showcased his talents in made-for-television movies and series. He appeared in some memorable dramas, such as Helter Skelter (1976), American Geisha (1986), and The War Between Us (1996). The latter film starred Ito as a Canadian World War I veteran and patriarch of a family of Japanese descent, forced to leave his home in Vancouver during the dark days of Japanese resettlement following Pearl Harbor.Ito also gained distinction for his role as Fong in the Kung Fu series, as well as on popular show Quincy. He made cameo appearances in many other television shows including Magnum, P.I. and Star Trek, which featured him in a 2001 production.

Trivia: Lead actor, onscreen from 1963.

Trivia: American actor Timothy Patrick Murphy appeared in several feature films during the 1980s. He started out working in television commercials as an adolescent and from there appeared on a few series including the soap operas Search for Tomorrow and Dallas (as Mickey Trotter).

Trivia: Child actor Skip Homeier began acting on radio in his native Chicago, which in the early 1930s was a major network center. Billed as "Skippy," he was one of the kiddie regulars on Let's Pretend, and for a while played the son of the heroine on the long-running soap opera Portia Faces Life. He was also frequently tapped for stage work in both the Midwest and New York. It was Homeier's chilling portrayal of a preteen Nazi in the Broadway production Tomorrow the World that led to his film debut in the 1944 movie version of that play. Typecast as a troublesome teenager thereafter, Homeier was finally permitted a comparatively mature role in Lewis Milestone's The Halls of Montezuma (1950). He worked steadily in westerns and crime films thereafter, occasionally billed as G. V. Homeier. It was back to "Skip" for his 1960 TV series Dan Raven. Alternating between Skip and G. V. Homeier for the rest of his career, the actor went on to co-star as Dr. Hugh Jacoby in the weekly TVer The Interns (1970-71) and to play supporting roles in such films as The Greatest (1977) and the made-for-TV The Wild Wild West Revisited (1979). Homeier died in 2017, at age 86.

Trivia: Born in Germany to American parents, Rosemary Murphy was educated in Paris. When her family relocated to the U.S. in 1939, Murphy completed her schooling in Kansas City. After preparing for an acting career at Neighborhood Playhouse and the Actors Studio, she returned to Germany, where she made her film bow in Berlin Express (1948) and her stage debut in a 1949 production of Peer Gynt. The following year, she made her first Broadway appearance. Murphy's stage credits include Period of Adjustment (1961), Any Wednesday (1964) and A Delicate Balance (1966); she earned Tony nominations for all three, and was honored with the New York Critic's Poll award for her work in Balance. Her film and TV characterizations ranged from meek subservience to homicidal intensity. She spent several years as Loretta Fowler on the daytime soap opera Another World, and has played such "historical celebrity" roles as Sara Delano Roosevelet in Eleanor and Franklin (winning an Emmy for her work), Dorothy Parker in Julia (1977), Mary Ball Washington in the 1984 miniseries George Washington, and Rose Kennedy in the 1991 TV biopic A Woman Named Jackie. Rosemary Murphy has also been prominently featured in three recent Woody Allen productions: September (1987), Don't Drink the Water (1994), and Mighty Aphrodite. Her final film role was in the indie rom-com The Romantics. Murphy died in 2014, at age 89.

Trivia: Supporting actress, onscreen from the '60s. She is the daughter of director Robert Rossen.

Trivia: American actor Raleigh Bond began his career in the theater during the 1950s. He then went to New York where he continued working on stage and as a nightclub comedian. He also wrote plays, mystery short stories and English-language dubbing scripts. As an actor, he has appeared in films of the 1980s and in television shows.