Trivia: Arguably the top screen comedian of the 1990s, Canadian-born entertainer Jim Carrey has combined equal parts of his idol Jerry Lewis, his spiritual ancestor Harry Ritz, and the loose-limbed Ray Bolger into a gleefully uninhibited screen image that is uniquely his own.Carrey's life wasn't always a barrel of laughs; he was born on January 17, 1962, into a peripatetic household that regularly ran the gamut from middle-class comfort to abject poverty. Not surprisingly, Carrey became a classic overachiever, excelling in academics while keeping his classmates in stitches with his wild improvisations and elastic facial expressions. His comedy club debut at age 16 was a dismal failure, but Carrey had already resolved not to be beaten down by life's disappointments (as his father, a frustrated musician, had been). By age 22, he was making a good living as a standup comic, and was starring on the short-lived sitcom The Duck Factory -- a series which curiously did little to take advantage of its star's uncanny physical dexterity. Throughout the 1980s, Carrey appeared in supporting roles in such films as Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) and Earth Girls are Easy (1990). Full television stardom came Carrey's way in 1990 as the resident "white guy" on Keenan Ivory Wayans' Fox TV comedy In Living Color. The most popular of the comedian's many characterizations on the program was the grotesquely disfigured Fire Marshal Bill, whose dubious safety tips brought down the wrath of real-life fire prevention groups -- and also earned Carrey the ultimate accolade of being imitated by other comics. 1994 proved to be "The Year of Carrey," with the release of three top-grossing comedy films to his credit: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber. By the end of the year, Carrey was commanding seven to ten million dollars per picture. In 1995, the actor/comedian took over for Robin Williams as The Riddler in the blockbuster film Batman Forever, and, in 1996, he tried his hand at a darker and more menacing role as a maniacal cable repairman in The Cable Guy. The film, and Carrey's at-times frightening performance, received decidedly mixed reviews from critics and audiences. Despite the generally negative response to the film, Carrey still retained an interest in branching out into more dramatic roles. Following a return to all-out comedy in Liar, Liar (1997) as a chronically dishonest attorney, Carrey explored new territory with his lead role in the highly acclaimed The Truman Show (1998), Peter Weir's eerie comedy drama about the perils of all-consuming media manipulation. Critical respect in hand, Carrey returned to comedy of a different sort with the lead role in Milos Forman's Man on the Moon (1999), a much-anticipated biopic of the legendary comic Andy Kaufman. Although the film boasted a powerhouse performance from Carrey, it earned less than stellar reviews and did poor business at the box office. Such was the strength of the actor's portrayal, however, that his exclusion from the Best Actor nominations at that year's Academy Awards was a source of protest for a number of industry members. Carrey returned to straight comedy the following year with the Farrelly brothers' Me, Myself & Irene, in which he starred as a cop with a split personality, both of whom are in love with the same woman (Renée Zellweger). Though that film fared the least successful of the Farrellys' efforts to that point, Carrey's anarchic persona was given seemingly free range and the result was his most unhinged role since The Mask. That same year, he assumed the lead role in Ron Howard's Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas, raking in the money at the box-office and receiving a Golden Globe nomination despite widespread critical-contempt for the film. Continuing to seek acceptance as a skilled dramatist, Carrey next appeared in the 2001 box-office bomb The Majestic.Undeterred by the failure of The Majestic, Carrey returned again to both comedy and box-office success with 2003's Bruce Almighty. After handily proving that his power as a big-screen star was very much intact, Carrey wasted no time switching gears once again as he embarked on his most ambitious project to date, the 2004 mind-bending romantic-dramedy Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Scripted by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry, the film garnered rave reviews and featured what was arguably Carrey's most subtly complex and subdued performance to date.Carrey's cartooney presence on screen would make him a natural fit for the kids' movie Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events in 2004, as well as other family films over the coming years like A Christmas Carol and Mr. Popper's Penguins. The actor would continue to explore dramatic roles, however, such as the dark thriller The Number 23 and the critically acclaimed I Love You, Phillip Morris.

Trivia: It would be difficult to imagine a more conspicuous or thrilling big-screen debut for a child actress than that of St. Louis-born Taylor Momsen, selected out of innumerable hopefuls at six years old to play Cindy Lou Who in Ron Howard's colorful holiday fantasy How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). The Momsen was already an on-camera veteran when she signed for the part (given her appearance in a Shake 'n Bake commercial at three years old, and one-shot roles on the series Early Edition and Cosby), The Grinch nevertheless heightened her exposure.Not long after The Grinch, Momsen stuck with the same genre: the family-oriented fantasy Hansel & Gretel (2002), which sported Lynn Redgrave. That very same year, however, the pint-sized ingenue returned to A-list material with small contributions to two acclaimed blockbusters: Mel Gibson's military drama We Were Soldiers and the can't-miss sequel Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams (2002), directed by Robert Rodriguez. Her next major cinematic contributions arrived in 2007, with turns in the FX-heavy canine superhero picture Underdog and Gus Van Sant's coming-of-age drama Paranoid Park.Despite all of her work in high-profile films, Momsen broke through to mainstream notice in 2007 via her involvement in a prime-time teen soap opera: the CW's Gossip Girl. On that series, the actress played Brooklyn-dwelling wannabe social climber Jenny Humphrey (younger sister of Dan), who was a good girl at heart but flirted with misbehavior in her quest to become part of the rich-girl clique at her prep school. In 2008 she appeared in Spy School.

Trivia: Born July 8th, 1944, character actor Jeffrey Tambor has built his career in comedies playing the role of the uptight boss, or more generally, the stuffy guy. After graduate school, teaching, and a prolific stage career, Tambor started making television guest-starring appearances in the early '70s. He showed up on Three's Company enough that he eventually got a spot on the spin-off series The Ropers as the disapproving next-door neighbor Jeffrey. After the show's two-season run, he did a few TV movies before landing a reoccurring roles on the television version of 9 to 5, naturally playing the Dabney Coleman boss character. Throughout the '80s and early '90s, he continued to play the role of the stuffy guy on television (The Golden Girls, L.A. Law, Max Headroom) and movies (Mr. Mom, City Slickers, Life Stinks). His big break came in 1992, when he was cast as Garry Shandling's smiling sidekick, Hank Kingsley, on HBO's The Larry Sanders Show, his most recognizable role. For the rest of the '90s, he frequently returned to playing snide characters for movies (Teaching Mrs. Tingle, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Muppets From Space), although he would be more well-known for his work on television. In 1999, he appeared on the AMC series The Lot for its two-season run and provided voice talent for the MTV cartoon show 3 South. He played another boss type in the heist film Scorched in 2002.In 2003, Tambor joined the cast of Arrested Development for the role of George Bluth, an imprisoned millionaire and patriarch to a seriously dysfunctional family. The role would earn two Emmy nominations. Tambor tried his luck at television success once again in Welcome to the Captain, a short-lived sitcom in 2006, and returned to the big screen for the buddy comedy Twenty Good Years. He played a supporting role in 2009's critically acclaimed comedy the Invention of Lying, and played father of the bride in the megahit The Hangover. In 2011, Tambor took another supporting role for the comedy drama Win Win, and reprised his role in The Hangover for The Hangover Part 2.

Trivia: Bill Irwin certainly qualifies as one of the most unique figures in show business; attempts to compare him to other talent invariably conclude with the observation that there is no one else like Irwin, a testament to his overarching individuality. A native of Santa Monica, Irwin spent periods of his youth in Southern California and Oklahoma, then attended Oberlin College (as a theater arts major) and Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey's Clown College in Florida, where lessons learned in slapstick, pantomime, comedic improvisation, and graceful balletic would continue to inform his art and style throughout his life. Following said education, he spent various periods of time in dramatic ensembles (such as the prestigious Kraken ensemble) and circuses (such as the Frisco-based Pickle Family Circus) and racked up a litany of theatrical accomplishments that included Broadway performances in Waiting for Godot (opposite Steve Martin and Robin Williams) and Accidental Death of an Anarchist (opposite Jonathan Pryce), a critically acclaimed turn in Fool Moon (with the Red City Ramblers), and many other highlights. Meanwhile, on television, Irwin built up a substantial audience of young people with his wordless portrayal of Mr. Noodle (opposite the late Michael Jeter) on the "Elmo's World" segments of Sesame Street. Irwin's feature appearances include A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999), Igby Goes Down (2002), Lady in the Water (2007), and Rachel Getting Married (2008), and Higher Ground (2011).

Trivia: Designer label-clad force of nature, neurotic diva, and the owner of one of the most expansive mouths in the free world, Christine Baranski is one of the more distinctive actresses working on the stage and screen today. Known to television audiences for her portrayal of Cybill Shepard's brassy and unapologetically arrogant best friend on the sitcom Cybill, Baranski has also made a name for herself on the New York stage, where she has won a number of awards, and has worked as a character actress on a variety of films.Born in Buffalo, New York, on May 2, 1952, Baranski was influenced from a young age by her Polish grandparents, who were both actors. After studying acting at Julliard, she began working on the New York stage and on various TV shows, and made her film debut in 1982. The stage proved to be a particularly good medium for Baranski's talents; a staple of many New York productions, the actress earned Tony Awards and a number of other honors for her work in the Broadway productions of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing and Neil Simon's Rumors. Usually cast as a supporting player onscreen, Baranski has done particularly notable work in Jeffrey (1995), in which she played a New York socialite; The Birdcage (1996), which featured her as the brassy mother of Robin Williams' grown son; and Cruel Intentions (1999), in which she did another hilarious turn as a New York socialite. In one of her rare excursions as a lead, Baranski gave a memorable performance as a struggling actress in Bowfinger (1999), sharing the screen with the likes of Steve Martin, Heather Graham, and Eddie Murphy.In 2002 Baranski appeared in the Best Picture Oscar winner Chicago, and she continued to work steadily on TV, in movies, and on stage appearing in projects as diverse as Eloise at the Plaza, Welcome to Mooseport, and the smash hit adaptation of the ABBA musical Mamma Mia! In 2009 she began work on the well-respected CBS drama series The Good Wife opposite Julianna Margulies.

Trivia: A Boston native whose early work included stints with the Dallas Theater Center and New York's Mint Theater Company, actor T.J. Thyne studied his craft with theaters throughout the United States and British Columbia before receiving his B.F.A. in acting from the USC School of Theater. Numerous television roles were quick to follow after Thyne hit the audition circuit with unusual ferocity, and by the year 2000, Thyne had racked up nearly 50 small-screen credits thanks to appearances on such shows as Home Improvement, Party of Five, Walker, Texas Ranger, and Just Shoot Me. In 2002, Thyne founded the Los Angeles-based Theater Junkies Productions with the aim of producing for both stage and screen; their popular short film Validation subsequently screened at film festivals across the country. Memorable supporting roles in such high-profile features as Erin Brockovich Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Ghost World, How High, and Something's Got to Give made Thyne an increasingly familiar face to movie fans, though it was the actor's casting as bug expert Dr. Jack Hodgins in the hit Fox forensics drama Bones that would transform him into a bona fide television star. Thyne has also done frequent commercial work, with his role as a Shania Twain-singing Chevy truck passenger proving a particularly memorable television spot.

Trivia: Another Saturday Night Live cast member who has taken her act to the big screen, Molly Shannon is probably best known to TV and film audiences as Mary Katherine Gallagher, the hapless, armpit-sniffing Catholic school girl she originated on SNL and then brought to multiplexes everywhere as the heroine of Superstar.Born in Shaker Heights, a posh suburb of Cleveland, on September 16, 1964, Shannon developed a proclivity for performing at an early age and dreamt of being famous. After receiving a Catholic school education, she earned a B.F.A. in drama from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Circle in the Square Studio. Armed with her diploma, she headed West to L.A., where she proceeded to struggle in relative poverty and almost complete obscurity for the next nine years. Although she occasionally found bit parts in film and on such TV series as Seinfeld, Shannon mainly supported herself with odd jobs and waitressing. Finally, in 1994, she got her big break when she won a spot on Saturday Night Live. After making her debut during the 1995 season, Shannon became exceedingly popular with audiences, thanks to her impersonations of the likes of Monica Lewinsky, and Courtney Love.In 1998, Shannon joined fellow SNL cast members Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan to appear in the disastrous A Night at the Roxbury; the following year, she brought her own alter ego to the screen in Superstar. The film earned drastically mixed reviews, although it did fare somewhat better than any number of other SNL film adaptations. Also in 1999, Shannon played Drew Barrymore's newsroom colleague in Never Been Kissed and had a supporting role alongside Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal, and Lisa Kudrow in Analyze This. She subsequently starred alongside Jim Carrey in Ron Howard's 2000 screen adaptation of The Grinch.She continued to work primarily in comedies including Wet Hot American Summer, Good Boy, American Splendor, Scary Movie 4, Little Man, and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. After a small part in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, she starred in the Mike White film Year of the Dog, and appeared in the big-budget sequel Evan Almighty. She had a short-lived sitcom, Kath & Kim, before appearing in a number of animated films including Igor, Snow Buddies, and Hotel Transylvania. In 2012 she could be seen opposite her old SNL castmate Will Ferrell in the Spanish-language comedy Casa de mi Padre.

Trivia: Despite standing a diminutive 37 inches, television and film actor Joshua Ryan Evans reached for the stars early in life. Finding fame and success as the doll-turned-human character Timmy on the fantasy soap opera Passions and living his motto of "It's not the size of the dreamer, but the size of the dream" until his dream of being an actor finally became a reality, Evans' scene-stealing turn in Passions won him two consecutive Daytime Emmy Awards in addition to an Emmy nomination. Born with a rare form of dwarfism called achondroplasia in Hayward, CA, in January 1982, young Evans faced surgery often and spent much of his recovery escaping into the fantasy world of television and film. Making his television debut in a Dreyer's Ice Cream commercial at the age of 12, Ryan decided to use his size to his advantage and won a Cleo Award for his role in the "Dancing Baby" commercial. Reasoning that no one would remember him if he were a normal-sized actor, Ryan subsequently made his feature debut in the film Baby Geniuses (1999) before making a memorable appearance as Ally McBeal's pint-sized nemesis in the 1998 season of the series. His debut in Passions the next year found Evans rising to cult status on the small screen; a role in the made-for-television P.T. Barnum followed. Evans made an appearance as the young Grinch in director Ron Howard's Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. In an odd twist of fate, Evans' death in early August 2002 directly corresponded with his memorable character's death in Passions, marking the end of a brief but memorable career. He was 20.

Trivia: The son of actors, juvenile performer Clint Howard began showing up on screen in the mid-1960s, usually in the TV series and feature films co-starring his older brother Ron Howard. Clint's best-known TV guest appearances include the part of Balok in the 1966 Star Trek episode "The Corbomite Maneuver," and his vivid portrayal of a youthful prognosticator in the opening installment of Night Gallery's 1971-72 season. He was starred in the 1967 Ivan Tors theatrical feature Gentle Giant and in that property's TV-series spin-off Gentle Ben. Upon attaining adulthood, Howard was mostly consigned to character parts; he has also been featured in the films directed by his brother Ron Howard, from Eat My Dust (1978) to Apollo 13 (1995).

Trivia: Actor/comedian Frankie Ray -- sometimes billed as Frank Ray -- had a career during the 1950s and 1960s in both television and feature films. Ray, whose stand-up act offered some effective mimicry (including impressions of Edward G. Robinson and Peter Lorre), made his screen acting bow in William Castle's New Orleans Uncensored (1955), as part of a cast that included Arthur Franz, Beverly Garland, Michael Ansara, and Ed Nelson. He next showed up in Roger Corman's Carnival Rock (1957), working alongside David J. Stewart and such Corman stalwarts as Susan Cabot, Jonathan Haze, and Dick Miller. Ray did a couple of episodes of the series Flight, and also showed up in Spencer Gordon Bennet's Submarine Seahawk (1958). But his most enduring year of screen activity, in terms of posterity, was 1962: He appeared in the first season of the series Combat, in an episode entitled "A Day in June", recalling the squad's experience on D-Day; and he co-starred with Robert Ball in Bruno VeSota's sci-fi/horror parody Invasion of the Star Creatures. The latter's freewheeling production gave Ray a chance to utilize parts of his stand-up act. Ray's next screen credit wasn't until 1998, when he showed up -- as himself -- in the documentary Lenny Bruce: Swear To Tell The Truth. And in 2009, he was seen in Like Father, Like Son, a documentary tribute to actor/entertainer Duke Mitchell.

Trivia: Encouraged by better-than-average success as a stage performer in such plays as Mister Roberts and The Seven Year Itch, American actor Rance Howard decided to try his luck in Hollywood. Talent, however, meant less than star appeal in Tinseltown, thus Howard was confined to small roles which took only minimal advantage of his abilities. Howard's wife Jean was also an actress, but retired to raise their son Ron (both mother and child appeared in the 1956 Western Frontier Woman). Ron was photogenic enough to attain supporting parts on various TV shows and films, leading to a regular role as Opie on The Andy Griffith Show (1960). Those cynics who believe that Rance Howard forced his son into acting in order to create a meal ticket are referred to a well-known anecdote concerning the earliest years of the Griffith program. Little Ron decided to test his value by throwing a temper tantrum -- whereupon Rance took the boy aside, gave him a spanking, and told his son that if he didn't want to act like a professional he'd have to go home and forget about acting. While Rance certainly did not rely on Ron's fame alone to get work (he remained a busy stage actor), it is true that Ron recommended his dad for supporting roles in such films as The Music Man (1962) and The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963), both of which featured the younger Howard. When child star Ronny Howard became A-list film director Ron Howard in the '80s he continued casting both dad Rance and younger brother Clint Howard in Splash (1984) and other films. Rance Howard remained a reliable general purpose actor well into the 2000s.

Trivia: Appeared in the Broadway production of Titanic in 1997. Received the P.T. Barnum Award for Excellence in Entertainment from Tufts University in 2014. Serves on the Tisch Gala Committee as a distinguished alumnus. Teaches at New York University.

Trivia: A renowned character actress, Mindy Sterling honed her skills as a member of the Groundlings improv troupe in 1984. She had already begun building up her acting résumé by this time, making minor appearances on TV, and she would continue to find steady work with small but memorable roles, like as a writer on The Larry Sanders Show in 1992. Sterling's notoriety went up several notches in 1997, however, when she took on the role of stone-cold henchwoman Frau Farbissina in the Mike Myers comedy Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. In the years following, the comedienne would reprise the role for two sequels, but she would also find significant work in television, landing regular roles on series like Robot Chicken, iCarly, and Chowder. She would also find success in the role of voice acting, lending her vocal talents to projects like Mars Needs Moms.

Trivia: Occasionally billed as Bryce Howard Dallas, this promising young talent is the daughter of director Ron Howard and actress Cheryl Howard. Rather than simply using her admittedly well-connected status to break into the acting world, Howard opted to study the craft at New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, and would continue to act at the Stella Adler Conservatory. After landing roles in several off-Broadway productions, Howard made her feature-film debut in director Alan Brown's Book of Love (2003), which premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival as part of the drama competition. In 2004, Howard broke into the mainstream with her performance in M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, which also features Hollywood heavy-hitters William Hurt, Adrien Brody, and Joaquin Phoenix, among others. For Lars von Trier's Manderlay, Howard took over the role of Grace first played by Nicole Kidman in Dogville. In 2006 she reteamed with Shyamalan playing the title character in The Lady in the Water. That same year she was cast alongside Kevin Kline and Alfred Molina in Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Shakespeare's As You Like It. She then scored the plum role of Peter Parker's love interest Gwen Stacy in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3. Howard would henceforth remain a consistent presence on screen, appearing in films like Terminator Salvation, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, The Help, and 50/50.

Trivia: The long-reigning king of Hollywood horror, Boris Karloff was born William Henry Pratt on November 23, 1887, in South London. The youngest of nine children, he was educated at London University in preparation for a career as a diplomat. However, in 1909, he emigrated to Canada to accept a job on a farm, and while living in Ontario he began pursuing acting, joining a touring company and adopting the stage name Boris Karloff. His first role was as an elderly man in a production of Molnar's The Devil, and for the next decade Karloff toiled in obscurity, traveling across North America in a variety of theatrical troupes. By 1919, he was living in Los Angeles, unemployed and considering a move into vaudeville, when instead he found regular work as an extra at Universal Studios. Karloff's first role of note was in 1919's His Majesty the American, and his first sizable part came in The Deadlier Sex a year later. Still, while he worked prolifically, his tenure in the silents was undistinguished, although it allowed him to hone his skills as a consummate screen villain.Karloff's first sound-era role was in the 1929 melodrama The Unholy Night, but he continued to languish without any kind of notice, remaining so anonymous even within the film industry itself that Picturegoer magazine credited 1931's The Criminal Code as his first film performance. The picture, a Columbia production, became his first significant hit, and soon Karloff was an in-demand character actor in projects ranging from the Wheeler and Woolsey comedy Cracked Nuts to the Edward G. Robinson vehicle Five Star Final to the serial adventure King of the Wild. Meanwhile, at Universal Studios, plans were underway to adapt the Mary Shelley classic Frankenstein in the wake of the studio's massive Bela Lugosi hit Dracula. Lugosi, however, rejected the role of the monster, opting instead to attach his name to a project titled Quasimodo which ultimately went unproduced. Karloff, on the Universal lot shooting 1931's Graft, was soon tapped by director James Whale to replace Lugosi as Dr. Frankenstein's monstrous creation, and with the aid of the studio's makeup and effects unit, he entered into his definitive role, becoming an overnight superstar. Touted as the natural successor to Lon Chaney, Karloff was signed by Universal to a seven-year contract, but first he needed to fulfill his prior commitments and exited to appear in films including the Howard Hawks classic Scarface and Business or Pleasure. Upon returning to the Universal stable, he portrayed himself in 1932's The Cohens and Kellys in Hollywood before starring as a nightclub owner in Night World. However, Karloff soon reverted to type, starring in the title role in 1932's The Mummy, followed by a turn as a deaf-mute killer in Whale's superb The Old Dark House. On loan to MGM, he essayed the titular evildoer in The Mask of Fu Manchu, but on his return to Universal he demanded a bigger salary, at which point the studio dropped him. Karloff then journeyed back to Britain, where he starred in 1933's The Ghoul, before coming back to Hollywood to appear in John Ford's 1934 effort The Lost Patrol. After making amends with Universal, he co-starred with Lugosi in The Black Cat, the first of several pairings for the two actors, and in 1936 he starred in the stellar sequel The Bride of Frankenstein. Karloff spent the remainder of the 1930s continuing to work at an incredible pace, but the quality of his films, the vast majority of them B-list productions, began to taper off dramatically. Finally, in 1941, he began a three-year theatrical run in Arsenic and Old Lace before returning to Hollywood to star in the A-list production The Climax. Again, however, Karloff soon found himself consigned to Poverty Row efforts, such as 1945's The House of Frankenstein. He also found himself at RKO under Val Lewton's legendary horror unit. A few of his films were more distinguished -- he appeared in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Unconquered, and even Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer -- and in 1948 starred on Broadway in J.B. Priestley's The Linden Tree, but by and large Karloff delivered strong performances in weak projects. By the mid-'50s, he was a familiar presence on television, and from 1956 to 1958, hosted his own series. By the following decade, he was a fixture at Roger Corman's American International Pictures. In 1969, Karloff appeared in Peter Bogdanovich's Targets, a smart, sensitive tale in which he portrayed an aging horror film star; the role proved a perfect epitaph -- he died on February 2, 1969.

Trivia: While few filmgoers or TV fans have ever seen June Foray, a healthy majority of them are quite familiar with her work. June Foray was one of the leading voice artists of the golden age of animation, working with both the Warner Bros. animation department and the Disney studios, and later gained her greatest fame as the voice of Rocket J. Squirrel on the classic television cartoon series The Bullwinkle Show. Born in Springfield, MA, on September 18, 1917, Foray began her career as an actress at the age of 12 -- appropriately enough, by appearing in a radio drama at a local station in Springfield directed by her voice teacher. By the time Foray was 15, she was a regular at Springfield's WBZA, and two years later she was living in Los Angeles, hoping to break into the big time as an actress. At 19, Foray was both writing and starring in a radio series for children, as Miss Makebelieve, and soon became a frequent guest performer on a number of top-rated radio shows, working with the likes of Danny Thomas and Jimmy Durante. It was in the mid-'40s that Foray finally broke into the movies, but while she scored occasional onscreen roles (most notably as High Priestess Marku in the exotic drama Sabaka), she soon discovered there was a ready market for her vocal talents in Hollywood. Her first animation voice work was for Paramount's Speaking of Animals comedy shorts, in which animated mouths were superimposed on live-action footage of animals. The Speaking of Animals shorts spawned a series of records for children, recorded with a number of other noted voice actors, including Daws Butler and Stan Freeberg. The records made her a hot property with casting agents for cartoon voice work, and she found herself working for many of the biggest names in animation. For Chuck Jones at Warner Bros., Foray provided the voice of Granny in the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons, as well as the cackling Witch Hazel and dozens of other female characters. She recorded voices for several Tex Avery cartoons at MGM, as well as some Woody the Woodpecker shorts for Walter Lantz. And she made her debut at Disney as Lucifer the Cat in Cinderella. With the rise of television in the 1950s, a new market for cartoons appeared, and Foray's career kicked into high gear. She was cast as Rocky on The Bullwinkle Show, and also voiced a number of female characters on the series (most notably the villainous Natasha); she was also the voice of sweet-natured Nell Fenwick on the show's side series Dudley Do-Right. Foray stayed busy doing voice work on a number of other cartoon series as well, including Hoppity Hooper, Yogi the Bear, George of the Jungle, and the new Tom and Jerry shorts produced for TV in 1965. In addition, Foray did occasional work on The Flintstones, though she was passed over for the role of Betty Rubble after voicing her in the show's pilot. (Foray also appeared, uncredited, as the voice of Cindy Lou Who in Chuck Jones' classic animated version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas). In the 1980s and 1990s, at an age when most actresses would consider retirement, Foray was still one of Hollywood's busiest vocal talents, recording voices for everything from The Smurfs and Garfield to Duck Tales and The Simpsons. Foray also made a return to prestigious big-screen animation as the voice of Grandmother Fa in Mulan, and revisited her most famous role with vocal work in 2000's mixture of live-action and computer animation, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. In semi-retirement (though she still takes the occasional job that strikes her fancy), Foray is an active member of the International Animated Film Society, as well as the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Trivia: As Mini-Me in Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), Verne Troyer earned his claim to fame as the smaller imitation sidekick of Dr. Evil (Mike Myers). The hilarious summer sequel to Austin Powers received critical acclaim, as well as success at the box office, in addition to sending Troyer into stardom.Born January 1, 1969, in Sturgis, MI, Troyer began his acting career in 1993, after relocating to Arlington, TX. Standing less than three feet tall, he appeared in his first feature role in Baby's Day Out, playing the stunt double of the film's nine-month-old protagonist. He then appeared in numerous films including My Giant (1998) and Wes Craven's Wishmaster (1997), as well as the 1997 alien movie Men in Black starring Will Smith.After standing in the limelight of Austin Powers 2 in 1999, Troyer found roles in several major motion pictures. In The Grinch -- the Christmas 2000 Dr. Seuss-based feature starring Jim Carrey -- Troyer played a dual role as two different "Who's" (elf-like inhabitants of "Whoville"). He appeared in the strange -- even distasteful -- romantic comedy Bubble Boy in 2001, as Dr. Phreak. That same year, the box-office smash hit Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone incorporated a ghoulish Troyer. Returning to the role that catipulted him to stardom in 2002's Austin Powers in Goldmember found Troyer taking on his most substantial role to date, with many of the film's key scenes featuring Troyer at his comic best. He joined the cast of the reality program The Surreal Life in 2005, and two years later appeared in the infamous video-game adaptation Postal. He had a major role as a hockey coach in Mike Meyer's 2008 comedy The Love Guru, and he was cast by Terry Gilliam in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.