Trivia: Charming, handsome, and easy-going, lead actor and megastar Burt Reynolds entered the world on February 11, 1936. He attended Florida State University on a football scholarship, and became an all-star Southern Conference halfback, but - faced with a knee injury and a debilitating car accident - switched gears from athletics to college drama. In 1955, he dropped out of college and traveled to New York, in search of stage work, but only turned up occasional bit parts on television, and for two years he had to support himself as a dishwasher and bouncer.In 1957, Reynolds's ship came in when he appeared in a New York City Center revival of Mister Roberts; shortly thereafter, he signed a television contract. He sustained regular roles in the series Riverboat, Gunsmoke, Hawk, and Dan August. Although he appeared in numerous films in the 1960s, he failed to make a significant impression. In the early '70s, his popularity began to increase, in part due to his witty appearances on daytime TV talk shows. His breakthrough film, Deliverance (1972), established him as both a screen icon and formidable actor. That same year, Reynolds became a major sex symbol when he posed as the first nude male centerfold in the April edition of Cosmopolitan. He went on to become the biggest box-office attraction in America for several years - the centerpiece of films such as Hustle (1975), Smokey and the Bandit (1977) (as well as its two sequels), The End (1978), Starting Over (1979), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), and The Man Who Loved Women (1983). However, by the mid-'80s, his heyday ended, largely thanks to his propensity for making dumb-dumb bumper-smashing road comedies with guy pals such as Hal Needham (Stroker Ace, The Cannonball Run 2). Reynolds's later cinematic efforts (such as the dismal Malone (1987)) failed to generate any box office sizzle, aside from a sweet and low-key turn as an aging career criminal in Bill Forsyth's Breaking In (1989). Taking this as a cue, Reynolds transitioned to the small screen, and starred in the popular sitcom Evening Shade, for which he won an Emmy. He also directed several films, created the hit Win, Lose or Draw game show with friend Bert Convy, and established the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theater in Florida. In the mid-'90s, Reynolds ignited a comeback that began with his role as a drunken, right-wing congressman in Andrew Bergman's Striptease (1996). Although the film itself suffered from critical pans and bombed out at the box office, the actor won raves for his performance, with many critics citing his comic interpretation of the role as one of the film's key strengths. His luck continued the following year, when Paul Thomas Anderson cast him as porn director Jack Horner in his acclaimed Boogie Nights. Reynolds would go on to earn a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, and between the twin triumphs of Striptease and Nights, critics read the resurgence as the beginning of a second wind in the Deliverance star's career, ala John Travolta's turnaround in 1994's Pulp Fiction. But all was not completely well chez Burt. A nasty conflict marred his interaction with Paul Thomas Anderson just prior to the release of Boogie Nights. It began with Reynolds's disastrous private screening of Nights; he purportedly loathed the picture so much that he phoned his agent after the screening and fired him. When the Anderson film hit cinemas and became a success d'estime, Reynolds rewrote his opinion of the film and agreed to follow Anderson on a tour endorsing the effort, but Reynolds understandably grew peeved when Anderson refused to let him speak publicly. Reynolds grew so infuriated, in fact, that he refused to play a role in Anderson's tertiary cinematic effort, 1999's Magnolia. Reynolds's went on to appear in a big screen adatpation of The Dukes of Hazzard as Boss Hogg, and later returned to drama with a supporting performance in the musical drama Broken Bridges; a low-key tale of a fading country music star that served as a feature debut for real-life country music singer Toby Kieth. Over the coming years, Reynolds would also enjoy occasional appearances on shows like My Name is Earl and Burn Notice.

Trivia: The daughter of a British merchant, Sarah Miles enrolled at RADA at the age of 15. Before her formal stage debut at the Old Vic, Miles made her film bow opposite Laurence Olivier in Term of Trial (1962). A marked contrast to the "English Rose" heroines once in vogue, she brought a smouldering sensuality to her roles in Joseph Losey's The Servant (1963) and The Ceremony (1964) and Antonioni's Blow Up (1966). So well established was Miles as a "sex symbol" (though she'd be the first to put down that demeaning term) by 1965 that she was able to spoof her screen image in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, playing an outwardly proper lass who gets a subtly erotic thrill out of flying in rickety vintage airplanes -- and who frequently finds herself being accidentally undressed in public. In 1969, Miles was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of the title role in Ryan's Daughter. She then was forced to endure a decade of tabloid-press scrutiny, beginning with her wholly unsubstantiated "involvement" with the suicide of a man named David Whiting on the set of The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973), and culminating with the publicity engendered by her steamy sex scenes with Kris Kristofferson in The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea (1976). Though she often dismissed adverse press by noting "I have been mocked and ridiculed all my life," Miles would frequently retire from filmmaking for up to three years at a time. She was, however, always available for stage work: her more significant theatrical credits include the roles of Marina Oswald in The Silence of Lee Harvey Oswald, Mary Queen of Scots in Vivat Vivat Regina, and her 1978 one-woman musical S. Miles is Me. Still active in character roles in the 1980s, Miles has recently been seen in the surprisingly sedate role of a wartime London matriarch in Hope and Glory (1987), and more characteristically as an insatiably lusty aristocrat in White Mischief. She was married to playwright Robert Bolt from 1967 to 1976, then remarried him eleven years later. In 1993, Sarah Miles published her autobiography, A Right Royal Bastard.

Trivia: American character actor of stage, screen, and TV Lee J. Cobb, born Leo Jacob or Jacoby, was usually seen scowling and smoking a cigar. As a child, Cobb showed artistic promise as a virtuoso violinist, but any hope for a musical career was ended by a broken wrist. He ran away from home at age 17 and ended up in Hollywood. Unable to find film work there, he returned to New York and acted in radio dramas while going to night school at CCNY to learn accounting. Returning to California in 1931, he made his stage debut with the Pasadena Playhouse. Back in New York in 1935, he joined the celebrated Group Theater and appeared in several plays with them, including Waiting for Lefty and Golden Boy. He began his film career in 1937, going on to star and play supporting roles in dozens of films straight through to the end of his life. Cobb was most frequently cast as menacing villains, but sometimes appeared as a brooding business executive or community leader. His greatest triumph on stage came in the 1949 production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman in which he played the lead role, Willy Loman (he repeated his performance in a 1966 TV version). Between 1962-66, he also appeared on TV in the role of Judge Garth in the long-running series The Virginian. He was twice nominated for "Best Supporting Actor" Oscars for his work in On the Waterfront (1954) and The Brothers Karamazov (1958).

Trivia: A former prizefighter, nightclub bouncer and lifeguard, Jack Warden took to the stage after serving as a paratrooper in World War II. Warden's first professional engagement was with the Margo Jones repertory troupe in 1947. He made both his Broadway and film debuts in 1951, spending the next few years specializing in blunt military types and short-tempered bullies. Among his most notable screen roles of the 1950s was the homicidally bigoted factory foreman in Edge of the City and the impatient Juror #7 in Twelve Angry Men (both 1957). He was Oscar-nominated for his portrayal of the cuckolded Lester in Warren Beatty's Shampoo (1975) and for his work as eternally flustered sports promoter Max Corkle in another Beatty vehicle, Heaven Can Wait (1978). He has also played the brusque, bluff President in Being There (1978); senile, gun-wielding judge Ray Ford in ...And Justice For All (1979); the twin auto dealers--one good, one bad--in Used Cars (1980); Paul Newman's combination leg-man and conscience in The Verdict (1982); shifty convenience store owner Big Ben in the two Problem Child films of the early 1990s; the not-so-dearly departed in Passed Away (1992); and Broadway high-roller Julian Marx in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway (1994). Extensive though his stage and screen credits may be, Warden has been just as busy on television, winning an Emmy for his portrayal of George Halas in Brian's Song (1969) and playing such other historical personages as Cornelius Ryan (1981's A Private Battle) and Mark Twain (1984's Helen Keller: The Miracle Continues). Barely stopping for air, Jack Warden has also starred or co-starred on the weekly TV series Mister Peepers (1953-55), The Asphalt Jungle (1961), Wackiest Ship in the Army (1965), NYPD (1967-68), Jigsaw John (1975), The Bad News Bears (1979) and Crazy Like a Fox (1984-85); and, had the pilot episode sold, Jack Warden was to have been the star in a 1979 revival of Topper. Though this was not to be for Warden, the gruff actor's age and affectionately sour demeanor found him essaying frequent albiet minor feature roles through the new millennium. Remaining in the public eye withn appearances in While You Were Sleeping (1995), Ed (1996), Bullworth (1998) and The Replacements (2000), the former welterweight fighter remained as dependable as ever when it came to stepping in front of the lens.

Trivia: Actor George Hamilton got his start in high school dramatics. Movie-star handsome, Hamilton played the lead in his very first film, Crime and Punishment USA (1959). While his acting talent was barely discernible in his earliest effort, Hamilton steadily improved in such MGM films as Home From the Hill (1960), Where the Boys Are (1960), Light in the Piazza (1961). He was at his best in a brace of biopics: in Warner Bros.' Act One (1963) he played aspiring playwright Moss Hart, while in Your Cheatin' Heart (1965), he registered well as self-destructive C&W singer Hank Williams. His much-publicized mid-1960s dating of President Johnson's daughter Lynda Bird was unfairly written off by some as mere opportunism, a calculated ploy to buoy up a flagging career. In fact, it did more harm than good to Hamilton: by 1969, movie roles had dried up, and he was compelled to accept his first TV-series role, playing jet-setter Duncan Carlyle in The Survivors. The following year, he starred as State Department functionary Jack Brennan in the weekly TV espionager Paris 7000. He staged a spectacular comeback as star and executive producer of Love at First Bite (1979), a screamingly funny "Dracula" take-off that won the actor a Golden Globe nomination. Even better was Zorro the Gay Blade (1980), which unfortunately failed to match the excellent box-office performance of First Bite but which still provided a much-needed shot in the arm to Hamilton's career. He went on to play such campish roles as villainous movie producer Joel Abrigor in TV's Dynasty (1985-86 season only) and jaded 007-type Ian Stone in the weekly Spies (1987). Throughout the thick and thin of his acting career, Hamilton remained highly visible on the international social scene, squiring such high-profile lovelies as Elizabeth Taylor and Imelda Marcos. He also remained financially solvent with his line of skin products and tanning salons. In 1995, George Hamilton hopped on the talk-show bandwagon, co-starring with his former wife Alana (who'd remarried rocker Rod Stewart) on a not-bad syndicated daily TV chatfest.

Trivia: Bo Hopkins has spent most of his career playing character roles, but he occasionally gets leading roles. Tall, light-haired, and possessing a distinctive drawl, he made his film debut in The Thousand Plane Raid (1969) following studies with drama instructor Uta Hagen in New York and training at the Desilu Playhouse school in Hollywood. He next appeared in Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969). Hopkins went on to work with the director in two more films, including The Getaway (1972). Hopkins specializes in action features and Westerns and is often cast as a redneck. Some of his notable leading roles include that of a gunfighter whose best friend of 30 years turns out to be a woman in The Ballad of Little Joe (1993). Hopkins also appears frequently on television in films and as a series guest star.

Trivia: From his screen debut in 1965 onward, Robert Donner has revelled in spooky, oddball roles of the street evangelist/undertaker/obsessive lawman variety. Most often spotted in Westerns, he has appeared in El Dorado (1967), The Undefeated (1969), Chisum (1970), High Plains Drifter (1973), The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973), and The Last Hard Men (1975). On TV, he was regularly featured as Yancy Tucker on The Waltons (1972-1979) and Mayor Chamberlain Brown in Legend (1995). Donner's crowning series-TV achievement was as the zoned-out Exidor, leader of an invisible cult called the Friends of Venus, on the popular sitcom Mork & Mindy (1978-1982). Robert Donner is married to producer/writer Jill Sherman.

Trivia: American actress Nancy Malone began appearing in films in 1956, and three years later landed her first weekly TV series assignment in The Naked City. Stardom came her way in 1965, when she was cast as Clara Varner in the short-lived TV version of The Long Hot Summer. Eventually she phased out acting to concentrate on producing (through her own Lilac Productions) and directing. Nancy Malone's producer credits include the 1976 TV movie Sherlock Holmes in New York; her directorial manifest includes individual episodes of TV's Touched By an Angel. Her last acting role was in 1985, but she continued producing and directing until her death in 2014, at age 79.

Trivia: A mixed-blood Mohawk Indian, Jay Silverheels was the son of a Canadian tribal chief. Silverheels excelled in sports during his youth and it was this prowess that brought him to Hollywood in 1938 as a stunt man. Though most of Silverheels' earliest film appearances went uncredited, it was difficult to ignore him in such roles as the Osceola boy in Key Largo (1948) and Geronimo in Broken Arrow (1950). In 1949, Silverheels was cast as Tonto on the pilot episode of TV's The Lone Ranger. Until the series shut down production in 1956, Silverheels essayed the role of the masked man's "faithful Indian companion," while Clayton Moore (and, briefly, John Hart) was seen as the Ranger. Silverheels also co-starred in two spin-off Lone Ranger theatrical films and reprised the Tonto role in a memorable Jeno's Pizza Rolls advertisement of the 1960s ("Have-um pizza roll, kemo sabe?"). Silverheels' other film credits include a cameo in the all-star fiasco The Phynx (1970) and a pivotal role in 1973's The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing. In the 1970s, Silverheels established himself as a prize-winning horse breeder and harness racing driver. During the period, he was asked if any of his new horses were faster than Tonto's Scout, whereupon Silverheels replied, "Heck, I can beat Scout." One of Jay Silverheels' last public appearance was on a comedy sketch on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, wherein Silverheels summed up his relationship with the Lone Ranger as "30 lousy years."

Trivia: American character actor Jay Varela appeared on stage, television, and in a few feature films of the '70s and '80s. He was typically cast as a Native American or someone of Spanish descent.

Trivia: Most "baby boomers" first saw actor James Hampton in the whimsically funny role of bugler Hannibal Dobbs on the mid-1960s sitcom F Troop. Even today, memories of Dobson's earnest but hopelessly inept rendition of "Reveille" and his anguished reaction to public revelation of his character's middle name (Shirley) is enough to bring a warm smile to the lips. During the 1970s, Hampton was unofficially "adopted" by old pal Burt Reynolds, appearing in such Reynolds vehicles as The Longest Yard (1974) and Hustle (1975). James Hampton was afforded star billing for his role as the lycanthropic dad of Michael J. Fox in Teen Wolf (1985), a part he carried over into the film's TV-cartoon spin-off.