Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with his most famous co-star, Doris Day. Hudson was voted “Star of the Year”, “Favorite Leading Man”, and similar titles by numerous movie magazines. The tall actor was unquestionably one of the most popular and well-known movie stars of the time. He completed nearly 70 motion pictures and starred in several television productions during a career that spanned over four decades. Hudson was also one of the first major Hollywood celebrities to die from an AIDS-related illness.

Hudson was born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., in Winnetka, Illinois, the only child of Katherine Wood, a telephone operator, and Roy Harold Scherer, Sr., an auto mechanic who abandoned the family during the depths of the Great Depression. His mother remarried and his stepfather Wallace “Wally” Fitzgerald adopted him, changing his last name to Fitzgerald. Hudson’s years at New Trier High School were unremarkable. He sang in the school’s glee club and was remembered as a shy boy who delivered newspapers, ran errands and worked as a golf caddy.

After graduating from high school, he served in the Philippines as an aircraft mechanic for the United States Navy during World War II. In 1946, Hudson moved to the Los Angeles area to pursue an acting career and applied to the University of Southern California’s dramatics program, but he was rejected owing to poor grades. Hudson worked for a time as a truck driver, longing to be an actor but with no success in breaking into the movies. A fortunate meeting with Hollywood talent scout Henry Willson in 1948 got Hudson his start in the business.

Hudson made his debut with a small part in the 1948 Warner Bros.’ Fighter Squadron. Hudson needed no fewer than 38 takes before successfully delivering his only line in the film.

Rod La Rocque was an American actor. He was born Roderick La Rocque in Chicago, Illinois of French and Irish descent. He began appearing in stock theater at the age of seven and eventually ended up at the Essanay Studios in Chicago where he found steady work until the studios closed. He then moved to New York City and worked on the stage until he was noticed by Samuel Goldwyn who took him to Hollywood. Over the next two decades, he appeared in films and made the transition to sound films with ease.

In 1927, he married Hungarian actress Vilma Bánky in a lavish and highly publicized wedding. They were married until his death in 1969.

La Rocque retired from movies in 1941 and became a real estate broker.

Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English-born actor and photographer. He was best known as Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series. He began his long career as a child actor.

McDowall was born in Herne Hill, London, the son of Winsfriede L., an Irish-born aspiring actress, and Thomas Andrew McDowall, a Merchant Mariner. Both of his parents were enthusiastic about the theatre. He had a sister, Virginia. After he had appeared in several British films, McDowall's family came to America because of the Blitz. He then made his first well-known film appearance, at age twelve, playing Huw in How Green Was My Valley. This role made him a household name. He co-starred in Lassie Come Home, on the first of many occasions opposite lifelong friend Elizabeth Taylor. He appeared too as Ken McLaughlin in the 1943 film My Friend Flicka. McDowall then went on to appear in other films, including The Keys of the Kingdom and The White Cliffs of Dover. McDowall continued his career successfully into adulthood, but it was usually in character roles, notably in heavy makeup as various "chimpanzee" characters in four of the Planet of the Apes movies and in the 1974 TV series that followed. During one guest appearance on The Carol Burnett Show, he came out onto the stage in his Planet of the Apes makeup and the look of fright on Carol Burnett's face was reported to be genuine. Other film appearances included Cleopatra, in which he played Octavian and was notoriously nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor but was disqualified when accidentally submitted for Best Actor instead; It!, in which he played a Norman Bates-like character reminiscent of Psycho; The Poseidon Adventure, in which he played Acres, a dining room attendant; Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry ; Evil Under the Sun ; Class of 1984 ; Fright Night, in which he played Peter Vincent, a television host and moderator of telecast horror films; and Overboard in which he played a kind-hearted butler. He also appeared on stage and was frequently a guest star on television shows, appearing in such series as the original The Twilight Zone, The Eleventh Hour, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Night Gallery, The Invaders, The Carol Burnett Show, Fantasy Island, Columbo and Quantum Leap.

Robert Lee Zemeckis is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Zemeckis first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of the comedic time-travel Back to the Future movie series, as well as the Oscar-winning live-action/cartoon epic Who Framed Roger Rabbit, though in the 1990s he diversified into more dramatic fare, including 1994’s Forrest Gump, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.

His films are characterized by an interest in state-of-the-art special effects, including the early use of match moving in Back to the Future Part II and the pioneering performance capture techniques seen in The Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol. Though Zemeckis has often been pigeonholed as a director interested only in effects, his work has been defended by several critics, including David Thomson, who wrote that “No other contemporary director has used special effects to more dramatic and narrative purpose.”

Zemeckis was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a Lithuanian American father and Italian American mother, and grew up in a suburb outside of Chicago called McHenry. and was raised in a working-class Roman Catholic family. He went to Fenger High School. Zemeckis has said that “the truth was that in my family there was no art. I mean, there was no music, there were no books, there was no theater.The only thing I had that was inspirational, was television—and it actually was.” As a child, Zemeckis loved television and was fascinated by his parents’ 8 mm film home movie camera. Starting off by filming family events like birthdays and holidays, Zemeckis gradually began producing narrative films with his friends that incorporated stop-motion work and other special effects.

Along with enjoying movies, Zemeckis remained an avid TV watcher. “You hear so much about the problems with television,” he said, “but I think that it saved my life.” Television gave Zemeckis his first glimpse of a world outside of his blue-collar upbringing; specifically, he learned of the existence of film schools on an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. After seeing Bonnie and Clyde with his father and being heavily influenced by it, Zemeckis decided that he wanted to go to film school.