Trivia: Rising to fame as American family man Al Bundy on the lowbrow sitcom Married...With Children, actor Ed O' Neill was the physical embodiment of almost every stereotype leveled at lower-middle-class husbands and fathers. Although many sneered at the bathroom humor and questionable taste of the series (O'Neill himself admitted that he thought the show would be canceled after a mere six episodes), his perfection in the role was undeniably effective -- so much so that it was difficult for him to avoid typecasting despite the versatility he displayed in such features as Prefontaine and The Spanish Prisoner (both 1997). Following graduation from Ursuline High School, the Youngstown, OH, native worked a series of odd jobs before studying theater and history at Ohio University College and, eventually, Youngstown State University. A talented football player, O'Neill was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1969, though was cut from the team shortly thereafter. His early stage auditions weren't much more encouraging, and between minor theater roles, the acting hopeful returned to his former high school to teach social studies. He continued to dream of becoming an actor, however, so moved to New York in 1977 and studied at the famed Circle in the Square. An early break came when O'Neill, an understudy for the lead role in the Broadway play Knockout, was asked to take the stage when the original actor abandoned the production. Although O'Neill had appeared in a brief (one-line), uncredited role in 1972's Deliverance, he had his first real part as a police detective in the Al Pacino thriller Cruising in 1980. As the decade progressed, O'Neill found steady work in made-for-TV features and occasional television guest appearances. In 1986, his performance in the title role in Popeye Doyle (a real-life character memorably portrayed by Gene Hackman in The French Connection) showed him to be a confident and effective lead. During a stage performance as Lenny in Of Mice and Men in Hartford, CT, an executive from FOX happened to be in the audience. After showing the script of Married...With Children to his wife, O'Neill knew that it was not an opportunity to let pass. He landed the role with ease, and his portrayal of the bumbling Al Bundy not only formed the backbone of the series, but created a caricature of American family life which would only be matched by the likes of Homer Simpson. O'Neill appeared in several feature films during the show's ten-year run, including Dutch (1991), Wayne's World (1992), Blue Chips, and Little Giants (both 1994). As the series drew to a close in 1997, the actor began to venture outside the confines of the Bundy family living room in such unexpectedly dramatic turns as The Spanish Prisoner and The Bone Collector. O'Neill later returned to the small screen in Big Apple (2001) and a 2003 remake of Dragnet, playing policemen in both series.He appeared in the David Mamet thriller Spartan in 2004, and worked with the director again on 2008's Redbelt. He was on the short-lived HBO series John From Cincinnati in 2007. However, in 2009 he scored a major career boost as the patriarch in the ABC sitcom Modern Family. His work on the show earned him an Emmy nomination, something that never happened during his days as Al Bundy.

Trivia: A versatile entertainer who first shot to fame as redheaded housewife Peg Bundy on the long-running television sitcom Married with Children, Katey Sagal has since established herself as one of the small screen's most reliable and prolific actresses.It was at the tender age of five that the talented youngster first began to show promise as a singer, and after honing her talent with years of practice, Sagal went on to perform as a Harlette opposite future superstar Bette Midler. After performing as a backup singer for the likes of Etta James, Olivia Newton-John, and Tanya Tucker in the mid-'80s, Sagal made her television debut on the Mary Tyler Moore sitcom Mary. Though that particular show didn't make it past the one-season mark, it did open up a world of opportunity for the aspiring young actress, who would subsequently earn three Golden Globe nominations as gaudily attired suburbanite Peg Bundy on the raunchy Fox Television sitcom Married with Children. A stinging satire of suburban dysfunction, Married with Children's gleefully lowbrow humor earned it as many fans as detractors over the course of the show's impressive ten-year run. When the plug was finally pulled on Married with Children in 1998, Sagal teamed with former Three's Company star John Ritter in the made-for-television romance Chance of a Lifetime before making appearances on such series as That '70s Show and Disney's animated show Recess.While performances in a number of made-for-television movies hinted at dramatic abilities that had never been tapped during her extended stint on Married with Children, it was cartoon voice-over work that would soon prove the bread and butter of her career during the millennial crossover. Despite the fact that it never achieved the popularity of The Simpsons, Matt Groening's animated sci-fi comedy series Futurama did gain a fairly devoted fan base during its four-year run, with Sagal in particular getting a fair amount of laughs in her role as voluptuous one-eyed alien Leela. In 2002, Sagal partnered with former Chance of a Lifetime star Ritter for the Emmy Award-winning sitcom 8 Simple Rules...for Dating My Teenage Daughter, though the tragic and unexpected death of star Ritter -- who collapsed on-set at the beginning of the second season -- brought the show to an untimely end in 2005. A pair of appearances on the phenomenally successful small-screen thriller Lost followed in 2005, and in 2006 Sagal traded barbs with William Shatner and James Spader on Boston Legal. She was a member of the cast of Sons of Anarchy when that show debuted in 2008, and she returned to voicing Leela on Futurama when the show began production again after a multi-year layoff.

Trivia: With green eyes, clear skin, and a head of hair that any pre-Raphaelite would envy, Keri Russell became one of the most recognizable young actresses of the late 1990s. Propelled to fame by her title role on the WB Network's Felicity, Russell quickly endeared herself to critics and viewers with her searching and honest portrayal of a college freshman facing life on her own for the first time.Born Keri Lynn Russell on March 23, 1976 in Fountain Valley, California, Russell studied dancing from an early age. She later found that her love of dancing was good preparation for acting, insofar as both disciplines demanded self-discipline and an adherence to timing and choreography. Dancing led to a modeling stint, which in turn led to a trip to Los Angeles, where in 1991 she was cast as herself on the newly-revived Mickey Mouse Club. Russell stayed with the show until 1993, during which time she lived at Disney World, where the show was taped. During her time on the Mickey Mouse Club, Russell landed her first film role in 1992's Honey, I Blew Up the Kid. After her TV commitment ended, Russell moved to Los Angeles and in 1996 was cast in Aaron Spelling's Malibu Shores. In the same year, she did more film work in the little-seen The Babysitter's Seduction, and she continued her film work in 1997 with the comedy Eight Days a Week. In 1998, with her career flagging, Russell got her big break playing confused college freshman Felicity Porter, a part she nearly wasn't considered for because the show's creators felt she was too beautiful to have the problems her character did.Suddenly the subject of countless interviews and magazine covers, Russell found herself as one of television's hottest commodities, especially in the wake of the Golden Globe she netted for her portrayal of Felicity. Unsurprisingly, this new status led to a new range of opportunities, including her role in The Curve (1998), a thriller which had its premiere at Sundance and co-starred Matthew Lillard. After the conclusion of Felicity in 2001, Russell worked steadily in small but valuable roles in the films We Were Soldiers, The Upside of Anger, and The Management of Ordinary Days. Russell played a major role as a covert operative kidnapped by a weapons dealer in Mission Impossible III. Though she didn't manage to secure the role of Lois Lane for Superman Returns (2006) (that honor went to Kate Bosworth), Russell snagged the lead role of a small-town waitress in the highly acclaimed independent comedy Waitress (2007) and also played the lead in the modest hit August Rush (2007). The following year, she played Adam Sandler's love interest in Bedtime Stories.In 2010, Russell made an attempt to return to television in the Fox series Running Wilde, opposite Will Arnett. The show was canceled after only 13 episodes. However, in 2013, she scored a hit series with FX's Soviet spy-drama The Americans, playing a KGB officer posing as an American in 1980s Washington DC; she nabbed an Emmy nomination for her work on the show in 2016.

Trivia: American actor Tim Conway was born in Willoughby, Ohio, but grew up in the curiously named community Chagrin Falls, a fact that he'd later incorporate for a quick laugh in many of his comedy routines, TV films and movies. After majoring in speech and radio at Bowling Green State University, Conway went into the Eighth Army Assignment Team, where, much in the manner of his later bumbling screen characters, he managed to "misplace" a boatload of 7500 replacement troops. Once the army was through with him (and vice versa), Conway secured a job answering mail for a Cleveland radio deejay; his letters were so amusing that he was given a position as a writer in the promotional department, then went on to direct a TV program called Ernie's Place. Whenever Ernie was short a guest, Conway showed up as "Dag Hereford," a so-called authority on several subjects who'd reveal himself to be a blithering simpleton. Comedienne Rose Marie happened to be in Cleveland in 1961, and upon catching Conway's routine recommended the young erstwhile comic to Steve Allen; Conway redid the Hereford bit for Allen's ABC variety series in the fall of '61, fracturing the audiences (and Allen) in three memorable appearances. Now that he was a full-fledged comic, he knew he couldn't continue performing under his real name, Tom Conway, since that was also the name of a well-known British actor; Allen advised Tom to "dot the O," and thereafter he was known as Tim Conway. In 1962, Conway was engaged to play the Doug Hereford-like role of Ensign Doug Parker on the wartime sitcom McHale's Navy, which lasted six seasons and made Conway a star. The actor made several attempts over the following decades to succeed as a solo TV star (witness his 1967 western comedy Rango on ABC), but none of his post-McHale's Navy series have been anything resembling hits. Still, Conway was always welcome as a supporting comic, and he scored major success with hysterically funny appearances opposite Harvey Korman on The Carol Burnett Show in the 1970s; Conway also enjoyed a measure of success as star or co-star of a number of Disney films and low-budget "regional" comedy pictures like The Prize Fighter (1978) and The Private Eyes (1980). In the late 1980s and '90s Conway starred in a popular series of satirical "how-to" home videos, playing a diminutive, dim-bulbed Scandinavian named Dorf; he also lent an acclaimed comedic cameo as a driving instructor to the action film Speed 2 (1997), and voiced a series of Christian-themed animated videos entitled Hermie & Friends, with such friends and colleagues as the late Don Knotts and Burnett co-star Vicki Lawrence. Conway would continue to appear on screen over the coming years, making memorable appearances on TV shows like 30 Rock and providing the voice of Barnacle Bob on the animated series Spongebob Squarepants.

Trivia: Originally famous as the bodacious, brain-challenged Bundy offspring Kelly on Fox's long-running dysfunctional family sitcom Married...With Children, Christina Applegate parlayed her comic talents and sexy image into a parallel movie career. A natural blonde Hollywood baby, Applegate was raised by her actress mother, Nancy Priddy, after Priddy split from Applegate's father, record executive Bobby Applegate. Making her acting debut as an infant with her mother on TV's Days of Our Lives, Applegate subsequently landed her first movie role at age ten when she appeared with Priddy in the low-grade horror flick Jaws of Satan (1981). After playing Grace as a child in the TV biopic Grace Kelly (1983), Applegate guest starred on several TV shows before landing her own permanent series role in the short-lived Heart of the City (1986). Her next series, however, proved the charm. Debuting in 1987 on the fledgling Fox TV network, Married...With Children withstood criticisms about its all-around vulgarity to become one of Fox's first signature hits. During its ten-year run, Married...With Children also spawned the TV movie It's a Bundyful Life (1992), featuring Applegate and the rest of the Bundy clan in a spoof of holiday chestnut It's a Wonderful Life (1946). A bona fide teen heartthrob and star, Applegate attempted to show her serious side as a prostitute and drug addict in the gritty drama Streets (1990). Teen comedy Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991) tried to capitalize on Applegate's TV fame while showcasing her as a smart, resourceful, anti-Bundy character. Also during Married...With Children's run, Applegate appeared in the female road movie Across the Moon (1994), mutilated rock musician-drama Vibrations (1995), and as the town whore in Walter Hill's underrated Western Wild Bill (1995). Applegate's Married fame further landed her a small part in the all-star ensemble populating Tim Burton's science fiction parody Mars Attacks! (1996), and wryly shaded her presence in Gregg Araki's Los Angeles teen anomie opus Nowhere (1997), the slickest entrant in his "teen apocalypse trilogy."Ready to leave the TV-bred teen realm behind after Married went off the air in 1997, Applegate co-starred with Mark Wahlberg in the Hong Kong-tinged action comedy The Big Hit (1998) and played the WASP fiancée of a Mob scion in Jim Abrahams' Mafia movie parody Mafia! (1998). She co-starred with her eventual husband, Johnathon Schaech, and erstwhile teen idol Molly Ringwald in the high-school reunion thriller The Giving Tree (1999) as well. Inspired by her experience with her mother growing up, though, Applegate agreed to return to TV to star as a single mom balancing work and family in the sitcom Jesse (1998). Despite choice time slots, however, Jesse was canceled in 2000. Applegate returned to movie comedy co-starring with Jean Reno as a princess and modern gal in the ill-received remake of a French time-travel yarn Just Visiting (2001). Subsequently holding her own opposite some of her more lustrous film peers, Applegate earned far better reviews than the movie itself as Cameron Diaz's levelheaded best friend in the raunchy female bonding romp The Sweetest Thing (2002), and flew the friendly skies with Gwyneth Paltrow in the flight attendant comedy A View from the Top (2003).In 2004, Applegate landed herself leading-lady roles in two of the year's most anticipated films. First, in July, she starred opposite Will Ferrell in the 70s-era comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Then, the following November, she could be seen with Ben Affleck in the holiday film Surviving Christmas.In 2007 Applegate finally found success on the small-screen yet again with the sitcom Samantha Who?, but the actress made headlines in 2008 when she revealed she was fighting breast cancer, an illness she survived. Meanwhile, on the big screen she scored major parts in the comedy The Rocker, and played Jason Sudeikis' long-suffering wife in the Farrelly Brothers comedy Hall Pass.In 2011 she was cast opposite Will Arnett in the sitcom Up All Night which would become her third television program to run for at least two years.

Trivia: Perhaps best known for his long-running role as Bud Bundy, the juvenile delinquent son of shoe salesman Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill) and lazy housewife Peg Bundy (Katey Sagal) on Fox's popular blue-collar sitcom Married...With Children (1987-1997), actor David Faustino grew up in Northridge, CA. The son of a Hollywood costume designer and his wife, who guided each of their children into show business, David landed his first role at the age of three, playing a female clown in a Lily Tomlin special, then moved into commercials and landed guest appearances on such series as Family Ties, The Twilight Zone, and Little House on the Prairie, as well as appearances in movies including I Ought to Be in Pictures (1982) and The Star Chamber (1983). Faustino was tapped for the Married role in 1987, and rode to fame as the series soared in popularity (and controversy), remaining with the program for each of its ten seasons. By the early '90s, the performer had also branched out into an ambitious musical career; he founded an urban-themed nightspot called Club Balistyx in West Hollywood, where he frequently performed as a rap singer, and in 1992 issued his first audio recording, The Balistyx Album. After Married folded in 1997, Faustino resumed feature roles, with parts in films including The Heist (1999), MacArthur Park (2001), Freezerburn (2005), and National Lampoon's Pucked (2006). He continued to appear on TV, mostly playing himself in cameo roles in shows like Entourage and launched a successful voice-over career, voicing characters in The Legend of Korra and Dreamworks Dragons.

Trivia: Best known for her portrayal of Marcy Rhoades D'arcy, the manic, feminist/careerist neighbor on the long-running series Married...With Children, Amanda Bearse is also a prominent spokesperson for lesbian and gay rights in the entertainment industry and a very busy director on television. Born in Winter Park, FL, Bearse came to acting through high school and community theater and later moved to New York, where she studied acting with Sanford Meisner. Her first major acting role was as Amanda Cousins on the daytime drama All My Children from 1982 to 1984. Her early film appearances consisted of small roles in features such as First Affair (made for television), Protocol, Fright Night, and Fraternity Vacation, before Married...With Children came along in 1987. Originally, her portrayal and image were that of a perky supporting player but as the series evolved, the writing for her character did as well and her portrayal became harder, much funnier, and much edgier. Bearse also studied directing at the American Film Institute and U.S.C., and most viewers were less aware of the fact that from the middle of the series' run, she became one of the program's regular directors and also wrote several scripts. During this period she emerged as a spokesperson for gay and lesbian rights, declaring her sexuality openly in October 1993, as part of National Coming Out Day. After the end of the series' run of ten seasons, Bearse concentrated largely on directing, on sitcoms such as Ladies Man, Dharma and Greg, and Two Guys and a Girl, among other programs.

Trivia: Dividing his time more or less equally between big- and small-screen work, actor Ted McGinley enjoyed a considerably successful tenure as a character player, almost always appearing as beefcake heartthrob types. He began his career in the early '80s, with small roles in Garry Marshall's satirical farce Young Doctors in Love (1982) and the lurid Joan Collins telemovie Making of a Male Model (1983), but achieved his first significant break in the sitcom venue, as English teacher-cum-basketball coach Roger Phillips on the final four seasons of Happy Days (1980-1984). Fortuitously, at about the same time that Days folded, the producers of The Love Boat (on the same network, ABC) tapped McGinley to play photographer Ace Evans -- a last-ditch attempt to save the program from sagging ratings. The strategy ultimately failed when Boat ended its lengthy run in 1986, but in the meantime, McGinley landed what became a recurring role as jock Stan in the first three installments of Revenge of the Nerds. Eventually, McGinley also joined the cast of the long-running Married...With Children from 1991 through 1997, playing chauvinistic layabout Jefferson D'Arcy (second husband of the Bundys' neighbor Marcy Rhoades), and essayed roles in theatrical films including Physical Evidence (1989), Wayne's World 2 (1993), and Dick (1999). The late '90s and 2000s found McGinley evincing a heightened presence in television once again, first on Aaron Sorkin's critically worshipped yet short-lived seriocomedy Sports Night (1998-1999), then as Charley Shanowski on the sitcom Hope & Faith (2003-2006). In 2008 he competed in the reality program Dancing With the Stars, and in 2010 he appeared in the lighthearted, family-friendly Christmas with a Capital C. He would reach pop-culture immortality when the website Jumping the Shark named him as one of the signs that a TV show has run out of ideas.

Trivia: Both of her parents are scientists. In high school, auditioned for a part in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying after hearing fellow students rehearsing in the room next door to where she was serving detention. Her first professional gig was at the Pasadena Playhouse doing The Lion in Winter. Studied acting at the Beverly Hills Playhouse. Enjoys photography and dancing.