Trivia: A self-described B-movie actor, Bruce Campbell can claim to have scaled the casualty-littered mountain of cult movie stardom. First attaining more notoriety than fame for his performance in Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (1983), which he also executive produced, Campbell went on to star in that movie's two sequels and a number of other schlock-tastic films. He has also occasionally ventured into more reputable territory, thanks to such films as the Coen brothers' The Hudsucker Proxy (1994).Hailing from Royal Oak, MI, where he was born June 22, 1958, Campbell attended Western Michigan University. When he was only 21, he and two of his Detroit friends, Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, scraped together 350,000 dollars to make a low-budget horror film. The result, completed piecemeal over four years, was The Evil Dead, an exuberantly awful piece of filmmaking that featured Campbell as its demon-battling hero. The film first earned notoriety in England, and after being personally endorsed by author Stephen King when it was screened at Cannes, it was eventually released in the U.S. in 1983.The Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn followed in 1987, and the third installment in the series, Army of Darkness, was released in 1992. Both were enthusiastically embraced by fans of the series and less so by critics, but one thing that impressed both groups was Campbell's work in both films, thanks in part to his uncanny ability to make it through an entire performance without blinking once.In addition to the Evil Dead films, Campbell has acted in a number of other low-budget films, and, in the case of the Coens' The Hudsucker Proxy and a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo in Fargo (1996), a handful of fairly respectable projects as well. He has also acted frequently on television, most notably in the weekly Western The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. and Jack of all Trades. In 2001 Campbell made his literary debut with If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor. A humorously detailed account of his rise to B-movie stardom, If Chins Could Kill detailed, among other things, Campbell's uniquely diverse fanbase as well as his relationship with longtime friend and frequent collaborator Sam Raimi. When fans embraced the freewheeling semi-autobiography with more zeal than even Campbell himself may have anticipated, a succesful speaking tour was soon followed by a sophomore novel, the satirical Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way. A highly fictionalized look at what it may be like for Campbell to land a substantial role in a high-profile Hollywood production, Make Love the Bruce Campbell way found the sarcastic B-movie idol hobnobbing with co-star Richard Gere and offering directorial advice to veteran director Mike Nichols. Yet Campbell was hardly one to forget where his bread was truly buttered, and following his brief literary detour, it was time to head back to the big screen for a pair of memorable cameos in pal Raimi's Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, the longtime actor and emerging producer was finally ready to make his feature directorial debut with the outlandish sci-fi comedy The Man with the Screaming Brain. Despite helming the occasional Xena and Hewrcules episode, Campbell had yet to tackle feature films and when the opportunity arose to direct a script that he himself had written, everything just seemed to fall into place. Though the critics weren't so kind, fans were more than willing to indulge as their favorite film and television star finally got a chance to shine on his own. After voicing his most famous character in a pair of Evil Dead videogames, it was finally time for Campbell to return to the role of Ash on the big screen - albiet in a decidedly meta-manner - when he stepped into the role of an actor named Bruce Campbell who is mistaken for the demon-slayer that he played in the movies and forced to to battle with the legions of hell in the 2006 horror comedy They Call Me Bruce; a film that also afforded Campbell his sophomore feature directorial credit. That same year, Campbell would also team with May director Lucky McKee for the chilling horror film The Woods. Campbell found television success in the role of a good natured ex-Navy Seal on Burn Notice beginning in 2007, and lent his voice to animated features including Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Cars 2. Campbell reunited with Raimi for Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), and helped produce the 2013 revamp of The Evil Dead.

Trivia: A native of rural Humboldt, IA, character actor Christian Clemenson left his home state when a scholarship that he netted as part of his paperboy route afforded him the opportunity to attend the prestigious Phillips Academy preparatory school in Andover, MA. That experience imparted Clemenson with a deep-seated love of theatrics, and he spent his Iowan summers during college acting in local stage productions. The upstart subsequently attended Harvard as an undergraduate and Yale Drama School as a grad student, then moved to Los Angeles in the mid-'80s, where he accepted a long series of bit parts and supporting roles in A-list features, typically cast as nebbishy professional types. Early films in which Clemenson appeared included Heartburn (1986), Legal Eagles (1986), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and Broadcast News (1987).Beginning in the late '90s, Clemenson began placing a stronger emphasis on television work, with guest roles in series including Ally McBeal, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The West Wing, and NYPD Blue. He received critical kudos for his portrayal of ill-fated executive Thomas E. Burnett Jr., a victim of the September 11th terrorist attacks, in Paul Greengrass' feature United 93 (2006), then joined William Shatner, Candice Bergen, and James Spader of David E. Kelley's offbeat seriocomedy Boston Legal in a recurring capacity during the show's second season; on the program, Clemenson played Jerry "Hands" Espenson, a troubled lawyer plagued by Asperger's Syndrome. He went on to win Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2006 for that role, and continued to appear on the show, later attaining regular status and staying with the series until it folded in 2009. Clemenson would continue to appear regularly on screen as the years went on, appearing on shows like CSI: Miami and Harry's Law.

Trivia: Scottish pop singer Sheena Easton made her acting debut as a regular on the hit television series Miami Vice in 1987. While her feature-film work has been sporadic, she has found continued success on television, primarily as a voice artist for such animated series as Disney's Gargoyles. Her feature-film voice work includes the animated All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 (1996). Easton has also appeared on-stage, notably in a Broadway revival of the musical Grease in which she played the peppery Rizzo.

Trivia: Notorious for his uncanny portrayals of jocks, rednecks, hellraisers, and good ol' boys, the rough-hewn American character actor M.C. Gainey built a career for himself as the prototypical onscreen lowlife. Gainey observed in an interview, "With a face like this, there aren't a lot of lawyers or priest roles coming my way. I've gotta face that was meant for a mug shot and that's what I've been doing for the past 30 years...by and large I play cowboys, bikers, and convicts."Born in Jackson, MS, in 1947, Gainey debuted onscreen -- effectively portraying a young police officer -- in Herbert Ross' fascinating, ambitious, and stillborn musical film version of the Dennis Potter miniseries Pennies from Heaven (alongside Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, and Christopher Walken). Some might call Gainey's evocation of a cop uncharacteristic, given his later turns, but at least two additional roles as a policeman followed during the '80s, in John Carpenter's Starman (1984) and Sondra Locke's ill-advised sentimental fantasy Ratboy (1986). Gainey landed a number of additional assignments through the end of that decade, but his career did not fully catch fire until the '90s, when he sustained several turns per year. Additional films during this period include 1993's Geronimo: An American Legend (as a miner), 1996's Citizen Ruth (as Harlan), 1997's Con Air (as the villain Swamp Thing), 1999's Happy, Texas (as Bob Allen), and 2003's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (as a bouncer).In the late '90s and early 2000s, Gainey delivered two particularly memorable and dark performances that gave him instant recognition among viewers. In the first picture -- Jonathan Mostow's Breakdown (1997) -- Gainey played Earl, one of the psychopathic redneck kidnappers who torments Kurt Russell. In the second, Alexander Payne's character comedy Sideways (2004), Gainey played the unnamed husband of waitress Cammi, who chases intruder Thomas Haden Church out of his house while fully naked.Gainey found his broadest exposure to date, however, as Mr. Friendly/Tom -- seemingly the leader of the Others and as enigmatic as can be -- in the blockbuster ABC series Lost. In 2006 he began a six episode run as Bow Crowder in the popular FX crime drama series Justified, with feature roles in The Babymakers and Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained following in 2012.

Trivia: Supporting actor Billy Drago first appeared onscreen in the '80s.

Trivia: A staple of Western-themed films and television series, veteran character actor Rayford Barnes began his onscreen career with John Wayne in Hondo, and in recent years appeared on television in Walker, Texas Ranger and ER. After beginning his career in New York training with Stella Adler and the Neighborhood Playhouse, Barnes moved to San Francisco to open his own theater, and later relocated to San Francisco, where he landed his role in Hondo. A veteran of WWII, Barnes made regular appearances on such TV series as Gunsmoke, The Virginian, and Little House on the Prairie while concurrently appearing in Westerns like The Wild Bunch and The Hunting Party. Rayford Barnes died on November 11, 2000, at St. Andrews Medical Center in Santa Monica, CA. He was 80.