Trivia: James Earl Jones is a distinguished African American actor instantly recognizable for his deep, resonant Shakespearean voice and wide smile. The son of prizefighter and actor Robert Earl Jones, he was raised on a farm. In college, he briefly studied medicine but switched to drama. After serving with the Army he enrolled at the American Theater Wing in New York. He made his Broadway debut in 1957, then went on to appear in many plays before spending several seasons with Joseph Pap's New York Shakespeare Festival. Jones' biggest success onstage was as the star of The Great White Hope on Broadway (1966-68); for his work (portraying heavyweight champion Jack Jefferson) he received a Tony award. He had a small part in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (1964), but did not begin to appear onscreen much until the '70s. In addition to stage and occasional film work, he also appeared as an African chieftain in the TV series Tarzan and was one of the first black actors to be cast as a regular on the soap opera The Guiding Light in 1967. Reprising his stage role, he received a Best Actor Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe award for his work in the screen version of The Great White Hope (1970) and went on from there to have a busy screen career. He starred in the TV series Paris in 1979-80. Beginning in 1977, he provided the melodiously wicked voice of the villainous Darth Vader in the three Star Wars films. Since then he has continued to appear on screen (over 40 films to date), stage, and television. He also continues to provide voiceovers (he can frequently be heard on the CNN television network). His portrayal of the grouchy, reclusive writer opposite Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams (1989) is among his most notable turns. In 1987 he won another Tony Award, this time for his portrayal of a frustrated baseball player in August Wilson's Fences. Most recently, Jones provided the voice for Mufasa, the regal patriarch in Disney's animated film The Lion King (1994).

Trivia: José Ferrer (born José Vincente Ferrer de Otero y Cintron in Puerto Rico) decided to become an actor while in college. Early in his career he appeared with James Stewart and Joshua Logan at the Triangle Theater. In 1935 he debuted on Broadway with a walk-on part; he soon began to land bigger roles and quickly established his reputation as a highly versatile actor, performing in roles ranging from the comic title role in Charlie's Aunt to the evil Iago in Othello, and he began directing Broadway productions in 1942. Ferrer debuted onscreen as the Dauphin opposite Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc (1948), for which he received a "Best Supporting Actor" Oscar nomination. He later became internationally famous, and won a "Best Actor" Oscar for reprising his theatrical lead in the film version of Cyrano de Bergerac (1950). Ferrer earned another Oscar nomination for his portrayal of painter Toulouse-Lautrec in Moulin Rouge (1952). While both roles definitely enhanced his career, he later complained that they lead him to become typecast, and sometimes went years between film offers. In the mid-'50s he began directing films (usually ones in which he appeared), starting with The Shrike (1955). Also in the mid-'50s he made several successful recordings with his third wife, singer Rosemary Clooney. After 1962 he gave up directing and concentrated on stage and screen character acting, usually being typecast in his films as a swarthy foreigner. He continued to appear frequently in films into the '90s, meanwhile doing much TV work. His first wife was actress Uta Hagen.

Trivia: Born in Russia during the second year of the communist regime, actress Lila Kedrova has spent most of her life in France. After spending a decade establishing herself in European films and theatrical productions, Kedrova won an Academy Award for her first English-speaking role: fading courtesan Madame Hortense in 1964's Zorba the Greek (she replaced Simone Signoret, who withdrew shortly after shooting started). She would go on to win a Tony nomination when she reprised Hortense for the Broadway musical Zorba, again co-starring with Anthony Quinn. Appearing in fewer and fewer films as the 1970s became the 1980s (sometimes there were four-year gaps between her pictures), Lila Kedrova won the Golden Mask award at the Taorima Film Festival for her portrayal of a terminally ill woman in the American Tell Me a Riddle (1980).

Trivia: Like many New York actors, Martin Kove was willing to go unbilled to pick up extra paychecks in such East Coast-filmed efforts as Little Murders (1971) and Last House on the Left (1972). By 1984, Kove was pulling down third billing in such films as The Karate Kid, wherein he played Kreese, the "bad" karate expert who trained the film's principal heavy William Zabka for his bout against the simon-pure Ralph Macchio (Kove replaced Chuck Norris, who turned down the role of Kreese because he didn't want karate trainers to be shown in an unsympathetic light). Martin Kove's work on series TV has included the roles of detective Victor Isbecki on Cagney and Lacey and an extraterrestrial named Jesse on Hard Time on Planet Earth.

Trivia: A former Miss U.S.A. (1970), actress Deborah Shelton is best remembered for playing Mandy Winger on the nighttime soap opera Dallas from 1984 through 1987. She has also appeared in a few feature films. She made her film debut in Blood Tide (1982) and has subsequently specialized in B-movies.