Trivia: Brash and brassy comedian Roseanne is a one-of-a-kind talent who during her career has undergone many substantial changes that have transformed her from trailer-trash queen to one of the most powerful women in Hollywood. Around age 18, Roseanne Barr moved to a Colorado hippie commune where she met Bill Pentland. They married in 1973 and moved to Denver, where they struggled to support their three subsequent children. By the mid-'70s, Roseanne was working as both a cocktail waitress and a window dresser to help feed her family. Impressed by her quick, caustic wit and funny insights into women, men, and domestic life, friends and patrons suggested she take her stories on-stage at a local comedy club. It was on-stage where she honed her famous characterization of the dumpy, domineering, and earthy "Domestic Goddess." Within a few years, Roseanne had become one of the most popular standup acts in Denver, and in 1983 she headed for Hollywood to further her career. She quickly landed a gig at The Comedy Store and then appeared on the ABC television special Funny. During rehearsal, she was spotted by a talent scout from The Tonight Show, who promptly booked her for an appearance. It was a great success. In 1988, her innovative and distinguished television sitcom, Roseanne, debuted on ABC and centered on the struggles of an overweight, domineering mother and her raucous, working-class family that is often on the brink of financial and personal crisis but always manages to somehow hang together. Roseanne and her brood were real people facing real problems that weren't always neatly solved in 30 minutes. The shows were often simultaneously poignant and hilarious; until its last two seasons, Roseanne topped the ratings, and won numerous awards and honors. During the course of the show, the many changes in Roseanne's personal life were reflected on the air. When she underwent breast-reduction surgery, her character did too. When she married Tom Arnold in 1990, he became a part of her show and she proudly billed herself as Roseanne Arnold. When the marriage broke up, he disappeared and she began billing herself only as Roseanne. She eventually married her bodyguard Ben Thomas and at the age of 43 had herself impregnated via in vitro fertilization. Her character, Roseanne Conner, also got pregnant. Even the plastic surgeries she has had on her face have received some treatment on the show, in this case via the opening credits, wherein her photographs from the past nine seasons reflect her change from the frowzy to the almost glamorous. Her series ended in May 1997. Though best known for her television work and live performances, Roseanne has also made periodic stabs at a movie career; she made her debut as a vengeful housewife opposite Meryl Streep in the comedy She-Devil (1989). The film received decidedly mixed reviews, and Roseanne's subsequent film appearances have been in cameos or small supporting roles. Over her career, Roseanne has received numerous awards, including an Emmy, several People's Choice Awards, Golden Globes, and an American Comedy Award. She was the fourth woman ever to become the star attraction at a Friar's Club celebrity roast. Back in the late '80s through the early '90s, Roseanne's tumultuous personal life, her often public and ill-timed abrasive nature coupled with her phenomenal popularity made her a favorite target of tabloid newspapers. Never one to shy away from such issues, she tells her own story in two books, the best-selling My Life As a Woman (1989) and My Lives (1994). She has also been frequently skewered by critics and wags who have difficulty accepting the fact that through sheer force of will, she has been able to overcome all obstacles to become a powerful and successful woman.

Trivia: Born Walter Willis -- an Army brat to parents stationed in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany -- on March 19, 1955, Bruce Willis grew up in New Jersey from the age of two. As a youngster, he developed a stutter that posed the threat of social alienation, but he discovered an odd quirk: while performing in front of large numbers of people, the handicap inexplicably vanished. This led Willis into a certified niche as a comedian and budding actor. After high-school graduation, 18-year-old Willis decided to land a blue-collar job in the vein of his father, and accepted a position at the DuPont Chambers Works factory in Deep Water, NJ, but withdrew, shaken, after a co-worker was killed on the job. He performed regularly on the harmonica in a blues ensemble called the Loose Goose and worked temporarily as a security guard before enrolling in the drama program at Montclair State University in New Jersey. A collegiate role in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof brought Willis back in touch with his love of acting, and he instantly decided to devote his life to the profession.Willis made his first professional appearances on film with minor roles in projects like The First Deadly Sin, starring Frank Sinatra, and Sidney Lumet's The Verdict. But his big break came when he attended a casting call (along with 3000 other hopefuls) for the leading role on Moonlighting, an ABC detective comedy series. Sensing Willis' innate appeal, producers cast him opposite the luminous Cybill Shepherd. The series, which debuted in 1985, followed the story of two private investigators working for a struggling detective agency, with Willis playing the fast-talking ne'er-do-well David Addison, and Shepherd playing the prim former fashion model Maddie Hayes. The show's heavy use of clever dialogue, romantic tension, and screwball comedy proved a massive hit with audiences, and Willis became a major star. The show ultimately lasted four years and wrapped on May 14, 1989. During the first year or two of the series, Willis and Shepherd enjoyed a brief offscreen romantic involvement as well, but Willis soon met and fell in love with actress Demi Moore, who became his wife in 1987.In the interim, Willis segued into features, playing geeky Walter Davis in the madcap 1987 comedy Blind Date. That same year, Motown Records -- perhaps made aware of Willis' experiences as a musician -- invited the star to record an LP of blue-eyed soul tracks. The Return of Bruno emerged and became a moderate hit among baby boomers, although as the years passed it became better remembered as an excuse for Willis to wear sunglasses indoors and sing into pool cues.Then in 1988, Willis broke major barriers when he convinced studios to cast him in the leading role of John McClane in John McTiernan's explosive action movie Die Hard. Though up until this point, action stars had been massive tough guys like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, execs took a chance on Willis' every-guy approach to the genre - and the gamble paid off. Playing a working-class cop who confronts an entire skyscraper full of terrorists when his estranged wife is taken hostage on Christmas Eve, Willis' used his wiseacre television persona to constantly undercut the film's somber underpinnings, without ever once damaging the suspenseful core of the material. This, coupled with a smart script and wall-to-wall sequences of spectacular action, propelled Die Hard to number one at the box office during the summer of 1988, and made Willis a full-fledged movie star.Willis subsequent projects would include two successful Die Hard sequels, as well as other roles the 1989 Norman Jewison drama In Country, and the 1989 hit comedy Look Who's Talking, in which Willis voiced baby Mikey. Though he'd engage in a few stinkers, like the unsuccessful Hudson Hawk and North, he would also continue to strike told with hugely popular movies like The Last Boyscout , Pulp Fiction, and Armageddon.Willis landed one of his biggest hits, however, when he signed on to work with writer/director M. Night Shyamalan in the supernatural thriller The Sixth Sense. In that film, Willis played Dr. Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist assigned to treat a young boy (Haley Joel Osment) plagued by visions of ghosts. The picture packs a wallop in its final minutes, with a now-infamous surprise that even purportedly caught Hollywood insiders off guard when it hit U.S. cinemas in the summer of 1999. Around the same time, tabloids began to swarm with gossip of a breakup between Willis and Demi Moore, who indeed filed for divorce and finalized it in the fall of 2000.Willis and M. Night Shyamalan teamed up again in 2000 for Unbreakable, another dark fantasy about a man who suddenly discovers that he has been imbued with superhero powers and meets his polar opposite, a psychotic, fragile-bodied black man (Samuel L. Jackson). The movie divided critics but drew hefty grosses when it premiered on November 22, 2000. That same year, Willis delighted audiences with a neat comic turn as hitman Jimmy the Tulip in The Whole Nine Yards, which light heartedly parodied his own tough-guy image. Willis followed it up four years later with a sequel, The Whole Ten Yards.In 2005, Willis was ideally cast as beaten-down cop Hartigan in Robert Rodriguez's graphic-novel adaptation Sin City. The movie was a massive success, and Willis was happy to reteam with Rodriguez again the next year for a role in the zombie action flick Planet Terror, Rodriguez's contribution to the double feature Grindhouse. Additionally, Willis would keep busy over the next few years with roles in films like Richard Donner's 16 Blocks, Richard Linklater's Fast Food Nation, and Nick Cassavetes' crime drama Alpha Dog. The next year, Willis reprised his role as everyman superhero John McClane for a fourth installment of the Die Hard series, Live Free or Die Hard, directed by Len Wiseman. Though hardcore fans of the franchise were not overly impressed, the film did expectedly well at the box office.In the latter part of the decade, Willis would keep up his action star status, starring in the sci-fi thriller Surrogates in 2009, but also enjoyed poking fun at his own persona, with tongue-in-cheek roles in action fare like The Expendables, Cop Out, and Red. He appeared as part of the ensemble in Wes Anderson's quirky Moonrise Kingdom and in the time-travel action thriller Looper in 2012, before appearing in a string of sequels -- The Expendables 2 (2012), A Good Day to Die Hard, G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Red 2 (all 2013) and Sin City: A Dame to Die For (2014).

Trivia: With a talent as large as his girth, John Goodman proved himself both a distinguished character actor and engaging leading man. A native of St. Louis, MO, Goodman went to Southwest Missouri State University on a football scholarship, but an injury compelled him to seek out a less strenuous major. He chose the university Drama Department, attending classes with such stars-to-be as Tess Harper and Kathleen Turner. Moving to New York in 1975, he supported himself by performing in children's and dinner theater, appearing in television commercials, and working as a bouncer. Goodman made his off-Broadway debut in a 1978 staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and, a year later, graduated to Broadway in Loose Ends. His best Broadway showing was as the drunken, brutish Pap in Big River, Roger Miller's 1985 musical adaptation of Huckleberry Finn. Goodman has occasionally played out and out villains or louts (The Big Easy, Barton Fink), but his essential likeability endeared him to audiences even when his onscreen behavior was at its least sympathetic. He contributed topnotch supporting appearances to such films as Everybody's All-American (1988), Sea of Love (1989), Stella (1989), and Arachnophobia (1990), and starred in such films as King Ralph (1991), The Babe (1992, as Babe Ruth), Born Yesterday (1993), and The Flintstones (1994, as Fred Flintstone). Goodman did some of his best work in Matinee (1992), in which he starred as William Castle-esque horror flick entrepreneur Lawrence Woolsey, and topped himself in The Big Lebowski (1998), playing a quirky security-store owner. He was seen the following year with Nicolas Cage and Ving Rhames in Martin Scorsese's Bringing out the Dead as an ambulance driver.Between 1988 and 1996, Goodman appeared as blue-collar patriarch Dan Conner on the hit TV sitcom Roseanne, a role that earned him four Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe award; his additional TV credits included two 1995 made-for-cable movies: the title role in Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long and Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire, for which he earned another Emmy nomination. Announcing that the 1996-1997 season of Roseanne would be his last, Goodman limited himself to infrequent appearances on the series, his absences explained away as a by-product of a heart attack suffered by his character at the end of the previous season.After making his 10th appearance on Saturday Night Live (2000), Goodman could be seen playing a red-faced bible salesman in director Joel Coen's award winning O Brother, Where Art Thou (2000), and participated in Garry Shandling's film debut What Planet Are You From? (2000). He could be spotted playing an Oklahoma cop in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000), while Coyote Ugly (2000) and Storytelling (2001) found Goodman stepping back into the role of over-protective father. Interestingly enough, he donned hippie-gear to play a goth-chick's Leelee Sobieski dad in 2001's My First Mister. Though Goodman's status as an amiable big guy was well established by the early 2000's, he didn't actually appear on-screen for two of his most beloved roles. In The Emperor's New Groove (2000), Goodman lent his vocal talents for the part of Pacha, a poor farmer who taught a spoiled prince (David Spade) some valuable lessons about life, love, and the meaning of societal standing. Any film-going youngster will recognize Goodman's voice as Monsters, Inc.'s kind-hearted Sully, the furry blue monster who risked life and limb to return a little girl to her home; and who other than Goodman would have been appropriate to voice the part of Baloo, The Jungle Book 2's (2003) freewheeling bear? 2001's ill received One Night at McCool's features Goodman as one of three men lusting after Liv Tyler's character, while 2002's Dirty Deeds took John to Australia, where he played an American mafia-goon thoroughly ill suited to the intricacies of culture down under. Though 2003's Masked and Anonymous was skewered by fans and critics alike, it did give Goodman the chance to work with industry bigwigs Jessica Lange, Jeff Bridges, Penélope Cruz, and legendary singer/songwriter Bob Dylan. In 2004, Goodman got even more involved in the realm of family friendly movies and TV, lending his voice to the character of Larry on the animated show Father of the Pride. The next few years in his career would include many more such titles, like Cars, Evan Almighty, and Bee Movie, and in 2008, he played Pops Racer in the candy-colored big screen adaptation of the popular cartoon Speed Racer. By this time, Goodman had become a go-to guy for PG fare, and signed on next to provide the voice of Big Daddy for the jazz-age animated film The Princess and the Frog. He earned good reviews for his work in the made-for-HBO biopic of Jack Kervorkian You Don't Know Jack in 2010. The next year he appeared in The Artist, the Best Picture Oscar winner, as the head of a Hollywood studio, and in another of the Best Picture nominees playing the doorman in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Trivia: Matriculating from Illinois State University, actress Laurie Metcalf was one of the charter members of Chicago's groundbreaking Steppenwolf Theatre troupe. She moved on to New York in the early '80s, winning a 1984 Theatre World Award and an Obie for her performance in Balm in Gilead. In films since 1985, the flexible Metcalf has been seen in director Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) and Making Mr. Right (1987), and also in several other highly regarded productions, notably Uncle Buck (1989), JFK (1991), and Mistress (1992). Metcalf is best known to the TV-watching public for her Emmy-winning portrayal of Roseanne Conner's police-officer sister, Jackie Harris, on the long-running sitcom Roseanne. In 1997, following the demise of her television series, Metcalf turned in a deliciously over-the-top performance as the tightly wound aspiring reporter Debbie Salt in Scream 2. In the decades to come, Metcalfe would find success on shows like Norm and The Big Bang Theory, as well as movies like Stop-Loss Georgia Rule. Despite her hectic schedule, Laurie Metcalf still finds time for an occasional return-to-the-womb appearance at the Steppenwolf Theatre, usually in the company of fellow Steppenwolfians John Malkovich, Gary Sinise, and/or Glenne Headly.

Trivia: Specializing in playing fanatical or neurotic women, character actress Estelle Parsons has found success on stage, screen, and television, particularly in the latter venue where she is best remembered for playing Roseanne Arnold's screechy, lunatic mother on Roseanne (1988-1997). In show business, Parsons started out as a production assistant and then a staff writer on NBC's Today show, where she was eventually promoted to feature producer.Parsons launched her acting career on-stage in the late '50s. She went on to appear on and off-Broadway and in stock theater, specializing in satirical reviews. The actress made her film debut with a small role in Ladybug, Ladybug (1963). Four years later, she won an Oscar for her portrayal as Blanche in Bonnie and Clyde (1967). She earned a second Oscar nomination for playing a religious fanatic in Rachel, Rachel the following year. Parsons has appeared in many made-for-television movies, notably The UFO Incident (1977), in which she played a woman convinced that she and her husband (played by James Earl Jones) had been abducted by aliens. But for her long stint as a semi-regular on Roseanne, Parsons prefers the stage; her film and television appearances remain sporadic.

Trivia: CCNY and Columbia University alumnus John Randolph was first seen on Broadway in the 1937 opus Revolt of the Beavers. Randolph served in the Air Force in World War II, then resumed what seemed at the time to be an increasingly successful, near-unstoppable acting career. But in 1951, Randolph found himself on a specious "Commie sympathizers" list. After appearing as a hostile witness before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, Randolph was effectively blacklisted from movies, TV and radio commercials for the next twelve years. Fortunately, he could always rely upon the theatre to provide him an income, though it was touch-and-go for a while when a Broadway show in which he was appearing was picketed by anti-Red zealots. Throughout the 1950s, Randolph was featured in such major stage productions as Come Back Little Sheba, The Visit, Sound of Music and Case of Libel. In 1963, he was at long last permitted to guest-star on a network TV program, The Defenders. Appropriately, it was in an episode titled "Blacklist," which condemned the knee-jerk policy of banning artists because of their political views; ironically, Randolph was very nearly denied the part when the network complained that he hadn't been "cleared." Though he'd played a small part in 1948's The Naked City, Randolph's movie career began in earnest in 1965. In John Frankenheimer's Seconds, he was cast as aging businessman Arthur Hamilton, who through the magic of plastic surgery is given a fresh new identity (he emerges from the bandages as Rock Hudson)! Since his career renaissance, Hamilton hasn't stopped working before the cameras. He has been featured in films like Gaily Gaily (1969), Little Murders (1971), King Kong (1976), Heaven Can Wait (1978) Prizzi's Honor (1985; as Pop Prizzi); in TV movies like Wings of Kitty Hawk (1978; as Alexander Graham Bell) and The American Clock (1993); and as a regular in the TV series Angie (1979) Annie McGuire (1988) and Grand (1990). Though he'd probably rather you not mention it, Randolph is a dead ringer for former attorney general John Mitchell; accordingly, he played Mitchell in the TV miniseries Blind Ambition, and was heard but not seen in the same role in the 1976 theatrical feature All the President's Men. Despite the upsurge in his film and TV activities, Randolph has never abandoned the theatre: in 1986, he won a Tony Award for his work in Neil Simon's Broadway Bound. As if to slap the faces of those self-styled patriots who denied him work in the 1950s, Randolph has in recent years accepted the German Democratic Republic's Paul Robeson Award, and has served on the National Council for US-Soviet friendship. John Randolph has also served on the board of directors of all three major performing guilds: SAG, AFTRA and Equity. After taking on a variety of grandfatherly roles, including Jack Nicholson's father in Prizzi's Honor and Tom Hanks' grandfather in You've Got Mail), Randloph passed away at 88-years-old in April of 2004.

Trivia: Ottawa-born Sarah Chalke first gained notoriety in 1993 when, at the beginning of the show's sixth season, she was cast on ABC's hit sitcom Roseanne as oldest daughter Becky, a role that had previously been filled by Alicia Goranson, who exited the show for college. Chalke continued to play Becky for two seasons until Goranson returned, but the two actresses took turns playing the character throughout the season. Goranson left again before the show's ninth and final season, and Chalke resumed the role full-time.Following the end of Roseanne, Chalke took on a role in the Canadian series Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy. While that show only lasted nine episodes, it would only be a couple more years before the actress found herself on another hit series. In 2001, she was cast as Elliot Reid, the female lead opposite Zach Braff on the cult hit NBC medical comedy Scrubs. The massively successful show would run until 2010, earning Chalke legions of fans.In addition to her series television work, Chalke has acted in a number of made-for-TV movies and small independent films over the years. In 2007 she had her first role in a high-profile Hollywood movie with a supporting turn alongside Jon Heder and Diane Keaton in the comedy Mama's Boy. She would also find continued success on the small screen, with starring roles on shows like Mad Love, a recurring gig on Cougar Town and guest spots on shows like Grey's Anatomy and Angie Tribeca.

Trivia: Michael Fishman is best known for his first role as D.J. on the sitcom Roseanne. Taking on the part in 1988 when he was just seven, the Cuban-born actor stayed with the series until 1997, and subsequently experimented with only a few other acting projects, such as appearances on Seinfeld and Walker, Texas Ranger.

Trivia: Born on a Belgian army base, curly brown-haired Johnny Galecki grew up in Chicago and started acting professionally at the age of 12. He made his feature film debut in 1988 as River Phoenix's little brother in A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon. He then assumed the role of Rusty Griswold in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and gained his first regular role on a TV series as Robert Ulrich's son in American Dreamer. In 1991, he starred in the made-for-TV movie Backfield in Motion, co-starring the production team of Roseanne and Tom Arnold. The next year, Galecki joined the cast of Roseanne as Darlene's sensitive and put-upon boyfriend David Healy. He stayed on the show until its final season in 1997, although he wasn't on very much during its last few years. His other television credits include several guest appearances, leading roles in made-for-TV movies, and a part on the short-lived Head of the Class spin-off Billy. After Roseanne ended, he got back into features with small parts in I Know What You Did Last Summer, Bean, and Suicide Kings. He continued playing slightly effeminate sensitive males in The Opposite of Sex and Morgan's Ferry. After bit parts in Bounce, Playing Mona Lisa, and Vanilla Sky, Galecki played a leading role in the comedy thriller Bookies, which premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. In 2007 he landed the leading role in the sitcom The Big Bang Theory and it grew to be one of the most popular shows on TV, earning Galecki Emmy, Golden Globe, and Sag nominations in 2011 for his work on the show. He maintained his movie career in projects such as Hancock and In Time.

Trivia: Like her older half-sister Melissa (Little House on the Prairie), actress Sara Gilbert grew up on a television series, in this case, the long-running ABC sitcom Roseanne (1988-1997). She and her sister and her older half-brother, Jonathon Gilbert, are the third generation of a showbiz family. Her grandfather, Harry Crane, was a writer for The Honeymooners, her grandmother, Julia Crane, was a former Miss Brooklyn and a dancer, and her mother is a producer and talent manager. Gilbert made her professional debut in a television commercial at age six, and from there appeared in the television series Tales of the Apple Dumpling Gang (1982). She then played a small role in the made-for-TV movie Calamity Jane, which starred Jane Alexander. Gilbert's career slowed down after that and she did not appear on television until 1988 when she appeared in Runaway Ralph as part of the ABC Weekend Special. As Darlene Connor in Roseanne, Gilbert believably played a cynical, smart-mouthed, but sensitive foil for Roseanne. Gilbert showed versatility as a confused Daddy's girl who is victimized by a calculating Drew Barrymore in Poison Ivy (1989) and as a Southern child with a dark secret who is befriended by a gentle black man in the well-wrought Sudie and Simpson (1990). Gilbert has been twice nominated for an Emmy and has won three Youth in Film Awards. During the last couple seasons of Roseanne, Gilbert began attending Yale University where she studied art and photography. She has also been an avid supporter for various environmental causes through her affiliation with Earth Communications Office (ECO).She stayed away from acting for the most part until 2007 when she began making occasional appearances on the hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory often playing opposite her former Roseanne co-star Johnny Galecki. In 2010, she created the talk show The Talk, a knockoff of The View, and serves as an executive producer and co-host of the series.

Trivia: Actress Alicia Goranson probably remains most famous for her first professional acting role, playing Becky on the sitcom Roseanne. She started with the series in 1988 when she was 14 and stuck with the show until 1995, when she left to pursue an education at Vassar College, though she would sporadically reappear to play the character over the next few years, sharing the role with actress Sarah Chalke. Goranson would go on to appear in projects like 1999's Boys Don't Cry and the 2005 indie comedy Love, Ludlow.