Trivia: Leading man and sex symbol, Selleck has a gentle, humorous manner. He attended college on an athletic scholarship, majoring in business. A drama coach suggested he become an actor; soon he began making the rounds of auditions. He won a part in the disastrous film Myra Breckinridge (1970), his screen debut, then appeared in small roles in a handful of films during the '70s. Meanwhile, Selleck was signed to a seven-year contract with Fox, leading to a great many TV roles, including appearances as a recurring character on the TV series "The Rockford Files." Eventually he was chosen as the lead for the TV series "Magnum P.I.;" the show became a hit, staying on the air from 1980-88, and he became a star and sex symbol, winning an Emmy, a Golden Globe award, and a star on Hollywood Boulevard. He suffered a serious career setback in 1981, when he was chosen to star in the Lucas-Spielberg blockbuster Raiders of the Lost Ark, but couldn't get released from his TV responsibilities. Beginning in 1983 he tried to break back into films, finally landing a major hit in a co-starring role in Three Men and a Baby (1987); although he appeared in a dozen films after 1983 he never firmly established himself as a screen star. He has also been active as a TV producer. He is married to English dancer Jillie Mack.

Trivia: Natty, mellifluous character actor John Hillerman may have spoken on screen with a pure Mayfair accent, but he hailed from Denison, Texas. Hillerman first gained notice for his fleeting appearances in the films of Peter Bogdanovich: The Last Picture Show (1971), What's Up Doc (1973), At Long Last Love (1975). He was also a semi-regular for director Mel Brooks, prominently cast in Blazing Saddles (1975) and History of the World, Part I (1981). A veteran of dozens of television series, John Hillerman was cast as the insufferable criminologist Simon Brimmer on Ellery Queen (1975), the star's director (and ex-husband) in The Betty White Show (1975), and most memorably as the ultra-correct Jonathan Quayle Higgins II, major domo to never-seen mystery writer Robin Masters, on Magnum PI (1980-88).

Trivia: American actor Elisha Cook Jr. was the son of an influential theatrical actor/writer/producer who died early in the 20th Century. The younger Cook was in vaudeville and stock by the time he was fourteen-years old. In 1928, Cook enjoyed critical praise for his performance in the play Her Unborn Child, a performance he would repeat for his film debut in the 1930 film version of the play. The first ten years of Cook's Hollywood career found the slight, baby-faced actor playing innumerable college intellectuals and hapless freshmen (he's given plenty of screen time in 1936's Pigskin Parade). In 1940, Cook was cast as a man wrongly convicted of murder in Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), and so was launched the second phase of Cook's career as Helpless Victim. The actor's ability to play beyond this stereotype was first tapped by director John Huston, who cast Cook as Wilmer, the hair-trigger homicidal "gunsel" of Sidney Greenstreet in The Maltese Falcon (1941). So far down on the Hollywood totem pole that he wasn't billed in the Falcon opening credits, Cook suddenly found his services much in demand. Sometimes he'd be shot full of holes (as in the closing gag of 1941's Hellzapoppin'), sometimes he'd fall victim to some other grisly demise (poison in The Big Sleep [1946]), and sometimes he'd be the squirrelly little guy who turned out to be the last-reel murderer (I Wake Up Screaming [1941]; The Falcon's Alibi [1946]). At no time, however, was Cook ever again required to play the antiseptic "nerd" characters that had been his lot in the 1930s. Seemingly born to play "film noir" characters, Cook had one of his best extended moments in Phantom Lady (1944), wherein he plays a set of drums with ever-increasing orgiastic fervor. Another career high point was his death scene in Shane (1953); Cook is shot down by hired gun Jack Palance and plummets to the ground like a dead rabbit. A near-hermit in real life who lived in a remote mountain home and had to receive his studio calls by courier, Cook nonetheless never wanted for work, even late in life. Fans of the 1980s series Magnum PI will remember Cook in a recurring role as a the snarling elderly mobster Ice Pick. Having appeared in so many "cult" films, Elisha Cook Jr. has always been one of the most eagerly sought out interview subjects by film historians.

Trivia: Born Kathleen Gackle. Lead actress, onscreen from The Missouri Breaks (1976).

Trivia: The daughter of a Christian Science lecturer, Carol Channing endured the rigors of Bennington College for one year before dropping out to try her luck as an actress in New York. Channing made her first Broadway appearance in 1941's Never Take No for an Answer; two years later, she understudied Eve Arden in the musical hit Let's Face It. Developing her own inimitable personality -- the wide-eyed, raspy-voice soubrette who is neither as dumb nor as crazy as she seems -- she scored her first hit in the 1948 revue Lend an Ear, which won the New York Drama Critics Award. In 1949, she starred as Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, introducing the immortal golddigger's anthem "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend." She lost the Lorelei Lee role to Marilyn Monroe in the 1952 film version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and not without some justification: Like Bert Lahr, Fanny Brice, and other larger-than-life Broadway luminaries, Channing was simply too overpowering for the more intimate medium of film. Proof that her million-watt personality was best suited to the stage can be found in her one starring film, the unsuccessful The First Traveling Saleslady (1956). Though she remained an audience favorite in nightclub and review appearances throughout the 1950s and early '60s -- at one point, she was teamed with George Burns -- Channing would not find a Broadway vehicle to match the success of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes until 1963, when she was cast as Dolly Gallegher Levi in the blockbuster musical Hello, Dolly!. She won a Tony Award for her work in this production, repeating the role in periodic revivals and eventually toting up over 1,400 performances. Again, however, she was denied the opportunity to repeat her stage role onscreen; it was a young Barbra Streisand who starred in the 1970 film version of Hello, Dolly!. Channing was awarded an Emmy for the 1966 TV special An Evening With Carol Channing, and an Oscar nomination for her supporting performance in Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). After co-starring in the Otto Preminger disappointment Skidoo (1969), Channing confined her big-screen activities to cartoon voice-over work (Shinbone Alley, Happily Ever After, and Thumbelina); she has also supplied voices for the animated TV series Where's Waldo?, The Addams Family, and The Magic School Bus. In 1995, Carol Channing was honored at the Tony Awards presentations with a lifetime achievement award. Channing would particupate in documentaries about Broadway and her life, like Carol Channing: Larger Than Life.