Trivia: Born Carlos Ray Norris, Chuck Norris served in Korea in the Army. While there, he studied karate and later became the World Middleweight Karate Champion. He was encouraged by one of his karate students, actor Steve McQueen, to go into acting. He debuted onscreen in the enormously popular Bruce Lee vehicle Enter the Dragon (1973); since the death of Lee he has been the screen's premier martial arts star. He has appeared primarily in militaristic movies in which he single-handedly kills many enemies. His breakthrough film was Missing in Action (1984), in which he played an ex-POW in search of American prisoners still held in Vietnam.

Trivia: Formerly a schoolteacher, Texas-born Noble Willingham has been essaying crusty character roles since 1969. Willingham's resumé includes a brace of location-filmed Peter Bogdanovich films, The Last Picture Show (1971) and Paper Moon (1973), and the role of Clay Stone in both of Billy Crystal's City Slickers comedies. Among his TV-movie credits is the part of President James Knox Polk in 1985's Dream West. A regular on several TV series (The Ann Jillian Show, Texas Wheelers, Cutter to Houston, AfterMASH, When the Whistle Blows), Willingham is best known to 1990s viewers as Mr. Binford (of Binford Tools) in Home Improvement and C. D. Parker in Walker, Texas Ranger. Noble Willingham's most recent film assignments include Ace Ventura, Pet Detective (1994) Up Close and Personal (1996) and Space Jam (1996). In 2000, Willingham left Walker, Texas Ranger to run for Congress in Texas. After losing the election to his Democratic opponent, Max Sandlin, Willingham returned to acting with a supporting role in the Val Kilmer thriller Blind Horizon. Sadly, the part would be the actor's last. In early 2004, at the age of 72, Willingham passed away at home from natural causes.

Trivia: If childhood dreams are indicators of ones' future career, actor Lenny Von Dohlen might today be riding a horse in a blinding circle of dust and speed. Thankfully for his fans, the once aspiring jockey decided on a career in film and television, instead. After attending the University of Texas at Austin, the Augusta, GA, native explored the stage while majoring in drama at Denver's Loretto Heights College. Though he had some pre-college on-stage experience, it was during his stint at Loretto Heights that Von Dohlen truly began to heed his calling. By the early '80s, the actor's extensive stage work earned him a role in the made-for-TV feature Kent State (1981), and he moved to features with a brief turn in the acclaimed drama Tender Mercies in 1983. Following a brief return to the small screen, Von Dohlen received his biggest role to date in the technophobic feature Electric Dreams (1984). Cast as a hapless architect whose self-aware home computer unexpectedly becomes his rival in romance, the film was a hit with audiences and played in a seemingly endless loop on cable TV for years. It may not have been Shakespeare, but Electric Dreams certainly earned the rising star a healthy collection of dedicated fans. In the following years, Von Dohlen found himself once again primarily relegated to supporting roles, though a turn as Karl Malden's steel-worker son in Billy Galvin in 1986 proved that the young actor was as capable with drama as he had been with comedy. After closing out the decade by fighting the undead in Dracula's Widow (1988) and getting tangled up in a murder plot in Love Kills (1991), Von Dohlen once again got a chance to shine as the agoraphobic Harold Smith in David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992). A marked disappointment for both critics and many fans of the series at the time, the actor's eccentric performance gave the film one of its most memorable characters. A series of forgettable thrillers preceded a turn opposite Fairuza Balk in the twisted drama Tollbooth (1994). Two years later, Von Dohlen got a chance to shine in the little-seen drama Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story. A swift thrashing by an eight-year-old in Home Alone 3 (1997) did little to dampen the actor's spirit, and, in 2001, Von Dohlen returned to the small screen with the TVdrama The Ponder Heart.