Trivia: Angela Lansbury received an Oscar nomination for her first film, Gaslight, in 1944, and has been winning acting awards and audience favor ever since. Born in London to a family that included both politicians and performers, Lansbury came to the U.S. during World War II. She made notable early film appearances as the snooty sister in National Velvet (1944); the pathetic singer in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), which garnered her another Academy nomination; and the madam-with-a-heart-of-gold saloon singer in The Harvey Girls (1946). She turned evil as the manipulative publisher in State of the Union (1948), but was just as convincing as the good queen in The Three Musketeers (1948) and the petulant daughter in The Court Jester (1956). She received another Oscar nomination for her chilling performance as Laurence Harvey's scheming mother in The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and appeared as the addled witch in Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), among other later films. On Broadway, she won Tony awards for the musicals Mame (1966), Dear World (1969), the revival of Gypsy (1975), Sweeney Todd (1979) and, at age 82, for the play Blithe Spirit (2009). Despite a season in the '50s on the game show Pantomime Quiz, she came to series television late, starring in 1984-1996 as Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote; she took over as producer of the show in the '90s. She returned to the Disney studios to record the voice of Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast (1991) and to sing the title song and later reprised the role in the direct-to-video sequel, The Enchanted Christmas (1997). Lansbury is the sister of TV producer Bruce Lansbury.

Trivia: Fresh from the Marquette University drama department, Charles Siebert continued his theatrical studies at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Upon his graduation, Siebert and his wife had become so enchanted with England that he attempted to extend his visa by claiming that he'd gotten a job as a jazz-dancing teacher--a ruse that worked for a full year before he was found out. Following his professional debut in a Morristown, New Jersey production of Oedipus Rex, Siebert sought out work on Broadway, paying the rent by appearing in such TV daytime dramas as Search for Tomorrow and As the World Turns, and accepting roles in what Siebert would later describe as "The God Shows:" Sunday-morning religious anthologies like Lamp Unto My Feet, Look Up and Live and The Eternal Light. In the late 1960s, he bemusedly found himself the subject of media attention when he appeared in the play The Changing Room, which featured one of Broadway's first all-male nude scenes. Moving to Hollywood in 1976, Siebert quickly became a member in good standing of producer Norman Lear's talent pool, guesting on such series as All in the Family and Maude and appearing regularly as Mr. Davenport on One Day at a Time. While he has appeared in a number of films and had recurring roles on several weekly series, Charles Siebert is best known for his work as ivy-league doctor Stanley Riverside II on the TV medical drama Trapper John MD (1979-1986).

Trivia: The son of Broadway singer/actor Harry Stockwell, Guy Stockwell made his stage debut at age 5 in The Innocent Voyage. Also appearing in this 1943 Theatre Guild production was Guy's younger brother Dean Stockwell. Dean went on to fame as a child actor, specializing in sensitive roles; conversely, Guy did not truly achieve prominence until adulthood, playing rugged, outdoorsy types. More active on the stage than on screen, Guy nonetheless chalked up plenty of on-camera credits, including regular roles on such TV series as Adventures in Paradise (1961), The Richard Boone Show (1963), and the daytime drama Return to Peyton Place (1972; as Dr. Michael Rossi). Guy Stockwell's best big-screen assignment was the title role in the 1966 remake of Beau Geste.

Trivia: While growing up in Chicago, Tom Bosley dreamed of becoming the star left-fielder for the Cubs. As it turned out, the closest Bosley got to organized athletics was a sportscasting class at DePauw University. After additional training at the Radio Institute of Chicago and two years' practical experience in various dramatic radio programs and stock companies, he left for New York in 1950. Five years of odd jobs and summer-theater stints later, he landed his first off-Broadway role, playing Dupont-Dufort in Jean Anouilh's Thieves' Carnival. Steadier work followed at the Arena Theatre in Washington, D.C.; then in 1959, Bosley landed the starring role in the Broadway musical Fiorello!, picking up a Tony Award, an ANTA Award, and the New York Drama Critics Award in the bargain. In 1963, he made his film bow as Natalie Wood's "safe and secure" suitor Anthony Colombo in Love With the Proper Stranger. Occasionally cast as two-bit criminals or pathetic losers (he sold his eyes to blind millionairess Joan Crawford in the Spielberg-directed Night Gallery TV movie), Bosley was most often seen as a harried suburban father. After recurring roles on such TV series as That Was the Week That Was, The Debbie Reynolds Show, and The Sandy Duncan Show, Bosley was hired by Hanna-Barbera to provide the voice of flustered patriarch Howard Boyle on the animated sitcom Wait Til Your Father Gets Home (1972-1973). This served as a dry run of sorts for his most famous series-TV assignment: Howard Cunningham, aka "Mr. C," on the immensely popular Happy Days (1974-1983). The warm, familial ambience of the Happy Days set enabled Bosley to weather the tragic death of his first wife, former dancer Jean Elliot, in 1978. In addition to his Happy Days duties, Bosley was narrator of the syndicated documentary That's Hollywood (1977-1981). From 1989 to 1991, he starred on the weekly series The Father Dowling Mysteries, and thereafter was seen on an occasional basis as down-to-earth Cabot Cove sheriff Amos Tupper on Murder, She Wrote. Reportedly as kind, generous, and giving as his Happy Days character, Tom Bosley has over the last 20 years received numerous honors for his many civic and charitable activities.

Trivia: A former stage director, Walter Grauman turned to films in 1957. Most of Grauman's big-screen efforts were unremarkable, with the exception of his taut 1964 thriller Lady in a Cage. He is best known for his TV work on such weekly series as The Untouchables and The Twilight Zone. Grauman also directed a wealth of worthwhile TV-movies and miniseries, among them The Old Man Who Cried Wolf (1970), The Streets of San Francisco (1971), The Memory of Eva Riker (1980), Bare Essence (1982), and the slicked-down 1981 remake of Valley of the Dolls. His final directorial effort was a handful of episodes of Murder, She Wrote. Grauman died in 2015, at age 93.

Trivia: Leading lady of television and films, Judy Landers made her feature-film debut in The Yum-Yum Girls (1976) and appeared in her first television show, Happy Days (in 1974), as a guest star. Landers spent the bulk of her career in low-budget films. TV series in which she was a regular include Vega$ (1978) and B.J. and the Bear (1981). She and her sister, Audrey Landers, have appeared together in two films, The Tennessee Stallion (1978) and Ghost Writer (1989).

Trivia: The daughter of show folk, Hope Lange was 12 when she appeared in her first Broadway play, Sidney Kingsley's The Patriots. Fourteen years later, with dozens of plays and TV programs to her credit, Lange made her screen debut in Bus Stop (1956), managing to garner critical and audience attention despite her omnipresent co-star Marilyn Monroe (Lange's first husband was Bus Stop leading man Don Murray). Signed to a 20th Century Fox contract, Lange was Oscar nominated for her performance in Peyton Place (1957) and was equally impressive in such films as The Young Lions (1957) and The Best of Everything (1959). In the early 1960s, Lange was briefly linked romantically with Glenn Ford, who insisted that she co-star with him in Pocketful of Miracles, a fact that inspired a stream of published invective from the film's director, Frank Capra, who'd wanted Shirley Jones for the part. Despite Capra's reservations in regards to her acting ability, Lange continued to prosper as a film actress until turning to TV in 1968 as star of the weekly The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, a project that would earn her two Emmys. She then spent three years in a thankless "supportive housewife" part in The New Dick Van Dyke Show. In 1974, Lange received some of her best reviews in years for her work in Death Wish -- in which she spent most of her time in a coma before expiring in Reel Two! Subsequent projects in which Lange was involved included the 1977 play Same Time Next Year and the first of the Nightmare on Elm Street films. Hope Lange was first married to Don Murray, then producer/director Alan J. Pakula.

Trivia: Raw-boned blonde leading man Doug McClure came to films in 1957, but it was television that made him a star. He played secondary roles on such MCA series as The Overland Trail (1960) and Checkmate (1961-62) before striking paydirt as Trampas on the long-running (1962-71) western series The Virginian. During his first flush of stardom, McClure played leads in two Universal remakes, Beau Geste (1966) and The King's Pirate (the 1967 remake of Errol Flynn's Against All Flags). He also dashed through a trio of British-filmed Edgar Rice Burroughs derivations, The Land That Time Forgot (1974), At the Earth's Core (1976) and The People That Time Forgot (1977). He perpetuated his athletic, devil-may-care image into his brief 1975 TVer, Search (1975). In the late 1980s, Doug McClure reemerged as an agreeable comic actor, playing an Eastwoodish movie-star-cum-small-town-mayor in the syndicated sitcom Out of This World (1987-88).

Trivia: Upon earning his BA degree from the University of Chicago, Fritz Weaver began his formal acting training at the H-B studios. Paying his dues with such regional stock companies as Virginia's Barter Theatre and Massachussett's Group 20 Players, Weaver made his first off-Broadway appearance in a 1954 production of The Way of the World. His inaugural Broadway effort was 1955's The Chalk Circle. Weaver went on to appear in such classic stage roles as Hamlet and Peer Gynt, and also amassed a remarkable list of film credits, including two Twilight Zone appearances. In 1964, he made his film debut as the unstable Colonel Caserio in the doomsday thriller Fail Safe. The following year, he starred on Broadway in Baker Street, a musicalization of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. In 1970, he won the Tony award for his work as Jerome Malley in Child's Play. Most often cast as aristocratic villains in films (his resemblance to William F. Buckley has not gone unnoticed by producers), Fritz Weaver made his biggest international impact in the sympathetic role of Josef Weiss in the TV miniseries Holocaust (1978). Weaver worked mostly in television for the rest of his career (save for a supporting role in 1999's The Thomas Crown Affair), with guest spots in shows like The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote, The X-Files, Frasier and Law & Order. Weaver died in 2016, at age 90.

Trivia: Fans of the science fiction television series Quantum Leap will know supporting and character actor Dean Stockwell as the scene-stealing, cigar chomping, dry-witted, and cryptic hologram Al. But to view him only in that role is to see one part of a multi-faceted career that began when Stockwell was seven years old.Actually, his ties with show business stretch back to his birth for both of his parents were noted Broadway performers Harry Stockwell and Nina Olivette. His father also provided the singing voice of the prince in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1931). Stockwell was born in North Hollywood and started out on Broadway in The Innocent Voyage (1943) at age seven. Curly haired and beautiful with a natural acting style that never descended into cloying cuteness, he made his screen debut after contracting with MGM at age nine in Anchors Aweigh (1945) and continued on to play sensitive boys in such memorable outings as The Mighty McGurk (1946), The Boy With Green Hair (1948), and The Secret Garden (1949). He would continue appearing in such films through 1951 when he went into the first of several "retirements" from films. When Stockwell resurfaced five years later it was as a brooding and very handsome 20-year-old who specialized in playing introverts and sensitive souls in roles ranging from a wild, young cowboy in Gun for a Coward (1957) to a murderous homosexual in Compulsion (1958) to an aspiring artist who cannot escape the influence of his domineering mother in Sons and Lovers (1960). Stockwell topped off this phase of his career portraying Eugene O'Neill in Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962). Stockwell would spend the next three years as a hippie and when he again renewed his career it was in such very '60s efforts as Psych-Out (1968) and the spooky and weird adaptation of a Lovecraft story, The Dunwich Horror. During this period, Stockwell also started appearing in television movies such as The Failing of Raymond (1971). In the mid-'70s, the former flower child became a real-estate broker and his acting career became sporadic until the mid-'80s when he began playing character roles. It was in this area, especially in regard to comic characters, that Stockwell has had his greatest success. Though he claims it was not intentional, Stockwell has come to be almost typecast as the king of quirk, playing a wide variety of eccentrics and outcasts. One of his most famous '80s roles was that of the effeminate and rutlhess sleaze, Ben, in David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986). Stockwell had previously worked with Lynch in Dune and says that when the director gave him the script for Velvet, his character was not specifically mapped out, leaving Stockwell to portray Ben in any way he felt appropriate. The actor's intuition has proven to be one of his greatest tools and helped create one of modern Hollywood's most creepy-crawly villains. Whenever possible, Stockwell prefers working by instinct and actively avoids over-rehearsing his parts. His career really picked up after he landed the part of Al in Quantum Leap. Since the show's demise, Stockwell has continued to appear on screen, starring on series like Battlestar Galactica.

Trivia: Though California native Barry Williams is best known for wooing far-out, groovy chicks as Greg Brady on the '70s television sitcom The Brady Bunch, he has made a multitude of appearances on the stage and in television since the end of the show in 1974, including a brief role alongside fellow Brady alumni Christopher Knight on an episode of That '70s Show. Growing Up Brady, Williams' biography, made a strong showing on the New York Times best-seller list. Williams has not made the same efforts to distance himself from The Brady Bunch as several of his former co-stars, and hosts The Brady Bunch with Barry Williams for Sirius Satellite Radio. In the years to come, Williams would also remain active on screen, appearing in TV movies like Bigfoot and Mega Piranha.