Trivia: In the realm of television, few can boast such an enduring and prolific career as small-screen queen Lisa Rinna. From a pair of successful runs on the long-running daytime drama Days of Our Lives to a two-year stint on Aaron Spelling's wildly successful prime-time soap Melrose Place, Rinna's high-class sensuality and unwavering professionalism have served her well in a wide variety of roles ranging from grief-stricken mother to scheming vixen. Following her feature debut opposite Oliver Reed in the revenge-minded girls-and-guns opus Captive Rage, the Medford, OR, native flirted with small-screen stardom with a recurring role on the short-lived Valerie Harper sitcom Valerie before hitting her stride as scheming beauty Billy Holiday Reed on Days of Our Lives in 1992. A pair of stand-alone Days of Our Lives dramas entitled Night Sins and Winter Heat were quick to follow, and a year after leaving the show proper, Rinna made a name for herself among the Gen-X set as a regular cast member of Spelling's nighttime guilty pleasure Melrose Place. Her sturdy fan base by then encapsulating everyone from TV-happy housewives to hip teens, Rinna wed L.A. Law star Harry Hamlin in 1997. She later appeared opposite her husband in 2001 in the made-for-television sex-addiction drama Sex, Lies and Obsession. A return to her old Days of Our Lives role the following year found Rinna warmly welcomed back into the daytime fold by both her fellow stars and loyal fan base, with small-screen work on such popular shows as Veronica Mars and 8 Simple Rules...for Dating My Teenage Daughter also keeping her very busy and very much visible. Additionally, Rinna found time to co-host the talk show SoapTalk with fellow soap star Ty Treadway on SoapNet. By the time she served hosting duties for the 31st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards in 2004, her star status was well-cemented. Another hosting job, this time on Lifetime's popular home decoration and improvement reality series Merge, offered an entertaining outlet for Rinna's natural onscreen charm and easygoing attitude -- presenting a softer and warmer side of the actress, who was usually cited for her vamped-up soap roles. She also opened the trendy, high-end boutique belle grey, named in honor of her two children. But in 2006, Rinna really boosted her profile — and buffed up her bod — as one of the celebrity competitors on the second edition of Dancing with the Stars. Although she didn't win, she cut a winning figure on the dance floor, and her slick moves helped her and hubby Hamlin (a Season 3 DWTS vet) snag leads in the Broadway smash Chicago in 2007. That same year, she made her debut as a host and red-carpet commentator for TV Guide Network. In 2010, Rinna and Hamlin collaborated yet again, starring in the reality show Harry Loves Lisa, a chronicle of the couple's everyday life. Rinna remained a reality TV staple after that, appearing on the Celebrity Apprentice and joining the cast of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Trivia: Modeled for Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs early in her career. Played Michael J. Fox's neighbor in a 1987 Diet Pepsi ad that was ranked among "The 50 Greatest TV Commercials of All Time" by TV Guide. Made her big-screen debut in the 1988 romantic comedy She's Having a Baby. Has been a regular on several prime-time series, including NYPD Blue, American Dreams, Hidden Palms and Hellcats. Collects opera glasses and Limoges boxes.

Trivia: A former member of Andy Warhol's Factory and an active member in 1960s New York avant-garde theater, actress Sally Kirkland is best remembered in film for playing a famous Czech actress who is forced to lead a degrading life of anonymity in New York in Anna (1987). The daughter of a fashion editor of Life magazine and a wealthy scrap iron vendor, the tall, slender Kirkland started out as a Vogue model and then studied at the Actor's Studio with Lee Strassberg and Uta Hagen. She launched her acting career off-Broadway, but didn't make much impact until she appeared nude and tied to a chair for 45 minutes in the drama Sweet Eros. By 1964, Kirkland was deeply involved in the Big Apple's avant-garde movement and was also an active drug user until an attempted suicide frightened her into cleaning up her life through yoga and painting. As an actress, she next involved herself with Warhol's clique, appearing in several underground films, notably The Thirteen Most Beautiful Women. Though much of her subsequent film appearances have been in low-budget and exploitation films, Kirkland has had a few shining moments as a supporting actress in such movies as The Sting (1973) and Private Benjamin (1980). For her work in Anna, Kirkland received an Academy Award nomination. In addition to her acting career, Kirkland is a minister of the New Age Church of the Movement of Inner Spiritual Awareness.

Trivia: By the time Dale Midkiff won an acting award in high school, he had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to do with his life. After attending Salisbury College, Midkiff headed to New York, where he landed a few off-Broadway jobs. He was fortunate enough to receive star billing in his very first film, Streetwalkin'. He went on to rack up a number of impressive credits, including the role of Elvis Presley in the made-for-TV biopic Elvis and Me. Dale Midkiff's most celebrated role was 22nd-century cop Darien Lambert in the weekly sci-fi crime series Time Trax (1993-95),an assignment that earned him the pinnacle of mid-1990s fame: his own site on the World Wide Web.

Trivia: The daughter of a traveling salesman, actress Carroll Baker joined a dance company after one year of college, then worked as a magician's assistant. After a brief marriage to a furrier, she went to Hollywood to act, but was unable to get anything more than a bit role (in 1953's Easy to Love) and so left for New York. At first finding work only in commercials (plus a walk-on in the Broadway play Escapade), in 1954 she enrolled at the Actors Studio; there she met director Jack Garfein, whom she married the following year (they were divorced in 1969). After her appearance in a few TV dramas and Robert Anderson's play All Summer Long (1955), she was noticed by Warner scouts and subsequently cast in James Dean's vehicle Giant (1956). Her success continued that same year when her role as the thumb-sucking wife in Baby Doll (1956) earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She also delivered an exemplary lead performance in director Irving Rapper's The Miracle (1959). With the success of Marilyn Monroe, Hollywood started looking for other Monroe "types" and producers began grooming Baker for the role, as is evident from her work in such films as The Carpetbaggers (1964); in 1965, she played the doomed title role in the film Harlow, another attempt to cast her in the Monroe mold. However, she never caught on with American audiences; in the late 60s, she moved to Italy and began appearing in Italian productions. In 1977 she made her London stage debut in W. Somerset Maugham's Rain, then made a few Hollywood and UK pictures in the late 70s and 80s, as well as putting in a "camp" appearance in Andy Warhol's Bad (1977) and a more straightlaced role as the mother of Dorothy Stratten in Star 80.

Trivia: Even as a teenaged performer with the Shorewood Players, a Milwaukee community-theatre group, Charlotte Rae thrived in playing characters much older than herself. Example: at 16, Charlotte starred as Dolly Gallegher Levi in a Shorewood production of Thornton Wilder's The Merchant of Yonkers (her 28-year-old "Horace Vandergelder" was future Broadway director Morton DaCosta). Following graduation from Northwestern University, Rae made her Broadway bow in 1952's Three Wishes for Jamie. The following year, she scored a hit as Mrs. Peachum in the long-running off-Broadway revival of Brecht and Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera, and within three years she was portraying the ancient, wizened Mammy Yokum in Li'l Abner. She was a favorite of TV producer Nat Hiken, who hired her for several guest spots on The Phil Silvers Show. In 1961, Hiken cast the 35-year-old Charlotte as middle-aged hausfrau Sylvia Schnauzer, virago wife of officer Leo Schnauzer (played by fiftyish Al Lewis) on Car 54, Where are You? Rae's other TV series credits include the 1950s daytime drama From These Roots, the 1975 Norman Lear sitcom Hot L Baltimore and the 1976 Summer replacement The Rich Little Show. In 1978, Rae was cast as flibbertigibbet housekeeper Mrs. Garrett on the Gary Coleman series Diff'rent Strokes; the character struck such a responsive chord with audiences that she was spun off into her own starring sitcom The Facts of Life, in 1986. Rae remained with Facts as Mrs. Garrett until 1986, by which time she had been nominated for two Emmies (she has also received Obie and Tony nominations; an actual win is long overdue). More recently, Charlotte has provided voices for such animated offerings as Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1993) and TV's Itsy Bitsy Spider. An off-and-on nightclub and revue performer, Charlotte Rae took her one-woman "Broadway highlights" show on the road in 1994. Rae would continue to act in the decades to come, providing the voice of Nanny on the 101 Dalmations animated series, and appearing in films like You Don't Mess with the Zohan.