Trivia: Born August 28th, 2969, Jason Priestley began his own career as a child actor in TV commercials. After dropping out of acting in his teens to concentrate on high-school sports, Priestley got back in the professional swim following graduation, accepting one-shot roles on such Canada-based TV series as 21 Jump Street. The young actor's first American TV assignment was the regular role of teen orphan Todd Mahaffey on the 1989 sitcom Sister Kate. Producer Aaron Spelling's daughter Tori spotted Priestley on Sister Kate and suggested that her father audition him for a role in the upcoming Fox series Beverly Hills 90210. Priestley was cast as Brandon Walsh, twin brother of the estimable Brenda (Shannen Doherty).Like many of his young series co-stars, Priestley was intent on laying the groundwork for life after 90210. Though his first major film role in Penny Marshall's Calendar Girl (1993) came and went without fanfare, he enjoyed some success as a 90210 director. Priestley encountered further success and even critical vindication with his turn as Ronnie Bostock, the B-movie hunk who steals John Hurt's heart in Love and Death on Long Island (1997). Critics warmed to Priestley's performance, noting that his days of idolatry had given him overly adequate preparation for his portrayal. Unlike other teen idols who rue the day when the fan mail will cease, Priestley once claimed he was happy that his idoldom seems to be on a downward slide: "It's like having a big cancerous lesion on your shoulder. Because people are fickle, man." On March 28, 2000, Priestley was undoubtedly happy that the limelight's glare had dimmed: Arrested for drunken driving after crashing his car into some trash cans, he was sentenced to five days in a Los Angeles jail. Legal troubles aside, Priestly continued to appear in films throughout the 2000s (Cherish, Die Mommie Die, Homicide: The Movie), and joined Joss Whedon's Tru Calling in the role of Jack Harper, a man determined that the dead not be revived by Tru. Television continued to be a superior medium for the actor who made guest appearances on My Name is Earl, What I Like About You, and Without a Trace. Priestly stars as corrupt used-car salesman Richard "Fitz" Fitzpatrick" in HBO Canada's Call Me Fitz, and is a recurring character on Haven, a supernatural television series from Syfy.

Trivia: Character actor Richard Portnow has worked steadily in theater, feature films, and on television for many years. On stage, he has appeared both on and off Broadway, as well as in many regional productions, and at London's Royal Court Theatre. Portnow made his feature film debut with a bit part in Susan Seidleman's Desperately Seeking Susan (1985). On television, Portnow has guest starred on many series, including Seinfeld, NYPD Blue, and The Nanny.

Trivia: Supporting actor, occasional lead, onscreen from the '70s

Trivia: Actress Dinah Manoff is the daughter of actress/director Lee Grant and playwright Arnold Manoff. A graduate of California School of the Arts, Dinah made her first acting appearance in a PBS special. She won a Tony award as the neurotic daughter of an irresponsible movie screenwriter in Neil Simon's I Ought to Be in Pictures; she re-created this role in the 1982 film version, acting opposite Walter Matthau and her mother Lee Grant. On television, Manoff played Elaine Lefkowitz on the serial satire Soap (1978-79), securing a niche in TV history as the first sitcom regular to be "murdered" on-camera. Dinah Manoff later co-starred as Carol Weston opposite fellow Soap alumnus Richard Mulligan on the weekly comedy Empty Nest (1988-1993).

Trivia: Actress Alicia Coppola made her first strong impression on U.S. television around the beginning of the 1990s, when the performer -- then in her early twenties -- landed guest appearances on such series programs as Star Trek: Voyager, NYPD Blue and Touched by an Angel. Coppola essayed roles in a series of projects over the ensuing decade, which included everything from direct-to-video melodramas (the 1997 Velocity Trap) to well-received telemovies (the 1999 Blood Money); through it all, she remained active and prolific. After taking on a recurring role on the TV period drama American Dreams as Nancy (2003-2004) and a bevy of guest roles on other series, Coppola earned a regular part on the cult show Jericho as Mimi Clark (2006-2007). Coppola's film career ascended to a new level in 2007, when she signed on for a supporting role alongside Nicolas Cage and Harvey Keitel in the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced adventure saga National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

Trivia: Before underappreciated character actor Steve Railsback became a fixture in the direct-to-video market, he studied with Lee Strasberg and spent a decade acting on the N.Y.C. theater circuit. His made his film debut in Elia Kazan's 1972 crime thriller The Visitors, and followed that up with a role in the 1974 action drama Cockfighter. His first major film role was as the cult leader Charles Manson in the 1976 CBS movie Helter Skelter, based on the book by Vincent Bugliosi. He starred opposite Sophia Loren in the barely released Canadian film Angela and opposite Kim Basinger in the six-hour romantic miniseries From Here to Eternity. His last mainstream starring role was in the 1980 offbeat action movie The Stunt Man, as a fugitive who stumbles onto the set of a fictional movie directed by Peter O'Toole and starring Barbara Hershey. The movie developed a bit of a cult following, and as a result Railsback developed a small but appreciative audience.Throughout the remainder of the '80s, Railsback thrived as a leading man in the special area of low-budget B-movies seen mostly on cable or home video. Some schlocky favorites include the British sci-fi horror flick Lifeforce and the Australian action movie Escape 2000. A few exceptions to his action-filled resumé are the family drama The Golden Seal and the period comedy Calender Girl. In the '90s he tried producing and screenwriting while also playing recurring psychopath Duane Barry on FOX's The X-Files. He made his directorial debut in 1994 with The Spy Within, an erotic thriller starring Scott Glenn and Theresa Russell. In 1997 he joined the cast of the FOX sci-fi drama series The Visitor for a season. In 2000 he returned to playing sicko psychopaths as the title character in the creepy biopic Ed Gein. In addition to portraying the farmer-turned-serial killer, he also served as executive producer. He stayed with the horror genre for his next appearance in the South African movie Slash (2002).