Trivia: Born August 10th, 1972, Texan model-turned-actress Angie Harmon's private life (and concomitant rise to fame) bear closer correlation to a fairy tale than to a factual account. Born Angela Michelle Harmon in the Dallas suburb of Highland Park in the late summer of 1972, Harmon never sought out celebrity; it beckoned to her. An "accidental" discovery by the esteemed Kim Dawson Modeling Agency and a win of Seventeen Magazine's cover-girl contest (at age 15) launched Harmon on the path to modeling, but once she reached Manhattan, Harmon discovered a deep-seated love of drama. Harmon then survived a series of not-so-prestigious early roles (including a very brief stint on the exploitationer Baywatch Nights and a turn as a dysfunctional suburbanite in John Duigan's ugly allegory Lawn Dogs), to establish herself as a respected and esteemed actress.Harmon first garnered national attention in the late '90s, as Abbie Carmichael, an assistant district attorney on the hit prime-time drama Law & Order -- a role she maintained for multiple seasons. Beginning in 2003, the actress segued from television into cinematic roles, with generally promising results. Her highest-profile turns include contributions to the family-oriented spy comedy Agent Cody Banks (2003), the action thriller End Game (2005), and the Jim Carrey/Téa Leoni comedy Fun With Dick and Jane (2005).Harmon made coast-to-coast headlines in March 2000 when she received a marriage proposal from then-boyfriend Jason Sehorn, a running back for the New York Giants, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Sehorn popped the question in front of Elton John and a nationwide TV audience. Harmon immediately accepted on the air, and the two wed a short time later, parenting children in successive years before annoucing their split in 2014. In her private life, Harmon is also an outspoken born-again Christian and an advocate of conservative political causes. She and Sehorn co-hosted the Lifetime special Together: Stop Violence Against Women (2003) to spread awareness and prevention of domestic abuse. In fall 2007, Harmon took on a lead role in the ABC detective series Women's Murder Club as Lindsay Boxer, one of four women who band together to solve crimes in the city of San Francisco; the series was an instant success. In 2010, Harmon begun work on Rizzoli & Isles in the leading role of Detective Jane Rizzoli, a hard-working law enforcer entrusted with solving some of Boston's toughest cases.

Trivia: Los Angeles native Sasha Alexander honed her interest in acting with roles in school plays, but soon graduated to a professional career with roles on shortlived series like the drama Wasteland and the wild comedy Greg the Bunny, on which she shared an on-screen kiss with comedian Sarah Silverman. In 2003, Alexander took on the role of Agent Caitlin Todd on the series NCIS. She would play the role for many seasons to come, in addition to roles in movies like Yes Man and Love Happens, and other TV shows, like Rizzoli & Isles.

Trivia: Born October 2, 1954, it's no surprise that Lorraine Bracco, with her thick Brooklyn accent, was raised in a working-class neighborhood in New York City, but her twenties were not as predictable. Relocating to Europe, she spent several years living in France as a fashion model and working in radio, TV commercials, and films. She appeared in the Lina Wertmuller crime thriller Un Complicato Intrigo Di Donne, Vicoli E Delitti along with American actor Harvey Keitel, to whom she would be married for ten years. Moving back to New York to study acting with Stella Adler and the Actor's Studio, she made her U.S. debut as a hooker in The Pick-Up Artist (also with Keitel) and later starred as a Queens housewife in Ridley Scott's Someone to Watch Over Me. After a couple roles in Sing and The Dream Team, she received an Oscar nomination for her work as mobster Henry Hill's wife in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, making her a full-blown movie star overnight. She continued working in features for the remainder of the '90s, most notably opposite Sean Connery in Medicine Man, as the whip-cracking Delores Del Rio in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, and as Leonardo DiCaprio's long-suffering mother in The Basketball Diaries.Then in 1999, when Bracco got the stellar role of Dr. Jennifer Melfi on the hit HBO series The Sopranos. Bracco stayed with the series until 2007, playing the understated psychiatrist of mob boss Tony Soprano, and picking up several Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild awards over the years. The show kept her busy, but the actress continued to pursue other projects, playing a nervous mother in Penny Marshall's Riding in Cars With Boys , and taking on a recurring role on the series Lipstick Jungle. In 2010 Bracco co-starred in the comedy Son of Morning, and directed the ensemble drama Love and Distrust (starring Robert Downey, Jr., James Franco, and Amy Adams) the same year. Bracco took on a recurring role as Angela Rizzoli in the television series Rizzoli & Isles (2010-2012), and continues to work in film and television.

Trivia: Husky American actor Bruce McGill made his film debut in Citizen's Band (1978), but it was his next film role, frat-brat "D Day" in National Lampoon's Animal House, that gained him a following. McGill repeated his D-Day characterization in the spin-off TV series Delta House (1979), then co-starred with David Hasselhoff in the 1980 weekly-TV version of the 1977 theatrical football comedy Semi-Tough. He went on to play a string of brusque authority types in films (Cliffhangers) and television (MacGiver, Live Shot). Fans of the fantasy series Quantum Leap (1989-93) may recall McGill's occasional guest shots, which ranged from mildly eccentric to truly weird. In 1987, Bruce McGill enjoyed one of his few feature-film leading roles in Waiting for the Moon. But it wasn't until the 1990s that casting directors really began to utilize McGill's unique range, and though he never won any awards, he shifted between film (A Perfect World, Timecop, The Insider) and television (Babylon 5, Star Trek: Voyager) with the skill of a seasoned pro. Any genre was fair game, and all were tackled with equal aplomb. At the dawn of the 2000s McGill seemed to shift his focus toward feature films, with roles in Ali, The Sum of All Fears, and Collateral helping to make him both a Michael Mann regular, and one of those welcomed faces that seems to turn up everywhere. Still TV just seemed to be in McGill's blood and after lending his voice to both Family Guy and The Cleveland Show he could be seen as a regular on the TNT detective series Rizzoli and Isles.

Trivia: Son of Beau Bridges, is a native Californian. Young Bridges began making his way into the family business at the tender age of nine with a supporting role in the 1982 made-for-television feature The Kid From Nowhere. Throughout the remainder of the decade, as well as the majority of the 1990s, one could always count on spotting Jordan in father Beau's many made-for-TV movies. Climbing the credits from The Thanksgiving Promise (1986) to The Defenders: Taking the First, it wasn't until 1999's Macbeth in Manhattan that young Bridges finally began to carve his own path in show business. He would play supporting roles in movies like Drive Me Crazy, Frequency, New Suit and Mona Lisa Smile. Bridges would go on to appear in movies like J. Edgar, as well as star on TV shows like Rizzoli & Isles and Conviction.

Trivia: Both parents are from southern Nigeria. Began playing piano and training in dance at the age of 6. At the age of 13, entered her first pageant; she eventually won the title of Miss New York Junior Teen. Was discovered by an agent at a fashion show and pushed toward the modeling industry, but decided to pursue acting. Studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Made her Broadway debut as the understudy for Cosette and a member of the ensemble in Les Misérables. In 2009, played the role of Freddie Joplin in the Roundabout Theatre Company's stage production of Tin Pan Alley Rag.

Trivia: At age 8, he attended local festivals and community events telling traditional Carolinas folk tales. At 10, he portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in a community-theater production of A Night of Stars and Dreams. Appeared in commercials for McDonald's and Robitussin cough medicine. Wrote a 2000 episode for the Disney series The Famous Jett Jackson, in which he played the title role. Was in the 2009 video for Sugarbabes' "About a Girl."

Trivia: After majoring in history at Columbia University, brawny Brian Dennehy (born July 9, 1938) took a string of odd jobs to pay his way through Yale Drama School, and to afford private acting lessons. His first professional break came with the Broadway production Streamers. In films and TV from 1977, Dennehy is a most versatile actor, at home playing Western baddies (Silverado), ulcerated big-city cops (F/X), serial killers (John Wayne Gacy in the made-for-TV To Catch a Killer), by-the-book military types (General Groves in Day One, another TV movie), and vacillating politicos (Presumed Innocent). One of his most rewarding film assignments was as dying architectural genius Stourley Kracklite in Peter Greenaway's The Belly of an Architect (1987).In addition to his many TV-movie roles (one of which, good-old-boy Chuck Munson in 1993's Foreign Affairs, won him a Cable Ace Award), Dennehy has starred in the weekly series Big Shamus, Little Shamus (1977), Star of the Family (1981), and Birdland (1994), as well as the sporadically produced Jack Reed feature-length mysteries. It was in one of the last-mentioned projects, Jack Reed: A Search for Justice (1994), that Dennehy made his directorial debut. Aside from his work in film and television, Dennehy has also had considerable success on the stage, particularly with his Tony-winning portrayal of Willy Loman in the 1998 Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman.The actor continued to show his range in the 1995 comedy Tommy Boy (starring David Spade and the late comedian Chris Farley), in which he became well known for his role as Big Tom Callahan, and for a voice role in Ratatouille (2007) as Django, the father of rat and aspiring chef Remy.Dennehy joined Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino in Righteous Kill, a 2008 police drama, and worked alongisde Russell Crowe in the 2010 suspense film The Next Three Days. In 2011, Dennehy played the pivotal role of Clarence Darrow in Alleged, a romantic drama set during the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial.

Trivia: Donnie Wahlberg is one of the few performers who has been able to go from early stardom as a teen idol to a respected career as a dramatic character actor. Born Donald Edmund Wahlberg in Dorchester, MA, on August 17, 1969, Donnie came from a large family (he has five brothers and three sisters), and first became interested in performing as a way of getting attention in a busy household. Wahlberg developed an interest in music early on, and was only ten years old when he joined his first band, a local group called Risk. Wahlberg became a passionate hip-hop fan, learning how to breakdance and write his own raps; a few years later, Wahlberg joined an R&B-styled group called the Kool Aid Bunch, which also featured singer Danny Wood. In 1986, producer and entrepreneur Maurice Starr, who had guided the R&B harmony group New Edition to platinum success, decided to form a similar act with young white singers, and Wahlberg and Wood were both tapped to become members of what would become New Kids on the Block. While their first album made little impact in the marketplace, New Kids on the Block's second LP, 1988's Hanging Tough, made them into one of the biggest pop music phenomena of the 1980s and '90s. Wahlberg's persona in the group was that of the "bad boy," and true to form he had a few minor brushes with the law, including a widely reported incident at a Kentucky hotel in which he was charged with using alcohol to start a fire. But Wahlberg also established himself as one of the musical forces behind New Kids on the Block, helping to write and produce material for the group, and going on to produce recordings for other artists, most notably Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, featuring his brother Mark Wahlberg. In 1994, New Kids on the Block broke up, and while Wahlberg continued to work in music as a songwriter and producer, he soon set his sights on a career in acting. In 1995, Wahlberg snagged a small role in an action film called Bullet opposite Mickey Rourke and Tupac Shakur, and a year later he won a much showier role as a kidnapper with a conscience in the Mel Gibson vehicle Ransom. In 1998, Wahlberg did double duty as leading man and executive producer for the independent drama Southie, and in 1999 he surprised critics with his turn as Vincent Gray in the runaway hit The Sixth Sense. Wahlberg has also enjoyed a successful career on television; he played 2nd Lt. Lipton on the acclaimed HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, starred in the action series Boomtown, and played a recurring role on the well-reviewed but short-lived police drama Big Apple. In 2005, Wahlberg joined the Saw movie franchise, appearing as Detective Eric Matthews in Saw II and later reprising his role in Saw III (2006) and Saw IV (2007). Continuing his trend of playing police officers, Wahlberg joined the CBS drama Blue Bloods in 2010 as Detective Danny Reagan. In addition to his careers in acting and music, Wahlberg also co-owns a restaurant in the Boston area with several of his brothers called Wahlburgers which was featured on an A&E reality series of the same name.

Trivia: Actor, playwright, and screenwriter Chazz Palminteri is anything but an overnight success. For him, stardom was the result of nearly 20 years of relative obscurity as he worked his way from nightclubs to off-Broadway to small television roles. It was only after he penned his one-man 35-character autobiographical play A Bronx Tale that the then-36-year-old actor hit the big time. A big, burly Italian, he has since specialized in playing heavies and other bad guys. Born Calogero Lorenzo Palminteri, the son of a Bronx bus driver, he first dreamed of an acting career at age 13. Following high school, however, Palminteri became a singer and spent over a decade as a lounge crooner; he was also a member of a pop group. Though he made a decent living, Palminteri couldn't forget his initial aspiration and, in 1982, devoted himself full-time to acting. While attending acting classes and auditioning, Palminteri supported himself as a doorman and spent the next few years working off-Broadway in small roles. In 1988, he headed to Southern California to work as a bit-player on television, making his debut appearance on Hill Street Blues. After two years of playing relatively inconsequential parts, a frustrated Palminteri took matters into his own hands and, on five yellow legal pads, wrote the script for A Bronx Tale. The play debuted at the West Coast Ensemble theater to critical raves. He then took it to Playhouse 91 in New York, where it played to standing-room-only crowds for four months. One night, Robert DeNiro caught it and was greatly impressed by both Palminteri and his play. Shortly afterward, Palminteri was visited by Hollywood producers wanting to by the film rights. Cagily, he refused to sell unless he was guaranteed the lead. Four years later, with help from DeNiro, who would use it for his directorial debut and play a supporting role, Palminteri's wish came true. Released in 1993, A Bronx Tale received critical praise but did not catch on with audiences. Still, it was enough to jump-start Palminteri's film career and, in 1994, he co-starred in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway as Cheech, a gangster thug with a love of the theater. Palminteri's portrayal of Cheech earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1996, another of Palminteri's plays, Faithful, the offbeat story of a strange relationship between a suicidal housewife and the thug her husband hires to kill her, became a film starring himself and Cher. A subsequent turn as the malevolent headmaster of a prestigious private school in the same year's Diabolique found Palminteri hanging up his gangster hat to turn in an especially menacing performance, with subsequent roles in Mulholland Falls, Analyze This, and Just Like Mona showing an actor who had perfected roles on both sides of the law and seemed to show little interest in branching out. Vocal performances in Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure and the computer animated 2005 comedy Hoodwinked made impressive use of the screen heavy's distinctive voice, and gave the longtime screen actor a chance to have some fun without necessarily having the stress of being on camera. A rare voyage into weekly television followed when Palminteri served as boss to one of television's greatest detectives in the 2005 revival of Kojack (this time featuring actor Ving Rhames in the role of the lollipop -munching cop), with a subsequent role as a crooked cop in Wayne Kramer's hyper-stylized action entry Running Scared finding the actor remaining safely behind the badge. One of six co-recipients of a Special Jury Prize for Dramatic Ensemble Performance at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival for his participation in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Palminteri cold next be seen as a diamond-hunting gangster searching for a most unusual thief in the Wayans brothers comedy Little Man (2006). Since then, Palminteri has divided his time between family life and his film career.

Trivia: Character actor Brian Goodman's unmistakably tough, rough-hewn exterior seemed to pigeonhole him, automatically lending him to portrayals of cops, army majors, guards, lieutenants, prisoners, and other figures with an aura of menacing imposition. Features that enlisted Goodman spanned a broad spectrum of genres, from prison drama (The Last Castle, 2001) to chase movie (Catch Me If You Can, 2002), to action yarn (The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, 2006); the Best Picture nominee Munich (2005) (in which Goodman played a Belligerent American) reteamed the actor with Catch director Steven Spielberg. In 2008, Goodman dramatically expanded his ambitions by co-scripting, directing, and starring in the drama What Doesn't Kill You; an overtly autobiographical piece, it told of two friends (Ethan Hawke and Mark Ruffalo) who grow up together in a rough neighborhood and find themselves sucked into a whirlpool of crime and violence and rapidly drawing the attentions of a die-hard police detective (Donnie Wahlberg).