Trivia: Grammy award-winning country music singer Reba McEntire was raised on a ranch in Oklahoma, where her father competed in rodeos. Immersed in Southern country culture from birth, McEntire learned to ride as well as to sing from an early age, and she formed a singing group with her brother and sister when she was young called the Singing McEntires. She enrolled at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant in the mid-'70s, where she majored in teaching, but in 1975, after singing a crowd-pleasing rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" at a local rodeo, McEntire was inspired to travel to Nashville to pursue a music career. She scored a major-label record deal and released her first album the same year she got married.It took a few years for her career to truly take off, but by the mid-'80s, McEntire was one of the most successful country singers in the industry. Though she was divorced in 1987, she remarried Narvel Blackstock, her then-manager and steel guitar player in 1989. Soon, the singer decided to branch out in her creative pursuits, appearing in the horror comedy Tremors with Kevin Bacon in 1990, the same year she gave birth to her son. Her warmth and charisma shone through onscreen, and McEntire began to cultivate a second career in acting, appearing in projects like 1994's North and 1995's Buffalo Girls. In 2001, the singer decided to switch career focuses for a while and pursue acting full-time, playing a single mom on her own sitcom, Reba. The show was a huge hit, earned her a Golden Globe nomination, and would continue to run for six seasons. She attempted to return to television in 2012 on ABC's Malibu Country, but the show was cancelled after the first season.

Trivia: American comic actor Pee-Wee Herman was born Paul Rubenfield, which he later shortened professionally to Paul Reubens. While growing up in Sarasota, FL, Reubens began acting in junior high school, carrying this extracurricular interest through several colleges before graduating from the California Institute of the Arts. A natural-born clown, Reubens joined an improv group called the Groundlings, which during its existence would boast such formidable talent as Phil Hartman and Jon Lovitz. In 1978, Reubens developed the comic persona of Pee-Wee Herman, a childlike, squeaky-voiced kiddie show host reminiscent of Pinky Lee (with a little Soupy Sales thrown in). Soon "The Pee-Wee Herman Show" became a nightclub act unto itself; this multi-layered skewing of the whole children's entertainment ethic included a huge supporting cast, deliberately repulsive puppets, bizarre props, and, of course, Pee-Wee himself, who cavorted about the set like a baby speed freak. Reubens, who for all intents and purposes was Pee-Wee Herman at this point, was given frequent TV exposure thanks to Late Night With David Letterman and the home-video version of The Pee-Wee Herman Show. With former Groundling Phil Hartman, Pee-Wee/Reubens co-scripted the 1985 film Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Though it was the inaugural project of director Tim Burton, it was not Pee-Wee's first film (he'd already shown up in The Blues Brothers [1980] and Cheech and Chong's Nice Dreams [1981]). A surrealistic reworking of the classic Italian film The Bicycle Thief, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure was a tad too bizarre for its distributor Warner Bros. The studio chose to release the film slowly on a regional basis -- but when the box-offices began to bulge, Warners gave the film a major big-city push. Audiences immediately understood that Pee-Wee's Big Adventure was meant to be a nine-year-old's notion of the Perfect World; critics, to whom nothing is ever simple, insisted upon reading all sorts of motivation and subtext into the film, and suddenly Pee-Wee Herman was the darling of the wine-and-cheese crowd. In 1986, Pee-Wee launched a Saturday morning kid's show, Pee-Wee's Playhouse, which immediately scored a hit, attracting as many adults as children (some of those adults began renting the original Pee-Wee Herman Show for their children, assuming that it would be as "safe" as the Saturday morning program -- only to be amazed at how raunchy the earlier Pee-Wee could be). The performer's popularity peaked in 1988, at which time his second film, Big Top Pee-Wee, was released. This film was not as cohesive nor as funny as the first, and it was a disappointment for both Reubens and his fans. The actor began announcing plans to "kill" his alter-ego and become Paul Reubens again in public. But the death of "Pee-Wee" came not as a suicide, but more of a crime of passion when Reubens was arrested in 1991 for indecent exposure at a screening of a porno movie. Backlash from the incident -- including the pulling of Pee-Wee merchandise off the shelves of stores and CBS' immediate cancellation of his Saturday morning show -- effectively forced the performer to abandon the Pee-Wee character. Since his fateful night at the movies, Reubens has appeared as the Penguin's father in Batman Returns (1992), a hand-me-down Dracula in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), and a voice in Tim Burton's animated feature The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). Reubens also became a semi-regular guest on the CBS television sitcom Murphy Brown. As time went on the public either forgot or forgave Reubens for his past indiscretions, and after a series of small film roles lead to larger roles in such films as Blow (2000), Reubens' past (as well as the Pee-Wee Herman alter-ego that made him famous) faded, giving the public a chance to reacquaint themselves with the actor outside of the context of his once-famous persona. In 2001 Reubens' popularity experienced something of a revival as he returned to television as the host of the popular computer trivia game turned game show You Don't Know Jack. Interviews with Reubens even hinted at a resurrection of Pee-Wee Herman in the form of a proposed trilogy in which the character, after becoming a popular celebrity, would struggle with the ill-effects of fame.

Trivia: A top-selling country music star since the mid-'80s, multi-talented Dwight Yoakam branched out into acting in the 1990s.Born in Kentucky, Yoakam was raised in Ohio and attended college at Ohio State University. Inspired by music since childhood, Yoakam dropped out of school to move to Nashville in the late '70s. Finding the Nashville scene less than accommodating for his interpretation of country music, Yoakam subsequently headed to Los Angeles. Striking music gold with his first album in 1986, Yoakam became a renowned country-rock singer/songwriter of the '80s and '90s. Casting an eye on another facet of Los Angeles' entertainment world, Yoakam began acting. After appearing on TV, Yoakam played a truck driver in John Dahl's acclaimed neo-noir Red Rock West (1993); he then provided the music score for Red Rock West star Dennis Hopper's 1994 comedy Chasers. Yoakam played a larger part in the TV docudrama Roswell (1994) (not to be mistaken for the 1999 teen series). After moving to a starring role as a rodeo clown in the action movie Painted Hero (1995), Yoakam earned critical raves for his intense performance as an abusive drunk in Billy Bob Thornton's Oscar-winning drama Sling Blade (1996). Yoakam again garnered positive notices (though the movie did not) as a humble safecracking associate of the titular gang in The Newton Boys (1998). Sticking with off-center screen fare, Yoakam subsequently starred as one of the detectives that Owen Wilson's serial killer Van imagines is stalking him in Hampton Fancher's idiosyncratic crime story The Minus Man (1999). Aiming to try more creative pursuits, Yoakam wrote and directed, as well as scored and starred in, his next film, South of Heaven, West of Hell (2000). Yoakam returned to acting in David Fincher's thriller The Panic Room (2001). Yet despite his neverending drive to entertain, it wasn't all showbiz for the former country-boy made good, and in early 2006 Yoakam would team up with Modern Foods to produce his very own line of southern-flavored frozen foods. With products such as Dwight Yoakam's Chicken Lickin's Chicken Fries, Lanky Links Pork, Sausage Links, and Boom Boom Shrimp, the Grammy-winning recording artist and increasingly popular actor would do his very best to ensure that his fans were well fed. A 2005 new album entitled Blame the Vain found Yoakam recapturing the energy and intensity that defined his earliest and best musical efforts, and following a role as a neglectful sheriff in Tommy Lee Jones' The Three Buriels of Melquaides Estrada and a rare comedic turn in Wedding Crashers, Yoakam sould next be seen in the edge-of-your-seat assassin-on-the-run action thriller Crank. He had a bit part in the comedy Four Christmases, and returned for the sequel Crank High Voltage. He made a few more film appearances, but returned to music in 2012 with the release of his album 3 Pears.

Trivia: Learned to read music and play the accordion by the age of 5. At 11, demonstrated the steel guitar at a music trade show in Chicago, where she was discovered by country performer Joe Maphis. Her family formed its own group when she was 14. A member of the band was drummer Ken Dudney, whom she would later marry. Signed with Columbia Records in 1969, scoring her first hit with a cover of Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long." Inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 1972. After her family band broke up, she formed the Do-Rites with her sisters, Louise and Irlene. In 1979, won Country Music Association's Female Vocalist of the Year. Headlined the NBC variety series Barbara Mandrell & the Mandrell Sisters (1980-82). Was the first artist to win CMA Entertainer of the Year for two consecutive years (1980 and '81). Penned her autobiography, Get to the Heart: My Story (1990), which was later made into a TV movie, Get to the Heart: The Barbara Mandrell Story (1997).

Trivia: A country-western singer who has occasionally acted in films, she appeared onscreen from the '70s.

Trivia: Country music superstar Garth Brooks maintained music as his primary artistic calling throughout the 1990s, becoming one of the top-selling recording artists of all time. Along with a smattering of guest shots as himself on TV, Brooks also appeared in several country music documentaries, including Hunks With Hats (1993) with Clint Black and Alan Jackson. In 2000, Brooks prepared to make a move into the realm of fiction films with The Lamb, a feature starring him as the titular kohl-eyed rocker alter ego introduced by Brooks' 1999 album ...In the Life of Chris Gaines. In 2001 he was the executive producer on the family-friendly holiday made-for-TV holiday film Call Me Claus.

Trivia: As a self-described odd duck, k.d. lang has always done things her own unique way. Thinking outside of the box shows in her use of small-case letters for her name, her music, acting, and lifestyle. The Grammy award-winning singer has successfully crossed several musical genres, and added acting to her repertoire of talents.The Canadian-born Kathryn Dawn Lang began performing in the early '80s as k.d. lang with her band, the Reclines. The singer left Edmonton for New York, where she cut her first CD in 1984 and gained a following. With her voice, reminiscent of her inspiration, Patsy Cline, lang parlayed her country sound and a cover of Roy Orbison's "Crying" into stardom and two Grammys in 1988 and 1989. Switching gears to popular rock, she won a Grammy in the Pop Vocals category in 1992, a year after she began her acting career.Fame brought her personal life into the spotlight. Most notable has been lang's work with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and for gay rights. Lang grew up knowing she was a lesbian, but gave notice to the world in an interview in the Advocate in 1992.Her 1991 acting debut in Percy Adlon's film Salmonberries foreshadowed her public stance as a lesbian. Lang plays a woman of Anglo and Inuit heritage, who finds love with a German woman (Rosel Zech) who has come to Alaska after her husband's death. Life has not been particularly kind to either woman; they find compassion and solace in each other's company. Lang's sensitive portrayal of an Alaskan pipeline worker, who forms a deep bond with the town's new librarian, drew critical acclaim.Lang's involvement in films also included work as a singer, songwriter, and musical scorist. Among her credits are songs in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) and Sweet November (2001). Lang's lyrical musical score for Even Cowgirls Get the Blues won accolades, even though the movie was not well received by critics or the public. She also produced a musical score for the 1995 documentary Celluloid Closet, which chronicles the treatment of homosexuality in the early days of the film industry.Since the making of Salmonberries, lang has appeared in several other films. She played Michelle in Teresa's Tattoo, a quirky comedy that combines elements of crime and science fiction. Lang also co-starred in a television movie adaptation of a Mario Puzo book. The Last Don profiles the Chicago mob family of Don Domenico Clericuzio, with lang portraying a lesbian film director. In Stephan Elliot's thriller Eye of the Beholder, lang plays Hilary, the assistant to a detective on the trail of a serial stalker and killer. Hilary watches her British Secret Service boss (Ewan McGregor) morph into stalker, murderer, and lover.At the turn of the 21st century, k.d. lang continued to explore film and music, while speaking out for those on society's fringes, a place she herself has always called home.

Trivia: Born Brenda Tarpley, this country-western singer has occasionally appeared in films from 1961.