Trivia: Born December 15th, 1949, film and television actor Don Johnson first studied his trade at the University of Kansas and the American Conservatory Theatre. A professional actor by his late teens, Johnson's earliest stage and screen assignments frequently found him cast as a fallen innocent. Johnson first gained national press coverage as the 20-year-old star of the counterculture comedy The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart (1970). His next significant credit was the 1975 cult favorite A Boy and His Dog, based on a trenchant Harlan Ellison yarn. Personal and professional entanglements kept him alternately on and offscreen until 1984, when he staged a comeback as Sonny Crockett, a rough-shod yet impossibly hip, sailboat-dwelling Miami-area vice squad detective assigned to work opposite Detective Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas), in Michael Mann's seminal small-screen cop drama Miami Vice (1984-89). To call the program (and Johnson's role in it) "trend-setting" would be a massive understatement; the character of Crockett, with his pastel sports jackets worn atop scoop-neck t-shirts, dark sunglasses, pants without socks, and a two or three-day growth of unshaven beard, rewrote the rules of men's haute-couture for almost a decade and posited Johnson as one of American culture's top male sex symbols for a lengthy duration as well (for a time, it became seemingly impossible to look at the cover of GQ or Esquire without spotting the actor). As the series rolled on, it witnessed Crockett's character undergoing many life changes, including the violent deaths of numerous colleagues on the force and a strange, strange plot point in which he accidentally began to confuse his own identity with that of his drug-pushing alter ego in the Miami crime world. During this second flush of fame, Johnson also distinguished himself as a dependable TV-movie leading man (notably as Ben Quick in the 1985 remake of The Long Hot Summer) and a champion powerboat racer. He also played a series of interesting leading roles in films of extremely variable quality, including Dennis Hopper's post-noir thriller The Hot Spot (1990), Mary Agnes Donoghue's romantic drama Paradise (1991) (opposite longtime partner Melanie Griffith) and Kevin Costner's hard-living buddy in Ron Shelton's gentle sports-themed romantic comedy Tin Cup (1996). During the 1995-96 season, Johnson enjoyed another career renaissance that distinctly mirrored his Vice success, as star of the TV weekly Nash Bridges. On that program, Johnson played the title character, a tough-as-nails San Francisco cop working the beat as an inspector with the municipal police department's Special Investigators Unit. Episodes found him artnered up, from assignment to assignment, with the wiseacre Hispanic detective Joe Dominguez (Cheech Marin). With relentless devotion to the demands of the force and an ere-present jocularity, Bridges worked his way through a series of seemingly impossible criminal investigations over the course of five seasons. He also attempted to balance life on the squad with a difficult personal life that included a strained relationship with his ex (Annette O'Toole) and the provision of much-needed paternal guidance for his teenage daughter (Jodi O'Keefe). No matter where he has stood careerwise, Johnson has always proven good copy for the gossip columns and tabloids thanks to his on-again off-again marriage to actress Melanie Griffith, whom he wed and divorced twice over the course of twenty years; the two ended their union for the second time in 1996. Though he found little in the way of success, Johnson worked steadily through out the late nineties and early 2000s on films including Goodbye Lover (1999), Word of Honor (2003), and Moondance Alexander (2007). The actor also played a small role in the action thriller Machete in 2010.

Trivia: The son of a Los Angeles police officer, American actor/director Richard "Cheech" Marin earned his nickname through his fondness for the Chicano food, specialty cheecharone. An excellent student (if something of a class cutup), Marin entered California State University, only to drop out and hightail it to Canada to avoid the draft. While working as an improvisational comedian with Vancouver's City Work troupe, Marin teamed with Tommy Chong; the Hispanic/Asian duo created the characters of Cheech and Chong, a pair of zoned-out dopers ever in search of the "perfect joint." On the strength of their bestselling record albums, Cheech and Chong were signed for the inexpensive comedy film Up in Smoke (1978), which wound up as one of Warner Bros.' highest-grossing films (not to mention one of its highest, period). As the drug culture lost its momentum, so did the film career of Cheech and Chong, with each of the team's subsequent films making less money than its predecessor. By the time C & C headlined the atrocious The Corsican Brothers (1984), the jig was up. Cheech and Chong split up in 1984 (though they remained friends) and went off to their own projects. While it was Chong who directed many of the team's features, Marin sat in the director's chair for the best of his post-team projects, the 1987 film Born in East L.A, inspired by Cheech's own parody music video. Marin's starring film is Shrimp on the Barbie (1990) contained no drug jokes and fewer laughs (an indication of its quality is the fact that the director had his name removed from the credits in favor of the pseudonymous "Alan Smithee"). Lately regarded as an elder statesman of the counterculture, Marin has kept busy with cameo roles, cartoon voice-overs (Oliver and Company, Ferngully, The Lion King), and a brief stint as a costar of the 1992 TV sitcom "Golden Palace." In 1996, he began co-starring opposite Don Johnson in the television drama Nash Bridges. Around this time he began a fruitful collaboration with independent filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. Marin had a part in Desperado, and played multiple characters in the vampire film From Dusk 'til Dawn for the Austin based maverick. Marin was cast as Kevin Costner's best friend in the golf comedy Tin Cup in 1996. The beginning of the next decade brought Marin an unexpected new audience as he began a series of humorous appearances in family films and lent his vocal talents to a number of animated films. He appeared in all three segments of Rodriguez's Spy Kids series, did vocal work in Good Boy, and voiced one of the Cars in Pixar's film. He also played small parts in John Sayles Silver City, and Bob Dylan's Masked & Anonymous.

Trivia: Woefully underappreciated American actress Annette O'Toole combined intelligence, wit, and delicate, often teasing allure with a girl-next-door magnetism that served her impeccably, both during her ingenue years and well into adulthood. Born in 1953, the scarlet-haired Houston native followed the lead of her dance studio owner mother by practicing her footwork with stunning determination. Annette's family moved to the City of Angels before her 14th birthday, where she shifted gears from dancing to acting, enrolled in drama courses, and landed guest roles in such series as The Partridge Family and Hawaii Five-O. In 1974, O'Toole tackled her first major feature role -- that of sweet-hearted beauty pageant contestant Doria Houston (otherwise known as Miss Anaheim) in Michael Ritchie's legendary satire Smile (1975). She did stellar work opposite Robby Benson in the romantic comedy One on One (1977), which premiered to favorable critical reviews, but a similar effort with Gary Busey a few years later, called Foolin' Around (1980), failed to display like chemistry. For better or worse, O'Toole's big break arrived in 1982, when she was cast opposite Christopher Reeve as Lana Lang in Superman 3; the film, of course, clocked in as an enormous stinker, overbloated to the point of absurdity, with O'Toole providing its only saving grace. That film imparted bittersweet undercurrents to O'Toole's life; it brought her the greatest character identification of her career, to be certain, but (along with an ill-advised appearance in Paul Schrader's awful 1982 movie Cat People), may have contributed to keeping her offscreen for several years. She rebounded with force in Armyan Bernstein's outstanding sex comedy Cross My Heart, as one of two romantic leads opposite Martin Short. The late 1987 release displayed the wit, charisma, and intelligence of both of its stars (and incorporated a hilarious nod to Superman 3, suggesting that Bernstein and Gail Parent may have written the role specifically for O'Toole), but for some unascertainable reason, failed to connect with an audience. O'Toole then signed for roles in the Alan Rudolph comedy-mystery Love at Large (1989) and the horrific Stephen King telemovie It (1990), which found the actress, along with John Ritter, Richard Thomas, and others, squaring off against homicidal clown Pennywise (Tim Curry). Her next major feat came in the late '90s, when she played Lisa, the spunky ex-wife of the police detective title character (Don Johnson) on the series Nash Bridges (1996-2001). She then achieved recognition by playing a different Superman role than the one previously essayed -- that of Clark Kent's mother, Martha -- on the popular prime-time series Smallville (2001). At about the same time, O'Toole made headlines by marrying her second husband, comedian and actor Michael McKean (Laverne & Shirley, This Is Spinal Tap), in 1999. The two co-authored a song for the Christopher Guest mockumentary A Mighty Wind (2003), entitled "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow," in which McKean co-starred sans O'Toole. In a particularly memorable bit, the couple performed that number together on-stage at the 2004 Academy Awards ceremony.

Trivia: Charismatic, muscular, handsome, and often exuding a dangerous sexuality, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa specializes in playing the evilest of vile villains, most of whom despite their exceptional martial arts skills, are skilled in spectacular manners. Tagawa's willingness to accept villainous roles such as that of the wicked sorcerer Shang Tsung in Mortal Combat (1995) has drawn criticism from certain Asian American groups, who fear that he is perpetuating negative stereotypes, but Tagawa offers an interesting perspective, citing the fact that the action film is the most popular genre worldwide. When Tagawa plays a bad guy, he plays it to the hilt, trying to imbue his villains with depth to demonstrate that in order to be so successful at being bad, they must possess a certain amount of positive qualities, including discipline, intelligence, and commitment. In his personal life, Tagawa is the antithesis of the characters he plays. He is known for his unusual courtesy, non-violent demeanor, his wisdom, and for his unflagging devotion to helping young people. A deeply spiritual man, Tagawa has developed a unique philosophical approach to martial arts, Chun Shin, which primarily centers on developing the inner state and spirituality of the practitioner rather than on the physical movements of fighting. The purpose of the exercises of Chun Shin is to release the energy centers within, creating a harmony between mind and body. Tagawa was born in Tokyo, Japan, the son of a Japanese American father and a Tokyo actress. His father, a native of Hawaii, worked for the U.S. military and when Tagawa was five, his family moved to Texas. This was during the 1950s, when racism was rampant throughout the South. For Tagawa, the change from a supportive environment to a hostile one was a great shock. As a young adult, Tagawa briefly attended the University of Southern California where he studied martial arts. The following year, he returned to Japan to further his studies at a prestigious school under the tutelage of master Nakayama, one of the most highly regarded fighters in Japan. But for Tagawa, there was a spiritual component missing from training -- that, and perhaps the feeling that he was not accepted into Japanese society, led him to return to the U.S.Although he had been interested in acting for many years, Tagawa did not become an actor until he was 36 years old. He made his feature film debut in The Last Emperor (1984) and went on to work steadily in feature films and on television. Many of his film appearances have been in the direct-to-video category. Still, Tagawa has managed to develop a devoted following and has at least one web site devoted to him on the Internet. As mentioned, Tagawa specializes in villains, but occasionally he plays different roles as he did in the much-honored independent drama Picture Bride (1994) in which he plays a sugar cane farmer who orders a Japanese mail-order bride 25 years younger than himself. The latter 1990s also found Tagawa's Hollywood work coming more frequently and in larger profile releases. After small roles in such films as Vampires (1998) and Snow Falling on Cedars (1999), Tagawa could be seen in such eagerly anticipated large-scale productions as Pearl Harbor and Planet of the Apes (both 2001).

Trivia: Founded what would become Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1974 with his high-school friends Gary Sinise and Terry Kinney, and served as its artistic director in the 1980s. Met first wife, Laurie Metcalf, when both were theater students at Illinois State University. Made movie debut in Remember My Name, a 1978 drama produced by Robert Altman; appeared in The Wedding (directed by Altman) later that year. Has appeared on some 40 TV series, including Columbo, Family Ties, thirtysomething, L.A. Law, Frasier, NYPD Blue, ER, The West Wing, Lost, Prison Break, Cold Case, C.S.I: Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: New York. Was a regular on CBS's Nash Bridges (1996-2001) A semiregular on Grey's Anatomy (he plays Meredith Grey's father, Thatcher), he's married to series casting director Linda Lowy.

Trivia: Started modeling at the age of 9. Won a Young Hollywood Award in 2000 in the Best Bad Girl category for her performance in She's All That. Appeared in the 3 Doors Down music video "Let Me Go" alongside fellow actor Jesse Metcalfe in 2005.