Trivia: Advertised as "the face of the '80s," one-time model and Actors Studio-graduate Suzy Amis made her film bow in Fandango (1985). While making the film, Amis met her future husband Sam Robards, the son of Jason Robards, Jr. and Lauren Bacall. She followed Fandango with an off-Broadway appearance in Fresh Horses and next essayed an unprepossessing "goodie two-shoes" film role in The Big Town (1987). Despite having the least interesting assignment in that film, Amis managed to steal several scenes away from villainess Laura Dern. She further proved her acting mettle as the titular heroine of The Ballad of Little Jo (1993), portraying a young woman who passes herself off as a man to survive a harsh existence in the Old West. Unfortunately, although Amis earned a number of plaudits for her performance, the film all but disappeared at the box office. The actress turned up in lead and supporting roles in a number of varied films, including Rocket Gilbraltar (1988), Rich in Love (1993), The Usual Suspects (1995) -- which cast her as the film's only substantial female character -- and Titanic (1997), in which she played heroine Kate Winslet's great-granddaughter.

Trivia: Often cited as the founding father of gangsta rap, Ice-T has also crafted a successful film career from his hardened street persona. Despite the fact that his early roles stuck closely to his public image as a thuggish West Coast pimp, T has since proved both his versatility and his sense of humor by appearing as everything from a mutant kangaroo (Tank Girl [1995]) to, in a surprisingly effective about-face, a police officer (New Jack City [1991]). Born Tracy Marrow in Newark, NJ, in 1958 and later adapting his better-known persona as a tribute to pimp-turned-author Iceberg Slim, T was sent at age 12 to live in Califorina with an aunt after his father died of a heart attack (his mother had died four year earlier, also of a heart attack). Ice-T soon began to develop an obsession with rap music, and after serving a two-year stint in the Army, he began recording and appeared in the films Breakin' and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo (both 1984). Following a near death auto accident in 1986, T devoted his life to music and released his debut album, Rhyme Pays, the following year. T gained positive accolades for his first major film role in 1991's New Jack City, in which he played a dedicated police officer, and the irony was not lost on fans the following year when he caused a stir with a song entitled "Cop Killer." After sticking close to the streets in Ricochet (1991), Trespass (1992), and Surviving the Game (1994), T took a sci-fi detour with Tank Girl and Johnny Mnemonic (both 1995). Generally appearing in straight-to-video schlock from the mid-'90s on, Ice-T could be seen as a naval pilot in Stealth Fighter (1999) and stealing a magic flute from a vengeful green meanie in Leprechaun in the Hood (2000). Though his appearances in such films grew nearly too frequent to count, T occasionally appeared in such theatrical releases as 3000 Miles to Graceland and Abel Ferrara's 'R Xmas (both 2001). After offering curious insight into the life of a pimp in the documentary Pimps Up, Ho's Down, T continued to expound on the life of a hustler in Pimpin' 101 (2003). He also took on a recurring role on the Law & Order spin-off Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and later joined the cast as a regular in the show's second season, soon becoming a popular fixture on prime time TV. T would also enjoy success on the reality circuit, starring in the candid reality show Ice Loves Coco with his wife, Nicole "Coco" Austin.

Trivia: The son of African American director/writer Melvin Van Peebles, Mario van Peebles made his acting bow in a small role in his dad's Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971). At the time, Van Peebles had no burning desire to become a performer, choosing instead to study economics at Columbia University. He wavered between a financial and an acting career before becoming a full-time actor with the 1984 film Cotton Club. In 1988, Van Peebles starred in a conformist TV comedy adventure series, Sonny Spoon, playing a glib private eye with a predilection for elaborate disguises; this brief series afforded him his first opportunity to direct. Three years later he made his film directing debut with New Jack City, a film widely praised by some as being a truthful, no-nonsense dissection of inner-city life, and widely derided by others as merely a slick outgrowth of the "blaxploitation" flicks of the 1970s. Van Peebles played a major role in New Jack City, as he would in his subsequent Posse (1993), a revisionist western about a Utopian all-black community. Van Peebles' next directorial endeavor was Panthers (1995), a recounting of the Black Panther Movement that came under fire from several of the real-life activists depicted in the film despite the fact that Van Peebles steadfastly defended it as historically accurate. In addition to making and starring in his own films, Van Peebles occasionally appears in the films of others. He had a starring role in Clint Eastwood's Heartbreak Ridge (1986) and for his performance earned an NAACP Image Award. On television, Van Peebles has starred in a number of prestigious productions, including The Emperor Jones for PBS and The Pool Hall opposite James Earl Jones. For this latter role, Van Peebles was nominated for a Cable ACE award. For his work in Children of the Night he received a Bronze Halo Award. He has also directed episodes of television series, notably those of producer Steven J. Cannell. For directing the ABC After School Special: Malcolm Takes a Shot, he received a nomination for a Directors Guild Award. In the late '90s, Van Peebles joined a growing trend and starred in an elaborate CD-Rom game for Sony called Solo in which he played an android superhero with a human learning capacity.

Trivia: Began surfing at age 9, surfed competitively during high school and was invited three times to the East Coast Championships.Dropped out of college during his junior year to pursue acting.Studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City for two years.Met his wife, actor Susan Walters, on the set of the soap opera Loving in 1983.A student of martial arts, trained in Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Kung Fu and Chinese styles.

Trivia: Hardly diminutive, Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr. has made his imposing presence felt in a multitude of films since the mid-'80s. Originally a professional wrestler nicknamed Zeus and Z-Gangsta, the 6' 5" 275 lb. Lister retired in 1985 to pursue an acting career. After making his movie debut in director Hal Ashby's final film 8 Million Ways to Die (1985), Lister spent the rest of the 1980s working primarily in A and B movies heavy on action, including Runaway Train (1985), Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), and Walter Hill's Extreme Prejudice (1987). Lister earned his first starring role playing his wrestling alter ego Zeus in the Hulk Hogan vehicle No Holds Barred (1989). Lister continued his run of B films in the early '90s, as well as appearing in Walter Hill's higher profile actioner Trespass (1992) with future co-star Ice Cube, and Jean-Claude Van Damme's Universal Soldier (1992). As the 1990s went on, Lister played roles in a more varied assortment of films, including the quirky Johnny Depp/Marlon Brando/Faye Dunaway romantic fantasy Don Juan DeMarco (1995) and the Quentin Tarantino-wannabe noir Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995). Lister got to act for Tarantino himself in Jackie Brown, as well as play the President in Luc Besson's The Fifth Element. Lister's 1990s career also benefited from the decade's surge in African-American filmmaking, beginning with his starring role in Mario Van Peebles' Western Posse (1993). Lister subsequently starred as neighborhood bully Deebo opposite Ice Cube in the sleeper hit comedy Friday (1995). After appearing in comedian Martin Lawrence's A Thin Line Between Love and Hate (1996), Lister played a supporting role in Ice Cube's directorial debut The Players Club (1998), and starred as a hood in Master P's I Got the Hook-Up (1998). Adding to his eclectic credits in 2000, Lister notched another hit reprising his role as Deebo in the sequel Next Friday (2000), and co-starred as one of Satan's sons in the Adam Sandler comedy Little Nicky (2000).

Trivia: The son of a wealthy office-supplies dealer, American actor Maxwell Gail Jr. excelled in high-school sports, spending his senior year as an exchange student in Germany. Upon earning collegiate degrees from both Williams University and University of Michigan, he became a teacher in Detroit's inner city, partially to ensure himself a draft deferment. Frustrated at trying to communicate with his sullen poverty-level students, Gail chucked it all to head for San Francisco, where he worked as a guidance counselor. Again, the frustrations of the job got to him, compelling Gail to seek employment as a cocktail-lounge pianist. Trying out for a play on a whim in 1970, Gail finally found his life's calling. He spent the early '70s haunting the casting offices, accepting small TV roles as heavies and bullies. A guest spot as a tough lug on the 1974 sitcom Friends and Lovers caught the attention of producer Danny Arnold, who cast Gail as Detective Stanley "Wojo" Wojohowicz on the new comedy series Barney Miller. Gail played "Wojo" until the series' cancellation in 1980, at which point he re-entered the guest-star pool. Since that time Max Gail Jr. has been seen as a reporter on the short-lived 1983 adventure series Whiz Kids, and as the father of Dweezil Zappa and Moon Unit Zappa on the even shorter-lived 1990 sitcom Normal Life.

Trivia: Though ultimately credited with carrying the West Coast rap musical subgenre into the mainstream, rapper and hip-hop artist extraordinaire Coolio (born Artis Leon Ivey Jr.) endured a decidedly shaky and obstacle-laden road to success. Born in South Central Los Angeles in 1963, Coolio grew up in the ghetto during the '60s and '70s. During his adolescence, he lived out the myth of the young urban "gangsta," flirting dangerously with hardcore crimes that included gang violence, larceny, concealed weapons, and crack cocaine addiction. After cleaning up his life with extensive drug rehabilitation and "straight" jobs as a fireman in the Pacific Northwest and a security guard at LAX airport, Coolio launched himself as a rap performer. Initially, Coolio struggled (with several singles that accomplished little of note) before his breakthrough arrived -- via "guesting" on WC and the Maad Circle's 1991 album Ain't a Damn Thing Changed. One turn led to another, and as a product of his association with WC and Maad, Coolio caught the attention of Tommy Boy Records. This association produced a series of multi-platinum albums -- notably, the seminal late-1995 release Gangsta's Paradise; the title track (spun off of a 1976 Stevie Wonder tune) became something of a musical phenomenon and a cultural landmark. Thanks to Tommy Boy's efforts, the single gained initial notoriety by appearing on the soundtrack to the Michelle Pfeiffer juvenile delinquency drama Dangerous Minds. Musically, however, that represented Coolio's highest commercial peak for many years, and his subsequent albums sold fewer copies. Perhaps foreseeing this decline, he began branching away from recording and into acting around 1996, which was a wise turn, to say the least; it compensated for ongoing legal trouble and decreased record sales in the years to follow. In terms of contributions to filmed entertainment, Coolio began on the small screen, as an extension of his rap work, by recording the theme song to the popular Nickelodeon children's series Kenan & Kel; he then extended this into a kind of goofy, family-friendly comic persona, with trademark wild dreadlocks, ever-present on both Nick and on the revival of the '70s game show Hollywood Squares. The rapper's on-camera cinematic roles began inauspiciously, with turns in such lackluster motion pictures as Phat Beach and Dear God, but he scored his first part in a Hollywood A-list movie the following year, as the banker in Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin. The film qualified as a critical disaster (though not a commercial one). The onscreen exposure of Batman doubtless helped Coolio's image and lifted his stature, though not to the degree that one might expect. After 1997, he consistently turned up in low-brow fare that attracted little attention -- such as the 2000 inner-city opus Dope Case Pending (opposite Kid Frost) and Darrell James Roodt's little-seen sci-fi horror outing Dracula.3000 (2004). In 2005, Coolio teamed with Class of 1984 director Mark L. Lester for the direct-to-video sci-fi action opus Pterodactyl.

Trivia: Probably best known as Jim Walsh, the father of Brandon and Brenda on Beverly Hills 90210, actor James Eckhouse hadn't yet set his sites on acting when he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976. He didn't start appearing onscreen until the early '80s, when he began scoring minor roles in films like Will There Really Be a Morning? and Trading Places. Then, in 1990, Eckhouse was cast in Beverly Hills 90210 when it was a brand new series. It turned out to be a major hit, and Eckhouse stayed with the show for the next eight years. Afterward, he maintained a thriving acting career, making appearances on a wide variety of popular TV shows such as Without a Trace, Dharma & Greg, and CSI.