Trivia: American leading actor Tom Hanks has become one of the most popular stars in contemporary American cinema. Born July 9, 1956, in Concord, CA, Hanks spent much of his childhood moving about with his father, an itinerant cook, and continually attempting to cope with constantly changing schools, religions, and stepmothers. After settling in Oakland, CA, he began performing in high-school plays. He continued acting while attending Cal State, Sacramento, and left to pursue his vocation full-time. In 1978, Hanks went to find work in New York; while there he married actress/producer Samantha Lewes, whom he later divorced.Hanks debuted onscreen in the low-budget slasher movie He Knows You're Alone (1979). Shortly afterward he moved to Los Angeles and landed a co-starring role in the TV sitcom Bosom Buddies; he also worked occasionally in other TV series such as Taxi and Family Ties, as well as in the TV movie Mazes and Monsters. Hanks finally became prominent when he starred opposite Daryl Hannah in the Disney comedy Splash!, which became the sleeper hit of 1984. Audiences were drawn to the lanky, curly headed actor's amiable, laid-back style and keen sense of comic timing. He went on to appear in a string of mostly unsuccessful comedies before starring in Big (1988), in which he gave a delightful performance as a child in a grown man's body. His 1990 film Bonfire of the Vanities was one of the biggest bombs of the year, but audiences seemed to forgive his lapse. In 1992, Hanks' star again rose when he played the outwardly disgusting, inwardly warm-hearted coach in Penny Marshall's A League of Their Own. This led to a starring role in the smash hit romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle (1993).Although a fine comedic actor, Hanks earned critical respect and an even wider audience when he played a tormented AIDS-afflicted homosexual lawyer in the drama Philadelphia (1993) and won that year's Oscar for Best Actor. In 1994 he won again for his convincing portrait of the slow-witted but phenomenally lucky Forrest Gump, and his success continued with the smash space epic Apollo 13 (1995). In 1996, Hanks tried his hand at screenwriting, directing, and starring in a feature: That Thing You Do!, an upbeat tale of a one-hit wonder group and their manager. The film was not particularly successful, unlike Hanks' next directing endeavor, the TV miniseries From Earth to the Moon. The series was nominated for and won a slew of awards, including a series of Emmys. The success of this project was outdone by Hanks' next, Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (1998). Ryan won vast critical acclaim and was nominated for 11 Oscars, including a Best Actor nomination for Hanks. The film won five, including a Best Director Oscar for Spielberg, but lost Best Picture to Shakespeare in Love, a slight that was to become the subject of controversy. No controversy surrounded Hanks' following film, Nora Ephron's You've Got Mail (1998), a romantic comedy that paired Hanks with his Sleepless co-star Meg Ryan. Although the film got mixed reviews, it was popular with filmgoers, and thus provided Hanks with another success to add to his resumé. Even more success came soon after when Hanks took home the 2000 Golden Globes' Best Actor in a drama award for his portrayal of a shipwrecked FedEx systems engineer who learns the virtues of wasted time in Robert Zemeckis' Cast Away. Though absent from the silver screen in 2001, Hanks remained in the public eye with a role in the acclaimed HBO mini-series Band of Brothers as well as appearing in September 11 television special America: A Tribute to Heroes and the documentary Rescued From the Closet. Next teaming with American Beauty director Sam Mendes for the adaptation of Max Allan Collins graphic novel The Road to Perdition (subsequently inspired by the Japanese manga Lone Wolf and Cub, the nice-guy star took a rare anti-hero role as a hitman (albiet an honorable and fairly respectable hitman) on the lam with his son (Tyler Hoechlin) after his son witnesses a murder. That same year, Hanks collaborated with director Spielberg again, starring opposite Leonardo Dicaprio in the hit crime-comedy Catch Me if You Can.For the next two years, Hanks was essentially absent from movie screens, but in 2004 he emerged with three new projects: The Coen Brothers' The Lady Killers, yet another Spielberg helmed film, The Terminal, and The Polar Express, a family picture from Forrest Gump and Castaway director Robert Zemeckis. 2006 was a very active year for Hanks starting with an appearance at the Oscar telecast that talented lip-readers will remember for quite some time. In addition to helping produce the HBO Series Big Love, he scored a major international success by reteaming with director Ron Howard for the big-screen adaptation of {Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, which was such a success that he signed on for the sequel in 2009, Angels and Demons. His Playtone production company would have a hand in the animated feature The Ant Bully in 2008, and that same year he filmed The Great Buck Howard co-starring his son Colin Hanks. He also signed on to co-star with Julia Roberts in two different films: Mike Nichols' Charlie Wilson's War in 2008 and the romcom Larry Crowne in 2011. Later that same year, Hanks would make dramatic waves in the post-9/11 drama Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture.Ranked by Empire Magazine as 17th out of "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" in October 1997, Hanks is married to actress Rita Wilson, with whom he appeared in Volunteers (1985). The couple have two children in addition to Hanks' other two from his previous marriage.

Trivia: Toothsome, redheaded leading lady Tawny Kitaen got her start on such TV serials as Capitol and Santa Barbara. She graduated to "babe-hood" in the teen-raunch comedy Bachelor Party (1984). With her starring role in The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak, the 1984 film version of the old S&M "underground" comic strip, Kitaen achieved stardom as the torn-blouse heroine of many an R-rated adventure film. A better actress than one might think, Tawny Kitaen was quite amusing as the sensuous female deejay Nightbird on the syndicated TVer The New WKRP in Cincinnati, and even funnier as the voice of the whiny, obese feline Annabelle on the animated series Eek! The Cat.

Trivia: Wiry, curly haired comic actor Adrian Zmed got his professional start in his native Chicago. One of Zmed's first important film roles was in Grease 2 (1982); he returned to the Grease fold 15 years later, touring the East Coast in a revival of the original musical. His TV series credits include the sitcoms Flatbush (1979) and Goodtime Girls (1980), and, most famously, the role of rookie cop Vince Romano in T.J. Hooker (1982-1985). A fan since childhood of Chicago's Bozo's Circus kiddie series, Adrian Zmed realized a lifelong dream when, in the late '80s, he was briefly engaged by the series to play Adrian the Clown.

Trivia: Born in South Carolina, George Grizzard was raised in Washington DC, then went back to his original corner of the world to study radio broadcasting at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Grizzard hoped to get into the production end of radio upon graduation, but instead landed a frustrating job with an advertising agency. He then switched his interests to acting; he'd already played a few roles in college productions, and thought he might as well get paid for his hobby. After a season's worth of stock, he got his first professional job at the Arena Stage in Washington. He moved to New York, studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse, and in 1954 received his Equity card while appearing in an off-Broadway production of School for Scandal. The same year, he was cast in the Broadway melodrama The Desperate Hours, earning the Variety Critics Poll's "Best Actor" award for his performance. Other long-running Broadway assignments followed, including The Happiest Millionaire and The Disenchanted.Grizzard also made quite a few TV appearances during this period, both "live" and on film; he's the young Romeo who slips his girlfriend an all-too-powerful love potion in the 1960 Twilight Zone episode "The Chaser." In 1960, Grizzard made his first film appearance in From the Terrace; though his subsequent film work was sporadic, it was always high-profile, most notably his portrayal of the Nixonish Senator Van Ackerman in the 1962 Otto Preminger production Advise and Consent (this role launched Grizzard on a cinematic political career, embracing such "offices" as the Mayor in 1980's Seems Like Old Times and the U.S. President in 1982's Wrong Is Right). In 1961, Grizzard helped found the APA repertory in New York. He also spent a season with the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, where he starred in the rarely performed uncut version of Hamlet--his first-ever Shakespearean role. In 1976, Grizzard was Emmy-nominated for his portrayal of John Adams in PBS' The Adams Chronicles, and in 1980 he won the award for his work in the live network-cast The Oldest Living Graduate. In 1989, George Grizzard accepted his first regular TV-series role, playing unctuous morning-show news commentator Douglas Hayward in Studio 5-B. Grizzard died at age 79 of complications from lung cancer, in October 2007.

Trivia: Modeled in New York City to help pay for her acting classes with Stella Adler and Uta Hagen. Appeared with her then-husband, actor Dick Gautier, on the game shows Match Game and Tattletales. Considered her role as the future mother-in-law of Tom Hanks in Bachelor Party to be one of her favorites.

Trivia: Wendie Jo Sperber was born in Hollywood in 1962 and aimed for a performing-arts career from high school onward. She attended the Summer Drama Workshop at California State University, Northridge, during the '70s, and began her screen career at age 15 when she was cast in the small role of Kuchinsky in Matthew Robbins' teen comedy Corvette Summer (1978), starring Mark Hamill. Her talent for comedy was showcased far better in Robert Zemeckis' period comedy I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), as the irrepressible Beatles fan Rosie Petrofsky, stealing a big chunk of the movie with her performance. Sperber was a large woman (over 200 pounds), yet she was also very pretty and as physically dexterous as any gymnast -- and as funny as any comic actress this side of Lucille Ball. She played the title role in the made-for-television feature Dinky Hocker (1979) and got to show off her physical comedy in Steven Spielberg's gargantuan 1941 (1979). Zemeckis (who also worked on 1941) brought Sperber back to the big screen in 1980 with a role in his offbeat comedy Used Cars, but it was on television that year when Sperber finally began getting some serious acknowledgement. She was cast in the role of Amy Cassidy -- a character that was funny, romantic, and exuberant -- in the series Bosom Buddies, starring Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari. It was a fair bet that she'd steal almost any scene in which she was featured. Following its cancellation in 1982, Sperber appeared in the offbeat comedy The First Time (1983) and did a year on the series Private Benjamin before resuming her feature work in the Hanks theatrical vehicle Bachelor Party, directed by Neal Israel, who used her again in Moving Violations (1985). That same year, she finally got to appear in a successful movie with her portrayal of Linda McFly in Zemeckis' Back to the Future. Sperber's roles grew larger in the wake of the goofy sci-fi adventure film, and over the next decade she starred in the series Babes (a comedy about three zoftig women) and had a major supporting part in the series Hearts Afire, as well as numerous big-screen comedies, interspersed with the occasional drama. By her own account, however, she prefers comedy if given the choice. As she told TV Guide in 1990, "I'm an actress who likes to say something funny -- everybody laughs and your job is done." In 1998, Sperber was diagnosed with breast cancer, which seemed to go into remission following treatment. She revealed in April of 2002, though, that the cancer had reappeared and spread throughout her body. She continued to work in television and movies during this period, including episodes of Unhappily Ever After, Home Improvement, Will & Grace, and the movies Desperate but Not Serious (1999) and Sorority Boys (2002).

Trivia: Though few familiar with buff skull cracker Michael Dudikoff would be shocked to hear that the handsome action star got his start in modeling, the fact that he previously studied child psychology might come as a surprise to those who think brawn overpowers brain. The Redondo Beach, CA, native was born to a Russian father in early October of 1954, and although Dudikoff isn't fluent in his native tongue, his father did teach him to speak a little Russian. Studies in child psychology preceded work as a model for the handsome young hopeful, and in 1978, he got his big break when cast in a supporting role on the wildly popular television drama Dallas. In the years that followed, Dudikoff appeared in both Happy Days and Gimme a Break!, and in 1980 the young rising star made his feature debut in The Black Marble. Small roles in Tron (1982) and Uncommon Valor (1983) found his action chops developing nicely, and after having a wild time in Bachelor Party (1984), Dudikoff had his breakthrough role in the 1985 martial arts action film American Ninja. Though the part was originally intended for film star Chuck Norris, Dudikoff made the role his own, to the delight of action fans worldwide. Though the requisite sequels came fast and furious, it was roles in such small-scale actioners as Platoon Leader (1988, directed by Chuck Norris' brother Aaron) and Midnight Ride (1990) that kept his name alive in the lucrative low-budget action market. Though Dudikoff's 1993 series Cobra would only hold out for one season, his average of two films per year would find him doling out the punches well into the new millennium. The late '90s found Dudikoff teaming with B-movie maestro Fred Olen Ray for a series of small-scale punishers, and in 2002, Dudikoff appeared opposite Treat Williams in Jim Wynorski's Gale Force.

Trivia: Bancroft is a supporting actor onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: Like many African-American actors of the '60s, Ji-Tu Cumbuka unfortunately found the demand for his services limited until black performers became "fashionable." Active in films since 1967, Cumbuka appeared in such productions as Uptight (1968), Mandingo (1975), Bound for Glory (1976), Fun with Dick and Jane (1977) and Brewster's Millions (1985). The actor also did plenty of TV, including the 1977 miniseries Roots (as "The Wrestler") and the unsold 1979 pilot for Mandrake the Magician, wherein he played Mandrake's muscular assistant Lothar. Among the "sold" TV series featuring Ji-Tu Cumbuka were Young Dan'l Boone (1977) and Robert Conrad's A Man Called Sloane (1979). Cumbuka died in 2017, at age 77.

Trivia: Cult movie starlet Ginger Lynn Allen endured a childhood marred by dysfunction, physical abuse, and parental abandonment, eventually to become the most popular adult film entertainer of the early '80s. Born in Rockford, IL, and raised by her paternal grandparents after age 12, Allen moved with them to California shortly after graduating from high school. In 1983 she auditioned for a modeling agency and received an offer to pose nude for Penthouse magazine the same day. Allen loved the attention and within a few months began appearing in pornographic films, many of which were star vehicles for the instantly popular young seductress (who was known in the business at the time as Ginger Lynn). Her films include New Wave Hookers, Ginger's Sex Asylum, and Supergirls Do General Hospital, and many have retained their popularity with adult video connoisseurs. In a two-year period she performed in 69 adult films, working with such pornographic notables as Traci Lords, John Holmes, and director Gregory Hippolyte. She quit the adult film business in 1986, hoping to break into mainstream acting and subsequently found roles in low-budget, straight-to-video action and comedy features like Wild Man and the Vice Academy series. The actress weathered legal difficulties in 1991, when she was convicted of filing a false tax return and spent some time in a drug rehabilitation center. During this period she also gained tabloid notoriety when she began dating actor Charlie Sheen, whom she met while working on Young Guns 2. Allen's career continued through the rest of the decade, with appearances on NYPD Blue, the children's television program Superforce, the Wing Commander III CD-ROM game, and a series of aerobic workout videos. In 1999, Allen returned to pornographic films with Torn and New Wave Hookers 6, but did not stop working toward success as a mainstream actress. She appeared in the Hollywood spoof The Independent and gave an intense portrayal of an aging stripper struggling to raise her child in the "Turn the Page" video for heavy metal band Metallica.