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William G. Scott was born in 1952 in Bessemer, Alabama. He attended Birmingham-Southern College for two years. He lived in New York City prior to moving to Hollywood in the late 1970s.

Changing his name to Glenn Shadix, he made his film debut in the poorly received The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), later winning a breakthrough role in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (1988) as Otho, the pretentious and treacherous interior designer who dangerously dabbles in the paranormal. Tim Burton went on to cast Shadix as the voice of the Mayor of Halloween Town in The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), and Senator Nado in Planet of the Apes (2001).

Notable television credits include NBC's Seinfeld (1989), and HBO's Carnivàle (2003). On September 7, 2010, Shadix accidentally fell at his condominium in Birmingham, Alabama, and died of blunt trauma to his head. He had already had mobility problems and was wheelchair-bound. Shadix was survived by his mother, sister and brother-in-law.

Allene Roberts was born on 1 September 1928 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. She was an actress, known for The Red House (1947), Bomba on Panther Island (1949) and Union Station (1950). She was married to Ralph Cochran. She died on 9 May 2019 in Huntsville, Alabama, USA.

Harry Townes was born and died in Huntsville, Alabama, where he served as an ordained Episcopal priest. Aside from Huntsville and the priesthood, he had a distinguished, prolific, and quite long career as a character actor in movies and on television. He attended the University of Alabama in the 1930s, but moved to New York, before finishing, in order to study acting. He found his niche at Columbia University where he also received his undergraduate degree. From there, it was on to roles on stage -- his first in 1936 playing Captain Tim in "Tobacco Road". A two-year run in the part of a leprechaun in "Finian's Rainbow" came next -- a role that also took him to London. After a spattering of roles in the movies, Townes found his greatest presence on television, amassing a very large portfolio of roles for his handbag of characters. Studio One (1948), Playhouse 90 (1956) and Ponds Theater (1953) all enjoyed his contributions. The more popular Gunsmoke (1955), Perry Mason (1957), Star Trek (1966), Rawhide (1959) and Bonanza (1959) also benefited from Townes' acting skills. Though he continued to perform occasionally into old age, he quit his Beverly Hills home and lifestyle, entered the priesthood, and settled back into his hometown of Huntsville in the 1970s.

Lucille Benson was a plump, distinctive, and marvelously quirky character actress with a heavy down-home Southern accent who portrayed an offbeat and enjoyable array of colorful supporting dotty old lady roles in both films and TV shows alike. Benson was born on July 17, 1914 in Scottsboro, Alabama. She was adopted and raised by her aunt after her mother died of tuberculosis. Lucille graduated from Jackson County High School, where she was valedictorian and president of her class. Benson attended both Huntingdon College in Montgomery and Northwestern's School of Drama in Evanston, Illinois. She worked briefly as a teacher prior to moving to New York to pursue an acting career in the 1930's. Lucille appeared in the Broadway plays "The Doughgirls," "The Day Before Spring," "Happy Birthday," "As the Girls Go," "Hotel Paradiso," "Period of Adjustment," and "Walking Happy." Benson acted in the Tennessee Williams play "Orpheus Descending" at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, Florida and co-starred alongside Donald O'Connor in a three month Las Vegas stage production of "Little Me." She made her film debut in the 1959 feature The Fugitive Kind (1960). Lucille was memorably funny and spirited as the flaky lady at the Snakerama in Steven Spielberg's terrific made-for-TV thriller classic Duel (1971) She later parodied this particular part in the hilariously raucous 1941 (1979). Benson gave a splendidly creepy and delightful performance as wacky fleabag hotel owner Aunt Martha in Paul Bartel's deliciously perverse horror exploitation oddity Private Parts (1972). Other noteworthy film roles include tough lifer prison inmate Billie in Women in Chains (1972), Billy Pilgrim's mother in Slaughterhouse-Five (1972), the eccentric Janet Poole in The Devil's Daughter (1973), stern, but friendly whorehouse madam Peg in Ramblin'Man (1979), and the doddery Ms. Elrod in Halloween II (1981). Lucille had a recurring role as hotel manager Lilly Sinclair in the sitcom Bosom Buddies (1980). Among the TV shows Benson made guest appearances on are Alice (1976), Simon & Simon (1981), The Love Boat (1977), The Dukes of Hazzard (1979), Little House on the Prairie (1974), Eight Is Enough (1977), The Waltons (1972), Wonder Woman (1975), Cannon (1971), and Bonanza (1959). She also acted in TV commercials. Lucille Benson died at age 69 from liver cancer on February 17, 1984.

A true sunny delight, actress Jean Byron will be fondly remembered for her three-season-long role as vivacious "Natalie Lane", the grounding mom of "identical cousin" Patty Duke on The Patty Duke Show (1963), the one who was always around to help teenage Patty regroup when "a hot dog made her lose control". Jean was born with the unlikely marquee name of Imogene Burkhart in Paducah, Kentucky, in 1925. Musically inclined, she was a teen singer on radio before even graduating from high school. Her family subsequently moved to California which only spurred on Jean's interest in show business. Apprenticing on the local stage and continuing to work on radio, she earned her first contract with Columbia Pictures and chose the more adaptable name of Jean Byron for billing purposes.

Her movie career began uneventfully in 1952, co-starring with Johnny Weissmuller, in Voodoo Tiger (1952), one of a series of "Jungle Jim" adventure programmers. Uninspired roles, opposite a radioactive creature in The Magnetic Monster (1953) and as a handmaiden to Rhonda Fleming's "Cleopatra" in Serpent of the Nile (1953), had her wisely leaning towards TV as a more viable medium. Not only did she appear on the top TV shows of the day, but seemed to have an affinity for westerns, finding a steady stream of work on such programs as Yancy Derringer (1958), Fury (1955), My Friend Flicka (1955), Cheyenne (1955) and Laramie (1959) to her credit. The wholesome-looking blonde with the lovely, peaches-and-cream complexion also became a mild household fixture as an on-camera spokeswoman for such products as Revlon and Lux soap. At one time, she was known as "The Lux Girl". She earned a couple of recurring roles on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959) comedy before solidifying her status on The Patty Duke Show (1963) from 1963 to 1966.

Following the series' demise, Jean was seen less and less, glimpsed here and there on late 60s and 70s TV. She also appeared on the dinner theater circuit and in musical stage shows, portraying "Mama Rose" in one production of "Gypsy". Retiring in the 1980s, she moved with her aged mother to Mobile, Alabama in the late 1980s to be closer to extended family. Her final appearance was a happy occasion with a nostalgic TV-movie reunion show that brought her back in touch with former cast members Patty Duke and TV husband William Schallert, among others, in 1999. The reunion took 33 years in the making, one for the TV record books. At one time, she was briefly married to handsome actor Michael Ansara, she had no children and never remarried. Jean died at age 80 after developing an infection following surgery for a hip replacement. She was buried in Mobile Memorial Gardens.

Christian Brackett-Zika was born on 22 March 1970 in the USA. He was an actor, known for 1941 (1979), Domestic Life (1984) and The Jeffersons (1975). He died on 18 February 2019 in Springville, Alabama, USA.

Houston Tumlin was born on 27 December 1992 in Pell City, Alabama, USA. He was an actor, known for Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006). He died on 23 March 2021 in Pelham, Alabama, USA.

Taylor Lacher was born on 2 April 1942 in Pittsburg, Kansas, USA. He was an actor, known for Mr. Majestyk (1974), Cade's County (1971) and Ruckus (1980). He was married to Mary Lou Back. He died on 21 June 2005 in Killen, Alabama, USA.

Nelle Harper Lee grew up in Monroeville, Alabama in the 1920s. It was a time of hostility between whites and blacks in the United States, especially in Alabama. Her father, a lawyer, also ran a local newspaper. Her mother suffered from mental illness and oftentimes stayed inside from others; she was thought to suffer from bipolar disorder. Harper was a young lady with an agile personality. She was tomboyish, and eventually befriended Truman Persons. Truman would also turn out to become a writer later on in life, as Truman Capote, and they would later on collaborate in a newspaper called The New Yorker. Harper would often serve as Truman's protector in elementary school, as she was a tougher girl who did not fear other boys. Lee developed a passion for literature in high school. After graduating in 1944, she went on to join Huntingdon College-an all-female academy located in Montgomery. Throughout her college years, she was distant from other students. Rather than working on her makeup and getting dates, she was focused on her studies, constantly reading and writing.

Lee moved to New York in the 1950s, took a job as an airline reservations clerk, and wrote her first novel during that time. "To Kill a Mockingbird," published in 1960, won a Pulitzer Prize, and is still admired, widely-taught, and beloved. The film version, To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), received several Academy Awards. Lee insisted that the novel is a work of fiction, not autobiography. She protected her privacy, spoke through her literary agent, McIntosh and Otis, did not appear on television and did not give interviews. She lived in Monroeville, Alabama and New York. She died in Monroeville on February 19, 2016.

Anna Lee Carroll was born on 7 October 1930 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. She was an actress, known for Not of This Earth (1957), One Step Beyond (1959) and Fear No More (1961). She died on 30 April 2017 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.

Bob Penny was born on 29 June 1935 in Anniston, Alabama, USA. He was an actor, known for Mississippi Burning (1988), Forrest Gump (1994) and My Cousin Vinny (1992). He died on 25 December 2022 in Huntsville, Alabama, USA.

David A. Prior was born on 5 October 1955 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Raw Justice (1994), Night Trap (1993) and Lost at War (2007). He died on 16 August 2015 in Mobile, Alabama, USA.

This is condensed from Wikipedia.

Winston Groom was raised in Mobile, Alabama where he attended University Military School (now UMS-Wright Preparatory School). His earliest ambition was to become a lawyer but instead, chose to become a author. Groom attended the University of Alabama, was a member of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity and the Army ROTC, graduating in 1965. He served in the Army from 1965 to 1969, including a tour of duty in the Vietnam War.

Later he worked as a reporter for the Washington Star covering police and courtroom activities. Groom retired as a journalist at age 32, and wrote several novels. In 1985, Groom moved back to Mobile, where he began work on the novel Forrest Gump, published in 1986 but not making best-seller status until adaptation into this film. Then it eventually sold 1.7 million copies worldwide.

Groom devotes his time to writing history books about American wars. He has lived most recently in Point Clear, Alabama, on Mobile Bay, and Long Island, New York with his wife, Anne-Clinton and daughter, Carolina.

Desmond T. Doss was born on 7 February 1919 in Lynchburg, Virginia, USA. He was married to Frances Duman and Dorothy Pauline Schutte. He died on 23 March 2006 in Piedmont, Alabama, USA.

Hal Lynch was born on November 13, 1927 to Arnett Tilton Lynch and Katie Bell Jacobs in Birmingham, Alabama, USA as James Harold Tilton Lynch. He was an actor, known for The Way West (1967) , Spoon River (1969) and Wild Rovers (1971). His first television appearance was in a 1964 Gunsmoke episode. Hal also had western show roles on Daniel Boone, Custer, Bonanza, and Big Valley. During his later years he lived with his mother in Opp, Alabama, USA. On October 5, 2006, he dropped off his column at the newspaper office, picked up a suit at the dry cleaners, called 9-1-1 to report that a man had been shot at his address, and then shot himself in his back yard.

Don Williams was born on 27 May 1939 in Floydada, Texas, USA. He was a music artist and actor, known for Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975) and The Wendell Baker Story (2005). He was married to Joy Bucher. He died on 8 September 2017 in Mobile, Alabama, USA.

Phil Gordon was born on 5 May 1916 in Meridian, Mississippi, USA. He was an actor, known for The Jackie Gleason Show (1966), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) and -30- (1959). He died on 15 June 2010 in Mobile, Alabama, USA.

William Engesser was born on 21 February 1939 in Wayne, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Switch (1975), House on Bare Mountain (1962) and Gator (1976). He was married to Marjorie Idell Gain. He died on 20 June 2002 in Alabama, USA.

Dona Hardy was born on 3 December 1912 in San Diego, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Superbad (2007), The Running Man (1987) and Universal Soldier (1992). She died on 13 February 2011 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.

Sam Reese was born on 11 September 1930 in Montgomery, Alabama, USA. He was an actor, known for In the Heat of the Night (1967), I Spy (1965) and The Outer Limits (1963). He died on 11 September 1985 in Montgomery, Alabama, USA.

David F. Friedman was born in Birmingham, Alabama. His father was a local newspaperman and his mother was a professional musician who played the piano and organ in silent-movie theaters and in churches. Friedman was exposed to the adult world at the age of four or five when his parents took him out "on the town" to restaurants, movies and stage shows. His father, already in his 50s when he was born, died when Friedman was 13. His mother re-married a few years later. After graduating from high school, Friedman was drafted into the US Army and served in Europe during World War II. After his discharge in 1945 he settled in Chicago, where he married and found work in filmmaking at Essanjay Films, where he knew co-owner Irwin Joseph, and they collaborated on making 8mm and 16mm underground sex hygiene films.

During the 1950s Friedman worked for Paramount Pictures as well as Essanjay Films--which later became Modern Films--as well as the independent Apex Attractions in producing and working on a number of short pictures of the underground softcore set. Friedman met Herschell Gordon Lewis in 1960 while he was working in Chicago pitching for producers for his first low-budget film, The Prime Time (1960). He and Lewis formed a partnership, with Friedman in charge of obtaining production financing, to make what were known as "nudie-cuties", very low-budget, crudely made films featuring female nudity, which was not seen in "mainstream" films.

Over the next few years Friedman and Lewis worked as mercenary filmmakers, with Friedman being the producer and sound man and Lewis being the director and cameraman. They made a series of softcore sex films, the first of which was The Adventures of Lucky Pierre (1961), then Daughter of the Sun (1962), Nature's Playmates (1962), Goldilocks and the Three Bares (1963), Boin-n-g (1963) and their first "roughie", a softcore sex film with some rather strong violence committed on the female characters, called Scum of the Earth (1963). Most of these films were shot on location in and around Miami, Florida, during winters when Friedman and Lewis lived there, away from the cold winters in Chicago.

Wanting a change of pace away from the nudie-cutie exploitation genre, Friedman and Lewis worked together to produce Blood Feast (1963), which was filmed in Miami only a few days after filming their last nudie-cutie effort, Bell, Bare and Beautiful (1963). Despite many bad reviews and the low production values, "Blood Feast" brought in more money than they had gotten making "nudie-cuties", which soon led to their turning out Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964), followed by Color Me Blood Red (1965). After that Friedman ended his partnership with Lewis for a variety of reasons, both artistic and financial. Friedman moved to Los Angeles in 1964 to continue his production work there.

In 1965 Friedman formed his own filmmaking company to make "roughies", and produced, co-wrote and co-directed The Defilers (1965), a low-budget exploitation film about two guys who kidnap and hold hostage a young woman "just for kicks". The film was a hit and restarted his career in the softcore field. A stream of more roughie and soft-core exploitation movies followed throughout the 1960s, which he produced, co-wrote and even acted in; some of these were A Sweet Sickness (1968), A Smell of Honey, a Swallow of Brine (1966), The Notorious Daughter of Fanny Hill (1966), The Brick Dollhouse (1967), The Lustful Turk (1968), among many others.

By 1969, Friedman's career began to slide as the Hollywood film industry abolished the Hays Code and adopted the new Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rating system in which independent and Hollywood mainstream filmmakers began producing X-rated, hardcore sex films, which soon swept aside the softcore roughie genre. Unwilling to get into the hardcore adult film industry, which was very profitable (but also very illegal), Friedman turned down several offers to direct hardcore sex films because he felt that it was "not as fun" as producing or directing the simulated roughie films. He continued to produce and direct a number of softcore sex films during the early and mid 1970s, such as The Adult Version of Jekyll & Hide (1972), The Erotic Adventures of Zorro (1972), Come One, Come All (1970) and the violent grindhouse vigilante flick Johnny Firecloud (1975).

In addition to producing, Friedman also ran a theater in Los Angeles for several years which ran many of his exploitation films. Though producing exploitation movies was no longer lucrative, he occasionally dabbled in various independent productions in Los Angeles through the 1970s and into the 1980s. By then, Friedman more or less retired from film producing and re-settled back in Alabama, though he continued to come out of retirement to lend a hand at producing independent erotic or gore horror films, as he put it, "just for fun." Most recently was when he was reunited with Herschell Gordon Lewis in 2001 to produce Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat (2002), as well as co-produce a remake of "Two Thousand Maniacs!" that was titled 2001 Maniacs (2005).

Howard Hill was born on 13 November 1899 in Wilsonville, Alabama, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Tembo (1952), The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946) and Art of Archery (1951). He was married to Elizabeth Hodges. He died on 4 February 1975 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.

Harold G. Moore was born on 13 February 1922 in Bardstown, Kentucky, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for We Were Soldiers (2002), Small Town Boy, Real American Hero (2011) and Inside the Vietnam War (2008). He was married to Julia Compton. He died on 10 February 2017 in Auburn, Alabama, USA.

William Moody went to Mobile's Catholic School, and later graduated from the McGill Institute. After enlisting in the U.S. Air Force and completing basic training, he received his honorable discharge and went straight into a Funeral Director service job.

Moody was a regular at Gulf Coast Wrestling events in Mobile, Alabama while growing up. He got to know many of the wrestlers, as well as the front office personnel and later became a ringside photographer.

Though known through most of his career as a manager, Moody started out as a wrestler. In June 1974, he made his wrestling debut, wrestling as "Mr. X" (under a mask) in Greenville, AL. He continued to wrestle later known as "The Embalmer".

In April 1977, he began his managerial career as Percy Pringle III. Moody married and he and his wife Dianna, welcomed their son Michael in 1979. He left the wrestling business and went back to school and earned his Funeral Director/Embalmer's Certification from San Antonio College.

In 1984, Moody returned to wrestling again as Percy Pringle and worked for Fritz von Erich's World Class Wrestling Association. During this time he managed the likes of Rick Rude, Blackjack Mulligan, The Great Kabuki, Lex Luger and even Steve Austin.

On December 22, 1990, he joined the World Wrestling Federation and would be known as "Paul Bearer". His charge this time was the Undertaker. Moody worked for the company for ten years, most of the time managing the Undertaker, but also managing Kane and Mankind (Mick Foley). He also worked as a road agent for the time he was not on television.

In 2001, William's wife Dianna was striken with breast cancer and he cut his time with the WWE back to care for her. He left the company in late 2002 when his contract came up. After this, he made several appearances with NWA Total Nonstop Action again as Percy Pringle.

When the Undertaker returned to his old "deadman" gimmick at Wrestlemania 20, Moody returned with him as Paul Bearer once again. However after a few months, the storyline involving Paul Bearer had ran its course and he has left the WWE again, at least as far as television is concerned.

Moody and his wife also have another son, Daniel.

Sherri Martel was born on 8 February 1958 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. She was an actress, known for WCW Monday Nitro (1995), WWE Smackdown! (1999) and Saturday Night's Main Event (1985). She was married to Robert Schrull and Leroy Gonzales. She died on 15 June 2007 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.