Trivia: One of the most iconic action stars of all time, Kurt Russell (born March 17th, 1951) is among the few to make the successful transition from child star to successful adult actor. As a youth, Russell aspired to follow the footsteps of his father, Bing Russell, who, in addition to being a big league baseball player, was also an actor (he was perhaps best known for his role as the sheriff on the TV Western Bonanza). That his heroes Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris did the same thing only strengthened Russell's resolve to have both a baseball and acting career.He first broke into acting on television, starring in the series The Travels of Jamie McPheeters, and he made his film debut playing the boy who kicks Elvis in the 1963 Elvis Presley vehicle It Happened at the World's Fair. After signing a ten-year contract with Disney, Russell got his big break as a juvenile actor in 1966, starring opposite Fred MacMurray in Disney's live-action feature Follow Me Boys! His association with the studio lasted through 1975, and produced such comedic family movies as The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit (1968), The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), The Barefoot Executive (1971), and The Strongest Man in the World (1975). The last film marked Russell's final collaboration with Disney, aside from his voicing the character of Copper in the studio's The Fox and the Hound (1981). Still an avid baseball enthusiast during those years, Russell nurtured his dreams of becoming a professional ball player until a shoulder injury permanently changed his plans.After ending his association with Disney, Russell disappeared from features for a few years. He appeared in a few television movies, most notably playing the title role in Elvis, John Carpenter's made-for-television biopic. His next role as a sleazy used car salesman in Robert Zemeckis' hilariously caustic Used Cars (1980) allowed him to counter his wholesome, all-American nice guy image, and prove that he was an actor of untapped range. Director Carpenter recognized this and cast Russell as ruthless mercenary Snake Plissken in his brooding sci-fi/action film Escape From New York (1981). The role would prove to be one of legendary status, and one that would cement Russell as a cult hero for generations to come. Carpenter also cast Russell as a scientist stranded in the Antarctic in his chilling 1982 remake of The Thing. Realizing that his characters were larger than life, Russell typically played them with a subtle tongue- in-cheek quality. He also used this comic intuition in comedies like 1987's Overboard, in which he starred alongside his long-time life-partner and mother of his child Golide Hawn.In 1983, Russell moved to serious drama, playing opposite Cher and Meryl Streep in Silkwood. The success of that film helped him break into a more mainstream arena, and he was later able to win praise for his dramatic work in such films as Swing Shift (1984), Tequila Sunrise (1988), and Winter People (1989). However, it is with his performances in action films that Russell remains most widely associated. He has appeared in a number of such films, all of disparate quality. Some of Russell's more memorable projects include Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Tango and Cash (1989), Backdraft (1991), Tombstone (1993), and Executive Decision (1996). In 1996, he reprised his Snake Plissken character for Carpenter's Escape From L.A. The following year, he starred opposite Kathleen Quinlan in the revenge thriller Breakdown before returning to the sci-fi/action realm with Soldier in 1998. It would be two years before movie-going audiences would again catch a glimpse of Russell, though with his roles in 2000 Miles to Graceland (again carrying on the Elvis associations that have haunted his career) and Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky, the versatile actor proved that he was still very much on the scene. Is some of Russell's later day roles had stressed the action angle a bit more than the more dramatic aspects of the stories, the release of Dark Blue in 2003 combined both with Russell cast as a volitile police officer tracking a killer against the backdrop of the 1992 L.A. riots. In 2005, Russell played a frustrated father and horse-man in Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story, showing audiences that for all his on-screen bombast, he still had a sensitive side. He quickly leapt back into the action-packed saddle, however, with a leading role in 2006's remake of The Poseidon Adventure, Poseidon. Soon afterward, he accepted a role that took a decidedly self-aware perspective on his own fame as an over-the-top action star as he signed on for the leading role in Death Proof, Quinten Tarantino's half of the double-feature Grindhouse. A tribute to the fantastically violent B-exploitation films of its title, Grindhouse would cast Russell as Stuntman Mike, a literal lady-killer with a car that can be crashed and smashed without ever allowing the driver to be hurt.

Trivia: Stocky, frequently bespectacled, eventually balding, and prematurely gray, Richard Dreyfuss is an unlikely candidate for a movie star. Even so, he has been one of Hollywood's most versatile, charismatic, and energetic leading men since the mid-'70s. Born in Brooklyn, NY, on October 29, 1947, Dreyfuss moved to Los Angeles with his family when he was nine. There he became friends with Rob Reiner and began acting in school productions and at the Beverly Hills Jewish Community Center. He attended San Fernando Valley State College, but was expelled after getting into a heated argument with a professor over Marlon Brando's performance in Julius Caesar (1953). Not wanting to be drafted for Vietnam, he registered as a conscientious objector and spent two years as a clerk at a Los Angeles hospital instead of enlisting. During this time, Dreyfuss started getting a few acting jobs on network television series such as Bewitched and Big Valley; he had his first film role in 1967's The Graduate, speaking the lines "Shall I call the cops? I'll call the cops" to Dustin Hoffman. He continued playing bit parts in a couple more films, but did not get his first big break until he played Baby Face Nelson in the bloody biopic Dillinger (1973). A memorable leading role as an intelligent, contemplative teen in George Lucas' American Graffiti (1973) earned Dreyfuss critical acclaim, as did his portrayal of an entrepreneurial Jewish youth in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974). In 1975, the actor's career exploded when he starred as an arrogant shark expert in Steven Spielberg's Jaws. He worked for Spielberg again two years later, playing an average Midwestern working stiff who learns that we are not alone in the universe in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Further success followed that same year when Dreyfuss portrayed a failed actor in Neil Simon's romantic comedy The Goodbye Girl. His performance won him an Oscar, making him, at the age of 29, the youngest performer ever to receive the Best Actor honor. After that, Dreyfuss was in demand and, until 1981, he continued to find steady work in a number of films. However, none of these proved particularly popular, and the actor's career began to nosedive. Matters were worsened by his reported drug use and Hollywood party antics; in 1982, he was involved in a car accident and arrested for possession of cocaine. Fortunately, Dreyfuss managed to turn his life around, and after appearing in the rarely seen Buddy System (1984), made a big comeback in Paul Mazursky's hit comedy Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), starring opposite Bette Midler and Nick Nolte. With his reputation restored, Dreyfuss went on to appear in lead and supporting roles in numerous films of varying quality. Highlights included Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), Postcards From the Edge (1990), What About Bob? (1991), and Quiz Show (1994). In 1996, Dreyfuss played one of his finest roles as a high school music teacher who sacrifices his dream of becoming a famous composer to help his students in Mr. Holland's Opus (1996). The role earned Dreyfuss an Oscar nomination. That same year, he won acclaim of a different sort, lending his voice to a sarcastic centipede in Tim Burton's animated adaptation of Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach. He went on to appear in Sidney Lumet's Night Falls on Manhattan (1997) and to star in Krippendorf's Tribe in 1998. The following year, he could be seen as titular Jewish gangster Lansky, a made-for-TV biopic scripted by David Mamet.In 2001, with his film career struggling a bit, Dreyfuss took his first stab at series television since 1964's short-lived sitcom Karen. The hour-long CBS drama The Education of Max Bickford starred the actor as a college history professor opposite Marcia Gay Harden and received largely positive reviews from critics. However, despite the accolades, the show failed to garner a substantial audience and was cancelled after one season.The following years would see Dreyfuss continuing to appear on screen, appearing most notably in movies like W., Leaves of Grass, and Red, and on TV shows like Weeds and Parenthood.

Trivia: Gaining notice in the early '90s for his Emmy-winning portrayal of Detective Francis Xavier "Frank" Pembleton on the popular television police drama Homicide: Life on the Street, tireless Chicago native Andre Braugher remained with the show through 1998 while simultaneously building a feature career with roles in such theatrical releases as Primal Fear (1996) and City of Angels (1998). A graduate of Stanford University who also received a M.F.A. from the prestigious Juilliard School, Braugher claims to have originally taken up acting to meet girls. He later changed his major after realizing his true calling during a production of Hamlet, and his first professional role came in a performance at the Berkley Shakespeare Festival. Making the leap from stage to screen with the 1989 civil war drama Glory proved an eye opening experience, and following numerous appearances as Detective Winston Blake in a series of made-for-TV Kojak features, Braugher held onto his badge by joining the cast of Homicide in 1993. Later alternating successfully between film and television, Braugher was voted one of the "50 Most Beautiful" people in a 1997 issue of People magazine; the following year, the handsome actor turned down a prominent role in the sci-fi drama Sphere in order to spend more time with his family. Jumping back into features in 2000, roles in Frequency, Duets and A Better Way to Die proved that Braugher was still in top form, and, in 2002, he turned back to the small screen with the made-for-TV feature Hack (and later reprised his role when the feature was turned into a weekly series). Following a role in the made-for-TV feature A Soldier's Girl (2002), Braugher joined the cast of the television remake of the Stephen King vampire chiller Salem's Lot (2004), then returned to television - and changed camps to tap into the underground element - on the weekly crime drama Thief. As Nick Atwater, one of the most genial and principled of all television criminals (!), Braugher evoked an unusual ethical balance in his character and tapped into the fence's deep-seated devotion to his family, even as he drummed up a fiery intensity from episode to episode. Successive years found the actor moving into supporting roles in Hollywood A-listers with a heightened emphasis on effects-heavy action, adventure and fantasy-themed material; projects included Poseidon (2006), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) and Stephen King's The Mist (2007).Braugher would star in the TV mini-series The Andromeda Strain in 2008, before taking on a role in the cult favorite comedy series Men of a Certain Age from 2009-2011. He would also enjoy a recurring role on House M.D., and play a memorable supporting role in the Angelina Jolie action flick Salt.

Trivia: Musician, dancer, and actress Mía Maestro studied the arts in Argentina until the age of 18, when she moved to Berlin for further vocal training and was able to add the works of classical German composers to her singing repertoire along with further acting and dance experience. At 20 years old, Maestro traveled back to Buenos Aires, where she won an ACE award for her performance in a theatrical production of Pandora's Box. In 1998, she made her feature-film debut in Tango, in which she played an aspiring dancer who becomes entangled in a romance with a film director. Just one year later, Maestro traveled to Austria, where she was able to work with Lauren Bacall and Dennis Hopper in The Venice Project (1999). Ultimately, however, she would move to Los Angeles and shortly thereafter earn a supporting role in Timecode (2000) alongside Salma Hayek, with whom she would work again in 2002's Frida. In 2003, Maestro was able to play a much larger role in Walter Salles Jr.'s road movie The Motorcycle Diaries, which premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. After a small role in Ben Stiller's Duplex (2003), Maestro accepted another supporting role in Lucrecia Martel's coming-of-age drama La Niña Santa (2004). Also in 2004, Maestro appeared in a recurring role on the popular television spy drama Alias, playing the newly discovered younger sister of main character Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner).

Trivia: A crossover reality television star who memorably appeared on MTV's Real World: London before being launched to stardom thanks in part to a People Magazine poll that named her one of the "Fifty Most Beautiful People in the World" two short years later, Jacinda Barrett earned her keep as a model before venturing into the world of film in the 1997 teen screamer Campfire Tales. A native of Queensland, Australia, Barrett appeared in a trio of independent efforts in the years following her Real World appearance, later moving on to television roles in Hercules, Millennium, and Bull before returning to features with a role in the 2000 horror sequel Urban Legends: The Final Cut. While Barrett's early roles may not have necessarily appeared the ideal training ground for a future in high drama, subsequent performances in such serious-minded efforts as The Human Stain and Ladder 49 showed an actress whose beauty was apparently matched by her talent. A supporting role in the 2004 comedy Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason was followed by a turn as a French heiress in the 2005 thriller Ripley Under Ground, and soon after taking a tumble in the blockbuster 2006 remake Poseidon, Barrett would once again venture into familiar territory opposite Zach Braff in the romantic comedy drama remake The Last Kiss. She appeared in the Natalie Portman-directed segment of 2008's New York, I Love You and played a recurring role on the USA legal drama Suits, which stars her real-life love, Gabriel Macht.

Trivia: Possessing the sort of Cinemascope smile that could part the clouds over even the most curmudgeonly of pessimists, talented actress/singer Emmy Rossum has made her mark on stage and screen as one of the most promising talents of her generation. Having worked on-stage alongside such legends as Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti, and held her own onscreen opposite such formidable talents as Sean Penn and Tim Robbins, Rossum had accomplished by the age of 18 what most actresses dream for a lifetime of achieving. A New York City native whose early work included tenures at the Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall, the multi-lingual songbird performed in over 20 separate operas in six different languages before making her television debut in the popular daytime soap As the World Turns. Subsequently, Rossum was nominated for a Young Artist Award for her performance in the Disney Channel feature Genius, and her portrayal of a young Audrey Hepburn in the 2000 made-for-television drama The Audrey Hepburn Story provided the burgeoning screen talent with her widest exposure up to that point. Various television roles were quick to follow, with a feature debut as an Appalachian orphan in the 2000 drama Songcatcher proving that young Rossum could light up the silver screen just as effectively as she did its home-based counterpart. In addition to earning her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Debut Performance, Songcatcher also took home the Best Ensemble Performance award at that year's Sundance Film Festival. As Rossum climbed the credits with roles in An American Rhapsody, Happy Now, and Passionada, it was obvious to those in the know that her career was only getting warmed up. Her role as the eponymous songwriter in the 2003 romantic comedy Nola proved without a doubt that she could carry a film and provided the perfect transition between her early independent career and her impending success in Hollywood. Cast as the ill-fated daughter of a former thug-turned-semi-legitimate small-business owner in director Clint Eastwood's critically acclaimed drama Mystic River, Rossum's blend of youthful innocence and daddy's girl charm echoed through the film in a way that made the violence of her death truly heartbreaking. After striving to survive the apocalyptic meteorological developments in the popcorn extravaganza The Day After Tomorrow, Rossum next had the honor of being handpicked by none other than Andrew Lloyd Webber for the role of Christine in the eagerly anticipated feature version of The Phantom of the Opera. The recipient of a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in the film, Rossum had indeed lived up to the potential seen by Lloyd Webber in the early stages of production. In 2006 Rossum raced through a sinking ship in Poseidon, and the following year she managed to make a splash in the pop world with her debut album Inside Out. And while in recent years it had appeared Rossum was gravitating away from television, a starring role in the Showtime series Shamless found her hitting an impressive stride on the small screen.

Trivia: Born in the Windy City on January 17, 1975, the prolific Puerto Rican-American thespian Freddy Rodriguez cut his acting chops at Chicago's Lincoln Park High School, where he headlined a number of time-worn stage classics, including The Crucible, Twelve Angry Men, and To Kill a Mockingbird. He married his high school sweetheart, Elsie, and slid effortlessly into a cinematic career soon after graduation, taking his first official onscreen bow at the age of 19, as the younger version of Billy Wirth's prison parolee Terry Griff in the sobering and gritty 1994 drama The Fence. That feature lacked wide distribution and slipped by many, but no matter, for two highly coveted spots in A-list features followed the next year. Rodriguez portrayed Anthony Quinn's son, Pedro Aragon, Jr., in Alfonso Arau's lush 1995 romantic melodrama A Walk in the Clouds, and Vietnam vet Jose in The Hughes Bros.' period piece Dead Presidents, the Menace II Society follow-up about a young African-American man who drifts casually into a crime-infested life in the late '60s.Countless spots in films of equal weight followed, including Can't Hardly Wait (1998), Payback (1999), and Chasing Papi (2001), but Rodriguez made his most enduring mark on the small screen, where he became a familiar face on a number of hit series. He appeared in three 1999 episodes of Party of Five, as Albert, the man who mugs Sarah and later rips her off, despite her vain attempts to befriend him. The spot was short-lived, but productive; the added exposure eventually led to Rodriguez's most prominent role. He entered the mind's eye of cable devotees everywhere by becoming a permanent fixture on the HBO/Alan Ball production Six Feet Under, a jet-black comic series about the Fisher family, proprietors of a Los Angeles mortuary. As Federico Diaz, a gentle, emotionally sensitive mortician-cum-partner, Rodriguez proved popular with audiences and helped to sustain the series throughout its five-year run. He followed this up with yet another minor role, on the Emmy-award winning NBC series Scrubs, as Nurse Carla Espinosa's (Judy Reyes) brother. The part entailed only fleeting, intermittent appearances, but left a memorable impression nonetheless.Rodriguez temporarily reemphasized his silver screen work beginning in 2006, with tertiary roles in several prominent features. These include Valentin in Poseidon (2006), Wolfgang Petersen's disappointing remake of the 1972 Irwin Allen disaster pic The Poseidon Adventure; Reggie, a character restricted to only using half of his body, in M. Night Shyamalan's seventh feature, Lady in the Water; and a fleeting role as Jose in Bobby, Emilio Estevez's docudrama on the assassination of presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan in 1968.In 2007, Rodriguez returned to television in a recurring role as sandwich vendor Giovanni "Gio" Rossi on the enormously popular Ugly Betty. He stayed on with the show into its third season in 2008, while also starring in and executive producing the holiday comedy Nothing Like the Holidays. Regular television work continued with a featured role on the short-lived CBS series Chaos and voice work on the animated sci-fi series Generator Rex.

Trivia: The younger brother of actor Matt Dillon, Kevin Dillon was a movie leading man by age 20. Originally planning to study art, Dillon became an actor when he was spotted by an agent at the premiere of older brother Matt's Tex (1985). Often cast in lightweight roles (Heaven Help Us [1985], The Blob [1988]), Dillon has distinguished himself in the films of director Oliver Stone with a brace of powerful characterizations: the baby-faced but homicidal teenage soldier Bunny in Platoon (1986), and real-life rock musician John Densmore in The Doors (1991). He would continue to take on a variety of projects over the coming decades, most notably titles like Criminal Hearts, and Poseidon. Dillon has also enjoyed a successful TV career, on shows like Entourage and How to Be a Gentleman.

Trivia: An actor with a clean-cut, all-American look that has been used to great advantage in a broad array of genres, Mike Vogel grew up well outside the realm of show business, in Bucks County, PA. Vogel entered the film industry via a most unlikely path, when -- as an avid skater -- he shot an audition tape of himself and sent it to various skating companies, requesting their sponsorship of him. In time, this bid led to a lead role in a skateboarding movie, Casey La Scala's 2003 drama Grind. Though the film itself received a harsh critical drubbing (and reportedly grossed a little over five million dollars), Vogel's onscreen charisma proved infectious and yielded a long string of additional assignments including the 2003 telefilm Wuthering Heights (in a romantic lead opposite Erika Christensen) and the theatrical releases Supercross: The Movie (2005) and Poseidon (2006). Vogel subsequently starred in two horror outings: the occult horror film Open Graves (2009) and the monster-themed thriller Cloverfield (2008). He was in the marital drama Blue Valentine in 2010 as well as the comedy She's Out of My League. The next year he played Johnny Foote in the Oscar nominated The Help, and played opposite Anna Farris in the comedy What's Your Number?

Trivia: A child star well before he reached his teens, Jimmy Bennett began his career with appearances in commercials, then moved into feature work with a litany of roles in A-list Hollywood releases. Projects included a plum role in the Eddie Murphy-headlined family comedy Daddy Day Care (2003, as the highest-profiled of Murphy's young charges -- a little boy named Tony who insists on being called "The Flash" and shows up at day care each day dressed in a superhero outfit); one of the voices in Robert Zemeckis' CG-animated Christmas movie The Polar Express (2004); a little boy trapped with his mother (Jacinda Barrett) on a capsized ocean liner in Poseidon (2006); and the child version of Admiral James T. Kirk in the J.J. Abrams remake Star Trek (2009). In the coming years, Bennett woudl remain an active presence on screen, appearing on shows like No Ordinary Family.

Trivia: Made his film debut in Malcolm X (1992). Played father to his son, Corbin Bleu, in films like High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008) and Free Style (2008). Appeared in a 2009 Geico commercial.

Trivia: Had open-heart surgery to repair a congenital defect at age 13, and performed in a middle-school production of Guys and Dolls shortly after recovering. Moved to New York at the age of 17 to pursue an acting career. Sang with an opera company in Manhattan before moving to Los Angeles to focus on screen work. Dyed her naturally blonde hair brown for her role on Sullivan & Son.

Trivia: Parents were peace/anti-nuclear activists who moved frequently while he was young. As a result, he lived in 30 different places before he turned 13. His family did not have a TV until 1984, when they purchased one to watch the Olympics. Realized he wanted to become an actor in 1987 when he was mesmerized by Michael Douglas's Oscar-winning portrayal of Gordon Gekko in Wall Street. Made film debut in 1993's Alive. As an up-and-coming actor, he appeared in a number of off-Broadway shows in New York, including Terrence McNally's controversial drama Corpus Christi in 1998. Made his Broadway debut in 2005 in a revival of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. Put on 43lbs. for the part of Texas Western coach Don Haskins in Glory Road (2006). In 2008, he appeared in an off-Broadway production of Fault Lines, a play directed by David Schwimmer. Portrayed a crime boss opposite James Franco in the drama William Vincent, an independent feature that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2010.

Trivia: After voicing a character in the 1984 Peanuts special It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown, she landed a role on the variety show Kids Incorporated. With Stefanie Ridel and fellow former Kids star Renee Sands, she formed pop trio Wild Orchid in the mid-'90s. They released two albums—Wild Orchid in 1997 and Oxygen the following year—and recorded a third CD their record company declined to release. While working as a backup singer in the Los Angeles area in 2003, was invited to join hip-hop trio the Black Eyed Peas in the studio. After recording several songs for the group's breakthrough release, the multi-platinum Elephunk, she was invited to become an official member. Made her solo debut in September 2006 with The Dutchess, which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 album chart and spawned the hit singles "London Bridge" and "Fergalicious." Launched her first fragrance, Outspoken by Fergie, for Avon in 2010.