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: An American-born actor reared in Ireland and England, McGoohan made a memorable impression on the American and English viewing audiences by playing essentially the same role in three different television series. He began his performing career as a teen-ager, eventually played Henry V for the Old Vic company in London, and made mostly unremarkable films in the '50s. His movies include the delightful Disney film The Three Lives of Thomasina (1964). Success came in 1961, when McGoohan played government agent John Drake in Danger Man, a role he continued on Secret Agent (1965-66). He created, produced and often wrote episodes of the nightmarish, surrealistic cult series The Prisoner (1968-69). This show featured a character assumed to be the same John Drake (although he was known as Number 6 and his real name was never mentioned), who had been kidnapped and taken to a strange community. McGoohan later starred in the TV series Rafferty (1977) and directed the film Catch My Soul (1974). He won an Emmy Award in 1975 for his guest appearance on Columbo with Peter Falk.

Trivia: Trevor was born Claire Wemlinger. After attending Columbia and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she began her acting career in the late '20s in stock. By 1932 she was starring on Broadway; that same year she began appearing in Brooklyn-filmed Vitaphone shorts. She debuted onscreen in feature films in 1933 and soon became typecast as a gang moll, a saloon girl, or some other kind of hard-boiled, but warm-hearted floozy. Primarily in B movies, her performances in major productions showed her to be a skilled screen actress; nominated for Oscars three times, she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work in Key Largo (1948). In the '50s she began to appear often on TV; in 1956 she won an Emmy for her performance in Dodsworth opposite Fredric March.

Trivia: The daughter of actor John Mills and novelist-playwright Mary Hayley Bell and the sister of actress Hayley Mills, she first appeared onscreen as an 11-week-old baby in her father's film In Which We Serve (1942), which was co-directed by her godfather, Noel Coward. Before the age of ten she acted in two more of her father's films. Her first adult role (and lead role) was in No, My Darling Daughter (1961), after which her film work was intermittent; she was rarely onscreen after the mid '70s. Her main focus has been the stage, mostly in London and occasionally on Broadway. She starred in the TV sitcom Nanny and the Professor and starred in a number of TV productions, winning an Emmy for her work in the TV movie QB VII (1975). She is married to actor Maxwell Caulfield, who is 18 years her junior.

Trivia: A character actor predominantly specializing in "tough" types, such as guards, military personnel, and the like, screen performer Christopher Allport worked in a myriad of genres but placed a markedly strong emphasis on horror and science fiction outings. Efforts included the 1981 zombie movie Dead and Buried, Tobe Hooper's 1986 sci-fi remake Invaders from Mars, and the slasher comedies Jack Frost (1997) and Jack Frost 2 (2000). In the 2000s, Allport increased his television presence via guest work on such series as ER, NYPD Blue, and Mad Men. An avid backcountry skier, Allport was killed in early 2008 by an avalanche in California's San Gabriel Mountains.

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: Stefan Gierasch made his earliest Broadway appearances in comic juvenile roles in such popular fare as Kiss and Tell and A Hatful of Rain. As he matured, Gierasch was afforded meatier assignments in plays like a Hatful of Rain, Compulsion and The Iceman Cometh. He made his first film appearance as a preacher in The Hustler (1961); subsequent film roles have included murder victim Professor Schreiner in Silver Streak (1974), Principal Norton in Carrie (1976) and the House Majority Leader in Dave (1993). Stefan Gierasch has been seen on TV as hospital bureaucrat J. Powell Karbo in AES Hudson Street (1978) and in the dual role of Professor Woodard and Joshua in the 1991 prime time revival of Dark Shadows. Gierasch continued acting through the late 2000s, appearing in TV shows and movies, including a guest spot on ER. He died in 2014, at age 88.

Trivia: In films in minor and supporting roles from 1969, actress Marilyn Hassett was starred as paralyzed ski champ Jill Kinmont in 1975's The Other Side of the Mountain. Perhaps this brilliant portrayal was too "specialized" to encourage an onrush of offers from producers and directors. Whatever the case, Hassett has never truly attained the stardom she seemed to so richly deserve in 1975. Marilyn Hassett's best film role outside Other Side of the Mountain, and its 1978 sequel, was Esther, the suicidal Sylvia Plath counterpart in the 1979 film version of Plath's The Bell Jar.

Trivia: American actor Ivan Bonar was a versatile and highly competent supporting actor who worked on stage, screen, and television.