Trivia: The son of a Wall Street broker, towering (6'5") actor Fred Gwynne was born sucking on the proverbial silver spoon. Gwynne attended the prestigious Groton prep school, where he made his acting bow in a student production of Henry V. He then attended Harvard, where he studying drawing with artist R.S. Merryman and was active in dramatics and as a staffer of the Harvard Crimson. Upon graduation, Gwynne played Shakespeare with the Cambridge repertory before heading to New York City. He appeared in such Broadway plays as Mrs. McThing and was cast in a bit role in the Oscar-winning film On the Waterfront, but for many years his principal source of income was as a book illustrator and commercial artist (his first published work was titled The Best in Show). In 1961, Gwynne was co-starring in the Broadway musical Irma La Douce when TV producer/writer Nat Hiken, who'd cast Gwynne in a handful of guest roles on the 1950s sitcom Sgt. Bilko, hired the actor to play NYPD officer Francis Muldoon on the weekly comedy Car 54, Where are You? A year after the series' cancellation, Gwynne was starred in his most famous TV role: bolt-necked, soft-hearted Herman Munster in The Munsters (1964-66). Afterwards, Gwynne distanced himself from television for the most part. In the 1970s and 1980s, he distinguished himself on Broadway in powerful dramatic roles, often playing autocratic Southerners (e.g. Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and an elderly Klansman in Texas Trilogy). Fred Gwynne also returned to films during this period, playing key roles in such major productions as The Cotton Club (1984) and Shadows and Fog (1992); he died of pancreatic cancer shortly after completing his critically acclaimed role of the judge in My Cousin Vinny (1993).

Trivia: Born Peggy Yvonne Middleton, Yvonne De Carlo began studying dance in childhood, and in her teens appeared in nightclubs and on-stage. She debuted onscreen in 1942, going on to a number of secondary roles. Finally she was cast in the title role of Salome -- Where She Danced (1945) and played leads in The Song of Scheherazade and Slave Girl (both 1947), after which she was typecast as an Arabian Nights-type temptress in harem attire; she also appeared frequently in Westerns, and occasionally showed talent in comedies. De Carlo was a co-star of the '60s TV sitcom The Munsters. In 1971 she appeared on Broadway in the musical Follies. She married and divorced stuntman and actor Robert Morgan. She continued appearing in occasional films through the '90s and authored Yvonne: An Autobiography (1987). De Carlo died of unspecified causes at age 84 on January 8, 2007.

Trivia: First acting gig was a Kellogg's commercial in 1960. Formed a band called Eddie and the Monsters, who released a single in 1983, recalling his role as Eddie (who looked like a wolf boy) on the 1964-66 sitcom, The Munsters. "Whatever Happened to Eddie?" was followed, in 2007, by another song, "It's Only Halloween." Took part in a motorcycling event in Carthage, NY, in 2010 to benefit the blind. Has frequently appeared at Halloween events in his Eddie Munster costume.

Trivia: Kooky, chipper comic actress Jackie Joseph was a chorus dancer when she gained prominence in The Billy Barnes Revue, in which she appeared with her future husband Ken Berry. Not long afterward, Joseph was hired as Los Angeles' first TV weather girl. In films at least since 1955's Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki, Joseph's most fondly remembered screen role was pea-brained Audrey Fulquard in the original Little Shop of Horrors (1960). A prolific TV actress, Joseph was a comedy-ensemble player on the first Bob Newhart Show (1961-62) and played dizzy secretary Jackie Parker during the final 1972-73 season of The Doris Day Show. She briefly put her acting career on the back burner in the 1970s to become an LA TV host and tireless animal activist. After her costly, traumatic divorce from Ken Berry, Joseph organized L.A.D.I.E.S., a support group for ex-wives of celebrities. Jackie Joseph resumed her film activities in the 1980s; she was reunited with her Little Shop of Horrors co-star Dick Miller as the ill-fated Futtermans in Gremlins (1984) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1989).

Trivia: With his trademark heavyset figure and attitude of manic glee, the genial Dom DeLuise rose to prominence as one of America's most beloved comedic character actors. Born Dominick DeLuise in Brooklyn in 1933, the future star attended the High School for the Performing Arts in Manhattan, then graduated from Tufts University in Boston. DeLuise wasted no time in making a beeline for television, and though early efforts were low-profiled, including a turn as Tinker the Toymaker on the daytime children's show Tinker's Workshop and the portrayal of a bumbling detective named Kenny Ketchum on The Shari Lewis Show, DeLuise's popularity spread, carrying him swiftly into other formats and venues. DeLuise initially graduated to primetime variety courtesy of The Garry Moore show, where he enjoyed recurring sketches as an inept magician named Dominick the Great. He then appeared on innumerable subsequent variety programs (often as a regular contributor) including The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, The Dean Martin Show, and The Flip Wilson Show. The comic made the leap into filmdom as early as the earnest Cold War thriller Fail-Safe (1964) (as an edgy flier), but drama didn't serve him well. He found a much stronger suit in comedy, initially courtesy of Mel Brooks, who cast him in films beginning with The Twelve Chairs (1970), as a shifty priest, Father Fyodor. Their collaborations extended to the 1976 Silent Movie (as studio man Dom Bell), the 1981 History of the World, Part I (as Emperor Nero), the 1986 Spaceballs (as the voice of Pizza the Hut), and the 1993 Robin Hood: Men in Tights (as the godfather-like Don Giovanni). The actor received additional screen exposure via friendships with Gene Wilder (in whose outings The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother and The World's Greatest Lover he co-starred) and Burt Reynolds, who -- in one of either's finest moments -- cast DeLuise as an around-the-bend asylum resident who tries to assist Reynolds' character with a suicide bid in the jet-black comedy The End (1978). Unfortunately, additional Reynolds collaborations didn't fare so well -- they included such schlocky vehicles as the Cannonball Run series -- but helped DeLuise maintain a familiar profile. He teamed with Mel Brooks' wife, Anne Bancroft, for a starring role in that actress' directorial debut, the comedy-drama Fatso (1980), but it earned mostly lukewarm reviews. In the meantime, DeLuise himself took the director's chair for the nutty caper comedy Hot Stuff, which gleaned a generally positive critical and public reception. As time rolled on, DeLuise unfortunately drifted into filmic material that suffered from serious lapses in quality and judgment, witness his performances as a porn lord in Bob Clark's wretched buddy farce Loose Cannons and convict Dr. Animal Cannibal Pizza in the horror send-up Silence of the Hams, both enormous box office flops. Taking critical and public reactions to these efforts as a cue, the comic accepted fewer and few assignments as the misfires happened and instead began to place a strong emphasis on his own cooking skills; the gifted chef authored two well-received cookbooks, the 1988 Eat This...It'll Make You Feel Better! and the 1997 Eat This Too!...It'll Also Make You Feel Better. DeLuise also published a series of books for children, such as the 1990 Charlie the Caterpillar and the 2007 The Pouch Potato. Dom DeLuise died in May 2009 at the age of 75. He was survived by his wife since 1965, actress Carol Arthur, and three sons, Peter, Michael, and David.