Sollie Paul Williams, known professionally as Tex Williams, was a Western
swing musician from Ramsey, Illinois. Williams is best known for his talking  
blues style such as his biggest hit novelty song, “Smoke! Smoke! Smoke!
(That Cigarette)”. It held the number one position on the Billboard charts
for six weeks in 1947. "Smoke" was the No. 5 song on Billboard’s Top 100
list for 1947, and was No. 1 on the country chart that year. It can be heard
during the opening scenes of the 2006 movie, Thank You for Smoking.

Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly  was a dancer, actor, singer, film director and
producer, and choreographer. Kelly was known for his energetic and athletic
dancing style performances in the musical films  Singin’ In the Rain (1952)
and An American in Paris (1951). Kelly was the recipient of an Academy
Honorary Award in 1952 for his career achievements. He later received
lifetime achievement awards in the Kennedy Center Honors in 1985
(above), from the Screen Actors Guild and American Film Institute. In
1999 the AFI also numbered Gene Kelly 15th in their Greatest Male
Stars of All Time list.  

Ray Douglas Bradbury is a well known writer of fantasy, horror, science fiction,
and mystery. One of his best works is the novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and for
the science fiction stories known as The Martian Chronicles (1950). Many of
Bradbury’s writings have been adapted into TV shows or films. Ray Bradbury
is one of the most celebrated among 20th and 21st century American writers
of science fiction.

The Ray Bradbury Theater is an anthology series that ran for two seasons on
HBO from 1985 to 1986, and four additional seasons on USA Network from
1988 to 1992. It was later shown in reruns on the Sci Fi Channel. Many of
the episodes were based on short stories or novels written by Bradbury.  

  

                          Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry     
                           (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991)

Gene Roddenberry was a television screenwriter, producer , best known for
creating the science fiction series Star Trek. He was born in El Paso Texas
and grew up in Los Angeles, California. Roddenberry flew 89 combat missions
in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War ll, and flew as a commercial airline
pilot after the war. He later followed in his father’s footsteps by joining the Los  
Angeles Police Department and soon began to focus on writing scripts for TV. 

As a freelance writer, Roddenberry wrote scripts for the syndicated TV series
Highway Patrol from 1955 to 1959, Have Gun, Will Travel on CBS from 1957 to
1963 and others, before creating and producing his own TV series on NBC, The Lieutenant from 1963 to 1964. It was in 1964 that Roddenberry created Star Trek, 
premiering in 1966, it ran for three seasons before cancellation.

Gene Roddenberry was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and the
Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. His creation of Star Trek 
has spanned over four decades, produced six television series, 715 episodes 
and eleven films. A twelfth film is currently in development and is scheduled 
to be release in 2012.

Pictured is 1st lieutenant Roddenberry (2nd from left) and crew in front
of their Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress in 1943.

Gene Roddenberry (third from right) and original Star Trek cast members are  
seen with NASA’s real-live Enterprise in 1976. 

Actress Jill St. John is best known for her role as Tiffany Case, the lead
Bond girl in Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Jill continues to act, primarily
in television sitcoms and made-for-TV movies. She has worked on five
films with her husband actor Robert Wagner. Jill St. John is the author
of The Jill St. John Cookbook (1987).

Jill as Bond girl Tiffany Case with costar Sean Connery