Trivia: With long, shapely legs, a svelte, curvaceous body to die for, and thick black hair cascading around her lovely face, Fran Drescher has all the looks of a sophisticated movie star. And then she opens her mouth. Out comes a crow-like cacophony of nasal sounds made more grating by a thick Queens accent and a tendency to pull no punches. The paradox between the book and its cover is what has made Drescher a rich and popular comedienne; her long-running sitcom The Nanny, with its combination of romantic and slapstick comedy, led many to hail her as Lucille Ball's successor. Though she capitalizes on playing a rather ditzy working-class gal from Flushing, Drescher is known for her creativity and shrewdness. In addition to acting, she is a talented writer and producer.Much of Drescher's comedy, especially that from her sitcom, is drawn from her life experiences. Like her character, Fran Fine, she was born and raised in Queens. She has had a lifelong interest in acting and studied drama in high school. She attended a year at Queens College and then attended cosmetology school to become a hairdresser. For a time, she had her own business. She made her film debut playing Connie in Saturday Night Fever (1977). Her next film, American Hot Wax (1978), provided Drescher with her first major role and though she would continue on to play supporting parts in numerous other films, it was not until she played a small but memorable part in Rob Reiner's hilarious mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap (1984) that she began making a name for herself. In addition to her film roles, she was also busy on television, guest starring in series and appearing in television films like Terror in the Towers. She played starring roles in three short-lived series, including Princesses. She and her husband Peter Marc Jacobson created The Nanny and it aired on CBS from 1993 to 1999. She not only starred in the show, but also wrote and produced it; Drescher received Emmy nominations for her work on the show. In 1996, she co-starred with Robin Williams in the Disney comedy Jack, while in 1997, she and Jacobson co-created the idea for the romantic comedy The Beautician and the Beast, in which she also starred. Drescher published her autobiography, Enter Whining, in 1996.Drescher once again drew from her life experiences in the 2002 memoir Cancer Schmancer, which chronicled the actress's battle with uterine cancer, and formed the Cancer Schmancer Movement in 2007. The nonprofit is dedicated to educating women about cancer prevention and the importance of early detection (Drescher's cancer was initially misdiagnosed). In 2011, Drescher appeared on Oprah Winfrey to discuss her relationship with her then ex-husband Peter Mark Jacobson after he came out as gay after the end of their 21-year marriage. The television series Happily Divorced (2011-2013) is based on her experience with Jacobson.

Trivia: While at Cambridge, appeared in a comedy troupe called Footlights Revue. Trained at London's Central School for Speech and Drama. When he played Shane Donovan on the soap Days of Our Lives from 1984 to 1992, pictures that were on the mantel in his TV home were actually old Shaughnessy family photos. (The actor reprised his role for a multiple-episode stint in May 2010.) Has been a contestant on Celebrity Jeopardy, as well as the game shows Super Password, The New Hollywood Squares, Win Lose or Draw, To Tell the Truth and Hollywood Squares. Became the fifth Baron Shaughnessy of Montreal and Ashford in 2007. Has been active in AIDS and antiwar organizations.

Trivia: It was only a matter of time before burgeoning teen star Nicholle Tom joined the family business. Her older sister, Heather Tom, won a Daytime Emmy for her portrayal of Victoria Newman on the soap The Young and the Restless and her twin brother, David Tom, has had roles in Pleasantville and Swing Kids.Tom grew up in Seattle and Los Angeles, but was born in Hinsdale, IL, on March 23, 1978. She and her brother did print ads and commercials in Chicago before the family headed out west. Soon after they moved to L.A., Tom began winning high-profile parts in films (Beethoven) and television shows (Beverly Hills 90210, The Nanny). She basically grew up on The Nanny and has embarked on a somewhat successful film and TV-movie career since the show ended in 1999. She starred with Olympic champ Tara Lipinski in the made-for-TV movie Ice Angel and has turned in supporting roles in Panic and The Princess Diaries.

Trivia: Fans of 1990s prime-time sitcoms will invariably remember actress Madeline Zima as the sugar-sweet, angelic Grace, six-year-old daughter of British theatrical producer Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy), on the Fran Drescher series comedy The Nanny. In fact, when Zima landed that part, she had already tackled child roles in features as diverse as The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992) and Mr. Nanny (1993). The Drescher series, of course, represented Zima's breakthrough, and by the late '90s, the young actress (who remained with the sitcom cast for all six seasons, until it wrapped in 1999) had blossomed into a starkly beautiful teenager. She branched out into more adult-oriented material with an uncanny portrayal of the young Lucille Ball in the telemovie Lucy (2003), then returned to series programs with a regular role on the quirky David Duchovny-headlined Showtime comedy drama Californication (2007). She went on to appear in The Collector, The Family Tree, Crazy Eyes, and Lake Effects.

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.