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: African-American character actor Jason Bernard is one of those performers who seems to have never been out of work. Bernard's cinematic stock-in-trade has been stern authority figures: the parole officer in Car Wash (1976), the Mayor in Blue Thunder (1983), Judge Bochco in The Star Chamber (1983), Major Donovan in No Way Out (1987), and so forth. Bernard has appeared numerous times on television as a guest star and as a recurring character. Some of his most famous TV roles include Preston Wade in the daytime drama Days of Our Lives, mechanical whiz Fletch in the 1983 prime-timer High Performance, and the chronically humorless publishing executive Mr. Paul Bracken in the 1991 Fox sitcom Herman's Head. For his supporting role in the Lifetime network movie Sophie and the Moonhanger (1995), Bernard received a Cable Ace nomination. His last feature-film role was that of a judge in the Jim Carrey comedy Liar, Liar (1997). On October 16, 1996, the 58-year-old Bernard was driving in Hollywood when he suffered a fatal heart attack.

Trivia: Played on the varsity football team in high school. Competed in a Golden Gloves amateur boxing competition at Madison Square Garden at the age of 17, but was soon after diagnosed with elbow tendinitis, ending his boxing career. Made his stage debut in his high school's production of Kismet. In 1999, played the role of Mitch in the Hartford Stage's production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Performed on Broadway as Mike in the Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Pal Joey in 2009.

Trivia: Lead actor Nick Corri first appeared on screen in the late '80s.

Trivia: Leading actress Rosana DeSota first appeared onscreen in the late '80s.

Trivia: Began performing at Joseph Papp's Public Theatre as a teenager. Performed opposite Lee Strasburg at age 14 in the film Boardwalk. Received the Desi Arnaz Vanguard Award in 1990.

Trivia: California native Jacqueline Obradors was actually born to Argentinean parents, but she spent her early career playing various Latina background characters. Starting in 1993, she made numerous appearances in film and television, including some reoccurring guest star roles. In 1998, she got a bit of a break as Harrison Ford's girlfriend in the romantic adventure Six Days, Seven Nights and as William Forsythe's wife in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigalow. On television, she was a regular cast member on the short-lived NBC detective comedy Battery Park and then joined the cast of NYPD Blue during the ninth season as Det. Rita Ortiz. In 2001, she lent her voice to the animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire and played one of the Naranjo daughters in the comedy Tortilla Soup. In 2003, she reprised her role for Atlantis: Milo's Return and played Vin Diesel's wife in the action thriller A Man Apart.

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: The slightly gritty and wizened Cuban-American actor Tony Plana boasts a resumé that is no less than extraordinary. Whatever the limitations of Hispanic typecasting, Plana soared high above them from the time of his debut in the early '80s, seeking out roles in several of Hollywood's most respected and venerable films -- ethnically themed and otherwise. He first culled attention as Rudy in Luis Valdez's stylized, theatrical period piece Zoot Suit (1981), starring a then-unknown Edward James Olmos. Plana's subsequent efforts read like a best-of early-'80s cinema; he tackled An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Love and Money (1982), Valley Girl (1983), and El Norte (1983), all within a few years of one another. Plana was particularly effective as Fr. Manuel Morantes in John Duigan's wondrous, overlooked biopic Romero (1989, about archbishop and activist Oscar Romero) and as Carlos Bringuier in Oliver Stone's JFK (1991). In the 2000s, Plana unveiled a heightened interest in television, gracing the casts of such series as Ally McBeal and The Drew Carey Show as an occasional guest performer. Plana is best known to younger viewers, however, for two small-screen portrayals: that of cutthroat terrorist Omar in 24, and -- on a very different note, Ignacio -- the widower dad of the title character -- on the comedy drama Ugly Betty. Educationally, Plana trained in the drama programs at Loyola Marymount University and London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He made the leap from acting to directing with two projects: A Million to Juan (1994, co-helmed with Paul Rodriguez) and The Princess and the Barrio Boy (2000). The latter constitutes Plana's directorial debut. It tells of a young well-to-do Hispanic woman (Marisol Nichols) who bucks convention by falling for a working-class boy, and simultaneously attempts to stand in the way of her father's marriage to a wicked lover.