Trivia: Born March 15th, 1935, Bronx-native Judd Hirsch attended CCNY, where he majored in engineering and physics. A blossoming fascination in the theatre convinced Hirsch that his future lay in acting. He studied at the AADA and worked with a Colorado stock company before his 1966 Broadway debut in Barefoot in the Park. He spent many years at New York's Circle Repertory, where he appeared in the first-ever production of Lanford Wilson's The Hot L Baltimore. After an auspicious TV-movie bow in the well-received The Law (1974), Hirsch landed his first weekly-series assignment, playing the title character in the cop drama Delvecchio (1976-77). From 1978 to 1982, he was seen as Alex Reiger in the popular ensemble comedy Taxi, earning two Emmies in the process. While occupied with Taxi, Hirsch found time to act off-Broadway, winning an Obie award for the 1979 production Talley's Folly. In the following decade, he was honored with two Tony Awards for the Broadway efforts I'm Not Rappoport and Conversations with My Father. His post-Taxi TV series roles include Press Wyman in Detective in the House (1985) and his Golden Globe-winning turn as John Lacey in Dear John (1988-92). Judd Hirsch could also be seen playing Jeff Goldblum's father in the movie blockbuster Independence Day (1996). In 2001, Hirsch co-starred with Paul Bettany and Christopher Plummer in the multi-Award winning biopic A Beautiful Mind. The actor once again found success on the television screen in CBS' drama Numb3rs, in which he took on the role of Alan Eppes, father of FBI agent Don Eppes (Rob Morrow) and Professor Charlie Eppes (David Krumholtz). After appearing on all four seaons of Numb3rs, Hirsch took a small role in director Brett Ratner's crime comedy Tower Heist (2011).

Trivia: Though Jeff Conaway achieved TV fame by playing an actor who couldn't find work, he had in fact been a busy professional since childhood. At age ten, Conaway made his first Broadway appearance in All the Way Home. Eleven years later, after completing his education at N.Y.U., Conaway was seen in his first film, Jennifer on My Mind (1971). He played Kenicke in the New York staging of Grease, then repeated the role for the 1978 film adaptation. Also in 1978, he began a three-year run on the TV sitcom Taxi, in the role of Bobby Wheeler, an incredibly luckless aspiring actor who made ends meet by driving a hack. Conaway then delved into the realm of "fantastic television," appearing as Prince Erick Greystone in Wizards and Warriors (1983) and (occasionally) as Zack Allen on Babylon 5 (1992). Active in the direct-to-video market, Jeff Conaway both directed and acted in Bikini Summer 2 (1992). His problems with substance escalated in later years, and after appearing on several intervention-style reality shows, Conaway succumbed to various health problems and died on May 27, 2011.

Trivia: A graduate of the University of Dubuque, Tony Danza was busy with a profitable if not spectacular career as a boxer when he began tentatively moving into acting. His first important TV role was, appropriately, as erstwhile boxer Tony Banta on the popular sitcom Taxi. During his Taxi years, Danza built up the screen image of the pugnacious, not overly bright lug with a golden heart. In 1984, Danza was cast as Tony Micelli, the widowed housekeeper of divorced career woman Angela Bower (Judith Light), on the weekly domestic comedy Who's the Boss? enjoying a popular eight-season run. Danza's first starring film role in She's Out of Control (1988), as the overprotective father of teenager Ami Dolenz, was more or less an extension of his TV work; the actor demonstrated a wider range in the supporting role of a dying baseball player in the 1994 remake of Angels in the Outfield. He executive produced The Jerky Boys movie, and continued to appear in projects such as the remake of 12 Angry Men, Glam, and The Garbage-Picking, Field Goal-Killing, Philadelphia Phenome. At the start of the next century he made a handful of appearances as himself on animated shows like Family Guy and King of the Hill, and he appeared in the made-for-TV holiday film Stealing Christmas.