Trivia: Fresh from Broadway, Elizabeth Hartman made a stunningly brilliant screen debut as the blind, embittered young heroine of A Patch of Blue (1965). This maiden movie effort won Hartman an Oscar nomination -- and at the same time typed her in high-strung, sensitive roles. She continued impressing the critics with choice assignments in The Group (1966) and You're a Big Boy Now (1968), but by 1971 her once-promising career was in the doldrums. There was a chance for a comeback in the box-office smash Walking Tall (1973), but Hartman's character, the wife of sheriff Buford Pusser (Joe Don Baker), was little more than a plot gimmick; she is killed off before the film is two-thirds over, prompting Pusser's final, violent vengeance spree. Hartman also provided a voice for the Don Bluth cartoon feature The Secret of Nimh (1982), Elizabeth Hartman was killed in a fall from her apartment window in 1987.

Trivia: The daughter of a physician, Geraldine Page became a professional actress at 17, winning critical raves for her performance in a 1952 off-Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke (which had only recently been expanded by Williams from his one-act play Eccentricities of a Nightingale). Within a year, Ms. Page was co-starring with John Wayne in the austere 3-D Western Hondo. Too offbeat, too mercurial, and much too overly selective to qualify for movie stardom in the 1950s, Page flourished on Broadway during that decade, again excelling as a Tennessee Williams heroine in the 1959 staging of Sweet Bird of Youth. When she repeated her stage roles in the film versions of Summer and Smoke and Sweet Bird of Youth, she was nominated for an Oscar on both occasions. She went on to win two Emmies for her portrayals of Truman Capote's eccentric aunt in the TV productions A Christmas Memory (1967) and The Thanksgiving Visitor (1969), and after seven nominations won a belated Oscar for her lead performance in 1985's A Trip to Bountiful. Married twice, Geraldine Page's second husband (from 1963 until her death in 1987) was actor Rip Torn; and, yes, the couple's country estate was named "Torn Page."

Trivia: A renowned theater actress, Julie Harris also augmented her reputation with strong performances in a number of film and TV roles, despite her aversion to the Hollywood "glamour star" trip. Born to a well-to-do Grosse Pointe, Michigan, family, Harris opted to pursue acting at Yale Drama School rather than make her society debut at age 19. She landed her first Broadway part one year later. Harris' career was truly launched at age 25, however, by her star-making performance as troubled pre-teen tomboy Frankie in Carson McCullers' play The Member of the Wedding in 1950. Reprising her role in the film adaptation of The Member of the Wedding (1952), Harris scored an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in her first major film appearance. Though she did not win, she did win the first of five Tony Awards in 1952 for her Broadway turn as Berlin cabaret singer Sally Bowles in I Am a Camera. Along with the well-received film version of I Am a Camera in 1955, Harris starred in perhaps her best-known film that same year: Elia Kazan's East of Eden. As initially-coquettish Abra, Harris became a sensitive yet sensible romantic lead opposite an anguished James Dean in his legendary debut. With this trio of films, Harris became part of the 1950s cinematic turn toward performative "realism" exemplified by Method actor icons Dean and Marlon Brando (despite her own impatience with the Method after an Actors Studio stint).Harris continued to avoid typecasting by playing a number of different roles in TV, theater, and movie productions throughout the subsequent decades. On film, Harris showed her considerable range as a kindly social worker in the film version of Rod Serling's teleplay Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), one of the highly disturbed human guinea pigs in the original (and far superior) version of The Haunting (1963), a frustrated nightclub chanteuse in the Paul Newman p.i. vehicle Harper (1966), and a troubled wife in Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967). On stage, Harris' specialty became playing famous women throughout history, including Tony-award winning performances as Joan of Ark in The Lark (1956), Mary Todd Lincoln in The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (1973) (adapted for TV in 1976), and Emily Dickinson in The Belle of Amherst (1977).After surviving a bout with cancer in 1981, Harris achieved considerable fame with a new audience by playing Lilimae Clements on the TV nighttime serial Knot's Landing from 1981 to 1988. After she left the show, Harris returned to films, after nearly a decade, as Sigourney Weaver's friend in Gorillas in the Mist (1988). Harris kept busy throughout the 1990s with supporting roles in several films, including Housesitter (1992) and the George A. Romero/Stephen King chiller The Dark Half (1993), as well as starring roles onstage and in TV films, including Ellen Foster (1997). She was awarded the National Medal of the Arts in 1994. Harris would continue to act throughout the decades to come, memorably appearing in TV movies like Little Surprises and Love is Strange. Harris retired from on-screen acting in 2009, and eventually passed away in 2013. She was 87.

Trivia: Rip Torn may qualify as a "character actor" in the broadest sense of the term -- he typically fleshes out variations on the same role again and again, typecast as genially earthy, volatile, and loudmouthed good old boys. But, love him or hate him, Torn's roles over the course of more than half a century are distinct and pronounced enough to have elevated him above many of his contemporaries, into a veritable staple of American cinematic pop culture.Born Elmore Rual Torn, Jr. in Temple, TX, on February 6, 1931, and nicknamed "Rip" by his father, Torn attended Texas A&M as an undergraduate and studied animal husbandry. He intended to establish himself as a rancher after graduation, but first opted to pursue an acting career as a means to buy a ranch, mistakenly believing that he would hit Hollywood and achieve instant stardom. Instead, Torn scrounged around Los Angeles for several years as a dishwasher and short-order cook, but continued to pursue acting in his off time. Torn's persistence paid off, and he eventually landed several bit parts in movies and television series. He moved to Manhattan in the late '50s, where he formally studied acting under Lee Strasberg and danced under the aegis of Martha Graham; a wealth of movie roles followed over the next several decades, beginning with that of Brick in Actors Studio associate Elia Kazan's controversial classic Baby Doll (1956, with a script by Tennessee Williams) and, a few years later, the role of Finley in another Williams drama, the Richard Brooks-directed Sweet Bird of Youth (for which Torn received a great deal of notoriety). Additional supporting roles throughout the late '60s and early '70s included Slade in Norman Jewison's The Cincinnati Kid (1965), I.H. Chanticleer in Francis Ford Coppola's You're a Big Boy Now (1966), and Sgt. Honeywell in Cornel Wilde's Beach Red (1967).In the late '60s, two key (albeit temporary) shifts occurred in Torn's career. First, he went counterculture (and arthouse) with an unofficial trilogy of experimental roles. In the most pronounced -- Joe Glazer in Milton Moses Ginsberg's Coming Apart (1969, opposite Andy Warhol regular Sally Kirkland) -- Torn plays a nutty psychiatrist who specializes in female neuroses and decides to film all of his sessions, then his own mental breakdown. (Ginsberg films all of the action as reflected in a mirror.) The X-rated picture -- which features graphic sequences of Kirkland performing fellatio on Torn -- was (and is still) widely derided as spectacularly bad. Variety hit the proverbial nail on the head in 1969 when it concluded, "The problem with Coming Apart is that while it suggests some interesting ideas, it can't deliver any of them in cogent form....The results are not satisfactory." Neither are the second or third installments in Torn's "experimental" phase: roles in the first and third features directed by literary giant Norman Mailer, Beyond the Law (1967) and Maidstone (1970). Of Law -- an improvisational, comic piece set in a precinct house (with Torn as a character called Popcorn), The Motion Picture Guide sneered, "Barney Miller may have been inspired by this movie," and Roger Ebert declared it unintentionally funny, but those were the kindest reactions. Maidstone -- a fragmented, barely coherent drama -- stars only Mailer, as a politician-cum-film director, and Torn. This partially improvised picture became notorious for an on-camera sequence in which Torn (playing Mailer's half-brother) attacks Mailer with a hammer (allegedly for real), sans forewarning, bloodying up the author's face while the actress playing his wife screams in the background. Some wrote the scene off as a fake, but many others dissented. Variety observed in 1970: "[Torn] states he had to do it to make his character real and for the film. But he claims he pulled the hammer and had never drawn blood before while acting. The Mailer character is furious and vindictive. Mailer would not disclose whether it was real or not, but it did look ferociously authentic...."The second "shift" of Torn's career in the early '70s yielded infinitely greater success: a pair of rare leads in A-list features. He played Henry Miller opposite Ellen Burstyn in Joe Strick's marvelous, picaresque adaptation of that author's novel, Tropic of Cancer, and the abusive, booze and pill-addled country singer Maury Dann in Daryl Duke's harrowing drama Payday (1973). The pictures opened to generally spectacular reviews and raves over Torn's portrayals; Variety, for one, termed his performance in the Duke picture "excellent."While these lead roles showcased limitless dramatic ability, they unfortunately marked exceptions to the rule, and for the remainder of the '70s, '80s, and '90s, Torn contented himself with an endless (albeit impressive) array of colorful supporting turns -- dozens of them. High points include Nathan Bryce in The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976); Dr. George in Coma (1978); the boozing, hell-raising, and philandering Senator Kittner in Jerry Schatzberg's The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979); longhaired record producer Walter Fox in Paul Simon's One Trick Pony (1980); the pirate-like Scully in Carl Reiner's Summer Rental (1985); Buford Pope in Robert Benton's sex farce Nadine (1987); the none-too-gifted afterlife attorney Bob Diamond in Albert Brooks' fantasy Defending Your Life (1991); Zed in Men in Black (1997); acid-mouthed coach Patches O'Houlihan in the Ben Stiller comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004); and King Louis XV in Sofia Coppola's much-ballyhooed tertiary directorial outing, Marie Antoinette (2006). His low point undoubtedly arrived in 2001, when he played Tom Green's father, Jim Brody, in the controversial comedian's yuck-fest Freddy Got Fingered (2001). (A very low point; the film's comic highlight has Torn being showered with fake elephant ejaculate.)In addition to his film work, Torn made a series of critically acclaimed contributions to the small screen throughout the '80s and '90s, most vividly as Artie on HBO's Larry Sanders Show, for which he gleaned two Cable Ace awards, three Emmy nominations, and an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Torn did direct one feature, the 1988 Whoopi Goldberg vehicle The Telephone, which opened and immediately closed to devastating critical reviews and dismal box office.Torn was married to actress Ann Wedgeworth from 1956 until their divorce in 1961 and Geraldine Page from 1961 until her death in 1987, and is currently married to actress Amy Wright. He is the cousin of actress Sissy Spacek.

Trivia: Dwarf actor Michael Dunn overcame his physical limitations--and the intense pain with which he lived most of his adult life--to attain the uppermost rungs of stardom. A successful nightclub entertainer, Dunn first gained the notice of the critical elite for his performance in the 1962 Broadway play The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. He went on to deliver an Oscar-calibre performance as a philosophical European refugee in Ship of Fools (1965). Dunn will forever be remembered by TV addicts for his sporadic appearances as criminal mastermind Dr. Miguelito Loveless in the 1960s adventure series The Wild Wild West. While co-starring in the London-filmed The Abdication, Michael Dunn died under mysterious circumstances at the age of 39.

Trivia: A former English and Art major at Notre Dame University, Tony Bill was fortunate enough to work with Frank Sinatra in his first film, Come Blow Your Horn. "Old Blue Eyes" took a liking to Bill, securing him parts in the subsequent Sinatra vehicles None but the Brave (1965) and Marriage on the Rocks (1968), and helping to open several professional doors for the young actor. After this promising start, Bill settled into a string of colorless juvenile roles. Feeling that his acting career wasn't going anyplace in particular, he formed a production company with Michael and Julia Phillips, turning out two "trendy" feature films, Deadhead Miles (1972) and Steelyard Blues (1973). Scoring a significant success with the Oscar-winning The Sting (1973), Bill parted company with the Phillipses, soloing as producer of Hearts of the West (1975), Harry and Walter Go to New York (1976), and Boulevard Nights (1979). In 1980, he decided to give directing a try, and the result was the engaging teen-angst drama My Bodyguard (1980). Additional directorial credits include the theatrical features Five Corners (1988), Crazy People (1990), and A Home of Our Own (1993), and the made-for-TV movies Love Thy Neighbor (1984), One Christmas (1988), and Next Door (1994). Despite his executive responsibilities, Tony Bill has kept a hand in acting, most amusingly in the semi-autobiographical role of Warner Bros. executive Terry Hawthorne in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985). Increasingly active behind the camera as the 1980s gave way to the 1990s, Bill would stick almost exclusively to television following Next Door as he alternated between series work (Chicago Hope and Felicity) and made for television features (Beyond the Call, Iliver Twist, and A Chance of Snow). Of course once an actor always an actor, and when given the opportunity to appear before the camera in such efforts as Barb Wire, The Fixer, and Lying in Wait, Bill was always keen to perform. Subsequent directorial work on such television series' as UC: Undercover, Monk, and Keen Eddy found Bill's career receiving something of a second wind as the new millennium blew in, and in the wake of his success with the Emmy-nominated made for television feature Harlan County War the longtime filmmaker would take to the skies to call the shots for some of the hottest young stars of the day in the 2006 World War I adventure Flyboys. A historical war film documenting the cloud-cutting adventures of America's very first fighter pilots, Flyboys featured hot young actors James Franco, Martin Henderson, and David Ellison performing alongside such experienced screen veterans as Jean Reno and Tchéky Karyo.

Trivia: Karen Black began acting shortly after college, appearing in off-Broadway satirical revues. She trained with Lee Strasberg at the Actors' Studio. Her Broadway debut was in a play that closed within a month, The Playroom (1965), but she was acclaimed for her performance and nominated for a Critics Circle award. A year later, 26-year-old filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola cast her in his first professional film, You're a Big Boy Now (1967), a comedy in which she co-starred as one of three women involved with a young man learning about sex. After another film she landed her first important role, as an LSD-taking prostitute in the surprise hit Easy Rider (1969), which featured Jack Nicholson; she went on to appear again with Nicholson in her next two films: Five Easy Pieces (1970), for which she won the New York Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress and an Oscar nomination; and Drive He Said (1971), Nicholson's directorial debut. She went on from there to be one of the screen's busiest actresses, though the quality of her films has been wildly uneven.

Trivia: Businesslike character player Dolph Sweet attended college both in his native New York and in Alabama. He went on to teach English and direct plays at Barnard College. Even after achieving prominence as a Broadway actor, Sweet kept his hand in directing, helming some two dozen plays. In films since 1961's The Young Doctors, Sweet received some of his best reviews for his performance as a nonplussed cop in the 1968 cult favorite You're a Big Boy Now. Extremely busy on television, Sweet spent four years in the role of Lt. Gil McGowan on the daytime drama Another World. It was for another law-enforcement role, police chief Carl Kaninsky in the 1980s sitcom Gimme a Break, that Dolph Sweet is best remembered; he essayed this role from 1981 until his death in 1985, an occasion marked by a heartfelt "tribute" episode.