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: Grew up in East Los Angeles. Was inspired to take up acting after a school trip to see the classic film To Kill a Mockingbird. Made TV debut in 1987 and has appeared in guest or recurring roles in some 30 series, including Cagney & Lacey, Knots Landing, China Beach, The X-Files, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, NYPD Blue, 24, My Name Is Earl, Nip/Tuck and CSI: Miami. Was a regular on The Eddie Files, a Peabody Award-winning math-education program that aired on PBS stations in the late 1990s. Received a 2010 Saturn Award nomination for his role as psychotic drug dealer Tuco on Breaking Bad. Likes to build and ride motorcycles; a bike he owns appeared in a 2008 episode of The Closer.

Trivia: Movie and TV leading man Dirk Benedict was young, handsome, muscular and enthusiastic. These qualities were far more important than versatility in establishing Benedict as a dependable screen presence in the 1970s. His theatrical films include Scavenger Hunt (1979), Body Slam (1987), and Shadow Force (1992), their subject matter implicit in their titles. Far more successful on series television than in films, Dirk Benedict played Officer Gil Foley on Chopper One (1974), Starbuck on Battlestar Gallactica (1978), and master impressionist Templeton "Face" Peck on The A-Team (1983-87).

Trivia: A distinguished Canadian stage, radio, film, and TV actor, Eric Christmas is probably best known to American audiences as Mr. Carter in the two Porky's films of the 1980s, or as Senator Polk in The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1980), or Roland the Butler in Warren Beatty's Bugsy (1992). Christmas also played Morten Kill in Steve McQueen's courageous adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People (1979). Eric Christmas' TV-series assignments in America have included the roles of Ben Hampton in The Sandy Duncan Show (1972) and Harry "The Hunchback" Schanstra in Wiseguys (1987-1988 season).

Trivia: During his formative years, Roy Thinnes had wanted to become a doctor or football player--or, if one wants to believe his early press releases, both. Having made his professional acting debut as a teen-aged firebug in a 1957 pilot for the never-sold TV series Chicago 212, Thinnes spent several lean years "between engagements," working as a hotel clerk, vitamin salesman and copy boy to Chicago Sun Times columnist Irv Kupcinet. His first regular TV work was as Phil Brewer on the daytime soap opera General Hospital; during this period, the young actor became the television equivalent of a matinee idol, sparking a barrage of protest mail when he briefly left GH in pursuit of other acting jobs. Aggressively campaigning for the starring role of Ben Quick on the 1965 weekly-TV version of the 1958 film Long Hot Summer, Thinnes won the part, as well as a whole new crop of adoring female fans. While Summer was unsuccessful, Thinnes enjoyed a longer run as David Vincent on the Fugitive-like sci-fi series The Invaders (1967-68). Though he'd occasionally show up in such theatrical features as Hindenburg (1975), Airport 75 (1975) and Blue Bayou (1990), Thinnes would remain essentially a TV star for the rest of his career. Among Roy Thinnes' post-Invaders TV-series roles was Dr. James Whitman on The Psychiatrist (1971), Capt (and later Major) Holms on From Here to Eternity (1979-80), Nick Hogan on Falcon Crest (who, in 1983, married Victoria Gioberti [Jamie Rose] in a highly-rated ceremony) and the dual role of Roger Collins and Reverend Trask in the 1991 prime-time revival of Dark Shadows.