Trivia: Gloriously flamboyant American entertainer Bette Midler was born in Honolulu, HI, to the only Jewish family in the neighborhood. After dropping out of a drama class at the University of Hawaii, she took a tiny role in the 1966 film Hawaii, playing a seasick boat passenger (though it's hard to see her when viewing the film). Training for a dancing career in New York, Midler made the casting rounds for several months before finally winning a chorus role, and then the featured part of Tzeitel, in the long-running Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof.It helps to do something well that no one else does, and Midler found her forte by singing at the Continental Baths, a gay hangout in New York. Most bath house performers were painfully bad, but Midler established herself by combining genuine talent with the tackiness expected of her. As the "Divine Miss M," Midler did an act consisting of campy (and dirty) specialty numbers; dead-on imitations of such earlier performers as the Andrews Sisters and Libby Holman; and the most outrageously revealing costumes this side of Bob Mackie. Soon she outgrew the bath houses and went on to nightclub and recording-artist fame, earning a Grammy Award in 1973. After several years of sell-out tours, Midler re-entered films as the star of The Rose, a 1979 film à clef loosely based upon the life and times of Janis Joplin. The film was a success, but it failed to establish Midler as a dramatic actress; audiences, particularly gay fans, still preferred the Divine Miss M. Jinxed (1982), Midler's next film, lived up to its name with well-publicized production squabbles between Midler, the director, producers, and a few of her co-stars. Following the film's failure, Midler wasn't seen onscreen until she signed a contract with Disney in 1986. Establishing a new film identity as a character comedienne, Midler sparkled in Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), and was even better as a loudmouthed kidnap victim in Ruthless People (1987). Using her restored film stature, Midler set up her own production company and produced Beaches (1988), a pals-through-the-years saga that proved to be a four-hankie audience favorite. Once again attempting to establish herself as a tragedian, Midler starred in Stella (1989), a poorly-received remake of 1937's Stella Dallas. For the Boys (1992), offered Midler in tons of old-age makeup as a Martha Raye-style USO star (Raye responded to this "tribute" by suing the studio). The subsequent Scenes From a Mall (1991), which paired Midler with Woody Allen, and witchcraft fantasy Hocus Pocus (1993) also failed to truly showcase her talents. She rebounded somewhat in 1995 with a role in the wildly acclaimed Get Shorty, and had even greater success the following year co-starring with Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn in The First Wives Club. In 1999, Midler played herself in two films: the TV mockumentary Jackie's Back and Get Bruce!, a big-screen documentary about legendary comic writer Bruce Vilanch. In addition to her film work, Midler still performs live concerts to sold-out crowds and continues to release albums, including Bathouse Bette, a tribute to her early singing days. In 1993, she scored an enormous success in a superb TV adaptation of the Broadway musical Gypsy. And, in 2000, Midler extended her talents to television, starring as herself in the aptly-named sitcom Bette. Though she would only appear in a handful of films over the next decade, Midler remained quite active on stage and television, even earning an Emmy nomination for Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On in 2011.

Trivia: One of the most important British actors to emerge during the 1960s, Alan Bates made his reputation early in his career as one of the original "angry young men" of the post-war English theatre. His rumpled, malleable features lending themselves to his explosive versatility, Bates became a stage star through his portrayals of various disenfranchised working-class young men in such productions as John Osborne's Look Back in Anger, directed in 1956 by Tony Richardson, and Harold Pinter's The Caretaker, staged in 1964. Bates went on to establish himself as a noted screen actor in over 50 films, with particularly memorable turns in Zorba the Greek (1964), Georgy Girl (1966), and The Fixer (1968), for which he received a Best Actor Oscar nomination.The son of an insurance broker and a housewife, Bates was born the eldest of three brothers in the Midlands suburb of Allestree, Derbyshire, on February 17, 1934. Both of his parents were amateur musicians and encouraged their son to pursue a career as a concert pianist, but at the age of 11, Bates discovered that his true passion was for acting. After taking speech lessons and studying for a time with an acting teacher, he won a scholarship to London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he trained as a classical performer. Bates interrupted his studies to spend two years of service with the Royal Air Force and made his professional stage debut in 1955, at Coventry, with the Midland Theatre Company. Foregoing a traditional apprenticeship with an established theatre company, Bates instead joined the English Stage Company, a new repertory group based at London's Royal Court Theatre. He made his West End debut in 1956 in the company's first production and had his true breakthrough with his starring role in Tony Richardson's premiere staging of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger later that year.Look Back in Anger made Bates a star of the London and Broadway stage, and began a lifelong stage career that saw him perform in the works of such great modern playwrights as Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, and Alan Bennett, as well as those of Chekov, Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Strindberg. In 1960, the actor made his screen debut as one of Laurence Olivier's sons in Richardson's The Entertainer. Starring roles in Bryan Forbes' Whistle Down the Wind and John Schlesinger's A Kind of Loving followed two years later; both films received acclaim, much of which was directed toward Bates' performances as a murderer on the run in the former and a young working-class dreamer in the latter. The actor spent the remainder of the 1960s more or less in the spotlight, thanks to his starring work in some of the decade's most celebrated films, including Zorba the Greek (1964), Georgy Girl (1966), Le Roi de Coeur (1966), Far From the Madding Crowd (1967), The Fixer (1968), and Women in Love (1969). Each film showcased Bates' astonishing and often underrated versatility, as well as a willingness to do just about anything. This tendency was unforgettably demonstrated with his nude turns in Le Roi de Coeur and Women in Love, the latter of which required him to engage in an earthy wrestling session with Oliver Reed. Bates received his only Oscar nomination for John Frankenheimer's The Fixer, in which he portrayed a Russian Jew unjustly accused of murder. Bates began the subsequent decade on a very positive note, doing acclaimed work in Olivier's The Three Sisters (1970), in which he played Vershinin; A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1971), which cast him as the father of a young invalid whose condition puts a strain on her parents' marriage; and Joseph Losey's The Go-Between (1971), in which he and Julie Christie played illicit lovers. The actor's subsequent projects were incredibly varied, ranging from the exceptional (Lindsay Anderson's made-for-TV In Celebration [1975]) to the execrable (Michael Winner's The Wicked Lady [1983]), and Bates, although a prolific screen performer, tended to do his best work on the stage and television. He publicly acknowledged in at least one interview that it was his tendency to work constantly that allowed him to weather two tragedies that struck him in the early 90s: first, the death of his son Tristan from an asthma attack in 1990; second, the 1992 death of his longtime wife, actress Victoria Ward. Following his son's death, Bates and his other son Benedick, Tristan's twin, established the Tristan Bates Theatre at the Actors Centre in Covent Garden. In addition to his work for the theatre, Bates, who received a CBE from the Queen in 1995, continued to appear on the screen, his talents on particularly fine display in Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet (1990), in which he played the conniving Claudius.

Trivia: Frederic Forrest seemed destined for stardom earlier in his career, but circumstance has led him to become a well-respected supporting/character actor who only occasionally plays leads. Forrest began working professionally off-Broadway after studying acting under Sanford Meisner and Lee Strasberg. Forrest then worked in experimental theater with such groups as Tom O'Horgan's La Mama; it is with this troupe that he made his first film appearance in Futz (1969). He appeared in his first Hollywood feature as a young Indian in When the Legends Die (1972) after being spotted performing on the Los Angeles stage. His work earned him a Golden Globe for Best Newcomer and put him in demand with several big-name directors, most notably Francis Ford Coppola, who has provided Forrest with some of his best roles in films like The Conversation (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979), and Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988). Forrest was one of the first actors signed to a contract with Coppola's Zoetrope Studios. Forrest has once been nominated for an Oscar for playing Bette Midler's chauffeur/lover in The Rose (1979). In 1983, Forrest offered a memorable portrayal of detective novelist Dashiell Hammett in Hammett. Forrest has also done a lot of television work and has been particularly notable in such offerings as Lonesome Dove and Saigon, Year of the Cat. While primarily a supporting actor during the '80s, Forrest began playing character roles during the '90s in such films as The Two Jakes (1990), Falling Down (1993), and The Brave (1996).

Trivia: A perpetually haggard character actor with hound-dog eyes and the rare ability to alternate between menace and earnest at a moment's notice, Harry Dean Stanton has proven one of the most enduring and endearing actors of his generation. From his early days riding the range in Gunsmoke and Rawhide to a poignant turn in David Lynch's uncharacteristically sentimental drama The Straight Story, Stanton can always be counted on to turn in a memorable performance no matter how small the role. A West Irvine, KY, native who served in World War II before returning stateside to attend the University of Kentucky, it was while appearing in a college production of Pygmalion that Stanton first began to realize his love for acting. Dropping out of school three years later to move to California and train at the Pasadena Playhouse, Stanton found himself in good company while training alongside such future greats as Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall. A stateside tour with the American Male Chorus and a stint in New York children's theater found Stanton continuing to hone his skills, and after packing his bags for Hollywood shortly thereafter, numerous television roles were quick to follow. Billed Dean Stanton in his early years and often carrying the weight of the screen baddie, Stanton gunned down the best of them in numerous early Westerns before a soulful turn in Cool Hand Luke showed that he was capable of much more. Though a role in The Godfather Part II offered momentary cinematic redemption, it wasn't long before Stanton was back to his old antics in the 1976 Marlon Brando Western The Missouri Breaks. After once again utilizing his musical talents as a country & western singer in The Rose (1979) and meeting a gruesome demise in the sci-fi classic Alien, roles in such popular early '80s efforts as Private Benjamin, Escape From New York, and Christine began to gain Stanton growing recognition among mainstream film audiences; and then a trio of career-defining roles in the mid-'80s proved the windfall that would propel the rest of Stanton's career. Cast as a veteran repo man opposite Emilio Estevez in director Alex Cox's cult classic Repo Man (1984), Stanton's hilarious, invigorated performance perfectly gelled with the offbeat sensibilities of the truly original tale involving punk-rockers, aliens, and a mysteriously omnipresent plate o' shrimp. After sending his sons off into the mountains to fight communists in the jingoistic actioner Red Dawn (also 1984) Stanton essayed what was perhaps his most dramatically demanding role to date in director Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas. Cast as a broken man whose brother attempts to help him remember why he walked out on his family years before, Stanton's devastating performance provided the emotional core to what was perhaps one of the essential films of the 1980s. A subsequent role as Molly Ringwald's character's perpetually unemployed father in 1986's Pretty in Pink, while perhaps not quite as emotionally draining, offered a tender characterization that would forever hold him a place in the hearts of those raised on 1980s cinema. In 1988 Stanton essayed the role of Paul the Apostle in director Martin Scorsese's controversial religious epic The Last Temptation of Christ. By the 1990s Stanton was a widely recognized icon of American cinema, and following memorably quirky roles as an eccentric patriarch in Twister and a desperate private detective in David Lynch's Wild at Heart (both 1990), he settled into memorable roles in such efforts as Against the Wall (1994), Never Talk to Strangers (1995), and the sentimental drama The Mighty (1998). In 1996, Stanton made news when he was pistol whipped by thieves who broke into his home and stole his car (which was eventually returned thanks to a tracking device). Having previously teamed with director Lynch earlier in the decade, fans were delighted at Stanton's poignant performance in 1999's The Straight Story. Still going strong into the new millennium, Stanton could be spotted in such efforts as The Pledge (2001; starring longtime friend and former roommate Jack Nicholson), Sonny (2002), and The Big Bounce (2004). In addition to his acting career, Stanton can often be spotted around Hollywood performing with his band, The Harry Dean Stanton Band.

Trivia: A graduate of the University of Tennessee, David Keith made his first significant theatrical appearance in Chicago. Keith was to star in the 1979 sitcom Co-Ed Fever, but it was pulled from the CBS lineup after one episode. Luckily, his more enduring movie career also began in 1979 with a small role in The Rose. Keith quickly became a specialist in portraying all-American boy roles who were cursed with a fatal character flaw or two, as witnessed in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982). Keith's performance as a suicidal officer-in-training earned him two Golden Globe nominations. Retaining his military buzz-cut from Officer, Keith had his first above-the-title starring role in 1983's The Lords of Discipline. And with an uncharacteristic full head of hair, Keith played Elvis in the 1990 fantasy Heartbreak Hotel, performing the King's songs himself. An able director, Keith has thus far helmed two films: The Curse (1985) and Further Adventures of Tennessee Buck (1987). One of Keith's more unorthodox recent screen appearances was as a foot-tall toy figure who comes to life in 1995's The Indian in the Cupboard. Keith occasionally appears in made-for-television movies such as Guts & Glory: The Oliver Story in which he played the title role, and in miniseries like James Michener's Texas. Over the next several years, Keith would remain a consistent force on screen, most notably appearing in movies like Daredevil, Raise Your Voice, and Come Away Home. He would also memorably star on TV series like The Class.

Trivia: New Yorker Barry Primus is primarily an actor, but has also doubled and tripled as writer and director. Primus worked on stage for the first decade of his career, then made his screen bow in the Manhattan-filmed The Brotherhood (1968). Additional films include Boxcar Bertha (1972), Heartland (1979) Night Games (1980) and Guilty by Suspicion (1991). Primus also had a continuing role on the TV series Cagney and Lacey (1982-88) as Cagney's(Sharon Gless) erstwhile boyfriend Sgt. Dory McKenna, whose drug problem compromised his value as a cop. After working as director Mark Rydell's assistant on The Rose (1981) Barry Primus has increased his behind-the-camera activities; in 1992, Primus directed his first theatrical feature, the "inside" Hollywood comedy/drama Mistress.

Trivia: Character actor Will Hare played supporting roles on stage, television and the screen from age 17 up until his death at the age of 81. He made his feature film debut in Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1957); he made his final film appearance in Me and Veronica (1993). His television appearances include guest-starring roles on series ranging from sudsy dramas to sitcoms. Hare was among the charter members of the Actors Studio and it was there that he died of a heart attack during a rehearsal on August 28, 1997.

Trivia: American character actor Rudy Bond was brought to Hollywood in 1951 to recreated his stage role of Steve in the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). He spent the next thirty years hopping back and forth between California and New York for stage and screen assignments, with the occasional TV gig thrown in. Bond played Moose in the Oscar-winning film On the Waterfront (1954); in Twelve Angry Men (1957), Bond had the non-angry part of the Judge in the film's opening sequence; in The Godfather (1972), the actor appeared as Cuneo. Rudy Bond died in Denver, Colorado, where he was appearing in a play.

Trivia: In 1999, Doris Roberts achieved "overnight" stardom in the role of Marie Barone in the series Everybody Loves Raymond, going from working actress -- which she'd been for more than 40 years -- to being an instantly recognized performer. It was an improbable climb to the top rank of popular culture stardom. Roberts was born in St. Louis, MO, in 1925, to a family that was soon shattered when the father abandoned them. She had a difficult but loving childhood as her mother sought to provide for both of them by herself, and eventually Roberts gravitated toward the idea of an acting career. To do this, she had to work at any jobs that she could find, including clerk typist, to afford the lessons that she needed from teachers that included Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner. She made her first television appearance in the early '50s, in a Studio One production of Jane Eyre, and made the usual rounds between theater and television. Her theatrical debut came on the a stage at New York's City Center in 1955, and she was Shirley Booth's understudy in the theatrical version of the comedy Desk Set. She distinguished herself in the role of Mommy in the original production of Edward Albee's The American Dream, and since the early '60s, had carved a niche for herself in maternal and neighborly roles, on both stage and screen. Following her screen debut in Jack Garfein's New York-filmed drama Something Wild (1961), she tended more toward comedy (albeit often black comedy), with performances in Jack Smight's No Way to Treat a Lady, where she played the skeptical onlooker whose questions and low-key intervention save the life of a would-be victim; Leonard Kastle's The Honeymoon Killers (1970), in which she played the roommate of the nurse-turned-murderer played by Shirley Stoler; and Alan Arkin's Little Murders (1971), where she played Elliott Gould's mother. Female comics seemed to perceive Roberts' gifts as an actress especially well, as she got two of her better roles, in A New Leaf (1971) and Rabbit Test (1978), from Elaine May and Joan Rivers, respectively. Although she began appearing in television in the 1950s, with appearances on Ben Casey, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Baretta, All in the Family, The Streets of San Francisco, Rhoda, Soap, and Barney Miller, Roberts didn't start to make a lasting impression in the medium -- which would become her vehicle for stardom -- until the 1970s. She was supposed to have a role in a proposed new series starring Mary Tyler Moore, but when that series failed to sell, she was cast in the role of Donna Pescow's mother in the series Angie (1979), which got Roberts her first real notice by the public or the press. After that, the television appearances grew more frequent, and finally in 1983, she joined the cast of Remington Steele midway through the series' run, as Mildred Krebs, an IRS investigator-turned-secretary-turned-detective, working alongside Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist, and often stealing the show with her low-key comedic work. Roberts' first marriage ended in divorce, and her second, to novelist William Goyen, ended when he died in 1983 -- her son from her first marriage, Michael Cannata, has been her manager since the 1970s. It was a dozen years after Remington Steele, and some notable guest star appearances on shows like St. Elsewhere, that she landed the role of Marie on Everybody Loves Raymond. Since then, she has been a guest on talk shows and an acting celebrity, with a brace of Emmy nominations to her credit.In 2003 Roberts published the book Are You Hungry, Dear?: Life, Laughs and Lasagna, and the following year she was appointed a cultural ambassador by the U.S. Department of State. But back on the small screen Roberts was more recognizable than ever before, with appearances in Grey's Anatomy, Hot in Cleveland, and Desperate Housewives keeping her as active as ever. Roberts continued to work steadily until her death in 2016, at age 90.

Trivia: Jonathan Banks began his film career in the sort of roles described by character actor Frank Faylen as "sneezers." For example: if you sneezed, you'd miss Banks' microscopic part in 1980's Stir Crazy. He was more visible in such roles as the hitchhiker in the 1982 biopic Frances and Algren in the 1983 seriocomedy 48 Hours. On television, Jonathan Banks was cast as the scurrilous extraterrestrial Commander Kroll in Otherworld (1985) and as Frank McPike, Ken Wahl's choleric boss, in Wiseguy (1987). Banks would continue to appear in several more films over the coming years, like Dark Blue and Reign Over Me, as well as TV shows like Breaking Bad.

Trivia: Bulky, blustery American actor Pat Corley came to films in the early '70s after several years of stage character parts. He appeared conspicously (it was hard for a man his size to be inconspicuous) in such films as The Super Cops (1973), The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (1977), Coming Home (1978), True Confessions (1982) and Against All Odds (1984), often cast as an antagonistic athlete or a law enforcement officer. He also showed up on episodic television, co-starring as shifty baseball-team owner Ray Holtz on Bay City Blues (1983) and bumbling police chief Walter Padgett on He's the Mayor (1986). Since 1989, Pat Corley has been on duty as Phil, the affable bar owner on the Candice Bergen sitcom Murphy Brown.

Trivia: Starting out as an actor and production assistant in basement-budget cycle flicks like Angels from Hell, Jack Starrett matriculated into a director of exploitation and blaxploitation features. Starrett is the "auteur" of such low-cost money-spinners as Slaughter (1972), Cleopatra Jones (1973) and Final Chapter: Walking Tall (1977). In the late seventies, he was one of the principal directors of TV's Starsky and Hutch. Starrett's TV directorial credits include the 1979 miniseries Mr. Horn, in which he assigned himself the supporting role of General Crook. He briefly returned to full-time acting with a featured role in Sylvester Stallone's First Blood (1982). Jack Starrett died of renal failure at the age of 52.

Trivia: While never attaining the stardom of his father, John Garfield, David Garfield has found a steady career as a working-class actor playing small supporting roles in many films since making his film debut in the '60s. For his first film appearances, the young actor billed himself as John Garfield Jr. until the early '70s. His sister, Julie Garfield, is an actress.

Trivia: American actor Victor Argo was principally a stage performer, both in New York and in regional repertory, when he tentatively began his film work in the 1970s. Early Argo movie credits include 1972's Boxcar Bertha and the 1975 Martin Scorsese production Mean Streets. In the late 1980s, Argo enjoyed a burst of movie activity, though thanks to location shooting he didn't have to leave Manhattan too often. The actor was seen as Roy Bishop in King of New York (1987), Avram in Her Alibi (1989), a cop in New York Stories (1989). Woody Allen utilized Argo in two films, Crimes and Misdemeanors (1988) (as a detective) and Shadows and Fog (1990). Rare non-New York film productions featuring Victor Argo have included McBain (1988), in which he played "El Presidente," and the controversial Last Temptation of Christ (1988) in which Argo portrayed Peter Apostle. And in early 1989, Victor Argo had weekly work as Anthony Coltrera on the New Jersey-based TV series Dream Street. His 1990s film credits included a major role in Smoke (1995) and its sequel Blue in the Face (1996) and Next Stop Wonderland (1998).