Trivia: University of Pennsylvania grad David Naughton studied for a performing career at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Naughton first developed a following via his ubiquitous appearances in the musical Dr. Pepper commercials of the 1970s ("I'm a pepper, you're a pepper" etc.) In 1979, he starred as Billy Manucci on the "disco adventure" TV series Makin' It; Naughton's vocal rendition of the title song was briefly #5 on the pop charts. His subsequent series stints included 1983's At Ease and 1986's My Sister Sam. Naughton is most familiar to horror-flick devotees as reluctant lycanthrope David Kessler in the 1981 film An American Werewolf in London. David Naughton is the younger brother of stage and film actor James Naughton.

Trivia: Direct from Chicago's DePaul University, Betsy Palmer underwent intensive training at New York's Actors Studio, supporting herself as a secretary. She made her professional bow in stock in Wisconsin and Illinois in 1950; one year later, she made the first of hundreds of TV appearances. In 1955, Palmer first appeared on Broadway in The Grand Prize, and that same year launched her sporadic film career. Later stage credits included Forty Carats, in which she successfully replaced Lauren Bacall, and extensive touring in the role of Nellie Forbush in South Pacific. To millions of baby-boomers, Palmer will forever be associated with her work as a panelist on such TV game shows as I've Got a Secret; a later generation of televiewers will most readily recall her as Virginia Bullock on the 1989-90 season of Knot's Landing. To those whose teen years coincided with the late 1970s and early 1980s, however, Betsy Palmer is known only as the vicious, vengeful, axe-wielding Mrs. Voorhees (Jason's mom) in the first Friday the 13th (1980); reportedly, Palmer won that role because she was willing to drive her own car to and from location shoots. Palmer continued to act through her later years; she died in 2015, at age 88.

Trivia: A native of Myrtle Beach, SC, longtime Wheel of Fortune hostess and letter-turner Vanna White attended the Atlanta School of Fashion Design and worked as a print model in the Atlanta area, then moved to Hollywood and landed bit roles in B-grade productions including Michael Crichton's Looker and the slasher outing Graduation Day (both 1981). In 1982, she was selected by Merv Griffin to co-host Wheel with Chuck Woolery successor Pat Sajak and remained with the program for decades, as did Sajak. Meanwhile, on the side, White became something of a national phenomenon and a pop-culture icon -- authoring and publishing a best-selling autobiography, emceeing her own exercise video in 1987, and landing cameo roles (often as herself) in outings including NBC's action adventure series The A-Team (in 1986) and the big-screen features Double Dragon and The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (both 1994).

Trivia: Best known for her portrayal of Marcy Rhoades D'arcy, the manic, feminist/careerist neighbor on the long-running series Married...With Children, Amanda Bearse is also a prominent spokesperson for lesbian and gay rights in the entertainment industry and a very busy director on television. Born in Winter Park, FL, Bearse came to acting through high school and community theater and later moved to New York, where she studied acting with Sanford Meisner. Her first major acting role was as Amanda Cousins on the daytime drama All My Children from 1982 to 1984. Her early film appearances consisted of small roles in features such as First Affair (made for television), Protocol, Fright Night, and Fraternity Vacation, before Married...With Children came along in 1987. Originally, her portrayal and image were that of a perky supporting player but as the series evolved, the writing for her character did as well and her portrayal became harder, much funnier, and much edgier. Bearse also studied directing at the American Film Institute and U.S.C., and most viewers were less aware of the fact that from the middle of the series' run, she became one of the program's regular directors and also wrote several scripts. During this period she emerged as a spokesperson for gay and lesbian rights, declaring her sexuality openly in October 1993, as part of National Coming Out Day. After the end of the series' run of ten seasons, Bearse concentrated largely on directing, on sitcoms such as Ladies Man, Dharma and Greg, and Two Guys and a Girl, among other programs.

Trivia: Primarily a supporting and character actor, Philip Baker Hall has also played the occasional lead on stage, screen, and television. Hall made his film debut playing a priest in Cowards (1970). He then appeared in three television series during the mid-'70s, including Man From Atlantis (1977). He became best known during the '80s for his portrayal of Richard Nixon in Robert Altman's brilliant Secret Honor (1984), for which Hall also wrote the screenplay. Though the film garnered mixed reviews, the actor's portrayal of Nixon was hailed as a tour de force. Through the '80s and '90s, Hall continued to work steadily in films and on television; his talents were perhaps best, and most famously, utilized by director Paul Thomas Anderson, who cast Hall in substantial roles in Hard Eight (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), and Magnolia (1999), the last of which saw the actor in fine form as a game show host dying of cancer. Hall also had a memorable turn as a private investigator who is far too convinced of the infallibility of his own instincts in Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999); that same year, he gave a strong performance as CBS producer Don Hewitt in Michael Mann's The Insider. Clearly, Hall had no intention of slowing down, and he would spend the next several years remaining extremely active, appearing in such films as The Matador, Rush Hour 3, The Lodger, 50/50, and Mr. Popper's Penguins.

Trivia: John Rhys-Davies is one of modern cinema's most recognizable character actors. While best known for his work as Indiana Jones' (Harrison Ford) comic sidekick, Sallah, in two of Paramount's Indiana Jones adventure films, the actor has appeared in over 100 television shows and films since the early '70s. He has built an impressive onscreen career, especially for a stage actor who once swore that he would never perform in front of a camera. Born in Wales on May 5, 1944, Rhys-Davies grew up in England, Wales, and East Africa. He studied English and History at the University of East Anglia at Norwich, where he became interested in theater while reading classical literature. Upon graduating, Rhys-Davies earned a scholarship to study acting at London's prestigious Academy of Dramatic Art. He then worked briefly as a schoolteacher before joining the Madder-Market Theatre in Norwich. The actor, who eventually advanced to the Royal Shakespeare Company, performed in over 100 plays. His theatrical credits include starring roles in Shakespeare's Othello, The Tempest, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Henry the Fourth, Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, and Moliere's The Misanthrope. Rhys-Davies was 28 when he made his television debut in 1972 as Laughing Spam Fritter in the BBC's Budgie, a comedy starring former British pop star Adam Faith as an amusing ne'er-do-well. In 1975, he joined John Hurt in the cast of the television show The Naked Civil Servant, which chronicled the rich life of Quentin Crisp. One year later, Rhys-Davies re-teamed with Hurt, as well as Derek Jacobi and Patrick Stewart, for the BBC's unforgettable three-part adaptation of Robert Graves' I, Claudius and Claudius the God. Titled I, Claudius, the television miniseries appeared on PBS's Masterpiece Theater and gave American audiences their first glimpse of the actor. He subsequently starred as Vasco Rodrigues in NBC's adaptation of James Clavell's Shogun, which told the adventures of an English sailor stranded in Japan during the early 17th century. Rhys-Davies' performance earned him both an Emmy nomination and the attention of director Steven Spielberg. In 1981, Spielberg cast Rhys-Davies as the comic, fez-wearing Sallah in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first installment of the Indiana Jones movies. The film was an instant success and Rhys-Davies' comedic skill made Sallah an audience favorite. He went on to film Victor/Victoria (1982) with Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston, Leslie Ann Warren, and former pro-football player Alex Karras. For the next two decades, the actor worked on numerous films and television shows and made memorable guest appearances on ChiPs, The Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Murder, She Wrote, Perry Mason, Tales From the Crypt, Star Trek: Voyager, and The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne. In 1987, he portrayed Front de Boeuf in the television adaptation of Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe that starred James Mason and Sam Neill. That same year, he played the evil Russian General Koskov in the Timothy Dalton-helmed James Bond film The Living Daylights. 1989 saw Rhys-Davies playing Joe Gargery in the Disney Channel's adaptation of Dickens' Great Expectations, starring in the miniseries version of War and Remembrance with Robert Mitchum, David Dukes, and Jane Seymour, and returning as Sallah in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. In 1990, he wrote and starred in the safari adventure film Tusks. In 1991, he hosted the documentary Archaeology. In 1993, he signed onto the series The Untouchables, based on Brian De Palma's hit film. The show was short-lived and Rhys-Davies did not work on a successful television series until 1995's Sliders with Jerry O'Connell. The sci-fi venture accrued a rather large fan base: Audience members were openly upset when Rhys-Davies' character, the bombastic Professor Maximillian P. Arturo, left the series after only three seasons. After appearing with Damon Wayans in The Great White Hype (1996), Rhys-Davies recorded voice work for the animated films Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996) and Cats Don't Dance (1997). The actor has done additional voice work for Animaniacs, Batman: the Animated Series, Gargoyles, Pinky and the Brain, The Fantastic Four, and The Incredible Hulk. He has also branched out to other medias, starring in video games such as Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger, Dune 2000, and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, and the CD-ROM game Quest for Glory IV. In 1999, Rhys-Davies read for the minor character of Denethor in the second installment of Peter Jackson's highly anticipated three-film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Jackson offered him the role of the warrior dwarf Gimli, a major figure in all three pictures. As Gimli, Rhys-Davies is utterly unrecognizable: The part required that he wear heavy facial prosthetics and perform on his knees in order to portray the 4'2" dwarf (the actor, himself, is over six feet tall). The three films -- The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), and The Return of the King (2003) -- were shot simultaneously over an 18-month period in New Zealand, after which Rhys-Davies was asked to return to the set and record the voice of Treebeard, a computer-generated character in the second picture. In 2001, in the midst of attending press junkets for the release of The Fellowship of the Ring, Rhys-Davies began work on the Jackie Chan film Highbinders (2002) and the Eric Roberts B-picture Endangered Species (2002). Besides being an actor, Rhys-Davies is also a serious vintage car collector and a thriving investor. In the '80s, he invested heavily with his earnings and purchased a company that conducts genetic engineering feasibility studies. The actor resides in both Los Angeles and the Isle of Man.

Trivia: "I am what I am! Shut up!" So went the catchphrase shrieked by flamboyantly pompadoured R&B legend Little Richard whenever he made one of his frequent 1970s talk-show appearances. One of the earliest African American singers to cross over into the "white" charts, Little Richard was also among the first black pop artists of the 1950s to show up in a mainstream film. That production was 1956's The Girl Can't Help It, wherein Little Richard belted forth the title tune and a second number, "She's Got It." Most of Little Richard's subsequent film appearances have been guest shots, though he did have an extended supporting role -- playing a thinly disguised version of himself named "Orvis Goodnight" -- in the 1986 comedy Down and Out in Beverly Hills.

Trivia: Lead actress, onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: Tall, bald and nearly always bearded, Sid Haig has provided hulking menace to many a low-budget exploitationer and high-priced actioner. A 1960 alumnus of the Pasadena Playhouse, Haig has been in films at least since 1964, when he played a lobotomized "poor relation" in the cult horror classic Spider Baby. He has proved quite valuable to such filmmakers as producer Roger Corman and director Jack Hill, playing abusive goons in such fare as The Big Doll House and The Big Bird Cage. Sid Haig's more "respectable" credits include George Lucas' THX 1138 and the 1970 James Bond opus Diamonds are Forever (he's the flunkey who tosses a topless Lana Wood from the window of a high-rise Vegas hotel).After decades of B-movie roles, Haig received a late-career boost in 1997, when he was given a small part in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown. In the ensuing years, he would again work with Tarantino in Kill Bill, Vol. 2, and show up in the Rob Zombie horror flicks House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects.

Trivia: Versatile American character actor Kay Kuter has worked steadily on stage, radio, screen and especially television. He is the son of distinguished art director Leo Kuter.