Trivia: In the immediate aftermath of David Dobkin's Wedding Crashers (2005), many American filmgoers began to associate Isla Fisher largely (if not exclusively) with her vivacious turn in that blockbuster summer comedy as the feisty and slightly off-kilter Gloria, the sex-crazed daughter of treasury secretary William Cleary (Christopher Walken) and his wife (Jane Seymour). It was a testament not only to the memorable quality of the role but to Fisher's outstanding comic turn in it, as the seductress of gorilla Vince Vaughn. But this short, spunky actress had much more up her sleeve than simply the Gloria Cleary bit.Born in Oman but raised in Australia, Fisher published two teen romance novels in high school, then traveled to France and enrolled in a Parisian drama school, where she learned miming and juggling. Though Fisher's onscreen presence technically dates back to the late '80s, with a plum role in the small-screen Aussie soaper Home and Away, she took her Hollywood bow over a decade later, as Shaggy's girlfriend, Mary Jane, in the Raja Gosnell-directed Scooby-Doo (2002). Sandwiched in between forgettable features such as Dallas 362 (2003) and London (2005) came Fisher's portrayal of Heather in the David O. Russell "existential comedy" I Heart Huckabees (2005). The actress starred as the "unlikely" wife of Jason Biggs (American Pie) in the 2006 romantic comedy Wedding Daze, then geared up for choice parts in the sports comedy Hot Rod (2007) and the thriller The Lookout. She also signed to voice one of the characters in the 2008 animated feature Horton Hears a Who, adapted from the classic book by Dr. Seuss. Fisher joined the cast of the popcorn flick Confessions of a Shopaholic in 2009, and lent her voice to the cast of the animated children's feature Rango in 2011, as well as for director Peter A. Ramsey's Rise of the Guardians in 2012. Fisher co-stars with Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, and Tobey Maguire for Baz Luhrmann's 2012 3D adaptation of The Great Gatsby. She had a supporting role in Life of Crime (2013) and later had a guest spot on the revived season 4 of Arrested Development.

Trivia: The son of a publisher and a philosophy professor, handsome young British actor Hugh Dancy studied English Language and Literature at Oxford and speaks fluent French. He got his start performing in theater productions under the direction of Sam Mendes before he made his first few television guest-star appearances on Dangerfield, Cold Feet, and the miniseries Trial & Retribution II. He got his first starring role in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of David Copperfield, which aired in the States on TNT, and he continued doing costume dramas adapted from literature with the BBC productions of Madame Bovary and Daniel Deronda. In 2000, he experimented with fantasy adventures, starring in the Three Musketeers-inspired Young Blades and appearing in an episode of Relic Hunter. He had a small role in the war drama Black Hawk Down before making the move toward romance with the straight-to-video titles The Sleeping Dictionary (opposite Jessica Alba) and Tempo (opposite Melanie Griffith). Dancy stuck with romance for his next feature, the fantasy comedy Ella Enchanted, opposite Princess Diaries star Anne Hathaway. He worked steadily in projects such as King Arthur, Basic Instinct 2, and The Jane Austen Book Club. In 2007 he began a lengthy relationship with fellow actress Claire Danes. He landed a big part in 2009's Confessions of a Shopaholic. He enjoyed a fantastic 2011 with roles in the superb comedy Our Idiot Brother, the well-reviewed indie thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene, and the period comedy Hysteria.

Trivia: One of Hollywood's funniest and most underappreciated actresses, Joan Cusack was for years relegated to playing the buddy sidekicks of her more glamorous co-stars and known primarily as John Cusack's older sister. Thanks to a couple of Oscar nominations and strong roles in a number of movies, Cusack finally began getting her due in the late 1990s, earning both recognition and respect for her singular talent.Born in New York City on October 11, 1962, Cusack grew up in the Chicago suburb of Evanston. The daughter of actor and filmmaker Richard Cusack, she and her siblings were encouraged to perform from an early age. As a result, Cusack grew up acting on the stage and training with the Piven Theatre Workshop. She broke into film while still in her teens, getting her start - -and often acting alongside her brother -- in such teen comedies as My Bodyguard (1980) and Sixteen Candles (1984). In 1985 she was offered a part on the Saturday Night Live roster, but felt constrained by the lack of quality material offered to women, and left the show after one season. Gradually getting better supporting work in such films as Broadcast News (1987) and Married to the Mob (1988), Cusack had her screen breakthrough in Working Girl (1988), earning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her role as Melanie Griffith's street-smart best friend. More strong notices followed in 1989 for Cusack's work in the drama Men Don't Leave, in which she played a nurse who helps get Jessica Lange's life back on track after her husband's death. Though Cusack would move to Chicago for much of the 90's to focus on her family, she would appear in a handful of memorable titles, like My Blue Heaven (1990), Addams Family Values, Corrina, Corrina, Nine Months, and In & Out. Cusack would amp it up in the coming years, however, with appearances in a slew of popular films like Grosse Point Blank, Runaway Bride, High Fidelity, and Cradle will Rock. As the 2000's rolled onward, Cusack would continue to maintain her status as a go-to character actor, appearing in fims like Friends with Money, My Sister's Keeper and Mars Needs Moms, and on the critically acclaimed series Shameless.

Trivia: With a talent as large as his girth, John Goodman proved himself both a distinguished character actor and engaging leading man. A native of St. Louis, MO, Goodman went to Southwest Missouri State University on a football scholarship, but an injury compelled him to seek out a less strenuous major. He chose the university Drama Department, attending classes with such stars-to-be as Tess Harper and Kathleen Turner. Moving to New York in 1975, he supported himself by performing in children's and dinner theater, appearing in television commercials, and working as a bouncer. Goodman made his off-Broadway debut in a 1978 staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and, a year later, graduated to Broadway in Loose Ends. His best Broadway showing was as the drunken, brutish Pap in Big River, Roger Miller's 1985 musical adaptation of Huckleberry Finn. Goodman has occasionally played out and out villains or louts (The Big Easy, Barton Fink), but his essential likeability endeared him to audiences even when his onscreen behavior was at its least sympathetic. He contributed topnotch supporting appearances to such films as Everybody's All-American (1988), Sea of Love (1989), Stella (1989), and Arachnophobia (1990), and starred in such films as King Ralph (1991), The Babe (1992, as Babe Ruth), Born Yesterday (1993), and The Flintstones (1994, as Fred Flintstone). Goodman did some of his best work in Matinee (1992), in which he starred as William Castle-esque horror flick entrepreneur Lawrence Woolsey, and topped himself in The Big Lebowski (1998), playing a quirky security-store owner. He was seen the following year with Nicolas Cage and Ving Rhames in Martin Scorsese's Bringing out the Dead as an ambulance driver.Between 1988 and 1996, Goodman appeared as blue-collar patriarch Dan Conner on the hit TV sitcom Roseanne, a role that earned him four Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe award; his additional TV credits included two 1995 made-for-cable movies: the title role in Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long and Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire, for which he earned another Emmy nomination. Announcing that the 1996-1997 season of Roseanne would be his last, Goodman limited himself to infrequent appearances on the series, his absences explained away as a by-product of a heart attack suffered by his character at the end of the previous season.After making his 10th appearance on Saturday Night Live (2000), Goodman could be seen playing a red-faced bible salesman in director Joel Coen's award winning O Brother, Where Art Thou (2000), and participated in Garry Shandling's film debut What Planet Are You From? (2000). He could be spotted playing an Oklahoma cop in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000), while Coyote Ugly (2000) and Storytelling (2001) found Goodman stepping back into the role of over-protective father. Interestingly enough, he donned hippie-gear to play a goth-chick's Leelee Sobieski dad in 2001's My First Mister. Though Goodman's status as an amiable big guy was well established by the early 2000's, he didn't actually appear on-screen for two of his most beloved roles. In The Emperor's New Groove (2000), Goodman lent his vocal talents for the part of Pacha, a poor farmer who taught a spoiled prince (David Spade) some valuable lessons about life, love, and the meaning of societal standing. Any film-going youngster will recognize Goodman's voice as Monsters, Inc.'s kind-hearted Sully, the furry blue monster who risked life and limb to return a little girl to her home; and who other than Goodman would have been appropriate to voice the part of Baloo, The Jungle Book 2's (2003) freewheeling bear? 2001's ill received One Night at McCool's features Goodman as one of three men lusting after Liv Tyler's character, while 2002's Dirty Deeds took John to Australia, where he played an American mafia-goon thoroughly ill suited to the intricacies of culture down under. Though 2003's Masked and Anonymous was skewered by fans and critics alike, it did give Goodman the chance to work with industry bigwigs Jessica Lange, Jeff Bridges, Penélope Cruz, and legendary singer/songwriter Bob Dylan. In 2004, Goodman got even more involved in the realm of family friendly movies and TV, lending his voice to the character of Larry on the animated show Father of the Pride. The next few years in his career would include many more such titles, like Cars, Evan Almighty, and Bee Movie, and in 2008, he played Pops Racer in the candy-colored big screen adaptation of the popular cartoon Speed Racer. By this time, Goodman had become a go-to guy for PG fare, and signed on next to provide the voice of Big Daddy for the jazz-age animated film The Princess and the Frog. He earned good reviews for his work in the made-for-HBO biopic of Jack Kervorkian You Don't Know Jack in 2010. The next year he appeared in The Artist, the Best Picture Oscar winner, as the head of a Hollywood studio, and in another of the Best Picture nominees playing the doorman in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Trivia: A distinguished actor of stage, television, and movies who is at home playing everything from menacing villains, big-hearted transsexuals, and loopy aliens, John Lithgow is also a composer and performer of children's songs, a Harvard graduate, a talented painter, and a devoted husband and father: in short, he is a true Renaissance man. Once hailed by the Wall Street Journal as "the film character actor of his generation," Lithgow is the son of a theater director who once headed Princeton's McCarter Theater and produced a series of Shakespeare festivals in Ohio, where Lithgow was six when he made his first theatrical bow in Henry VI, Part 3. His parents raised Lithgow in a loving home that encouraged artistic self-expression and took a broad view of the world. As a youth, Lithgow was passionate about painting and at age 16, he was actively involved with the Art Students League in New York. When the acting bug bit, Lithgow's father was supportive. After Lithgow graduated from Harvard, he received a Fulbright scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art; while in England, Lithgow also worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and for the Royal Court Theatre. He returned to the U.S. in the early '70s and worked on Broadway where he won his first Tony and a Drama Desk Award for his part in The Changing Room (1973). Lithgow remained in New York for many years, establishing himself as one of Broadway's most respected stars and would go on to appear in at least one play per year through 1982. He would subsequently receive two more Tony nominations for Requiem for a Heavyweight and M. Butterfly. He made his first film appearance in Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1972). The film itself was an inauspicious affair as were his other subsequent early efforts, though by the early '80s, his film roles improved and diversified dramatically. Though capable of essaying subtle, low-key characters, Lithgow excelled in over-the-top parts as the next decade in his career demonstrates. He got his first real break and a Best Supporting Actor nomination when he played macho football player-turned-sensitive woman Roberta Muldoon in The World According to Garp (1982). In 1983, he provided one of the highlights of Twilight Zone--The Movie as a terrified airline passenger and earned a second Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination in Terms of Endearment where he appeared with Shirley Maclaine and Jack Nicholson, as well as playing a fiery preacher in Footloose. That year, he won his first Emmy nomination for his work in the scary nuclear holocaust drama The Day After. In 1984, he played the crazed Dr. Lizardo in the cult favorite The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. In Ricochet (1992), Lithgow proved himself a terrifying villain with his portrayal of a psychopathic killer hell-bent for revenge against Denzel Washington, the man who incarcerated him. In 1990, he made Babysong video tapes of his performing old and new children's songs on the guitar and banjo. Though he had already established himself on television as a guest star, Lithgow gained a large and devoted following when he was cast as an alien captain who, along with his clueless crew, attempts to pass for human in the fresh, well-written NBC sitcom Third Rock From the Sun (1996). The role has won him multiple Emmys and Golden Globe awards. When that show's run ended in 2001, Lithgow kept busy with roles in such high-profile features as The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004) (in which he essayed the role of comedy legend Blake Edwards), Kinsey, Dreamgirls, and Leap Year. Yet through it all the small screen still beckoned, and in 2010 the Lithgow won an Emmy for his role as Arthur Mitchell (aka The Trinity Killer) on the hit Showtime series Dexter. A poignant turn as a once-brilliant scientist stricken with Alzheimer's disease revealed a gentler side of Lithgow in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and in 2012 he reminded us that he could still get big laughs with roles in both This is 40 (Judd Apatow's semi-sequel to Knocked Up) and the Will Ferrell/Zach Galifianakis political comedy The Campaign. When not busy working on the show, in theater, or in feature films, Lithgow is at home playing "Superdad" to his children and his wife, a tenured college professor at U.C.L.A.

Trivia: Early in her career, it looked as though actress Kristin Scott Thomas was going to be relegated to playing the kind of elegantly bloodless British women she portrayed in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), but with her role as the aristocratic but passionate Katharine Clifton in The English Patient (1996), Scott Thomas broke the mold, proving herself capable of projecting a good deal of sensuality and heat as her character embarked on a tragic affair with a Hungarian adventurer (Ralph Fiennes). The daughter of a Royal Navy pilot who died in an air crash when she was five, Scott Thomas was born the eldest of five children, in Cornwall, on May 24, 1960. When she was 11, tragedy struck again when her stepfather, also a military pilot, met a demise identical to her father's. Scott Thomas was left to help her mother look after the family and -- in contrast to what her film roles would suggest -- her situation was far from aristocratic. Although she had an interest in acting, her mother loathed the idea and sent her daughter to the Cheltenham Ladies College. Scott Thomas dropped out at age 16, spent some time in a convent, and eventually enrolled at London's Central School of Speech and Drama to take a teacher training course. Unable to resist the call of the stage, however, Scott Thomas quietly began studying drama. Unfortunately, the school's drama department advised her to pursue other professions. Scott Thomas was 18 at the time and in addition to being hurt by the drama department's rejection, she was also fed up with school. Seeking to gain perspective on her life, she went to visit some friends in Paris. What originally began as a two-week vacation ended in a permanent change of residence, after Scott Thomas took an au pair job and then fell in love with a Frenchman (she eventually married, and divorced, obstetrician François Olivennes, with whom she has two sons and a daughter).Though her new French friends teased her for being a funny little English girl, Scott Thomas found herself at home in Paris and decided to try acting again. At the encouragement of her friends, she enrolled in L'Ecole Nationale des Arts et Techniques de Theatres, honing her skills and finding the French school to be more supportive than its English counterpart. She gained experience playing small roles on-stage and soon went on to do some television work. After an inauspicious debut playing a headstrong heiress in Prince's Under the Cherry Moon (1986), she worked in a number of French films. In 1988, she was given her first lead in an English film, playing a cool-blooded aristocrat in A Handful of Dust.It wasn't until the 1990s that Scott Thomas began to attain recognition outside of Europe. Two years after starring as Hugh Grant's wife in Roman Polanski's Bitter Moon (1992), she came to the attention of an international audience in Four Weddings and a Funeral. Her second outing with Grant, the film was a sleeper hit, becoming the highest-grossing British film in the country's history. Following the film's success, Scott Thomas applied her talents to smaller films, appearing as Alfred Hitchcock's thorny assistant in the French-Canadian Le Confessionnal (1994) and a plain-Jane entomologist who finds herself embroiled in family dysfunction in Angels & Insects (1995). In 1996, the year of The English Patient, Scott Thomas fully stepped into the glare of the international spotlight, earning a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her role in the widely acclaimed film. That same year, she did less-heralded but no less respectable work in Richard III, in which she played the enigmatic Lady Anne, and Mission: Impossible, her first truly big-budget film. With Hollywood now taking full notice, Scott Thomas was cast in a coveted lead role in Robert Redford's 1998 adaptation of Nicholas Evans' The Horse Whisperer. The film proved something of a disappointment, although the actress was praised for her strong performance. The following year, she found herself involved in another high-profile project, starring opposite Harrison Ford in Random Hearts. Playing a woman who discovers that her husband, who died in a plane crash, was having an affair with Ford's wife, who also died in the crash, Scott Thomas again got to demonstrate her ability at embracing roles that went far beyond the confines of the tea-sipping British aristocracy. Subsequent work in Gosford Park and Tell No One kept Thomas busy over the course of the next few years, but it was back-to-back BAFTA nominations in 2009 (I've Loved You So Long) and 2010 (Nowhere Boy) that helped to end the decade on a decidedly positive note for the veteran actress. In 2011, she appeared in Salmon FIshing in the Yemen, and in 2012, played a Frenchwoman seduced by the much younger Robert Pattinson in Bel Ami. The following year, she re-teamed with Ralph Fiennes for The Invisible Woman.

Trivia: Model-turned-actress Leslie Bibb grew up in Virginia, well outside the realm of showbusiness, with plans to tackle a legal career. She embarked on the road to celebrity, however (and achieved an incredible break), in 1990, when the then-16-year-old's mother submitted Leslie's photograph to a nationwide model search that Oprah Winfrey mounted; the judges ferreted Bibb out of more than 6,000 candidates and handed her a succession of print and runway assignments around the globe. After extensive dramatic training, the young woman moved to Los Angeles and ascended to stardom via a regular role as high-school princess Brooke McQueen on the WB series Popular. She doubled it up with movie roles in such feature outings as See Spot Run (2001), Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006), and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006, as Will Ferrell's gold-digging wife), as well as a recurring parts on ER (2002-2003), as Erin Harkins, and Crossing Jordan, as Tallulah "Lu" Simmons (2005-2007). In 2007, Bibb signed on to play the female lead in Ryuhei Kitamura's serial killer-themed horror saga The Midnight Meat Train (2008).In 2008 she landed one of her most high-profile parts opposite Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man, and she would return for that film's sequel two years later. She also landed parts in the comedy Confessions of a Shopaholic and the thriller Law Abiding Citizen. She returned to comedy in 2011 with parts in the Kevin James vehicle Zookeeper, and the low-budget indie laugher A Good Old Fashioned Orgy.

Trivia: A comedic actor whose legacy is deeply intertwined with his long-standing involvement as a performer on NBC's Saturday Night Live, Fred Armisen graduated to on-camera work via an unlikely and wholly circuitous route. He studied film production at New York City's School of Visual Arts, then enjoyed a stint as a drummer in several punk bands including Trenchmouth and Those Bastard Souls, and performed with the Chicago production of the Blue Man Group. Shortly thereafter, Armisen authored a comedic short, Fred Armisen's Guide to Music and SXSW, which found him tooling through the South by Southwest Music Festival and conducting Sacha Baron Cohen-style parodistic interviews with legitimate musicians (most fully unaware of the joke being played). Upon playing at underground film festivals, that short turned the heads of HBO executives and prompted the network not only to sign Armisen as a regular correspondent on their music seires Reverb (a look at blossoming talent in the world of music), but to give him comedic interstitial segues in between regular programs, entitled Fred.From there, it was only a short leap to SNL stardom, and executive producer/creator Lorne Michaels brought Armisen in for a multi-season tenure beginning in 2002. On that program, as in his comedy shorts and standup acts, Armisen displayed a proclivity for sinking so completely into character that it became frequently difficult to separate the actor from the role; recurring characterizations included Martin Scorsese, Liberace, Tony Danza, Vicente Fox, and others. Armisen also landed supporting roles and cameo appearances in big-screen comedies; these included Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), the same year's Eurotrip (in a memorable bit as a creepy gay Italian), Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (2006), and Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters (2007). In 2008, Armisen tackled a supporting role in the workplace comedy The Promotion, starring Seann William Scott, John C. Reilly, and Jenna Fischer.He continued to land small roles in big-screen comedies such as Easy A, Cop Out, and Confessions of a Shopoholic, but his first big success outside of SNL came when he teamed up with longtime friend and musician Carrie Brownstein to create, write, and star in Portlandia, a sketch-comedy show about Portland that aired on IFC. The series earned critical raves, and enough buzz to earn a second season.Though he married Mad Men actress Elizabeth Moss in 2009, their union lasted just ten months, and his next high-profile relationship was with his fellow SNL castmate Abby Elliot.

Trivia: Like many actresses who've been typecast as airheads, Julie Hagerty is infinitely more intelligent than most of the characters she's played. After six years' worth of training in her hometown of Cincinnati and at Julliar!d, Hagerty pursued a modelling career in New York, continuing to take acting lessons under the tutelage of William Hickey. She then spent a few seasons playing a variety of roles at the Production Company, a Greenwich Village theatre troupe which she co-founded with her brother Michael. In 1980, she appeared in her first film, playing ditzy stewardess Elaine Dickinson in the disaster-flick lampoon Airplane!. The following year, she delivered a marvelous performance as the limited-intellect mistress of professorial Jose Ferrer in Woody Allen's A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982). A couple of inconsequential projects followed (including the inevitable Airplane! sequel) before Hagerty once more appeared in a worthwhile role in a worthwhile film: in 1985's Lost in America, Hagerty and Albert Brooks (who also directed) sparkled as a pair of starry-eyed yuppies who try to go the "Easy Rider" route. She was cast against type (and also appeared sans screen credit) as the mistress of Claus von Buhlow in Reversal of Fortune (1990). There have been several career ups and downs since: the most recent "up", if only on an artistic level, was the 1995 film The Wife. On television, Julie Hagerty starred as Tracy Dillon in the short-duration series Princesses (1991). Hagerty continued to remain active in film and television throughout the 2000s, though she wouldn't recapture her Airplane! success. Among her credits include Freddy Got Fingered, comedian Tom Green's notorious flop from 2001, and the comedies Just Friends (2005), Adam & Steve (2005), and She's the Man (2006). In 2009 she played a small supporting role in Confessions of a Shopaholic, a romantic comedy based on Sophie Kinsella's novel of the same name.

Trivia: During his career in the National Basketball Association, John "Spider" Salley played on four championship teams, including the 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan that many consider the sport's all-time greatest. His post-playing career has featured frequent television appearances, as well as scattered credits in motion pictures like Bad Boys II, Black Dynamite, and Confessions of a Shopaholic.

Trivia: With a statuesque presence and a look that very much recalled the screen sirens of classic Hollywood, raven-haired Krysten Ritter entered the limelight on the fateful day when her path crisscrossed with a group of Elite Modeling scouts at a shopping mall in her Pennsylvania hometown. Witnessing the young woman's innate glamour, that agency, and later Wilhelmina Models, signed her -- propelling her to an international modeling career. She subsequently set her sights on film acting, began training under the tutelage of famed acting coach Marjorie Ballentine, and started accepting film roles in the early 2000s, meanwhile juggling careers as a businesswoman, writer, and recording artist/frontwoman for the band Ex Vivian. Throughout, Ritter exhibited a unique personal style that she later referred to as "rock-&-roll-'90s-ballerina...grungy yet feminine." Her filmed assignments began with a small turn as a 1950s art history student in the Julia Roberts vehicle Mona Lisa Smile (2003). Ritter then landed a multi-episode roles on Gilmore Girls (as Lucy), Veronica Mars (as Gia Goodman), and 'Til Death (as Allison Stark). She gradually ascended to higher billing in features, with supporting turns in a series of romantic comedies that included What Happens in Vegas (2008), Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009), and She's Out of My League. She had a major part in the 2010 comedy Killing Bono, and the next year she wrote and starred in L!fe Happens. In 2012 she landed the part of Chloe on the sitcom Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23.

Trivia: Specializing in comedic roles, Lynn Redgrave made significant contributions to her illustrious family's five-generation-long reputation for producing fine British actors. The daughter of actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson and the sister of actors Corin and Vanessa Redgrave, the London-born Redgrave studied acting at the Central School of Music and Drama. She first appeared on-stage in a 1962 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Royal Court Theatre. She was next invited by Sir Laurence Olivier to become one of the first members in Britain's National Theatre. There she appeared in Hamlet opposite her father and Peter O'Toole for three years as well as in many other prestigious productions. Redgrave made her feature-film debut in Tony Richardson's ribald Tom Jones (1963). She then had a starring role in The Girl With Green Eyes (1964), but did not become an international star until she played the plump and pathetic protagonist in Georgy Girl (1966). Her work earned her an Oscar nomination and a Best Actress award from the New York Film Critics and led to her playing leading roles in a number of films on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1974, Redgrave immigrated to the U.S. She eventually lost a lot of weight and became a fine comic actress, noted for her unabashed naughty sense of humor. For a while, she was a popular guest on the television talk show/game show circuit as well as a popular spokesperson for the Weight Watchers diet organization. Her '70s film appearances ran the gamut from Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, But Were Afraid to Ask (1972) to playing the title role in The Happy Hooker (1975). Redgrave also appeared in television movies and in the series House Calls (1979-1981), Teachers Only (1982-1983), and Chicken Soup (1989). In the late '90s, Redgrave staged a successful one-woman show, Shakespeare for My Father. In 1996, Redgrave won acclaim for her portrayal of the loving astrologer who married troubled pianist David Helfgott in Scott Hicks' Shine. Redgrave died of breast cancer at age 67 in May 2010.

Trivia: Began his acting career in 1985 in Joseph Papp's production of Measure for Measure, at the Delacorte Theater. Was a member of resident acting company American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 1989 to 1991. Has appeared in several Shakespeare in the Park productions, and played William Shakespeare himself in a Roundabout Theater Company production of Cheapside in 1986. Broadway appearances include A Free Man of Color, and The Coast of Utopia at Lincoln Center Theater, and Mary Stuart with Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter. Was mentored by Ron Van Lieu, Michael Kahn and Gates McFadden while at NYU, and has named Jeremy Geidt as having the most profound influence on his career.

Trivia: While savvy television viewers will no doubt recognize prolific small-screen actress Wendie Malick from such popular series as Baywatch, Just Shoot Me, and HBO's smart and sexy comedy Dream On, the late '90s found her feature career warming up in such independent efforts as Manna From Heaven (2001) and Bathroom Boy (2003). A native of Buffalo, NY, who first found work in front of the cameras as a Wilhelmina model in the 1970s, the Ohio Wesleyan University alum would later work for New York congressman Jack Kemp following her graduation. Subsequently gracing the catwalks of New York, Paris, and Madrid, it was a small role in the 1978 comedy How to Pick up Girls that provided the aspiring actress with her first screen break. Though she would appear in a few theatrical releases such as Scrooged (1988) during the 1980s, most of her work came with made-for-television features and such series as Kate and Allie and Anything But Love. Increasingly visible on the small screen during the 1990s, Malick's role as series protagonist Martin Tupper's (Brian Benben) ex-wife on Dream On utilized her comic abilities to maximum effect and netted the actress four Cable ACE awards. Following the final episode of Dream On in 1996, it was only one short year before Malick began a stint on another popular series that would gain her accolades among sitcom junkies, Just Shoot Me. Her background in the modeling industry provided the ideal foundation for her role as former model Nina Van Horn, and Malick (Emmy-nominated for the role) remained with the show until its final episode in 2003, simultaneously taking occasional parts in both made-for-TV and theatrical features. In 1997 Malick took the lead in the little-seen romantic comedy Just Add Love, and following voice work as the egotistical principal in the Disney series Fillmore!, she appeared alongside Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, and Betty White the Emmy-winning comedy series Hot in Cleveland. In addition to her screen work, Wendie Malick met husband Richard Erickson while building homes for poor families in Mexico, and she also helps the homeless with her work for the Adopt-A-Family organization.

Trivia: Realized that she was funny while competing in a "Comedy Sports" competition in high school. Was obsessed with Saturday Night Live as a child and dressed up as a different SNL sketch character every Halloween. Attended college with actor-comedian Jack McBrayer. Taught French for two years with Teach for America at TL Weston High School in Greenville, MS. Honed her comedic chops at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York, and has taught improv classes at the U.C.B. training center. Cocreated and starred in the two-character show The Adventures of Lock & Kay. Found critical success in the one-woman show She Tried to Be Normal.

Trivia: A trained Broadway singer and dancer, Christine Ebersole started acting in the 1970s on the ABC soap opera Ryan's Hope. On Broadway, she shared the stage with many greats in shows like Camelot. In 1981, she joined the cast of Saturday Night Live before returning to soaps to play Maxi McDermott on One Life to Live and earning a Daytime Emmy nomination. In 1985, Ebersole moved on to the sitcoms The Cavanaughs and Valerie. She sang the theme song as well as starred in the short-lived Fox sitcom Rachel Gunn, R.N. After making her film debut with a bit part in Tootsie, she had a few film roles, including opera diva Katerina Cavalieri in Milos Forman's Amadeus. She also starred in the family sci-fi feature Mac and Me, the Bill Cosby vehicle Ghost Dad, and several made-for-TV movies. Some of her credits include My Girl 2, Folks!, Pie in the Sky, and the Bette Midler TV version of Gypsy. In 2001, Ebersole received a Tony award for her work on the Broadway revival of 42nd Street. She worked more often on stage than on TV or movies, but in 2009 she had a small role in Confessions of a Shopaholic and landed a recurring role on the cable series Royal Pains.

Trivia: One of those screen performers whose genial off-center quality practically predestined him to a career as a character actor, Michael Panes graduated from Brown University with a music degree before moving into film. He made one of his earliest impressions as Levi, a violin-toting, self-professed doppelgänger of Peter Sellers (with horn-rimmed glasses) who turns up for a Hollywood get-together in the star-studded ensemble comedy The Anniversary Party (2001). The performer then shifted genres ad extremis to play an oddball analyst -- and the object of a sick patient's delusions -- in Ari Kirschenbaum's mind-bending psycho thriller Fabled. Panes further unveiled his proclivity for offbeat assignments with a seriocomic portrayal of a dorky loser who graduates to the jet set after winning a pile of money on a reality game show, in indie helmer Greg Pritikin's Surviving Eden (2004) (a film he also co-produced), and evoked an early Gore Vidal in Douglas McGrath's Truman Capote biopic Infamous (2005) before re-teaming with that film's co-star, Peter Bogdanovich, for a small supporting turn in the Zoe Cassavetes-directed romantic comedy Broken English (2007).

Trivia: Shared the stage with her brother in Romeo & Juliet at the Montclair Kimberly Academy. Appeared in the 2011 Shakespeare in the Park productions of Measure for Measure and All's Well That Ends Well. Played the youngest daughter in the 2011 Public Theater production of King Lear.

Trivia: Sang in his school choir and performed in high school musicals.In high school, was on the student council, ran track and played varsity football.Was a member of his high school's forensics club.Was accepted into the Goodman School of Drama, the drama school of DePaul University, but decided to attend Wayne State University because he won a theater scholarship. While attending Wayne State University, spent a semester at the British American Drama Academy.Appeared in commercials for brands like Flonase, Nyquil, Nissan Pathfinder, Campbell's Soup and Dairy Queen.Has worked in film, television and theater.Best known for playing Special Agent Dwight Harris on The Sopranos.

Trivia: Was living in Chicago when she was cast in Gypsy.In 2003, moved to New York City to make her Broadway debut in Sam Mendes' revival of Gypsy starring Bernadette Peters.In 2015, began performing in the Las Vegas show For the Record: Baz.Credits include theater, television and films.Known for her role as Michelle Hathaway on the series Haunted Hathaways.