Trivia: Born on December 31, 1937, as the only son of a baker, Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins was drawn to the theater while attending the YMCA at age 17, and later learned the basics of his craft at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. In 1960, Hopkins made his stage bow in The Quare Fellow, and then spent four years in regional repertory before his first London success in Julius Caesar. Combining the best elements of the British theater's classic heritage and its burgeoning "angry young man" school, Hopkins worked well in both ancient and modern pieces. His film debut was not, as has often been cited, his appearance as Richard the Lionhearted in The Lion in Winter (1968), but in an odd, "pop-art" film, The White Bus (1967).Though already familiar to some sharp-eyed American viewers after his film performance as Lloyd George in Young Winston (1971), Hopkins burst full-flower onto the American scene in 1974 as an ex-Nazi doctor in QB VII, the first television miniseries. Also in 1974, Hopkins made his Broadway debut in Equus, eventually directing the 1977 Los Angeles production. The actor became typed in intense, neurotic roles for the next several years: in films he portrayed the obsessed father of a girl whose soul has been transferred into the body of another child in Audrey Rose (1976), an off-the-wall ventriloquist in Magic (1978), and the much-maligned Captain Bligh (opposite Mel Gibson's Fletcher Christian) in Bounty (1982). On TV, Hopkins played roles as varied (yet somehow intertwined) as Adolph Hitler, accused Lindbergh-baby kidnapper Bruno Richard Hauptmann, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame.In 1991, Hopkins won an Academy Award for his bloodcurdling portrayal of murderer Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. With the aplomb of a thorough professional, Anthony Hopkins was able to follow-up his chilling Lecter with characters of great kindness, courtesy, and humanity: the conscience-stricken butler of a British fascist in The Remains of the Day (1992) and compassionate author C. S. Lewis in Shadowlands (1993). In 1995, Hopkins earned mixed acclaim and an Oscar nomination for his impressionistic take (done without elaborate makeup) on President Richard M. Nixon in Oliver Stone's Nixon. After his performance as Pablo Picasso in James Ivory's Surviving Picasso (1996), Hopkins garnered another Oscar nomination -- this time for Best Supporting Actor -- the following year for his work in Steven Spielberg's slavery epic Amistad. Following this honor, Hopkins chose roles that cast him as a father figure, first in the ploddingly long Meet Joe Black and then in the have-mask-will-travel swashbuckler Mask of Zorro with Antonio Banderas and fellow countrywoman Catherine Zeta-Jones. In his next film, 1999's Instinct, Hopkins again played a father, albeit one of a decidedly different stripe. As anthropologist Ethan Powell, Hopkins takes his field work with gorillas a little too seriously, reverting back to his animal instincts, killing a couple of people, and alienating his daughter (Maura Tierney) in the process.Hopkins kept a low profile in 2000, providing narration for Ron Howard's live-action adaptation of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas and voicing the commands overheard by Tom Cruise's special agent in John Woo's Mission: Impossible 2. In 2001, Hopkins returned to the screen to reprise his role as the effete, erudite, eponymous cannibal in Ridley Scott's Hannibal, the long-anticipated sequel to Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs (1991). The 160-million-dollar blockbuster did much for Hopkins' bank account but little for his standing with the critics, who by and large found Hannibal to be a stylish, gory exercise in illogical tedium. Worse yet, some wags suggested that the actor would have been better off had he followed his Silence co-star Jodie Foster's lead and opted out of the sequel altogether. Later that year, the moody, cloying Stephen King adaptation Hearts in Atlantis did little to repair his reputation with critics or audiences, who avoided the film like the plague.The long-delayed action comedy Bad Company followed in 2002, wherein audiences -- as well as megaproducer Jerry Bruckheimer -- learned that Chris Rock and Sir Anthony Hopkins do not a laugh-riot make. But the next installment in the cash-cow Hannibal Lecter franchise restored a bit of luster to the thespian's tarnished Hollywood career. Red Dragon, the second filmed version of Thomas Harris' first novel in the Lecter series, revisited the same territory previously adapted by director Michael Mann in 1986's Manhunter, with mixed but generally positive results. Surrounding Hopkins with a game cast, including Edward Norton, Ralph Finnes, Harvey Keitel and Emily Watson, the Brett Ratner film garnered some favorable comparisons to Demme's 1991 award-winner, as well as some decent -- if not Hannibal-caliber -- returns at the box office.Hopkins would face his biggest chameleon job since Nixon with 2003's highly anticipated adaptation of Philip Roth's Clinton-era tragedy The Human Stain, a prestige Miramax project directed by Robert Benton and co-starring Nicole Kidman, fresh off her Oscar win for The Hours. Hopkins plays Stain's flawed protagonist Coleman Silk, an aging, defamed African-American academic who has been "passing" as a Jew for most of his adult life. Unfortunately, most critics couldn't get past the hurtle of accepting the Anglo-Saxon paragon as a light-skinned black man. The film died a quick death at the box office and went unrecognized in year-end awards.2004's epic historical drama Alexander re-united Hopkins and Nixon helmer Oliver Stone in a three-hour trek through the life and times of Alexander the Great. The following year, Hopkins turned up in two projects, the first being John Madden's drama Proof. In this Miramax release, Hopkins plays Robert, a genius mathematician who - amid a long descent into madness - devises a formula of earth-shaking proportions. That same year's comedy-drama The World's Fastest Indian saw limited international release in December 2005; it starred Hopkins - ever the one to challenge himself by expanding his repertoire to include increasingly difficult roles - as New Zealand motorcycle racer Burt Munro, who set a land speed record on his chopper at the Utah Bonneville Flats. The quirky picture did limited business in the States but won the hearts of many viewers and critics.He then joined the ensemble cast of the same year's hotly-anticipated ensemble drama Bobby, helmed by Emilio Estevez, about the events at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles just prior to RFK's assassination. Hopkins plays John Casey, one of the hotel proprietors.Hopkins long held true passions in arenas other than acting - specifically, painting and musical composition. As for the former, Hopkins started moonlighting as a painter in the early 2000s, and when his tableaux first appeared publicly, at San Antonio's Luciane Gallery in early 2006, the canvases sold out within six days. Hopkins is also an accomplished symphonic composer and the author of several orchestral compositions, though unlike some of his contemporaries (such as Clint Eastwood) his works never supplemented movie soundtracks and weren't available on disc. The San Antonio Symphony performed a few of the pieces for its patrons in spring 2006.Hopkins would remain a prolific actor over the next several years, appearing in films like The Wolfman, Thor, and 360.Formerly wed to actress Petronella Barker and to Jennifer Lynton, Hopkins married his third wife, actress and producer Stella Arroyave, in March 2003.

Trivia: An actor of unusual talent, Edward Norton attained almost instant stardom with his film debut in 1996's Primal Fear. For his thoroughly chilling breakthrough performance as a Kentucky altar boy accused of murder, Norton was credited with saving an otherwise mediocre film and further rewarded with Golden Globe and Oscar nominations. Remarkably disconnected from all of the hype that is usually associated with fresh talent, Norton has gone on to further prove his worth in such films as American History X, The People vs. Larry Flynt, and Fight Club.The son of a former Carter Administration federal prosecutor and an English teacher, as well as the grandson of famed developer James Rouse, Norton was born in Boston on August 18, 1969. He was raised in the planned community of Columbia, MD, and from an early age was known as an extremely bright and somewhat serious person. His interest in acting began at the age of five when his babysitter, Betsy True (who went on to become an actress on stage and screen), took him to a musical adaptation of Cinderella. Shortly after that, Norton enrolled at Orenstein's Columbia School for Theatrical Arts, making his stage debut at the age of eight in a local production of Annie Get Your Gun. Although young, Norton already exhibited an unusual amount of professionalism and took his subsequent roles seriously. After high school, he studied astronomy, history, and Japanese at Yale, and was also active in the university's theatrical productions. After earning a history degree, Norton spent a few months in Japan and then moved to New York, where he worked for the Enterprise Foundation, a group devoted to stopping urban decay. Again, Norton continued acting at every opportunity and eventually decided to become a full-time actor. In 1994, he appeared in Edward Albee's Fragments after deeply impressing the distinguished playwright during an audition. Norton then joined the New York Signature Theater Company, which frequently premieres Albee's plays. With a number of off-Broadway credits to his name, Norton won his role in Primal Fear after being chosen out of 2,100 hopefuls. He nabbed the part after telling casting directors in a flawless drawl that he was a native of eastern Kentucky, the same area where the character came from; legend has it that the actor watched Coal Miner's Daughter to learn the accent. The intensity of Norton's screen test readings stunned almost all who saw them, and the actor became something of a hot property even before the film was released. The same year, Norton was cast as Drew Barrymore's affable fiancé in Woody Allen's tribute to Hollywood musicals, Everyone Says I Love You. Like all of the other actors in the film (excepting Barrymore), Norton did his own singing, further impressing audiences and critics alike with his versatility. Then, as if two completely different films in one year weren't enough, Norton again wowed audiences that same year with his portrayal of a determined defense attorney in Milos Forman's widely acclaimed The People vs. Larry Flynt. In 1998, Norton turned in two more stellar performances. The first was as Matt Damon's low-life buddy, the appropriately named Worm, in Rounders. The fact that Norton's work was more or less overshadowed by the film's lackluster reviews was almost negligible when compared to the controversy surrounding his other major project that year, American History X. Norton's stunningly powerful portrayal of a reformed white supremacist won him an Oscar nomination, but the film itself was both a box-office disappointment and the subject of vituperative disassociation on the part of its director Tony Kaye, who insisted that Norton and the studio had edited his film beyond recognition. Despite such embittered controversy, Norton managed to emerge from the mess relatively unscathed. After serving as one of the narrators for the acclaimed documentary Out of the Past the same year, he went on to star opposite Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter in Fight Club in 1999. Though that film garnered a mixed reaction at the box office, a stellar DVD release helped the film to form a solid fan base and Norton next moved on to the slightly more successful crime drama The Score (2001). After dropping a full-fledged bomb with his appearance as a naive children's show host in Danny DeVito's black comedy Death to Smoochy, Norton assisted love interest Salma Hayek by offering an uncredited re-write of the script. Norton would also make a brief appearance as Nelson Rockefeller in the film. Drawn to the mystique of screen villain Hannibal Lecter, Norton's next major film was that of FBI agent Will Graham in the well-recieved 2002 thriller Red Dragon. Though a virtual remake of Michael Mann's 1986 effort Manhunter, Red Dragon stood tall enough on its own terms to gain the respect of both fans of the previous version as well as fans of the book. His appearance as a drug dealer celebrating one last night on the town before serving a prison term in Spike Lee's 25th Hour drew decent enought reviews, though its ultimate take at the box office proved fairly disappointing. An appearance in the high profile 2003 remake The Italian Job caused something of a rift in industry headlines when Norton made it publicly known that his participation in the film was strictly a result of contractual obligation, and in 2005 the actor would return to quieter, more challenging territory with his portrayal of a delusional cowboy wannabe in Dahmer director David Jacobson's Down in the Valley. A headlining performance as a turn-of-the-century Vienna magician who uses his powers to win the love of the woman he longs for in the romantic fantasy The Illusionist found Norton making a particularly powerful impression opposite Paul Giamatti and Jessical Biel, and later that same year he would return to the screen in director John Curran's screen adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's novel The Painted Veil. Meanwhile, the sneaking suspicion that Norton wasn't quite living up to early career expectations was growing difficult to ignore; though his turn as Bruce Banner in 2008's The Incredible Hulk drew generally favorable reviews (it didn't hurt that the film itself was markedly more exciting than Ang Lee's misguided 2003 take on the material), Norton's next film Pride and Glory proved somewhat forgettable, and his quirky duel role in Tim Blake Nelson's Leaves of Grass only received a limited theatrical release before getting lost in the shuffle. Poor reviews for Norton's 2010 film Stone didn't help much to reinvigorate his career, and when it was announced that Mark Ruffalo would be taking over the role of Banner in Joss Whedon's all-star comic book romp The Avengers, some feared that the actor's previous rift with Marvel Studios had come back to haunt him.In 2012, when he took high-profile roles in two eagerly anticipated films -- Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom and Tony Gilroy's The Bourne Legacy, and two years later he earned rave reviews for his supporting turn as a monstrously egotistical and hugely talented actor in Alejandro Inarritu's Birdman, a part that earned him an Oscar nomination and a slew of other industry accolades.

Trivia: With his electrifying gaze, elegant comportment, and lips that look as if they could breathe life into concrete, Ralph Fiennes has caused many a jaded filmgoer to reaffirm the existence of British sex appeal. Since 1993, when he first impressed international audiences in the decidedly unglamorous role of Nazi sadist Amon Goeth in Schindler's List, Fiennes has delivered performances marked by dignified passion and relentless intensity.The oldest of six children, Fiennes was born in Suffolk on December 22, 1962. His father was a self-taught photographer and his mother a novelist who wrote under the pen name Jennifer Lash, professions which virtually ensured a unique upbringing. Fiennes' family moved a number of times while he was growing up, and the children were encouraged in their creative pursuits. Thus, it is less than surprising that four out of the six Fiennes siblings went on to work in the entertainment business, with Ralph and his brother Joseph becoming actors, his two sisters a director and a producer, and another brother a musician. Originally wanting to be a painter, Fiennes enrolled at the Chelsea College of Art and Design before transferring to London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to study acting. Following graduation, he joined the Royal National Theatre in 1987, and he became part of the Royal Shakespeare Company a year later. While a member of the company, he performed a wide range of the classics, playing everyone from Romeo to King Lear's Edmund. Fiennes first became known to a wider audience in 1991, when he starred as the title character in the acclaimed British television production of A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia. The next year, he gained additional exposure, making his film debut as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. Starring opposite Juliette Binoche, Fiennes glowered his way across the screen with suitable aplomb, something that he would do again to devastating effect the next year in Schindler's List. As the psychotic Nazi commandant Amon Goeth, Fiennes blended quiet yet absolute menace with surprising charisma (even more surprising given that he had gained over 30 pounds for his role) to such great effect that he earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination and a British Academy Award for his portrayal. Fiennes' work in the film incited a flurry of interest in the actor, whose intensity and odd name (its correct pronunciation is "Rafe Fines") made him the subject of many a magazine article.Interest in Fiennes only increased the following year, when, back to his normal weight and sporting an American accent, he played the more sympathetic (but tragically flawed) Charles Van Doren in Robert Redford's Quiz Show. Critics loved him in the role, and he further consolidated his acclaim two years later in Anthony Minghella's Oscar-winning adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, which won Fiennes Oscar and Golden Globe nominations as Best Actor. Given his newfound heartthrob status, many audience members were surprised to see Fiennes next turn up in the title role of the gawkish, ginger-haired minister with a gambling problem (playing opposite a then-unknown Cate Blanchett) in Oscar and Lucinda (1997). He gave a highly eccentric performance in the film, which received a mixed critical reception. Where Oscar and Lucinda was only vaguely disappointing, Fiennes' next project, a 1998 film version of the popular 1960s TV series The Avengers, was one of the most lambasted films of the year. Fiennes somehow managed to avoid most of the critical wrath directed at the film, and in 1999 he could be seen starring in no less than three disparate projects. In Onegin, directed by his sister, Martha, Fiennes played the title character, a blasé Russian aristocrat; in The End of the Affair, directed by Neil Jordan, he portrayed a novelist embroiled in an adulterous affair with the wife (Julianne Moore) of his best friend (Stephen Rea); while in Sunshine, directed by István Szabó, he played three different roles in a saga tracing 150 years of the affairs and intrigues of a family of Hungarian Jews.If his roles to date had served to showcase Fiennes' talent at about the rate of a solid performance per year, 2002 provided a trio of diverse and demanding roles that would prove just how well he could perform under pressure. In Red Dragon -- the first of those efforts to hit stateside screens that year -- Fiennes' chilling performance as serial killer Francis Dolarhyde shifted between meekness and menace at the drop of a hat. Thankfully eschewing the grandiose theatrics of Hannibal for a tone more in keeping with the original Silence of the Lambs, the film proved a hit at the box office, and Fiennes' performance rivaled that of Ted Levine's in providing the film with a chilling villain straight from the pages of the most lurid true-crime encyclopedia (Fiennes' character was purportedly based on the exploits of an uncaptured Wichita serial killer who went by the name "Bind, Torture, Kill"). A few short months later, audiences were treated to yet another deeply disturbed characterization by Fiennes, that of a schizophrenic man haunted by his childhood in director David Cronenberg's dark psychological drama Spider, based on author Patrick McGrath's bleak novel of the same name. Fiennes' performance substituted the menace of Red Dragon with a more sympathetic protagonist whose memory slowly regresses to reveal a scarring childhood tragedy. No doubt having had his fill of disturbed characters that year, Fiennes once again caught audiences off guard with a disarmingly charming role in the romantic comedy Maid in Manhattan.Fiennes would continue to find substantial and challenging roles in the years to come, most notably in his sister's film Chromophobia, the Merchant-Ivory film The White Countess, The Constant Gardener, the James Bond film Skyfall, and the ever-popular Harry Potter series, in which Fiennes played baddie Lord Voldemort. Fiennes would also earn accolades for directing and starring in a cinematic adaptation of William Shakespeare's war epic Coriolanus.

Trivia: Sporting a Brooklyn accent and bulldog features, Harvey Keitel first gained recognition with a series of gritty roles in the early films of Martin Scorsese, and he was for a long time cast as one lowlife thug after another. His career experienced a renaissance in the 1990s, when roles in such films as Thelma & Louise, Bad Lieutenant, and The Piano demonstrated his versatility and his willingness to let it all hang out (literally) in the service of an authentic characterization.A product of Brooklyn, where he was born on May 13, 1939, Keitel grew up as something of a delinquent. At the age of 16, his truancy was put to an end when he was sent to Lebanon with the Marine Corps. Upon his return, he sold shoes and nurtured an interest in acting. He studied the craft with Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler and began appearing in off-off-Broadway productions. When he was 26, fate struck in the form of a casting ad placed by Scorsese, at that time a fledgling student director at New York University; Keitel's response to the ad began a collaboration that would last for years and produce some of the more memorable moments in film history. Keitel and Scorsese made their onscreen feature debuts with Who's That Knocking at My Door? (1968), in which the former played the latter's alter ego. Five years later, they collaborated on Mean Streets; that and their subsequent collaborations of the '70s, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) and Taxi Driver (1976), were some of the decade's most memorable films. Unfortunately, despite these achievements, Keitel's career suffered a great blow when he lost the lead in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now to Martin Sheen. He spent much of the '80s appearing in obscure and/or forgettable films, save for Scorsese's controversial The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and by the time he was cast in Thelma & Louise in 1991, he was in a career slump. 1991 and 1992 marked a turning point in Keitel's career: his role in Thelma and Louise as a sympathetic detective -- much like his role in that same year's Mortal Thoughts -- helped him break through the stereotypes surrounding him, and his Oscar nomination for his portrayal of gangster Mickey Cohen in Bugsy (1991) put him back in the forefront. Keitel's work in 1992's Bad Lieutenant, Reservoir Dogs, and Sister Act further established him as an actor of previously unappreciated versatility, and in 1993 he proved this versatility when he starred in Jane Campion's exotic art drama The Piano, in which he famously appeared in the nude as Holly Hunter's lover.Keitel continued to demonstrate his ability to play both hard-boiled gangsters and rough-edged nice guys throughout the rest of the decade, turning in one solid performance after another in such films as Pulp Fiction (1994), Clockers (1995), and Copland (1997). One of his most memorable characterizations, cigar shop owner Auggie Wren, came from his collaboration with Paul Auster on Smoke and Blue in the Face (both 1995); he also worked with Auster on his 1998 romantic drama Lulu on the Bridge. In 1999, Keitel could be seen in variety of films, notably Tony Bui's Three Seasons, in which he played an American soldier searching for his lost daughter in Vietnam, and Jane Campion's Holy Smoke, in which he played a man sent to deprogram Kate Winslet of the teachings she received while part of a religious cult.In 2001, Keitel's performance as the contemptuous Major Steve Arnold in Taking Sides was met with rave reviews; the same year, Keitel played a Holocaust victim in The Grey Zone. Keitel worked on and off throughout the 2000s, and landed a regular role in ABC's short-lived series Life on Mars in 2008.

Trivia: With soulful, saucer-like eyes and a coy smile that hints at playfulness, Oscar-nominated actress Emily Watson burst onto the scene with her shattering performance in Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves, a role that almost went to period-piece queen Helena Bonham Carter. Born the daughter of an architect and an English professor in Islington, a borough of London, England, in January 1967, a sheltered upbringing initially led Watson to seek studies in English Literature. After studying in Bristol for three years, Watson made her first bid for drama school only to face disheartening rejection. After three years of working as a waitress and a secretary, she was eventually accepted into the London Drama Studio. It was during this early phase in her career that Watson would meet future husband Jack Waters.Launching her career upon joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1992, Watson soon set her sights on film. Fate intervened when actress Helena Bonham Carter pulled out of director Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves at the last minute due to the film's explicit sexuality. Despite her lack of big-screen experience, Watson landed the female lead in the film after only one brief screen test. Playing a spiritually driven woman whose oil-rig worker husband (Stellan Saarsgaard) becomes paralized, she exhibited a brash, religiously transcendent sexuality, stunning art-house audiences and recieving an Oscar nomination in the process. Though the subsequent marriage dramedy Metroland proved to be a nostalgia trip by comparison, Watson's honest performance again earned accolades. Watson's reputation continued to grow with her intimate, conflicted portrayal of the Multiple Sclerosis-stricken concert cellist Jacqueline Du Pre in Hilary and Jackie (1998), for which she was again Oscar-nominated, as well as when she played the love interest of an eccentric chess champion in The Luzhin Defence (2000).After joining the talented ensemble of Robert Altman's acclaimed comedy-mystery Gosford Park, Watson made serious inroads into Hollywood, first in 2002 as the love interest of a temperamental (to say the least) small-business owner played by Adam Sandler in Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love. That same fall also saw her playing the love interest of a murderous psychopath in Brett Ratner's Hannibal prequel Red Dragon, and re-teaming with Metroland co-star Christian Bale in the little-seen sci-fi action vehicle Equilibrium. After doing voice work for Tim Burton's animated gothic Corpse Bride -- alongside the very woman she replaced in Breaking the Waves, Helena Bonham-Carter -- she returned to the British art-house scene with strong performances in such films as Separate Lives and director Richard E. Grant's autobiographical Wah-Wah.She appeared in the biopic Miss Potter, and the family fantasy film The Water Horse. In 2008 she was part of Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut Synecdoche, New York. Three years later she played the mother of a boy devoted to his beloved equine mate in Steven Spielberg's adaptation of War Horse, and in 2012 she appeared in Joe Wright's adaptation of Anna Karenina. The following year, she appeared in the film adaptation of the popular book The Book Thief. In 2014, she played Jane Hawking's mother in The Theory of Everything.

Trivia: A graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts and winner of the Theatre World award for her performance in the Broadway production of Prelude to a Kiss, Mary Louise Parker has developed into the Mae Marsh of the 1990s: the eternal victim. Poor, put-upon Parker seems to have "kick me" emblazoned on her forehead in most of her screen appearances. However, unlike silent star Marsh, Parker's characters usually enjoy a satisfying "worm has turned" moment -- one of her first major film roles was as the abused wife in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) A more self-reliant Parker was seen in the 1990 AIDS-related TV movie Longtime Companion, as the supportive "earth mother" to a group of urban homosexual men. Still, there's a foredoomed quality in Mary-Louise Parker's performances that can't be easily shaken. While her film career thrives, Parker is also busy on stage and occasionally television. Parker received a Tony nomination for her work in a Broadway production of Prelude to a Kiss. She also appears on productions all over the country. On television Parker appears in television movies such as Sugartime and Saint Maybe (1998).

Trivia: One of the most original, versatile, and steadily employed actors in Hollywood, Philip Seymour Hoffman made a name for himself playing some of the most dysfunctional characters in movie history. Although he had been acting for years, most audiences were first introduced to the actor in the award-winning Boogie Nights, where he played a nebbishy soundman with a jones for Mark Wahlberg's Dirk Diggler. Imbuing his character with both humor and poignant complexity, Hoffman was one of the more memorable aspects of an unforgettable film.Born in Fairport, NY, in 1968, Hoffman trained at New York's Tisch School of Drama. Before breaking into film, he did a host of theater work, performing in New York, Chicago, and on a European tour. He made his film debut in the 1992 film Scent of a Woman, a critically acclaimed picture starring Al Pacino and Chris O'Donnell. Roles in a number of films of varying quality followed, including My New Gun (1992) and When a Man Loves a Woman (1994). The actor then nabbed a sizable role in Jan de Bont's 1996 tornado thriller Twister and the same year began an ongoing working relationship with Paul Thomas Anderson by appearing in his directorial debut Hard Eight. The crime drama, which also starred Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson, received positive critical attention, although it didn't create more than a minor blip at the box office. However, Hoffman's next feature and second collaboration with Anderson, Boogie Nights (1997), was both a critical and financial success, scoring a host of Academy Award nominations and simultaneously reviving the careers of some of its stars, such as Burt Reynolds and Mark Wahlberg, while providing a breakthrough for others, such as Heather Graham and Hoffman himself. He next appeared in the Robin Williams comedy Patch Adams (1998), and the same year starred in two critically acclaimed independent films, Todd Solondz's Happiness and Brad Anderson's Next Stop Wonderland. The prolific actor added an appearance in The Big Lebowski (also 1998) to his already impressive resumé. In addition to his burgeoning acting career, Hoffman won favorable notices for his directing debut with the off-Broadway In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings. Hoffman came into his own with three notable performances in 1999. He reunited with Paul Thomas Anderson to play empathic hospice nurse Phil Parma, one of the emotional anchors in Magnolia. His portrayal of upper-crust snob Freddie Miles in The Talented Mr. Ripley earned him strong notices from many critics. Hoffman's peers awarded him with a Screen Actors Guild nomination for his role as a cross dresser in Flawless opposite Robert De Niro. He returned to the Broadway stage with fellow Anderson regular John C. Reilly to play very different brothers in Sam Shepard's True West. They took a risk by switching the lead roles every three days. Their hard work earned critical raves, and each was nominated for a Tony award. In 2000, Cameron Crowe cast Hoffman as Crowe's childhood hero Lester Bangs in Almost Famous, and David Mamet tapped him to be part of the impressive ensemble in State and Main.Hoffman maintained his status as one of the most respected and hardest-working actors in the new decade by delivering an excellent supporting turn in Red Dragon as an unctuous tabloid reporter. That same year he co-starred in Spike Lee's 25th Hour, and played the bad guy for old collaborator Paul Thomas Anderson in the offbeat romantic comedy Punch-Drunk Love. 2002 also saw the release of Love Liza, a very low-budget film scripted by Hoffman's brother and directed by actor Todd Louiso that starred Phil as a grieving husband addicted to huffing gas fumes. The next year found Hoffman starring as a gambling addict in the small scale Canadian drama Owning Mahowny, and turning in a memorable supporting performance as an amoral preacher in the big screen adaptation of Cold Mountain. Hoffman was in theaters again at the beginning of 2004 as the best friend in the Ben Stiller comedy Along Came Polly. He was also part of yet another outstanding ensemble in the small screen adaptation of Richard Russo's Pulitzer prize-winning novel Empire Falls.In 2005, Hoffman took the role of a lifetime when he assumed the title role in Bennett Miller's Capote. The film had critics in agreement that Hoffman's portrayal of complex and idiosyncratic real-life author Truman Capote was the stuff of Hollywood legend. Hoffman not only mastered the character's distinct body-language and speech but also hauntingly interpreted the subtle psychological and emotional self that made the character whole-leading many to declare that he very nearly made the film everything it was. The performance earned him the Oscar for Best Actor, as well as a Golden Globe and countless other accolades. The attention also provided a boost in profile for the actor who had for so long proved his worth in the background. After playing the bad guy in the third Mission Impossible movie opposite Tom Cruise, Hoffman had a remarkable 2007, a year that saw him play a central part in three well-regarded films. His conniving brother in Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead was a model of self-loathing fermenting into fatal action. In addition to a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor, his highly-educated, emotionally fractured brother to Laura Linney's neurotic sister in The Savages offered him the chance to play numerous subtle and sharply observed scenes with her, the first meeting of these two revered performers. But it was his turn as the intense CIA operative in Charlie Wilson's War that won Hoffman the most widespread praise including Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor.Hoffman continued to solidify his status as one of his generation's finest actors in 2008 with two very different roles. By choosing to play the lead in Charlie Kaufmann's directorial debut Synecdoche, New York, Hoffman again displayed his fearlessness, as well as his desire to work with the very best writers and directors he can find. That willfully difficult film never connected with mainstream audiences, but that was not true at all for Hoffman's other picture of 2008, Doubt. John Patrick Shanley's cinematic adaptation of his own award-winning play earned acting nominations for Hoffman and his three costars (Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis) from both the Screen Actors Guild, and the Academy.Over the following years, Hoffman would continue to appear in a variety of interesting films, like Pirate Radio, The Ides of March, and Moneyball. In 2012 he again collaborated with Paul Thomas Anderson, playing a cult leader in the drama The Master opposite Joaquin Phoenix. For his work in that movie, Hoffman got a Best Supporting Actor nomination from both the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The following year, he appeared in the smash The Hunger Games: Catching Fire as rebel Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. Sadly, personal problems cut his illustrious career short, as Hoffman was found dead in his apartment of an apparent drug overdose at age 46.

Trivia: Possessing an air of smug authority that isn't without a slight sense of self-conscious humor, actor Anthony Heald's supporting roles in such films as The Silence of the Lambs and Deep Rising have found him mastering the art of the overconfident character who audiences instinctively sense (often rightly so) will receive his comeuppance before the end credits roll. Born Philip Anthony Mair Heald in New Rochelle, NY, the aspiring actor with a keen eye for detail sought higher education at Michigan State University following graduation from New York's Massapequa High School. It was during his tenure at Michigan State that Heald became involved with a street theater troupe, honing his skills while simultaneously developing a unique style that he would continue to develop in the decade that followed. Making the leap to the big screen with a supporting role in the 1983 drama Silkwood, Heald also impressed small-screen viewers with occasional roles in Miami Vice, Tales From the Dark Side, and later, Cheers. Of course, it was feature films that provided the most exposure for Heald, though, his role as Dr. Frederick Chilton in The Silence of the Lambs offering the ideal celluloid personification of the actor's nervous confidence. Supporting roles in such high-profile releases as Searching for Bobby Fischer, The Pelican Brief, The Client, and 8MM kept Heald in the public eye throughout the 1990s, and with his role as buttoned-down Assistant Principal Scott Guber in the popular 2000 series Boston Public, Heald seemed to hit his stride on the small screen. On the high-school comedy drama, Heald embued his straight-laced, officious, authoritarian character with a surprising degree of sympathy, making Mr. Gruber somewhat more endearing than would be expected. In 2002, Heald reprised his role as Dr. Frederick Chilton in Red Dragon, the second sequel -- actually a prequel -- to The Silence of the Lambs. Though Boston Public would close its doors in 2004, Heald continued to act in addition to providing vocal work on a number of talking books. In 2006 Heald helmed the clichéd part of the unctuous Dean of the rival college in the comedy Accepted, as well as appearing in the third installment of the popular X-Men franchise.

Trivia: A veteran character actor whose work has shown he's as comfortable with comedy as drama, Frankie Faison was born in Newport News, VA, in 1949. Faison developed the acting bug while in grade school after appearing in a school play, and after high school he was a theater student at both Illinois Wesleyan University and New York University. Faison began pursuing a career in the theater, and appeared in a number of acclaimed off-Broadway productions, including Athol Fugard's Playland, the New York Shakespeare Festival's production of Before It Hits Home, and an adaptation of King Lear at the NYSF Delacorte Theater. Faison made his film debut in 1981 with a small role in Ragtime, and Faison soon began supplementing his stage work with small parts in motion pictures and guest shots on television. An inkling of what was to come for Faison appeared in 1986, when he was cast in a small role as a cop in Manhunter, an adaptation of Thomas Harris' novel Red Dragon, in which Brian Cox played the murderous Hannibal Lector. In 1987, Faison appeared on Broadway in August Wilson's drama Fences, opposite James Earl Jones; Faison's performance earned him a Tony award nomination. In 1988, Faison scored a showy comic role in the Eddie Murphy vehicle Coming to America, and a year later he was one of the "corner men" in Spike Lee's acclaimed and controversial Do the Right Thing. In 1990, Faison scored the male lead in a short-lived sitcom, True Colors, and in 1991 he appeared in another adaptation of a Thomas Harris novel when he was cast as Barney Matthews, the big but gentle male nurse in The Silence of the Lambs. Faison continued to win supporting roles in a variety of notable films, including City of Hope, Sommersby, Mother Night, I Love Trouble, Albino Alligator, Where the Money Is, and The Thomas Crown Affair, and he had a leading role in the well-regarded police drama Prey; sadly, the show fared poorly in the ratings and didn't survive its first season. Faison revived his role as Barney Matthews in 2001's box-office blockbuster Hannibal, making him the only actor to appear in all three films about the famous cannibal. ~ Mark Deming

Trivia: Although many would likely recognize Bill Duke from his roles in such high-profile releases as Predator, Menace II Society, and Red Dragon, perhaps only a few connect the face in front of the camera with the name of the man who also directed such features as A Rage in Harlem and Hoodlum. A native of Poughkeepsie, NY, and the first in his family to graduate from college, the actor/director studied speech and drama at Boston University before earning his M.F.A. from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Subsequently penning off-Broadway plays and launching a film career with roles in Car Wash (1976) and American Gigolo (1979), Duke's early breakthrough came with a featured role in the critically acclaimed Alex Haley miniseries Palmerstown U.S.A. in 1980. Deciding to refine his skills behind the camera, the burgeoning actor later studied at the American Film Institute, where his student project The Hero earned him a solid reputation as a director to watch. In the years that followed, Duke earned a reputation as an efficient and effective television director as he took the helm for episodes of Hill Street Blues, Fame, Miami Vice, Spenser: For Hire, and Matlock. He soon moved into feature territory with the PBS drama The Killing Floor (which screened at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival and earned the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival). In 1989, Duke's adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun showed that, although his directing had thus far been limited to the small screen, he also had the potential to launch a lucrative career in theatrical features. After acting in such features as Commando (1985), Predator (1987), and Bird on a Wire (1990), Duke's first theatrical feature, A Rage in Harlem, was released in 1991. An effective crime drama featuring a gangster's moll, a trunk load of gold, and a slew of unsavory heavies, the film was unfairly interpreted by audiences to be a rip-off of the popular 1989 comedy Harlem Nights. For the dark crime thriller Deep Cover, Duke teamed with future collaborator Laurence Fishburne for the first time, and after lightening things up a bit with The Cemetery Club (1993), Duke earned a direct hit at the box office with the popular sequel Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit the same year. The remainder of the '90s found the actor/director evenly dividing his duties on both sides of the camera, and, in 1997, he re-teamed with Fishburne for the throwback gangster drama Hoodlum. With all of his directorial duties, Duke found little time to accept onscreen roles, though performances in Payback and Fever in 1999 reminded audiences that he was still a compelling screen presence. Duke returned to the small screen the following year to direct an episode of City of Angels and the Nero Wolfe mystery The Golden Spiders, and remained in television to shoot episodes of Fastlane and Robbery Homicide Division. In 2003, Duke directed the moving, made-for-TV drama Deacons for Defense. As roles in Red Dragon (2002) and National Security (2003) continued to fuel his feature career, Duke was also seen on the small screen in episodes of Fastlane and the Out of Sight (1998) spin-off Karen Sisco.

Trivia: New York native Ken Leung studied acting at NYU and at HB Studio before making his onscreen debut with a minor appearance in 1997's Rush Hour. He would continue to find consistent screen work with roles in movies like Red Dragon and Vanilla Sky, while simultaneously cultivating a theater career with roles in Broadway plays like the Tony Award-winning Thoroughly Modern Millie in 2002. Leung would later find a particularly memorable role in 2008, when he was cast as Miles Straume in the mysterious series Lost.

Trivia: Actress Azura Skye took her premier cinematic bows during her late teens, and tended to play against her straight-laced appearance by essaying a series of consistently quirky and offbeat roles. She was memorable as a drug addict alongside Sandra Bullock in 28 Days (2000), played one of Cinderella's "beautiful" half-siblings in the revisionist small-screen fairy-tale update Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (2002), and then signed for a small part in Goran Dukic's darkly comic romance Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006).

Trivia: Composer Lalo Schifrin, the son of a concertmaster of the Teatro Colón, was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Schifrin was a child prodigy and after spending his formative years studying with his father, traveled to Paris to study classical music and jazz. In 1955, he represented his country in the International Jazz Festival. By 1958, after forming his own jazz band in Argentina, Schifrin was working in New York as an arranger for Xavier Cugat. In the early '60s, he worked as a pianist/composer for Dizzy Gillespie. Schifrin came to Hollywood in 1964 where he began composing distinctive scores for feature films and television shows; one of his best TV themes is that of the series Mission Impossible. Since the 1960s, Schifrin has become one of the most prolific film composers in Hollywood. In addition to that, he also writes for concert halls, and is especially noted for his experimental pieces that fuse jazz to religious music.

Trivia: John Rubinstein was born in Los Angeles in 1946, the same year that his celebrated father, 59-year-old concert pianist Arthur B. Rubinstein, became an American citizen. A fine musician in his own right, John has worked on the scores of such films as The Candidate (1972) and Jeremiah Johnson (1972). The younger Rubinstein is, however, far better known as an actor. He made a well-received Broadway debut in the popular musical Pippin and later co-starred in Children of a Lesser God and A Soldier's Tale. A familiar TV and movie face since 1970, Rubinstein starred in the 1972 theatrical feature Pippin, was featured as Meredith Baxter's ex-husband in the Mike Nichols-produced TV series Family (1976-1980), and was cast as MGM mogul Irving Thalberg in the 1980 TV movie The Silent Lovers. He was most familiar for his three-season (1984-1986) portrayal of uptight attorney Harrison K. Fox on the tongue-in-cheek private eye weekly Crazy Like a Fox. John Rubinstein is married to actress Judy West.

Trivia: Brenda Strong's offscreen name might not immediately register with Seinfeld fans, but they will immediately identify the character actress after learning that she played the grating Sue Ellen Mischke, one of Elaine Benes's thorn-in-the-flesh nemeses, on that seminal American sitcom. Actually, Strong's television-heavy resumé reads like a best-of prime-time series list -- including not only Seinfeld, but Ally McBeal, Nip/Tuck, Gilmore Girls, 7th Heaven, and others. Strong remains best known, however, for her pivotal contribution to Desperate Housewives as the ill-fated Mary Alice Young, a social-climbing hausfrau who commits suicide in the opening episode of the program, and then hangs around (in a regular voice-over) to offer acerbic observations from the afterlife about her backstabbing earthbound friends. Once Desperate Housewives ended in 2012, Strong joined the continuation of the series Dallas, playing Ann Ewing, Bobby's wife.In addition to her television work, Strong also landed bit parts in such features as Spaceballs (1987), The Craft (1996), and Starship Troopers 2 (2004). In 2009 she appeared in Melora Hardin movie You. Strong hosted a series of exercise videos in the early 2000s as well, among them Yoga 4 Fertility (2001) and Yoga 4 Partners (2002).

Trivia: Has eight younger siblings.After his high school graduation, enlisted in the U.S. Navy and for three years served in Hawaii.Started his acting career doing children's theater in plays like Winnie the Pooh.Is an accomplished singer and has sang in musicals like 110 in the Shade, Carousel and Oh Calcutta!Often plays officers, agents, businessmen, judges, lawyers or military men.

Trivia: Dependable American character actor Bill Lucking has seldom had any professional "down time" since his 1969 film debut. In 1980 alone, Lucking showed up in four movies, not to mention any number of TV programs. One of his more rewarding film assignments was in Doc Savage (1975) as the doc's trusted cohort Renny. In addition to his many TV-movie appearances (e.g. Brother Matthias in 1991's Babe Ruth) and guest spots, Bill Lucking has had regular weekly roles on Big Hawaii (1977, as ranch foreman Oscar Kalahani), Shannon (1981, as NYPD detective Norm White), The A-Team (1983-84, as the team's nemesis Col. Lynch), Jessie (1984, as Sgt. McClellan) and Outlaws (1986, as bank robber Harland Pike).

Trivia: With the role of Steve Bushak in 1990's The Freshman, actor Frank Whaley inaugurated a fruitful film career. Whaley went on to be prominently featured in three 1991 pictures. He played real-life guitarist Robby Krieger in The Doors, and two leading roles: the hapless tourist caught up in literary espionage in Back in the U.S.S.R. (1991) and the feckless night watchman with both a runaway heiress and a gang of burglars on his hands in Career Opportunities (1991). Whaley has continued averaging two to three film appearances per annum; would that the films themselves were more profitable than the likes of Swing Kids (1993) and A Midnight Clear (1993).

Trivia: Made his Broadway debut in the play Slab Boys alongside Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn. Has appeared in three movies under director Oliver Stone: 1986's Platoon (his feature debut), 1989's Born on the Fourth of July and 1991's The Doors. Shared in 2005 and 2006 Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series with the cast of Desperate Housewives, on which he played Paul Young. Had a unique insight into his role as an ad man on the AMC series Mad Men because his father worked in advertising on Madison Avenue in the 1960s. With actor wife Annie LaRussa, is the parent of two sons.

Trivia: Supporting actor and singer Gianni Russo specializes in playing Mafiosos and other Italian stereotypes. He made his feature-film debut playing Carlo Rizzi in The Godfather (1973). Before that, Russo had appeared in two made-for-television films.