Trivia: Like many small-screen veterans who headline a hit network series for multiple seasons, the fresh-faced, genial American actor Richard Dean Anderson will forever be associated with one role -- that of Angus MacGyver, the multilingual, crack Special Forces agent and science expert capable of using common household substances and implements to perform feats of wonder, on the Henry Winkler-produced action-adventure series MacGyver. Although Anderson's resumé packs in a number of key telemovies and a recurrent starring role on the popular Stargate SG-1, the actor is best known for turning MacGyver into a veritable American icon for Gen-Xers during the mid- to late '80s and early '90s.Anderson was born on January 23, 1950, in Minneapolis, MN, to a schoolteacher father, Stuart Anderson, who taught English, humanities, and drama at an area high school, and an artist mother. During middle school and high school, Anderson's plans to embark on a career as a professional hockey player were curtailed by two unfortunate accidents in which he broke both arms, encouraging the young man to pursue drama as an alternate option. After high school, Anderson enrolled in both St. Cloud State University and Ohio University, where he studied acting, but -- feeling listless -- he dropped out before receiving his degree, and spent time in San Francisco and Manhattan, then moved permanently to L.A. In Southern California, Anderson held down gigs as a street mime, juggler, and aquatic performer at Marineland, then appeared in the stage production Superman in the Bones at the Pilgrimage Theatre.Aficionados of 1970s American television might recall that Anderson's "breakthrough" arrived not as MacGyver, but as Dr. Jeff Webber on the long-running ABC soap opera General Hospital, circa 1976 -- then in production for 13 years. Not long after two failed series attempts on CBS -- the adventure drama Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in 1982 and the Dennis Weaver-headlined military drama Emerald Point, N.A.S. in 1983 -- Anderson auditioned for Henry Winkler and others to portray MacGyver on that character's eponymous action series. The premise found MacGyver enlisting as a member of a "think tank" called "The Phoenix Foundation," devoted to traveling around the world and thwarting criminal activity. The program's gimmick revolved around scientist MacGyver's abhorrence of guns, and his ability to use seemingly innocent, harmless objects -- such a candy bar, a paperclip, a toothpick, and (of course) his ever-present Swiss Army knife -- to blow up buildings, escape from deathtraps, save lives, etc. Winkler and his co-producers purportedly gave Anderson the part because of his request to wear eyeglasses during the reading -- an act that suggested humility to them and thus meshed perfectly with the character. MacGyver debuted on ABC on September 29, 1985, and lasted seven seasons, retaining a faithful audience despite at least 11 shifts in its night and time slot. It finally wrapped on August 8, 1992. Two telemovies, MacGyver: Trail to Doomsday and MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis, aired in 1994, both produced by Anderson.Alongside the MacGyver series run and shortly thereafter, Anderson signed for key roles in several network telemovies, including Ordinary Heroes (1985), Through the Eyes of a Killer (1992, which uncharacteristically cast him as a psychotic stalker), Beyond Betrayal (1994), and the epic-length disaster miniseries Pandora's Clock (1996). These proved moderately successful, but Anderson's two additional attempts to produce a network series through his Gekko film production company during the early '90s (Firehouse and Legend) died quick deaths.Anderson nevertheless caught his second wind and returned to series television (garnering a loyal cult following among sci-fi buffs) as Col. Jack O'Neill in the 1997 series Stargate SG-1, which originated on Showtime. Adapted from the hit 1994 movie Stargate, the program found O'Neill emerging from semi-retirement and continually traveling to interstellar "stargate" portals to protect the universe from hostile alien invasions. Stargate SG-1 bowed to extraordinary reviews and ratings and became a permanent hit; Anderson stayed with the series through its eighth season, and appeared as a guest star occationally during the rest of its run. He would go on to appear on the spin off SGU Stargate Universe, as well as the dramedy series Fairly Legal.Though Anderson has never married, he has been romantically linked with such actresses as Marlee Matlin, Deidre Hall, Sela Ward, Teri Hatcher, and Lara Flynn Boyle, and the champion skater Katarina Witt. In 1996, Anderson entered an ongoing romantic relationship with Apryl Prose, and the two had a daughter, Wylie Quinn Annarose Anderson, born in August 1998. Anderson divides his time between residences in Vancouver, Los Angeles, and northern Minnesota.

Trivia: American utility actor John Pleshette has been seen on screen since 1970. Pleshette's first regular TV role was Dr. Danvers in the 1975 series Doctor's Hospital. One of his handful of starring assignments was the title character in the speculative TV movie The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald (1978). Knot's Landing fans will remember Pleshette as arrogant, duplicitous attorney Richard Avery, a role he filled from 1979 to 1983. John Pleshette is no relation to actress Suzanne Pleshette.

Trivia: A versatile performer born into the lap of show business -- her parents were Gypsy stage choreographer Robert Tucker and ballet instructor Nenette Charisse, and her aunt (by marriage) acclaimed dancer Cyd Charisse -- Nana Visitor grew up on the west side of Manhattan, not far from Broadway. Visitor followed her parents' lead by formally training as a ballet dancer from the age of seven, then segued into tap dance, and in virtually no time seemed destined for the stages of the Great White Way, an accomplishment secured by late adolescence. Visitor's stage credits include My One and Only, Gypsy, 42nd Street, and The Ladies' Room; by the mid-'80s she began signing for on-camera appearances as well, often though not always in telemovies and series roles. Her best-known parts include a regular role as Major Kira Nerys on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for the series' entire seven-season run and a recurring part during the first season of James Cameron's Dark Angel as the nefarious Dr. Elizabeth Renfro (aka Madame X). Visitor then went on to star as Roxie Hart in a revival of the stage musical Chicago before again taking a regular TV role. This time, Visitor played Jean Ritter on the horse-racing teen drama Wildfire.

Trivia: On stage from 1960, towering African-American actor Rockne Tarkington has been most often seen in movie and TV adventure fare. Those who were weaned on the Saturday morning kiddie shows of the 1960s will remember Tarkington as Morgan, the fearless islander eternally called upon to rescue hero Frank Aletter and heroine Ronne Troup in the live-action "Danger Island" segments of The Banana Splits Adventure Hour. In the evening hours, Tarkington could be seen on an occasional basis as jungle veterinarian Rao on the Tarzan series. Numbering among his feature film credits are such heart-pounders as Ice Pirates (1984), Death Before Dishonor (1987) and Fists of Steel (1990). Curiously, in Kevin Costner's blood-spattered Wyatt Earp (1994), Rockne Tarkington played the relatively passive role of a stablehand.

Trivia: Born in New Zealand, comic actor Clive Revill attended that country's Rongotai College, then made his first stage appearance in Auckland at age 20. After appearing on Broadway in the 1952 musical Mr. Pickwick, Revill spent three years with Britain's Ipswich Repertory. He was nominated for Tony Awards for his performances in Broadway's Irma La Douce and Oliver!; his later New York appearances included the starring roles of Sheridan Whiteside in Sherry, the 1972 musicalization of The Man Who Came to Dinner, and playwright/critic Max Beerbohm in The Incomparable Max. In films, Revill essayed "campy" characterizations in such 1960s projects as Modesty Blaise (1966), Fathom (1967) and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1969); on television, he was brilliantly cast as Charlie Chaplin in the 1980 TV movie The Scarlet O'Hara Wars, and portrayed "black arts" purveyor Vector in the 1983 series Wizards and Warriors. Clive Revill's most recent credits include a cameo as the Sherwood Forest fire marshal in Mel Brooks' Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and the voice of Alfred the Butler on the Fox Television Network's Batman: The Animated Series (1992- ).