Trivia: Lovable tough guy character actor Dennis Farina was already well into his first career as a Chicago cop before he was able to turn his occasional acting gigs into a prodigious new line of work.Raised in Chicago by Italian immigrant parents, Farina joined his hometown's police force in the mid-'60s, settling into a life of law enforcement. When he was hired to be a local consultant on Michael Mann's film Thief (1981), however, Farina wound up with a bit part as the villain's heavy. Farina continued to moonlight as an actor for several years, appearing in local theater and occasional movies, including Final Jeopardy (1985) and the Chuck Norris vehicle Code of Silence (1985). Though he never took an acting class, Farina was a natural; after Michael Mann offered him the lead in the series Crime Story in 1986, Farina left the police force to play a TV cop. During his 1986-1988 stint on the series, Farina also played FBI agent Jack Crawford (Scott Glen's part in Silence of the Lambs [1991]) in Mann's stylish thriller Manhunter (1986), was the Birdman of Alcatraz in the TV movie Six Against the Rock (1987), and a cop in TV movie mystery Through Naked Eyes (1987). Drawing on his no-nonsense charm as well as his eclectic life experience, Farina continued to shine in roles on both sides of the law, such as serial killer Angelo Buono in The Case of the Hillside Stranglers (1989) and the lead prosecutor in the TV docudrama Blind Faith (1990). As nimble with comedy, Farina went up against Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin as a mobster in the popular buddy yarn Midnight Run (1988). His versatility firmly established by the 1990s, Farina's early '90s work ranged from playing a billionaire in People Like Us (1990), to Banquo in a New York gangland version of Macbeth, Men of Honor (1991), as well as supporting roles in the comedy Another Stakeout (1993), Bruce Willis actioner Striking Distance (1993), John Turturro's Italian-American family drama Mac (1993), and vicious neo-noir Romeo Is Bleeding (1994). Farina's appearance as John Travolta's nemesis, hilariously bumbling tough guy Ray "Bones" Barboni, in Barry Sonnenfeld's adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Get Shorty (1995), led to his most notable hit since Midnight Run. His career hitting a new high, Farina co-starred with Bette Midler as reunited exes in Carl Reiner's That Old Feeling (1997), and starred as a Sicilian bigwig in the high-profile TV miniseries Bella Mafia (1997). Though his Marshall Sisco made only a brief appearance in Steven Soderbergh's esteemed Elmore Leonard adaptation Out of Sight (1998), Farina was pitch-perfect as Jennifer Lopez's protective dad. After joining the superb corps in Steven Spielberg's award-winning Saving Private Ryan (1998), Farina returned to series TV, playing smooth detective Buddy Faro (1998); the series, however, lasted only one season. Returning to films, Farina followed his role as the police captain who recruits The Mod Squad (1999) with another comic turn as a New York gangster who sets the diamond larceny plot in motion in Snatch (2000), adding a dash of Hollywood celebrity (along with Brad Pitt and Benicio del Toro) to British lad director Guy Ritchie's sophomore effort. The releases of two of Farina's next films, Barry Sonnenfeld's caper Big Trouble (2001) and Edward Burns' romantic comedy Sidewalks of New York (2001), were delayed after the terrorist attack on New York on September 11, 2001. Sidewalks of New York surfaced later in 2001, but the romantic comedy failed to charm a large audience. Big Trouble finally made it into theaters in the first half of 2002, but despite the big name cast, Sonnenfeld's farce joined such high profile fare as Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Collateral Damage (2002) and the espionage actioner Bad Company (2002) on the list of 9/11-delayed flops. Farina's next film, the broad, witless comedy Stealing Harvard (2002), also failed at the box office. Farina returned to television during the fall 2002 season with a lead role as a comically monstrous Meet the Parents-esque father-in-law on the sitcom The In-Laws (2002). Despite initially withering reviews, The In-Laws managed to show signs of ratings life.As the 2000's rolled forward, Farina appeared in a number of movies, most notably in Bottle Shock and What Happens in Vegas. Farina would find even more success on the small screen, with roles on Law & Order and the much discussed horse-racing drama Luck. Sadly, Farina died of a bloodclot in his lung in July of 2013. He was 69 years old.

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: Took her great-grandmother's maiden name as a stage name. Trained in England at London's Holborne Center for Performing Arts. In 2001, her role as Julia Lindsay Snyder on As the World Turns earned her a Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Young Actress. Before joining the Law & Order cast in its 15th season as ADA Alexandra Borgia, she played an exotic dancer in a May 2002 episode titled "Attorney Client." Has been an active stage actress, appearing in Broadway's Prelude to a Kiss (2007) and starring in the title role of the play Becky Shaw (2009). Taught a class called Acting for the Camera at Fordham University.

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: Fred Dalton Thompson spent 25 years as an active Nashville and Washington, D.C., attorney before making his film debut playing himself in a 1985 retelling of the true tale of a Tennessee woman who took on the state's crooked governor in Marie. When Thompson won more acclaim than the film's stars Sissy Spacek and Jeff Daniels, he decided to add "character actor" to his resumé, and went on to appear in numerous major features. Standing 6'5," he was a commanding presence and was usually cast as an authoritarian. Thompson put his film career on hold when he made a successful bid to become a Tennessee senator in 1994, then picked up where he left off when his term ended, playing DA Arthur Branch on Law & Order, along with other supporting film roles. Thompson returned to politics with an attempt at the 2008 presidential election, but was unsuccessful, and soon resumed his acting career. He played horse breeder Arthur Hancock in Secretariat (2010) and appeared in the Hank Williams biopic The Last Ride (2011). One of his final acting roles was as an FBI Director in the short-lived NBC series Allegiance in 2015. Thompson died later that year, at age 73.

Trivia: Before his starring role in The Sopranos made his name, character actor Michael Imperioli worked in numerous films during the 1990s with an impressive array of New York-based talent. Born in Mount Vernon, NY, Imperioli did not have to move far when he decided to study acting at New York City's Stella Adler Conservatory. Soon after his 1988 movie debut, Imperioli burnished his acting resumé with a small part as Spider, shot by Joe Pesci in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas (1990). The following year, Imperioli earned his first role in a Spike Lee film, Jungle Fever (1991). Becoming a Lee regular, Imperioli also played small parts in Malcolm X (1992), Clockers (1995), and Girl 6 (1996), and garnered his first feature screenplay credit as co-writer and executive producer of Lee's Summer of Sam (1999). Imperioli added Italian-American authenticity to Nancy Savoca's quirky ethnic tale Household Saints (1993) and appeared with future Sopranos co-stars Dominic Chianese in The Night We Never Met (1993) and Edie Falco in Abel Ferrara's vampire allegory The Addiction (1995). Briefly "going Hollywood" with parts in the first Michael Bay extravaganza Bad Boys (1995), and Walter Hill's Last Man Standing (1996), Imperioli returned to his New York state of mind in the latter half of the 1990s. Working with The Addiction star Lili Taylor again, Imperioli was an arrogant Ondine to Taylor's disturbed Factory hanger-on Valerie Solanas in Mary Harron's I Shot Andy Warhol (1996). Audiences could finally attach a name to Imperioli's oft-seen face when he was cast as drug-addicted wannabe screenwriter/mobster Christopher Moltisanti in David Chase's Mafia series The Sopranos. A critical hit from its 1999 debut onward, The Sopranos' potent combination of black comedy, family drama, and violence allowed Imperioli to display the full range of his talents onscreen, particularly when Christopher dabbles in Method acting, and offscreen as one of the second season writers. Imperioli is married and has two children.

Trivia: The genial, slightly stocky Hollywood character actor Kevin Dunn graced the casts of some of the highest grossing and most enjoyable A-listers of the '80s, '90s, and 2000s. With a pleasant (if unremarkable) countenance, this brother of Second City veteran (and onetime Saturday Night Live mainstay) Nora Dunn cut his chops playing everymen in American movies and one-shot television episodes. Kevin Dunn lacked the sketch comedy background of his arguably more famous sibling but quickly chalked up an equally extensive resumé at about the same time.Dunn debuted on camera in the mid-'80s, with a recurring role on the series comedy drama Jack & Mike (1986), co-starring Shelley Hack and Tom Mason, but Alan Parker's harrowing civil-rights drama Mississippi Burning (in which he played Agent Bird) marked his first real breakthrough. From that point on, he became ever-present in such blockbusters as Ghostbusters 2 (1989), Blue Steel (1990), Only the Lonely (1991), Hot Shots! (1991), Chaplin (1992), and Dave (1993). Directors often cast Dunn as an emotional (or political) support to a heavy, such as his brief evocation of Nixon aide (and eventual Christian spokesperson) Chuck Colson in Oliver Stone's biopic Nixon (1995), that of Lou Logan (opposite Nicolas Cage) in Brian De Palma's muddled, flawed paranoid thriller Snake Eyes (1998), and that of Alex (alongside Sean Penn) in the political drama All The King's Men (2006). In 2007, Dunn appeared in the blockbuster action hit Transformers as Ron Witwicky, the father of lead actor Shia LaBeouf's character, Sam. Dunn also had a role in the underperforming Tom Cruise/Robert Redford/Meryl Streep drama Lions for Lambs. In the fall of that year, Dunn found success on the sitcom Samantha Who? as the father of the amnesia-afflicted main character (Christina Applegate).He was part of the cast of Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and played a bad guy in the runaway train thriller Unstoppable. In 2011 he appeared in the well-reviewed MMA drama Warrior, and the blockbuster Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The next year he was cast in the one and only season of HBO's racetrack set drama series Luck.

Trivia: Made his feature-film debut in Laws of Gravity (1992), which starred another Purchase College alum, Edie Falco. Also worked with Edie Falco on HBO's The Sopranos and Showtime's Nurse Jackie.

Trivia: Supporting actor Boyd has appeared onscreen from the '70s.

Trivia: Lead actor, onscreen from 1963.

Trivia: The product of a large, loud Baltimore family, Michael Tucker was fourteen when he first concentrated his excess energy into acting, appearing as a "Lost Boy" in a community theatre production of Peter Pan. On the advice of a high school teacher, Tucker enrolled in the drama department at Carnegie Tech., were he rapidly became one of the prize students. From 1966 through 1976, Tucker played an exhausting variety of roles with such regional companies as the Long Wharf Theater, the Milwaukee Rep and Washington's Arena Stage, supplementing his income as a college acting coach (During his days in Milwaukee, Tucker claimed that he'd previously been the youngest stand-up comedian on the Catskills circuit; then again, he also claimed to be three years younger than he actually was). He made his Broadway bow in a 1976 revival of Trelawny of the Wells. Two years later he began his film career, which gained momentum after his portrayal of restaurateur Bagel in Barry Levinson's Diner (1982) and peaked with solid roles in such Woody Allen films as The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) and Radio Days (1986). In 1986, Tucker began an eight-season run as Stuart Markowitz on the prime-time TV hit LA Law. The series was produced by Tucker's onetime Carnegie classmate Stephen Bochco, and co-starred Mrs. Tucker, aka actress Jill Eikenberry, who reteamed with her husband in the made-for-TV films Assault and Matrimony (1987) and The Secret Life of Archie's Wife (1990). Outside of LA Law, Michael Tucker's most prestigious TV assignment thus far has been the role of refugee scientist Leo Szilard in Day One, a 1989 docudrama about the Manhattan Project.

Trivia: Is of Jewish descent.Started his acting career in theaters.Made his debut on television and film in 1993.Used to read novels out loud to his wife when their child was a toddler.In 2019, he supported the Riley's Way Foundation, aimed to provide teen lead projects to inspire them kindness.Is skilled at tennis.