Trivia: Immediately upon his graduation from Harvard, actor Richard Jordan made the first of his over 100 New York stage appearances. Jordan's theatrical credits include a number of directorial assignments and eight years with Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival (at one time, Jordan was married to fellow Papp regular Kathleen Widdoes; he also fathered a child by actress Blair Brown). Though some previous reference works list a "Richard Jordan" as appearing in films from 1964, this Richard Jordan didn't make his first picture until 1971. As busy in TV movies as he was in theatrical features, Jordan played such leading roles as Joseph Armagh in the 1976 miniseries Captain and the Kings (a performance that won him a Golden Globe award), and Frederick in Woody Allen's Interiors (1978). Ever fascinated with the dark side of human nature, Jordan played many an unsympathetic role, notably Albert Speer in the 1981 TV movie The Bunker and rabble-rousing Georgia prosecutor Hugh Dorsey in the 1987 video biopic The Murder of Mary Phagan.

Trivia: Lead and supporting actor David Selby is best remembered for playing Richard Channing on the television nighttime serial Falcon Crest between 1982 and 1990. A native of Morgantown, WV, Selby obtained a master's degree from West Virginia University and a doctorate from Southern Illinois University before launching his acting career in regional theaters such as the Cleveland Playhouse (where he has been inducted into their Hall of Fame). He has also worked on and off-Broadway as well as in major theaters across the U.S. Selby made his feature-film debut in Up the Sandbox after playing Quentin Collins on the spooky daily serial Dark Shadows between 1968 and 1971. Throughout his subsequent career Selby has divided his time between stage, screen, and television. Notable film efforts include Raise the Titanic (1980) and Headless Body in Topless Bar (1995).

Trivia: The daughter of actors John Archer and Marjorie Lord, noted actress Anne Archer began her own career in the early 1970s, landing her first important film role in the 1972 Bob Hope comedy Cancel My Reservation. A year later, Archer played the Natalie Wood part in a TV-sitcom adaptation of Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice. Often cast in vulnerable, imperiled roles, the actress gave one of her most memorable performances as Michael Douglas' wife in Fatal Attraction (1987), for which she earned an Oscar nomination. She also proved her mettle as the wife of Harrison Ford in both Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994). In addition to being one of the industry's most reliable onscreen spouses, Archer has done solid work in such films as Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993), in which she played a woman racked with moral conflict over her husband's questionable behavior during a weekend fishing trip. Archer continued doing supporting roles in films, while building a strong TV resume with recurring guest spots on shows like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The L Word and Ghost Whisperer.

Trivia: A member of a generation of British actors that included Sir Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson, Sir Alec Guinness possessed an astonishing versatility that was amply displayed over the course of his 66-year career. Dubbed "the outstanding poet of anonymity" by fellow actor Peter Ustinov, Guinness was a consummate performer, effortlessly portraying characters that ranged from eight members of the same family to an aging Jedi master. Synonymous throughout most of his career with old-school British aplomb and dry wit, the actor was considered to be second only to Olivier in his popularity on both sides of the Atlantic. Theater critic J.C. Trewin once described Guinness as possessing "a player's countenance, designed for whatever might turn up." The latter half of this description was an apt summation of the actor's beginnings, which were positively Dickensian. Born into poverty in London on April 2, 1914, Guinness was an illegitimate child who did not know the name on his birth certificate was Guinness until he was 14 (until that time he had used his stepfather's surname, Stiven). Guinness never met his biological father, who provided his son's private school funds but refused to pay for his university education. It was while working as an advertising copywriter that Guinness began going to the theatre, spending his pound-a-week salary on tickets. Determined to become an actor himself, he somehow found the money to pay for beginning acting lessons and subsequently won a place at the Fay Compton School of Acting. While studying there, he was told by his acting teacher Martita Hunt that he had "absolutely no talent." However, Sir John Gielgud apparently disagreed: as the judge of the end-of-term performance, he awarded Guinness an acting prize and further rewarded him with two roles in his 1934 production of Hamlet. Three years later, Guinness became a permanent member of Gielgud's London company and in 1938, playing none other than Hamlet himself. In 1939, Guinness' stage version of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, which featured the actor as Herbert Pocket, caught the attention of fledgling director David Lean. Seven years later, Lean would cast Guinness in the novel's screen adaptation; the 1946 film was the actor's second screen engagement, the first being the 1934 Evensong, in which he was an extra. It was in Lean's Oliver Twist (1948) that he had his first memorable onscreen role as Fagin, although his portrayal -- complete with stereotypically Semitic gestures and heavy makeup -- aroused charges of anti-Semitism in the United States that delayed the film's stateside release for three years. Guinness won bona fide international recognition for his work in Robert Hamer's Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), an Ealing black comedy that featured him as eight members of the d'Ascoyne family. He would subsequently be associated with a number of the classic Ealing comedies, including The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), The Man in the White Suit (1951), The Detective (1954), and The Ladykillers (1955). In 1955, Guinness' contributions to the arts were recognized by Queen Elizabeth, who dubbed him Commander of the British Empire. Two years later, he received recognition on the other side of the Atlantic when he won a Best Actor Oscar for his role as Colonel Nicholson, a phenomenally principled and at times foolhardy British POW in The Bridge on the River Kwai. Ironically, Guinness turned down the role twice before being persuaded to take it by producer Sam Spiegel; his performance remained one of the most acclaimed of his career. In 1960, Guinness once again earned acclaim for his portrayal of another officer, in Tunes of Glory. Cast as hard-drinking, ill-mannered Scottish Lieutenant-Colonel Jock Sinclair, a role he would later name as his favorite, the actor gave a powerful performance opposite John Mills as the upper-crust British officer assigned to take over his duties. He subsequently became associated with David Lean's great epics of the 1960s, starring as Prince Feisal in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and as Zhivago's brother in Dr. Zhivago (1965); much later in his career, Guinness would also appear in Lean's A Passage to India (1984) as Professor Godbole, an Indian intellectual. Although Guinness continued to work at a fairly prolific pace throughout the 1960s and 1970s, his popularity was on the wane until director George Lucas practically begged him to appear as Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars (1977). The role earned the actor his third Academy Award nomination (his second came courtesy of his screenplay for Ronald Neame's 1958 satire The Horse's Mouth) and introduced him to a new generation of fans. Guinness reprised the role for The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983); although the role Obi Wan was perhaps the most famous of his career and earned him millions, he reportedly hated the character and encouraged Lucas to kill him off in the trilogy's first installment so as to limit his involvement in the subsequent films.After receiving an honorary Academy Award in 1979, Guinness did a bit of television (most notably a 1979 adaptation of John LeCarre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) and acted onscreen in supporting roles. In 1988 he earned a slew of award nominations -- including his fourth Oscar nomination -- for his work in a six-hour adaptation of Dickens' Little Dorrit. In addition to acting, Guinness focused his attention on writing, producing two celebrated memoirs. He died on August 5, 2000, at the age of 86, leaving behind his wife of 62 years, a son, and one of the acting world's most distinguished legacies.

Trivia: Though he could pass as a good-natured cabbie or down-to-earth dockworker with his chiseled features and gravelly voice, J.D. Cannon has played more than his share of villains, some of them psychotic in nature. A stage actor in the 1950s and 1960s, Cannon was first seen on the big screen in 1966's The American Dream. His breakthrough role in films was road-gang convict Society Red in Cool Hand Luke (1967). On television, J. D. Cannon was seen as hard-nosed Chief of Detectives Peter B. Clifford on the Dennis Weaver series McCloud (1970-77), and as General Hampton on Call to Glory (1985).

Trivia: Swedish-born supporting actor Brundin appeared onscreen from the '70s.

Trivia: Rarely garnering a lead role, M. Emmet Walsh has become one of the busiest character actors in Hollywood, using his ruddy, seedy appearance to embody countless low-life strangers with unsavory agendas. In his rare sympathetic roles, he's also capable of generating genuine pathos for the put upon plight of struggling small-timers. His effortless portrayals have made him a welcome addition to numerous ensembles, even if many viewers can't match a name to his recognizable mug. In fact, his work is so well thought of that critic Roger Ebert created the Stanton-Walsh Rule, which states that no film featuring either Walsh or Harry Dean Stanton can be altogether bad.Contrary to his frequent casting as a Southerner, Walsh is a native New Yorker, born on March 22, 1935, in Ogdensburg, NY. As a youth he attended the prestigious Tilton School in New Hampshire, and went on to share a college dorm room with actor William Devane. He graduated from the Clarkson University School of Business, but it was not until his thirties that he discovered his true calling: acting. He first popped up in Midnight Cowboy (1969), and has worked steadily ever since, some years appearing in as many as eight motion pictures, other years focusing more on TV movies. Working in relative anonymity through the '70s and early '80s, appearing in films ranging from Serpico (1973) to Slapshot (1977) to Blade Runner (1982), Walsh landed his meatiest and most memorable role in Joel and Ethan Coen's remarkable debut, Blood Simple (1984). Without batting an eye, Walsh exuded more casual menace as the amoral private detective doggedly pursuing his own self-interest than a host of typecast villains could muster in their entire careers. His role was key to creating a stylish noir that would launch the careers of two modern masters. It earned him an Independent Spirit Award.Blood Simple did not markedly alter Walsh's status as a supporting actor, as he went on to appear in this capacity in Fletch (1985), Back to School (1986), and Raising Arizona (1987), his next collaboration with the Coens, in which his bull-slinging machinist scores riotously with less than a minute of screen time. One of the first appearances of the kindly Walsh was in 1988's Clean and Sober, in which he plays a recovering alcoholic helping Michael Keaton through the same struggle.As he crept into his late fifties and early sixties, the stature of Walsh's films diminished a little, if not his actual workload. Continuing to dutifully pursue his craft throughout the early '90s, Walsh again returned to a higher profile with appearances in such films as A Time to Kill (1996), William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (1996), and My Best Friend's Wedding (1997). More as a reaction to the ineptitude of the movie than Walsh's performance, Ebert called into question his own Walsh-Stanton Rule in his review of Wild Wild West, the 1999 Will Smith-Kevin Kline debacle in which Walsh is one of the only tolerable elements. In the years to come, Walsh would remain active on screen, appearing in films like Youth in Revolt and providing the voice of Olaf on the animated series Pound Puppies.

Trivia: Supporting actor Norman Bartold appeared in numerous films of the 1970s. He also worked on television as a guest star and in television movies. He made his film debut in The Littlest Hobo (1958).

Trivia: Tall, instantly identifiable Eastern European actor Elya Baskin fit the bill in Hollywood for ethnic character portrayals, especially characters with a Slavic background and an amiable demeanor; he also frequently exhibited a slightly zany undercurrent that became something of a trademark. A native of Latvia in the former USSR, Baskin attended Moscow's Theatre and Performing Arts College, then built a formidable reputation on the European stage. He achieved his international breakthrough, however, at the hands of Hollywood giant Paul Mazursky, who cast him opposite Robin Williams as the clownish Russian circus performer Anatoly in the masterful seriocomedy Moscow on the Hudson (1984). (When coupled with the sad demeanor that Baskin projected in that role, the actor's birdlike arm-flapping -- a symbol of the character's need for freedom -- became one of the film's most poignant and memorable images). An additional collaboration with Mazursky followed, the 1989 smash Enemies: A Love Story; in the meantime, Baskin began to rack up a litany of roles in additional A-list projects, including 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984), Vice Versa (1988), and Love Affair (1994). The Pickle (1993) re-teamed Baskin and Mazursky for a third occasion; unfortunately, it failed to match the critical or commercial success of its predecessors. Baskin remained in full flower through the end of the following decade, with a memorable comedic turn as Vladimir on the sitcom Mad About You and prominent roles in the big-screen projects Spider-Man 3 and The Dukes (both 2007).

Trivia: Was living in Switzerland with his family when his father, Bonanza actor Dan Blocker, died from complications from surgery. Made his acting debut in 1974 on Marcus Welby, M.D. His first regular role was in the World War II series Blacksheep Squadron in 1976.

Trivia: Paul Carr has been a very busy actor since the '50s on-stage, in television, and in films, after starting his screen career with Alfred Hitchcock. Born in New Orleans in 1934, he grew up in the town of Marrero, in Jefferson Parish, LA. As a teenager, he had an interest in music as well as acting. After a short stint in the Marine Corps in his teens, he began his acting career with a role in a New Orleans production of Billy Budd, and by the mid-'50s was working on live televsion out of New York City, including appearances on Studio One and Kraft Television Theater, while continuing theatrical work in stock companies in Ohio and Michigan, with roles such as Peter Quilpe in The Cocktail Party, Haemon in Antigone, Jack in The Rose Tattoo, and Hal Carter in Picnic, as well as a summer tour in Fifth Season with Chico Marx. Carr made his movie debut in 1955 with a small uncredited role in Alfred Hitchcock's fact-based thriller The Wrong Man. That same year, he portrayed a prisoner of war in the Theatre Guild's production of Time Limit on Broadway. His film career continued with a much larger role in Alfred Werker's The Young Don't Cry (1957), starring James Whitmore and Sal Mineo, and that same year he appeared in the jukebox movie Jamboree. He worked steadily on television in the late '50s and early '60s with guest spots and supporting roles in a lot of Westerns such as Trackdown, Rawhide, The Rifleman, and The Virginian. Later he appeared in detective shows and medical and war dramas, such as 77 Sunset Strip, Dr. Kildare, and Twelve O'Clock High, interspersed with occasional film work, including Captain Newman, M.D. (1963). He had a recurring role as one of the submarine Seaview's junior officers on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea in its black-and-white season, and played other parts of the show subsequently. Carr was all over the tube on Burke's Law, Combat, Gunsmoke, and a dozen other shows in the middle of the decade. In 1965, Carr won the role of Bill Horton, the physician son of protagonist Dr. Tom Horton on Days of Our Lives, which kept him busy for the subsequent year. He was later a regular on General Hospital and The Doctors, and between the three soap operas, Carr had put in a lot of time portraying dedicated medical practitioners. He may be remembered best, however, for his appearance on a pop-culture institution that has been exumed and re-examined by the public en masse: In 1966, he was seen in the second Star Trek pilot episode, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," portraying Lt. Kelso, the affable Enterprise officer who is strangled telekinetically by the ship's rapidly mutating helmsman. Carr has gone on to work in dozens of television shows --everything from Get Smart, Mannix, The Rockford Files, and Murphy Brown, to miniseries and features, both made-for-television (The Deadly Tower). In 2001, his voice was heard in Blood: The Last Vampire, as the school's headmaster.

Trivia: Youthful American supporting actor Brendan Burns primarily worked on television, but he also made a few films, the last one being Raise the Titanic in 1980.

Trivia: Supporting actor Michael C. Gwynne first appeared onscreen in the '70s.

Trivia: American actor Stewart Moss played supporting roles on television, stage, and feature films of the late '60s through the early '80s. He also writes teleplays for both cable and network television and directs stage productions in Los Angeles.

Trivia: American actor Michael Pataki's first film credit was 1958's Ten North Frederick. In the early phases of his career, Pataki was reminiscent of a young Rod Steiger; in point of fact, he played the 25-year-old version of the Steiger character in the made-for-TV The Movie Maker (1965). His later television work included the weekly series Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers (1974), as Sand's brother Charlie; Spider-Man (1977), as Captain Barbera; and Phyl and Micky (1980), as Soviet consular official Vladimir Jimenko. The Slavic nature of the last-named role was typical of the sort of characters Pataki played in the 1980s, which included Nikoli Koloff in Rocky IV (1985) and Rocky V (1990). Additionally, Pataki is among those lucky thespians who played guest spots on both the original Star Trek and its 1987 grandchild Star Trek: The Next Generation. On the production side, Pataki was director of the soft-core sex farce Cinderella and the low-budget scarefest Mansion of the Doomed (both 1977), and served as producer of the 1981 TV adaptation of Broadway's Pippin. More recently, Michael Pataki was heard as "The Sewer King" on the animated TVer Batman: The New Adventures (1992).

Trivia: British character actor Roy Evans appeared in films, on stage and on television. He got his show business start as a professional ballet dancer.

Trivia: He studied theater at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After establishing himself prominently on the American stage, he began appearing in silents beginning with The Gilded Lily (1921). He appeared in more than 100 films, the last of which was the Elvis Presley vehicle Wild in the Country (1961). He starred in a number of silents, often as a clean-living rural hero; in the sound era he began playing character roles, almost always as an arch villain. Due to a serious eye infection, he was absent from the big screen in the '50s. He was the father of actor Jason Robards, with whom he appeared on Broadway in 1958 in The Disenchanted.