Trivia: His role as the cherubic, bespectacled Dilbert-esque everyman on the long-running sitcom The Drew Carey Show has endeared comedian Drew Carey to the downtrodden cubicle-dwelling masses everywhere, making him one of the most beloved and popular characters in '90s and '00s television. However, Carey's massive success didn't come without some harrowing struggles with depression and numerous suicide attempts during his dark and directionless early years. Born and raised in Cleveland, OH, Carey suffered a devastating early blow when his father died of a brain tumor when Carey was only eight years old. Working long overtime hours to provide Drew and his brothers with the best childhood possible, his mother's frequent absence found the depressed youngster spending many nights home alone seeking solitude in cartoons and comedy albums.Upon entering Cleveland's Rhodes High School, Carey spent much of his free time playing coronet and trumpet in the school's marching band. Enrolling in Kent State and joining the Delta Tau Delta fraternity upon graduation, Carey found great difficulty balancing his studies and personal life, with his lack of direction compounding his depression and resulting in another suicide attempt before being expelled twice and dropping out of school with no degree. Subsequent years found the aimless youth drifting across the country with dreams of stability slowly fading from his horizon, but a return to Cleveland resulted in newfound hope when Carey decided to make a last-ditch effort and immerse himself in self-help books. Signing up with the Marine Corps Reserves in 1980 provided Carey with just the discipline that he needed, and following a six-year service and some newly instilled confidence, a close friend working in radio asked Carey to write some jokes to use on-air. Honing his skills and becoming increasingly focused on channeling his energy into humor, Carey took his act to local comedy clubs and, after winning an open-mic contest, began working as emcee at the Cleveland Comedy Club in 1986.The following years found Carey moving frequently between Cleveland and Los Angeles and gaining increasing recognition on the comedy circuits. Offered the rare privilege of joining Johnny Carson on the couch following a 1991 appearance on The Tonight Show proved a career-defining moment, and after a series of HBO specials and television appearances, Carey joined forces with writer/producer Bruce Helford (who had worked on such successful sitcoms as Family Ties and Roseanne), and in 1995 The Drew Carey Show was born. Endearing himself to television audiences with his small-town persona and everyman attitude, The Drew Carey Show quickly became one of the most popular sitcoms on television. Though his success may have been beyond any of his wildest dreams during his clouded formative years, Carey remained loyal to his hometown, always maintaining a level head. Serving as host of the American version of the massively popular British improvisational comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? (frequently featuring his Drew Carey Show cohort Ryan Stiles), Carey's small-screen presence increased, and appearances on such television comedy specials as Drew Carey's Improv All Stars and The New York Friar's Club Roast of Hugh M. Hefner (both 2001) ensured audiences that Carey's humor was as sharp and in tune as ever. Aside from his small-screen work, Carey has appeared in such comic features as Coneheads (1993). The September 1997 release of his autobiography, entitled Dirty Jokes and Beer: Stories of the Unrefined, provided fans with detailed and humorous insight into Carey's sometimes dark past, and emergency angioplasty in mid-2001 found the well-loved comedian going under the knife but making a quick recovery. In the summer of 2007, Carey's emcee experience paid off, as he was named the host of the venerable game show The Price Is Right, replacing much-loved Bob Barker. He also hosted the game show Power of 10, and in 2011 he appeared in the Adam Sandler comedy Jack and Jill.

Trivia: Having caught the theatrical bug early in life, Charles Nelson Reilly studied for his craft at the Herbert Berghof-Uta Hagen studio. While scrounging for acting jobs in the 1950s, Reilly supported himself as an usher, mail clerk and hospital orderly. In 1960 he was cast in a minor role in the Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie, understudying stars Dick Van Dyke and Paul Lynde. The following year, he played nasty "corporate nephew" Bud Frump in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, a characterization that won him a Tony Award. In 1964, he received the New York Critic's Circle award for his work as juvenile lead Cornelius Hackel in Hello, Dolly. During this period, Reilly showed up in such Manhattan-based TV programs as The Steve Lawrence Show, and also performed a cabaret act with his friend Eileen Brennan. In 1968, he was cast as Cleymore Gregg in the network sitcom The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, a role that typed him ever after in fussy, snippy, sarcastic roles. He went on to appear in the comedy ensemble of the 1970s variety series Dean Martin Presents the Golddiggers; he starred in the Saturday morning kiddie shows Lidsville (1971-74) and Uncle Croc's Block (1975-76); and, along with Richard Dawson and Brett Sommers, he served as a semi-permanent panelist on the long-running quiz show The Match Game and as a staple on the game show The Hollywood Squares, where his flamboyant personality (he typically appeared wearing oversized glasses and a colorful ascot) became an audience favorite. Game shows, however, reportedly downgraded Reilly in the eyes of producers, and made it next to impossible for him to find a healthy amount of work. During the '80s and '90s, Reilly became active in the field of cartoon voiceovers, performing in such animated feature films as All Dogs Go To Heaven (1989), Rock-a-Doodle (1992) and The Troll in Central Park (1993), and in TV cartoons like Smurfs and Spacecats; he also appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson a record 95 times. On the theatrical scene, Reilly directed the one-person plays Belle of Amherst and Paul Robeson, and staged several operas throughout the U.S. Charles Nelson Reilly was the founder of The Faculty, a Los Angeles-based drama school.In the mid-2000s, Reilly headlined a one-man performance film, The Life of Reilly (2000). As co-directed by Barry Poltermann and Frank Anderson, the picture found the actor-comic sitting before an audience and expostulating at length on his long career in showbusiness, his open homosexuality, and - occasionally - how the two intersected in the early years by making it difficult for him to find work. The picture opened to critical raves but received extremely limited distribution in the U.S. Tragically, it marked Reilly's last major effort, and not one year later, the actor died from complications of pneumonia. He was 76.