Trivia: Brooding and intense, Al Pacino has remained one of Hollywood's premier actors throughout his lengthy career, a popular and critical favorite whose list of credits includes many of the finest films of his era. Pacino was born April 25, 1940, in East Harlem, NY. Raised in the Bronx, he attended the legendary High School for Performing Arts, but dropped out at the age of 17. He spent the next several years drifting from job to job, continuing to study acting and occasionally appearing in off-off-Broadway productions. In 1966, Pacino was accepted to train at the Actors' Studio, and after working with James Earl Jones in The Peace Creeps, he starred as a brutal street youth in the off-Broadway social drama The Indian Wants the Bronx, earning an Obie Award as Best Actor for the 1967-1968 theatrical season. A year later, he made his Broadway debut in Does the Tiger Wear a Necktie? Although the play itself closed after less than 40 performances, Pacino was universally praised for his potent portrayal of a sociopathic drug addict, and he won a Tony Award for his performance. Pacino made his film debut in the 1969 flop Me, Natalie. After making his theatrical directorial debut with 1970's Rats, he returned to the screen a year later in Panic in Needle Park, again appearing as a junkie. (To prepare for the role, he and co-star Kitty Winn conducted extensive research in known drug-dealer haunts as well as methadone clinics.) While the picture was not a success, Pacino again earned critical raves. Next came Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 Mafia epic The Godfather. As Michael Corleone, the son of an infamous crime lord reluctantly thrust into the family business, Pacino shot to stardom, earning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his soulful performance. While the follow-up, 1973's Scarecrow, was received far less warmly, the police drama Serpico was a smash, as was 1974's The Godfather Part II for which he earned his third Academy Award nomination. The 1975 fact-based Dog Day Afternoon, in which Pacino starred as a robber attempting to stick up a bank in order to finance his gay lover's sex-change operation, was yet another staggering success.The 1977 auto-racing drama Bobby Deerfield, on the other hand, was a disaster. Pacino then retreated to Broadway, winning a second Tony for his performance in the title role in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. Upon returning to Hollywood, he starred in ...And Justice for All, which did not appease reviewers but restored him to moviegoers' good graces. Pacino next starred in William Friedkin's controversial Cruising, portraying a New York City cop on the trail of a serial killer targeting homosexuals; it was not a hit, nor was the 1982 comedy Author! Author! Brian DePalma's violent 1983 remake of Scarface followed; while moderately successful during its initial release, the movie later became a major cult favorite. Still, its lukewarm initial reception further tarnished Pacino's star. However, no one was fully prepared for the fate which befell 1985's historical epic Revolution; made for over $28 million, the film failed to gross even $1 million dollars at the box office. Pacino subsequently vanished from the public eye, directing his own film, The Local Stigmatic, which outside of a handful of 1990 showings at the Museum of Modern Art was never screened publicly. While his name was attached to a number of projects during this time period, none came to fruition, and he disappeared from cinema for over four years. Finally, in 1989, Pacino returned with the stylish thriller Sea of Love; the picture was a hit, and suddenly he was a star all over again. A virtually unrecognizable turn as a garish gangster in 1990's Dick Tracy earned him a sixth Oscar nomination, but The Godfather Part III was not the financial blockbuster many anticipated it to be. The 1991 romantic comedy Frankie and Johnny was a success, however, and a year later Pacino starred in the highly regarded Glengarry Glen Ross as well as Scent of a Woman, at last earning an Oscar for his performance in the latter film. He reunited with DePalma for 1993's stylish crime drama Carlito's Way, to which he'd first been slated to star in several years prior. Remaining in the underworld, he starred as a cop opposite master thief Robert De Niro in 1995's superb Heat, written and directed by Michael Mann. Pacino next starred in the 1996 political drama City Hall, but earned more notice that year for writing, directing, producing, and starring in Looking for Richard, a documentary exploration of Shakespeare's Richard III shot with an all-star cast. In 1997, he appeared with two of Hollywood's most notable young stars, first shooting Donnie Brasco opposite Johnny Depp, and then acting alongside Keanu Reeves in The Devil's Advocate. Following roles in The Insider and Any Given Sunday two-years later, Pacino would appear in the film version of the stage play Chinese Coffee (2000) before a two-year periods in which the actor was curiously absent from the screen. Any speculation on the workhorse actor's slowing down ended when in 2002 Pacino returned with the quadruple-threat of Insomnia, Simone, People I Know and The Recruit. With roles ranging from that of a troubled detective investigating a murder in the land of the midnight sun, to a film producer who builds the worlds first virtual actress, Pacino reenforced his image as a versatile, energetic and adventurous an actor. The films struck uneven chords, however; Insomnia hit a zenith, critically and commercially, while Pacino scraped bottom with Simone. Pacino fared better at the box and in the press with Michael Radford's December 2004 Merchant of Venice but dodged critical bullets with the D.J. Caruso-helmed 2005 gambling drama Two for the Money. Circa 2006, Pacino starred as Jack Gramm in 88 Minutes, the gripping tale of a college prof who moonlights as a forensics expert for the feds. He also announced plans, that year, to join the cast of Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Thirteen and a remake of Jules Dassin's seminal Rififi, to reunite him with City Hall helmer Harold Becker.

Trivia: CCNY and Columbia University alumnus John Randolph was first seen on Broadway in the 1937 opus Revolt of the Beavers. Randolph served in the Air Force in World War II, then resumed what seemed at the time to be an increasingly successful, near-unstoppable acting career. But in 1951, Randolph found himself on a specious "Commie sympathizers" list. After appearing as a hostile witness before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, Randolph was effectively blacklisted from movies, TV and radio commercials for the next twelve years. Fortunately, he could always rely upon the theatre to provide him an income, though it was touch-and-go for a while when a Broadway show in which he was appearing was picketed by anti-Red zealots. Throughout the 1950s, Randolph was featured in such major stage productions as Come Back Little Sheba, The Visit, Sound of Music and Case of Libel. In 1963, he was at long last permitted to guest-star on a network TV program, The Defenders. Appropriately, it was in an episode titled "Blacklist," which condemned the knee-jerk policy of banning artists because of their political views; ironically, Randolph was very nearly denied the part when the network complained that he hadn't been "cleared." Though he'd played a small part in 1948's The Naked City, Randolph's movie career began in earnest in 1965. In John Frankenheimer's Seconds, he was cast as aging businessman Arthur Hamilton, who through the magic of plastic surgery is given a fresh new identity (he emerges from the bandages as Rock Hudson)! Since his career renaissance, Hamilton hasn't stopped working before the cameras. He has been featured in films like Gaily Gaily (1969), Little Murders (1971), King Kong (1976), Heaven Can Wait (1978) Prizzi's Honor (1985; as Pop Prizzi); in TV movies like Wings of Kitty Hawk (1978; as Alexander Graham Bell) and The American Clock (1993); and as a regular in the TV series Angie (1979) Annie McGuire (1988) and Grand (1990). Though he'd probably rather you not mention it, Randolph is a dead ringer for former attorney general John Mitchell; accordingly, he played Mitchell in the TV miniseries Blind Ambition, and was heard but not seen in the same role in the 1976 theatrical feature All the President's Men. Despite the upsurge in his film and TV activities, Randolph has never abandoned the theatre: in 1986, he won a Tony Award for his work in Neil Simon's Broadway Bound. As if to slap the faces of those self-styled patriots who denied him work in the 1950s, Randolph has in recent years accepted the German Democratic Republic's Paul Robeson Award, and has served on the National Council for US-Soviet friendship. John Randolph has also served on the board of directors of all three major performing guilds: SAG, AFTRA and Equity. After taking on a variety of grandfatherly roles, including Jack Nicholson's father in Prizzi's Honor and Tom Hanks' grandfather in You've Got Mail), Randloph passed away at 88-years-old in April of 2004.

Trivia: The chalky face of character actor Jack Kehoe has been bobbing up in films since his uncredited bit in 1971's Panic in Needle Park. He worked his was up to billing that same year as Mafia flunkey Scuderi in The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971). A familiar screen presence by 1974, Kehoe was awarded with a special billing card (picture and all) for his role as The Erie Kid in the Oscar-winning The Sting. Jack Kehoe remained busy into the next few decades with supporting parts in films like the The Untouchables (1987) and Young Guns II (1990),

Trivia: Those who heard the voice of actor Tony Roberts on the 1970s dramatic series "The CBS Radio Mystery Theater" may not have been aware that by performing before a mike, he was maintaining a family tradition. Roberts was the son of announcer Ken Roberts and the cousin of actor Everett Sloane, both alumni of such golden age radio endeavors as "The Mercury Theatre of the Air" and "The Shadow." After studying acting at Northwestern University, the lanky, curly headed Roberts struck out for New York, working in commercials ("Boss, you've got bad breath! Bad breath!") before landing a regular stint on the TV soap opera The Edge of Night. His long-term friendship and professional relationship with comedian/writer/director Woody Allen began when Roberts was cast as Diane Keaton's husband in Allen's Broadway production Play It Again, Sam in 1969. Since that time, Roberts has appeared in such Allen efforts as Annie Hall (1977), Stardust Memories (1980), A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982), and Radio Days (1987). On prime time TV, Roberts co-starred in the 1977 adventure series Rossetti and Ryan. In 1995, Tony Roberts co-starred on Broadway with Julie Andrews, playing a flamboyant homosexual cabaret entertainer in the musical version of Andrews' 1981 movie vehicle Victor/Victoria.

Trivia: An alumnus of Massachusetts State College, actor/singer Biff McGuire made his Broadway bow in the 1948 review Make Mine Manhattan. McGuire went on to a featured role in the 1949 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical South Pacific, and later starred in the long-running sex comedy The Moon is Blue. During the 1960s and 1970s, he starred in touring productions of Finian's Rainbow and Camelot, returning to Broadway sporadically. In films since 1955's Pheonix City Story, McGuire has played authoritative roles in such productions as The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and Serpico (1973). A frequent visitor to television (he appeared in two different episodes during the first season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents), Biff McGuire starred as Dr. Malloy in the John O'Hara-inspired weekly series Gibbsville (1976), and was featured as Sgt. McKay on the CBS daytime drama Search for Tomorrow.

Trivia: Glamorous blonde leading lady Cornelia Sharpe began appearing on TV and in films with regularity in the early 1970s. Among her more prominent film roles were the thrown-over girlfriend of detective Al Pacino in Serpico (1973), and the would-be assassin of Saudi Ambassador Sean Connery in The Next Man (1976). Somewhere along the line, someone decided that Sharpe would be the "next Farrah Fawcett." How else to explain the fact that Cornelia Sharpe starred in no fewer than two Charlie's Angels TV-movie rip-offs, Cover Girls (1977) and S*H*E (1980)?

Trivia: Not every blacklistee spent his or her life as a victim -- some of them, such as Lionel Stander and Selena Royale, ended up pursuing successful second careers, and a few, including Stander and Jeff Corey, went on to very busy late-in-life acting careers. Allan Rich fits into both categories. Born in New York in 1926, he aspired to a performing career at an early age, and came of age in the midst of the Second World War. Rich got to work on-stage with the likes of Edward G. Robinson, Ralph Bellamy, Kim Hunter, and Henry Fonda, and seemed poised to make the jump to movies when the Red Scare swept over Hollywood. Like a lot of other New York-based actors who had made no secret of their belief in liberal values, Rich was blacklisted from the end of the 1940s. He followed a route, which was also followed by Lionel Stander, to Wall Street; though he was too "Red" to work in movies, Rich was sufficiently capitalist to succeed as a stock broker, and he eventually opened his own firm. He was successful enough to pursue his other great love -- contemporary art -- by opening a gallery on New York's Upper East Side. By the early '70s, however, Rich was drawn back into acting, in a stage production of Journey of the Fifth Horse, with Dustin Hoffman. In 1973, he made his long-delayed screen debut as District Attorney Herman Tauber in Sidney Lumet's Serpico. The following year, he was in The Gambler, and in 1975, he appeared in episodes of Baretta and Kojak. Over the decades since, Rich has appeared in movies as different as The Frisco Kid (1979), Frances (1982), Betsy's Wedding (1990), Highlander II: The Quickening (1991), Quiz Show, Disclosure (both 1994), and Amistad (1997), and in television productions ranging from Kojak and CHiPs in the 1970s through Hill Street Blues and Barney Miller in the 1980s, The Nanny and CSI in the 1990s to NYPD Blue and The Division in the 21st century. Playing featured and supporting roles as desk sergeants, attorneys (crooked and honest), judges (crooked and honest), college professors, doctors, and other professionals, Rich has used his resonant voice and skilled portrayals to evoke respect, contempt, cynicism, and laughter from audiences. Fans of Happy Days who lingered to the late seasons may remember Rich best for his role in the episode "Potsie Quits School," as the mean-tempered, cynical Prof. Thomas. He showed something more of his full range, however, in the 2004 NYPD Blue episode "You Da Bomb," portraying an aging Russian immigrant. Rich has also authored more than a half-dozen screenplays and had a film about Salvador Dali (based on his own friendship with the artist), in production as of 2004. Equally adept at comedic and sinister roles, Rich is one of the busiest character actors of his generation, which is poetic justice of a sort -- he was still earning a good living in his chosen profession (after having proved to be a better capitalist than most of his political foes), decades after those foes were in the ground and all-but-forgotten.

Trivia: Tough-looking supporting actor, onscreen from the '50s, Hank Garrett was formerly a pro wrestler.

Trivia: Upon leaving the Midwest where he was born, raised, and educated (University of Iowa), James Tolkan headed for New York, where he studied acting with Stella Adler. In movies since 1969, Tolkan has been seen in gritty urban character roles in such films as The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), Author! Author! (1981), Off Beat (1985), and Made in Heaven (1987). In the first two Back to the Future films, Tolkan appeared as acerbic high school teacher Strickland; in Top Gun (1986), he was seen as Stinger; and in Dick Tracy (1990), he showed up as minor criminal Numbers. On television, James Tolkan appeared on the short-lived 1985 Mary Tyler Moore sitcom Mary as mobster Lester Mintz, and on both installments of the two-episode Sunset Beat (1990), in which he played Captain Parker.

Trivia: Bernard Barrow began his career as a child radio star. He then went on to work on stage, screen and television where he played Johnny Ryan, the head patriarch on the soap opera, Ryan's Hope. Barrow occasionally appeared in feature films from the early '70s through the early '80s.

Trivia: Mildred Clinton is an American character actress who has appeared on stage, screen, radio, and in early television. She has also worked in industrial films and has dubbed films into English. She spent five months working for the State Department in Africa during the early 1960s.

Trivia: Black supporting actor Nathan George first appeared onscreen in the '70s.

Trivia: After stage experience, American actor Richard Foronjy moved on to sporadic film appearances. A distinctly urban type, Foronjy showed up as Corsaro in Serpico (1973), subsequently essaying character parts in Crazy Joe (1974), Fun with Dick and Jane (1977), The Jerk (1978), Rabbit Test (1978), Odd Jobs (1978), The Morning After (1986) and Oscar (1991). Richard Foronjy guested on a piquant installment of the TV sitcom Taxi. He showed up on a Christmas episode as nasty Louie DePalma's (Danny DeVito) even nastier brother.

Trivia: New York native Alan North began his film career in 1971 with his role in Plaza Suite, which co-starred Walter Matthau and Maureen Stapleton. Henceforth, he would portray many secondary characters in an impressive string of high profile films. North was also frequently seen on stage as well as television. His most noticeable role on the small screen was for the early-'80s police spoof Police Squad, as Captain Ed Hocken. North died in early 2000, at the age of 79.

Trivia: The son of famed voiceover actor Allen Swift, Lewis J. Stadlen prepared for his own show business career by studying with Sanford Meisner and Stella Adler. At 19, Stadlen was cast as Mendel in the touring company of Fiddler on the Roof. He made his 1969 Broadway bow as young Julius Marx--alias Groucho--in the short-lived musical comedy Minnie's Boys. Subsequent New York theatre credits included Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys and the well-received revival of Leonard Bernstein's Candide, in which Stadlen sparkled in five distinct roles. In films since 1972, Stadlen has excelled in such eccentric characterizations as Lupinsky, a gay Polish actor forced by the Nazis to wear a pink star, in Mel Brooks' 1983 remake of To Be or Not to Be. Sitcom fans are most familiar with Stadlen's one-season portrayal of prissy political aide Jonathan Taylor on the weekly Benson. Devoting most of his time to the stage in the past two decades, Lewis J. Stadlen has appeared in such Broadway productions as Don Juan and More Don Juan and 1-2-3-4-5, and has starred in one-man shows based on the lives of Groucho Marx and S. J. Perelman.

Trivia: Supporting actor, onscreen from the early '70s.

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: Of Italian/Syrian heritage, Pittsburgh native F. Murray Abraham attended the University of Texas, then studied acting under Uta Hagen in New York. The peripatetic Abraham made his stage debut in a Los Angeles production of Ray Bradbury's The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, and, shortly before reaching the age of 29, made his New York bow in The Fantasticks. An archetypal example of the "working actor," Abraham managed for more than ten years to make a good living at his craft without ever truly achieving fame. Appearing on television in everything from All in the Family to Kojak, he was seen on several commercials, including a now-famous spot for Fruit of the Loom underwear. His big-screen roles include 1975's The Sunshine Boys (a garage mechanic); 1976's All the President's Men (one of the arresting officers at the Watergate Hotel); 1976's The Ritz (a gay bathhouse patron); and 1978's The Big Fix (a fugitive '60s activist). Abraham's "overnight" stardom came about in 1984, when he was cast as the covetous Antonio Salieri in Amadeus, and his brilliant, bravura performance won him an Oscar. Abraham remained busy throughout the 1980s and '90s, appearing in such efforts as The Name of the Rose (1986), in which he played a 14th century monk deliberately made up to look like a "living gargoyle," and the otherwise awful Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), in an uncredited, albeit pivotal, role of a prosecuting attorney. One of the most versatile actors in the business, Abraham has nonetheless never quite escaped the long shadow cast by his unforgettable portrayal of Salieri. Indeed, in Arnold Schwarzenegger's genre spoof The Last Action Hero, Abraham was pinpointed as the mystery murderer because he looked just like "the guy that killed Mozart." Once again hamming it up in that same year's National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1, Abraham frequently alternated big-budget Hollywood fare and more low-key, performance driven dramas and comedies through the remainder of the decade. While appearances in such films as Mimic (1997) and Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) kept Abraham a familiar face to a new generation of moviegoers, roles in such small screen efforts as Dead Man's Walk (1996) and the following year's The Color of Justice allowed him a venue to display his true skills. In 1995 Abraham portrayed famed gangster Al Capone in not one but two films; Dillinger and Capone and Baby Face Nelson. Heading into the new millennium with roles in Finding Forrester and 13 Ghosts, Abraham appeared alongside an impressive cast in The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Later schlocking it up in the nature run amuck flicks Blood Monkey and Shark Swarm, the longtime actor subsequently proved he was still as versatile as ever while gravitating toward television with roles on such popular shows as Bored to Death, Louie, and The Good Wife, as well as the made-for-TV fantasy Beauty and the Beast.

Trivia: Ruddy-faced, barrel-bellied American actor Kenneth McMillan was a stalwart of the New York Shakespeare Festival, and also appeared in the original Broadway productions of American Buffalo and Streamers. He was the recipient of the Obie Award for his performance in the off-Broadway presentation Weekends and Other People -- the usual "overnight success" after nearly 20 years in the business. Sitcom fans are familiar with McMillan through his recurring role as Valerie Harper's ulcerated boss on Rhoda. Many of McMillan's roles required him to be bully or bigot: Sheriff Bull Connor on the TV miniseries King (1978) the black-baiting fire chief in Ragtime (1979), etc. In real life, Kenneth McMillan was known to be a friendly and generous man, qualities which carried over into such rare comedy roles as the ballclub manager in the little-seen Blue Skies Again (1983).

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).