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Born Lawrence Vonetta McGee, she got her break in Melinda (1972) and Hammer (1972) and hit paydirt as the love interest of the vampire in Blacula (1972), then starred with her then-boyfriend Max Julien in Thomasine & Bushrod (1974). In 1978 she starred opposite Bernie Casey and Ron O'Neal in Brothers (1977). Other movies include Repo Man (1984) To Sleep with Anger (1990). She has also done much work on television. She was married to actor Carl Lumbly.

In 1953 Eddie Fisher was given his own fifteen-minute TV show called Coke Time (1953), sponsored by the Coca-Cola company. This show proved to be so popular that Coke then offered Eddie a $1 million contract to be their national spokesperson. A deal of that magnitude was almost unheard of at this time and helped push Fisher towards being one of the most popular singers by 1954. In 1955 Eddie married Debbie Reynolds and daughter Carrie Fisher was born a year later, followed by son Todd Fisher in l958. Later that year, the scandal of the decade broke when stories of Eddie's affair with Elizabeth Taylor were made public. She had been widowed earlier that year when her husband Mike Todd, Eddie's best friend, died in a plane crash. The bad publicity that followed did a great deal of damage to Eddie's career, while it actually increased the amount of money Elizabeth was offered for films. He and Liz did the movie BUtterfield 8 (1960), which actually earned Taylor an Academy Award, though it was received with mixed reviews. From there Liz went on to star in Cleopatra (1963), with Richard Burton, another scandal and divorce for Liz. With his TV show long gone and hit records a thing of the past, his career in the sixties consisted mainly of stage shows in Las Vegas, New York, and smaller venues as time went on. For a few years he was married to Connie Stevens and they had two daughters, Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher before divorcing in 1968. Eddie Fisher has written two autobiographies, the latest "Been There, Done That" published with great controversy. It seems some of the women in his past, including Debbie Reynolds, did not care for his portrayal of them. He must be given credit, however, for owning up to his own actions, which led to the degradation of his career. His fifth wife, Betty Lin, passed away from lung cancer on April 15, 2001.

Nora O'Brien was born on 2 October 1964 in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. She was a production manager, known for Starship Troopers (1997), The Edge (1997) and Outbreak (1995). She died on 29 April 2009 in Berkeley, California, USA.

Alan Splet was born on 31 December 1939 in the USA. He is known for Dune (1984), Rising Sun (1993) and Blue Velvet (1986). He was married to Ann Kroeber. He died on 2 December 1994 in Berkeley, California, USA.

Born in 1935 in Tampa, Florida, Les Blank attended Tulane University in New Orleans, where he received a B.A. in English literature and an M.F.A. in theatre. In 1967, after two years in the Ph.D. film program at the University of Southern California, and five years of freelancing in Los Angeles, he began his first independent films, on Texas blues singer Lightnin Hopkins (The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins (1970)) and the newly forming sub-culture, known as flower children, (God Respects Us When We Work, But Loves Us When We Dance (1968)). To finance these and other of his own films, he continued to make industrial and promotional films for such organizations as Holly Farms Poultry, Archway Cookies and the National Wildlife Federation until 1972.

Blank's first independent films began a series of intimate glimpses into the lives and music of passionate people who live at the periphery of American society - a series that grew to include rural Louisiana French musicians and cooks.

Major retrospectives of Les Blank's films have been mounted in Los Angeles at FILMEX in 1977; the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in 1978 and 1984; New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1979; the National Film Theatre, London in 1982; Cineteca Nacional, Mexico City in 1984; the Cinematheque Francais, Paris in 1986; the Independent Film Week, Augsburg, Germany in 1990 and the Leipzig Film Festival in 1995 and the Sofia Music Film Festival, Bulgaria in 1998. Feature articles on Blank have appeared in American Film, Film Quarterly, Take One, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Image Magazine, Mother Jones, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Premiere, Downbeat and Video Review. In 1984, Blank co-edited the "Burden of Dreams" book, which included journals written during the making of Burden of Dreams by him, sound recordist-editor Maureen Gosling and Werner Herzog, plus an article by legendary journalist Michael Goodwin. In 1986, National Public Radio aired a half-hour special on Les Blank's work and, in 1991, CNN aired a special on him, worldwide.

Among Blank's numerous awards are the British Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary, 1982, (Burden of Dreams (1982)); the Golden Gate Award "Best of Festival", San Francisco Film Festival, 1982 ("Burden of Dreams"); Grand Prize, Melbourne Film Festival, 1985 (In Heaven There Is No Beer? (1984)); Special Jury Award U.S. (Sundance) Film Festival, 1985 ("In Heaven There Is No Beer?"); Grand Award, Houston Film Festival, 1983 ("Burden of Dreams"); Golden Hugo, Chicago Film Festival, 1969 (The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins (1970)). Blank also received a 10,000 Euro prize for "Yum, Yum, Yum" for best film in the International Ethnographic Film Festival, Nuoro, Sardinia, Italy, 2002

In 1990, Les Blank received the American Film Institute's Maya Deren Award for outstanding lifetime achievement as an independent filmmaker. In 1989-1990, Blank was the distinguished filmmaker-in-residence at San Diego State University and, in 1991, adjunct assistant professor in film at the University of California, Berkeley. He was also the Louis B. Mayer filmmaker-in-residence at Dartmouth College and a directing fellow at the Sundance Institute in Utah (both in 1984). His work has been supported by The National Endowment For the Arts, The American Film Institute, The National Endowment For the Humanities, The Ford Foundation, The Guggenheim Foundation, PBS and the BBC. Between 1973 and 1994, Blank toured extensively with the sponsorship of the United States Information Agency, screening his films and discussing them with audiences throughout Latin America, China, England, Spain, Germany, Italy, the former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Egypt. Les Blank is a member of: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

Blank currently has four documentaries in production: about David Lee Hoffman, importer of rare and fine teas rom China; Alabama folk artist Butch Anthony; seminal documentary filmmaker Richard Leacock; and a project on the diRosa preserve in Napa, a major collection of Northern California art.

Glenn McQueen was born on 24 December 1960 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was a director and writer, known for Cars (2006), A Bug's Life (1998) and Monsters, Inc. (2001). He was married to Audrey Fleisher and Terry McQueen. He died on 29 October 2002 in Berkeley, California, USA.

Kristina Holland was born on 25 February 1944 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA. She was an actress, known for Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (1972), The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1969) and The Strawberry Statement (1970). She was married to Eric Alexander Tamm and Ron Poindexter. She died on 22 February 2023 in Berkeley, California, USA.

Mario Mark Kennedy was born on 9 January 1966 in New York, USA. Mario Mark died on 15 June 1995 in Berkeley, California, USA.

Dan Lee was born on 19 May 1969 in Montreal, Québec, Canada. He is known for A Bug's Life (1998), Finding Nemo (2003) and Monsters, Inc. (2001). He died on 15 January 2005 in Berkeley, California, USA.

Ralph McQuarrie was born on 13 June 1929 in Gary, Indiana, USA. He is known for Cocoon (1985), Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) and Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). He was married to Joan Benjamin. He died on 3 March 2012 in Berkeley, California, USA.

Michael Raffetto was born on 30 December 1899 in Placerville, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Seven Doors to Death (1944), A Foreign Affair (1948) and I Was a Shoplifter (1950). He died on 31 May 1990 in Berkeley, California, USA.

Erik Bauersfeld was born on 28 June 1922 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) and Crimson Peak (2015). He died on 3 April 2016 in Berkeley, California, USA.

Neil Marcus was born on 3 January 1954 in Scarsdale, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for ER (1994), From the Heart... The First International Very Special Arts Festival (1989) and ADA30 Lead On Celebration of Disability Arts, Culture, Education and Pride (2020). He died on 17 November 2021 in Berkeley, California, USA.

Tom Luddy was born on 4 June 1943 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and actor, known for Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), The Secret Garden (1993) and Barfly (1987). He was married to Monique Montgomery. He died on 13 February 2023 in Berkeley, California, USA.

J. Campbell Bruce was born on 5 May 1906 in Helvetia, Pennsylvania, USA. J. Campbell was a writer, known for Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Armstrong Circle Theatre (1950) and TV Reader's Digest (1955). J. Campbell died on 6 July 1996 in Berkeley, California, USA.

Wendell K. Phillips was born on 27 November 1907 in Blandinsville, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Close-Up (1948), Pulitzer Prize Playhouse (1950) and The Defenders (1961). He was married to Jean Shelton and Odielein M. Pearce. He died on 6 October 1991 in Berkeley, California, USA.

Singer-songwriter, Buzzy, is most famous for writing "Ya Gotta Have Friends" for Bette Midler and the acid-folk classic "The Love's Still Growing" for ex-girlfriend Carly Simon. Buzz's catalog of visionary recordings for the Phillips and Buddah record labels in the late sixties and early seventies, as well as a major release on Atlantic in 1974 serve as a slice of his many contributions to modern music. He also played vibraphone on the Jimi Hendrix song "Drifting" and drums on a live jam-session with Hendrix, Noel Redding and Al Kooper, which included "Like a Rolling Stone" at an uptown club called "The Scene" in 1969.

Reason A. Goodwin was born on 19 September 1903 in Costello, Kansas, USA. Reason A. is known for Password (1961). Reason A. died on 14 June 1985 in Berkeley, California, USA.

Mark O'Brien was born on 31 July 1949 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was a writer, known for The Sessions (2012), World's Worst Century (2004) and Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien (1996). He died on 4 July 1999 in Berkeley, California, USA.

Malvina Reynolds was born on 23 August 1900 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress and composer, known for Weeds (2005), The Boxtrolls (2014) and Dogfight (1991). She was married to William 'Bud' Reynolds. She died on 17 March 1978 in Berkeley, California, USA.

David Wood was born on 24 February 1925 in Fresno, California, USA. He was married to Marnie Thomas. He died on 21 April 2002 in Berkeley, California, USA.

Tim Yohannan was born on 15 August 1945 in Passaic, New Jersey, USA. He died on 3 April 1998 in Berkeley, California, USA.

Virginia Zurí was born on 26 February 1906 in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. She was an actress, known for México de mis recuerdos (1944), La noche del pecado (1933) and Divorciadas (1943). She was married to Irving Seiden. She died on 2 January 1996 in Berkeley, California, USA.

Richard Allen Lupoff, born February 21, 1935 in Brooklyn, is an author perhaps best known for his science fiction and fantasy work; he has also written non-fiction, mysteries, and humor. Over his writing career, he's written dozens of books & novels, works of short fiction, essays and reviews, occasionally using pen names, such as Ova Hamlet for some of his lighter fare. He served a stint in the U.S. Army during the 1950s. He and his wife Pat (who has been a purchaser of children's books and has worked with him in the writing field) have lived for many years in Berkeley, California.

Ralph Miller was born on 27 August 1923 in the USA. He was an actor, known for Outbreak (1995), Village of the Damned (1995) and Nash Bridges (1996). He died on 14 December 2006 in Berkeley, California, USA.