Trivia: Though perhaps best remembered for playing the suave, mysterious Mr. Roarke on the popular television series Fantasy Island (1978-1984), and for his car commercials in which he seductively exhorted the pleasures of the upholstery ("Rich, Corinthian leather") in his distinctive Spanish accent, Ricardo Montalban once played romantic leads in major features of the '40s and '50s. He also had a successful career on-stage. Born Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalban y Merino in Mexico City, Montalban spent part of his youth in the U.S. The tall, dark, handsome, and curly haired actor first worked as a bit player on Broadway before returning to Mexico in the early '40s and launching a film career there. By 1947, he had returned to the States and signed with MGM. That year, Montalban played his first leading role opposite Cyd Charisse in the romantic musical Fiesta (1947). It would be the first of many roles in which he would play a passionate singing and dancing "Latin Lover." He and Charisse again teamed up as dancers in the Esther Williams musical water extravaganza in On an Island With You (1948). At one point, it was a toss-up between Montalban and fellow MGM "LL" Fernando Lamas as to which was more popular. It would not be until 1949 before Montalban had the opportunity to play a non-romantic role as a border agent who gets revenge upon the killers of his partner in Border Incident. His second serious role in Battleground (1949) ranks among his best performances. By the late '50s, he had become a character actor, often cast in ethnic roles, notably that of a genteel Japanese Kabuki actor in Sayonara (1957). He had occasionally appeared on television since the late '50s, but did not appear regularly until the mid-'70s. In 1976, Montalban earned an Emmy for his portrayal of a Sioux chief in the television miniseries How the West Was Won. In the early '70s he was part of a touring troupe that read dramatic excerpts from Shaw's Don Juan in Hell. In 1982, Montalban reprised a role he had made famous on the original Star Trek TV series as the ruthless Khan to star in the second Star Trek feature, The Wrath of Khan. In the '80s, Montalban only sporadically appeared in feature films. His television career also slowed, though he occasionally appeared on series such as The Colbys (1985-1987) and Heaven Help Us! (1994). Montalban has written an autobiography, Reflections: A Life in Two Worlds (1980). Confined to a wheelchair after a 1993 spinal operation left him paralyzed from the waist down, Montalban remiained in good health despite being in constant pain, and continued to play an active role in promoting Nostros - a non-profit organization founded by Montalban in 1970 and dedicated to improving the image of Latinos within the entertainment industry. In the late 1990s and early 2000s Moltalban's career recieved something of a second wind when he began performing vocal work on such animated television series' as Freakazoid!, Dora the Explorer, and Kim Possible, with a role as the kindly grandfather in Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over even giving the wheelchair-bound actor an opportunity to triumphantly rise once again thanks to the magic of special effects. Additional vocal work in the 2006 animated family adventure The Ant Bully continued to keep Montalban busy despite his physical limitations. His brother, Carlos Montalban, was also an actor.

Trivia: Supporting and character actor Herve Villechaize appeared in 13 feature films, but he is best remembered for playing Tattoo, Ricardo Montalban's chirpy sidekick on Fantasy Island (1978-1983). Born to a French father and English mother, Villechaize was a dwarf who stopped growing taller after hitting 3'9". Before becoming an actor, Villechaize studied art in Paris and New York. Deciding acting was the better venue, he studied under drama teacher Julie Bovasso. He made his feature film debut in The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971) and went on to play small "novelty" roles in exploitation and cult movies such as Malatesta's Carnival and Oliver Stone's Seizure (1974). One of his more notable roles was that of an evil dwarf in the James Bond thriller The Man With the Golden Gun (1974). Villechaize was married three times. On September 4, 1993, he fatally shot himself, allegedly to escape his many health problems.

Trivia: Thin, jug-eared, and rubber-faced black comedian Jimmie Walker is best remembered for playing J.J. on the sitcom Good Times (1974-1979). His exuberant "Dyno-mite!!" was briefly a popular catch phrase back then. Walker made his feature film debut in Sing Thanksgiving (1974). Following the demise of his show, Walker embarked upon a modest film career and carried on with his standup career. He occasionally showed up on television talk shows and in 70's retrospectives, not afraid to poke fun at his '70s persona.

Trivia: Brooklyn native Connie Stevens is the daughter of musician Teddy Stevens. She moved with her dad to L.A., where she enrolled at Sacred Professional School, sang professional, and appeared in local repertory productions. After several low-budget teen flicks, Stevens was given a break in an A-picture, Jerry Lewis' Rock-a-Bye Baby (1958). Soon afterward, she was signed by Warner Bros. to play bouncy nightclub thrush Cricket Blake on the TV detective series Hawaiian Eye. She also starred in such WB feature films as Susan Slade (1961), and became a popular recording artist with her rendition of the deathless "Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb." Warners suspended Stevens in 1962 over several bones of contention, one of which was her snit-fit after being denied a chance to audition for the lead in the studio's My Fair Lady. She patched up her differences with Warners long enough to play a Gracie Allen clone in the George Burns-produced sitcom Wendy and Me (1964). After her flurry of fame in the 1960s, Stevens kept busy with nightclub appearances and summer theater productions. She appeared in the Broadway production of The Star Spangled Girl, guested in such all-star movie efforts as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) and Grease 2, and accepted a regular role on the 1986 TV series Rowdies. Among Connie Stevens' three husbands were actors James Stacy and Eddie Fisher.

Trivia: The onetime manager of a skeet- and trap-shooting club, prematurely silver-haired leading man Steve Kanaly has thrived primarily in rugged, outdoorsy action roles. The veteran of dozens of theatrical and made-for-TV westerns, Kanaly has also been seen in Dillinger (1973, as Pretty Boy Floyd), Spielberg's The Sugarland Express (1974) and John Milius' Wind and the Lion (1975). From 1978 through 1991, Kanaly played South Fork ranch foreman Ray Krebbs in the prime time TV serial Dallas. Two years after Dallas' demise, Steve Kanaly resurfaced on another televised chapter play: the odd, African-based syndicated soap opera Okavango: The Wild Frontier.

Trivia: If character actor Herb Edelman was one of the more successful stage and screen purveyors of "Everyman" roles, it was probably because he'd held down an astonishing array of meat-and-potato jobs before settling into acting. Edelman studied to be a veterinarian at Cornell University, but left during the first year. He took a tentative stab at journalism before toiling as an Armed Forces radio operator and announcer. While stationed in the Far East, Edelman entertained the notion of becoming a "Jewish Buddhist." He returned to his hometown to attend Brooklyn College, dropped out to become a hotel manager, was briefly the "straight" half of a comedy team, worked in advertising, drove a hack, and dropped back into college. Finally turning to acting full time in summer stock, Edelman began picking up small roles in New York productions, including the scene-stealing exhausted delivery man inNeil Simon's Barefoot in the Park (1965), a role he recreated for the 1967 film version. Forming strong bonds with both Simon and with Barefoot star Robert Redford, Edelman would later appear in Simon's The Odd Couple and California Suite, and in the Redford/Barbara Streisand vehicle The Way We Were (1973). In 1968, Edelman co-starred with Bob Denver in the two-season TV sitcom The Good Guys. Nine years later, he starred as one-half of the title role in the weekly TV comedy/fantasy Big John, Little John (Robbie Rist was the "Little" one). Other TV series featuring Herb Edelman on a regular or recurring basis included Ladies Man, 9 to 5, Strike Force and Murder She Wrote. Fans of the sitcom The Golden Girls may remember Edelman for playing Stanley, Bea Arthur's irksome ex-husband. Edelman died of emphysema at the Motion Picture Hospital in Los Angeles on July 21, 1996; he was 62.

Trivia: Stunningly beautiful Cuban-born actress Maria Conchita Alonso emigrated with her family to Caracas, Venezuela when she was five years old; there she appeared in films and commercials while still a child. At age 14 she won the title of Miss Teenager of the World. Four years later, she became Miss Venezuela, going on to combine a successful modeling career with acting and making TV commercials; eventually, she starred in four Venezuelan films and appeared in ten Spanish-language soap operas. She moved to the United States in 1982, going on to make her English-speaking film debut in Abel Ferrara's Fear City (1984); though only a small part in a large cast, this led to a supporting role as Robin Williams's girl friend in Moscow Hudson (1986), which moved her up in the film world to the status of a co-star. In addition to finding steady work in films such as Running Man (1987), House of the Spirits (1993), Caught (1995), Alonso is also a Grammy-nominated singer who has become a top-selling artist in South America. In 1995, while filming Caught, Alonso became the first South American woman to star on Broadway when she won the role of Aurora/Spider Woman in Kiss of the Spider Woman. She continued to work steadily for the next fifteen years playing lead parts in a variety of films ranging from Catherine's Grove The Code Conspiracy, and Chasing Papi, as well as finding work on various television shows including Kingpin.