Trivia: An icon of machismo and Hollywood action heroism, Sylvester Stallone is responsible for creating two characters who have become a part of the American cultural lexicon: Rocky Balboa, the no-name boxer who overcame all odds to become a champion, and John Rambo, the courageous soldier who specialized in violent rescues and revenge. Both characters are reflections of Stallone's personal experiences and the battles he waged during his transition from a poor kid in Hell's Kitchen to one of the world's most popular stars. According to Stallone, his was not a happy childhood. On July 6, 1946, in the aforementioned part of Manhattan, Sylvester Enzio Stallone was born to a chorine and an Italian immigrant. A forceps accident during his birth severed a facial nerve, leaving Stallone with parts of his lip, tongue, and chin paralyzed. In doing so, the accident imprinted Stallone with some of the most recognizable components of his persona: the distinctively slurred (and some say often nearly incomprehensible) speech patterns, drooping lower lip, and crooked left eye that have been eagerly seized upon by caricaturists. To compound these defects, Stallone was a homely, sickly child who once suffered from rickets. His parents were constantly at war and struggling to support Stallone and his younger brother, Frank Stallone (who became a B-movie actor). The elder brother spent most of his first five years in the care of foster homes. Stallone has said that his interest in acting came from his attempts to get attention and affection from those strangers who tried to raise him. When he was five, his parents moved their family to Silver Spring, MD, but once again spent their time bickering and largely ignored their children. Following his parents' divorce in 1957, the 11-year-old Stallone remained with his stern father. The actor's teen years proved even more traumatic. As Stallone seemed willing to do just about anything for attention, however negative, he had already been enrolled in 12 schools and expelled several times for his behavior problems. His grades were dreadful and his classmates picked on him for being different. Stallone coped by becoming a risk taker and developing elaborate fantasies in which he presented himself as a brave hero and champion of the underdog. At age 15, Stallone moved to Philadelphia to be with his mother and her new husband. By this time, he had begun lifting weights and took up fencing, football, and the discus. He also started appearing in school plays. Following graduation, Stallone received an athletic scholarship for the American College of Switzerland. While there he was a girls' athletic coach and in his spare time starred in a school production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. The experience inspired him to become an actor and after returning stateside, he started studying drama at the University of Miami until he decided to move to New York in 1969. While working a variety of odd jobs, Stallone auditioned frequently but only occasionally found stage work, most of which was off-Broadway in shows like the all-nude Score and Rain. He even resorted to appearing in the softcore porn film, Party at Kitty's and Studs, which was later repackaged as The Italian Stallion after Stallone became famous. Stallone's face and even his deep voice were factors in his constant rejection for stage and film roles. He did nab a bit role in Woody Allen's Bananas (1971), but after he was turned down for The Godfather (1971), Stallone became discouraged. Rather than give up, however, Stallone again developed a coping mechanism -- he turned to writing scripts, lots of scripts, some of which were produced. He still auditioned and landed a starring role in Rebel (1973). During his writing phase, he married actress Sasha Czack in late 1974 and they moved to California in the hopes of building acting careers. His first minor success came when he wrote the screenplay for and co-starred in the nostalgic Lords of Flatbush (1974) with Henry Winkler. The film's modest success resulted in Stallone's getting larger roles, but he still didn't attract much notice until he penned the screenplay for Rocky. The story was strong and well written and studios were eager to buy the rights, but Stallone stipulated that he would be the star and must receive a share of the profits. Producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff accepted Stallone's terms and Rocky (1976) went on to become one of the biggest movie hits of all time. It also won several Oscars including ones for Best Picture, Best Director for John Avildsen, and a Best Actor nomination for Stallone. Suddenly Stallone found himself on Hollywood's A-list, a status he has largely maintained over the years. In addition to writing four sequels to Rocky, he penned three Rambo films (First Blood, Rambo: First Blood Part II, and Rambo 3) and F.I.S.T. (1979). Stallone made his directorial debut with Paradise Alley, which he filmed in Hell's Kitchen. He also wrote and directed but did not appear in the sequel to Saturday Night Fever, Staying Alive (1983). In addition, Stallone has continued to appear in the films of other directors, notably Demolition Man (1993), Judge Dredd (1995), and Copland (1997), a film in which he allowed himself to gain 30 pounds in order to more accurately portray an aging sheriff. Occasionally, Stallone has ventured out of the action genre and into lighter fare with such embarrassing efforts as Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992) and Oscar (1991), which did not fare well at the box office. Following these missteps, Stallone found greater success with the animated adventure Antz (1998), a film in which his very distinctive voice, if not his very distinctive physique, was very much a part. Stallone was back in shape for the 2000 remake of Get Carter and hit the race tracks in the following year in the CART racing thriller Driven. Though the early 2000s found his career sputtering along with such forgettable duds as D-Tox and Avenging Angelo, Stallone took his career into his own hands by returning to the director's chair to resurrect two of his most iconic characters. Lacing his boxing gloves up once again for Rocky Balboa, the veteran action star proved he still had some fight left in him, and venturing into the jungles of Burma as John Rambo just two years later, he proved that hard "R" action could still sell in the era where most filmmakers were playing it "PG-13"safe. That trend continued with Stallone's all-star action opus The Expendables in 2010, with the success of that film leading to a sequel (with Simon West taking over directorial duties) featuring even more action icons in 2012. Incredibly, not even a broken neck suffered during production of The Expendables proved capable of slowing Stallone down, and 2013 found him teaming with Walter Hill for Bullet to the Head -- which followed a cop and a killer as they teamed up to take down a mutual enemy. In 2015, Stallone returned to Rocky Balboa once more, but this time as a supporting character in the spin-off film Creed. He earned rave reviews and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, making him only the sixth performer to be nominated for playing the same character in two separate films.

Trivia: Born Curtis James Jackson III in Queens, NY, superstar hardcore rapper 50 Cent -- more than any of his contemporaries -- lived out the mythology of the "urban gangsta," to such a degree that he's quite fortunate to be alive, let alone a pop-culture superstar. The product of a broken home, 50 Cent survived stabbings, shootings, crack dealing, multiple incarcerations, and many other calamities and near-misses, and then drew lyrically from his own violent personal history, using this authentic material (with the help of Run-D.M.C.'s Jam Master Jay and Eminem) to establish himself as one of the most important rap acts of the early 21st century. 50 Cent's albums Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003) and The Massacre (2005) thrived on the songster's outstanding hooks, clever lyrics, and superlative production values; consequently, each album sold several million copies and turned the rapper into an American icon. The musician's look also turned heads: tall, rippled, and tattooed, frequently sporting a bulletproof vest and a large pistol, he became the newest spokesperson for the "gangsta" subculture. The leap from rap superstardom to movie stardom can be a short one, as Ice-T and Ice Cube demonstrated. Although 50 Cent launched his cinematic career as an onscreen subject -- in the 2003 documentaries 50 Cent: The New Breed and 50 Cent: Unauthorized -- Shoot First -- he soon branched out into more challenging material. In 2005, 50 Cent headlined a gritty big-screen biopic of his own life, Get Rich or Die Tryin', directed by My Left Foot helmer Jim Sheridan. In that movie, the rapper hearkened back to his given name, with billing as Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson. In 2008, he went on to co-star in the cop thriller Righteous Kill, directed by Jon Avnet, with legendary actors Robert De Niro and Al Pacino as a pair of Manhattan cops on the trail of a serial murderer. He continued to appear in music-related documentaries and concert films, and in 2011 he produced the Mario Van Peebles film All Things Fall Apart. The next year he appeared in the thriller Odd Thomas as part of a cast that includes Anton Yelchin, Willem Dafoe, and Patton Oswalt.

Trivia: Worked as a bouncer after high school. Began his career as a professional wrestler in the Ohio Valley Wrestling league in 2000, under the name Leviathan. Joined the WWE in 2002, as Batista. Released his autobiography, Batista Unleashed, in 2007. Appeared as a judge on an episode of Iron Chef America in 2008. Made his MMA debut in 2010, against Vince Lucero; Bautista won the fight with a TKO.

Trivia: Blonde, blue-eyed, and bearing the kind of glossy looks that lend themselves equally to teen idoldom and Noxema spokesmanship, Devon Sawa was one of the young actors to coast into the pop culture consciousness on the late-1990s wave of Hollywood teensploitation. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, on September 7, 1978, Sawa developed an interest in acting when he appeared in a few kindergarten plays. Following work in local theatrical productions, the young actor secured an agent and began making appearances on various Canadian TV shows. Tiring of television, he broke into film with the 1994 kids' comedy Little Giants, in which he played the quarterback of a misfit football team.A small but apparently very memorable role as the human incarnation of the titular ghost in Casper (1995) made Sawa immensely popular with any number of teenage girls; his popularity received an additional boost that same year, thanks to his role as the neighborhood bully who locks lips with Christina Ricci in Now and Then (the two had previously shared a screen kiss in Casper). More work followed, with Sawa starring in such straight-to-video releases as The Boys Club (1996) and Wild America (1997). Sawa got his first real chance to carry a mainstream movie with the 1999 Idle Hands. A teen horror-comedy that took advantage of the genre craze originally inspired by the Scream series, it starred Sawa as a young man whose right hand gets possessed by a homicidal demon. Unfortunately, the film was released shortly before the Columbine High School tragedy; surprisingly enough, audiences, sickened by the recent spate of real-life teen violence, stayed away in droves. The following year, Sawa was given another crack at film stardom with Final Destination, a psychological thriller that featured the young actor as a high school student who discovers that cheating death is a very tricky matter indeed.Sawa kept a relatively low profile for the next couple of years, appearing in smaller films like Extreme Ops (2002) and Devil's Den (2006) before landing on the CW action series Nikita. What started as a guest role in season 1 was expanded to a recurring gig in season 2, before being promoted to a series regular for season 3.

Trivia: A successful model (and, despite her masculine-sounding first name, most certainly not a man), James King has gone from gracing the pages of the world's leading fashion magazines to a promising career as an actress. Jaime King (James is a stage name) was born in Omaha, NE, in 1979; King's statuesque beauty became evident at a young age, and in her early teens, she began attending a local modeling school. When King was 14, a representative from a New York modeling agency saw her in a show, and a year later King's career was in high gear. King's picture had appeared in Vogue, Glamour, Allure, Harper's Bazaar, and Mademoiselle before she'd reached the age of 17, and she'd also become an in-demand runway model, with her lean good looks being used to promote the latest designs from Christian Dior, Marithe and Francois Girbaud, and Chanel. However, after rising to fame, King succumbed to the pressures and temptations of the high-pressure world of modeling, and she began to abuse alcohol and drugs, leading to a brief addiction to heroin; King had also become romantically involved with photographer David Sorrenti, and after he died of a drug overdose in 1997, King was inspired to get clean and sober and has remained drug-free since then.King's acting career really took flight, with appearances in the biopic Blow, the blockbuster Pearl Harbor, and the teen-horror satire Happy Campers. The actress would spend the 2000's cementing her role as an in-demand starlet, appearing in films like Sin City, Two for the Money, and Fanboys, as well as numerous TV shows, like The Class, Gary Unmarried, and Heart of Dixie.

Trivia: Born in Costa Rica to Chinese parents; moved to California at age 4. Took up dancing seriously after auditioning for his high-school dance team on a dare; was also a pole vaulter on the track team. Has been a backup dancer for Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Missy Elliott, Alicia Keys and Jessica Simpson. Was the only male dancer on BET's Comic View in 2002. Was one of the dancing silhouettes in the commercials for iPod. Choreographed part of the routine that the troupe the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers performed at the 2010 Academy Awards; he plays Elliot Hoo (a guy with magical shoes) in LXD's online series.

Trivia: Challenging traditional stereotypes for Asian-American actors, Russell Wong has earned a reputation as a sexy, charismatic leading man whose good looks are matched by his skills as a performer. The sixth of seven children, Russell Wong was born on March 1, 1963, in Troy, NY; his family moved to Albany when he was a baby, where his father ran a restaurant. When Wong was seven years of age, his parents divorced, and he moved with his mother to California, settling near Yosemite. In 1981, Wong graduated from Mariposa County High School, and that fall enrolled at Santa Monica City College. Wong supported himself as a photographer and as a dancer (appearing in rock videos with David Bowie, Donna Summer, and Janet Jackson, among others) before scoring his first screen roles in 1985, appearing in a Hong Kong musical called Ge wu sheng ping (aka Musical Dancer) and in a screen adaptation of James Clavell's best-seller Tai-Pan. A number of undistinguished television and film roles followed, but Wong began breaking into better roles in 1989, when he made a memorable guest appearance on the drama series 21 Jump Street and won a leading role in Wayne Wang's acclaimed independent romantic comedy Eat a Bowl of Tea. Supporting roles in China Cry and New Jack City were to follow, and Wong found himself working with Wayne Wang again when he was cast in a meaty role in the film adaptation of Amy Tan's best-selling novel The Joy Luck Club. Wong finally scored a high-profile breakthrough role in 1994, when he was cast in the leading role in the made-for-TV movie Vanishing Son, in which he played a Chinese political activist exiled in America. The show was popular enough to spawn three sequels, and was later spun off into a syndicated TV series. After Vanishing Son ran its course, Wong moved on to more big-screen work, including major roles in Prophesy II, The Tracker, and Romeo Must Die, as well as the made-for-TV epic The Lost Empire. Russell Wong is also the brother of Michael Wong, a fellow thespian active in both Hong Kong and the United States.

Trivia: Swiss-born martial artist Daniel Bernhardt has followed in the violent footsteps of Belgian kickboxer Jean-Claude Van Damme as a handsome European-accented leading man in Hollywood action thrillers. After studying in the Swiss capital of Bern and modeling in Paris, Bernhardt literally took over for Van Damme in the second, third, and fourth incarnations of the Bloodsport film series. After starring in the low-budget debacle that is Future War, he kicked his way through the movies True Vengeance, Black Sea Raid, Perfect Target, and Global Effect. In 1998, he starred as Siro on the video game-inspired TV show Mortal Combat Conquest. In 2003, Bernhardt finally found a highly profitable outlet for his skills as Agent Johnson in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.

Trivia: Started her career in entertainment as a singer for local events in her hometown. Appeared on Ed McMahon's Next Big Star in 2002, and won four rounds in the kids category. Landed her first recurring role as an actress in the Nickelodeon series Unfabulous in 2004. Killed off in season 1 of The Vampire Diaries, but was brought back as a ghost in later seasons. Supports Kids Against Animal Cruelty.