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: Born in New York and raised in Vermont, actress Elizabeth Perkins headed for Chicago after high school, where she was trained at the Goodman School of Drama. In a busy three-year period (1984-1987), Perkins co-starred in the touring company of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, married Chicago-based actor Terry Kinney (they have since split), was featured on Broadway, and made her film debut in About Last Night... (1986). The actress went on to play Tom Hanks' vis-à-vis in Big (1988), the terminal cancer patient with whom William Hurt begins a relationship in The Doctor (1992), and the "She" to Kevin Bacon's "He" in He Said, She Said (1991). The biggest box-office hit with which Elizabeth Perkins has been associated was 1994's The Flintstones, in which she portrayed the long-suffering Wilma.Though supporting roles in such projects as From the Earth to the Moon, 28 Days, and The Ring Two kept Perkins busy over the next decade, it couldn't help but feel like her career momentum had stalled out a bit by the mid-2000s. Fortunately for comedy fans, television writer/producer Jenji Kohan (Gilmore Girls) recognized her talent, and in 2005 Perkins began a successful four year run on the hit television series Weeds. Cast as the busybody neighbor of a suburban single mother-turned-pot dealer played by Mary-Louise Parker, the talented comic actress earned three Emmy nominations for her role in the series, though the actual award sadly slipped through her fingers each time. Nevertheless, the success appeared to reinvigorate Perkins' small screen career, with roles in Vince Uncensored, teh Closer, and How to Live WIth Your Parents for the Rest of Your Life following in quick succession.

Trivia: While still attending high school in Toronto, Rick Moranis held down a part-time job as a radio engineer. After working as a solo nightclub comic and radio deejay, Moranis joined the Second City comedy troupe, which lead to his television bow in 1980 on the syndicated weekly Second City TV. Like his SCTV colleagues, Moranis' strong suit was his versatility, though his early fame rested on a single characterization. Grudgingly honoring a Canadian regulatory requirement that Second City TV include a sequence of "identifiable Canadian content" in each episode, Moranis and Dave Thomas created the characters of Bob and Doug McKenzie, a pair of beer-guzzling, back-bacon-chewing "hosers" who allegedly represented certain Canadians. The largely improvised McKenzie brothers segments scored an immediate hit, spawning a 1983 feature film Strange Brew, which Moranis and Thomas starred in, co-wrote and co-directed. Since leaving Second City TV, Moranis has pursued a successful film career, usually playing clueless or self-involved nerds. He played reluctant "ghost host" Louis Tully in the two Ghostbusters films, was cast as Seymour Krelboin in the 1986 musical version of Little Shop of Horrors, and was seen as eccentric inventor Wayne Szalinski in Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989) and its sequel Honey I Blew Up the Kid (1992). Even in his 40s, Moranis convincingly portrayed geekish losers-turned-winners in such films as Little Giants (1994) and Big Bully (1995). He played a convincing live-action version of Barney Rubble in The Flintstones (1994). In 1997, he reprised Wayne Szlalinski in Disney's third installment of their now direct-to-video series Honey We Shrunk Ourselves. Having lost his wife Ann to liver cancer in 1991, the beloved character actor subsequently retreated from the spotlight to raise their two children, emerging only occasionally for vocal work on projects like The Animated Adventures of Bob and Doug McKenzie and Brother Bear (both 2003), or to record his Grammy-nominated country album The Agoraphobic Cowboy.

Trivia: No one could have predicted that brash, acerbic, and earthy standup comedienne Rosie O'Donnell would become the American sweetheart (dubbed the Queen of Nice) of daytime talk shows. She is also a veteran character actress of feature films and television. Born and raised on Long Island, NY, the third of five children in an Irish family, O'Donnell's father was the primary caretaker after her mother passed away from cancer when the comedienne was just ten. An avowed television freak, her favorite shows were Merv Griffin and The Mike Douglas Show, both of which would inspire her own talk show decades later. Inspired by Bette Midler and Barbra Streisand, O'Donnell dreamed of becoming a performer, performing on stage for the first time at age 16. Despite the trauma of losing her mother, O'Donnell grew to become a vivacious and popular teen; in her high school year book (class of 1980) she was named Homecoming Queen, Class Clown, and Personality Plus, and she was also elected Senior Class President and was a member of the student council. She participated in every class sport and was a drummer in a garage band. Following high school, she briefly attended Dickinson College in Pennsylvania and Boston University, but dropped out to establish herself on the live comedy circuit. After appearing in nearly every state, she successfully auditioned for Ed McMahon's television talent show Star Search and went on to become a five-time winner. In 1986, she won a recurring role as Nell Carter's neighbor on the final season of the sitcom Gimme a Break (1986). From there, O'Donnell hosted and produced a comedy showcase, Stand Up Spotlight, for VH-1. She next appeared on the Fox short-lived comedy Stand By Your Man (1992). Having established herself as a formidable funny lady, O'Donnell landed the role of tough-talking but goodhearted baseball player Doris Murphy in Penny Marshall's A League of Their Own (1992) and found herself a national star. She continued her film career with a small role as Meg Ryan's confidante in Sleepless in Seattle (1993), followed by a co-starring part opposite Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez in Another Stakeout (1993). As the bubbly Betty Rubble, she stole the show from John Goodman and Rick Moranis in The Flintstones (1994) and she had her first flop, playing a cop who masquerades as a leather-clad dominatrix opposite Dan Aykroyd in Exit to Eden (1994). She added Broadway to her list of successes when she breathed new life into the feisty Rizzo in the revival of Grease. In 1996, she played an understanding nanny in Harriet the Spy. Though she could have continued to have steady work as an actress and live performer, O'Donnell steered her career in a different direction; capitalizing on her phenomenal popularity as a talk show guest by becoming the host of her own gab fest, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, in 1996. Not wanting her program to be yet another of the exploitational, issues-oriented freak shows that characterized the 1990s, she chose to pattern hers after the afternoon talk/variety shows of old, focusing on celebrity interviews, entertaining acts, helpful household hints, and current events. Daytime audiences were hungry for what she offered and, in no time, her show became the most popular of its kind, topping even the venerable Oprah Winfrey Show. During its first three years, O'Donnell and her series garnered numerous Emmys and Emmy nominations.In 2002, after 6 years on television, The Rosie O'Donnell Show bowed, but not before its host ended long speculation by coming out as a lesbian. After leaving the show, O'Donnell transformed her persona to a passionate champion of GLBT-related causes. The adopted mother of four, she particularly focused her attention on lobbying against legal hurdles for gays and lesbians wishing to adopt.In 2005, O'Donnell appeared in her first feature role in several years, playing a mentally-disabled woman in the made-for-TV melodrama Riding the Bus with My Sister. The following year, it was announced that O'Donnell would step in for the departing Meredith Viera on ABC's long-running daytime panel show The View. Her presence on the show regularly sparked controversy, with a public feud between O'Donnell and mogul Donald Trump gaining particular attention.In 2007, after a year on the show, O'Donnell announced that a deal could not be reached with ABC, and she would be leaving the program. But anyone who knew O'Donnell knew that she wouldn't stay out of the spotlight for long, and with recurring roles on Drop Dead Diva, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Lisa Kudrow's Web Therapy she managed to keep her fans laughing. In 2009 she took on a double role as producer and star of the made-for-television movie America -- which told the tale of a youth center psychologist (O'Donnell) treating a bi-racial teen with a turbulent past -- and two years later she joined the Oprah Winfrey Network as host of the nightly talk show The Rosie Show, which featured celebrity guests discussing their careers, as well as current issues. In early 2012, however, the troubled network announced the cancellation of the show, with Winfrey calling O'Donnell personally to break the news. In 2014, she briefly returned to The View, before announcing she was leaving the show after five months due to personal and health issues.

Trivia: Born in 1959, Washington native Kyle MacLachlan, among other things, claims to be a descendent of the legendary composer Johann Sebastian Bach. However, unlike his very distant relative, MacLachlan made his mark not in music, but in television and film. After performing in a variety of local theater productions throughout his youth -- and acting out scenes from the popular Hardy Boys fiction series in his even younger years -- MacLachlan made his feature-film debut in director David Lynch's adaptation Dune in 1984. This would mark the first of many collaborations with Lynch; in 1986, Lynch cast MacLachlan as a young man shocked at what lies under a small town's picture-perfect facade in Blue Velvet. A year later, MacLachlan starred as an alien FBI agent in The Hidden, Jack Sholder's 1987 cult hit. MacLachlan, however, wouldn't gain true mainstream notoriety until 1989, when David Lynch called upon the young actor to play another FBI agent; this time, he was Special Agent Dale Cooper, who was sent to a small Washington town to investigate the murder of a young girl in ABC's popular but ultimately short-lived prime-time drama, Twin Peaks. The role would earn him two Emmy nominations for Lead Actor in a Drama Series and pave the way for more silver-screen roles, some of which include Ray Manzarek in Oliver Stone's The Doors (1991), villain Cliff Vandercave in The Flintstones (1994), and a falsely accused bank clerk in The Trial (1993). MacLachlan offered several relatively well-received starring and supporting performances throughout the mid- to late '90s, and did what he could for his role in Paul Verhoeven's famous 1995 flop, Showgirls.Luckily, the late '90s to early 2000s were much kinder to MacLachlan. In addition to playing another smooth agent in David Koepp's The Trigger Effect (1996), which some critics claimed was his best performance since Blue Velvet, the actor also was cast as King Claudius in Michael Almereyda's adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. However, it was television that once again made MacLachlan a household name, albeit temporarily. In 2000, he joined the cast of HBO's multiple-award-winning series Sex and the City as Charlotte's (Kristin Davis) mama's boy husband, Trey. In 2003, MacLachlan starred in the Bravo network's popular documentary series, The Reality of Reality. Over the coming years, McLachlan wouldenjoy successful arcs on popular TV shows, like How I Met Your Mother, Desperate Housewives, and Portlandia.

Trivia: A woman whose combination of talent, tenacity, and beauty has made her one of Hollywood's busiest actors, Halle Berry has enjoyed a level of success that has come from years of hard work and her share of career pitfalls. Berry's interest in show business came courtesy of her participation in a number of beauty pageants throughout her teens, including the 1986 Miss U.S.A. Pageant. A native of Cleveland, OH, where she was born to an African-American father and white mother on August 14, 1968, Berry was raised by her mother, a psychiatric nurse, following her parents' divorce. At the age of 17, she appeared in the spotlight for the first time as the winner of the Miss Teen All-American Pageant, and subsequently became a model. Berry won her first professional acting gig on the TV series Living Dolls, and then appeared on Knots Landing before winning her first big-screen role in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever. It was on the set of the film that she first earned her reputation for her full commitment to acting, reportedly refusing to bathe for weeks in preparation for her portrayal of a crack addict.Following her film debut, Berry was cast opposite Eddie Murphy in Boomerang (1992) as the comedian's love interest; not only did she hold her own against Murphy, but the same year she did acclaimed work in the title role of the Alex Haley miniseries Queen, playing a young woman struggling against the brutal conditions of slavery.After a comedic turn as sultry secretary Sharon Stone in the 1994 live-action version of The Flintstones, Berry returned to more serious fare with her role in the adoption drama Losing Isaiah (1995). Starring opposite Jessica Lange as a former crack addict battling to win custody of her child, who as a baby was adopted by an affluent white couple, Berry earned a mixed reception from critics, some of whom noted that her scenes with Lange highlighted Berry's own shortcomings.However, critical opinion of the actress' work was overwhelmingly favorable in 1998, when she starred as a street smart young woman who comes to the aid of a bumbling politician in Warren Beatty's Bullworth. The following year, Berry won even greater acclaim -- and an Emmy and Golden Globe -- for her turn as tragic screen siren Dorothy Dandridge in the made-for-cable Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Unfortunately, any acclaim Berry enjoyed was overshadowed by her widely publicized brush with the law in February of 2000, when she allegedly ran a red light, slammed into another car, and then left the scene of the accident. The actress, who suffered a gash to her forehead (the driver of the other car sustained a broken wrist), was booked in a misdemeanor court in early April of that year.Fortunately for Berry, her subsequent onscreen work removed the spotlight from her legal troubles; that same year, she starred as Storm in Bryan Singer's hugely successful adaptation of The X-Men. The film was a box office hit, but her next popcorn flick, the thriller Swordfish, which touted itself as the first movie to feature Berry baring her breasts, had a less impressive reception.Berry again bared more than her character's inner turmoil in Monster's Ball (2001), a romantic drama directed by Marc Forster that starred the actress as a woman who becomes involved with an ex-prison-guard (Billy Bob Thornton) who oversaw the prison execution of her husband (Sean Combs). Berry earned wide critical praise for her work in the film, as well as Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Actress. And though she may have lost out to Sissy Spacek in the Golden Globes, her night at the Oscars found Berry the favored performer as took home a statue for Best Actress. A momentous footnote in Academy Award history, Berry's win marked the first time an African American had been bestowed that particular honor.Although her turn in the James Bond flick Die Another Day was so successful that talk began of a spin-off film, Berry's first true post-Oscar vehicle Gothika proved to be unpopular with both critics and moviegoers. Luckily, 2003 wasn't a total loss for her though as X2: X-Men United was a box-office smash and was regarded by many to be superior to its predecessor. Sticking with comic-books as source-material, Berry could be seen in Catwoman the following Summer. The film was the biggest flop of her career, panned by audiences and critics, and earning the actress a coveted Razzie for her terrible performance. She won back a great deal of respect, however, by starring in the made for TV adaptation of the Zora Neale Hurston novel Their Eyes Were Watching God the next year. She followed this moving performance with a return to her X-Men comrades for X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006, then signed on to star alongside a decidedly creepy Bruce Willis in the suspense thriller Perfect Stranger (2007), directed by James Foley.As the 2010's unfolded, Berry continued to enjoy top-tier status as one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, taking on roles in films like Things We Lost in the Fire, Dark Tide, Cloud Atlas, and The Call. In 2014, she reprised her role of Storm yet again in X-Men: Days of Future Past and took the lead role in her own TV series, Extant, which lasted for two seasons.

Trivia: Elizabeth Taylor was the ultimate movie star: violet-eyed, luminously beautiful, and bigger than life; although never the most gifted actress, she was the most magnetic, commanding the spotlight with unparalleled power. Whether good (two Oscars, one of the first million-dollar paychecks, and charity work), bad (health and weight problems, drug battles, and other tragedies), or ugly (eight failed marriages, movie disasters, and countless scandals), no triumph or setback was too personal for media consumption. Born February 27, 1932, in London, Taylor literally grew up in public. At the beginning of World War II, her family relocated to Hollywood, and by the age of ten she was already under contract at Universal. She made her screen debut in 1942's There's One Born Every Minute, followed a year later by a prominent role in Lassie Come Home. For MGM, she co-starred in the 1944 adaptation of Jane Eyre, then appeared in The White Cliffs of Dover. With her first lead role as a teen equestrian in the 1944 family classic National Velvet, Taylor became a star. To their credit, MGM did not exploit her, despite her incredible beauty; she did not even reappear onscreen for two more years, returning with Courage of Lassie. Taylor next starred as Cynthia in 1947, followed by Life With Father. In Julia Misbehaves, she enjoyed her first grown-up role, and then portrayed Amy in the 1947 adaptation of Little Women. Taylor's first romantic lead came opposite Robert Taylor in 1949's Conspirator. Her love life was already blossoming offscreen as well; that same year she began dating millionaire Howard Hughes, but broke off the relationship to marry hotel heir Nicky Hilton when she was just 17 years old. The marriage made international headlines, and in 1950 Taylor scored a major hit as Spencer Tracy's daughter in Vincente Minnelli's Father of the Bride; a sequel, Father's Little Dividend, premiered a year later. Renowned as one of the world's most beautiful women, Taylor was nevertheless largely dismissed as an actress prior to an excellent performance in the George Stevens drama A Place in the Sun.In 1956, however, the actress reunited with Stevens to star in his epic adaptation of the Edna Ferber novel Giant. It was a blockbuster, as was her 1957 follow-up Raintree County, for which she earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Taylor's sexy image was further elevated by an impossibly sensual performance in 1958's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; another Tennessee Williams adaptation, Suddenly Last Summer, followed a year later, and both were highly successful. To complete the terms of her MGM contract, she grudgingly agreed to star in 1960's Butterfield 8; upon completing the film Taylor traveled to Britain to begin work on the much-heralded Cleopatra, for which she received an unprecedented one-million-dollar fee. In London she became dangerously ill, and underwent a life-saving emergency tracheotomy. Hollywood sympathy proved sufficient for her to win a Best Actress Oscar for Butterfield 8, although much of the good will extended toward her again dissipated in the wake of the mounting difficulties facing Cleopatra. With five million dollars already spent, producers pulled the plug and relocated the shoot to Italy, replacing co-star Stephen Boyd with Richard Burton. The final tally placed the film at a cost of 37 million dollars, making it the most costly project in film history; scheduled for a 16-week shoot, the production actually took years, and despite mountains of pre-publicity, it was a huge disaster at the box office upon its 1963 premiere. Still, the notice paid to Cleopatra paled in comparison to the scrutiny which greeted Taylor's latest romance, with Burton, and perhaps no Hollywood relationship was ever the subject of such intense media coverage. Theirs was a passionate, stormy relationship, played out in the press and onscreen in films including 1963's The V.I.P.'s and 1965's The Sandpiper. In 1966, the couple starred in Mike Nichols' controversial directorial debut Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, arguably Taylor's best performance; overweight, verbally cutting, and defiantly unglamorous, she won a second Oscar for her work as the embittered wife of Burton's alcoholic professor. Their real-life marriage managed to survive, however, and after Taylor appeared opposite Marlon Brando in 1967's Reflections in a Golden Eye, she and Burton reunited for The Comedians. She also starred in Franco Zeffirelli's The Taming of the Shrew, but none were successful at the box office; 1968's Doctor Faustus was a disaster, and later that year Boom! failed to gross even one-quarter of its costs. After 1969's Secret Ceremony, Taylor starred in The Only Game in Town, a year later; when they too failed, her days of million-dollar salaries were over, and she began working on percentage.With Burton, Taylor next appeared in a small role in 1971's Under Milk Wood; next was X, Y and Zee, followed by another spousal collaboration, Hammersmith Is Out. In 1972 the Burtons also co-starred in a television feature, Divorce His, Divorce Hers; the title proved prescient, as two years later, the couple did indeed divorce after a decade together. With no film offers forthcoming, Taylor turned to the stage, and in 1981 she starred in a production of The Little Foxes. In 1983, she and Burton also reunited to co-star on Broadway in Private Lives. Television also remained an option, and in 1983 she and Carol Burnett co-starred in Between Friends. However, Taylor's primary focus during the decades to follow was charity work; following the death of her close friend, Rock Hudson, she became a leader in the battle against AIDS, and for her efforts won the 1993 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. In 1997, the actress once again became a featured tabloid topic when she underwent brain surgery to remove a benign tumor. The same year, she received attention of a more favorable variety with Happy Birthday Elizabeth: A Celebration of Life, a TV special in which she was paid tribute by a number of stars including Madonna, Shirley MacLaine, John Travolta, Dennis Hopper, and Cher. Taylor would continue to make her voice heard when it came to issues that she felt strongly about. In 2003, Taylor refused to attend the Academy Awards out of protest against the Iraq War. Taylor also worked tirelessly in the name of AIDS research, advocacy, and awareness, even appearing in a 2007 staging of the A.R. Gurney play Love Letters opposite James Earl Jones to benefit Taylor's own AIDS foundation -- a performance that earned over a million dollars for the cause. Sadly, Taylor was increasingly plagued by health problems, undergoing cardiac surgery in 2009 to replace a leaky heart valve. On March 23, 2011, she passed away from congestive heart failure. She was 79.

Trivia: Dann Florek was a working actor for 15 years, on stage, in movies, and on television before he became a television star on Law and Order. Born in Flat Rock, MI (near Detroit) in 1950, he was a physics major at Eastern Michigan University until he discovered his affinity for acting and theater. He moved to New York in the early 1970s and became a member of The Acting Company at The Juilliard School. Florek's New York theater credits included work in productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Love's Labour's Lost, and Death of a Salesman. He later performed in many productions staged at the La Jolla Playhouse and the Old Globe Theater in San Diego. Florek's film credits include Sweet Liberty, Hard Rain, Angel Heart, and The Flintstones, and he has made appearances on NYPD Blue, Wings, The Pretender, and The Practice. Additionally, he played Abraham Lincoln in the short-lived Fox Network series The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer. It was as Dave Meyer on L.A. Law that Florek first came to the attention of television viewers, but it was his four seasons on Law and Order that made him a star. He became a familiar and popular actor as Lieutenant (and later Captain) Donald Cragen, the head of the detective squad on whose investigations the series focuses from week to week. Florek also directed several episodes of the series after leaving the cast of the show in 1993, and is an active member of the Directors Guild of America. In 1999, he joined the cast of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, reprising and greatly expanding his role of Captain Cragen, now head of a detective unit specifically assigned to the investigation of sex crimes. Equally skilled at comedy and drama (although more familiar for his work in the latter), Florek is one of a new generation of triple-threat actor/directors to emerge from television in the 1980s and 1990s. Florek continued to work on Law & Order until 2010.

Trivia: Six feet tall by the time he was twelve, Richard Moll would eventually peak at 6'8". To ward off jokes about his height, Moll adopted the "class clown" pose in school, eventually developing a taste for play-acting. Moving from his hometown of Pasadena to Hollywood in 1968, Moll spent the next decade or so with various theatrical troupes, and for a while toured schools in the role of Abraham Lincoln. Whenever he made the movie and TV casting rounds, Moll was greeted with an astonished "What a monster!"; thus, a monster he became, playing a steady succession of "bikers and snake men and one-eyed mutants." He was one of the title characters in the 1972 TV movie Gargoyles, was seen as an abominable snowman in Caveman (1981), and played various and assorted hulking goons in such adventure flicks as Metalstorm (1982) and The Sword and the Sorceror (1984). He was finally allowed to exhibit his "human" side--not to mention his considerable flair for light comedy--as court guard Bull Shannon on the long-running (1984-92) TV sitcom Night Court. Back to monstrosities and villains again in the 1990s--this time by choice rather than necessity-- Richard Moll has continued appearing in sizeable (in more ways than one) TV guest-star roles, and has lent his vocal talents to the role of Harvey Dent, aka Two-Face, in Batman: The Animated Series.

Trivia: "Pound for pound, Jonathan Winters is the funniest man on earth." These words, spoken by talk show host Jack Paar in the early '60s, were not chosen lightly. After war service and graduation from Kenyon College, Winters began his career on a radio station in his hometown of Dayton, OH. The rotund comedian was supposed to merely introduce the records and announce the temperature, but ever so gradually his irrepressible ad-libs and improvisations took over the show. His TV career began on CBS's daytime The Garry Moore Show, where he introduced such imperishable characters as freewheeling senior citizen Maude Frickert and doltish Elwood P. Suggins. He was a regular on the 1955 summer series And Here's the Show, and in 1956 landed his own 15-minute NBC series (the first network program to be regularly videotaped). Though never less than side-splittingly funny on camera, Winters was plagued by severe emotional problems in real life, not the least of which was his reliance on what he called "the sauce." After a highly publicized sanitarium stay, a clean and sober Winters returned to TV, though it would be 1967 before any network would take a chance on his headlining a regular weekly show (during the 1964-1965 season, he starred in a group of well-received specials, and was also a frequent guest on The Tonight Show, The Jack Paar Program, and The Andy Williams Show). During the early '60s, Winters' recorded bits began frequently popping up on the NBC radio series Monitor, and in 1963, he made his movie debut in the all-star It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). In answer to critics who felt that Winters was tied down by scripted material, the comedian starred in the two-season syndicated weekly The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters (1972-1973), which was completely ad-libbed. Many young comics of the 1970s and 1980s have declared that Winters was a prime influence in their choice of career. No comedian was more vocal in his praise of Winters than Robin Williams, who in 1981 arranged for Winters to be cast as overgrown baby Mearth on Williams' popular sitcom Mork and Mindy. Jonathan Winters remained as funny and active as ever into the 1990s, making uproarious appearances on Jay Leno's Tonight Show and co-starring in such big-budget theatrical films as The Shadow (1994). He played multiple parts in the 2000 big-screen version of The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, and in 2007 he was the center of Certifiably Jonathan. In 2011 he was tapped to provide the voice of Papa Smurf in the big-screen adaptation of the popular '80s animated show The Smurfs. He reprised his role in the 2013 sequel, but passed away at age 87 in April of that year, before the movie was released.

Trivia: A popular comedian during the 1970s, Jay Leno is best known as the man who replaced Johnny Carson at the helm of The Tonight Show in 1992. Leno was born James Douglas Muir Leno to parents of Italian and Scottish heritage (Leno is particularly fond of discussing the Italian part) in New Rochelle, NY, but was raised in Andover, MA. During the year in which he was establishing his standup career, Leno was performing 300 nights throughout North America. He made his television debut on the Merv Griffin Show and his acting debut in Silver Bears (1977). That year he appeared in the cast of the short-lived Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. Show, a musical variety summer replacement series. By the early '80s, Leno had left behind any notion of becoming an actor because his comedy career was in high gear. His subsequent film appearances have been as himself or as a parody of himself (The Flintstones, 1994). Leno made his first appearance on The Tonight Show on March 2, 1977. Though he can be sharp and is an astute political commentator, there is something nice and comforting about the soft-eyed, lantern-jawed funnyman that appeals to vast middle-American audiences, the same sort who regularly tuned in to Carson. It is small wonder that Leno became Carson's sole guest host by 1987. Leno hosted his first show as Carson's successor on May 25, 1992, with comedian Billy Crystal as his first guest. There was much furor surrounding the selection of Leno as many believed fellow late night gab-meister David Letterman would inherit the throne. Since taking the Tonight Show's reigns, Leno has attempted to inject the show with a slightly hipper edge by featuring more radical musical acts and affecting a more casual look. It's a tough balancing act, for he must do so without alienating his older, more conservative fan base. Leno would conitnue to host The Tonight Show until a brief stint in 2009, when the network had contracted earlier to hand hosting duties over to Conan O'Brien. Leno moved into an earlier time slot with a comedy show called The Jay Leno Show, but after some controversy, he resumed hosting duties on the Tonight Show, and O'Brien took his act over to TBS.

Trivia: From the outset of his career, towering, grim-visaged actor Jack O'Halloran excelled in brutish roles. O'Halloran was impressively menacing as the nonverbal space criminal Non in the first two Superman movies. He was equally adept with dialogue as the hulking Moose Malloy in 1978's Farewell My Lovely. Jack O'Halloran continued to grunt and glower his way through the 1990s, essaying such fearsome roles as Yeti in The Flintstones (1993).

Trivia: A student of mime artist Marcel Marceau, LA-born Laraine Newman utilized her artistic training in the cause of comedy. In 1972, she joined the Groundlings improvisational troupe (spawning ground for such major comic talents as Phil Hartman and Paul "Pee-wee Herman" Reubens), making her film debut with several fellow improvvers in the 1975 pastiche Tunnelvision. She went on to work as an ensemble player on the 1975 summer-replacement TV variety series Manhattan Transfer. From 1975 through 1980, Laraine was a regular on the ground-breaking weekend comedy series Saturday Night Live. While her contributions were always well-received, Laraine tended to play third banana to the other SNL ladies Gilda Radner and Jane Curtin, reportedly because of her acute shyness. Her best moments on the series occurred when she played alien teenager Laarta in the "Coneheads" sketches; her particular low point was the time she nearly drowned during a "witch-hunt" sketch starring Steve Martin. Free of her SNL duties in 1980, Laraine played a supporting role in Woody Allen's Stardust Memories, and was featured in such "comedy salads" (Ms. Newman's own term for feature films overloaded with TV comedians) as Wholly Moses (1980) and Yellowbeard (1982). The world first saw Ms. Newman's new nose job when she co-starred in the 1985 John Travolta-Jamie Lee Curtis starrer Perfect. The following year, Laraine hosted a syndicated "bad movie" TV anthology, Canned Film Festival. Laraine Newman's screen appearances of the 1990s have included the role of Susan Rock in 1993's The Flintstones and a revival of Laarta in the like-vintage The Coneheads.

Trivia: Like most children of the 1960s, Sam Raimi grew up acting out his fantasies with the benefit of an 8 mm movie camera. The film gauge "grew to 35" when Raimi, with the aid of friends and relatives, raised 500,000 dollars to film a horror feature, The Evil Dead (1983). Not your average sliced-up-teenager epic, Evil Dead was a marvelously wicked assault on the senses, belying its tiny budget with several extremely clever (if nausea-inducing) set pieces. Raimi switched to slapstick comedy with Crimewave (1985), a wild Detroit-based crime caper co-scripted by Raimi's friends and fellow devotees of the bizarre, Joel and Ethan Coen. Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn (1987) giddily expanded the scope and splat-stick humor of the initial installment, and quickly became a cult classic with it s over-the-top gore and imaginative direction. Evil Dead 2 was the mark of a director truly at the top of his creative game, and with that film a foundation was cemented between Raimi and Bruce Campbell that would reach almost mythical status among the hardcore fans of the series. Raimi next came out guns-blazing for Darkman (1990), a comic-book inspired fantasy/adventure representing the director's biggest production budget to date. Though it performed only moderately at the box office, fans clamored to see Raimi's first major release and got an extra kick out of longtime friend and Evil Dead cohort Bruce Campbell in an all-too-brief closing-scene cameo. Also expensively mounted was Army of Darkness (1992), a time-travel swashbuckler that gave evidence of extensive post-production tinkering (notably its skimpy 80-minute running time). A sequel to the first two Evil Dead flicks, the film was released under the more ambiguous title lest it be associated with the outrageously gory previous installments. In the following years the now-established director would hone his talents as a producer with such big-budget action releases as Hard Target (1993) and Timecop (1994). The mid-'90s also found Raimi producing two tele-films that would become the genesis of television's massively popular Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (Raimi would continue as executive producer during the series' four-year run) as well as executive producing Hercules arguably more successful companion series, Xena: Warrior Princess.In 1995, Raimi once again stepped back behind the camera to helm The Quick and the Dead, a revisionist Western starring Sharon Stone. It earned only a lukewarm reception, and it was three years before Raimi directed another feature. 1998's A Simple Plan was a far greater success than The Quick and the Dead: Starring Billy Bob Thornton and Bill Paxton as brothers driven to mistrust and paranoia after discovering four million dollars in the woods, it was Raimi's most lauded film to date, earning a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar nomination for Scott B. Smith and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for Thornton. The following year, Raimi submerged himself fully in the mainstream, directing the Kevin Costner baseball vehicle For Love of the Game. Unfortunately, the film met with a very mixed reaction from critics and audiences alike, many of whom longed for the days when Bruce Campbell, demonic mutilation, and possessed appendages reigned supreme. The Southern gothic trappings of Raimi's next film, The Gift (2000), found the director's longtime fan base hesitantly re-embracing the one-time cult figure with its tale of the supernatural and quietly creepy atmosphere. A frightening performance by the usually non-threatening Keanu Reeves caught jaded filmgoers off guard and the decidedly low-key film contained enough scares to prove that while it may have been temporarily dulled, Raimi had certainly not lost his edge.Although Raimi's next effort may not have been the long-anticipated fourth chapter in the Evil Dead saga (a fanboy fantasy that Raimi and Campbell had cheerfully dismissed on numerous occasions), the long-anticipated release of Spider-Man found the director back on familiar ground with its wild visuals and comic-book origins. Though numerous A-list directors (including James Cameron and David Fincher) had been attached to helm the film during its extended incubation, Raimi's childhood love for the well-loved web-slinger eventually won him the opportunity (and formidable challenge) of bringing the story of Spider-Man to the big screen. With Tobey Maguire in the lead, Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson, and Willem Dafoe suiting up as the Green Goblin, Spider-Man shattered all expectations with overwhelmingly positive word of mouth and a historical opening weekend box-office take of 114 million dollars. With its respect to the source material remaining unusually faithful and a talented cast lending the film as much solid story as thrilling action, fans immediately hungered for more, to which Raimi responded with the wildly popular and equally frenetic Spider Man II. Though Raimi would remain true to the hit series he had so skillyfully crafted by promising Spider Man III as his next directorial outing, it was around this time that the tireless filmmaker began turning his attentions as a producer away from television to focus on the big screen with his production company Ghost House Pictures. The wildly successful horror remake The Grudge being the first outing by the comapny, Raimi subsequently removed any doubt that he was still interested in terrifying audiences when he announced that Ghost House would be producing such eagerly-anticipated horror outings as 30 Days of Night, The Messengers, The Grudge 2, and, of course, the long-rumored remake of his classic shocker The Evil Dead. Spider-Man III arrived, amid much hoopla and fanfare, in early May 2007 - seemingly the perfect cap-off to the summer movie season of that year. With Raimi helming, megamogul Laura Ziskin producing, and Alvin Sargent on board, once again, to co-script, many regarded the picture as an ace in the hole even before it hit cinemas. To be certain, the box office mojo soared. Some critical responses waxed decidedly less enthusiastic than they had for the first two installments, however; one high-profile reviewer complained openly about the strain placed on Raimi and his co-scripters (Sargent and brother Ivan Raimi) to concoct yet another variation on a formula that perhaps didn't demand reiteration except to gross dollar one. The story in question finds Spidey coming into contact with a space particle that blackens his suit and turns him into a raging egomaniac (didn't the scenarists hear scary echoes of Superman 3?). He must then take on not one but three baddies: the son of the Green Goblin from the second Spiderman (James Franco); escaped criminal Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), who morphs into The Sandman; and reporter Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), who transforms into the fanged villain Venom. Sadly for Raimi and company, many die-hard fans of the Spider-Man series considered the second sequel to be a lackluster cap on an otherwise solid trilogy and the character was subsequently handed over to director Mark Webb for a reboot.In the wake of his Spider-Man series Raimi dived back into the genre pool with 2009's Drag Me to Hell -- a highly original horror comedy about an ambitious loan officer cursed by a vengeful old gypsy -- yet despite a torrent of positive critical nods, the film failed to make an impression at the box office. But even that perceived failure did little to slow the creativity of the visionary director, and shortly thereafter Raimi was back behind at the helm with Oz: The Great and Powerful -- a high-profile prequel to The Wizard of Oz inspired by the writings of L. Frank Baum and featuring an imperssive cast that included James Franco, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, and Zach Braff. Meanwhile, as a producer, Raimi teamed with Mandate Pictures and longtime filmmaking partner Rob Tapert to launch Ghost House Pictures, a genre-oriented studio that shocked thick-skinned moviegoers with The Grudge, 30 Days of Night, The Possession, and The Evil Dead (2013) among others.

Trivia: Cinematographer Dean Cundey is among those unsung master photographers whose names appear parenthetically next to the names of their more celebrated directors. Cundey's first feature credit was Where the Red Fern Grows (74). Thereafter, he worked on such John Carpenter films as Halloween (78), The Fog (80) and The Thing (81). Few films have so successfully captured the wet, overgrown ambience of Central America as has the Cundey-lensed Romancing the Stone (84), directed by Robert Zemeckis. One year later, Cundey successfully coordinated flashy special effects with two vastly different time-frames (the 1950s and the 1980s) in Zemeckis' Back to the Future. Cundey's prowess at seamlessly melding live action with laboratory effects prompted Zemeckis to re-engage Cundey for the landmark live/cartoon combo Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, which earned Cundey an Academy Award nomination. As late as 1993, Cundey was still convincingly juggling reality with computer-generated artifice in Jurassic Park.

Trivia: For over four decades, Joseph Barbera reigned, along with his partner William Hanna, as one of the princes of American animation, second only to Walt Disney. Over the years, Hanna and Barbera created so many inimitable cartoon legends that their resumé reads like a laundry list of American television icons: Tom & Jerry, Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear, the Jetsons, the Flintstones, Top Cat, Jonny Quest, Huckleberry Hound, the Smurfs, and many, many others. Born on March 24, 1911, in Manhattan, the son of an Italian immigrant, Joseph Roland Barbera came of age in Flatbush, Brooklyn, where he demonstrated an incredible propensity for artistry as a young man. After high school, Barbera studied at the American Institute of Banking, before the sale of one of his illustrations to Collier's magazine turned his head in the direction of work as a full-time cartoonist; deeply inspired, Barbera wrote a letter to Walt Disney, requesting employment. Disney responded, and agreed to contact Barbera and meet with him on his next trip to New York, but never followed through on this promise. .Undiscouraged, Barbera signed on with one of Disney's rivals, Max Fleischer, but the stint lasted less than a week. Barbera then went to work for the Van Beuren Studios from 1932-1936, then the Terrytoon Studios, in New Rochelle, NY. Not one year later, Metro Goldwyn-Mayer's animation department in Culver City, CA, caught a glimpse of Barbera's work and, sensing the depths of his talent, instantly hired the prodigious young man to work in their animation department. At MGM, Barbera's supervisors paired him up with Hanna, a seasoned animator, score composer, and librettist, and the two set to work turning out animated adaptations of Katzenjammer Kids shorts. In the process, they became fast friends as well. Both men felt dissatisfied with the subjects at hand, however, and convinced the department heads to let them devise, script, illustrate, and animate their own short subjects. This resulted in the 1940 short Puss Gets the Boot, which later received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short. Puss Gets the Boot lost that year to Rudolf Ising's The Milky Way, but the warm public reception to Puss paved the way for a seemingly limitless period of work for Hanna and Barbera at Metro -- their job security further anchored by additional Oscar nominations and wins for shorts. These included -- among others -- Yankee Doodle Mouse in 1943, Mouse Trouble in 1944, Quiet Please! in 1945, The Cat Concerto in 1946. The Oscar nods wrapped with the 1957 short One Droopy Knight; in the interim, the Tom and Jerry series spawned 113 individual episodes. Meanwhile, significant changes occurred at MGM. Hanna and Barbera were first promoted to heads of the animation department; then, in 1955, the department closed altogether, inspiring the two men to strike out on their own, full-time. They turned to H-B Enterprises and reinvented the outfit as a base for animated television series. One of Hanna-Barbera's key innovations during this period involved a now-standard technique called "limited animation," where the animators reduced the number of drawings per minute from around 1,000 to about 300, making the prospect of a weekly animated series a highly feasible one. H-B debuted with its first weekly, The Ruff & Reddy Show, in 1957, then produced The Huckleberry Hound Show (1958). The program won an Emmy and yielded a spin-off, The Yogi Bear Show, about a now-notorious bear with a penchant for swiping "pic-a-nic" baskets from unsuspecting tourists in Jellystone Park. If Hanna and Barbera admitted that Honeymooners mainstay Ed Norton inspired Yogi, they took the success of the series as a cue, unofficially revamping the entire Honeymooners series in animated form for their next project. That effort, The Flintstones -- about two Stone Age couples raising their children in the town of Bedrock -- reinvented the sitcom formula within an animated context. Its initial prime-time run lasted six seasons (until early September 1966) and it has appeared in syndication ever since. Dozens of additional Hanna-Barbera series appeared throughout the '60s, '70s, and '80s; even a brief glimpse indicates the depth and breadth of the imaginations responsible. These included Top Cat (1961), a series about a bunch of "hip" alley cats living and noshing off of Broadway in New York; The Jetsons (1962), a kind of temporal flip side of The Flintstones, about a closely knit, middle-class family living and working in the Space Age, with the help of a robotic maid, flying automobiles, and a high-tech home; Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, a "mod" '70s cartoon about a craven Great Dane and his cadre of bell-bottomed teenage friends, who drive around in a psychedelic van and solve mysteries; and, in the early '80s, The Smurfs, adapted from the Belgian comic strip by Peyo -- a fairy tale series about a bunch of white-capped blue dwarves who live in mushroom huts in a European forest during the Middle Ages, and must thwart the fiendish plans of wizard Gargamel and his cat, Azrael. Hanna and Barbera also attempted, with extremely limited success, to spin hit prime-time American sitcoms off into series cartoons during the late '70s and early '80s, including Mork & Mindy, Laverne & Shirley, and Happy Days. In 1973, they ventured into feature film production with the enormously successful animated theatrical release Charlotte's Web, adapted from the seminal children's book by E.B. White. Hanna and Barbera pursued a sophomore theatrical outing with the 1979 C.H.O.M.P.S., an ill-advised comic fantasy directed by Benji creator Joe Camp, about a robotic dog; it unequivocally bombed with critics and the pubic. The animated 1982 theatrical feature Heidi's Song, adapted from the novel by Johanna Spyri, fared slightly better than C.H.O.M.P.S., but received less recognition and poorer reviews than Charlotte's Web, and was quickly forgotten. The animators occasionally ventured into live-action entertainment and educational programming for television, as well. In the former category, they produced the quirky Westerns Hardcase (1971), Shootout in a One-Dog Town (1974), and Belle Starr (1980In the 1990s, the animators continued to turn out new efforts, with such series as Monster Tails, Fender Bender 500, and Wake, Rattle & Roll. During that decade, Hanna and Barbera also opened a chain of retail stores. Incredibly, the duo's animation work continued until the beginning of the new millennium, but when William Hanna died at age 91 on March 22, 2001, in Hollywood, CA, it effectively signaled an end to many of Barbera's project, as well. Nonetheless, the many classic Hanna-Barbera series continued in syndication on many networks, including The Cartoon Network and a channel called Boomerang, exclusively devoted to vintage Hanna-Barbera programming. Despite his own rapidly advancing age (and the eventual loss of his partner), Joseph Barbera served as executive producer on such live-action theatrical releases as The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000), Scooby Doo (2002), and Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004). He also resurrected the Tom and Jerry series with a new short -- the first in 45 years -- circa 2005. Not long after, however, 95-year-old Barbera died of natural causes, on December 18, 2006, at his home in Los Angeles, CA. Barbera was survived by his second wife, Sheila Barbera, and three children.

Trivia: The son of a construction superintendent for the Sante Fe railway stations, William Hanna was obliged to move around quite a bit as a youngster. Influenced by the preponderance of professional writers on his mother's side of the family, Hanna gravitated towards the creative arts in high school. He played saxophone in a dance band, then majored in journalism and engineering at Compton (California) Junior College. While looking for work in the early stages of the Depression, he landed a backstage engineering job at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre. Hanna's brother-in-law, who worked for a Hollywood lab called Pacific Title, tipped him off to a job opening at the Harman-Ising cartoon studios. From 1931 onward, Hanna contributed story ideas to Harman-Ising's Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series, produced on behalf of Leon Schlesinger and Warner Bros. He also wrote the music and lyrics for several of the catchy tunes heard in these animated endeavors. When Harman-Ising moved to MGM, they took Hanna along as a story editor. And when MGM formed its own animation department in 1937, Hanna was hired by department head Fred Quimby. It was while under the MGM banner that Hanna formed a copacetic (and, as it turned out, lifelong) partnership with cartoon director Joseph Barbera. While both men did a little bit of everything in their cartoon collaborations, Hanna regarded himself as the director and story man, while Barbera preferred to work out the various gags. Hanna-Barbera's most lasting contribution to the MGM operation was their "Tom and Jerry" series, which earned seven Academy Awards over a 20-year period. In 1957, MGM disbanded its cartoon unit, whereupon Hanna and Barbera formed their own company for the purposes of turning out TV animation. No one who has been born after 1950 needs to be reminded of the vast Hanna-Barbera TV output: Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, The Banana Splits and Scooby-Doo constitute but the tip of the iceberg. Busy as they were with their TV commitments, Hanna-Barbera occasionally found time to return to theatrical-feature work, including A Man Called Flintstone (1966), Charlotte's Web (1972) and Heidi's Song (1982). Even after selling their studio, both Hanna and Barbera remained active in the cartoon field; as recently as 1993, Hanna served as co-producer for the animated feature Once Upon a Forest. Though he's received a multitude of industry honors, it is said William Hanna is proudest of his 1985 "Distinguished Eagle Scout" award from the Boys Scouts of America, an organization with which he'd been associated since 1919.

Trivia: American entertainer Mel Blanc, who would make his name and fortune by way of his muscular vocal chords, started out in the comparatively non-verbal world of band music. He entered radio in 1927, and within six years was costarring with his wife on a largely adlibbed weekly program emanating from Portland, Oregon, titled Cobwebs and Nuts. Denied a huge budget, Blanc was compelled to provide most of the character voices himself, and in so doing cultivated the skills that would bring him fame. He made the Los Angeles radio rounds in the mid-1930s, then was hired to provide the voice for a drunken bull in the 1937 Warner Bros. "Looney Tune" Picador Porky. Taking over the voice of Porky ("Th-th-th-that's all, Folks") Pig from a genuine stammerer who knew nothing about comic timing, Blanc became a valuable member of the "Termite Terrace" cartoon staff. Before long, he created the voice of Daffy Duck, whose lisping cadence was inspired by Warner Bros. cartoon boss Leon Schlesinger. In 1940, Blanc introduced his most enduring Warners voice -- the insouciant, carrot-chopping Bugs Bunny (ironically, Blanc was allergic to carrots). He freelanced with the MGM and Walter Lantz animation firms (creating the laugh for Woody Woodpecker at the latter studio) before signing exclusively with Warners in the early 1940s. Reasoning that his limitless character repetoire -- including Sylvester, Foghorn Leghorn, Speedy Gonzales, Tweety Pie, Pepe Le Pew, Yosemite Sam and so many others -- had made him a valuable commodity to the studio, Blanc asked for a raise. Denied this, he demanded and got screen credit -- a rarity for a cartoon voice artist of the 1940s. Though his salary at Warners never went above $20,000 per year, Blanc was very well compensated for his prolific work on radio. He was a regular on such series as The Abbott and Costello Show and The Burns and Allen Show, and in 1946 headlined his own weekly radio sitcom. For nearly three decades, Blanc was closely associated with the radio and TV output of comedian Jack Benny, essaying such roles as the "Si-Sy-Si" Mexican, harried violin teacher Professor LeBlanc, Polly the parrot, and the sputtering Maxwell automobile. While his voice was heard in dozens of live-action films, Blanc appeared on screen in only two pictures: Neptune's Daughter (1949) and Kiss Me Stupid (1964). Extremely busy in the world of made-for-TV cartoons during the 1950s and 1960s, Blanc added such new characterizations to his resume as Barney Rubble on The Flintstones (1960-66) and Cosmo Spacely on The Jetsons (1962). In early 1961, Blanc was seriously injured in an auto accident. For weeks, the doctor was unable to communicate with the comatose Blanc until, in desperation, he addressed the actor with "How are you today, Bugs Bunny?" "Eh...just fine, Doc," Blanc replied weakly in his Bugs voice. At that miraculous moment, Blanc made the first step towards his eventual full recovery (this story sounds apocryphical, and even Blanc himself can't confirm that it took place, but those who witnessed the event swear that it really happened). In the 1970s, Blanc and his actor/producer son Noel -- whom Mel was grooming to take over the roles of Bugs, Daffy and the rest -- ran their own school for voice actors. Mel Blanc continued performing right up to his death in July of 1989; earlier that same year, he published his autobiography, That's Not All, Folks.

Trivia: With her ample animation work and a parallel career as a singer/songwriter, Elizabeth Daily has made the most of her husky yet youthful voice as well as her acting ability. Making her film debut in 1981, Daily starred as a young singer in the independent Street Music. Occasionally billed as "E. G. Daily," Daily played mostly supporting roles in movies throughout the 1980s, including one of the titular types in the clever teen comedy Valley Girl (1983). Her distinctive voice helped make Daily's cheerful Dottie the perfect romantic partner for Paul Reubens' signature man-boy Pee-Wee Herman in Tim Burton's cartoon-esque comedy hit Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985). After appearing in the John Hughes-produced Dutch (1991) and Nancy Savoca's unjustly-overlooked romance Dogfight (1991), Daily focused her energies more extensively on TV and animation voice-over work, including Nickelodeon's popular Rugrats series and The Rugrats Movie (1998). When the original voice actress for the 1995 hit Babe demanded too hefty a raise for its sequel, Daily stepped in to voice the irrepressibly upbeat young sheep-herding pig in Babe: Pig in the City (1998) -- and lost to herself at the box office when the far darker Babe 2 opened poorly against Rugrats. Along with acting, Daily's music has been included on the soundtracks of Scarface (1983), The Breakfast Club (1985,) and Better off Dead (1985).