Trivia: Though best known as an outspoken comedienne, Whoopi Goldberg is also a talented dramatic actress. By virtue of her distinctive appearance and a persona that is both no-nonsense and empathic, Goldberg has emerged as one of the most recognizable celebrities of the '80s and '90s.Born Caryn Johnson on November 13, 1955 in New York City, Goldberg began her long career when she was eight years old, performing with New York's Helena Rubenstein Children's Theater. She then went on to study with the Hudson Guild children's arts program and attended the prestigious High School for the Performing Arts. After graduating, Goldberg occasionally won small parts in Broadway productions such as Hair, Pippin and Jesus Christ Superstar, but also supported herself doing odd jobs like bricklaying and serving as a funeral parlor make-up artist. In 1975, Goldberg moved West and helped found the San Diego Repertory Theater, where she appeared in a number of plays, including Brecht's Mother Courage and Marsha Norman's Getting Out. After several stints with the Spontaneous Combustion improvisational troupe and work in avant-garde productions at Berkeley's Blake Street Hawkeyes theater, Goldberg devised The Spook Show, a one woman satirical production in which she played several characters. The show, which originated in San Francisco, eventually toured the U.S. and Europe, earning acclaim and the attention of director Mike Nichols. Nichols went on to direct a 1984 Broadway version of the show, which earned Goldberg Drama Desk and Theatre World awards, as well as a Grammy for the album recording.Goldberg made an auspicious Hollywood debut with her portrayal of Celie, the lead character in Steven Spielberg's controversial 1985 adaptation of Alice Walker's novel. Goldberg's moving performance was rewarded with an Oscar nomination and Best Actress Golden Globe, as well as instant stardom for the actress. Although Goldberg's film career looked promising, the actress unfortunately spent much of the decade's remainder appearing in terrible action comedies such as Fatal Beauty and Burglar (both 1987) that did not do her comic gifts justice. Her one partial success during this period was her first action comedy, Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986), which did relatively well at the box office and gave her a certain cult status. In 1988, Goldberg took a break from comedy with a memorable turn as a worldly Jamaican nanny in the otherwise unremarkable Clara's Heart. She also made numerous appearances in television specials, most notably as a co-host for the annual Comic Relief benefit for the homeless. Her attempt at sitcoms failed with the short-lived series Bagdad Cafe, but she did find greater television success with a small but crucial recurring role as the sagacious intergalactic bartender Guinan on the syndicated Star Trek: The Next Generation. Around the same time, Goldberg's film career underwent a sharp turn-around. She won acclaim playing a selfless housekeeper opposite Sissy Spacek in the provocative Civil Rights drama The Long Walk Home (1989), and then played an eccentric con artist possessing unexpected psychic powers in the 1990 smash hit Ghost. Goldberg's funny yet moving performance earned her her first Oscar and the widespread opinion that this marked her comeback performance. After a couple of missteps that had a few people rethinking this verdict, Goldberg scored again with the 1992 hit comedy Sister Act. Nominated for Golden Globes and two NAACP awards, the film spawned mass ticket sales and an unsuccessful 1993 sequel, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. Meanwhile, Goldberg also continued her television work with a 1992 late night talk show. A laid back affair that ran for 200 episodes, it was praised by critics but failed to secure high ratings and went on permanent hiatus after only six months. However, Goldberg continued to appear on TV with her recurring role as a Comic Relief co-host and as an MC for the Academy Awards ceremony, a role she reprised multiple times. At the same time, Goldberg continued to work in film, doing both comedy and drama and experiencing the obligatory highs and lows. Some of her more memorable roles included that of a single mother who discovers that Ted Danson, not a black genius, fathered her daughter in Made in America (1993), a lesbian lounge singer in Boys on the Side (1995), a white-middle-aged corporate executive in The Associate (1996), Angela Bassett's best friend in the 1998 hit How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and a private detective in the drama The Deep End of the Ocean (1999). In addition, Goldberg also appeared in two notable documentaries, The Celluloid Closet (1995), and Get Bruce! a piece about comedy writer Bruce Vilanch that also featured fellow comedians such as Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Nathan Lane and Bette Midler.As the new decade dawned, Goldberg could be seen in supporting roles in projects like Rocky and Bullwinkle and the ensemble comedy Rat Race. Then, in 2003, she tried her hand at a starring sitcom role for the first time with Whoopi. The show found Goldberg playing an irreverent hotel owner and was met with mixed reviews before being cancelled mid-season.In 2004, Goldberg focused her career on voice work with appearances in Doogal, The Lion King 1 1/2, and P3K: Pinocchio3000. She continued this trend in the following years with such films as Racing Stripes and Everyone's Hero. Then, in 2007, Goldberg returned to the small-screen, replacing Rosie O'Donnell on the ABC panel show The View. Goldberg lent her voice to Pixar's Toy Story 3 in 2010, and as the narrator for 2011's documentary Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey.

Trivia: American actor Stephen Collins was endowed with the sort of prep-school handsomeness that could adapt to heroics and villainy with equal aplomb. A graduate of Amherst and a veteran of the Broadway stage, Collins made his film bow in a microscopic role in All the President's Men (1976). He was seen to better advantage with a whole crop of relative newcomers in Joan Micklin Silver's low-budget Between the Lines (1977), then graduated to "A" parts in "A" pictures, such as the role of Decker in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1978). Television has always been kind to Stephen Collins: he received substantial acting assignments in the 1977 anthology Best Sellers (as David Spaulding in the "Rhineman Exchange" story arc), the 1982 Indiana Jones derivation Tales of the Gold Monkey (lead role, as Jake Cutter), the 1988 weekly Tattinger's (title role), and the 1990 middle-age-angst sitcom Working it Out (as David Stewart). Eventually he became known for his role as the family patriarch in the Christian-oriented series 7th Heaven (1996-2003). In 2012, Collins played a supporting role in The Farrelly brothers' film reboot of Three Stooges. He would continue to work on television as well, taking guest spots on shows like The Office and Devious Maids, and a recurring role on the second season of Revolution.

Trivia: A professional actress since age 14, Ohio-born Carol Kane is best known for essaying a staggering variety of characterizations in her career. Most of her early film roles were fleeting but memorable, such as that of the hippie girlfriend of Art Garfunkel in Carnal Knowledge (1971), the "sailor's plaything" in The Last Detail (1973) and the terrified bank teller in Dog Day Afternoon (1973). Kane's first starring appearance was in Hester Street (1975), wherein she was Oscar-nominated for her portrayal of a Jewish newlywed in turn-of-the-century New York. From 1981 through 1983, Kane played Simka, the wife of immigrant mechanic Latka Gavras (Andy Kaufman) on the TV sitcom Taxi. Simka's country of origin was fictitious, but Kane and Kaufman managed between them to "create" a Slavic language peppered with ridiculous, non-sequitur terms of endearment. The actress won an Emmy for her work on Taxi. Other regular TV sitcom assignments for Kane have included 1986's All Is Forgiven and 1990's American Dreamer. Kane has excelled in bizarre character roles, notably the kvetching old peasant wife in The Princess Bride (1986), the abusive "Ghost of Christmas Present" in Scrooged (1988), and the toothless, witchlike Grandmama in the two Addams Family theatrical features. She remained an in-demand character actress appearing in a variety of movies and TV shows including Even Cowgirls Get the blues, Trees Lounge, Office Killer, and appearing as herself in the Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon. She slowed down not a whit in the 21st century playing parts in My First Mister, Love in the Time of Money, The Pacifier, My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, and the 2012 indie Sleepwalk With Me.

Trivia: Involved in amateur theatricals since childhood, Annie Potts received her BFA in theatre arts from Missouri's Stephens College. Potts has been seen in comic supporting roles in films since 1978; she is most closely associated with the part of ditzy secretary Janine Melnitz in the two Ghostbusters flicks of the 1980s. On television, Potts has played Edith Bedelmeyer on the one-season sitcom Goodtime Girls (1980), then enjoyed a longer run as Mary Jo Shively on Designing Women (1986-93). Her characterization of outspoken gourmet chef Dana Paladino on the prime time sitcom Love and War won Annie an Emmy nomination in 1994. Annie Potts has also been featured in a popular series of commercials for a well-known corn-chip product, and has served as national spokesperson for the Women for Arthritis Foundation. In 1996 she was cast as a no-nonsense schoolteacher of troubled inner-city high schoolers in the ABC-TV show Dangerous Minds, a series based on the 1995 Michelle Pfeiffer film of the same name. She voiced the part of Bo Peep in the first two Toy Story films, and in 2003 she took part in a Designing Women reunion. That same year she was the lead in Defending Our Kids: The Julie Posey Story. She appeared intermittently on the Showtime series Huff, and in 2007 she joined the cast of the short-lived series Men In Trees. In 2012 she was cast as one of the leads in the new TV series GCB.

Trivia: Roscoe Lee Browne was already an internationally famous track star when he attended Vermont's Middlebury College and Columbia University. Browne taught comparative literature and French at Pennsylvania's Lincoln University before turning to acting in 1956. Refusing to limit himself to the subservient roles generally assigned to black actors in the 1950s, Browne established himself in the classics, beginning with his inaugural stage appearance in a New York Shakespeare Festival staging of Julius Caesar. He later appeared in such highly regarded New York theatrical productions as The Blacks and Brecht on Brecht. From his first film appearance in Shirley Clarke's The Connection (1962) onward, Browne projected a commanding, authoritative presence, even when playing "hired help" characters like camp cook Jedediah Nightlinger in The Cowboys (1972). His series-TV credits include the roles of Saunders on Soap (1980-1981 season) and Rosemont on Falcon Crest (1988-1989 season). Having never let a year go by without at least one theatrical engagement, Browne won a Tony award for his work in the 1992 production 2 Trains Running. Outside of his performing activities, Roscoe Lee Browne is an accomplished poet, short-story author, playwright, director, and musical arranger.

Trivia: Actress Sara Botsford had to make do early in her career with such Canadian horror films as Murder By Phone (1980) and Deadly Eyes (1982). A more prestigious assignment came her way in the A-budgeted mystery Still of the Night (1982), in which, as Gail Philips, Botsford was billed fifth, after Roy Scheider, Meryl Streep, Jessica Tandy, and Joe Grifasi. She was later seen as Barbara in the Robert Redford-Debra Winger starrer Legal Eagles (1986), and as Lady Sarah Phillips in the benighted Whoopi Goldberg vehicle Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986). On television, Sara Botsford starred as predatory producer Ann Hildebrandt in E.N.G., a Lifetime Network soap opera, set in a network newsroom.

Trivia: Welsh native Jonathan Pryce switched from art studies to acting after winning a RADA scholarship, and quickly became both a critically viable and immediately recognizable screen presence. In numerous screen assignments, Pryce's subtle intensity and mania - deftly but not deeply buried beneath a placid exterior - could be parlayed with equal aplomb into roles as an angst-ridden everyman or a manipulative sociopath. In the majority of Pryce's characterizations, he projected a frightening degree of intelligence and sophistication almost by default.After a few seasons with the Liverpool Everyman Theatre, Pryce scored a London theatrical success in Comedians, winning a Tony award when the play moved to Broadway in 1976. Thereafter, he starred in the Broadway musicals Miss Saigon and Oliver!. Pryce's subsequent effectiveness in villainous roles threatened to typecast him as Machiavellian heavies, such as his icewater-veined personification of "reason and logic" in Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989). As time rolled on, however, Pryce began to demonstrate his ability to add layers of offbeat and intriguing eccentricity to roles that, in other hands, could easily become caricatures or stock parts - a gift apparent as early as Pryce's leading turn in Gilliam's Brazil (1985), as a beleaguered everyman enmeshed in a Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare. The actor was particularly arresting, for example, as James Lingk, a bar patron with not-so-subtle homosexual inclinations, who falls prey to the machinations of hotshot salesman Ricky Roma (Al Pacino), in James Foley's 1992 screen adaptation of the David Mamet play Glengarry Glen Ross. He commanded equally powerful screen presence as Henry Kravis, a cunning entrepreneur and the "master of the leveraged buyout" (who bilks corporate giant F. Ross Johnson for a fortune) in the Glenn Jordan-directed, Larry Gelbart-scripted boardroom comedy Barbarians at the Gate (1993). In 1995, Jonathan Pryce won a Cannes Film Festival best actor award for his portrayal of homosexual writer Lytton Strachey in Carrington, opposite Emma Thompson. In subsequent years, Pryce's screen activity crescendoed meteorically; he remained extremely active, often tackling an average of three to five films a year, and demonstrated a laudable intuition in selecting projects. Some of his more prestigious assignments included roles in Evita (1996), Ronin (1998), De-Lovely (2004) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007). The Brothers Grimm (2005) re-united the Welsh actor with Brazil and Baron Munchausen collaborator Terry Gilliam. In 2008, Pryce teamed up with George Clooney, Renee Zellweger and John Krasinski for a supporting role in the Clooney-directed sports comedy Leatherheads (2008); Pryce plays C.C. Frazier, the manager of a 1920s collegiate football player (Krasinski). Many American viewers may continue to associate Pryce with his television commercial appearances as the spokesman of Infiniti automobiles.

Trivia: Jon Lovitz is a versatile comedic actor instantly recognizable for his distinctive voice, acerbic wit, pear-shaped body, and hangdog eyes. He studied at the University of California, Irvine, and participated in the Film Actors Workshop. He then went on to do guest spots on TV and had a recurring role on Foley Square. Lovitz also played small roles in Last Resort (1986), and Ratboy (1986), and also provided a voice for the animated feature The Brave Little Toaster (1987). He got his first real break as a regular on TV's Saturday Night Live, where his characters such as Tommy Flanagan of pathological Liars Anonymous, the great Shakespearean ham Master Thespian, and the Devil himself became quite popular. His stint on Saturday Night Live put him in demand as a character actor and television guest star. His friendship with director Penny Marshall helped him get roles in some of her earlier films such as Big (1988), and his role as the fast talking baseball recruiter Ernie "Cappy" Capadino in Marshall's A League of Their Own (1992) earned him widespread acclaim. Lovitz has also appeared as a guest voice on the TV animated show The Simpsons and played lead voice in the critically-acclaimed animated show The Critic on ABC and the Fox Network.In the years following SNL and The Critic, Lovitz remained active with comedic roles in film (High School High, Little Nicky) and television (NewsRadio, Las Vegas), though it his performances in such films as Todd Solandz's acerbic black comedy Happiness and opposite Kevin Spacey in the semi-comedic Jack Abramoff biopic Casino Jack that displayed more range most filmmakers had previously failed to capitalize on. And thought the comic actor was never known to be overtly political, his scathing criticisms of U.S. President Barack Obama on the issue of taxes made headlines across the country in 2012, resulting in an unusually serious appearance on FOX News in which he passionately defended his comments.

Trivia: It took versatile actor James Belushi several years to slowly come into his own, which wasn't an easy task following in the fiery footsteps of his flamboyant, self-destructive brother, the late comic John Belushi. Despite that obstacle, the easy-going actor with the crooked smile still managed to forge a respectable career playing co-leads in a variety of film genres, including comedy, action, and drama in roles ranging from a sleazeball thief to a cop to a party animal in a gorilla suit. Prior to his first television appearances, the Chicago-born actor earned a degree in Speech and Theater, and worked on-stage in The Pirates of Penzance and True West. Like John, James joined the notorious Second City improvisational comedy group. He also began making regular guest appearances on Saturday Night Live, where his brother became famous in the mid-'70s. Making his feature film debut playing James Caan's calm partner in 1981's Thief, James Belushi began acting under John Landis (who also directed his brother) in Trading Places (1983). He continued playing supporting roles and occasional leads -- most notably in Oliver Stone's Salvador with James Woods in 1986 -- but his big break came when he played a bad cop in 1988's Red Heat with Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was equally popular in K-9 the following year. Although his subsequent films were not as successful, Belushi continued to grow as a dramatic actor. In 2001, Belushi began headlining the successful ABC sitcom According to Jim.

Trivia: Trained at London's Webber-Douglas academy, Paxton Whitehead made his professional debut in 1956, and within two years was signed by the RSC. Crossing the Atlantic to appear in Canadian stage and TV productions, Whitehead made his Broadway bow in 1962's The Affair. He went on to appear with the American Shakespeare Company, to direct in regional repertory, and to function as artistic director of the Shaw Festival, a job he held down for ten years. His later Broadway credits include Crucifer of Blood (as Sherlock Holmes) and the 1980 revival of Camelot (as Pellinore). Whitehead's first film appearance was in the 1986 Whoopi Goldberg comedy Jumpin' Jack Flash. The following year, he starred as Dudley the Butler in the syndicated sitcom Marblehead Manor; one of his co-stars was Linda Thorson, with whom he'd appeared on Broadway in Noises Off. In 1995, Paxton Whitehead was starred as cable-TV exec Duke Stone in the WB Network situation comedy Simon, one of that fledgling network's few bonafide successes.

Trivia: British stage actress June Chadwick has been in films since 1978's The Comeback. More often seen on TV than in films, Chadwick was busiest in the years 1984 to 1986. She played Jeanine Pettibone in the theatrical-feature "mockumentary" This Is Spinal Tap, Lydia on the sci-fi miniseries V, and Lt. Joanna Parisi in the TV adventure weekly Riptide. In 1992, June Chadwick was cast as the seductive Dr. Alice Davis in the offbeat medical series Going to Extremes.

Trivia: An irrepressible "Jill of All Trades," British actress Tracey Ullman is master of all of them. Winning an arts scholarship at age 12, Ullman worked as a professional dancer with a German ballet company before channelling her energies into musical comedy. For her work in the West End production Four in a Million, Ullman was honored with the London Theatre Critics' award as Most Promising New Actress of 1981. Two years later, she was presented with a British Academy Award for her efforts on BBC Television. While still in her early twenties, she headlined her own British comedy/variety TV series, Three of a Kind, and climbed the pop-music charts with her singles "You Broke My Heart in 17 Places" and "They Don't Know." After an inauspicious film debut in 1984's Give My Regards to Broad Street, Ullman ascended to film stardom in such productions as Plenty (1985), Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986), I Love You to Death (1990), Death Becomes Her (1992), and I'll Do Anything (1994). In 1987, she launched her American TV career with the Fox Network's weekly The Tracey Ullman Show, a superb showcase for her many offbeat characterizations, including mixed-up teen Francesca, selfish yuppie Sara Downey, repressed spinster Kay, and Goodallesque anthropologist Ceci Beckwith. The Tracey Ullman Show not only won the Fox Network its first Emmy nomination, but also spawned the popular cartoon series The Simpsons, which first took shape as a series of between-the-acts animated vignettes. While the show indeed served well to earn the wildly versatile actress a loyal stateside fanbase, it was her 1996 Emmy-winning HBO series Tracey Takes On... that truly allowed Ullman the chance to cut loose in front of the camera. A freewhelling comedy smorgasbord that allowed Ullman the opportunity to tackle a different topic each week, Tracey Takes On... continued to give testament to its star's remarkable knack for character play. Later branching out with roles in such popular television series' as Ally McBeal and Will and Grace, Ullman proved that she was as capable of livening up the material of others as she was of creating her own. Supporting roles in such features as Panic and Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks kept the energetic player busy on the big screen, and in 2004 she would take the lead as an uptight suburban mom transformed into a insatiable sex-addict by a head concussion in director John Waters' raunchy comedy A Dirty Shame. Voice work in The Cat That Looked LIke a King, Corpse Bride, and Kronk's New Groove found Ullman flexing her vocal chords to impressive effect in late-2004 and early-2005, and after taking a trip to the land of fairytales in the made for television production of Once Upon a Mattress, it was time to step into the role of the mischevous Mother Mature in director Amy Heckerling's 2007 romantic comedy I Could Never Be Your Woman. In 2008 she launched yet another comedy series, Tracey Ullman's State of the Union, and lent her vocal talents to the animated movie The Tale of Despereaux.

Trivia: Character actor Jamey Sheridan has had a prolific acting career in theater, television, and film productions. Born in California to a family of actors, he made it to Broadway and earned a Tony nomination in 1987 for his performance in the revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons. After several TV movie appearances, he landed a reoccurring role as lawyer Jack Shannon on Shannon's Deal, which ran for one season in 1990. His later television roles include Dr. John Sutton on Chicago Hope (from 1995-1996) and Captain Deakins on Law & Order: Criminal Intent (since 2001). Sheridan started his film career in the late '80s with small roles, and by the '90s he was playing the token family man, a role he would continue in both film and television. He was also capable of playing villains, as he did in the 1994 miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand. Other interesting roles include Marty Stouffer in Wild America and the psychotic neighbor in Video Voyeur: The Susan Wilson Story. After a long history of performing Shakespeare on the stage, Sheridan appeared in Campbell Scott's production of Hamlet in 2000 as well as the Hamlet-inspired modern noir film Let the Devil Wear Black in 1999. He's also given fine supporting performances in The Ice Storm, Cradle Will Rock, Life as a House, and numerous TV movies. In teh early 2000s Sheriden frequently alternated between film and television, though it was his role on the popular detective series Law and Order: Criminal Intent that offered him the most exposure. It was during his five year run on that show that he was diagnosed with Bell's palsy, a nerve disorder that temporarily causes partial facial paralysis, and the writers ultimately incorporated that condition into the show. In 2011 Sheridan joined the cast of the Showtime drama Homeland, which centered on a Marine sergeant and war hero who returns home to the U.S. after eight years missing in Iraq, only to be pursued by a CIA officer who's convinced he's been turned into a terrosit by Al-Qaeda.Sheridan and his wife, actress Colette Kilroy, have two children.

Trivia: Famous for her expressive blue eyes and wholesome smile, Kellie Martin's breakout role in Life Goes On brought the young actress into the homes of television viewers on a sensitive, character-driven series that dealt with family issues in a realistic and compassionate manner. Though she sacrificed much of the common joys of childhood in pursuit of her career, Martin remains content with her choices in life and dedicated to continuing her Yale education. Born in Riverside, CA, Martin's big break came when her aunt, a nanny for actor Michael Landon, showed pictures of her niece to Landon in hopes of winning her an audition. The plan proving successful; Martin soon made her television debut in an episode of Landon's Father Murphy. Later appearing in Landon's Highway to Heaven in 1986, Martin would also make her film debut that same year in the Whoopie Goldberg comedy Jumpin' Jack Flash. Continuing with appearances in television (Secret Witness [1988]) and features (Doin' Time on Planet Earth [1988]), Martin also began voice work for such animated series as A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. In 1989, Martin took the role of Becca Thatcher on Life Goes On and soon gained recognition as a talented young dramatic actress.Working frequently in television after Life Goes On, Martin continued to provide voice work in animation while appearing in the made-for-television adaptation of Catherine Marshall's Christy and the short-lived series of the same name that followed the same year. Making a brief appearance on Crisis Center in 1997 prepared Martin for her successful turn as an ill-fated medical student in ER the next year. Though a successful year in terms of her career, Martin was also faced with the devastating, untimely death of her closest friend and sister to Lupus, a tragedy that found the actress on a devoted mission to raise public awareness of the ravaging disease. The following year, Martin would wed longtime boyfriend Keith Christian. The new millennium found Martin departing from ER in order to finish her studies at Yale and appearing in her first starring feature role with the heartwarming drama-comedy All You Need (2001).Beginning in 2003, Martin made a series of TV movies for the Hallmark Channel, Mystery Woman, making eleven movies in a handful of years. In 2012, she joined the cast of Army Wives, and later had guest roles on shows like Mad Men and Satisfaction.

Trivia: Able to boast a 64-year-career on stage, screen, and television, actor Tom McDermott was most proud of the work he did toward improving opportunities and working conditions for minorities in the theater. His love of acting began in high school and though he received no formal training in the craft, was talented enough to break into the Chicago theater scene in a production of George Bernard Shaw's Candida. From there he went on to become a regular performer on and off-Broadway. He started appearing on television in the 1950s and went on to perform on a wide assortment of programs ranging from Captain Video to One Life to Live. McDermott did not make his feature film debut until Over the Brooklyn Bridge (1983). From there he went on to sporadically play character roles in such films as Ghostbusters (1984) and Liebstraum (1991). He made his final screen appearance in Nicholas Hytner's version of Arthur Miller's play The Crucible (1996).

Trivia: Looking more like the CEO of a law firm than a comedian, Canadian actor Phil Hartman has had a successful career playing against his physical appearance with an off-kilter sense of humor. He entered show business as a graphics designer; among his better-known artistic renderings was the official logo for the rock group Crosby, Stills and Nash. In the early '80s, Hartman was a member of a comedy troupe called the Groundlings, where he made the acquaintance of comedian Paul Reubens. In collaboration with Reubens, Hartman helped create the character of child/man Pee-wee Herman, cowriting the screenplay of Reubens' 1985 movie vehicle Pee-wee's Big Adventure and portraying the grimy Kap'n Karl on the Saturday-morning TV series Pee-wee's Playhouse (1986-90). When asked later on if he was bitter over the way Reubens grabbed all the glory for the Pee-wee concept, Hartman characteristically made a self-deprecating joke, though it was decidedly at Reubens' expense. Before signing with NBC's Saturday Night Live, Hartman appeared as part of a comedy ensemble on the 1985 summer replacement series Our Time. Hartman's greatest comic strength lay in his celebrity impersonations, which he trotted out to maximum effect on both SNL and the Fox cartoon series The Simpsons. Hartman claimed that he had 99 celeb voices in his manifest, including a deadly funny impersonation of President Bill Clinton, which became an audience favorite on SNL and Jay Leno's Tonight Show where he often made guest appearances. Hartman remained with Saturday Night Live from 1986 through 1994, sharing a 1989 Emmy for "outstanding writing;" at the time he left the show (making pointed comments about the deteriorated quality of the writing staff), Hartman had set a record for the largest number of appearances (153) as an SNL regular. In 1995, Phil Hartman began a weekly assignment in the role of a pompous, self-centered (much like Ted Knight's character on The Mary Tyler Moore Show) anchorman on the network sitcom Newsradio. When not appearing on the series, Hartman was a successful TVcommercial voiceover artist and pitchman and also occasionally acted in feature films, including Blind Date (1987), Jingle All the Way (1996) and The Second Civil War (1997). In his personal life, Hartman was totally unlike the characters he usually played and was loved and respected for his humbleness, his affability and his generosity; he frequently donated his time to charities. It was therefore a terrible shock when on May 28, 1998, he was shot to death while sleeping in the bedroom of his Encino, California home. His wife Brynn Hartman committed the murder and then shot herself shortly after police removed the couple's two small children from the premises. Later reports stated that despite putting on a good public face as a couple, the two had been trying for years to resolve their difficulties and that drug and alcohol use on the part of Brynn were a factor in the tragedy.

Trivia: British actor John Wood attended Oxford, where he served as president of the university's Dramatic Society. After serving as a lieutenant in the Royal Horse Academy, Wood joined the Old Vic in 1954, then spent several seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1967, he made his Broadway bow as the glib Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. He went to star in such Atlantic-crossing stage productions as Sherlock Holmes (in the title role), Travesties (for which he won a Tony Award), Tartuffe, Deathtrap, and Amadeus. His infrequent film roles include the reclusive computer whiz Stephen Falken in WarGames (1983) and the Bishop in Ladyhawke (1985). John Wood was seen as the heroine's chauffeur father in Sabrina (1995) and the forbidding Lord Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre (1996).. He died of natural causes at age 81 in 2011.

Trivia: The career of producer/director Garry Marshall was marked by many peaks, including such classic television sitcoms as The Odd Couple (1970-1975), Happy Days (1974-1984), and Mork and Mindy (1978-1982), and the phenomenally popular feature film Pretty Woman (1990). A Brooklyn native, Marshall (born Gary Marsciarelli) was the son of an industrial filmmaker and a dance instructor. His sister, Penny Marshall, is a comic actress and noted film director. Marshall majored in journalism at Northwestern University and subsequently served a stint in the army before becoming a reporter for the New York Daily News. He was also a jazz drummer in a band before becoming a television comedy scriptwriter for such artists as Joey Bishop and Phil Foster and the writer for Jack Parr on The Tonight Show.Marshall moved to Los Angeles in 1961, but he didn't make it big until he teamed up with writer Jerry Belson. Together, they penned numerous episodes for several sitcoms, notably The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Lucy Show. In 1970, Marshall produced The Odd Couple, which starred Jack Klugman and Tony Randall and was based on a popular Neil Simon play and movie. He reached his apex as a television producer during the '70s, with such hits as Laverne and Shirley (1976-1983), (a Happy Days spin-off starring sister Penny), and Mork and Mindy. In addition to his producing and television directorial efforts, Marshall occasionally appeared as a supporting actor. In features, Marshall co-produced and co-wrote (with Belson) his first film, How Sweet It Is!, in 1968. A year later, the two produced and penned The Grasshopper. Marshall made his directorial feature film debut in 1982 with Young Doctors in Love, a comic look at daytime serials. As a film director, Marshall's output received uneven critical reviews. Films such as the Goldie Hawn/Kurt Russell vehicle Overboard and the Bette Midler/Barbara Hershey melodrama Beaches (1988) had good box-office business, but were considered of average quality. 1990's Pretty Woman was Marshall's first big movie hit. Following its tremendous success, he tried his hand at a serious drama with Frankie and Johnny (1991) starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. Later, Marshall's films tended more toward sentimental and straight dramas such as The Twilight of the Golds (1997) and The Other Sister (1999). Marshall returned to comedy -- and to his teaming of Julia Roberts and Richard Gere -- in 1999 with Runaway Bride. Remaining an active director well into his 70s, Marshall helped to launch Anne Hathaway's career by taking the helm for both 2001's The Princess Diaries and its 2004 sequel, though his subsequent, holiday-themed ensemble comedies Valentine's Day (2010), New Year's Eve (2011) and his final film Mother's Day (2016) largely flatlined with critics and moviegoers - with New Year's Eve earning him his first-ever Razzie Award. In addition to his work behind the camera, Marshall occasionally appeared as an actor in films and television shows alike. During the mid-'90s, many TV audiences came to recognize him for playing Candice Bergen's ratings-crazy boss, Stan Lansing, on Murphy Brown. Marshall died July 18, 2016, of complications of pneumonia.

Trivia: During a 1994 interview with comedian Bobcat Goldthwait, The Today Show's Katie Couric became so rattled at Goldthwait's paranoiac, high-decibel responses to her questions that she repeatedly entreated him to calm down and relax. After the commercial break, a frowning Couric looked directly at the guys in the NBC control room and asked, "Why didn't you tell me he always talks like that?" Indeed, Goldthwait has never spoken when shouting will do -- at least not professionally. A popular attraction on the comedy-cabaret circuit in the early '80s, Goldthwait made his film bow as gonzo gang leader Zed in Police Academy 2: The First Assignment (1985); he revived the character -- this time as a good-guy police cadet -- in two Police Academy sequels. Though we've been treated to generous helpings of Goldthwait's marine-raiders comic style in such TV series as Capitol Critters (1992) and Unhappily Ever After (1995), his funniest appearance thus far has been his briefest: in the satirical MTV special Medusa: Dare to Be Truthful (1992), he offers a 30-second parody of Kevin Costner's aw-shucks cameo in Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991). Having previously directed his own concert video Is He Like That All the Time? (1988), Goldthwait extended his directorial activities to the 1994 theatrical feature Shakes the Clown (1994), a grimly amusing look at the underbelly of show business. While promoting Shakes on May 9, 1994, Bobcat Goldthwait made his bid for media immortality by impulsively setting fire to Jay Leno's guest couch on The Tonight Show -- an act which resulted in shocked outrage from both Leno and NBC, but did not prevent them from using this inflammatory vignette in their advertising.His career geared increasingly towards the small screen for the majority of the '90s, Goldthwait would stay in the public eye with a variety of guest appearances on such popular shows as Tales from the Crypt, ER, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, as additional roles on such animated efforts as Buzz Lightyear of Star Command; Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist; Duckman; and Lion of Oz found his services as a voice-over artist in ever-increasing demand. The trend would continue as Goldthwait lent his distinctive vocal inflections to such shows as Crank Yankers and Lilo and Stitch: The Series at the turn of the millennium, though it seemed as if his career was increasingly coming into its own behind the camera as the comic began directing episodes of Chappelle's Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live. Goldthwait's 2003 comedy feature Windy City Heat would debut on Comedy Central to the delight of fans everywhere. He directed Sleeping Dogs Lie, a low budget film about a man who must confront his fiancée when she finds out about some of his past behavior. In 2006 the newly empowered filmmaker's surprisingly tender yet shockingly outrageous romantic comedy Stay would make an impression on audiences at the Sundance Film Festival when it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at that year's proceedings.

Trivia: You knew him as Lenny Koznowski, the nasal, nerdish pal of Andrew "Squiggy" Squigman (David L. Lander) on the hit TV series Laverne and Shirley. Show-biz insiders knew Michael McKean as an intelligent, versatile actor and writer. Shedding himself of the "Lenny" image after Laverne and Shirley folded in 1983, McKean became involved in several ensemble comedy projects with such kindred spirits as Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner and Christopher Guest. In the 1984 "rockumentary" spoof This Is Spinal Tap, McKean played the cockney-accented heavy metal musician David St. Hubbins. Apparently McKean enjoyed posing as an Englishman, inasmuch as he has done it so often and so well since Spinal Tap, most recently as Brian Benben's snippish boss on the cable TV sitcom Dream On. In the early '90s, McKean was one of the stars of another, less memorable TV comedy, Grand, and appeared for two season on Saturday Night Live. He continues to land film roles, usually in comedies, including the successful The Brady Bunch Movie (1995).

Trivia: Tulane University business major Lawrence Gordon began his show-business career as an assistant to TV producer Aaron Spelling. Gordon's first producing credit was Spelling's popular "millionaire cop" series Burke's Law. After serving in executive capacities at Bob Banner Productions, American-International and Screen Gems, Gordon formed his own production company in 1971. From 1984 to 1986, he was president of 20th Century-Fox. In 1987, he went independent again as head of Largo Productions. Lawrence Gordon has occasionally worked in collaboration with his producer-brother Charles Gordon.