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: Georgia-born leading lady Cassie Yates has kept busy in films and TV since 1976. Yates' TV-series roles have included detective Jennifer Dempsey in Ron Moody's 1980 sitcom Nobody's Perfect and Diane Wyman, wife of would-be private eye Press Wyman (Judd Hirsch) in Detective in the House (1985). Soap opera fans will remember Yates as Sarah Curtis in the 1987 episodes of Dynasty. Cassie Yates' most appealing film role was as the philandering friend of Nastassja Kinski in the 1982 remake of Unfaithfully Yours.

Trivia: Cleveland-born Keir Dullea found himself in the thick of Manhattan's intellectual scene when his parents took over the management of a Greenwich Village bookstore. Dullea attended Rutgers and San Francisco State, then launched his acting career in regional theater. He made a spectacular film debut in The Hoodlum Priest (1961), playing a born-to-hang juvenile delinquent. He was more sympathetic but no less emotionally disturbed in 1962's David and Lisa; as late as 1965, he was still playing mentally unstable youths in films like Bunny Lake is Missing. The biggest film hit with which Dullea was associated was 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) in which he played the time-and-space-travelling astronaut Bowman. He repeated this characterization (and answered several of the questions posed by 2001) in the 1984 sequel 2010. Though he'd been active on the New York stage in the 1950s, Keir Dullea did not appear on Broadway until 1970, when the 34-year-old actor portrayed a twentysomething blind man in Butterflies are Free.

Trivia: American stage actress Marj Dusay began making films in the mid '60s. She had supporting roles in productions like Sweet November (1968), Pendulum (1968), the Clint Eastwood-directed Breezy (1973), MacArthur (1976) and Made in Heaven (1987). Television has also afforded Dusay ample opportunity to flex her acting muscles. Marj Dusay played Myrna Clegg on the daytime drama Capitol (1982-87), then went on to a stint as Pamela Capwell on another soap, Santa Barbara (1984-92).

Trivia: In critiquing a minor science fiction film of the late '50s, a prominent film historian characterized star Phillip Abbott as "...the kind of actor whose face you forget five minutes after seeing it." While there is some truth in this, let it be recorded here and now that Abbott's professional credentials were as impeccable and impressive as any "unforgettable" star. After serving with the U.S. Air Force in World War II (and earning an air medal and three oak-leaf clusters in the process), Abbott attended Fordham University, and later studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse. Making his Broadway debut in 1948, he went on to appear in such stage successes as Detective Story and Two for the Seesaw. Far from being completely unmemorable in films, Abbott had at least two praiseworthy screen characterizations to his credit: nervous groom-to-be Arnold in The Bachelor Party (1957) and doctor-with-a-secret George Scudder in Sweet Bird of Youth (1962). His many network television credits included a stint as host/narrator on the experimental 1960 psychological soap opera House on High Street, and the continuing role of Assistant Director Arthur Ward on The FBI (1965-1974). Before, during, and after the height of his film and TV activities, Abbott continued to be a busy stage actor/director. In 1962, he co-founded Theatre West, an L.A.-based actor's workshop. He also produced, directed, and wrote nine instructional films for the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, as well as the ten-episode Lessons for Living, an in-school training project underwritten by the Disney studios. In addition, he created and produced the TV weekly Hidden Places on behalf of Nebraska Public Television. Outside of his professional activities, Abbott was active with the United Cerebral Palsy/Spastic Children's Foundation, and was one of the leading citizens of Tarzana, CA, where he served as president of the Nelson Company. Forgettable though his screen appearances may have been at times, Phillip Abbott will always be remembered by someone.

Trivia: The son of a New York jeweler, American actor Gene Barry emerged from his pinchpenny Depression-era childhood with an instatiable desire for the finer things in life. The acting profession seemed to hold out promise for fame and (especially) fortune. Making the rounds of theatrical agents in the 1940s, Barry, no matter his true financial situation, showed up dressed to the nines; grim reality soon set in, however, and the actor found himself clearing little more than $2000 a year -- on good years. When stage work seemed to yield nothing but bits, Barry turned to early television, then signed a movie contract in 1951. The only truly worthwhile film to star Barry was 1953's War of the Worlds, but even with top billing he had to play second banana to George Pal's marvelous special effects. Finally in 1956, Herb Gordon of Ziv Productions asked Barry if he'd like to star in a western. The actor resisted -- after all, everyone was doing westerns -- until Gordon pointed out that role would include a derby hat, a cane, and an erudite Eastern personality. Barry was enchanted by this, and from 1957 through 1961 he starred on the popular series Bat Masterson. The strain of filming a weekly western compelled Barry to declare that he'd never star on a series again - until he was offered the plum role of millionaire police detective Amos Burke on Burke's Law. This series ran from 1963 through 1965, and might have gone on longer had the producers not tried and failed to turn it into a Man From UNCLE type spy show. Barry's next series, Name of the Game, was another success (it ran from 1969 through 1971), and wasn't quite as grueling in that the actor only had to appear in one out of every three episodes. Always the epitome of diamond-in-the-rough masculinity, Barry astounded his fans in the mid 1980s by accepting the role of an aging homosexual in the stage musical version of the French film comedy La Cage Aux Follies. Yet another successful run followed, after which Barry went into semi-retirement, working only when he felt like it. In 1993, Gene Barry was back for an unfortunately brief revival of Burke's Law, which was adjusted for the actor's age by having him avoid the action and concentrate on the detecting; even so, viewers had a great deal of difficulty believing that Burke (or Barry) was as old as he claimed to be.

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 Brooklynite from head to toe, Dane Clark never completely forsook his streetwise pugnacity, not even while attending Cornell and John Hopkins, and earning a law degree from St. John's University. Clark held down several Depression-era jobs--road gang worker, boxer, ballplayer, magazine model--before making his first stage appearance in 1938. Four years later, he made his entree into films, at first using his given name of Bernard Zanville (sometimes spelled Zaneville). Signed by Warner Bros. in 1943, Clark was given a new professional name and purpose in life: as potential replacement for Warners' resident "tenement tough" John Garfield. Since there was plenty of life left in the original Garfield, however, Clark was largely confined to secondary roles, usually as the hero's best friend or the cocky troublemaker from Brooklyn. As the 1940s drew to a close, Clark was afforded a few leading roles by Warners, though it was while on loan-out to Republic that he delivered his finest performance, as emotionally overwrought accidental murderer Danny Hawkins in Moonrise (1948). His film appearances were fewer and farther between in the 1950s, as he sought out more rewarding roles on television and the Broadway stage. He did get to play Harlem Globetrotters maven Abe Saperstein in the 1954 feature Go, Man, Go, but he also had to produce the film himself. On TV, Clark starred as news correspondent Dan Miller on the weekly adventure series Wire Service (1956), and played hotel owner Slate Shannon on the 1959 TV version of the old Bogart-Bacall radio series Bold Venture. He also co-starred as Lt. Tragg on the ill-advised New Perry Mason (1973), and made innumerable guest appearances on such series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables and Ellery Queen (1975 version).

Trivia: The sister of the notorious stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, with whom she was driven into performance by an ambitious stage mother, June Havoc began playing bits in silent film shorts at age two, eventually appearing in 24 Hal Roach comedies. She was earning $1500 a week as a vaudeville headliner by the time she was five. At age 13, she married the first of three husbands, and in her late teens, during the Depression and the demise of vaudeville, she modeled and participated in dance marathons (she still holds a record for marathon dancing in 1933), then went on to perform in Catskill Mountain resorts and in stock. In 1936 she made her Broadway debut. Four years later, she scored a big success in the 1940 production of Pal Joey, after which she was invited to Hollywood. She debuted onscreen as an adult in 1941, and over the next decade played leads and second leads in many films. However, Havoc never became a top star and found herself cast in routine films; she rarely appeared onscreen after 1952. Her stage work was more successful, and in 1944 she won a Donaldson Award for Mexican Hayride; she also did much work on TV. She wrote and directed the autobiographical Broadway play Marathon 33 (1963), and authored an autobiography, Early Havoc (1959). She was portrayed as a juvenile stage performer in the Broadway show Gypsy and its screen version. She married actor-director William Spier.

Trivia: Stocky, blondish character actor John Karlen gained a mid-1966s following as Willie Loomis (and several other roles) on the Gothic TV soap opera Dark Shadows. Thereafter, Karlen became a fixture in other Dan Curtis productions, appearing in such feature-length Curtis endeavors as House of Dark Shadows (1970) and Trilogy of Terror (1973). In 1987, Karlen won an Emmy for his portrayal of Harvey Lacey, the contractor husband of Mary Beth Lacey (Tyne Daly), on the TV series Cagney and Lacey (1982-88); two years later he co-starred on the less successful video weekly Snoops. John Karlen's TV movie credits include the role of Jerry Barr in the execrable Roseanne: An Unauthorized Biography (1994).

Trivia: Rough-edged character actor Morgan Woodward is the son of a Texas physician. Specializing in Westerns, the 6'3" Woodward has been seen in scores of big-screen oaters, and in 1956 held down the semi-regular role of Shotgun Gibbs in the TV series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. He has also made quite a few non-Western appearances on such video weeklies as Star Trek and The A-Team. In his spare time, Morgan Woodward is a licensed pilot.