Trivia: A goggle-eyed, ditzy blonde, Goldie Hawn's looks alone make her a natural for the kind of breathless comedy in which she originally made her name. Though she has built a lucrative career with her screen persona of a vivacious, giggly, and befuddled naif, Hawn's onscreen antics conceal her real-life level-headedness: Beneath the wide expanse of her blue eyes lies a shrewd, intelligent, and multi-talented woman. Born November 21st, 1945, Hawn was the daughter of a musician in Washington, D.C., though she grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in suburban Maryland. At the age of three, she took her first dance lesson, and by the age of 17, she was managing a dance studio while studying drama at American University. In 1964, she danced professionally at the Texas Pavilion of the New York World's Fair, and then began appearing in chorus lines in such musicals as Kiss Me Kate, Guys and Dolls, and The Boyfriend. She eventually moved to California, where her first break came when an agent saw her dancing on the Andy Griffith Show and cast her in Good Morning World, a short-lived comedy series. From there she was cast as a dancer in an innovative comedy-variety show hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. It was on Laugh-In (1968-1970) that Hawn became popular. Originally a dancer on the show, her bikini-clad body painted with funny slogans and designs, she was given a few lines and proved herself a talented performer in a winning, air-headed way.Hawn made her first foray into feature films as a dancer in The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968). Her acting debut came a year later playing Walter Matthau's ditzy, bohemian mistress in Cactus Flower (1969); she won an Oscar for her role, making it an inarguably auspicious debut. Later that year she appeared opposite Peter Sellers in There's a Girl in My Soup. These first two films and the subsequent Dollars (1971) utilized Hawn's "blonde" persona, but in 1972, she hinted that she concealed more than a talent for perkiness and comedy when she played a young woman who helps her blind lover deal with his past in Butterflies Are Free. Hawn showed even more depth as a wife who springs her husband from jail in hopes of keeping her child in Sugarland Express, Steven Spielberg's 1973 feature-film directorial debut. Two years later, she starred as Warren Beatty's girlfriend in Shampoo, further exhibiting her capacity as both a comedic and dramatic actress.Subsequently, Hawn continued to work steadily throughout the '80s and '90s, appearing in films of widely varying quality. Some highlights include the successful Private Benjamin (1980), for which Hawn earned her second Best Actress Oscar nomination, Seems Like Old Times (1982), and The First Wives Club (1996), in which she co-starred with Diane Keaton and Bette Midler. Hawn has two children by her second husband, comedian Bill Hudson, and one by her companion since 1986, actor Kurt Russell. She and Russell met on the set of Swing Shift (1984) and have since starred together in such films as Overboard (1987). Following daughter Kate Hudson's success in the wake of Almost Famous (2000), Hawn hit the big screen again in the notorious box-office bomb Town and Country (2001). Though that film did little to re-ignite her appeal as a box office draw, her turn as a free spirited former groupie in the following year's The Banger Sisters drew favorable reviews from critics and audiences and proved a solid indicator that the talented comic actress still had what it takes to bring in the laughs.

Trivia: Chevy Chase is often considered one of the most likeable comedic personalities of his generation, even though the immediate popularity he achieved following a single season on Saturday Night Live never translated into more than a couple hit movies, and none after the 1980s. The prematurely balding, intelligent, fast-talking Chase created a couple classic characters, notably Irwin M. Fletcher (aka Fletch) and Vacation's Clark Griswold, but his career is often thought of as plagued by misfires and missed opportunities, rather than touched by comic brilliance.Born on October 8, 1943, in New York City, Cornelius Crane Chase became known as "Chevy" when his grandmother nicknamed him after Chevy Chase, the wealthy Maryland community. The 6'4" future writer and actor was valedictorian of his high school class before attending Bard College, where he earned a B.A. in English. With a pre-celebrity resumé as varied as any (tennis pro, truck driver, bartender), Chase spent his twenties as a comedy writer for such outlets as the Smothers Brothers and National Lampoon, the latter of which eventually led to a lucrative franchise of Vacation movies. Chase's first stint as a performer was with the New York comedy video workshop Channel One, which evolved into the 1974 film Groove Tube. This afforded Chase the necessary exposure to be hired by Lorne Michaels for the first season of Saturday Night Live in 1975.Initially hired on as a writer, Chase soon began appearing in front of the camera as the anchor of the popular Weekend Update segment of the ensemble variety show. With the catchphrase opening "Good evening, I'm Chevy Chase and you're not," and aided by his bumbling impersonation of President Gerald Ford, the actor quickly assumed breakout status, earning Emmys for both his writing and acting. He left after a single season to pursue film opportunities, but did not really strike gold until Caddyshack (1980), in which he played a rich golf pro who oozed confidence and a dry sarcastic wit three steps ahead of anyone else. These would become Chase's trademarks.During the filming of his next project, Modern Problems (1981), Chase was nearly electrocuted when a gag involving landing lights attached to his body short-circuited. The experience sunk him into a deep depression. But he recovered his stride in 1983 with the release of National Lampoon's Vacation, the first of four in an eventual series of epic misadventures of the Griswold family (European Vacation [1985], Christmas Vacation [1989], Vegas Vacation [1997]). As daffy father Clark, Chase turned the film into a huge hit, harnessing a likable befuddlement that kept the series going even as the sequels were increasingly less well received and tiresomely slapstick.Chase's other big hit came in 1985, when he starred as the title character in Fletch, the film widely considered the actor's best and most complimentary of his sharp talent for wordplay. As an undercover newspaper reporter with a quick answer -- not to mention a goofy disguise -- for every situation, Chase created a classic comic hero with a genius for confusing his adversaries. He reprised the role in the lesser sequel Fletch Lives (1989).Chase achieved moderate success by pairing with other Saturday Night Live alums in the mixed-bag comedies Spies Like Us (1985) and Three Amigos! (1986); though these had dedicated fans, they didn't achieve the critical praise of Fletch or Vacation. Despite an all-star cast, Caddyshack II (1988) went nowhere, and by the beginning of the 1990s, Chase had slipped from his status as a reliable comedic performer. Such well-documented failures as Nothing But Trouble (1991) and Cops and Robbersons (1994) became his crosses to bear during a decade that also saw the colossal failure of his Fox comeback variety show, which was canceled two months after it premiered in 1993. Chase was also arrested for drunk driving in 1995, just one incident in a career sometimes checkered by drug and alcohol abuse. In later years, Chase has preferred family oriented films, starring in such features as Man of the House (1995) (opposite Jonathan Taylor Thomas) and the kiddie-on-holiday flick Snow Day (2000). This stance prompted Chase to turn down the comeback-worthy role that won Kevin Spacey an Oscar in American Beauty (1999); had he accepted, it might have resulted in a very different film. As Chase's work has shifted more to the supporting role variety, including Dirty Work (1998) and Orange County (2002), he has seemed more comfortable. A series of appearances in such innocuous comedies as Bad Meat, Goose on the Loose, and Doogal found Chase continuing to plateau, and in 2006 the former SNL heavyweight would take to the lab to help save the world in the children's superhero adventure Zoom. In 2009 Chase was cast as a casually racist and sexist member of the study group at the heart of NBC's sitcom Community, and that program gave him some of the best reviews he'd had in quite some time. He appeared in the 2010 comedy Hot Tub Time Machine, and in 2011's Stay Cool.

Trivia: Supporting and occasional leading actor Charles Grodin built a successful career playing low-key, uptight, and frequently wholesome comic roles, with occasional turns as an arch-villain. Whereas many funnymen have been popular for their ability to overreact and mug their way around everyday obstacles, Grodin belonged, from the beginning, to the Bob Newhart school of wry comedy that values understatement and subtlety. Grodin learned to act under the guidance of Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen before making his 1962 Broadway debut opposite Anthony Quinn in Tchin Tchin. Two years later, Grodin made his first film appearance in Joseph Adler's Sex and the College Girl. Though offered the leading role in The Graduate (1967), Grodin refused, thereby providing a lucky break for Dustin Hoffman. In 1968, he played a small but memorable role as a naive obstetrician in Rosemary's Baby, and then tackled another villainous role as heartless navigator Aarfy Aardvark in Mike Nichols's Catch-22. Grodin got his big break when director and Nichols's former comedy partner Elaine May, who had been a longtime friend and mentor of the young actor, cast him in the lead of the Neil Simon-scripted The Heartbreak Kid (1972), in which he played a salesman who falls in love with Cybill Shepherd during his honeymoon. Though Steven Spielberg wanted him to play the role of shark expert Matt Hooper in Jaws (1974), Grodin preferred to direct the play Thieves on Broadway instead. In 1977, Grodin signed for the leading role in the film version. He also added spice as the villain in Warren Beatty and Buck Henry's remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), Heaven Can Wait (1978). Since then, Grodin continued as a supporting actor in such films as The Woman in Red (1984) and The Couch Trip (1987). After receiving rave reviews starring opposite Robert De Niro in the 1988 hit comedy Midnight Run, Grodin's career began to slow down. He played the long-suffering patriarch in the first two Beethoven films and turned in a memorable performance in 1993's Dave, but by 1995 Grodin had decided to switch gears, opting to host a talk show. After The Charles Grodin Show ran for several years on CNBC, Grodin later took a gig doing Andy Rooney-esque commentary on CBS's 60 Minutes II.

Trivia: The product of a tough, impoverished upbringing, African American actor Robert Guillaume fought his way out of the St. Louis slums by virtue of talent, persistence and an unwillingness to bow down to anyone. After military service and college, Guillaume held down short-term jobs ranging from cook to streetcar conductor, all the while training his voice for potential musical comedy work--training that paid off with his first Broadway show, 1961's Kwamina. Among his many stage credits were the musical versions of Golden Boy (with Sammy Davis Jr.) and Purlie Victorious, and the long-running review Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. When New York stage work was scarce, Guillaume created his own opportunities by giving one-man concerts. After guesting in several of the black-oriented TV sitcoms of the 1970s, Guillaume was cast in 1977 as the imperious, outspoken family retainer Benson in the daytime-drama parody Soap (the actor would be first to admit that many of Benson's more contentious traits sprang from Guillaume's own prickly personality). The role won Guillaume a 1978 Emmy as "Outstanding Supporting Actor." In 1979, Guillaume carried over his Soap role into his own starring series, the now classic sitcom Benson, which ran until 1986 and which won Guillaume another Emmy, this time as "Outstanding Lead Actor." Robert Guillaume also headlined the appropriately titled 1989 series The Robert Guillaume Show, wherein for approximately five months he starred as divorced marriage counselor Edward Sawyer. In the several years to follow, Guillaume would star in shows like Sports night, as well as a number of films like Big Fish and Satin.

Trivia: Possibly in defiance of the old adage "those that can't do, teach," American actor Harold Gould gave up a comfortable professorship in the drama department of the University of California to become a performer himself. Building up stage and TV credits from the late '50s onward, Gould made his first film, Two for the Seesaw, in 1962. He divided his time between stage and screen for the rest of the '60s, winning an Obie Award for the off-Broadway production Difficulty of Concentration. Gould was prominently cast in such slick '70s products as The Sting (1973), Woody Allen's Love and Death (1975), and Mel Brooks' Silent Movie (1976) (as a classically gesticulating villain). Often nattily attired and usually comporting himself like a wealthy self-made businessman, Gould was generously employed on TV for three decades. He co-starred with Daniel J. Travanti in the 1988 American Playhouse production of I Never Sang for My Father, played WASP-ish Katharine Hepburn's aging Jewish lover in the TV movie Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry (1986), and had regular stints on such series as The Long Hot Summer (1965), He and She (1967), Rhoda (1974) (as Rhoda's father), The Feather and Father Gang (1977), Washington: Behind Closed Doors (1977), Park Place (1981) Foot in the Door (1983), Spencer (1984) and Singer and Sons (1990). However, when the time came in 1974 to make a series out of the pilot film for Happy Days, an unavailable Harold Gould was replaced by Tom Bosley.

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: African American actor Thomas Kent Carter played leading roles on screen from 1980.

Trivia: Black lead actor, onscreen from the early '80s.

Trivia: American actor Bill Zuckert's long career included appearances on stage, screen, radio, and television. He made his acting debut on radio in 1941. During the 1970s, he made frequent television appearances on programs ranging from Dynasty to The Mary Tyler Moore Show to Little House on the Prairie. Zuckert made his last appearance in two films of 1994, Ace Ventura, Pet Detective and Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult. Zuckert was an active member of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. For the latter, he played a key role in developing a new member program. Zuckert also launched the practice of holding casting showcases for members of both guilds. Zuckert died of pneumonia in Woodland Hills, CA, at age 76.

Trivia: While attending Valley Junior College, Jerry Houser was cast as 15-year-old Oscy in Summer of 42 (1971), a role he repeated in Class of 44 (1973). With rare exceptions, most of Houser's subsequent film roles were minor. On TV, he was seen as Muff Platt in We'll Get By (1975); a decade-and-a-half later, he showed up in two "retro" TV weeklies, The Brady Brides (1989) and The Bradys (1991), playing Marcia's toy salesman husband Wally Logan. Jerry Houser has also provided voiceovers for over a dozen TV cartoon series, including The Biskitts, The Gary Coleman Show, GI Joe, The Smurfs and Tom and Jerry Kids.

Trivia: Chris Lemmon is the son of actors Jack Lemmon and Cynthia Stone. Slightly handsomer than his dad, but possessed of the same distinctive high-pitched laugh, Lemmon began his own film career in 1976. The bulk of his film work has been in comedies, ranging from the witty Seems Like Old Times (1979) to the half-witty The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood (1980). Chris Lemmon has been most active on series television: he went the raunchy-teen route as "Checko" on the frathouse sitcom Brothers and Sister (1979), was featured as Jeff Cameron on Knot's Landing, posed as a "roving reporter" on the daytime game show Fantasy (1982), played neurotic yuppie Richard Phillips on Fox's Duet (1987) and its spin-off Open House (1989), and co-starred with Hulk Hogan on the syndicated Thunder in Paradise (1994).

Trivia: Ed Griffith has extensively played supporting roles on television and on the Buffalo, New York stage. He has also worked on television commercials and appeared occasionally in films.