Trivia: Whether he was called "The Voice," "Ol' Blue Eyes," or "The Chairman of the Board," Frank Sinatra's nicknames all conveyed the adulation and respect reserved for a man who was commonly thought of as the best American popular singer of the 20th century. Sinatra's voice, whether manifested in song or spoken word, caressed the ears of many a listener for more than five decades. Sinatra's legacy -- countless songs and more than 70 films -- continue to ensure him the kind of popularity that has reached beyond the grave to elevate him past the status of mere icon to that of cultural institution.Born Francis Albert Sinatra on December 12, 1915, Sinatra grew up poor in Hoboken, NJ. After working for a newspaper, he organized the Hoboken Four, a singing group. He got his first break when he won first prize on radio's "Major Bowes Amateur Hour," and went on to perform in nightclubs and on radio. Sinatra then landed the job of vocalist with the Harry James band, and later switched to Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. It was during his tenure with Dorsey's group that Sinatra made his first two films in uncredited roles as a singer in the bands in Las Vegas Nights (1941) and Ship Ahoy (1942). In 1942, Sinatra's attempt to become a solo artist met with great success, especially in the hearts, minds, and ears of many American women and girls, who flocked to his performances with a fervor that would be replicated two decades later with the arrival of the Beatles. Soon, Sinatra was the "dream-date" idol of millions of American girls and, for several years, was enormously popular on-stage in addition to other venues, including radio, records, and nightclubs. To complement his popularity as a singer, Sinatra began acting, playing in a number of light musical films throughout the '40s. His first real acting role came in Higher and Higher (1943); other notable movies from this period in his career included Take Me out to the Ballgame (1949), co-starring Gene Kelly and Esther Williams, and On the Town, also made in 1949 and co-starring Kelly, who co-directed the picture with Stanley Donen. Sinatra suffered a career setback in 1952 when his vocal cords hemorrhaged and he was dropped by MCA, the monolithic talent agency. Having established a shaky screen career, he fought back and landed the role of Angelo Maggio in From Here to Eternity (1953) after begging Columbia for the part and then agreeing to take it for a mere 8,000 dollars. His performance won him the 1954 Best Supporting Actor Oscar and a Golden Globe, and, in the process, resuscitated his faltering career. Sinatra appeared in several more movies in the '50s, receiving a 1956 Best Actor Oscar nomination and a British Academy Award (BAFTA) for his portrayal of a drug addict in The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). In addition, he took home a Golden Globe for his performance in Pal Joey (1957). Soon Sinatra was back on top as a performer, earning the nickname "The Chairman of the Board." Sinatra continued to do frequent film work, making a screen appearance with his Rat Pack colleagues Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop in Ocean's Eleven (1960). Most notably, Sinatra gave a subtle, troubled portrayal of the haunted Captain Bennett Marco in John Frankenheimer's Cold War classic The Manchurian Candidate. His last role was as an aging detective in The First Deadly Sin (1980). Sinatra also appeared on various television shows during the '80s and went on to have hit records as late as the early '90s. His four wives included actresses Ava Gardner and Mia Farrow, and he fathered actor/singers Frank Sinatra Jr. and Nancy Sinatra, as well as another daughter, Tina. Sinatra died of a heart attack on May 14, 1998, in Los Angeles. He is buried in Palm Springs, CA.

Trivia: Lee Remick began her career as a dancer, then after acting onstage and TV she debuted onscreen in A Face in the Crowd (1957). Remick went on to a series of strong screen performances which established her as a major leading lady; for her work in Days of Wine and Roses (1962) she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination. She sustained a fairly busy screen career into the late '70s, meanwhile also working often on the stage and TV. From 1957-68 Remick was married to TV director-producer William Colleran. In 1970 she married director William Rory "Kip" Gowens, with whom she moved to England. In the '80s she rarely appeared onscreen but increased her work in TV movies and mini-series. In 1988 she formed a production company in partnership with James Garner and Peter Duchow. Remick died from cancer at age 55.

Trivia: Born Jacqueline Fraser, in Weybridge, England, onetime model Jacqueline Bisset was vaulted into stardom on the strength of two 1967 films: In the over-produced spy spoof Casino Royale, she attracted attention as the alluring Giovanni Goodthighs; even more impressive (so far as critics were concerned) was her near-microscopic role in Stanley Donen's Two for the Road, in which Bisset plays the vacationing British schoolgirl whose sudden case of the measles makes the rest of the plot possible. (She reprised and expanded upon this bit in a film-within-a-film in François Truffaut's Day for Night in 1973.) First cast on the basis of her looks alone, Bisset later developed into a top-notch actress, as evidenced by her performances in The Grasshopper (1969) and The Thief Who Came to Dinner (1972). She came to so despise her earlier sexpot image that she insisted that no still photos of her wet T-shirt scenes in The Deep (1977) be reproduced for publication. That year, Newsweek magazine voted her "the most beautiful film actress of all time." In 1978, she played another famous Jackie (although not so named) in The Greek Tycoon, an à clef version of the Aristotle Onassis saga. A more mature but no less dazzlingly beautiful Bisset was later seen in a kinky secondary role in Zalman King's Wild Orchid (1990). The actress received critical acclaim in 2001 for her portrayal of a dying woman's search for the daughter she never knew in Christopher Munch's drama The Sleepy Time Gal. She continued to work steadily in a variety of projects including playing Jacqueline Kennedy in American's Prince: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story, Domino, Death in Love, and An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving, as well as appearing on the TV series Nip/Tuck.

Trivia: Commenting on his notorious on-set irascibility in 1977, Jack Klugman replied that he was merely "taking Peter Falk lessons from Robert Blake," invoking the names of two other allegedly hard-to-please TV stars. Klugman grew up in Philadelphia, and after taking in a 1939 performance by New York's Group Theatre, Klugman decided that an actor's life was right up his alley. He majored in drama at Carnegie Tech and studied acting at the American Theatre Wing before making his (non-salaried) 1949 stage-debut at the Equity Library Theater. While sharing a New York flat with fellow hopeful Charles Bronson, Klugman took several "grub" jobs to survive, at one point selling his blood for $85 a pint. During television's so-called Golden Age, Klugman appeared in as many as 400 TV shows. He made his film debut in 1956, and three years later co-starred with Ethel Merman in the original Broadway production of Gypsy. In 1964, Klugman won the first of his Emmy awards for his performance in "Blacklist," an episode of the TV series The Defenders; that same year, he starred in his first sitcom, the 13-week wonder Harris Against the World. Far more successful was his next TV series, The Odd Couple, which ran from 1970 through 1974; Klugman won two Emmies for his portrayal of incorrigible slob Oscar Madison (he'd previously essayed the role when he replaced Walter Matthau in the original Broadway production of the Neil Simon play). It was during Odd Couple's run that the network "suits" got their first real taste of Klugman's savage indignation, when he and co-star Tony Randall threatened to boycott the show unless the idiotic laughtrack was removed (Klugman and Randall won that round; from 1971 onward, Odd Couple was filmed before a live audience). It was but a foretaste of things to come during Klugman's six-year (1977-83) reign as star of Quincy, M.E.. Popular though Klugman was in the role of the crusading, speechifying LA County Coroner's Office medical examiner R. Quincy, he hardly endeared himself to the producers when he vented his anger against their creative decisions in the pages of TV Guide. Nor was he warmly regarded by the Writer's Guild when he complained about the paucity of high-quality scripts (he wrote several Quincy episodes himself, with mixed results). After Quincy's cancellation, Klugman starred in the Broadway play I'm Not Rappaport and co-starred with John Stamos in the 1986 sitcom You Again?. The future of Klugman's career -- and his future, period -- was sorely threatened when he underwent throat surgery in 1989. He'd been diagnosed with cancer of the larynx as early as 1974, but at that time was able to continue working after a small growth was removed. For several years after the 1989 operation, Klugman was unable to speak, though he soon regained this ability. He continued working through 2011, and died the following year at age 90.

Trivia: After racking up impressive stage credits in Canada and the U.S., actor Lloyd Bochner familiarized himself with American televiewers in the supporting role of Captain Nicholas Lacey in the prime-time TV serial One Man's Family (1952). Dozens of guest-star assignments later, Bochner again showed up on a weekly basis as police chief Neil Campbell in Hong Kong (1960). His later TV series stints included The Richard Boone Show (1963, as a member of Boone's "repertory company"), and Dynasty (1981-1982 season, as Cecil Colby). In films from 1963's Drums of Africa, Bochner has been seen in such characterizations as Marc Peters in the Carol Lynley version of Harlow (1965) and Dr. Cory in The Dunwich Horror (1969). By far, Bochner's most memorable assignment was the 1962 Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man," as the scientist who learns all too late that "It's a cookbook!"; nearly 30 years later, he parodied this deathless moment in Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991). Lloyd Bochner is the father of Emmy-winning actor Hart Bochner.

Trivia: The great-grandson of a famous and influential 19th century Minnesota senator, actor William Windom was born in New York, briefly raised in Virginia, and attended prep school in Connecticut. During World War II, Windom was drafted into the army, which acknowledged his above-the-norm intelligence by bankrolling his adult education at several colleges. It was during his military career that Windom developed a taste for the theater, acting in an all-serviceman production of Richard III directed by Richard Whorf. Windom went on to appear in 18 Broadway plays before making his film debut as the prosecuting attorney in To Kill a Mockingbird. He gained TV fame as the co-star of the popular 1960s sitcom The Farmer's Daughter and as the James Thurber-ish lead of the weekly 1969 series My World and Welcome to It. Though often cast in conservative, mild-mannered roles, Windom's offscreen persona was that of a much-married, Hemingway-esque adventurer. William Windom was seen in the recurring role of crusty Dr. Seth Haslett on the Angela Lansbury TV series Murder She Wrote.

Trivia: Though he appeared to be the archetypal tense, tightly wound street punk, Tony Musante was in fact a reasonably well-behaved kid while growing up in Connecticut. After attending Oberlin College, Musante worked as a schoolteacher before making his off-Broadway acting bow in 1960. Three years later, producer David Susskind chose Musante to play a switchblade-wielding juvenile delinquent in the hour-long TV drama Ride With Terror; this developed into the 1967 film The Incident, with Musante repeating his role and winning several festival awards as a result. Following a healthy leading-man career in Italian pictures and in such Hollywood productions as The Last Run (1971), Musante returned to TV to star as chameleonlike New Jersey cop Dave Toma in the 1973 series Toma. When he left the series over creative differences after a single season, the program was retooled as Baretta, with Robert Blake in the title role. Tony Musante went on to earn an Emmy nomination for his performance in the 1975 TV movie A Quality of Mercy, and that same year made his long-overdue Broadway debut in PS Your Cat is Dead. He played Mafia boss Nino Schibetta on the first season of the HBO series Oz and continued working steadily up until his death in 2013 at age 77, as a result of complications from surgery.

Trivia: One of Hollywood's most distinguished, popular, and versatile actors, Robert Duvall possesses a rare gift for totally immersing himself in his roles. Born January 5, 1931 and raised by an admiral, Duvall fought in Korea for two years after graduating from Principia College. Upon his Army discharge, he moved to New York to study acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse, where he won much acclaim for his portrayal of a longshoreman in A View From the Bridge. He later acted in stock and off-Broadway, and had his onscreen debut as Gregory Peck's simple-minded neighbor Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).With his intense expressions and chiseled features, Duvall frequently played troubled, lonely characters in such films as The Chase (1966) during his early film career. Whatever the role, however, he brought to it an almost tangible intensity tempered by an ability to make his characters real (in contrast to some contemporaries who never let viewers forget that they were watching a star playing a role). Though well-respected and popular, Duvall largely eschewed the traditionally glitzy life of a Hollywood star; at the same time, he worked with some of the greatest directors over the years. This included a long association with Francis Ford Coppola, for whom he worked in two Godfather movies (in 1972 and 1974) and Apocalypse Now (1979). The actor's several Oscar nominations included one for his performance as a dyed-in-the-wool military father who victimizes his family with his disciplinarian tirades in The Great Santini (1980). For his portrayal of a has-been country singer in Tender Mercies -- a role for which he composed and performed his own songs -- Duvall earned his first Academy Award for Best Actor. He also directed and co-produced 1983's Angelo My Love and earned praise for his memorable appearance in Rambling Rose in 1991. One of Duvall's greatest personal triumphs was the production of 1997's The Apostle, the powerful tale of a fallen Southern preacher who finds redemption. He had written the script 15 years earlier, but was unable to find a backer, so, in the mid-'90s, he financed the film himself. Directing and starring in the piece, Duvall earned considerable acclaim, including another Best Actor Oscar nomination.The 1990s were a good decade for Duvall. Though not always successful, his films brought him steady work and great variety. Not many other actors could boast of playing such a diversity of characters: from a retired Cuban barber in 1993's Wrestling Ernest Hemingway to an ailing editor in The Paper (1994) to the abusive father of a mentally impaired murderer in the harrowing Sling Blade (1996) to James Earl Jones's brother in the same year's A Family Thing (which he also produced). Duvall took on two very different father roles in 1998, first in the asteroid extravaganza Deep Impact and then in Robert Altman's The Gingerbread Man. Throughout his career, Duvall has also continued to work on the stage. In addition, he occasionally appeared in such TV miniseries as Lonesome Dove (1989) and Stalin (1992), and has even done voice-over work for Lexus commercials. In the early 2000s, he continued his balance between supporting roles in big-budget films and meatier parts in smaller efforts. He supported Nicolas Cage in Gone in 60 Seconds and Denzel Washington in John Q., but he also put out his second directorial effort, Assassination Tango (under the aegis of old friend Coppola, which allowed him to film one of his life's great passions -- the tango. In 2003, Kevin Costner gave Duvall an outstanding role in his old-fashioned Western Open Range, and Duvall responded with one of his most enjoyable performances.Duvall subsequently worked in a number of additional films, including playing opposite Will Ferrell in the soccer comedy Kicking & Screaming, as well as adding a hilarious cameo as a tobacco king in the first-rate satire Thank You For Smoking. In 2006 he scored a hit in another western. The made for television Broken Trail, co-starring Thomas Haden Church, garnered strong ratings when it debuted on the American Movie Classics channel. That same year he appeared opposite Drew Barrymore and Eric Bana in Curtis Hanson's Lucky You.In 2010, Duvall took on the role of recluse Felix "Bush" Breazeale for filmmaker Aaron Schneider's Get Low. The film, based on the true story of a hermit who famously planned his own funeral, would earn Duvall a nomination for Best Actor at the SAG Awards, and win Best First Feature for Schneider at the Independent Spirit awards. He picked up a Best Supporting Actor nod from the Academy for his work in 2014's The Judge, playing a beloved judge on trial for murder.

Trivia: The son of African American stage actor Al Freeman (1884-1956), Al Freeman Jr. made his film debut in 1960's The Rebel Breed. In 1967, Freeman co-starred with Shirley Knight in the film version of Leroi Jones' off-Broadway play Dutchman, earning excellent notices for his portrayal of a black subway passenger victimized by a crazed white woman. Three years later, he co-starred with Patty Duke in the landmark TV movie My Sweet Charlie (1970), playing a volatile New York City lawyer stranded in a jerkwater Texas town with a white unwed mother (Duke). Freeman is best known to daytime-drama fans for his lengthy stint as Lt. Ed Hall on One Life to Live a role that won him an Emmy in 1978. Freeman wrote the screenplay for director Ivan Dixon's Countdown at Kusini (1976), and directed the 1971 feature A Fable. More recently, Al Freeman Jr. portrayed Elijah Muhammed in Spike Lee's Malcolm X (1992)

Trivia: Habitues of the late-night Jack Paar Program first became aware of the offbeat comic talents of Renee Taylor during her semi-regular appearances in the years 1959 through 1962. In films, Taylor has usually been seen in such small but distinctive roles as whispering dress extra in Jerry Lewis' The Errand Boy and Eva Braun (yes, Eva Braun) in Mel Brooks' The Producers. In 1965, she married actor/writer Joseph Bologna, becoming his partner both professionally and in life. In 1969, Taylor and Bologna wrote and starred in the Broadway comedy Lovers and Other Strangers; the play was transferred to the screen in 1970, minus the authors' on-screen presence but with all their comic insights and witticisms intact. Taylor and Bologna went on to create the 1973 TV series Calucci's Department, co-direct such films as 1989's It Had to Be You, and co-star in such projects as the 1976 TV-movie remake of Woman of the Year. In 1972, they shared an Emmy Award for their scriptwork on the 1972 television special Acts of Love-And Other Comedies. On her own, Renee Taylor has been a TV-series regular on 1977's Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (as Annabelle) and 1993's Daddy Dearest (as Helen Mitchell, the mother of Richard Lewis and estranged wife of Don Rickles).

Trivia: Was an avid fan of horror films in his childhood days. Enlisted in the United States Navy before attending college. Was a member of the Gamma Phi Fraternity while attending Duquesne University. Got interested in acting when he was in his 20s. Primarily known for his work in horror and thriller films.

Trivia: American actress Sharon Henesy appeared as a youngster in a few films from the late 1960s through the early 1970s. Her young brother David Henesy was also a popular child actor.

Trivia: To call George Plimpton merely an actor is woefully inadequate. Plimpton has also been a bullfighter, an orchestra conductor, a baseball and football player, a boxer, a circus performer and a tennis pro. He has indulged in each of these activities precisely once. George Plimpton's principal career was writing, something he pursued while at Harvard (he was an editor of the Harvard Lampoon) and while serving on the editing staff of Paris Review in the '50s and Horizon and Sports Illustrated in the '60s. Early in his career, Plimpton determined that the best way to write with expertise on a subject was through first-hand experience. Thus he fought bulls in Spain with Ernest Hemingway, played football with the Detroit Lions, was matched with tennis champ Pancho Gonzalez and bridge expert Osward Jacoby, and survived a few rounds with champion boxer Archie Moore. And he acted. He was a Bedouin extra in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), a bit player in The Detective (1968), and the character Bill Ford in Paper Lion (1968), a film based on Plimpton's own account of his brief football career (Alan Alda played Plimpton). From his experience playing a bit role as a gunned-down desperado in John Waynes Rio Lobo (1970), Plimpton fashioned an entire one-hour network TV special! Easily recognizable in later days thanks to his lucrative lecture and commercial endorsements, George Plimpton's acting assignments in recent years have been on the basis of his personality rather than as a stunt: Jodie Foster gave him a particularly suitable role as a William Buckley-type talk-show moderator in Little Man Tate (1991). Increasingly prominant on the screen throughout the 1990s, Plimpton essayed numerous small roles in such popular films as L.A. Story (1991), Nixon (1995), Good Will Hunting (1997) and Edtv (1999). As the 1990s gave way to the new millennium Plimpton was still going strong despite the effects of the passing years, and in 2001 alone he essayed a supporting role in the comedy Just Visiting and provided voiceover work for the short film Bullet in the Brain. On September 25, 2003, the world lost one of its most flamboyant and entertaining literary icons when George Plimpton died in his sleep in his New York apartment. He was 76.

Trivia: Educated at the University of Pennsylvania, actor Philip Sterling made his first Broadway appearance in the 1955 musical Silk Stockings. Sterling was later spotlighted in such New York stage productions as Summertree, An Evening with Richard Nixon and Broadway Bound. In films from 1969's Me, Natalie, he has generally been cast as father figures or corporate bigwigs. His more notable film roles include Mr. Lipman in Joan Micklin Silver's Hester Street (1975) and Hollywood mogul Joseph Schenck in the 1980 TV movie Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess. In addition, Philip Sterling has made numerous appearances in episodic television; in 1975, he co-starred with Wayne Rogers in the summer-replacement series City of Angels.

Trivia: Horace McMahon dabbled in professional and semi-professional acting while attending Fordham University Law School, continuing to do so while holding down a day job as a newspaper reporter. He made acting his full-time vocation after his first Broadway appearance in 1931. In films from 1937, the growly, jowly MacMahon was initially typed in gangster roles. After scoring a personal success as Lieutenant Monaghan in the 1949 Broadway play Detective Story, MacMahon repeated the role in the 1951 film version -- and thereafter was pigeonholed in "cop" roles. Before beginning his five-year (1958-63) tenure as Lieutenant Mike Parker on the TV series The Naked City, MacMahon had been a semi-regular on Martin Kane (1950, as the newsstand owner who stocked nothing but the sponsor's cigarette) and Make Room for Daddy (1953, as Danny Thomas' agent). His last weekly TV assignment was as Hank McClure, police contact for public relations man Craig Stevens, in the short-lived Mr. Broadway. Having been born near Norwalk, Connecticut, Horace McMahon spent his retirement years in that community with his wife, former actress Louise Campbell.

Trivia: Actor Earl Montgomery Jr. spent the bulk of his career on-stage in New York both on and off-Broadway. He was among the founders and charter members of the Association of Producing Artists and with the organization worked for many years to take classic plays on tour. In 1952, Montgomery appeared regularly on the series Love of Life. Beginning in the late '60s, Montgomery began appearing sporadically in feature films such as Heaven Can Wait (1978).

Trivia: American character actor Pat McVey had several seasons' worth of stage experience to his credit when he made his film bow in 1944. Though he seldom rose above the supporting player ranks onscreen, he had better luck on television. From 1950 to 1954 he starred as crusading newspaper editor Steve Wilson in the long-running TV series Big Town. Patrick McVey's later video assignments include the syndicated Western Boots and Saddles (1957) and the San Diego-based cop drama Manhunt (1959), in which he co-starred with Victor Jory.