Trivia: Sherman Hemsley is best remembered for playing George Jefferson, the lovably pompous, diminutive loud-mouth who made a fortune from his dry cleaning business and moved from Queens to a posh Manhattan high rise in The Jeffersons, a popular sitcom that ran for ten years on the CBS network. Before becoming an actor in the late '60s, Hemsley worked for the U.S. Post Office. He started out on the New York stage where his first break came from playing Gitlow in the Broadway musical Purlie (1970). Television producer Norman Lear was impressed by Hemsley's performance and so created George Jefferson for him. Originally designed as an African-American alter ego/foil to his blustery, bigoted Archie Bunker character on the smash hit All in the Family, Hemsley's George became so popular that he and his family were given their own series in 1975. Following the series' demise, Hemsley played an egotistical, loud-mouthed deacon/lawyer at the First Community Church of Philadelphia who tried to keep the new minister, Reverend Gregory, from taking over what he viewed as his personal domain, on Amen. The series broke ground by being the first hit sitcom centered on religion and ran from 1986 to 1991. In between his series work, Hemsley occasionally played supporting roles in feature films after making his debut playing Rev. Mike in the comedy Love at First Bite (1979). Most of his subsequent films were low-budget affairs such as Stewardess School and Club Fed; he also continued to appear frequently on television as a guest star and starred in such failed series as Townsend Television (1993) and Goode Behavior (1996-1997), but never quite recaptured the success he had during the '70s and '80s. His final small-screen appearance came in 2006 when he was a cast member on the sixth season of the reality TV show The Surreal Life. Hemsley died at age 74 in late July, 2012.

Trivia: Defying her mother's wishes, African-American actress Isabel Sanford secretly worked as a nightclub performer in her teens. Upon winning 3rd prize in an Apollo Theatre amateur contest, Sanford could keep her new career a secret no longer. Married to a house painter who worked only on a seasonal basis, she held down a full-time job as a keypunch operator at the New York City department of Welfare, spending her evenings acting with such groups as Harlem Y and the American Negro Theatre. Seeking out better opportunities, Sanford packed her family into a bus and headed to Hollywood in the early 1960s. Her breakthrough film role was in Stanley Kramer's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; she played Tillie the cook, who heartily disapproved of the upcoming interracial marriage between Katharine Houghton and Sidney Poitier (the hardest part of this assignment was not mouthing the "controversial" dialogue but preparing dinner in a key scene; Sanford had never learned to cook!) On the strength of this film, Isabel Sanford was hired for several guest spots on The Carol Burnett Show, which led to her most famous characterization: Louise Jefferson, the acerbic but loving wife of "movin' on up" Sherman Hemsley, on the immensely popular sitcom The Jeffersons (1975-82).

Trivia: A former theatre and psychology major at the University of Michigan, actor David Paymer's first Broadway success was in the long-running musical Grease. He tentatively launched his film career in the tiny but telling role of a cabbie in 1979's The In-Laws, then returned to working "live" as a performer and writer for The Comedy Store. A character actor even in his early twenties, Paymer displayed his versatility in a wealth of TV supporting roles on such weeklies as Cagney and Lacey, Diff'rent Strokes, The Commish and Downtown. Billy Crystal was so impressed with Paymer's work as ice-cream entrepreneur Ira Shalowitz in City Slickers (1991) that Crystal assigned him the plum role of Stan Yankelman, long-suffering brother and business manager of Berle-like comedian Buddy Young Jr., in Mister Saturday Night (1992). Convincingly playing an age range from 20 to 75, Paymer was honored with an Oscar nomination. Dividing his time between working in films and teaching classes at the Film Actor's Workshop, David Paymer has recently been seen as the angelic Hal in Heart and Souls (1993) and real-life TV producer Dan Enright in Robert Redford's Quiz Show (1994). In the decades to come, Paymer would remain an ever-present force on screen, appearing in films like In Good Company, Drag Me to Hell, Bad Teacher, and Redbelt, as well as TV shows like Line of Fire and The Good Wife.

Trivia: Was employed by a major airline when she was cast on The Jeffersons; continued working for the airline during her first few seasons on the show. Is also a singer; released an album, It's Never Too Late, in 2006. Reunited with actress Regina King, who played her daughter on the 1980s sitcom 227, in a 2012 episode of Southland.

Trivia: On television, supporting actress Roxie Roker may best be remembered for playing outspoken Helen Willis for ten years on the popular television sitcom The Jeffersons. She and TV husband Franklin Cover comprised the first interracial married couple on network television. But in addition to television, Roker had also found success on stage and in the occasional feature film. Miami-born and Brooklyn-raised, Roker graduated from Howard University with a drama degree and then flew to England to study at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-on-Avon. During the 1960s, Roker supported herself with a secretarial job at NBC's New York office while trying to find acting jobs. Roker launched her drama career off-Broadway in productions such as Jean Genet's The Blacks. Between 1967 and '68, Roker hosted a local community television show, but that wasn't close enough to acting, so she quit to practice her craft full time. With the Negro Ensemble Company she appeared in Ododo and Rosalie Pritchet. In 1974, she earned an Obie and a Tony nomination for The River Niger. In 1975, shortly after moving to Los Angeles, Norman Lear cast Roker in The Jeffersons. In addition to this role, Roker occasionally guest-starred on other series and appeared in television movies. Her feature-film appearances were rare. Roker made her debut in Claudine (1974). In the '90s, Roker resumed her stage career, appearing in a theatrical version of The Jeffersons and then touring opposite Mary Martin and Carol Channing in Legends. Roker's son, Lenny Kravitz is a noted rock musician and record producer.

Trivia: In the late '30s she worked in Chicago's WPA Theater. She moved to New York City in the early '40s, where she was a member of the Rose McClendon Players. She debuted on Broadway in 1941, portraying the sister of Bigger Thomas (Canada Lee) in Orson Welles's production of Native Son (1941). She established herself as a serious stage actress. She was one of the founders of the American Negro Theater. Over the years she landed a small handful of film roles, debuting onscreen in The Phenix City Story (1955). In the '70s she became recognizable to a large audience through her appearances on a number of sitcoms; she was a regular on Baby, I'm Back and 227, and she had guest appearances on many other shows.

Trivia: A longtime character actor with the unique ability to alternate between meek and menacing at the drop of a hat, Jon Gries can play a computer wiz (Real Genius, The Pretender) or a South American mercenary (The Rundown) with equal zeal and conviction. A native of Glendale, CA, and the son of Emmy-winning writer/producer/director Tom Gries, Jon launched his acting career with a small role in his father's made-for-television feature Helter Skelter (1976). His father unfortunately died shortly thereafter due to a heart attack, but the the groundwork for Gries' career had been laid. After moving to New York, the young actor studied under the capable tutelage of Stella Adler. Supporting roles in More American Graffiti, Joysticks, and High School USA segued Gries' career into the 1980s, with his role as the reclusive genius Lazlo in the brainy college comedy Real Genius enduring him to a nation of moviegoers. If the remainder of the decade didn't offer Gries the sort of roles that would take him to leading-man status, they would at least find him cast in such high-profile releases as Running Scared, The Monster Squad, and Fright Night Part 2. After once again appearing opposite Real Genius co-star Val Kilmer in the 1989 noir thriller Kill Me Again, Gries found a niche in television with roles in such series as Martin and The Pretender in the 1990s. Of course, Gries also continued to remain active on the big screen throughout the 1990s, and after a bit role in the popular sci-fi comedy Men in Black, he would establish a fruitful working relationship with Mark and Michael Polish -- the filmmaking duo behind the quirky sleeper Twin Falls Idaho. After turning in a memorable performance as a lawyer in that film, Gries became something of a stock player for the Polish brothers with appearances in both Jackpot and Northfork. Even outside of his work with the Polish brothers, Gries continued to gain indie credibility thanks to parts in such features as The Big Empty and Napoleon Dynamite. Gries' performance as a literally whip-smart heavy in the 2003 action comedy The Rundown found him essaying a rare villainous role, but doing so with such malevolent gusto that even audiences with vivid memories of the brainy Lazlo may not have realized whom they were watching give The Rock such a sound thrashing.