Trivia: Raised in New Orleans' French Quarter, Ray Walston relocated to Houston, where he first set foot on stage in a community production of High Tor. Walston went on to spend six years at the Houston Civic Theater then three more at the Cleveland Playhouse. Moving to New York, he worked as linotype operator at the New York Times before landing small parts in theatrical productions ranging from Maurice Evans' G.I. Hamlet to The Insect Comedy. He won Theater World's "Most Promising Newcomer" award for his portrayal of Mr. Kramer in the original 1948 production of Summer and Smoke. In 1950, he was cast as "big dealer" Luther Billis in the touring and London companies of South Pacific, and it was this that led to a major role in Rodgers & Hammerstein's 1953 Broadway musical Me and Juliet. Two years later, he was cast in his breakthrough role: the puckish Mr. Applegate, aka The Devil, in the Adler-Ross musical smash Damn Yankees. He won a Tony Award for his performance, as well as the opportunity to repeat the role of Applegate in the 1958 film version of Yankees; prior to this triumph, he'd made his film debut in Kiss Them for Me (1957) and recreated Luther Billis in the 1958 filmization of South Pacific. A favorite of director Billy Wilder, Walston was cast as philandering executive Dobisch in The Apartment (1960) and replaced an ailing Peter Sellers as would-be songwriter Orville J. Spooner in Kiss Me, Stupid (1960). Having first appeared on television in 1950, Walston resisted all entreaties to star in a weekly series until he was offered the title role in My Favorite Martian (1963-1966). While he was gratified at the adulation he received for his work on this series (he was particularly pleased by the response from his kiddie fans), Walston later insisted that Martian had "ruined" him in Hollywood, forever typecasting him as an erudite eccentric. By the 1970s, however, Walston was popping up in a wide variety of roles in films like The Sting (1974) and Silver Streak (1977). For the past two decades or so, he has been one of moviedom's favorite curmudgeons, playing such roles as Poopdeck Pappy in Popeye (1980) and officious high school teacher Mr. Hand, who reacts with smoldering rage as his class is interrupted by a pizza delivery in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). He would re-create this last-named role in the weekly sitcom Fast Times (1985), one of several TV assignments of the 1970s and 1980s. In 1995, Ray Walston reacted with schoolboy enthusiasm upon winning an Emmy award for his portrayal of irascible Wisconsin judge Henry Bone on the cult-fave TVer Picket Fences.

Trivia: A New York-based radio actor from childhood, Conrad Janis was 16 when he made his first Broadway appearance in Junior Miss. Janis went on to star in the 1945 film comedy Snafu then played supporting roles in such 20th Century-Fox productions as Margie (1946) and The Brasher Doubloon (1947, as a teenaged murderer). His subsequent Broadway credits include The Brass Ring (for which he won a Theatre World Award), Time Out for Ginger and Visit to a Small Planet. Premature baldness compelled him to switch from leading-man assignments to character roles. A veteran of some 350 TV appearances, Janis was seen on a regular weekly basis as Otto Palindrome on the 1978 sci-fi spoof Quark, and as Mindy McConnell's dad Fred on the Robin Williams sitcom Mork and Mindy. Dropped from M & M after the 1978-79 season when the producers decided to retool the program, Janis was rehired in 1980, this time at a much heftier salary. Though justifiably proud of his acting accomplishments, Janis reportedly is prouder still of his activities as a jazz musician, fronting such prestigious musical aggregations as The Tailgaters and the Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band (this latter group served as the subject of a lively PBS documentary). In addition, Janis is the owner operator of a prominent avant-garde art gallery, and is in charge of his own production company, MiraCom. In 1994, Conrad Janis made his film directorial bow with The Feminine Touch.

Trivia: Prior to his first TV appearance on a 1961 episode of Dobie Gillis, Bill Bixby had been a college student (he dropped out of UC Berkeley in his senior year), a lifeguard, a male model, and a regional stock-company actor. Bixby went on to play small roles in films like Lonely Are the Brave and Irma La Douce, and was featured in the Broadway comedy Under the Yum Yum Tree. In 1963, he graduated to TV stardom with the role of Tim O'Hara on the popular sci-fi sitcom My Favorite Martian. Anxious to change his "wholesome" image after Martian ended its three-year run in 1966, Bixby accepted a small but flashy role as a cowardly villain in the big-screen Western Ride Beyond Vengeance (1966). Like it or not, however, Bixby's future lay in sympathetic parts on episodic television. In each of his subsequent starring series -- The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1969-1972), The Magician (1973), The Incredible Hulk (1978-1982), True Confessions (1984), and Goodnight Beantown (1983) -- Bixby frequently did double-duty as actor and director. He also directed such made-for-TV movies as Barbary Coast (1974), Another Pair of Aces: Three of a Kind (1991), and the Roseanne/Tom Arnold vehicle The Woman Who Loved Elvis (1993). Long one of Hollywood's most eligible bachelors, Bixby finally took the marital plunge with actress Brenda Benet; the union ended tragically when Benet, distraught over the death of her son, Christopher, committed suicide. Bixby's second wife was Judith Kliban, daughter of magazine cartoonist B. Kliban. At the time of his death from prostate cancer, Bill Bixby was principal director of the TV series Blossom.

Trivia: Lead actress, onscreen from the '50s.

Trivia: As the sportscaster who called nearly every L.A. Lakers game since the team moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in the 1960s, rapid-fire announcer Chick Hearn introduced some of the most colorful and enduring new basketball vernacular of the 20th century. Terms such as "slam dunk" and "air ball" would become so engrained in the terminology of the game that both announcers and fans worldwide would eventually adopt them. Born in Aurora, IL, in November 1916, Hearn would serve a 36-year tenure as the Lakers' only play-by-play announcer, with an amazing unbroken streak covering 3,380 consecutive games. In addition to the honor of being inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, Hearn would also become one of the few sportscasters to earn a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A graduate of Bradley University, Hearn earned his famous moniker after being handed a box of sneakers with a chicken inside in his early years as a basketball player. After beginning as an announcer at Bradley, Hearn did play-by-play for the Peoria Caterpillars before moving to Los Angeles to work as a football and basketball announcer for the University of Southern California and hosting a popular sports radio program. Hearn was subsequently recruited by the newly relocated Lakers during the 1961 playoffs. Married to his high school sweetheart Marge, the couple parented a daughter who died as a result of anorexia and a son who would die tragically of drug addiction. Hearn would get his start in television as play-by-play announcer of Phillies Jackpot Bowling before making appearances in such popular television series as Gilligan's Island and The Simpsons, and such films as The Love Bug (1968), Fletch (1985), White Men Can't Jump (1992), and Love and Basketball (2000), usually appearing as himself. Three months after having open-heart surgery in December 2001, Hearn broke his hip only to return courtside and finish out the team's championship run. A second fall in early August 2002 however, found Hearn sustaining major head injuries and eventually succumbing shortly thereafter. Hearn was 85.