Few entertainers today are as accomplished or versatile as Ben Vereen. His legendary performances transcend time and have been woven into the fabric of this country’s artisticlegacy. His first love and
passion is and always will be the stage. On Broadway,
Ben Vereen has appeared
in Wicked, Fosse,
I’m Not Rappaport, Hair,
Jesus Christ Superstar,
Pippin, Grind, Jelly’s Last
Jam and A Christmas
Carol. His role in Pippin
garnered him both the
prestigious Tony Award
and the Drama Desk
Award for Best
Actor in a Musical.
For over 40 years,
Ben has showcased his
versatility and creativity,
performing countless
one-man shows not only
in the United States, but
also Europe, Asia and
the Caribbean. He was
the first simultaneous
winner of the Entertainer
of the Year, Rising Star,
and Song and Dance
Star awards from the
American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA). While performing
worldwide, Ben’s
acting credits continue to
give us memorable roles
that stand the test of time
such as the unforgettable
Chicken George in Roots
and Louis Armstrong in
Louis Armstrong – Chicago
Style. Ben’s television guest
appearances include How
I Met Your Mother, Grey’s
Anatomy, for which he won
the Prism Award, House of
Payne, Law & Order: Criminal
Intent, OZ, Touched By
An Angel, Second Noah,
New York Undercover, The
Nanny, Star Trek – The Next
Generation, The Jamie Fox
Show, The Promised Land
and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Ben was nominated for an
NAACP Image Award for
the Hallmark movie An
Accidental Friendship.
Mickey Rooney is an
American film actor and
entertainer whose film,
television and stage
appearances span nearly
his entire lifetime. He has
won multiple awards,
including an Honorary
Academy Award, a Golden
Globe and an Emmy
Award. Working as a
performer since he was a child, he was a superstar
as a teenager for the
films in which he played
Andy Hardy, and he has
had one of the longest
careers of any actor, to
date spanning almost
90 years. He is the last
surviving male star from
1930s Hollywood. For
a younger generation
of fans, he gained
international fame for
his leading role as Henry
Dailey in The Family Channel’s The Adventures
of the Black Stallion, as
well as the film itself.
In addition to his
film roles, Rooney made
numerous guest-starring
roles as a character actor
for nearly six decades,
beginning with an episode
of Celanese Theatre. The
part led to other roles
on such television series
as Schlitz Playhouse,
Playhouse 90, Producers’
Showcase, Alcoa Theatre, Wagon Train, G.E. True
Theater, Hennessey, The
Dick Powell Theatre,
Arrest and Trial, Burke’s
Law, Combat!, The
Fugitive, Bob Hope
Presents the Chrysler
Theatre, The Jean Arthur
Show, The Name of the
Game, Dan August, Night
Gallery, The Love Boat,
Kung Fu: The Legend
Continues, among many
others. Rooney made a
successful transition to television and stage work.
He won a Golden
Globe and an Emmy
Award for his role in 1981’s
Bill playing opposite
Dennis Quaid.
Rooney did the voices
for four Christmas TV
animated specials: Santa
Claus Is Comin’ to Town,
The Year Without a Santa
Claus, Rudolph and
Frosty’s Christmas in July,
and A Miser Brothers’
Christmas.
Shirley Jones was raised
in Pennsylvania, where
her parents ran the Jones
Brewery, founded by her
grandfather (the brewery
still produces Stoney’s
Beer). Named after Shirley
Temple, Jones was singing in the church choir at the
age of six. Jones won the
Miss Pittsburgh beauty
pageant the same year
she finished high school,
1952. When she decided
to move to New York, her
parents gave her $160 for
the trip. She promised to
return when the money
ran low, but it never did.
On stage, she starred in
Show Boat, The Sound of
Music, South Pacific and
The King and I, among
many other roles. On film,
she starred in Oklahoma!
and Carousel, both with
Gordon MacRae, and The
Music Man with Robert
Preston. She won an
Oscar in 1960, playing a
prostitute in Elmer Gantry
with Burt Lancaster. She
met actor Jack Cassidy in
a 1950s stage production of Oklahoma!, and they
married. He became
familiar to America as a
perennial TV “guest star”
and in the early 1970s, his
son David co-starred with
Jones in The Partridge
Family. Jones divorced him
in the mid-1970s. In 1977,
Jones married comedian
Marty Ingels. They sued
The National Enquirer
over their false headline,
“Husband’s Bizarre
Behavior Driving Shirley
Jones to Drink.” The case
went all the way to the U.S.
Supreme Court, and Jones
received an undisclosed
payment from the tabloid.
She sang the national
anthem at the GOP’s 1988
Convention. In 2008 she
joined the cast of the soap
opera Days of Our Lives.
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