Trivia: Chevy Chase is often considered one of the most likeable comedic personalities of his generation, even though the immediate popularity he achieved following a single season on Saturday Night Live never translated into more than a couple hit movies, and none after the 1980s. The prematurely balding, intelligent, fast-talking Chase created a couple classic characters, notably Irwin M. Fletcher (aka Fletch) and Vacation's Clark Griswold, but his career is often thought of as plagued by misfires and missed opportunities, rather than touched by comic brilliance.Born on October 8, 1943, in New York City, Cornelius Crane Chase became known as "Chevy" when his grandmother nicknamed him after Chevy Chase, the wealthy Maryland community. The 6'4" future writer and actor was valedictorian of his high school class before attending Bard College, where he earned a B.A. in English. With a pre-celebrity resumé as varied as any (tennis pro, truck driver, bartender), Chase spent his twenties as a comedy writer for such outlets as the Smothers Brothers and National Lampoon, the latter of which eventually led to a lucrative franchise of Vacation movies. Chase's first stint as a performer was with the New York comedy video workshop Channel One, which evolved into the 1974 film Groove Tube. This afforded Chase the necessary exposure to be hired by Lorne Michaels for the first season of Saturday Night Live in 1975.Initially hired on as a writer, Chase soon began appearing in front of the camera as the anchor of the popular Weekend Update segment of the ensemble variety show. With the catchphrase opening "Good evening, I'm Chevy Chase and you're not," and aided by his bumbling impersonation of President Gerald Ford, the actor quickly assumed breakout status, earning Emmys for both his writing and acting. He left after a single season to pursue film opportunities, but did not really strike gold until Caddyshack (1980), in which he played a rich golf pro who oozed confidence and a dry sarcastic wit three steps ahead of anyone else. These would become Chase's trademarks.During the filming of his next project, Modern Problems (1981), Chase was nearly electrocuted when a gag involving landing lights attached to his body short-circuited. The experience sunk him into a deep depression. But he recovered his stride in 1983 with the release of National Lampoon's Vacation, the first of four in an eventual series of epic misadventures of the Griswold family (European Vacation [1985], Christmas Vacation [1989], Vegas Vacation [1997]). As daffy father Clark, Chase turned the film into a huge hit, harnessing a likable befuddlement that kept the series going even as the sequels were increasingly less well received and tiresomely slapstick.Chase's other big hit came in 1985, when he starred as the title character in Fletch, the film widely considered the actor's best and most complimentary of his sharp talent for wordplay. As an undercover newspaper reporter with a quick answer -- not to mention a goofy disguise -- for every situation, Chase created a classic comic hero with a genius for confusing his adversaries. He reprised the role in the lesser sequel Fletch Lives (1989).Chase achieved moderate success by pairing with other Saturday Night Live alums in the mixed-bag comedies Spies Like Us (1985) and Three Amigos! (1986); though these had dedicated fans, they didn't achieve the critical praise of Fletch or Vacation. Despite an all-star cast, Caddyshack II (1988) went nowhere, and by the beginning of the 1990s, Chase had slipped from his status as a reliable comedic performer. Such well-documented failures as Nothing But Trouble (1991) and Cops and Robbersons (1994) became his crosses to bear during a decade that also saw the colossal failure of his Fox comeback variety show, which was canceled two months after it premiered in 1993. Chase was also arrested for drunk driving in 1995, just one incident in a career sometimes checkered by drug and alcohol abuse. In later years, Chase has preferred family oriented films, starring in such features as Man of the House (1995) (opposite Jonathan Taylor Thomas) and the kiddie-on-holiday flick Snow Day (2000). This stance prompted Chase to turn down the comeback-worthy role that won Kevin Spacey an Oscar in American Beauty (1999); had he accepted, it might have resulted in a very different film. As Chase's work has shifted more to the supporting role variety, including Dirty Work (1998) and Orange County (2002), he has seemed more comfortable. A series of appearances in such innocuous comedies as Bad Meat, Goose on the Loose, and Doogal found Chase continuing to plateau, and in 2006 the former SNL heavyweight would take to the lab to help save the world in the children's superhero adventure Zoom. In 2009 Chase was cast as a casually racist and sexist member of the study group at the heart of NBC's sitcom Community, and that program gave him some of the best reviews he'd had in quite some time. He appeared in the 2010 comedy Hot Tub Time Machine, and in 2011's Stay Cool.

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: Six-foot four-inch, beefy character actor with rubbery, homely face, Quaid's first professional show-business work was as the "straight man" half of a comedy duo with actor Trey Wilson in Houston. While a third-year college drama student he was cast by Peter Bogdanovich in a supporting role in The Last Picture Show (1971), then went on to have small roles in Bogdanovich's next two movies. He made a big impression as a naive sailor alongside Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail (1973), for which he received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. By the mid '70s, he worked in films frequently, usually typecast as a dim-witted fool or redneck. In the mid '80s he was (for one season) in the regular cast of the weekly sketch-comedy series "Saturday Night Live," on which he demonstrated his considerable comedic talent and often impersonated President Ronald Reagan. More recently he has gotten straight dramatic roles, a transition marked by his off-Broadway stage debut in True West in 1983. He has also worked frequently in TV movies, portraying Lenny in Of Mice and Men (1981) and Lyndon Johnson in LBJ: The Early Days (1987); for his portrayal of Mitch in the TV version of A Streetcar Named Desire (1984) he won an Emmy. He is the brother of actor Dennis Quaid, with whom he appeared in The Long Riders (1980).

Trivia: An actress with a face that, like it or not, burns itself into your memory, not to be forgotten once initially exposed, feisty young actress Juliette Lewis once commented that her ability to look alternately attractive and repellant was a key element to her success, claiming that many attractive actresses simply can't be ugly if needed. Ugly she was as a viscously sadistic serial killer in Oliver Stone's notorious Natural Born Killers, in sharp contrast with her role as the virtually seductive cyberpunk-siren in the futuristic Strange Days. Born June 21, 1973, in Los Angeles, CA, Lewis had a distinct wild streak from her earliest days. Daughter of graphic artist/actor Geoffrey Lewis, Lewis realized her dreams of becoming an actress at the age of seven, turning those dreams into reality by becoming a professional actress at the age of 12. Distressed at the obstacles refraining her from fully immersing herself in her dreams (namely school and her parents), Lewis became legally emancipated at 14, gaining exemption from child-labor laws and the ability to work more than five hours a day. The final obstacle, high school, Lewis hurdled by dropping out at the age of 15, earning her equivalency exam with the aid of a tutor. That same year, she was arrested for being underage in an underground disco.Moving to Hollywood and living for a short period with actress Karen Black while seeking work, Lewis moved into an apartment with friends, finally finding the independence she had so diligently pursued. The payoff for her persistence was not far behind, as Lewis soon landed a role in the Showtime-produced Home Fires (1987). Following up with light comedic roles in the suburban extraterrestrial comedy My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988), and taking the role of Audrey in the third installment in the vacation series National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Lewis was well on her way to fully achieving her dreams of stardom. Her dramatic turn as Amanda Sue Bradley in Too Young to Die, the true story of the first minor to receive the death penalty, earned Lewis well-deserved praise and the recognition that would carry her forward into more challenging territory.Lewis' breakthrough role came in the form of the awkward and rebellious daughter flirting with a psychotic Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear, a role that earned her an Oscar nomination. More mature roles began to follow such as Johnny Depp's love interest in What's Eating Gilbert Grape and in her first foray into the mind of a serial killer, Kalifornia (both 1993). Her most notorious role to date, as the homicidal Mallory to Woody Harrelson's psychopathic Micky in the controversial and numbingly hyperkinetic ode to excess Natural Born Killers, displayed her remarkably enthusiastic ability for boundless exorbitance. With a few exceptions, namely 1999's The Other Sister, Lewis' post-Natural Born Killers career was filled with supporting roles and ensemble parts. She was the pregnant kidnapping victim in the noirish The Way of the Gun and played Jennifer Lopez's best friend in the domestic-violence thriller Enough. In 2003, Lewis played Luke Wilson's excessively unfaithful wife in Old School. Director Todd Phillips enjoyed working with her so much he cast her in 2004's high-profile comedic retooling of TV's Starsky and Hutch.She kept working steadily in a variety of projects including The Darwin Awards, Catch and Release, Drew Barrymore's rollerderby comedy Whip It, and she teamed up again with Todd Philips for his 2010 comedy Due Date. She appeared in the ensemble drama August: Osage County, an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, in 2013. Lewis then joined two television series at the same time, playing a detective in Secrets and Lies and a bartender in Wayward Pines, from executive producer M. Night Shyamalan. Both shows premiered in the spring of 2015.

Trivia: Born on a Belgian army base, curly brown-haired Johnny Galecki grew up in Chicago and started acting professionally at the age of 12. He made his feature film debut in 1988 as River Phoenix's little brother in A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon. He then assumed the role of Rusty Griswold in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and gained his first regular role on a TV series as Robert Ulrich's son in American Dreamer. In 1991, he starred in the made-for-TV movie Backfield in Motion, co-starring the production team of Roseanne and Tom Arnold. The next year, Galecki joined the cast of Roseanne as Darlene's sensitive and put-upon boyfriend David Healy. He stayed on the show until its final season in 1997, although he wasn't on very much during its last few years. His other television credits include several guest appearances, leading roles in made-for-TV movies, and a part on the short-lived Head of the Class spin-off Billy. After Roseanne ended, he got back into features with small parts in I Know What You Did Last Summer, Bean, and Suicide Kings. He continued playing slightly effeminate sensitive males in The Opposite of Sex and Morgan's Ferry. After bit parts in Bounce, Playing Mona Lisa, and Vanilla Sky, Galecki played a leading role in the comedy thriller Bookies, which premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. In 2007 he landed the leading role in the sitcom The Big Bang Theory and it grew to be one of the most popular shows on TV, earning Galecki Emmy, Golden Globe, and Sag nominations in 2011 for his work on the show. He maintained his movie career in projects such as Hancock and In Time.

Trivia: Whether playing a wiseacre waitress, an insane bioengineer, or a vengeful, darkly comic widow, Diane Ladd brings energy and accomplishment to her roles. Born Rose Diane Ladner in Meridian, MS, she moved to New York City as a teen. Before making her stage debut in Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending, Ladd worked as a model and a dancer at the Copacabana nightclub. In 1961, Ladd debuted in her first feature film, Something Wild. Though she subsequently appeared in a few more films during the '60s, including The Reivers (1969), Ladd focused on her stage career. In film, 1974 proved to be a great year for Ladd. Her portrayal of Flo, the tough waitress who helps out a recently widowed Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More, garnered her nominations for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a British Academy Award. She then appeared opposite Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in Roman Polanski's Chinatown. Beginning in 1976, Ladd became a familiar face in television movies like The Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (1980) and miniseries such as Black Beauty (1978). Though she continued to sporadically appear in feature films through the '80s, her movie career didn't perk up again until the early '90s. Formerly married to character actor Bruce Dern, Ladd is the mother of willowy leading lady Laura Dern. Mother and daughter have appeared in several films together, notably 1991's Rambling Rose and David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990) -- the former film earned mother and daughter a place in Oscar history when they became the first such duo to be nominated for the same film (Ladd for Best Supporting Actress and Dern for Best Actress).

Trivia: CCNY and Columbia University alumnus John Randolph was first seen on Broadway in the 1937 opus Revolt of the Beavers. Randolph served in the Air Force in World War II, then resumed what seemed at the time to be an increasingly successful, near-unstoppable acting career. But in 1951, Randolph found himself on a specious "Commie sympathizers" list. After appearing as a hostile witness before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, Randolph was effectively blacklisted from movies, TV and radio commercials for the next twelve years. Fortunately, he could always rely upon the theatre to provide him an income, though it was touch-and-go for a while when a Broadway show in which he was appearing was picketed by anti-Red zealots. Throughout the 1950s, Randolph was featured in such major stage productions as Come Back Little Sheba, The Visit, Sound of Music and Case of Libel. In 1963, he was at long last permitted to guest-star on a network TV program, The Defenders. Appropriately, it was in an episode titled "Blacklist," which condemned the knee-jerk policy of banning artists because of their political views; ironically, Randolph was very nearly denied the part when the network complained that he hadn't been "cleared." Though he'd played a small part in 1948's The Naked City, Randolph's movie career began in earnest in 1965. In John Frankenheimer's Seconds, he was cast as aging businessman Arthur Hamilton, who through the magic of plastic surgery is given a fresh new identity (he emerges from the bandages as Rock Hudson)! Since his career renaissance, Hamilton hasn't stopped working before the cameras. He has been featured in films like Gaily Gaily (1969), Little Murders (1971), King Kong (1976), Heaven Can Wait (1978) Prizzi's Honor (1985; as Pop Prizzi); in TV movies like Wings of Kitty Hawk (1978; as Alexander Graham Bell) and The American Clock (1993); and as a regular in the TV series Angie (1979) Annie McGuire (1988) and Grand (1990). Though he'd probably rather you not mention it, Randolph is a dead ringer for former attorney general John Mitchell; accordingly, he played Mitchell in the TV miniseries Blind Ambition, and was heard but not seen in the same role in the 1976 theatrical feature All the President's Men. Despite the upsurge in his film and TV activities, Randolph has never abandoned the theatre: in 1986, he won a Tony Award for his work in Neil Simon's Broadway Bound. As if to slap the faces of those self-styled patriots who denied him work in the 1950s, Randolph has in recent years accepted the German Democratic Republic's Paul Robeson Award, and has served on the National Council for US-Soviet friendship. John Randolph has also served on the board of directors of all three major performing guilds: SAG, AFTRA and Equity. After taking on a variety of grandfatherly roles, including Jack Nicholson's father in Prizzi's Honor and Tom Hanks' grandfather in You've Got Mail), Randloph passed away at 88-years-old in April of 2004.

Trivia: Actor E. G. Marshall started out on radio in his native Minnesota, then headed for New York and Broadway. After several years' solid stage service, Marshall began accepting small roles in such films as 13 Rue Madeline (1945) and Call Northside 777 (1947). A mainstay of television's so-called Golden Age, Marshall excelled in incisive, authoritative roles. Long before winning two Emmy awards for his portrayal of lawyer Lawrence Preston on TV's The Defenders (1961-65), Marshall was associated with fictional jurisprudence as the military prosecutor in The Caine Mutiny (1954) and as Juror #4 in Twelve Angry Men (1957). In contrast to his businesslike demeanor, Marshall is one of Hollywood's most notorious pranksters; he was never more impish than when he ad-libbed profanities and nonsequiturs while his lips were hidden by a surgical mask in the 1969-73 TV series The Bold Ones. The best of E.G. Marshall's work of the 1970s and 1980s includes the role of the straying husband in Woody Allen's Interiors (1977), the U.S. President in Superman II (1978) and General Eisenhower in the 1985 TV miniseries War and Remembrance. Continuing to flourish into the 1990s, Marshall was seen in the 1993 TV adaptation of Stephen King's The Tommyknockers, and was cast as Arthur Thurmond on the 1994 medical series Chicago Hope. Radio fans will remember E.G. Marshall as the unctuous host ("Pleasant dreeeaaammms") of the 1970s anthology The CBS Radio Mystery Theatre.

Trivia: In 1999, Doris Roberts achieved "overnight" stardom in the role of Marie Barone in the series Everybody Loves Raymond, going from working actress -- which she'd been for more than 40 years -- to being an instantly recognized performer. It was an improbable climb to the top rank of popular culture stardom. Roberts was born in St. Louis, MO, in 1925, to a family that was soon shattered when the father abandoned them. She had a difficult but loving childhood as her mother sought to provide for both of them by herself, and eventually Roberts gravitated toward the idea of an acting career. To do this, she had to work at any jobs that she could find, including clerk typist, to afford the lessons that she needed from teachers that included Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner. She made her first television appearance in the early '50s, in a Studio One production of Jane Eyre, and made the usual rounds between theater and television. Her theatrical debut came on the a stage at New York's City Center in 1955, and she was Shirley Booth's understudy in the theatrical version of the comedy Desk Set. She distinguished herself in the role of Mommy in the original production of Edward Albee's The American Dream, and since the early '60s, had carved a niche for herself in maternal and neighborly roles, on both stage and screen. Following her screen debut in Jack Garfein's New York-filmed drama Something Wild (1961), she tended more toward comedy (albeit often black comedy), with performances in Jack Smight's No Way to Treat a Lady, where she played the skeptical onlooker whose questions and low-key intervention save the life of a would-be victim; Leonard Kastle's The Honeymoon Killers (1970), in which she played the roommate of the nurse-turned-murderer played by Shirley Stoler; and Alan Arkin's Little Murders (1971), where she played Elliott Gould's mother. Female comics seemed to perceive Roberts' gifts as an actress especially well, as she got two of her better roles, in A New Leaf (1971) and Rabbit Test (1978), from Elaine May and Joan Rivers, respectively. Although she began appearing in television in the 1950s, with appearances on Ben Casey, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Baretta, All in the Family, The Streets of San Francisco, Rhoda, Soap, and Barney Miller, Roberts didn't start to make a lasting impression in the medium -- which would become her vehicle for stardom -- until the 1970s. She was supposed to have a role in a proposed new series starring Mary Tyler Moore, but when that series failed to sell, she was cast in the role of Donna Pescow's mother in the series Angie (1979), which got Roberts her first real notice by the public or the press. After that, the television appearances grew more frequent, and finally in 1983, she joined the cast of Remington Steele midway through the series' run, as Mildred Krebs, an IRS investigator-turned-secretary-turned-detective, working alongside Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist, and often stealing the show with her low-key comedic work. Roberts' first marriage ended in divorce, and her second, to novelist William Goyen, ended when he died in 1983 -- her son from her first marriage, Michael Cannata, has been her manager since the 1970s. It was a dozen years after Remington Steele, and some notable guest star appearances on shows like St. Elsewhere, that she landed the role of Marie on Everybody Loves Raymond. Since then, she has been a guest on talk shows and an acting celebrity, with a brace of Emmy nominations to her credit.In 2003 Roberts published the book Are You Hungry, Dear?: Life, Laughs and Lasagna, and the following year she was appointed a cultural ambassador by the U.S. Department of State. But back on the small screen Roberts was more recognizable than ever before, with appearances in Grey's Anatomy, Hot in Cleveland, and Desperate Housewives keeping her as active as ever. Roberts continued to work steadily until her death in 2016, at age 90.

Trivia: American actress/singer Mae Questel was freshly graduated from high school when she won a contest imitating singer Helen Kane, who'd popularized the phrase "Boop boop a doop." It wasn't the only impression Qiestel could do, but her Helen Kane takeoff earned the young performer steady work in vaudeville and, in 1931, a job providing the voice of Betty Boop at Max Fleischer's cartoon studios. She was one of several actresses doing this voice, but before long Questel was the one and only Betty - and was so good at her job that her role-model, Helen Kane, ended up suing Fleischer! The Betty Boop cartoons were released through Paramount, which also hired her to appear in live musical and comedy shorts. In one unforgettable installment of Paramount's Hollywood on Parade one-reel series, Questel, dressed as Betty Boop, was "attacked" by Bela Lugosi, who leaned menacingly toward her neck and declared "You have booped... your last... boooooop." When Fleischer began its Popeye the Sailor cartoon series in 1933, the studio tried out a number of actresses for the voice of Olive Oyl, but Questel eventually won out, and ended up playing Olive for the next four decades. Busy with radio and cartoon work in the '40s, she was called upon to exert her versatility when Popeye's voice, Jack Mercer, went to war; in a handful of Popeye cartoons of the era, Questel actually dubbed in Popeye herself. TV opened a whole new professional world for her as a commercial voiceover: From 1950 through 1960 she could be heard as the Hasbro Kid, Nabisco's Buffalo Bee, the talking Fizzies Tablet, and of course the "interactive" cartoon-and-merchandising star Winky Dink. Questel was seen as well as heard in both the play and movie versions of A Majority of One, and as a middle-aged blushing bride in Jerry Lewis' It's Only Money (1961). She also kept her hand in commercial work as Aunt Bluebell on the Scott paper towel ads. Woody Allen fans most cherish Mae Questel's role as the "Jewish Mama from Hell" Mrs. Millstein in New York Stories (1988), in which erstwhile magician Allen accidentally transforms his mother into a giant ethereal image in the sky, from whence she tells all of Manhattan about her son's many shortcomings.

Trivia: Like other Saturday Night Live alumni, Julia Louis-Dreyfus made the move to feature films, but she achieved true stardom on TV as Seinfeld's inimitable Elaine Benes. Born to an affluent family and raised in Washington, D.C., Louis-Dreyfus studied theater at Northwestern University. Along with working as a member of The Practical Theater Company, Louis-Dreyfus cut her sharp comic teeth as part of Chicago's Second City troupe. She soon followed in the footsteps of prior Second City-ers John Belushi and Bill Murray, joining the cast of NBC's Saturday Night Live from 1982 to 1985 (along with Northwestern classmate and eventual husband Brad Hall). Louis-Dreyfus bounced to films with appearances in Soul Man (1986), Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), before returning to TV on the second episode of a low-rated NBC primetime sitcom starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld in 1990.As Jerry's ex-girlfriend-turned-pal Elaine, Louis-Dreyfus proved that she could hold her own as the sole female member of Seinfeld's do-nothing quartet of neurotic New Yorkers. With her "big wall of hair," signature shoes and penchant for over-enthusiastic exclamations, Louis-Dreyfus' Elaine was no mere foil, but rather a full participant in the show's increasingly popular, irony-laden comic shenanigans. Along with winning an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1996, Louis-Dreyfus won the Golden Globe in 1994 and the Screen Actor's Guild award in 1997 and 1998. During Seinfeld's phenomenally successful nine-year run, Louis-Dreyfus also played supporting roles in North (1994), Father's Day (1997), and as a libidinous sister in Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry (1997). After Seinfeld went off the air in 1998, Dreyfus took some time off from appearing in front of the camera to spend time with her husband and two sons, but she did the voice of Princess Atta in the Pixar animated blockbuster A Bug's Life (1998).Louis-Dreyfus subsequently returned to TV as the Blue Fairy in the TV movie musical Gepetto (2000) before attempting another sitcom. After two of her Seinfeld co-stars failed to make their own series fly in 2000 and 2001, Louis-Dreyfus opted for a non-traditional approach, playing a struggling lounge singer in the real time, laugh track free Watching Ellie in 2002. Louis-Dreyfus would continue to remain one of the most beloved comedic actresses in TV, starring on The New Adventures of Old Christine, and the political satire Veep.

Trivia: Supporting actor Nicholas Guest first appeared onscreen in the '80s. He is the brother of actor Christopher Guest.

Trivia: American actor/writer Brian Doyle-Murray began his professional performing career at Chicago's Second City comedy troupe. Once established, Brian was instrumental in bringing his younger brother Bill into Second City. While Bill Murray's star ascended, Brian stayed busy as a writer and comic character actor. He co-wrote the 1980 comedy hit Caddyshack and had choice supporting roles in such films as Modern Problems (1981), Club Paradise (1986) and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989). Brian has also appeared to excellent effect in several of his brother Bill's starring features, most recently in the hilarious role of the lugubrious mayor of Punxsutawney in Groundhog Day (1993). One of the staff writers of the earliest years of Saturday Night Live, Brian Doyle-Murray has remained active on television as a guest actor, as a regular on the 1991 sitcom Good Sports, and in such made for TV movies as Babe Ruth (1991).

Trivia: Stunt man and actor Tony Epper first appeared onscreen in the '70s.

Trivia: Dark-haired character actor Sam McMurray has made a career of playing gaseous windbags of low moral fiber, often adding a salacious sneer to heighten the effect. However, his comic persona also sometimes slants toward lovable obliviousness, making McMurray a desired commodity in broad comedy, as well as a sitcom mainstay.The New York native got his start in acting with bit parts on television and in the movies in the late '70s and early '80s. In 1987, McMurray had a breakout year of sorts, appearing as a regular on The Tracey Ullman Show (which led to vocal work in the early seasons of The Simpsons) and snagging the film role for which he is best known. In Joel and Ethan Coen's Raising Arizona, McMurray was cast as Glen, Nicolas Cage's factory foreman boss, who runs afoul of Cage's H.I. McDonnough after he proposes swapping wives. In only a handful of scenes, McMurray creates an indelible and hilarious image of a loud, crass, humor-impaired buffoon who resides over a brood of ill-mannered children, but wants to add at least one more to the mix.Raising Arizona paved the way for supporting work in a number of high-profile comedies in the ensuing years, including National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), L.A. Story (1991), and Addams Family Values (1993). In 1991, he voiced a character in the Disney/ABC live-action TV show Dinosaurs; he would later also provide vocal work for the animated Disney program Recess (1997). Television has provided McMurray with his most regular paychecks, most often in the capacity of a guest performer, both in dramas and sitcoms. He guested as Chandler's boss on several episodes of Friends in 1997, and also made repeat appearances in such shows as The King of Queens, Freaks and Geeks, and Chicago Hope. His recent film work has included a shady detective in The Mod Squad (1999) and a scoundrel cheerleader dad in Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999).

Trivia: Was educated in Spain and Italy; speaks six languages. Started acting with the St. Nicholas Theatre Company in Chicago, and worked with playwright David Mamet. She went on to appear in a number of his feature films. Her Broadway appearances include The Iceman Cometh in 1985. Founded the theater group the Grace Players. Theater projects include A Holiday Potpourri, which was a benefit for the children of severely wounded American troops in Iraq. Taught film students at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. Wrote the novel One Woman's War, published in 2012. Volunteers her time organizing care packages and visiting U.S. troops overseas for the non-profit organization Trek to the Troops.