Trivia: Born February 15th, 1951, the raven-haired daughter of a prosperous British gynecologist, Jane Seymour debuted onstage at 13 as a member of the London Festival Ballet, after training at the Arts Educational School. Five years later, she switched to acting, making her screen bow as part of a huge ensemble in Oh, What A Lovely War! (1968). She entered the fan-mag files with her portrayal of the enigmatic Solitaire in the 1973 James Bond epic Live and Let Die, following this with a ingenue turn in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1974). While her subesquent film appearances were well-received (as was her engagement in the 1980 Broadway production of Amadeus), Seymour's larger fame rested on her prolific TV work, notably on such miniseries as "East of Eden" and "War and Remembrance." In 1988, she won an Emmy for her portrayal of Maria Callas in the TV miniseries "Onassis." Four years later, she landed one of her most successful roles to date, that of the title heroine of the TV series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. In subsequent years, Seymour sustained her career with longform soapers - such as the 1998 A Marriage of Convenience and the 2002 Heart of a Stranger - before making a most welcome return to theatrical features in 2005. That year, she scored a neat comic turn as the wife of U.S. Treasury Secretary Christopher Walken (and the mother of some outrageously dysfunctional children) in the summer comedy smash Wedding Crashers. Two years later, ABC tapped Seymour to trip the light fantastic as one of the celebrity dancers on its blockbuster series Dancing with the Stars. On that program, Seymour danced opposite series vet Tony Ovolani.

Trivia: "My name is Orson Bean. Harvard '47, Yale Nothing." Actually, that oft-repeated introduction is a double deception: actor Orson Bean didn't go to Harvard, and his name isn't really Orson Bean. As a boy magician, Dallas Frederick Burrows borrowed the first half of his stage name from another prestidigitator of note, Orson Welles. Bean made his legitimate stage bow in 1945, then worked up a nightclub comedy act which premiered in New York at the now-defunct Blue Angel (in 1954, he hosted a summer-replacement TV series emanating from this celebrated nightspot). Landing on Broadway in the 1953 production Men of Distinction, Bean won a Theatre World Award for his work in the 1954 revue John Murray Anderson's Almanac, and Critics' Circle Awards for his performances in Mister Roberts and Say Darling. His later stage credits included Broadway's Subways are for Sleeping (1962) and Never too Late (1964) not to mention his extensive tours in the Neil Simon-Burt Bacharah musical Promises, Promises. In films from 1955, Bean's best-received screen performance was as the testifying army physician in Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959). An inescapable presence on TV, Bean has participated in virtually every quiz show known to man, from the familiar (To Tell the Truth, I've Got a Secret) to the obscure (Laugh Line). He was also a regular as the ineffectual Reverend Brim on the Norman Lear syndicated series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1977) and Forever Fernword (1978), and more recently was seen on a weekly basis as cranky general store owner Loren Bray on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Women (1993- ). Outside of his showbiz activities, Bean has proven a difficult subject to categorize: blacklisted for his outspoken liberal views in the early 1950s, he was an ardent supporter of Richard M. Nixon in 1968. A man of many interests, Orson Bean was the founder of the arts-oriented 15th Street School of New York, the author of the oddball 1971 volume Me and the Orgon, and one of the charter members of The Sons of the Desert, the famed Laurel & Hardy appreciation society.

Trivia: Actor/producer Chad Allen grew up in Hollywood, in the shadow of show business. A child actor from the age of four (when he appeared in a McDonald's commercial), he soon landed regular roles on series including Webster (1985-1986), Our House (1986-1988), and My Two Dads (1989-1990), in addition to a pivotal role on St. Elsewhere as the autistic and incommunicative child of Dr. Westphall (Ed Flanders), a boy whose delusions "created" St. Eligius. In the 1990s, Allen signed on to play Matthew Cooper, the adopted son of Dr. Michaela "Mike" Quinn on the western drama Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993-1998).Allen made headlines and then some beginning in 2001, when the thespian came out of the closet as a homosexual; in addition to embracing his status as a gay male (and discussing his orientation at length in a series of publications including The Advocate), he co-founded a production company, Mythgarden, devoted to dramatically expanding the number of LGBT themes explored in contemporary cinema and television. The Roman Catholic-raised actor stirred up some controversy in certain sectors when he signed on in 2005 to portray Nate Saint, a missionary murdered by Ecuadorian tribes, and Steve Saint, the missionary's son, in the inspirational religious drama End of the Spear (2005), though only because the feature found an audience among conservative evangelical audiences. In 2008, Allen produced and starred in the drama Save Me. The tale of a deeply confused gay man lured into a "Christian recovery center" by an evangelical couple, it critiqued conservative evangelical attitudes (and harsh hypocrisy) often directed toward the contemporary gay community.

Trivia: Former child actress and ingénue leading lady Erika Flores is best known for her portrayal of Colleen Cooper during the 1993 and 1994 seasons of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. As a child actress, she first achieved prominence with a key guest role in "Disaster," an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1992), in which she worked opposite Patrick Stewart for much of the show's running time. An unusually serious performer even at a young age, Flores was reportedly the only cast member to regularly attend the writing sessions for Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, and left the series rather than sign a five-year contract. Since then, she has appeared in several TV movies, including The Secret (1997), Buried Secrets (1996), and Baseball in Black and White (1996).

Trivia: Character actress Barbara Babcock made her first film appearance in 1968's Heaven with a Gun. Usually cast as take-charge matrons, Barbara has been seen in such roles as the baseball-team owner in Bang the Drum Slowly (1973) and Mrs. Douglas in That Was Then...This is Now (1985). She was also a regular on several TV series, including Search for Tomorrow, The Four Seasons, Dallas, Mr. Sunshine and The Law and Harry McGraw. More recently, Barbara Babcock was cast as Dorothy Jennings, sister-in-law of Loren Bray (Orson Bean) on the weekly Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1992- ).

Trivia: Afrcian-American lead actress, onscreen from the '70s.

Trivia: The wife of legendary country musician Johnny Cash and a respected artist in her own right, June Carter Cash proved to be not only a pivotal figure in country music history but also a woman of many diverse talents. Born Valerie June Carter in Maces Springs, VA, the future starlet's mother was none other than Carter Family matriarch Maybelle Carter. As fate would have it, young Carter Cash took an immediate shine to the Autoharp when her mother began teaching her to play at an early age. Although the Carter Family would eventually disband, Maybelle would team with daughters June (on the Autoharp), Helen, and Anita in the late '50s to form the popular country quartet Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters. A natural beauty who possessed a razor sharp wit, Carter Cash soon became popular for spicing up the live performances with comedy routines and monologues. Married to first husband Carl Smith in 1952, the couple performed together at the Grand Ole Opry and had a daughter, Rebecca (who later recorded under the name Carlene Carter), before separating later in the decade. Subsequently managed by Colonel Tom Parker and touring with Elvis Presley, Carter Cash embarked on a brief marriage to Nashville police officer Rip Nix (with whom she had another daughter) before deciding to try her luck with acting. Heading to New York to study under the tutelage of Elia Kazan (who had previously been spellbound by her live performance while scouting locations in Tennessee), the youthful country starlet was soon appearing in such television series as Gunsmoke and The Adventures of Jim Bowie in the '50s, and later had a recurring role in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman during the '90s. In addition to appearances on the long-running TV soap operas The Secret Storm and The Edge of Night, Carter Cash's feature roles included Country Music Holiday (1958), The Gospel Road (1973), and That's Country (1977). In 1997, she essayed the role of a southern preacher's mother in Robert Duvall's The Apostle. Turning down an offer to appear on a variety show in favor of touring with Johnny Cash in 1961, their relationship soon blossomed into more than a professional one, and, in 1968, Johnny proposed to June on-stage in London, Ontario. Much more than just a wife to the country legend, the duo frequently toured together and June co-wrote (with Merle Kilgore) Cash's hit "Ring of Fire" (reportedly about her falling in love with him), and helped him write such enduring songs as, "Long-Legged Guitar Pickin' Man," and "Jackson" (which earned the duo a Grammy). Johnny Cash also frequently credited his wife as a key figure in helping him to shake drug addiction and pull his life together. As a solo artist, Carter Cash released the albums Press On (A 1999 Grammy winner for Best Traditional Folk Album) and Wildwood Flower (2003). Two months after its release, June Carter Cash died suddenly on May 15, 2003, in Nashville as a result of complications from heart surgery. She was 73.

Trivia: Emerging into the public's consciousness in 1958, country & western performer Johnny Cash hit his first popularity peak in the mid-'60s with his hard-driving prison, train, and "underdog" ballads. Changing tastes, coupled with his own volatile temperament, resulted in as many lows as highs in the late 20th century, but Cash is a survivor, and was still very much on hand for the country & western upsurge of the late '80s. His first film appearances were in shapeless semi-concert pictures like Hootenanny Hoot (1963), but he went on to excel as a naturalistic actor in such Westerns as A Gunfight (1971) and The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James (1986). Johnny Cash is shown to best cinematic advantage as "himself" in the 1970 documentary Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music, which features Cash's wife, June Carter. Cash was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from Lincoln Center in 1997.Still hugely popular as the millennuim turned, the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards found Cash's video for the song "Hurt" nominated for no less than six awards. The reflective video ultimately took home the prize for Best Cinematography, cementing Cash's status as an artist whose musical stylings truly knew no boundries. Shortly thereafter, in early September of 2003, Johnny Cash died of complications of diabetes in Nashville, TN. at the age of 71. His death came just four short months after that of his longtime wife June Carter Cash.