Trivia: The daughter of actress Whitney Blake, Meredith Baxter received extensive training in the arts at the Interlochen Summer Camp in Michigan. Meredith worked as an usher, file clerk and cafeteria checker before getting her first film break in Ben (1971). The 5'7" blonde actress entered the "America's sweetheart" category when she was cast as Bridget Fitzgerald Steinberg, the prettier half of a Catholic-Jewish married couple, in the TV sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie (1972). While the series lasted only a year, her "reel" marriage became a "real" one when, in 1974, she wed her B Loves B co-star David Birney. In addition to yielding a new, hyphenated professional name for Meredith, her union with Birney produced three children before the couple divorced in the early 1990s (she also had two children from a previous marriage). In between stage appearances in such productions as Hamlet, Guys and Dolls and Butterflies are Free, Meredith played Nancy Lawrence Maitland on the TV dramedy Family, winning two Emmy nominations during her four-year (1976-80) stint with this series. In 1982, Meredith agreed to star as flower child-turned-suburban mom Elyse Keaton on the weekly TV comedy Family Ties, having been assured that she would be the star of the series in fact as well as in name. As it happened, Family Ties was dominated throughout its seven-year run by co-star Michael J. Fox. A prolific TV-movie actress, she owns the distinction of playing the same real-life character twice, with two entirely different interpretations. When she first played accused murderess Betty Broderick in 1992's A Woman Scorned, Meredith was sympathetic to Broderick's plight, and played the role accordingly (earning an Emmy nomination in the process); but by the time 1993's Her Final Fury rolled around, Meredith, like everyone else involved in the project, was convinced that Betty Broderick deserved what she got--and played the role in the manner of a Gothic Novel villainess. A made-for-TV movie fixture over the course of the next decade, Baxter remained a familiar face on the small screen thanks to appearances in such popular shows as The Closer and Cold Case, later showing her playful side with voice work in such animated series' as Family Guy and Dan Vs. A breast-cancer survivor, she received a public-awareness award from the National Breast Cancer Coalition for starring in and coproducing the 1994 drama My Breast.

Trivia: Stage, screen, and TV actress Swoosie Kurtz's father was a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, and she was named after a plane he flew in World War II. After college she attended a drama school in London, and debuted onstage in a series of regional theater plays in the late '60s. In 1970 she appeared in an off-Broadway production of The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, for which she won an Obie Award; she went on to a successful stage career, winning two Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award, and an Outer Critics' Circle Award. Eventually Hollywood took an interest, and she became a regular on the TV sitcom Love, Sydney, winning an Emmy for her work. She debuted onscreen in a small role in Slap Shot (1977) then appeared in two successive flops; it was four years before her next screen role. Since 1982 she has had an intermittently busy film career, mostly in well-respected but not particularly successful productions. In the '90s she has co-starred in the TV series Sisters.

Trivia: Lithe, attractive supporting film and television player Clare Carey exhibited a tremendous versatility that enabled her to portray either romantic heroines or suburban wife-and-mother types with equal effectiveness. She began her career stint in front of the cameras in exploitation-type outings, including Zombie High (1987) and Waxwork (1988), then moved into telemovies (Obsessed, 1992) and occasional television pilots (Them, 1996). By the following decade, however, Carey began to turn up in A-list Hollywood features, notably including the 2007 action yarn Smokin' Aces. Carey also essayed one of the leads in the direct-to-video sequel Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House (2002); she played Kate McAllister, Kevin McAllister's mother (a role inherited from Catherine O'Hara).

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

Trivia: Bearing an unconventional appeal that may have something to do with the slaphappy grin permanently stretched across his face, Breckin Meyer has made a name for himself playing characters that have an almost criminally laid-back attitude as their common denominator. Although he got his big break as endearing stoner Travis Birkenstock in Amy Heckerling's 1995 comedy Clueless, Meyer had been acting since he was 11 years old. Born in Minneapolis, MN, on May 7, 1974, Meyer was raised in Los Angeles, where he had early encounters with fame in the form of elementary school with Drew Barrymore (in her autobiography, Little Girl Lost, she credited Meyer with giving her her first kiss when she was ten and he was 11) and high school with a host of young actors, including future Clueless co-star Alicia Silverstone. Meyer got his start in commercials and television, appearing on various shows, including The Wonder Years. He had his rather inauspicious film debut in 1991, as one of the disposable teens in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, and had bit parts in various forgettable films and an appearance on Fox's Party of Five before being cast in Clueless.Following the huge success of Clueless, Meyer went on to appear in another teen movie, The Craft (1996). After secondary roles in Touch and Prefontaine (both 1997), the actor had a fairly substantial part in 54, in which he got to play Salma Hayek's husband and wear a very small pair of shorts. The film, which starred Meyer's real-life friend Ryan Phillippe, flopped with remarkable gusto, and Meyer's other film that year, the independent Dancer, Texas Pop. 81, was released without fanfare. However, the actor had success the following year as part of an ensemble cast that read like a Who's Who of Hollywood's Young and Employed in Doug Liman's Go. Playing a white boy who believes he's black at heart, Meyer won laughs for his part in the widely acclaimed film, and his appearance in the company of young notables such as Katie Holmes, Sarah Polley, and Scott Wolf went some way toward further establishing the actor's reputation as a noteworthy young talent.A fine supporting player to this point in his fledgling career, Breckin would finally come into his own as the hapless college student racing cross country to intercept a decidedly questionable videotape in director Todd Phillips's breakout comedy Road Trip. Though a subsequent stab at the small screen as the lead in the sports comedy series Inside Schwartz ultimately did little to advance Meyer's career, later roles in the theatrical comedies Rat Race and Kate and Leopold served well to keep the amiable comic talent in the public eye. After providing the voice for the eponymous wooden puppet in Roberto Benigni's 2002 misfire Pinocchio, Breckin helped to bring everyone's favorite comic-strip cat to the big screen with his role as the lasagne-loving feline's hapless master Jon Arbuckle in the 2004 family comedy Garfield. Vocal work in such animated efforts as King of the Hill and Robot Chicken found the actor earning his keep even when not stepping in front of the cameras, and in 2006 Meyer would return to the silver screen to the delight of children everywhere in the kid-friendly sequel Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties. In the years to come, Meyer would also find success as a voice actor on shows like Titan Maximum, King of the Hill, Robot Chicken, and Franklin & Bash.

Trivia: Dennis Franz, David Caruso, and Gail O'Grady may be the best-known actors to achieve stardom out of the series NYPD Blue, but there are others who have moved into the spotlight during the program's run -- Bill Brochtrup is one of the latest. Playing Police Administrative Aide John Irvin since the late '90s, Brochtrup has brought a unique combination of wit and sensitivity to the rough-hewn crime series. Born in California in 1963, Brochtrup was raised in Tacoma, WA, and graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. His early stage credits included roles in D.H. Lawrence's The Fox (earning a DramaLogue Award) and Raft of the Medusa, and he earned rave reviews for his starring role in the off-Broadway production of Snakebit, which he also brought to West Hollywood. He made his television acting debut in the space-alien sitcom ALF in 1990, and did an episode of Diagnosis Murder in (1994) before being picked to play John Irvin in what was originally supposed to be a two-episode arc of NYPD Blue, as the temporary police administrative aide to the detective squad. The character ended up being kept on the series for much of that season, and producer Steven Bochco was sufficiently impressed with Brochtrup's work to ask him to move into the series Public Morals, playing the same role. After its cancellation, Brochtrup moved on to Total Security in the role of George LaSalle, and, after that series' end, returned to NYPD Blue as John Irvin, this time permanently as one of the co-stars. Brochtrup, who also appeared in episodes of Murder, She Wrote, Picket Fences, and Dharma & Greg, has cut a major figure as John Irvin, despite the fact that the character isn't even a police officer. Playing one of the first avowedly gay characters on a prime-time network police drama, Brochtrup walked a fine line, bringing sensitivity and a gentle, subtle wit to the role, which encouraged the writers to do more with the character. In particular, seeing what he could do with the role, the writers made it their business to put Brochtrup's John Irvin together with Dennis Franz's easily exasperated, not very enlightened Detective Andy Sipowicz, and they have used the relationship between the two to help evolve the detective's character. As a result of the series' high profile and the quality of the writing and acting that goes into the character, John Irvin has become something of a minor pop-culture icon among the gay community, while Brochtrup's work has become one of the highlights of the late run of the series. He has also appeared in a handful of movies, including Man of the Year and Space Marines, in between his television and theater roles.

Trivia: American character actor Nicholas Pryor has played his share of weak or ineffectual characters, but can exert authority and strength if the need arises. One of the busiest actors on the daytime-drama scene, Pryor has been a regular on such soapers as All My Children (he was the third of four actors to play Link Tyler) Young Dr. Malone, The Nurses, Another World, The Edge of Night, Love is a Many Splendored Thing and The Nurses. His prime-time TV roles include John Quincy Adams II in The Adams Chronicles (1976), vice principal Jack Felspar in Bronx Zoo (1987), and chancellor Arnold in Beverly Hills 90210 (1990- ). Among Nicholas Pryor's best film assignments were the roles of beauty-contest organizer Barbara Feldon's long-suffering husband in Smile (1975) and Tom Cruise's clueless dad in Risky Business (1983).