Trivia: A singer almost from the time she learned to talk, American actress Shirley Jones was entered by her vocal coach in the Miss Pittsburgh contest at age 18. The attendant publicity led Jones to an audition with Rodgers and Hammerstein for potential stage work. Much taken by Jones' beautifully trained voice, the producers cast her as the leading lady in the expensive, prestigious film production of their theatrical smash Oklahoma! (1955). In 1956 Jones starred in another Rodgers and Hammerstein film adaptation, Carousel; this and her first film tended to limit her to sweet, peaches 'n' cream roles for the next several years. Thankfully, and with the full support of director Richard Brooks, Jones was able to break away from her screen stereotype with her role as a vengeful prostitute in Elmer Gantry (1960) -- a powerfully flamboyant performance that won her an Academy Award. Alas, filmgoers preferred the "nice" Shirley, and it was back to goody-goody roles in such films as The Music Man (1962) and A Ticklish Affair (1963) -- though critics heartily praised Jones' performances in these harmless confections. It was again for Brooks that Shirley had her next major dramatic film role, in 1969's The Happy Ending, which represented one of her last movie appearances before her four-year TV stint as the glamorous matriarch of The Partridge Family. This popular series did less for Shirley than it did for her stepson, teen idol David Cassidy, but The Partridge Family is still raking in ratings (and residuals) on the rerun circuit. Her unhappy marriage to the late actor Jack Cassidy long in the past, Jones found domestic stability as the wife of actor/agent Marty Ingels, with whom she wrote a refreshingly candid dual biography. The actress also played a recurring character on The Drew Carey Show (1998-1999), and appeared in numerous documentaries throughout the 2000s. Jones had a supporting role in 2006's Grandma's Boy, and guest roles on shows like Cougar Town and Raising Hope.

Trivia: A performer whose career soared and peaked in the early '70s, multifaceted entertainer David Cassidy dramatically redefined the term "teen idol," as others including Paul Anka and Neil Sedaka had before him. In his heyday, Cassidy culled an untoward number of admirers, including legions of starstruck teenage girls. The son of actors Jack Cassidy and Evelyn Ward (and the stepson of Shirley Jones), David landed his first major break on the blockbuster '70s musical sitcom The Partridge Family (1970-1974), opposite Jones, Susan Dey, and Danny Bonaduce. Based very loosely on the experiences of the real-life family vocal band the Cowsills, the now-iconic series told of a widowed mother and her brood of rowdy kids, who became national pop stars overnight, and eked out a life touring in a colorful schoolbus and performing all over the country. Cassidy -- 20 years old when the series premiered -- played the eldest Partridge boy, 16-year-old David. Series producers took advantage of the program's success by marketing the Partridges as a real-life recording group, fronted by David (who was not a professional musician); this worked, and brought Cassidy Grammy Awards and the largest celebrity fan club in the history of recorded music. The triumphs were somewhat short-lived, however, and by 1975 (a year after Family folded) Cassidy's popularity with the younger market had declined, as new and fresher talent took his place. He responded by branching out into acting roles, in films such as A Chance to Live (1978), The Narc (1978), and The Night the City Screamed (1980), and in time established an agreeable presence as a musical theater star, on Broadway and in London's famed West End.Cassidy's overall popularity rebounded in the mid- to late '90s. Thanks in no small part to a nostalgia craze and to presence on VH1, he landed an assignment opening the 75-million-dollar show EFX at the MGM Grand, which in turn gave him the clout to mount and produce his own revue in Vegas, a tribute to Sinatra and co. christened The Rat Pack Is Back (1999). In the following decade, Cassidy began touring once again, signed a new record deal, and issued a series of albums including Then and Now (2001) and Touch of Blue (2003). Busy as ever, he topped TV GUIDE's list of the 25 Greatest Teen Idols in 2005.

Trivia: Towering (5'11") redheaded actress Barbara Rhoades was 20 years old when she signed her first studio contract with Universal. She was possessed of a self-sufficiency and breezy sense of humor that belied her youth. The best of her early screen roles was gun-toting lady bandit Penelope Cushings in the 1968 Don Knotts vehicle Shakiest Gun in the West (a remake of The Paleface [1948] wherein Rhoades' role was played by Jane Russell). Beginning with 1977's Busting Loose, she was a regular on several TV sitcoms. For reasons best known to casting directors, Barbara Rhoades almost always ended up playing someone named Maggie: Maggie Gallegher in Hangin' In (1979), Maggie Chandler in Soap (1980-1981), Maggie Davis in You Again? (1986).

Trivia: The saga of irascible and gravel-voiced actor Danny Bonaduce is archetypal and defiantly American: the child actor who scores early in his youth, bottoms out on multiple levels, and rebounds as a middle-aged man, in a slightly different celebrity role. But rarely has the tale unfolded with such color or verve.Before he reached the age of 12 (a time when most pre-adolescents are attempting to survive the rigors of elementary school), the diminutive, redheaded Bonaduce rocketed to national fame as the mischievous ten-year-old Danny Partridge on the blockbuster ABC sitcom The Partridge Family, alongside young co-stars David Cassidy and Susan Dey. His fame and success were somewhat limited, however. Though Bonaduce culled an estimated 350,000 dollars from the series, the program folded in the late summer of 1974, and the actor reportedly squandered most of his earnings not long after. Years of inactivity followed, save guest appearances on such celebrity-studded series as Fantasy Island and The Love Boat, and contributions to exploitationers such as Murder on Flight 502 (1975) and H.O.T.S (1979). The actor soon found himself battling poverty and drug addiction; a drug bust and mandatory counseling for narcotics possession followed in 1985. Bonaduce's personal life hit the skids as well; he lived with his mother well into adulthood, then married a Japanese woman, Setsuko Hattori, to help her obtain a green card, and separated from her six months later. Another drug bust ensued in 1990.Professionally, Bonaduce first caught his second wind in the late '80s, when radio personality Jonathon Brandmeier learned of his plight and staged a mock food drive to raise support for the actor. The gimmick worked; Bonaduce soon received invitations to do guest spots on numerous radio programs (including that of Howard Stern) and devised the idea of hosting an on-air slot himself. In December 1988, WEGX FM, a radio station out of Philadelphia, hired him as its late-night DJ on a call-in talk program. In time, Bonaduce moved to the midday slot on Chicago's WLUP-FM, a "personality talk" station.Bonaduce scored high ratings consistently (especially with listeners who recalled him from Family) and continued throughout the 1990s. His return to filmed entertainment began choppily and unpromisingly, with the ugly and sleazy, shoestring-budget exploitationer America's Deadliest Home Video (1992), but he soon opted for another direction -- parlaying his radio-hosting experience into a filmed, syndicated daytime talk show. Danny! premiered in 1995 and unabashedly explored the same lurid subjects as Sally Jessy Raphael and Montel Williams, but Bonaduce reeled in some critical kudos for his work. Time Magazine's Ken Tucker observed, "Danny Bonaduce is a very likable entry in a very unlikable genre. What's refreshing about the gravelly voiced redhead is that he's never pious, and he implicates his audience in the sleaze he teases." When the program folded within a few months, Bonaduce continued his radio gigs at stations in New York and (later) Los Angeles. The actor then launched yet another televised talk show, The Other Half, in 2001; a male-driven flip side to The View that he co-hosted with Dick Clark, Saved by the Bell alumnus Mario Lopez, and others, the show lasted for two years.Not long after, Bonaduce emerged yet again, as a reality TV star. Breaking Bonaduce premiered on VH1 on September 11, 2005, and pushed reality television far beyond the limits of questionable taste and ethics. The program featured calamitous episodes from the actor's home life with his second wife, Gretchen, and their two children. Low points included Bonaduce confessing his extramarital infidelity; consuming alcohol, pain killers, and steroids; verbally abusing everyone in sight; and attempting suicide by slashing his wrists (off-camera). Troubled by the actor's behavior, the producers ultimately threatened to cancel the series unless the star entered rehab; Bonaduce complied. His full rehabilitation treatment was then featured on the series. Bonaduce would continue to appear on screen, with small roles on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and reality appearances on Re-Inventing Bonaduce and The Smoking Gun Presents: World's Dumbest.

Trivia: The son of legendary vaudevillian Pat Harrington Sr., comic actor Pat Harrington Jr. rose to prominence via his many appearances on The Steve Allen Show and The Jack Paar Program in the late 1950s. However, few viewers recognized him as Pat Harrington Jr.: instead, he passed himself off as Italian golf pro Guido Panzini, a guise so convincing that he was invited to play in several major tournaments. Once the public at large was apprised that Harrington was neither Italian nor a master duffer, demands for his services as an actor increased immeasurably. In 1959, he was cast on The Danny Thomas Show as Danny's new son-in-law Pat Hannigan (Thomas had planned to spin off Harrington and his TV daughter Penney Parker into their own series, but this was not to be). In 1962, he served as host of Stump the Stars, a revamped version of the old Summer replacement perennial Pantomime Quiz. Seven years later, he was seen as sharkish PR man Tony Lawrence on the short-lived TV adaptation of Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. In 1975, Harrington landed his signature role as macho, aphorism-spouting handyman Dwayne Schneider on the TV sitcom One Day at a Time; he remained with the series until its cancellation in 1984, earning an Emmy along the way. In films, Pat Harrington Jr. has been seen in a gallery of diverse portrayals, most amusingly as smoothly villainous telephone company spokesman Arlington Haven in The President's Analyst (1967). Harrington continued to act until 2012; his last acting appearance was a guest-spot on Hot in Cleveland, starring his former One Day at a Time co-star Valerie Harper. He died in 2016, at age 86.

Trivia: Born to a Syrian-Lebanese family in Brooklyn, Victor Tayback grew up learning how to aggressively defend himself and those he cared about, qualities that he'd later carry over into his acting work. Moving to California with his family, the 16-year-old Tayback made the varsity football team at Burbank High. Despite numerous injuries, he continued his gridiron activities at Glendale Community College, until he quit school over a matter of principle (he refused to apologize to his coach for breaking curfew). After four years in the navy, Tayback enrolled at the Frederick A. Speare School of Radio and TV Broadcasting, hoping to become a sportscaster. Instead, he was sidetracked into acting, working as a cab driver, bank teller and even a "Kelly Girl" between performing gigs. Shortly after forming a little-theatre group called the Company of Angels, Tayback made his movie debut in Door-to-Door Maniac (1961), a fact he tended to exclude from his resumé in later years. His professional life began to improve in 1967, when he won an audition to play Sid Caesar's look-alike in a TV pilot. Throughout the early 1970s the bulging, bald-domed actor made a comfortable living in TV commercials and TV guest-star assignments, and as a regular on the detective series Griff (1973) and Khan (1975). In 1975, he was cast in the secondary role of Mel Sharples, the potty-mouthed short-fused owner of a greasy spoon diner, in the theatrical feature Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. When the film evolved into the weekly TV sitcom Alice in 1976, Tayback was engaged to recreate his "Mel" characterization. He remained with the program for the next nine years. In contrast to his gruff, abusive screen character, Tayback was dearly loved by the rest of the Alice cast, who regarded him a Big Brother and Father Confessor rolled into one. Five years after Alice's cancellation, Vic Tayback died of cancer at the age of 61; one of his last screen assignments was the voice of Carface in the animated feature All Dogs Go to Heaven.