Trivia: Angela Lansbury received an Oscar nomination for her first film, Gaslight, in 1944, and has been winning acting awards and audience favor ever since. Born in London to a family that included both politicians and performers, Lansbury came to the U.S. during World War II. She made notable early film appearances as the snooty sister in National Velvet (1944); the pathetic singer in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), which garnered her another Academy nomination; and the madam-with-a-heart-of-gold saloon singer in The Harvey Girls (1946). She turned evil as the manipulative publisher in State of the Union (1948), but was just as convincing as the good queen in The Three Musketeers (1948) and the petulant daughter in The Court Jester (1956). She received another Oscar nomination for her chilling performance as Laurence Harvey's scheming mother in The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and appeared as the addled witch in Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), among other later films. On Broadway, she won Tony awards for the musicals Mame (1966), Dear World (1969), the revival of Gypsy (1975), Sweeney Todd (1979) and, at age 82, for the play Blithe Spirit (2009). Despite a season in the '50s on the game show Pantomime Quiz, she came to series television late, starring in 1984-1996 as Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote; she took over as producer of the show in the '90s. She returned to the Disney studios to record the voice of Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast (1991) and to sing the title song and later reprised the role in the direct-to-video sequel, The Enchanted Christmas (1997). Lansbury is the sister of TV producer Bruce Lansbury.

Trivia: Supporting actor, onscreen from the late '70s.

Trivia: A classically-trained lead actor, Robert Reed appeared onscreen from 1958. His most famous role was as the father on the TV series The Brady Bunch.

Trivia: American actor Cliff DeYoung began a stop-and-start film career with Pilgrimage in 1972; most of his work for the next several years was on stage and in television. DeYoung starred in the very brief 1975 TV series Sunshine, playing a widowed musician raising a young stepdaughter; the series was a spin-off of the 1973 TV movie of the same name, which also starred DeYoung. The actor also played the lead role of a blinded Vietnam vet in the Joseph Papp-produced CBS drama special Sticks and Bones (1973) which was blacked out by many affiliates due to its vitriolic antiwar stance. Three years later, DeYoung played Charles Lindbergh (to whom he bore a daunting resemblance) in the 1976 made-for-TV Lindbergh Kidnapping Case. After his attention-grabbing appearance in the 1983 horror film The Hunger, Cliff DeYoung concentrated on movie roles, with occasional returns to TV in such productions as the 1985 miniseries Robert Kennedy and His Times.

Trivia: While growing up in Chicago, Tom Bosley dreamed of becoming the star left-fielder for the Cubs. As it turned out, the closest Bosley got to organized athletics was a sportscasting class at DePauw University. After additional training at the Radio Institute of Chicago and two years' practical experience in various dramatic radio programs and stock companies, he left for New York in 1950. Five years of odd jobs and summer-theater stints later, he landed his first off-Broadway role, playing Dupont-Dufort in Jean Anouilh's Thieves' Carnival. Steadier work followed at the Arena Theatre in Washington, D.C.; then in 1959, Bosley landed the starring role in the Broadway musical Fiorello!, picking up a Tony Award, an ANTA Award, and the New York Drama Critics Award in the bargain. In 1963, he made his film bow as Natalie Wood's "safe and secure" suitor Anthony Colombo in Love With the Proper Stranger. Occasionally cast as two-bit criminals or pathetic losers (he sold his eyes to blind millionairess Joan Crawford in the Spielberg-directed Night Gallery TV movie), Bosley was most often seen as a harried suburban father. After recurring roles on such TV series as That Was the Week That Was, The Debbie Reynolds Show, and The Sandy Duncan Show, Bosley was hired by Hanna-Barbera to provide the voice of flustered patriarch Howard Boyle on the animated sitcom Wait Til Your Father Gets Home (1972-1973). This served as a dry run of sorts for his most famous series-TV assignment: Howard Cunningham, aka "Mr. C," on the immensely popular Happy Days (1974-1983). The warm, familial ambience of the Happy Days set enabled Bosley to weather the tragic death of his first wife, former dancer Jean Elliot, in 1978. In addition to his Happy Days duties, Bosley was narrator of the syndicated documentary That's Hollywood (1977-1981). From 1989 to 1991, he starred on the weekly series The Father Dowling Mysteries, and thereafter was seen on an occasional basis as down-to-earth Cabot Cove sheriff Amos Tupper on Murder, She Wrote. Reportedly as kind, generous, and giving as his Happy Days character, Tom Bosley has over the last 20 years received numerous honors for his many civic and charitable activities.

Trivia: University of Arkansas and Catholic University alumnus Laurence Luckinbill studied acting with Uta Hagen before appearing in his first Broadway play, A Man For All Seasons. Luckinbill familiarized himself with a large portion of American TV followers through his work in the daytime dramas The Secret Storm and Where the Heart Is. He made his movie bow in 1970, re-creating his stage role of "conservative" homosexual Hank in The Boys in the Band. Two years later, he starred as espionage agent Glenn Garth Gregory in the TV series The Delphi Bureau. His TV movie credits (The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case, Ike: The War Years, Lincoln) have thus far outnumbered such large-screen assignments as the role of Sybok in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989). Formerly married to soap-opera star Robin Mattson, Laurence Luckinbill is the husband of actress Lucie Arnaz, with whom he has toured in such theatrical productions as They're Playing Our Song.

Trivia: Angular Anglo-Latino actor Gregory Sierra began showing up on screen in 1971 in such films as The Wrath of God. Sierra quickly familiarized himself with TV viewers via his continuing role as Julio Fuentes in the weekly sitcom Sanford and Son. He left Sanford in January of 1975 to accept the part of detective sergeant Chano Amenguale on Barney Miller, a role he held down until the fall of 1976. Next up, Sierra starred as Dr. Tony Menzies on A.E.S. Hudson Street, a 1978 TV comedy that folded after six weeks despite positive critical comment. Two years later, he was cast as South American revolutionary "El Puerco" on the nighttime serial spoof Soap, figuring prominently in the series' up-in-the-air final episode in 1981. Gregory Sierra's more recent television roles have included Lt. Victor Maldonado on the NBC sci-fier Something is Out There (1988), and the ill-fated Lt. Lou Rodriguez on the trendy 1980's cop show Miami Vice.

Trivia: Yes, Karen Valentine is her real name; her Portuguese grandfather had Anglicized his surname of Valentin long before Karen was born. Her lifelong "nice-girl" reputation had its roots in her wholesome upbringing on a Sebastopol, California chicken ranch, and her straight-A high-school years, when she was a member in good standing of the Future Teachers of America. Unhappy with being regarded as too squeaky-clean for words, Valentine went out of her way to perform "hot" musical numbers while competing in such talent-and-beauty contests as Miss Teenage Santa Rosa and Miss Sonoma Country. While she never made Miss America, she did manage to make two appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show before reaching the age of 20. While acting in summer stock, she continued seeking out roles that would allow her to shed her goody-goody image. To keep her checkbook balanced between acting assignments, she worked as a model, waitress and switchboard operator. In 1969, Valentine was cast as well-meaning if slightly klutzy student teacher Alice Johnson on the weekly TV series Room 222, winning an Emmy Award for her efforts. A proven audience favorite, she starred in such lightweight TV-movies as Gidget Grows Up (1970), The Girl Who Came Gift-Wrapped (1972) and Coffee, Tea or Me (1973), and was a regular contributor to such daytime programs as Dinah's Place and The Hollywood Squares. Once her star had begun to fade, Valentine was finally able to break loose from her "America's sweetheart" image and attempt to play roles with depth and bite. But such TV series as Karen (1975) and Our Time (1985) were not enthusiastically received by viewers, nor were her laudable dramatic performances in such made-for-TV fare as Muggable Mary, Street Cop (1982) world-beaters in the ratings. From the mid-1970s to the late 1980s, Karen Valentine maintained an on-and-off relationship with the Disney studios, co-starring in such theatrical features as Hot Lead and Cold Feet and The North Avenue Irregulars (1979), and in Disney Sunday Movie TV presentations bearing titles like Skeezer (1987) and Perfect People (1988).