Trivia: American comedian George Burns had a taste for show business from his youth on New York's Lower East Side, and by the time he was seven he and his buddies had formed a singing group called the Pee Wee Quartet. Amateur shows led to small-time vaudeville, where Burns faced rejection time and again, often gaining jobs from people who had fired him earlier through the simple expedient of constantly changing his professional name. Usually working as part of a song-and-snappy-patter team, he was in the process of breaking up with his latest partner Billy Lorraine in 1922 when he met a pretty young singer/dancer named Gracie Allen. The game plan for this new team was to have Gracie play the "straight man" and George the comic, but so ingenuous and lightheaded was Gracie's delivery that the audience laughed at her questions and not at George's answers. Burns realized he'd have to reverse the roles and become the straight man for the act to succeed, and within a few years Burns and Allen was one of the hottest acts in vaudeville, with George writing the material and Gracie garnering the laughs. George and Gracie married in 1926; thereafter the team worked on stage, in radio, in movies (first in a series of one-reel comedies, then making their feature debut in 1932's The Big Broadcast) and ultimately in television, seldom failing to bring down the house with their basic "dizzy lady, long-suffering man" routine. Though the public at large believed that Gracie had all the talent, show business insiders knew that the act would have been nothing without George's brilliant comic input; indeed, George was often referred to by his peers as "The Comedian's Comedian". Gracie decided to retire in 1958, after which George went out on his own in television and in nightclubs, to less than spectacular success. After Gracie's death in 1964, George concentrated on television production (he had vested interests in several series, among them Mr. Ed) and for a nervous few years tried using other comic actresses in the "Gracie" role for his club appearances. But it wasn't the same; George Burns would be first to admit there was only one Gracie Allen. Though he never retired, Burns was more or less out of the consciousness of moviegoers until he was hired at the last minute to replace his late friend Jack Benny in the film version of Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys (1975). His performance as a cantankerous old vaudeville comic won him an Oscar, and launched a whole new career for the octogenarian entertainer as a solo movie star. Perhaps his most conspicuous achievement in the late 1970s was his portrayal of the Almighty Spirit - with distinct Palace Theatre undertones - in Oh, God! (1977). Even after reaching his centennial year, Burns remained as sharp-witted as ever. Less than three months after his 100th birthday Burns passed away. But fans can take comfort because Burns has gone beyond the realm of Show Business Legend; he is practically an immortal.

Trivia: Though Art Carney would grow up to become a shy, retiring, self-effacing man, he was quite the class clown in school. HIs grades never rising above mediocre, Carney excelled in mimicry, performing astonishingly accurate imitations of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fred Allen, Ned Sparks, and other 1930s luminaries. This skill enabled him to win a number of New York-based amateur contests, and in 1938 landed him a spot as musician/comedian with the Horace Heidt orchestra. Extensive radio work followed, notably Heidt's weekly quiz show Pot of Gold, which when made into a film in 1941 featured Carney in an uncredited role. While serving in WWII, Carney endured a serious leg wound which left him with a permanent limp. Fortunately this infliction did not impede his postwar radio work; he acted on such dramatic programs as Gangbusters and Dimension X, and appeared as a comedy foil for such major stars as Bert Lahr and Henry Morgan. He moved into television in 1948, playing a comic waiter on The Morey Amsterdam Show. Full-fledged stardom came his way in 1951 when he was hired as supporting player for a roly-poly comedian named Jackie Gleason on the Dumont TV Network's Cavalcade of Stars. Though they were never any more than fast friends off-stage, Gleason and Carney immediately developed a warm on-camera rapport that was to remain intact until Gleason's death in 1987. When Gleason moved from Dumont to CBS in 1952, Carney joined him, playing a remarkable array of sharply defined characters on The Jackie Gleason Show, the most famous of which was goofy, gesticulating sewer worker Ed Norton in the series' classic Honeymooners sketches. Ultimately, Carney was to win six Emmy awards, not only for his work on the Gleason show but also for his dramatic performances in such projects as the 1984 TV movie Terrible Joe Moran. He made a successful transition to the Broadway stage in 1959's The Rope Dancers, subsequently appearing in such stage hits as Take Her She's Mine, The Odd Couple (originating the role of Felix Unger), and Lovers. He returned to films in 1965, and nine years later won an Academy Award for his portrayal of an irascible senior citizen in Harry and Tonto. Even at the height of his popularity and activity, Carney suffered from profound emotional problems; a quiet, introspective sort not given to venting anger or displeasure, he assuaged his rage and insecurities with liquor. His alcoholic intake eventually impaired his ability to perform, forcing him to periodically dry out and take stock in himself in various sanitariums and clinics. Though Art Carney was eventually able to overcome his difficulties, he became more reclusive and less active as the years rolled on. The 1980s proved Carney's final active decade in front of the camera, and following roles in St. Helens, The Muppets Take Manhattan, and Firestarted (not to mention numerous small-screen appearances) Carney called it quits following an appearance in the 1993 action flop The Last Action Hero. His subsequent retirement proving a restful departure from the high energy entertainment industry, the beloved Honeymooners star died of natural causes in November of 2003.

Trivia: European-born Lee Strasberg moved to the U.S. with his parents when he was seven. Born into an artistic family, Strasberg began his acting training at age nine; he studied at the Actors Laboratory Theater under such heavyweights as Richard Boleslawsky and Maria Ouspenskaya. A professional actor from 1925 onward, Strasberg was a member for many years of the Theater Guild. Together with fellow "Guild"-ers Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, Strasberg broke away to form the Group Theater in 1931, where he would direct such stars-to-be as John Garfield and Luther Adler. In 1949, Strasberg established the Actors Studio in New York, where he became the foremost proponent of "the Method," an introspective, sensory-recall acting technique founded in part on the teachings of Stanislavsky (the most famous disciple of the Method was, of course, Marlon Brando). Though extremely influential in the film, TV, and theatrical world of the 1960s, Strasberg was not always the favorite of his contemporaries. One of his severest critics was acting teacher Stella Adler, who on the occasion of Strasberg's death, asked her class for a respectful moment of silence, then lambasted Strasberg as the man who nearly "destroyed" the acting profession. In 1969, Strasberg set up a new school, the Lee Strasberg Institute of the Theater, with headquarters in both New York and Los Angeles. Five years later, director Francis Ford Coppola coaxed Strasberg into making his film debut as gangster Hyman Roth in The Godfather II. It was the first of five movie appearances for Strasberg, the last (and best) of which was in Going in Style (1979). Lee Strasberg was the father of actress Susan Strasberg.

Trivia: Supporting actor Charles Hallahan played character roles on stage, television and in feature films. Fans of the Stephen J. Cannell police drama Hunter will know Hallahan for playing Captain Charlie Devane between 1986 and 1991. A Philadelphia native, Hallahan earned an undergraduate degree at Rutgers and a master's from Temple University six years before heading to Los Angeles in 1977. Hallahan had little trouble finding acting jobs. His stage credits include playing the lead in a long-running San Francisco production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest during the late '90s, roles in plays ranging from Equus to The Threepenny Opera. In 1976, Hallahan toured the Soviet Union in two classic plays. On television, Hallahan guest-starred on over 200 episodes of shows ranging from Lou Grant to The Paper Chase. He made his feature film debut in Nightwing (1979). He made his last film appearance playing Paul Dreyfuss in Dante's Peak (1997). Hallahan died during a car crash in which he apparently suffered a heart attack on November 25, 1997. He was 54.

Trivia: Supporting actress, onscreen from 1972.

Trivia: Studied at the Actors Studio and with Stella Adler, whom he says was the biggest influence in his life. Considers the 1990 action-adventure Delta Force 2 some of his worst work. Has had roles in a number of Darren Aronofsky's films. Imitated some of his mother-in-law's facial expressions for his role as a retired drug-cartel enforcer in Breaking Bad. Doesn't consider himself a character actor, but a "weird-looking romantic lead."

Trivia: Massive, heavily bearded American actor Paul L. Smith had been a professional athlete before gravitating to films in the late '70s. His first important role was as the brutal, depraved Turkish prison guard Hamidou in Midnight Express (1978). Consigned by his size and weight to play villains (or at the very least, bullies), Smith was cast as Bluto, eternal nemesis to Popeye the Sailor and Olive Oyl, in the 1980 film/musical misfire Popeye. After several years of giving his all in abnormal roles in such films as Dune (1984) (as Beast Rabban), Red Sonya (1985) (as Falkon) and Caged Fury (1986) -- with a few side trips to Europe to make spaghetti westerns -- Smith gradually began to get parts that allowed him to play a recognizable human being. Paul L. Smith's appeared in 1994's Maverick as a Russian prince who travels to America for the express purpose of shooting Indians. The performance might have been broad and overstated, but at least Smith was believable -- and, despite the gross political incorrectness inherent in the role, he was even likable.