Trivia: Fred Dryer has spent the bulk of his acting career on television, but he has also appeared in a few feature films, beginning with The Starmaker (1981). Prior to becoming a performer, Dryer had been a professional football player. On television, he is best remembered for two roles, that of Sam Malone's irritating buddy, Dave Richards, in three episodes of the NBC sitcom Cheers and as fearless Detective Sergeant Rick Hunter in the series Hunter (1984). Other film appearances include Cannonball Run II (1984) and Day of Reckoning (1994).

Trivia: Impassioned devotees of late-'80s prime-time television will have little difficulty identifying actress Jean Kasem; she achieved her most memorable and enduring role as flighty and buxom platinum blonde Loretta Tortelli, the second wife of sleazy TV repairman Nick Tortelli (Dan Hedaya), first on Cheers and then on its very short-lived spin-off, The Tortellis (January -May 1987). A native of Portsmouth, NH, Kasem began her career with bit roles on series including We Got It Made, Matt Houston, and Alice, and then (after The Tortellis promptly folded) continued to do guest-starring turns on various series, and bit roles in telemovies, through the early 2000s. Off-camera, the actress married DJ Casey Kasem in 1980.

Trivia: Blonde, pouty leading lady Darlanne Fluegel made her screen debut as one of Faye Dunaway's stable of models in The Eyes of Laura Mars. A brief cult following built up around Fluegel due to her appearances in violent cop dramas and sci-fiers. When she wasn't being horribly murdered (Once Upon a Time in America), she was shooting up and betraying her loved ones (To Live and Die in LA). In recent years, Darlanne Fluegel has been most closely associated with gritty crime-and-punishment TV shows: she was seen as Julie Torello during the 1986-87 season of Crime Story, as Lacey in the climactic 1990 episodes of Wiseguy, and as officer Joanne Molenski in the 1990-91 installments of Hunter.

Trivia: Supporting actor Charles Hallahan played character roles on stage, television and in feature films. Fans of the Stephen J. Cannell police drama Hunter will know Hallahan for playing Captain Charlie Devane between 1986 and 1991. A Philadelphia native, Hallahan earned an undergraduate degree at Rutgers and a master's from Temple University six years before heading to Los Angeles in 1977. Hallahan had little trouble finding acting jobs. His stage credits include playing the lead in a long-running San Francisco production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest during the late '90s, roles in plays ranging from Equus to The Threepenny Opera. In 1976, Hallahan toured the Soviet Union in two classic plays. On television, Hallahan guest-starred on over 200 episodes of shows ranging from Lou Grant to The Paper Chase. He made his feature film debut in Nightwing (1979). He made his last film appearance playing Paul Dreyfuss in Dante's Peak (1997). Hallahan died during a car crash in which he apparently suffered a heart attack on November 25, 1997. He was 54.

Trivia: Moonfaced, curly-headed comic actor Art Metrano went to junior college in Stockton, California on a football scholarship; he later transferred to the College of the Pacific, majoring in acting. Returning to New York, Metrano tried to find work -- only to head back to the West Coast on the advice of an astrologer. Supporting himself as an automatic telephone system salesman, Metrano began attaining small TV parts, which led to his being cast in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? At a Christmas party, Metrano began cutting up with an improv bit in which he pretended to be a sleight-of-hand artist; the routine consisted of his humming the song "Fine and Dandy" as he'd proceed to pull invisible handkerchiefs out of his pocket and extricate himself from non-existent handcuffs. This "do-nothing magician" act led to several guest spots on The Tonight Show, Laugh-In and The Dean Martin Show, and a regular stint on 1970's The Tim Conway Hour (the theme song of which was, inevitably, "Fine and Dandy"). By 1971, Metrano was costarring in a '30s-era sitcom The Chicago Teddy Bears, playing a soft-hearted gangster. The series was axed after 13 weeks, consigning Metrano to the guest-star circuit. Art Metrano subsequently showed up in such films as Seven (1979), Breathless (1983) and Malibu Express (1984); he also had regular roles on TV's Movin' On (1974), Amy Prentiss (1974), Joanie Loves Chachi (1982), Loves Me Loves Me Not (1977) and Tough Cookies (1986).

Trivia: Supporting actor Ted Markland frequently played heavies, thugs, bikers, and other misanthropic characters. He began his film career with a small role in The Hallelujah Trail (1965).

Trivia: Tony Mordente was born in New York City in 1933. Trained as an actor, dancer, and singer, his first major credit was in the role of Action in West Side Story, on which he also served as an assistant choreographer. He also had a short-lived recording career around 1960, on Roulette Records, which was hoping to capitalize on the success of West Side Story. Mordente concentrated primarily on stage roles during the early '60s, a period in which he was based in New York, and his only screen role, apart from West Side Story, came in 1963 with a small part in Love With the Proper Stranger. His early television appearances included two episodes of Combat during the series' first season, but it was his role as Genaro Planetta in The Outer Limits episode "The Invisibles" -- one of the most chilling in the series' output -- that showed him at the peak of his powers as an actor. Portraying Planetta, the fidgety, neurotic recruit into a secret society run by alien invaders, Mordente almost managed to steal the show from its star, Don Gordon, and a supporting cast that included such veterans as George Macready and Neil Hamilton, in what should have been an Emmy-nominated performance. Mordente turned to directing after the mid-'60s, and has proved equally adept at handling comedy, drama, or action subjects. He has helmed installments of M*A*S*H, Rhoda, Busting Loose, The Greatest American Hero, Family Ties, Quincy, M.E., The A-Team, Hunter, Matlock, and 7th Heaven, and was responsible for directing 37 episodes of Walker Texas Ranger during the series' first five seasons -- the latter credit puts him in the same league with his fellow West Side Story alumnus Gus Trikonis as a top small-screen action-adventure directorial hand. Mordente has been married to Broadway star Chita Rivera since the 1960s, and their daughter is the actress Lisa Mordente.