Trivia: American action star Chuck Norris first learned martial arts while serving in the Air Force. From 1968 through 1974, he held the world's middleweight karate championship title. During this period, he made his film debut in The Wrecking Crew (1968) and his TV bow on a 1970 episode of Room 222. Thanks to the celebrity clientèle of his Los Angeles karate school, Norris was able to make the right contacts which enabled him to embark on a starring career in films. Building a box-office following with such fast-paced (and rapidly filmed) actioners as A Force of One (1979) and Lone Wolf McQuade (1982), Norris reached his professional apex as Colonel James Braddock in the three Missing in Action films of the 1980s. Around 1987, Norris' stardom went into eclipse, thanks in part to the heady competition of Schwarzenegger, Jean Claude Van Damme, and Steven Seagal; though he still occasionally appears in films, most of his later efforts don't back their cost until they hit the video shelves. In 1986, Chuck Norris lent his name and his voice to a brief TV cartoon series, Chuck Norris' Karate Kommandos, in which, after his cartoon counterpart decimates every bad guy within 50 miles, the real Norris cautions his young audience that "violence is my last option."In the early nineties he found himself starring in the popular TV series Walker, Texas Ranger which ran for nine seasons. He spoofed his own persona with a cameo in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, and in 2012 he joined the cast of The Expendables 2 - teaming with other masters of 80s action films like Stallone, Willis, and Schwarzenegger.

Trivia: Formerly a schoolteacher, Texas-born Noble Willingham has been essaying crusty character roles since 1969. Willingham's resumé includes a brace of location-filmed Peter Bogdanovich films, The Last Picture Show (1971) and Paper Moon (1973), and the role of Clay Stone in both of Billy Crystal's City Slickers comedies. Among his TV-movie credits is the part of President James Knox Polk in 1985's Dream West. A regular on several TV series (The Ann Jillian Show, Texas Wheelers, Cutter to Houston, AfterMASH, When the Whistle Blows), Willingham is best known to 1990s viewers as Mr. Binford (of Binford Tools) in Home Improvement and C. D. Parker in Walker, Texas Ranger. Noble Willingham's most recent film assignments include Ace Ventura, Pet Detective (1994) Up Close and Personal (1996) and Space Jam (1996). In 2000, Willingham left Walker, Texas Ranger to run for Congress in Texas. After losing the election to his Democratic opponent, Max Sandlin, Willingham returned to acting with a supporting role in the Val Kilmer thriller Blind Horizon. Sadly, the part would be the actor's last. In early 2004, at the age of 72, Willingham passed away at home from natural causes.

Trivia: Richard Herd was a busy character actor for 20 years, mostly playing tough cops, ruthless corporate executives, and murderous villains in everything from topical dramas to science fiction thrillers before he became a comedy star in the 1990s, thanks to the series Seinfeld. A stage actor of long experience, he has received awards for his theatrical work, most notably The Couch With Six Insides, which he co-produced and which garnered an Obie. Herd began appearing on television in the early '60s, in commercials, for Newport cigarettes and other products, which frequently had a comic side to them, but it was in harder and heavier roles in movies and television that he was best known in the 1970s and 1980s: Captain Sheridan in the police show T.J. Hooker; villains in Scarecrow and Mrs. King and numerous other hour-long dramas; tough executives and military officers on M*A*S*H and other series; and as the alien leader John in the NBC miniseries V. His portrayal of ruthless power company executive Evan McCormack in the feature film The China Syndrome left Herd typed as a heavy for years, which didn't prevent him from giving memorable performances in series such as Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and feature films like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. In the 1990s, however, his flair for comedy also came to the fore with his portrayal of Mr. Wilhelm, George Costanza's high-pressure boss at the New York Yankees, which earned him an award from the Screen Actors Guild. He has also appeared in series such as E.R. and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and has a growing legion of fans in the field of science fiction from his work on Star Trek: Voyager.

Trivia: Of Franco-Spanish descent, American actor Reni Santoni began his show business career as a comedy writer. Santoni's big film break came when director Carl Reiner cast him in the leading role of aspiring thespian David Kolowitz (Reiner's blatantly obvious alter ego) in Enter Laughing (1967). Thereafter, Santoni could be seen in supporting parts in such films as Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982, again directed by Carl Reiner), Brewster's Millions (1985), and Cobra (1986). He has also provided voice-over characterizations for crowd scenes in Rain Man (1988), Bright Lights, Big City (1988), and other films. Reni Santoni's weekly TV credits include the roles of lawyer Danny Paterno in Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law (1973-1974 season only) and police captain Nick Rivera in Manimal (1983).