Trivia: For an actor almost universally associated with a single character -- Captain James Tiberius Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise -- William Shatner has found diverse ways to stay active in the public eye, even spoofing his overblown acting style in a way far more hip than desperate. Years after he last uttered "warp speed," Shatner remains a well-known face beyond Star Trek conventions, re-creating himself as the spoken-word pitchman for priceline.com, and starring in a popular series of smoky nightclub ads that featured some of the most cutting-edge musicians of the day.The Canadian native was born on March 22, 1931, in Montréal, where he grew up and attended Verdun High School. Shatner studied commerce at McGill University before getting the acting bug, which eventually prompted him to move to New York in 1956. He initially worked in such live television dramatic shows as Studio One and The United States Steel Hour in 1957 and 1958, as well as on Broadway. His big screen debut soon followed as Alexei in the 1958 version of Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.Throughout the 1960s, Shatner worked mostly in television. His most memorable appearance came in a 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone entitled "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," in which he plays a terrified airline passenger unable to convince the crew that there's a mysterious gremlin tearing apart the wing. He also appeared in such films as Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and the bizarrely experimental Esperanto-language horror film Incubus (1963). In 1966, he got his big break, though neither he nor anyone else knew it at the time. Shatner was cast as the macho starship captain James Kirk on Star Trek, commanding a crew that included an acerbic doctor, a Scottish engineer, and a logician with pointy ears, on a mission "to boldly go where no man has gone before." However, the show lasted only three seasons, considered by many to be high camp. After providing a voice on the even shorter-lived animated series in 1973, Shatner must have thought Star Trek too would pass. A costly divorce and a lingering diva reputation from Star Trek left him with few prospects or allies, forcing him to take whatever work came his way. But in 1979, after a decade of B-movie labor in such films as The Kingdom of Spiders (1977) and a second failed series (Barbary Coast, 1975-1976), Shatner re-upped for another attempt to capitalize on the science fiction series with Star Trek: The Motion Picture. This time it caught on, though the first film was considered a costly disappointment. With dogged determination, the producers continued onward with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), at which point fans finally flocked to the series, rallying behind the film's crisp space battles and the melodramatic tête-à-tête between Shatner and Ricardo Montalban.Shatner had to wrestle with his advancing age and the deaths of several characters in Star Trek II and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), but by Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), the actor got to indulge in his more whimsical side, which has since characterized his career. As the series shifted toward comedy, Shatner led the way, even serving as director of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), which many considered among the series' weaker entries. During this period, Shatner also began parodying himself in earnest, appearing as host of Saturday Night Live in a famous sketch in which he tells a group of Trekkies to "Get a life." He also turned in a wickedly energetic mockery of a moon base captain in Airplane II: The Sequel (1982). Shatner made one final appearance with the regular Star Trek cast in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), then served as one of the crossovers to the new series of films in Star Trek: Generations (1994), in which endlessly theorizing fans finally learned the fate of Captain Kirk.The success of the Trek movies reenergized Shatner's TV career, even if it didn't immediately earn him more film roles. Shatner played the title role on the successful police drama T.J. Hooker from 1982 to 1987, directing some episodes, then began hosting the medical reality series Rescue 911 in 1989. Shatner returned to the movies with another parody, Loaded Weapon I, in 1993, and in 1994 began directing, executive producing, and acting in episodes of the syndicated TV show TekWar, based on the popular series of Trek-like novels he authored. In the later '90s, Shatner was best known for his humorously out-there priceline.com ads, but also guested on a variety of TV shows, most notably as the "Big Giant Head" on the lowbrow farce Third Rock From the Sun. He also appeared as game show hosts both in film (Miss Congeniality, 2000) and real life (50th Annual Miss America Pageant, 2001). In 1999, Shatner suffered public personal tragedy when his third wife, Nerine, accidentally drowned in their swimming pool. The champion horse breeder and tennis enthusiast owns a ranch in Kentucky and remains active in environmental causes. Shatner took on a small role for 2004's Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, and voiced the villainous wildebeest Kazar in Disney's animated adventure The Wild in 2006. Shatner returned to television for a starring role on the popular dramady Boston Legal, in which he plays Denny Crane, a once unbeatable lawyer who co-founded the successful law firm where he continues to work despite his reputation as an eccentric old man.

Trivia: Philadelphia-born James Darren came to Hollywood armed with far more impressive credentials than most teen idols, notably several years' training with Stella Adler. Signed to a Columbia Pictures contract in 1956, Darren was developed into a popular leading man-and, briefly, a recording artist. Columbia required him to show up in everything from 1958's Gidget to a 1965 episode of TV's The Flintstones (as "Jimmy Darrock"). In 1966, Darren was cast as Dr. Tony Newman on the Irwin Allen sci-fi TVer Time Tunnel, wherein he was given the unenviable task of reacting in alarm to miles and miles of 20th Century-Fox stock footage. After Time Tunnel folded in 1967, Darren's career was one of a few peaks and several valleys. Though he'd never really been away, Darren made what was labelled a comeback in 1982 in the solid supporting role of Officer Jim Corrigan on the weekly William Shatner TV vehicle T.J. Hooker. Since that time, James Darren has received a number of plum guest-star assignments on various TV dramatic and comedy programs, and has directed individual installments of such programs as Police Story.

Trivia: Tough-guy American actor James Luisi could usually be found playing cops or plainclothes detectives. Luisi spent four (1976-80) years in the role of Lt. Doug Chapman on TV's The Rockford Files, later repeating the characterization (now promoted to Captain) in two Rockford TV-movies of the mid-1990s. On daytime TV, he was seen as Phil Wainwright in Another World. James Luisi's TV resumé also included the roles of garage owner Harry Foreman in Harris and Company (1979) and police lieutenant Marciano in Renegades (1983).

Trivia: American actor Stewart Moss played supporting roles on television, stage, and feature films of the late '60s through the early '80s. He also writes teleplays for both cable and network television and directs stage productions in Los Angeles.

Trivia: Screen siren, opinionated diva, and one of the few actresses in Hollywood who can claim to be both a Paul Verhoeven muse and a MENSA member, Sharon Stone is nothing if not a legend in her own right. Beginning with her notorious disinclination to wear underwear during a police interrogation in Basic Instinct, Stone went on to become one of the most talked about actresses of the '90s, earning both admiration and infamy for her on- and off-screen personae.Almost as famous as Stone's glamorous image are her working-class roots. Born in the Northwest Pennsylvania town of Meadville on March 10, 1958, Stone grew up a bookworm in a large family. Highly intelligent in addition to being a local beauty pageant queen, she won a scholarship to Pennsylvania's Edinboro University when she was 15 years old. After studying creative writing and fine arts, she decided to pursue a modeling career, and after moving to New York, she signed on with the Eileen Ford agency. Stone became a successful model by the late '70s, appearing in print and television ads for Clairol, Revlon, and Diet Coke.In 1980, Stone branched out into acting, making her screen debut as the "pretty girl on train" in Woody Allen's Stardust Memories. Following this role, she spent the '80s appearing in one forgettable film after another, often cast as the stereotypical blonde bimbo. She finally got a break in 1990, when she appeared as Arnold Schwarzenegger's kickboxing secret-agent wife in Verhoeven's Total Recall. Any recognition she gained for that role, however, was more than eclipsed by the notoriety she earned for her starring turn in her second Verhoeven feature, Basic Instinct. The 1992 film, in which Stone portrayed a bisexual author/sexual adventurer who may or may not be a serial killer, did her a huge favor by making her a star but also a sizable disservice by further typecasting her in blonde seductress roles. Stone's subsequent effort, the erotic thriller Sliver (1993), was an example of this: the actress attracted notice less for her acting than for her willingness to simulate masturbation. Her role in the following year's The Specialist was also fairly limiting -- an action flick co-starring Sylvester Stallone, it called for Stone to run around in a tight dress in heels when she wasn't seducing various characters.In 1995, Stone managed to break into the "serious actress" arena with her performance in Martin Scorsese's Casino. Cast as an ex-prostitute, she won an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe for her work, as well as the general opinion that she was capable of dramatic acting. Stone branched out further that same year with The Quick and the Dead, a revisionist Western directed by Sam Raimi in which she starred as a tough-talking, hard-drinking broad bent on revenge. Unfortunately, the film was a relative flop, as were her subsequent 1996 films, Diabolique, a remake of the 1954 French film by Clouzot and Last Dance, a drama that featured Stone as a woman on death row. By this point winning more notice for her off-screen role as an arbiter of fashion and old-school Hollywood glamour than for her onscreen acting work, Stone next lent her voice to the animated Antz in 1998. The film proved to be a success, unlike the actress's other projects that year, the lackluster Barry Levinson sci-fi thriller Sphere and The Mighty. The latter film, which Stone produced as well as starred in, was a heartfelt story about two adolescent misfits; although it did win a number of positive reviews, audiences largely kept their distance. The same couldn't be said of Stone's next film, a 1999 remake of Gloria; not only did audiences stay away from it, critics savaged it with vituperative glee. Never one to let a bad review get her down, Stone soon rebounded, receiving a more positive reception for her performance in The Muse and then starring as Jeff Bridges' long-suffering wife in Simpatico. If her roles in the years that followed weren't as high profile, that's certainly not to say that they were any less challenging. After taking a turn towards the small screen in the lesbian-themed made-for-cable drama If These Walls Could Talk 2, Stone broke for comedy with Alfonso Arau's Picking Up the Pieces and essayed the role of an unpredictable bad girl in Beautiful Joe (all 2000). Having veered increasingly towards family-oriented fare in recent years, the trend continued with vocal work for Harold and the Purple Crayon. Of course, all was not child's play in Stone's career, and with the release of Cold Creek Manor the following year, audiences were indeed in for a frightful chill. A series of continual highs and lows marked Stone's career path in successive years. In 2004, the actress appeared as Laurel Hedare opposite Halle Berry in Catwoman. Though eagerly anticipated, the effects-heavy vehicle opened that July to abysmal reviews and devastating box office returns. Despite Stone's confession that she was toning down her oft cited diva-like ways after suffering a brain aneurysm in 2001, rumors of outrageous behavior on the film's set began to circulate. She fared much better on all fronts when she essayed a role as one of Bill Murray's ex-girlfriends in Jim Jarmusch's Golden Palm winner Broken Flowers (2005) - and walked away with the most memorable and endearing role in the picture - a role that showcases her skills as a disciplined thespian. Stone then contributed a cameo (as did many stars) to that same year's disappointing Martin Short vehicle Jiminy Glick in LaLa Wood Early 2006 gave rise to another embarrassment, as Stone appeared (at the age of 48!) in the sequel Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction. Despite a somewhat respectable pedigree (the gifted Michael Caton-Jones helmed the picture) the public and press scoffed. Incredibly, Stonespoke of a possible third entry in the franchise, and even explored the option of assuming the position of director. No such luck: much to the chagrin of viewers who relish Hollywood stars in humi roles, the picture failed to materialize. But soon after, a couple of potential triumphs surfaced, defiantly challenging the tabloids hungry for a 'losing streak' in Stone's career. She joined an exemplary cast in Emilio Estevez's hotly anticipated November 2006 release Bobby, an ensemble piece that intertwines multiple substories in the Ambassador Hotel just prior to RFK's assassination. She also appears in Nick Cassavetes's Alpha Dog (2007), alongside an A-list cast that includes newbie Emile Hirsch and Bruce Willis. The picture dramatizes the true story of a drug dealer in his early twenties who gets in over his head; Stone plays the traumatized mother of the child he kidnaps, a boy who is in hock for a massive drug tab. Universal slated it for release in January 2007. In that same year's drama When a Man Falls in the Forest, directed by Ryan Eslinger, she plays a kleptomaniacal Midwestern housewife. The cast also stars Timothy Hutton, Dylan Baker and Pruitt Taylor Vince. She continued to work steadily in projects such as Streets of Blood, Largo Winch II, and the biopic Lovelace.Wed to MacGyver producer Michael Greenberg from 1984 to 1987, and George Englund, Jr. (Cloris Leachman's son) prior to that, Stone married her third husband, San Francisco Examiner editor Phil Bronstein, in early 1998, with whom she adopted a son. They divorced in early 2004. She runs an LA-based production shingle, Chaos Productions.