Trivia: Angela Lansbury received an Oscar nomination for her first film, Gaslight, in 1944, and has been winning acting awards and audience favor ever since. Born in London to a family that included both politicians and performers, Lansbury came to the U.S. during World War II. She made notable early film appearances as the snooty sister in National Velvet (1944); the pathetic singer in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), which garnered her another Academy nomination; and the madam-with-a-heart-of-gold saloon singer in The Harvey Girls (1946). She turned evil as the manipulative publisher in State of the Union (1948), but was just as convincing as the good queen in The Three Musketeers (1948) and the petulant daughter in The Court Jester (1956). She received another Oscar nomination for her chilling performance as Laurence Harvey's scheming mother in The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and appeared as the addled witch in Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), among other later films. On Broadway, she won Tony awards for the musicals Mame (1966), Dear World (1969), the revival of Gypsy (1975), Sweeney Todd (1979) and, at age 82, for the play Blithe Spirit (2009). Despite a season in the '50s on the game show Pantomime Quiz, she came to series television late, starring in 1984-1996 as Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote; she took over as producer of the show in the '90s. She returned to the Disney studios to record the voice of Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast (1991) and to sing the title song and later reprised the role in the direct-to-video sequel, The Enchanted Christmas (1997). Lansbury is the sister of TV producer Bruce Lansbury.

Trivia: After a four-year hitch with the Air Corps, Dean Jones worked the nightclub and cabaret circuit as a blues singer. It was, however, as an actor that Jones was signed to an MGM contract in 1956; he spent the next four years essaying showy supporting roles in films like Tea and Sympathy (1956), Jailhouse Rock (1957) and Torpedo Run (1958). He made his first Broadway appearance in 1960, then went on to star in the TV service sitcom Ensign O'Toole (1962). Jones spent the next several years in light leading-man assignments in such Disney fare as That Darn Cat! (1965), The Ugly Dachshund (1966) The Love Bug (1968) and The Boatniks (1970). He returned to TV in 1970 as host of What's It All About World (1969), then scored a Broadway hit as the central character in the Steven Sondheim musical Company. In 1971, it was back to sitcom-land with the 13-week TVer Chicago Teddy Bears. Throughout the 1970s, Jones became increasingly involved in religious activities; this was reflected to a large degree in his sincere portrayal of Charles Colson in Born Again (1978). He made yet another TV comeback in Disney's Herbie the Love Bug in 1982, the same year that he published his autobiography, Under Running Laughter. Dean Jones remained busy as a film character actor into the 1990s, most delightfully in the atypical role of the vivisection-happy villain in Beethoven (1992). In 1997, he appeared in remakes of both That Darn Cat! and The Love Bug, reprising his role of Jim Douglas in the latter. Jones died in 2015, at age 84.

Trivia: For a time at the tail-end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, Marcia Rodd seemed poised for stardom, either on the big-screen or on television. She was, at the outset of the 1970s, the ideal "gently" liberated woman. Rodd was one of the first actresses who looked good in the briefly fashionable, close-cropped female hairstyle (a sort of attractive version of the "Moe Howard" cut) of the period, conveying intelligence and sensitivity as well as independence. What's more, her first two film appearances included a starring role in Alan Arkin's fashionable black comedy Little Murders (1971) and a major supporting role in Herbert Ross' high-profile adult romance T.R. Baskin, and she was also a recipient of choice roles from television producer Norman Lear. Rodd was born in Lyons, KS, and attended Northwestern University at the end of the 1950s and the start of the 1960s as a drama major, studying under Alvina Krause; her fellow undergraduates included Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss. Arriving in New York during the early '60s, she made her off-Broadway debut at the Provincetown Playhouse in Oh Say Can You See! in 1962, which got her onto her first cast album as part of a quartet called "the Girls"; she also appeared in the showcase Talent 64. She made her Broadway debut in the replacement cast of Oh! What a Lovely War and later appeared in The Mad Show. In 1968, she managed to appear in two different adaptations of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Love and Let Love, and Your Own Thing (as Olivia), and played Bobbi Mitchell in Last of the Red Hot Lovers, working opposite James Coco. In 1970, she was cast as the doomed Patsy Newquist in Little Murders (1971), Alan Arkin's dark comedy of life in New York City, based on Jules Feiffer's off-Broadway play. Her supporting role in T.R. Baskin followed later in 1971, and then Rodd began her first foray into television, principally through the work of Norman Lear in the second season of All in the Family; she played a harried single mother driven to desperate measures to make a decent life for her young son, and in episode No. 37, which was the pilot for the series Maude, Rodd played Carol, the divorced daughter of the title character. Rodd declined to portray the role when the series was picked up, however, and the part went to the more physically endowed but less professionally adept Adrienne Barbeau. Rodd busied herself in New York theater during the early '70s, including a production of The Merry Wives of Windsor at The New York Shakespeare Festival. She was also very briefly in the cast of the ill-fated musical Mack and Mabel as Mabel Normand (succeeded by Kelly Garrett and then Bernadette Peters). She then moved to Los Angeles, where she continued her stage work and also acted in two successive films by director Jonathan Demme, Citizens Band (1977) and The Last Embrace (1979). By the 1980s, she was no longer in the running for starring roles, but was a busy working actress in television, portraying Jack Weston's wife in the short-lived series The Four Seasons and playing the wife of Dr. Stanley Riverside on Trapper John, M.D. During the 1990s, Rodd returned to doing occasional feature films. She has also done a one-woman play about the life of Diana Vreeland, and guest starred on such series as Home Improvement and Sisters.

Trivia: Lead actress, onscreen from The House on Sorority Row (1983, as Kathryn McNeil).

Trivia: In films from 1970, George DiCenzo is best known for his portrayals of scowling urban authority types. DiCenzo's TV and movie characterizations have included Vincent Bugliosi in Helter Skelter (1976), Major Benchley in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1978), Arnold Rothstein in The Gangster Chronicles (1981), and Sam Baines in Back to the Future (1984). Numbering among his series-TV assignments are McClain's Law (1981; as Lt. Edward DeNisco), Dynasty (1984-1985 season; as Charles), Equal Justice (1990, top-billed as Pittsburgh D.A. Arnold Bach), and Joe's Life (1993; as Stan Gennaro). George DiCenzo has also kept busy behind the scenes as an associate producer.

Trivia: While growing up in Chicago, Tom Bosley dreamed of becoming the star left-fielder for the Cubs. As it turned out, the closest Bosley got to organized athletics was a sportscasting class at DePauw University. After additional training at the Radio Institute of Chicago and two years' practical experience in various dramatic radio programs and stock companies, he left for New York in 1950. Five years of odd jobs and summer-theater stints later, he landed his first off-Broadway role, playing Dupont-Dufort in Jean Anouilh's Thieves' Carnival. Steadier work followed at the Arena Theatre in Washington, D.C.; then in 1959, Bosley landed the starring role in the Broadway musical Fiorello!, picking up a Tony Award, an ANTA Award, and the New York Drama Critics Award in the bargain. In 1963, he made his film bow as Natalie Wood's "safe and secure" suitor Anthony Colombo in Love With the Proper Stranger. Occasionally cast as two-bit criminals or pathetic losers (he sold his eyes to blind millionairess Joan Crawford in the Spielberg-directed Night Gallery TV movie), Bosley was most often seen as a harried suburban father. After recurring roles on such TV series as That Was the Week That Was, The Debbie Reynolds Show, and The Sandy Duncan Show, Bosley was hired by Hanna-Barbera to provide the voice of flustered patriarch Howard Boyle on the animated sitcom Wait Til Your Father Gets Home (1972-1973). This served as a dry run of sorts for his most famous series-TV assignment: Howard Cunningham, aka "Mr. C," on the immensely popular Happy Days (1974-1983). The warm, familial ambience of the Happy Days set enabled Bosley to weather the tragic death of his first wife, former dancer Jean Elliot, in 1978. In addition to his Happy Days duties, Bosley was narrator of the syndicated documentary That's Hollywood (1977-1981). From 1989 to 1991, he starred on the weekly series The Father Dowling Mysteries, and thereafter was seen on an occasional basis as down-to-earth Cabot Cove sheriff Amos Tupper on Murder, She Wrote. Reportedly as kind, generous, and giving as his Happy Days character, Tom Bosley has over the last 20 years received numerous honors for his many civic and charitable activities.

Trivia: Supporting actor Robin Gammell first appeared onscreen in the early '70s.

Trivia: Karen Grassle entered the University of California-Berkeley as an English major, but active participation in school plays led her to change her field of interest and to graduate with a BA in drama. Supporting herself with menial jobs, Grassle went on to study in a San Francisco acting workshop, then went to London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art on a Fulbright scholarship. After acting in regional repertory, Grassle received her first New York break in the 1968 play The Gingham Tree...which lasted all of five performances, but which led to steadier engagements with producer Joseph Papp and several Manhattan-based TV soap operas. Hoping to boost her career, Grassle briefly changed her professional name to Kay Dillinger, claiming to be the illegitimate offspring of the notorious 1930s bank robber (who died ten years before Karen was born!) When she came to LA in 1973 for a never-completed movie project, she was calling herself Gabriel Tree, and it was under this name that she beat out 47 other actresses for the role of Caroline Ingalls in the long-running TV drama Little House on the Prairie (co-star Michael Landon convinced her to revert to her given name). During the nine-year run of Little House, Karen Grassle frequently groused about the limitations of her role, but in recent years she has been seen on TV commercials, warmly endorsing a videotaped collection of the best Little House on the Prairie episodes.

Trivia: Born July 8th, 1944, character actor Jeffrey Tambor has built his career in comedies playing the role of the uptight boss, or more generally, the stuffy guy. After graduate school, teaching, and a prolific stage career, Tambor started making television guest-starring appearances in the early '70s. He showed up on Three's Company enough that he eventually got a spot on the spin-off series The Ropers as the disapproving next-door neighbor Jeffrey. After the show's two-season run, he did a few TV movies before landing a reoccurring roles on the television version of 9 to 5, naturally playing the Dabney Coleman boss character. Throughout the '80s and early '90s, he continued to play the role of the stuffy guy on television (The Golden Girls, L.A. Law, Max Headroom) and movies (Mr. Mom, City Slickers, Life Stinks). His big break came in 1992, when he was cast as Garry Shandling's smiling sidekick, Hank Kingsley, on HBO's The Larry Sanders Show, his most recognizable role. For the rest of the '90s, he frequently returned to playing snide characters for movies (Teaching Mrs. Tingle, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Muppets From Space), although he would be more well-known for his work on television. In 1999, he appeared on the AMC series The Lot for its two-season run and provided voice talent for the MTV cartoon show 3 South. He played another boss type in the heist film Scorched in 2002.In 2003, Tambor joined the cast of Arrested Development for the role of George Bluth, an imprisoned millionaire and patriarch to a seriously dysfunctional family. The role would earn two Emmy nominations. Tambor tried his luck at television success once again in Welcome to the Captain, a short-lived sitcom in 2006, and returned to the big screen for the buddy comedy Twenty Good Years. He played a supporting role in 2009's critically acclaimed comedy the Invention of Lying, and played father of the bride in the megahit The Hangover. In 2011, Tambor took another supporting role for the comedy drama Win Win, and reprised his role in The Hangover for The Hangover Part 2.