Trivia: If ever there was a "late bloomer," it was American comedian Rodney Dangerfield. His father was a vaudeville pantomimist who was known professionally as Phil Roy, thus when Dangerfield struck out on his own stand-up comedy career at age 19 (he'd been writing jokes for other comics since 15), he called himself Jack Roy. For nine years he labored in some of the worst clubs on the East Coast, giving it all up at age 28 in order to support his new wife. Unfortunately, the marriage was an unhappy one, soon ending in divorce. In 1963 the comic returned to performing, using the name "Rodney Dangerfield" to distance himself from his miserable "Jack Roy" days. Four more years passed before Dangerfield finally got his big break on The Ed Sullivan Show, for which he'd auditioned by sneaking in during a dress rehearsal. By this time, Dangerfield had fully developed his belligerently neurotic stage persona, tugging at his tie and mopping his brow while he delineated the variety of ways in which he "don't get no respect." On top at last, Dangerfield opened his own nightclub in 1969, where many major comics of the 1970s and 1980s got their first opportunities; fiercely competitive onstage, Dangerfield is known to be more than generous to new talent offstage. In films since his turn as a nasty theatre manager in the 1970 low-budgeter The Projectionist, Dangerfield has exuded a movie image somewhat different than his paranoid nightclub character; he often plays a crude-and-rude "nouveau riche" type who delights in puncturing the pomposity of his "old money" opponents (Caddyshack). Rodney Dangerfield's best screen role was, significantly, his nicest--in Back to School (1985), he played a blunt but decent self-made millionaire who decides to join his son in getting an expensive college education.

Trivia: Bitten by the acting bug in high school, statuesque leading lady Sally Kellerman studied with Jeff Corey and at Actors Studio West before making her film debut in Reform School Girl (1959). In the 1960s, she built up her reputation with offbeat guest spots on such TV series as Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre, Slattery's People and It Takes a Thief. She also essayed small but attention-grabbing parts in films like The Boston Strangler (1968, as the only surviving victim) and The April Fools (1969). Her breakthrough role was her Oscar-nominated turn as Major "Hot-Lips" Houlihan in MASH--a role she very nearly talked herself out of. Upon reading the script, she angrily confronted director Robert Altman, raging over the insulting and humiliating aspects of the part. She was then mollified by Altman, who declared that her unbridled outrage was just what he wanted from "Hot Lips." Though MASH opened up better film opportunities for Kellerman, she continued playing more oddball character roles than traditional "star" assignments. From time to time, she has spelled her film activities with nightclub singing appearances. Previously married to director Rick Edelstein, Sally Kellerman is currently wed to Jonathan Kane, who has produced many of her more recent films.

Trivia: A former prizefighter, Burt Young opted for a less injurious profession when he began taking acting lessons from Lee Strasberg. In films from 1971, Young reached a career pinnacle as Rocky Balboa's (Sylvester Stallone) contentious brother Paulie in the 1975 megahit Rocky. He earned one of the film's ten Oscar nominations, and went on to reprise the role in all four Rocky sequels. Young's subsequent film and TV work has been largely confined to pug-like supporting roles, though he did star in the 1978 TV movie Uncle Joe Shannon, which he also scripted. Additional Burt Young credits include the Broadway play Cuba and His Teddy Bear and the role of ex-marine collegiate Nick Chase in the TV sitcom Roomies (1987).

Trivia: Whether obsessing over a demonically possessed '58 Plymouth Fury in Christine or stepping behind the camera to direct an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s classic novel Mother Night, Keith Gordon has experienced a lot in his filmmaking career. If audiences hadn't suspected the awkward, bespectacled teen's ambitions following such early efforts as Home Movies and Dressed to Kill, they were in for a pleasant surprise when the young actor eventually grew into a seasoned director. A New York City native whose parents were both actors, Gordon began a love affair with films when he accompanied his father to a screening of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Gordon was thrilled by Kubrick's imaginative sci-fi vision and the seemingly limitless possibilities of the medium, and in the years that followed, he took part in numerous stage productions at school. In the summer of 1976, he was spotted by a casting director while appearing in two plays at the National Playwrights Conference; two years later, Gordon landed his first major screen role in Jaws 2. Though it was only a bit part, the experience he gained on the tumultuous set was invaluable. Subsequently cast in the 1979 miniseries Studs Lonigan, he eventually left school for a film career. Though Gordon initially rejected an offer to try out for the 1979 Brian De Palma feature Home Movies, the audition was in his neighborhood, so he reluctantly gave in. Not only did Gordon win the role of a young student obsessed with filmmaking, but he also received even more valuable experience by having opportunities to discuss filmmaking with De Palma. Following a brief role in All That Jazz (1979), Gordon made his most prominent film appearance to date in De Palma's controversial 1980 thriller Dressed to Kill. Gordon excelled at playing twitchy, eggheaded teens throughout the '80s in such efforts as Christine (1983), The Legend of Billie Jean (1985), and Back to School (1986), and though his onscreen career seemed to be coming along swimmingly, his creative ambitions were left unfulfilled. As the screenwriter of Mark Romanek's 1985 cult film Static, Gordon saw his aspirations finally beginning to come to fruition. He later made his feature directorial debut in 1988 with an impressive adaptation of Robert Cormier's novel The Chocolate War (Gordon also wrote the screenplay), which earned a Best First Feature nomination at the 1989 Independent Spirit Awards. He gained momentum and crafted a unique anti-war movie with his 1992 sophomore effort, A Midnight Clear, before moving to television to direct episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street and the sci-fi miniseries Wild Palms. Gordon was next faced with one of the more challenging projects of his career when he filmed Mother Night. A dark, dramatic period tale of love and loss, Gordon's fourth feature, Waking the Dead (2000), earned generally positive notices, as it further established the star status of its clear-eyed leads, Jennifer Connelly and Billy Crudup. In his next feature, Gordon re-teamed with Back to School dormmate Robert Downey Jr. for an updated version of Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective (2003). Although he coaxed a stellar turn out of Downey, however, Gordon's take on the material did little to convince critics that the film was in need of refreshing.

Trivia: Hailed by many critics as one of the most brilliant and versatile actors of his generation, Robert Downey Jr. chalked up a formidable onscreen track record that quickly launched the young thesp into the stratosphere. Although, for a time, Downey's stormy offscreen life and personal problems threatened to challenge his public image, he quickly bounced back and overcame these setbacks, with a continued array of impressive roles on the big and small screens that never sacrificed his audience appeal or affability.The son of underground filmmaker Robert Downey, Downey Jr. was born in New York City on April 4, 1965. He made his first onscreen appearance at the age of five, as a puppy in his father's film Pound (1970). Between 1972 and 1990, he made cameo appearances in five more of his father's films. The actor's first significant role, in 1983's Baby, It's You, largely ended up on the cutting-room floor; it wasn't until two years later that he began landing more substantial parts, first as a one-season cast member on Saturday Night Live and then in the comedy Weird Science. In 1987, he landed plum roles in two films that capitalized on the Brat Pack phenomenon, James Toback's The Pick-Up Artist, (opposite Molly Ringwald), and Less Than Zero, for which he won acclaim playing cocaine addict Julian Wells.Through it all, Downey cultivated an enviable instinct for role (and script) selection. His turns in Emile Ardolino's classy reincarnation fantasy Chances Are (1989), Michael Hoffman's Soapdish (1992), Robert Altman's Short Cuts (as the Iago-like Hollywood makeup artist Bill Bush), and Richard Loncraine's Richard III (1995) wowed viewers around the world, and often, on those rare occasions when Downey did choose substandard material, such as the lead in Richard Attenborough's deeply flawed Chaplin (1992), or an Australian media parasite in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994), his performance redeemed it. In fact, critics deemed Downey's portrayal as one of the only worthwhile elements in the Chaplin biopic, and it earned the thesp a Best Actor Oscar nomination, as well as Golden Globe and British Academy Award noms.Around this time, Downey's personal life took a turn for the worse. In June 1996, the LAPD arrested the actor (who had already spent time in three rehabilitation facilities between 1987 and 1996) on counts including drug use, driving under the influence, possession of a concealed weapon, and possession of illegal substances, a development which struck many as ironic, given his star-making performance years prior in Less than Zero. A month after this arrest, police found Downey Jr. unconscious on a neighbor's lawn, under the influence of a controlled substance, and authorities again incarcerated him, taking him -- this time -- to a rehab center. A third arrest soon followed, as did another stint in rehab. His stay in rehab didn't last long, as he walked out, thereby violating the conditions of his bail. More arrests and complications followed -- in fact, the actor had to be released from rehab to make James Toback's Two Girls and a Guy -- but he still landed a few screen appearances and won praise for his work in Mike Figgis' One Night Stand (1997) and Altman's otherwise-disappointing Gingerbread Man (1998). In addition, he starred in one of his father's films, the offbeat Hugo Pool (1997). In 1999, he had three films out in theaters: Friends and Lovers, Bowfinger, and In Dreams. He delivered a particularly chilling performance in the latter, as longhaired psychopathic child murderer Vivian Thompson, that arguably ranked with his finest work. But Downey's problems caught up with him again that same year, when he was re-arrested and sentenced to 12 months in a state penitentiary. These complications led to the actor's removal from the cast of the summer 2001 Julia Roberts/Billy Crystal comedy America's Sweethearts and his removal from a stage production of longtime friend Mel Gibson's Hamlet, although a memorably manic performance in Curtis Hanson's Wonder Boys made it to the screen in 2000. Downey's decision -- after release -- to pursue television work, with a recurring role on Ally McBeal, marked a brief comeback (he won a 2001 Best TV Series Supporting Actor Golden Globe for the performance). Nevertheless, series creator David E. Kelley and the show's other producers sacked Downey permanently when two additional arrests followed. During this period, Downey also allegedly dated series star Calista Flockhart.In 2002, a Riverside, CA, judge dismissed all counts against Downey. In time, the former addict counseled other celebrity addicts and became something of a spokesperson for rehabilitation. He starred as a hallucination-prone novelist in The Singing Detective in 2003, and while the film didn't achieve mainstream success, critics praised Downey for his interpretation of the role, alongside Oscar winners Adrien Brody and Mel Gibson. The same could be said for Gothika (2003), the psychological thriller that placed him opposite Hollywood heavyweight Halle Berry. In 2004, Downey appeared in Steven Soderbergh's portion of the film Eros.Downey achieved success throughout 2005 with appearances in George Clooney's critically lauded Good Night, and Good Luck -- as one of Ed Murrow's underlings -- and he paired up with Val Kilmer in Shane Black's directorial debut Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. He continued balancing more mainstream fare, such as Disney's Shaggy Dog remake, with challenging films such as Richard Linklater's rotoscoped adaptation A Scanner Darkly. That same year, Downey wrapped production on Hanson's Lucky You, the story of a card shark (Eric Bana) who faces off against his father (Robert Duvall) at the legendary World Series of Poker, while simultaneously attempting to woo a beautiful singer (Drew Barrymore).Downey continued to show his versatility by joining the casts of Zodiac, David Fincher's highly-touted film about the Zodiac Killer, and the Diane Arbus biopic Fur, with Nicole Kidman. A supporting role in Jon Poll's 2007 directorial debut Charlie Bartlett followed. The biggest was yet to come, however, as 2007 found Downey taking on the roles that would make him an even bigger star than he'd been in his youth, as he took on the leading role of sarcastic billionaire and part-time super hero Tony Stark in the big screen adaptation of the comic book Iron Man, as well as self-important actor Kirk Lazarus in the comedy Tropic Thunder. Both films turned out to be not just blockbuster successes at the box office, but breakaway hits with critics as well, and in addition to major praise, the actor also walked away from 2008 with an Oscar nomination for his performance in Tropic Thunder.After Iron Man premiered, Marvel studios decided to move forward with a film empire, and Downey's Tony Stark became the anchor of the series, starring in his own Iron Man trilogy and appearing in many other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe like the Avengers (2012) and its sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron (2014). Downey still found time to appear in side projects, like The Judge (2014), which he also produced.

Trivia: Trained at London's Webber-Douglas academy, Paxton Whitehead made his professional debut in 1956, and within two years was signed by the RSC. Crossing the Atlantic to appear in Canadian stage and TV productions, Whitehead made his Broadway bow in 1962's The Affair. He went on to appear with the American Shakespeare Company, to direct in regional repertory, and to function as artistic director of the Shaw Festival, a job he held down for ten years. His later Broadway credits include Crucifer of Blood (as Sherlock Holmes) and the 1980 revival of Camelot (as Pellinore). Whitehead's first film appearance was in the 1986 Whoopi Goldberg comedy Jumpin' Jack Flash. The following year, he starred as Dudley the Butler in the syndicated sitcom Marblehead Manor; one of his co-stars was Linda Thorson, with whom he'd appeared on Broadway in Noises Off. In 1995, Paxton Whitehead was starred as cable-TV exec Duke Stone in the WB Network situation comedy Simon, one of that fledgling network's few bonafide successes.

Trivia: Though she has several features and TV movies to her credit, Terry Farrell has thrived primarily as an actress on series television. Born Theresa Lee Farrell Grussendorf in Cedar Rapids, IA, Farrell moved to New York City to become a model. During her several years as a cover girl, she also studied acting and landed her first major role as an actress by playing a model on the short-lived TV series Paper Dolls (1984). While she continued her acting studies, Farrell had a small role in the Rodney Dangerfield comedy Back to School (1986) and appeared in the TV movies Beverly Hills Madam (1986) and The Deliberate Stranger (1986), a well-received docudrama on serial killer Ted Bundy. After she starred in the horror sequel Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992), Farrell attracted a following as Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1998). During her five years on Deep Space Nine, Farrell also appeared in the TV adaptation of Danielle Steel's Star (1993), the B-action movie Red Sun Rising (1994), and the TV thriller Reasons of the Heart (1996). After Deep Space Nine ended, the actress stayed with TV, signing on to play Reggie, the beautiful diner worker and occasionally sharp-tongued foil to Ted Danson's grumpy doctor on the CBS sitcom Becker (1998).

Trivia: Rarely garnering a lead role, M. Emmet Walsh has become one of the busiest character actors in Hollywood, using his ruddy, seedy appearance to embody countless low-life strangers with unsavory agendas. In his rare sympathetic roles, he's also capable of generating genuine pathos for the put upon plight of struggling small-timers. His effortless portrayals have made him a welcome addition to numerous ensembles, even if many viewers can't match a name to his recognizable mug. In fact, his work is so well thought of that critic Roger Ebert created the Stanton-Walsh Rule, which states that no film featuring either Walsh or Harry Dean Stanton can be altogether bad.Contrary to his frequent casting as a Southerner, Walsh is a native New Yorker, born on March 22, 1935, in Ogdensburg, NY. As a youth he attended the prestigious Tilton School in New Hampshire, and went on to share a college dorm room with actor William Devane. He graduated from the Clarkson University School of Business, but it was not until his thirties that he discovered his true calling: acting. He first popped up in Midnight Cowboy (1969), and has worked steadily ever since, some years appearing in as many as eight motion pictures, other years focusing more on TV movies. Working in relative anonymity through the '70s and early '80s, appearing in films ranging from Serpico (1973) to Slapshot (1977) to Blade Runner (1982), Walsh landed his meatiest and most memorable role in Joel and Ethan Coen's remarkable debut, Blood Simple (1984). Without batting an eye, Walsh exuded more casual menace as the amoral private detective doggedly pursuing his own self-interest than a host of typecast villains could muster in their entire careers. His role was key to creating a stylish noir that would launch the careers of two modern masters. It earned him an Independent Spirit Award.Blood Simple did not markedly alter Walsh's status as a supporting actor, as he went on to appear in this capacity in Fletch (1985), Back to School (1986), and Raising Arizona (1987), his next collaboration with the Coens, in which his bull-slinging machinist scores riotously with less than a minute of screen time. One of the first appearances of the kindly Walsh was in 1988's Clean and Sober, in which he plays a recovering alcoholic helping Michael Keaton through the same struggle.As he crept into his late fifties and early sixties, the stature of Walsh's films diminished a little, if not his actual workload. Continuing to dutifully pursue his craft throughout the early '90s, Walsh again returned to a higher profile with appearances in such films as A Time to Kill (1996), William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (1996), and My Best Friend's Wedding (1997). More as a reaction to the ineptitude of the movie than Walsh's performance, Ebert called into question his own Walsh-Stanton Rule in his review of Wild Wild West, the 1999 Will Smith-Kevin Kline debacle in which Walsh is one of the only tolerable elements. In the years to come, Walsh would remain active on screen, appearing in films like Youth in Revolt and providing the voice of Olaf on the animated series Pound Puppies.

Trivia: American actress Adrienne Barbeau was encouraged by her mother to take dancing and singing lessons. Adrienne was active in theatre both in high school and at Foothills Junior College; by age 19 she was touring Pacific military bases as a member of the San Jose Light Opera. After an unprepossessing job with a termite-control company, Adrienne set out for New York, paying the bills with a variety of jobs including go-go dancing in New Jersey nightclubs. In 1968 she was cast as Hodel in the long-running Broadway production Fiddler on the Roof, and three years later was featured in Grease, winning a Tony nomination through her rendition of "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee." From here, Adrienne was hired by Norman Lear to replace first-choice actress Marcia Rodd in the role of the divorced daughter on the controversial TV sitcom Maude. She played the role from 1972 through the series' cancellation in 1978, after which she began a whole new career as a successful horror-film star and sexy pin-up model. Adrienne married film director John Carpenter in 1979; most of her subsequent screen appearances were in such Carpenter-directed terrors as The Fog (1980), Escape from New York (1981) and Creepshow (1982). Perhaps Adrienne Barbeau's most enjoyable performance was as the Marlon Brando counterpart (!) in an uproarious distaff parody of Apocalypse Now, sublimely titled Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1989). Barbeau would continue to act over the coming decades, appearing on TV shows like The Drew Carey Show, Carnivale, and the soap General Hospital.

Trivia: Supporting actor, onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: Portly American character actor Ned Beatty originally planned to enter the clergy, but after appearing in a single high-school play, he changed his mind and decided to become a thespian instead. By his early twenties, Beatty was playing Broadway and it was his work in the play The Great White Hope that attracted the interest of film director John Boorman, who cast him as one of the four main stars in his gripping backwoods thriller Deliverance (1972). Forever immortalized in the notorious "squeal like a pig" rape scene, Beatty subsequently went on to become one of the screen's more prolific supporting actors, frequently appearing in up to four films per year. His more notable film work includes Nashville (1975), All the President's Men (1976), Network (for which he earned an Oscar nomination), The Big Easy (1987), Hear My Song (1991), A Prelude to a Kiss (1992), Radioland Murders (1994), and He Got Game (1998). In 1999, he could be seen as a small-town sheriff in the Robert Altman ensemble film Cookie's Fortune.At the start of the 21st century the always-employed character actor continued to work steadily in projects as diverse as Roughing It, Where the Red Fern Grows, Shooter, and Charlie Wilson's War. He joined the Pixar family when he voiced Lotso, the bad guy in Toy Story 3, and he provided the voice of Mayor in 2011's Oscar winning animated feature Rango.

Trivia: Severn Darden was born in New Orleans, educated at Mexico City College, and given his first professional acting opportunity at Virginia's Barter Theater. A charter member of the Compass Theater, the improvisational group that would later evolve into Second City, Darden distinguished himself as an "intellectual" monologist, effortlessly weaving allusions to Freud and Kant into his hilariously nonsensical ramblings. From 1963's Goldstein onward, Darden worked in films as a character actor and sometimes writer/director. He chalked up quite a few eccentric characterizations in films like Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966) and They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). He was at the top of his form in The President's Analyst (1967) as Kropotkin, a gay Soviet counterintelligence agent who turns out (much to his own surprise) to be one of the film's heroes. The peripatetic Severn Darden settled down long enough to appear as a TV-series regular on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1977; as Popesco), Beyond Westworld (1980; as Foley), and Take Five (1987; as psychiatrist Noah Wolf).

Trivia: Pentecostal preacher-turned-outrageous rock & roll-oriented standup comic Sam Kinison had a cult following and a promising career as one of the next comedy superstars that ended in a fatal car crash. After leaving his church, the charismatic, long-haired, and pudgy comic went wild and based his sometimes envelope-pushing monologues on his exploits with drugs, booze, women, and rock music that were punctuated by plenty of profanity and his trademark screams. At the height of his popularity, Kinison was performing with some of the biggest rock acts in late-'80s America, including Mötley Crüe and Ozzy Osbourne. When his fast-lane lifestyle began extracting heavy tolls upon his life, Kinison left the party-animal life, gave up booze and drugs, and settled down with his beautiful third wife, Malika Souiri. He appeared in one feature film, Back to School (1986), guest starred on television occasionally, notably on Saturday Night Live, was featured in cable comedy specials, and co-starred as the unruly manifestation of a yuppie's mid-life crisis in the short-lived sitcom Charlie Hoover. Shortly after the series' cancellation, Kinison was fatally injured and his wife seriously hurt in an automobile crash. It is ironic, with Kinison's efforts to clean up his personal life, that the driver of the car at fault was drunk.

Trivia: Yale alumnus Robert Picardo made his off-Broadway debut in David Mamet's one-act play Sexual Perversity in Chicago. That was in 1975; two years later, Picardo was first seen on Broadway in Gemini. He launched his TV career in the 1980 miniseries The Dream Merchants, and in 1981 made his first film, The Howling--one of several assignments for director Joe Dante. During his early TV years, he was all too often cast in "first husband" or "wrong boyfriend" supporting roles. Things improved in 1986, when he was hired to play the much-feared high school gym teacher Coach Cutlip in the weekly dramedy The Wonder Years. He went on to co-star as Dr. Dick Richard in the highly acclaimed Vietnam-era series China Beach (1989-91). A busy voiceover artist, Picardo has supplied a variety of vocal characterizations for such series as Dinosaurs and Batman. Undoubtedly you'll be reading even more about Robert Picardo in the future, by virtue of his being cast as the holographic Doc Zimmerman on TV's Star Trek: Voyager(1995- ). In the post Star Trek years, Picardo would find ongoing success on shows like The Lyon's Den, Stargate SG-1, and Stargate Atlantis.

Trivia: Short, pleasantly plump, and endowed with an endearingly resonant voice, American actress Edie McClurg is still best remembered as the perky school secretary in Ferris Beuler's Day Off. McClurg has been a favorite supporting performer since her 1976 film debut in Carrie, and much of her TV work has been as a comedy sketch performer, notably on Tony Orlando and Dawn (1976), The David Letterman Show (a 1980 daytimer), The Big Show (1980) and No Soap, Radio (1982). Ms. McClurg has also played many a nosy neighbor/in-law/secretary on such TV sitcoms as Harper Valley PTA (1982), Small Wonder (1985) and The Hogan Family (1988). McClurg received larger roles in the TV series The Kallikaks (1977), in which she was the wife of series star David Huddleston. In the years to come, McClurg would continue to keep up a prolific career, most memorably staring on the series Life with Louie and 7th Heaven, as well as in movies like Flubber, Van Wilder, and Fired Up!.

Trivia: Character actor Boris Aplon spent most of his career on Broadway where he played everything from Chief Sitting Bull in Annie Get Your Gun to the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. He occasionally dabbled in screen performances, beginning with Citizen Saint (1947) and also appeared on a few television soaps as well as in the 1950s series The Honeymooners. Aplon started out performing with Chicago's Globe Theatre Shakespeare Company. From there, he launched a career in radio drama and then started performing on Broadway.

Trivia: Best known to television viewers for his role as the bullying older brother of Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) on The Wonder Years, actor Jason Hervey has worn many hats in the world of show business since the cancellation of that Emmy Award-winning series. While a recurring role on Diff'rent Strokes and bit parts in such films as Meatballs Part II, Back to the Future, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Back to School, and The Monster Squad helped to increase Hervey's profile early in his acting career, it was undoubtedly his participation in The Wonder Years that left the biggest impression on viewers. Hervey's portrayal of older Arnold sibling Wayne as a bratty and terminally obnoxious teen offered the perfect contrast to co-star Savage's wide-eyed innocence, and for the large part that was precisely the kind of role for which he was known for much of his career. While post-Wonder Years acting credits were few and far between for Hervey, he did maintain his ties to the entertainment industry as the producer of various sports-themed videos and specials (a substantial number of which where related to the World Championship Wrestling organization), a handful of made-for-television movies, and a few television series. As the wave of '80s nostalgia washed over the media in the early 2000s, Hervey became a noted contributor to VH1's I Love the 80s and I Love the 80s Strikes Back and appeared as himself on such popular reality shows as Hogan Knows Best and Scott Baio Is 45... and Single.

Trivia: At 19, he was diagnosed with malignant melanoma (skin cancer), the same disease that had claimed his father a year earlier. Moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting when he was 23. Met his wife while filming a movie in Berlin, Germany. With his wife, founded an organization called Balanced Life, geared at helping people improve their lives. Is a self-taught artist who was inspired to get back into painting after a visit to the Sistine Chapel. Owns several galleries across the country where he shows his art. Is a black belt in two different forms of karate.

Trivia: Made his acting debut in 1976 in the soap opera Search for Tomorrow. Best known for his role as Jeff Colby in both the prime-time ABC soap opera Dynasty and the spin-off series The Colbys. Was a judge at the 1982 Miss USA pageant. Owns a 230-acre farm in Cambridge, NY.

Trivia: One of Hollywood's most distinctive film composers, Danny Elfman is known for his dark, idiosyncratic scores, particularly those he has written for director Tim Burton's films. He is also widely recognized for the music he has written for TV, particularly his theme song for The Simpsons.Born in Amarillo, Texas, on May 29, 1953, Elfman was the son of a schoolteacher and the novelist Blossom Elfman. He spent his childhood in Los Angeles and moved with his brother, Richard, to France at the age of 18. There he became involved with a theatre group and received an introduction to musical orchestration. He and Richard started the musical troupe Mystic Knights of Oingo Boingo, which would later become known as the cult group Oingo Boingo. After spending a few years in France, Elfman moved to Africa, where he stayed until a bout with malaria forced him to move back to the United States.Elfman wrote his first score for his brother Richard's film Forbidden Zone in 1980. A few years later, Elfman made the acquaintance of Tim Burton, who was a fan of Oingo Boingo. The fruits of their ensuing friendship were first made evident with Elfman's score for Burton's Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985). The two would continue to work together on all of Burton's subsequent films, and their artistic collaboration would become known as one of the industry's most recognizable partnerships. It was for another of Burton's films, the 1988 Beetlejuice, that Elfman first became known by soundtrack fans in general; his quirky, frenetic score, combined with a number of Harry Belafonte songs, proved to be an enormous cult success. Elfman earned additional acclaim and recognition for his scores for a number of other Burton films, particularly Edward Scissorhands (1990), the Batman series, and the animated The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). For the latter of these, Elfman also wrote the songs and provided the singing voice for the lead character, Jack Skellington. In addition to his work with Burton, Elfman has supplied the scores for a number of films that encompass every imaginable genre. Some of the more memorable projects he has worked on include Dick Tracy (1990), Sommersby (1993), Mission: Impossible (1996), Men in Black (1997), A Simple Plan (1998), and Anywhere but Here (1999). He has also enjoyed a repeated collaboration with director Gus Van Sant on To Die For (1995) and Good Will Hunting (1997). Elfman received an Oscar nomination for his score for the latter film; that same year, he earned another nomination for his score for Men in Black.In 2003 he married actress Bridget Fonda.He went on to score Sleepy Hollow for Burton, as well as such wide-ranging projects as Novocaine, Spy Kids, and Spider-Man. He wrote new music for the big-screen adaptation of Chicago, and continued to collaborate with Tim Burton. In 2008 he scored the biopic Milk, and followed that up with Terminator Salvation. He worked with Gus Van Sant on the score for Restless, and continued his creative partnership with Burton by lending his talents to Alice in Wonderland and Frankenweenie.