Trivia: British actor Daniel Craig grew up in Liverpool before moving to London and studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He made his film debut in The Power of One, directed by John G. Avildsen. A few made-for-TV movies followed before his role of Master Kane in the Disney adventure A Kid in King Arthur's Court. Returning to the U.K., he starred in the miniseries Our Friends in the North, the four-part series Moll Flanders, and the TV mystery The Ice House. In 1997 he worked with German director Peter Sehr on Obsession where he met his future girlfriend, German actress/VJ Heike Makatsch. His first leading role in the U.K. came in 1998 with his portrayal of George Dyer, the intimate friend of painter Francis Bacon (played by Derek Jacobi) in John Maybury's Love Is the Devil. Other leading roles followed in the U.K. films Love & Rage, The Trench, Some Voices, and Hotel Splendide. In Hollywood, he had smaller roles in I Dreamed of Africa, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and Road to Perdition. In 2002, he played the German physicist Werner Heisenberg in the BBC historical drama Copenhagen. His first mainstream leading role came in 2003 as Ted Hughes, the partner of Sylvia Plath (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) in Christine Jeffs' Sylvia. In 2004, he can be seen in the U.K. films Layer Cake and Enduring Love.

Trivia: Actress Rooney Mara didn't exactly come from a show business family. One great-grandfather founded the Pittsburgh Steelers; another founded the New York Giants. Despite her heritage, Mara opted to go into acting instead of sports, and made her professional debut with a bit-part in the direct-to-video Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (which starred her older sister, Kate). She followed this with a handful of appearances on episodes of shows like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and The Cleaner, eventually scoring a number of film roles, appearing in 2009's Tanner Hall, Youth in Revolt, and Friends (With Benefits).Her career changed forever when David Fincher cast her in a small but key part in The Social Network, and then trusted her to play Lisbeth Salander in his English-language adaptation of the international best-seller The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, a part that earned young performer Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Actress. She appeared in Spike Jonze's Her and Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects, both in 2013. In 2015, Mara was controversially cast as Tiger Lily in Joe Wright's Pan. She followed that up with Todd Haynes' Carol, playing opposite Cate Blanchett; Mara nabbed her second Oscar nomination for her work in the film.

Trivia: A Swedish actor who has become known to American audiences thanks to roles in Breaking the Waves and Good Will Hunting, Stellan Skarsgård is one of Scandinavia's best-known and most well-respected performers. Renowned for giving measured characterizations that draw their strength from a delicate complexity, Skarsgård is one of those rare actors who is able to do strong work regardless of the quality of the material he is in, displaying the sort of quiet fortitude that allows him to survive even the worst screen fiascos.Born in Gothenburg on June 13, 1951, Skarsgård became a star in his country, when, as a teenager, he was cast on the TV series Bombi Bitt och jag. After his film debut in 1972, he did years of stage work with Stockholm's Royal Dramatic and made a number of dramas with the director Hans Alfredson, the most notable of which, Den Enfaldige Mordaren, featured Skarsgård in a Silver Berlin Bear-winning performance as a misunderstood man with a deformity. In 1988, Skarsgård got a tentative introduction to a transatlantic audience with a small role in Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being; two years later, he had a similarly minor role in another international hit, The Hunt for Red October.Skarsgård's true international breakthrough came courtesy of his role as Emily Watson's husband in Lars Von Trier's highly acclaimed Breaking the Waves (1996). The actor more than held his own opposite Watson, who gave one of the year's most lauded performances, and he found previously unimagined opportunities available to him in Hollywood. In 1997, he starred as a frustrated mathematician in Gus Van Sant's award-winning Good Will Hunting and was also featured in Steven Spielberg's Amistad; his work in both films culminated in an Outstanding European Achievement in World Cinema award from the European Film Academy. Later that same year, the actor appeared in My Son the Fanatic as a German businessman with the unfortunate surname of Schitz -- he also gave a stellar portrayal of a detective who slowly loses his mind while investigating a murder in the Norwegian film Insomnia.A prolific actor, Skarsgård appeared in a number of small ambitious projects in 2000, including Passion of Mind with Demi Moore, Mike Figgis' Time Code, and Harlan County War. The following year, while he showed up in the poorly-received thriller The Glass House, Skarsgård gained critical praise for his performance in Taking Sides.2003 saw Skarsgård taking a role in Lars von Trier's highly anticipated Dogville and signing on for the oft-plagued The Exorcist: The Beginning. After several debacles, the prequel to the horror classic finally found its way to movie theaters in 2004, the same year the actor costarred in Antoine Fuqua's King Arthur. After going toe-to-toe with the Devil himself in 2005's Exorcist: The Beginning (as well as Paul Schrader's alternate cut Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist), Skarsgård joined the crew of the Flying Dutchman in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and its follow-up Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and went medieval in the Swedism Arn films. A chilling turn as the ruthless warden in the fact-based King of Devil's Island showed a downright malevolent side to Skarsgård, though it was subsequent roles in the Marvel Comics features Thor and the Avengers, as well as a turn as the mysterious Martin Vanger in David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, that offered the veteran actor the most international exposure in the wake of his voyage on the high seas.

Trivia: British actress Joely Richardson is the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director Tony Richardson, the granddaughter of actors Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, niece of actors Corin and Lynn Redgrave, and sister of actress Natasha Richardson. Thus, it would be fair to say that Richardson has acting in her genes. Her film credits range from Peter Greenaway's arthouse favorite Drowning By Numbers (1988) -- in which she is one of three murderesses, all named Cissy Colpitts -- to the abortive musical I'll Do Anything (1993) to the winning 1996 remake of 101 Dalmatians. She has repeatedly demonstrated a capacity for tackling difficult subjects, as was the case with Sister My Sister (1994), which cast her as a maid caught up in an incestuous lesbian love affair with her sister, and Hollow Reed (1996), in which she played the divorced mother of a young boy who is abused by her live-in boyfriend. In 2000, she was seen in a number of projects, including the romantic comedy Return to Me and the revolutionary war drama The Patriot. In 2003, Richardson landed a starring role as Dr. Sean McNamera's (Dylan Walsh) frustrated wife on F/X's popular nighttime drama, Nip/Tuck. A quick transition to The Tudors followed when Nip/Tuck went off the air in 2010, and following a turn as Young Queen Elizabeth I in Roland Emmerich's Shakespearian conspiracy drama Anonymous (2011), Richardson could been seen as the mysterious Anita Vanger in David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Trivia: Supporting actress, onscreen from 1980.

Trivia: Perhaps Croatia's most recognizable actor, Goran Visnjic became known to an American audience in the late 1990s, thanks to his work in American films and television. The darkly handsome actor, whom Vogue dubbed "the Tom Cruise of Croatia," was born in Sibenik on September 9, 1972, to a bus driver and a food market worker. Like just about all of his compatriots, Visnjic was indelibly affected by the Bosnian War. Although he decided at an early age that he wanted to be an actor and trained at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb, his country's terrible conflict resulted in Visnjic's joining the Croatian army when he was 18. He trained as a paratrooper, ultimately extending his service by three months in order to better defend his country.After Visnjic finished his time with the military, he returned to acting. He began gaining popularity in his country when, at the age of 21, he was cast as Hamlet in a production of the play at the prestigious Dubrovnik Summer Festival. The production earned wide acclaim, and Visnjic himself was the recipient of three national Best Actor awards, including an Orlando, the Croatian equivalent of a Tony.In addition to his work on the stage (he went on to portray Hamlet six years in a row), Visnjic also began appearing in Croatian feature films, and he made his American screen debut in Michael Winterbottom's Welcome to Sarajevo (1997). In 1998, he earned greater international recognition with his role in Practical Magic; although the film itself was a disappointment, Visnjic managed to make a sizable impression on audience members in his role as Nicole Kidman's ne'er-do-well boyfriend. The following year, the actor landed a recurring role on the popular TV medical drama E.R.; his profile further ascended with his casting in a number of feature films, including Committed (2000), a road trip comedy starring Heather Graham and Luke Wilson.

Trivia: American film producer Scott Rudin learned how to make instant sink-or-swim decisions while a casting director on Broadway. As a theater producer, Rudin won a Tony award for his staging of Passion. He entered films in the early '80s, working his way up to the vice presidency and then the presidency of 20th Century Fox. He left that studio when he was 29 in favor of independent production. Among Scott Rudin's most lucrative productions have been Sister Act (1988) and The Addams Family (1991); he has also managed to parlay "small" films like Little Man Tate (1989) into audience favorites.