Trivia: With his rugged good looks and icon status, Clint Eastwood was long one of the few actors whose name on a movie marquee could guarantee a hit. Less well-known for a long time (at least until he won the Academy Award as Best Director for Unforgiven), was the fact that Eastwood was also a producer/director, with an enviable record of successes. Born May 31, 1930, in San Francisco, Eastwood worked as a logger and gas-station attendant, among other things, before coming to Hollywood in the mid-'50s. After his arrival, he played small roles in several Universal features (he's the pilot of the plane that napalms the giant spider at the end of Tarantula [1955]) before achieving some limited star status on the television series Rawhide. Thanks to the success of three Italian-made Sergio Leone Westerns -- A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) -- Eastwood soon exchanged this limited status for bona fide international stardom.Upon his return to the U.S., Eastwood set up his own production company, Malpaso, which had a hit right out of the box with the revenge Western Hang 'Em High (1968). He expanded his relatively limited acting range in a succession of roles -- most notably with the hit Dirty Harry (1971) -- during the late '60s and early '70s, and directed several of his most popular movies, including 1971's Play Misty for Me (a forerunner to Fatal Attraction), High Plains Drifter (1973, which took as its inspiration the tragic NYC murder of Kitty Genovese), and The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976). Though Eastwood became known for his violent roles, the gentler side of his persona came through in pictures such as Bronco Billy (1980), a romantic comedy that he directed and starred in. As a filmmaker, Eastwood learned his lessons from the best of his previous directors, Don Siegel and Sergio Leone, who knew just when to add some stylistic or visual flourish to an otherwise straightforward scene, and also understood the effect of small nuances on the big screen. Their approaches perfectly suited Eastwood's restrained acting style, and he integrated them into his filmmaking technique with startling results, culminating in 1993 with his Best Director Oscar for Unforgiven (1992). Also in 1993, Eastwood had another hit on his hands with In the Line of Fire. In 1995, he scored yet again with his film adaptation of the best-selling novel The Bridges of Madison County, in which he starred opposite Meryl Streep; in addition to serving as one of the film's stars, he also acted as its director and producer.Aside from producing the critical and financial misstep The Stars Fell on Henrietta in 1995, Eastwood has proven to be largely successful in his subsequent efforts. In 1997, he produced and directed the film adaptation of John Berendt's tale of Southern murder and mayhem, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and he followed that as the director, producer, and star of the same year's Absolute Power, 1999's True Crime, and 2000's Space Cowboys. With Eastwood's next movie, Blood Work (2002), many fans pondered whether the longtime actor/director still had what it took to craft a compelling film. Though some saw the mystery thriller as a fair notch in Eastwood's belt, many complained that the film was simply too routine, and the elegiac movie quickly faded at the box office. If any had voiced doubt as to Eastwood's abilities as a filmmaker in the wake of Blood Work, they were in for quite a surprise when his adaptation of the popular novel Mystic River hit screens in late 2003. Featuring a stellar cast that included Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and Kevin Bacon, Mystic River was a film that many critics and audiences cited as one of the director's finest. A downbeat meditation on violence and the nature of revenge, the film benefited not only from Eastwood's assured eye as a director, but also from a screenplay (by Brian Helgeland) that remained fairly faithful to Dennis Lehane's novel and from severely affecting performances by its three stars -- two of whom (Penn and Robbins) took home Oscars for their efforts. With Eastwood's reputation as a quality director now cemented well in place thanks to Mystic River's success, his remarkable ability to craft a compelling film was nearly beginning to eclipse his legendary status as an actor in the eyes of many. Indeed, few modern directors could exercise the efficiency and restraint that have highlighted Eastwood's career behind the camera, as so beautifully demonstrated in his 2004 follow-up, Million Dollar Baby. It would have been easy to layer the affecting tale of a young female boxer's rise from obscurity with the kind of pseudo-sentimental slop that seems to define such underdog-themed films, but it was precisely his refusal to do so that ultimately found the film taking home four of the six Oscars for which it was nominated at the 77th Annual Academy Awards -- including Best Director and Best Picture. Eastwood subsequently helmed two interrelated 2006 features that told the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima from different angles. The English-language Flags of Our Fathers relayed the incident from the American end, while the Japanese-language Letters from Iwo Jima conveyed the event from a Japanese angle. Both films opened to strong reviews and were lauded with numerous critics and industry awards, with Letters capturing the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language film before being nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award. Nowhere near slowing down, Eastwood would direct and star in the critically acclaimed Gran Torino, as well as helming critical favorites like Invictus, the Changeling, Hereafter, and J. Edgar, racking up numerous awards and nominations. In 2014, he helmed the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Jersey Boys, to mixed reviews, and the biographical adaptation American Sniper.A prolific jazz pianist who occasionally shows up to play piano at his Carmel, CA restaurant, The Hog's Breath Inn, Eastwood has also contributed songs and scores to several of his films, including The Bridges of Madison County and Mystic River. Many saw his critically championed 1988 film Bird, starring Forest Whitaker (on the life of Charlie "Bird" Parker), as the direct product of this interest. Eastwood also served as the mayor of Carmel, CA, from 1986 until 1988.

Trivia: Detroit-born Michael Moriarty was still in his teens when he received a Fulbright Fellowship to study acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. At 22, Moriarty played Octavius Caesar in a New York Shakespeare Festival production of Antony and Cleopatra, the first of many Shakespearean assignments. He made his Broadway bow in Trial of the Catonsville 9 and his film debut in 1972's Hickey and Boggs. In 1973 and 1974, no one was a likelier candidate for big-time stardom than Michael Moriarty. He starred as ingratiatingly egotistical ballplayer Henry Wiggen in theatrical feature Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), earned an Emmy for his portrayal of the Gentleman Caller in a TV adaptation of The Glass Menagerie, and won the Tony award for his work in the Broadway play Find Your Way Home. While his stage career flourished (he'd later star in well-received revivals of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial and My Fair Lady) his movie career was not as successful. It was television that made Moriarty a "name" in the eyes of the public, especially after his chillingly effective Emmy-winning turn as pasty-faced Nazi bureaucrat Erik Dorf in the 1978 miniseries Holocaust. In his film appearances of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Moriarty evinced a preference for working in director Larry Cohen's low-budget horror efforts, which brought little in the way of prestige but which assured him juicy leading roles. He was particularly good in Cohen's Q (1982), as a scuzzy, unprincipled mercenary who becomes the film's hero-by-default. From 1990 to 1994, Moriarty earned three Emmy nominations for his work as Assistant DA Ben Stone in TV's Law and Order; he left the series in 1995, complaining that Attorney General Janet Reno's criticisms of TV violence seriously endangered his ability to perform at fullest capacity. In addition to his considerable acting accomplishments, Moriarty is a superb jazz pianist; he has cut albums with his own jazz trio, and is a frequent performer at Michael's Pub, a New York nitery which occasionally features director Woody Allen on the clarinet. In addition, Michael Moriarty can be seen as the Governor of New Jersey in Crime of the Century, a 1996 TV-movie recreation of the Bruno Richard Hauptmann trial.

Trivia: Following graduation from Northern Illinois University, Carrie Snodgress earned her MA from Chicago's Goodman Theatre School. Making the Hollywood rounds in the late 1960s, she drew attention to herself with her offbeat characterizations in such Universal television productions as the weekly series The Outsider and the 1968 TV movie The Whole World is Watching. In 1970, she earned an Oscar nomination for her first theatrical-film performance as Tina Balser in director Frank Perry's Diary of a Mad Housewife. After this one film, and her 1971 starring appearance as a social worker in the 2-hour TV pilot The Impatient Heart, Carrie dropped completely from public view. During her years away from the cameras, she lived with rock musician Neil Young, the father of her son Zeke. Then, just as suddenly as she'd disappeared, Snodgress resurfaced in Brian DePalma's The Fury (1978). In 1981, she made her off-Broadway debut in A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking (the other "chick" was Susan Sarandon). Since that time, Carrie Snodgress has made sporadic film and TV appearances in such roles as psychopathic murderer Joan Freeman in Charles Bronson's Murphy's Law (1986) and Stefania Comenici in the 1985 TV miniseries Nadia; later, she was seen in 8 Seconds (1994) and the long-delayed Blue Sky (1994).

Trivia: American actor Richard Dysart portrayed sandy-haired, distinguished corporate types for nigh onto thirty years. Several seasons of stage and TV work were followed by supporting authority-figure roles in such films as The Hospital (1971), The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder (1974) (as the title character's dad), Meteor (1978) (the Secretary of Defense) and Being There (1979) (the doctor of politico Melvyn Douglas). TV-movie credits for Dysart include The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1973), The People vs. Jean Harris (1980), Last Days of Patton (1985), the Hedda Hopper/Louella Parsons biopic Malice in Wonderland (1988), and the made-for-cable Marilyn and Bobby: Her Final Affair (1993). In 1986, Richard Dysart gained nationwide TV fame as senior law partner Leland McKenzie on the NBC weekly L.A. Law, for which he earned an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. He mostly retired from acting once L.A. Law ended in 1994, doing occasional voice-over work and reprising his role in an L.A. Law TV movie in 2002. Dysart died in 2015, at age 86.

Trivia: Lead actress, onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: We shouldn't say it, but...at nearly seven foot two, American actor Richard Kiel was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Making the cast-call rounds while working as a nightclub bouncer, Kiel began picking up bit roles in the early '60s. He was the misleadingly altruistic alien in the classic 1962 Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man" (you'll remember that climactic line "It's a cookbook!") and was less prestigiously starred in that masterpiece of bad cinema, Eegah! (1962). Ambling through a series a tough-lug and town-bully roles, Kiel attained full stardom as the menacing, steel-dentured Jaws in the the 1977 James Bond flick The Spy Who Loved Me. So well-received was this appearance that the scriptwriters contrived to bring Jaws back from the dead in the next Bondfest, Moonraker (1979), wherein Kiel becomes a good guy before the end and even gets a girlfriend. In 1992, Richard Kiel turned producer/director (in addition to starring) with the appropriately titled The Giant of Thunder Mountain, a "four waller" which was released on a city-by-city basis. He played a memorable role in Happy Gilmore (1996), playing a fan of the title golfer and voiced a thug in Disney's animated film Tangled (2010). Kiel died in 2014, just days before his 74th birthday.

Trivia: Two things American actor John Russell was not: he was not cinematographer John L. Russell, nor was he the Johnny Russell who appears as Shirley Temple's brother in 20th Century-Fox's The Blue Bird (1940). He was however, a contract juvenile at Fox from 1937 through 1941. Interrupting his career for war service, Russell emerged from his tour of duty as a highly decorated marine. Busy in postwar films and TV as a secondary lead and utility villain, Russell was given costar billing with Chick Chandler in the 1955 syndicated TV adventure series Soldiers of Fortune. Four years later, Russell (now sporting a mustache) was cast as Marshal Dan Troop on the Warner Bros. weekly western series Lawman. This assignment lasted three years, after which Russell became a journeyman actor again. John Russell was well served with character parts in 1984's Honkytonk Man and 1985's Pale Rider, both directed by and starring another ex-TV-cowboy, Clint Eastwood.

Trivia: Supporting actor Charles Hallahan played character roles on stage, television and in feature films. Fans of the Stephen J. Cannell police drama Hunter will know Hallahan for playing Captain Charlie Devane between 1986 and 1991. A Philadelphia native, Hallahan earned an undergraduate degree at Rutgers and a master's from Temple University six years before heading to Los Angeles in 1977. Hallahan had little trouble finding acting jobs. His stage credits include playing the lead in a long-running San Francisco production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest during the late '90s, roles in plays ranging from Equus to The Threepenny Opera. In 1976, Hallahan toured the Soviet Union in two classic plays. On television, Hallahan guest-starred on over 200 episodes of shows ranging from Lou Grant to The Paper Chase. He made his feature film debut in Nightwing (1979). He made his last film appearance playing Paul Dreyfuss in Dante's Peak (1997). Hallahan died during a car crash in which he apparently suffered a heart attack on November 25, 1997. He was 54.

Trivia: A familiar presence on the Chicago theatrical scene, American character actress Fran Ryan has kept busy in films since the late 1960s. Often cast as tight-lipped "battle-ax" types (albeit with the proverbial twinkle in the eye), Ryan was an invaluable presence in several Disney films. On TV, she has thrice found herself in the unenviable position of last-minute replacement: she took over the role of Doris Ziffel from Barbara Pepper during the 1969-70 season of Green Acres; as Miss Hannah, she succeeded Kitty Russell (Amanda Blake) as proprietress of the Long Branch Saloon in the 1974-75 season of Gunsmoke; and on the Saturday-morning kiddie show Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1974-77), she replaced the departing Mary Wickes as the series' requisite wisecracking housekeeper. Fran Ryan's other TV-series credits include The Doris Day Show (1968-69 season, as housekeeper Aggie Thompson), No Soap, Radio (1982, as hotelier Mrs. Belmont) and The Wizard (1987, as yet another housekeeper, this one named Tillie).

Trivia: Supporting actor Billy Drago first appeared onscreen in the '80s.

Trivia: Beginning in the '60s, stunt man and supporting actor Larry Gatlin often appeared in westerns.

Trivia: Although Chris Penn has achieved little of the critical acclaim and none of the notoriety of his older brother, Sean, the rotund actor has become a familiar supporting player and character actor who hasn't had to rely on Sean, either. The brothers have appeared together only once, in the 1986 film At Close Range; in the meantime, Chris has made a name for himself in projects ranging in tone and purpose from Footloose (1984) to Reservoir Dogs (1992).The son of director Leo Penn and actress Eileen Ryan, and the brother of singer Michael Penn in addition to actors Sean and Matthew, Chris Penn was born on June 10, 1962, in Los Angeles. The actor, sometimes credited as Christopher Penn, started out in the profession at age 12, under the tutelage of Peggy Feury at the Loft Studio in Los Angeles. His film breakthrough came in Francis Ford Coppola's teen gang movie Rumble Fish (1983), which cast him opposite Matt Dillon and Mickey Rourke. But it wasn't until Footloose the following year that Penn captured his first truly memorable role. As the burly best buddy of Kevin Bacon's rebellious dance proponent, Penn's simple decency shone through, especially in the lively production number in which his character awkwardly learns to dance, to the strains of Denise Williams' "Let's Hear It for the Boy."Penn's supporting work continued through the 1980s in films like Pale Rider (1985) before he became affiliated with organized crime movies, on both sides of the law, in the 1990s. Two collaborations with Quentin Tarantino in particular solidified this association. In the first, 1992's Reservoir Dogs, Penn played Nice Guy Eddie, the obedient son of Lawrence Tierney's mob boss. Screenwriting for director Tony Scott, Tarantino then helped Penn get cast in True Romance (1993) as a narcotics officer. From this point on, Penn began appearing in a handful of films each year, first and perhaps most notably as the frustrated husband of a phone sex operator (Jennifer Jason Leigh) in Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993).Penn continued his criminal film streak with such projects as Mulholland Falls (1996), The Funeral (1996), and One Tough Cop (1998). In 2001, he spoofed his tough guy image by appearing as the brother of comedian Chris Kattan, the novice mob operative of the title, in Corky Romano.

Trivia: Frail-looking but iron-willed American actor Henry B. Walthall set out to become a lawyer, but was drawn to the stage instead. After several seasons appearing opposite such luminaries as Henry Miller and Margaret Anglin, Walthall was firmly established in New York's theatrical circles by the time he entered films in 1909 at the invitation of director D.W. Griffith. Clearly, both men benefited from the association: Griffith was able to exploit Walthall's expertise and versatility, while Walthall learned to harness his tendency to overact. The best of the Griffith/Walthall collaborations was Birth of a Nation (1915), in which Walthall portrayed the sensitive Little Colonel. Walthall left Griffith in 1915, a move that did little to advance his career. A string of mediocre productions spelled finis to Walthall's stardom, though he continued to prosper in character parts into the 1930s. One of his best showings in the talkie era was a virtual replay of his Little Colonel characterization in the closing scenes of the 1934 Will Rogers vehicle Judge Priest. Henry B. Walthall died while filming the 1936 Warner Bros. film China Clipper; ironically, he passed away just before he was scheduled to film his character's death scene.

Trivia: Canadian-born Doug McGrath began his film career in the early '70s, playing Peter McGraw in the drama Goin' Down the Road. He would spend the decade appearing in numerous films, like Black Christmas and the Clint Eastwood film The Gauntlet. The '80s, '90s, and 2000s would continue to offer a similar selection of roles in both movies and on TV. Most notably, McGrath acted with Eastwood for a second time in the 1985 western Pale Rider.