Trivia: Brooklyn-born actor John Joseph Patrick Ryan borrowed his stage name "Jack Lord" from a distant relative. Spending his immediate post-college years as a seafaring man, Lord worked as an engineer in Persia before returning to American shores to manage a Greenwich Village art school and paint original work; he flourished within that sphere (often signing his paintings "John J. Ryan,") and in fact exhibited the tableaux at an array of prestigious institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Modern Museum of Art. Lord switched to acting in the late 1940s, studying under Sanford Meisner at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse. In films and television from 1949, Lord (a performer with stark features including deep-set eyes and high cheekbones) played his share of brutish villains and working stiffs before gaining TV fame as star of the critically acclaimed but low-rated rodeo series Stoney Burke (1962). At around the same time, Lord played CIA agent Felix Leiter in the first James Bond film, Dr. No. From 1968 through 1980, Lord starred on the weekly cop drama Hawaii Five-O; producers cast him as Steve McGarrett, a troubleshooter with the Hawaii State Police who spent his days cruising around the islands, cracking open individual cases, and taking on the movers and shakers in Hawaiian organized crime, particularly gangster Wo Fat (Khigh Dhiegh), who eluded capture until the program's final month on the air. Lord also wrote and directed several episodes. After Hawaii 5-0 folded, Jack Lord attempted another Hawaii-based TV series, but M Station: Hawaii (1980) never got any farther than a pilot film. Lord died of congestive heart failure in his Honolulu beachfront home at the age of 77, in January 1998. He was married to Marie Denarde for 50 years.

Trivia: American actor James MacArthur was the adopted son of stage legend Helen Hayes and playwright Charles MacArthur. Despite his mother's insistence that James have a normal childhood, it was difficult not to be intoxicated by the theatre when growing up around the greatest acting and literary talent in the '40s. At age 8, young MacArthur appeared in a stock-company production of The Corn is Green. Fresh out of Harvard, MacArthur became a movie juvenile, specializing in tortured-teen roles in such films as The Young Stranger (1957) and Disney's Light in the Forest (1958). Outgrowing his somewhat charming awkwardness, MacArthur was less satisfying as a standard leading man, and by 1967 he was wasting away in pictures like The Love Ins. That same year, the pilot film for a new Jack Lord cop series, Hawaii Five-O, was screened for a test audience. The group liked the film but not the young man (Tim O'Kelly) who played Lord's assistant, deeming him too young for the part. Hawaii producer Leonard Freeman then called upon 30-year-old MacArthur, with whom Freeman had worked on the Clint Eastwood vehicle Hang 'Em High. From 1968 through 1979, MacArthur played Hawaii Five-0's detective Danny Williams, always handy whenever Jack Lord felt the need to snap "Book 'em, Danno." Though the series enriched MacArthur and made him a vital member of the Honolulu society and business world, the actor finally packed it in after 11 seasons, when it seemed as though he'd be Danno forever (the show continued for one more season). Too wealthy to care about a career at this point, James MacArthur still took an occasional role into the '80s; his most prominent post-Hawaii assignment was the 1980 TV movie Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story, in which he played a rare non-sympathetic character. MacArthur died in October 2010 of natural causes at age 72.

Trivia: Kam Fong was an actor who was best known to millions of television viewers for his portrayal of Sgt. Chin Ho Kelly on the first 10 seasons of the series Hawaii Five-O. He came from a place far away from acting, however, though very much a part of the series' later setting. Born Kam Tong Chun in Honolulu in 1918, he grew up in dire poverty, owing to a split in his family -- over his father's extramarital affair -- that led to his father's exile from the family business. His mother supported the family, in part, by making bootleg whiskey, and he spent a part of his childhood hiding her product from the police. He graduated from President William McKinley High School in 1938 and later found work as a boilermaker at the Pearl Harbor shipyard, where he witnessed the Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base on December 7, 1941. He continued as a civilian defense worker through the war. In January 1944, he lost his first wife, Esther, and children Marilyn and Donald in a freak accident when two B-24 bombers collided over Honolulu and incinerated their home. He tried to drink himself to death and, failing that, came within seconds of shooting himself, until his mother interceded. In 1946, he joined the Honolulu Police Department, and later admitted that initially he hoped to be killed in the line of duty. He got his life back together over the next few years, and remarried in 1949, and had four children. He served on the police force for 16 years before retiring, and after that sold real estate, worked as a disc jockey, and started to dabble in local theater work. His name change, from Kam Tong Chun to Kam Fong Chun, initially came about when he was a young boy when a teacher misunderstood his real name.In 1966, when pre-production began on the pilot episode for Hawaii Five-O, the call went out for anyone in the island state with acting experience. At the time, Hawaii had no film facilities or movie industry, and barely any acting community, and Fong's community theater work was relevant, although he wasn't inclined to do anything about the opportunity. It was his real estate partner who signed him up for an audition without his knowledge and persuaded him to go. As soon as producer Leonard Freeman and the rest of the production crew saw him read, and then discovered he was a 16-year veteran of the Honolulu Police Department, the role of Chin Ho was his. The only request that the CBS network made was that he shorten his name, which was how he became Kam Fong. Over his 10 seasons on the series, Fong was one of the most popular members of the cast, with the public as well as his fellow actors. Audiences responded to the personal qualities that he brought to the role, particularly his serious yet gentle demeanor; and also to the verisimilitude his presence gave the series. Accounts say his technical expertise behind the scenes, and the tweaking of the scripts he helped provide, was almost as valuable as his acting. Fong was a mainstay of the cast across 10 years. By 1978, however, the now nearly 60-year-old Fong had decided to give up the grind of weekly series work. He also felt he and the writers had gone as far as they could with the Chin Ho Kelly character, who was killed off in the final episode of the season. He subsequently returned to acting in two episodes of Magnum P.I., another series shot in Hawaii, and made a run for governor of Hawaii at the end of the 1980s. In 1997, when Stephen J. Cannell tried to revive Hawaii Five-O, he got several ex-cast members back to reprise their roles, including Fong (the producer was apparently unaware that Fong's Chin Ho Kelly had been killed off in season 10, a fact that was only recalled after shooting was concluded, far too late to rewrite or re-edit his part, and the character was left in). Fong, a long-time smoker (who reportedly wanted to be buried with a cigar and three packs of cigarettes), died of lung cancer in 2002. His son Danny Chun is also an actor.

Trivia: Canadian actor John Colicos has often been mistaken for Jay Robinson (who played Caligula in The Robe). Such gaffes are understandable, since Colicos, Zerbe and Robinson have spent their professional lives essaying the same sort of smirking, posturing megalomaniacal villains. Colicos played the demented Mikos Cassadine, plotting to take over the world with his weather-controlling machine during an early-1980s story arc on the TV serial General Hospital? A nicer but no less abrasive John Colicos could be seen playing foredoomed restaurant owner Nick Papadakis in the 1982 remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice.

Trivia: Armed with extensive radio and stage credits, Arthur Franz made his first film appearance in 1948's Jungle Patrol. Franz has been prominently featured in a number of "fantastic" films: he played one-third of the title role in Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951), and had leads in Flight to Mars (1952), Invaders From Mars (1953), and The Atomic Submarine (1960). He has also thrived in military characterizations in films like Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), Submarine Command (1951), and The Caine Mutiny (1954). His finest screen portrayal was as the psychopathic "hero" of Stanley Kramer's The Sniper (1952). Arthur Franz flourished as a character actor into the 1980s, retiring from films after appearing in That Championship Season (1982).

Trivia: The eldest son of actor James Caan, Scott Caan started to make a name for himself in such films as Enemy of the State and Varsity Blues. Five feet-five inches of muscle and machismo, the actor was born in 1976 and spent his childhood shuttling between his divorced father and mother. Although as a child he preferred sports to acting, Caan was offered the title role in the 1995 drama A Boy Called Hate. Following his performance in the film, he attended acting classes at Los Angeles' West Playhouse and acted in a few subsequent features, including Gregg Araki's 1997 Nowhere. In 1998, the actor got another break with a part in Tony Scott's thriller Enemy of the State and went on to make a number of small films that same year, including Wild Horses, which was co-directed by a post-Punky Brewster Soleil Moon Frye. In 1999 came Varsity Blues and an accompanying rush of exposure for Caan, who supplied the film's comic relief as a hell-raising wide receiver. In addition, the actor increased his indie credibility with Saturn, which was screened at the 1999 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival.As the new decade began, Caan appeared in Boiler Room, but he landed one of his most high-profile role in 2011 when he became one of Ocean's Eleven, playing a number of funny scenes opposite Casey Affleck. In 2005 he was in the thriller Into the Blue, and the next year had a small role in the indie comedy Friends With Money.Over the course of the decade he would return to the Ocean's franchise two more times, and take a major part in the Eddie Murphy comedy Meet Dave. He would act opposite his famous father in 2009's Mercy, a film he also wrote. In 2010 Caan would find success on the small-screen in the reboot of Hawaii Five-O.

Trivia: Formerly fought as a sumo wrestler under the name Takamishu, and compiled a 57-27-14 career record before retiring in 1989. Reached the sumo wrestling rank of makushita 2, and was a stable mate of professional wrestler Akebono Taro. Became a mixed martial arts fighter under the name Teila Tuli, and eventually became the first official Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter. Fought in the inaugural Ultimate Fighting Championship event, now known as UFC 1, where he lost to Gerard Gordeau after a kick to the face. Crashed the auditions for Forgetting Sarah Marshall, eventually winning a supporting role in the film.

Trivia: A handsome, chiseled actor of South Korean origins who labored for over a decade onscreen before officially landing his breakout role in the hit ABC series Lost, Daniel Dae Kim got his start with bit roles in such popular shows as Beverly Hills 90210, Angel, and 24 before turning heads as the only non-English-speaking passenger to be stranded on a mysterious island paradise inhabited by psychic smoke monsters and malevolent "Others."Born in Pusan, South Korea, and raised in New York and Pennsylvania, Kim earned his B.A. from Haverford college before briefly considering a career in law. It was a fateful early-career appearance on an episode of Law & Order that spurred the burgeoning actor to ditch the courtroom and take to the stage, with subsequent roles in Romeo and Juliet and A Doll's House providing all the encouragement Kim needed to continue developing his craft. Later, after earning his M.F.A. through the Graduate Acting Program at New York University, roles in such high-profile television hits as Seinfeld, Ally McBeal, The Practice, and Party of Five came fast and furious. Though additional appearances in such features as The Jackal and For Love of the Game showed big-screen promise as well, it was on the small screen that Kim seemed most comfortable. Increasingly prominent roles in Angel, Enterprise, ER, and 24 hinted at something big in Kim's future, and with the turbulent descent of Oceanic flight 815 that something big came crashing down in a very big way.A virtual phenomenon from the very first episode, Lost proved the kind of television series capable of literally starting its own mythology -- and Kim was directly at the center of the firestorm from the very beginning. Cast as the son of a poor fisherman who eventually married into one of Korea's most powerful crime families, Kim proved a captivating presence on the show and was voted one of People Magazine's "Sexiest Men Alive" in 2005. Though Lost would indeed prove to be Kim's bread and butter, the actor continued to appear in features (Spider-Man 2, Crash) as well as branching out into the increasingly lucrative world of video-game voice-overs (24: The Game, Saints Row). Somehow, in the midst of his wildfire success, Kim has even found the time to keep his passion for the theater alive by appearing in a New York stage production of Chekhov's Ivanov.The actor appeared in 2008's critically acclaimed film The Andromeda Strain, and in the sixth and final season of LOST, which aired in 2010. Kim joined the cast of the Hawaii Five-O shortly afterwards. In 2011, Kim joined Kellan Lutz and Samuel L. Jackson in the action thrller Arena.

Trivia: Pronounced "shy," like the colloquial term for his hometown of Chicago, Chi McBride didn't get into acting until he was 30 years old. He is probably most recognized for his role as principal Steven Harper on Fox's Boston Public. Before his first movie, he worked for a phone company, trained as a gospel singer, and joined the hip-hop band Covert. With McBride as a producer and vocalist, the band released their first and only album For Your Bootay Only in 1991. Not soon after, he started appearing as a guest star on Fox sitcoms, including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. His feature-length debut happened a year later in Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation. Billed as simply Chi, he then gained small roles for the Eddie Murphy movie The Distinguished Gentleman and the Tina Turner story What's Love Got to Do With It? In 1993, McBride found a spot for himself on NBC for The John Larroquette Show, playing the janitor Heavy Gene. Teaming up next with the Hudlin brothers, he then appeared in the HBO Twilight Zone-style trilogy Cosmic Slop, hosted by George Clinton. His next few diverse projects were supporting roles in Peter Jackson's horror comedy The Frighteners, Bill Duke's period crime flick Hoodlum, and the action thriller Mercury Rising. McBride's first leading role came in the form of the short-lived and controversial UPN sitcom The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer, playing the stuffy English title character who was mistakenly enslaved to Abraham Lincoln. After appearances in Gone in 60 Seconds and Disney's The Kid, he found his well-known spot on Boston Public. While gaining high marks for his role on the David E. Kelley drama, McBride parlayed his increased notoriety into a number of higher-profile big-screen roles.2002 found McBride as a police captain in the intense cop-thriller Narc, and the over-the-top Chief in the comedy Undercover Brother. And while the following year saw Boston Public cancelled, the free-time afforded to McBride by the show's end only allowed him to sign on to roles in two of 2004's most anticipated films, the Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks dramedy The Terminal and I, Robot, an action sci-fi flick starring Will Smith. Over the course of the next decade the reliable McBride became increasingly active on the small screen, essaying recurring roles on such hit shows as House and Pushing Daisies. Later, in 2012, he voiced the role of Nick Fury in the animated superhero series Ultimate Spider-Man.

Trivia: Emmy-nominated Heroes star Masi Oka got his start in the entertainment industry as a special-effects artist at Industrial Light and Magic before segueing into acting with appearances on Dharma & Greg, Gilmore Girls, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Though his behind-the-scenes work on such major motion pictures as the new Star Wars trilogy, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, War of the Worlds, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest found the Tokyo native helping to breathe life into some of the most ambitious fantasy films ever to hit the silver screen, it was Oka's role as the teleporting and time-traveling computer wiz Hiro Nakamura on the hit NBC series Heroes that ultimately brought him world-wide stardom among fantasy fans.A Brown University graduate who studied mathematics, computer science, and theater art, Oka got into acting right around the time he was hired as an effects artist at ILM, and he has performed improvisational comedy at such well-known venues as Second City and The Groundlings. Since Oka had lived in Los Angeles since the age of six, it seemed only natural that he would become involved in the entertainment industry in some capacity, though few would have anticipated the remarkable success he came to experience on both sides of the screen. By the time he appeared in his breakthrough role on Heroes, Oka had already racked up an impressive array of film and television credits that included a recurring role on Scrubs and bit parts in such features as Austin Powers in Goldmember, Along Came Polly, and House of the Dead 2. In 2007, Oka could be seen in the comedy features Balls of Fury and Quebec, with a role in the big-screen adaptation of Get Smart following in 2008. In 2011 he had a small part in the romantic comedy Friends With Benefits.

Trivia: Switched his focus from baseball to acting after a serious injury during high school. Worked as a set builder in Hollywood for two years before pursuing acting roles. Enjoys golfing, hiking and furniture building and design.