Trivia: Following her breakthrough in 1988's Beetlejuice, Winona Ryder emerged as one of the most celebrated actresses of her generation. Adept at playing characters ranging from depressed, angst-ridden goths to Edith Wharton debutantes, the saucer-eyed, porcelain-skinned Ryder has attained critical respect in addition to widespread popularity.Ryder was born in and named after the city of Winona, MN, on October 29, 1971. The daughter of communal hippies and the goddaughter of LSD guru Timothy Leary, she grew up on a commune in Northern California. Ryder's family moved to Petaluma when she was ten; following regular abuse from her classmates, who targeted her for her unconventional, androgynous appearance (she was once jumped by a group of boys who had mistaken her for a gay boy), she was home schooled. At the age of 11, she joined the American Conservatory Theatre, and was soon trying out for movie roles. An audition for the part of Jon Voight's daughter in Desert Bloom failed to yield a role but did land the actress an agent, and at the age of 14, Ryder -- who had changed her last name from Horowitz -- made her film debut in Lucas (1986).Finding popularity with her turn as a suicidal teen who has more in common with the ghosts living in her attic than with her yuppie parents in Tim Burton's black comedy Beetlejuice, Ryder quickly became one of the most steadily employed actresses in Hollywood. She continued to corner the alienated and/or confused teen market with starring roles in a number of offbeat films, including the 1989 cult classic Heathers, Great Balls of Fire (in which she played Jerry Lee Lewis' 13-year-old bride), Burton's Edward Scissorhands, and Mermaids.The early '90s saw Ryder begin to branch out from teen roles toward parts requiring greater maturity. Following a turn as a taxi driver in Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth (1991), the actress starred in Francis Ford Coppola's lavish adaptation Bram Stoker's Dracula and then went on to play Antonio Banderas' lover in the critically disembowelled The House of the Spirits. Greater success came with Martin Scorsese's 1993 adaptation of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. Ryder won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Daniel Day-Lewis' picture-perfect wife, and in the process started getting taken seriously as an actress capable of playing more adult characters.A second Oscar nomination -- this time for Best Actress -- followed the next year for Ryder's portrayal of Jo March in Gillian Armstrong's adaptation of Little Women. The same year, the actress took on an entirely different role in Reality Bites, in which she played a twentysomething suffering from post-graduation angst. Similar twentysomething angst followed in How to Make an American Quilt (1995) but was then traded for Puritanical adultery, hair extensions, and another turn with Daniel Day-Lewis in Nicholas Hytner's 1996 adaptation of The Crucible.Following a starring role in the highly anticipated and almost as highly criticized Alien Resurrection in 1997, Ryder had a turn as the waif-ish object of Kenneth Branagh's affections in Woody Allen's Celebrity. She managed to escape much of the criticism leveled at both of these films, and in 1999 and 2000, she reappeared with lead roles in two films, Girl, Interrupted, in which she played a mental institution inmate in the female answer to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and the supernatural thriller Lost Souls. Winona shed her skin once more in 2002, when she took the romantic lead in Mr. Deeds, a typically goofy Adam Sandler vehicle. This was a surprising move for Ryder, who, despite making a niche for herself in nearly every imaginable genre, has rarely delved into the world of madcap romantic comedies. Of course, 2001-2002 wouldn't be complete without mention of Winona's inexplicable thievery; the young millionaire was convicted for stealing $5,500 worth of merchandise from a Beverly Hills Saks Fifth Avenue. 2003, meanwhile, meant more unfamiliar territory for Ryder -- she left fiction behind for a part in the documentary The Day My God Died. An uncredited turn as a warped child psychologist in director Asia Argento's The Heart is Decietful Above all Things showed without question that Ryder was still willing to shake things up on the silver screen, and in 2006 she would play an insurance claims investigator assigned the task of investigating a curious death in the aptly titled comedy The Darwin Awards. Later that same year, Ryder would be rotoscoped for a supporting role in director Richard Linklater's animated adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel A Scanner Darkly. The next few years found the maturing actress eschewing Hollywood for roles in smaller independent features such as Sex and Death 101 and David Wain's The Ten, and on the heels of a brief yet memorable turn as Spock's mother in 2009's Star Trek, Ryder channeled her dark energy into the role of a former ballet ingenue on the decline in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan. Meanwhile, in 2012, a voice role in Tim Burton's canine creature feature Frankenweenie found Ryder reuniting with the director who helped launch her to cinema stardom in the late-1980s.

Trivia: Though he has never achieved the high profile or widespread acclaim of a Robert De Niro, Jeff Daniels ranks as one of Hollywood's most versatile leading men and over his career he has played everything from villains and cads to heroes and romantic leads to tragic figures and lovably goofy idiots, in movies of almost every genre. Daniels has also worked extensively on television and stage, where he first distinguished himself by winning an Obie for a production of Johnny Got His Gun. Blonde, cleft-chinned, and handsome in a rugged all-American way, Daniels made his screen debut playing PC O'Donnell in Milos Forman's Ragtime (1981). His breakthrough came when he was cast as Debra Winger's inconstant husband in Terms of Endearment (1983). Daniels has subsequently averaged one or two major feature films per year with notable performances, including: his memorable dual portrayal of a gallant movie hero/self-absorbed star who steps out of celluloid to steal the heart of lonely housewife Mia Farrow in Woody Allen's Purple Rose of Cairo (1984); his turn as a man terrified of spiders who finds himself surrounded by them in the horror-comedy Arachnophobia; and his role as Union officer Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, who led his troops into doom in Gettysburg (1993). In 1994, Daniels took a radical turn away from drama to star as one of the world's stupidest men opposite comic sensation Jim Carrey in the Farrelly brothers' hyperactive Dumb and Dumber. This lowest-common-denominator comedy proved one of the year's surprise hits and brought Daniels to a new level of recognition and popularity. Since then, Daniels has alternated more frequently between drama and comedy. His television credits include a moving portrayal of a troubled Vietnam vet in a Hallmark Hall of Fame production, Redwood Curtain. Daniels still maintains his connection to the stage and manages his own theatrical company. Before launching his acting career, he earned a degree in English from Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, MI. The later '90s found Daniels turning homeward and venturing into new territories through his labor of love, the Purple Rose Theater. Located in the small town of Chelsea, MI, the bus garage turned playhouse was designed to give Midwestern audiences the opportunity to enjoy entertainment generally reserved for big-city dwellers. Though he continued to appear in such films as Fly Away Home (1996) and Pleasantville (1998), Daniels made his feature directorial debut with the celluloid translation of his successful Yooper stage comedy Escanaba in da Moonlight (2000). Set in the Michigan's Upper Peninsula (U.P., hence "Yooper"), the tale of redemption by means of bagging a buck mixed the regionally accented humor of Fargo with the eccentricities inherent to northerners and served as an ideal directorial debut for the Michigan native. A modest regional success, Daniels would subsequently appear in such wide releases as Blood Work and The Hours (both 2002) before returning to the director's chair for the vacuum-salesman comedy Super Sucker (also 2002). Later reprising his role as Lt. Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain from Gettysburg, Daniels once again went back in time for the Civial War drama Gods and Generals (2002). In 2004 he appeared in the adaptation of fellow Michigander Mitch Albom's best-seller The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and the next year he earned rave reviews for his role as a self-absorbed academic and terrible father in The Squid and the Whale. He continued to work steadily in a variety of projects including the Robin Williams vehicle RV, the indie thriller The Lookout, and Away We Go. He portrayed a Senator in the American remake of the British miniseries State of Play in 2009, and three years later he was cast as the lead in Aaron Sorkin's first cable series, The Newroom, playing the host of a cable news program who decides to tell it like it really is.

Trivia: Lead actress, onscreen from 1986.

Trivia: One of the actresses most indelibly associated with the descriptor "fiery redhead," Frances Fisher has enjoyed a long career as a respected stage, screen, and television performer. In addition to her professional work, she also earned recognition for her long relationship with Clint Eastwood, by whom she had a daughter.Born in Milford on Sea, England, Fisher spent much of her childhood traveling all over the world, thanks to her father's job as an international oil refinery construction supervisor. After time spent in England, Colombia, France, Canada, Brazil, Turkey, and Italy, the family settled in Orange, Texas, where Fisher completed her schooling. Deciding to follow her interest in theatre, she eventually moved to New York, where she subsequently enjoyed a 14-year stage career in regional and off-Broadway productions. During this time, she also became involved with the Actors Studio, where she studied with the legendary Lee Strasberg. Fisher segued into screen work via television, getting her start with regular roles on a number of soap operas. She began her film career with some help from Henry Jaglom, for whom she made her 1980 screen debut in Sitting Ducks, and went on to star in his Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? (1983) and Babyfever (1994). Fisher spent the 1980s and 1990s appearing in a wide variety of film and TV productions, including the made-for-TV Lucy and Desi: Before the Laughter (1991), which cast her as Lucille Ball; Eastwood's Unforgiven (1992); the Texas Dust Bowl drama The Stars Fell on Henrietta (1995); James Cameron's Titanic (1997), in which she starred as Kate Winslet's mother; and The Big Tease (1999), a Scottish hairdressing mockumentary that featured her as a publicist in need of a new 'do.

Trivia: Beckel is a supporting actor onscreen from the '70s.

Trivia: Actress Dinah Manoff is the daughter of actress/director Lee Grant and playwright Arnold Manoff. A graduate of California School of the Arts, Dinah made her first acting appearance in a PBS special. She won a Tony award as the neurotic daughter of an irresponsible movie screenwriter in Neil Simon's I Ought to Be in Pictures; she re-created this role in the 1982 film version, acting opposite Walter Matthau and her mother Lee Grant. On television, Manoff played Elaine Lefkowitz on the serial satire Soap (1978-79), securing a niche in TV history as the first sitcom regular to be "murdered" on-camera. Dinah Manoff later co-starred as Carol Weston opposite fellow Soap alumnus Richard Mulligan on the weekly comedy Empty Nest (1988-1993).

Trivia: Perhaps one of the most instantly recognizable -- yet seemingly unidentifiable -- character actors to have succeeded in Hollywood, Stephen Tobolowsky's non-movie star looks have enabled the native Texan to portray a wider variety of characters more conventional movie stars simply could not. Born and raised in Dallas, Tobolowsky attended Southern Methodist University for his undergraduate degree and went on to earn a Master's degree in acting from the University of Illinois. While at S.M.U., the young Tobolowsky won his first film role in a low-budget horror film entitled Keep My Grave Open. Soon after finishing his studies, he went west to Los Angeles and started working somewhat consistently in both television and film in the early '80s -- while gaining some notice for his work in the films Swing Shift and Mississippi Burning. After toiling on the West Coast for a few years, Tobolowsky became a bi-coastal star with a role in a 1981 Broadway production of Beth Henley's play The Wake of Jamey Foster. In 1986, he collaborated with Henley -- who also happened to be a fellow student of Tobolowsky's during his undergraduate studies at S.M.U. -- and David Byrne to co-write the script for Byrne's 1986 film True Stories. The multi-talented thespian then went on to write and direct his own play, Two Idiots in Hollywood, which he also turned into a film in 1988. The early '90s brought Tobolowsky his greatest exposure to the movie-going public, with a number of diverse and interesting roles that highlighted the actor's great range and skill -- nearly to the extent of upstaging these films' higher-profile stars. Perhaps the most prototypical Tobolowsky characterization can be found in the 1993 Harold Ramis comedy Groundhog Day, in which Tobolowsky portrayed the hapless insurance salesman Ned Ryerson. Other memorable performances from this decade include Thelma & Louise, Basic Instinct, Sneakers, and The Radioland Murders. Tobolowsky continued creating endearing characters into the 2000s, starting with Christopher Nolan's indy hit Memento. As amnesiac Sammy Jankis, Tobolowsky created one of the most powerful dramatic performances of his career. His next significant film role came via the 2002 Spike Jonze/Charlie Kaufman film Adaptation, which further displayed the nearly chameleon-like actor's range and talent that make him one of the best character actors in the industry. In the years to come, Tobolowsky would remain active on screen, appearing on shows like Glee and Californication.

Trivia: Supporting actor, onscreen from the late '80s.

Trivia: A native of Sarasota, FL, Gugino spent most of her youth being shuttled by her mother to various locations in California. At age 15, she and her mom were living in San Diego, when Gugino was convinced to try a modeling career in New York City. She succeeded, but soon found the fast pace of high-fashion modeling too much for her and moved to Los Angeles, where she took advice from an aunt, model Carol Merril, and enrolled in acting classes to study under drama coach Gene Bua. Gugino soon made her film debut in the comedy Troop Beverly Hills (1986). More features followed, until she got her first supporting major role, that of Norma in the Robert De Niro/Leonardo Di Caprio drama This Boy's Life (1993), and later scored a co-starring role on the Michael J. Fox sitcom Spin City. As her star continued to rise, Gugino would spend the subsuquent years appearing in a wide variety of high profile projects, like Spy Kids, Out of Sight, Sin City, Night at the Museum, Sucker Punch, Watchmen, and Mr. Popper's Penguins. Gugino would also find major success on the small screen, with roles on shows like Entourage and Californication.

Trivia: A successful character actress most adept at playing matronly types, Beth Grant took her onscreen bow in the late '80s and began tackling innumerable roles in Hollywood features, usually bit parts as housewives, female doctors, or down-home small-town women. Grant received her first feature assignment as a harried mother at a farmhouse in Barry Levinson's Rain Man (1988). She subsequently divided her time between film and television roles, guest-acting on dozens of series and occasionally taking on more extensive small-screen roles, such as on Coach and Jericho. Grant's many big-screen credits include the films Don't Tell Her It's Me (1990), Speed (1994), Donnie Darko (2001), and Little Miss Sunshine (2006). She was particularly memorable in the latter, as one of the snotty and obnoxious pageant judges. Darko represented Grant's first experience working with helmer Richard Kelly; she re-teamed with Kelly for his follow-up, the dystopian black comedy Southland Tales (2005).