Trivia: The son of a Brooklyn policeman who died when he was eight, African-American comedy superstar Eddie Murphy was raised in the comfortable middle-class community of Hempstead, NY, by his mother and stepfather. A natural-born class clown, he was voted the most popular student at Roosevelt Junior and Senior High. By the age of 15, he was doing standup gigs at 25 to 50 dollars a pop, and within a few years he was headlining on the comedy-club circuit.Murphy was 19 he was when hired as one of the backup performers on the NBC comedy weekly Saturday Night Live. His unique blend of youthful arrogance, sharkish good cheer, underlying rage, and street-smart versatility transformed the comedian into SNL's prime attraction, and soon the country was reverberating with imitations of such choice Murphy characterizations as sourball celebrity Gumby, inner-city kiddie host Mr. Robinson, prison poet Tyrone Green, and the Little Rascals' Buckwheat. Just when it seemed that he couldn't get any more popular, Murphy was hastily added to the cast of Walter Hill's 1982 comedy/melodrama feature film 48 Hours, and voila, an eight-million-dollars-per-picture movie star was born. The actor followed this cinematic triumph with John Landis' Trading Places, a Prince and the Pauper update released during the summer of 1983, the same year that the standup album Eddie Murphy, Comedian won a Grammy. In 1984, he finally had the chance to carry a picture himself: Beverly Hills Cop, one of the most successful pictures of the decade. Proving that at this juncture Murphy could do no wrong, his next starring vehicle, The Golden Child (1986), made a fortune at the box office, despite the fact that the picture itself was less than perfect. After Beverly Hills Cop 2 and his live standup video Eddie Murphy Raw (both 1987), Murphy's popularity and career seemed to be in decline, though his staunchest fans refused to desert him. His esteem rose in the eyes of many with his next project, Coming to America (1987), a reunion with John Landis that allowed him to play an abundance of characters -- some of which he essayed so well that he was utterly unrecognizable. Murphy bowed as a director, producer, and screenwriter with Harlem Nights (1989), a farce about 1930s black gangsters which had an incredible cast (including Murphy, Richard Pryor, Della Reese, Redd Foxx, Danny Aiello, Jasmine Guy, and Arsenio Hall), but was somewhat destroyed by Murphy's lazy, expletive-ridden script and clichéd plot that felt recycled from Damon Runyon stories. Churned out for Paramount, the picture did hefty box office (in the 60-million-dollar range) despite devastating reviews and reports of audience walkouts. Murphy's box-office triumphs continued into the '90s with a seemingly endless string of blockbusters, such as the Reginald Hudlin-directed political satire The Distinguished Gentleman (1992), that same year's "player" comedy Boomerang, and the Landis-directed Beverly Hills Cop III (1994). After an onscreen absence of two years following Cop, Murphy reemerged with a 1996 remake of Jerry Lewis' The Nutty Professor. As directed by Tom Shadyac and produced by the do-no-wrong Brian Grazer, the picture casts Murphy as Dr. Sherman Klump, an obese, klutzy scientist who transforms himself into Buddy Love, a self-obsessed narcissist and a hit with women. As an added surprise, Murphy doubles up his roles as Sherman and Buddy by playing each member of the Klump family (beneath piles and piles of latex). The Nutty Professor grossed dollar one and topped all of Murphy's prior efforts, earning well up into the hundreds of millions and pointing the actor in a more family-friendly direction. His next couple of features, Dr. Dolittle and the animated Mulan (both 1998), were children-oriented affairs, although in 1999 he returned to more mature material with the comedies Life (which he also produced) and Bowfinger; and The PJs, a fairly bawdy claymation sitcom about life in South Central L.A.Moving into the new millennium, Murphy resurrected Sherman Klump and his brood of misfits with the sequel Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000) before moving on to yet another sequel in 2001, the decidedly more family-oriented Dr. Dolittle 2. That same year, sharp-eared audiences were served up abundant laughs by Murphy's turn as a donkey in the animated fairy tale spoof Shrek. Nearly stealing the show from comic powerhouse co-star Mike Myers, children delighted at Murphy's portrayal of the put-upon sidekick of the kindhearted ogre and Murphy was subsequently signed for a sequel that would go into pre-production in early 2003. After bottoming out with the subsequent sci-fi comedy flop The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Murphy stepped into Bill Cosby's old shoes for the mediocre big-screen adaptation of I Spy. With the exception of a return to donkeydom in the 2004 mega-hit Shrek 2, Murphy stuck with hapless father roles during the first several years of the new millennium, Daddy Day Care being the most prominent example, with Disney's The Haunted Mansion following closely behind.In December 2006, however, he emerged with a substantial part in Dreamgirls, writer/director Bill Condon's star-studded adaptation of the hit 1981 Broadway musical about a Supremes-esque ensemble's ascent to the top. Murphy plays James Thunder Early, an R&B vocal sensation for whom the titular divas are hired to sing backup. Variety's David Rooney proclaimed, "Murphy...is a revelation. Mixing up James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Jackie Wilson, and some of his own wiseass personae, his Jimmy leaps off the screen both in his scorching numbers (his proto-rap is a killer) and dialogue scenes. It's his best screen work." A variety of critics groups and peers agreed with that assessment, landing Murphy a number of accolades including a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Around the same time, Murphy wrapped production on director Brian Roberts' Norbit. In that picture, the actor/comedian retreads his Nutty Professor work with a dual turn as Norbit, an insecure, backward geek, and Norbit's monstrous wife, an oppressive, domineering loudmouth. The story has the unhappy couple faced with the possible end of their marriage when Norbit meets his dream-girl (Thandie Newton). Never one to stray too far from familiar territoryMurphy next reteamed with the vocal cast of Shrek yet again for the next installment in the series, Shrek the Third.Over the coming years, Murphy would appear in a handful of comedies like Meet Dave, Imagine That, and Tower Heist. In 2011, he was announced as the host of 2012 Academy Awards, with Brett Ratner (his Tower Heist director) producing the show, but Murphy dropped out after Ratner resigned. In 2013, a fourth Beverly Hills Cop was announced, but the film was pulled from Paramount's schedule after pre-production issues.

Trivia: The son of a Cleveland Baptist minister, African American entertainer Arsenio Hall would often escape his bleak inner-city surroundings by imagining that he was a talk show host like his idol, Johnny Carson. He emulated Carson to the point that he briefly became an amateur magician in junior high school. His friends and teachers laughed at Arsenio's comic patter, but advised him to forget his dream -- because everyone knew that no black man would ever host a talk show. An excellent student, Hall was accepted at Ohio University in Athens, where he originally intended to study law, but at the last moment followed his heart and switched to the communications department. He later transferred to Kent State, working his way through school with gigs at local comedy clubs. After a long upward climb, Hall was hired as the opening act for such entertainers as Dionne Warwick and Nancy Wilson, then moved to Hollywood, where he was befriended by superstar Eddie Murphy. The two comedians co-starred in the 1987 comedy Coming to America, where Hall was permitted to display his versatility in a wide variety of quickie characterizations (one of which, a flamboyant minister, was ostensibly based on his own father). Comedienne Joan Rivers was also fond of Arsenio, and secured him several guest spots on her Fox network gabfest, The Late Show. When Rivers was axed by Fox in 1987, Hall took over as Late Show host. This led to his most prestigious assignment to date: The Arsenio Hall Show, a latenight entry syndicated by Paramount television, which premiered in January of 1989. With his unbounded energy, his ingratiating smile, his trademarked "Whoop Whoop Whoop" and his willingness to book guests that were deemed "chancy" by others (e.g. rap and soul artists), Hall quickly rose to the top of the ratings heap. In June of 1990, TV Guide singled out Arsenio Hall as the magazine's first "TV Person of the Year." Unlike the play-safe Johnny Carson, Hall courted controversy as often as possible, usually by attacking racism -- sparing no one, not even other black entertainers. Hall's program peaked in popularity in 1991, then seemed to run out of gas. When NBC made its announcement early in 1992 that Jay Leno would be replacing Johnny Carson as host of the Tonight Show, Hall reacted with inexplicable hostility, railing against Leno (who had always regarded Hall as a friend) and declaring that The Arsenio Hall Show would "whip Jay's ass." While Leno's ratings trailed against his CBS rival David Letterman, his program easily trounced the flagging Arsenio Hall. In 1994, after five years, Arsenio Hall and Paramount Television parted company, and Hall kept a low profile, all but disappearing from public view. In March of 1997, Hall emerged from his self-imposed exile to star, opposite Vivica Fox, in the ABC sitcom Arsenio as Michael Atwood, a cable network sportscaster in Atlanta. After that short-lived series left the air, Hall again disappeared from screens for a period of years. He could be seen in 2003 taking over for Ed McMahon as the host of a relaunched version of Star Search, and he provided a voice for the animated film Igor in 2008. The next year he appeared in the blaxploitation martial-arts comedy Black Dynamite.

Trivia: James Earl Jones is a distinguished African American actor instantly recognizable for his deep, resonant Shakespearean voice and wide smile. The son of prizefighter and actor Robert Earl Jones, he was raised on a farm. In college, he briefly studied medicine but switched to drama. After serving with the Army he enrolled at the American Theater Wing in New York. He made his Broadway debut in 1957, then went on to appear in many plays before spending several seasons with Joseph Pap's New York Shakespeare Festival. Jones' biggest success onstage was as the star of The Great White Hope on Broadway (1966-68); for his work (portraying heavyweight champion Jack Jefferson) he received a Tony award. He had a small part in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (1964), but did not begin to appear onscreen much until the '70s. In addition to stage and occasional film work, he also appeared as an African chieftain in the TV series Tarzan and was one of the first black actors to be cast as a regular on the soap opera The Guiding Light in 1967. Reprising his stage role, he received a Best Actor Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe award for his work in the screen version of The Great White Hope (1970) and went on from there to have a busy screen career. He starred in the TV series Paris in 1979-80. Beginning in 1977, he provided the melodiously wicked voice of the villainous Darth Vader in the three Star Wars films. Since then he has continued to appear on screen (over 40 films to date), stage, and television. He also continues to provide voiceovers (he can frequently be heard on the CNN television network). His portrayal of the grouchy, reclusive writer opposite Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams (1989) is among his most notable turns. In 1987 he won another Tony Award, this time for his portrayal of a frustrated baseball player in August Wilson's Fences. Most recently, Jones provided the voice for Mufasa, the regal patriarch in Disney's animated film The Lion King (1994).

Trivia: Forceful yet smooth actor Eriq La Salle worked on the stage and on television before breaking into films, directing, and producing his own projects. He is perhaps best known for his role of the confident Dr. Peter Benton on the NBC series ER, which has earned him several Emmy nominations. He grew up in New England and got a prestigious education at Juilliard and N.Y.U. Living in New York, he made a living doing Broadway, off-Broadway, and soap operas. He worked intermittently between film and television for a few years, with one of his first movies being the breakdancing drama Rappin' with Mario Van Peebles. During this time, he made numerous TV guest appearances, briefly joined the cast of the NBC soap Another World, and played the role of Jeri-curled Darryl in Coming to America. A couple TV movies later, he strayed away from comedy and got a small part in the drama Jacob's Ladder. In 1991 he moved to L.A. for a part in the series The Human Factor, giving him an introduction to the prolific world of medical dramas. He also played two detectives in a row for the thrillers Empty Cradle and Color of Night, and appeared in the crime series Under Suspicion. In 1994, he joined the cast of ER and got his first starring role in the drama Drop Squad, produced by Spike Lee. In 1996, he made his directorial debut with the HBO movie Rebound, about the life of basketball player Earl "The Goat" Manigault, which he also appeared in. The same year he directed the short film Psalms From the Underground. He moved on to producing for the made-for-TV thriller Mind Prey, which he also starred in. Along with some small roles in Biker Boyz and One Hour Photo, 2002 saw La Salle make his first feature as director, producer, and star with the psychological thriller Crazy as Hell. He appeared in the outrageous action film Biker Boyz in 2003, and went on to have major parts in a variety of projects including Inside Out, Johnny Was, and Megafault.

Trivia: An actor with hulking presence and a stern countenance, John Amos undercuts his ominous appearance with the kind of warm grin and fun-loving attitude that makes him a natural for comedy. More recognizable as a television actor, the former pro football player has made enough visible forays into film to earn him a reputation in both arenas.After stints in a variety of divergent career fields -- pro sports, advertising, commercial acting, stand-up comedy, comedy writing -- Amos got his big break with the role of Gordy the weatherman on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1970. After three years as a side player next to Mary Tyler Moore, Ed Asner, and Ted Knight, Amos thought he'd get the chance for top billing by signing on to the gig for which he is best known: James Evans, the temperamental patriarch of Good Times. But Jimmie Walker, who played son J.J. Evans, soon gave the show a sassy youthful focus with his catchphrase "Dy-no-mite!" stealing the spotlight from Amos and Esther Rolle, who played wife Florida. Amos asked out of his contract after three years, and in 1976, James Evans was killed off in a car accident.The decision to leave a hit series did not squash Amos, as it has some others who have made that bold decision. Instead, Amos stepped into the highly celebrated and widely seen role of the adult Kunta Kinte in the 1977 miniseries Roots. The role challenged the actor's dramatic abilities like none of his previous work had, and he won praise for documenting the travails of a captured African who resists his enslavement.While continuing to turn up in TV series such as Future Cop and Hunter, Amos began making regular appearances in film in the 1980s. Among his more prominent roles were as Seth, companion to Marc Singer's title character in the sword and sorcerer film The Beastmaster (1982); Cleo McDowell, owner of a McDonald's knockoff burger chain and employer of Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall's transplanted dignitaries in Coming to America (1988); and the double-crossing Major Grant, who becomes one of the villains opposite Bruce Willis in Die Hard 2 (1990). Settling back into a career of guest shots on TV shows, Amos occupied himself during the 1990s and beyond with recurring roles on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and as Admiral Percy Fitzwallace on NBC's The West Wing.

Trivia: Actress Madge Sinclair was born and raised in Jamaica. A bright and ambitious student, Sinclair excelled in speech and drama, winning several awards. She put her theatrical aspirations on hold when she married a Jamaican policeman, working for several years as a schoolteacher. In 1968, she moved to New York with her two sons in tow, hoping to launch an acting career. While opportunities were still rather limited for black performers in the late 1960s, she managed to find good, solid stage work with producer Joseph Papp, the Public Theatre and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She made her film debut as Mrs. Scott in Conrack (1974), then went on to earn an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Bell in the 1977 TV miniseries Roots. After a brief fling at series TV with the 1978 Jack Albertson sitcom Grandpa Goes to Washington, Sinclair enjoyed a six-season (1980-86) run as Nurse Ernestine Shoop on Trapper John MD. Her later weekly TV stints included Ohara (1987) and Me and the Boys (1994). Busy though she was on television, Sinclair always managed to find time for theatrical and film work (in the 1986 Eddie Murphy comedy Coming to America, for example, she was seen as Eddie's royal mamma). Madge Sinclair died of leukemia at the age of 57, not long after completing work on the TV special A Century of Women.

Trivia: Of Afro-Trinidadian descent.The youngest of four siblings.In 1984, signed as a model with FORD Modeling Agency after winning the Supermodel of The World Contest.Won the lead role in Coming to America (1988) in an audition process that included over two thousand actresses.Featured in Will Smith's "The Wild Wild West" music video.Was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series for her performance in 413 Hope St. even though the show only lasted 10 episodes.

Trivia: A veteran character actor whose work has shown he's as comfortable with comedy as drama, Frankie Faison was born in Newport News, VA, in 1949. Faison developed the acting bug while in grade school after appearing in a school play, and after high school he was a theater student at both Illinois Wesleyan University and New York University. Faison began pursuing a career in the theater, and appeared in a number of acclaimed off-Broadway productions, including Athol Fugard's Playland, the New York Shakespeare Festival's production of Before It Hits Home, and an adaptation of King Lear at the NYSF Delacorte Theater. Faison made his film debut in 1981 with a small role in Ragtime, and Faison soon began supplementing his stage work with small parts in motion pictures and guest shots on television. An inkling of what was to come for Faison appeared in 1986, when he was cast in a small role as a cop in Manhunter, an adaptation of Thomas Harris' novel Red Dragon, in which Brian Cox played the murderous Hannibal Lector. In 1987, Faison appeared on Broadway in August Wilson's drama Fences, opposite James Earl Jones; Faison's performance earned him a Tony award nomination. In 1988, Faison scored a showy comic role in the Eddie Murphy vehicle Coming to America, and a year later he was one of the "corner men" in Spike Lee's acclaimed and controversial Do the Right Thing. In 1990, Faison scored the male lead in a short-lived sitcom, True Colors, and in 1991 he appeared in another adaptation of a Thomas Harris novel when he was cast as Barney Matthews, the big but gentle male nurse in The Silence of the Lambs. Faison continued to win supporting roles in a variety of notable films, including City of Hope, Sommersby, Mother Night, I Love Trouble, Albino Alligator, Where the Money Is, and The Thomas Crown Affair, and he had a leading role in the well-regarded police drama Prey; sadly, the show fared poorly in the ratings and didn't survive its first season. Faison revived his role as Barney Matthews in 2001's box-office blockbuster Hannibal, making him the only actor to appear in all three films about the famous cannibal. ~ Mark Deming

Trivia: A former counselor of abused children from Minneapolis, MN, Louie Anderson has found great success as a standup comedian, author, provider of cartoon voices, and actor. Born in St. Paul as one of 11 children, Anderson began his performing career in late 1978 in a small Minneapolis comedy club in answer to a dare from a co-worker at the children's home where he worked. People responded well to his act and Anderson felt he'd found his true vocation. After winning the St. Louis Comedy Competition in 1981, Anderson became a gag writer for Henny Youngman and then moved to Los Angeles to try to launch his own career by getting a contract with one of the major television networks, but success did not come quickly to the portly, blond comedian and he returned to Minneapolis where friends and cohorts helped him finance a comedy special. Showtime bought and aired the show which became a hit and the highest-rated program on the network for a month. This led Anderson to take to the talk show circuit and also won him a coveted spot on Comic Relief. Anderson also began working as an actor on such television series as Remington Steele and Grace Under Fire. He began a career as a character actor in feature films in Cloak and Dagger (1984). Since he became a star, Anderson has gone on to make several more cable television specials. Originally, his humor was centered upon his obesity, but in time, he began to focus more on his childhood and the experiences he'd had growing up with an alcoholic father and many siblings. But though he often joked about it in public, he was haunted by painful incidents from his youth and, following his father's death, he began keeping a sort of diary comprised of letters to his dad. One of these was published in People magazine. Tremendous reader response led to his penning the best-selling Dear Dad -- Letters From an Adult Child. In 1993, he penned a second, more upbeat tome that reflected an upturn in his personal life, Good-bye Jumbo, Hello Cruel World. In 1994, he and Matt O'Callghan created the animated Fox series Life With Louie. For Anderson, it was his second stint as a voice artist; his first was with the animated feature film Bebe's Kids earlier that year. Life With Louie has since garnered high critical praise that culminated in his winning a daytime Emmy in May 1997.

Trivia: Imposing Bahamian actor Calvin Lockhart was at one time an engineering student. Firmly established as a Broadway leading man in the early 1960, Lockhart found that worthwhile opportunities for black performers were severely limited in Hollywood; as a result, he moved to England, where he appeared with regularity in BBC television productions and in such films as A Dandy in Aspic (1966) and Joanna (1968). He returned to the U.S. for the racially supercharged urban drama Halls of Anger (1970), following this personal triumph with an embarrassing appearance in Myra Breckinridge (1970) and a fascinating turn as the charismatic villain of Cotton Comes to Harlem (1972). While he never quite became the "second Sidney Poitier" as predicted by movie publicists, Lockhart was directed by Poitier in Uptown Saturday Night (1974) and Let's Do It Again (1975). Calvin Lockhart's TV work has included recurring appearances on the nighttime serial Dynasty. Lockhart died on Mar 29, 2007, in the Bahamas, of complications from a stroke, shortly after shooting a supporting role in the Nassau-set family drama Rain. He was 72 years old.

Trivia: Though his popularity rose and fell during his long career, American actor Don Ameche, born Dominic Amici in Kenosha, WI, was one of Hollywood's most enduring stars. He began his acting career in college, where he had been studying law. He had a natural gift for acting and got his first professional opportunity when he filled in for a missing lead in the stock theater production of Excess Baggage. After that, he forewent his law career and became a full-time theatrical actor. He also worked briefly in vaudeville beside Texas Guinan. Following that he spent five years as a radio announcer. He made his screen debut in a feature short, Beauty at the World's Fair (1933). Following this, Ameche moved to Hollywood where he screen-tested with MGM; they rejected him. In 1935, he managed to obtain a small role in Clive of India and this resulted in his signing a seven-year contract with 20th Century Fox. Ameche, with his trim figure, pencil-thin mustache, and rich baritone voice was neither a conventionally handsome leading man nor the dashing hero type. Instead he embodied a wholesomeness and bland honesty that made him the ideal co-lead and foil for the more complex heroes. He played supporting roles for many years before he came into his own playing the leads in light romances and musicals such as Alexander's Rag Time Band (1938), where he demonstrated a real flair for romantic comedy. In 1939, Ameche played the title role in the classic biopic The Story of Alexander Graham Bell. The film was a tremendous success and for years afterward, fans quipped that it was he, not Bell who invented the telephone; for a time the telephone was even called an "ameche." He continued working steadily through the mid-'40s and then his film career ground to an abrupt halt. He returned to radio to play opposite Frances Langford in the long-running and popular series The Bickersons. During the 1950s he worked occasionally on television.He began appearing infrequently in low-budget films during the '60s and '70s, but did not make a comeback proper until 1983, when he was cast as a replacement for the ailing Ray Milland in the comedy Trading Places. The success of this film brought Ameche back in demand. In 1985, the aging actor received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work as a retirement home Casanova in Cocoon. He followed up that role to even more acclaim in 1988's David Mamet-Shel Silverstein concoction Things Change, in which Ameche played the role of a impish shoemaker chosen to take the fall for a mob hit. Before his death in 1993, Ameche rounded out his career with brief but memorable performances in Oscar (1991) and Corrina, Corrina (1994).

Trivia: From his late teens to his late 20s, Ralph Bellamy worked with 15 different traveling stock companies, not just as an actor but also as a director, producer, set designer, and prop handler. In 1927 he started his own company, the Ralph Bellamy Players. He debuted on Broadway in 1929, then broke into films in 1931. He went on to play leads in dozens of B-movies; he also played the title role in the "Ellery Queen" series. For his work in The Awful Truth (1937) he received an Oscar nomination, playing the "other man" who loses the girl to the hero; he was soon typecast in this sort of role in sophisticated comedies. After 1945 his film work was highly sporadic as he changed his focus to the stage, going on to play leads in many Broadway productions; for his portrayal of FDR in Sunrise at Campobello (1958) he won a Tony Award and the New York Drama Critics Award. From 1940-60 he served on the State of California Arts Commission. From 1952-64 he was the president of Actors' Equity. In 1986 he was awarded an honorary Oscar "for his unique artistry and his distinguished service to the profession of acting." He authored an autobiography, When the Smoke Hits the Fan (1979).

Trivia: It may come as little surprise to those who have seen beautiful model-turned-actress Garcelle Beauvais (also credited as Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon) that she was voted one of "The Ten Sexiest Women of 2001" by readers of Black Men Magazine, but take a look beyond the surface and you'll see that Beauvais has the talents to back up her beauty. Born in Haiti, the youngest of seven children, Beauvais moved to Massachusetts with her mother and siblings following her parents' divorce. Beauvais' first years in the U.S. were spent in boarding school while her mother supported the family by attending nursing school. With little knowledge of the English language, the French- and Creole-speaking youngster slowly began the process of educating herself by taking in episodes of Sesame Street. Though going from being a member of the social majority in Haiti to being a minority in America was a difficult transition, it was the change of climate that proved most jarring to young Beauvais. Roles in numerous school plays fueled a love for performing, and it wasn't long before the family opted for a more familiar climate in Miami when Beauvais was 16. The following year, the emerging model moved to New York and gained an increasing presence on the catwalk and numerous Essence and Ebony layouts. Early television appearances on such popular shows as Miami Vice, Family Matters, and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air found Beauvais refining her skills in front of the camera, and it wasn't long before she was appearing in such high-profile films as Manhunter (1986) and Coming to America (1988). An ideal role in the Aaron Spelling-produced television series Models, Inc. found Beauvais combining both her modeling and acting experience, and after settling into a role on The Jamie Foxx Show in 1996 (playing Francesca "Fancy" Monroe), she would once again hit the big screen with Wild Wild West (1999) and Double Take (2001). Having previously appeared as ADA Valerie Heywood in the popular television police drama NYPD Blue, Beauvais expanded her role by joining the series full-time in 2001. A feature role in Bad Company (2002) opposite Chris Rock found Beauvais' feature career taking off, and hinted for great things to come. She subsequently moved into scripted dramatic roles with a heightened emphasis on big-screen features, including plum roles in the 2004 Ice Cube comedy Barbershop 2: Back in Business and the Lindsay Lohan shocker I Know Who Killed Me (2007), in addition to prominent billing in the sci-fi telemovie 10.5: Apocalypse (2006). In 2007, Beauvais also took some time out from filmdom to give birth to twins, and made headlines for appearing nude, while pregnant, in the August 2007 issue of Playboy magazine. She had a role in the 2009 sex comedy Women in Trouble.

Trivia: Originally, actress Victoria Dillard trained to be a classical ballet dancer from the age of five. She danced professionally with the Dance Theatre of Harlem and at the Metropolitan Opera until an injury incurred during a performance abruptly ended her career. Still, Dillard wanted to perform and took up acting instead. She landed her first acting turn in a touring production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum opposite Mickey Rooney. She moved to Los Angeles after the tour's end and won a small guest-starring role on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Dillard's subsequent television credits include a regular role on the new Laugh-In and guest-starring gigs on such shows as L.A. Law, Roc, and Martin. She made her feature film debut playing a bather and a dancer in the Eddie Murphy vehicle Coming to America (1988). She played much larger supporting roles in the films Ricochet (1991) and Deep Cover (1992). She is a regular on the ABC sitcom Spin City. In 1997, Dillard co-starred in a Family Channel original movie, The Ditchdigger's Daughter.

Trivia: Distinguished and versatile actor Cuba Gooding Jr. spent many years in bit roles before finally becoming a star. The son of Cuba Gooding, lead singer for the '70s pop group the Main Ingredient, he was born in the Bronx on January 2, 1968, but moved to Los Angeles after his father's group had a hit single with "Everybody Plays the Fool" in 1972. Unfortunately, the elder Gooding abandoned his family two years later. The subsequently tumultuous nature of Gooding Jr.'s upbringing did not deter him from achievement: During his teens, he attended four different high schools but managed to become class president of three of them. Gooding Jr. made his professional debut in 1984 as a breakdancer for Lionel Richie's show at the Olympics. As an actor he was discovered by an agent while performing in a high school play, and began working steadily in television commercials, which led to a bit part on an episode of Hill Street Blues. The experience inspired him to take acting lessons and after attending workshops and classes, he began to get a few more parts in television and films. He made his first feature-film appearance in Coming to America (1988) in which he was credited as "Boy Getting Haircut." Gooding Jr.'s first real break came when he was cast as Tre Styles in Boyz 'N the Hood (1990). The film earned him considerable acclaim and seemed to offer the promise of a great career. Sure enough, Gooding began landing fairly substantial parts in feature films. Unfortunately, save for a few exceptions like A Few Good Men (1992), most of the films were not well regarded, and the actor continued to work in relative obscurity. The comic talents he demonstrated as Paul Hogan's sidekick in 1994's Lightning Jack were overshadowed by further mediocre films, and it was not until 1997 that he truly came into the spotlight. That year, he starred as a loyal football player in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire and won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his efforts. Following this triumph, Gooding Jr. next appeared in the acclaimed As Good as It Gets alongside Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, and Greg Kinnear. Two relatively obscure films, the suspense drama A Murder of Crows and the mockumentary Welcome to Hollywood, followed before Gooding Jr. took part in another high-profile picture, What Dreams May Come. Starring opposite Robin Williams, Gooding Jr. played the deceased Williams' tour guide to heaven. Unfortunately, the film was critically savaged and failed to do much business at the box office. In 1999, Gooding Jr. kept busy with both television and film. In addition to starring in a series of Pepsi commercials, the actor appeared opposite Anthony Hopkins in Instinct and had a lead role in Chill Factor, an action extravaganza which featured him as an ice cream man trying to keep a top-secret military chemical safe with the help of a short-order cook (Skeet Ulrich). Gooding Jr. would star opposite screen legend Robert De Niro in 2000's military drama Men of Honor, in which he portrayed the real life experience of Carl Brashear, the first African-American to serve as a diver in the United States Navy. Just one year later, he stepped into the role of an ill-fated serviceman in Pearl Harbor, though he took a break from heady, big-budget war dramas in favor of comedies Rat Race (2001) and Snow Dogs (2002). The year 2003 would prove another busy year for the actor, who starred in three wildly different movies including Boat Trip, a comedy of errors in which he played an unwitting straight man aboard an entirely gay cruise; Radio, which featured Gooding Jr. as the film's mentally challenged protagonist; and The Fighting Temptations, a musical comedy starring Beyoncé Knowles. In 2004, the young actor lent his vocal chords to voice the role of Jake the Horse in Disney's Home on the Range. He next appeared in Lee Daniels' directorial debut, Shadowboxer, playing a contract killer opposite Helen Mirren. In 2007, he appeared in the critically reviled Norbit, playing a supporting role to Eddie Murphy, and also starred in Daddy Day Camp, the sequel to Daddy Day Care, replacing Murphy in the lead role. Gooding again played a Tuskegee pilot in 2012's Red Tails (he had previously appeared in the 1995 HBO made-for-TV movie The Tuskegee Airmen). In 2013, he re-teamed with director Daniels on The Butler and had a small role in Robert Rodriguez's Machete Kills.

Trivia: A longtime actor turned director whose memorable turn as a suicidal drag queen endeared him to viewers of ER in the mid-'90s, Vondie Curtis-Hall would subsequently essay a role on the other side of the doctor-patient relationship as Dr. Dennis Hancock on ER rival series Chicago Hope. Though he would later step behind the camera, Curtis-Hall remained a recognizable fixture on both film and television with appearances in such high-profile films as Die Hard 2 (1990) and William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (1996). A native of Detroit, Curtis-Hall made his television debut in the short-lived Spenser: For Hire spin-off A Man Called Hawk. Though he had only a vocal role in the 1988 actioner Shakedown, his proper film debut came with a minor role in 1988's Coming to America, followed shortly thereafter with an appearance in director Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train (1989). A series of minor film roles, as well as an appearance in the short-lived television police musical Cop Rock followed, and through the mid-'90s Curtis-Hall's film roles were mostly of supporting status. Shortly after his sympathetic turn as troubled transvestite Roger McGrath on ER, he embarked on a four-year stint as a doctor on Chicago Hope. Simultaneously appearing in supporting roles in Broken Arrow and Heaven's Prisoners (both 1996), his eagerness to get on the other side of the camera would soon get the best of the struggling actor. Though Curtis-Hall had warmed to the role of director by helming an episode of ER, he was soon putting pen to paper to write a gritty addiction comedy drama about two addicts attempting to kick heroin. A scathing attack on America's healthcare system, Gridlock'd (1997) offered solid performances by Tim Roth and Tupac Shakur and a smart script, but the film was ultimately relegated to obscurity due largely to the fact that its innovative story line proved extremely difficult to market. Though Gridlock'd didn't fare well at the box office, it would prove nowhere near as disastrous as Curtis-Hall's sophomore effort, the Mariah Carey vanity project Glitter (2001). Tanking immediately as it took unrelenting blows from critics and audiences alike, the film's flogging did little to help singer Carey's fragile mental state, let alone boost Curtis-Hall's fledgling directorial career. Undaunted by the failure of Glitter, he nevertheless soldiered on to helm an episode of the short-lived sci-fi television series Firefly the following year.Back in front of the cameras, the tireless actor/director was in very high demand, and in addition to directing a pair of ER episodes in 2001, Hall made a notable impression as sympathetic transvestite on the long-running medical series. Additional roles on such shows as The Sopranos, Soul Food, LAX, and Law & Order proved that even when his directorial career was on shaky ground, he could always find firm footing on the small screen. In the years that followed it wouldn't appear that Curtis-Hall would be having too many concerns about either aspect of his career though, and after directing Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx in the role of Crips founding father Stan "Tookie" Williams in Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams story in 2004, the increasingly strong director turned his lens towards the action genre with Waist Deep two short years later. An urban Bonnie and Clyde tale for the gangster set, Waist Deep told the tale of an ex-con who, along with his girlfriend, sets out to get his kidnapped son back from a vicious gangster while simultaneously sparking a street war that will seriously diminish the ranks of the ruthless kingpin.

Trivia: After spending the 1980s playing a series of drug addict and character parts, Samuel L. Jackson emerged in the 1990s as one of the most prominent and well-respected actors in Hollywood. Work on a number of projects, both high-profile and low-key, has given Jackson ample opportunity to display an ability marked by both remarkable versatility and smooth intelligence.Born December 21, 1948, in Washington, D.C., Jackson was raised by his mother and grandparents in Chattanooga, TN. He attended Atlanta's Morehouse College, where he was co-founder of Atlanta's black-oriented Just Us Theater (the name of the company was taken from a famous Richard Pryor routine). Jackson arrived in New York in 1977, beginning what was to be a prolific career in film, television, and on the stage. After a plethora of character roles of varying sizes, Jackson was discovered by the public in the role of the hero's tempestuous, drug-addict brother in 1991's Jungle Fever, directed by another Morehouse College alumnus, Spike Lee. Jungle Fever won Jackson a special acting prize at the Cannes Film Festival and thereafter his career soared. Confronted with sudden celebrity, Jackson stayed grounded by continuing to live in the Harlem brownstone where he'd resided since his stage days. 1994 was a particularly felicitous year for Jackson; while his appearances in Jurassic Park (1993) and Menace II Society (1993) were still being seen in second-run houses, he co-starred with John Travolta as a mercurial hit man in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, a performance that earned him an Oscar nomination. His portrayal of an embittered father in the more low-key Fresh earned him additional acclaim. The following year, Jackson landed third billing in the big-budget Die Hard With a Vengeance and also starred in the adoption drama Losing Isaiah. His versatility was put on further display in 1996 with the release of five very different films: The Long Kiss Goodnight, a thriller in which he co-starred with Geena Davis as a private detective; an adaptation of John Grisham's A Time to Kill, which featured him as an enraged father driven to murder; Steve Buscemi's independent Trees Lounge; The Great White Hype, a boxing satire in which the actor played a flamboyant boxing promoter; and Hard Eight, the directorial debut of Paul Thomas Anderson.After the relative quiet of 1997, which saw Jackson again collaborate with Tarantino in the critically acclaimed Jackie Brown and play a philandering father in the similarly acclaimed Eve's Bayou (which also marked his debut as a producer), the actor lent his talents to a string of big-budget affairs (an exception being the 1998 Canadian film The Red Violin). Aside from an unbilled cameo in Out of Sight (1998), Jackson was featured in leading roles in The Negotiator (1998), Sphere (1998), and Deep Blue Sea (1999). His prominence in these films added confirmation of his complete transition from secondary actor to leading man, something that was further cemented by a coveted role in what was perhaps the most anticipated film of the decade, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), the first prequel to George Lucas' Star Wars trilogy. Jackson followed through on his leading man potential with a popular remake of Gordon Parks' seminal 1971 blaxploitation flick Shaft. Despite highly publicized squabbling between Jackson and director John Singleton, the film was a successful blend of homage, irony, and action; it became one of the rare character-driven hits in the special effects-laden summer of 2000.From hard-case Shaft to fragile as glass, Jackson once again hoodwinked audiences by playing against his usual super-bad persona in director M. Night Shyamalan's eagerly anticipated follow-up to The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable (2000). In his role as Bruce Willis' brittle, frail antithesis, Jackson proved that though he can talk trash and break heads with the best of them, he's always compelling to watch no matter what the role may be. Next taking a rare lead as a formerly successful pianist turned schizophrenic on the trail of a killer in the little-seen The Caveman's Valentine, Jackson turned in yet another compelling and sympathetic performance. Following an instance of road rage opposite Ben Affleck in Changing Lanes (2002), Jackson stirred film geek controversy upon wielding a purple lightsaber in the eagerly anticipated Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones. Despite rumors that the color of the lightsaber may have had some sort of mythical undertone, Jackson laughingly assured fans that it was a simple matter of his suggesting to Lucas that a purple lightsaber would simply "look cool," though he was admittedly surprised to see that Lucas had obliged him Jackson eventually saw the final print. A few short months later filmgoers would find Jackson recruiting a muscle-bound Vin Diesel for a dangerous secret mission in the spy thriller XXX.Jackson reprised his long-standing role as Mace Windu in the last segment of George Lucas's Star Wars franchise to be produced, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). It (unsurprisingly) grossed almost four hundred million dollars, and became that rare box-office blockbuster to also score favorably (if not unanimously) with critics; no less than Roger Ebert proclaimed it "spectacular." Jackson co-headlined 2005's crime comedy The Man alongside Eugene Levy and 2006's Joe Roth mystery Freedomland with Julianne Moore and Edie Falco, but his most hotly-anticipated release at the time of this writing is August 2006's Snakes on a Plane, a by-the-throat thriller about an assassin who unleashes a crate full of vipers onto a aircraft full of innocent (and understandably terrified) civilians. Produced by New Line Cinema on a somewhat low budget, the film continues to draw widespread buzz that anticipates cult status. Black Snake Moan, directed by Craig Brewer (Hustle and Flow) dramatizes the relationship between a small-town girl (Christina Ricci) and a blues player (Jackson). The picture is slated for release in September 2006 with Jackson's Shaft collaborator, John Singleton, producing.Jackson would spend the ensuing years appearing in a number of films, like Home of the Brave, Resurrecting the Champ, Lakeview Terrace, Django Unchained, and the Marvel superhero franchise films like Thor, Iron Man, and The Avengers, playing superhero wrangler Nick Fury.

Trivia: Born Randolph Crane, this virile, weathered, prototypical cowboy star with a gallant manner and slight Southern accent enlisted for service in the U.S. Army during World War I at age 19. After returning home he got a degree in engineering, then joined the Pasadena Community Playhouse. While golfing, Scott met millionaire filmmaker Howard Hughes, who helped him enter films as a bit player. In the mid '30s he began landing better roles, both as a romantic lead and as a costar. Later he became a Western star, and from the late '40s to the '50s he starred exclusively in big-budget color Westerns (39 altogether). From 1950-53 he was one of the top ten box-office attractions. Later in the '50s he played the aging cowboy hero in a series of B-Westerns directed by Budd Boetticher for Ranown, an independent production company. He retired from the screen in the early '60s. Having invested in oil wells, real estate, and securities, he was worth between $50-$100 million.

Trivia: American leading and supporting actress Vanessa Bell Calloway got her first major break playing Imani Izzi in Eddie Murphy's Coming to America (1988), one year after she had made her film debut. The winner of an NAACP Image Award, Calloway has also appeared in numerous other films, including voicing a character in the animated film Bebe's Kids (1992), What's Love Got to Do With It? (1993), and Crimson Tide (1995). Her television credits include a recurring role as Yvonne Caldwell on the daily serial All My Children, during the 1984-1985 season and in 1987.

Trivia: Frail-looking but iron-willed American actor Henry B. Walthall set out to become a lawyer, but was drawn to the stage instead. After several seasons appearing opposite such luminaries as Henry Miller and Margaret Anglin, Walthall was firmly established in New York's theatrical circles by the time he entered films in 1909 at the invitation of director D.W. Griffith. Clearly, both men benefited from the association: Griffith was able to exploit Walthall's expertise and versatility, while Walthall learned to harness his tendency to overact. The best of the Griffith/Walthall collaborations was Birth of a Nation (1915), in which Walthall portrayed the sensitive Little Colonel. Walthall left Griffith in 1915, a move that did little to advance his career. A string of mediocre productions spelled finis to Walthall's stardom, though he continued to prosper in character parts into the 1930s. One of his best showings in the talkie era was a virtual replay of his Little Colonel characterization in the closing scenes of the 1934 Will Rogers vehicle Judge Priest. Henry B. Walthall died while filming the 1936 Warner Bros. film China Clipper; ironically, he passed away just before he was scheduled to film his character's death scene.

Trivia: A theater star from a diverse background, Ruben Santiago-Hudson was born in Lackawanna, NY, in 1956. Growing up with a combination of Puerto Rican and African American descent yielded many life-shaping experiences for Santiago-Hudson, and after studying at Binghamton University, he went on to write, direct, and star in the acclaimed play Lackawanna Blues, in which he portrayed over 20 characters from his past. The thespian would continue to work on-stage, appearing in plays like Jelly's Last Jam and Seven Guitars -- for which he won a Tony -- and additionally transitioned to the screen, appearing in a large number of films like The Devil's Advocate and Honeydripper. In 2005, Santiago-Hudson adapted Lackawanna Blues into a miniseries produced by HBO, which met with critical acclaim and garnered several major awards for star S. Epatha Merkerson. In the following years, Santiago-Hudson would find success on the popular series Castle.

Trivia: In collaboration with longtime partners David and Jerry Zucker, producer/director Jim Abrahams has created some of the funniest send-ups of the '70s and '80s, most notably Airplane!, Ruthless People, and Naked Gun. Boyhood friends from Milwaukee where their fathers ran a real-estate business together, the three pals developed a passion for making fun of movies and television shows. Shortly after graduating from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, the three teamed up to found the Kentucky Fried Theater and with it produced a popular multimedia comedy show that blended improvised sketches with short films. In time, they moved the troupe to L.A. Their first Los Angeles production ran for two years. In conjunction with director John Landis, Abrahams and the Zuckers made their satirical parody of modern culture, The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977). During production, the three carefully watched Landis at work and decided that directing looked easy enough that they too could become directors. Their first solo effort as a team was Airplane!, a lowbrow but hilarious and highly successful takeoff of the Airport series of disaster films. Like many of their subsequent parodies, it is distinguished for its ghastly puns, running gags, and use of good-natured second-string actors who seem to relish the opportunity to make fun of themselves and the roles they played. Leslie Nielsen, who was once known as a dramatic actor, gained a whole new career from his role in the film and went on to staff several more of their projects including their short-lived but riotous television series Police Squad! (1982). Their next movie parody, Top Secret! (1984), took on spy movies, but it was not as successful at the box office as Airplane! In 1986, they had better success with Ruthless People, a more traditional comedy starring Danny DeVito and Bette Midler. In 1988, Abrahams broke away from the Zuckers to make Big Business, a more conventional comedy starring Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin. Abrahams has occasionally dabbled in drama in films such as Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael (1990) to mixed reviews. In 1997, his dramatic television movie First Do No Harm brought Meryl Streep back to the medium after a nearly 20-year absence.