Trivia: One of Australia's most popular and distinguished actors, Geoffrey Rush came to the attention of the international community in 1996 with his performance as pianist David Helfgott in Shine (1996). Rush won an Academy Award for Best Actor, Golden Globe, and Australian Film Institute Award for his work, and he subsequently began appearing in films that would further make him known to audiences all over the world. A Queensland native, Rush was born in Toowoomba on July 6, 1951. After taking an arts degree from the University of Queensland, he began his theater career at Brisbane's Queensland Theatre Company. In addition to honing his skills with the classics, Rush lived in Paris for two years, where he studied pantomime at the Jacques Lecoq School of Mime. After returning to Australia, the actor resumed his stage work, at one point co-starring in Waiting for Godot with former roommate Mel Gibson. He spent much of the early '80s as part of director Jim Sharman's Lighthouse troupe and he also began working in film; his debut came in the 1981 Hoodwink, which also featured a young Judy Davis. Rush continued to appear in Australian films and on the stage, directing a number of theatrical productions in addition to acting in them. His big international break came in the form of the aforementioned Shine; following the adulation surrounding his performance as the unbalanced piano prodigy, Rush began to garner substantial roles in a number of high-profile projects. First was Gillian Armstrong's Oscar and Lucinda (1997), in which he played Oscar's great-grandson. The following year the actor drew raves for his work in Elizabeth, which featured him as the Queen's casually sinister confidant, and Shakespeare in Love, for which he again donned tights, this time to play a debt-ridden theater owner. His work in that film scored him his second Oscar nomination, this time for Best Supporting Actor. The same year, he could also be seen as the dastardly Inspector Javert in Bille August's adaptation of Les Miserables.In 1999, Rush exchanged the past for the future with Mystery Men. Starring as the dastardly Casanova Frankenstein, he shared the screen with an unlikely assortment of actors, including Greg Kinnear, Janeane Garofalo, Ben Stiller, and Paul Reubens. The same year, he starred as an eccentric millionaire who invites a few guests (including Bridgette Wilson, Taye Diggs, and Peter Gallagher) over for some tea and terror in the remake of William Castle's 1958 classic The House on Haunted Hill.At this point audiences in the know were indeed well aware of Rush's versitility, and any actor able to move from the campy, big budget B-horror to the Oscar nominated art-house antics of Phil Kaufman's Quills had little need to prove himself to either critics or audiences. Though he may not have taken home the trophy at the 2001 Academy Awards, his performance as the Marquis de Sade in the Kaufman film drew praise from nearly every corner of the critical spectrum and Rush was now recognized as one of the premier talents of his generation. Whether appearing in such deadly serious independent drama as Frida or wide release cotton candy as The Banger Sisters, Rush was never anything less than fascinating to watch and his enthusiasm for his craft always managed to shine through into his performances. Though the film wasn't seen by the majority of stateside audiences, 2003's Swimming Upstream offered Rush in a meorable turn as the distant father of Australian swimmer Tony Figleton. After taking on one of Austrailia's most notorious outlaws in the 2003 drama Ned Kelley and offering vocal work for the popular Pixar family adventure Finding Nemo, Rush remained on this high seas - this time mostly above water - as the leader of an undead crew of pirates in the 2003 swashbuckler Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Though his menacing performance may have been slightly overshadowed by the flamboyant antics of co-star Johnny Depp, Rush nevertheless managed to craft one of the most complex and rousing villians in recent screen history. Next turning up as the hapless victim of a gold-digging maneater in the Coen Brothers' Intolerable Cruelty, Rush soon began preparation for his role as none other than the immortal Inspector Clouseau in the made-for-television biography The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Rush played the Mossad representative who acts as the contact for the group of avenging agents in Steven Spielberg's outstanding Munich. Then he returned to the biggest hit of his career, reprising his part as a pirate in the next two Pirates of the Carribean films. He also agreed to reteam with director Shekhar Kapur and co-star Cate Blanchett for the sequel to Elizabeth reprising his role as Sir Francis Walsingham.As anticipated, the 2006 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest opened to spectacular box office and solid (if not exemplary) reviews, though few of the critics who praised the film actually singled out Rush's fine performance in it as Barbossa (doubtless blinded by the impressive torrent of special effects and the squishy villainry of Bill Nighy that took center stage). Rush also joined the cast of that same year's Candy. Not to be mistaken for the awful Christian Marquand picture of the same title (or a remake thereof), the film actually constitutes a finely-tuned gut-wrencher about the heroin addictions of a poet and art student who become romantically entwined and decide to wed. Rush plays the ultra-liberal professor who first encourages the heroin use as experimentation, but later acknowledges the couple's inseparable, volatile bond to one another other via shared use of the substance. The picture stars Abbie Cornish and Heath Ledger as the marrieds. THINKFilm scheduled Candy for release in October 2006 as Shekhar Kapur directed Rush in The Golden Age - the Elizabeth sequel for Universal and Working Title - which the studios slated for an October 2007 premiere. Meanwhile, the actor also lent a great deal of his time to shooting the third Pirates installment, also debuting in 2007. 2010 would prove a banner year for Rush, as he was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance as a speech therapist in The King's Speech, and the winner of the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for the same film. In 2011, Rush reprised his Pirates role once again for Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides.Rush married Shakespearean stage actress Jane Menelaus in 1988, with whom he has two children - Angelica and James. The couple resides in Melbourne. He is actively involved with environmental causes.

Trivia: A popular British character actor, Tom Wilkinson specializes in playing men suffering from some sort of emotional repression and/or pretensions of societal grandeur. Active in film and television since the mid-'70s, Wilkinson became familiar to an international audience in 1997 with his role as of one of six unemployed workers who strip for cash in Peter Cattaneo's enormously successful comedy The Full Monty. That same year, he was featured in Gillian Armstrong's Oscar and Lucinda, and as the rabidly unpleasant father of Lord Alfred Douglas, Oscar Wilde's young lover in Wilde. Wilkinson was also shown to memorable effect as a theater financier with acting aspirations in Shakespeare in Love (1998); also in 1998, he acted in one of his few leading roles in The Governess, portraying a 19th century photographer with an eye for the film's title character (Minnie Driver). Though he would appear in such popular mainstream films as Rush Hour (1998) and The Patriot (2000) over the next few years, it was his role in director Todd Field's emotionally intense In the Bedroom that earned Wilkinson (as well as co-star Marisa Tomei) an Oscar nod. After that success, his career began to really take off, and in just the next few years, he would appear in over a dozen films in roles of varying size. In 2003, he starred in HBO movie Normal as a married, middle-aged man who decides to start living his life as a woman and eventually have a sex-change operation. Acting alongside Jessica Lange, Wilkinson earned both Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his brave and moving performance. In addition, he would also play a menacing, licentious patron of the arts in Girl With a Pearl Earring (2003) and an experimental doctor erasing his patient's memories in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), written by Charlie Kaufman and starring Jim Carrey.Now an established star thanks to his impressive body of work, Wilkinson was called upon to appear in a number of high profile Hollywood hits, and could always be counted on to deliver in spades. Still, Wilkinson had the talent and foresight to always offset each blockbuster with at least one low-key, character-driven drama, and for every scenery-chewing Batman Begins villain, a serious-minded Separate Lies lawyer or Ripley Under Ground Scotland Yard detective would be quick to follow. After doing battle with Beelzebub in 2005's frightening, fact-based horror film The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Wilkinson would once again shift gears with impressive grace to portray the patriarch of a Texas family whose attempts to maintain order over his wildly dysfunctional family lead to a wild night on the town that ultimately helps him to restore his perspective in Night of the White Pants. Later that same year Wilkinson would pull back a bit for a supporting role in The Last Kiss - a romantic comedy drama starring Scrubs' Zach Braff and directed by Tony Goldwyn. 2007 brough WIlkinson yet another role that earned him uniformly strong reviews. His mentally unhinged lawyer in Michael Clayton garnered him a slew of year end accolades including Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor. That same year he became part of the Woddy Allen family with a starring role in Cassandra's Dream. In 2008 he appeared as Ben Franklin in the award-winning HBO miniseries John Adams, as well as Valkyrie and RocknRolla. He reteamed with Michael Clayton mastermind Tony Gilroy for 2009's Duplicity, playing the CEO of a multinational corporation, and appeared in The Ghost Writer for director Roman Polanski the next year. In 2012 he was part for the all-star British ensemble put together for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

Trivia: Worked in Charing Cross Hospital as a Scientific Officer before turning his hand to acting. Appeared in various adverts for Sega in the 1990s.

Trivia: With outrageously long-lashed brown eyes and darkly sensuous looks, Joseph Fiennes has joined his older brother Ralph as the English embodiment of sex for scores of women the world over. After years of working in his brother's shadow, Joseph emerged in 1998 as one of the movie industry's hottest properties, thanks to roles in two back-to-back hits, Elizabeth and Shakespeare in Love.Born May 27, 1970, in Salisbury, England, Fiennes and his twin brother, Jacob, were the youngest of six children, Ralph being the eldest. The son of a photographer father and a novelist mother who went under the nom de plume of Jennifer Lash, Joseph and his siblings had a fairly nomadic upbringing, moving 14 times over the course of the actor's childhood. His parents had strong artistic leanings, something they encouraged among their children, and so Fiennes grew up in a very creative atmosphere. After leaving art school, he began working with the Young Vic Theatre Company and then trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He made his first professional stage appearance in A Month in the Country, in which he performed opposite Helen Mirren. After two seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Fiennes was cast in a cameo role in the 1991 television drama A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia, in which Ralph played the titular hero. Joseph's next role of any importance was in the British TV series The Vacillations of Poppy Carew, which cast him opposite Tara Fitzgerald. Following this, Fiennes made his feature debut in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1996 film Stealing Beauty, in which he had a fairly small part but was able to act in the company of individuals such as Jeremy Irons, Sinéad Cusack, and Liv Tyler. It was 1998 that proved to be Fiennes's breakthrough year. With consecutive roles as Cate Blanchett's lover in Elizabeth and as William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love, he commanded the audience's attention with performances that were marked by a mix of intensity, charm, and brooding charisma. The fact that he didn't look ridiculous in tights also helped, and by the end of the year, with both films having garnered a score of awards (including seven Oscars for Shakespeare alone), it looked as though Fiennes had finally emerged from behind his brother's shadow, proving that talent, as well as a favorable gene pool, were common currency among his family members.Though Fiennes worked in several films throughout the early 2000s (Dust, Luther, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas), he wouldn't find success similar to that of Shakespeare in Love until he took on the role of Bassiano in director Michael Radford's The Merchant of Venice (one of Shakespeare's most celebrated comedies) in 2004. Following a lead role in Running with Scissors (2006), an adaptation of Augusten Boroughs' biography of the same name, Fiennes played tough guy Lenny in The Escapist (2008), a cerebral thriller following a group of criminals seeking to free themselves from the confines of prison. The actor also enjoyed success on the television screen, including the ABC science-fiction series FlashFoward (2009-2010), and Camelot (2011), a 10-part miniseries from Starz.

Trivia: Attended kindergarten with Peter Morgan, the British film writer and playwright. Had his first television role at 22. Featured in art duo Gilbert and George's photographic work The World. Enjoys driving camper-vans. Is close friends with Harry Enfield. Was awarded an honorary doctorate from Bournemouth University in 2007. Elected president of the British Horse Society in June 2011. Became patron of Animal Care in Egypt in 2011. Appointed an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II in her 2015 Birthday Honours. Owns a farm where cart horses are bred. Supports Weldmar Hospicecare Trust in Dorset and The Dog Resue Federation. Has been involved with the Comic Relief charity which funds Survival International and African Initiatives.

Trivia: Stout, jovial character actor Simon Callow has been enlivening the stage and screen for years, often in roles that highlight his versatility and capacity for a particular brand of good-natured, self-deprecating humor.Born in London on June 13, 1949, Callow began going to the theatre when he was 18 and working at a bookstore with no idea of what to do with his life. He took a particular interest in the Old Vic, which was being run by Laurence Olivier at the time. Deeply impressed with Olivier's talent, Callow wrote to him. To his great surprise, the esteemed actor responded in kind, telling the young man that if he was interested in acting, he should consider taking a job at the Old Vic's box office. Callow did so, and thus made his entrance into the theatre world. He subsequently became a fixture on the London stage, appearing in numerous productions over the years.Callow made his film debut with a substantial supporting role in 1984 in Milos Forman's Amadeus. Two years later, he endeared himself to transatlantic audiences with his portrayal of the bumbling reverend Mr. Beeb in Merchant-Ivory's celebrated adaptation of E.M. Forster's A Room with a View. He would also appear in two more Merchant-Ivory-Forster adaptations, Maurice (1987), in which he had a brief role as the title character's deluded school teacher, and Howards End (1992), which featured him in the small but memorable role of a pompous lecturer on music appreciation.In addition to his numerous collaborations with Merchant-Ivory (which also include Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, 1990, and Jefferson in Paris, 1995), Callow has worked in a number of diverse British and American productions. Perhaps one of his best-loved and most recognizable roles was in the popular Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). As one of Hugh Grant's motley circle of friends, the ebullient, flamboyant Gareth, Callow injected both poignance and joie de vivre into the proceedings. His character particularly stood out for being in an open, unapologetic relationship with another man (John Hannah), something that at the time had few parallels in American films. The character also highlighted Callow's status as one of Britain's openly gay actors, which also had regrettably few parallels across the Atlantic.Among the other diverse films he appeared in throughout the '90s, Callow particularly stood out in the animated James and the Giant Peach (1996), in which he voiced the wise Grasshopper; the acclaimed Shakespeare in Love (1998), which featured him as the obnoxious, party-pooping Master of Revels; and Rose Troche's omnisexual romantic comedy Bedrooms & Hallways (1998), in which Callow starred as the painfully sincere guru of a men's consciousness-raising group.Keeping busy into the new millenium, Callow noteably appeared among the ensemble cast of Mike Nichols' critically-acclaimed HBO mini-series Angels in America.In addition to working in front of the camera, Callow has spent a fair amount of time behind it as a director. In 1991, he made his feature directorial and screenwriting debut with the film version of Carson McCullers' Ballad of the Sad Cafe. Two years earlier, he had made his Broadway debut as the director of Shirley Valentine. And, apparently averse to having too much free time, Callow is also the author of numerous books on acting and actors. In particular, his biographies of Orson Welles and Charles Laughton have met with great acclaim, further establishing Callow as an actor who is more than just the sum of his parts.

Trivia: One of Britain's most respected and popular actresses, Judi Dench can claim a decades-old career encompassing the stage, screen, and television. A five-time winner of the British Academy Award, she was granted an Order of the British Empire in 1970 and made a Dame of the British Empire in 1988.Born in York, England, on December 9, 1934, Dench made her stage debut as a snail in a junior school production. After attending art school, she studied acting at London's Central School of Speech and Drama. In 1957, she made her professional stage debut as Ophelia in the Old Vic's Liverpool production of Hamlet. A prolific stage career followed, with seasons spent performing with the likes of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Dench broke into film in 1964 with a supporting role in The Third Secret. The following year, she won her first BAFTA, a Most Promising Newcomer honor for her work in Four in the Morning. Although she continued to work in film, Dench earned most of her recognition and acclaim for her stage work. Occasionally, she brought her stage roles to the screen in such film adaptations as A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968) and Macbeth (1978), in which she was Lady Macbeth to Ian McKellen's tormented king. It was not until the mid-'80s that Dench began to make her name known to an international film audience. In 1986, she had a memorable turn as a meddlesome romance author in A Room with a View, earning a Best Supporting Actress BAFTA for her tart portrayal. Two years later, she won the same award for her work in another period drama, A Handful of Dust.After her supporting role as Mistress Quickly in Kenneth Branagh's acclaimed 1989 adaptation of Henry V, Dench exchanged the past for the present with her thoroughly modern role as M in GoldenEye (1995), the first of the Pierce Brosnan series of James Bond films. She portrayed the character for the subsequent Brosnan 007 films, lending flinty elegance to what had traditionally been a male role. The part of M had the advantage of introducing Dench to an audience unfamiliar with her work, and in 1997 she earned further international recognition, as well as an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe award, for her portrayal of Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown.While her screen career had taken on an increasingly high-profile nature, Dench continued to act on both television and the stage. In the former medium, she endeared herself to viewers with her work in such series as A Fine Romance (in which she starred opposite real-life husband Michael Williams) and As Time Goes By. On the stage, Dench made history in 1996, becoming the first performer to win two Olivier Awards for two different roles in the same year. In 1998, Dench won an Oscar, garnering Best Supporting Actress honors for her eight-minute appearance as Queen Elizabeth in the acclaimed Shakespeare in Love. Her win resulted in the kind of media adulation usually afforded to actresses one-third her age. Dench continued to reap both acclaim and new fans with her work in Tea with Mussolini and another Bond film, The World is Not Enough. For her role as a talented British writer struggling with Alzheimer's disease in Iris (2001), Dench earned her third Oscar nomination. Sadly, that same year Dench's husband died of lung cancer at the age of 66.The prophetic artist continued to act in several films a year, wowing audiences with contemporary dramas like 2001's The Shipping News and period pieces like 2002's Oscar Wilde comedy The Importance of Being Earnest. She reprised the role of M again that same year for Brosnan's last Bond film Die Another Day, before appearing in projects in 2004 and 2005 such as The Chronicles of Riddick, Pride & Prejudice, and an Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated performance as a wealthy widow who shocks 1930s audiences by backing a burlesque show in Mrs. Henderson Presents. In 2006, she followed the Bond franchise into a new era, maintaining her hold on the role of M as Brosnan retired from playing the title character and Daniel Craig took over. Casino Royale was the first Bond movie to be based on an original Ian Fleming 007 novel in 30 years, and it was a great success. In 2008, Dench rejoined the Bond franchise for Quantum of Solace.Dench shared the screen with Cate Blanchett for the critical smash Notes on a Scandal (2006). The film's emotional themes ran the gamut from possession and desire to loathing and disgust, and Dench rose to the challenge with her usual strength and grace, earning her a sixth Oscar nomination and seventh Golden Globe nomination.Dench joined the cast of 2011's Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides, as well as taking on the pivotal role of Mrs. Fairfax in Cary Fukunaga's adaptation of Jane Eyre. The actress also joined Leonardo DiCaprio to play the intimidating mother of J. Edgar Hoover in J. Edgar (2011). In 2012, Dench starred alongside fellow film great Maggie Smith in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a compassionate comedy-drama following a group of senior citizens' experience with a unique retirement program in India.

Trivia: Although she initially gained fame for her real-life role as Brad Pitt's girlfriend, Gwyneth Paltrow went on to build a solid reputation as one of the leading actresses of her generation. Repeatedly summoning comparisons to such classic presences as Grace Kelly, the blonde, blue-eyed Paltrow has won acclaim for her parts in a number of films, most notably Shakespeare in Love, for which she won a Best Actress Oscar in 1999.The daughter of actress Blythe Danner and producer/director Bruce Paltrow, Paltrow was born in Los Angeles on September 28, 1972. When she was 11, her family moved to Massachusetts so that her father could direct summer stock productions -- it was there that the actress began to receive theatrical training under her parents' tutelage. Schooled at Manhattan's exclusive Spence School, Paltrow went on to study anthropology at the University of California before deciding to drop out to pursue her acting career. She got her first screen role in the 1991 movie Shout and in the same year she played the young Wendy in Steven Spielberg's Hook.Two years later, Paltrow made her first significant impression with a chilling turn as a young con artist in Flesh and Bone. She went on to minor but memorable roles in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994) and Jefferson in Paris (1995) before earning her first true taste of fame with her part as Brad Pitt's wife in Seven (1995). Unfortunately, she got more attention for her status as the actor's girlfriend than for her work in the film, becoming one of the world's most photographed arm ornaments.However, the actress was able to come into her own the following year with the title role in Douglas McGrath's adaptation of Emma. She won acclaim for her work and her flawless British accent, and the same year she could be seen in two more films: The Pallbearer, with David Schwimmer, and Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight. However, it was not until 1998 -- having broken off her engagement with Pitt the previous year -- that Paltrow became better-known for her acting than for her ability to look good in designer evening gowns. That year, she had starring roles in no less than five films. Although both Hush and A Perfect Murder proved disappointments, and Great Expectations received mixed reviews, Paltrow's two English excursions, the comedy Sliding Doors and John Madden's Shakespeare in Love, netted positive receptions. The latter film drew particular acclaim, eventually winning seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Paltrow.The following year, she had the lead in another high-profile project, Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley. Starring opposite Matt Damon, Jude Law, and Cate Blanchett, Paltrow took part in a film that boasted one of the most photogenic collections of young stars that audiences had seen that year and it further enhanced her reputation as one of the most celebrated members of her generation to step in front of a camera. As photogenic as she may be, however, Paltrow's healthy sense of humor would give the delicate actress the gusto she needed to take on the role of a 300-pound object of funnyman Jack Black's affection in the Farrelly brothers' cheerfully offensive Shallow Hal in 2001. With roles in The Anniversary Party, Possession, and Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums that same year, Paltrow's versatility and popularity showed no signs of waning - even if the subsequent flight attendant comedy View From the Top didn't even climb high enough at the box office to take a nosedive.Of course the failure of View From the Top could not be placed squarely on the shoulders of Paltrow, and given the film's troubled production history it's a small wonder that the film was released at all. If that film had simply been a glazed-over comedy that gave its starlet little chance to shine, Paltrow would close out the year with a commendable and notably heavier performance in Sylvia. A film based on the life of literary legend Sylvia Plath, Sylvia couldn't have been more different than A View From the Top and provided Paltrow with a role she could truly sink her teeth into. Both her performance as well as the film itself fared fairly well through the duration of its limited art-house run, despite the fact that Plath's real life daughter Frieda Hughes publicly denounced the endeavor. The film also provided Paltrow with the opportunity to appear onscreen opposite her real-life mother Danner, who also played her ill-fated character's mother in the film.In the wake of her accolades from Sylvia, Paltrow closed out 2003 by wedding Coldplay singer Chris Martin. The new family would soon expand five months later with the birth of their first child, a girl they bestowed with the unique moniker Apple Martin. But family life didn't slow Paltrow's film career too much. By Autumn she could be seen opposite Jude Law in the sci-fi actioner Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and before the close of the year, audiences could catch her in director John Madden's Proof. Paltrow played a supporting role in the drama Infamous in (2006), and co-starred with Joaquin Phoenix in the 2008 romantic drama Two Lovers. Paltrow appeared in Iron Man (2008) and Iron Man 2 (2011) as the loyal assistant of zillionaire and hero du jour Tony Stark. The actress played a brief but vital role in Steven Soderbergh's Contagion in 2011, and reprised her role of Pepper Potts for the summer blockbusters The Avengers in 2012 and Iron Man 3 in 2013.

Trivia: With an expansive range that stretches from Shakespeare to Chicken Run and just about everything in between, actress Imelda Staunton has, not surprisingly, become one of the most highly respected actresses working in the U.K. If her penchant for playing what many would consider to be mundane, everyday characters found Staunton criminally overlooked in the early years of her career, it was her keen ability to inject those characters with a remarkable complexity that eventually made the stage mainstay-turned-small-screen powerhouse one of Britain's most sought-after talents.A London native and graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Staunton wasted no time launching her career following graduation, becoming associated with such prestigious venues as The Old Vic and the National Theatre. A trio of productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company gained her numerous critical accolades, and in 1986 Staunton made an impressive television debut in the legendary BBC production of Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective. Increasingly busy throughout the 1990s, Staunton continued to gain momentum on-stage while earning three Oliviers for her performances in the The Corn Is Green, A Chorus of Disapproval, and Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods. As Staunton's numerous stage roles continued to earn her critical success, frequent television and film roles made her a familiar and endearing face to the general public. Though many of her U.K. television roles went unseen by stateside audiences, supporting roles in such features as Much Ado About Nothing, Sense and Sensibility, and Shakespeare in Love found Staunton slowly working her way into the conscience of U.S. film buffs as well. Moving into the new millennium, Staunton's roles in such films as Chicken Run (for which she provided the voice of Bunty), Crush, Bright Young Things, and I'll Be There found the established television actress actively distancing herself from the small screen in favor of feature films. Of course, every actor dreams of the breakthrough role that will make him or her an international star, and for Imelda Staunton that role was of a 1950s era abortionist caught in a downward spiral in director Mike Leigh's 2004 drama Vera Drake. Her undeniably affecting portrayal of the title role -- a selfless housewife and cleaning woman who makes a name for herself performing illegal abortions -- earned her near-universal praise. After earning accolades from both The Venice Film Festival and The New York Film Festival as well as the Los Angeles and Chicago film critic associations, Staunton had undeniably arrived when the role earned her a Best Actress nomination for the 77th Annual Academy Awards.Subsequent roles in the U.K. television comedy Little Britain as well as the features Nanny McPhee and Freedom Writers served well to introduce her to entirely new, often American, audiences. In 2007, just one year after appearing in a colorful Masterpiece Theatre production of the children's classic The Wind and the Willows, she remained in the world of fantasy for her role in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Staunton played Dolores Umbridge -- the latest in a long line of Defense Against the Dark Arts professors -- whose severe disposition drew the ire of Harry Potter himself. She was part of the cast of the well-respected television production Cranford, and appeared in the inspirational drama Freedom Writers. She teamed with Mike Leigh again for 2010's Another Year, and that same year she appeared in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. She continued to work in animated family films such as Arthur Christmas and The Pirates! Band of Misfits.

Trivia: As Mr. Darcy in the acclaimed 1995 television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, Colin Firth induced record increases in estrogen levels on both sides of the Atlantic. Imbuing his role as one of literature's most obstinate lovers with surly, understated charisma, Firth caused many a viewer to wonder where he had been for so long, even though he had in fact been appearing in television and film for years.The son of two university lecturers, Firth was born in England's Hampshire county on September 10, 1960. Part of his early childhood was spent in Nigeria with missionary grandparents, but he returned for schooling in his native country and eventually enrolled in the Drama Centre in Chalk Farm. While playing Hamlet in a school production during his final term, the actor was discovered, and he went on to make his London stage debut in the West End production of Julian Mitchell's Another Country. Starring opposite Rupert Everett, Firth played Tommy Judd, a character based on spy-scandal figurehead Donald Maclean (Everett played Guy Bennett, based on real-life spy Guy Burgess). He went on to reprise his role for the play's 1984 film version, again playing opposite Everett. Despite such an auspicious beginning to his career, Firth spent the rest of the decade and half of the next working in relative obscurity; he starred in a number of television productions -- including the highly acclaimed 1993 Hostages -- and worked steadily in film. Some of his more notable work included A Month in the Country, in which he played a World War I veteran opposite Kenneth Branagh and Natasha Richardson, and Valmont, Milos Forman's 1989 adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, in which Firth starred in the title role. The film also provided him with an introduction to co-star Meg Tilly, with whom he had a son.However, it was not until he again donned breeches and a waistcoat that Firth started to emerge from the shadows of BBC programming. With his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the popular TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, Firth was propelled into the media spotlight, touted in a number of articles as the latest in the long line of thinking women's crumpets; he was further rewarded for his work with a BAFTA award. The same year, he appeared as an amorous cad in the similarly popular Circle of Friends and went on the next year to appear as Kristin Scott Thomas' cuckolded husband in The English Patient. Firth garnered praise for his role in the film, which went on to win international acclaim and Academy Awards.After a turn as a morally ambiguous man who gets involved with both Jessica Lange and Michelle Pfeiffer in A Thousand Acres, Firth took a comically sinister turn as Gwyneth Paltrow's intended husband in the 1998 Shakespeare in Love. The following year, he starred in two very different movies: My Life So Far, a tale of family dysfunction in the Scottish Highlands, and Fever Pitch, initially released in the U.K. in 1997, in which Firth played a rabid English football fan forced to choose between his love of the sport and the woman in his life. Headlining the low-key comedy My Life So Far the following year, Firth's performance as the father of a family living in a post World War I British estate was only one of five roles that the busy actor would essay that particular year (including that of William Shakespeare in Blackadder Back and Forth). His finale of the year -- Donovan Quick -- offered a memorable updating of the legend of Don Quixote with Firth himself in the titular role. Firth's supporting role in the 2001 comedy Bridget Jones's Diary preceded a more weighty performance in the chilling drama Conspiracy, with the former earning him a BAFTA nomination and the latter an Emmy nod. Comic performances in Londinium (2001) and The Importance of Being Earnest (2002) found Firth continuing to maintain his reputation as one of England's most talented comic exports, and if his lead in 2003's Hope Springs failed to capitalize on his recent string of success, his role as teen starlet Amanda Bynes' celluloid father in What a Girl Wants (2003) at least endeared him to a new generation of moviegoers before the adult-oriented drama Girl With a Pearl Earring hit theaters later that same year. After rounding out the busy year with a return to romantic comedy in Love Actually, Firth kicked off 2004 with a turn as a haunted widower in Trauma while preparing to return to familiar territory in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.Firth continued to work steadily in projects ranging from the family friendly Nanny McPhee with Emma Thompson to the hit musical Mama Mia, playing one of the three men who might have fathered Meryl Streep's daughter. But it was his leading role in fashion designer Tom Ford's directorial debut, A Single Man, that garnered him awards attention like he had never received previously. For his work as a gay professor grieving the death of his lover, Firth scored nominations from the Screen Actors Guild, the Academy, and the Independent Spirit Awards.After appearing in the 2009 adaptation of A Christmas Carol, Firth would achieve further accolades for his role as the stuttering King George VI in director Tom Hooper's breathtaking historical drama The King's Speech (2010). In addition to taking home the Academy Award for Best Actor, Firth also took home awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the L.A. Film Critics Association, and the Screen Actors Guild. 2011 was no less exciting a year for the actor, who co-starred with Gary Oldman in Let the Right One In director Tomas Alfredson's award winning spy thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, an adaptation of John Le Carré's novel about an ex-British agent who comes out of retirement in hopes of solving a dangerous case. Firth is slated to star in Bridget Jone's Baby, Gambit, and The Railway Man in 2013.

Trivia: Was head boy of his high school in his final year. Left the University of Sussex after two years to join a fringe theatre group called the Brighton Combination. Performed with the Madhouse Company of London, a comedy troupe, during the 1970s. Attended a circus school in New York during the 1970s, where he learned to walk the tightrope, ride a unicycle, juggle and perform magic. Met wife Imelda Staunton when they were both cast in a 1982 production of Guys and Dolls at the Royal National Theatre in London. They later worked together in a production of The Wizard of Oz; he was the Cowardly Lion to her Dorothy. Serves as chairman of the Hampstead Cricket Club.

Trivia: Usually billed as Big Joe Roberts, this massive, generously mustached character comedian spent several years in vaudeville with a rough and tumble act called Roberts, Hays, and Roberts. During his brief movie career, he worked almost exclusively in the films of his old vaudeville friend Buster Keaton. From One Week (1920) onward, he growled and grimaced his way through most of Keaton's silent two-reelers, notably as the harried police captain in the classic Cops (1922). Shortly after appearing as the patriarch of a feuding mountain family in Keaton's feature-length Our Hospitality (1923), Joe Roberts died of a series of strokes.

Trivia: Tall and handsome in a meat-eating sort of way, Ben Affleck has the looks of a matinee idol and the résumé of an actor who honed his craft as an indie film slacker before flexing his muscles as a Hollywood star. A staple of Kevin Smith films and such seminal indies as Dazed and Confused, Affleck became a star and entered the annals of Hollywood legend when he and best friend Matt Damon wrote and starred in Good Will Hunting, winning a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for their work.Born in Berkeley, California on August 15, 1972 to a schoolteacher mother and drug rehab counselor father, Affleck was the oldest of two brothers. His younger brother, Casey, also became an actor. When he was very young, Affleck's family moved to the Boston area, and it was there that he broke into acting. At the age of eight, he starred in PBS's marine biology-themed The Voyage of the Mimi, endearing himself to junior high school science classes everywhere. The same year he made Mimi, Affleck made the acquaintance of Matt Damon, a boy two years his senior who lived down the street. The two became best friends and, of course, eventual collaborators. After a fling with higher education at both the University of Vermont and California's Occidental College, Affleck set out for Hollywood. He began appearing in made-for-TV movies and had a small role in School Ties, a 1992 film that also featured Damon. Further bit work followed in Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused (1993) and Kevin Smith's Mallrats (1995). Around this time, both Affleck and Damon were getting fed up with the lack of substantial work to be found in Hollywood, and they decided to write a screenplay that would feature them as the leads. Affleck's brother Casey introduced them to Gus Van Sant, who had directed Casey in To Die For. Thanks to Van Sant's interest, the script was picked up by Miramax, and in 1997 the story of a troubled mathematical genius living in South Boston became known as Good Will Hunting. Before the film's release, Affleck starred in Smith's Chasing Amy that same year; the tale of a comic book artist (Affleck) in love with a lesbian (Joey Lauren Adams), it received good reviews and showed Affleck to be a viable leading man. The subsequent success of Good Will Hunting and the Best Original Screenplay Oscar awarded to Affleck and Damon effectively transformed both young men from struggling actors into Hollywood golden boys. Having won his own Golden Boy, Affleck settled comfortably into a reputation as one of the industry's most promising young actors. His status was further enhanced by widespread media reports of an ongoing relationship with Gwyneth Paltrow.The following year, Affleck could be seen in no less than three major films, ranging from his self-mocking supporting role in the Oscar-winning period comedy Shakespeare in Love to the thriller Phantoms to the big-budget box-office monster Armageddon. In 1999, Affleck continued to keep busy, appearing in a dizzying four movies. He could be seen as a dull bartender in 200 Cigarettes, an errant groom in Forces of Nature, a stock market head hunter in The Boiler Room, and a supporting cast member in Billy Bob Thornton's sophomore directorial effort, Daddy and Them. Finally, Affleck reunited with Smith and Damon for Dogma, starring with the latter as a pair of fallen angels in one of the year's more controversial films. In 2000, he would appear as an ex-con trying to mend his ways in Reindeer Games, with Charlize Theron. Re-teaming with Armageddon cohort Michael Bay again in 2001 for another exercise in overbudgeted excess, Affleck flew into action in Pearl Harbor. Despite unanimous lambasting from critics, Pearl Harbor blasted to number one at the box office, earning $75.2 million on its Memorial Day weekend opening and beginning a summer-2001 trend of high profile films with precipitous box-office runs. Following a self-mocking return to the Smith collective in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) and spearheading, along with Damon, the innovative HBO series Project: Greenlight, Affleck returned to the Hollywood machine with roles in Changing Lanes and The Sum of All Fears (both 2002). Filling the shoes of Harrison Ford as a green version of Ford's famous Jack Ryan persona, The Sum of All Fears contemplated a radical group's plan to detonate a nuclear weapon at a major sporting event during a time of particularly sensitive public distress at such an idea. With the massive success of Spider-Man in the summer of 2002 prompting numerous comic-book superhero revivals, Affleck would next suit up for the role of Daredevil. As a lawyer turned into a true public defender following a mishap involving radioactive waste, Daredevil's incredibly enhanced senses enable him to get the jump on New York City evil-doers and with his athletic physique and heroically protruding chin Affleck seemed just the man to suit-up for the job. If Affleck's turn as a blind crimefighter found dedicated comic book fans turning up their noses in disgust, the lukewarm performance of that particular effort would hardly compare to the critical lashing of his subsequent efforts Gigli, Paycheck, and Jersey Girl. A notorious flop that couldn't be mentioned to movie lovers without fear of derisive laughter, Gigli alone would have likely sunken the career of a lesser star. Though Hollywood gossip rags were indeed talking about Affleck, it was more the result of his turbulent relationship with singer and Gigli co-star Jennifer Lopez than it was anything to do with his acting career. Just when it seemed that the ubiquitous "Ben and Jen" gossip that fueled the tabloids couldn't get more tiresome, the celebrity power-couple broke up their frequently discussed engagement to the surprise of only the most optimistic {E! Channel viewer. Wed to Alias star Jennifer Garner in 2005, Affleck subsequently skewered Hollywood materialism in the showbiz comedy Man About Town before making a cameo in pal Smith's eagerly-anticipated sequel Clerks II. By this point Affleck was certainly no stranger to Hollywood controversy, a fact that likely played well into his decision to strap on the famous red cape to portray original television Superman George Reeves in the 2006 Tinseltown mystery Hollywoodland. As the 2000's rolled onward, Affleck would appear in a number of films that garnered a lukewarm reception, like Smokin' Aces, He's Just Not That Into You, and State of Play. He would reverse that trend with a vengeance in 2007, directing and writing the critically acclaimed crime thriller Gone Baby Gone. He followed that up by directing and starring in The Town, and that film put Affleck squarely back into audiences' good graces. He immediately got to work on his next big project, working both behind and in front of the camera once again for the political thriller Argo which garnered strong reviews, solid box office, and a slew of year-end awards and nabbed Affleck his second Oscar, as a producer of the film, when it won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, even though Affleck was not nominated for Best Director. He appeared in Runner, Runner, opposite Justin Timberlake, in 2013 and played the accused husband in the hit 2014 film Gone Girl. Affleck was announced as the next Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and is scheduled to reprise the role in later Justice League films.

Trivia: A wickedly debonair blend of Cary Grant and Joan Crawford, British actor Rupert Everett almost single-handedly conquered Hollywood with his turn as the man who dances off into the sunset with Julia Roberts in My Best Friend's Wedding. As the handsome, elegant, and gay George, Everett (who had been openly gay for some years) ushered in a different kind of gay sensibility in Hollywood, one that, rather than begging audiences for acceptance, flatly told them to get over it.Born in Norfolk, England, to a wealthy family on May 29, 1959, Everett was sent away for schooling at the age of seven. Taught by Benedictine monks at Amplesforth College, he was a good student and trained to be a classical pianist. After he discovered acting at the age of 15, he dropped out of school and ran off to London, where he supported himself as a prostitute for a couple of years (something he admitted in a 1997 interview with US magazine) and eventually enrolled at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Unfortunately, Everett clashed frequently with instructors and eventually dropped out, choosing to flee to Scotland. It was there that he got his first professional job as an apprentice with the Citizen's Theatre of Glasgow, and in the early '80s, his career began to bud. In 1982, he created the role of Guy Bennett for the West End production of Another Country, which also featured a very young Kenneth Branagh. Everett won raves for his portrayal of the younger version of real-life spy Guy Burgess, and in 1984 re-created the role for the play's film version. The following year, he starred with Miranda Richardson in Dance With a Stranger, turning in a strong performance in the critically acclaimed film. Although it seemed Everett's career was on the rise, the actor unfortunately opted for near-nonentity status with his 1987 U.S. film debut in Hearts of Fire, a rock & roll drama co-starring Bob Dylan. Following this flop, Everett disappeared for a while, taking up residence in Paris and writing a semi-autobiographical novel, Hello, Darling, Are You Working?.In 1991, Everett resurfaced with a lead role in The Comfort of Strangers opposite Natasha Richardson before appearing in 1993's Inside Monkey Zetterland, a film featuring a bizarre title, large ensemble cast (which included Patricia Arquette and Sandra Bernhard), and miserable reviews. Everett's subsequent feature, Prêt-à-Porter (1994), also featured an unconventional title, a large ensemble cast (including Julia Roberts, Sophia Loren, Stephen Rea, and Tim Robbins), and miserable reviews, but in its favor, it also featured a director named Robert Altman. Furthermore, Everett actually managed to make a favorable impression as a philandering fashion house scion, favor that was magnified, during the same year, with his hilarious turn as the fat and lazy Prince of Wales in Nicholas Hytner's The Madness of King George. However, for all of the positive attention he received, Everett incurred only bafflement with his next two films, the Italian schlock-fest Dellamorte, Dellamore (1994) and Dunston Checks In (1996), in which the actor starred with Faye Dunaway and an orangutan.1997 marked the turning point in Everett's career, as it brought with it his star-making role in My Best Friend's Wedding. The actor caused something of a sensation among male and female filmgoers alike, who wanted more of the handsome actor with the languorous wit. They got more of him the following year, in Shakespeare in Love, in which Everett had a supporting role as playwright Christopher Marlowe, and in B. Monkey, in which he played Jonathan Rhys Meyers' criminal lover. 1999 proved to be a very fruitful year for the actor -- who by this time was being hailed as Hollywood's Gay Prince -- as it featured the actor in leading roles in three films. He first played Oberon in Michael Hoffman's A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which he was part of an all-star cast including Michelle Pfeiffer, Kevin Kline, Christian Bale, and Calista Flockhart. Next came Oliver Parker's adaptation of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband, for which Everett netted positive reviews in his central role as the delightfully idle Lord Goring. Finally, he camped and vamped it up as the resident villain of Inspector Gadget, once again demonstrating to audiences why it could feel so good to be so bad.In 2000 he appeared opposite Madonna in the comedy The Next Best Thing. Two years later he was cast in The Importance of Being Earnest, and followed that up with parts in Stage Beauty, Separate Lies, and People as well as lending his voice to effects heavy and animated projects like The Chronicles of Narnia and Shrek the Third. In 2011 he had a scene-stealing turn in the period sex comedy Hysteria.

Trivia: A British character actor best known for two feats -- his lengthy tenure as a participant in the small-screen sketch comedy program The Fast Show, and his multi-film portrayal of the genial and sweet-natured patriarch Arthur Weasley in the Harry Potter movies -- Mark Williams in fact chalked up a lengthy series of feature roles that extended far beyond the scope of those projects, beginning in the early '80s. Throughout, he tended to specialize in average-looking everyman types but made his strongest impression in fantasy-themed material. He debuted on the big screen in the 1982 Privileged (during his early twenties) and subsequently signed for projects including The Master (1989), Kill Line (1991), and The Borrowers (1997). Fantasy lovers will invariably associate Williams with his Weasley characterization, but may also remember his portrayal of Billy (a goat who had been changed into human form) in the Robert De Niro-Michelle Pfeiffer fantasy adventure Stardust (2007).