Trivia: Onscreen, versatile, multi-talented Beverly D'Angelo is best remembered for playing Ellen Griswold in the National Lampoon "vacation" series of films but she has appeared in over 50 films and also performs on television and the stage. The daughter of successful musicians, D'Angelo was educated in Europe and studied fine arts but left school at age 17 to become an artist at Hanna-Barbera Studios. For a time she was a folk singer and performed in Canadian coffee houses. She later sang rock & roll with the group Elephant. She tried acting in regional theater and during the early '70s appeared frequently on Broadway, making her debut playing Ophelia in the rock musical Rockabye Hamlet. D'Angelo made her film debut playing a bit in the Sentinel (1976). Her most highly regarded film role was that of singer Patsy Cline playing opposite Sissy Spacek's Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980). D'Angelo's excellent portrayal won considerable critical acclaim. She imprinted herself into popular culture playing Ellen Griswold in the National Lampoon films Vacation, European Vacation, Christmas Vacation, and Vegas Vacation, and would continue be a consistant presence on screen for years to come, most notably in films like American History X and on the series Entourage.

Trivia: American actor Jamie Farr was the only son of a Lebanese butcher living in Toledo, Ohio. An easy target for bullies due to his short stature and large nose, Farr became the neighborhood clown to save himself from physical abuse. Humor gave him confidence, and by the time Farr graduated from high school he was a top student, extremely popular and active in numerous extra-curricular activities. Always a big movie fan, Farr harbored dreams of being an actor, and to that end studied at the Pasadena Playhouse. In 1955, Farr was cast in his first film (still billed under his own name, Jameel Farrah), The Blackboard Jungle, playing a redeemable hoodlum named Santini; shortly thereafter, he was cast in the Broadway production of No Time for Sergeants, just before he was drafted. The two years in the Army upset the momentum of Farr's career, and he found himself from 1958 through 1971 rebuilding himself from the ground up in bits and supporting roles. (Farr was not in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians during this period, as has often been reported; the cast of that turkey included a Broadway actor named Al Nesor, who bore a startling resemblance to Farr and played many of the same type roles). One of Farr's one-day bits was for the sixth episode of the new TV series M*A*S*H in 1972; Farr had the almost wordless role of a GI who dressed in women's clothing in hopes of getting out of the Army. The character of "Corporal Klinger" was meant to be a onetime joke, but the producers of M*A*S*H sensed possibilities in the character. By Season Two of M*A*S*H, Farr became a full supporting character; by Season Three he was being given co-starring billing in the series' opening credits sequence. After misguidingly "camping" the character in the earliest rehearsals, Farr played Klinger "straight" in every sense of the word: Neither gay nor transvestite, Klinger was simply a guy who'd go to great extremes to get out of military service. Gradually the character began to become fashion conscious, and before the eighties were over Klinger was making several fashion lists as one of the best-dressed characters on TV! Farr's role was expanded when Gary Burghoff left M*A*S*H in 1979; promoted to company clerk, Klinger began to thrive in the military, and the outrageous costuming was allowed to lapse. By the time M*A*S*H left the air, Klinger had taken a Korean wife, and Jamie Farr had become a true-blue celebrity. Unfortunately neither Farr nor Klinger were able to extend their audience appeal into the sequel series After M*A*S*H, not even when the scripts contrived to have Klinger become a fugitive from justice in a move to repeat his "outsider" status on M*A*S*H. Nonetheless, Jamie Farr has kept busy in the years following the cancellation of After M*A*S*H in 1984 with TV guest spots and stage appearances in such roles as Ali Hakim in Oklahoma and Evil Eye Fleegle in Li'l Abner. Farr would continue to appear regularly on screen in the years to come, appearing in movies like Scrooged, and on TV shows like Diagnosis Murder and Mad About You.

Trivia: Started his musical career as the lead singer of punk rock band The Frantic Elevators. Formed Simply Red in 1985, and the band went on to record more than 30 Top 40 UK Singles and 2 U.S. no.1s. Based the hit song Holding Back the Years on his own experience of growing up with an absent mother for most of his life. Supporter of Manchester United Football Club. One of the founders and financial supporters of the reggae label, Blood and Fire. As an active supporter of the Labour Party, Hucknall backed the stance Tony Blair adopted on Operation Iraqi Freedom. However, years later, admitted his conscience had changed towards the war and would no longer donate to the party.

Trivia: Actor, dancer, and choreographer Wendy Raquel Robinson is best known for her role on The Steve Harvey Show, but her career in fact spans far outside television and onto both the big screen and the stage. She appeared in several plays such as The Vagina Monologues, Black Woman's Blues, Agnes of God, A Midsummer's Night Dream, The Colored Museum, and Vanities, all of them receiving rave reviews, and she was also a co-founder of the Amazing Grace Conservatory in South Central Los Angeles, a theatrical training institute for teens. She appeared in movies such as A Thin Line Between Love and Hate and Rebound, and in 2007, she joined the cast of the series The Game.

Trivia: Although mention of his name may not turn heads in the States, Brian Blessed's booming, authoritative voice will. A brute actor from Mexborough, Yorkshire, with the stature to back his vocal chords, Blessed's unique ability to inject his characters with a quick wit and cunning guile helped him thrive in both film and television since his small-screen debut in 1962. A lifelong adventurer who spent his childhood days enthralled by the wonders of BBC radio's The Lost World, Blessed was frequently tardy for classes due to his unyielding desire to learn the secrets of the farthest corners of the world. He endeared himself to British audiences with his role as PC "Fancy" Smith in the popular BBC crime series Z Cars, and followed that up a few years later as Porthos in the 1966 U.K. miniseries The Three Musketeers. Blessed progressed into feature films with a role in The Christmas Tree that same year, and though he frequently returned to television for roles in such hits as The Avengers and Doctor Who, impressive performances in The Trojan Women (1971) and Man of La Mancha (1972) showed his diversity and effectiveness on the big screen, as well. In 1976 alone, Blessed appeared in no less than six made-for-TV efforts, and, by the '80s, he began to attract attention overseas. Perhaps the actor's most widely seen performance was that of the heroic Prince Vultan in Mike Hodges' 1980 comic-book, sci-fi adventure Flash Gordon, and a subsequent performance as King Richard IV in the hit 1983 BBC comedy Black Adder reinforced his status in Britain. Blessed next stole the show as Long John Silver in the 1985 miniseries Return to Treasure Island. His Shakespearean skills took center stage for Kenneth Branagh's Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), and Hamlet (1996), and, in 1999, Blessed directed himself in a U.K. version of King Lear. That same year, he gained even more international exposure when he essayed a small role in Star Wars: Episode 1 -- The Phantom Menace and provided vocal work for Disney's Tarzan. As video-game producers began courting actors to provide vocal work for their interactive adventures, they tapped Blessed to appear in such titles as Kingdom Hearts and Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior. After taking the lead in the 2003 horror film Devil's Harvest, Blessed once again traveled back in time for a role in Oliver Stone's Alexander (2004).

Trivia: The squirrel-cheeked young actress Amanda Bynes rose to fame on Nickelodeon and moved on to the WB network for her teenage years. In 1996, she became a regular cast member on the kid's sketch comedy show All That, which first earned her a growing fan base of adoring admirers. Sticking with Nickelodeon-style broad comedy, she was a panelist on the game show Figure It Out as well as host for the popular variety show The Amanda Show, which won several Kid's Choice awards. After lending her voice to the long-running cartoon Rugrats, Bynes made the big switch from the PG world of Nickelodeon to the PG-13 world of the WB with a part on the short-lived series The Nightmare Room, narrated by author R.L. Stine. The next year she made her feature film debut in the comedy Big Fat Liar as the best friend of fellow young superstar Frankie Muniz. In 2002, she launched the WB sitcom What I Like About You, playing a comedic younger sister who moves into the trendy Upper West Side apartment of her straight-laced older sister (Jennie Garth from Beverly Hills 90210). Widely released one day after her 17th birthday, the romantic comedy What a Girl Wants marked her first major starring role and showcased her Sandra Bullock-style pratfalls as lead Daphne, a girl who goes to England in search of her father (Colin Firth) and finds romance. The undistinguished Just One of the Guys retread She's the Man followed in 2006, a year before she landed a plum supporting role in the big-budget musical remake of Hairspray.

Trivia: Enjoys snowboarding, playing volleyball and doing yoga. After college, she moved to L.A. and found work in independent films as well as in sketch comedy and improv shows. Played Pam Dawber in Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of 'Mork & Mindy.'

Trivia: A TV star with Broadway and animation voice work experience, Lacey Chabert finally made her movie debut on-camera in the big screen version of Lost in Space (1998). Born in Purvis, MS, Chabert began performing as a small child, learning how to play the violin and piano as well as sing and act. After playing the young Cosette in the Broadway production of Les Miserables for two years and appearing on the TV daytime serial All My Children, Chabert became a prime-time star playing one of the beleaguered Salinger family members on the Fox drama Party of Five (1995-2000). As the precocious youngest daughter Claudia, Chabert aged from child violin prodigy to grounded, if occasionally confused, teen before the show ended its run. While working on Party of Five, Chabert lent her voice to the animated movies Anastasia (1997) and An American Tail III: Treasure of Manhattan Island (1998). Chabert gained further notice as difficult daughter Penny Robinson in the big-screen Space, but the film was not quite the blockbuster it was expected to be. The lack of positive reviews did little to slow the actresses career though, as she continued to do frequent voice work (The Wild Thornberries Movie (2002) and Rugrats Go Wild! (2003)), as well as showing her face again in Not Another Teen Movie and Hometown Legend (both 2001).After climbing the credits as a tormenting teen in the 2004 comedy Mean Girls, Chabert would next dive headlong into a night of playful teen mischief in the 2004 teen comedy Dirty Deeds. She lent her voice to the animated Bratz series, and went on to act in a series of projects including Black Christmas, Sherman's Way, In My Sleep, and the 2009 supernatural romantic comedy Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.