Trivia: The son of a Boston barber, Leonard Nimoy was a star at the age of 8, when he played Hansel in a children's theatre production of Hansel and Gretel. Nimoy remained with his local kiddie theater troupe until 16 (one of his directors during this period was Boris Sagal). After studying drama at Boston College and Antioch College, he took acting lessons from Jeff Corey at the Pasadena Playhouse. In films from 1950, Nimoy played the title character in the low-budget Kid Monk Baroni and essayed bits and minor roles in such productions as Zombies of the Stratosphere (1951), Rhubarb (1951) and Them! (1954). In between acting assignments, he held down a dizzying variety of jobs: soda jerk, newspaper carrier, vacuum-cleaner salesman, vending machine mechanic, pet-shop clerk, cabbie and acting coach. During his 18 months in Special Services at Fort McPherson, Georgia, he acted with Atlanta Theater Guild when he could spare the time. Back in Hollywood in 1956, he became virtually a regular at the Ziv TV studios, playing villains in programs like Highway Patrol and Sea Hunt. For a short while, he specialized in the plays of Jean Genet, appearing in both the stage and film productions of The Balcony and Deathwatch. Impressed by Nimoy's guest turn on a 1963 episode of The Lieutenant, producer Gene Roddenberry vowed to cast the saturnine, mellow-voiced actor as an extraterrestrial if ever given the chance. That chance came two years later, when Roddenberry signed Nimoy to play Vulcanian science officer Spock on Star Trek. At first pleased at the assignment, Nimoy came to resent the apparent fact that the public perceived him as Spock and nothing else: indeed, one of his many written works was the slim autobiography I Am Not Spock. After Star Trek's cancellation, Nimoy joined the cast of Mission: Impossible in the role of "master of disguise" Paris (he replaced the series' previous master of disguise Martin Landau, who ironically had originally been slated to play Spock). In the early 1970s, Nimoy began racking up directorial credits on such series as Night Gallery. He also made his first Broadway appearance in 1973's Full Circle. And, perhaps inevitably, he returned to Spock, thanks to the popular demand engendered by the then-burgeoning Star Trek cult. His initial reacquaintance with the role was as voiceover artist on the 1973 Saturday-morning cartoon version of Star Trek. Then Spock went on the back burner again as Nimoy devoted himself to his theatrical commitments (a touring production of Sherlock Holmes, his one-man show Vincent), his writing and directing activities, and his hosting chores on the long-running (1976-82) TV documentary series In Search Of.... Finally in 1978, Nimoy was back in his Enterprise uniform in the first of several Star Trek theatrical features. The Spock character was killed off in the second Trek picture The Wrath of Khan, but Nimoy stayed with the franchise as director of the next two feature-length Trek entries (PS: Spock also came back to life). He went on to direct such non-Trek filmic endeavors as 3 Men and a Baby (1987), The Good Mother (1988), Funny About Love (1990) and Holy Matrimony (1994). He also produced and acted in the 1991 TV movie Never Forget, and served as executive producer of the 1995 UPN network series Deadly Games. Perhaps because he will always have dozens of professional irons in the fire, Leonard Nimoy now seems resigned to being forever associated with the role that brought him international fame; his most recent autobiographical work was aptly titled I Am Spock. In 2009 he returned to his iconic role portraying Spock in J.J. Abrams smash-hit reboot of the Star Trek franchise. He next took on a recurring role in the sci-fi series Fringe, playing scientist William Bell. Nimoy made a final cameo appearance in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). He died in 2015, at age 83.

Trivia: Susan Hampshire was an actress from childhood, but stardom eluded her until she played a colorful one-scene bit in the 1958 London stage production Expresso Bongo. Hampshire was not cast in the 1959 film version of this play, but instead made her "official" starring film debut (after a couple of earlier bit parts) in the class-conscious comedy Upstairs and Downstairs (1959). She endeared herself to American audiences with her performance in Disney's Three Lives of Thomasina (1963) then went out of her way to avoid being typecast in kiddie-movie parts by playing the scantily clad lady friend of Albert Finney in Night Must Fall (1964). Two years later, she was seen as the completely un clad leading lady in the French Paris in the Month of August (1966), directed by her future husband Pierre Granier-Deferre. With her portrayal of Agnes Wakefield in the all-star 1969 television adaptation of David Copperfield, Hampshire established herself as one of the business TV miniseries performers in the English-speaking world. Her performances as Fleur Forsythe in the internationally popular The Forsythe Saga (1967), Sarah Churchill in The First Churchills (1970) and Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair (1972) won her accolades from all over the globe, including three American Emmy awards. She also starred as Lady Glencora Palliser in the 22-episode adaptation of Anthony Trollope's The Pallisers (telecast in the U.S. in 1977). Though she breezes through archaic classical dialogue with seeming effortlessness, Susan Hampshire has been a lifelong dyslexic, a fact she elaborates upon in her 1982 book Susan's Story.

Trivia: Beauty contest winner Vera Ralston made a smattering of industrial films before beginning her Hollywood career in 1952. While making films at Republic studios, Ralston changed her name to avoid being confused with Republic's reigning queen Vera Hruba Ralston; "Miles" was the last name of her first husband. At first cast as a bland ingenue, she proved herself capable of conveying neurotic hysteria in The Charge at Feather River (1953), playing a white girl kidnapped by Indians who was violently resistant to being returned to her real family. She met her second husband, Gordon Scott, while filming Tarzan's Hidden Jungle (1954). With her work in John Ford's The Searchers (1955), she graduated to big-budget productions. During the latter half of the 1950s, she was under contract to Alfred Hitchcock, who was impressed by the "still waters run deep" element of her performances. She played a delusional rape victim in "Revenge," the very first episode of TV's Alfred Hitchcock Presents; she was cast as Henry Fonda's beleaguered wife in Hitch's The Wrong Man (her final scene is a knockout!); and, of course, she was seen as the sister of the ill-fated Janet Leigh in Psycho, a role she flamboyantly reprised in the 1982 sequel Psycho 2. While she never quite attained full film stardom, Miles kept extremely busy in both theatrical releases and television. During the 1960s and 1970s, she was regarded as a "good luck charm" by TV producers: if she guest-starred in the pilot episode of a potential series, chances are that series would sell (among those sold were the aforementioned Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Asphalt Jungle, The Eleventh Hour, The Fugitive, Court Martial, The Outer Limits, I Spy, Gentle Ben, Cannon and Owen Marshall, Counsellor at Law). She continued to make occasional appearances until the 1995 feature Separate Lives, in which she costarred with James Belushi; afterward, she retired from acting. As of this writing, Vera Miles is still married to her fourth husband, sound engineer and mixer Bob Jones.

Trivia: Actress Rachel Roberts studied theater at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, then began her professional career in 1951. Roberts focused primarily on the stage, but appeared in about two dozen movies from 1953-80; she was often cast as a blowsy, sensual housewife. For her work in This Sporting Life (1963) she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination and won the British Film Academy Best Actress award. She also won British Film Academy awards for her work in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) and Yanks (1979). In the mid '70s, Roberts moved to Los Angeles, going on to costar as the housekeeper Mrs. McClellan on the TV sitcom "The Tony Randall Show." From 1955-61 she was married to actor Alan Dobie; from 1962-71 she was married to actor Rex Harrison, with whom she appeared in A Flea in Her Ear (1968). She died at 53 from barbiturate poisoning; her death was ruled a suicide.

Trivia: As a stage actress, Valerie Taylor appeared opposite some of Great Britain's most distinguished actors, including Laurence Olivier and Michael Redgrave, during the '20s and '30s. Taylor made her Broadway debut in 1929 in Berkeley Square. In 1933, she appeared in the film version. In addition to acting, Taylor also co-penned the script for Take My Life (1948).

Trivia: British lead and supporting actor Ray Brooks began his film career in the early '60s. He has also done a lot of television and stage work.

Trivia: Typically cast as someone's devoted mother or a charwoman, character-actress Patsy Smart had a steady but rather undistinguished film career that began in The Mailbag Robbery(1957) and culminated with Electric Dreams (1987). She has also appeared much on television in programs that include Secret Agent, The Avenger, and Q.E.D.

Trivia: British actor Dan Meaden played supporting roles, primarily in the theater and on television. He has also appeared in a few feature films.