Trivia: The son of a prominent archaeologist/museum director, American actor Ted Danson grew up near the Navajo reservation in Arizona. He played basketball while at Kent School Connecticut, and then moved on to Stanford University. It was in the process of getting acquainted with an aspiring actress at Stanford that Danson found himself attending his first audition-- and by years' end had transferred to the drama department at Carnegie Tech. Marking time in non-speaking roles, Danson left the stage for the more lucrative world of TV commercials, some of which have been well-circulated on videotape since Danson has become famous. Danson's first steady TV work was as a slimy villain on the NBC soap opera Somerset. Shortly afterward, the actor attained his first film role, as a murdered cop, in The Onion Field (1978). After seeing Danson in the movie Body Heat (1981) and in an episode of the TV series Taxi, producer Glen Charles cast the actor as Sam Malone, ex-sports star and full-time barkeeper and womanizer, on the long-running, well-loved sitcom Cheers He won Emmys for the 1989-90 and 1992-93 seasons. Frequently making attempts at film stardom during the 11-season run of Cheers, Danson finally struck gold in Three Men and a Baby (1987) and its sequel Three Men and a Little Lady (1990). Danson's most recent work includes the 1996 starring role in the TV miniseries Gulliver's Travels and a co-starring role, opposite his new wife Mary Steenburgen, in the television sit-com Ink (also 1996). In 1998 Danson began a six-year run on another successful sitcom portraying the lead character on Becker, playing a caustic grump who couldn't have been further from Sam Malone's effortless charm. He continued to work steadily on the big screen as well scoring appearances in Saving Private Ryan and Mumford. He made sporadic appearances on Larry David's award-winning Curb Your Enthusiasm, and earned strong reviews for his dramatic work on the first season of the TV show Damages. He followed that up with a co-starring role on the HBO series Bored to Death, which lasted three seasons. In 2012 he could be seen in the inspirational animal movie Big Miracle.

Trivia: The ever-fascinating Nancy Travis excelled in edgy, neurotic characterizations during the 1990s; she sounds like a chain-smoker or Valium-popper even when not playing one. Graduating with a BA degree from New York University, Travis apprenticed at Circle in the Square, acted in the touring company of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, and starred on Broadway with Judd Hirsch in I'm Not Rappaport. As a means of continually recharging her creative batteries, she helped found the Naked Angels, an off-Broadway acting troupe. After laboring in virtual anonymity in such TV movies as Malice in Wonderland (1985), Travis was afforded top billing in the 1986 two-parter Harem, lending a little artistry and dignity to an otherwise trivial affair. Her movie breakthrough was in the role of the errant, unmarried British mother Sylvia in Three Men and a Baby (1987) and its 1990 sequel Three Men and a Little Lady. More complex roles came her way in Internal Affairs (1992), The Vanishing (1993) and Chaplin (1993); in the latter film, she appeared as the real-life Joan Barry, whose spiteful and unfounded paternity suit against Charlie Chaplin (Robert Downey Jr.) was the beginning of the end of The Little Tramp's Hollywood career. Even when playing comedy in So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993), Travis retained her ticking-bomb, "don't turn your back on me" aura. Nancy Travis' television credits of the 1990s include her gravelly voiceover work as Aunt Bernice on the animated weekly Duckman (1993- ) and her starring stint on the so-so 1995 sitcom Almost Perfect.

Trivia: Thesp Shawnee Smith's name might not be a household word, but her face will register with thousands of sci-fi and horror aficionados thanks to her supporting turns in the big-screen remakes of The Blob (1988) and Carnival of Souls (1998). Smith's recurring role as Amanda, a young woman tormented by the clown-like serial killer Jigsaw, in the popular Saw series, broadened her exposure, even as it threatened to further typecast her as a woman in peril and fix her reputation as a horror queen. Yet the actress's resume demonstrates far greater versatility than this, and it may surprise fans to discover that she claims several decades of credits in multiple genres.Born on July 3, 1970, in Orangeburg, South Carolina, Smith debuted on the big screen at 11, as a dancer, in mogul Ray Stark's multimillion-dollar production of Annie (1982). A bit part in Michael Tuchner's acclaimed telemovie Not My Kid (1985) followed, at the age of fourteen; the picture drew solid Nielsen ratings and favorable critical responses, but Smith's only amounted to a bit part. She maintained greater visibility in the late eighties, with two significant roles: Rhonda Altobello in Carl Reiner's 1987 Mark Harmon-starrer Summer School. While most critics dismissed the film, it charmed a handful of others (such as Kevin Thomas and Rita Kempley) and did outstanding box office for a programmer, grossing several times its original budget. The very same could be said of Chuck Russell's 1988 remake The Blob, and then some: in addition to delighting nostalgia-hungry moviegoers (and some critics), it purportedly acquired a loyal following, becoming - in time - something of a cult film. Over the nineties and into the 2000s, Smith evinced a predilection for slightly deeper and more intelligent fare, but kept a somewhat low onscreen profile for several years, usually (though not always) with bit parts in lower budget indie dramas. Smith also appears in director Paul Quinn's Never Get Outta the Boat, which dramatizes the lives of several recovering addicts. She landed a regular role as Linda, a not-so-bright nurse's aide, on the 1998 CBS sitcom Becker, starring Ted Danson, and stuck with the series until it wrapped in 2004.When Smith's horror film quotient skyrocketed in the early 2000s (with the Saw role) it temporarily eclipsed her involvement in more substantial fare, even as her screen activity per se crescendoed. In the vein of earlier slasher film franchises, the initial Saw entry and its sequels did exemplary box office and obtained a rabid following; surprisingly, the pictures drew a favorable response in some critical quarters, as well.

Trivia: Jorge Garcia's large stature and larger personality made him a star long before he was cast on the hit TV series Lost. Even while he was growing up in Southern California, the charismatic young man was well liked by both his peers and his elders, even taking home the "Triton of the Year" award at his high-school graduation, an honor bestowed by the faculty to the class' most outstanding senior. He then enrolled at UCLA, majoring in Communications, but a guest lecture by Dustin Hoffman changed his direction. Hoffman told a story about Sir Laurence Olivier describing the acting bug as a feeling of "Look at me, look at me, look at me!" Garcia couldn't help but relate to the idea, so he began to pursue a career in acting and standup comedy.Success didn't come easily, though, and Garcia spent six years working at a bookstore, scoring occasional parts in commercials. Slowly but surely, however, the more substantial roles started coming. Along with appearances on shows like Spin City and Columbo, Garcia nabbed a recurring role on the sitcom Becker, making several appearances over the next six years. Then in 2004, he played a drug dealer in an episode of Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm and caught the attention of ABC producers, who were in the initial stages of casting a new show called Lost. They brought Garcia in to read for the part of Sawyer, which would later go to Josh Holloway, but eventually decided to create the role of Hurley specifically for Garcia. The innovative show was a mystery thriller with a sci-fi twist, and the honest, funny, and totally unpretentious character of Hurley would become wildly popular with fans, making the 31-year-old actor an instant star.Garcia moved to Hawaii, where Lost was filmed, and stuck with the landmark show until it ended its run in 2010. The actor would go on to remain active on screen, appearing on such series as Mr. Sunshine and Alcatraz.

Trivia: Few actors are more polarizing in the responses they elicit than the eternally obnoxious, terminally whiny Gilbert Gottfried. Those who have heard his voice are not likely to soon forget his shrill, fingernails-on-the-chalkboard delivery; and those who have seen him are no doubt familiar with his squinty-eyed persona and overly dramatic mannerisms.Born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1955, Gottfried was the youngest of three children and began to refine his unique comic persona (a persona Gottfried describes as being "somewhere between Pat Boone and Jeffrey Dahmer") at the age of 15. Quickly gaining a reputation as a talented comic who was often considered an acquired taste, Gilbert toured as a stand-up comic until he gained his first taste of national exposure on the otherwise forgettable 1980-1981 season of Saturday Night Live. A period of transition in the long-running comedy series, given that producer and founder Lorne Michaels had recently departed along with the talented cast, Gottfried's involvement was short-lived as Michaels soon returned to revive the series with a new cast and writers. Moving on, as a member of the cast of Alan Thicke's equally disastrous late-night effort Thicke of the Night in 1983, Gottfried would soon turn to bit parts in films before helming his own latenight schlock-a-thon, USA Up All Night.The replacement for perennial cult favorite Night Flight, USA Up All Night specialized in airing the worst of the worst, constantly scraping the cinematic drivel from the bottom of the barrel, with Gottfried at the helm as its gleefully annoying host. Continuing to work in film and television while serving as master of the B's, Gottfried appeared frequently on the small screen in Duckman and at the movies in Problem Child (and its sequels) before kicking off a successful turn in animated character voices with his role as Iago the Parrot in Disney's Aladdin (1992). A frequent guest of Hollywood Squares and The Howard Stern Show, Gottfried's vigorous vocal chords lend themselves to an amusing variety of impressions, as well. Inspired by Universal monster films of the 1930s, Gottfried is well known for his spot-on Dracula impression (interchangeable with his Pope impersonation), and many others that he frequently incorporates into his stand-up act.He maintained his reputation as one of the funniest, and often most offensive, stand-up comics of his generation, never bothering to commit to a film career, but taking parts here and there, very often in animated projects. He had a long run as the voice of the Aflac duck in a series of commercials for the insurance company, and he made a memorable impression in the 2005 documentary The Aristocrats where his infamous telling of the title joke at a Friar's Club Roast stands as arguably its definitive rendition.

Trivia: As Knots Landing's scheming, manipulative vixen Paige Matheson, actress Nicollette Sheridan proved a devilish highlight of 1980s television. Though she had essayed a few small supporting roles in film and television before landing that fateful role, it was Sheridan's icy perfection on Knots Landing that defined her early career. Just as her career seemed to be on the wane with appearances in such B-grade fare as 1999's Raw Nerve and director Jim Wynorski's Lost Treasure, Sheridan surprised television viewers by rising from the ashes to reclaim her former glory by landing the role of fast and loose divorcée Edie Britt on the hit ABC series Desperate Housewives in 2004. Her reborn celebrity status was cemented when the aging actress courted controversy by baring it all (or at least her back) in a steamy Monday Night Football promo. The granddaughter of revered English actress Dinah Sheridan, Nicollette was born November 21, 1963, in England and raised in London before later relocating to Los Angeles. In 1984, she made her small-screen debut in the short-lived television series Paper Dolls. The next year, Sheridan gained feature credibility as the object of John Cusack's character's affection in the lightweight romantic comedy The Sure Thing before returning to the tube for a pair of made-for-television features. In 1986, she began an enduring seven-year run on the evening drama Knots Landing, her performance providing the series with some of its most memorable moments. Sheridan's post-Knots Landing career was highlighted by roles in Spy Hard, Beverly Hills Ninja, and a series of made-for-television movies including A Time to Heal and The People Next Door. If it appeared at the dawn of the new millennium that Sheridan would be forever relegated to obscure independent films and little-seen small-screen features, the tireless actress received a healthy career boost when chosen to portray saucy Edie Britt in the surprise ABC hit Desperate Housewives. If this wasn't enough to put Sheridan back in the spotlight, her controversial appearance on a teaser spot for Monday Night Football raised eyebrows when the actress appeared to seduce Philadelphia receiver Terrell Owens by entering the locker room and dropping her bath towel. Just as Janet Jackson had shocked viewers with the Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction" commonly known as "Nipplegate," Sheridan's revealing moment was instantly dubbed "Towelgate" by a salivating press eager to capitalize on the latest controversy. Once her run on Housewives ended, Sheridan mostly laid low, occasionally appearing in a TV movie, like Honeymoon for One (2011) and The Christmas Spirit (2013).