Trivia: Born Carlos Ray Norris, Chuck Norris served in Korea in the Army. While there, he studied karate and later became the World Middleweight Karate Champion. He was encouraged by one of his karate students, actor Steve McQueen, to go into acting. He debuted onscreen in the enormously popular Bruce Lee vehicle Enter the Dragon (1973); since the death of Lee he has been the screen's premier martial arts star. He has appeared primarily in militaristic movies in which he single-handedly kills many enemies. His breakthrough film was Missing in Action (1984), in which he played an ex-POW in search of American prisoners still held in Vietnam.

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: Born in Oregon, Craig Wasson was educated at that state's university. Wasson made his first Broadway appearance in 1975's All God's Chillun Got Wings. Three years later, he made his film bow in Boys from Company C, for which he also wrote and performed a song. His TV credits include continuing roles on Phyllis (1975) and Skag (1980), and the part of Mark Twain in the 1983 "American Playhouse" presentation Innocents Abroad. Craig Wesson is best known to Brian De Palma devotees for his performance as claustrophobic actor Jake Scully in Body Double (1984).

Trivia: Known to numerous fans as Tim from the 1982 sex comedy Porky's, Cyril O'Reilly got his first big break in 1981 when he was cast as Bud Stamper in a made-for-TV adaptation of Splendor in the Grass. He would continue to work on a wide variety of both film and TV projects over the coming decades, making guest appearances on shows like Beverly Hills 90210 and Walker, Texas Ranger.

Trivia: While Beloit College may have been a mere punch line to a joke for the editors of the old National Lampoon, it was Dear Old Alma Mater to actor Jameson Parker. The son of a U.S. diplomat, Parker had wanted to get into Harvard like most of the rest of the men in his family, but his track record of getting kicked out of exclusive schools all over the world hardly worked in his favor. Inaugurating his theatrical career in a touring Passion Play, Parker began showing up on TV in the mid-1970s in miniseries like 79 Park Avenue and Once an Eagle, and in films like The Bell Jar (1979). On the soap-opera circuit, he enjoyed substantial runs as Brad Vernon in One Life to Live and Dale Robinson in Somerset. Jameson Parker's chief claim to fame was the role of clean-cut private eye Andrew Jackson (A.J.) Simon on the long running (1981-88) TV series Simon and Simon. Three years afetr Simon and Simon went off the air Parker made headlines when he was shot by a neighbor during a heated dispute -- an event the actor would later recount in his memoir An Accidental Cowboy.

Trivia: Lead actor, onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: Once described as "the most famous American Indian since Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse," Oglala/Lakota Sioux Russell Means made a name for himself as an activist two decades before he became an actor. Born in Pine Ridge, SD, near the storied Black Hills, Means joined the late '60s cultural foment as an avid advocate for American Indian rights and recognition. As the first national director of the American Indian Movement (he disdained the term "Native American") and a participant in the 1972 standoff with the government at Wounded Knee, Means became a prominent voice calling for self-determination and the preservation of American Indian heritage. Furthering his activist reach during the 1980s, Means traveled abroad to support freedom for other indigenous peoples worldwide, and ran for president as the Libertarian Party candidate in 1988. Seeing the potential in synergy, Means became a multimedia presence in the 1990s. Along with recording two albums and authoring his autobiography Where White Men Fear to Tread, Means also went into acting. Making his movie debut in Michael Mann's florid adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Means starred as the titular Chingachgook, father figure to Daniel Day-Lewis' Hawkeye. Taking his cue from such prior Native American actors as Chief Dan George and Will Sampson, Means portrayed Indians in a range of films and with humor as well as dignity. Following the ultra-serious Last of the Mohicans, Means appeared in the Western spoof Wagons East! (1994), and played the spiritually portentous Old Indian in Oliver Stone's bloody media satire Natural Born Killers (1994). Along with voicing Chief Powhatan in Disney's animated features Pocahontas (1995) and Pocahontas: Journey to a New World (1998), Means put his stamp on other well-known American Indian tales, reprising his role as Chingachgook in an adaptation of Cooper's The Pathfinder (1996), and appearing in the movie version of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem The Song of Hiawatha (1997). Responding to charges that his Hollywood career was a sell-out, Means noted that he poured his earnings back into such activist projects as American Indian education and continued to act. Means finished the decade with several films, including the crime drama Black Cat Run (1998) and the children's fantasy Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000). He died of throat cancer in 2012, a few weeks before his 73rd birthday.

Trivia: Received a scholarship to UCLA but dropped out after just one semester to pursue a career in entertainment. Before embarking on her Hollywood career she was a featured member of the renowned performance troupe the Young Americans. Released her debut dance-pop album, Nothin' But Trouble, in 1988. Hosted a short-lived late-night musical variety show, The Party Machine With Nia Peeples, which was executive produced by Arsenio Hall. Volunteers for the American Heart Association and in 2011 participated in the AHA's "Go Red for Women Stiletto Strut" in Glendale, CA.