Trivia: Don't let actress Jean Smart's filmography fool you, because though she seems to have a penchant for appearing in fairly light-hearted fare of the family-oriented variety, she possesses all the skill of the most talented dramatic stage and screen actresses around. Unafraid to take the sort of risks necessary to keep her career and her personal life in fair balance, fans balked when Smart left television's hugely popular Designing Women while the series was in its prime, though her subsequent performances have found her sound judgment well justified. A Seattle native who received her B.A. from the University of Washington, it wasn't long before Smart was taking the stage at the 1975 Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Relocating to New York City, Smart's performance in the off-Broadway play Last Summer at Bluefish Cove earned the emerging actress a Drama Desk nomination. Her performance in the Broadway production of Piaf found Smart heading to Hollywood to tape the play for PBS, and it wasn't long before she began appearing in such films as Protocol (1984) and Project X (1987). A pivotal moment came when Smart was cast in the television series Designing Women; following the show's premier in 1986 she would remain a member of the cast until the 1991 season. It was while on that series that friend and fellow castmate Delta Burke set Smart up on a date with actor Richard Gilliland, whom Smart would later wed. The birth of their son Conner prompted Smart to reassess her career; though she would soon depart from Designing Women, she would continue to act in such efforts as the television feature Locked Up: A Mother's Rage (1991) and Overkill: The Aileen Wuornos Story (1992), in which she essayed the role of America's most notorious female serial killer. As the 1990s progressed Smart became something of a television fixture, and performances in The Yearling (1994) and A Change of Heart (1998) found her career continuing to flourish. Roles in such features as Disney's The Kid and Snow Day (2000) found Smart ever more associated with family-friendly fare, an association which she would continue to embrace with a role in the 2002 Disney Channel animated series Kim Possible. Other series in which Smart appeared included Hercules, Frasier, and The Oblongs; and in 2003 Smart teamed with her husband for the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of Audrey's Rain.In 2004, Smart joined the cast of the bittersweet romantic comedy Garden State, and made a brief appearance in I Heart Huckabees during the same year. In 2006, Smart was earned nominations for two Emmy awards (Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series and Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series) for her turn as the mentally fragile First Lady of the United States, whom she portrayed in the fifth season of 24. The actress wouldn't win an Emmy, however, until 2008, when she took home the coveted award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role on the sitcom Samantha, Who?. Smart played another mother in the film adaptation of C.D. Payne's novel Youth in Revolt in 2009, and took on the role of Hawaii Governor Pat Jameson for Hawaii Five-0, the CBS remake of the popular 1970s police procedural of the same name.

Trivia: Talented, amiable American actor and dancer Gregory Hines began tap dancing at age four with his brother Maurice in an act called the Hines Kids; the two later studied with tap whiz Henry LeTang, renamed themselves the Hines Brothers in 1962, and in 1964, teamed up with their father in an act called Hines, Hines, and Dad. The trio appeared on The Tonight Show and opened for big-name performers at a number of top-flight clubs. Hines left the trio in 1973, then spent five years in Venice, California, living what he called a "hippie" lifestyle and working with a jazz-rock band. In 1978 he returned to New York and, helped by his brother, auditioned for new shows, ultimately landing excellent parts in three musicals (Eubie!, Comin' Uptown, and Sophisticated Ladies); he received Tony nominations for each of the three shows. He finally received a Tony for his performance as Jelly Roll Morton in the Broadway show Jelly's Last Jam. All of this led to invitations from Hollywood, and he debuted onscreen in 1981's horror film Wolfen. He went on to make a few more films before landing a breakthrough role in Robert Evans's and Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club (1984), one of the year's biggest movies; he also served as choreographer for that film. In 1988 he released an album titled Gregory Hines.

Trivia: New Jersey native Jeffrey Nordling attended Wheaton College in Illinois before beginning his professional acting career, making small appearances in movies like Working Girl and Shooter in the early '80s. He would continue to work regularly as the years passed, eventually becoming particularly well known to audiences for parts like ex-husband Jake on Now and Again, and Brent Barrow on Dirt, as well as FBI agent Larry Moss on the seventh season of 24. He joined the cast of Desperate Housewives in that show's sixth season, and in 2010 he could be seen on the big-screen in Tron: Legacy.

Trivia: A stage-trained actress whose brief foray in daytime drama eventually led her into a feature-film career, Lucinda Jenney's star has been on the rise since the early 1980s. Alternating effortlessly between television and film throughout the course of her career, the talented and attractive blonde actress always had a slant toward the dramatic. A Long Island-native whose impressive run in the Broadway production of Gemini (1977-1981) proved the catalyst for her subsequent onscreen career, Jenney's first feature roles came with the made-for-TV efforts First Steps and Out of the Darkness (both 1985). Roles in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) and Rain Man (1988) were quick to follow, and, in 1989, the actress rounded out her impressive first decade as John Belushi's onscreen wife in the biopic Wired. Though the film was widely panned, it proved Jenney's most substantial role thus far and she escaped relatively unscathed. As the 1990s rolled in, she was nominated for a Best Actress Independent Spirit Award for her performance in 1993's American Heart and a recurring role on the television series High Incident found her gaining something of a following on the small screen. With her performance as one of Demi Moore's sole allies in G.I. Jane (1997), Jenney continued to balance bit roles in such efforts as Leaving Las Vegas (1995) and Thinner (1996) with meatier, more dramatically substantial parts. Supporting roles in high-profile Hollywood releases became increasingly common for Jenney, and following key roles in Thirteen Days (2000) and The Mothman Prophecies (2002), she joined the cast of the acclaimed police drama The Shield. The following year, Jenney appeared in the action thriller S.W.A.T.

Trivia: A Windy City native, distinguished character actor Richard Riehle earned his undergraduate degree from Notre Dame and his master's from the University of Minnesota, then took his first cinematic bow with a bit part in 1975's Western Rooster Cogburn -- opposite John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn. After Rooster, Riehle abandoned screen work for over a decade to hit the East Coast and focus almost exclusively on Broadway and regional theater. Ed Zwick's acclaimed Civil War opus Glory (1989) marked Riehle's Hollywood comeback; he subsequently increased his screen time dramatically, and chalked up a resumé playing everymen -- usually heavyset and unpolished working stiffs such as policemen, detectives, judges, and bartenders -- in literally dozens of films. Riehle's credits include Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), Mercury Rising (1998), Office Space (1999), Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999), and National Lampoon's Dorm Daze 2 (2006). The actor is also known for his regular presence on two television series: the 1990 Ferris Bueller (as Principal Ed Rooney) and the 2001-2005 Grounded for Life (as Walt Finnerty). Riehle subsequently returned to National Lampoon work with the 2007 frat-boy comedy National Lampoon Presents The Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell.

Trivia: Michael Marich's promising screen-acting career ended suddenly when he died of unreported causes at age 27 on October 20, 1996. Up to that point, he had guest-starred on a few major television series, including NYPD Blue and in a couple of made-for-television films, beginning with A Pair of Aces (1990).