Dear Ken: What was Meryl Streep’s first film? Where is she from and does she have children?

Streep, 60, was born in Summit, N.J., and was a cheerleader and homecoming queen in high school. She made her first movie appearance in “Julia” in 1977 but gained major attention as Inga Helms Weiss in the 1978 miniseries “Holocaust.” She has made just over 40 films, been nominated for 16 Academy Awards and won two, for “Kramer Vs. Kramer” and “Sophie’s Choice.” She went to college at Vassar and the Yale School of Drama. The mother of a son and three daughters worked as a waitress before she hit the big time.  

Dear Ken: What was Meryl Streep’s first film? Where is she from and does she have children?

Streep, 60, was born in Summit, N.J., and was a cheerleader and homecoming queen in high school. She made her first movie appearance in “Julia” in 1977 but gained major attention as Inga Helms Weiss in the 1978 miniseries “Holocaust.” She has made just over 40 films, been nominated for 16 Academy Awards and won two, for “Kramer Vs. Kramer” and “Sophie’s Choice.” She went to college at Vassar and the Yale School of Drama. The mother of a son and three daughters worked as a waitress before she hit the big time.  

Dear Ken: Who was the guy that played James Garner’s dad, Rocky, on “The Rockford Files”? What else did he do in movies or TV?

That was smiley-faced Noah Beery Jr., who died in 1994 at age 81. He made his first film appearance as a boy in a silent film in 1920. Starting in the 1930s, he worked in dozens of westerns including the John Wayne classic “Red River.” He also appeared in “Sergeant York,” “The Story of Will Rogers,” “Inherit the Wind,” “7 Faces of Dr. Lao” and “Walking Tall.” A guest on dozens of episodic TV shows, he was a regular on “Circus Boy,” “Riverboat” and “The Yellow Rose of Texas.”

Dear Ken: What is Karen Grassle, who played the mom, Caroline Ingalls, on “Little House on the Prairie,” doing today?

Grassle, 68, moved to Louisville, Ky., after the TV series concluded, and she was active there for years in local theater. She reportedly now lives in California with her adopted daughter and has appeared in commercials and print ads for Premier Care’s Walk-In Bath upright tubs.

Dear Ken: Is the duo of Seals & Crofts, that had such hit as “Diamond Girl” and “Summer Breeze,” still performing?

Texas musicians Jimmy Seals, 68, and Dash Crofts, 69, who were very popular in the 1970s, last performed publicly in 1992, and no reunion tour seems imminent. They did record an album, “Traces,” in 2004. These days, Seals nominally operates a coffee farm in Costa Rica and maintains a home in Tennessee. He toured with his late brother Dan Seals and with his sons, Sutherland and Joshua, as Seals & Seals some from 2002 to 2008. He is still friends with Crofts, who lives in Texas, where he raises Arabian horses and occasionally makes singing appearances.

If you have a trivia question about actors, singers, movies, TV shows or pop culture, e-mail your query to Ken Beck via www.sherlocksbooks.com where you can also find classic films and TV shows on DVD or visit Sherlock’s Book Emporium in Lebanon, Tennessee.