Trivia: Commenting on his notorious on-set irascibility in 1977, Jack Klugman replied that he was merely "taking Peter Falk lessons from Robert Blake," invoking the names of two other allegedly hard-to-please TV stars. Klugman grew up in Philadelphia, and after taking in a 1939 performance by New York's Group Theatre, Klugman decided that an actor's life was right up his alley. He majored in drama at Carnegie Tech and studied acting at the American Theatre Wing before making his (non-salaried) 1949 stage-debut at the Equity Library Theater. While sharing a New York flat with fellow hopeful Charles Bronson, Klugman took several "grub" jobs to survive, at one point selling his blood for $85 a pint. During television's so-called Golden Age, Klugman appeared in as many as 400 TV shows. He made his film debut in 1956, and three years later co-starred with Ethel Merman in the original Broadway production of Gypsy. In 1964, Klugman won the first of his Emmy awards for his performance in "Blacklist," an episode of the TV series The Defenders; that same year, he starred in his first sitcom, the 13-week wonder Harris Against the World. Far more successful was his next TV series, The Odd Couple, which ran from 1970 through 1974; Klugman won two Emmies for his portrayal of incorrigible slob Oscar Madison (he'd previously essayed the role when he replaced Walter Matthau in the original Broadway production of the Neil Simon play). It was during Odd Couple's run that the network "suits" got their first real taste of Klugman's savage indignation, when he and co-star Tony Randall threatened to boycott the show unless the idiotic laughtrack was removed (Klugman and Randall won that round; from 1971 onward, Odd Couple was filmed before a live audience). It was but a foretaste of things to come during Klugman's six-year (1977-83) reign as star of Quincy, M.E.. Popular though Klugman was in the role of the crusading, speechifying LA County Coroner's Office medical examiner R. Quincy, he hardly endeared himself to the producers when he vented his anger against their creative decisions in the pages of TV Guide. Nor was he warmly regarded by the Writer's Guild when he complained about the paucity of high-quality scripts (he wrote several Quincy episodes himself, with mixed results). After Quincy's cancellation, Klugman starred in the Broadway play I'm Not Rappaport and co-starred with John Stamos in the 1986 sitcom You Again?. The future of Klugman's career -- and his future, period -- was sorely threatened when he underwent throat surgery in 1989. He'd been diagnosed with cancer of the larynx as early as 1974, but at that time was able to continue working after a small growth was removed. For several years after the 1989 operation, Klugman was unable to speak, though he soon regained this ability. He continued working through 2011, and died the following year at age 90.

Trivia: The son of actors Robert Walker and Jennifer Jones, Robert Walker Jr. began training for his own show business career at the Actors' Studio in the early '60s. "I would like to develop as an actor in obscurity," Walker commented in reference to his parents' fame, but the young actor's striking resemblance to his father (who died in 1951) made it virtually impossible for the two Robert Walkers to be separated in the minds of the public. The younger Walker worked steadily on television and stage, and co-starred in films of varying quality from 1963 to 1984. Robert Walker Jr. is best remembered for valiantly stepping into the shoes of Jack Lemmon when he was cast in the title role in the Mister Roberts sequel Ensign Pulver (1964).

Trivia: A gruff character actor, Caridi has been onscreen from the '70s.

Trivia: A wiry, reliable character actor who first caught the attention of television audiences with his Emmy-winning role as Detective Mick Belker on Steven Bochco's gritty police drama Hill Street Blues, Bruce Weitz crafted a successful career in both low-budget features and small-screen dramas. The Norwalk, CT, native trained at both Minneapolis' Guthrie Theater and Louisville's Actors Theater after earning graduate and undergraduate degrees from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, and it wasn't long before he set his sights on Broadway. A successful debut opposite George C. Scott in a revival of Death of a Salesman was quickly followed by roles in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel and Norman, Is That You? Weitz also appeared in 13 New York Shakespeare festivals during the late '70s before moving on to television. Supporting roles in Quincy and Happy Days were followed by performances in such made-for-TV features as Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story and Every Stray Dog and Kid (both 1981). That same year, Weitz joined the cast of Hill Street Blues for the duration of the series and his popular character became a highlight of many episodes. The role propelled Weitz's TV career and the actor did not lack work for the rest of the decade. By the time the '80s gave way to the '90s, Weitz's small-screen feature career was still going strong, and, in 1991, he joined the cast of the popular sitcom Anything but Love for one season. He returned to work with old friend Bochco with short-lived series The Byrds of Paradise in 1994 and appeared as Robert Shapiro in 1995's made-for-TV feature The O.J. Simpson Story. Nurturing a growing feature film career in the late '90s and early 2000s, Weitz later enjoyed roles in such high-profile theatrical releases as Deep Impact (1998) and Half Past Dead (2002), enjoyed a multi-episode run on ER as Alderman John Bright, and graced the casts of features including El Cortez (2005) and The Dukes (2007).

Trivia: Character actor Bill Quinn specialized in playing wise or fatherly roles on stage, screen, and television. A native of New York City, Quinn was five when he became a professional vaudevillian. After many years on stage, he joined Orson Welles' Mercury Playhouse radio troupe. Quinn made his film debut with a small supporting role in the circus drama The Flying Fontaines (1959). His film career continued steadily through the mid-'70s, then slowed down to about a film every two or three years. He made his final big-screen appearance playing the father of Dr. McCoy in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. He appeared numerous times on television. Between 1958 and 1963, he played bartender Sweeney on The Rifleman and in All in the Family and its spin-off, Archie Bunker's Place, Quinn played barfly Mr. Van Ranesleer. His other TV credits include guest star appearances in series, miniseries, and made-for-TV movies.

Trivia: From the '50s through the '80s, American actress Maxine Stuart played character parts ranging from maternal to hard-bitten. Among Stuart's many films were Winning (969), Fun with Dick and Jane (1977) and Coast to Coast (1980). Her TV soap opera assignments included The Edge of Night, as Grace O'Leary; The Young Marrieds (a briefie from 1964) as Mrs. Korman; and General Hospital, as Mrs. Baldwyn. Occasionally breaking into prime-time, Ms. Stuart was co-featured on Room for One More (1962) as the wife of "funny neighbor" Jack Albertson; on Slattery's People (1965), as secretary to politician Richard Crenna; and on Hail to the Chief (1985) as the swinging mother of American president Patty Duke. Twilight Zone addicts best remember Maxine Stuart for a role in which her face never appeared: the bandaged plastic-surgery patient in the 1960 episode "The Eye of the Beholder."