Trivia: American actress Eileen Brennan was the daughter of Jean Manahan, a moderately successful silent screen actress. Brennan studied at both Georgetown University and the American Academy of Dramatic Art before making her mark as star of the 1959 off-Broadway musical Little Mary Sunshine. Brennan was among the first-season stars of TV's Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, essentially doing hilarious variations of her simpering "Mary Sunshine" persona. With her 1970s film appearances in The Last Picture Show (1971), The Sting (1972) and Hustle (1974) came the world-weary, hard-bitten characterizations with which she built her movie following. She was nominated for an Oscar for her expert interpretation of an army sergeant in Goldie Hawn's Private Benjamin (1980), then recreated the role for the 1981 TV sitcom version of this film (which won her an Emmy). While filming the TV Benjamin, Brennan was seriously injured in a car accident. The recovery was long and painful, but by 1985 she was back at work, as caustic as ever in recent films as Clue (1985), White Palace (1991) and the Last Picture Show sequel Texasville (1990). She continued to work steadily in a variety of projects including Murder So Sweet and 1995's Freaky Friday. She also made guest appearances on various T shows including Murder, She Wrote, E/R, Mad About You, and Touched By an Angel. In the 21st century she could be seen in Jeepers Creepers and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous. Brennan passed away in 2013. She was 80 years old.

Trivia: For several years, the name of British actor Tim Curry was known only to the privileged few who'd seen his performance as transvestite mad scientist Dr. Frank N. Furter in the stage and screen versions of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. By one of those wondrous quirks of fate, the 1975 Rocky Horror film was resuscitated from its disappointing initial run and became the archetypal "midnight movie," and for nearly two decades its faithful fans have lined up in front of theaters in bizarre costumes and makeup, toting toilet paper and toast (suitable for throwing at the screen). Unlike these fans, Curry was not content to relive his past triumphs, but moved on to such prestige assignments as the role of Mozart in the Broadway production of Amadeus and the part of William Shakespeare in a TV movie biography. A polished farceur, Curry was seen at his best in comedy film roles, notably the repressed music teacher in Oscar (1991) and the supercilious concierge in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). But audiences must have their villains, and Curry has aimed to please in such insidious roles as Cardinal Richelieu in 1993's Three Musketeers (possibly the most lascivious Richelieu ever -- so much so that Milady De Winter pulls out a knife and threatens to "change his religion.") Curry's heart remained in the theater, and for an unfortunately short period in the early '90s he excelled in the Peter O'Toole role in a musical stage version of the 1982 film My Favorite Year. He has also contributed his vocal talents to such animated cartoon series as Peter Pan and the Pirates, winning an Emmy for his con brio portrayal of Captain Hook. Curry's reputation preceded him when he was hired to give voice to a nasty character on Hanna-Barbera's Paddington Bear cartoon series in 1988; appropriately, even the character's name was Mr. Curry.In 1990 Curry played one of pop culture's scariest clowns when he took the part of Pennywise in a small-screen adaptation of It, and a few years later he was the fiendish Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers. He continued to work steadily in projects as diverse as Congo, Muppet Treasure Island, McHale's Navy, and Addams Family Reunion where he took over the part of Gomez Adams after the passing of Raul Julia. He became well-known to a whole new generation of fans doing voices for The Wild Thornberrys, Rugrats, and Jimmy Neutron at the beginning of the 2000s. He was eventually cast as Mr. Salamone, the forever put-upon hotel employee who is subjected to the whims of little Eloise in a series of made-for-TV movies based on the enduringly popular children's books. In 2010 he appeared in John Landis' comedy Burke & Hare.

Trivia: Hofstra graduate Madeline Kahn was trained for an operatic career, but found her most gainful employment in musical comedy and revue work. While reducing audiences to tears of laughter as a member of New York's Upstairs at the Downstairs satirical troupe, Kahn made her first appearance in the short-subject Bergman lampoon The Dove (1968). She was "officially" discovered for films by director Peter Bogdanovich, who cast her as Ryan O'Neal's frowsy fiancee in What's Up Doc (1972). Kahn was nominated for Academy Awards for her portrayals of Southern doxy Trixie Delight in Bogdanovich's Paper Moon (1973) and Dietrich-like chanteuse Lilly Von Schtupp ("Oh, it's twue, it's twue, it's twue!") in Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles (1974). Kahn went on to co-star in Brooks' Young Frankenstein (1974) and High Anxiety (1975), and made a return trip to the Bogdanovich fold in the disastrous At Long Last Love (1976) Her manic comedy style could be appealing, but, to paraphrase the late film encyclopedist Leslie Haliwell, it became a quickly overplayed hand. On Broadway, Kahn co-starred with Danny Kaye in Two by Two and was starred in the musical version of Twentieth Century, a grueling experience that all but destroyed her singing voice. She won a Tony award for her non-musical performance in Wendy Wasserstein's The Sisters Rosenzweig in 1992. Kahn's TV projects include the 1983 sitcom Oh, Madeline (based on the British series Pig in the Middle), a single season as George C. Scott's virago sister-in-law in Mister President (1987) and Cosby, the most recent project of comedian Bill Cosby, a sitcom that premiered in 1996. In 1995, Madeline Kahn was superbly cast as Martha Mitchell in Oliver Stone's Nixon and as a vituperative gossip columnist on the TV series New York News.

Trivia: A reclusive character actor with an elongated, skull-like face, manic eyes and flexible facial expressions, Christopher Lloyd is best known for portraying neurotic, psychotic, or eccentric characters. He worked in summer stock as a teenager, then moved to New York. After studying with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse, he debuted on Broadway in Red, White and Maddox in 1969. Lloyd went on to much success on and off Broadway; for his work in the play Kaspar (1973) he won both the Obie Award and the Drama Desk Award. His screen debut came in the hugely successful One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), in which he played a mental patient. He went on to appear in a number of films, but first achieved national recognition for playing the eccentric, strung out, slightly crazy cab-driver "Reverend" Jim in the TV series Taxi from 1979-83; he won two Emmy Awards for his work. He extended his fame to international proportions by playing the well-meaning, wild-haired, mad scientist Doc Brown in Back to the Future (1985) and its two sequels; this very unusual character continued the trend in Lloyd's career of portraying off-the-wall nuts and misfits, a character type he took on in a number of other films in the '80s, including The Addams Family (1991), in which he played the crazed uncle Fester. His "straight" roles have been infrequent, but include Eight Men Out (1989).

Trivia: You knew him as Lenny Koznowski, the nasal, nerdish pal of Andrew "Squiggy" Squigman (David L. Lander) on the hit TV series Laverne and Shirley. Show-biz insiders knew Michael McKean as an intelligent, versatile actor and writer. Shedding himself of the "Lenny" image after Laverne and Shirley folded in 1983, McKean became involved in several ensemble comedy projects with such kindred spirits as Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner and Christopher Guest. In the 1984 "rockumentary" spoof This Is Spinal Tap, McKean played the cockney-accented heavy metal musician David St. Hubbins. Apparently McKean enjoyed posing as an Englishman, inasmuch as he has done it so often and so well since Spinal Tap, most recently as Brian Benben's snippish boss on the cable TV sitcom Dream On. In the early '90s, McKean was one of the stars of another, less memorable TV comedy, Grand, and appeared for two season on Saturday Night Live. He continues to land film roles, usually in comedies, including the successful The Brady Bunch Movie (1995).

Trivia: Martin Mull intended to become a painter when he enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design, but his Scaramouche-like sense of the ridiculous led to a career as a nightclub comedian. The deceptively conservative-looking Mull is widely recognized as one of the most accomplished satirists in show business. Even before he gained TV fame, Mull's barbed comedy albums had earned him a following on the college campus circuit. His first major TV assignment was Mary Hartman Mary Hartman (1976-77), where he was seen as Garth Gimble, an ill-tempered wife beater who ended up being impaled by a Christmas tree. When Mary Hartman Mary Hartman producer Norman Lear developed the spin-off series Fernwood Tonight in 1977, Mull was brought back as glad-handing emcee Barth Gimble, Garth's twin brother. In films since 1978, Mull is often called upon to portray an underhanded or vacillating CEO (vide Mister Mom). His well-groomed mustache and tweedy appearance served him well as Colonel Mustard in the 1985 movie version of the venerable board game Clue. Back on television, Mull has etched such indelible comic characterizations as Leon Carp, Roseanne Connor's gay boss, on Roseanne (1988- ), and the leading roles of Martin Crane in Domestic Life (1984) and Dr. Doug Lambert in His & Hers (1990). In collaboration with Allan Rucker, Martin Mull was the creator/writer of a devastating series of lampoonish "cultural studies" books and TV specials, under the blanket title The History of White People in America.

Trivia: Publicity notwithstanding, Lesley Ann Warren did not exactly burst fully grown into the world in 1966 to star in the Rodgers and Hammerstein TV special Cinderella. Trained at New York's Professional Children's School, Lesley Ann studied under Lee Strasberg before making her Broadway debut in 110 in the Shade, the 1964 musical version of The Rainmaker. On the strength of Cinderella, Lesley Ann was signed to a Disney contract; but after starring in The Happiest Millionaire (1966) and The One and Only Genuine Original Family Band, she rebelled against her studio-imposed sweetness-'n'-light image. Upon replacing Barbara Bain in the long-running espionage TVer Mission: Impossible in 1970, Warren publicly emphasized that her character, Dana Lambert, was a "now" person, wise in the ways of sex. She stayed with Mission for only a year, after which she established herself as a leading light in the made-for-TV movie field, frequently cast as an older woman involved romantically with a much-younger man. She earned an Academy Award nomination for her hilarious performance as bleach-blond gangster's moll Norma in Victor/Victoria (1981), then starred in a couple of intriguing Alan Rudolph-directed dramas, Choose Me (1984) and The Songwriter (1986). Her more recent roles include Molly, the homeless woman in Mel Brooks' Life Stinks(1991), who goes into a "death throes" act whenever she feels like it, and the barracuda booking agent for c-and-w star George Strait in Pure Country (1994). For nearly a decade, Lesley Ann Warren was the wife of producer/hairstylist Jon Peters.

Trivia: By any stretch of the imagination, Colleen Camp has enjoyed a diverse film career since her big-screen debut in one of the Planet of the Apes sequels in 1973. She has worked as an actress, dancer, singer, and producer; she was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Nicolas Roeg, Jack Hill, and Hal Needham; and she was often cast as either a sex symbol or stuffy prude. Born in San Francisco on June 7, 1953, Camp precociously began her acting career in regional theater at the age of three, although her first big break didn't come until more than a decade later, when she was cast as one of the dancing Gold Diggers on The Dean Martin Show. In 1973, the actress landed her first film role with a bit part as a human slave in Battle for the Planet of the Apes; larger roles in The Swinging Cheerleaders and The Last Porno Flick followed, but, in 1975 Camp had the chance to show off her considerable comic talent in Michael Ritchie's satiric comedy Smile. Despite her strong performance, however, her career still failed to catch fire; while she found steady work, she tended to land larger roles in undistinguished films such as The Gumball Rally or Ebony, Ivory and Jade, and smaller parts in more ambitious pictures, such as Apocalypse Now and They All Laughed. (Camp also sang "One Day Since Yesterday" in the latter, a song which briefly grazed the Billboard singles charts.) In time, Camp began to develop something of a cult following, and, while she was still a long way from film stardom, she worked often and landed supporting roles in such hits as Wayne's World, Sliver, Die Hard With a Vengeance, and Election. Married to Paramount executive John Goldwyn, she began working more behind the camera in the '80s, serving as a producer of The City Girl in 1984, and was a part of the production team of a number of other films, including Teenage Caveman, Earth vs. The Spider, and The Day The World Ended.

Trivia: African-American actor Bill Henderson may not be the same Bill Henderson listed in the British Attack on the Iron Coast (1968), but he definitely did appear in Mother, Jugs and Speed (1976), Inside Moves (1980) and Smart Alec (1986). Those who have catalogued the many failed TV series of Tim Conway will recall Henderson as Mello, blind nightclub pianist in 1983's Ace Crawford Private Eye. At least Ace Crawford made it to the airwaves; 1987's Kingpins, a comedy set in a bowling alley which featured Henderson in a supporting role, never got past the pilot stage. Bill Henderson's most prominent recent screen performance was as one of several "dude" participants of a cattle drive (he's the father in the father-son team) in the 1991 Billy Crystal comedy City Slickers.

Trivia: Howard Hesseman's early credits have sometimes been hard to trace, mainly because he often billed himself as "Don Sturdy." The mustachioed, prematurely balding Hesseman was a founding member of the San Francisco-based improv troupe The Committee. During his decade-long tenure with this aggregation, he was featured in such films as Petulia (1968) and A Session with the Committee (1970), and showed up on such TV series as The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Dick Cavett Show. Through the auspices of his Committee cohort Peter Bonerz, Hesseman played a recurring role on TV's The Bob Newhart Show (1972-78), playing the unsuccessful producer of such TV disasters as "The Nazi Hour." His screen roles in the 1970s included a showy part as a harried TV-commercial director in the opening sequence of The Sunshine Boys. In 1978, Hesseman achieved celebrity in the role of counterculture deejay Dr. Johnny Fever (aka Johnny Caravella) on the popular sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. Following WKRP's cancellation in 1982, he spent two seasons playing Ann Romano's third (and presumably final) husband Sam Royer on the weekly One Day at a Time. From 1986 to 1990, he starred as urbane high school teacher Charlie Moore in TV's Head of the Class. During all this activity, Howard Hesseman continued showing up in feature films, playing such roles as smarmy promoter Terry Ladd in This is Spinal Tap (1984) and child star Patty Duke's manipulative manager/guardian John Ross in the TV biopic Call Me Anna (1989). Over the following several years, Hessman would remain active on screen, appearnig on shows like That 70's Show and Crossing Jordan, and in movies like The Rocker.