Trivia: The daughter of actors, Brooke Adams was once praised by the press for her supremely flexible countenance -- with expressions and demeanors to accommodate virtually any emotion or situation. Adams attended New York's High School of Performing Arts and the Institute of American Ballet, and took private acting lessons from Lee Strasberg. At age six, she made her Broadway debut in the 1954 revival of Finian's Rainbow. Eleven years later, she was cast as Burl Ives' teenaged daughter in the extremely short-lived TV sitcom O.K. Crackerby (1965-1966) on ABC.Adams then kept a low professional profile until making her adult off-Broadway bow in 1974, appearing in yet another revival, The Petrified Forest. A great future was predicted for Brooke when she starred as Abby, the romantic bone of contention between Richard Gere and Sam Shepard in Terrence Malick's critically acclaimed 1978 film, Days of Heaven. That same year, she played Elizabeth Driscoll (the Dana Wynter role) in the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, opposite Donald Sutherland, and in 1979 she was Sean Connery's ethereal leading lady in the Richard Lester-directed Cuba. Any one of those three roles could have spelled superstardom for Brooke -- had she really wanted to be a superstar. Instead, she deliberately avoided the trappings of celebritydom, preferring to measure her achievements by her own standards rather than Hollywood's. And, if that meant accepting "small" but artistically rewarding theatrical projects or teaching acting classics to emotionally disturbed children, rather than accepting a role in the latest Spielberg or Scorsese blockbuster, so be it. Brooke Adams' more notable credits during the mid- to late '80s and '90s included guest appearances on TV's Moonlighting (as single mother and David Addison Lamaze partner Terri Knowles), a role in the Broadway production The Heidi Chronicles, the narration duties for the 1994 miniseries The Fire This Time, and the role of Ione Skye's hardscrabble mother in the Allison Anders-directed Gas Food Lodging (1992). These represented high points, however, and more often than not, Adams found herself relegated to parts unworthy of her, such as the unevenly received 1985 adaptation of Kevin Wade's play Key Exchange (in which she reprised her stage role) and the histrionic TV movies Lace (1984) and Lace II (1985).In subsequent years, Adams made a greater splash on television, with guest appearances on such series programs as Wings, Monk (both opposite husband Tony Shalhoub), and Touched by an Angel. She also returned to the big screen for supporting roles in several projects, including the 1995 Baby-Sitters Club and the 2007 Griffin Dunne-directed romantic comedy The Accidental Husband.

Trivia: Character actor Karen has had a 40-year career as an actor. He made his Broadway bow with Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Elia Kazan. Since then, he has worked continuously in theater, television and film, with such greats as his idol Buster Keaton, and on up to director Oliver Stone. His best-known films include Return of the Living Dead (1985) and Return of the Living Dead II (1988). Karen has also appeared in All the President's Men (1976), China Syndrome (1979), Poltergeist (1982), and Wall Street (1987). He was a regular on Eight is Enough (1977-81), starred in the science fiction series The Powers of Matthew Star as Major Wymore (1983) and had a recurring role on the cable series The Larry Sanders Show. Karen took on a series of small roles in notable films throughout the early 2000s; among his credits include Any Given Sunday (1999), Thirteen Days (2000), and Mulholland Dr. (2001). He played a supporting role alongside Will Smith and Thandie Newton in the 2006 drama The Pursuit of Happyness, and appeared in Superman Returns the same year. He worked with Chevy Chase and Christopher Lloyd in director Gary J. Tunnicliffe's adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk in 2009, and took a small part in 2010's psychological drama Sympathy for Delicious.

Trivia: The acerbic, razor-tongued, take-no-prisoners comedian Kathy Griffin has built a career for herself -- as an actress and a standup performer -- around the schtick of being permanently under-respected by everyone (as the title of her TV series, My Life on the D List, suggests), and fighting back with her claws extended. Griffin is notorious for mercilessly skewering and taking potshots at worthy targets (particularly fellow celebrities and comedians) through her comedy, and has built a considerable career out of doing so.Born in Oak Park, IL, and raised in the Chicago area, to an electronics store manager father and a hospital administrator mother, Griffin reportedly wanted to become an actress from the age of five and frequently improvised elaborate stage and comedy acts for her family. Griffin attended Oak Park High School, and -- after graduation -- studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute in Southern California. In 1988, the then-28-year-old joined the now-infamous sketch comedy troupe the Groundlings, alongside such stars-to-be as Lisa Kudrow, Will Ferrell, and Julia Sweeney, where she evinced an extraordinary gift for improvisatory work. After the Groundlings, Griffin developed and honed a solo standup act, which -- as she later recalled -- opened numerous doors for her as an actress, including a turn as Lucy in the Bobcat Goldthwait vehicle Shakes the Clown (1992), a brief cameo in Pulp Fiction, and a small multi-episode role on Seinfeld. Griffin was particularly memorable in the latter, as Sally Weaver, the standup comedian whose act consists of trashing Jerry Seinfeld by revealing embarrassing details from his personal life. A cameo as herself in the SNL big-screen vehicle It's Pat (1994) reunited Griffin with fellow Groundling Sweeney. Beginning in 1996, Griffin parlayed her comic flair and small-screen experience into a standing role in the hit NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan, starring Brooke Shields; that program cast Griffin as Vicki Groener, magazine columnist Shields' not-so-subtly envious, über-saucy colleague. The program scored with viewers and ran for three seasons. Meanwhile, Griffin continued her big-screen roles, with turns in the 1995 omnibus picture Four Rooms (as Betty), the 1996 Ben Stiller-directed The Cable Guy (as Jim Carrey's mother), and Muppets from Space (1999), as an armed guard. Additional guest contributions on a myriad of sitcoms during the '90s and 2000s gave an added charge to the respective series casts.Griffin also starred in the aforementioned cable series Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List, which began airing on the Bravo network in 2004. The comically charged reality show cast Griffin as herself, battling through the experiences of everyday life -- such as training a new puppy and teaching a class as The Learning Annex. Griffin would continue to find huge success as a stand-up, as well as a show host on her own aptly titled talkshow, Kathy, which was canceled after two seasons.

Trivia: American screenwriter Jonathan Emerson and his wife Anita Loos helped develop the screen persona of silent superstar Douglas Fairbanks. He also directed a number of silent films. Originally the Sandusky, Ohio-born Emerson aspired to become an Episcopalian minister like his father, but later got bitten by the acting bug and began appearing in plays. This eventually led to Broadway and then to work backstage as a director and stage manager. Emerson wrote his first screenplays and appeared in his first films in 1912. Three years later he began working under D.W. Griffith at Triangle and it is there that he got to work with Fairbanks. He became a full-time screenwriter in the mid 1920s and frequently collaborated with Loos. Emerson also produced a few films.

Trivia: Lisa Kudrow first made her name playing Phoebe, the ditzy, New Age member of the titular close-knit pals on NBC's highly successful sitcom Friends. Since then, she has bridged the gap between television and film with undeniable success, winning particular acclaim for her role as an uptight school teacher in Don Roos' The Opposite of Sex (1998).Born in Encino, California on July 30, 1963, Kudrow earned a degree in biology from Vassar College before beginning her acting career. After college, she joined the Los Angeles improvisational group, The Groundlings, at the urging of family friend Jon Lovitz. Improv paved the way for more work, and Kudrow was soon appearing in bit roles in a number of films. Her first real break didn't come until 1993, when she began appearing on the TV sitcom Mad About You as Ursula, the waitress from hell. Real fame came in 1994, when the actress was cast as Phoebe on Friends; the enormous success of the show gave her both wide recognition and a steady day job. Kudrow's first leading role on the big screen was as one of the titular heroines (alongside Mira Sorvino) of the 1997 comedy Romy and Michele's High School Reunion; unfortunately, her character was little more than a film version of Phoebe. Fortunately, Kudrow got to widen her range a little further that same year with a starring role in the independent drama Clockwatchers, portraying a struggling actress alongside the likes of Toni Collette and Parker Posey. The following year, Kudrow won raves and critical respect for her turn in The Opposite of Sex, a scathing black comedy in which she gave a comic and poignant performance as an embittered woman coping with the death of her brother, the presence of her best friend's malicious little sister (Christina Ricci), and the romantic attentions of Lyle Lovett. The acclaim she received for her portrayal was complemented the same year with an Emmy Award for her work on Friends. In 1999, Kudrow shared the screen with Robert DeNiro in the comedy Analyze This, and later that year she starred with Diane Keaton and Meg Ryan as three sisters dealing with the imminent death of their irritating father (Walter Matthau) in the comedy Hanging Up, directed by Keaton and written by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron.As the new millenium unfolded, Kudrow would prove to be a strong force on screen, appearing in a number of acclaimed films, like Wonderland, Happy Endings, The Other Woman, Easy A, and in the comedy series Web Therapy.

Trivia: A producer, actor, and screenwriter whose credits ranged from a bit role in The Naked Gun 33 1/3 to stage producer for Mel Brooks' production of The Producers, multi-faceted show business man Matt Roe had his irons in multiple fires -- and all to great effect. A Brooklyn native, he founded the Denver-based production house Clear Concepts, a company which eventually settled in Mexico, where Roe tried his hand at directing, as well. Though he eventually sold Clear Concepts and moved to Los Angeles to do commercial work, the company continued to flourish while its founder embarked on a series of supporting feature roles. From the late '80s to the early 2000s, Roe's work in such features as The Puppet Master (1989), Child's Play 2 (1990), Improper Conduct (1994), and Black Scorpion (1995) added an extra dimension to otherwise run-of-the-mill supporting roles. Behind the camera, he wrote the screenplays for Tainted Love (1996), Irresistible Impulse (1996), and The Minion (1998). Matt Roe died of multiple myeloma October 9, 2003, in Los Angeles. He was 51.