Trivia: Jerry Orbach often commented, without false modesty, that he was fortunate indeed to have been a steadily working actor since the age of 20. Such was an understatement: graced with not only formidable dramatic instinct but one of American theater's top singing voices, Orbach resisted others' attempts to peg him as a character actor time and again and established himself as one of the most unique talents in entertainment per se. Television producer Dick Wolf perhaps put it best when he described Orbach as "a legendary figure of 20th century show business" and "one of the most honored performers of his generation."A native of the Bronx, Orbach was born to an ex-vaudevillian father who worked full time as a restaurant manager and a mother who sang professionally on the radio. The Orbachs moved around constantly during Jerry's youth, relocating from Gotham to Scranton to Wilkes-Barre to Springfield, Massachusetts and eventually settling in Chicago - a mobility that gave the young Orbach an unusual ability to adapt to any circumstance or situation, and thus presaged his involvement in drama. Orbach later attended Northwestern University, trained with Herbert Berghof and Lee Strasberg, and took his Gotham theatrical bow in 1955, as an understudy in the popular 1955 revival of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera, eventually playing the lead role of serial killer Macheath. During the Threepenny run, Orbach made his first film appearance in the Manhattan-filmed low budgeter Cop Killer (1958). In 1960, Orbach created the role of flamboyant interlocutor El Gallo in the off-Broadway smash The Fantasticks, and later starred in such Broadway productions as Carnival (1961), Promises Promises (1966), Chicago (1975) and 42nd Street (1983). By day, Orbach made early-1960s appearances in several New York-based TV series, notably The Shari Lewis Show. In the early years, Orbach's film assignments were infrequent, but starting around 1981, with his pivotal role as officer Gus Levy in Sidney Lumet's masterful urban epic Prince of the City, the actor generally turned up in around one movie per year. His more fondly remembered screen assignments include the part of Jennifer Grey's father in Dirty Dancing (1987), Martin Landau's shady underworld brother in Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) the voice of the Chevalieresque candellabra in the Disney cartoon feature Beauty and the Beast (1990), and Billy Crystal's easily amused agent in Mr. Saturday Night (1992). Orbach perhaps made his most memorable contribution to television, however. After headlining a brief, short-lived detective series entitled The Law and Harry McGraw from September 1987 to February 1988 (a spinoff of Murder, She Wrote), Orbach landed a role that seemed to draw heavily from his Prince of the City portrayal: Detective Lennie Briscoe, a sardonic, mordant police investigator on Wolf's blockbuster cop drama Law & Order.Orbach carried the assignment for twelve seasons, and many attributed a large degree of the program's success to him.Jerry Orbach died of prostate cancer at the age of 69 on December 28, 2004. Three years later, Orbach turned up, posthumously, on subway print advertisements for the New York Eye Bank. As a performer with nearly perfect vision, he had opted to donate his eyes to two women after his death - a reflection on the remarkable humanitarian ideals that characterized his off-camera self.

Trivia: Educated at Yale and the Sorbonne, Sam Waterston, born November 15th, 1940, is far more than the "general purpose actor" he was pegged to be by one well-known film historian. A respected player on the stage, screen, and television, Waterston has cultivated a loyal following with his quietly charismatic, unfailingly solid performances. After beginning his career on the New York stage -- where he has continued to perform throughout his long career -- Waterston made his film debut in The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean in 1966. For a long time, his film career was not nearly as remarkable as his work on the stage and television, although non-New York audiences were made acutely aware of the depth and breadth of Waterston's talents when, in 1973, he starred in the television adaptation The Glass Menagerie (appearing alongside Katherine Hepburn) and -- also on TV -- in Tony Richardson's A Delicate Balance. The following year, the actor further impressed television audiences when he starred as Benedick in the CBS TV adaptation of Joseph Papp's staging of Much Ado About Nothing. Also in 1974, Waterston proved to be the best of the screen's Nick Carraways when he was cast in that expository role in the The Great Gatsby; subsequent films ranged from the midnight-movie favorite Rancho Deluxe (1975) to the unmitigated disaster Heaven's Gate (1981). In the late '70s, Waterston was "adopted" by Woody Allen, joining the director's ever-increasing unofficial stock company for such films as Interiors (1978), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), September (1987), and Crimes and Misdemeanors. Waterston was nominated for an Academy award for his powerful portrayal of a conscience-stricken American journalist in The Killing Fields (1984); three years later he appeared in Swimming to Cambodia, Spalding Gray's acclaimed documentary about the making of the film. Subsequent film appearances included a turn as Kathleen Turner's hilariously timid husband in Serial Mom (1994) and a role in Ismail Merchant's The Proprietor in 1996.However, Waterston has continued to make his greatest mark on television, starring in the acclaimed The Nightmare Years in 1989 and in the similarly lauded series I'll Fly Away and Law & Order. In addition, he has gained a certain amount of fame playing Abraham Lincoln multiple times: In 1988, he starred in Gore Vidal's Lincoln on television, while he won a Tony nod playing him in the Lincoln Center production of Abe Lincoln in Illinois and supplied the president's voice for Ken Burns' documentary The Civil War.Though Waterson is most recognizable for his work in Law & Order, he took on a variety of other television roles throughout the 1990s and 2000s, among them including a turn as the District Attorney Forrest Bedford in I'll Fly Away (the role would win him an Golden Globe). In 2012, Waterson joined the cast of HBO's The Newsroom.

Trivia: Jesse L. Martin is proof that talent and popularity are not mutually exclusive. When the award-winning stage actor joined the cast of NBC's Law and Order in its tenth season, the program's already high ratings increased by 40 percent. Martin's debut episode drew the largest audience in Law and Order's history and positive press attracted more viewers throughout the season. The once starving artist is now both a critic's darling and one of T.V. Guide's "Sexiest People on Television," confirming that he is an actor with genuinely wide appeal. Martin was born Jesse Lamont Watkins on January 18, 1969, in Rocky Mountain, VA. He is the youngest of five sons. Martin's parents, truck driver Jesse Reed Watkins and college counselor Virginia Price, divorced when he was a child. Ms. Price eventually remarried and the boys adopted their stepfather's surname. When Martin was in grade school, the family relocated to Buffalo, NY, and the move was not an immediate success: Martin hated to speak because of his thick Southern accent and was often overcome with shyness. A concerned teacher influenced him to join an after-school drama program and cast him as the pastor in The Golden Goose. Being from Virginia, the young Martin played the character the only way he knew how: as an inspired Southern Baptist preacher. The act was a hit, and Martin emerged from his shell. The actor attended high school at Buffalo School for the Performing Arts, where he was voted "Most Talented" in his senior class. He later enrolled in New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts Theater Program. After graduation, Martin toured the states with John Houseman's Acting Company. He appeared in Shakespeare's Rock-in-Roles at the Actors Theater of Louisville and The Butcher's Daughter at the Cleveland Playhouse, and returned to Manhattan to perform in local theater, soap operas, and commercials. Finding that auditions, regional theater, and bit parts were no way to support oneself, Martin waited tables at several restaurants around the city. He was literally serving a pizza when his appearance on CBS's Guiding Light aired in the same eatery. Martin made his Broadway debut in Timon of Athens, and then performed in The Government Inspector with Lainie Kazan. While employed at the Moondance Diner, he met the late playwright Jonathan Larson, who also worked on the restaurant's staff. In 1996, Larson's musical Rent took the theater world by storm -- with Martin in the part of gay computer geek Tom Collins. The '90s update of Puccini's La Bohème earned six Drama Desk Awards, five Obie Awards, four Tony Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize. Martin soon landed roles on Fox's short-lived 413 Hope Street and Eric Bross' independent film Restaurant (1998). Ally McBeal's creator, David E. Kelly, attended Rent's Broadway premiere and remembered Martin when the show needed a new boyfriend for Calista Flockhart's Ally. The actor's performance as Dr. Greg Butters on Ally McBeal caught David Duchovny's eye, who then cast Martin as a baseball-playing alien in a 1999 episode of The X-Files that he wrote and directed. While still shooting Ally McBeal, Martin heard rumors that actor Benjamin Bratt planned to leave the cast of Law and Order. Martin tried out for the show years before and won the minor role of a car-radio thief named Earl the Hamster, but decided to wait for a bigger part. With the opportunity presenting itself, Martin begged Law and Order producer Dick Wolf for Bratt's role. Wolf hoped to cast him, and upon hearing that CBS and Fox both offered Martin development deals, he gave the actor the part without an audition. During his first year on Law and Order, Martin co-produced the one-man show Fully Committed, about the amusing experiences of a waiter at an upscale restaurant. A skilled vocalist -- he sang in Rent, on Ally McBeal, and The X-Files -- Martin later appeared in the Rocky Horror Picture Show anniversary special and hopes to star in a big-screen biography of his mother's favorite singer, Marvin Gaye. Over the coming decade, Martin would appear in several more pictures, like The Cake Eaters, the big screen adaptation of Rent, and the TV series The Philanthropist.

Trivia: Born August 10th, 1972, Texan model-turned-actress Angie Harmon's private life (and concomitant rise to fame) bear closer correlation to a fairy tale than to a factual account. Born Angela Michelle Harmon in the Dallas suburb of Highland Park in the late summer of 1972, Harmon never sought out celebrity; it beckoned to her. An "accidental" discovery by the esteemed Kim Dawson Modeling Agency and a win of Seventeen Magazine's cover-girl contest (at age 15) launched Harmon on the path to modeling, but once she reached Manhattan, Harmon discovered a deep-seated love of drama. Harmon then survived a series of not-so-prestigious early roles (including a very brief stint on the exploitationer Baywatch Nights and a turn as a dysfunctional suburbanite in John Duigan's ugly allegory Lawn Dogs), to establish herself as a respected and esteemed actress.Harmon first garnered national attention in the late '90s, as Abbie Carmichael, an assistant district attorney on the hit prime-time drama Law & Order -- a role she maintained for multiple seasons. Beginning in 2003, the actress segued from television into cinematic roles, with generally promising results. Her highest-profile turns include contributions to the family-oriented spy comedy Agent Cody Banks (2003), the action thriller End Game (2005), and the Jim Carrey/Téa Leoni comedy Fun With Dick and Jane (2005).Harmon made coast-to-coast headlines in March 2000 when she received a marriage proposal from then-boyfriend Jason Sehorn, a running back for the New York Giants, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Sehorn popped the question in front of Elton John and a nationwide TV audience. Harmon immediately accepted on the air, and the two wed a short time later, parenting children in successive years before annoucing their split in 2014. In her private life, Harmon is also an outspoken born-again Christian and an advocate of conservative political causes. She and Sehorn co-hosted the Lifetime special Together: Stop Violence Against Women (2003) to spread awareness and prevention of domestic abuse. In fall 2007, Harmon took on a lead role in the ABC detective series Women's Murder Club as Lindsay Boxer, one of four women who band together to solve crimes in the city of San Francisco; the series was an instant success. In 2010, Harmon begun work on Rizzoli & Isles in the leading role of Detective Jane Rizzoli, a hard-working law enforcer entrusted with solving some of Boston's toughest cases.

Trivia: S. Epatha Merkerson is a Tony-nominated and Obie-winning, African-American stage actress, but is best known for her portrayal of detective squad chief Lt. Anita Van Buren in the series Law and Order. Born and raised in Detroit as the youngest of five children, she was a fine arts graduate of Wayne State University and began her New York theater career in the late 1970s. Merkerson was nominated for a Tony award for Best Actress for her performance as Berniece in The Piano Lesson and won an Obie award in 1992 for her work in I'm Not Stupid. Her screen credits include Jacob's Ladder and Loose Cannons and, perhaps most visibly, her role as Joe Morton's terrified wife in James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Merkerson made her television debut as Reba, the Mail Lady on Pee Wee's Playhouse, and has appeared on The Cosby Show, among other series, but her most important single television appearance may have been in the first season Law and Order show "Mushrooms," in which she portrayed the grief-stricken mother of an 11-month-old boy who is shot accidentally. Her work was not only memorable to the audience during that key first season, but also to the producers, who later picked Merkerson for the role of the new detective squad chief in the series' fourth season--a role she continued to play for over ten years. Merkerson's talent on the small screen led to roles in numerous TV movies such as Breaking Through and A Mother's Prayer, as well as roles in such films as Radio and The Rising Place. Still, her monumental gifts in both presence and interpretation may not have truly been utilized until she took the part of a strong matriarch who runs a 1960's boarding house in HBO's mini series Lackawanna Blues. Her first leading role in almost twenty years on screen, her performance earned her an Emmy Award as well as a Golden Globe. After her triumphant turn in Lackawanna Blues she returned to the big-screen in Craig Brewer's follow-up to Hustle & Flow, Black Snake Moan co-starring Christina Ricci and Samuel L. Jackson.Over the coming years, Merkerson would appear in a number of films, like The Six Wives of Henry Lefay and Mother and Child.

Trivia: One of Hollywood's more well-established and often underrated actresses, Dianne Wiest possesses a versatility that has allowed her to go from playing hookers to flamboyant stage actresses to some of the most memorable matriarchs this side of Barbara Billingsley. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Wiest decided to forgo a ballet career in favor of the theatre while attending the University of Maryland. She made her off-Broadway debut in 1976's Ashes; three years later she won the coveted Obie and Theatre World awards for her work in The Art of Dining. She made her first film, It's My Turn, in 1980, then returned to the stage, appearing with Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival and on Broadway in 1982's Frankenstein. In the mid-1980s, Wiest returned to films, where (except for the occasionally foray into live performing) she has remained ever since. Often as not, Wiest has been cast in maternal roles, most memorably in Footloose (1984), The Lost Boys (1987), Parenthood (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990) and The Birdcage (1996). Some of her best screen work can be found in her neurotic, self-involved characterizations for director Woody Allen. Beginning with a cameo as a hooker in The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), she has been generously featured in five Allen films, winning Academy Awards for her dazzling performances as unlucky-in-love Holly in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and hyperbolic stage actress Helen Sinclair in Bullets Over Broadway (1994). Wiest could be seen playing another motherly figure in Robert Redford's 1998 adaptation of The Horse Whisperer; that same year, she appeared as one of Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman's otherworldly aunts (along with Stockard Channing) in Practical Magic. In 1999, she could be seen in the made-for-TV The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn, starring alongside Sidney Poitier. Her big-screen career continued with I Am Sam, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Dan in Real Life, and Synecdoche New York. She also found interesting work on television playing a DA on Law & Order for a couple of seasons, and playing the psychiatrist of a psychiatrist on HBO's In Treatment. She appeared in Rabbit Hole in 2010, and was Diane Keaton's flighty sister in Darling Companion.

Trivia: A Brooklyn native, the model-turned-actor Glenn Fitzgerald began his career by doing print ads for such brands as Calvin Klein, then segued into dramatic work in the mid-'90s. Fitzgerald debuted on film with Lisa Krueger's finely wrought Sundance Festival drama Manny & Lo (1996), but his sophomore effort, David O. Russell's Gen-X comedy Flirting With Disaster, marked his watershed moment. The actor's neat comic turn in that film as Lily Tomlin and Alan Alda's acid-pushing son finally made audiences sit up and take notice and virtually established Fitzgerald's career. As a result, he spent the following decade among the casts of the hottest independent and studio-driven American films. These included Ang Lee's The Ice Storm (as the young man at a "key drop" party who attracts the attention of adulterous housewife Sigourney Weaver), The Sixth Sense (1999), 40 Days and 40 Nights (2002), and Igby Goes Down (2002). Fitzgerald made a particularly strong impression in the satire Series 7: The Contenders (2001), as the participant of a twisted reality television show who harbors an extreme desire to end his life. On the small screen, Fitzgerald occasionally worked as a guest actor, appearing on such series as Six Feet Under and Law & Order. In 2007, he scored a regular prime-time role on the soapy drama Dirty Sexy Money, playing Episcopalian priest Brian Darling, a member of the incredibly wealthy Darling clan, who lives a less than holy life, including fathering a secret illegitimate child.

Trivia: Appeared in the music video for Michael Jackson's "Bad" in 1987. Was a founding member of LAByrinth Theater Company in 1992. Co-starred with Robert DeNiro in Broadway's Cuba & His Teddy Bear in 1986. Won an Obie award for his work in Blade to the Heart in 1995. Was a jury member for the 2013 Chelsea Film Festival. Teaches writing and acting at New York University and the Lee Strasburg Institute.

Trivia: It's doubtful there are many directors who have excelled at the sort of gritty, urban realism imbued in the films of Nick Gomez -- and even if they did, the performances they showcased and the moods they set aren't likely to have been nearly as effective. From the streets of New Jersey to the halls of inner-city law enforcement and the cold reality of prison, Gomez's unmistakable flair for the rougher side of life found him dabbling in television with episodes of such small-screen hits as The Sopranos, OZ, The Shield, and Homicide: Life on the Street. A native of Somerville, MA, who received his film education in the esteemed SUNY Purchase film program, Gomez did editing work in 1990 on the Hal Hartley films The Unbelievable Truth and Trust. The aspiring filmmaker had his own vision, however, and made his feature debut the next year with Laws of Gravity. Subsequently helming a handful of Homicide episodes, Gomez returned to features with the 1995 crime drama New Jersey Drive. Though his 1996 follow-up Illtown didn't gain him quite the exposure of his earlier efforts, Gomez expanded his directing experience with frequent television work. In 2000, he inexplicably turned to comedy with the quickly forgotten Drowning Mona, and two years later returned to the small screen with work on The Shield and Robbery Homicide Division. Gomez directed an episode of Keen Eddie in 2003.

Trivia: Best known as Jack Arnold, the husband and father with one of the world's softest hearts, on the period comedy drama The Wonder Years (1988-1993), burly actor Dan Lauria's accomplishments as an actor far outstripped that single characterization. Lauria sustained an impressive and versatile career that encompassed soap operas, situation comedies, long-form features and miniseries, and theatrical work, to name only a few arenas. As a young man, the Brooklyn-born Lauria attended Southern Connecticut State University, where he played collegiate football, then enlisted in the Marines. He received formal dramatic training under coaches Constance Welch (at Yale) and Davey Marlin-Jones (at the Washington Theatre Club) -- both of whom tutored him with an approach resolutely opposed to that of the classic "Method." Lauria then debuted onscreen in the early '80s largely with telemovies, such as the 1983 Without a Trace and the 1985 Brass, and with occasional appearances on sitcoms such as Growing Pains. The Wonder Years, of course, represented one of Lauria's most significant breaks, and he later reflected that it would remain his chief legacy as an actor. After Years wrapped in 1993, Lauria continued his small-screen work. He appeared on such programs as ER, Law & Order, Smallville, and Boy Meets World; played legendary network head Fred Silverman in Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Charlie's Angels; and played Crawford in the Martin Lawrence comedy vehicle Big Momma's House 2 (2006). He also maintained a busy theatrical schedule, with a particularly strong presence at L.A.'s Coronet Theater.

Trivia: Is of Cuban-Dominican descent. Became interested in acting during elementary school after seeing a play by the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. Was cast in her first professional acting job in a stage production of Simpson Street with the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. Starred in New World Stages' production of Celia in 2007. Played the role of Lela in an off-Broadway production of Basilica. Partnered with Orgullosa to donate $30,000 to the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. Is an Angel Ambassador for Gabrielle's Angel Foundation for Cancer Research. Attended a prom for teen patients of the Children's Hospital at Montefiore in 2015. Is an activist for LGBT rights and has a sister who is a transgender woman.

Trivia: Actor Yul Vázquez fit the bill for Hispanic or generalized ethnic roles in Hollywood productions, but worked to some degree against the grain by seeking out some of the more atypical and offbeat assignments within this type. He debuted in the Arne Glimcher-directed period musical drama The Mambo Kings (1992) -- as a member of the 1950s band at the center of the story -- then followed it up with bit parts and supporting roles in big-screen productions including Fresh (1994), Nick of Time (1995), Bad Boys II (2003), and War of the Worlds (2005), as well as occasional guest appearances on such series programs as Seinfeld and Law & Order. In 2007, Vázquez joined the cast of Ridley Scott's period crime melodrama American Gangster, alongside Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.

Trivia: After a four-year hitch with the Naval Reserve, actor Steven Hill made his first New York stage appearance in Ben Hecht's A Flag is Born (1946), which also featured a young Marlon Brando. Hill made his film debut in 1950, then returned to the Navy for two more years before settling down to acting on a permanent basis. He was particularly busy in the so-called Golden Age of live TV drama, appearing in such prestigious video offerings as The Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti (1959). In 1966, he was cast as Daniel Briggs--as in "Good morning, Mr. Briggs"--on the hit TV adventure series Mission: Impossible. He left this lucrative assignment in 1967, reportedly because his Orthodox Jewish faith prevented him from filming on weekends; his replacement was Peter Graves as "Mr. Phelps" (in 1989, Hill guest-starred on the short-lived Mission: Impossible revival). Hill remained very much in demand throughout the 1980s and 1990s playing parental and authority-figure roles in such films as Yentl (1983) Heartburn (1986) and Billy Bathgate (1991). Contemporary TV viewers are most familiar with Steven Hill for his work as Michael Steadman's father on thirtysomething (1987-91) and DA Adam Schiff on the weekly TVer Law and Order, a role he stayed with from 1990 to 2000. Hill died in 2016, at age 94.