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.

Trivia: At first intending to become a minister, actor/monologist Andy Griffith (born June 1st, 1926) became active with the Carolina Playmakers, the prestigious drama-and-music adjunct of the University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill. He spent several seasons portraying Sir Walter Raleigh in the summertime outdoor drama The Lost Colony, spending the rest of the years as a schoolteacher. Griffith continued performing fitfully as an after-dinner speaker on the men's club circuit, developing hilariously bucolic routines on subjects ranging from Shakespeare to football. Under the aegis of agent/producer Richard O. Linke, Griffith returned to acting, attaining stardom in the role of bumptious Air Force rookie Will Stockdale in the TV and Broadway productions of No Time For Sergeants. Before committing Sergeants to film, Griffith made his movie debut in director Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd, in which he portrayed an outwardly folksy but inwardly vicious TV personality (patterned, some say, after Arthur Godfrey).After filming Face in the Crowd, No Time for Sergeants and Onionhead for Warner Bros. during the years 1957 and 1958, Griffith starred in a 1959 Broadway musical version of Destry Rides Again; as an added source of income, Griffith ran a North Carolina supermarket. On February 15, 1960 he first appeared as Andy Taylor, the laid-back sheriff of Mayberry, North Carolina, on an episode of The Danny Thomas Show. This one-shot was of course the pilot film for the Emmy-winning The Andy Griffith Show, in which Griffith starred from 1960 through 1968. Eternally easygoing on camera, Griffith, who owned 50% of the series, ruled his sitcom set with an iron hand, though he was never as hard on the other actors as he was on himself; to this day, he remains close to fellow Griffith stars Don Knotts and Ron Howard. An unsuccessful return to films with 1969's Angel in My Pocket was followed by an equally unsuccessful 1970 TV series Headmaster. For the next 15 years, Griffith confined himself to guest-star appearances, often surprising his fans by accepting cold-blooded villainous roles. In 1985, he made a triumphal return to series television in Matlock, playing a folksy but very crafty Southern defense attorney. A life-threatening disease known as Gillian-Barre syndrome curtailed his activities in the late 1980s, but as of 1995 Andy Griffith was still raking in the ratings with his infrequent Matlock two-hour specials. The actor worked on and off throughout the late nineties and early 2000s, and co-starred with Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion in the romantic comedy Waitress in 2007.

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: Supporting actor Earl Hindman was best known among fans of the long-running ABC sitcom Home Improvement for playing the over-educated, enigmatic but wise neighbor Wilson. Ask those fans if they would recognize Hindman's face and they would be at a loss, for he never showed his full countenance upon the show. Hindman was a pipeliner's son and had a peripatetic upbringing that took him to various Southwestern locales. He attended high school in Tucson, AZ, where he was a natural athlete. At the same time, he became interested in drama and then still photography. Following time at Phoenix Junior College, he enrolled in the University of Arizona where he renewed his interest in drama. Hindman's first professional acting job was to perform in a Shakespearean play at San Diego's Globe Theatre. The experience was such that Hindman dropped out of school to become a full-time actor. He learned his craft as he went, performing in countless repertory theaters. Eventually, he made it to New York, where he appeared on and off-Broadway. He made his feature film debut in the obscure Two Into Three Won't Go (1969). Hindman's subsequent film appearances were sporadic. Hindman was a cast member on the daytime soap opera Ryan's Hope for several years before gaining prominence on Home Improvement. Four years after the hit sitcom left the airwaves, Hindman succumbed to lung cancer at the age of 61.

Trivia: Jo Henderson is best known as a distinguished stage actress. During her 30-year career, she earned an Obie and a Tony. She also appeared in a few films, most notably two John Sayles' films Lianna (1983) and Matewan (1987). She has also worked occasionally on television in films such as Fatal Judgment (1988).