Trivia: American actress Dana Delany, a graduate of Phillips Academy and Wesleyan University, began making television appearances in the mid-1980s on such programs as Moonlighting and the movie A Winner Never Quits (1986). In 1988, she was cast as Army nurse Lt. Colleen McMurphy in the Vietnam-era TV drama China Beach, which ran until 1990. In her film appearances (Moon Over Parador [1988], Patty Hearst [1988], Light Sleeper [1992]), Delany has leaned toward characters governed by their neuroses and eccentricities. In 1994, Delany starred in the much-touted "bondage" comedy/mystery Exit to Eden (from a novel by Ann Rice). When the film showed less than successful results, Delany immediately recovered with a strong portrayal as birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger in a made-for-cable TV biopic, and played another strong female in 1997's True Women.Though Delany continued to take on interesting film roles throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, the actress found no small amount of success on the television screen. After starring in Pasadena (2001) and Presidio Med (2003), Delany could be seen in guest roles on TV hits including Law & Order: SVU (2004) and Battlestar Galactica (2006).Among Delany's more unique accomplishments include her portrayal of the Superman franchise favorite Lois Lane in the Warner Brothers' animated series for a decade (1996-2006), and a pivotal role in Kidnapped, one of the few major television series to air exclusively online.The actress is involved in a variety of charitable causes, most notably being the Scleroderma Research Foundation. Her dedication to the cause even led to a television role as a scleroderma sufferer in ABC's powerful television movie For Hope (1996). Much later in 2008, Delany famously underwent what turned out to be an eventful mammogram on camera for the inspiring Stand Up 2 Cancer, which aired during a live telethon simultaneously cast on four major television networks.

Trivia: In 1999, Doris Roberts achieved "overnight" stardom in the role of Marie Barone in the series Everybody Loves Raymond, going from working actress -- which she'd been for more than 40 years -- to being an instantly recognized performer. It was an improbable climb to the top rank of popular culture stardom. Roberts was born in St. Louis, MO, in 1925, to a family that was soon shattered when the father abandoned them. She had a difficult but loving childhood as her mother sought to provide for both of them by herself, and eventually Roberts gravitated toward the idea of an acting career. To do this, she had to work at any jobs that she could find, including clerk typist, to afford the lessons that she needed from teachers that included Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner. She made her first television appearance in the early '50s, in a Studio One production of Jane Eyre, and made the usual rounds between theater and television. Her theatrical debut came on the a stage at New York's City Center in 1955, and she was Shirley Booth's understudy in the theatrical version of the comedy Desk Set. She distinguished herself in the role of Mommy in the original production of Edward Albee's The American Dream, and since the early '60s, had carved a niche for herself in maternal and neighborly roles, on both stage and screen. Following her screen debut in Jack Garfein's New York-filmed drama Something Wild (1961), she tended more toward comedy (albeit often black comedy), with performances in Jack Smight's No Way to Treat a Lady, where she played the skeptical onlooker whose questions and low-key intervention save the life of a would-be victim; Leonard Kastle's The Honeymoon Killers (1970), in which she played the roommate of the nurse-turned-murderer played by Shirley Stoler; and Alan Arkin's Little Murders (1971), where she played Elliott Gould's mother. Female comics seemed to perceive Roberts' gifts as an actress especially well, as she got two of her better roles, in A New Leaf (1971) and Rabbit Test (1978), from Elaine May and Joan Rivers, respectively. Although she began appearing in television in the 1950s, with appearances on Ben Casey, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Baretta, All in the Family, The Streets of San Francisco, Rhoda, Soap, and Barney Miller, Roberts didn't start to make a lasting impression in the medium -- which would become her vehicle for stardom -- until the 1970s. She was supposed to have a role in a proposed new series starring Mary Tyler Moore, but when that series failed to sell, she was cast in the role of Donna Pescow's mother in the series Angie (1979), which got Roberts her first real notice by the public or the press. After that, the television appearances grew more frequent, and finally in 1983, she joined the cast of Remington Steele midway through the series' run, as Mildred Krebs, an IRS investigator-turned-secretary-turned-detective, working alongside Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist, and often stealing the show with her low-key comedic work. Roberts' first marriage ended in divorce, and her second, to novelist William Goyen, ended when he died in 1983 -- her son from her first marriage, Michael Cannata, has been her manager since the 1970s. It was a dozen years after Remington Steele, and some notable guest star appearances on shows like St. Elsewhere, that she landed the role of Marie on Everybody Loves Raymond. Since then, she has been a guest on talk shows and an acting celebrity, with a brace of Emmy nominations to her credit.In 2003 Roberts published the book Are You Hungry, Dear?: Life, Laughs and Lasagna, and the following year she was appointed a cultural ambassador by the U.S. Department of State. But back on the small screen Roberts was more recognizable than ever before, with appearances in Grey's Anatomy, Hot in Cleveland, and Desperate Housewives keeping her as active as ever. Roberts continued to work steadily until her death in 2016, at age 90.

Trivia: Louise Fletcher's acting career can be divided into two stages. She started out appearing on television shows such as Wagon Train and The Untouchables during the late '50s, but left acting in 1964, two years after marrying movie producer Jerry Bick, to raise a family. She did not return to her craft until appearing in Robert Altman's well-regarded feature film Thieves Like Us in 1974. Fletcher then appeared in the spy thriller Russian Roulette (1975) before Milos Forman cast her in what was to become her signature role, that of the iron-willed, sadistic Nurse Ratched who tormented Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). Her believable portrayal won her a Best Actress Oscar and a Golden Globe. Perhaps the highest honor is that her Ratched has become a movie icon, one that has been frequently emulated and parodied in numerous subsequent films. Fletcher was born in Birmingham, AL, to a deaf Episcopalian minister and a deaf mother. She started acting in summer stock following her graduation from the University of North Carolina. Fletcher next moved to Los Angeles and found work as a receptionist before breaking into television. Standing 5'10", the strikingly beautiful Fletcher was often taller than her leading men, something that hindered her first bid at stardom. Since her success with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Fletcher has found steady employment as a supporting and character actress on television -- where she received a 1996 Emmy nomination for a guest-star appearance on the highly acclaimed CBS series Picket Fences -- and in feature films. She also has a busy stage career.

Trivia: Willowy Canadian leading lady Rosemary Forsyth was signed to a Universal contract after modelling assignments and TV bits. Her first films found Forsyth cast opposite leading men who weren't self-conscious about her 5'9" frame: James Stewart in Shenandoah (1965) and Charlton Heston in The War Lord (1965). Taking a sabbatical from films in 1966 to have a baby, Forsyth returned before the cameras for 1969's Where It's At. Rosemary Forsyth was seen in only a handful of theatrical films thereafter, but remained a frequent visitor to television, showing up in TV movies, daytime dramas, and the famous 1981 "Bomb Threat" episode of WKRP in Cincinnati.