Trivia: Handsome actor Blair Underwood was born into a military family and studied at Carnegie-Mellon University before moving to New York to pursue his career. Guest-starring work on The Cosby Show earned him a part on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, followed by a reoccurring role on the short-lived series Downtown. In 1985 he made his film debut as a record producer in the rap comedy Krush Groove. This was followed by the successful TV docudramas Heat Wave and Murder in Mississippi. His breakthrough finally came about on L.A. Law, playing attorney Jonathan Rollins from 1987 to 1994. Supporting roles followed, as an accused rapist in Just Cause, a well-to-do love interest in Set It Off, and baseball legend Jackie Robinson in the HBO original movie Soul of the Game. Also during the '90s, he tried his hand at screenwriting and producing with the short film Second Coming, a contemporary take on Christ's second coming starring himself as a dread-locked Jesus accused of insanity. In 2000, he starred in the CBS medical drama City of Angels, followed by supporting roles in the military courtroom drama Rules of Engagement, as well as Steven Soderbergh's Full Frontal, and the teen movie Malibu's Most Wanted. He consistently found work on the small screen in a variety of TV shows including LAX, the short-lived Dirty Sexy Money, and as a haunted military pilot in the first season of HBO's In Treatment. On the big-screen he could be seen in Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion, Something New, and The Art of Getting By. He and wife Desiree DaCosta (two-time executive assistant to Eddie Murphy) have three children.

Trivia: One of America's most respected dramatic actresses, Cicely Tyson has worked steadily as a television, film, and stage actress since making her stage debut in a Harlem YMCA production of Dark of the Moon in the 1950s. The daughter of Caribbean immigrants, Tyson was raised in Harlem. After working as a secretary and a successful model, she became an actress, landed her first jobs in off-Broadway productions, and eventually made it to the Great White Way in the late '50s.Tyson got her first real break in 1963, playing a secretary to George C. Scott on the TV series East Side/West Side, and in 1966 signed on with the daytime soap The Guiding Light. That same year, she made her credited screen debut starring opposite Sammy Davis Jr. in the drama A Man Called Adam (her first uncredited film role was in 1959's Odds Against Tomorrow). More film, television, and stage work followed, but Tyson did not truly become a star until her Oscar-nominated performance in the Depression drama Sounder (1972). An unusual beauty with delicate features, expressive black eyes, and a full, wide mouth, Tyson next hid her good looks beneath layers of old-age makeup to convincingly portray a 110-year-old former slave who tells her extraordinary life story in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974). A well-wrought effort, it won Tyson her first Emmy for her title role, which required her to age 91 years on the screen. Tyson subsequently had great success on television, particularly with her role in the legendary miniseries Roots (1977) and her work in The Women of Brewster Place (1989). She also continued to do a fair amount of film work, appearing in films like Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (1994), The Grass Harp (1995), and Hoodlum (1997). In 1997, Tyson again donned old woman's makeup to offer a delightfully crotchety version of Charles Dickens' Scrooge in the 1997 USA Network original production Ms. Scrooge. Two years later, she had another television success -- and another Emmy nomination -- with A Lesson Before Dying, a drama set in the 1940s about a black man sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit. Tyson was later featured in a trio of popular Tyler Perry movies, including Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005), Madea's Family Reunion (2006) and Why Did I Get Married Too? (2010). She also had a small, but pivotal, role in 2011's Oscar-nominated The Help, as Contstantine, the loving and elderly maid of Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone).

Trivia: James Earl Jones is a distinguished African American actor instantly recognizable for his deep, resonant Shakespearean voice and wide smile. The son of prizefighter and actor Robert Earl Jones, he was raised on a farm. In college, he briefly studied medicine but switched to drama. After serving with the Army he enrolled at the American Theater Wing in New York. He made his Broadway debut in 1957, then went on to appear in many plays before spending several seasons with Joseph Pap's New York Shakespeare Festival. Jones' biggest success onstage was as the star of The Great White Hope on Broadway (1966-68); for his work (portraying heavyweight champion Jack Jefferson) he received a Tony award. He had a small part in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (1964), but did not begin to appear onscreen much until the '70s. In addition to stage and occasional film work, he also appeared as an African chieftain in the TV series Tarzan and was one of the first black actors to be cast as a regular on the soap opera The Guiding Light in 1967. Reprising his stage role, he received a Best Actor Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe award for his work in the screen version of The Great White Hope (1970) and went on from there to have a busy screen career. He starred in the TV series Paris in 1979-80. Beginning in 1977, he provided the melodiously wicked voice of the villainous Darth Vader in the three Star Wars films. Since then he has continued to appear on screen (over 40 films to date), stage, and television. He also continues to provide voiceovers (he can frequently be heard on the CNN television network). His portrayal of the grouchy, reclusive writer opposite Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams (1989) is among his most notable turns. In 1987 he won another Tony Award, this time for his portrayal of a frustrated baseball player in August Wilson's Fences. Most recently, Jones provided the voice for Mufasa, the regal patriarch in Disney's animated film The Lion King (1994).

Trivia: A former member of Andy Warhol's Factory and an active member in 1960s New York avant-garde theater, actress Sally Kirkland is best remembered in film for playing a famous Czech actress who is forced to lead a degrading life of anonymity in New York in Anna (1987). The daughter of a fashion editor of Life magazine and a wealthy scrap iron vendor, the tall, slender Kirkland started out as a Vogue model and then studied at the Actor's Studio with Lee Strassberg and Uta Hagen. She launched her acting career off-Broadway, but didn't make much impact until she appeared nude and tied to a chair for 45 minutes in the drama Sweet Eros. By 1964, Kirkland was deeply involved in the Big Apple's avant-garde movement and was also an active drug user until an attempted suicide frightened her into cleaning up her life through yoga and painting. As an actress, she next involved herself with Warhol's clique, appearing in several underground films, notably The Thirteen Most Beautiful Women. Though much of her subsequent film appearances have been in low-budget and exploitation films, Kirkland has had a few shining moments as a supporting actress in such movies as The Sting (1973) and Private Benjamin (1980). For her work in Anna, Kirkland received an Academy Award nomination. In addition to her acting career, Kirkland is a minister of the New Age Church of the Movement of Inner Spiritual Awareness.

Trivia: Having worked steadily through the '70s on television and in blaxploitation films, African-American actress Margaret Avery did not become a star until she was cast as Shug in Steven Spielberg's adaptation of The Color Purple (1985), a performance that won her a nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Though the quality of her films briefly improved, her stardom was only fleeting and she returned to less visible work.

Trivia: A longtime actor turned director whose memorable turn as a suicidal drag queen endeared him to viewers of ER in the mid-'90s, Vondie Curtis-Hall would subsequently essay a role on the other side of the doctor-patient relationship as Dr. Dennis Hancock on ER rival series Chicago Hope. Though he would later step behind the camera, Curtis-Hall remained a recognizable fixture on both film and television with appearances in such high-profile films as Die Hard 2 (1990) and William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (1996). A native of Detroit, Curtis-Hall made his television debut in the short-lived Spenser: For Hire spin-off A Man Called Hawk. Though he had only a vocal role in the 1988 actioner Shakedown, his proper film debut came with a minor role in 1988's Coming to America, followed shortly thereafter with an appearance in director Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train (1989). A series of minor film roles, as well as an appearance in the short-lived television police musical Cop Rock followed, and through the mid-'90s Curtis-Hall's film roles were mostly of supporting status. Shortly after his sympathetic turn as troubled transvestite Roger McGrath on ER, he embarked on a four-year stint as a doctor on Chicago Hope. Simultaneously appearing in supporting roles in Broken Arrow and Heaven's Prisoners (both 1996), his eagerness to get on the other side of the camera would soon get the best of the struggling actor. Though Curtis-Hall had warmed to the role of director by helming an episode of ER, he was soon putting pen to paper to write a gritty addiction comedy drama about two addicts attempting to kick heroin. A scathing attack on America's healthcare system, Gridlock'd (1997) offered solid performances by Tim Roth and Tupac Shakur and a smart script, but the film was ultimately relegated to obscurity due largely to the fact that its innovative story line proved extremely difficult to market. Though Gridlock'd didn't fare well at the box office, it would prove nowhere near as disastrous as Curtis-Hall's sophomore effort, the Mariah Carey vanity project Glitter (2001). Tanking immediately as it took unrelenting blows from critics and audiences alike, the film's flogging did little to help singer Carey's fragile mental state, let alone boost Curtis-Hall's fledgling directorial career. Undaunted by the failure of Glitter, he nevertheless soldiered on to helm an episode of the short-lived sci-fi television series Firefly the following year.Back in front of the cameras, the tireless actor/director was in very high demand, and in addition to directing a pair of ER episodes in 2001, Hall made a notable impression as sympathetic transvestite on the long-running medical series. Additional roles on such shows as The Sopranos, Soul Food, LAX, and Law & Order proved that even when his directorial career was on shaky ground, he could always find firm footing on the small screen. In the years that followed it wouldn't appear that Curtis-Hall would be having too many concerns about either aspect of his career though, and after directing Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx in the role of Crips founding father Stan "Tookie" Williams in Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams story in 2004, the increasingly strong director turned his lens towards the action genre with Waist Deep two short years later. An urban Bonnie and Clyde tale for the gangster set, Waist Deep told the tale of an ex-con who, along with his girlfriend, sets out to get his kidnapped son back from a vicious gangster while simultaneously sparking a street war that will seriously diminish the ranks of the ruthless kingpin.

Trivia: Fresh out of Temple University, actor Robert Hooks was billing himself as Bobby Dean Hooks when he made his 1962 Broadway bow in Tiger Tiger Burning Bright. Hooks' first film was the independently produced Sweet Love, Bitter (1966), though many reference books regard Hurry Sundown (1967) as the actor's big-screen debut. In 1967, he was co-starred with Jack Warden in the New York-based TV cop series NYPD, and in 1988 he was top-billed as Captain Jim Coleman in the military weekly Supercarrier (1988). A co-founder of the Negro Ensemble Company, Hooks was also the creator of the DC Black Repertory Company, based in his hometown of Washington. Robert Hooks is the father of actor/director Kevin Hooks.

Trivia: One of the more underrated actors in Hollywood, tall, soft-spoken David Straithairn has earned almost consistent critical appreciation for his work in a number of films, most notably his many collaborations with director John Sayles. Born in San Francisco on January 26, 1949, Straithairn gained an entrance into acting via his days at Williams College. It was there that he met fellow student Sayles, and the two had their first collaboration with Return of the Seacaucus Seven. The 1980 film, which told the story of a group of friends reuniting after college, inspired a number of similar efforts, including The Big Chill. Following his debut, the actor -- whose additional performing experience came from his training at the Ringling Brothers Clown College -- appeared in supporting roles in a number of films, including Silkwood (1983) and Dominick and Eugene (1988). He continued to collaborate with Sayles, acting in The Brother From Another Planet (1984), Matewan, (1987), and Eight Men Out (1988). Straithairn was also introduced to television audiences with his role as bookstore owner Moss Goodman on the popular dramedy series Days and Nights of Molly Dodd.In the 1990s, Straithairn had prominent roles in a number of critically acclaimed films and television miniseries. In addition to his continuing work with Sayles, in 1991's City of Hope and Passion Fish (1992), the actor lent his talents to such films as Bob Roberts (1992), Sneakers (also 1992), The River Wild (a 1994 film which reunited him with Silkwood co-star Meryl Streep), and Losing Isaiah (1995). He also appeared in miniseries such as the 1991 O Pioneers! and In the Gloaming (1997), in which he played the father of an AIDS-stricken Robert Sean Leonard. In 1997, Straithairn had a memorable turn as a high-class pimp with a dodgy mustache in the wildly lauded L.A. Confidential and after a supporting role in Simon Birch (1998), once again collaborated with Sayles, this time playing a fisherman with a past in the 1999 Limbo. He remained one of the most respected character actors of his generation appearing as the father in the remake of The Miracle Worker, and starring in the drama Blue Car as a manipulative teacher. In 2005 he garnered an Oscar nomination and the biggest high-profile success of his career playing Edward R. Murrow in George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck. He followed up that success with appearances in such films as We Are Marshall, The Bourne Ultimatum, Howl, and Temple Grandin. In 2012 he was cast in Steven Spielberg's long-planned biopic Lincoln as William Seward.

Trivia: Dreadlocked character actor Glenn Plummer began his acting career on television during the late '80s. He appeared in the TV movies The Women of Brewster Place, Heat Wave, and Deadlock. On the big screen, he played thug High Top in Dennis Hopper's crime drama Colors and rookie pitcher Tyrone in the baseball movie Pastime. In 1992, he landed his first starring role as an ex-convict father who wants the best for his son in Steve Anderson's compelling drama South Central. After supporting roles in Trespass, Menace II Society, and Speed, he made a brief return to television to play staff member Timmy Rawlins during the first season of ER. Back on the big screen, he played a choreographer in Showgirls, a musician/activist in Strange Days, and drama teacher in The Substitute More feature films followed, he landed a spot on the HBO miniseries The Corner, and he tried producing with Love Beat the Hell Outta Me. In addition to several straight-to-video action thrillers, Plummer appeared in the feature film The Salton Sea. He also had starring roles in the independent drama 100 Kilos and the motorcycle movie Road Kings.

Trivia: The oldest of three sons of Broadway star Alan Arkin, American actor Adam Arkin has had stage and movie work, but is best known for his TV assignments. In 1977 Arkin was starred in his first series, the one-season sitcom Bustin' Loose, wherein the 21-year-old actor played a man finally escaping his overprotective parents. Arkin went on to play an inner-city biology teacher in the brief 1982 TV series Teachers Only; a Chicago bookie in the short-lived 1986 weekly Tough Cookies; and an attorney in 1988's A Year in the Life, which lasted eight months of our lives. In 1990, just when it seemed as though Arkin was going to become the King of Cancellation, he made the first of many guest appearances on the quirky CBS series Northern Exposure as Adam, the sociopathic, in-your-face hermit/gourmet chef. The character reappeared sporadically until 1993, sometimes as a welcome touch of anarchy, other times as merely a loud-mouthed royal pain. In 1994, Adam Arkin was given his most recent crack at regular weekly series work, playing a dedicated but mercurial doctor on the TV drama Chicago Hope, where he was matched insult for insult by the equally obstreperous Mandy Patinkin. Though that well-regarded series came to a close in 2000, Arkin continued to work steadily in both movies and TV appearing in a diverse string of projects including A Slight Case of Murder, the sitcom Baby Bob, and the Will Smith vehicle Hitch. He had a major part on the short-lived TV series Life starting in 2007, and in 2009 appeared in the Coen Brothers Best Picture nominee A Serious Man. He also maintained a steady career as a director of series television helming episodes of Monk, Ally McBeal, and Grey's Anatomy. In 2012 he could be seen in The Sessions, a film that won the audience award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

Trivia: All evidence indicates that actor Michael Greene's first film assignment was an unbilled bit in 1965's The Cincinnati Kid. He continued accepting small roles into the 1970s, notably the motorcycle punk who gives Woody Allen a going-over in Play It Again Sam (1972) (curiously, Greene shows up in a later scene as a restaurant extra sitting directly across from Allen!). After several years' of faithful anonymous screen service, Greene was given a leading role in something called The Clones (1973) wherein Michael Greene plays a scientist who learns to his horror that he has been cloned by mad doctor Stanley Adams--thus paving the way for a climactic showdown between Greene and his synthetic look-alike.

Trivia: A remarkably bright youngster, Charlie Korsmo was reading by age four and studying college-level math by age eight. When the 10-year-old asked his mom if he could give acting a try, she immediately acquiesced. After a string of TV commercials, he enjoyed a flurry of film activity in the years 1989-91, appearing in Men Don't Leave (1989), Dick Tracy (1990, as Junior), What About Bob? (1991), Hook (1991, as Peter Pan's son) and The Doctor (1991). Upon reaching the age of 13, Kosmo was fed up with Hollywood and quit movies cold. At last report, 18-year-old Charlie Korsmo was excelling academically at a prestigious Minnesota prep school, occasionally participating in class plays.

Trivia: Character actor Mark Rolston specialized in everyman portrayals with a slightly understated, tough edge to them. Born in Baltimore, MD, in 1956, Rolston broke into film in the early to mid-'80s and scored his first major feature role with a turn as a private in James Cameron's effects-heavy sci-fi blockbuster Aliens (1986). Within a few years, he began turning up in supporting capacities in numerous additional features; the more visible included Weeds (1987), Prancer (1989), Body of Evidence (1993), Rush Hour (1998), and Martin Scorsese's Best Picture winner The Departed (2006). In 2008, Rolston signed on to play Erickson, who comes face to face with Jigsaw's (Tobin Bell) diabolical traps, in the fifth installment of the gore-soaked Saw franchise. Rolston also made television appearances on programs including Touched by an Angel and NYPD Blue.

Trivia: A burly, heavyset character player whose presence suggested both paternal warmth and authority, Cliff Bemis originally grew up on a family owned dairy farm in Elyria, OH, then (later) Lorain, OH, after his father's ailing health prevented him from continuing on as a farm laborer and prompted him to move into the floral business. Following high school graduation, Cliff attended Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, where he discovered an intense love of drama and began to pursue professional acting work alongside his studies. He subsequently became involved in Cleveland-area theater and film on multiple levels (including numerous musical theater roles and opera roles, voiceover and jingle-singing assignments, and industrial film appearances), but for many years limited himself to Cleveland-area work. That all changed in 1987 when Bemis' path happened to criss-cross with that of husband and wife actors Robby Benson and Karla de Vito (Modern Love); the pair encouraged Bemis to relocate to Los Angeles, secure an agent, and begin signing for film and television roles. Some of the features in which Bemis appeared include Pink Cadillac (1989), Jack the Bear (1993), Nancy Drew (2007), and Billy: The Early Years (directed by Benson) as a charismatic religious leader. Over the years, Bemis also signed for innumerable television guest roles on series including Quantum Leap, Cheers, Married... With Children, and Dallas. He is also known as one of the chief television spokespeople for the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) restaurants.

Trivia: Born in the Bronx, Shavar Ross moved to Georgia with his mother at age six when his parents separated. Ross' father headed to Los Angeles to launch a career in show business, and it was on a visit to see his dad in Tinseltown that the youngster -- then just eight years old -- was discovered by a talent scout. He would eventually win the role of Dudley on the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, launching a career that would come to include countless TV appearances on shows like Family Matters and Friday the 13th. Ross also got involved in voice acting, lending his vocal talents to various Hanna-Barbera cartoons, and completed four years of ministry school, after which he founded the Alive Church, a nondenominational Christian church in Los Angeles. He also launched his own production company, Tri-Seven Entertainment.

Trivia: Few actors possess the range required to craft some of the most colorful villains ever committed to celluloid before turning around to portray such a benevolent and beloved leader as Martin Luther King Jr., and it's a testament to Clifton Powell's skills as a performer that he could be equally believable doing both. It was during the early '90s that Powell first began to rise to prominence in television and film, with standout roles in Bill Duke's Deep Cover and In the Heat of the Night preceding a pair of memorable supporting roles for the Hughes Brothers in Menace II Society and Dead Presidents. Though Powell would continue to appear in features, it was on the small screen that he gained most of his exposure in the early years. After gradually climbing the credits on such shows as Murder, She Wrote, The Jamie Foxx Show, and NYPD Blue, Powell would leave an indelible mark on viewers with his thoughtful portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr. in director Charles Burnett's Selma, Lord, Selma. With versatile, everyman looks that were something of a blessing and a curse, Powell quickly established himself as an actor capable of truly disappearing into his characters -- sometimes to a fault. While a slew of roles on screens big and small kept Powell a considerably busy man in the mid-'90s, later roles in such efforts as Lockdown, Civil Brand, and Never Die Alone proved that his persistence, talent, and dedication were beginning to pay off. In 2004, Powell and the cast of the wildly popular biopic Ray would be honored with a Screen Actor's Guild nomination, and though they didn't take home the prize it was obvious Powell was finally on the verge of breaking big. His dark turn in the T.D. Jakes screen-adaptation Woman Thou Art Loosed was followed by a series of small-screen appearances in House, M.D., CSI, and Day Break, and in 2007 alone Powell's name would be attached to no less than eight films being prepared for the big screen .

Trivia: With a career that spanned over 60 years on stage and screen, Jeannette Kerner did everything from costume design to dancing in addition to her work as an actress. Remaining active well into her later years, Kerner appeared late in her career in such popular films as Less Than Zero (1987) and The Mighty Ducks (1992).A native of Omaha, NE, Kerner moved to Hollywood in order to study costume and fashion design at Art Center College of Design, concurrently beginning voice and dancing lessons and becoming a charter member of SAG in 1936. Married to physician Jerry Kerner three years later, the actress appeared uncredited in 1937's History Is Made at Night. She subsequently gained roles on stage and later in television and film. Her most frequent film work came later in her career and, from 1987 on, she appeared in such made-for-television efforts as Do You Know the Muffin Man (1989), as well as all three Mighty Ducks films and, in 1997, an uncredited role in the live-action adaptation of George of the Jungle. Kerner's son Jordan kept Hollywood in the family with his career as a film producer.On May 25, 2000, Jeannette Kerner died of natural causes in Los Angeles. She was 85.