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Kip Niven was raised in Prairie Village, Kansas (a suburb of Kansas City in affluent Johnson County), and graduated in 1963 from Shawnee Mission East High School. After spending a year at Baylor University, he changed his mind and entered the theater program at The University of Kansas, where he performed in dozens of plays.

Niven had an impressive resume that includes films such as Magnum Force (1973), Earthquake (1974) and Midway (1976). He had performed on countless television shows, including memorable parts on The Waltons (1972), Law & Order (1990) and Walker, Texas Ranger (1993). He had roles on Broadway, in regional theater and episodic radio shows. He was probably best known for his three-year stint as Steve Marsh on the TV sitcom Alice (1976). Niven and the star of that series, (actress Linda Lavin), married in 1982. The marriage was turbulent and they subsequently divorced.

Kip was first married to Susan and had two children Jim and Kate. She tragically died in a car accident in 1981. He and his 3rd wife Beth lived in Kansas and had a daughter Maggie, who was born in 1994. He also had two grandsons.

In 1995 Kip returned to the Kansas City area where he grew up. He continued to work in local theater and on a comedy radio show.

Patricia Ellis called herself "the Queen of B pictures at Warner Brothers". With only three years of theatrical experience in New York under her belt, she started in films in 1932. Alongside other ladies considered to have potential (such as Ginger Rogers and Mary Carlisle), Patricia was selected as a WAMPAS (Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers) baby star. Within a few years she had worked her way up from juvenile supporting roles to second leads, averaging seven films a year. By 1937, she was given starring roles in comedies and the occasional mystery or crime picture, with such co-stars as James Cagney, Adolphe Menjou, and Joe E. Brown. Reviewers called her "comely and spontaneous" in the baseball farce Elmer, the Great (1933) and "personable" in Here Comes the Groom (1934) co-starring Jack Haley and referred to her "blonde winsomeness" in Boulder Dam (1936).

The problem was that the majority of her screen roles were purely ornamental and the films themselves were, without exception, second features. Towards the end of her run, Patricia appeared in the 1937 English comedy 'The Gaiety Girls' (with Jack Hulbert and a young Googie Withers) and, against type, played a femme fatale in Fugitive at Large (1939). At the end of the decade she called it a day, leaving Hollywood, first to appear in "Louisiana Purchase" on Broadway and then to marry George T. O'Malley, future president of Protection Securities Systems in Kansas City.

Owen Hart was one of twelve children from a legendary Canadian wrestling family. His brother Bret is also one of the most well known wrestlers of all time. Owen was one of the best wrestlers in the business and his major accomplishments include being the 1994 King of the Ring, former Intercontinental Champion(2), former European Champion, and co-holder of the Tag Team Championship (4). Sadly, Hart plunged to his death on May 23, 1999 during a PPV when he was performing a spectacular entrance. Hart was only 34 and is survived by his wife Martha, his son Oje and his daughter Athena.

Jerry Fogel was born on 17 January 1936 in Rochester, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), The Day of the Locust (1975) and Police Story (1973). He was married to Sandra Adele Millstein, Barbara Kay Fromm and Brenda Elaine Levison. He died on 21 October 2019 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A lifetime member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a U.S. senator from the state of Missouri from 1935 to 1945. He was chosen as incumbent president Franklin D. Roosevelt's running mate for the 1944 presidential election. Truman was inaugurated as the 34th vice president in 1945 and served for less than three months until President Roosevelt died. Now serving as president, Truman implemented the Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy of Western Europe and established both the Truman Doctrine and NATO to contain the expansion of communism. He proposed numerous liberal domestic reforms, but few were enacted by the Conservative Coalition that dominated the Congress.

Best-known for performing the most popular baseball poem, "Casey at the Bat." Filmed as one of the first talkies, 5 years before The Jazz Singer (1927), Casey at the Bat (1922), was included in Ken Burns' Baseball (1994). Hopper, a fervent New York Giant fan, first performed the then-unknown poem to the Giants and Chicago Cubs, on the day his friend, Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Tim Keefe had his record 19 game winning streak stopped, August 14, 1888. The dying General William T. Sherman was also in the audience that evening, along with Keefe and his brother-in-law shortstop/attorney John Montgomery Ward. 2 months later the Giants won New York's first world championship.

Hopper recited Casey for almost 40 years in films, on stage, records, radio etc. Known as the "Husband of His Country" for his 6 marriages. He became totally hairless, with blue-tinged skin, possibly from reaction to a patent medicine. Even so, his powerful voice and great sense of humor mesmerized women all his life. One of his wives was the gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. Their son, the white-maned William Hopper, played private investigator Paul Drake on Perry Mason for many years.

Tony Swartz was born on 24 September 1943 in Davenport, Iowa, USA. He was an actor, known for Battlestar Galactica (1978), About Schmidt (2002) and Battlestar Galactica (1978). He was married to Helen Blume. He died on 27 September 2016 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

T Max Graham's broad range and distinctive voice have served him well over the years. His motion picture career began with David Lynch's cult classic Eraserhead and has continued through director Kevin Willmott's upcoming independent feature Bunker Hill, in which Max appears alongside James McDaniel (NYPD Blue) and Saeed Jaffrey (Gandhi). In between, Max has appeared in such films as Ang Lee's Ride with the Devil, Kansas and numerous television movies. Max has long been a favorite of Kansas City theatre audiences, appeared in TV series such as The Bill Cosby Show, and has logged countless hours in the studio. His commercial client list reads like the Fortune 500: Sony, AT&T, Sprint, McDonald's, United Airlines, Panasonic and GM are just a few. Max has also lent his considerable interpretive talents to numerous narration and documentary projects.

Andrea Walters was born on 3 July 1953 in Rockford, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Lucky Numbers (2000), Death Doll (1989) and General Hospital (1963). She was married to Mark Ganzel and Mike Saccone. She died on 27 November 2018 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

Myrtle Vail was born on 7 January 1888 in Joliet, Illinois, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for Myrt and Marge (1933), The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) and A Bucket of Blood (1959). She was married to George Damerel. She died on 18 September 1978 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

Dennis Allen was born on 10 July 1940 in Raytown, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for Me, Natalie (1969), Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967) and Love, American Style (1969). He died on 1 December 1995 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

Thomas Waller was born in 1904. He was one of the most important pianist in the history of jazz. He studied piano with James P. Johnson, one of the masters of the stride piano in the 1920s. Fats began recording his first piano solos in 1923. He worked in the revue "Hot Chocolates" in the late 1920s as a composer. Along with Duke Ellington, he is one of the most prolific composers in jazz. His best songs are, "Ain't Misbehavin' ", "Honeysuckle Rose", "Black and Blue", "Blue Turned Grey Over You" and "Keepin' Out of Mischief Now". He formed his own group in 1934, Fats Waller and his Rhythm, and recorded many records for RCA Victor. Two of his most notable film appearances were in Stormy Weather (1943) and King of Burlesque (1936). He died in 1943 on a train during a trip to California. He was just 39 years old.

Peg Hillias was born on 24 June 1914 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, USA. She was an actress, known for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Producers' Showcase (1954) and Studio One (1948). She died on 18 March 1960 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

Alysha Burney was born on March 3, 2000. She is a YouTube star and vlogger who rose to fame after her Bad Girls Club (2015) went viral. Since then, her self-titled channel has gathered over 89.2k subscribers. Before she was Famous, She got her start creating funny content using the Vine app and she graduated high school in May of 2018. She's also worked as a stand-up comic in her home state of Missouri. She has been associated with Chris Redd and Kathleen Madigan who are also comedians born in Missouri and Jay Nedaj is another social media star who's parodied the Bad Girls Club.

Writer-producer-director-exhibitor Wade Williams owned the largest independent library of science-fiction film rights and distributed his product worldwide through Corinth Films, Englewood Entertainment and Mass Productions (UK). He also owned theaters in Kansas City, Missouri, and was a contributor to many sci-fi magazines and periodicals (Starlog, Filmfax, etc.). Williams was also involved with animal rescue efforts.

Paul Beard was born on 26 February 1978 in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. He is known for Wonder Pets! (2006), Blue's Clues (1996) and Jack, the Cuddly Dog (2005). He died on 22 April 2005 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

Joshua Levine was an actor and producer, known for Skatergirl, Crossing Lines and Medic. He died on 7 September 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

Leroy 'Satchel' Paige was born on 7 July 1906 in Mobile, Alabama, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Wonderful Country (1959), Don't Look Back: The Story of Leroy 'Satchel' Paige (1981) and The Kid from Cleveland (1949). He was married to Lahoma Brown and Janet Howard. He died on 8 June 1982 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

Born May 28th, 1958 in Amarillo, Texas, Randal 'Barry' Orton, arrived in Kansas City, Mo. three days later with his mother, Rita, at the wheel of the car. This served as an early sample of what life would hold for the newborn, Barry, as his father, Bob Orton Sr., 'The Big O' was a professional wrestler and the family rarely spent more than a few years in any one geographical region. On February 9, 1964 in their Tampa, Florida living room, Barry and his family watched with millions of other Americans as The Beatles made their U.S. debut on _"Ed Sullivan Show, The" (1955)_. That proved to be a defining moment for our subject, cementing his aspirations of working in the performing arts.

On his 6th birthday, Barry chose a guitar over a rowboat. His first play followed when he played 'Old King Cole' in a first grade production of Mother Goose. Playing his first nightclub gig at age 13, Barry, went on to play in several prominent club bands across the country. In 1976 after being disappointed by a "near miss" record deal, he found himself once again in Tampa, Florida, this time being trained by his father and brother, "The Ace" Cowboy Bob Orton, to follow in his family's footsteps into the world of professional wrestling. This initiated an inner struggle which saw him rebound between the worlds of wrestling and rock & roll for the next decade and a half. In 1991, Barry landed the role of 'Wild Thing' in the local Vegas TV show 'Vegas Rocks.' This led to a local commercial and an (uncredited) part in Honeymoon in Vegas (1992).

After struggling with inner demons and the music industry for the next several years, Barry resurfaced as a serious pupil in the craft of acting. After Killer's Mind (1999) as a ritual to signify new beginnings and to remove himself from "the shadows", Barry redefined his identity by adopting the name Barrymore Barlow, in part to honor one of his favorite character actors, Lionel Barrymore and in part because, "it sounds groovy." Following an overnight reign as World Champion in the now defunct WOW (World Organized Wrestling), Barry went to New York to study Classical Theater at the Robert Patterson Studio and was cast in several independent and studio features and shorts. He also found work in stunt coordination and fight choreography. He is currently working on a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at UNLV (University of Nevada Las Vegas) and continues to pursue his career as a uniquely charismatic character actor.

American stage actor, musical comedy star, and vaudevillian who was a legendary figure of his time and who fathered a family of performers who went on to notable careers in motion pictures. Born Edward Fitzgerald at 23 8th Avenue in New York City, March 9, 1856, to an Irish-immigrant tailor, Richard Fitzgerald, and his wife Mary, Eddie moved to Chicago with his family after his father's death in an insane asylum from syphilis in 1862. His mother reportedly cared for Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's widow, during Mrs. Lincoln's mental illness. At the age of 8, Eddie began entertaining on the street for tips, doing acrobatic dances. He changed his name to Foy when he was 15, and he and partner Jack Finnigan went on the road, dancing for meals in bars. They got work as supernumeraries in dramatic productions and Foy claimed to have worked in such a capacity with the leading actor of his day, Edwin Booth. With another partner, Jim Thompson, Foy traveled for three years in a saloon/theatre circuit through the West, including an extended stay in Dodge City, Kansas, where he met Doc Holliday, 'William Barclay 'Bat' Masterson', and Wyatt Earp. Also on the circuit was a girl singer act, the Howland Sisters. Eddie fell for one of them, Rose Howland, and they married in 1879. In 1882, the four (Thompson had married another singer) returned East, joining the Carncross Minstrels in Philadelphia. Shortly thereafter, however, Rose Foy and her newborn died in childbirth. By 1887, Foy was back in the West, touring with David Henderson's troupe across the country. He met Lola Sefton in San Francisco and they were a couple for the next decade until her death. (Many sources described them as husband and wife, though no record of a marriage has been found.) After Sefton's death, Foy started his own company and two years later married one of his dancers, Madeline Morando. She gave him eleven children, the seven surviving ones becoming world-famous in their father's act as The Seven Little Foys. In 1903, while playing the Iroquois Theatre, Foy heroically attempted to calm the crowd after fire broke out. Six hundred people died. Foy escaped by crawling through a sewer. Three years after bringing his children into the act, Foy and his family appeared in a film for Mack Sennett, one of only a handful the senior Foy would do. However, his children, in particular Bryan Foy and Eddie Foy Jr., would enjoy substantial careers in the movies. Eddie Sr. continued to headline in vaudeville and musical theatre until his death from a heart attack in 1928 while performing in vaudeville in Kansas City, Missouri.

Doug Scott lived in Kansas City, MO all his life. He attended Catholic Schools kindergarten through twelfth grade. It was during his time in school that he became an actor. After a very short stint in acting, Doug Scott attended and graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. In addition to his two (TV Movie) acting credits, he appeared in many national and local (Kansas City) T.V. commercials. Later in life, in addition to owning and operating a brokering freight company, he had three children: Austin (who preceded him in death); Alicia; and Hunter.

Don Roberts was born on 30 September 1890 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Name the Woman (1934), Ghost Town Gold (1936) and I'm a Father (1935). He died in August 1972 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

Joseph Levering was born on 20 July 1874 in Columbus, Indiana, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Defenders of the Law (1931), Terry and the Pirates (1940) and Husbands and Wives (1920). He died on 27 August 1943 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

Art Ellison was born in 1899 in Potsdam, New York, and moved in 1914 with his family to Kansas City, Missouri. At the age of 18, he went to work at the Kansas City Power and Light Company (KCP&L) where he was employed in the credit department until he retired in 1966. Ellison got his first acting role in 1924, in a musical comedy held as a benefit for the Kansas City Women's Athletic Club building fund. After this experience on stage he joined the Chanticleer Players, an amateur group in Kansas City offering one act plays. He worked backstage and appeared in the farce pantomimes and tableaux between the acts. In 1930, Ellison joined the amateur Black-Friars, where he played a few leads, some character parts, and handled many other important duties behind the scenes. Much of Ellison's stage career was spent with the local productions of the University of Kansas City Playhouse (which later became the University of Missouri-Kansas City Theater), the Resident Theater, the Missouri Repertory Theater, and the Johnson County, Kansas Playhouse. He also played with the Provincials, the Jewish Community Theater, and Starlight Theater. During World War II, Ellison made USO appearances and recruiting records for the armed forces. He played several roles on "The Air Adventures of Jimmie Allen," a 1940s radio series produced in Kansas City and syndicated nationally, and he had a part in WDAF-TV's first program, as well as other television and radio shows, particularly for Kansas City Power and Light. He also frequently acted in industrial films made by the Calvin Company of Kansas City, as well as in a few made by Centron Corporation of Lawrence, Kansas. He had a role in Centron director Herk Harvey's 1962 feature film "Carnival of Souls," made in Lawrence, and upon his retirement from KCP&L in the mid-1960s, Ellison joined the Actors Equity Association and devoted all his time to acting. Between Kansas City theater performances and industrial films, he gained roles in the Hollywood films "Paper Moon" and "Shoot it Black--Shoot it Blue," and the network TV movies "Friendly Persuasion" and "Mary White," all of which were shot on location in the Kansas/Missouri area and recruited local acting talent. In 1979 Ellison suffered a stroke that prevented him from pursuing any further acting roles for ten years. He passed away in 1994, aged 94. Ellison was respected for his accuracy in mastering dialects and for his make-up ability, received several theater awards, and was well-known in the acting community of Kansas City. His twelve scrapbooks of materials devoted to theater and acting-related activities in Kansas City, dating from 1924 to 1992, are currently archived in the Western Historical Manuscript Collection of the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Robert "Bob" Fletcher was a prolific costume designer for both stage and screen with more than six decades of experience in the field. He is best known for his work on the first four Star Trek films, and is considered the father of the classic Klingon and Vulcan, as we know them today. He passed peacefully in Kansas City on April 5th, 2021 at the age of 98.