Trivia: African-American musical superstar Diana Ross may well be a by-product of the almost crippling shyness she has suffered since childhood. Reportedly, it took a lot out of young Ross to work up the courage to sing in her church choir; but once she decided that music was to be her bread and butter, there was no stopping her. With Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson, Ross formed the now-legendary R&B "girl group" the Supremes, which was elevated from a local Detroit attraction to international renown by Motown Records maven Berry Gordy. When Florence Ballard was replaced by Cindy Birdsong in 1967, the group's name was changed to Diana Ross and the Supremes (which it had essentially been all along). Ross struck out on her own in 1969; within 12 months, her popularity was such that she was voted Entertainer of the Year by the NAACP. In 1972, she made her long-anticipated film debut in Lady Sings the Blues, delivering a bravura performance as blues great Billie Holliday. Nominated for an Oscar, Ross lost the statuette to Liza Minnelli, but did take home a Golden Globe Award. Her follow-up attempts at film stardom were major disappointments: Mahogany (1975) was utterly forgettable save for its signature tune "Do You Know Where You're Going To," while The Wiz (1978) suffered from bad casting decisions and an utter lack of a consistent style. Despite her failures on the big screen, Ross continued to excel as a recording artist. She floundered a bit when she left Motown in 1980, but was back on top the following year after signing with RCA. In 1977, Diana won a Tony Award for her starring Broadway revue, and in 1988 she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Diana Ross showed no signs of slowing down in the 1990s: in 1993, she wrote a book titled Secrets of a Sparrow; in 1994, she made her TV-movie acting debut, playing a paranoid schizophrenic in the commendable Out of Darkness; and in 1996, she was center of attention in what was arguably one of the most spectacular Super Bowl half-time shows ever conceived. She would try her hand at acting again in 1999's Double Platinum, acting as executive producer on that project as well.

Trivia: The screen's first authentic black romantic leading man, Williams is often referred to as "the black Gable." He first appeared onstage as a child actor in The Firebrand of Florence (1947) with German actress Lotte Lenya; his mother was an elevator operator at New York's Lyceum Theater, and when she heard of an opening for a child in the play she brought him to the producer, who hired him. He went on to study acting at New York's High School of Music and Art and The National Academy of Fine Arts; for a few months he was taught by Sidney Poitier at Harlem's Actors Workshop. He began working onstage in the mid '50s, then landed his breakthrough role in the play A Taste of Honey in 1960. He debuted onscreen as a rebellious ghetto kid in The Last Angry Man (1959). However, he did not appear in another film for over a decade. In the '60s he began landing roles on TV, including a continuing role on the soap opera Another World and guest spots on TV series. He made a big impression as the costar of the TV movie Brian's Song (1970). His breakthrough screen role was as the lover of Billie Holiday (Diana Ross) in the hit Lady Sings the Blues (1972), which brought him to stardom and established him as a romantic lead. He went on to appear in a number of movies, few of which fully used his talents; he portrayed Lando Calrissian in the second and third Star Wars films, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). In the mid '80s he began appearing again frequently on TV, and starred in the short-lived series Double Dare in 1985; he was also a regular for a while on Dynasty.

Trivia: An shy, slender actor whose name became virtually synonymous with legendary screen Psycho Norman Bates despite numerous solid performances in films outside the Hitchcock originated series, Anthony Perkins' sensitive and versatile early performances remain unfortunately obscured by his portrayal of the gender-bending sociopath that made filmgoers reluctant to shower alone for decades to come. Born to actor Osgood Perkins in April 1932 (who would die when Tony was but five years old), the young Perkins decided to follow in his father's footsteps when, at age 15, he became a member of the Actor's Equity. Soon taking the stage in summer stock, the fledgling and humble thespian embraced even the more unglamorous aspects of stage work and worked tirelessly to develop into an actor who could find celluloid success. Subsequent performances in such Rollins College productions as The Importance of Being Ernest helped him to develop the necessary skills, and following a relocation to Hollywood, Perkins was cast alongside Spencer Tracy in the film adaptation of Ruth Gordon's dramatic play The Actress. Reluctant to dive headfirst into what he considered the questionable ethics of Tinsletown, Perkins packed his bags for Columbia University. Landing roles in such Golden Age of Television staples as Studio One and G.E. Theater found the actor continuing to gain positive notice and exposure, with the success carrying over to Broadway, where Perkins would gain the respect of some of New York's harshest critics for his performance as a college student suspected of homosexuality in Robert Anderson's Tea and Sympathy. Nearly becoming a teen idol after crooning "A Little Love Goes a Long, Long Way" in the Goodyear TV Playhouse production Joey, Perkins was signed to Epic Records and later RCA Victor shortly before earning an Oscar nomination for his breakthrough roles in both William Wyler's Friendly Persuasion (1956) and Robert Mulligan's Fear Strikes Out (1957). With his portrayal as a timid pacifist and a disturbed baseball player respectively, Perkins' sensitive performances riveted audiences and resulted in numerous film offers. Appearing in The Matchmaker (1958) and On the Beach (1959) in the following years, Perkins' screen image as a soft-spoken everyman would be forever shattered with the release of Alfred Hitchcock's controversial masterpiece Psycho. Purposefully cast against type as twitchy, psychotic mama's boy Norman Bates, it would be that characterization which would haunt Perkins' career for the rest of his days. In an attempt to shake the association, Perkins would move to Europe after becoming a minor cultural icon following his role in Goodbye Again (1961) (for which he was named Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival). Appearing in such efforts as Orson Welles' The Trial (1963) and Is Paris Buring? (1966) throughout much of the duration of the 1960s, Perkins made somewhat of a return to American screens with such later efforts as Pretty Poison (1968), Catch-22 (1970), and Mahogany (1975). Working more frequently in television moving into the 1980s (1978's Les Miserables and The Sins of Dorian Gray [1983]), Perkins also continued to thrill theatergoers with roles in such films as The Black Hole (1979) and Ffolkes (1980) before returning to the character of Norman Bates in the inevitable sequel Psycho II. Directed this time by Hitchcock protégé Richard Franklin, the film proved a success and ranked among the top ten releases of 1983. From this point forward there would be little deviation from the twitchy theatricals that Perkins had perfected, and though entertaining in such efforts as Crimes of Passion (1984) and Edge of Sanity (1989), contemporary audiences would sadly witness little of the talented actor's pre-Psycho dramatic range. Associated almost exclusively with horror films by the onset of the 1990s, Perkins would return to the role of Bates for one last outing in the made-for-cable Psycho IV: The Beginning before serving as host to the short-lived television horror anthology series Chillers (1990). Taking the director's chair for the curious but widely ignored Psycho III (1986), it was only a short time later that Perkins would learn of his contraction of the virus that causes AIDS after reading of it in the tabloids. Working tirelessly alongside his longtime wife, Berry Berenson, for Project Angel Food (a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing meals to AIDS patients) in his later years, Perkins' philosophical statements regarding the ravaging disease that many considered a curse of humanity showed neither bitterness, anger, nor resentment toward the disease, but that his experiences in dealing with it had taught him more about compassion and love than he ever learned in his years in the film industry. On September 12, 1992, Perkins succumbed to AIDS-related pneumonia in Hollywood, CA, leaving behind a haunting but hopeful message to those who have suffered from the disease in an uncredited epilogue to the AIDS drama And the Band Played On (1993). Perkins left behind a son, who also embarked on an acting career with such efforts as Legally Blonde and Not Another Teen Movie (both 2001). Tragically, Perkins' wife was a passenger on one of the terrorist-hijacked planes that crashed into the World Trade Center a day before the nine-year anniversary of Perkins' death.

Trivia: Jean-Pierre Aumont, born Jean Pierre-Salomon, was a tall, charming, blond and blue-eyed leading man, who became the archetype of the "continental" gentleman. Born into the French upper class (his father owned a chain of department stores, while his mother was a former actress), he leaped into theater at age 16, studying at the Paris Conservatory. He made his stage debut at 21 and his first film appearance a year later in Jean de la Lune (1931); his career really took off after he appeared in Cocteau's play La Machine Infernal in 1934, establishing his attractiveness as a leading man and prompting film-makers to demand his services. Following his appearance in Carné's classic film Hôtel du Nord (1938), he put his career on the back burner in order to serve with the Free French forces in Tunisia, Italy, and France; a brave soldier, he was ultimately awarded the Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre. With France under Hitler's occupation, he moved to California in 1942, where his role in a stage production led to a contract with MGM. Cleverly utilizing his background, the studio assigned him the leads in Cross of Lorraine (1942) and Assignment in Brittany (1943), a film about the French resistance. His Hollywood career was fairly routine, and he returned to France after the war. However, he had become popular in the states, and continued to make occasional American TV, stage, and movie appearances into the '80s. The author of several plays, he also penned the autobiography Sun and Shadow (1976). A complex love-life produced marriages to French film actress Blanche Montel, whom he divorced, and Hollywood vixen Maria Montez, who died in 1951. He and Montez had a daughter, Tina (Maria-Christina) Aumont, who went on to become a film actress. An engagement to star Hedy Lamarr was broken off and followed by a marriage, divorce, and re-marriage to actress Marisa Pavan. His brother is French film director Francoise Villiers.

Trivia: Born in Vicksburg, MS, in 1920, actress Beah Richards studied at Dillard University in New Orleans before pursuing an acting career on-stage in New York City. She appeared in Louis S. Peterson's off-Broadway play Take a Giant Step and in the film adaptation in 1959. In 1965, she received a Tony nomination for her role as Sister Margaret in James Baldwin's play The Amen Corner, and two years later she received an Academy Award nomination for her supporting role as Sidney Poitier's mother in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. She continued playing matriarch characters in the feature films Hurry Sundown, In the Heat of the Night, and The Great White Hope. During the '70s, she took over for Lillian Randolph as Bill Cosby's mother on The Bill Cosby Show, played Aunt Ethel on Sanford and Son, and played several grandmotherly characters in made-for-TV movies. More television appearances followed in the '80s, with recurring roles on Designing Women, Beauty and the Beast, Hill Street Blues, Roots: The Next Generations, and L.A. Law. In 1987, she received her first Emmy award for playing Olive Varden on Frank's Place. She has also directed plays at the Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center, appeared in her own one-woman show, and published several plays and novels, including the poetry collection A Black Woman Speaks and Other Poems. After playing the substance abuse counselor in Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy, she made a bit of a comeback as Dr. Benton's (Eriq LaSalle) mother on the NBC medical drama ER and as Grandma Baby in Jonathan Demme's Beloved, based on the novel by Toni Morrison. She received an Emmy for her final television appearance as Gertrude Turner on the ABC drama The Practice. She died of emphysema in 2000.

Trivia: Blonde, ice cool, and sophisticated actress Nina Foch has worked steadily in feature films and television since making her film debut in Return of the Vampire (1943). As a contracted starlet for Columbia Pictures, Foch spent several years appearing in many B-films before she was able to prove herself ready for bigger fare. Born to Dutch conductor/composer Dirk Fock and an American chorine/WWI-era pin-up girl, Foch was born in Holland but raised in Manhattan. Before enrolling in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts to study acting, she had briefly been a concert pianist and an amateur painter. As an actress, Foch gained experience with local theater and touring companies until signing with Columbia in 1943. In 1947, Foch made the first of many forays on Broadway. By the early '50s, she was being cast in secondary but better roles in such films as An American in Paris (1951) and Scaramouche (1952). In 1954, Foch appeared in Executive Suite for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. But for a few television appearances and some stage work, Foch took a respite from acting in 1960 that lasted over ten years. She made a comeback in Such Good Friends (1971) and continued to appear sporadically in films as a character actress. Foch also worked steadily in television, was a respected drama coach in Hollywood, and taught at UCLA's School of Cinematic Arts for 40 years before her death in late 2008.

Trivia: Austrian lead actress in international films, onscreen from the '60s.

Trivia: Ted Liss was a prominent acting coach at the Ted Liss Studio Acting Workshop. Liss began acting on the radio in childhood. Later he was a regular performer with Orson Welles' Mercury Theater. Liss began his film career in the late '40s.

Trivia: With his unmistakable presence -- characterized by an obese figure, oversized red glasses, a shaggy blonde mane, and a scruffy, unkempt beard -- Bruce Vilanch checked in as one of Hollywood's most colorful characters for decades. His effeminate presence and apparel (both of which played up Vilanch's open homosexuality) only heightened this. Though known to many as an onscreen character player and comedian, Vilanch scored his most resounding successes as a gag writer for stand-up comics such as Bette Midler, Billy Crystal, Lily Tomlin, and Roseanne; in fact, a point arrived where many considered him the go-to comic for stand-up sets and a first-choice writer for events such as the perennial Oscar, Grammy, Emmy, and Tony telecasts. A native of Paterson, NJ, Vilanch attended Ohio State University as a theater and journalism major. After graduation, Vilanch moved into show business professionally, with comic roles in features such as the 1975 Mahogany (as a fashion designer), the 1984 Ice Pirates, the 1986 thriller The Morning After, and the 2008 Adam Sandler comedy You Don't Mess with the Zohan. On the side, Vilanch did frequent uncredited rewrites of Hollywood features and enjoyed a lengthy and productive tenure as a writer of features for the Chicago Tribune newspaper. Vilanch's professional mainstay, however, remained comedy writing. He was the subject of the all-star 1999 documentary Get Bruce! and played Edna Turnblad during an extensive run of the Broadway musical Hairspray.