Trivia: A Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (for 1979's Buried Child), an Oscar-nominated actor, and a director and screenwriter to boot, multi-talented Sam Shepard has made a career of plumbing the darker depths of middle-American rural sensibilities and Western myths. The son of a military man, he was born Samuel Shepard Rogers on November 3, 1943, in Fort Sheridan, IL. Following a peripatetic childhood, part of which was spent on a farm, Shepard left home in late adolescence to move to New York City, where by the age of 20, he already had two plays produced. As a playwright, Shepard went on to win a number of Obies for such dramas as Curse of the Starving Class (1977), which he made into a film in 1994, and True West (aired on PBS in 1986). As an actor, the lanky and handsome Shepard made his feature film debut with a small role in Bronco Bullfrog (1969) and didn't resurface again until Bob Dylan's disastrous Renaldo and Clara (1978). The film followed Shepard's residence in London during the early '70s, where he worked on-stage as an actor and director when not playing drums for his band, The Holy Modal Rounders, which had performed as part of Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue in 1975. Also in 1978, Shepard made a big impression playing a wealthy landowner in Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven, but it was not until he received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for playing astronaut Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff (1983) that he became a well-known actor. Following this success, he went on to specialize in playing drifters, cowboys, con artists, and eccentric characters with only the occasional leading role. Some of his more notable work included Paris, Texas (1984), which he also wrote; Fool For Love (1985), which was adapted from his play of the same name; Baby Boom (1987), Steel Magnolias (1989), and The Pelican Brief (1993). In addition to acting and writing, Shepard has also directed: in 1988, he made his debut with Far North, a film he wrote especially for his off-screen leading lady, Jessica Lange, with whom he has acted in Frances (1982), Country (1984), and Crimes of the Heart (1986).In 1999, Shepard could be seen on both the big and small screen. He appeared in Snow Falling on Cedars and Dash and Lilly, a made-for-TV movie for which he won an Emmy nomination in the role of the titular Dashiell Hammett. In addition, he also lent his writing skills to Simpatico, a Nick Nolte vehicle about friendship and loss adapted from Shepard's play of the same name.As the new decade began, he could be seen as the ghost in a modern-set Hamlet. He appeared in Black Hawk Down, as well as in Sean Penn's The Pledge. His play True West enjoyed a highly successful revival starring John C. Riley and Philip Seymour Hoffman as feuding brothers, which was notable because the actors traded parts every third performance. In 2004 he appeared in the popular romantic drama The Notebook, and wrote Don't Come Knocking the next year. He was the legendary outlaw Frank James in 2007's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. He was cast as Valerie Plame's father in Fair Game, and portrayed a dog-loving sheriff in Lawrnece Kasdan's Darling Companion.

Trivia: Eric Roberts is an acquired taste: those watching his movies fall into two distinct camps -- they either love him and consider him one of Hollywood's most intense and underrated actors, or they loathe him and consider him a pretentious, shameless ham. Both viewpoints are not without merit for Roberts has seen many ups and downs in his career. Tall and dark-haired, with a chiseled face, swarthy complexion, and arresting eyes, the young Roberts had the look of a classic movie rebel and off-screen displayed an arrogance and self-possession coupled with a tendency toward womanizing, drug abuse, and behavior that created a bad boy image on and off the screen. A serious car accident roughened his facial features and led to the second phase of his career during the '80s in which he primarily played villains; he spent the third phase during the late '90s trying to establish himself as a character actor. Growing up in Atlanta, GA, Roberts was no stranger to actors and the theater as his parents ran a successful acting and writing school from their home. A terrible stutterer as a child, Roberts and his father discovered that he could speak normally if he memorized his speeches ahead of time. Thus Roberts participated in his father's classes as a form of therapy. It was while watching English character actor Robert Donat during a late-night showing of Goodbye Mr. Chips that Roberts became inspired to become a movie actor. He made his acting debut at age five playing a cripple in a locally produced Saturday morning TV show, The Little Pioneers. He also performed for poor kids on his father's "showmobile." Roberts was quite close to his father, who taught him the spiritual side of acting, but after his parents divorced, became estranged from his mother, who married a man Roberts detested. He was however, a loving brother to his younger sisters, Julia and Lisa, both of whom became actresses. Roberts began experimenting with drugs at age 11 and by 13 was an avowed pot smoker. Later, he admitted that smoking dope was a way of coping with his broken family and that the drug in many ways arrested his emotional development. During his late teens, Roberts' father sacrificed much to send him to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. By the time he finished training, Roberts was a hardcore Method actor, something that somewhat hindered his personal life as he was unable to easily disassociate from his characters after appearing in a film. In 1976, Roberts' first break was portraying Ted Bancroft in the daily soap Another World. He disliked the job and left to work off-Broadway until agent Bill Treusch discovered him and helped Roberts land the role of a young man who is crowned a gypsy leader by his dying grandfather in King of the Gypsies. The film flopped at the box office, but like his two subsequent films, it has become a cult favorite among video fans. Roberts then appeared in a television movie before starring his next feature as a handsome sailor who falls for Texas divorcée Sissy Spacek in The Raggedy Man (1981). In June that year, Roberts was involved in a serious car crash while driving home from visiting his much older lover Sandy Dennis. He was comatose for three days afterwards with a bruised brain and much facial trauma, a broken collarbone, and an injured hand. No longer suitable for the same roles as before, Roberts bounced back with what became his most famous role, that of the sleazy Paul Snider, the man who killed actress Dorothy Stratten, in Bob Fosse's disturbing Star 80 (1983). The actor made a chilling villain and after playing another bad guy in The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984), found himself typecast. Roberts proved well suited to those roles and received an Oscar nomination for playing an escaped convict in Runaway Train (1985). After that, Roberts chose quick money over artistic integrity and played in a long series of B-movies and direct-to-video fare; while he disappeared from mainstream view, he still maintained a loyal following. Meanwhile the career of his sister Julia Roberts, who made her debut co-starring opposite Roberts in Blood Red (1988), became the most popular female star of the late '80s. Though both were in Hollywood, the formerly close siblings argued and have remained bitter and estranged. In 1987, a drugged Roberts was arrested for harassing a woman and for striking a police officer. He spent 36 hours in jail, pleaded guilty for harassment, and had all other charges dropped. In 1991, he made Hollywood news for a bitter breakup with his live-in girlfriend, Kelly Cunningham. He lost the battle for custody of their daughter, Emma. The next year he married again. Careerwise, Roberts' tempestuous personality and lifestyle did little to make him bankable to studios. In 1995, Roberts gave up drugs and has worked on becoming a more ingratiating, congenial person. That year he made a comeback with his first romantic lead in It's My Party, playing an AIDS-afflicted homosexual who hosts one last bash for family and friends before committing suicide. His hope was that the film would allow him to return to his original dream of becoming a great character actor. In 1996, he played the Master in a new installment of the long-running Dr. Who saga.

Trivia: Six-foot four-inch, beefy character actor with rubbery, homely face, Quaid's first professional show-business work was as the "straight man" half of a comedy duo with actor Trey Wilson in Houston. While a third-year college drama student he was cast by Peter Bogdanovich in a supporting role in The Last Picture Show (1971), then went on to have small roles in Bogdanovich's next two movies. He made a big impression as a naive sailor alongside Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail (1973), for which he received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. By the mid '70s, he worked in films frequently, usually typecast as a dim-witted fool or redneck. In the mid '80s he was (for one season) in the regular cast of the weekly sketch-comedy series "Saturday Night Live," on which he demonstrated his considerable comedic talent and often impersonated President Ronald Reagan. More recently he has gotten straight dramatic roles, a transition marked by his off-Broadway stage debut in True West in 1983. He has also worked frequently in TV movies, portraying Lenny in Of Mice and Men (1981) and Lyndon Johnson in LBJ: The Early Days (1987); for his portrayal of Mitch in the TV version of A Streetcar Named Desire (1984) he won an Emmy. He is the brother of actor Dennis Quaid, with whom he appeared in The Long Riders (1980).

Trivia: Possessing the kind of blonde, hard-bodied looks that make him ideal fodder for both straight women and gay men, Brad Rowe has inspired repeated comparisons to Brad Pitt. Audiences first waxed poetic over the photogenic actor when he appeared in the arthouse hit Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss in 1998. A romantic comedy with Rowe as the sexually ambiguous object of the title character (Sean P. Hayes)'s affections, it was equal parts "Doris Day" comedy, campy musical revue, and heartfelt search for love. It had the added attraction of a scene that allowed Rowe to showcase his more physical attributes with the aid of a very small swimsuit.Rowe got his start in acting with a mail room job at the United Talent Agency, where he began working after a stint as a finance manager in Washington, D.C. A native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he was born May 15, 1970, he attended the University of Wisconsin. After graduating with a degree in Economics, he headed to Spain, where, in addition to working and studying, he also played in a blues band. After returning to the States, he worked in Washington, where he decided he wanted to pursue screenwriting. He took some writing classes at Northwestern and then headed to Los Angeles. After securing his mail room job at UTA, he began taking acting classes, and, with the help of various UTA co-workers, started landing auditions. Rowe's first real acting job was on the TV sitcom NewsRadio, on which he played an intern for a few episodes. After starring in Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss in 1998, he began finding more steady work: in 1999, he could be seen on screens big and small. On television, he starred in Wasteland, Kevin Williamson's latest offering, and in the miniseries Purgatory, a Western that also featured Sam Shepard, Randy Quaid, and Peter Stormare. On the big screen, Rowe could be seen in Body Shots, an ensemble film in which he starred as one of a group of L.A. twentysomethings searching for love, or, failing that, plain old sex.

Trivia: Actress Amelia Heinle is perhaps best known for the role of Steffi Brewster on the soap opera Loving. She played the role from 1993-1995 before moving on to reprise the role in the show's short-lived spin-off The City. Various appearances would follow over the years, but Heinle eventually returned to the world of daytime TV, joining the cast of All My Children in 2001, then The Young and the Restless in 2005.

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: 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: Supporting actor Richard Edson first appeared onscreen in Stranger Than Paradise (1984).