Trivia: Became interested in theatre after watching performances of Shakespeare - The Animated Tales at the Barbican in London when he was 11 years old. Played the role of Francisco/Lucianus in English Touring Theatre's production of Hamlet in 2005. Performed with Sir Ian McKellan in King Lear in 2008. First National Theatre lead role was in Edward II in September 2013. To prepare for his role in Oppenheimer in 2015 he watched YouTube videos of J. Robert Oppenheimer to pick up his vocal energy and mannerisms. Played the title role in Macbeth with Anna Maxwell Martin as Lady Macbeth at the Young Vic theatre in London in 2015.

Trivia: American actor Richard Crenna started out as a radio performer at age 11, demonstrating an astonishing range for one so young. The momentum of his career was unaffected by an army hitch and time spent earning an English degree at the University of Southern California. But even though he was by then in his twenties, Crenna found himself still playing adolescents, notably squeaky-voiced high schooler Walter Denton on the radio comedy Our Miss Brooks. That he was able to play characters of virtually any age was overlooked by movie and TV casting directors, who could see Crenna only in callow-juvenile roles. After making an excellent impression as ballplayer Daffy Dean in the 1953 film Pride of St. Louis, for example, Crenna wasn't cast in another film until the 1955 movie version of Our Miss Brooks--in which, at 29, he was Walter Denton once more. The following year, Crenna decided "to sorta let Walter Denton die," and took a decidedly mature role in the sleazy exploitation film Over-Exposed (1956). It was a fully grown Crenna who took on the role of Luke McCoy on the Walter Brennan TV series The Real McCoys, which ran from 1957 through 1963 and which gave Crenna his first opportunities as a director. After McCoys, Crenna found himself facing potential career standstill again, since it seemed that now he was typed as the rubeish Luke McCoy. This time, however, the actor had impressed enough producers with his dogged work ethic and the range displayed in guest-star appearances. In 1964, Crenna was cast in a prestigious TV drama For the People as assistant DA David Koster, and though the program lasted only one season, Crenna was firmly established as a compelling dramatic actor. Still, and despite solid Richard Crenna film performances in The Sand Pebbles (1966), Body Heat (1981) and The Flamingo Kid (1985), the actor has never completely escaped the spectre of Walter Denton. Crenna was able to conjure up the old adenoidal Denton voice on talk shows of the 1980s and 1990s, and in the action-film spoof Hot Shots: Part Deux, the actor, with an absolute straight face, portrayed Colonel Denton Walters!

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: Possessing an almost hypnotic earthy beauty that perfectly compliments her effectively understated acting style, Jenny Agutter made a lasting impression on cinema lovers worldwide with appearances in such films as The Railway Children (1970), Walkabout (1971), and Logan's Run (1976). Although she continued to appear in features in the ensuing decades, the actress also made a notable name for herself as both a high-profile philanthropist and photographer. Born in Taunton, Somerset, England, in the winter of 1952 of military parents, Agutter had seen most of the world by the age of 11, when she was enrolled in the Elmhurst Ballet School in Cambury, Surrey. She made her film debut in East of Sudan (1964) when only 12, and, after utilizing her dance skills in Ballerina the following year, she made her biggest impression to date in the feature version of The Railway Children (1970). (She had previously appeared in a television series based on the story.) Entering drama school at the age of 17 while living in London, the demands of her studies frequently conflicted with an increasingly busy film schedule. Around the time of her appearance in Nicolas Roeg's surreal outback drama Walkabout, Agutter decided to move to Hollywood. There, she quickly gained a reputation as a formidable talent, and her 1971 performance in a made-for-TV production of The Snow Goose (opposite Richard Harris) earned the actress her first Emmy award. Frequently alternating between television and film during the following few years, Agutter once again turned heads as the heroine of Logan's Run (1976). A fugitive of a system that terminates all citizens over the age of 30, the futuristic movie proved to be a hit and the actress became well known to stateside science fiction aficionados. Agutter was appeared on-stage frequently during this period, and her love for the theater was clearly on display in such efforts as The Man in the Iron Mask (1976) and Othello (1981). Following her high-profile role as a nurse who falls for a lycanthrope in John Landis' An American Werewolf in London, Agutter kept things low-key through the remainder of the '80s, although eagle-eyed fans could catch a quick glimpse of her in such features as Amazon Women on the Moon (1987) and King of the Wind (1988). In the late '80s, she met Swedish hotelier Johan Tham while attending an arts festival in Bath, and the two were married the following year; a son following shortly thereafter. Moving back to England following their marriage, the couple made a home in Cornwall. Although her film roles would become increasingly sporadic over the next decade, Agutter did appear in small capacities in such features as Darkman (1990), Child's Play 2 (1990), and Blue Juice (1995). More frequent during this period were television roles, which included The Buccaneers (1995), Bramwell (1998), and a small-screen remake of The Railway Children in 2000 (this time playing the mother). Drawn back into films at the dawn of the new millennium, Agutter appeared in The Parole Officer (2001) and Number One Longing, Number Two Regret (2002). In addition to her acting career, Agutter published a book of photography in 1984, Snap: Observations of London and Los Angeles, and, over the years, became increasingly involved with such charitable causes as The Cystic Fibrosis Trust and Action for Children, an organization which provides shelter and resources for homeless children.

Trivia: Beck is a lead actor onscreen from the '70s.

Trivia: Trained for a theatrical career at Ohio Wesleyan University, actress Trish Van Devere made her off-Broadway bow in 1967. She polished her craft on such TV daytime dramas as Search for Tomorrow (as Patty Barron) and One Life to Live (as Meredith Lord), then made her movie debut in The Landlord (1970). Critics predicted a rosy professional future for Van Devere after her impressive starring appearance in the 1972 film One is a Lonely Number. That same year, she became the fifth wife of actor George C. Scott, whom she met on the set of The Last Run (1971). Thereafter, with rare exceptions, she was nearly always paired with Scott on screen (Day of the Dolphin, The Savage is Loose, Movie Movie, The Changeling), on television (1976's Beauty and the Beast) and on stage (Sly Fox, also 1976). As Scott cut down his movie workload, she began accepting assignments in such turkeys as Hollywood Vice Squad (1986) and Messenger of Death (1988). While her film career hasn't lived up to its potential, Trish Van Devere has continued appearing with honor and distinction on stage.