Trivia: Onstage, on television, in the movies or in a serious interview, listening to and watching comedian/actor Robin Williams was an extraordinary experience. An improvisational master with a style comparable to Danny Kaye, his words rushed forth in a gush of manic energy. They punctuated even the most basic story with sudden subject detours that often dissolved into flights of comic fancy, bawdy repartee, and unpredictable celebrity impressions before returning earthward with some pithy comment or dead-on observation.Born in Chicago on July 21st, 1951, Williams was raised as an only child and had much time alone with which to develop his imagination, often by memorizing Jonathan Winters' comedy records. After high school, Williams studied political science at Claremont Men's College, as well as drama at Marin College in California and then at Juilliard. His first real break came when he was cast as a crazy space alien on a fanciful episode of Happy Days. William's portrayal of Mork from Ork delighted audiences and generated so great a response that producer Garry Marshall gave Williams his own sitcom, Mork and Mindy, which ran from 1978 to 1982. The show was a hit and established Williams as one of the most popular comedians (along with Richard Pryor and Billy Crystal) of the '70s and '80s.Williams made his big screen debut in the title role of Robert Altman's elaborate but financially disastrous comic fantasy Popeye (1980). His next films included the modestly successful The World According to Garp, The Survivors, Moscow on the Hudson, Club Paradise, The Best of Times. Then in 1987, writer-director Barry Levinson drew from both sides of Williams - the manic shtickmeister and the studied Juliard thesp - for Good Morning, Vietnam, in which the comedian-cum-actor portrayed real-life deejay Adrian Cronauer, stationed in Saigon during the late sixties. Levinson shot the film strategically, by encouraging often outrageous, behind-the-mike improvisatory comedy routines for the scenes of Cronauer's broadcasts but evoking more sober dramatizations for Williams's scenes outside of the radio station. Thanks in no small part to this strategy, Williams received a much-deserved Oscar nomination for the role, but lost to Michael Douglas in Wall Street.Williams subsequently tackled a restrained performance as an introverted scientist trying to help a catatonic Robert De Niro in Awakenings (1990). He also earned accolades for playing an inspirational English teacher in the comedy/drama Dead Poets Society (1989) -- a role that earned him his second Oscar nomination. Williams's tragi-comic portrayal of a mad, homeless man in search of salvation and the Holy Grail in The Fisher King (1991) earned him a third nomination. In 1993, he lent his voice to two popular animated movies, Ferngully: The Last Rain Forest and most notably Aladdin, in which he played a rollicking genie and was allowed to go all out with ad-libs, improvs, and scads of celebrity improvisations.Further successes came in 1993 with Mrs. Doubtfire, in which he played a recently divorced father who masquerades as a Scottish nanny to be close to his kids. He had another hit in 1995 playing a rather staid homosexual club owner opposite a hilariously fey Nathan Lane in The Birdcage. In 1997, Williams turned in one of his best dramatic performances in Good Will Hunting, a performance for which he was rewarded with an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.Williams kept up his dramatic endeavors with both of his 1998 films: the comedy Patch Adams and What Dreams May Come, a vibrantly colored exploration of the afterlife. He next had starring roles in both Bicentennial Man and Jakob the Liar, playing a robot-turned-human in the former and a prisoner of the Warsaw ghetto in the latter. Though it was obvious to all that Williams' waning film career needed an invigorating breath of fresh air, many may not have expected the dark 180-degree turn he attempted in 2002 with roles in Death to Smoochy, Insomnia and One Hour Photo. Catching audiences off-guard with his portrayal of three deeply disturbed and tortured souls, the roles pointed to a new stage in Williams' career in which he would substitute the sap for more sinister motivations.Absent from the big-screen in 2003, Williams continued his vacation from comedy in 2004, starring in the little-seen thriller The Final Cut and in the David Duchovny-directed melodrama The House of D. After appearing in the comic documentary The Aristocrats and lending his voice to a character in the animated adventure Robots in 2005, he finally returned full-time in 2006 with roles in the vacation laugher RV and the crime comedy Man of the Year. His next project, The Night Listener, was a tense and erosive tale of literary trickery fueled by such serious issues as child abuse and AIDS.Williams wasn't finished with comedy, however. He lent his voice to the cast of the family feature Happy Feet and Happy Feet 2, played a late night talk show host who accidentally wins a presidential election in Man of the Year, portrayed an enthusiastic minister in License to Wed, and played a statue of Teddy Roosevelt that comes to life in Night at the Museum and its sequel Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. He would also enjoy family-friendly comedic turns in World's Greatest Dad, Shrink, and Old Dogs.In 2013, he returned to television, playing the head of an advertising agency in The Crazy Ones; the show did well in the ratings, but was canceled after only one season. He also played yet another president, Dwight Eisenhower, in Lee Daniel's The Butler. Williams died in 2014 at age 63.

Trivia: In 1991, while still in high school, wrote the play The Martha War for which he won the Very Special Arts Young Playwrights Award and had his play performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington D.C. Appeared in Impossible Marriage, a Beth Henley play, on Broadway in 1998 which eventually led him to be cast in Minority Report after Steven Spielberg saw him perform. First major role was as Robin Williams's sidekick, Truman Schiff, in the 1998 film, Patch Adams. Appeared in a second Beth Henley play on Broadway in 2006 called Ridiculous Fraud. Reprised his Minority Report role in the 2015 TV show of the same name; he's the only series regular to do so.

Trivia: With looks that have been compared to Julia Roberts', Monica Potter emerged as one of the more promising actresses of the late '90s. The second of four girls in a close-knit family, Potter was raised in Cleveland, OH, where she was born on June 30, 1971. At the age of 12, she started modeling and doing commercials, and she further pursued her career with modeling stints in Chicago and Miami. Her dedication to acting became evident with a move to Los Angeles in 1994, where she was soon cast in the CBS soap The Young and the Restless. Potter's film debut came with a minor part in the 1996 Adam Sandler comedy Bulletproof, followed by a leading role in the Richard Grieco vehicle Heaven or Las Vegas, which played briefly in theaters before hightailing it to video. Fortunately, more high-profile work was to come, first as Nicolas Cage's wife in the 1997 action film Con Air and then as a medical student in the Robin Williams comedy Patch Adams (1998). After acting in the shadow of these formidable co-stars, Potter ventured into the limelight with lead roles in two 1998 films, the romantic comedy Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel, and Laurence and the Steve Prefontaine biopic Without Limits, co-starring Billy Crudup. In 1999, Potter had yet another leading role, this time in A Cool, Dry Place, in which she starred with Vince Vaughn and Joey Lauren Adams. Her rising star was given an additional push by her 1999 appearance on the cover of Vanity Fair's annual Hollywood issue, where she was photographed in the company of such fellow actors on the brink of stardom as Sarah Polley, Giovanni Ribisi, and Adrien Brody. She had a major role in the serial killer film Along Came a Spider in 2001, and the next year she was in the comedy I'm With Lucy. She appeared in the first of the Saw films when it was released in 2004, and that same year she was cast in the TV show Boston Legal. In 2009 she starred in the remake of The Last House on the Left, and the next year she became part of the cast of NBC's family drama Parenthood.

Trivia: One of the most original, versatile, and steadily employed actors in Hollywood, Philip Seymour Hoffman made a name for himself playing some of the most dysfunctional characters in movie history. Although he had been acting for years, most audiences were first introduced to the actor in the award-winning Boogie Nights, where he played a nebbishy soundman with a jones for Mark Wahlberg's Dirk Diggler. Imbuing his character with both humor and poignant complexity, Hoffman was one of the more memorable aspects of an unforgettable film.Born in Fairport, NY, in 1968, Hoffman trained at New York's Tisch School of Drama. Before breaking into film, he did a host of theater work, performing in New York, Chicago, and on a European tour. He made his film debut in the 1992 film Scent of a Woman, a critically acclaimed picture starring Al Pacino and Chris O'Donnell. Roles in a number of films of varying quality followed, including My New Gun (1992) and When a Man Loves a Woman (1994). The actor then nabbed a sizable role in Jan de Bont's 1996 tornado thriller Twister and the same year began an ongoing working relationship with Paul Thomas Anderson by appearing in his directorial debut Hard Eight. The crime drama, which also starred Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson, received positive critical attention, although it didn't create more than a minor blip at the box office. However, Hoffman's next feature and second collaboration with Anderson, Boogie Nights (1997), was both a critical and financial success, scoring a host of Academy Award nominations and simultaneously reviving the careers of some of its stars, such as Burt Reynolds and Mark Wahlberg, while providing a breakthrough for others, such as Heather Graham and Hoffman himself. He next appeared in the Robin Williams comedy Patch Adams (1998), and the same year starred in two critically acclaimed independent films, Todd Solondz's Happiness and Brad Anderson's Next Stop Wonderland. The prolific actor added an appearance in The Big Lebowski (also 1998) to his already impressive resumé. In addition to his burgeoning acting career, Hoffman won favorable notices for his directing debut with the off-Broadway In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings. Hoffman came into his own with three notable performances in 1999. He reunited with Paul Thomas Anderson to play empathic hospice nurse Phil Parma, one of the emotional anchors in Magnolia. His portrayal of upper-crust snob Freddie Miles in The Talented Mr. Ripley earned him strong notices from many critics. Hoffman's peers awarded him with a Screen Actors Guild nomination for his role as a cross dresser in Flawless opposite Robert De Niro. He returned to the Broadway stage with fellow Anderson regular John C. Reilly to play very different brothers in Sam Shepard's True West. They took a risk by switching the lead roles every three days. Their hard work earned critical raves, and each was nominated for a Tony award. In 2000, Cameron Crowe cast Hoffman as Crowe's childhood hero Lester Bangs in Almost Famous, and David Mamet tapped him to be part of the impressive ensemble in State and Main.Hoffman maintained his status as one of the most respected and hardest-working actors in the new decade by delivering an excellent supporting turn in Red Dragon as an unctuous tabloid reporter. That same year he co-starred in Spike Lee's 25th Hour, and played the bad guy for old collaborator Paul Thomas Anderson in the offbeat romantic comedy Punch-Drunk Love. 2002 also saw the release of Love Liza, a very low-budget film scripted by Hoffman's brother and directed by actor Todd Louiso that starred Phil as a grieving husband addicted to huffing gas fumes. The next year found Hoffman starring as a gambling addict in the small scale Canadian drama Owning Mahowny, and turning in a memorable supporting performance as an amoral preacher in the big screen adaptation of Cold Mountain. Hoffman was in theaters again at the beginning of 2004 as the best friend in the Ben Stiller comedy Along Came Polly. He was also part of yet another outstanding ensemble in the small screen adaptation of Richard Russo's Pulitzer prize-winning novel Empire Falls.In 2005, Hoffman took the role of a lifetime when he assumed the title role in Bennett Miller's Capote. The film had critics in agreement that Hoffman's portrayal of complex and idiosyncratic real-life author Truman Capote was the stuff of Hollywood legend. Hoffman not only mastered the character's distinct body-language and speech but also hauntingly interpreted the subtle psychological and emotional self that made the character whole-leading many to declare that he very nearly made the film everything it was. The performance earned him the Oscar for Best Actor, as well as a Golden Globe and countless other accolades. The attention also provided a boost in profile for the actor who had for so long proved his worth in the background. After playing the bad guy in the third Mission Impossible movie opposite Tom Cruise, Hoffman had a remarkable 2007, a year that saw him play a central part in three well-regarded films. His conniving brother in Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead was a model of self-loathing fermenting into fatal action. In addition to a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor, his highly-educated, emotionally fractured brother to Laura Linney's neurotic sister in The Savages offered him the chance to play numerous subtle and sharply observed scenes with her, the first meeting of these two revered performers. But it was his turn as the intense CIA operative in Charlie Wilson's War that won Hoffman the most widespread praise including Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor.Hoffman continued to solidify his status as one of his generation's finest actors in 2008 with two very different roles. By choosing to play the lead in Charlie Kaufmann's directorial debut Synecdoche, New York, Hoffman again displayed his fearlessness, as well as his desire to work with the very best writers and directors he can find. That willfully difficult film never connected with mainstream audiences, but that was not true at all for Hoffman's other picture of 2008, Doubt. John Patrick Shanley's cinematic adaptation of his own award-winning play earned acting nominations for Hoffman and his three costars (Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis) from both the Screen Actors Guild, and the Academy.Over the following years, Hoffman would continue to appear in a variety of interesting films, like Pirate Radio, The Ides of March, and Moneyball. In 2012 he again collaborated with Paul Thomas Anderson, playing a cult leader in the drama The Master opposite Joaquin Phoenix. For his work in that movie, Hoffman got a Best Supporting Actor nomination from both the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The following year, he appeared in the smash The Hunger Games: Catching Fire as rebel Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. Sadly, personal problems cut his illustrious career short, as Hoffman was found dead in his apartment of an apparent drug overdose at age 46.

Trivia: California-born actor Robert Gunton has been essaying film character roles since 1980. Among his film credits are Rollover (1981), Matewan (1987), Glory (1988) and Cookie (1989). Many observers feel that Gunton was at his performing peak in the role of a wildly neurotic streetcorner evangelist in the little-seen satire Static (1985). A seasoned improv performer, Robert Gunton was one of the regulars (along with such future notables as Mark-Linn Baker and Joe Mantegna on the Manhattan-based TV series Comedy Zone (1984).

Trivia: Character actor, onscreen from the early '70s.

Trivia: A matriarchal supporting actress of film and television whose quick wit and instantly likable persona has served her well on stage and screen, Irma P. Hall has found frequent work in such African-American-oriented dramas as A Family Thing, Soul Food, and Beloved. Equally effective with comedic roles in such features as Nothing to Lose and The Ladykillers, the multi-talented educator, poet, and actress actually stumbled into a career before the cameras by accident -- impressing director Raymond St. Jacques at a poetry reading so much that the filmmaker requested she essay a role in his 1973 crime film Book of Numbers. Her acting career subsequently snowballed, and it didn't take long for the increasingly busy actress to make quite a name for herself on both the stage and screen. The Texas native's early career consisted of teaching foreign languages at public schools in her home state. An interest in acting eventually led the then educator and poet to co-found a small repertory theater in Dallas. In 1973, Hall's performance in Book of Numbers resulted in frequent small-screen work. Her career continued to blossom throughout the 1980s, and with feature-film work increasing in the 1990s, she became more recognizable than ever thanks to work in such features as Backdraft and Straight Talk. Despite the fact that the roles she essayed were frequently relegated to the supporting variety, her onscreen presence was undeniable, and Hall continued throughout the decade with roles in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Beloved. In A Family Thing, her role as a kindly blind African-American woman who helps her family warm to their newly discovered white relative earned Hall a Chicago Film Critics Association Award. An Image award for her role in the feature Soul Food followed in 1997 -- the same year she was voted "Chicagoan of the Year." The early 2000s found Hall flourishing on the small screen with roles in such series as Soul Food (a spin-off of the popular feature), A Girl Thing, and All Souls in addition to meatier parts in such made-for-television features as Miss Lettie and Me and An Unexpected Love. For her role as the perceptive landlady who catches wind of a criminal scheme in The Ladykillers, Irma P. Hall received the Jury Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. Unfortunately, Hall suffered a massive heart attack while driving shortly before the film was released into theaters -- resulting in an automobile accident. Hall was eventually able to overcome her injuries thanks to intense physical rehabilitation, and later that same year, she could be seen in both the family short Gift for the Living (based on O. Henry's tale The Gift of the Magi) as well as the Michael Mann thriller Collateral.

Trivia: Actress Frances Lee McCain began her career on Broadway, appearing in stage shows throughout the late '60s before transitioning to the screen with a number of TV guest-appearances, as well as roles in movies like Gremlins and Footloose. The '90s would bring supporting roles in many more movies, including Scream and Patch Adams. McCain remained active in theater, especially in the San Francisco area.

Trivia: First earning an international reputation in opera and musical comedy, Harve Presnell made his feature-film debut in the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown playing opposite Debbie Reynolds. Though he has spent the bulk of his career on the stage, Presnell periodically appeared in other films through the '70s. After taking no film roles in the '80s, Presnell re-emerged in the Coen brothers' Fargo (1996) and continued to play character roles in films such as Julian Po (1997) and Saving Private Ryan (1998).

Trivia: There are several theories as to why Peter Cohon chose the stage name of Peter Coyote; for his part, the actor is reluctant to discuss an event that apparently was the end result of an evening's experimentation with controlled substances. In the late 1960s, Coyote quit his job as a dockworker to "turn on, tune in and drop out." With hair so long that he could sit on it (by his own admission), Coyote was a "fringie" with such varied organizations as the Grateful Dead and the Hell's Angels, and also worked for a while with a guerilla mime group. After years of deprivation, Coyote dropped back into society in 1975, accepting a job as a drama teacher at a public school. Rapidly approaching middle age, Coyote entered films with 1980's Die Laughing. Throughout the 1980s, he alternated between good guys, villains, and a vaguely defined stereotype known as "loser boyfriends." As the vengeful public prosecutor in The Jagged Edge (1985), Coyote turns out not to be the film's principal heavy; even so, we leave the picture disliking his character more than anyone else's. Leading roles came his way in such films as Exposure (1991), but even here he could not completely escape an aura of slime (his ostensibly heroic character burrows through the seamy underside of Rio in search of a prostitute's murderer). One of Coyote's few unconditionally "nice" roles was as the enigmatic scientist Keys in the champion moneymaker E.T. (1982). In the late 1990s, Coyote published Sleeping Where I Fall, a candid memoir of his years as a cultural drop out. In 1992 Roman Polanski tapped him to play the lead in his psycho-sexual black comedy Bitter Moon, and he continued to work steadily in a variety of projects after that such as Kika, Buffalo Girls, Patch Adams, and Sphere. With his deep, distinctive voice he became an in demand narrator for documentaries. He had a small but memorable turn in Erin Brokovich, and was cast in Brian De Palma's Femme Fatale. He was in the teen drama A Walk to Remember, and the Polish brothers cast him in their 2003 film Northfork. Although his big-screen appearances began to dwindle, he remained one of the most ubiquitous narrators of non-fiction films of various types.

Trivia: Possibly in defiance of the old adage "those that can't do, teach," American actor Harold Gould gave up a comfortable professorship in the drama department of the University of California to become a performer himself. Building up stage and TV credits from the late '50s onward, Gould made his first film, Two for the Seesaw, in 1962. He divided his time between stage and screen for the rest of the '60s, winning an Obie Award for the off-Broadway production Difficulty of Concentration. Gould was prominently cast in such slick '70s products as The Sting (1973), Woody Allen's Love and Death (1975), and Mel Brooks' Silent Movie (1976) (as a classically gesticulating villain). Often nattily attired and usually comporting himself like a wealthy self-made businessman, Gould was generously employed on TV for three decades. He co-starred with Daniel J. Travanti in the 1988 American Playhouse production of I Never Sang for My Father, played WASP-ish Katharine Hepburn's aging Jewish lover in the TV movie Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry (1986), and had regular stints on such series as The Long Hot Summer (1965), He and She (1967), Rhoda (1974) (as Rhoda's father), The Feather and Father Gang (1977), Washington: Behind Closed Doors (1977), Park Place (1981) Foot in the Door (1983), Spencer (1984) and Singer and Sons (1990). However, when the time came in 1974 to make a series out of the pilot film for Happy Days, an unavailable Harold Gould was replaced by Tom Bosley.

Trivia: Whenever a script called for a wacky old lady, character actor Ellen Albertini Dow was there to play the part. After a lifetime as a teacher, the Cornell graduate made her television debut on an episode of the Twilight Zone in 1985 when she was in her late sixties. She spent the rest of the '80s making TV guest appearances on family sitcoms (Mr. Belvedere, The Golden Girls, Family Matters, and Newhart, just to name a few). On the big screen, she appeared in innumerable supporting roles as a grandma, nun, or any random old lady, leading to choir parts in both Sister Act and Sister Act 2. She got to exploit her comedic shtick regularly in 1996 when she joined the cast of the Nickelodeon series Kenan & Kel in the role of Ethel Quagmire. If a cameo can be considered a breakthrough, she at least gained face recognition as the old lady, Rosie, who raps in The Wedding Singer by appearing in the film's commercial. She continued playing the sassy granny role as Disco Dottie in 54, Mrs. MacKenzie in Ready to Rumble, and Tom Green's grandma in Road Trip. In 2001, she returned to the small screen to play Grandma Harriet on the WB series Maybe It's Me. At the age of 84, she lent her voice to Adam Sandler's animated feature Eight Crazy Nights. In 2005, she played the foul-mouthed Grandma Cleary in the the box-office smash Wedding Crashers. Albertini Dow continued to work, mostly in TV guest appearances, including spots on My Name is Earl and New Girl, until 2013. She died in 2015, at age 101.

Trivia: With his trademark red moustache, personable smile, and childlike demeanor, longtime character actor Michael Jeter brought smiles to children nationwide with his role on Sesame Street as Mr. Noodle's Brother. Aside from his memorable role on that children's television mainstay, Jeter could also be seen in a number of memorable film roles in such efforts as Miller's Crossing (1990) and The Fisher King (1991). Chances are, if you don't recognize his name you would certainly recognize his face. Born in Lawrenceburg, TN, in August of 1952, Jeter first opted to follow a career in medicine, though a stint at Memphis State University found the creative young student leaning ever closer to a career as an actor. Taking on minor film roles beginning with 1979's Hairspray, the burgeoning young actor would subsequently appear in such films as Milos Foreman's Ragtime (1981) and Woody Allen's Zelig (1983), though early struggles with alcohol and substance abuse threatened to sideline his screen career in the mid-'80s. Abandoning the screen for a career as a legal secretary the same year that Zelig was released, fate guided Jeter back into his true calling when a producer, recalling his role in television's Designing Women, asked that he take a supporting role on the Burt Reynolds' sitcom Evening Shade. Accepting the role as assistant football coach Herman Stiles, Jeter's enthusiasm for acting was re-ignited as he was honored with an Emmy for the role in 1992. A busy stage actor as well, Jeter won a Tony in 1990 for his performance in Grand Hotel. From 1990 on, Jeter maintained his film career with a series of memorably quirky roles. Perhaps his most unique and affecting role came with the release of director Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King. As a homeless transvestite who croons for Amanda Plummer's character after making a flamboyant entrance into her quiet office, Jeter's carefree ditty was a highlight of the film. The 1990s proved a busy decade for Jeter, and roles in such popular films as Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), Air Bud (1997), and The Green Mile (1999) assured that his career would flourish well into the new millennium. Announcing that he had been infected with HIV in 1997, audiences could never have known how quickly the deadly virus would take its toll on the energetic and optimistic actor. Though Jeter would usher in the new millennium with roles in such prominent box-office releases as The Gift (2000) and Jurassic Park III (2001), it was his role on Sesame Street that endeared him to children and made good use of his genuinely playful nature. Sadly, Jeter succumbed to complications from the HIV virus in late March of 2003. Before his untimely death, Jeter would complete roles in Kevin Costner's Open Range (2003) and Robert Zemeckis' family fantasy The Polar Express (2004).

Trivia: Harry Groener is known to many viewers as the mayor of Sunnydale on the cult-hit series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but some of the actor's biggest accomplishments have been on the stage. Born in Germany, Groener's family moved to the U.S. when he was two. He apprenticed with the San Francisco Ballet as a teenager, and went on to study drama at the University of Washington before embarking on what would become an extremely successful career on Broadway. Throughout the following decades, he would appear in countless plays such as Cats, Oklahoma!, and Spamalot, while simultaneously maintaining a career onscreen, appearing in movies like Road to Perdition and About Schmidt, and on TV shows like Dear John (as the very awkward Ralph), The West Wing, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Trivia: Richard Kiley trained for a theatrical career at the Barnum Dramatic School. Just before his World War II service, Kiley played small roles in several Chicago-based radio programs. He relocated to New York in 1947, making his Broadway debut in a 1953 revival of Shaw's Misalliance (which earned him a Theatre World Award). He spent the next two decades alternating in "straight" plays and musicals: his credits in the latter category include Kismet, Redhead, No Strings and, of course, his Tony-winning dual performance as Cervantes and Quixote in Man of La Mancha. In films from 1950, Kiley was often cast as a menace, never more so than in 1953's Pickup on South Street, in which he commits the heinously antisocial act of murdering Thelma Ritter. He was more sympathetic as the alcoholic teacher in The Blackboard Jungle (1955), whose faith in his abilities is irreparably damaged when his juvenile delinquent students wantonly destroy his valuable record collection. On television, Kiley starred in the original 1956 staging of Rod Serlings Patterns and was Emmy-nominated for his work in The Thorn Birds (1983), Do You Remember Love? (1988), Separate But Equal (1990),and his own starring series A Year in the Life (1989). He finally won the Emmy for a 1994 guest appearance in Picket Fences. Ironically, the most successful film endeavor with which Richard Kiley was associated was one in which only his voice is heard; he's the fellow who explains the cloning process in the opening animated sequences of Jurassic Park (1993).

Trivia: Though he lived in Los Angeles before moving to New York and founding the Court Jesters Improv Troupe, actor Alan Tudyk freely admits that he will always be a Texan at heart. Born in El Paso and raised in Plano, Tudyk was a ham even before he pursued a serious acting career at Julliard from 1993 to 1996. Frequently dressing in cowboy garb on family dinner outings and faking fainting spells in school to get a rise out of teachers, it was easy to see that Tudyk had found his calling early in life. Later, performing at the Dallas Shakespeare Festival and founding the city's Rubber Chicken Standup Improv Troupe, Tudyk moved to the West Coast and bounced to the East Coast before making his feature debut in 1997, with 35 Miles From Normal. It didn't take long before Tudyk found more roles in such popular films as Patch Adams (1998) and The Wonder Boys (2000), though his breakthrough role would come as Sandra Bullock's rehab-mate in 28 Days (also 2000). Tudyk's character was so popular with audiences in test screenings, that director Betty Thomas called him back to shoot a scene giving closure to his character within the film. Larger roles began to pour in, such as his turn in the energetic jousting adventure A Knight's Tale (2001), as well as a lead role in writer-director Joss Whedon's short-lived sci-fi series Firefly and its much-adored theatrical spin-off, Serenity. By the early 2000's, Tudyk had become a favorite, familiar face - and voice, as well, lending his vocal talents to the cast of the animated Ice Age franchise, beginning in 2002. He would earn particular accolades for turns as the drunken Simon in the 2007 British sleeper hit Death at a Funeral, as well as the easily shaken Doc Potter in the gritty western 3:10 to Yuma that same year. Even die-hard fans might not have recognized Tudyk's comic cameo in 2011's Transformers: Dark of the Moon as effete and surprisingly hardcore fighting henchman Dutch. Tudyk would also find a continual home for his talents in the realm of TV, however, with recurring roles on Doll House, Good Vibes, and Suburgatory, as well as voice-acting roles on animated series like Glenn Martin DDS, Young Justice, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Never straying far from his cinematic routes, however, Tudyk would gear up for 2012 with the comedic role of historical politician Stephen A. Douglas in the comedy-centric revisionist horror-history film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Trivia: A talented and handsome blond actor who has also shown a marked interest behind the camera, Ryan Hurst may have been destined to pursue a career in film considering his father's notable television career and his mother's occupation as an acting coach. Born in Los Angeles, CA, in 1976, Hurst found early commercial work before completing his primary education at Santa Monica High School. After an early appearance in a Spam commercial and a few helpful tips from mom and dad, the youth began to hit his stride on the stage. In addition to role his portrayal of Brutus in Julius Caesar and his work in such familiar plays as Harvey and Guys and Dolls, Hurst staged his own adaptation of the well-loved Cyrano de Bergerac for the Santa Monica Civic Light Opera and received a Best Performance award from Backstage West for his Canon Theater production of The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Television roles in Saved by the Bell: The New Class and Boston Common followed, and in 1997 Hurst made his feature debut in the Kevin Costner epic The Postman. Subsequent roles in such high-profile releases as Saving Private Ryan and Patch Adams (both 1998) continued to find his budding career flourishing; with a small role in 2000's The Rules of Engagement, Hurst also contributed behind the camera (he shot the 16 mm montage) and then turned up in the sports drama Remember the Titans (also 2000). Continuing to rise to the top of the credits with each film role, Hurst's roles in We Were Soldiers and Lone Star State of Mind (both 2002) were a testament to his remarkable versatility.

Trivia: Actor Jim Antonio has spent the bulk of his career playing supporting roles on television both in films and as a guest star on series. He has also occasionally appeared in feature films. His brother, Lou Antonio, is an actor and director.

Trivia: Went to Fresno State University on a track scholarship and was an All-American shot-putter. Won 15 professional arm-wrestling titles; also competed in weightlifting and bodybuilding tournaments. After college, worked four and a half years as a counselor at a Fresno correctional facility for juvenile offenders; later played corrections officers on iCarly (2008) and Desperate Housewives ('09). Broke into TV in Knights and Warriors, an American Gladiators clone, in 1992 (Jones' nom de guerre: Lady Battleaxe). Was cast as Coach Shannon Beiste in Glee after running into executive producer Brad Falchuk in an L.A. supermarket and asking to be on the show. Jones had previously worked with Falchuk and Glee creator Ryan Murphy on Nip/Tuck and their failed pilot Pretty/Handsome.

Trivia: General purpose actor Norman Alden was first seen by filmgoers in 1960's Operation Bottleneck. Most often seen in take-charge roles, Alden was critically acclaimed for his portrayal of a middle-aged retarded man in the NYC-filmed Andy (1965). The actor's series-TV credits include the thankless role of "Frank" on the "Electra Woman/Dynagirl" segments of Saturday morning's The Krofft Supershow. More artistically satisfying was Norman Alden's brief tenure as lawyer Al Cassidy on the Lee Grant TV sitcom Fay (1975).