Florence Agnes Henderson is an American actress and singer, best known for playing the role of Carol Brady in the television program The Brady Bunch, which ran from 1969 to 1974. As of 2010, she hosts the American TV talk show The Florence Henderson Show.

Henderson, the youngest of ten children, was born in Arkansas City, a small town in the deep south of Kansas. Henderson was the daughter of Elizabeth, a homemaker, and Joseph Henderson, a tobacco sharecropper. Raised a Roman Catholic, she graduated from St. Francis Academy in Owensboro, Kentucky, in 1951; shortly thereafter, she went to New York City, enrolling in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She is an Alumna Initiate of the Alpha Chi chapter of Delta Zeta Sorority.

Henderson started her career on the stage, performing in musicals, such as the touring production of Oklahoma! and South Pacific at Lincoln Center. She debuted on Broadway in the musical Wish You Were Here in 1952 and later starred on Broadway in the long-running 1954 musical, Fanny in which she originated the title role. Henderson also appeared on Broadway in The Girl Who Came to Supper. In 1962, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago Theatre, and the same year became the first woman to guest host The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. She also joined the ranks of what was then called “The Today Girl” on NBC’s long running morning show, doing weather and light news, a position also once held by Barbara Walters.

Her most widely seen role was as Carol Brady in The Brady Bunch which aired on ABC from 1969 until 1974. Shirley Jones had previously turned down the role. Primarily owing to her role in The Brady Bunch, Henderson was ranked by TV Land and Entertainment Weekly as one of the 100 Greatest TV Icons.

Forest Steven Whitaker is an American actor, producer, and director. He has earned a reputation for intensive character study work for films such as Bird and . However, for his recurring role as ex-LAPD Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh on the gritty, award-winning television series, The Shield, Whitaker merely had to draw on his childhood years growing up in South Central Los Angeles, California.

Whitaker won an Academy Award for his performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the 2006 film The Last King of Scotland. Whitaker has also won a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA. He became the fourth black man to win an Academy Award for Best Actor, joining the ranks of Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, and Jamie Foxx.

Whitaker was born in Longview, Texas, and his family moved to South Central Los Angeles when he was four. His father, Forest Whitaker, Jr., was an insurance salesman and the son of novelist Forest Whitaker, Sr. His mother, Laura Francis, was a special education teacher who put herself through college and earned two Masters degrees while raising her children. Whitaker has two younger brothers, Kenn and Damon, and an older sister, Deborah.

As a teenager, Whitaker commuted from Carson to wealthy Palisades High School on LA's West Side. There, he was all-league defensive tackle on the football team quarterbacked by Jay Schroeder, a future NFL player. While in high school, he also took voice lessons, performed in musicals, and caught the "acting bug"; his first role as an actor was the lead in Dylan Thomas' play, Under Milk Wood. Whitaker graduated from "Pali High" in 1979.

Faye Margaret Emerson was an American film actress and television interviewer, known as “The First Lady of Television”. She acted in in many Warner Brothers films beginning in 1941. In 1944, she played one of her more memorable roles as Zachary Scott’s ex in The Mask of Dimitrios. She was born to Lawrence and Emma in the tiny community of Elizabeth, Allen Parish in southwestern Louisiana.

In 1948, she made a move to television and began acting in various anthology series including The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre, The Philco Television Playhouse and Goodyear Television Playhouse. She served as host for several short-lived talk shows and musical/variety shows including Paris Cavalcade of Fashions, and The Faye Emerson Show. Although The Faye Emerson Show only lasted one season, it gave her wide exposure because her time slot immediately followed the CBS Evening News and alternated weeknights with the popular The Perry Como Show. According to author Gabe Essoe in The Book of TV Lists, on one the show’s segments, her low-cut gown slipped and “she exposed her ample self coast to coast.” The show was broadcast from a studio CBS built on the sixth floor of the Stork Club building. The studio, a complete replica of the Stork Club’s Cub Room, was built for The Stork Club, also seen on CBS beginning in 1950.

After The Faye Emerson Show she continued in TV with other talk shows including Wonderful Town, U.S.A., Author Meets the Critics and Faye and Skitch. She also made numerous guest appearances on various variety shows and game shows.