Trivia: Tall, deep-voiced American actress Beatrice Arthur, born Beatrice Frankel, was best known for her television work on the long-running series Maude and The Golden Girls, but she also occasionally appeared in films. Her most famous film is 1973's Mame in which she played Vera Charles, the role she originated on Broadway.

Trivia: Actress Betty White got her start in local Los Angeles television as the "telephone girl" for video emcee Al Jarvis. By early 1950 she was one of the stars of the daily, five-hour series Hollywood on Television. One of the highlights of this program was a husband and wife sketch titled "Life With Elizabeth," which when committed to film and syndicated nationally in 1953 became White's first starring TV sitcom. She went on to headline her own network variety series in 1954, then co-starred with Bill Williams in the weekly TV domestic comedy Date With the Angels (1957), which without Williams was retitled The Betty White Show in early 1958. For the next 15 years she made guest appearances on various variety and quiz show efforts, and toured the straw-hat theatrical circuit in such plays as Critics Choice and Who Was That Lady, often appearing opposite her husband, TV personality Allen Ludden. Two years after hosting the 1971 syndicated informational series The Pet Set, she guest-starred as libidinous "Happy Homemaker" Sue Ann Nivens on the fourth season opener of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. This Emmy-winning episode led to White being cast as an MTM regular; she remained with the series until its final episode in 1977. She then starred on her own short-lived sitcom (again titled The Betty White Show) before returning to the guest-star circuit. In 1985, she joined the cast of TV's The Golden Girls as middle-aged grief counselor Rose Nyland. This top-rated program lasted seven seasons before metamorphosing into the rather less successful Golden Palace (1992). White was a regular on the 1995 series Maybe This Time, and in 1997 she won an Emmy for her one-shot appearance on The John Laroquette Show. She was in the films Hard Rain and The Story of Us, as well as Lake Placid. In 2003 she was cast in Bringing Down the House, and in 2008 provided a voice for the American version of Ponyo. White developed a new generation in fans when she became the subject of a successful online campaign to get her to host Saturday Night Live - which she did in 2010, along with winning the SAG award for Life time Achievement. The year before, she had a part in the hit Sandra Bullock vehicle The Proposal. She also became the star of year another successful TV show when she was cast in the female-centric sitcom Hot in Cleveland. She lent her voice to the 2012 adaptation of The Lorax.

Trivia: Graduating cum laude from the University of Tulsa, Rue McClanahan studied acting with Uta Hagen and at the Perry-Mansfield school. After her professional debut with a Pennsylvania stock company in 1957, McClanahan headed to New York, where between acting gigs she worked as a waitress, took shorthand and sold blouses. Grabbing any opportunity available, she made her TV bow on a 1960 episode of the TV series Malibu Run, then appeared in a handful of exploitation films with come-hither titles like Five Minutes to Love (she played "Poochie, the girl from the shack," a credit she has since dropped from her resumé). She managed to find more prestigious work on the New York stage, starring in such well-received productions as MacBird, Jimmy Shine, Sticks and Bones and California Suite. She also played regular roles on the TV soap operas Another World and Where the Heart Is. A 1972 guest shot on Norman Lear's controversial series All in the Family led to her being cast as Vivian Harmon on Lear's popular sitcom Maude, a role she played until the series' cancellation in 1978. McClanahan's next project was her own starring series, 1978's Apple Pie, which unfortunately bit the dust after three shows. She went on to play the vitriolic Aunt Fran on the network version of Mama's Family (1983-85), then was co-starred with her Maude colleague Bea Arthur in The Golden Girls (1985-92). Her well-rounded portrayal of overly amorous museum worker Blanche Devereaux won her an 1986 Emmy award; she reprised the character in the Golden Girls spin-off Golden Palace (1992-93). The star of several made-for-TV movies, McClanahan co-produced and appeared in a brace of "dramedies," Mother of the Bride (1991) and Baby of the Bride (1992).

Trivia: A 5-foot-tall embodiment of the phrase "Late Bloomer," Estelle Getty was 47 years old when she made her first off-Broadway stage appearance. Getty gained renown in 1982 for her vitriolic performance as Harvey Fierstein's mother in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Torch Song Trilogy. She made the first of several brief film appearances that same year. When the call went out for an actress to play Sophia Petrillo, a peppery octogenarian whose recent stroke robbed her brain of its "tact"cells, in the upcoming TV series Golden Girls, Getty auditioned, only to be turned down because she was too young for the role. Four auditions later, she landed the part by hiring a makeup artist to add some 20 years to her facial features, wearing a too-big thrift shop dress, and remaining in character throughout the interview. She played Sophia on Golden Girls from 1985 to 1992, reprising the character for the spin-off series Golden Palace (1992) and for two year's worth of appearances on another sitcom, Empty Nest. For her efforts, Getty won a 1987 Emmy, a Golden Globe, and an American Comedy Award. She also evidently became typecast for life, as witness her Sophia-like co-starring performance in the 1992 Sylvester Stallone vehicle Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot. A handful of similar guest-starring roles in popular '90s series, including Mad About You and Touched By an Angel, followed that performance. During her first rush of TV fame, Getty also published her autobiography, If I Knew Then What I Know Now...So What?. She died of complications related to advanced dementia in the summer of 2008.

Trivia: The slightly gritty and wizened Cuban-American actor Tony Plana boasts a resumé that is no less than extraordinary. Whatever the limitations of Hispanic typecasting, Plana soared high above them from the time of his debut in the early '80s, seeking out roles in several of Hollywood's most respected and venerable films -- ethnically themed and otherwise. He first culled attention as Rudy in Luis Valdez's stylized, theatrical period piece Zoot Suit (1981), starring a then-unknown Edward James Olmos. Plana's subsequent efforts read like a best-of early-'80s cinema; he tackled An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Love and Money (1982), Valley Girl (1983), and El Norte (1983), all within a few years of one another. Plana was particularly effective as Fr. Manuel Morantes in John Duigan's wondrous, overlooked biopic Romero (1989, about archbishop and activist Oscar Romero) and as Carlos Bringuier in Oliver Stone's JFK (1991). In the 2000s, Plana unveiled a heightened interest in television, gracing the casts of such series as Ally McBeal and The Drew Carey Show as an occasional guest performer. Plana is best known to younger viewers, however, for two small-screen portrayals: that of cutthroat terrorist Omar in 24, and -- on a very different note, Ignacio -- the widower dad of the title character -- on the comedy drama Ugly Betty. Educationally, Plana trained in the drama programs at Loyola Marymount University and London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He made the leap from acting to directing with two projects: A Million to Juan (1994, co-helmed with Paul Rodriguez) and The Princess and the Barrio Boy (2000). The latter constitutes Plana's directorial debut. It tells of a young well-to-do Hispanic woman (Marisol Nichols) who bucks convention by falling for a working-class boy, and simultaneously attempts to stand in the way of her father's marriage to a wicked lover.

Trivia: An actor whom you've probably seen in more films than you realize, Zach Grenier possesses the rare ability to take the smallest of roles and transform them into memorable appearances that stick with audiences long after the credits have finished -- even if his frequently unsympathetic characters have often met an unpleasant demise. It was this ability and skill that found Grenier steadily building a career with appearances in such blockbusters as Cliffhanger (1993), Donnie Brasco (1997), Shaft (2000), and Swordfish (2001). Born in February 1954, Grenier's family lived a somewhat nomadic existence in his early years, moving 18 times before the worldly teen graduated from high school, where, in his junior year, the young man discovered his love of the stage while performing in a production of Shakespeare's Henry V. Continuing to hone his acting skills and frequently appearing on-stage following graduation, Grenier appeared in such other plays as Talk Radio and A Question of Mercy, and made his film debut in the 1987 drama The Kid Brother (aka Kenny). Soon appearing in such films as Working Girl and Talk Radio in 1988, and See No Evil, Hear No Evil the following year. The actor's parts may have been small, but his talent was growing and appearances memorable; his roles continued to expand throughout the '90s, and viewers saw the rising star in Twister and Maximum Risk (both 1996), among several other movies. A turn as Joseph Goebbels in that year's Mother Night gave him a chance to prove his dramatic skills in front of the camera, and a subsequent role in David Fincher's cult hit Fight Club (1999) found him holding his own well against the film's talented leads. Alternating between television and movies in subsequent work, Grenier starred in the little-seen thriller Chasing Sleep (2000) and joined the cast of the popular weekly suspense series 24 in 2001.

Trivia: Became interested in acting after playing the role of Tiny Tim in a stage production of A Christmas Carol in third grade. Studied at American Conservatory Theater's Young Program. Lived in Italy and other locations in Europe while attempting to find work as an international banker. First professional acting job was in a Folgers commercial. Began appearing on TV in the early 1990s, performing in small roles on Cheers, The X-Files, NYPD Blue and Mad About You. Wrote, directed and starred in a 2010 film titled Morning opposite his wife, actress Jeanne Tripplehorn.