Trivia: Born to an English mother and Sudanese father. Uncle Sadiq Al Mahdi was a two-time Prime Minister of Sudan (in the 1960s and '80s). Was bitten by the acting bug as a teenager, when he played Puck in a high-school production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Initially aspired to be a director, and has directed plays as well as two episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Interests include wine collecting, role-playing games, gardening and home projects.

Trivia: A one-time model with a long rap sheet of less-than-ideal behavior, character actor Lawrence Tierney nevertheless managed to amass scores of film credits over a five-decade acting career before he passed away in 2002. Born in Brooklyn, NY, five years before actor/ brother Scott Brady, Tierney excelled in high school track, winning a scholarship to Manhattan College. Rather than stay in school, however, Tierney dropped out and became an itinerant laborer before his looks brought him a job as a catalogue model. In the early '40s, Tierney began acting in theater and was subsequently signed by RKO. Strengthening his skills with supporting roles in such films as Val Lewton's moody thriller The Ghost Ship (1943) and early teen drama Youth Runs Wild (1944), Tierney sealed his fame, and his image, with his performance as the eponymous gangster in the superb B-picture Dillinger (1945). Cashing in on Dillinger's success, RKO slotted Tierney into numerous tough guy roles, including two turns as archetypal Western outlaw Jesse James in Badman's Territory (1946) and Best of the Badmen (1950), a murderer in cult noir Born to Kill (1947), a sociopath in The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947), and a career criminal in The Hoodlum (1951). His B-movie stardom also garnered Tierney a typically villainous role in Cecil B. De Mille's Oscar-winner The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). Tierney became just as well known in this period, though, for his offscreen exploits involving copious booze and physical violence. Tierney was such a regular in the Los Angeles jail that cops assured fellow RKO star and hell-raiser Robert Mitchum after his famous 1948 drug arrest, "We're keeping Lawrence Tierney's cell warm for ya." By the mid-'50s, Tierney's roles were becoming smaller and scarcer. His professional situation unchanged despite appearing in John Cassavetes' praised mental hospital drama A Child Is Waiting (1963), Tierney moved to Europe but he continued to get in trouble with the law. After he returned to New York in the late '60s, Tierney supported himself with a variety of jobs, including bartending, and maintained his pugnacious, drunken ways; he was stabbed in a brawl in 1973 and questioned in connection with a woman's suicide in 1975. Still, Tierney managed to score the occasional acting gig, appearing in Otto Preminger's Such Good Friends (1971), Andy Warhol's Bad (1977), and the blockbuster comedy Arthur (1981). Dry by 1983, Tierney returned to Hollywood to resurrect his career in earnest, and soon landed regular work on TV as well as in movies. Along with a role on NBC's Hill Street Blues, Tierney also appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation and played a sheriff in the TV movie Dillinger (1991). On film, Tierney was as comfortable in John Sayles' thoughtful drama City of Hope (1991) as in John Huston's esteemed Mafia black comedy Prizzi's Honor (1985) and the tastelessly hilarious The Naked Gun (1988); he drew attention for his vigorous turn as Ryan O'Neal's alcoholic father in Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987). Tierney's most memorable late-career performance, however, was his no-nonsense, dryly funny criminal mastermind Joe Cabot in Quentin Tarantino's heist film Reservoir Dogs (1992). His longevity assured by Dogs, Tierney remained active into the late '90s, appearing in the Arnold Schwarzenegger comedy Junior (1994) and stylish Tarantino rip-off 2 Days in the Valley (1996), as well as playing Joey Buttafuoco's father in the TV yarn Casualties of Love: The "Long Island Lolita" Story (1993). Following the crime drama Southie (1998) and playing hard-nosed oil driller Bruce Willis' gruff father in Armageddon (1998), Tierney's health began to fail. He died in his sleep in February 2002.

Trivia: Born in a musically talented family.Grew up in Gary, Indiana.The first African American MFA graduate at Rutgers University.Recorded his lessons for his theater students at Rutgers University while working on the set of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, often in costume.Plays jazz piano.

Trivia: Though she has several features and TV movies to her credit, Terry Farrell has thrived primarily as an actress on series television. Born Theresa Lee Farrell Grussendorf in Cedar Rapids, IA, Farrell moved to New York City to become a model. During her several years as a cover girl, she also studied acting and landed her first major role as an actress by playing a model on the short-lived TV series Paper Dolls (1984). While she continued her acting studies, Farrell had a small role in the Rodney Dangerfield comedy Back to School (1986) and appeared in the TV movies Beverly Hills Madam (1986) and The Deliberate Stranger (1986), a well-received docudrama on serial killer Ted Bundy. After she starred in the horror sequel Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992), Farrell attracted a following as Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1998). During her five years on Deep Space Nine, Farrell also appeared in the TV adaptation of Danielle Steel's Star (1993), the B-action movie Red Sun Rising (1994), and the TV thriller Reasons of the Heart (1996). After Deep Space Nine ended, the actress stayed with TV, signing on to play Reggie, the beautiful diner worker and occasionally sharp-tongued foil to Ted Danson's grumpy doctor on the CBS sitcom Becker (1998).

Trivia: Colm Meaney is no stranger to the run down Barrytown district of Dublin depicted in The Commitments, The Snapper, and The Van, having grown up near the much mythologized neighborhood. The Dublin native began his acting career at the age of 14, eventually receiving formal training at Dublin's prestigious Abbey Theatre School of Acting and going on to join the Irish National Theatre Company. Meaney eventually graduated to the English stage, working in various London theaters, and then began to audition for television work, mainly landing bit parts in such TV shows as the cop drama Z Cars.Meaney moved to the U.S. in 1982, continuing to work mainly on the stage, but gradually made the transition into television and film playing small parts and guest roles on a variety of series. He was part of the cast of One Life to Live from 1986 to 1987, playing Patrick London, and then was hired for a bit part on Encounter at Farpoint, the pilot for the Star Trek: The Next Generation series. He was hired again for another part and then given the role of Chief Miles Edward O'Brien, and quickly went from being a bit player to an important member of the ensemble cast. The character was transferred to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the pilot for that series, and Meaney became a staple member of the show's cast.During his tenure on both Star Trek series, Meaney's motion picture career began to take off, as the bit parts he was given gradually became more substantial. Meaney made his greatest impact in smaller films like the so-called Barrytown Trilogy -- The Commitments (1991), in which he played the father of one of the band members; The Snapper (1993), in which he portrayed Dessie, who finds himself out of a job and suddenly a grandfather; and The Van (1996), which cast him as Larry, a layabout who manages to have a grand idea one day that results in his and a friend Bimbo starting a business out of a derelict vending van. Meaney was also notable in 1996's The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain: his Morgan the Goat, a randy Welsh pub owner with a flair for smart remarks, was an appropriate foil for the naive Englishman played by Hugh Grant. Meaney has continued to divide his time between the U.K. and the U.S., making particularly notable appearances in Paul Quinn's This Is My Father (1998), which cast him as the swishy son of an old gypsy woman; Lodge Kerrigan's Claire Dolan, in which he played a high-class pimp; Ted Demme's Monument Avenue (1998), which featured him as the bullying leader of a Boston gang; and Chapter Zero (2000), an independent comedy that cast Meaney as the cross-dressing father of a struggling writer.He continued to work steadily well into the 21st century in a variety of projects including Bitter Harvest, Intermission, Layer Cake, and Turning Green. He played soccer coach Don Revie in the sports drama The Damned United before playing the father of a strung-out rockstar in the comedy Get Him to the Greek. He appeared in Robert Redford's historical drama The Conspirator, as well as the period drama Bel Ami.

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: African-American actor Michael Dorn received much of his on-the-job training as a semi-regular on the daytime drama Days of Our Lives. In the prime-time hours, Dorn was seen as Officer Turner during the final two seasons (1980-1982) of the weekly cop series CHiPs. He went on to a flurry of supporting-cast activity in such theatrical features as The Jagged Edge (1985). Then, in 1987, Michael Dorn donned mounds of facial makeup for what was to be his signature role: the U.S.S. Enterprise's Klingon officer Lt. Worf on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994).