Trivia: Chevy Chase is often considered one of the most likeable comedic personalities of his generation, even though the immediate popularity he achieved following a single season on Saturday Night Live never translated into more than a couple hit movies, and none after the 1980s. The prematurely balding, intelligent, fast-talking Chase created a couple classic characters, notably Irwin M. Fletcher (aka Fletch) and Vacation's Clark Griswold, but his career is often thought of as plagued by misfires and missed opportunities, rather than touched by comic brilliance.Born on October 8, 1943, in New York City, Cornelius Crane Chase became known as "Chevy" when his grandmother nicknamed him after Chevy Chase, the wealthy Maryland community. The 6'4" future writer and actor was valedictorian of his high school class before attending Bard College, where he earned a B.A. in English. With a pre-celebrity resumé as varied as any (tennis pro, truck driver, bartender), Chase spent his twenties as a comedy writer for such outlets as the Smothers Brothers and National Lampoon, the latter of which eventually led to a lucrative franchise of Vacation movies. Chase's first stint as a performer was with the New York comedy video workshop Channel One, which evolved into the 1974 film Groove Tube. This afforded Chase the necessary exposure to be hired by Lorne Michaels for the first season of Saturday Night Live in 1975.Initially hired on as a writer, Chase soon began appearing in front of the camera as the anchor of the popular Weekend Update segment of the ensemble variety show. With the catchphrase opening "Good evening, I'm Chevy Chase and you're not," and aided by his bumbling impersonation of President Gerald Ford, the actor quickly assumed breakout status, earning Emmys for both his writing and acting. He left after a single season to pursue film opportunities, but did not really strike gold until Caddyshack (1980), in which he played a rich golf pro who oozed confidence and a dry sarcastic wit three steps ahead of anyone else. These would become Chase's trademarks.During the filming of his next project, Modern Problems (1981), Chase was nearly electrocuted when a gag involving landing lights attached to his body short-circuited. The experience sunk him into a deep depression. But he recovered his stride in 1983 with the release of National Lampoon's Vacation, the first of four in an eventual series of epic misadventures of the Griswold family (European Vacation [1985], Christmas Vacation [1989], Vegas Vacation [1997]). As daffy father Clark, Chase turned the film into a huge hit, harnessing a likable befuddlement that kept the series going even as the sequels were increasingly less well received and tiresomely slapstick.Chase's other big hit came in 1985, when he starred as the title character in Fletch, the film widely considered the actor's best and most complimentary of his sharp talent for wordplay. As an undercover newspaper reporter with a quick answer -- not to mention a goofy disguise -- for every situation, Chase created a classic comic hero with a genius for confusing his adversaries. He reprised the role in the lesser sequel Fletch Lives (1989).Chase achieved moderate success by pairing with other Saturday Night Live alums in the mixed-bag comedies Spies Like Us (1985) and Three Amigos! (1986); though these had dedicated fans, they didn't achieve the critical praise of Fletch or Vacation. Despite an all-star cast, Caddyshack II (1988) went nowhere, and by the beginning of the 1990s, Chase had slipped from his status as a reliable comedic performer. Such well-documented failures as Nothing But Trouble (1991) and Cops and Robbersons (1994) became his crosses to bear during a decade that also saw the colossal failure of his Fox comeback variety show, which was canceled two months after it premiered in 1993. Chase was also arrested for drunk driving in 1995, just one incident in a career sometimes checkered by drug and alcohol abuse. In later years, Chase has preferred family oriented films, starring in such features as Man of the House (1995) (opposite Jonathan Taylor Thomas) and the kiddie-on-holiday flick Snow Day (2000). This stance prompted Chase to turn down the comeback-worthy role that won Kevin Spacey an Oscar in American Beauty (1999); had he accepted, it might have resulted in a very different film. As Chase's work has shifted more to the supporting role variety, including Dirty Work (1998) and Orange County (2002), he has seemed more comfortable. A series of appearances in such innocuous comedies as Bad Meat, Goose on the Loose, and Doogal found Chase continuing to plateau, and in 2006 the former SNL heavyweight would take to the lab to help save the world in the children's superhero adventure Zoom. In 2009 Chase was cast as a casually racist and sexist member of the study group at the heart of NBC's sitcom Community, and that program gave him some of the best reviews he'd had in quite some time. He appeared in the 2010 comedy Hot Tub Time Machine, and in 2011's Stay Cool.

Trivia: Canadian comic actor John Candy was geared toward a performing career even while studying for a journalism degree in college. Candy's bulky frame and built-in likability enabled him to secure small roles in Canadian film and TV productions. In the early '70s, Candy joined Canada's Second City Troupe, sharing the spotlight with such potent talent (and subsequent close friends) as Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Andrea Martin, and Catherine O'Hara. Second City TV, popularly known as SCTV, entered the Canadian TV airwaves in 1975 and was syndicated to the United States two years later. Candy scored an instant hit with such characters as porcine poseur Johnny LaRue, overly unctuous talk show sidekick William B., and ever-grinning "Lutonian" musician Yosh Shmenge. So popular did Candy become that suddenly many of his obscurer pre-starring Canadian films (It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, The Clown Murders) became hot properties on the video rental circuit. Candy stayed with the various SCTV syndicated and network programs until 1983, earning two Emmys in the process. One of the few genuine nice guys in the realm of comedy, Candy was beloved by both co-workers and fans -- even when this lovability was stretched to the breaking point in substandard films. He scored in supporting roles (Splash [1984], Brewster's Millions [1985]), but such thinnish starring features as Summer Rental (1985) and Who's Harry Crumb (1989) seemed to suggest that Candy couldn't carry a film by himself. Then he starred in Uncle Buck (1989), a disarming comedy about a ne'er-do-well with hidden nobility. Receiving relatively little promotion, Uncle Buck was a surprise hit, and stands today as perhaps Candy's best-ever vehicle after Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Unfortunately, most of his follow-up films were on a par with the disastrous Nothing but Trouble (1990) and Delirious (1992). At the same time, Candy's leading role in Only the Lonely (1991) and his supporting performance in JFK (1992) proved that a major talent was being squandered by the film industry. Candy was as frustrated as his fans, manifesting this frustration in excessive eating, drinking, and smoking. The actor's superlative seriocomic turn as a disgraced Olympic star in Cool Runnings (1993), which Candy also co-produced, seemed to point toward a career upswing. But while filming Wagons East in Mexico, 43-year-old John Candy suffered a heart attack and died in his sleep. Wagons East was released in the summer of 1994, utilizing Candy's existing footage as well as possible; it proved, sadly, an inadequate epitaph for one of film comedy's funniest and most ingratiating stars.

Trivia: Onscreen, versatile, multi-talented Beverly D'Angelo is best remembered for playing Ellen Griswold in the National Lampoon "vacation" series of films but she has appeared in over 50 films and also performs on television and the stage. The daughter of successful musicians, D'Angelo was educated in Europe and studied fine arts but left school at age 17 to become an artist at Hanna-Barbera Studios. For a time she was a folk singer and performed in Canadian coffee houses. She later sang rock & roll with the group Elephant. She tried acting in regional theater and during the early '70s appeared frequently on Broadway, making her debut playing Ophelia in the rock musical Rockabye Hamlet. D'Angelo made her film debut playing a bit in the Sentinel (1976). Her most highly regarded film role was that of singer Patsy Cline playing opposite Sissy Spacek's Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980). D'Angelo's excellent portrayal won considerable critical acclaim. She imprinted herself into popular culture playing Ellen Griswold in the National Lampoon films Vacation, European Vacation, Christmas Vacation, and Vegas Vacation, and would continue be a consistant presence on screen for years to come, most notably in films like American History X and on the series Entourage.

Trivia: Six-foot four-inch, beefy character actor with rubbery, homely face, Quaid's first professional show-business work was as the "straight man" half of a comedy duo with actor Trey Wilson in Houston. While a third-year college drama student he was cast by Peter Bogdanovich in a supporting role in The Last Picture Show (1971), then went on to have small roles in Bogdanovich's next two movies. He made a big impression as a naive sailor alongside Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail (1973), for which he received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. By the mid '70s, he worked in films frequently, usually typecast as a dim-witted fool or redneck. In the mid '80s he was (for one season) in the regular cast of the weekly sketch-comedy series "Saturday Night Live," on which he demonstrated his considerable comedic talent and often impersonated President Ronald Reagan. More recently he has gotten straight dramatic roles, a transition marked by his off-Broadway stage debut in True West in 1983. He has also worked frequently in TV movies, portraying Lenny in Of Mice and Men (1981) and Lyndon Johnson in LBJ: The Early Days (1987); for his portrayal of Mitch in the TV version of A Streetcar Named Desire (1984) he won an Emmy. He is the brother of actor Dennis Quaid, with whom he appeared in The Long Riders (1980).

Trivia: A gifted comic actor who also won acclaim as a writer and director, Eugene Levy was born on December 17, 1946, in Hamilton, Ontario, the home of McMaster University, where he enrolled after graduating from Westdale High School in the same city. Levy studied film at McMaster, and, in 1967, became vice president of the McMaster Film Board, a student film group where he met fellow aspiring moviemaker Ivan Reitman. (Other McMaster students at the time included Martin Short and Dave Thomas.) In 1970, Reitman began work on a low-budget horror movie called Cannibal Girls and cast Levy as Clifford Sturges. One of his co-stars was a struggling actress named Andrea Martin, who would later work alongside Levy's old pals Short and Thomas -- as well as John Candy and Joe Flaherty -- on the short-lived Canadian sitcom The David Steinberg Show. Levy and Martin's paths crossed again when they were cast in the Toronto production of the musical Godspell; the cast also included Gilda Radner and Paul Shaffer, in addition to Short, Candy, and Thomas. After Godspell closed in 1973 (just in time for the long-delayed Cannibal Girls to finally hit the grind-house circuit), Levy joined the Toronto company of the famed improvisational Second City comedy troupe, in which Candy and Flaherty were already cast members. After two years as a part of Second City, Levy, Candy, and Flaherty decided to move to California to try their luck in the States; they didn't fare well at first, but their idea for a television series about a ramshackle, low-budget television station eventually blossomed into Second City TV, or (SCTV, for short). While the show, ironically, brought Levy and his friend's back to Toronto (where it was shot), it also became a solid hit in Canada and developed a loyal cult following in the U.S., and, moreover, launched the careers of Levy, Flaherty, Thomas, Candy, Short, Martin, and Catherine O'Hara in America. (After SCTV's initial run ended in 1981, NBC brought the show back in an extended version called SCTV Network 90, which featured a higher budget, more guest stars, and ran until 1983. Levy also won two Emmy awards as a member of the show's writing staff.) Levy and Candy also created an acclaimed spin-off from the show based around their characters of polka musicians Stan and Yosh Shmenge, a 1984 cable special entitled The Last Polka. By the mid-'80s, Levy had become a familiar face on both episodic television and in movies, albeit almost always in comic supporting roles. In 1989, he began working behind the camera again, directing a special for his old partner Martin Short, and, in 1992, made his feature directorial debut with the John Candy/Jim Belushi comedy Once Upon a Crime. In 1996, however, Levy scored a bigger breakthrough when he and Christopher Guest began writing a screenplay for a mockumentary about a small town theater troupe. Waiting for Guffman became a surprise hit and gave Levy a meaty comic role as stage-struck dentist Allan Pearl. In 1999, the actor won another high-profile success with the blockbuster hit American Pie, in which he played the understanding but terminally non-hip father of hormonally charged teenager Jim (Jason Biggs); Levy reprised the role in the 2001 sequel American Pie 2 and again in 2003's American Wedding. Levy and Guest teamed up again in 2000 for the comedy, Best in Show, for which the two received a Best Screenplay nomination from the Writers Guild of America. He and Guest also co-wrote and starred in another 2003 mockumentary, A Mighty Wind, a parody about '60s folk musicians who reunite for a tribute concert several years after their heyday.For a few years after, it began to look as if Levy's primary occupation was reprising his role as Jim's dad in a series of lackluster, straight-to-video American Pie sequels -- with appearances in high profile films like A Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock becoming few and far between. In 2011, however, the comedy veteran received the prestigious distinction of being appointed a Member of the Order of Canada -- one of the nation's highest civilian honors -- before rejoining his former SCTV castmates in the made-for-television movie I, Martin Short, Goes Home, serving up a slice of nostalgia in American Reunion, and appearing opposite Tyler Perry in the 2012 comedy Madea's Witness Protection.

Trivia: A musical theater veteran, Jane Krakowski is best known for her Emmy-nominated portrayal of scheming law secretary Elaine on the Fox TV hit Ally McBeal. Raised in Parsippany, NJ, Krakowski began taking dance lessons at age three. After making her movie debut as an orally skilled teenager in National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), she garnered two Emmy nominations during her 1984-1986 stint on the serial Search for Tomorrow. Though she acted in several TV productions, including Men and Women II (1991) and Queen (1993), and had small feature film parts in Fatal Attraction (1987) and Stepping Out (1991), Krakowski found more success on Broadway in the first half of the 1990s. After she earned a Tony nomination for her work in the 1990 musical Grand Hotel, the actress was featured in several shows, including the revival of Once Upon a Mattress starring Sarah Jessica Parker. Krakowski became a TV star, however, when she was cast in Ally McBeal in 1997. As ambitious busybody Elaine, Krakowski became a bombshell comic foil to Calista Flockhart's neurotic Ally, asserting her power over the series' law office with her well-honed observational skills. The actress also displayed her versatile talents in the show's whimsical song-and-dance interludes. Bolstered by her TV success, Krakowski played a supporting role in the dance romance Dance With Me (1998), appeared as the seemingly lascivious wife of William Fichtner's bizarre narc in Go (1999), and starred as Betty in the sequel The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000). After Ally McBeal went off the air in 2002, Krakowski continued to divide her time between TV, features and the stage. Along with voicing one of the female sloths in the hit animated movie Ice Age (2002), Krakowski starred in the made for TV romantic comedy Just a Walk in the Park (2002) and played a supporting role in the Lisa Kudrow comic vehicle Marci X (2003). As in the early 1990s, though, Krakowski wound up attracting more attention on Broadway. Drawing positive notice for her acrobatic entrance via a bed sheet as well as her musical gifts, Krakowski earned another Tony nomination for her sexy supporting performance as Antonio Banderas's mistress in the acclaimed revival of Nine, the musical version of Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 (1963).She was one of the female conquests for Jude Law in the remake of Alfie in 2004, and had a great success starting in 2006 when she was cast as Jenna Maroney, the oversexed, undereducated, deeply vain, and paranoid actress at the center of the fictional show within the show on the highly-respected sitcom 30 Rock. She provided a voice for the animated flim Open Season, and its sequel.

Trivia: Frail-looking but iron-willed American actor Henry B. Walthall set out to become a lawyer, but was drawn to the stage instead. After several seasons appearing opposite such luminaries as Henry Miller and Margaret Anglin, Walthall was firmly established in New York's theatrical circles by the time he entered films in 1909 at the invitation of director D.W. Griffith. Clearly, both men benefited from the association: Griffith was able to exploit Walthall's expertise and versatility, while Walthall learned to harness his tendency to overact. The best of the Griffith/Walthall collaborations was Birth of a Nation (1915), in which Walthall portrayed the sensitive Little Colonel. Walthall left Griffith in 1915, a move that did little to advance his career. A string of mediocre productions spelled finis to Walthall's stardom, though he continued to prosper in character parts into the 1930s. One of his best showings in the talkie era was a virtual replay of his Little Colonel characterization in the closing scenes of the 1934 Will Rogers vehicle Judge Priest. Henry B. Walthall died while filming the 1936 Warner Bros. film China Clipper; ironically, he passed away just before he was scheduled to film his character's death scene.

Trivia: At age 10, told her father she wanted to pursue acting after seeing her sister act in TV commercials.Her father co-founded the Weist-Barron School of Television, the first school for soap opera and commercial acting.Attended The Art Students League of New York where she studied sculpture.Opened and managed a restaurant in Greenwich Village with some of her former business school classmates.Supports United In Harmony as a volunteer and teacher.

Trivia: American actor/writer Brian Doyle-Murray began his professional performing career at Chicago's Second City comedy troupe. Once established, Brian was instrumental in bringing his younger brother Bill into Second City. While Bill Murray's star ascended, Brian stayed busy as a writer and comic character actor. He co-wrote the 1980 comedy hit Caddyshack and had choice supporting roles in such films as Modern Problems (1981), Club Paradise (1986) and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989). Brian has also appeared to excellent effect in several of his brother Bill's starring features, most recently in the hilarious role of the lugubrious mayor of Punxsutawney in Groundhog Day (1993). One of the staff writers of the earliest years of Saturday Night Live, Brian Doyle-Murray has remained active on television as a guest actor, as a regular on the 1991 sitcom Good Sports, and in such made for TV movies as Babe Ruth (1991).

Trivia: When she began working with Sid Caesar in 1949, American actress Imogene Coca agreed to have her "official" birth date readjusted to 1920, so that she'd seem more a contemporary of Caesar. In truth, she was born in 1908, and was performing professionally while Caesar was still in knee pants. Feeling that she was not attractive by 1930s standards (though certainly so by the standards of the present), Coca realized early that she'd never be taken seriously as an actress or dancer; accordingly, she went the "Fanny Brice" route by lampooning the Classic Arts. Coca first caught the fancy of the public in Leonard Silleman's New Faces of 1937 (co-starring with then-husband Robert Burton), in which she performed ballet parodies and heavy-drama lampoons. Also in 1937, Coca made her film debut in the 2-reel comedy Dime a Dance; the supporting cast included fellow up-and-comers Danny Kaye, June Allyson and Barry Sullivan. During this period, Coca starred in experimental television broadcasts, recreating her best New Faces sketches. She met producer Max Liebman while starring in the resort-hotel Tamiment revues of the 1940s. It was Liebman's inspiration to team Coca with another Tamiment alumnus Sid Caesar on the 1949 TV weekly The Admiral Revue. This project led to the immortal Your Show of Shows (1950-54), wherein Caesar and Coca shared the spotlight with Carl Reiner and Howard Morris. In 1954, Caesar and Coca parted company. Caesar was able to sustain his success as a solo for awhile, but 1954's The Imogene Coca Show failed to do the actress justice and lasted only a year. Most of Coca's subsequent projects were likewise beneath her talents and doomed to failure. She starred with second husband King Donovan in the 1959 Broadway flop The Girls in 509, was a featured player in the 1963 comedy film Under the Yum Yum Tree, and headlined two weekly TV series, Grindl (1963) and It's About Time (1967). A 1967 TV reunion with Sid Caesar, and the 1973 theatrical release of Ten From Your Show of Shows, thrust Coca back into prominence, allowing her to thrive on the touring-show and tent-musical circuit. In the last two decades, her career has encompassed such highs as the Broadway musical On the 20th Century (as a dotty religious fanatic) and such lows as TV's Return of the Beverly Hillbillies (1982), in which she played Granny's mother. Imogene Coca's most memorable movie appearance of recent years has been as the troublesome Aunt Edna in National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), whose death en route to California provides the film its most tastelessly hilarious sight gag.

Trivia: Character actor Eddie Bracken is best known for his roles as lovable, befuddled losers and nervous hayseeds. As a child, he acted and sang on stage and in vaudeville and nightclubs; he also appeared in four "Our Gang" comedy shorts and in six episodes of the "New York Kiddie Troopers" series. As a juvenile, he worked on Broadway and with touring shows, then made his film debut with Too Many Girls (1940). Bracken is best known for his work as a shy bumbler in two light Preston Sturges comedies, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero (both 1944); in the latter he appeared as Norval Jones, the character that established his "type" and which (he would later complain) ruined his film career by restricting the sorts of roles he was offered. In the early '50s his career ground to a halt and he quit making movies in 1953, going on to do much touring stage work with his wife, the former Connie Nickerson. During the early 70s he lost $2 million in a failed scheme to create a chain of stock theaters. He returned briefly to Hollywood in 1983 to appear as a Walt Disney send-up in National Lampoon's Vacation.

Trivia: James Keach is the son of actor/producer Stacy Keach Sr. and the younger brother of actor Stacy Keach Jr. An actor himself, Keach has appeared with his brother in PBS' The Wings of Kitty Hawk (as Orville Wright) and in the 1980 theatrical feature The Long Riders (as Jesse James). He also worked on the script of the last-named project. Emulating his father, Keach has concentrated on behind-the-camera work as a producer and director. In the latter capacity, he has helmed such projects as False Identity (1991) Sunstroke (1991), Stars Fell on Henrietta (1994). In addition, James Keach has directed several episodes of the popular CBS TV series Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, starring his then-wife, actress Jane Seymour.

Trivia: Having appeared on countless runways and magazine covers (including the coveted Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover for three consecutive years), Christie Brinkley is one of the elite few women in the fashion industry who have earned the title "supermodel." The mother of three held a contract for a staggering 20 years with Cover Girl Cosmetics, and continues to appear in magazine ads for mature skin. Aside from being the inspiration for several of former husband Billy Joel's songs ("Uptown Girl," "Christie Lee," and "Blonde Over Blue," among others), Brinkley is known for catching the attention of hapless family man Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) in National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), a role she later reprised in the sequel, Vegas Vacation (1997). Brinkley also appeared on the small screen, on shows like Mad About You and Ugly Betty, and had a recurring role on Parks and Recreation, playing the hot wife of hapless Jerry Gergich. She also took her talents to Broadway, playing Roxie Hart in Chicago.