Trivia: Began studying ballet at age 6; and left home at age 15 to become a ballerina with the San Francisco Ballet. Among her highlights: performing at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, Left ballet after three years to pursue acting; and supported herself as a bartender while taking acting classes. Is a trained stunt driver; and is also proficient with firearms. Served as Julia Roberts' body double in the opening scenes of the 1990 movie Pretty Woman. Supports an array of charities, including the National Hospice Palliative Care Organization; My Good Friend; The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research; and Project Angel Food.

Trivia: Dann Florek was a working actor for 15 years, on stage, in movies, and on television before he became a television star on Law and Order. Born in Flat Rock, MI (near Detroit) in 1950, he was a physics major at Eastern Michigan University until he discovered his affinity for acting and theater. He moved to New York in the early 1970s and became a member of The Acting Company at The Juilliard School. Florek's New York theater credits included work in productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Love's Labour's Lost, and Death of a Salesman. He later performed in many productions staged at the La Jolla Playhouse and the Old Globe Theater in San Diego. Florek's film credits include Sweet Liberty, Hard Rain, Angel Heart, and The Flintstones, and he has made appearances on NYPD Blue, Wings, The Pretender, and The Practice. Additionally, he played Abraham Lincoln in the short-lived Fox Network series The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer. It was as Dave Meyer on L.A. Law that Florek first came to the attention of television viewers, but it was his four seasons on Law and Order that made him a star. He became a familiar and popular actor as Lieutenant (and later Captain) Donald Cragen, the head of the detective squad on whose investigations the series focuses from week to week. Florek also directed several episodes of the series after leaving the cast of the show in 1993, and is an active member of the Directors Guild of America. In 1999, he joined the cast of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, reprising and greatly expanding his role of Captain Cragen, now head of a detective unit specifically assigned to the investigation of sex crimes. Equally skilled at comedy and drama (although more familiar for his work in the latter), Florek is one of a new generation of triple-threat actor/directors to emerge from television in the 1980s and 1990s. Florek continued to work on Law & Order until 2010.

Trivia: Appeared in theatrical productions of Bus Stop and The Tempest. Made his big-screen debut in the 2000 comedy The Replacements. Portrayed the demon Skip in the Angel series. Cites Henry V as the work that inspired him to become an actor.

Trivia: African-American character actor James Pickens Jr. sustains one of the longest and fullest Hollywood resumés in recent memory, just in terms of sheer volume of work. Soap opera devotees may remember Pickens for one of his earliest achievements -- his portrayal of Zack Edwards on the long-running daytime drama Another World, from 1986 through 1990. Pickens subsequently divided his time between characterizations on such prime-time programs as Roseanne and Murder, She Wrote, and small roles in A-list Hollywood features. At least in the early years, these films were often, though not always, action vehicles with predominantly black casts, such as the Ice-T and Ice Cube action thriller Trespass (1992), the Wesley Snipes and Dennis Hopper cop picture Boiling Point (1993), and the bullet-ridden Hughes Brothers pictures Menace II Society (1993) and Dead Presidents (1995). Back on the small screen, Pickens could be seen on such popular series as The X-Files, The Practice, NYPD Blue, Six Feet Under, and Philly. Also, in spring 1998, he joined episode writer Larry David and co. as the detective who threw Jerry and his cronies in the slammer on the much-anticipated series finale of Seinfeld; David and Pickens re-teamed several years later for two 2005 episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Pickens drew his greatest attention and acclaim, however, when he ascended from bit player to a prominent supporting role as Chief of Surgery Richard Webber on the blockbuster medical drama Grey's Anatomy. This series premiered in 2005 to sensational ratings and quickly became an American institution, thanks in no small part to Pickens's work.

Trivia: Quite possibly the quintessential cinematic personification of the sexually repressed high school gym teacher, Nancy Parsons had a curiously interesting and diverse catalog of film roles, though that of fearsome phys ed nightmare Beulah Balbricker in Porky's and its sequels will likely live eternally in the hearts of teen sex-comedy aficionados as her defining role.A native of Lake Minnetonka, MN, Parsons' passion for Shakespeare led her to California at the age of 16, where she studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse. Though she found work in the L.A. theater scene early on, Parsons soon turned away from acting in favor of marriage and family life. Her marital bliss short-lived, Parsons returned to her passion after her divorce, finding small roles in such films as I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977). Though her comic abilities were hinted at in the 1980 Bill Murray comedy Where the Buffalo Roam, that same year yielded her breakout role in the horror-spoof Motel Hell, playing opposite Jimmie Dean wannabe Rory Calhoun in the gruesomely humorous tale of a farmer with questionable practices in sausage manufacturing. Following the next year with Pennies From Heaven and Porky's, Parsons' fate was sealed as a talented and versatile actress with a good sense of humor.The following years brought Parsons a number of comedic roles, always shifting effortlessly between the dramatic and comedic with roles in such polar opposites as Porky's Revenge (1985) and Steel Magnolias (1989). Parsons also appeared frequently on television, in roles ranging from Charlie's Angels to Star Trek: The Next Generation (on the set of which she frequently traded Shakespearian dialogue with fellow Bard-fan Patrick Stewart). Continuing her television work through the '90s with recurring roles in Days of our Lives, one of Parsons' fondest memories of that decade's film appearances was her role in The Doctor (1991). A fan of actor William Hurt, Parsons cherished the opportunity to appear with Hurt on film. Though ailing in health in the later '90s, Parsons continued to appear on television in L.A. Law and The Pretender, before her death in early 2001 after an extended battle with diabetes.

Trivia: Judith Hoag may be most well known for playing April O'Neil in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie in 1990, but the adventurous actress wracked up long list of appearances in countless other projects both before and after that role, pursuing her interest in performing, rather than in fame. Hoag was raised in Massachusetts, where she got involved in local and school theater when she was just 13. By the time she was out of high school, she was ready to move to New York and start her career. She began playing guest roles on TV shows and in commercials, and this would prove to be the kind of work that would sustain her career for years to come. In addition to her memorable role in the Ninja Turtles movie, Hoag would go on to appear in one or two episodes of Roseanne, Murder, She Wrote, Mad About You, Melrose Place, The X-Files, ER, Carnivàle, Big Love, and many, many more. In addition to her many TV appearances, Hoag continued to act in commercials, selling everything from restaurants to copy machines.