Trivia: Born January 30, 195, Charles Dutton attended the Yale School of Drama, and in 1983 he first appeared off-Broadway in Richard III. Before long he was delivering Tony-calibre performances in such Broadway productions as Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and The Piano Lesson. In films since 1986's No Mercy, the forceful, thunder-voiced Dutton has been seen in movies ranging from the mirth-provoking Crocodile Dundee 2 to the spine-chilling Alien 3. In 1991, Charles Dutton began a long TV run as the star of the Fox Network sitcom Roc.Dutton became an actor while serving a seven and a half-year prison sentence for stabbing a man during a street fight. While in prison, Dutton was stabbed in the neck with an ice pick during a fight with another inmate. The incident proved to be the turning point in Dutton's life when he refused to retaliate. Shortly thereafter, he became interested in drama and while serving his sentence completed a two-year college degree course. Upon his release from prison, Dutton was admitted into the Yale School of Drama. There he studied under playwright August Wilson and director Lloyd Richards.In 2000, Dutton directed The Corner, an acclaimed miniseries from HBO adapted from David Simon and Ed Burns' novel "The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood". The Corner won several awards, including an Emmy for Best Miniseries, and Dutton himself was honored for his direction. This would not be the last Emmy he received; the actor won Emmy Awards in 2002 and 2003 for supporting roles in televisiond dramas The Practice and Without a Trace. In 2003, Dutton starred in the made-for-TV drama D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear, and continued to make appearances on popular television shows including The L Word, The Sopranos, and House, M.D. Dutton joined the cast of Threshold in 2005. While the CBS science fiction series gained a loyal following, the show was short-lived. The actor went on to appear in filmmaker John Sayles' 2007 drama Honeydripper, which follows the owner of a blues club that was revitalized by a young electric guitarist.

Trivia: A graduate of the famous School for the Performing Arts, actor Rocky Carroll continued his studies at the Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University before moving to New York in the mid-'80s to try his hand at a professional acting career. He soon found success with the Shakespeare on Broadway series, and cultivated a flourishing career on-stage. Carroll also branched into screen acting, with recurring roles on Roc and Chicago Hope, and in movies like Crimson Tide, Born on the Fourth of July, and Yes Man.

Trivia: American character actor Carl Gordon appeared in feature films such as Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976). He was also an active member of the Negro Ensemble Company and appeared in over 30 of their productions. In the early '90s, he appeared on the Fox television network sitcom Roc as Andrew Emerson, the father of the lead character. Gordon died of lymphoma at age 78 in 2010.

Trivia: An actress best known as Dorothy "Tootie" Ramsey, the lone African American student and consummate gossip at the exclusive Eastland Preparatory School for Women on NBC's sitcom The Facts of Life (1979-1988), Kim Fields actually appeared on several popular series in the 1970s-2000s. The Big Apple native grew up in a single-parent household and began acting in commercials well before she reached her teens, making her most widely seen appearance on an advertisement for Mrs. Butterworth's syrup. She made her foray into acting with scattered guest appearances on Good Times in 1978 and signed for the Facts of Life role one year later, at the age of 10, when Norman Lear (the producer of both Times and Facts) tapped her for that part. Fields remained with the program for its entire nine-year run, a run that witnessed numerous changes in the show's lineup and format, including the replacement of star Charlotte Rae with Cloris Leachman, and a change of venue in 1985. About five years after Facts folded in 1988, Fields scored her second major coup with a much different multiseason role as Regine Hunter, a loose, money-hungry employee of a clothing boutique on the urban-oriented Queen Latifah sitcom Living Single (1993-1998). Fields spent the following years appearing in scattered features, such as the 2000 telemovie Hidden Blessings and the 2001 telemovie Facts of Life Reunion (which reunited her with several of her ex-costars), and making guest appearances on programs including The Drew Carey Show and The Division; she also took time out to start a family.

Trivia: During her early years as an actress, Rosalind Cash moonlighted as a hospital aide, waitress, salesgirl, and nightclub singer. Cash made her Broadway bow in the 1966 production The Wayward Stork. Her film career began when Charlton Heston personally selected her to co-star in his 1971 sci-fi vehicle The Omega Man. Daytime-drama devotees know Cash best as the matriarchal Mary Mae Ward on General Hospital, but she has made many appearances on television in series, telepics, and miniseries. One thing that set Cash apart from other African-American actresses was her refusal to play stereotypical roles. Though she rarely had the opportunity to demonstrate the full extent of her range and ability, Cash's characters were intelligent, independent, and sexy. In 1987, Cash was given the Phoenix Award by the Black American Cinema Society in honor of her achievements. In 1992, her name was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. Of all her many accomplishments, Rosalind Cash was proudest of her work with the Negro Ensemble Company, which she co-founded in the late '60s. She died of cancer in the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 56.

Trivia: Blaxploitation superstar Richard Roundtree earned screen immortality during the 1970s as the legendary Shaft, "the black private dick that's the sex machine to all the chicks." Born July 9, 1942, in New Rochelle, NY, Roundtree attended college on a football scholarship but later gave up athletics to pursue an acting career. After touring as a model with the Ebony Fashion Fair, he joined the Negro Ensemble Company's acting workshop program in 1967. He made his film debut in 1970's What Do You Say to a Naked Lady?, but was still an unknown when filmmaker Gordon Parks Sr. cast him as Shaft. The role shot Roundtree to instant fame, launching the blaxploitation genre and proving so successful at the box office that it helped save MGM from the brink of bankruptcy. Thanks to the film's popularity -- as well as its two sequels, 1972's Shaft's Big Score! and the following year's Shaft in Africa, and even a short-lived television series -- Roundtree became an icon of '70s-era cool, and his image graced countless magazine covers. Outside of the Shaft franchise, he also appeared in films including the 1974 disaster epic Earthquake, 1975's Man Friday, and the blockbuster 1977 TV miniseries Roots. By the end of the decade, however, the blaxploitation movement was a thing of the past, and Roundtree's stardom waned; apart from the 1981 big-budget flop Inchon, he spent the 1980s appearing almost exclusively in TV roles or low-rent, direct-to-video features. Still, he continued working steadily, and in 1995 appeared in David Fincher's smash thriller Seven. The following year he co-starred in the acclaimed Once Upon a Time...When We Were Colored, and also teamed with fellow blaxploitation vets Pam Grier and Fred "the Hammer" Williamson in Original Gangstas. In 1997, Roundtree returned to series television in 413 Hope St.