Trivia: Angela Lansbury received an Oscar nomination for her first film, Gaslight, in 1944, and has been winning acting awards and audience favor ever since. Born in London to a family that included both politicians and performers, Lansbury came to the U.S. during World War II. She made notable early film appearances as the snooty sister in National Velvet (1944); the pathetic singer in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), which garnered her another Academy nomination; and the madam-with-a-heart-of-gold saloon singer in The Harvey Girls (1946). She turned evil as the manipulative publisher in State of the Union (1948), but was just as convincing as the good queen in The Three Musketeers (1948) and the petulant daughter in The Court Jester (1956). She received another Oscar nomination for her chilling performance as Laurence Harvey's scheming mother in The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and appeared as the addled witch in Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), among other later films. On Broadway, she won Tony awards for the musicals Mame (1966), Dear World (1969), the revival of Gypsy (1975), Sweeney Todd (1979) and, at age 82, for the play Blithe Spirit (2009). Despite a season in the '50s on the game show Pantomime Quiz, she came to series television late, starring in 1984-1996 as Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote; she took over as producer of the show in the '90s. She returned to the Disney studios to record the voice of Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast (1991) and to sing the title song and later reprised the role in the direct-to-video sequel, The Enchanted Christmas (1997). Lansbury is the sister of TV producer Bruce Lansbury.

Trivia: Ashbrook is a leading actress onscreen beginning with Quiet Cool (1986).

Trivia: University of Arkansas and Catholic University alumnus Laurence Luckinbill studied acting with Uta Hagen before appearing in his first Broadway play, A Man For All Seasons. Luckinbill familiarized himself with a large portion of American TV followers through his work in the daytime dramas The Secret Storm and Where the Heart Is. He made his movie bow in 1970, re-creating his stage role of "conservative" homosexual Hank in The Boys in the Band. Two years later, he starred as espionage agent Glenn Garth Gregory in the TV series The Delphi Bureau. His TV movie credits (The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case, Ike: The War Years, Lincoln) have thus far outnumbered such large-screen assignments as the role of Sybok in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989). Formerly married to soap-opera star Robin Mattson, Laurence Luckinbill is the husband of actress Lucie Arnaz, with whom he has toured in such theatrical productions as They're Playing Our Song.

Trivia: American actress Eileen Brennan was the daughter of Jean Manahan, a moderately successful silent screen actress. Brennan studied at both Georgetown University and the American Academy of Dramatic Art before making her mark as star of the 1959 off-Broadway musical Little Mary Sunshine. Brennan was among the first-season stars of TV's Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, essentially doing hilarious variations of her simpering "Mary Sunshine" persona. With her 1970s film appearances in The Last Picture Show (1971), The Sting (1972) and Hustle (1974) came the world-weary, hard-bitten characterizations with which she built her movie following. She was nominated for an Oscar for her expert interpretation of an army sergeant in Goldie Hawn's Private Benjamin (1980), then recreated the role for the 1981 TV sitcom version of this film (which won her an Emmy). While filming the TV Benjamin, Brennan was seriously injured in a car accident. The recovery was long and painful, but by 1985 she was back at work, as caustic as ever in recent films as Clue (1985), White Palace (1991) and the Last Picture Show sequel Texasville (1990). She continued to work steadily in a variety of projects including Murder So Sweet and 1995's Freaky Friday. She also made guest appearances on various T shows including Murder, She Wrote, E/R, Mad About You, and Touched By an Angel. In the 21st century she could be seen in Jeepers Creepers and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous. Brennan passed away in 2013. She was 80 years old.

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: While growing up in Chicago, Tom Bosley dreamed of becoming the star left-fielder for the Cubs. As it turned out, the closest Bosley got to organized athletics was a sportscasting class at DePauw University. After additional training at the Radio Institute of Chicago and two years' practical experience in various dramatic radio programs and stock companies, he left for New York in 1950. Five years of odd jobs and summer-theater stints later, he landed his first off-Broadway role, playing Dupont-Dufort in Jean Anouilh's Thieves' Carnival. Steadier work followed at the Arena Theatre in Washington, D.C.; then in 1959, Bosley landed the starring role in the Broadway musical Fiorello!, picking up a Tony Award, an ANTA Award, and the New York Drama Critics Award in the bargain. In 1963, he made his film bow as Natalie Wood's "safe and secure" suitor Anthony Colombo in Love With the Proper Stranger. Occasionally cast as two-bit criminals or pathetic losers (he sold his eyes to blind millionairess Joan Crawford in the Spielberg-directed Night Gallery TV movie), Bosley was most often seen as a harried suburban father. After recurring roles on such TV series as That Was the Week That Was, The Debbie Reynolds Show, and The Sandy Duncan Show, Bosley was hired by Hanna-Barbera to provide the voice of flustered patriarch Howard Boyle on the animated sitcom Wait Til Your Father Gets Home (1972-1973). This served as a dry run of sorts for his most famous series-TV assignment: Howard Cunningham, aka "Mr. C," on the immensely popular Happy Days (1974-1983). The warm, familial ambience of the Happy Days set enabled Bosley to weather the tragic death of his first wife, former dancer Jean Elliot, in 1978. In addition to his Happy Days duties, Bosley was narrator of the syndicated documentary That's Hollywood (1977-1981). From 1989 to 1991, he starred on the weekly series The Father Dowling Mysteries, and thereafter was seen on an occasional basis as down-to-earth Cabot Cove sheriff Amos Tupper on Murder, She Wrote. Reportedly as kind, generous, and giving as his Happy Days character, Tom Bosley has over the last 20 years received numerous honors for his many civic and charitable activities.

Trivia: A former stage director, Walter Grauman turned to films in 1957. Most of Grauman's big-screen efforts were unremarkable, with the exception of his taut 1964 thriller Lady in a Cage. He is best known for his TV work on such weekly series as The Untouchables and The Twilight Zone. Grauman also directed a wealth of worthwhile TV-movies and miniseries, among them The Old Man Who Cried Wolf (1970), The Streets of San Francisco (1971), The Memory of Eva Riker (1980), Bare Essence (1982), and the slicked-down 1981 remake of Valley of the Dolls. His final directorial effort was a handful of episodes of Murder, She Wrote. Grauman died in 2015, at age 93.