Trivia: Veteran nightclub comedian Shecky Greene is more of a storyteller than a dispenser of one-liners, and this fact might be the secret behind his durability. Greene started out in his home turf of Chicago in 1947; within six years, he was headlining in Las Vegas and making the first of thousands of TV appearances. Not entirely comfortable playing anyone other than "himself," he has nonetheless essayed character parts in such films as Tony Rome (1968), The Love Machine (1970), History of the World Part One (1981), and Splash (1984, as Mr. Buyrite). He also played wisecracking Private Braddock on the first (1962-63) season of the TV war drama Combat. Shecky Greene has been the recipient of many honors and industry awards for his stand-up work.

Trivia: Born in Missouri and educated at the University of Oklahoma, Alice Ghostley created a sensation in her first Broadway production, New Faces of 1952. In the company of such powerhouse co-stars as Paul Lynde, Robert Clary and Carol Lawrence, Ghostley stole the show with her plaintive renditions of the satirical ballads "The Boston Beguine" and "Time for Tea." Within a year of New Faces, she was headlined in the film version of that popular revue and was cast as a regular on the network-TV series Freedom Ring. Ghostley has been convulsing audiences ever since, playing a rich variety of man-chasing bachelorettes, overprotective mothers and dotty neighbors. While most of her film appearances have been in comedies (Viva Max!, The Graduate, Grease), Ghostley proved quite effective in the comparatively straight role of Stephanie Crawford in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). In 1965, she won a Tony award for her performance in the Broadway seriocomedy The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window. In addition, Ghostley has been a regular or semi-regular on a multitude of TV series: The Jackie Gleason Show, Car 54 Where Are You, Captain Nice, The Jonathan Winters Show, The Golddiggers, Designing Women and a host of others. She is most fondly remembered for her portrayal of bumbling witch Esmerelda on the long-running (1964-72) sitcom Bewitched. On both this series and 1972's Temperatures Rising, Alice Ghostley was reunited with her old New Faces cohort, Paul Lynde. Ghostley died of colon cancer at age 81 in September 2007.

Trivia: Though frequently cast in Jewish roles, actor Michael Constantine was actually of Greek extraction. The son of a steel worker, Constantine studied acting with such prominent mentors as Howard DaSilva. The prematurely balding Constantine was playing character roles on and off Broadway in his mid-twenties (he was the Darrow counterpart in the original production of Compulsion), supplementing his income as a night watchman and shooting-gallery barker. In 1959, slightly weary of being ignored by callous Broadway producers and casting directors, Constantine appeared in his first film, The Last Mile (1959), thereby launching a cinematic career that has endured into the mid-1990s. Michael Constantine is perhaps best known for his extensive TV work, notably his four-season (1969-1974) stint as long-suffering high school principal Seymour Kaufman on Room 222 and his starring appearance as night-court magistrate Matthew J. Sirota on the brief 1976 sitcom Sirota's Court.