Trivia: After roles on a handful of BBC television shows, British actor Mark Addy made a splash on the international film scene with his turn as a rotund exotic dancer in 1997's surprise hit The Full Monty. With the filmmaking boatloads of cash stateside and garnering a handful of Academy Award nods and Addy's ability to effortlessly adopt an American accent, it took little time before he was working on the U.S. side of the pond. Addy's first high-profile Hollywood role was a supporting gig playing Michael Keaton's pal in Jack Frost (1998), a family flick about a jazz musician who is reincarnated as a snowman. Two years later, Addy took on his first lead in an American film, filling the pelt worn previously by John Goodman, playing Fred Flintstone in the prequel The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas. Unfortunately, the project failed to keep the franchise's flame burning. The next couple years saw Addy in more supporting roles in a series of projects that ranged from barely-profitable (A Knight's Tale) to downright unsuccesful (Down to Earth and The Time Machine), but in 2002 he landed the lead on the CBS sitcom Still Standing. With Addy starring opposite Jami Gertz, the show became a hit as the lead-in to the network's wildly popular Monday-night lineup.In between seasons of Still Standing, Addy continued to make time for the occassional big-screen project, popping up in such films as 2003's The Order and 2004's Around the World in 80 Days, the former of which reunited the actor with Brian Helgeland and Heath Ledger, the writer/director and star of A Knight's Tale. Addy married Kelly Addy in 1996. The couple has one daughter. He appeared as John Piggot in the highly-respected Red Riding trilogy, and followed that up with a role in 2010's Robin Hood as Friar Tuck. In 2011 he was cast in the initial season of HBO's Game of Thrones as King Robert Baratheon.

Trivia: The youngest member of the Baldwin clan, Stephen Baldwin is one of the few Hollywood actors versatile enough to boast roles in everything from The Usual Suspects (1995) to Bio-Dome (1996). Equally adept at comedy and drama, Baldwin's popularity surged in the '90s and carried the increasingly busy actor into a series of low-budget action thrillers. A Massapequa, NY, native, Baldwin gained notice in his teens as a successful opera singer and took home top prizes in numerous local competitions. Opting for a career as an actor a few short years later, the aspiring thespian refined his talents at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts before making his way to the screen in the mid-'80s. Baldwin made his film debut in the 1987 made-for-TV feature The Prodigious Mr. Hickey, with small screen appearances in Family Ties and China Beach soon to follow. In 1989, he took a featured role in the short-lived television Western The Young Riders. His feature career gained momentum with the adaptation of Hubert Selby Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989), and it wasn't long before he was turning up in such highbrow Hollywood fare as Born on the Fourth of July. After putting his Young Riders experience to good use in Mario Van Peebles' Posse (1993), Baldwin turned up in the Hollywood sex comedy Threesome (1994). It was around this time that roles in 8 Seconds and A Simple Twist of Fate (also 1994) began to catch the attention of the movie-going public. The following year's The Usual Suspects, however, found the rising star gaining both top billing and the best reviews of his career. Taking top billing as a criminal taken in by police for questioning following a truck hijacking, Baldwin's kinetic and humorous performance propelled him through such comedies as Bio-Dome (1996) and Fled (both 1996). Taking a stab at dramatic action with One Tough Cop (1998), the film did little to forward public perception of Baldwin as a serious actor, although he would make a successful transition into thrillers with Scarred City (1999) and Mercy (2000). His roles in big-budget Hollywood fare began decreasing after that, but the youngest Baldwin sibling was still as busy as ever with an average of four films per year. In 2002, he took to the screen for the comedy sequel Slap Shot 2: Breaking the Ice. Outside of his film work, Baldwin is well known for charitable contributions to such organizations as the Los Angeles AIDS Project. Married to Kennya Deodato in 1990, the couple reside in Tucson, AZ, with their children when Baldwin is not on location.Although Baldwin continued to work regularly, he gained notoriety with the release of an autobiography in 2006 in which he explained his conversion to born-again Christianity, and began to campaign for different conservative politicians, often putting him at odds publically with his liberal-minded brother Alec. Baldwin became enough of a name that he appeared on a pair of reality programs - I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and The Celebrity Apprentice.

Trivia: Best known as the husky-voiced, no-nonsense Lt. Sally Solomon on the hit NBC fantasy sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996-2001) -- a role she played, opposite heavyweights John Lithgow and Jane Curtin, for the entire six-year run of the series -- fair-haired Kristen Johnson parlayed her success from that effort into a handful of A-list cinematic releases, beginning in 1999. After 3rd Rock wrapped in spring 2001, Johnston's movie activity crescendoed dramatically, and she became ever-present as a character player in the supporting casts of Hollywood feature films.Born January 20, 1967, in Washington, D.C., Johnston moved with her family to Wisconsin and attended high school in suburban Milwaukee, where prescient classmates voted her "Biggest Ham" and "Most Likely to be a Celebrity." Unusually tall for her age (6 ft. at age 13), with a booming, authoritative voice and an outsized personality, Johnston stood out from the crowd and reportedly struggled with self-doubt as a result; she later termed her height "incredibly distressing." The aspiring actress learned self-acceptance early on, however, as she attended NYU and studied drama there. For almost ten years, Johnston struggled as an up-and-coming actress, holding down assorted jobs and working on Broadway and off-Broadway productions, until an NBC executive noticed her and was instrumental in enlisting her as Sally on 3rd Rock. Johnston doubled this up with a 1998 guest appearance as herself on The Larry Sanders Show, then debuted cinematically the following summer as Ivana Humpalot in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999). Johnston ascended to higher billing as Wilma Slaghoople, the wife of Fred Flintstone (a role she inherited from Elizabeth Perkins) in the family-friendly, effects-heavy Stone Age comedy The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000).Although 3rd Rock from the Sun, as indicated, ended its original network run in mid-2001, Johnston took a couple of years off, resurfacing in 2003 with a guest appearance on the shortlived courtroom seriocomedy Queens Supreme (produced by Julia Roberts). Johnston followed this up with several additional big-screen turns over the next few years. These included a supporting role in William Tannen's all-star showbiz satire Nobody Knows Anything (2003); the part of Fran -- an envious friend of newly involved Caroleen Feeney -- in Hal Salwen's quirky indie romantic comedy Duane Incarnate; a brief supporting turn as Coach Divers in Paul Dinello's big-screen prequel to the wild television comedy series Strangers with Candy (2005); and Rhonda in Marc Lawrence's romantic comedy Music and Lyrics (2007), co-starring Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant. Appearances on The New Adventures of Old Christine and Ugly Betty followed, and in 2009 Johnston began teaching acting classes at New York University. Two years later, she documented her struggles with addiction in her memoir Guts: The Endless Follies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster.In addition to Johnston's film work, she acts in theatrical productions. Several of Johnston's higher-profiled stage productions include the Scott Elliott-directed revival of Clare Boothe Luce's play The Women (2001, alongside Rue McClanahan, Cynthia Nixon, and Jennifer Coolidge); the Mark Brokaw-directed 2004 production of Paula Vogel's one-act play The Baltimore Waltz (as Anna); and the 2006 John Crowley-directed production of John Kolvenbach's Love Song (as Joan).

Trivia: A musical theater veteran, Jane Krakowski is best known for her Emmy-nominated portrayal of scheming law secretary Elaine on the Fox TV hit Ally McBeal. Raised in Parsippany, NJ, Krakowski began taking dance lessons at age three. After making her movie debut as an orally skilled teenager in National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), she garnered two Emmy nominations during her 1984-1986 stint on the serial Search for Tomorrow. Though she acted in several TV productions, including Men and Women II (1991) and Queen (1993), and had small feature film parts in Fatal Attraction (1987) and Stepping Out (1991), Krakowski found more success on Broadway in the first half of the 1990s. After she earned a Tony nomination for her work in the 1990 musical Grand Hotel, the actress was featured in several shows, including the revival of Once Upon a Mattress starring Sarah Jessica Parker. Krakowski became a TV star, however, when she was cast in Ally McBeal in 1997. As ambitious busybody Elaine, Krakowski became a bombshell comic foil to Calista Flockhart's neurotic Ally, asserting her power over the series' law office with her well-honed observational skills. The actress also displayed her versatile talents in the show's whimsical song-and-dance interludes. Bolstered by her TV success, Krakowski played a supporting role in the dance romance Dance With Me (1998), appeared as the seemingly lascivious wife of William Fichtner's bizarre narc in Go (1999), and starred as Betty in the sequel The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000). After Ally McBeal went off the air in 2002, Krakowski continued to divide her time between TV, features and the stage. Along with voicing one of the female sloths in the hit animated movie Ice Age (2002), Krakowski starred in the made for TV romantic comedy Just a Walk in the Park (2002) and played a supporting role in the Lisa Kudrow comic vehicle Marci X (2003). As in the early 1990s, though, Krakowski wound up attracting more attention on Broadway. Drawing positive notice for her acrobatic entrance via a bed sheet as well as her musical gifts, Krakowski earned another Tony nomination for her sexy supporting performance as Antonio Banderas's mistress in the acclaimed revival of Nine, the musical version of Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 (1963).She was one of the female conquests for Jude Law in the remake of Alfie in 2004, and had a great success starting in 2006 when she was cast as Jenna Maroney, the oversexed, undereducated, deeply vain, and paranoid actress at the center of the fictional show within the show on the highly-respected sitcom 30 Rock. She provided a voice for the animated flim Open Season, and its sequel.

Trivia: Versatile as well as tall, dark, and handsome, Thomas Gibson has moved easily between TV stardom and a varied movie career working with some of the industry's major names. Born and raised in Charleston, Gibson found his calling as a child, making his acting debut at age ten in children's theater productions. Though he attended the College of Charleston, Gibson relocated when he won a scholarship to New York's prestigious Juilliard School. After earning his B.F.A., Gibson made his professional New York theater debut in 1985. Gibson spent the rest of the 1980s doing theater, as well as branching out into television with two seasons on the daytime drama Another World and the TV movie Gore Vidal's Lincoln (1988).Gibson made the transition to films in style with a co-starring role opposite Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in Ron Howard's glossy Irish-American epic Far and Away (1992). Along with playing a bit part in Martin Scorsese's lush The Age of Innocence (1993), Gibson further distinguished himself that year with larger roles in the critically praised PBS miniseries Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City and French-Canadian director Denys Arcand's first English-language film, the contemporary drama Love and Human Remains (1993).Gibson subsequently appeared in the second part of Whit Stillman's preppy trilogy, Barcelona (1994), and in the indie Sleep With Me (1994), but he became better-known to TV audiences that year on the CBS hospital drama Chicago Hope. After three seasons on the show, Gibson became an even more prominent TV presence in 1997 when he was cast as the straight-laced husband Greg to Jenna Elfman's hippie Dharma on the ABC sitcom Dharma and Greg. In addition to the memorable role of Greg, Gibson would appear in a number of feature films, like Eyes Wide Shut, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, and Psycho Beach Party, as well as subsuquent TV series, like the the proceedural Criminal Minds.

Trivia: British actress Joan Collins, daughter of a London theatrical booking agent, made her showbiz bow in a production of The Doll's House -- in a male role. She was 9 years old then, and it would be the last time there would be any doubt as to her gender. With the sort of glamorous countenance that prompted people to ask "why aren't you in movies?", Collins first appeared before the cameras in a small role as a beauty contestant in Lady Godiva Rides Again (1953). She made an auspicious American debut as an Egyptian temptress in Land of the Pharoahs (1955). This assignment led to a contract with 20th Century-Fox, where despite a few good dramatic parts (Girl on the Red Velvet Swing [1955] in particular) and an adroit comic characterization in Rally Round the Flag, Boys (1958), she was written off by critics as decorative but nothing more. She was perilously close to "perennial starlet" status in the 1960s, and by the 1970s was the uncrowned queen of "B" pictures. Offscreen she cut quite a swath through the tabloid headlines; if her autobiography, Past Imperfect is to be believed, she dallied with virtually every male actor in Hollywood except Wile E. Coyote. Her maturation from mere personality to superstar came about when she was cast in 1981 as glamorous and predatory Alexis Carrington on Dynasty, the role giving her arguably the greatest exposure of his career. Though she continued to work steadily up until 2003, she never landed in a project as embraced as Dynasty but highlights include 1995's comedy In the Bleak Midwinter and 2000's The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas. In 2015, she was cast as a modern Grand Duchess in E! first scripted series, The Royals, playing Elizabeth Hurley's mother.Despite professional and personal setbacks, Collins has managed to survive in an industry that swallows up lesser starlets on an average of ten per hour. Nor is Joan the only Collins with talent and charisma; her sister Jackie Collins is a highly successful romance novelist, whose books The Bitch and The Stud were turned into films, both starring sibling Joan.

Trivia: Scottish, versatile, and for a long time underappreciated, Alan Cumming is chameleon-like in both his choice of roles and his ability to inhabit them convincingly. Born January 27, 1965, in Perthshire, Scotland, Cumming studied drama at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama before embarking on a career that would have its roots on the stage. For years, Cumming worked steadily in the theater as a member of repertory companies, such as the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1992 he had his film debut in the largely unheard of Prague, which was essentially a historical overview of the city. In 1994 American audiences were introduced to the sound of Cumming's voice thanks to his role as the narrator of Black Beauty, but it wasn't until 1995 (Cumming's other 1994 film, Second Best notwithstanding) that they actually saw him, this time via his small but memorable role as a Russian computer programmer in Goldeneye.Wider exposure followed, thanks to two successful films. The first, Circle of Friends (1995), featured Cumming as Minnie Driver's slimy, unwelcome suitor, and the second, 1996's Emma, saw Cumming playing yet another unwelcome suitor, this time to Gwyneth Paltrow. More sympathetic roles followed in For My Baby, Buddy, and Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (in which he played a sweetly awkward nerd with a crush on Lisa Kudrow), all released in 1997. Work in Spice World came next in 1998, as did the stage role that was to give Cumming critical acclaim, a host of awards, and the wider respect he deserved. That role was Cabaret's Emcee, and Cumming managed to make the character -- previously the sole territory of Joel Grey -- all his own, giving a wickedly delicious performance that was unabashedly dark, sly, androgynous, and altogether terrifying. His performance won him all three New York theater awards: a Tony, a Drama Desk, and an Outer Critics Circle. This triumph resulted in a new range of opportunities for the actor, one of which was the chance to be a part of what was to be Stanley Kubrick's last film, Eyes Wide Shut (1999). Although Cumming's role as a hotel desk clerk was a small one, the actor turned in a sly and insinuating performance that reflected his ability to make the most out of even the most limited opportunities.Cumming was subsequently given almost unlimited opportunities to showcase his flamboyance in Julie Taymor's Titus, her 1999 adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. In his role as the queen's (Jessica Lange) debauched lover, he gave a performance that was as over-the-top and rococo as the film itself, leading some critics to say his portrayal had a little too much in common with a Christmas ham.Fortunately, Cumming surprised critics and audiences alike when he directed, with Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Anniversary Party (2001), a marital comedy-drama that starred him and Leigh as a husband and wife whose anniversary party exposes the many flaws of their fragile marriage. Featuring a cast that included Kevin Kline, Phoebe Cates, Gwyneth Paltrow, John C. Reilly, and Jennifer Beals, the film, which was shot on digital video, earned a fairly warm reception from critics, many of whom praised Cumming for his work both behind and in front of the camera.Cumming took the part of the bad guy in the first Spy Kids movie, a role he would repeat in the film's first two sequels. He also played the evil corporate manipulator in Josie and the Pussycats. He appeared in the musical remake of Reefer Madness in 2004, and that same year voiced a cat in the live action Garfield the movie. He worked steadily in a variety of projects including Gray Matters, Eloise: Eloise in Hollywood, and Dare, but found his biggest critical success on the small screen as part of the cast in the highly-respected CBS drama The Good Wife which began its run in 2009.

Trivia: Like many Chicago born-and-bred actors, Harvey Korman cut his acting teeth at that city's Goodman Theatre. He sold aluminum siding door-to-door while waiting for his Big Break, taking the occasional Broadway walk-on, TV commercial and cartoon voice-over. His earliest significant TV exposure came about during his four seasons (1963-67) as a regular on The Danny Kaye Show. He went on to join The Carol Burnett Show in 1967, remaining with the series until its 1977 demise and winning four Emmies in the process. Korman's versatility was only part of his appeal; it was also a stitch to watch him try to maintain a straight face while enduring the antics of fellow comic actor Tim Conway. One recurring sketch on the Burnett series, "The Family," later spun off into the TV series Mama's Family. While Korman had played Mama's (Vicki Lawrence) vituperative son-in-law Ed on the Burnett Show "Family" sketches, his principal contribution to Mama's Family was confined to his weekly introductory comments as "Alastair Quince"; he also directed a 1983 special based on the "Family" principals, Eunice. Most of Korman's other TV-series projects were lukewarm single-season affairs like The Harvey Korman Show (1978), Leo and Lizz in Beverly Hills (1986) and The Nutt House (1989). Korman's finest film work can be found in his antic appearances in the films of Mel Brooks, especially his portrayal of greedy land baron Hedley Lamarr in 1974's Blazing Saddles. One of his later projects was the voice of the Dictabird in the 1994 box-office hit The Flintstones -- a piquant piece of casting, inasmuch as Korman had supplied the voice of "The Great Gazoo" in the original Flintstonesanimated television series of the 1960s. Korman died of unspecified causes in May 2008.

Trivia: Worked as a model in Italy before beginning her acting career. Served on the board of trustees at Children's Hospital Los Angeles for 10 years. In 2002, played Julia in Geffen Playhouse's stage production of Oscar and Felix: A New Look at the Odd Couple. In 2005, established the Alex Meneses Endowed Scholarship Fund to provide tuition assistance to students attending her former high school, Mother McAuley's Liberal Arts High School. Is the founder and president of her own production company OOLaLa Productions/LADDS Entertainment. Serves on the boards for United Hope for Animals, Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Trivia: An actor of imposing stature, Tony Longo has played many roles that utilized his substantial frame. Born in New Jersey, Longo began his acting career by making appearances on TV shows like Laverne & Shirley and CHiPS, a plan that would prove extremely fruitful as the actor would wrack up countless such appearances over the coming decades. Additionally, Longo extended his efforts toward movies, as well, playing roles in films like The Cooler and The Violent Kind.

Trivia: Was president of his high-school class. Sang backup for The Young Rascals pop group in the 1960s. Became a New York City fireman in 1977 to support his pursuit of an acting career. Made his feature-film debut in 1985's Turk 182, playing a firefighter. Is a colon-cancer survivor and supports several cancer-research organizations.

Trivia: It's not every day that an unknown actor lands a role that will allow him to deliver a line that enters into the public lexicon and still manages to avoid the "Where's the beef?" syndrome of being forever linked with the resulting catch phrase, but with his role as the "MILF" guy in the breakout comedy American Pie, actor John Cho somehow managed to do just that. With stage skills that aren't limited to Shakespeare (Cho spends his off-time touring with his band Left of Zed) and a killer sense of comic timing onscreen, the fresh-faced Korean actor has transcended his status as Asian-American "It" boy to become one of the most promising stars of his generation. A move from Korea to Los Angeles found young Cho's interest in acting piqued when he began studying English literature at the University of California, Berkeley, and after taking to the boards in a Berkeley Repertory Theater production of The Woman Warrior (which would subsequently move to Boston's Huntington Theater and Los Angeles' James Doolittle Theater), the up-and-coming talent made his screen debut in director Justin Lin's decidedly bizarre 1997 feature Shopping for Fangs.Subsequent years found Cho essaying supporting roles in such high-profile features as Wag the Dog and Bowfinger, with his breakout role in American Pie preceding roles in such widely seen films as Bowfinger, American Beauty, Evolution, and the Chris Rock comedy Down to Earth. Though the films may not have offered Cho the most memorable parts, they kept him familiar with audiences until he reprised his most famous role to date in the hit sequel American Pie 2. In 2002, Cho truly got to show his talent in director Lin's critically acclaimed indie effort Better Luck Tomorrow. Following a crew of high-school-aged Asian-Americans who use their reputations as studious bookworms to mask their criminal activities, the movie proved without a doubt that Cho had what it took to make it in film. More supporting roles in Big Fat Liar and Solaris were quick to follow, and after rounding out the "American" trilogy in American Wedding, it was burger time for Cho as he played one of the titular characters (opposite Van Wilder's Kal Penn) in the 2004 comedy Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. The next year, Cho went on to essay a supporting role on the short-lived chef sitcom Kitchen Confidential before returning to feature films. Over the coming years, Cho would continue to reimain an active force on screen over the coming years, appearing on shows like FlashForward and as Sulu in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek franchise.

Trivia: With an inspiring fan-boy-makes-good backstory that proves a testament to the old adage about hard work and dedication paying off in the long run, Underworld writer/star Kevin Grevioux went from comic book-collecting bouncer to Hollywood hot property by bringing the vampire versus werewolf action-horror hybrid Underworld to the big screen in 2003. Though movie lovers may not yet recognize his name, chances are you've seen his face in such efforts as The Mask and Men in Black II. Born in Chicago, Grevioux's somewhat nomadic childhood found him and his family frequently moving from city to city. It was around the age of 11 that Grevioux developed an enduring addiction to comic books, and though the self-professed "Marvel zombie" could often be found escaping into lovingly framed flights of fancy by such legends as Stan Lee, his Harvard-educated parents influenced him to relegate his favorite pastime to a hobby and pursue a more sensible career in microbiology at Howard University. It was while studying genetic engineering in grad school (and working nights as a bouncer to support himself) that Grevioux found his mind constantly wandering into comic book fantasies, and when his writing began to interfere with his scientific studies, he abandoned grad school to chase his dreams to Hollywood. Initially writing by night and educating himself in the business of movies by day, work as an extra on the film Stargate found Grevioux making the acquaintance of aspiring director Len Wiseman -- then working as a prop boy. The two genre fans hit it off immediately, and it wasn't long before they were collaborating on what initially was going to be a simple werewolf film. As Grevioux hit the books to research the history of lycanthropes, his comic book and science backgrounds collided, and the story eventually became a racial allegory with vampires and werewolves locked in a never-ending struggle for power. In the end, Grevioux not only served as a writer for the film, but one of the main werewolves as well; his background in bouncing and stunts providing the required physical groundwork. Though Grevioux had been appearing in such capacity -- as well as minor supporting roles -- since his feature debut in 1994's Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, Underworld proved to be the Hollywood breakthrough he had been looking for. The film was such a success that both a prequel and a sequel were immediately green-lighted for production. That same year, Grevioux lived out a childhood dream by providing stunt work for the long-awaited feature The Hulk.

Trivia: First on-screen role was as an extra in Martin Scorsese's Casino. Was working as the entertainment director at Las Vegas's Riviera Hotel and Casino when he was hired for The Sopranos in 2000. Original audition for The Sopranos was for the part of the FBI agent who worked with "Big Pussy" Bompensiero in the second season. He was turned down, but landed the role of Bobby "Bacala" Baccalieri (for which he wore a fat suit in his first two seasons). Authored several tongue-in-cheek books that celebrate Italian-American culture: A Goomba's Guide to Life and The Goomba's Book of Love, written with Charles Fleming; and The Goomba Diet: Living Large and Loving It. Has appeared multiple times on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno as a special correspondent. Is a Yankees and Knicks fan, and studies true-crime stories in his spare time.

Trivia: The seventh child of nine siblings.In 1984, moved to Germany for two years to play basketball.Attended the same high school as Gilmore Girls costar Sally Struthers, together they played husband and wife.Has performed with the Actors Co-op Theatre Company.Both of his children were born in Ethiopia.Has taught acting at Portland State University and George Fox University.

Trivia: American entertainer Mel Blanc, who would make his name and fortune by way of his muscular vocal chords, started out in the comparatively non-verbal world of band music. He entered radio in 1927, and within six years was costarring with his wife on a largely adlibbed weekly program emanating from Portland, Oregon, titled Cobwebs and Nuts. Denied a huge budget, Blanc was compelled to provide most of the character voices himself, and in so doing cultivated the skills that would bring him fame. He made the Los Angeles radio rounds in the mid-1930s, then was hired to provide the voice for a drunken bull in the 1937 Warner Bros. "Looney Tune" Picador Porky. Taking over the voice of Porky ("Th-th-th-that's all, Folks") Pig from a genuine stammerer who knew nothing about comic timing, Blanc became a valuable member of the "Termite Terrace" cartoon staff. Before long, he created the voice of Daffy Duck, whose lisping cadence was inspired by Warner Bros. cartoon boss Leon Schlesinger. In 1940, Blanc introduced his most enduring Warners voice -- the insouciant, carrot-chopping Bugs Bunny (ironically, Blanc was allergic to carrots). He freelanced with the MGM and Walter Lantz animation firms (creating the laugh for Woody Woodpecker at the latter studio) before signing exclusively with Warners in the early 1940s. Reasoning that his limitless character repetoire -- including Sylvester, Foghorn Leghorn, Speedy Gonzales, Tweety Pie, Pepe Le Pew, Yosemite Sam and so many others -- had made him a valuable commodity to the studio, Blanc asked for a raise. Denied this, he demanded and got screen credit -- a rarity for a cartoon voice artist of the 1940s. Though his salary at Warners never went above $20,000 per year, Blanc was very well compensated for his prolific work on radio. He was a regular on such series as The Abbott and Costello Show and The Burns and Allen Show, and in 1946 headlined his own weekly radio sitcom. For nearly three decades, Blanc was closely associated with the radio and TV output of comedian Jack Benny, essaying such roles as the "Si-Sy-Si" Mexican, harried violin teacher Professor LeBlanc, Polly the parrot, and the sputtering Maxwell automobile. While his voice was heard in dozens of live-action films, Blanc appeared on screen in only two pictures: Neptune's Daughter (1949) and Kiss Me Stupid (1964). Extremely busy in the world of made-for-TV cartoons during the 1950s and 1960s, Blanc added such new characterizations to his resume as Barney Rubble on The Flintstones (1960-66) and Cosmo Spacely on The Jetsons (1962). In early 1961, Blanc was seriously injured in an auto accident. For weeks, the doctor was unable to communicate with the comatose Blanc until, in desperation, he addressed the actor with "How are you today, Bugs Bunny?" "Eh...just fine, Doc," Blanc replied weakly in his Bugs voice. At that miraculous moment, Blanc made the first step towards his eventual full recovery (this story sounds apocryphical, and even Blanc himself can't confirm that it took place, but those who witnessed the event swear that it really happened). In the 1970s, Blanc and his actor/producer son Noel -- whom Mel was grooming to take over the roles of Bugs, Daffy and the rest -- ran their own school for voice actors. Mel Blanc continued performing right up to his death in July of 1989; earlier that same year, he published his autobiography, That's Not All, Folks.

Trivia: The son of a construction superintendent for the Sante Fe railway stations, William Hanna was obliged to move around quite a bit as a youngster. Influenced by the preponderance of professional writers on his mother's side of the family, Hanna gravitated towards the creative arts in high school. He played saxophone in a dance band, then majored in journalism and engineering at Compton (California) Junior College. While looking for work in the early stages of the Depression, he landed a backstage engineering job at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre. Hanna's brother-in-law, who worked for a Hollywood lab called Pacific Title, tipped him off to a job opening at the Harman-Ising cartoon studios. From 1931 onward, Hanna contributed story ideas to Harman-Ising's Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series, produced on behalf of Leon Schlesinger and Warner Bros. He also wrote the music and lyrics for several of the catchy tunes heard in these animated endeavors. When Harman-Ising moved to MGM, they took Hanna along as a story editor. And when MGM formed its own animation department in 1937, Hanna was hired by department head Fred Quimby. It was while under the MGM banner that Hanna formed a copacetic (and, as it turned out, lifelong) partnership with cartoon director Joseph Barbera. While both men did a little bit of everything in their cartoon collaborations, Hanna regarded himself as the director and story man, while Barbera preferred to work out the various gags. Hanna-Barbera's most lasting contribution to the MGM operation was their "Tom and Jerry" series, which earned seven Academy Awards over a 20-year period. In 1957, MGM disbanded its cartoon unit, whereupon Hanna and Barbera formed their own company for the purposes of turning out TV animation. No one who has been born after 1950 needs to be reminded of the vast Hanna-Barbera TV output: Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, The Banana Splits and Scooby-Doo constitute but the tip of the iceberg. Busy as they were with their TV commitments, Hanna-Barbera occasionally found time to return to theatrical-feature work, including A Man Called Flintstone (1966), Charlotte's Web (1972) and Heidi's Song (1982). Even after selling their studio, both Hanna and Barbera remained active in the cartoon field; as recently as 1993, Hanna served as co-producer for the animated feature Once Upon a Forest. Though he's received a multitude of industry honors, it is said William Hanna is proudest of his 1985 "Distinguished Eagle Scout" award from the Boys Scouts of America, an organization with which he'd been associated since 1919.

Trivia: For over four decades, Joseph Barbera reigned, along with his partner William Hanna, as one of the princes of American animation, second only to Walt Disney. Over the years, Hanna and Barbera created so many inimitable cartoon legends that their resumé reads like a laundry list of American television icons: Tom & Jerry, Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear, the Jetsons, the Flintstones, Top Cat, Jonny Quest, Huckleberry Hound, the Smurfs, and many, many others. Born on March 24, 1911, in Manhattan, the son of an Italian immigrant, Joseph Roland Barbera came of age in Flatbush, Brooklyn, where he demonstrated an incredible propensity for artistry as a young man. After high school, Barbera studied at the American Institute of Banking, before the sale of one of his illustrations to Collier's magazine turned his head in the direction of work as a full-time cartoonist; deeply inspired, Barbera wrote a letter to Walt Disney, requesting employment. Disney responded, and agreed to contact Barbera and meet with him on his next trip to New York, but never followed through on this promise. .Undiscouraged, Barbera signed on with one of Disney's rivals, Max Fleischer, but the stint lasted less than a week. Barbera then went to work for the Van Beuren Studios from 1932-1936, then the Terrytoon Studios, in New Rochelle, NY. Not one year later, Metro Goldwyn-Mayer's animation department in Culver City, CA, caught a glimpse of Barbera's work and, sensing the depths of his talent, instantly hired the prodigious young man to work in their animation department. At MGM, Barbera's supervisors paired him up with Hanna, a seasoned animator, score composer, and librettist, and the two set to work turning out animated adaptations of Katzenjammer Kids shorts. In the process, they became fast friends as well. Both men felt dissatisfied with the subjects at hand, however, and convinced the department heads to let them devise, script, illustrate, and animate their own short subjects. This resulted in the 1940 short Puss Gets the Boot, which later received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short. Puss Gets the Boot lost that year to Rudolf Ising's The Milky Way, but the warm public reception to Puss paved the way for a seemingly limitless period of work for Hanna and Barbera at Metro -- their job security further anchored by additional Oscar nominations and wins for shorts. These included -- among others -- Yankee Doodle Mouse in 1943, Mouse Trouble in 1944, Quiet Please! in 1945, The Cat Concerto in 1946. The Oscar nods wrapped with the 1957 short One Droopy Knight; in the interim, the Tom and Jerry series spawned 113 individual episodes. Meanwhile, significant changes occurred at MGM. Hanna and Barbera were first promoted to heads of the animation department; then, in 1955, the department closed altogether, inspiring the two men to strike out on their own, full-time. They turned to H-B Enterprises and reinvented the outfit as a base for animated television series. One of Hanna-Barbera's key innovations during this period involved a now-standard technique called "limited animation," where the animators reduced the number of drawings per minute from around 1,000 to about 300, making the prospect of a weekly animated series a highly feasible one. H-B debuted with its first weekly, The Ruff & Reddy Show, in 1957, then produced The Huckleberry Hound Show (1958). The program won an Emmy and yielded a spin-off, The Yogi Bear Show, about a now-notorious bear with a penchant for swiping "pic-a-nic" baskets from unsuspecting tourists in Jellystone Park. If Hanna and Barbera admitted that Honeymooners mainstay Ed Norton inspired Yogi, they took the success of the series as a cue, unofficially revamping the entire Honeymooners series in animated form for their next project. That effort, The Flintstones -- about two Stone Age couples raising their children in the town of Bedrock -- reinvented the sitcom formula within an animated context. Its initial prime-time run lasted six seasons (until early September 1966) and it has appeared in syndication ever since. Dozens of additional Hanna-Barbera series appeared throughout the '60s, '70s, and '80s; even a brief glimpse indicates the depth and breadth of the imaginations responsible. These included Top Cat (1961), a series about a bunch of "hip" alley cats living and noshing off of Broadway in New York; The Jetsons (1962), a kind of temporal flip side of The Flintstones, about a closely knit, middle-class family living and working in the Space Age, with the help of a robotic maid, flying automobiles, and a high-tech home; Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, a "mod" '70s cartoon about a craven Great Dane and his cadre of bell-bottomed teenage friends, who drive around in a psychedelic van and solve mysteries; and, in the early '80s, The Smurfs, adapted from the Belgian comic strip by Peyo -- a fairy tale series about a bunch of white-capped blue dwarves who live in mushroom huts in a European forest during the Middle Ages, and must thwart the fiendish plans of wizard Gargamel and his cat, Azrael. Hanna and Barbera also attempted, with extremely limited success, to spin hit prime-time American sitcoms off into series cartoons during the late '70s and early '80s, including Mork & Mindy, Laverne & Shirley, and Happy Days. In 1973, they ventured into feature film production with the enormously successful animated theatrical release Charlotte's Web, adapted from the seminal children's book by E.B. White. Hanna and Barbera pursued a sophomore theatrical outing with the 1979 C.H.O.M.P.S., an ill-advised comic fantasy directed by Benji creator Joe Camp, about a robotic dog; it unequivocally bombed with critics and the pubic. The animated 1982 theatrical feature Heidi's Song, adapted from the novel by Johanna Spyri, fared slightly better than C.H.O.M.P.S., but received less recognition and poorer reviews than Charlotte's Web, and was quickly forgotten. The animators occasionally ventured into live-action entertainment and educational programming for television, as well. In the former category, they produced the quirky Westerns Hardcase (1971), Shootout in a One-Dog Town (1974), and Belle Starr (1980In the 1990s, the animators continued to turn out new efforts, with such series as Monster Tails, Fender Bender 500, and Wake, Rattle & Roll. During that decade, Hanna and Barbera also opened a chain of retail stores. Incredibly, the duo's animation work continued until the beginning of the new millennium, but when William Hanna died at age 91 on March 22, 2001, in Hollywood, CA, it effectively signaled an end to many of Barbera's project, as well. Nonetheless, the many classic Hanna-Barbera series continued in syndication on many networks, including The Cartoon Network and a channel called Boomerang, exclusively devoted to vintage Hanna-Barbera programming. Despite his own rapidly advancing age (and the eventual loss of his partner), Joseph Barbera served as executive producer on such live-action theatrical releases as The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000), Scooby Doo (2002), and Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004). He also resurrected the Tom and Jerry series with a new short -- the first in 45 years -- circa 2005. Not long after, however, 95-year-old Barbera died of natural causes, on December 18, 2006, at his home in Los Angeles, CA. Barbera was survived by his second wife, Sheila Barbera, and three children.

Trivia: California native Cheryl Holdridge grew up in a household where show business was the norm, as her mother had formerly been a dancer. Following in her mom's footsteps, she began studying tap and ballet when she was small, dancing professionally by nine. Being so close to the bright lights of Hollywood made the jump to the screen a natural one, and in 1956, the 12 year old joined the cast of The Mickey Mouse Club. She was a popular member of the show's cast and stayed with the series until it was canceled in 1959. Holdridge kept acting, however, and found no shortage of roles. She made guest appearances on dozens of TV shows over the coming years before abruptly retiring in 1964 when she got married.