B. D. Hyman (born Barbara Davis Sherry; May 1, 1947), aka B.D. Merrill, is an American author and pastor.

Hyman was born in Santa Ana, California, the daughter of the actress Bette Davis and artist William Grant Sherry. In 1950, she was adopted by Davis's fourth husband Gary Merrill. She took back her own last name—Sherry—upon turning sixteen, claiming that she wished to distance herself from Merrill. She appeared briefly as an infant in her mother's film Payment on Demand (1951). Under the stage name B.D. Merrill she played a minor role as the next door neighbor's daughter in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), which starred her mother and was produced by Seven Arts Productions.

She met Seven Arts executive Jeremy Hyman on a blind date for the film's showing at the Cannes Film Festival, and the couple wed when B.D. was sixteen. Bette Davis publicly supported her daughter's controversial "under age" marriage. B.D. and her husband have two sons.

Hyman is the author of two books highly critical of her mother, My Mother's Keeper (1985) and Narrow Is the Way (1987). My Mother's Keeper brought Hyman considerable condemnation for the timing of its publication since Davis had suffered a stroke—unconnected to the book since Davis knew nothing about it—during the book's publication process; however, the matter was legally out of Hyman's hands by that time. My Mother's Keeper was a best-seller; the second book, however, did not generate the same level of interest.

Bradley Darryl "BD" Wong (born October 24, 1960) is an American actor, best known for his roles as Dr. George Huang on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as Father Ray Mukada on HBO's Oz, Henry Wu in the movie Jurassic Park, and for his Tony Award winning role as Song Liling in the Broadway production of M. Butterfly. He starred as Dr. Lee on NBC series Awake from March to May 2012.

Wong was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Roberta Christine (née Leong), a telephone company supervisor, and William D. Wong. He is of Chinese descent. Wong attended Lincoln High School before attending San Francisco State University.

Wong gained attention for his Broadway debut in M. Butterfly opposite John Lithgow. The play won multiple awards, including several for Wong. He is notable as the only actor to be honored with the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award,Outer Critics Circle Award, Clarence Derwent Award, and Theatre World Award for the same role. In addition to his long-running stint on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as FBI psychiatrist Dr. George Huang, he has had recurring roles in All American Girl and as a prison priest on Oz, with guest appearances on The X-Files and Sesame Street. On the big screen, he has appeared in The Freshman (1990), the 1991 remake of Father of the Bride and its 1995 sequel, Father of the Bride Part II, Jurassic Park (1993), Executive Decision (1996) and Slappy and the Stinkers (1997). He also provided the voice of Captain Shang in Disney's Mulan (1998) and its direct-to-video sequel. He returned to Broadway as Linus in a revival of You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, alongside Anthony Rapp, Roger Bart and Kristin Chenoweth, and the 2004 revival of Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures. In 2008, he starred in the one-man show Herringbone, in which he portrays 11 roles, at the McCarter Theatre at Princeton University. He brought the show to the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego the following year.

Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies, although her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas.

After appearing in Broadway plays, Davis moved to Hollywood in 1930, but her early films for Universal Studios were unsuccessful. She joined Warner Bros. in 1932 and established her career with several critically acclaimed performances. In 1937, she attempted to free herself from her contract and although she lost a well-publicized legal case, it marked the beginning of the most successful period of her career. Until the late 1940s, she was one of American cinema's most celebrated leading ladies, known for her forceful and intense style. Davis gained a reputation as a perfectionist who could be highly combative, and confrontations with studio executives, film directors and costars were often reported. Her forthright manner, clipped vocal style and ubiquitous cigarette contributed to a public persona which has often been imitated and satirized.

Christina Crawford (born June 11, 1939) is an American writer and actress, best known as the author of Mommie Dearest, an exposé of alleged child abuse by her mother, actress Joan Crawford.

She was born in Los Angeles, California in 1939 to unmarried parents.

According to Christina Crawford's interview with Larry King her father was married to another woman, and her mother unmarried. Her father was in the Navy at the time. Christina Crawford was adopted out-of-state in 1940. Subsequent documentation showed that the adoption was handled by Georgia Tann through Tann's infamous Tennessee Children's Home Society. Christina was one of four children adopted by Joan Crawford.

Christina Crawford has stated that her childhood was affected by her adopted mother's violent mood swings. At the age of ten she was sent to the Chadwick School, in Palos Verdes, California. However, she was removed from Chadwick by her mother because of her "misbehavior" with one of the male students (The real story was that her boyfriend came to visit her while Commander and Mrs. Chadwick were away from the house) Shortly afterward she returned to Chadwick School, but shortly before Thanksgiving during a call to her mother Joan Crawford asked her about her Christmas Card List. Joan Crawford got angry that Christina had not completed them, so as punishment Joan Crawford then placed her in a Catholic boarding school, Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy in La Cañada (now the City of La Cañada Flintridge), California and forbade Christina any form of outside contact until her graduation. Crawford later moved from California to the East Coast to attend Carnegie Mellon School of Drama and then studied at The Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. She holds a B.A. degree, magna cum laude, from UCLA and a Master's Degree in Communications Management from USC.

Joy Behar (born Josephina Victoria Occhiuto; born October 7, 1942) is an American comedian, writer, actress, and a co-host of the talk show The View. Behar had a commentary program, entitled The Joy Behar Show, on CNN's sister network, HLN. It was cancelled on November 17, 2011.

Behar, an Italian-American, was born Josephina Victoria Occhiuto in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on October 7, 1942. Her mother, Rose (née Carbone), was a seamstress, and her father, Gino Occhiuto, was a truck driver for Coca-Cola. Her grandfather was Giuseppe Occhiuto born in Fagnano Castello, Cosenza, Calabria, Italy. She started off her career as a teacher at Lindenhurst High School. There she taught English class.

Joy Behar got her start in show business in the early 1980s as a stand up comedian, including appearances on ABC's Good Morning America, and The New Show, a short lived Lorne Michaels NBC project. In 1987 she had a talk show on Lifetime Television called 'Way Off Broadway'. From there she continued to work the comedy club circuit, was a regular on NBC's Baby Boom, and had minor film rolls including Cookie, This Is My Life, and Manhattan Murder Mystery. She also was a WABC (AM) radio talk show host, and made appearances on HBO Comedy Specials 'One Night Stand' and 'Women Of The Night 2',