Trivia: Trained at Northwestern University, versatile leading man Peter Strauss made his first film appearance in 1969's Hail Hero. Strauss attained stardom in the role of Rudy Jordache (which required him to age nearly thirty years) in the pioneering TV miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man (1976). Together with Richard Chamberlain, Cheryl Ladd and Victoria Principal, Strauss went on to become one of the stalwarts of the made-for-TV movie form. His roles in this genre have included the title characters in Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy (1977), Peter Gunn (1989), and Thicker Than Blood: The Larry McLinden Story (1995). In 1979, Peter Strauss won an Emmy for his portrayal of prison lifer-turned-Olympic runner Larry "Rain" Murphy in The Jericho Mile.

Trivia: Richard Kiley trained for a theatrical career at the Barnum Dramatic School. Just before his World War II service, Kiley played small roles in several Chicago-based radio programs. He relocated to New York in 1947, making his Broadway debut in a 1953 revival of Shaw's Misalliance (which earned him a Theatre World Award). He spent the next two decades alternating in "straight" plays and musicals: his credits in the latter category include Kismet, Redhead, No Strings and, of course, his Tony-winning dual performance as Cervantes and Quixote in Man of La Mancha. In films from 1950, Kiley was often cast as a menace, never more so than in 1953's Pickup on South Street, in which he commits the heinously antisocial act of murdering Thelma Ritter. He was more sympathetic as the alcoholic teacher in The Blackboard Jungle (1955), whose faith in his abilities is irreparably damaged when his juvenile delinquent students wantonly destroy his valuable record collection. On television, Kiley starred in the original 1956 staging of Rod Serlings Patterns and was Emmy-nominated for his work in The Thorn Birds (1983), Do You Remember Love? (1988), Separate But Equal (1990),and his own starring series A Year in the Life (1989). He finally won the Emmy for a 1994 guest appearance in Picket Fences. Ironically, the most successful film endeavor with which Richard Kiley was associated was one in which only his voice is heard; he's the fellow who explains the cloning process in the opening animated sequences of Jurassic Park (1993).

Trivia: While a prolific screen presence from the late-'60s onward, Barbara Hershey did not truly attain star status until two decades later, finally blossoming to become one of the most acclaimed American actresses of her generation. Born Barbara Herzstein on February 5, 1948, in Hollywood, CA, she studied drama during high school and in 1965 made her professional debut in the teen television romp Gidget. From 1966 to 1967, she was a regular on the series The Monroes and subsequently guest starred in a number of other programs. Hershey made her film bow in 1968's With Six You Get Eggroll, followed by the Western Heaven With a Gun and Last Summer. After a number of other lesser projects, she starred as the title heroine in 1972's Boxcar Bertha, the first major theatrical release from a then-unknown Martin Scorsese. David Carradine, Hershey's onscreen partner in crime, became her offscreen companion as well. Carradine directed them both in Americana (filmed in 1973 but not shown until eight years later), and together they had a child, Free.In another nod to the counterculture, Hershey rechristened herself "Barbara Seagull" and traveled to the Netherlands to film the 1973 drama Angela, winning Best Actress honors for her work at the Berlin Film Festival. Still, box-office success continued to elude her, and her resumé remained littered with undistinguished projects including the 1974 heist drama Diamonds, the 1976 comedy A Choice of Weapons, and the Western The Last Hard Men. By 1977, Hershey -- having dropped the "Seagull" surname -- turned to television, where she appeared in the Irwin Allen disaster production Flood! as well as the miniseries A Man Called Intrepid and the 1979-1980 weekly program From Here to Eternity. The 1980 comedy The Stunt Man, actually shot two years earlier, marked Hershey's return to feature films, and was followed by 1981's Take This Job and Shove It and the 1982 horror picture The Entity. By this point, Hershey -- once viewed as a rising star -- had been largely written off by the Hollywood powers-that-be. However, in 1983, she accepted a small role in Philip Kaufman's acclaimed The Right Stuff which garnered her considerable notice. She followed it with another small but pivotal role in Barry Levinson's 1984 baseball fable The Natural, and after a pair of well-regarded television projects -- the 1985 Errol Flynn bio My Wicked, Wicked Ways and 1986's Passion Flower -- Hershey's name was back on the map. After years of low-budget and low-brow projects, suddenly she was a fixture of high-profile features including Woody Allen's masterful 1986 effort Hannah and Her Sisters, David Anspaugh's Hoosiers, and Levinson's 1987 comedy Tin Men. Also in 1987, Hershey's turn in Andrei Konchalovsky's Shy People won Best Actress honors at the Cannes Film Festival, an award she again took home the following year for her performance in Chris Menges' A World Apart.Hershey also excelled in more mainstream affairs, appearing opposite Bette Midler in the weeper Beaches. In 1988, she and Scorsese reunited for the first time since Boxcar Bertha in The Last Temptation of Christ, in which she appeared as Mary Magdalene, winning a Golden Globe nomination for her performance. In 1990, Hershey returned to television to star in the movie A Killing in a Small Town, for which she won an Emmy. Back in the movies, she remained noted for her performances in offbeat fare like 1990's Tune in Tomorrow, 1993's Falling Down, and 1996's The Pallbearer. For her supporting performance in Jane Campion's 1996 adaptation of The Portrait of a Lady, Hershey also earned an Academy Award nomination. In 1998, the actress won further praise for her role as Kris Kristofferson's bohemian wife in A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries. The same year, she appeared as a struggling actress in Amos Poe's Frogs for Snakes, and then went on to play Bruce Willis' wife in the highly anticipated 1999 adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions. She appeared in the drama Lantana in 2001, and had major parts in 11:14 and Paradise. She spent a few years away from the spotlight, but in 2007 she returned in Love Comes Lately and The Bird Can't Fly. She appeared as the title character in 2008's Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning, and played the mother to Natalie Portman in Black Swan.

Trivia: American singer/actress Janis Paige was singing in public from age 5 in local amateur shows. Journeying from her native Washington to Los Angeles after high school, Paige secured a job as vocalist at the Hollywood Canteen, a studio-sponsored gathering spot for servicemen. It was only logical, then, that her first feature film upon being signed by Warner Bros. would be Hollywood Canteen (1944). A few musicals aside, Paige didn't get to sing much in her subsequent films, appearing mostly as ingenues and second leads. She left for Broadway in 1950, where she scored a hit in the popular comedy-mystery Remains to Be Seen, in which she costarred with then-husband Jackie Cooper. A few seasons later, Paige enjoyed her biggest hit in the Tony-Winning musical comedy The Pajama Game. Back in Hollywood, Paige watched as her stage roles went to bigger actresses (the star of the filmization of Pajama Game was her old rival at Warners, Doris Day), but she managed to secure one memorable movie role as an Esther Williams-like aquatic movie star in 1957's Silk Stockings. Janis was permitted one strong number, "Stereophonic Sound," with costar Fred Astaire, and copped most of the film's laughs as she slapped herself in the head to get the water out of her ears during interviews. The actress was a fixture of television from the early '50s onward, starring in the sitcom It's Always Jan and featured in recurring roles on such series as Eight is Enough, Trapper John MD, and Lanigan's Rabbi. Perhaps her most conspicuous prime-time TV role was as the waitress who conducted a brief affair with Archie Bunker on All in the Family. Daytime TV fans have been treated to Paige's talents on such serials as General Hospital, Capitol, and Santa Barbara, while devotees of summer stock theatre will remember the actress as star of straw-hat productions of Gypsy and Pajama Game in the '60s. As busy off-camera as on, Janis Paige was the founder of the Sunset Plaza Civic Association; and after the death of her composer husband Ray Gilbert (who penned "Zip-i-dee-Doo-Dah"), Paige was placed in charge of Gilbert's Ipanema Music Company.

Trivia: Fair-haired and often mustached character actor Seymour Cassel began making film and TV appearances as scruffy hippie types in the 1960s. He studied at the American Theatre Wing and the Actor's Studio before making his film debut in John Cassavetes' first film, Shadows (1959), for which he also served as associate producer. He then co-starred with Cassavetes in Too Late Blues (1961) and The Killers (1964). When Cassavetes turned to directing full-time, he utilized Cassel's talents as often as possible. The actor was Oscar-nominated for his portrayal of an aging hippie in Faces (1968) and later played Moskowitz in Minnie and Moskowitz (1971). A somewhat heavier Seymour Cassel continued as a character actor over the next few decades with roles in Tin Men, Colors, and the made-for-TV movie Blood Feud. In the '90s, he played Sam Catchem in Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy, dog-sled adventurer Skunker in the Disney classic White Fang, and a chauffeur in Indecent Proposal. His role as the shyster Joe in the black comedy In the Soup also earned special recognition at Sundance. Cassel then appeared in two romantic comedies with director Andrew Bergman: It Could Happen to You and Honeymoon in Vegas. For the rest of the '90s, his career prospered with small, but memorable, roles in such independent comedies and dramas as Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, Trees Lounge, and Dream for an Insomniac. During this period, he developed a rapport with filmmaker Wes Anderson, who would cast him in many of his projects. Cassel would play Max Fisher's barber father in Rushmore, Royal's friend Dusty in The Royal Tenenbaums, and Steve's late friend Esteban in The Life Aquatic, Cassel would also continue to work consistently in all areas of film, appearing notably in comedies like Stealing Harvard, Stuck on You, Beer League, and L!fe Happens.

Trivia: New York native Scott Colomby relocated to the Los Angeles area when he was still a child, putting him considerably closer to the bright lights of Hollywood. He began making guest appearances on TV shows like Ironside and Charlie's Angels in the mid-'70s, and soon found a few steady gigs with recurring roles on One Day at a Time and Szysznyk. The '80s and '90s would offer a similar stream of TV appearances on shows like Walker, Texas Ranger and Silk Stalkings, while the 2000s would find Colomby acting in the independent drama The Seekers.

Trivia: Peter MacLean's appearances on such 1970s television staples as Starsky and Hutch and Charlie's Angels without question made the character actor one of the small screen's most recognized supporting players, and his later role as the star and director of Disneyland Paris' Buffalo Bill's Wild West attraction would help to ensure that his face would remain equally recognizable to future generations as well. A Boston native who graduated from Emerson College, MacLean later made a name for himself in repertory Shakespeare groups across the country, during which time he gained an especially solid reputation for his portrayal of Macbeth. MacLean alternated frequently between television and film following his big-screen bow in the 1963 drama The Cardinal, and by the 1970s he could be spotted virtually everywhere on the small screen. From an appearance in the pilot for Fantasy Island to a role in the enduring daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives, MacLean could always be counted upon to liven up what might otherwise have been incidental roles. In the 1976 frightener Squirm MacLean pinned a badge to his chest as the sheriff who must help to save a small community from carnivorous worms. In the 1980s MacLean's onscreen career began to slow, though in the next decade his position in front of and behind the scenes of Disneyland Paris' Buffalo Bill's Wild West found the ageing actor as in-demand as ever. MacLean would ultimately appear in a staggering 1,800 performances in Buffalo Bill mode, even performing at the base of the Eiffel Tower as the real Buffalo Bill had done 100 years previously. On May 28, 2003, Peter MacLean died of lymphoma in Los Angeles. He was 67.

Trivia: Billy Jacoby is the stage name occasionally used by supporting actor Billy Jayne. The brother of actor Scott Jacoby, Jayne made his feature-film debut at age ten in The Runner Stumbles (1979). During the '80s, Jayne appeared in low-budget films ranging from horror (Bloody Birthday) to comedy (Party Camp) aimed at adolescent audiences. Jayne also appeared regularly on television in series such as Silver Spoons (1982-1987) and Parker Lewis Can't Lose (1990-1992), as well as in made-for-TV movies like Spring Fling! (1995) and Breaking Through (1997).

Trivia: Following an apprenticeship in regional theater in his native Australia, Murray Matheson first appeared on the London stage in 1935's And on We Go. His first film was 1945's The Way to the Stars. Matheson's brittle acting style was somewhat reminiscent of Noel Coward and Cyril Ritchard (whom Matheson closely resembled); accordingly, most of his film and TV roles were cut from the Coward/Ritchard waspish, epigrammatic cloth. His many roles included an amusing turn as business executive Benjamin Barton David Ovington (BBDO) in the 1967 film version of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and the recurring role of bookstore proprietor Felix Mulholland on the 1972 TV series Banacek. Murray Matheson also played The Clown in the memorable 1961 Twilight Zone episode "Six Characters in Search of an Exit"; ironically, Matheson's last appearance was in the "Kick the Can" segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1985).

Trivia: Actor Frank Campanella's physical form almost single-handedly defined his Hollywood typecasting. A 6' 5" barrel-chested Italian with a great, hulking presence and memorably stark facial features, Campanella excelled as a character player, almost invariably appearing as toughs and heavies. Born to a piano builder father who played in the orchestras of Eddie Cantor, Jimmy Durante, and Al Jolson, Campanella studied music exhaustively as a young man, and trained as a concert pianist, but discovered a rivaling passion for drama and entered Manhattan College as an acting major. Campanella's career as an actor began somewhat uncharacteristically, on a light and jovial note, by playing Mook the Moon Man during the first season of the Dumont network's infamous and much-loved kiddie show Captain Video and his Video Rangers (1949-1954). One- and two-episode stints on many American television programs followed for Campanella, most on themes of crime and law enforcement, including Inside Detective (1952), The Man Behind the Badge (1954), Danger (1954), and episodes of the anthology series Playwrights '56 (1956), Studio One (1956), and Suspicion (1957) that called for gritty, thuggish, urban types. During the 1960s, Campanella sought out the same kinds roles in feature films -- a path he pursued for several decades. Turns included John Frankenheimer's 1966 Seconds (as the Man in the Station); Mel Brooks' 1968 The Producers (as a bartender); 1970's The Movie Murderer (as an arson lieutenant); the Steve Carver-directed, Roger Corman-produced gangster film Capone (1975, as Big Jim Colosimo); Ed Forsyth's 1976 Chesty Anderson -- U.S. Navy (as the Baron); Conway in Warren Beatty's 1978 Heaven Can Wait; and Judge Neal A. Lake in Michael Winner's 1982 Death Wish 2. Campanella teamed with director Garry Marshall seven times: as Col. Cal Eastland in The Flamingo Kid (1984), Remo in Nothing in Common (1986), Captain Karl in Overboard (1987), Frank the Doorman in Beaches (1988), Pops in Pretty Woman (1990), a retired customer in Frankie and Johnny (1991), and a Wheelchair Walker in Exit to Eden (1994). Campanella re-teamed with Warren Beatty for the first time since 1978 as Judge Harper in Dick Tracy (1990) and again as the Elevator Operator in Love Affair (1994). Additional series in which Campanella appeared during the 1970s and '80s included Maude, Hardcastle & McCormick, Quincy, M.E., The Love Boat, Barnaby Jones, The Rockford Files, The Fall Guy, St. Elsewhere, and many others. In middle age, Campanella parlayed his early musical training into two career choices that blended music and drama: a part on a commercial that required him to play the piano and a job as co-host of a musical program on KCSN Radio called "Offbeat Notes on Music." He also appeared on Broadway in such musicals as Guys and Dolls and Nobody Loves an Albatross. After many years of inactivity, Frank Campanella ultimately died at his home in the San Fernando Valley, of unspecified causes. He was 87. Survivors included his brother, actor Joseph Campanella, his sister-in-law, and 13 nephews and nieces.

Trivia: American character actress Anne Seymour was descended from an Irish theatrical family, active "on the boards" since the early 18th century. On stage from 1928, she went on to become one of the radio industry's busiest leading ladies, starring in such serials as The Story of Mary Marlin, Woman of America, Whispering Streets and (briefly, when actress Lucille Wall fell ill) Portia Faces Life. She appeared with equal frequency on television, accepting innumerable guest-star assignments and co-starring on the weekly series Empire (1962) and The Tim Conway Show (1970). Seymour's first film was the 1949 Oscar-winner All the King's Men, in which she played Lucy Stark, the politically convenient but cruelly neglected wife of Southern demagogue Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford). She went on to appear in such roles as Mrs. Tarbell in Pollyanna (1960) and Aunt Ev in The Miracle Worker (1962). Active up until her death in 1988, Anne Seymour's last film assignment was the small but pivotal role of the Minnesota newspaper editor who puts Kevin Costner on the trail of forgotten baseball player "Moonlight" Graham (Burt Lancaster) in Field of Dreams (1989).

Trivia: American actor Simmy Bow played small character roles in a number of popular films during the '70s and '80s. He died in 1987 shortly after appearing in Beetlejuice.

Trivia: Black character actor Harry Caesar appeared onscreen from the '70s.

Trivia: Supporting actor, onscreen from the '70s.

Trivia: Character actor Joe Mays worked on stage, television, and in over a dozen feature films. He began performing professionally off-Broadway. In 1977, he headed West and became a frequent guest star on television. Mays' film appearances include Angel on My Shoulder (1980), The Last Innocent Man (1987), and Mr. Saturday Night (1992).