Trivia: Long the bad boy of Hollywood, Sean Penn is also among the most fiercely talented actors of his generation. He was born August 17, 1960, in Burbank, CA, the second son of actress Eileen Ryan and director Leo Penn. He grew up in Santa Monica, in a neighborhood populated by future celebrities Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez, the sons of actor Martin Sheen. Penn's older brother, Michael, is a singer/songwriter-turned- director, while younger sibling Chris is a noted character actor. The children spent much of their free time together, making a number of amateur films shot with Super-8 cameras. Still, Penn's original intention was to attend law school, although he ultimately skipped college to join the Los Angeles Repertory Theater. After making his professional debut on an episode of television's Barnaby Jones, he relocated to New York, where he soon appeared in the play Heartland. A TV-movie, The Killing of Randy Webster, followed in 1981 before he made his feature debut later that same year in Taps.Penn shot to stardom with 1982's Fast Times at Ridgemont High; as the stoned surfer dude Jeff Spicoli, he stole every scene in which he appeared, helping to elevate the picture into a classic of the teen comedy genre; however, the quirkiness which would define his career quickly surfaced as he turned down any number of Spicoli-like roles to star in the 1983 drama Bad Boys, followed a year later by the Louis Malle caper comedy Crackers and the period romance Racing With the Moon. While none of the pictures performed well at the box office, critics consistently praised Penn's depth as an actor. A turn as a drug addict turned government spy in John Schlesinger's 1985 political thriller The Falcon and the Snowman earned some of his best notices to date, but Penn's performance was quickly lost in the glare of the media attention surrounding his very public romance with pop singer Madonna, which culminated in the couple's 1985 media-circus wedding.While Madonna actively courted press attention, the private Penn made his loathing for the media quite clear; his run-ins with the paparazzi quickly became the stuff of legend, and the notoriety of his temper began to eclipse even his immense acting ability. His penchant for fisticuffs, combined with other civil infractions, ultimately resulted in a 30-day jail sentence; more seriously, his marriage to Madonna began to buckle under the weight of media scrutiny, and, as the couple's star collaboration in the 1987 movie Shanghai Surprise met with box-office disaster, their private relationship was also over. Soured by the Hollywood experience, Penn did not resurface prior to 1988's Colors, which proved to be his biggest hit in some time. He next appeared in Brian DePalma's Vietnam tale Casualties of War, followed by a turn opposite his idol, Robert De Niro, in the 1989 comedy We're No Angels.After starring in the gangster melodrama State of Grace, Penn wrote and directed 1991's The Indian Runner, a film inspired by a Bruce Springsteen song and shaped in the image of the films of John Cassavetes. After an almost unrecognizable turn as a troubled attorney in the 1993 DePalma thriller Carlito's Way, Penn announced his intention to retire from acting in order to focus his full attentions on directing; however, after helming 1995's The Crossing Guard with Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston, he was back onscreen, winning an Academy Award nomination for his gut-wrenching portrayal of a death-row inmate in Tim Robbins' Dead Man Walking. By 1997, Penn's wishes for retirement were but a memory as he enjoyed his busiest year yet: In addition to starring opposite second wife Robin Wright in Nick Cassavetes' She's So Lovely -- roles which won both spouses acting honors at the Cannes Film Festival -- he also appeared in the David Fincher thriller The Game and in Oliver Stone's U-Turn. He found further acclaim the following year for his roles in the adaptation of David Rabe's Hurlyburly and Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line. In 1999, he had a cameo appearance in Spike Jonze's Being John Malkovich and earned his second Oscar nomination as a callous '30s jazz guitarist in Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown, while 2000s adaptation of Anita Shreve's novel, The Weight of Water, starred Penn as a poet embroiled in a small town murder mystery. In 2001, Penn would play a fame-craving impressionist in The Beaver Trilogy, serve as narrator in director Stacy Peralta's skateboarding documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, and direct the psychological drama The Pledge, which marked Penn's second collaboration with Jack Nicholson. In 2002, Penn would once again win critical praise with his Oscar-nominated portrayal of a developmentally disabled man struggling to retain custody of his daughter in I Am Sam.After the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the left-leaning actor's outspoken political views garnered a great deal of attention from right-wing pundits, including the much aggrieved Bill O'Reilly, who found himself on the receiving end of Penn's animosity in a controversial interview with Talk magazine. Though O'Reilly demanded his viewers boycott any of Penn's future films, it appears his career has remained relatively unscathed. In 2002, Penn directed a segment for the French-produced 9'11"01, which was met with mixed reviews, while his participation in Burkowski: Born Into This (2002) helped the film win a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. The year 2003 was, in fact, an eventful year for Penn; he participated in two small but nonetheless critically acclaimed films -- Michael Almereyda's documentary This So-Called Disaster and Alejandro González Iñárritu's low-key urban drama 21 Grams -- while managing to claim yet another Hollywood success in actor/director Clint Eastwood's highly lauded Mystic River. In 2004, it was this third film that garnered Penn his fourth Academy Award nomination and, ultimately, his first win. The Oscar, coupled with a standing ovation by the audience, showed once and for all that Penn's unorthodox approach to his acting career hadn't had an adverse effect on his popularity.The following year Penn would return to the screen to document one man's chilling descent into madness in the fact-based psychological drama The Assassination of Richard Nixon, but despite generally favorable reaction from critics the grim feature failed to make much of an impression at the box office. Subsequently sticking to politics with Sydney Pollock's 2005 thriller The Interpreter, Penn would this time find his character attempting to prevent the assassination of a high profile political leader rather than personally carry one out. By the time Penn essayed the role of a populist Southern politician modeled loosely on Depression-era Louisiana governor Huey Long, it seemed as if the serious-minded actor's career had finally become as political as the boat-rocking rhetoric that often found him sailing into the headlines. The third screen adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's influential novel, All the King's Men featured an impressive list of top-name Hollywood talent including Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, Patricia Clarkson, James Gandolfini, and Mark Ruffalo. In 2008, Penn received the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Milk, a biopic starring Penn in the role of politician and civil rights activist Harvey Milk. Shortly afterwards, Penn starred in Fair Game, an adaptation of author Valerie Plame's novel of the same name, and co-starred with Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain in director Terrence Malick's critically acclaimed drama The Tree of Life in 2011. In 2013, he had a small role as gangster Mickey Cohen in Gangster Squad and a supporting role in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

Trivia: Although he first appeared as just one of the latest crop of golden-skinned English imports to caress the hormones of American filmgoers, Jude Law is steadily proving that his talents lie beyond his ability to smolder seductively in front of the camera. Since 1995, when Law made the transition from British soap opera to Broadway via Sean Mathias' Indiscretions (in which he co-starred with Kathleen Turner), his work has increasingly garnered favorable notice from critics and moviegoers alike.Born in London on December 29, 1972, Law started acting as a teenager. Before Indiscretions, his most notable role was in Shopping (1994), a British production that gave him both initial recognition and an introduction to his future wife, actress Sadie Frost (the couple has two children). After the critical and commercial success of Indiscretions, Law began finding more work in film, starring as Claire Danes' boyfriend in I Love You, I Love You Not (1997) and as the genetically privileged man who sells his identity to Ethan Hawke in Gattaca (1997). Also in 1997, Law took on the plum role of Alfred Lord Douglas (or Bosie), Oscar Wilde's volatile lover in Wilde. Although none of these films received unanimously positive critical (or box-office) attention, they did help to further establish Law as an actor to be taken seriously. Law followed them with a small part in Bent (1997) and the more pivotal role of Billy, Jim Williams' hotheaded and ill-fated lover in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997). Following that film, Law went on to make a few smaller films, including Music From Another Room (also starring a still unknown Gretchen Mol) and The Final Cut, in which he played a sinister, deceased version of himself.In 1999, Law appeared in David Cronenberg's cyberific eXistenZ and completed filming Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, and Cate Blanchett. The film earned widespread acclaim upon its release, much of which was lavished on Law's portrayal of the serially charming and devastatingly superficial Dickie Greenleaf. Law garnered both a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance, further cementing his reputation as one of the more promising up-and-coming actors on either side of the ocean.After a turn as a Russian marksman facing off against a Nazi sniper in Enemy at the Gates (2001), Law returned to sci-fi with his role as love machine Gigolo Joe in Steven Spielberg's eagerly anticipated A.I.In addition to his acting commitments, Law kept busy with Natural Nylon, the production company he founded with Sadie Frost, Sean Pertwee, Ewan McGregor, and Jonny Lee Miller. In 2002, Law starred alongside film veterans Tom Hanks and Paul Newman in the multiple Oscar-winning Road to Perdition and was on the path to an Oscar once again for his performance in Cold Mountain (2003) with Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger, who took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. After appearing in only two films in as many years, Law was virtually unavoidable in the last third of 2004, with substantial roles in a grand total of six films. First up, he played the title role in the blue-screened sci-fi action flick Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, starring alongside the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, and a "resurrected" Laurence Olivier. A month later, he could be found starring in the remake of Alfie as well as in the ensemble cast of David O. Russell's comedy I Heart Huckabees. And before the close of the year, audiences could catch him in Mike Nichols' romantic drama Closer, as Errol Flynn in Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, and providing the voice of the title character in the big-screen adaptation of Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events. Produced on an elephantine, effects-heavy budget by the wunderkind, billon-dollar powerhouse Scott Rudin (The Firm, Sister Act) and starring Jim Carrey, the film opened in December 2004 and received average to positive notices; such commentators as Newsweek's Sean Smith, The Washington Post's Desson Thomson, and others championed it (one referred to it as "a Tim Burton movie without the weird shafts of adolescent pain"); others were nonplussed. Roger Ebert complained, "It's odd, how the movie's gloom and doom are amusing at first, and then dampen down the humor. Although many Unfortunate Events do indeed occur in "Lemony Snicket," they cannot be called exciting because everyone is rather depressed by them." The picture nevertheless did excellent box office. Alfie - a remake of the 1966 Michael Caine vehicle, with Law taking over the Caine role - didn't fare so well with critics but performed adequately at the box. Law ducked out of films for a year or so between 2004 and 2005, which led Variety to ask, "Where in the world is Jude Law?" The actor apparently needed a vacation, but his absence was short lived: Law ended his sabbatical after a year or so, and triumphantly returns to cinemas in 2006. In All the King's Men, Law plays second-string fiddle to an over-the-top Sean Penn. A political tale adapted from Robert Penn Warren's novel by Schindler's List scribe Steven Zaillian (who also directs), the movie weaves the tale of a Huey Long-like southern demagogue (Penn). The film will hit cinemas across the U.S. in September '06. Law is also re-teaming with his Cold Mountain collaborator, Anthony Minghella, in Breaking & Entering. Over the next several years, Law would enjoy his status as a leading man, appearing in a number of films like the Sherlock Holmes franchise, Hugo, and Contagion. He played Alexei Karenin in Anna Karenina in 2012, and appeared in The Grand Budpest Hotel in 2014.

Trivia: A handful of actresses carry such a wellspring of inner grace and presence that they appear destined for celebrity from birth. Natalie Wood had it, as did Elizabeth Taylor and Grace Kelly; many would doubtless place Kate Winslet among their ranks. A tender 11 when she commenced her formal dramatic training, 19 when she debuted cinematically, and 20 when she received her first Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination, Winslet never "ascended" to stardom; she became a star overnight. The possessor of an hourglass-figured, full-lipped beauty that lends itself effortlessly to costume dramas, Winslet was roundly hailed by the press for standing in stark, proud contrast to her more conventional Hollywood peers. Born on October 5, 1975, and raised in Reading, England, as the daughter of stage actors and the granddaughter of a repertory theater manager, Winslet inherited the "drama bug" from her folks. After training exhaustively as a child and securing professional representation she went on the air as a spokesgirl for a popular British cereal, and later attended a performing-arts secondary school. Following an early graduation in 1991 (prior to the age of 16), Winslet launched her regional stage career, highlighted by roles in adaptations of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole and Peter Pan. It would be difficult to imagine a more auspicious film bow than the role of Juliet Hulme in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures -- or a more difficult one. This characterization -- that of an extroverted adolescent who constructs an incestuously exclusive fantasy world with her best friend (Melanie Lynskey) -- put Winslet on the map, and opened the door for follow-ups in international megahits such as Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995), as the willful, passionate Marianne; and James Cameron's Titanic (1997), as the object of Leonardo Di Caprio's affections, Rose DeWitt Bukater. She received dual Oscar nominations for those roles, but, surprisingly, failed to net either one.Meanwhile, Winslet concurrently shied away from the high gloss of Cameron and unveiled her stage origins, traveling the arthouse circuit with such productions as Michael Winterbottom's Jude (1996), as Sue Bridehead; and Kenneth Branagh's disappointing, overbaked, four-hour Hamlet (1996), as Ophelia. Hideous Kinky embodied a turn on a much smaller scale. Directed by Scottish helmer Gillies MacKinnon (and scripted by his brother, Billy), the film casts Winslet as a freewheeling young hippie who takes her children to Morocco in order to pursue spiritual enlightenment. Beyond the positive reviews gleaned by the film and the praise that critics lavished onto Winslet's performance, one of the most alluring sidelights happened off camera, when Winslet dated and then married James Threapleton, the third assistant director on the MacKinnon film. The couple divorced in 2001.During 1999 and 2000, Winslet dove into two roles that required her to cut loose and break free of all inhibitions. First, she played another young woman in search of spiritual enlightenment, this time in Jane Campion's Holy Smoke. Starring as an Australian girl who joins a cult on a visit to India, and is then "deprogrammed" by Harvey Keitel, Winslet's role pushed her beyond the limits of propriety and embarrassment (one scene has her standing naked and urinating in front of Keitel). Unfortunately, one or two brave performances did not an unequivocal masterpiece make; the picture sharply divided critics, falling far short of the praise heaped onto Campion's The Piano six years earlier. Even gutsier (though more successful on a dramatic level) was Winslet's turn as a laundress who delivers the Marquis de Sade's manuscripts to the outside world in Phil Kaufman's Quills. Winslet reentered the Oscar limelight with yet another Academy-nommed performance as a youthful Iris Murdoch in director Richard Eyre's Iris, but the gold statuette eluded her a third time when Jennifer Connelly netted it for A Beautiful Mind. In early 2003, she hit a low point as Bitsey Bloom, opposite Kevin Spacey in The Life of David Gale. Based on the experience of a University of Texas professor -- an avid anti-death-penalty activist faced with execution after a false conviction -- Winslet portrayed the reporter who broke the story in a desperate attempt to discover the truth behind the mysterious and brutal crime for which Gale was convicted. As scripted by Charles Randolph and directed by Alan Parker, the picture opened and closed almost simultaneously, to devastating, brutal reviews. Winslet fared better in 2004, as the love interest opposite Jim Carrey in Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This humorous and poignant mindbender, with a tender romance at its core, scored on all fronts, as did Winslet's performance, earning her Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. She followed it up with a return to period film in Finding Neverland (2005), a movie about Victorian author J.M. Barrie, played by Johnny Depp. Playing the inspiration for the character of Wendy in the beloved novel Peter Pan seemed only natural for the charming actress, who had long since proven herself a similarly charismatic onscreen force. The next year, 2006, found Winslet in a quintet of back-to-back projects. In the CG-animated Flushed Away -- from Aardman and Dreamworks -- she voiced Rita, a scavenging sewer rat who helps Hugh Jackman's Roddy escape from the city of Ratropolis and return to his luxurious Kensington origins. That year, she also headlined the political drama All the King's Men, opposite Sean Penn. Written and directed by Schindler's List's Steven Zaillian, the picture cast Winslet as Jude Law's childhood sweetheart; while overflowing with talent, the long-gestating remake was a major misfire with critics and audiences. Perhaps more fortuitously, Winslet joined the cast of Todd Field's Little Children, an ensemble comedy drama about fear and loathing in an upper-class suburb in New England. The film would net her her fifth Oscar nomination, this time for Best Actress. More financially successful was her involvement in Nancy Meyers' romantic comedy Holiday, as Iris, a British woman who temporarily "swaps homes," as part of a vacation ploy, with Cameron Diaz's Amanda, and has an affair with Jack Black. Meanwhile, Winslet and Johnny Depp reunited for the first occasion since Finding Neverland as narrators of the IMAX documentary Deep Sea 3D (2006), filmmaker Howard Hall's lavish exploration of the aquatic depths, designed for young viewers.After taking some time off in 2007, Winslet returned in 2008 with a pair of award-winning performances. Playing opposite her Titanic co-star Leonardo DiCaprio in Revolutionary Road earned her Best Actress nominations from both the Screen Actors Guild and the Hollywood Foreign Press, as well as a healthy number of year-end critics awards. But it was her work in Stephen Daldry's adaptation of The Reader that provided her with the sixth Academy nomination of her career, as well as Best Supporting Actress nods from the Screen Actors Guild and the Golden Globes. The Hollywood Foreign Press made history that year selecting her the winner in both the Best Actress in a drama and the Best Supporting Actress categories at that year's Golden Globes.In 2011, Winslet would win an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild award for her performance in HBO's 5-part miniseries Mildred Pierce, and take on a lead role in Contagion, a disaster film directed by Steven Soderbergh. In 2013, she starred in Labor Day and joined the Divergent film series, returning for the film's sequel, Insurgent, in 2015. She also starred in Steve Jobs, and earned her seventh Oscar nomination.

Trivia: After 12 years as a struggling actor, Mark Ruffalo became the next big thing with his exceptional performance in the Oscar-nominated independent film You Can Count on Me (2000). Born in Wisconsin on November 22nd, 1967, Ruffalo wanted to be an actor as a child, but he ignored his early aspirations until the end of high school. Not sure what else to do, Ruffalo headed to Los Angeles at 18 "out of desperation" to study the craft at the prestigious Stella Adler Conservatory. After taking classes for several years and evading career decisions, Ruffalo began to venture into L.A. theater and independent film. Along with acting in over 30 plays, as well as writing and directing one of his own theater works, Ruffalo spent the 1990s amassing roles in indie movies, beginning with A Gift From Heaven (1994). Working mostly in comedies, Ruffalo appeared in The Last Big Thing (1996) and alongside comic character actor stalwarts Steve Zahn and Paul Giamatti in Safe Men (1998); he also starred as an artist with love problems in the romantic comedy Life/Drawing (1999). Trying his hand at screenwriting, Ruffalo penned Slamdance success The Destiny of Marty Fine (1996). Two potentially higher-profile films, the disco period film 54 (1998) and Ang Lee's Civil War epic Ride With the Devil (1999), failed to make a positive impression on critics and audiences.Ruffalo's luck began to change, however, when he was cast in an off-Broadway production of This Is Our Youth. Not only did he win an acting award, but Ruffalo also got to know the playwright, Kenneth Lonergan. Despite his non-resemblance to future onscreen sister Laura Linney, Ruffalo talked Lonergan into auditioning him for the role of Linney's brother in Lonergan's first film, You Can Count on Me. Well-matched in familial chemistry, Ruffalo's self-destructive, irresponsible, sensitive Terry meshed perfectly with Linney's uptight Sammy and her sheltered son, Rudy (Rory Culkin), creating a deeply felt portrait of troubled yet strong family bonds. Earning raves for its nuanced performances as well as sharp writing, You Can Count on Me garnered Ruffalo the Montreal Film Festival's Best Actor prize and talk of an Oscar nod. Though he didn't get the nomination, Ruffalo swiftly moved up the Hollywood ranks, starring as an imprisoned military pilot caught between Robert Redford and James Gandolfini in The Last Castle (2001), and as a soldier in John Woo's WWII saga Windtalkers (2001).Ruffalo's ascent to stardom was temporarily sidetracked, however, when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor while filming The Last Castle in 2000. Forced to drop out of the Joaquin Phoenix role in M. Night Shyamalan's summer hit Signs (2002), Ruffalo had surgery and spent months rehabilitating from the procedure. Having made a full recovery, Ruffalo returned to work.After Ruffalo appeared as Gwyneth Paltrow's boyfriend in the woeful flop View From the Top (2003), his lead performance as the male axis of a complicated love triangle in the indie film XX/XY (2003) garnered far more enthusiastic critical kudos than the movie itself. Ruffalo also stayed firmly within the independent cinema realm, co-starring as terminally ill Sarah Polley's lover in the drama My Life Without Me (2003). Ruffalo subsequently scored roles in two higher-profile, if still offbeat, Hollywood projects. In Jane Campion's long-gestating adaptation of erotic thriller In the Cut (2003), Ruffalo co-starred as a homicide detective who becomes involved with Meg Ryan's lonely New York professor.2004 started off with a bang for Ruffalo when We Don't Live Here Anymore, a film he both starred in and produced, received the top dramatic prize at the Sundance Film Festival. The film saw the actor teamed with Laura Dern, Peter Krause, and Naomi Watts and traced the crumbling of four characters' friendships and marriages when two of them engage in an affair. Ruffalo's next two roles would be increasingly lighter by comparison. In the Charlie Kaufman-scripted brain twister The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, he played a goofy scientist who attempts to erase Jim Carrey's memories of Kate Winslet. He then starred opposite Jennifer Garner in the romantic comedy 13 Going on 30.Three for three with the critics in 2004, Ruffalo's next project of the year was not only met with positive reviews but was a box-office winner as well. In Michael Mann's Collateral, Ruffalo played the lawman trying to track down a menacing hitman played by Tom Cruise as the hired gun terrorizes cabdriver Jamie Foxx.Ruffalo attempted to capture a mass audience with a pair of big-budget romantic comedies in 2005. Sadly, both Just Like Heaven and Rumor Has It... failed to garner large box office, even though Ruffalo was fine in both efforts. The next year, he appeared in Kenneth Lonergan's second directorial feature, Margaret, and he was part of the powerhouse cast for Steven Zaillian's remake All the King's Men, which included Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, and Anthony Hopkins. While All the King's Men, too, failed to gain a solid following -- an especially shocking surprise given the powerhouse cast on display in the film -- the verdict on Margaret had yet to be decided when, in early 2007, Ruffalo appeared onscreen opposite Robert Downey Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal in director David Fincher's Zodiac. Ruffalo was praised for his performance as a South Boston native struggling to end the cycle of poverty and crime in 2008's crime drama What Doesn't Kill You, and delivered a solid supporting performance in the complex romantic comedy The Brothers Bloom.Ruffalo's star would grow exponentially throughout the late 2000s and beyond after he delivered solid performances in a series of critically acclaimed features including a turn as partner to Detective Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) in Martin Scorsese's haunting adaptation of author Dennis Lehane's thriller Shutter Island. The actor then took over the role of the Hulk in The Avengers, a 2012 summer blockbuster from director Joss Whedon.He was part of the ensemble in the box office hit Now You See Me in 2013, and enjoyed stellar reviews in the made-for-HBO drama The Normal Heart in 2014. That same year Ruffalo scored a Best Supporting Actor nomination from the Academy for his role in Foxcatcher, playing the champion wrestler David Schultz. In 2015, he reprised his role in the Avengers sequel, and earned a third Oscar nomination for his work in Spotlight.

Trivia: Born and raised in New Orleans, deep-voiced actress Patricia Clarkson studied drama at Yale. She stayed on the East coast working in theater productions before her feature film debut in The Untouchables (1987) as the wife of Elliot Ness. Continuing to work in film, she gained attention for her role as the drug-addicted Greta in the independent film High Art. Also working in TV, she had reoccuring roles on Wonderland and Fraser, and even won an Emmy award for her role as Sarah on the HBO drama Six Feet Under. She gave memorable performances in her smaller film roles, such as the bedridden wife in The Green Mile. Her career really picked up in 2002 with appearances in such films as the Russo brothers' Welcome to Collinwood, Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven, and Lars von Trier's Dogville. In 2003, Clarkson appeared in several films at the Sundance Film Festival, where she won the Outstanding Performance award for her work in All the Real Girls, The Station Agent, and Pieces of April. She continued to work steadily in projects such as the inspirational hockey drama Miracle, and George Clooney's Oscar-nominated Good Night, and Good Luck. She was part of the high-powered ensemble put together for the box-office disappointment All the King's Men, but remained one of the most in-demand character actresses of her time, In 2007 she appeared in Lars and the Real Girl, Married Life, and No Reservations. In 2008 she began a working relationship with Woody Allen when she was cast in Vicky Cristina Barcelona that continued with Whatever Works. She had a single scene in Martin Scorsese's paranoid thriller Shutter Island in 2010, the same year she appeared in the sleeper hit Easy A. The next year she acted in the romantic drama One Day as well as the comedy Friends With Benefits.

Trivia: Born on December 31, 1937, as the only son of a baker, Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins was drawn to the theater while attending the YMCA at age 17, and later learned the basics of his craft at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. In 1960, Hopkins made his stage bow in The Quare Fellow, and then spent four years in regional repertory before his first London success in Julius Caesar. Combining the best elements of the British theater's classic heritage and its burgeoning "angry young man" school, Hopkins worked well in both ancient and modern pieces. His film debut was not, as has often been cited, his appearance as Richard the Lionhearted in The Lion in Winter (1968), but in an odd, "pop-art" film, The White Bus (1967).Though already familiar to some sharp-eyed American viewers after his film performance as Lloyd George in Young Winston (1971), Hopkins burst full-flower onto the American scene in 1974 as an ex-Nazi doctor in QB VII, the first television miniseries. Also in 1974, Hopkins made his Broadway debut in Equus, eventually directing the 1977 Los Angeles production. The actor became typed in intense, neurotic roles for the next several years: in films he portrayed the obsessed father of a girl whose soul has been transferred into the body of another child in Audrey Rose (1976), an off-the-wall ventriloquist in Magic (1978), and the much-maligned Captain Bligh (opposite Mel Gibson's Fletcher Christian) in Bounty (1982). On TV, Hopkins played roles as varied (yet somehow intertwined) as Adolph Hitler, accused Lindbergh-baby kidnapper Bruno Richard Hauptmann, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame.In 1991, Hopkins won an Academy Award for his bloodcurdling portrayal of murderer Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. With the aplomb of a thorough professional, Anthony Hopkins was able to follow-up his chilling Lecter with characters of great kindness, courtesy, and humanity: the conscience-stricken butler of a British fascist in The Remains of the Day (1992) and compassionate author C. S. Lewis in Shadowlands (1993). In 1995, Hopkins earned mixed acclaim and an Oscar nomination for his impressionistic take (done without elaborate makeup) on President Richard M. Nixon in Oliver Stone's Nixon. After his performance as Pablo Picasso in James Ivory's Surviving Picasso (1996), Hopkins garnered another Oscar nomination -- this time for Best Supporting Actor -- the following year for his work in Steven Spielberg's slavery epic Amistad. Following this honor, Hopkins chose roles that cast him as a father figure, first in the ploddingly long Meet Joe Black and then in the have-mask-will-travel swashbuckler Mask of Zorro with Antonio Banderas and fellow countrywoman Catherine Zeta-Jones. In his next film, 1999's Instinct, Hopkins again played a father, albeit one of a decidedly different stripe. As anthropologist Ethan Powell, Hopkins takes his field work with gorillas a little too seriously, reverting back to his animal instincts, killing a couple of people, and alienating his daughter (Maura Tierney) in the process.Hopkins kept a low profile in 2000, providing narration for Ron Howard's live-action adaptation of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas and voicing the commands overheard by Tom Cruise's special agent in John Woo's Mission: Impossible 2. In 2001, Hopkins returned to the screen to reprise his role as the effete, erudite, eponymous cannibal in Ridley Scott's Hannibal, the long-anticipated sequel to Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs (1991). The 160-million-dollar blockbuster did much for Hopkins' bank account but little for his standing with the critics, who by and large found Hannibal to be a stylish, gory exercise in illogical tedium. Worse yet, some wags suggested that the actor would have been better off had he followed his Silence co-star Jodie Foster's lead and opted out of the sequel altogether. Later that year, the moody, cloying Stephen King adaptation Hearts in Atlantis did little to repair his reputation with critics or audiences, who avoided the film like the plague.The long-delayed action comedy Bad Company followed in 2002, wherein audiences -- as well as megaproducer Jerry Bruckheimer -- learned that Chris Rock and Sir Anthony Hopkins do not a laugh-riot make. But the next installment in the cash-cow Hannibal Lecter franchise restored a bit of luster to the thespian's tarnished Hollywood career. Red Dragon, the second filmed version of Thomas Harris' first novel in the Lecter series, revisited the same territory previously adapted by director Michael Mann in 1986's Manhunter, with mixed but generally positive results. Surrounding Hopkins with a game cast, including Edward Norton, Ralph Finnes, Harvey Keitel and Emily Watson, the Brett Ratner film garnered some favorable comparisons to Demme's 1991 award-winner, as well as some decent -- if not Hannibal-caliber -- returns at the box office.Hopkins would face his biggest chameleon job since Nixon with 2003's highly anticipated adaptation of Philip Roth's Clinton-era tragedy The Human Stain, a prestige Miramax project directed by Robert Benton and co-starring Nicole Kidman, fresh off her Oscar win for The Hours. Hopkins plays Stain's flawed protagonist Coleman Silk, an aging, defamed African-American academic who has been "passing" as a Jew for most of his adult life. Unfortunately, most critics couldn't get past the hurtle of accepting the Anglo-Saxon paragon as a light-skinned black man. The film died a quick death at the box office and went unrecognized in year-end awards.2004's epic historical drama Alexander re-united Hopkins and Nixon helmer Oliver Stone in a three-hour trek through the life and times of Alexander the Great. The following year, Hopkins turned up in two projects, the first being John Madden's drama Proof. In this Miramax release, Hopkins plays Robert, a genius mathematician who - amid a long descent into madness - devises a formula of earth-shaking proportions. That same year's comedy-drama The World's Fastest Indian saw limited international release in December 2005; it starred Hopkins - ever the one to challenge himself by expanding his repertoire to include increasingly difficult roles - as New Zealand motorcycle racer Burt Munro, who set a land speed record on his chopper at the Utah Bonneville Flats. The quirky picture did limited business in the States but won the hearts of many viewers and critics.He then joined the ensemble cast of the same year's hotly-anticipated ensemble drama Bobby, helmed by Emilio Estevez, about the events at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles just prior to RFK's assassination. Hopkins plays John Casey, one of the hotel proprietors.Hopkins long held true passions in arenas other than acting - specifically, painting and musical composition. As for the former, Hopkins started moonlighting as a painter in the early 2000s, and when his tableaux first appeared publicly, at San Antonio's Luciane Gallery in early 2006, the canvases sold out within six days. Hopkins is also an accomplished symphonic composer and the author of several orchestral compositions, though unlike some of his contemporaries (such as Clint Eastwood) his works never supplemented movie soundtracks and weren't available on disc. The San Antonio Symphony performed a few of the pieces for its patrons in spring 2006.Hopkins would remain a prolific actor over the next several years, appearing in films like The Wolfman, Thor, and 360.Formerly wed to actress Petronella Barker and to Jennifer Lynton, Hopkins married his third wife, actress and producer Stella Arroyave, in March 2003.

Trivia: Born and raised in New Jersey, press-shy James Gandolfini forged a film career as a prolific character actor before finally emerging as a bona fide star in the critically-lauded HBO series The Sopranos. After earning his college degree in 1983, Gandolfini headed to New York to study at the Actors Studio. Supporting himself for almost ten years as a bartender and nightclub manager, Gandolfini's major break came in 1992 with a role in a Broadway version of A Streetcar Named Desire starring Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange, and his film debut in Sidney Lumet's A Stranger Among Us. Following small parts in several 1993 films, including the Quentin Tarantino-scripted True Romance, Gandolfini played more substantial roles as one of the heavies in Terminal Velocity (1994), Geena Davis' neighborhood boyfriend in Angie (1994), one of the submarine crew in Crimson Tide (1995), and a stuntman-turned-Mob enforcer in Get Shorty (1995). Equally gifted at playing characters on either side of the law, Gandolfini appeared as the violent neighbor who assaults Robin Wright Penn in She's So Lovely (1997) and a cop in Lumet's legal drama Night Falls on Manhattan (1997).Gandolfini played supporting roles in several more films, including Fallen (1998) and A Civil Action (1998), before he was cast as the head of a dysfunctional Mafia family in The Sopranos. Anchored by Gandolfini's superbly-nuanced performance as Prozac-popping, mother-bedeviled capo Tony Soprano, The Sopranos was hailed as a TV masterpiece for its alternately funny, surreal and deadly-serious look at New Jersey Mob life. Though he was passed over for the Emmy, Gandolfini won the SAG and Golden Globe Awards for Lead Actor in a TV drama for The Sopranos' 1999 season. During the series break, Gandolfini appeared as a slimy pornographer in 8MM (1999).Gandolfini finally added the Emmy to his trophies in 2000 for the second season of The Sopranos. Despite the inevitable criticism about the series' sophomore slump, there was no question as to Gandolfini's continuing excellence as the New Jersey Mob paterfamilias. Gandolfini followed his Emmy triumph with a supporting role as a gay hit man in The Mexican (2001), easily stealing the film from co-stars Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt. Even as he was earning The Mexican's few good notices in theaters, Gandolfini was garnering still more plaudits for The Sopranos' controversial third season, as Tony's increasingly delinquent son elicited anguished soul-searching from Tony about his legacy. Though his third Emmy nomination spoke to his formidable TV presence as Tony, Gandolfini also further burnished his movie credits with a small part in Joel Coen and Ethan Coen's Cannes Film Festival award winner The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), and a major starring role as a corrupt Army colonel who goes head-to-head with Robert Redford's incarcerated general in The Last Castle (2001). Gandolfini continued to impress on The Sopranos for the show's run, which finally ended in 2007. He would also find success on screen, appearing in a wide and impressive variety of roles in films like All the King's Men, The Taking of Pelham 123, and Violet & Daisy. Tragically, Gandolfini died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 2013 at the age of 51.

Trivia: The career of Jackie Earle Haley should be inspirational for any former child star or out-of-work actor. In his preteen years, Haley earned his living as a TV commercial actor and voice-over artist (he voiced the son on Hanna-Barbera's animated All in the Family clone Wait Till Your Father Gets Home). At 13, Haley was cast as the juvenile delinquent with home-run power in Michael Ritchie's superb little-league comedy The Bad News Bears, earning a cult following for his portrayal of the swaggering, cool loner. He repeated the iconic role in two sequels, one of the few members of the original cast to do so. Peter Yates cast Haley, alongside future celebrities Dennis Quaid and Daniel Stern, as a member of the bike-racing team in the Oscar-winning Breaking Away (1979). Earle disappeared from screens after some fitful television work through the '80s, but stayed busy behind the camera as a writer and an accomplished director of commercials. After more than a decade off the big screen, Haley made a spectacular return in 2006, first as the menacing bodyguard/driver Sugar Boy in All the King's Men, and then with an Oscar-nominated turn as a suburban pedophile in Todd Field's Little Children. He had a small part in the 2008 Will Ferrell comedy Semi-Pro, and the next year he was cast as Rorschach, arguably the most psychotic member of The Watchmen. In 2010 he appeared in a memorable one-scene cameo in Shutter Island and took the iconic part of Freddy Kruger in the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Two years later he was cast by Tim Burton in his big-screen version of Dark Shadows and by Steven Spielberg in the director's long-planned biopic Lincoln.

Trivia: An earthy strawberry blonde who has skirted typical leading lady roles to build a respectable career out of commendable supporting performances, talented Kathy Baker has time and again proven her cinematic worth with indispensable turns in such films as Edward Scissorhands (1990) and The Cider House Rules (1999). A native of Midland, TX, who received a degree in French from the University of California at Berkley, Baker studied briefly at the California Institute of Arts before abandoning her further education to reside in Paris for a number of years. After returning stateside to make a name for herself on stage and screen, Baker found 1983 to be a pivotal year for her career when she won an Obie for her role in Sam Shepard's Fool for Love and made a lasting impression in director Philip Kaufman's space program drama The Right Stuff. Subsequent roles as a prostitute in Street Smart (1987) and a recovering alcoholic and victim of domestic abuse in Clean and Sober (1988) proved a testament to Baker's considerable onscreen skills; her performance in Street Smart earned her Best Supporting Actress awards from the Boston Society of Film Critics and the National Society of Film Critics as well as an Independent Spirits awards nomination.Baker was increasingly prevalent in quirky dramas throughout the 1990s, but it was her work on the small screen that earned Baker the majority of her recognition in that decade. Her winning performance as a small-town doctor and family woman proved a key component in the success of the small-screen drama Picket Fences during the show's 1992-1996 run, and though she would focus her attention on the series, Baker still made time to appear in such theatrical releases as Mad Dog and Glory (1993) and To Gillian in Her 37th Birthday (1996). Frequently alternating between high-profile releases and independent efforts, no matter what the quality of the films, Baker's performances were consistently solid. The new millennium once again found Baker scoring a hit with her role in the popular television comedy drama Boston Public, and though she only served a two-season stint on the series, she soon returned to television work with Murphy's Dozen on 2003. Her role as an overbearing mother tackled the issue of teenage pregnancy to surprising effect in the 2002 made-for-television effort Too Young to Be a Dad. Following a supporting performance in Robert Duvall's Assassination Tango (also 2002), Baker could be spotted in director Anthony Minghella's eagerly anticipated Civil War romance Cold Mountain (2003).

Trivia: A longtime television actress who has also branched out into film, brunette beauty Talia Balsam also gained Hollywood recognition for her brief marriage to a pre-superstar George Clooney. Born to actors Martin Balsam and Joyce Van Patten in New York City in 1960, the young aspiring actress received her education at the Treehaven School in Tucson, AZ, before making her bid for the big-time shortly thereafter. In the late '70s, Balsam warmed to television audiences with recurring roles in the small-screen hits Happy Days and Taxi and feature roles in such made-for-TV films as The Survival of Dana and Sunnyside (both 1979) proved a testament to her dramatic range. A dizzying onslaught of similar television features followed, and the 1980s found Balsam becoming something of a staple in such made-for-TV efforts as Kent State (1981) and The Ladies (1987). Endearing roles on Family Ties and Punky Brewster provided just the right balance to such feature screamers as The Supernaturals (1986) and The Kindred (1987); by the time the 1990s rolled around, Balsam was married to up-and-comer Clooney and turning heads on Murder, She Wrote, thirtysomething, and Law & Order. Despite the fact that her most successful roles came with dramatic small-screen roles, Balsam continued to prove that she was an actress of little pretense by appearing in such quirky feature efforts as Coldblooded (1995) and Camp Stories (1997). Married to John Slattery following her divorce from Clooney in 1993, Balsam was later seen in the TV series L.A. Doctors and the feature Valerie Flake (1999).

Trivia: Frederic Forrest seemed destined for stardom earlier in his career, but circumstance has led him to become a well-respected supporting/character actor who only occasionally plays leads. Forrest began working professionally off-Broadway after studying acting under Sanford Meisner and Lee Strasberg. Forrest then worked in experimental theater with such groups as Tom O'Horgan's La Mama; it is with this troupe that he made his first film appearance in Futz (1969). He appeared in his first Hollywood feature as a young Indian in When the Legends Die (1972) after being spotted performing on the Los Angeles stage. His work earned him a Golden Globe for Best Newcomer and put him in demand with several big-name directors, most notably Francis Ford Coppola, who has provided Forrest with some of his best roles in films like The Conversation (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979), and Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988). Forrest was one of the first actors signed to a contract with Coppola's Zoetrope Studios. Forrest has once been nominated for an Oscar for playing Bette Midler's chauffeur/lover in The Rose (1979). In 1983, Forrest offered a memorable portrayal of detective novelist Dashiell Hammett in Hammett. Forrest has also done a lot of television work and has been particularly notable in such offerings as Lonesome Dove and Saigon, Year of the Cat. While primarily a supporting actor during the '80s, Forrest began playing character roles during the '90s in such films as The Two Jakes (1990), Falling Down (1993), and The Brave (1996).

Trivia: The genial, slightly stocky Hollywood character actor Kevin Dunn graced the casts of some of the highest grossing and most enjoyable A-listers of the '80s, '90s, and 2000s. With a pleasant (if unremarkable) countenance, this brother of Second City veteran (and onetime Saturday Night Live mainstay) Nora Dunn cut his chops playing everymen in American movies and one-shot television episodes. Kevin Dunn lacked the sketch comedy background of his arguably more famous sibling but quickly chalked up an equally extensive resumé at about the same time.Dunn debuted on camera in the mid-'80s, with a recurring role on the series comedy drama Jack & Mike (1986), co-starring Shelley Hack and Tom Mason, but Alan Parker's harrowing civil-rights drama Mississippi Burning (in which he played Agent Bird) marked his first real breakthrough. From that point on, he became ever-present in such blockbusters as Ghostbusters 2 (1989), Blue Steel (1990), Only the Lonely (1991), Hot Shots! (1991), Chaplin (1992), and Dave (1993). Directors often cast Dunn as an emotional (or political) support to a heavy, such as his brief evocation of Nixon aide (and eventual Christian spokesperson) Chuck Colson in Oliver Stone's biopic Nixon (1995), that of Lou Logan (opposite Nicolas Cage) in Brian De Palma's muddled, flawed paranoid thriller Snake Eyes (1998), and that of Alex (alongside Sean Penn) in the political drama All The King's Men (2006). In 2007, Dunn appeared in the blockbuster action hit Transformers as Ron Witwicky, the father of lead actor Shia LaBeouf's character, Sam. Dunn also had a role in the underperforming Tom Cruise/Robert Redford/Meryl Streep drama Lions for Lambs. In the fall of that year, Dunn found success on the sitcom Samantha Who? as the father of the amnesia-afflicted main character (Christina Applegate).He was part of the cast of Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and played a bad guy in the runaway train thriller Unstoppable. In 2011 he appeared in the well-reviewed MMA drama Warrior, and the blockbuster Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The next year he was cast in the one and only season of HBO's racetrack set drama series Luck.

Trivia: Was on the wrestling team in high school and developed his film Win Win with one of his former teammates based on their experiences. During his time at Boston College, was a member of the school's improv comedy group, My Mother's Flea Bag. Was a member of Yale Cabaret while studying at Yale School of Drama along with his classmate Paul Giamatti who would later star in his film Win Win. Made his Broadway debut as Garry Lejeune in the 2001 revival of Noises Off. Received the 2008 Arts Council Alumni Award for Distinguished Achievement from Boston College.

Trivia: Was a high-school senior when he landed his first movie role, the Texas-set teen comedy-drama Drive-In. The Dallas native's second TV role was in a 1978 episode of Dallas (his TV debut came earlier that year in an episode of Police Woman). Appeared with 24 castmate Xander Berkeley in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (as sheriffs) and the 1997 movie Air Force One. Has played five characters in three Star Trek series and one Trek movie. Is a motivational speaker whose "Extra Mile" seminar helps participants develop techniques for achieving their goals. Has appeared in three Transformer movies, even though his character was killed in the first film (2007). Morshower returned as a different character in the 2009 and 2011 installments.

Trivia: Supporting player, onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: Has eight younger siblings.After his high school graduation, enlisted in the U.S. Navy and for three years served in Hawaii.Started his acting career doing children's theater in plays like Winnie the Pooh.Is an accomplished singer and has sang in musicals like 110 in the Shade, Carousel and Oh Calcutta!Often plays officers, agents, businessmen, judges, lawyers or military men.

Trivia: Actor Tom Aldredge is one of the few actors who are perhaps equally well remembered for careers on the screen and the stage. Aldredge made his Broadway debut in the musical The Nervous Set in 1959 when he was 31, and began making appearances on TV soon afterward, appearing in TV movies like The Mouse on the Moon and The Troublemaker in the early '60s. As the decades rolled on, Aldredge would continue to nurture his stage career, earning particular accolades for his performance in the Stephen Sondheim production Into the Woods. All the while, he racked up role after role in movies and on TV, playing memorable characters like Ozzie in 1973's Sticks and Bones and William Shakespeare on the CBS Festival of the Lively Arts for Young People in 1977 - for which he won a Daytime Emmy Award. He would also find no trouble picking up regular parts on television, co-starring in the series Ryan's Hope in the early 80s, and The Sopranos, Damages, and Boardwalk Empire in the 2000's. Aldredge passed away in July of 2011 at the age of 83.

Trivia: Keb' Mo' draws heavily on the old-fashioned country blues style of Robert Johnson, but keeps his sound contemporary with touches of soul and folksy storytelling. He writes much of his own material and has applied his acoustic, electric, and slide guitar skills to jazz and rock-oriented bands, as well. Born Kevin Moore in Los Angeles to parents of Southern descent, he was exposed to gospel music at a young age. At 21, Moore joined an R&B band later hired for a tour by Papa John Creach and played on three of Creach's albums. Opening for jazz and rock artists such as the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jefferson Starship, and Loggins & Messina helped broaden Moore's horizons and musical abilities. He cut an R&B-based solo album, Rainmaker, in 1980 for Casablanca, which promptly folded. In 1983, he joined Monk Higgins' band as a guitarist and met a number of blues musicians who collectively increased his understanding of the music. He subsequently joined a vocal group called the Rose Brothers and gigged around L.A. Moore portrayed a Delta bluesman in a local play called Rabbit Foot in 1990 and later playing Robert Johnson in a docudrama called Can't You Hear the Wind Howl? He released his self-titled debut album as Keb' Mo' in 1994, featuring two Robert Johnson covers, 11 songs written or co-written by Moore, and his guitar and banjo work. Keb' Mo' performed a well-received set at the 1995 Newport Folk Festival. His second album, Just Like You, was equally well-received. Slow Down followed in 1998 and Door was issued two years later.

Trivia: Studied set design in college and was asked to take on a part in a play, which led to his shift to acting. First appeared on television in the 1987 made-for-TV movie Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife. Won critical acclaim for his portrayal of Moe Howard in the 2000 made-for-TV biopic The Three Stooges. Has been cast in roles on many HBO series including The Wire, Entourage and John From Cincinnati. Co-authored the play The Good Steno with his mother, Leah Kornfeld Friedman. A guest appearance on an episode of the USA Network series Monk led to his role, beginning in 2008, on that network's In Plain Sight.