Trivia: With his trademark red moustache, personable smile, and childlike demeanor, longtime character actor Michael Jeter brought smiles to children nationwide with his role on Sesame Street as Mr. Noodle's Brother. Aside from his memorable role on that children's television mainstay, Jeter could also be seen in a number of memorable film roles in such efforts as Miller's Crossing (1990) and The Fisher King (1991). Chances are, if you don't recognize his name you would certainly recognize his face. Born in Lawrenceburg, TN, in August of 1952, Jeter first opted to follow a career in medicine, though a stint at Memphis State University found the creative young student leaning ever closer to a career as an actor. Taking on minor film roles beginning with 1979's Hairspray, the burgeoning young actor would subsequently appear in such films as Milos Foreman's Ragtime (1981) and Woody Allen's Zelig (1983), though early struggles with alcohol and substance abuse threatened to sideline his screen career in the mid-'80s. Abandoning the screen for a career as a legal secretary the same year that Zelig was released, fate guided Jeter back into his true calling when a producer, recalling his role in television's Designing Women, asked that he take a supporting role on the Burt Reynolds' sitcom Evening Shade. Accepting the role as assistant football coach Herman Stiles, Jeter's enthusiasm for acting was re-ignited as he was honored with an Emmy for the role in 1992. A busy stage actor as well, Jeter won a Tony in 1990 for his performance in Grand Hotel. From 1990 on, Jeter maintained his film career with a series of memorably quirky roles. Perhaps his most unique and affecting role came with the release of director Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King. As a homeless transvestite who croons for Amanda Plummer's character after making a flamboyant entrance into her quiet office, Jeter's carefree ditty was a highlight of the film. The 1990s proved a busy decade for Jeter, and roles in such popular films as Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), Air Bud (1997), and The Green Mile (1999) assured that his career would flourish well into the new millennium. Announcing that he had been infected with HIV in 1997, audiences could never have known how quickly the deadly virus would take its toll on the energetic and optimistic actor. Though Jeter would usher in the new millennium with roles in such prominent box-office releases as The Gift (2000) and Jurassic Park III (2001), it was his role on Sesame Street that endeared him to children and made good use of his genuinely playful nature. Sadly, Jeter succumbed to complications from the HIV virus in late March of 2003. Before his untimely death, Jeter would complete roles in Kevin Costner's Open Range (2003) and Robert Zemeckis' family fantasy The Polar Express (2004).

Trivia: The Canadian child actor-turned-young heartthrob Kevin Zegers inevitably recalls an early Tom Cruise, with his high-gloss and surreal handsomeness. These photogenic, audience-pleasing qualities helped to carry Zegers through his adolescent screen career, with a steady series of roles in family-friendly films. Zegers then proved himself capable of sustaining more mature, adult-oriented Hollywood turns, signified by his fine contribution to the pansexual comedy drama Transamerica (2005). Born September 19, 1984, into a blue-collar family (his dad worked in a lime quarry), Zegers attended Holy Family French immersion school in his hometown of Woodstock, Ontario, and received an invitation at eight years old to participate in a London fashion show as a child model. Zegers did a few of these events, then talked his parents into letting him audition for a Toronto-based talent agent; not long after, Zegers landed his first screen role, as a younger version of Michael J. Fox's character in James Lapine's uneven comedy drama Life with Mikey (1993), and spent the preponderance of the next ten years starring in innumerable animal-oriented comedies -- everything from Air Bud and its sequels to Virginia's Run to Nico the Unicorn and MVP: Most Valuable Primate. Lest he be typecast, however, Zegers demonstrated his versatility throughout this period with occasional turns in dark horror outings and telemovies as well.Zegers later recalled how, throughout this period, he honed his ability to size up the fundamental strengths and weaknesses of a script, and by his early twenties, he placed a high premium on this instinct, often rejecting screenplays on the basis of poor quality. Transamerica (which Zegers reportedly read and then fell in love with at first glance) marked the actor's first dramatic leap away from child and adolescent-oriented roles. He later told interviewer Selma Blair that he refused to be turned down for the part, and stalked director Duncan Tucker for weeks on end after an initial rejection from the film, until Tucker recanted. In that well-received picture, Zegers plays Toby, the long-estranged juvenile-delinquent son of pre-operative transsexual Bree (christened Stanley and portrayed by Felicity Huffman). Toby reconnects with his father for a road trip -- just as Bree is about to undergo a permanent sex-change operation. Together, they set off for Los Angeles -- Bree to have her procedure and Toby to make it as a porn star. Zegers proved himself thoroughly worthy of the role; few critics who praised the film failed to single out the actor's performance.Unfortunately, Zegers followed this with an ill-advised retread of his career origins -- first in the critically reviled, Tim Allen-starring family comedy Zoom, then in the Nick Hurran-directed teen film It's a Boy Girl Thing (both 2006) -- leading many of the actor's fans to grow impatient for additional Zegers work on the level of Transamerica. Not long after, he signed for a small role in more substantial fare: the eagerly anticipated, female-driven ensemble drama The Jane Austen Book Club (2007), directed by Robin Swicord and starring Amy Brenneman, Maria Bello, and Jimmy Smits. Beginning in 2009, Zegers took on a recurring role in the CW's teen drama Gossip Girl, playing the entitled son of a foreign ambassador. His growing career gradually led Zegers to starring roles, playing one of the leads in the 2010 horror film Frozen, opposite Shawn Ashmore and Emma Bell, and the lead in the Encore miniseries Titantic: Blood and Steel (2012).

Trivia: Studied classical harp as a child, playing at Carnegie Hall at age 10. Danced ballet with the Balanchine Company at the New York City Ballet, but was forced to quit dance after an injury at age 18. Made her Broadway debut in a 1987 production of Pygmalion. Has appeared regularly on stage, including 1987's Pygmalion with Peter O'Toole and 1996's The Shawl with Dianne Wiest.

Trivia: Character actor Bill Cobbs began his acting career relatively late in life after working odd jobs in Cleveland, OH. At the age of 36, he moved to New York and joined the Negro Ensemble Company, making his Broadway debut in First Breeze of Summer. His film career started in the late '70s with small film roles and guest appearances on television. In the early '80s, he worked on several performances for the NBC Live Theatre series and a PBS anthology with Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. Usually cast as the token old black man dispensing words of wisdom, Cobbs' weathered-yet-honest looks got him several guest spots on TV shows from Good Times to The West Wing. He did end up with a few reoccurring roles on sitcoms like The Slap Maxwell Story, The Gregory Hines Show, and The Michael Richards Show. He even had a part in The Others, the NBC sci-fi drama answer to The X-Files. Perhaps his most memorable television appearance is his role as Regina Taylor's father on I'll Fly Away as well as in the TV movie version I'll Fly Away: Then and Now. Throughout his film career, he has built a long list of credits playing kindly fathers, grandfathers, and even Moses (in The Hudsucker Proxy). He was Whitney Houston's manager in The Bodyguard, an old man in New Jack City, and Grandpa Booker in The People Under the Stairs. Though he appears in nearly all genres of Hollywood films, he occasionally gets meatier roles in made-for-TV dramas like Carolina Skeletons, Nightjohn, and Always Outnumbered. In 2002, he played wisened elders in Sunshine State, Enough, and Sweet Deadly Dreams.

Trivia: A distinguished Canadian stage, radio, film, and TV actor, Eric Christmas is probably best known to American audiences as Mr. Carter in the two Porky's films of the 1980s, or as Senator Polk in The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1980), or Roland the Butler in Warren Beatty's Bugsy (1992). Christmas also played Morten Kill in Steve McQueen's courageous adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People (1979). Eric Christmas' TV-series assignments in America have included the roles of Ben Hampton in The Sandy Duncan Show (1972) and Harry "The Hunchback" Schanstra in Wiseguys (1987-1988 season).