Trivia: An actor whose name became synonymous with all-American entertainment, Tom Cruise spent the 1980s as one of Hollywood's brightest-shining golden boys. Born on July 3, 1962 in Syracuse, NY, Cruise was high-school wrestler until he was sidelined by a knee injury. Soon taking up acting, he found that the activity served a dual purpose: performing satiated his need for attention, while the memorization aspect of acting helped him come to grips with his dyslexia. Moving to New York in 1980, Cruise's first big hit was Risky Business in 1982, in which he entered movie-trivia infamy with the scene wherein he celebrates his parents' absence by dancing around the living room in his underwear. The Hollywood press corps began touting Cruise as one of the "Brat Pack," a group of twenty-something actors who seemed on the verge of taking over the movie industry in the early '80s. Top Gun 1985 established Cruise as an action star, but again he refused to be pigeonholed, and followed it up with a solid characterization of a fledgling pool shark in the Martin Scorsese film The Color of Money in 1986, for which co-star Paul Newman earned an Academy Award. In 1988, he played the brother of an autistic savant played by Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, a dramatic turn for sure, though Cruise had not yet totally convinced critics he was more than a pretty face.His chance came in 1989, when he played a paraplegic Vietnam vet in Born on the Fourth of July. Though his bankability faltered a bit with the expensive disappointment Far and Away in 1990 (though it did give him a chance to co-star with his-then wife Nicole Kidman), 1992's A Few Good Men brought him back into the game. By 1994, the star was undercutting his own leading man image with the role of the slick, dastardly vampire Lestat in the long-delayed film adaptation of the Anne Rice novel Interview with the Vampire. Although the author was vehemently opposed to Cruise's casting, Rice famously reversed her decision upon seeing the actor's performance, and publicly praised Cruise's portrayal.In 1996, Cruise scored financial success with the big-budget action film Mission: Impossible, but it was with his multilayered, Oscar-nominated performance in Jerry Maguire that Cruise proved once again why he is considered a major Hollywood player. 1999 saw Cruise reunited onscreen with Kidman in a project of a very different sort, Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. The film, which was the director's last, had been the subject of controversy, rumor, and speculation since it began filming. It opened to curious critics and audiences alike across the nation, and was met with a violently mixed response. However, it allowed Cruise to once again take part in film history, further solidifying his position as one of Hollywood's most well-placed movers and shakers.Cruise's enviable position was again solidified later in 1999, when he earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role as a loathsome "sexual prowess" guru in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia. In 2000, he scored again when he reprised his role as international agent Ethan Hunt in John Woo's Mission: Impossible II, which proved to be one of the summer's first big moneymakers. He then reteamed with Jerry Maguire director Cameron Crowe for a remake of Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar's Abre los Ojos titled Vanilla Sky. Though Vanilla Sky's sometimes surreal trappings found the film receiving a mixed reception at the box office, the same could not be said for the following year's massively successful sci-fi chase film Minority Report, directed by Steven Spielberg , or of the historical epic The Last Samurai, directed by Edward Zwick.For his next film, Cruise picked a role unlike any he'd ever played; starring as a sociopathic hitman in the Michael Mann psychological thriller Collateral. He received major praise for his departure from the good-guy characters he'd built his career on, and for doing so convincingly. By 2005, he teamed up with Steven Spielberg again for the second time in three years with an epic adaptation of the H.G. Wells alien invasion story War of the Worlds.The summer blockbuster was in some ways overshadowed, however, by a cloud of negative publicity. It began in 2005, when Cruise became suddenly vocal about his beliefs in Scientology, the religion created by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. Cruise publicly denounced actress Brooke Shields for taking medication to combat her postpartum depression, calling going so far as to call the psychological science a "Nazi science" in an Entertainment Weekly interview. On June 24, 2005, he was interviewed by Matt Lauer for The Today Show during which time he appeared to be distractingly argumentative in his insistence that psychiatry is a "pseudoscience," and in a Der Spiegel interview, he was quoted as saying that Scientology has the only successful drug rehabilitation program in the world.This behavior caused a stirring of public opinion about Cruise, as did his relationship with 27-year-old actress Katie Holmes. The two announced their engagement in the spring of 2005, and Cruise's enthusiasm for his new romantic interest created more curiosity about his mental stability. He appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on May 23, where he jumped up and down on the couch, professing his love for the newly-Scientologist Holmes. The actor's newly outspoken attitude about Scientology linked to the buzz surrounding his new relationship, and the media was flooded with rumors that Holmes had been brainwashed.Some audiences found Cruise's ultra-enthusiastic behavior refreshing, but for the most part, the actor's new public image alienated many of his viewers. As he geared up for the spring 2006 release of Mission: Impossible III, his ability to sell a film based almost purely on his own likability was in question for the first time in 20 years.Despite this, the movie ended up performing essentially as expected, and Cruise moved on to making headlines on the business front, when -- in November 2006 -- he and corporate partner Paula Wagner (the twin forces behind the lucrative Cruise-Wagner Productions) officially "took over" the defunct United Artists studio. Originally founded by such giants as Douglas Fairbanks and Charles Chaplin in 1921, UA was all but completely defunct. The press announced that Cruise and Wagner would "revive" the studio, with Wagner serving as Chief Executive Officer and Cruise starring in and producing projects.One of the fist films to be produced by the new United Artists was the tense political thriller Lions for Lambs, which took an earnest and unflinching look at the politics behind the Iraq war. This was followed by the World War II thriller Valkyrie. Cruise would find a solid footing as the 2010s progressed, with films like Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and Rock of Ages. Cruise and Holmes would announce they were divorcing in 2012.

Trivia: With only a handful of film credits to her name, British actress Samantha Morton earned a reputation as one of the most critically lauded up-and-comers of the late '90s. Small-boned and possessed of almost elfin features, Morton, who was born in Nottingham in 1977, began acting on television at the age of 13. She appeared in a number of series, including the popular crime drama Cracker and such costume extravaganzas as Jane Eyre and Emma.Morton became known to an international film audience in 1997, when she won wide acclaim for her wrenching, fearless portrayal of a young woman driven to promiscuous behavior by the death of her mother in Carine Adler's Under the Skin. The following year, she did starring work in The Last Yellow and Dreaming of Joseph Lees, playing the girlfriend of a small-time crook in the former and a dissatisfied young woman harboring romantic feelings for her long-absent second cousin (Rupert Graves) in the latter. In 1999, Morton's name became an increasingly familiar one to American filmgoers, thanks to starring roles in two very different films. The first, Jesus' Son, cast the actress as a heroin addict, while the second, Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown, featured her as a shy, mute woman who gets used and abused by a legendary jazz guitarist (Sean Penn) whose musical talent runs in inverse proportion to his qualities as a human being. Heralded for both films, Morton scored a surprise Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for the latter. Not resting on the laurel, the actress immediately set to work with a pair of venerable cineastes, directors Julien Temple (in Pandemonium) and Amos Gitai (in his first English-language production, Eden). Director Steven Spielberg soon followed Allen's lead, casting Morton in a small but pivotal role as a shivering, near-mute, clairvoyant "Precog" in his Blade Runner-esque mystery Minority Report, which premiered in the summer of 2002. Though the film would introduce Morton to her largest audience yet, it was a pair of independent features released in late 2002 and 2003 that would garner her even more significant critical attention. Teaming with the maverick Scottish director Lynne Ramsay, the actress would essay the enigmatic, directionless title character in Morvern Callar, a dreamy, elliptical adaptation of Alan Warner's cult novel. About a year later, Morton would see the release of In America, Jim Sheridan's acclaimed slice-of-life tale of an Irish family immigrating to New York City's Hell's Kitchen, for which she would receive her second Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actress.Morton continued to take on challenging assignments such as the futuristic Code 46 opposite Tim Robbins and directed by British helmer Michael Winterbottom, and appearing opposite Johnny Depp in the little-seen The Libertine, and the period drama River Queen. Although Lassie may seem like a unusual film for Morton to appear in, she has a history of working in family friendly fare having provided the voice for Ruby in the Max and Ruby animated television series based on the popular children's books by Rosemary Wells.In 2007 she appeared as Mary Stuart in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and appeared in the Ian Curtis biopic Control. She had a leading part as a suspected murderer in the superb Longford. She played one of the women in the life of the troubled writer at the center of Synecdoche, New York, and she was a war widow in Oren Moverman's The Messenger. In 2012 she provided one of the voices for the aliens in the big-budget flop John Carter, but also worked with David Cronenberg on his Cosmopolis.

Trivia: Standing over six feet-four inches tall, the bony Swedish actor Max von Sydow spent much of his acting career portraying stern, oppressive characters. Born to a family of academics in Lund, Sweden, von Sydow studied at the Royal Dramatic School in Stockholm, where he made his screen debut in Only a Mother and married his first wife, actress Christina Olin. In 1956, he moved to Malmö and met director Ingmar Bergman at the Malmo Municipal Theatre. After starring in The Seventh Seal, von Sydow went on to star in more than a dozen films with Bergman, including Wild Strawberries, Virgin Spring, Through a Glass Darkly, and Winter Light. He worked almost exclusively with Bergman's acting company until 1965, when he took the role as Jesus in George Stevens' epic The Greatest Story Ever Told. This part opened the door to American films, where he was often typecast in strong, humorless roles, like the rigid missionary Abner Hale in Hawaii. In the '70s, he went back to Sweden to work with Bergman in four more films and appeared opposite frequent co-star Liv Ullmann in Jan Troell's two-part saga The Emigrants and The New Land. It wasn't until 1973 that he made his first big Hollywood blockbuster with the role of Father Merrin The Exorcist, which he reprised in Exorcist II: The Heretic. Moving to Rome in the '80s, von Sydow had a fun role as Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon, played Barbara Hershey's intense artist boyfriend in Hannah and Her Sisters, and received his first Oscar nomination and numerous other awards for his work in Pelle the Conqueror (1988). After making his directorial debut with Katinka, he worked in several theater projects and a couple of biblical TV miniseries (Sampson & Delilah and Quo Vadis). It was during this time that he was cast as the devil in the Stephen King film adaptation Needful Things, marking von Sydow as the only actor to play both God and Satan. He also appeared in Judge Dredd and Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World. He continued acting sporadically in Hollywood for What Dreams May Come and Snow Falling on Cedars. Moving on to the international circuit, he appeared in Intacto (Spain), Vercingetorix (France), and Non ho Sonno (Italy). In 2002, he co-starred with Tom Cruise for the Steven Spielberg blockbuster Minority Report.He continued to work steadily throughout the decade in projects as diverse as Rush Hour 3, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Shutter Island. Coming nearly sixty years after his earliest film work, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close earned the venerable actor his second Oscar nomination - a Best Supporting Actor nod for his portrayal of a mute grandfather.

Trivia: Possibly Ireland's hottest cinematic export since Liam Neeson got his kilt off in Rob Roy, Colin Farrell enjoyed a generous helping of trans-Atlantic buzz for his work in Joel Schumacher's 2000 military drama Tigerland. Previously known in his native Ireland for supporting parts in film and television productions, Farrell earned both industry recognition and international heartthrob status for his portrayal of a young drifter recruited to fight in the Vietnam War, winning over critics and audiences with talent, charisma, and his fearless assumption of a Texan accent.The son of famed footballer Eamon Farrell, Farrell was born in Dublin, on May 31, 1976. Growing up, he planned to follow in the footsteps of his father and an uncle, who was also a well-known footballer in the 1960s. However, Farrell's plans changed when, while he was still in high school, his sister enrolled in acting classes at Dublin's Gaiety School of Drama. His interest piqued, the nascent actor followed suit, signing up for classes at the Gaiety School and then making his film debut in a low-budget production called Drinking Crude before he even made it to the Gaiety's classrooms.Having dropped out of high school in order to pursue acting, Farrell dropped out again -- this time from the Gaiety -- after a successful audition for the Irish TV series Ballykissangel. Joining the show in 1996, he earned a degree of fame in his native country, which opened the door for further work in the U.K. In 1999, he could be seen in the family drama The War Zone, Tim Roth's directorial debut, and on TV in Love in the 21st Century, a segmented series that also featured such up-and-comers as Ioan Gruffudd and Catherine McCormack.His first glint of overseas recognition came the following year, when Farrell was cast in a supporting role in Thaddeus O'Sullivan's Ordinary Decent Criminal, an Irish gangster drama starring Kevin Spacey and Linda Fiorentino. Criminal, which didn't fare well on U.S. shores, was quickly followed by Joel Schumacher's Tigerland. Although the low-key ensemble film, which was set in a Louisiana boot camp in 1971, received a lukewarm reaction from critics and audiences, Farrell's performance was the subject of almost ubiquitous praise. Quickly labeled as one of the most exciting new actors to be detected by the Hollywood radar, the young Dubliner subsequently found himself enmeshed in the distinctly American phenomenon of almost overnight success; before the year was out, he had secured starring roles in a number of projects, including American Outlaws, in which he starred as Jesse James alongside Scott Caan and Kathy Bates, and Joel Schumacher's Phone Booth, a thriller about a young man (Farrell) fighting for his life inside the titular enclosure. Although the long-delayed Outlaws did little for Farrell's career, far more ticket buyers were able to see the young actor alongside Bruce Willis in the somber POW drama Hart's War in early 2002. The following year, Farrell was virtually unavoidable. Not only did 2003 see the release of the aforementioned The Phonebooth, is also found the actor on the right side of the law in both The Recruit and SWAT and on the wrong side as the villainous Bullseye in the comic book superhero film Daredevil. As if the year was busy enough, he also turned up in a pair of smaller films, Veronica Guerin and Intermission.The two ensuing years might not have seen Farrell churning out a half-dozen pictures apiece, but he continued to grow in stature, first with a supporting part in the indie period piece A Home at the End of the World, then the title role in Oliver Stone's ambitious flop Alexander (both 2004). Indeed, Farrell's most notorious appearance around this time was, like so many before him, in a much-circulated sex tape leaked on the Internet. Two major roles in films by well-respected directors followed: The lead in Terrence Malick's critically-acclaimed but, again, little-seen The New World (2005), and the challenging role of author Arturo Bandini in Robert Towne's Ask the Dust. 2006 brought Michael Mann's much-anticipated remake of his own groundbreaking '80s TV show, Miami Vice, which he quickly followed with a turn in Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream, as well as the critically acclaimed crime comedy In Bruges in 2008.Having all but completely cemented his position in Hollywood, Farrell joined the ranks of other leading men like Johnn Depp and Jude Law, who all stepped in to play various incarnations of the universe-hopping protagonist in Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, filling in for the film's original lead Heath Ledger, who died tragically, midway through filming. Farrell would spend the coming years enjoying a variety of projects, most notably in movies like Crazy Heart, Horrible Bosses, and Fright Night.

Trivia: A square-jawed blonde with steely blue eyes, actor Neal McDonough had essayed every role from psychopath to dunce before roles in HBO's Band of Brothers and Minority Report (2002) found him gaining a reputation as the man to cast if a script called for a dependable, all-American tough guy. Though his screen presence has been growing steadily in the first years of the new millennium, it wasn't long ago that McDonough was considering abandoning his career as an actor. A native of Dorchester, MA, easygoing McDonough attended Barnstable High School before graduating from Syracuse University and later training as an actor at the London Academy of Dramatic Arts and Sciences. Taking to the stage following his graduation, it wasn't long before McDonough was appearing in such productions as Waiting for Lefty and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and in 1991 he took home a Best Actor Dramalogue Award for his role in Away Alone. McDonough began his move into film with a minor role in 1990's Darkman, and the same year appearances in such popular television series as China Beach and Quantum Leap ensured that his face would remain a familiar one to audiences. Following a turn as Lou Gehrig in the 1991 made-for-television feature Babe Ruth, McDonough's television career began to take off, and through the mid-'90s he found frequent work on the small screen with the exception of such features as Angels in the Outfield (1994). A childhood dream came true for the lifelong Star Trek fan when he was cast in the Star Trek: First Contact (1996), and that same year McDonough voiced Dr. Bruce Banner in the animated television series The Incredible Hulk. His career shifting increasingly toward feature work in the late '90s, McDonough took on memorable roles in such features as Circles (1998) and the quirky pseudo-horror film Ravenous (1999). Though the frustration of never receiving a truly gratifying role caused him to reconsider his chosen career, McDonough's big break was just around the corner. Cast as 1st Lt. Lynn "Buck" Compton in director Steven Spielberg's acclaimed HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, McDonough's role as the troubled soldier who suffers a nervous breakdown in the chaos of war finally gave the actor a chance to flex his chops and caught the attention of series producer Spielberg, who immediately approached him for a role in Minority Report. Cast as the best friend of Tom Cruise's character, McDonough was now a recognizable Hollywood figure and was quickly developing a solid screen persona. Subsequently returning to the small screen for the television series Boomtown, McDonough was cast in the role formerly occupied by Jimmy Smits, who dropped out at the last minute. As McDonough began preparation for roles in Timeline (2003) and Walking Tall (2004), it seems as if the dependable actor might finally be edging toward leading-man status. Though that may not have been the case when McDonough accompanied his onscreen brothers into the woods to expose the skeletons in the family closet in the 2005 drama American Gothic, a more amiable turn as a dedicated friend attempting to help his best pal find a man to father her child in the comedy drama Silent Men went a long way in making the actor a bit more likeable to viewers. The following year McDonough could be seen treading water opposite Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher in the Coast Guard drama The Guardian. He continued to work steadily in a variety of films including Clint Eastwood's Flags of our Fathers, The Hitcher, I Know Who Killed Me, 88 Minutes, and Traitor. In 2008 he joined the cast of the successful ABC drama Desperate Housewives in that program's fifth season.

Trivia: With his bald pate and imposing frame -- the press once listed him as 6' tall and 215 pounds -- actor Steve Harris found it relatively easy to usher in a threatening and dominating screen presence when necessary, so it was scarcely surprising that he often found himself cast as heavies on both sides of the law in films such as Street Hunter (1990), The Mod Squad (1999), and The Skulls. Harris escaped from the confines of that typecast, however (and netted a substantial amount of critical attention) with two roles: that of mythical heavyweight Sonny Liston in the 2000 telemovie Muhammad Ali: King of the World, directed by John Sacret Young, and that of defense attorney Eugene Young on the ABC legal drama series The Practice (beginning in 1997). The smashing success of that program opened up many doors for the actor, including roles in Steven Spielberg's sci-fi thriller Minority Report (2002) and the urban seriocomedy Tyler Perry's Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005). With the grisly horror outing Quarantine (2008) and the Renny Harlin-directed actioner 12 Rounds (2009), it seemed that Harris' career had come full circle. He would go on to appear on shows like Friday Nights and Awake.A native of the Chicago suburb of Westchester, IL, Harris grew up as the son of a homemaker and a bus driver. He initially embarked on a promising football career, with the position of linebacker at Northern Illinois University, but torn ligaments in his ankles made it impossible for him to continue, and he instead hearkened off to the stage, establishing his dramatic roots behind the footlights with roles in regional productions of Julius Caesar and Macbeth.

Trivia: Fair haired-beauty Jessica Capshaw had an easy means of entering the world of show business, as her stepfather is blockbuster director Steven Spielberg, but she didn't let that stop her from learning the ropes on her own. After graduating from Brown University, Capshaw attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. She then began wracking up a modest collection of supporting roles on episodes of shows like ER and the British series Odd Man Out, as well as in movies like Minority Report and The Groomsmen. In 2002, Capshaw joined the cast of the series The Practice, playing Jamie Stringer from 2002 to 2004. Another starring TV role came in 2009, when she signed on to play Dr. Arizona Robbins on the medical drama Grey's Anatomy.

Trivia: In 1991, while still in high school, wrote the play The Martha War for which he won the Very Special Arts Young Playwrights Award and had his play performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington D.C. Appeared in Impossible Marriage, a Beth Henley play, on Broadway in 1998 which eventually led him to be cast in Minority Report after Steven Spielberg saw him perform. First major role was as Robin Williams's sidekick, Truman Schiff, in the 1998 film, Patch Adams. Appeared in a second Beth Henley play on Broadway in 2006 called Ridiculous Fraud. Reprised his Minority Report role in the 2015 TV show of the same name; he's the only series regular to do so.

Trivia: Supporting actress, onscreen from 1955.

Trivia: An accomplished playwright, screenwriter, director, and actor, former classics major Tim Blake Nelson is perhaps most familiar to the movie audience as the hilariously dim Delmar in Joel and Ethan Coen's goofy Oscar-nominated comedy O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000).Born in Oklahoma, Nelson attended college at Brown University where he became a Latinist in the classics department. Opting for the arts over academia, Nelson headed to New York after college, studying acting at Juilliard and embarking on an Obie Award-winning career as a stage writer. After making his film debut in Nora Ephron's freshman directorial effort This Is My Life (1992), Nelson occasionally appeared in films throughout the 1990s, playing small roles in Hal Hartley's Amateur (1994), the Al Pacino/Johnny Depp mob drama Donnie Brasco (1997), and Terrence Malick's radiant anti-war anti-epic The Thin Red Line (1998). Along with film acting, Nelson turned to filmmaking with the screen adaptation of his play Eye of God (1997), a somber rural drama about a woman's marriage to a pious ex-con with a violent past, which earned positive notice at the Sundance Film Festival. Because of his ability to handle difficult questions of violence and create an ominous mood out of the everyday, Nelson was asked to helm the modernized, teen version of Shakespeare's Othello, retitled O (2001). Shot in 1999, O languished on the shelf in the wake of a series of high school shootings, deemed an inappropriate release because of its violent denouement. In the meantime, Nelson's friend Joel Coen offered him one of the starring roles in O Brother, Where Art Thou?. As comfortable playing rural comedy as directing rural drama, Nelson shined as the dimmest of a trio of hare-brained fugitives in the Coen brothers' shaggy-dog 1930s Southern Odyssey. After his successful stint with the Coens' light-hearted movie, Nelson returned squarely to downbeat material, directing the screen adaptation of his play The Grey Zone (2001). A drama about the only armed revolt at Auschwitz, The Grey Zone was already hitting the film-festival circuit when Lionsgate removed O from its Miramax purgatory, releasing it in August 2001. Impressing some critics with its central performances and evocative Southern Gothic atmosphere (if not always with all aspects of the adaptation), O confirmed Nelson's ability to translate his concern with the complex motivations for (and fall out from) violence to the film medium. Back to being an actor for hire, Nelson scored a summer 2002 hat trick with roles in one glossy big studio blockbuster and two well-regarded independent releases. In Steven Spielberg's Minority Report (2002), Nelson stood out (albeit a bit too much for some critical tastes) as the oddball, organ-playing guardian of the imprisoned "pre"-killers captured by Precrime hotshot Tom Cruise. Refraining from such theatrical eccentricity, Nelson garnered more positive reviews for his turn as a shy technician charged with servicing house arrestee Robin Tunney's ankle bracelet in the singular indie romance Cherish (2002), and as John C. Reilly's doltish, stoner best friend and co-worker in Miguel Arteta's dark comedy The Good Girl (2002). Nelson's roles proliferated through the first years of the new millennium -- he averaged around six to eight A-list features per year, the number doubtless heightened by Nelson's status as a character actor and his resultant tendency to gravitate to bit parts in lieu of leading roles. For the first several years after The Good Girl, Nelson's roles included, among others: Dr. Jonathan Jacobo, the "pterodactyl ghost" in Raja Gosnell's Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004); Danny Dalton, a representative of the oil company Killen, in Stephen Gaghan's muckraking drama Syriana (2005); and Tom Loyless, the supervisor of a polio treatment center revitalized by F.D.R., in Joseph Sargent's superior telemovie Warm Springs (2005). Nelson then appeared as Curly Branitt, an entrepreneur determined to build a pancake house and expel the resident animals at the location, in the Jimmy Buffett-produced, family-oriented comedy Hoot (2006). He plays Kevin Munchak in Michael Polish's drama The Astronaut Farmer (2006), starring Billy Bob Thornton, Virginia Madsen, and Bruce Dern; and The North Beach Killer in Finn Taylor's fiendish black comedy The Darwin Awards (2007). He had a major supporting turn in 2008's The Incredible Hulk, and in 2010 he wrote directed and acted in Leaves of Grass. He appeared in the 2011 teaching drama Detachment, and in 2012 he landed a major part in the inspirational drama Big Miracle and appeared in Steven Spielberg's long-planned biopic Lincoln.Nelson is married to the actress Lisa Benavides; they reside in Southern California.

Trivia: With a cool stoic gaze suggesting unmentionable thoughts lurking somewhere deep behind those deep, blank eyes, popular character actor Peter Stormare offered American audiences slightly discomforting comic relief in Joel and Ethan Coen's popular dark comedy Fargo (1996), though his versatility and adaptability have since led him to roles in everything from major Hollywood blockbusters to the stripped-down Dogma 95 efforts of eccentric Danish director Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark (2000). Born Peter Rolf Stormare in Arbra, Sweden, on August 27th,1953, the dynamic Nordic actor began his career with an 11-year stint with the Royal National Theater of Sweden. Aside from appearing in such productions as Don Juan and The Curse of the Starving Class, Stormare would pen such original plays as El Paso and The Electric Boy. Later earning positive critical reception in such classic Shakespearian productions as King Lear, the actor made his big-screen debut, and began a 15-year association with legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, with a brief appearance in Fanny and Alexander in 1982. Later earning positive critical reception for his role in the legendary filmmaker's stage adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet in 1988, Stormare continued to gain career trajectory with numerous memorable stage and film roles in his native country. In 1990, Stormare became the Associate Artistic Director at the Tokyo Globe Theatre and made his American screen debut as a neurochemist who questions Robin Williams' experimental medical tactics in the touching Awakenings. Subsequently appearing in numerous international films (Freud's Leaving Home [1991] and Damage [1992]), Stormare hit his stateside stride with his chilling turn as a woodchipper-happy kidnapper in Fargo. Though he would continue to make appearances in such Swedish efforts as Ett Sorts Hades and Bergman's In the Presence of a Clown (1996 and 1997 respectively), his Hollywood star was on the rise with memorable roles in such increasingly mega-budgeted efforts as The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Armageddon (1998). Equally adept in comparatively low-budget efforts such as director George Romero's Bruiser (2000) and the aforementioned Dancer -- two roles which couldn't possibly be more polar opposites -- Stormare branched out into sitcom territory with his turn as Julia Louis-Dreyfuss' enamored superintendent in the ill-fated Watching Ellie in 2002. It wasn't long before Stormare was back on the silver screen, and with the same year potential blockbuster triple threat of The Tuxedo, Windtalkers, and Minority Report, it appeared as if Stormare's unique talents were as in-demand as ever. 2002 also found the established actor branching out with his role as producer of the romantic comedy The Movie Nut and His Audience.In 2005 he joined the cast of The Brothers Grimm in the role of an interogator, and took on a regular role in the television drama Prison Break. Stormare made guest appearances on a variety of television stand-outs throughout the 2000s, among them including Weeds, Monk, Entourage, and Hawaii Five-0.

Trivia: Broadway-to-Hollywood transplant Jason Antoon is no stranger to the hardships of show business. Raised in Pacific Palisades and Sherman Oaks, CA, he moved to Pittsburgh after graduating high school in order to study drama at Carnegie Mellon University. After earning his Bachelor's of Fine Arts in 1994, he relocated to New York City to begin his professional acting career. Unfortunately, paying gigs were few and far between and when Antoon did work it was most likely as a guest star or an understudy. He appeared in small roles on Fox's New York Undercover, ABC's Spin City, and NBC's Law & Order, as well as in the television film Path to Paradise: The Untold Story of the World Trade Center Bombing (1997). On-stage, he served as standby for the leads in Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile and the Roundabout Theater Company's Scapin. Antoon earned his breakout role in 2000, when Susan Stroman cast him as a principal performer in her innovative dance play, Contact. The Broadway production won the 2000 Tony Award for Best Musical and Antoon earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for his work. Many theater critics openly felt that he was unfairly shut out of the Tony nominations. When Antoon's contract ended in the winter of 2001, he left Contact to return to television and film. He appeared on the East Coast-based shows A&E's 100 Centre Street, NBC's Ed, and HBO's Sex and the City before leaving for Los Angeles. Antoon's career hit a snag when NBC did not pick up his sitcom pilot, "Count Me In," for its fall season and Paramount delayed his major feature-film debut, Phil Alden Robinson's The Sum of All Fears (2002), from its 2001 release. Antoon remained in Hollywood, even when asked by Contact director Stroman to audition for the part of Ali Hakim in the Broadway revival Oklahoma! His decision quickly paid off: The Sum of All Fears, which starred Morgan Freeman and Ben Affleck, opened at number one in the box office in the spring of 2002. Barely a month later, Antoon delivered a scene-stealing performance as an eccentric cyber parlor owner opposite Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg's Minority Report (2002). Well on his way to becoming a recognizable supporting actor, the actor went on to appear alongside Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock in the romantic comedy Two Weeks Notice (2002).

Trivia: One cannot deny comedian-turned-actor-turned-writer/director Mike Binder's success as a Hollywood filmmaker when measured solely in terms of output (nine directorial credits and a pay-cable series in the 17 years following his first onscreen credit). The efforts themselves, however, have proven highly variable in quality, and thematically uniform enough to suggest workings and reworkings of the same rudimentary material. With occasional exceptions, Binder typically gravitated toward seriocomic explorations of male friendship, leavened by jokey riffs on the masculine libido that often veer into heavy-handed raunch. And to the very same extent that Binder's fans praise his ability to draw affecting performances from his actors, his many detractors are quick to underscore his blatant tonal inconsistencies.Born in Detroit in the late '50s, Binder grew up in Birmingham, MI, attended Seaholm High School, and graduated in 1976. As a young man, he launched his career as a standup comic, performing at various clubs in Southeastern Michigan and later in Southern California. The act eventually turned the heads of HBO suits, who offered Binder his own episode of the One Night Stand comedy series in the early '80s. Another standup special followed, The Eleventh Anniversary of the Comedy Store (1983), opposite legends Jim Carrey and Robin Williams. Meanwhile, Binder honed and sharpened his screenwriting skills, and one of his spec scripts, a road comedy entitled Coupe de Ville, caught the attention of 20th Century Fox's then-studio head, Joe Roth, who directed the picture in 1989, starring Daniel Stern (Breaking Away) and Patrick Dempsey (Can't Buy Me Love). It was released the following year to tepid reviews but became something of a cult hit.Binder posed a double threat two years later, when he wrote and directed the uneven dramedy Crossing the Bridge -- the tale of a bunch of quarrelsome adolescents (Josh Charles, Jason Gedrick, Stephen Baldwin) who participate in a drug heist. The following year's Indian Summer marked a step up in terms of quality and audience exposure (though not in originality); something of a Big Chill retread, it cast such stars as Diane Lane, Vincent Spano, Elizabeth Perkins, and Bill Paxton as a cadre of twentysomethings who gather for a nostalgic reunion at their old summer camp, under the supervision of former counselor Alan Arkin.Blankman (1994) -- written by Damon Wayans, and adapted from his character on the popular In Living Color series -- marked Binder's premier director-for-hire assignment, and his last for many (many) years. This hyper-scatological comedy cast Wayans as a moronic, virginal superhero clad in long underwear who takes on an army of mobsters -- with absolutely no superpowers to defend himself. The dismal public reception of this picture (which experienced the same fate as Leonard Part 6 and The Meteor Man) may have explained the lengthy period of inactivity that followed for Binder. His next assignment didn't arrive until 1999, when he penned , helmed, and starred in the erotic comedy The Sex Monster -- as a horny husband whose wife (Mariel Hemingway) "outdoes" him by dipping voraciously into group sex and lesbian encounters. Although this film received extremely limited theatrical distribution and turned up almost instantly on video, it ironically marked the beginning of an intense period for Binder that found him releasing a new project every year or two during the first several years of the millennium; in 2001, he launched his own HBO sitcom, The Mind of the Married Man, which he wrote, starred in, and co-directed with several others. Intended (and advertised) as the male flip side of Sex and the City, Mind cast Binder, Taylor Nichols, and Jake Weber as three sex-hungry, married Chicagoans who connect on a weekly basis to swap anecdotes about their erotic lives. Unsurprisingly, that program (delayed by the network in light of the 9/11 events) encountered dismal reviews and only lasted one season.The sex comedy Fourplay essentially remade The Sex Monster (note for note) in a British vein, with two of the same leads. It featured Binder, Irène Jacob, Mariel Hemingway, and Colin Firth as two couples who swap erogenous partners during a residential stint in London. This film received even more limited distribution than The Sex Monster, and the reviews that did appear were tepid, at best; one accused Binder of quickly becoming a second-rate Woody Allen. That same year's The Search for John Gissing fared much better on a critical level; it retained the London setting, but swapped the elements of sex farce for a satire on Western corporate culture. In this film (regarded by many as Binder's best up through that time) , the director plays Matthew Barnes, an executive who travels to London with his wife (Janeane Garofalo) and learns that his company is prepping him to replace an older, more seasoned and weathered executive named John Gissing (Alan Rickman). When Gissing learns of this, however, he does everything in his power to make Barnes's life a living hell -- which sets the stage for a particularly nasty and droll revenge. Unfortunately, for some indeterminate reason, the film (as produced by Binder's shingle, Sunlight Productions) never received mainstream or arthouse theatrical distribution in the States, and failed to find a video distributor -- an unusual plight for an American release. Binder struck gold, however, with the 2004 comedy drama The Upside of Anger. The film stars Kevin Costner and Joan Allen as, respectively, Denny Davies and Terry Wolfmeyer, two middle-aged singles who become much more than intimate friends when Terry's husband abandons the family. It divided critics, earning some enthusiastic and some lackluster reviews, but its A-list distribution and first-run theatrical stint (not to mention the inclusion of Costner and Allen) marked a step up for Binder. In 2007, Binder wrote and helmed the post-9/11 two-character drama Reign Over Me (2007), strarring Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle.

Trivia: Citing Danny Kaye as one of his foremost idols, American actor Arye Gross has done well for himself in a variety of supporting roles in television and film; like Kaye, he shows a particular talent for playing affable, if quirky, young men. While his feature debut was rather unremarkable -- he was credited as, simply, "Turbo" in 1984's forgettable The Exterminator 2 -- he was able to achieve top billing throughout the late '80s and mid-'90s for his performances in House 2: The Second Story (1987), The Couch Trip (1988), Coupe de Ville (1990), For the Boys (1991), and Hexed (1993). 1992's A Midnight Clear earned him particular acclaim for his role as a GI alongside Ethan Hawke and Gary Sinise. However, it wasn't until 1994, when Gross landed the part of good-hearted but somewhat hapless Adam on the award-winning sitcom Ellen, that he found prominent mainstream recognition. Gross continued to work in film during Ellen's four-year run -- in 1996, he was able to act with Kirsten Dunst and Nick Nolte in Keith Gordon's war-themed satire Mother Night, and during that same year, he played Tadpole opposite Tony Curtis in The Continued Adventures of Reptile Man and His Faithful Sidekick Tadpole. Several years later, critics praised Gross' performance as a metropolitan artist forced to return to his hometown in Montana in Big Eden. After appearing in Seven Girlfriends (2000) and Burning Down the House (2001), Gross played the ill-fated, would-be criminal Howard Marks in Steven Spielberg's Minority Report. In 2003, Gross could be seen in a recurring role on HBO's hit series Six Feet Under.

Trivia: Tall and chiseled actor Joel Gretsch began his acting career in late-'80s romantic melodramas like the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful and Family Album, the TV-movie adaptation of Danielle Steel's book. He followed this with several random television guest-star appearances and a role in the straight-to-video erotic thriller Kate's Addiction. His feature-film breakthrough came in 2000 with a small role in Robert Redford's golf drama The Legend of Baggar Vance. By 2002, he got small roles in Minority Report, The Emperor's Club, and Steven Spielberg's Sci Fi channel miniseries Taken. Gretsch became known for his roles on The 4400 (2004-2007), a sci-fi television series from CBS in which he played Agent Tom Baldwin, leader of a division of the Department of Homeland Security responsible for investigating the strange reappearance of 4400 people who had been missing for decades - and hadn't aged. In 2007 he appeared in director Jerry Bruckheimer's thriller National Treasure: Book of Secrets, and returned to the small screen to play Father Jack Landry on ABC's science fiction series V (2009-2010).

Trivia: Black supporting actress, onscreen from the late '70s.

Trivia: Comedienne Ann Ryerson honed her skills with the best in the business, performing in the legendary Second City improve troupe with Harold Ramis in the 1970s. She would later appear in the classic 1980 comedy Caddyshack and built up her résumé throughout the '80s with a string of guest appearances on TV shows like Benson and Murphy Brown. Ryerson would continue the streak in the '90s, as well, playing a wide variety of characters on everything from Family Matters to Dream On. She also appeared in a number of movies, including 2002's Minority Report and 2005's Constantine. Ryerson also took on a memorable recurring role on the popular comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Trivia: Birdlike, wide-eyed, brunette American actress Jessica Harper headed for New York after graduation from Sarah Lawrence college; her first professional gig was an understudy in the "tribal love rock musical" Hair. It would be one of the few major financial successes that Harper would ever be associated with. The actress is considered the uncrowned queen of "cult" films, among them such esoterica as Phantom of the Paradise (1974), Inserts (1977), and The Blue Iguana (1988), in which she played a female Castro! Even when selecting a "mainstream" role, Harper's choices have been somewhat offbeat: as Steve Martin's put-upon wife in Pennies from Heaven (1981), she has a musical number in which he imagines hacking her husband to death with a knife! Harper was at her most normal, and most appealing, in the nostalgic comedy My Favorite Year (1982), in which she played the girlfriend of "Mel Brooks-ish" comedy writer Mark Linn Baker. In Stardust Memories (1980), she was one of many stellar contributors to Woody Allen's impressionistic vision of fame. Offscreen, Jessica Harper is the wife of motion picture executive Thomas E. Rothman.

Trivia: As a character player of Italian extraction, Frank Grillo found himself cast, almost by default, in tough, slick, street-smart roles specializing in urban cops, detectives, and assorted mafia types. Actually, Grillo's onscreen aura -- so often perceived as "unmistakably New York" -- was somewhat misleading: he grew up not in the Bronx or Brooklyn but in upstate New York, and gravitated to sports prior to drama, weighing his options and finding himself torn between a full-time career as an athlete and life as a full-time actor. Grillo's parents, it seems, would have neither, and sent him to business school at NYU; as soon as Grillo ended up on Wall Street, however, fate intervened: his path criss-crossed with that of a casting agent, and he promptly landed a role in a beer commercial. That marked the first of over 25 similar assignments, plugging various products and services. He took a massive step up in prestige and exposure when cast as regular Hart Jessup on the soap The Guiding Light, then enjoyed multi-episode runs and guest spots on such primetime series as The Shield, CSI, Las Vegas, and Without a Trace. Grillo's feature roles include The Mambo Kings (1992), April's Shower (2003), and Pride and Glory (2008). As the yers rolled on, Grillo would find himself cast in memorable projects like Blue Eyes, Edge of Darkness, Warrior, and The Grey.

Trivia: Is a member of the Groundlings improv company in Los Angeles. Is sometimes mistaken for the musician Moby. Got his big break playing the role of Dean Pelton in the sitcom Community. Cowrote the screenplay for the film The Descendants (2011).

Trivia: Is Jewish.Moved to New York after college, where he started working as a puppeteer.In the 1970s, worked as a stage manager.In the 1980s, began acting in tv series.Used to "increase" his age before arriving in Hollywood.Has appeared on popular tv shows, including Friends, ER, Married... with Children, Dharma & Greg, House M.D., Everybody Loves Raymond, among others.Moved to Kansas City after spending 15 years in Hollywood.Has voiced characters for tv shows and video games.Often plays judges and doctors.

Trivia: William Mapother has staked out a peripheral film career thanks to his cousin, Tom Cruise. With haunting eyes and a brooding demeanor, Mapother was a memorable choice to play Marisa Tomei's vicious ex-husband in In the Bedroom (2001), his most recognizable role. Cruise gave the Kentucky native his start with production assistant jobs on Cocktail and Rain Man (both 1988), then a small role in Born on the Fourth of July (1989), where he also worked as the actor's assistant. Mapother has continued to appear in the margins of Cruise films, ranging from Magnolia (1999) to Minority Report (2002), as well as undertaking a larger role in the Cruise-produced Without Limits (1998).

Trivia: Bennett, a British character actor, has been onscreen from 1960.

Trivia: Was born in Virginia but moved to Houston, TX, with his family before he began school. As a youngster, considered becoming an animator. Before finding success in showbiz, worked as a caterer, nanny, telemarketer and food expeditor on the Sunset strip, among other things. Was still waiting tables while appearing on Six Feet Under in a recurring role. After making appearances on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia as an actor, he wrote and submitted a script, eventually earning the position of producer-writer.

Trivia: Texas-born actress Meredith Monroe is best known to many as the sweet-faced Andie McPhee from '90s TV series Dawson's Creek. Early in her career, Monroe worked as a model, appearing on Nancy Drew book covers and packaging for products like a Conair hair crimper. She eventually branched into movies and TV, playing the famous role of Andie and wracking up a large number of appearances over the years on everything from House to Californication.

Trivia: With his 1997 film Boogie Nights, then-27-year-old director Paul Thomas Anderson took his place on the list of Hollywood wunderkinds. A brash, ensemble-driven epic made as a tribute to the Los Angeles porn industry of the 1970s, the film was both an exploration of the industry and the '70s version of the American dream. Combining sharp humor, indelible poignancy, and painstaking detail, Boogie Nights was hailed by one critic as the first great film about the '70s to come out since the '70s. The wide acclaim surrounding it -- as well as Anderson's Best Screenplay Oscar nomination -- put Anderson at the forefront of young American filmmakers, establishing him as one of the most exciting talents to come along in years.The son of voice actor Ernie Anderson, he was born in Studio City, California, on January 1, 1970. Growing up in the Valley, where the porn industry thrived during the '70s, Anderson became obsessed with porn movies at a young age. He had a greater fascination with the medium than he did with school; by all accounts a poor student, he was kicked out of the sixth grade for bad behavior. Always interested in becoming a filmmaker, Anderson made his first movie in high school, a 30-minute mockumentary entitled Dirk Diggler. Inspired by an article he had read on porn star John Holmes, Anderson's short -- about a porn star and his 13-inch penis -- would later become the inspiration for Boogie Nights.After a brief stint as an English major at Emerson College and an even shorter stint at the New York University Film School, Anderson began his career as a production assistant on various TV movies, videos, and game shows in Los Angeles and New York. In 1992, he made Cigarettes & Coffee, a short with five vignettes set in a diner. After it was screened at the 1993 Sundance Festival, Hollywood came calling, and Anderson made his first full-length feature, Sydney -- retitled Hard Eight. Released in 1996, the making of the film -- a crime drama set in the world of gambling and prostitution -- proved disastrous for the director, who was fired by the film's production company and not allowed to release his own version of the movie until it had been selected for competition at Cannes. Hard Eight ultimately earned a fair number of positive notices, but went virtually unheard of by audiences. During the troubling production of Hard Eight in 1995, Anderson began writing Boogie Nights as a way to retain a hold on his sanity. The great success that surrounded the film's release all but ensured that the writer/director would be spared the kind of problems that had marred his previous effort. The recipient of numerous honors, including three Oscar and two Golden Globe nominations, Boogie Nights was widely hailed as one of the best films of the year, if not the decade.Anderson remained mum on what he would do next, but in 1999 he resurfaced with Magnolia. Like Boogie Nights, it was an ensemble film of epic length, and featured performances by such Anderson regulars as Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly, Philip Baker Hall, William H. Macy, and Julianne Moore. Centered around themes of love, death, abandonment, and familial estrangement, it served up a lavish helping of the sort of sweeping narrative, visual flair, and off-kilter insight that Anderson had made his trademark. Critics responded in kind, once again praising Anderson's touch with actors, particularly his ability to evince a full-fledged supporting performance from the usually-plastic Tom Cruise. Though it turned up on a slew of 10-best lists and secured Oscar nods for Cruise, Aimee Mann's original song "Save Me", and Anderson's screenplay, Magnolia's three-hour-and-twenty-minute running time scared off audiences, and the film failed to break even Boogie Nights' $25 million tally.Scaling back his worldview somewhat, Anderson spent part of the next year honing his comic skills in the most unlikely of places: on NBC's venerable sketch show Saturday Night Live. Tagging along for an episode that featured then-girlfriend Fiona Apple as musical guest, Anderson was tapped for his writing talents as well as for a couple of pre-filmed mock-documentary segments. The comedy bug took hold, and it wasn't long before the auteur would team up with SNL alum Adam Sandler for a high-concept, low-budget (by Sandler standards, at least) romantic comedy. An off-kilter fusion of '50s Technicolor musical, extortion thriller, and the real-life tale of one man's pudding compulsion, Punch-Drunk Love premiered at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, nabbing its creator a tie for the Best Director prize (shared with the legendary South Korean filmmaker Im Kwon-Taek). Though its fall release in the States was accompanied by ecstatic reviews and careful marketing, Punch-Drunk failed to connect with audiences -- who were perhaps expecting a conventional Sandler comedy -- and petered out at the box office after a promising limited-release run.Allegedly suffering from some burnout after the lack of response to Punch Drunk Love, Anderson took a job assisting one of his idols, Robert Altman, while he directed what would turn out to be his final film, A Prairie Home Companion. This process reinvigoratd him to some degree and Anderson returned to screens in 2007 with There Will Be Blood, a loose adaptation of Upton Sinclair's novel Oil. The story of an oilman (Daniel Day-Lewis) whose misanthropy and desire for success costs him his humanity opened to thunderous critical praise and was one of the two films to dominate the year end critics and industry awards. Anderson was cited for numerous writing and directing awards including Oscar nominations for each of those categories.With the exception of welcoming his third child with significant other Maya Rudolph in 2011, Anderson kept a low-profile for a few years. However, rumors continued to swirl about his next project. Though there was talk of Robert Downey Jr. joining him for an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice, word came early in 2012 that The Master, a religious drama supposedly modeled in part on Scientology, would hit screens in October of that year starring his regular collaborator Philip Seymour Hoffman as a cult leader.

Trivia: A rock journalist turned screenwriter and director, Cameron Crowe first became known for creating realistic and funny portraits of modern youth. After writing the screenplay for Amy Heckerling's seminal 1980s teen comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Crowe found further acclaim directing and writing another seminal 1980s teen comedy, Say Anything... (1989). Following Singles (1992), his engaging take on romantic angst among a group of young Seattle twentysomethings, he achieved his greatest commercial and critical success to date as the writer, producer, and director of the much-honored Tom Cruise vehicle Jerry Maguire (1996). Born in Palm Springs, CA, but raised in San Diego, Crowe became a journalist at the age of 15, writing music reviews and articles for such major publications as Creem, Playboy, and Penthouse. A year later, he became a contributing editor for Rolling Stone and was later promoted to associate editor. During this period, he interviewed many rock music legends, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, and Eric Clapton. At age the age of 22, he returned to high school to research a book on adolescent life and subsequently adapted the best-selling result into the script for Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). The film became something of a legend, not only because of its realistic, sensitive, and funny portrayal of teenage travails, but also for launching the careers of some of Hollywood's brightest stars, notably Sean Penn and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Crowe's screenplay netted him a nomination for a Best Screen Adaptation award from the Writers Guild of America.In 1989, Crowe continued to mine the lucrative adolescent vein with his directorial debut Say Anything..., again earning kudos for creating believable multidimensional characters in an age when most teen comedies were relying on sex jokes and flimsy stereotypes. With his next directorial effort, he delved into the lives of a group of friends struggling to become adults in the Seattle-set Singles (1992). The film was not as well-received as Say Anything..., but it did feature strong ensemble acting from a cast that included Matt Dillon, Bridget Fonda, Campbell Scott, and Kyra Sedgwick.Jerry Maguire represented Crowe's first foray into exploration of more adult concerns, although its presentation of a young career hotshot who acts upon an internal moral crisis has resonance with his earlier work. One of the biggest hits of 1996, the film was remarkable for bridging the two disparate romantic chick flick and sports movie genres. Following the success of Maguire, which earned Crowe a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination, as well as a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Cruise and a Best Supporting Actor statuette for Cuba Gooding Jr., Crowe laid low for awhile, working on his next project. That next project, initially called the "Untitled Cameron Crowe Project," became Almost Famous (2000), the semi-autobiographical story of an aspiring teenage rock journalist who is given the chance to follow an up-and-coming rock band as they tour 1970s America. The film, which featured a stellar ensemble cast that included Billy Crudup, Kate Hudson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Patrick Fugit as Crowe's alter ego, was embraced enthusiastically by critics and audiences alike, furthering its writer/director's reputation as one of Hollywood's most reliable and entertaining filmmakers and winning the Best Film Comedy award at the 2000 Golden Globes. When the time came to announce the winners of the 73rd Annual Academy Awards, Almost Famous was again victorious, with Crowe taking home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The following year Crowe would make his first venture into the land of remakes with Vanilla Sky. A reworking of Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar's fiercely original Open Your Eyes, Crowe retained that film's star, Penelope Cruz, though he made a noted addition in casting Jerry Maguire star Tom Cruise. A surreal romantic thriller dealing with obsessive love, the shallowness of vanity, and the struggle with disfigurement, the film marked Cruise's first film appearance following the actor's well-publicized breakup with Nicole Kidman, and served as a catalyst for the budding romance between its two similarly named co-stars. In 2005 he returned as writer/director of Elizabethtown, but the film met with a chilly critical reception and dismal box office. Crowe spent a few years out of the limelight, but started to recharge himself with a pair of documentaries about rock and roll. The Union captured Elton John recording the album of the same name with Leon Russell, and Pearl Jam Twenty served up an extensive history of the grunge band to celebrate their twentieth anniversary. He returned to fiction film with We Bought a Zoo, starring Matt Damon as a widower adventure writer who fixes up a decrepit zoo with his children.

Trivia: Model-turned-actress Cameron Diaz seemed to come out of nowhere when she made her 1994 screen debut opposite Jim Carrey in The Mask. However, her unusual beauty -- the result of her Cuban-American and Anglo-German-Native-American parentage -- helped to ensure that she would not be soon forgotten.Born in San Diego, CA, on August 30, 1972, Diaz left school at 16 to become a model. For the next five years, she traveled the globe, working in Japan, Australia, Mexico, Morocco, and Paris. As a model for the Elite Agency, she did commercial work for such products as Coke, Nivea, and L.A. Gear. She returned to California at the age of 21 and was unknown in the film industry when cast in her breakthrough role as the target of Jim Carrey's hyper-animated lust in The Mask. Following the hoopla surrounding her performance -- or, more specifically, her physical appearance -- in the film, Diaz opted to take acting lessons and appear in a series of small, independent films, including The Last Supper (1995), She's the One (1996), and Feeling Minnesota (1996). After starring opposite Ewan McGregor in Danny Boyle's A Life Less Ordinary (1997), Diaz further endeared herself to audiences and critics with her performance in My Best Friend's Wedding (1997). Proving herself an acceptable foil for the film's star, Julia Roberts, she went on to greater success in the Farrelly brothers' There's Something About Mary in 1998. Starring as the film's titular heroine, Diaz turned in an audience-pleasing performance in the cheerfully bawdy film, which proved to be one of the year's biggest box-office successes. The same year, Diaz cameoed in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and starred as Jon Favreau's unhinged fiancée in the black comedy Very Bad Things. Now fully established as one of Hollywood's hottest properties, she accepted leads in 1999's Being John Malkovich, in which she played puppeteer John Cusack's wife, and Any Given Sunday, in which she played the president and co-owner of a football team in Oliver Stone's paean to American football.In 2000, Diaz joined Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu in Charlie's Angels, the much-hyped big-screen remake of the television classic. A comically self-aware and fairly faithful adaptation of the original series, Charlie's Angels served up Matrix-style action with retro-sensibilities, propelling the franchise into the new millennium. The following year found Diaz endearing herself to younger audiences as the voice of Princess Fiona in the animated box-office smash Shrek, as well as using her wide-eyed innocence to horrific effect in the Tom Cruise mindbender Vanilla Sky. Headlining the ill-fated comedy The Next Best Thing in 2002, Diaz would take a historical trip to the birthplace of America in director Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York before becoming the second (after Julia Roberts) actress to join the "20-Million-Dollar Club" with Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Like its predecessor, the film performed well at the box office, and Diaz further proved her box-office clout in 2004 when another sequel, Shrek 2, became the third-highest grossing film of all time.Diaz switched gears altogether in 2005 when she headed to the small screen, hosting and producing the MTV reality show Trippin'. With its focus on ecology and conservation, the program found the actress and her celebrity pals traipsing the globe to explore various natural environments. Diaz also remained a strong presence in Hollywood during the Christmas season of 2005 in the well-received Curtis Hanson film In Her Shoes. In this picture -- adapted from the Jennifer Weiner novel by Susannah Grant -- Diaz plays the beautiful yet thoroughly harebrained and irresponsible Maggie, sister of the prim, proper, and conservative attorney Rose (Australian import Toni Collette), with whom she comes to blows during their ill-advised stint as roommates. As Maggie discovers a grandmother that she never knew existed (Shirley MacLaine) and travels to Florida to bond with the woman, Rose experiences a significant romantic breakup and decides to change careers. A long-buried and dormant secret from the past then comes to light that reunites the women and forges a path to reconciliation. In Her Shoes struck box-office gold and won the hearts of many critics. And though it surprised just about everyone who foresaw a dopey, lame-brained romantic comedy, assiduous devotees of Hanson's career were perhaps less shocked given the director's keen intelligence and marvelous track record.Diaz maintained a relatively low profile throughout 2006, following up the Hanson film with yet another lightly comic dissection of contemporary relationships, Nancy Meyers' Holiday, followed by a voice-only turn in Dreamworks' tertiary installment of the Shrek franchise, Shrek the Third. Never shy about doing what her fans love, Diaz was soon signing on for more romantic comedies, starring alongside Ashton Kutcher in 2008's What Happens in Vegas and 2009's My Sister's Keeper. For her next project, however, Diaz tried something out of the ordinary, working with Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly for the supernatural thriller The Box. While not well received, the movie reminded critics and fans of Diaz's wide range. As the 2010's rolled onward, the actress proved that her charm was as strong with audiences as ever, most notably in action fare like Knight and Day, and comedies like the deliciously naughty Bad Teacher. In 2014, Diaz had a resurgent year, with the comedies The Other Woman and Sex Tape, before tackling the iconic role of Miss Hannigan in the remake of Annie.