Trivia: One of the world's most popular singers, an award-winning, versatile actress of stage, feature film, and television, a distinguished filmmaker, and a major producer, Barbra Streisand reigns as the grande dame of American entertainment. Born on April 24th, 1942, Streisand was raised in a middle-class Brooklyn household, the daughter of a high school teacher father who died when Streisand was a baby, and a mother who dreamed of the stage, she graduated from high school two years ahead of her classmates. As a young woman, Streisand attended acting classes and worked various odd jobs and in nightclubs, until she won a Greenwich Village talent contest. She landed her first major acting job in the 1962 Broadway musical I Can Get It for Your Wholesale and stole the show with her portrayal of frowsy secretary Miss Marmelstein. The 21-year-old subsequently debuted on Judy Garland's television show, opposite Garland's daughter Liza Minnelli and Broadway institution Ethel Merman. Streisand's powerful, clear soprano, charisma, and unusual looks made her the perfect choice in Jule Styne's and Bob Merrill's musical Funny Girl in 1964. Essaying the life of another great performer, comedienne/singer/actress Fanny Brice, the young performer became the hottest actress on the Great White Way and a bona fide star, after a highly rated television special, My Name Is Barbra (1965), for which she received two Emmy awards. Streisand's Oscar-winning performance in the film version of Funny Girl assured her a prominent place in the Hollywood heavens. As previously mentioned, the plain-looking Streisand seemed an unlikely candidate for movie stardom, but as her character Fanny blossomed onscreen from an awkward girl from a poor Jewish neighborhood to a self-assured national star, so did Streisand successfully grow to possess a certain womanly loveliness, although hers has always been an interesting rather than a classical beauty. In 1969, she played the irrepressible Dolly Levi in the film version of Jerry Herman's smash hit musical Hello Dolly! (1969). Superficially, Streisand was too young to play the middle-aged matchmaker, but with her strong comedic abilities and powerful voice, she carried the role off with aplomb. Unfortunately, the film didn't click with audiences and neither did her third film, the romantic musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970). In film, she had greater success when she starred opposite George Segal in the romantic comedy The Owl and the Pussycat (1970) and Ryan O'Neal in Peter Bogdonavich's classic screwball comedy What's Up Doc? (1972). The latter was a huge success and led to a far less successful re-pairing with O'Neal in The Main Event (1979). In 1972, Streisand showed her dramatic side in the complex story of a troubled housewife, Up the Sandbox, following it with the smash hit romantic melodrama, The Way We Were (1973), in which Streisand starred opposite another 1970s icon, Robert Redford. The film was named one of the year's top ten by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures and the title song, written by Marvin Hamlisch, provided Streisand with a major hit and earned Hamlisch an Oscar for Best Song. In 1975, Streisand reprised the role of Fanny Brice in Funny Lady, an uneven chronicle of Brice's later years that had far fewer sparkling moments than the original, but still produced a memorable soundtrack, filled with classic Billy Rose songs. Streisand, who for years had been controlling almost every aspect of her recordings, decided to take the reigns as an executive producer for her 1976 remake and update of A Star Is Born. Co-starring Kris Kristofferson and sparing no expense, the musical drama received decidedly mixed reviews; the subsequent soundtrack album was a much bigger hit. In 1983, Streisand caused a controversy when she announced that she would direct, produce, write, and star in her own feature, Yentl. The brouhaha centered around the notoriously egotistical 40-year-old Streisand's plan to play a teenage girl who masquerades as a Yeshiva student and it would also be a musical. The actress struggled valiantly to pull off the difficult task, audiences were not impressed, and the film was widely panned. Once again, however, the soundtrack provided her with another hit. Still, she would not make another movie until 1987, when she produced and starred in the self-indulgent Nuts. As with her previous few films, she also penned the soundtrack. In 1991, she had her first hit movie in a decade, directing, producing, and starring in a tragic drama opposite Nick Nolte, Prince of Tides. She followed it up in 1996 with the touching comedy-drama The Mirror Has Two Faces. Streisand then took a break from appearing before the camera until 2004's sequel to Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers. She and Dustin Hoffman shared the screen as a pair of touchy-feely retirees and the two were noted for their chemistry and seemingly genuine enjoyment of their screwball antics. She reprised her role in another sequel, Little Fockers, in 2010. Streisand later took a starring role opposite Seth Rogen in The Guilt Trip (2012).Even during her break from on-camera work, Streisand continued her involvement behind the scenes, spending the first years of the 21st century extensively exploring the medium of television. She served as executive producer for such TV projects as The Long Island Incident, Frankie & Hazel, What Makes A Family, and Varian's War.Streisand's successes as a singer include 38 albums, 30 charting singles, and seven Grammys, one of which is a special Legend award. Throughout her career, her romantic travails have provided fans with hours of entertainment. Early in her career, a marriage to actor Elliot Gould produced son Jason Gould, who has also become an actor. During the 1970s, Streisand had a tempestuous, long-term relationship with hairdresser turned producer Jon Peters. In the late '90s, she quietly married longtime beau, actor James Brolin.

Trivia: Born in Canada and trained for an acting career in New York, Michael Sarrazin made his earliest movie appearances through the auspices of the National Board of Canada. Arriving in Hollywood in 1967, Sarrazin was almost immediately lionized critically for his supporting work opposite George C. Scott in The Flim-Flam Man (1967). He went on to co-star with Jane Fonda in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969); with Paul Newman and Henry Fonda in Sometimes a Great Notion (1971); and with Barbra Streisand in For Pete's Sake (1974). Though his Hollywood commitments kept him hopping, Sarrazin never abandoned his Canadian roots, appearing in such above-the-border productions as The Groundstar Conspiracy (1972), Double Negative (1979), and Joshua Then and Now (1985). On television, Sarrazin played the creature in Frankenstein: The True Story (1973), adhering to Mary Shelley's original intention that the monster be as intelligent and well-spoken as it was uncontrollably violent.

Trivia: Specializing in playing fanatical or neurotic women, character actress Estelle Parsons has found success on stage, screen, and television, particularly in the latter venue where she is best remembered for playing Roseanne Arnold's screechy, lunatic mother on Roseanne (1988-1997). In show business, Parsons started out as a production assistant and then a staff writer on NBC's Today show, where she was eventually promoted to feature producer.Parsons launched her acting career on-stage in the late '50s. She went on to appear on and off-Broadway and in stock theater, specializing in satirical reviews. The actress made her film debut with a small role in Ladybug, Ladybug (1963). Four years later, she won an Oscar for her portrayal as Blanche in Bonnie and Clyde (1967). She earned a second Oscar nomination for playing a religious fanatic in Rachel, Rachel the following year. Parsons has appeared in many made-for-television movies, notably The UFO Incident (1977), in which she played a woman convinced that she and her husband (played by James Earl Jones) had been abducted by aliens. But for her long stint as a semi-regular on Roseanne, Parsons prefers the stage; her film and television appearances remain sporadic.

Trivia: The son of a Manhattan orchestra conductor and a former Ziegfeld Follies girl, little Billy Redfield made his Broadway bow at age 9 in Swing Your Lady. Billy launched his radio career around the same time, and made his earliest movie appearance in 1939. As adult actor William Redfield, he was one of the original founders of the influential Actors Studio. While his film assignments of the 1950s and 1960s were unremarkable (as Captain Owens in 1966's Fantastic Voyage, for example, he played third fiddle to the special effects and Raquel Welch's diving suit), he remained a much-in-demand stage performer, and also proved a delightful raconteur on such TV chatfests as The Tonight Show. His reminiscences of the ups and downs of the acting profession were candid and perceptive without ever descending into maliciousness; many of his best anecdotes were self-deprecatory, notably his oft-repeated tale about being saddled in the 1956 film The Proud and the Profane with some of the worst movie dialogue ever written. An ever-busy TV performer, Redfield played the title role in the 1953 DuMont Network series Jimmy Hughes, Rookie Cop, and the following year was seen as Bobby Logan in The Marriage, the first live network series to be regularly broadcast in color. A talented writer, Redfield co-created the popular Wally Cox TV sitcom Mister Peepers, penned the stage play A View with Alarm, and published the 1965 volume Letters From an Actor, a candid memoir of his experiences while playing Guildenstern in the John Gielgud-directed 1964 staging of Hamlet, which starred Richard Burton. Not long after making his final film appearance as pensive mental patient Harding in the Oscar-winning One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 49-year-old William Redfield died of leukemia.

Trivia: Pixieish singer-comedienne Picon began her career in the Yiddish theatre at age 6 in her native Philadelphia. After Picon's New York debut at the Arch Street theatre in 1912, she ascended to stardom with the Second Avenue Yiddish Stage, then toured vaudeville in an act called The Four Seasons. Such was her popularity in the 1920s that many of her stage vehicles had the name "Molly" incorporated in their titles; in 1931, she opened a theatre bearing her name. In films from the silent era, Molly is most fondly remembered for her Yiddish-language vehicles of the 1930s. Her all-time best feature was 1936's Yidl with the Fiddle, a captivating musical directed on location in Poland by Joseph Green; Molly was never more charming than as the itinerant Jewish musician who disguises herself as a boy to fend off unwanted male advances. Back in the U.S. when war broke out, Picon made her English-language stage debut in 1940. She alternated between the Yiddish and "mainstream" stage throughout the 1950s and 1960s; on Broadway, she starred in Neil Simon's first play Come Blow Your Horn and in the 1961 musical Milk and Honey. It was in the film version of Come Blow Your Horn that Picon first spoke English on the big screen (she had previously made several delightful TV appearances, notably in the recurring role of unflappable Bronx widow Mrs. Bronson on Car 54, Where are You?) Among her very few film roles of the 1970s was Yente the Matchmaker in 1971's Fiddler on the Roof. The widow of Yiddish stage star Jacob Adler (who had been one of her first theatrical directors), Molly Picon summed up her life, work and philosophy in her two volumes of memoirs, So Laugh a Little and The Sound of Laughter.

Trivia: Educated at Roosevelt University, bearded, booming-voiced Louis Zorich has been a working actor for nearly 50 years. Zorich made his off-Broadway debut in a revival of Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, and has appeared on Broadway in Becket, Moby Dick, Hadrian VII, and Moonchildren. He also appeared as Ben in Dustin Hoffman's 1984 staging of Death of a Salesman, repeating this role in the 1985 film version. On television, Zorich has been seen as Jules Berger in Brooklyn Bridge (1991) and as Paul Reiser's father in Mad About You (which ran from 1992 to 1999), and heard in innumerable commercial voice-overs. Louis Zorich is the husband of Oscar-winning actress Olympia Dukakis.

Trivia: Big, gravel-voiced black character actor, onscreen from the '60s; he is a former prizefighter.

Trivia: Actor Joseph Maher found success on stage, television, and in cinema. Over his career, he received three Tony nominations, including one for Joe Orton's Loot. His film credits include turns as Warren Beatty's butler in Heaven Can Wait (1978) and as Bishop O'Hara in Sister Act (1992). On television, Maher guest starred on series such as Seinfeld and thirtysomething.

Trivia: Had he been in Hollywood in the 1930s or 1940s, Vincent Schiavelli's Halloween-mask countenance, shock of unkempt hair and baleful voice might have permanently consigned him to minor roles in horror or gangster pictures. As it happened, Schiavelli became an actor during the 1960s, a period when, thanks to unpretty stars like Elliott Gould and Dustin Hoffman, homeliness opened more career doors than it closed. After several seasons' worth of stage experience, Schiavelli made his first film appearance in Milos Forman's Taking Off (1971) playing a pot-smoking support group leader by the name of...Schiavelli. He would work with Forman again on several occasions, most memorably as Salieri's(F. Murray Abraham) phlegmatic valet in the opening scenes of Amadeus (1984). In 1972, Schiavelli played his first regular TV-series role, gay set designer Peter Panama in The Corner Bar. Fourteen years later, he could be seen as oddball science teacher Hector Vargas in the weekly sitcom Fast Times, repeating his role from the 1982 theatrical feature Fast Times at Ridgemont High. One of his best-known screen roles was the ill-tempered Subway Ghost, who teaches newly dead Patrick Swayze how to move solid objects with sheer "hate power" in the 1990 blockbuster Ghost. Tim Conway fans are most familiar with Schiavelli through his appearances as Conway's dull-witted assistant in the popular Dorf videocassettes. Previously married to actress Allyce Beasley, the couple would part ways in 1988 and Schiavelli would subsequently wed Carol Mukhalian.

Trivia: American actor Peter Mamakos began his stage career in 1939 and his film and TV work in the early 1950s. Mamakos' bushy mustache made him instantly recognizable. Generally cast in ethnic roles, Mamakos has been seen as many a Greek, Italian and Arab. Peter Mamakos' last appearance was in the 1990 Jackie Collins-inspired TV miniseries Lucky Chances.

Trivia: Bennington College graduate Anne Ramsey married actor Logan Ramsey in 1954; together, they formed Philadelphia's prestigious Theatre of the Living Arts. Despite her many stage credits, Ramsey did not actively pursue a film career during her first two decades as a professional. Put bluntly, she was far from photogenic; thus she decided to hold off working in films until she was as old as she looked. In 1971, she made her film bow, acting opposite her husband in The Sporting Club. She continued essaying minor roles until the 1980s, when tragedy transformed Ramsey into a latter-day star. Suffering from throat cancer, Anne was forced to endure the removal of most of her tongue and jawbone. Thereafter, her performances had a sharp, pit-bull edginess that worked beautifully in such films as Any Which Way You Can (1980) and The Goonies (1985). In 1987, Ramsey was Oscar-nominated for her bravura portrayal of Danny DeVito's monstrous mother in Throw Momma From the Train. Reportedly as salty offscreen as on, Anne Ramsey refused to go gentle into That Good Night, continuing to work in films right up to her death in 1988.

Trivia: A character actor beloved particularly for playing villains, Bill McKinney was born in Chattanooga, TN, in 1931. After spending some time in Los Angeles while on leave in the Navy, McKinney decided to settle there following his discharge in order to pursue his dream of becoming an actor. He studied at the Pasadena Playhouse and Lee Strausberg's Actors Studio while paying the bills as a high-school teacher before he began landing TV roles on shows like The Monkees and I Dream of Jeannie. In 1972, McKinney was cast as a sadistic mountain man in the thriller Deliverance alongside Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight. His visage was soon synonymous with ominousness and violence, leading to a slew of roles as baddies in a wide variety of films over the coming years, like Cleopatra Jones, The Shootist, First Blood, and The Parallax View. McKinney also began collaborating with Clint Eastwood on a series of films, including The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet, Every Which Way but Loose, Any Which Way You Can, and Pink Cadillac. By the 2000s, the actor, now in his seventies, was still going strong. He appeared in such films as 2007's Lucky You, 2008's Pride and Glory, and 2010's How Do You Know before passing away in December 2011 at age 80.

Trivia: American performer Sidney Miller started out as a child actor in such films as Penrod and Sam (1930), The Penguin Pool Murder (1932) and The Mayor of Hell (1933). Miller's pronounced ethnic features precluded stardom in a Hollywood that celebrated blonde, blue-eyed children, but he brought a welcome touch of urbanity to his supporting and minor roles. In 1938, Miller attained one of his better roles as Mo Kahn in Boys Town, in which he acted with his longtime friend Mickey Rooney. Again featured with Rooney in Babes in Arms, an unbilled Miller was allowed to play the piano in accompaniment to Rooney's makeshift stage show and even got to do a couple of celebrity imitations. In the '40s, Miller specialized in portraying nerdish college freshmen (notably in Columbia's Glove Slingers two-reelers) and streetwise intellectuals (as in The East Side Kids' Mr. Wise Guy). He also toured USO bases and hospitals in a pantomime-boxing sketch with fellow child performer Frank Coghlan Jr. With the advent of television, Miller gained a measure of fame as Donald O'Connor's accompanist/cohort in several of O'Connor's TV series and in his subsequent nightclub act. Miller gave up performing briefly in the mid '50s when he assumed the directing chores on the daily TV series Mickey Mouse Club; perhaps due to his own experiences as a child actor, Miller saw to it that the kids were treated professionally but with dignity, and also insisted that stage mothers be banned from the set. Later on in the '60s, Miller directed four grown-up adolescents on several episodes of the music/comedy tver The Monkees. Sidney Miller made an acting comeback in the early '70s with such films as Which Way to the Front? (as Hitler!) and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972); Miller was also on hand as director for the syndicated New Mickey Mouse Club in 1977. Sidney Miller was married to Dorothy Green; their son is actor Barry Miller.

Trivia: One of today's best character actors, the inexhaustible Joe Pantoliano boasts over 100 film, television, and stage credits. A favorite of directors Richard Donner, Steven Spielberg, Andrew Davis, and Andy and Larry Wachowski, he is also a dependable scene stealer with more than his share of memorable roles -- including killer pimp Guido in Risky Business (1983), bumbling criminal Francis Fratelli in The Goonies (1985), double-crossing bail bondsman Eddie Moscone in Midnight Run (1988), cynical U.S. Marshall Cosmo Renfro in The Fugitive (1993), turncoat Cypher in The Matrix (1999), and shady sidekick Teddy in Memento (2000). Born on September 12, 1951 in Hoboken, NJ, the actor is the only son of Dominic, a hearse driver, and Mary Pantoliano, a part-time seamstress/bookie. When he was 12, Pantoliano's mother left his father for her distant cousin Florio, though the couple never officially divorced. Pantoliano and his younger sister Maryann grew up throughout northern New Jersey with their mother and Florio, whom they eventually came to regard as their stepfather. Pantoliano suffered from severe dyslexia, and at age 17, he was still reading at the third-grade level. After seeing the youngster perform in his senior play, Up the Down Staircase, Florio convinced him to pursue acting professionally. Pantoliano moved to Manhattan, where he worked as a waiter while juggling acting classes and auditions. In 1972, he landed the coveted role of stuttering Billy Bibbit in the touring production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Four years later, Pantoliano moved west to try his luck in Hollywood. After making his television debut in the sitcom pilot McNamara's Band, he landed a recurring role in Rob Reiner's summer replacement series, Free Country. Reiner then tapped Pantoliano to co-star with him in James Burrows' television movie More Than Friends (1978). This led to the part of Angelo Maggio -- a role originated by fellow Hoboken-ite Frank Sinatra -- in NBC's miniseries adaptation of James Jones' From Here to Eternity (1979). After making his major feature-film debut in The Idolmaker (1980), Pantoliano guest starred on Hart to Hart, M*A*S*H, and Hardcastle and McCormick, as well as appeared on the Los Angeles stage in Orphans. He also landed a sizable part opposite a young Tom Cruise in the surprise hit Risky Business (1983). The comic ruthlessness with which Pantoliano's pimp tortures Cruise quickly earned the character actor a loyal cult following. He gave standout performances in Eddie and the Cruisers (1983) and the off-Broadway play Visions of Kerouac, before thrilling audiences again in the Spielberg-produced adventure The Goonies (1985). Scores of plum roles followed: Pantoliano joined Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines in Running Scared (1986), portrayed Lou Diamond Phillips' music producer in La Bamba (1987), re-teamed with Spielberg in Empire of the Sun (1987), and acted opposite Robert De Niro in Midnight Run (1988). He then topped these performances off with an unforgettable turn opposite Tommy Lee Jones and Harrison Ford in The Fugitive (1993), delivering a funny, fiery tour de force that was pure Pantoliano right down to the name he chose for his character, Cosmo -- his grandfather's name. By the mid-'90s, Pantoliano had a recognizable name and a devoted fan base. While making numerous television guest appearances, he starred with Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon in directors Andy and Larry Wachowski's debut thriller, Bound (1996). Pantoliano's edgy performance as a doomed money launderer impressed the Wachowskis so much that they created the character of Cypher in The Matrix (1999) exclusively for him. Shortly afterward, his co-star in the sci-fi spectacular, Carrie-Anne Moss, insisted that director Christopher Nolan hire Pantoliano for the third lead in his sleeper-hit Memento (2000). In 2001, at the behest of producer David Chase, Pantoliano joined the cast of the landmark HBO series The Sopranos. While earning a well-deserved Emmy as psychopathic mobster Ralphie Cifaretto on the hit show, the actor published Who's Sorry Now: The True Story of a Stand-Up Guy, a bittersweet memoir about his New Jersey childhood. He also put the finishing touches on his directorial debut, Just Like Mona (2002), and began filming his role as reporter Ben Urich in the comic book adaptation Daredevil (2003). Over the course of the next decade, the versatile actor continued his trend of turning in memorable supporting performances on film and television, with turns in films like Bad Boys II and Pecy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief offering the most exposure. Meanwhile, in 2009, Pantoliano got personal with his fans as the director of No Kidding, Me Too!, a playful yet poignant documentary exploring the devastating effects of mental illness, and the steps being taken to eradicate it.