Trivia: Simply by growing old gracefully, actress Susan Sarandon has defied the rules of Hollywood stardom: Not only has her fame continued to increase as she enters middle age, but the quality of her films and her performances in them has improved as well. Ultimately, she has come to embody an all-too-rare movie type -- the strong and sexy older woman. Born Susan Tomalin on October 4, 1946, in Queens, NY, she was the oldest of nine children. Even while attending the Catholic University of America, she did not study acting, and in fact expressed no interest in performing until after marrying actor Chris Sarandon. While accompanying her husband on an audition, Sarandon landed a pivotal role in the controversial 1970 feature Joe, and suddenly her own career as an actress was well underway. She soon became a regular on the daytime soap opera A World Apart and in 1972 appeared in the feature Mortadella. Lovin' Molly and The Front Page followed in 1974 before Sarandon earned cult immortality as Janet Weiss in 1975's camp classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the quintessential midnight movie of its era. After starring with Robert Redford in 1975's The Great Waldo Pepper, Sarandon struggled during the mid-'70s in a number of little-seen projects, including 1976's The Great Smokey Roadblock and 1978's Checkered Flag or Crash. Upon beginning a relationship with the famed filmmaker Louis Malle, however, her career took a turn for the better as she starred in the provocative Pretty Baby, portraying the prostitute mother of a 12-year-old Brooke Shields. Sarandon and Malle next teamed for 1980's superb Atlantic City, for which she earned her first Oscar nomination. After appearing in Paul Mazursky's Tempest, she then starred in Tony Scott's controversial 1983 horror film The Hunger, playing a scientist seduced by a vampire portrayed by Catherine Deneuve. The black comedy Compromising Positions followed in 1985, as did the TV miniseries Mussolini and I. Women of Valor, another mini, premiered a year later. While Sarandon had enjoyed a prolific career virtually from the outset, stardom remained just beyond her grasp prior to the mid-'80s. First, a prominent appearance with Jack Nicholson, Cher, and Michelle Pfeiffer in the 1986 hit The Witches of Eastwick brought her considerable attention, and then in 1988 she delivered a breakthrough performance in Ron Shelton's hit baseball comedy Bull Durham, which finally made her a star, at the age of 40. More important, the film teamed her with co-star Tim Robbins, with whom she soon began a long-term offscreen relationship. After a starring role in the 1989 apartheid drama A Dry White Season, Sarandon teamed with Geena Davis for Thelma and Louise, a much-discussed distaff road movie which became among the year's biggest hits and won both actresses Oscar nominations. Sarandon was again nominated for 1992's Lorenzo's Oil and 1994's The Client before finally winning her first Academy Award for 1995's Dead Man Walking, a gut-wrenching examination of the death penalty, adapted and directed by Robbins. Now a fully established star, Sarandon had her choice of projects; she decided to lend her voice to Tim Burton's animated James and the Giant Peach (1996). Two years later, she was more visible with starring roles in the thriller Twilight (starring opposite Paul Newman and Gene Hackman) and Stepmom, a weepie co-starring Julia Roberts. The same year, she had a supporting role in the John Turturro film Illuminata. Sarandon continued to stay busy in 1999, starring in Anywhere But Here, which featured her as Natalie Portman's mother, and Cradle Will Rock, Robbins' first directorial effort since Dead Man Walking. On television, Sarandon starred with Stephen Dorff in an adaptation of Anne Tyler's Earthly Possessions, and showed a keen sense of humor in her various appearances on SNL, Chappelle's Show, and Malcolm in the Middle. After starring alongside Goldie Hawn in The Banger Sisters, Sarandon could be seen in a variety of projects including Alfie (2004), Romance and Cigarettes (2005), and Elizabethtown (2006). In 2007, Sarandon joined Rachel Weisz and Mark Wahlberg in The Lovely Bones, director Peter Jackson's adaptation of Alice Sebold's novel of the same name. She continued her heavy work schedule into the 2010s- in 2012 alone, the actress took on the role of a long-suffering mother to two grown sons in various states of distress for Jeff, Who Lives at Home, appeared as an older version of a character played by her daughter, Eva Amurri Martino, in That's My Boy and played a variety of supporting roles in the Wachowskis' Cloud Atlas. The following year found her in the crime drama Snitch, the ensemble rom-com The Big Wedding and in the Errol Flynn biopic The Last of Robin Hood. In 2014, she played Melissa McCarthy's grandmother (despite the fact that the actresses are only 24 years apart in age) in Tammy. She made a cameo appearance, as herself, in Zoolander 2 (2016).

Trivia: Born October 28th, 1967, Georgia native Julia Roberts was raised in a fervently pro-theater environment. Her parents regularly hosted acting and writing workshops, and both of the Roberts children (Julia and her brother Eric) showed an interest in the performing arts at an early age. Ironically enough, Eric was the first to break into film; in 1978, one year after their father died of lung cancer at 47, Eric Roberts starred in director Frank Pierson's psychological drama King of the Gypsies. Though her older brother would go on to have a solid acting career, it was, of course, Julia Roberts who earned a spot among Hollywood's elite.After making her film debut in Blood Red -- which wouldn't be released until 1989, despite having been completed in 1986 -- and appearing in several late '80s television features, Roberts got her first real break in the 1988 made-for-cable drama Satisfaction. That role, consequently, led to her first significant supporting role -- a feisty pizza parlor waitress in 1989's Mystic Pizza with Annabeth Gish, Lili Taylor, and a then 19-year-old Matt Damon. While Mystic Pizza was not a star-making film for Roberts, it certainly helped earn her the credentials she needed to land the part of Shelby, an ill-fated would-be mother in Steel Magnolias. The 1989 tearjerker found her acting alongside Sally Field and Shirley MacLaine, and culminated in an Oscar nomination for Roberts. While the success of Steel Magnolias played no small part in launching Roberts' career, and undoubtedly secured her role in the mediocre Flatliners (1990) with former flame Kiefer Sutherland, it was director Garry Marshall's romantic comedy Pretty Woman with Richard Gere that served as her true breakthrough role. Roberts' part in Pretty Woman (a good-hearted prostitute who falls in love with a millionaire client) made the young actress a household name and cemented what would become a permanent spot in tabloid fodder. Roberts broke off her engagement with Sutherland in 1991, just three days before they were scheduled to be married, and surprised the American public in 1993, when she began her two-year marriage to country singer Lyle Lovett. Roberts' personal life kept her name in the spotlight despite a host of uneven performances throughout the early '90s (neither 1991's Dying Young or Sleeping With the Enemy garnered much acclaim), as did a reputed feud with Steven Spielberg during the filming of Hook (1991). Luckily, Roberts made decidedly less embarrassing headlines in 1993, when her role alongside future Oscar winner Denzel Washington in The Pelican Brief reaffirmed her status as a dramatic actress. Her career, however, took a turn back to the mediocre throughout the following year; both Prêt-à-Porter and I Love Trouble proved commercial flops, and Mary Reilly (1996) fizzled at the box office as well. The downward spiral reversed directions once again with 1996's Michael Collins and Conspiracy Theory with Mel Gibson, and led to several successful comic roles including Notting Hill with Hugh Grant, Runaway Bride, and most notably, My Best Friend's Wedding with Rupert Everett and a then virtually unknown Cameron Diaz. Roberts' biggest success didn't present itself until 2000, though, when she delivered an Oscar-winning performance playing the title role in Steven Soderbergh's Erin Brockovich. The film, based on the true story of Erin Brockovich, a single mother who, against all odds, won a heated battle against corporate environmental offenders, earned Roberts a staggering 20-million-dollar salary. Officially the highest paid actress in Hollywood, Roberts went on to star in 2001's America's Sweethearts with Billy Crystal, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and John Cusack, as well as The Mexican with Brad Pitt. While on the set of The Mexican, Roberts met cameraman Danny Moder, whom she would marry in 2001 almost immediately after ending a four-year relationship with fellow actor Benjamin Bratt. Indeed, 2001 was a banner year for Roberts; in addition to America's Sweethearts and The Mexican, Roberts starred in the crime caper Ocean's Eleven, in which she rejoined former co-stars Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, and acted for the first time with George Clooney and Don Cheadle. Julia Roberts worked with Soderbergh once again in 2002's Full Frontal, which, despite a solid cast including Mary McCormack and Catherine Keener, among others, did not even begin to fare as well as Erin Brockovich. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), which featured Roberts as a femme fatale alongside George Clooney, Sam Rockwell, and Drew Barrymore did much better, and preceded 2003's Mona Lisa Smile with young Hollywood's Julia Stiles, Kirsten Dunst, and Maggie Gyllenhaal. In 2004, Roberts signed on for the sequel to Ocean's Eleven -- the aptly titled Ocean's Twelve. A supporting performance in the animated 2006 feature The Ant Bully marked the glamorous Hollywood beauty's first foray into the world of animation, which she would continue for Christmas of 2006 with the role of everone's favorite selfless spider in Charlotte's Web. In the coming years, Roberts would reteam with Tom Hanks for Charlie Wilson's War in 2007, and then again for Larry Crowne in 2011. In the meantime, the A-lister would keep busy with a critically acclaimed performance in 2010's Eat, Pray, Love, in which she portrayed a divorcee on a journey of self discovery, and 2012's retelling of Snow White, Mirror, Mirror.

Trivia: Bearing sharp, blue-eyed features and the outward demeanor of an everyday Joe, Ed Harris possesses a quiet, charismatic strength and intensity capable of electrifying the screen. During the course of his lengthy career, he has proven his talent repeatedly in roles both big and small, portraying characters both villainous and sympathetic.Born Edward Allen Harris in Tenafly, NJ, on November 28, 1950, Harris was an athlete in high school and went on to spend two years playing football at Columbia University. His interest in acting developed after he transferred to the University of Oklahoma, where he studied acting and gained experience in summer stock. Harris next attended the California Institute of the Arts, graduating with a Fine Arts degree. He went on to find steady work in the West Coast theatrical world before moving to New York. In 1983, he debuted off-Broadway in Sam Shepard's Fool for Love in a part especially written for him. His performance won him an Obie for Best Actor. Three years later, he made his Broadway debut in George Firth's Precious Sons and was nominated for a Tony. During the course of his career, Harris has gone on to garner numerous stage awards from associations on both coasts. Harris made his screen debut in 1977's made-for-television movie The Amazing Howard Hughes. The following year, he made his feature-film debut with a small role in Coma (1978), but his career didn't take off until director George Romero starred Harris in Knightriders (1981). The director also cast him in his next film, Creepshow (1982). Harris' big break as a movie star came in 1983 when he was cast as straight-arrow astronaut John Glenn in the film version of Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff. Twelve years later, Harris would again enter the world of NASA, this time playing unsung hero Gene Krantz (and earning an Oscar nomination) in Ron Howard's Apollo 13.The same year he starred in The Right Stuff, Harris further exhibited his range in his role as a psychopathic mercenary in Under Fire. The following year, he appeared in three major features, including the highly touted Places in the Heart. In addition to earning him positive notices, the film introduced him to his future wife, Amy Madigan, who also co-starred with him in Alamo Bay (1985). In 1989, Harris played one of his best-known roles in The Abyss (1989), bringing great humanity to the heroic protagonist, a rig foreman working on a submarine. He did further notable work in David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, and turned in a suitably creepy performance as Christof, the manipulative creator of Truman Burbank's world in Peter Weir's The Truman Show (1998). Harris earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his work. The following year, he could be seen in The Third Miracle, starring as a Catholic priest who finds his faith sorely tested.The new millennium found Harris' labor of love, the artist biopic Pollock, seeing the light of day after nearly a decade of development. Spending years painting and researching the modernist painter, Harris carefully and lovingly oversaw all aspects of the film, including directing, producing, and starring in the title role. The project served as a turning point in Harris' remarkable career, showing audiences and critics alike that there was more to the man of tranquil intensity than many may have anticipated; Harris was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for his work. 2001 saw Harris as a German sniper with his targets set on Jude Law in the wartime suspense-drama Enemy at the Gates, and later as a bumbling Army captain in the irreverent Joaquin Phoenix vehicle Buffalo Soldiers. With his portrayal of a well known author succumbing to the ravages of AIDS in 2002's The Hours, Harris would recieve his fourth Oscar nominattion. 2004 found the actor working with Zooey Deschanel for Winter Passing, a psychological drama in which he played a one-time popular novelist who claims he is working on one last book. Harris was praised for his work in Empire Falls (2005), a two-part miniseries from HBO chronicling a middle-aged man who is concerned he has wasted his life, though his work as a scarred stranger with a score to settle in David Cronenberg's award-winning psychological thriller A History of Violence was his biggest success in 2005. In 2007, Harris played a Boston police detective in Ben Affleck's adaptation of author Dennis Lehane's Gone, Baby, Gone. A year later, Harris wrote, starred, directed, and produced Appaloosa, a western following a small town held under the thumb of a ruthless rancher and his crew, and continued to work throughout 2009 and 2010 in films including Once Fallen, Virginia, and The Way Back. Praise came his way once more in 2011's What I Am, a gentle coming-of-age comedy in which Harris plays a teacher who is a catalyst for the friendship of two young boys. In 2012, he earned Emmy and SAG nominations and a Golden Globe award for playing John McCain in the HBO movie Game Change. The next year had him appearing in six films, including playing a detective in Pain & Gain and voicing mission control in Gravity, a throwback to his earlier work in Apollo 13.

Trivia: A child actress who made her film debut as the star of Anjelica Huston's 1996 adaptation of Dorothy Allison's Bastard out of Carolina, Jena Malone has appeared in films ranging from Contact (1997), in which she played the younger version of Jodie Foster's character, to Stepmom (1998), which featured her as one of Susan Sarandon's children. A native of Lake Tahoe, Nevada, where she was born November 21, 1984, Malone was influenced to become an actress by her mother, who was active in community theatre. After persuading her mom to move to L.A., the aspiring actress began working in commercials and music videos. Following her debut in Bastard out of Carolina, she went on to do steady work, and in 2000, she starred in Christmas with J.D., which also featured Devon Sawa, Neve Campbell, and Christian Campbell. That same year, the young actress made headlines when she filed charges against her mother accusing her of squandering her earnings; the lawsuit resulted in Malone's legal emancipation from her mother, who was forbidden from interfering with her daughter's career and earnings. Coming out on the up side of the bitter family feud, Malone could next be seen in both the slightly surreal teen fantasy Donnie Darko and the bittersweet family drama Life as a House (both 2001). Following future appearances in The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys and The United States of Leland (both 2002), Malone would announce her intentions of studying photography at a northern California community college in the fall of 2002. She had a key role in The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys in 2002, and the next year had a cameo in Cold Mountain. In 2005 she was one of the younger sister in Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice, and two years later she was the younger sister in Sean Penn's Into the Wild. She had a brief but memorable turn as the ex-girlfriend of a soldier in The Messenger, and in 2011 she was one of the kick-ass girls at the center of Sucker Punch. In 2012 she appeared in Hatfields & McCoys as one of the McCoy clan. In 2013, she joined the Hunger Games series as fan-favorite Johanna Mason, appearing in Catching Fire and Parts 1 and 2 of Mockingjay. Malone was cast as Barbara Gordon in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), but her scenes were ultimately cut in the editing room, and she only appeared in the home version of the film.

Trivia: With a remarkably thoughtful, mature gaze and a curious air of adolescent mischief, Liam Aiken established himself as a incredibly expressive actor in such films as Henry Fool (1997) and Stepmom (1998). And though he did not win the coveted role of Harry Potter in the feature films based upon author J.K. Rowlings' popular series of children's books, this might have worked to the advantage of the talented young actor, and helped keep him from being typecast into obscurity by the onset of puberty. Born Liam Padraic Aiken in New York City in January 1990, the boy proved a natural talent who delighted in entertaining family members with magic tricks. The delight of a captive audience found Aiken seeking stage work, and it wasn't long before the decidedly outgoing youngster made his television debut in a Ford Winstar commercial. Fans of Hal Hartley may recognize Aiken from his feature debut in Henry Fool (1997), and subsequent feature roles began to give audiences a glimpse into the true talent of the precocious young actor. The turn of the millennium found him edging closer to leading-boy status, and, following performances in Sweet November (2001) and The Road to Perdition (2002), Aiken took the lead for the adventure comedy Good Boy! in 2003. He played one of the doomed Baudelaire children in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, and in 2010 appeared in Michael Winterbottom's lurid adaptation of Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me. In 2012 Austin Chick cast him in the thriller Girls Against Boys.

Trivia: African American leading lady Lynn Whitfield made her film bow in 1983's Dr. Detroit. Three years later, the Louisiana born and bred Whitfield played the title character in the fact-based TV movie Johnnie Mae Gibson: FBI, the story of the first black female FBI agent. After gaining recognition for her work in a number of TV dramas, including The Women of Brewster Place (1990), Whitfield won an Emmy award and international acclaim for her starring performance in the HBO biopic The Josephine Baker Story in 1991. Whitfield subsequently split her efforts between TV and film, doing particularly strong work in Kasi Lemmons' much-feted Eve's Bayou (1997) as a family matriarch struggling with her husband's infidelity. In 1999, she earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for her work in Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Wedding, a 1950s drama in which she was cast as the wealthy mother of a young woman (Halle Berry) intent on marrying a poor white musician.

Trivia: Lead actor, onscreen from the early '70s.

Trivia: A former New York City police officer who was inspired to take up acting after seeing a performance of A Few Good Men on Broadway, David Zayas subsequently enrolled in Ernie Martin's acting classes and began honing his craft while he wasn't fighting crime. Later, Zayas would sign on with the Labyrinth Theater Company alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Ortiz and appear in a variety of groundbreaking productions including In Arabia We'd All Be Kings and Jesus Hopped the "A" Train. Thirty plays later, Zayas was discovered by Tom Fontana and cast in the hit HBO series Oz. Zayas would stick with the series for three seasons, his role as the leader of the Latino prison population gradually drawing the eye of such acclaimed filmmakers as Martin Scorsese and James Gray. While roles in Bringing Out the Dead, The Yards, Bristol Boys, and 16 Blocks all served well to advance Zayas' career on the big screen (where he could usually be found playing a detective or police officer), he remained faithful to the stage by appearing in a Broadway production of Anna in the Tropics at the Royal Theater and could later be seen opposite Michael C. Hall in the Golden Globe-nominated Showtime series Dexter.

Trivia: Having first made a name for himself in the entertainment industry as Marilyn Monroe's personal makeup artist, George Masters went on to beautify the hair and faces of luminaries ranging from Jackie 0 and Julie Andrews, to Lady Bird Johnson and Dustin Hoffman. Born in Detroit, MI, Masters became a hairstylist at age 17. After a little experience he found work at Elizabeth Arden in New York and worked there until the late '50s when he moved to L.A. to work at Saks Fifth Avenue. Masters subsequently worked for Monroe. Others liked his work and Masters was soon one of Hollywood's most popular hair and makeup men. Masters gained national fame in 1966 when he performed a makeover on Lynda Bird Johnson, the daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson, for her appearance at that year's Oscars. Some of Marshall's other famous clients included Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, and Judy Garland. In 1982, Masters again gained fame for helping to convincingly transform Dustin Hoffman into a woman in Tootsie (1982). As a way of sharing his years of experience with the cosmetic arts, Marshall penned The Masters Way to Beauty.

Trivia: Does narration for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Was awarded the Segal Award in 1996. Her first series regular role was on Orange is the New Black, which began in 2013. Was in a medically-induced coma for two weeks following a car accident in early 2014. Is involved with the charity Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers.

Trivia: Versatile Joseph Aulisi has designed costumes for a number of big-budget films including Ironweed, Die Hard With a Vengeance, and Private Parts. He has also designed costumes for theatrical productions, notably those of Neil Simon.

Trivia: Screenwriter/Director Chris Columbus sold his first movie script for Jocks while still a film student at New York University; although heavily rewritten by others for the screen, this piece got Columbus' foot in the big-time door. His breakthrough script for producer Steven Spielberg was for Gremlins, and was allegedly inspired by its writer's dreams of mice at his fingers. The film, which blended warmth and whimsy with violent slapstick and some truly mean-spirited moments, was even more vicious than what was seen onscreen before it was cleaned up by Spielberg, himself. The success of Gremlins secured Columbus future writing assignments on such Spielberg projects as Young Sherlock Holmes and The Goonies (both 1985). He also developed the concept for a 1986 television cartoon series, Galaxy High School, about an extraterrestrial school populated by weird-looking space aliens. Columbus was eventually given a chance to direct the medium-budget teen comedy Adventures in Babysitting in 1988. He followed this with Home Alone (1990), directed from a script by John Hughes, which made incredible amounts of money and planted Columbus firmly on the Hollywood "A" list. Columbus continued to alternate between writing and directing as a Hollywood fixture in the '90s, churning out such box-office bonanzas as Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), among other titles, before directing two even bigger blockbusters: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and its sequel the following year, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Although his 2005 adaptation of Rent failed to make much of an impression with moviegoers, he continued to act as a producer on a number of big-budget projects including Night at the Museum and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. In 2009 he directed I Love You, Beth Cooper, but found greater success the next year directing Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. In 2011 he got an Oscar nomination as one of the producers of The Help that drama was in the running for Best Picture.

Trivia: Played 10 different characters in the series Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.Best known for his work in Mystic River (2003) and The Day After Tomorrow (2004).