Trivia: Though Art Carney would grow up to become a shy, retiring, self-effacing man, he was quite the class clown in school. HIs grades never rising above mediocre, Carney excelled in mimicry, performing astonishingly accurate imitations of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fred Allen, Ned Sparks, and other 1930s luminaries. This skill enabled him to win a number of New York-based amateur contests, and in 1938 landed him a spot as musician/comedian with the Horace Heidt orchestra. Extensive radio work followed, notably Heidt's weekly quiz show Pot of Gold, which when made into a film in 1941 featured Carney in an uncredited role. While serving in WWII, Carney endured a serious leg wound which left him with a permanent limp. Fortunately this infliction did not impede his postwar radio work; he acted on such dramatic programs as Gangbusters and Dimension X, and appeared as a comedy foil for such major stars as Bert Lahr and Henry Morgan. He moved into television in 1948, playing a comic waiter on The Morey Amsterdam Show. Full-fledged stardom came his way in 1951 when he was hired as supporting player for a roly-poly comedian named Jackie Gleason on the Dumont TV Network's Cavalcade of Stars. Though they were never any more than fast friends off-stage, Gleason and Carney immediately developed a warm on-camera rapport that was to remain intact until Gleason's death in 1987. When Gleason moved from Dumont to CBS in 1952, Carney joined him, playing a remarkable array of sharply defined characters on The Jackie Gleason Show, the most famous of which was goofy, gesticulating sewer worker Ed Norton in the series' classic Honeymooners sketches. Ultimately, Carney was to win six Emmy awards, not only for his work on the Gleason show but also for his dramatic performances in such projects as the 1984 TV movie Terrible Joe Moran. He made a successful transition to the Broadway stage in 1959's The Rope Dancers, subsequently appearing in such stage hits as Take Her She's Mine, The Odd Couple (originating the role of Felix Unger), and Lovers. He returned to films in 1965, and nine years later won an Academy Award for his portrayal of an irascible senior citizen in Harry and Tonto. Even at the height of his popularity and activity, Carney suffered from profound emotional problems; a quiet, introspective sort not given to venting anger or displeasure, he assuaged his rage and insecurities with liquor. His alcoholic intake eventually impaired his ability to perform, forcing him to periodically dry out and take stock in himself in various sanitariums and clinics. Though Art Carney was eventually able to overcome his difficulties, he became more reclusive and less active as the years rolled on. The 1980s proved Carney's final active decade in front of the camera, and following roles in St. Helens, The Muppets Take Manhattan, and Firestarted (not to mention numerous small-screen appearances) Carney called it quits following an appearance in the 1993 action flop The Last Action Hero. His subsequent retirement proving a restful departure from the high energy entertainment industry, the beloved Honeymooners star died of natural causes in November of 2003.

Trivia: Actress Ellen Burstyn enjoyed her greatest prominence during the '70s, a decade during which she was a virtual fixture of Academy Award voters' ballots. Born Edna Rae Gillooly in Detroit, MI, on December 7, 1932, as a teen she studied dancing and performed in an acrobatic troupe. She later became a model for paperback book covers, subsequently dancing in a Montréal nightclub under the name "Keri Flynn." In 1954, she was tapped to appear as a Gleason Girl on television's Jackie Gleason Show, and in 1957, she made her Broadway debut in Fair Game, again with a new stage name, "Ellen McRae." While in New York, Burstyn studied acting under Stella Adler, and later married theatrical director Paul Roberts. She briefly relocated to Los Angeles for television work but soon returned east to work at the Actors' Studio. She made her film debut in 1964's For Those Who Think Young, quickly followed by Goodbye Charlie. The cinema did not yet suit her, however, and she spent the remainder of the decade appearing on the daytime soap opera The Doctors.It was after marrying her third husband, actor Neil Burstyn, that she adopted the name most familiar to audiences, and was so billed in 1969's film adaptation of Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer. While the picture was unsuccessful, it did attract the notice of director Paul Mazursky, who cast her in his 1970 project Alex in Wonderland. Burstyn then began a string of high-profile films which established her among the preeminent actresses of the decade: The first, Peter Bogdanovich's 1971 masterpiece The Last Picture Show, earned her a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination, but she lost out to co-star Cloris Leachman. Burstyn next appeared opposite Jack Nicholson in Bob Rafelson's acclaimed The King of Marvin Gardens before starring in William Friedkin's 1973 horror hit The Exorcist, a performance which earned her a Best Actress nomination. For Mazursky, she co-starred in the whimsical 1974 tale Harry and Tonto, and then appeared in a well-received TV feature, Thursday's Game.However, it was 1974's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore which truly launched Burstyn to stardom. Warner Bros. had purchased the screenplay at her insistence two years earlier, but her efforts to bring it to the screen were met with considerable resistance. Her first choice for director was Francis Ford Coppola, who declined, but he suggested she approach Martin Scorsese. In the wake of Mean Streets, Scorsese was eager to attempt a "woman's film," and agreed to take the project on. The result was a major critical and commercial success, and on her third attempt Burstyn finally won an Oscar. That same year, she won a Tony for her work on Broadway in the romantic drama Same Time, Next Year, the first actress to score both honors during the same awards season since Audrey Hepburn two decades prior. However, upon wrapping up her theatrical run, Burstyn was not besieged by the offers so many expected her to receive. In fact, she did not appear onscreen for three years, finally resurfacing in Alain Resnais' Providence.The film was not a success, nor was 1978's Jules Dassin-helmed A Dream of Passion. With co-star Alan Alda, Burstyn reprised her Broadway performance in a 1978 feature version of Same Time, Next Year, but it too failed to meet expectations, although she was again Oscar-nominated. After a two-year hiatus, she starred in Resurrection, followed in 1981 by Silence of the North, which went directly to cable television. For the networks, she starred in 1981's The People vs. Jean Harris, based on the notorious "Scarsdale diet" murder. After 1984's The Ambassador, Burstyn co-starred in the following year's Twice in a Lifetime, which was to be her last feature film for some years. She instead turned almost exclusively to television, appearing in a series of TV movies and starring in a disastrously short-lived 1986 sitcom, The Ellen Burstyn Show. Finally, in 1988, she returned to cinemas in Hanna's War, followed three years later by Dying Young. Other notable projects of the decade included 1995's How to Make an American Quilt, The Spitfire Grill (1996), and the 1998 ensemble drama Playing by Heart, in which she played the mother of a young man dying of AIDS. If her success and talents had eluded younger audiences for the past decade all of that would change with Burstyn's role as the delusional mother of a heroin addict in Darren Aranofsky's grim addiction drama Requiem for a Dream. An adaptation of Hubert Selby, Jr.'s novel of the same name, Burstyn's heartbreaking performance as an abandoned mother whose dreams come shattering down around proved an Oscar nominated performance. She subsequently appeared in such made-for-television dramas as Dodson's Journey and Within These Walls (both 2001) and such films as Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Cross the Line (both 2002). Burstyn appeared in a variety of well-received television films including Mrs. Harris and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and had a role in the short-lived series The Book of Daniel. She maintained her presence on the big screen by reteaming with Arronofsky in his big-budget tale The Fountain, and she appeared in Neil La Bute's remake of The Wicker Man. Burstyn was soon gearing up to reteam with Aranofsky for the time travel fantasy thriller The Fountain. She continued to work steadily in various projects such as the political biopic W.; Lovely, Still; and played a stern matriarch in the indie drama Another Happy Day.

Trivia: A full-blooded Tse-lal-Watt Sioux, Canadian-born Chief Dan George was a manual laborer until his late 40s. Sidelined by an injury, George spent a dozen years as chief of his tribe. He stepped down from this post to become an actor at age 61, appearing on the Canadian TV adventure series Caribou Country. His first film was Smith!, produced in 1969. George was Oscar-nominated for his performance as Old Lodge Skins in the 1970 revisionist western Little Big Man. He continued appearing in films throughout the 1970s--sometimes in roles worthy of his talents, sometimes not (1971's Bob Hope vehicle Cancel My Reservation). In this last decade of his life, Chief Dan George actively campaigned for various Native American causes, foremost of which was his effort to guarantee that Indian roles in films would henceforth be played by Indians and not by heavily made-up Caucasians.

Trivia: The daughter of a Dublin attorney, Geraldine Fitzgerald was still in her teens when she made her theatrical bow with the Gate Theatre. In films from 1934, she played a series of petulant ingénues in a string of forgettable quota quickies; in later years, she sarcastically summed up her early screen roles by repeating her most frequent snatch of dialogue, "But daddy, it's my birthday!" With her first husband, she moved to New York in 1938, where she was hired by her old Gate Theatre colleague Orson Welles to star in the Mercury Theater production Heartbreak House. This led to several choice Hollywood assignments in such films as Dark Victory (1939) and Wuthering Heights (1939). Forever battling with studio executives over her often inconsequential screen assignments (exceptions included such roles as Edith Galt in the 1945 biopic Wilson), Fitzgerald briefly gave up films in 1948 to return to the stage. Carefully picking and choosing her subsequent movie roles, she established herself as a reliable character actress in quality films like Ten North Frederick (1958) and The Pawnbroker (1965). She briefly pursued a folksinging career before returning to Broadway in the ultra-demanding role of Mary Tyrone in the 1971 revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night. Active into the late '80s, Fitzgerald has added a welcome dash of Hibernian feistiness to such projects as Arthur (1981) and Easy Money (1983). Geraldine Fitzgerald is the mother of prominent British film director Michael Lindsay-Hogg.

Trivia: The son of Broadway actress Mary Martin, Larry Hagman was born September 21st, 1931 in Fort Worth, Texas. After his parents divorced, he lived with his grandmother in California until the time of her death. Hagman, 12 years old at the time, then returned to his mother who was working on the Broadway stage. After attending Bard College in Anandale-on-the-Hudson for one year, his own early efforts at breaking into showbiz began at the Margo Jones Theatre-in-the-Round in Dallas, and soon after in The Taming of the Shrew at the New York City Center. While working as a cast member on his mother's hit show South Pacific, Hagman took up residence in England and ended up staying there for five years. During that time he joined the U.S. Air Force where he found time to produce and direct several theater productions. It was also during that time that he met and fell in love with Maj Axelsson, a young Swedish designer. They were married in December of 1954. Back in the U.S., Hagman began to make progress in his career, tallying up several TV guest-star appearances (including, presciently, a smiling villain on an episode of Sea Hunt), a regular role as lawyer Ed Gibson on the daytime soap opera The Edge of Night, and a beautifully played supporting role as a Russian/ English interpreter in the nuclear nailbiter Fail Safe. In 1965, Hagman received his most prominent acting assignment to date as eternally flustered astronaut Tony Nelson on the TV sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. After five years of Jeannie, Hagman took a few film and TV-movie parts, co-starred with Donna Mills on the 1971 sitcom The Good Life, co-starred with Lauren Bacall in the TV rendition of the Broadway musical Applesauce, acted and directed in the low-grade horror spoof Beware! The Blob. Hagman's best-ever TV stint was as the charming but conniving J. R. Ewing on the nighttime TV serial Dallas, a role he played from 1978 through 1990. At first reluctant to accept the role, Hagman acknowledges that it was his wife Maj's encouragement that convinced him to do the series. Proof of Hagman's drawing power as J.R. came when, at the end of the 1979-80 season, the character was shot down by a mysterious assailant--setting the stage for the "Who Shot J.R.?" episode, one of the highest-rated telecasts of all time. After the cancellation of Dallas in 1991, Hagman was forced to slow down his busy schedule due to an ongoing battle with liver cancer, and in August of 1995 he was the recipient of a liver transplant, a procedure that saved his life. Hagman's public life has always included a variety of civic and philanthropic undertakings. A staunch non-smoker, Hagman acted as the chairperson of the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout for nine years, and following his 1995 surgery, he became the National Spokesperson for the 1996 U.S. Transplant Games sponsored by the National Kidney Foundation and was recognized by the foundation for his role in increasing public awareness in regards to organ donation. In 1997, Hagman made a television comeback as the Honorable Judge Luther Charbonnet in the critically acclaimed CBS series Orleans, and in 1998 he appeared in the popular political satire Primary Colors. Hagman resumed his portrayal of J.R. Ewing opposite Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray for the well-received TNT revival of Dallas that began in the summer of 2012, but that turn was short lived; in November of that year, the actor succumbed to complications from cancer. He was 81.

Trivia: One of the youngest "old codgers" in show business, Arthur Hunnicutt left college when funds ran out and joined an acting troupe in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. His first important New York engagement was in the Theatre Guild's production of Love's Old Sweet Song. Hunnicutt entered films in 1942, specializing in grizzled western sidekicks even though he was only in his early 30s. When Percy Kilbride retired from the "Ma and Pa Kettle" series in 1955, Hunnicutt, still a youngster in comparison to Kilbride's sixtysomething co-star Marjorie Main, filled the gap in The Kettles in the Ozarks (1955). And when director Howard Hawks needed someone to play a Walter Brennan-type role when Brennan wasn't available for The Big Sky (1952) and El Dorado (1967), Hunnicutt was the man of the hour (his work in Big Sky won him an Oscar nomination). Arthur Hunnicutt was last seen in 1975's The Moonrunners, at long playing someone closer to his own age.

Trivia: Supporting actor Bruns appeared onscreen from 1970.

Trivia: Melanie Mayron trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, then studied with Sandra Seacat and Lohn Lehne. She debuted in a touring production of Godspell which ran for three years, and gained a small supporting role in Paul Mazursky's Harry and Tonto (1974). Since then she has divided her time between stage, screen, and TV work. For her performance in Girlfriends (1978), she won the Best Actress Award at the 1979 Locarno Film Festival; also in 1979, she made her New York stage debut, in The Goodbye People. In the late '80s she teamed up with Catlin Adams to write and produce films; their work has included the film Sticky Fingers (1988) and the TV movies Tunes for a Small Harmonica and The Pretend Game. She is best-known as a co-star of the TV series thirtysomething, for which she won an Emmy in 1989.

Trivia: A graduate of the University of Vienna and the Vienna State Academy of Dramatic Art, Austrian-born Herbert Berghof spent the greater portion of his theatrical career in the United States. He was seen in such stage productions as The Andersonville Trial and In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer; his rare film appearances include Five Fingers (1952) and Cleopatra (1963). Berghof is better known for his accomplishments as a director and acting teacher. His many directorial credits include the first New York staging of Beckett's Waiting for Godot, starring Bert Lahr and E.G. Marshall, in 1956. Among Herbert Berghof's acting students were such illustrious alumni as Geraldine Page, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Anne Bancroft and Matthew Broderick.

Trivia: Avon Long was a renowned African-American performer who, as a film actor, enjoyed two distinct periods of work in Hollywood, each reflecting the racial sensibilities of the particular era involved. Long was born in Baltimore, MD, in 1910. He was drawn to performing at an early age. He first broke into fame at the Cotton Club in New York in the mid-'30s. Lena Horne credited Long with taking her out of the chorus line at the club, at age 16, and the two later introduced the Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler song "As Long As I Live." By the end of the decade, he'd made his Broadway debut in Black Rhythm (1939), and three years later he took on the role of Sportin' Life in the revival of Porgy and Bess, a portrayal he later revived and immortalized in the subsequent Columbia Records' studio cast recording of the work (which is considered one of the definitive versions of the piece). His Broadway credits of this period also included Beggar's Holiday. Long's movie credits began in 1946 with Centennial Summer and an appearance in Ziegfeld Follies, and two years later he was seen in the Doris Day vehicle Romance on the High Seas. In keeping with the custom and movie industry policies of the time in connection with African-American performers, his work in these movies was confined to short-duration specialty numbers. He was also seen in a 1957 Hallmark Hall of Fame television presentation of Marc Connelly's The Green Pastures in a cast that also included William Warfield, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, and Butterfly McQueen. Long didn't work on the big screen again, however, until 1968 with Francis Ford Coppola's Finian's Rainbow. By that time, the movie business had transformed itself, especially in its use of African-American performers, and over the next 15 years Long didn't lack for work, appearing in The Sting and Harry and Tonto, among other films. His biggest successes, however, were on-stage, where worked in such Broadway productions as Fly, Blackbird (1972). Most notably, he was cast in the role of Dave in Don't Play Us Cheap (1973) on Broadway, a portrayal that earned him a Tony Award nomination. Along with most of the rest of the stage cast, he subsequently re-created his role in Melvin Van Peebles' film of the piece. His biggest stage success followed three years later, when he played the role of John in Bubbling Brown Sugar, which ran for over 700 performances on Broadway. In later years, he played prominent supporting parts in television productions such as Roots: The Next Generations (as Chicken George) and continued to work in movies such as Trading Places. Long died of cancer in 1984 at age 73, but his legacy lingers on, especially from occasional reissues of his best work, such as the DVD of Don't Play Us Cheap and Sony Music's late-'90s CD re-release of the Columbia cast recording of Porgy And Bess.

Trivia: Veteran performer Joe Madden worked as a character actor and played small roles in several New York-produced films during the '70s. Before that he had been a vaudeville and burlesque entertainer in the early 1900s.

Trivia: Towering (5'11") redheaded actress Barbara Rhoades was 20 years old when she signed her first studio contract with Universal. She was possessed of a self-sufficiency and breezy sense of humor that belied her youth. The best of her early screen roles was gun-toting lady bandit Penelope Cushings in the 1968 Don Knotts vehicle Shakiest Gun in the West (a remake of The Paleface [1948] wherein Rhoades' role was played by Jane Russell). Beginning with 1977's Busting Loose, she was a regular on several TV sitcoms. For reasons best known to casting directors, Barbara Rhoades almost always ended up playing someone named Maggie: Maggie Gallegher in Hangin' In (1979), Maggie Chandler in Soap (1980-1981), Maggie Davis in You Again? (1986).

Trivia: American actor Cliff DeYoung began a stop-and-start film career with Pilgrimage in 1972; most of his work for the next several years was on stage and in television. DeYoung starred in the very brief 1975 TV series Sunshine, playing a widowed musician raising a young stepdaughter; the series was a spin-off of the 1973 TV movie of the same name, which also starred DeYoung. The actor also played the lead role of a blinded Vietnam vet in the Joseph Papp-produced CBS drama special Sticks and Bones (1973) which was blacked out by many affiliates due to its vitriolic antiwar stance. Three years later, DeYoung played Charles Lindbergh (to whom he bore a daunting resemblance) in the 1976 made-for-TV Lindbergh Kidnapping Case. After his attention-grabbing appearance in the 1983 horror film The Hunger, Cliff DeYoung concentrated on movie roles, with occasional returns to TV in such productions as the 1985 miniseries Robert Kennedy and His Times.

Trivia: Cliff Norton was a former disc jockey from Chicago who segued into television during the peak era of the variety show. He found fame with his unique brand of sketch comedy before establishing himself in such classic television series as Studio One and Kraft TV Theater. Norton's early successes included radio's "Fibber McGee and Molly." He would subsequently serve as a World War II bombardier in the Army Air Corps before returning stateside to continue his career in radio. Despite his success in this medium, the talented funnyman's appearances on Garroway at Large lead Norton to New York and eventually a stage and screen career. Films Norton appeared in include It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966), and Funny Lady (1975). In January of 2003, Cliff Norton died in Los Angeles, CA, following a brief illness. He was 84.

Trivia: Long a familiar presence on the New York stage and TV scene, Louis Guss has specialized in blue-collar ethnic roles. Guss' earliest screen credit was as Dominic in Harry and Tonto (1974). His showiest screen portrayal was as Raymond Coppomaggi in the irresistible romantic comedy Moonstruck (1987). On network television, Louis Guss was seen as Uncle Bennie on the 1991 sitcom Man in the Family.

Trivia: Though eminently distinguished, actor Mike Nussbaum built a screen career tackling the most difficult sort of onscreen character roles: that of the everyman. After serving in World War II, Nussbaum applied to the esteemed Goodman School of Drama but was rejected; he subsequently started an exterminator business and became active in community theater before achieving his break at the hands of Hull House theater proprietor Bob Sickinger and developing a particularly strong reputation for Chicago-area work in the plays of Beckett, Ionesco, and Pinter. Nussbaum debuted on film in the late '60s and early '70s, with bit parts in features such as The Monitors (1969), T.R. Baskin (1971), and Harry and Tonto (1974), and in the mean time remained extremely active on the stage, particularly Windy City and Gotham productions, where he excelled in David Mamet-authored plays including American Buffalo and Glengarry Glen Ross. In fact, Nussbaum's onscreen activity re-crescendoed to no small degree in the late '80s thanks largely to Mamet, who cast him in two films -- the 1987 thriller House of Games (1987, with prominent billing as a snaky con man) and the gentle 1988 comedy Things Change (as a Mafia don). Subsequent projects included Steal Big, Steal Little (1995), Men in Black (1997), and Osso Bucco (2007).

Trivia: Supporting actor Alex Colon launched his film career in the early 1970s appearing in dramas ranging from religious tract The Cross and the Switchblade (1970), to the gentle comedy Harry and Tonto (1974), to the fact-based made-for-TV actioner Raid on Entebbe (1977). Colon made his final film appearance in The Getaway (1994). Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Colon moved to New York to become a stage actor in 1970. He made his Broadway debut playing a mouthy delivery boy in Neil Simon's drama The Gingerbread Lady in 1970. In addition to acting, Colon directed the occasional theatrical production in New York, Southern California and Puerto Rico.