Trivia: Born in 1959, Washington native Kyle MacLachlan, among other things, claims to be a descendent of the legendary composer Johann Sebastian Bach. However, unlike his very distant relative, MacLachlan made his mark not in music, but in television and film. After performing in a variety of local theater productions throughout his youth -- and acting out scenes from the popular Hardy Boys fiction series in his even younger years -- MacLachlan made his feature-film debut in director David Lynch's adaptation Dune in 1984. This would mark the first of many collaborations with Lynch; in 1986, Lynch cast MacLachlan as a young man shocked at what lies under a small town's picture-perfect facade in Blue Velvet. A year later, MacLachlan starred as an alien FBI agent in The Hidden, Jack Sholder's 1987 cult hit. MacLachlan, however, wouldn't gain true mainstream notoriety until 1989, when David Lynch called upon the young actor to play another FBI agent; this time, he was Special Agent Dale Cooper, who was sent to a small Washington town to investigate the murder of a young girl in ABC's popular but ultimately short-lived prime-time drama, Twin Peaks. The role would earn him two Emmy nominations for Lead Actor in a Drama Series and pave the way for more silver-screen roles, some of which include Ray Manzarek in Oliver Stone's The Doors (1991), villain Cliff Vandercave in The Flintstones (1994), and a falsely accused bank clerk in The Trial (1993). MacLachlan offered several relatively well-received starring and supporting performances throughout the mid- to late '90s, and did what he could for his role in Paul Verhoeven's famous 1995 flop, Showgirls.Luckily, the late '90s to early 2000s were much kinder to MacLachlan. In addition to playing another smooth agent in David Koepp's The Trigger Effect (1996), which some critics claimed was his best performance since Blue Velvet, the actor also was cast as King Claudius in Michael Almereyda's adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. However, it was television that once again made MacLachlan a household name, albeit temporarily. In 2000, he joined the cast of HBO's multiple-award-winning series Sex and the City as Charlotte's (Kristin Davis) mama's boy husband, Trey. In 2003, MacLachlan starred in the Bravo network's popular documentary series, The Reality of Reality. Over the coming years, McLachlan wouldenjoy successful arcs on popular TV shows, like How I Met Your Mother, Desperate Housewives, and Portlandia.

Trivia: A ruggedly handsome Canadian actor whose somewhat imposing frame makes him ideal for authority figures, Michael Ontkean has been appearing in film and television since the early '70s. Though having actors for parents may not necessarily be a surefire sign that one will enter into the entertainment industry, the support and encouragement afforded to young Ontkean was key in building early confidence and skill. Ontkean was a mere four years old when he made his stage debut in his father's repertory company, and in addition to taking the stage at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, he became a popular child star thanks to television roles in such series as Hudson's Bay. Aside from his ambitions as an actor, Ontkean also showed athletic prowess as a hockey player -- he won a scholarship to the University of New Hampshire and played on their team for three seasons. Little did he know that his skills on the ice would eventually come into play in front of the camera as well. His popularity eventually reached beyond the Canadian border when Ontkean gained stateside notice as a key player in the 1972 series The Rookies. Soon thereafter, Ontkean's featured role in the hockey comedy Slap Shot impressed audiences by showing that the up-and-comer could hold his own alongside such heavies as Paul Newman. Through the 1980s, Ontkean's career maintained an even keel with such moderately successful features as Just the Way You Are (1984) and Maid to Order (1987). In 1990 he returned to television to great effect with his role as Sheriff Harry S. Truman in David Lynch's acclaimed series Twin Peaks. The show provided Ontkean's career with something of a revival, and after he appeared in a minor capacity in Postcards From the Edge (1990), a series of television roles kept the versatile actor busy throughout the decade. Ontkean became somewhat lost in the shuffle in the late '90s, but his performance in the child-friendly made-for-television feature Mrs. Ashboro's Cat (2003) proved that the screen veteran still had what it took to charm on the small screen.

Trivia: Actress Lara Flynn Boyle has David Lynch to thank for becoming so famous at such a young age. She was barely 20 when she made her series-TV bow on Twin Peaks in the role of Donna Hayward, best friend of the ill-fated Laura Palmer. After the debut of Twin Peaks in 1990, Boyle did steady work in both films and television. Some of her more notable ventures included John Dahl's Red Rock West (1993), a neo-noir in which she played a scheming femme fatale; Threesome (1994), which cast her as a college student whose unique boarding situation provides the basis for oodles of hormonal adventures with her two male roommates; Afterglow (1997), a romantic drama in which Boyle starred as an unhappy wife; and Todd Solondz's Happiness (1998), a very, very black comedy that cast the actress as an irredeemably bitchy celebrity writer. On television, Boyle nabbed one of her most prominent roles to date when she was cast as a lawyer in the acclaimed series The Practice in 1997. The Practice ran for seven years and her most high-profile film role afterward came in Men In Black II. She had recurring roles on the TV shows Huff and Las Vegas and in 2011 she appeared in the sex comedy Cougar Hunting.

Trivia: Actor Richard Beymer has been working steadily on television and in feature films for over four decades. Born in Avoca, IA, Beymer first went before cameras on a Los Angeles children's show at the age of 12, and two years later made his feature-film debut in Vittorio De Sica's Stazione Termini (Indiscretion of an American Wife) (1953). After appearing in several more films during the '50s, with only two major performances in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and West Side Story (1961), Beymer had a significant role in The Longest Day (1962), sharing the film's unforgettable last scene with Richard Burton. Beymer enrolled in New York's Actor's Studio in 1963, but subsequently became an active participant in the struggle to allow African-Americans to register for the vote in Mississippi; during his time down South, he also helped to make a prize-winning documentary of the event. In 1974, Beymer directed his first feature film, The Innerview, an avant-garde effort he distributed to various international film festivals. During the '80s, Beymer became a supporting actor and is best remembered for his regular role as Benjamin Horne on David Lynch's television series Twin Peaks.

Trivia: Actress Sherilyn Fenn had her first taste of show business while touring the country with her mother, a rock musician. Fresh out of high school, Fenn decided to put her stunning physical attributes to good use as a Playboy bunny, but, alas, she failed to survive the first year of "bunny school." After posing for perfume and designer jean ads, Fenn made her film debut in The Wild Life (1984). She skyrocketed to fame in the early '90s as Audrey Horne in David Lynch's cult TV series Twin Peaks. (Her singular series highlight was the scene in which she tied a knot in a cherry stem with her tongue.) Fenn played a seductive wife in Gary Sinese's 1992 version of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, and the following year replaced a recalcitrant Kim Basinger in the role of a haughty beauty whose arms and legs are amputated by a love-obsessed surgeon in Boxing Helena, directed by David Lynch's daughter, Jennifer Lynch. The apex of Fenn's '90s roles, however, may well have been her take-no-prisoners 1995 TV performance as screen goddess Elizabeth Taylor.

Trivia: Born in Brooklyn, David L. Lander was raised in Bronx. Lander attended drama classes at Carnegie Tech, where he befriended fellow student Michael McKean. The two budding comedians joined a Hollywood improv group called the Credibility Gap (another member was Harry Shearer), gaining a huge fan following with their manic appearances on an LA radio station. Hired by producer Gary Marshall as writers/consultants for the '70s TV sitcom Laverne and Shirley, Lander and McKean immediately wrote themselves into the first show. Lander played Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman and McKean portrayed Lenny Kosnowski, two adenoidal, terminally stupid truck drivers for Milwaukee's Shotz Brewery. The boys remained with the series from 1976 to 1983, then pretty much went their separate ways. Lander played comic character roles in films, and was prominently featured in the off-the-wall television efforts of David Lynch, notably the 1992 series On the Air, in which he was cast as unintelligible TV director Vladja Gochktch. Since providing the voice of the title character in the 1970 animated cartoon series Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down?, Lander has been a busy and versatile voiceover artist, most recently as Lechner in the USA Network's Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills (1994-95). Also for USA, he played the recurring role of Elvis the mechanic in the 1995 series Pacific Blue. David L. Lander's credits are sometimes confused with those of British actor David Lander.