Trivia: Bearded, amiable American singer/actor Kenny Rogers launched his professional career as a member of the New Christy Minstrels, then first rose to fame as a member of the country-pop group the First Edition. After several years of hits like "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" (as well as popular syndicated TV series Rollin' on the River), the First Edition broke up in 1974. Rogers had some lean years immediately after the split, at one point making ends meet by promoting a correspondence school guitar course. The outlook became brighter in 1976 when Rogers recorded his first solo hit, "Love Lifted Me," which he followed up with the even more popular ballad "Lucille." He regained his following with a dozen TV specials and several duets with equally renowned female country artists. In 1980, Rogers made his TV-movie debut with The Gambler (1980), an agreeable Western based on one of his more successful songs ("You gotta know when to hold 'em/know when to fold 'em...etc."). The Gambler scored an immediate ratings coup, inspiring sequels over the next decade, the best of which was The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw (1991), which had the added drawing card of guest appearances by several popular TV cowboy stars of days gone by. Rogers also pleased the crowd with the made-for-TV Coward of the County (1981), a dramatized elaboration of another of his top-selling songs. Less successful was Kenny Rogers' starring theatrical feature, Six Pack (1982), which proves that having six cute kids onscreen doesn't make you a Disney-quality hit.

Trivia: Muscular character actor Rick Rossovich was in his early twenties when he showed up as a teenaged military-academy cadet named Pig in The Lords of Discipline (1983). Rossovich's most famous film role was Chris McDowell, the handsome but tongue-tied suitor to delectable Daryl Hannah in the 1987 Cyrano de Bergerac update Roxanne. Rossovich's TV series manifest includes such recurring roles as Geller in McGruder and Loud (1985) and football coach Spud Lincoln in Sons and Daughters (1991). And during the first (1994-95) season of the NBC megahit E/R, Rick Rossovich was seen as Dr. John Taglieri.

Trivia: Grammy award-winning country music singer Reba McEntire was raised on a ranch in Oklahoma, where her father competed in rodeos. Immersed in Southern country culture from birth, McEntire learned to ride as well as to sing from an early age, and she formed a singing group with her brother and sister when she was young called the Singing McEntires. She enrolled at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant in the mid-'70s, where she majored in teaching, but in 1975, after singing a crowd-pleasing rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" at a local rodeo, McEntire was inspired to travel to Nashville to pursue a music career. She scored a major-label record deal and released her first album the same year she got married.It took a few years for her career to truly take off, but by the mid-'80s, McEntire was one of the most successful country singers in the industry. Though she was divorced in 1987, she remarried Narvel Blackstock, her then-manager and steel guitar player in 1989. Soon, the singer decided to branch out in her creative pursuits, appearing in the horror comedy Tremors with Kevin Bacon in 1990, the same year she gave birth to her son. Her warmth and charisma shone through onscreen, and McEntire began to cultivate a second career in acting, appearing in projects like 1994's North and 1995's Buffalo Girls. In 2001, the singer decided to switch career focuses for a while and pursue acting full-time, playing a single mom on her own sitcom, Reba. The show was a huge hit, earned her a Golden Globe nomination, and would continue to run for six seasons. She attempted to return to television in 2012 on ABC's Malibu Country, but the show was cancelled after the first season.

Trivia: Was initially a journalism major at the University of Texas before switching to theater. Started his acting career in New York, performing in Broadway and off-Broadway plays. Used his salary from Another World to finance plays he was producing in New York.

Trivia: British actor Patrick Macnee barely had time to earn his Eton school tie when he began training for his career on a scholarship to the Webber Douglas School of Dramatic Art. While serving with the Royal Navy during World War II, Macnee made his first film appearance with a small role in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943). He continued essaying such featured roles as Young Marley in the 1951 Christmas Carol before coming to Broadway with the Old Vic troupe in 1954. He decided to stay in Hollywood a while, appearing in several TV shows and such films as Les Girls (1957). He would later describe most of his roles during this period as "villainy in a tri-corner hat." In 1960, Macnee traded his period duds for a bowler and three-piece suit when he began his long run as sophisticated secret agent John Steed on the British TV series The Avengers (incidentally, the murder that Macnee was "avenging" in the early episodes was that of a woman played by his then-wife Kate Woodville). He remained the one permanent fixture on The Avengers until its demise in 1968, appearing opposite three different jumpsuit-clad leading ladies: Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg and Linda Thorson. Macnee also showed up as a supervisor of sort in the 1977 "retro" series The New Avengers, leaving the karate and gunplay to Joanna Lumley and Gareth Hunt. In America, Patrick Macnee appeared regularly on the TV series Gavilan (1982), Empire (1984), and Lightning Force (1991). Macnee continued working through the 2000s, including a voice appearance in the 1998 Avengers movie. Patrick Macnee passed away in 2015, at age 93.

Trivia: Trained at Northwestern University's drama department, onetime salesman Claude Akins was a Broadway actor when he was selected by a Columbia talent scout for a small role in the Oscar-winning From Here to Eternity (1953). With a craggy face and blunt voice that evoked memories of Lon Chaney Jr., Akins was a "natural" for villainous or roughneck roles, but was versatile enough to play parts requiring compassion and humor. A television actor since the "live" days, Akins achieved stardom relatively late in life via such genial adventure series as Movin' On (1974), B.J. and the Bear (1979), The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo (1979) and Legmen (1984). In his last decade, Claude Akins was a busy-and most genial-commercial spokesperson.

Trivia: Worked as a taxi driver in Boston and as a lifeguard on Cape Cod during a two-year hiatus between high school and college. Before moving to Los Angeles in the mid-1980s, performed with the New York Shakespeare Festival, with Joseph Papp's Public Theatre and in a Steppenwolf Theatre off-Broadway production of Sam Shepard's True West. Used CPR to save a heart-attack victim's life in a restaurant in 1997. Has run in marathons and competed in triathlons. Actress Abby Dalton (Falcon Crest) is his mother-in-law.