Trivia: Best remembered for his high-profile acting roles on two 1970s television sitcoms -- that of genial news writer Murray Slaughter on CBS's The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977) and that of sweet-natured Captain Merrill Stubing on ABC's The Love Boat (1977-1986), stage-trained actor Gavin MacLeod in fact began his career typecast as a villain. He landed parts in Hollywood features including The Sand Pebbles (1966), Deathwatch (1966), and The Comic (1969), and enjoyed a tenure as Joseph "Happy" Haines on the sitcom McHale's Navy from 1962 through 1964. After The Love Boat permanently laid anchor in the mid-'80s, MacLeod signed on as a spokesperson and pitchman for Princess Cruises and returned to regional theatrical work. He also tackled guest spots on programs including Touched by an Angel and (in a move that surprised everyone) the HBO prison drama Oz. Off-camera, MacLeod is an outspoken born-again Christian. He hosted a popular talk show on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, along with his wife, Patti (whom he divorced in 1982 and remarried three years later), called Back on Course, and personally funded many of the Greatest Adventure Stories from the Bible animated videos for children.

Trivia: Universally recognized as Ship's Doctor Adam Bricker on the blockbuster prime-time sitcom The Love Boat (1977-1986) -- a part he held for the entire nine-season run of the series -- actor Bernie Kopell entered the doors of show business via a most unlikely route. Born in Brooklyn, Kopell attended Erasmus High and then New York University (with a dramatic art major). After a stint at sea aboard the naval vessel USS Iowa, Kopell signed on to drive a taxicab in Southern California -- and achieved his big break on the day that Oregon Trail (1959) film producer Dick Einfeld hitched a ride in the back of his cab. In a span of minutes, Kopell reportedly managed to convince Einfeld that he was not really a cab driver but an actor in serious need of work. The effort paid off, and Kopell snagged his first part -- a two-line part in Oregon as an aide to president James K. Polk. In the early '60s, Kopell joined the Actors' Ring Theatre in Los Angeles, where he developed a knack for characterizations and voices; this led, in turn, to character-type roles on a myriad of television programs including The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Steve Allen Show, and My Favorite Martian (which often, though not always, cast the wiry Kopell as a Hispanic). By the early '70s, Kopell had landed steady assignments on Get Smart, Bewitched, That Girl, and other series. The Love Boat, however, embodied his breakthrough. He followed it up with an emcee assignment on The Travel Channel (hosting its Railway Adventures Across Europe) and a surge in theatrical work, with portrayals in regional productions of such plays as Rumors, A History of Shadows, and Death of a Salesman.

Trivia: Actor Fred Grandy enjoyed two distinct careers -- an initial career as an actor and a proverbial second wind on the political stage. As a thespian, Grandy signed for guest spots on early-'70s series including Maude and Phyllis, but built his reputation via his nine-season portrayal of Yeoman-Purser Burl "Gopher" Smith, right-hand man to Captain Merrill Stubing (Gavin MacLeod), on the popular television sitcom The Love Boat (1977-1986). He proved popular with audiences, but by the mid-'80s reportedly grew tired of acting and gravitated to the political arena because he found it more challenging. Indeed, in 1986 -- the year of Boat's cancelation -- Grandy was elected as a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Iowa.

Trivia: For millions of Americans, the prime-time situation comedy The Love Boat will be forever inseparable from the image of Ted Lange, an actor cast for nine seasons as the genial Isaac the Bartender on the Pacific Princess luxury liner and trademarked by his iconic "two-finger drop" greeting. Yet Lange's portrayal of Isaac scarcely hinted at the actor's dexterity or dramatic range. In truth, this actor received classical dramatic training at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, and would go on, after the Princess took its final voyage in September 1986, to establish himself as a revered creative force in regional theater.Lange initially broke into films with many portrayals in Hollywood programmers during the early '70s, including Trick Baby (1972), Blade (1972), and Black Belt Jones (1974), and landed a regular role in the one-season ethnic sitcom That's My Mama (1974), as a streetwise philosopher opposite Clifton Davis (Amen) and Theresa Merritt. The Love Boat, of course, brought Lange his most widespread recognition; nonetheless (as indicated), he hearkened back to his theatrical roots beginning in the late '80s and divided his time between writing, directing, and stage acting roles. His resumé as a scribe sports at least 17 original plays including Lemon Meringue Facade, Behind the Mask -- An Evening with Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Evil Legacy -- The Story of Lucretia Borgia, while he has appeared dramatically in productions including Hair and Taming of the Shrew and has directed plays ranging from Othello to the rock & roll musical Born a Unicorn.

Trivia: Jill Whelan enjoyed an acting career as a child star, with a seven-season (1979-1986) portrayal of Vicki, Captain Merrill Stubing's young daughter, on the prime-time ABC situation comedy The Love Boat. After the series wrapped in 1986, Whelan returned for a number of Love Boat telemovies, acted in regional theater, and played a regular role on the daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless. Astute movie buffs may remember Whelan for a brief but memorable big-screen contribution that happened during her Love Boat tenure: she also portrayed Lisa Davis, the ailing child sent into convulsions when a singing nun knocks out her I.V., in the Zucker-Abrams-Zucker farce Airplane! (1980).

Trivia: Actress Pat Klous began her career in the 1970s as a Manhattan-area model, and graduated to dramatics when tapped by CBS to star opposite fellow neophytes Connie Sellecca and Kathryn Witt in the prime-time adventure drama Flying High (1978-1979). The series told of three young women and their exploits stewardessing for the apocryphal Sunwest Airlines. It failed to take off, however, and folded about four months after it initially debuted. Ironically (or perhaps not so, given the networks' tendencies to emulate one another), the program bore more than a passing resemblance to The Love Boat, which had scored major ratings when it debuted a season prior on ABC -- so it seemed wholly fitting that Boat's producers tapped Klous to star in their thematically similar sitcom Aloha Paradise (1981) and then, a few years later, to replace Love Boat stalwart Lauren Tewes when Tewes was dropped from that program amid a serious cocaine addiction. On The Love Boat, Klous portrayed Cruise Director Judy McCoy. She remained with the program from 1984 until it folded in 1986, then did occasional television work thereafter.

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

Trivia: American actress Pat Crowley was the daughter of a coal mine foreman. Pat' s older sister Ann took the plunge into acting first, and it was during Ann's appearance in a Chicago musical production that ten-year-old Pat was given a walk-on. Ann introduced her sister to a stock company producer, and from then on Pat was one of the busiest ingenues in New England, finally making her Broadway bow in Southern Exposure; Crowley was still only 16. Two years later, following a run on the live TV series A Date With Judy, Crowley was hired for a major role in Forever Female (1953), in which she and Ginger Rogers vied for the affections of William Holden. After becoming the center of much publicity at that time, Crowley then experienced a long spell of unemployment. When jobs became plentiful again, Crowley worked on both the stage and on TV, usually in one-shot guest roles; she had the distinction of being Robert Vaughn's first "leading lady" on the premiere episode of Man From U.N.C.L.E. in 1964. One year later, Crowley was cast as an unorthodox housewife on the NBC sitcom Please Don't Eat the Daisies. After two years of Daisies, Crowley's work load subsided; she did more supporting work until 1974, when she received a sizeable role on the Lloyd Bridges cop show Joe Forrester. Since that time, Patricia Crowley has confined her activities to TV character roles, notably a season's worth of appearances as Emily Falmont on the '80s nighttime serial Dynasty.

Trivia: Though he has done many other things since the late '60s and early '70s, comedian/actor Dick Martin will best be remembered as the co-host of the innovative sketch comedy series Laugh-In (1968-1973) with his longtime partner and straightman Dan Rowan. Rowan and Martin started out on television appearing briefly on the summer edition of the comedy variety show The Chevy Show in 1958. He and Rowan made their feature-film debut that year in the Western Once Upon a Horse. Between 1962 and 1964, Martin, sans Rowan, was a regular on The Lucy Show. The two reunited to appear regularly on The Dean Martin Summer Show (1966-1967). That year, Martin also made another solo appearance in the Doris Day feature The Glass Bottom Boat. Laugh-In was the comic duo's biggest success and at the peak of their popularity, the two attempted to further cash in by appearing in the Abbott and Costello-like horror spoof, The Maltese Bippy (1969). The film bombed and it would be years before Martin again appeared in a film. Since then, his acting appearances on television and in film have been sporadic.

Trivia: Pennsylvania-born actress Lauren Tewes achieved broadest recognition for her stint as Cruise Director Julie McCoy on the long-running ABC situation comedy The Love Boat. Unfortunately, Tewes (unlike many of her fellow cast members) left the program prior to the final voyage of the Pacific Princess -- reportedly spiraling into a much-publicized bout of severe cocaine addiction from which she eventually fully recovered, but which cost her the role on the series. Tewes nevertheless demonstrated admirable resilience by returning for at least two Love Boat telemovies and remained active in television and film. Subsequent projects included guest appearances on the small-screen series dramas Hunter and Murder, She Wrote, and roles in features such as The Doom Generation (1995) and It Came From Outer Space 2 (1996).