Trivia: Icon of British cool in the 1960s, leading action star in the late '70s, and knighted into official respectability in 1993, Michael Caine has enjoyed a long, varied, and enviably prolific career. Although he played a part in some notable cinematic failures, particularly during the 1980s, Caine remains one of the most established performers in the business, serving as a role model for actors and filmmakers young and old. The son of a fish-porter father and a charwoman mother, Caine's beginnings were less than glamorous. Born Maurice Micklewhite in 1943, in the squalid South London neighborhood of Bermondsey, Caine got his first taste of the world beyond when he was evacuated to the countryside during World War II. A misfit in school, the military (he served during the Korean War), and the job pool, Caine found acceptance after answering a want ad for an assistant stage manager at the Horsham Repertory Company. Already star struck thanks to incessant filmgoing, Caine naturally took to acting, even though the life of a British regional actor was one step away from abject poverty. Changing his last name from Micklewhite to Caine in tribute to one of his favorite movies, The Caine Mutiny (1954), the actor toiled in obscurity in unbilled film bits and TV walk-ons from 1956 through 1962, occasionally obtaining leads on a TV series based on the Edgar Wallace mysteries. Caine's big break occurred in 1963, when he was cast in a leading role in the epic, star-studded historical adventure film Zulu. Suddenly finding himself bearing a modicum of importance in the British film industry, the actor next played Harry Palmer, the bespectacled, iconoclastic secret agent protagonist of The Ipcress File (1965); he would go on to reprise the role in two more films, Funeral in Berlin (1966) and The Billion Dollar Brain (1967). After 12 years of obscure and unappreciated work, Caine was glibly hailed as an "overnight star," and with the success of The Ipcress Files, advanced to a new role as a major industry player. He went on to gain international fame in his next film, Alfie (1966), in which he played the title character, a gleefully cheeky, womanizing cockney lad. For his portrayal of Alfie, Caine was rewarded with a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination. One of the most popular action stars of the late '60s and early '70s, Caine had leading roles in films such as the classic 1969 action comedy The Italian Job (considered by many to be the celluloid manifestation of all that was hip in Britain at the time); Joseph L. Manckiewic's Sleuth (1972), in which he starred opposite Laurence Olivier and won his second Oscar nomination; and The Man Who Would Be King (1976), which cast him alongside Sean Connery. During the 1980s, Caine gained additional acclaim with an Oscar nomination for Educating Rita (1983) and a 1986 Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Hannah and Her Sisters. He had a dastardly turn as an underworld kingpin in Neil Jordan's small but fervently praised Mona Lisa, and two years later once again proved his comic talents with the hit comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, in which he and Steve Martin starred as scheming con artists. Although Caine was no less prolific during the 1990s, his career began to falter with a series of lackluster films. Among the disappointments were Steven Seagal's environmental action flick On Deadly Ground (1994) and Blood and Wine, a 1996 thriller in which he starred with Jack Nicholson and Judy Davis. In the late '90s, Caine began to rebound, appearing in the acclaimed independent film Little Voice (1998), for which he won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of a seedy talent agent. In addition, Caine -- or Sir Michael, as he was called after receiving his knighthood in 2000 -- got a new audience through his television work, starring in the 1997 miniseries Mandela and de Klerk. The actor, who was ranked 55 in Empire Magazine's 1997 Top 100 Actors of All Time list, also kept busy as the co-owner of a successful London restaurant, and enjoyed a new wave of appreciation from younger filmmakers who praised him as the film industry's enduring model of British cool. This appreciation was further evidenced in 2000, when Caine was honored with a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of an abortionist in The Cider House Rules. After launching the new millennium with both a revitalized career momentum and newfound popularity among fans who were too young to appreciate his early efforts, Caine once again scored a hit with the art-house circuit as the torturous Dr Royer-Collard in director Phillip Kaufman's Quills. Later paid homage by Hollywood icon Sylvester Stallone when the muscle-bound actor stepped into Caine's well-worn shoes for a remake of Get Carter (in which Caine also appeared in a minor role) the actor would gain positive notice the following year for his turn as a friend attempting to keep a promise in Last Orders. As if the Get Carter remake wasn't enought to emphasize Caine's coolness to a new generation of moviegoers, his turn as bespectacled super-spy Austin Powers' father in Austin Powers in Goldfinger proved that even years beyond The Italian Job Caine was still at the top of his game. Moving seamlessly from kitsch to stirring drama, Caine's role in 2002's The Quiet American earned the actor not only some of the best reviews of his later career, but another Oscar nomination as well. Caine had long demonstrated an unusual versatility that made him a cult favorite with popular and arthouse audiences, but as the decade wore on, he demonstrated more box-office savvy by pursuing increasingly lucrative audience pleasers, almost exclusively for a period of time. The thesp first resusciated the triumph of his Muppet role with a brief return to family-friendly material in Disney's Secondhand Lions, alongside screen legend Robert Duvall (Tender Mercies, The Apostle). The two play quirky great-uncles to a maladjusted adolescent boy (Haley Joel Osment), who take the child for the summer as a guest on their Texas ranch. The film elicited mediocre reviews (Carrie Rickey termed it "edgeless as a marshmallow and twice as syrupy") but scored with ticket buyers during its initial fall 2003 run. Caine then co-starred with Christopher Walken and Josh Lucas in the family issues drama Around the Bend (2004). In 2005, perhaps cued by the bankability of Goldfinger and Lions, Caine landed a couple of additional turns in Hollywood A-listers. In that year's Nicole Kidman/Will Ferrell starrer Bewitched, he plays Nigel Bigelow, Kidman's ever philandering warlock father. Even as critics wrote the vehicle off as a turkey, audiences didn't listen, and it did outstanding business, doubtless helped by the weight of old pros Caine and Shirley Maclaine. That same year's franchise prequel Batman Begins not only grossed dollar one, but handed Caine some of his most favorable notices to date, as he inherited the role of Bruce Wayne's butler, a role he would return to in both of the film's sequels, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. Caine contributed an elegiac portrayal to Gore Verbinski's quirky late 2005 character drama The Weatherman, as Robert Spritz, the novelist father of Nic Cage's David Spritz, who casts a giant shadow over the young man. In 2006, Caine joined the cast of the esteemed Alfonso Cuaron's dystopian sci-fi drama Children of Men, and lent a supporting role to Memento helmer Christopher Nolan's psychological thriller The Prestige. In 2009 Caine starred as the title character in Harry Brown, a thriller about a senior citizen vigilante, and the next year worked with Nolan yet again on the mind-bending Inception.

Trivia: Born in Kulm, North Dakota and educated at Glendale College and Immaculate Heart College, Angeline Brown acquired her professional name Angie Dickinson when she married college football star Gene Dickinson. A beauty contest winner, Dickinson entered films with an unbilled bit in the 1954 Warner Bros. musical Lucky Me. Her earliest films consisted mostly of "B" Westerns (at one point, she dubbed in actress Sarita Montiel's voice in 1957's Run of the Arrow) and television (Dickinson was rather nastily murdered in very first episode of Mike Hammer). She moved to the A-list when selected by Howard Hawks to play the female lead in Rio Bravo (1958). The film gave Dickinson ample opportunity to display her celebrated legs, which, for publicity purposes, were reportedly insured by Lloyd's of London. She went on to star in films both famous and forgettable: one of the roles for which she is best remembered is as the mistress of gangster Ronald Reagan (!) in The Killers (1964). In 1974, Dickinson jump-started her flagging career as the star of the TV cop drama Police Woman, which lasted four seasons and represented a tremendous step up in popularity for Dickinson. On that program, the actress played Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson, an undercover agent with the LAPD's criminal conspiracy division, whose assignments nearly always included donning a crafty and sexy guise in order to nab an underworld criminal.At about the same time, Dickinson also moved into motion pictures and (after years of consciously avoiding nude scenes), went au naturel for exploitation king Roger Corman in that producer's depression-era romp Big Bad Mama, which unsurprisingly became a cult favorite. (Years later, in 1987, she teamed up with Z-grade shlockmeister Jim Wynorski for New World's Big Bad Mama II). Brian DePalma's Psycho-influenced thriller Dressed to Kill (1980) brought the actress greater visibility, and like the Corman assignments, required Angie to do erotic nudity (though in this case, the below-the-waist shower shots were reportedly performed by a body double).In later years, Dickinson leaned more heavily on starring and supporting turns in made-for-television productions, including a telemovie follow-up to Police Woman, Police Woman: The Freeway Killings (1987); the Oliver Stone miniseries Wild Palms (1993); the direct-to-video thriller The Maddening (1995) (opposite longtime friend and colleague Burt Reynolds); and the prime-time soaper Danielle Steele's Rememberance (1996). The next decade found the septuagenarian actress unexpectedly returning to A-list Hollywood features, albeit in small supporting roles; these included Duets (2000), Pay it Forward (2000) and Ocean's Eleven (2001) (in a cameo as herself, nodding to her involvement in the original).Angie Dickinson was married to composer Burt Bacharach from 1965 to 1980.

Trivia: The daughter of a New York City policeman, Nancy Allen trained for a dancing career at the High School of Performing Arts, then attended Jose Quintano's School for Young Professionals. In dozens of TV commercials from the age of 15, Nancy made her first film appearance (as "Nancy"-what a stretch!) in 1973's The Last Detail. Three years later, she set the standard for all future "bitch-goddess teenagers" as the beautiful but despicable high schooler Chris in Brian De Palma's Carrie. While Chris and her greaser boyfriend (John Travolta) met with a violent but well-deserved end on-screen, Nancy herself ultimately won out by claiming director De Palma as her husband. She next displayed a keen comic sense in the role of the only teenager on Earth who doesn't love the Beatles in Robert Zemeckis' I Want to Hold Your Hand (1976); thereafter, for the next seven years she appeared only in DePalma's films. She carried on a heated argument with her own hand in Home Movies (1979), was threatened by a knife-wielding psycho in Dressed to Kill (1980), and literally died for John Travolta's art in Blow-Out (1981). After her divorce from DePalma in 1984, Nancy's film opportunities narrowed, though she was memorable as take-no-guff police officer Anne Lewis in the three Robocop flicks. In 1993, Nancy Allen joined several other veteran stars in Acting on Impulse, a made-for-cable send-up of the horror films that first brought her fame.

Trivia: Whether obsessing over a demonically possessed '58 Plymouth Fury in Christine or stepping behind the camera to direct an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s classic novel Mother Night, Keith Gordon has experienced a lot in his filmmaking career. If audiences hadn't suspected the awkward, bespectacled teen's ambitions following such early efforts as Home Movies and Dressed to Kill, they were in for a pleasant surprise when the young actor eventually grew into a seasoned director. A New York City native whose parents were both actors, Gordon began a love affair with films when he accompanied his father to a screening of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Gordon was thrilled by Kubrick's imaginative sci-fi vision and the seemingly limitless possibilities of the medium, and in the years that followed, he took part in numerous stage productions at school. In the summer of 1976, he was spotted by a casting director while appearing in two plays at the National Playwrights Conference; two years later, Gordon landed his first major screen role in Jaws 2. Though it was only a bit part, the experience he gained on the tumultuous set was invaluable. Subsequently cast in the 1979 miniseries Studs Lonigan, he eventually left school for a film career. Though Gordon initially rejected an offer to try out for the 1979 Brian De Palma feature Home Movies, the audition was in his neighborhood, so he reluctantly gave in. Not only did Gordon win the role of a young student obsessed with filmmaking, but he also received even more valuable experience by having opportunities to discuss filmmaking with De Palma. Following a brief role in All That Jazz (1979), Gordon made his most prominent film appearance to date in De Palma's controversial 1980 thriller Dressed to Kill. Gordon excelled at playing twitchy, eggheaded teens throughout the '80s in such efforts as Christine (1983), The Legend of Billie Jean (1985), and Back to School (1986), and though his onscreen career seemed to be coming along swimmingly, his creative ambitions were left unfulfilled. As the screenwriter of Mark Romanek's 1985 cult film Static, Gordon saw his aspirations finally beginning to come to fruition. He later made his feature directorial debut in 1988 with an impressive adaptation of Robert Cormier's novel The Chocolate War (Gordon also wrote the screenplay), which earned a Best First Feature nomination at the 1989 Independent Spirit Awards. He gained momentum and crafted a unique anti-war movie with his 1992 sophomore effort, A Midnight Clear, before moving to television to direct episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street and the sci-fi miniseries Wild Palms. Gordon was next faced with one of the more challenging projects of his career when he filmed Mother Night. A dark, dramatic period tale of love and loss, Gordon's fourth feature, Waking the Dead (2000), earned generally positive notices, as it further established the star status of its clear-eyed leads, Jennifer Connelly and Billy Crudup. In his next feature, Gordon re-teamed with Back to School dormmate Robert Downey Jr. for an updated version of Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective (2003). Although he coaxed a stellar turn out of Downey, however, Gordon's take on the material did little to convince critics that the film was in need of refreshing.

Trivia: Born October 28th, 1944, Chicago native Dennis Franz (originally Dennis Schlachta) spent 11 months in an airborne division during the Vietnam War. Afterwards, Franz became a postman -- and, by his own admission, not a very good one. Short, bald, overweight and scrappy, he decided to establish himself as a character actor, making the rounds of Windy City casting agencies in search of film work. Franz made his film debut in a bit part in De Palma's The Fury (1978). He made his TV debut as beat cop Joe Gilland in the 1982 TV series Chicago Story. Franz went on to become a "regular" in the various projects of producer Steven Bochco, playing baseball coach Angelo Carbone on the four-episode Bay City Blues (1983), and two different roles -- unscrupulous detective Sal Benedetto and streetwise lieutenant Norman Buntz -- on the popular Hill Street Blues. An attempt to capitalize on his Hill Street fame led to the short-lived 1987 series Beverly Hills Buntz. In 1993, Dennis Franz was back with Bochco on the controversial series NYPD Blue; once again, he played a cop, this time a recovering alcoholic trying to reassemble his shattered personal life and career. His gritty portrayal of Detective Andy Sipowicz is considered his best role and has won Franz multiple Emmy awards. While primarily a television actor, Franz has appeared in numerous feature films and has worked with such esteemed directors as Brian De Palma and Robert Altman. As with his television career, he is frequently cast as a police officer. After working with silver screen sweetheart Meg Ryan in 1998's City of Angels, Franz continued his work on NYPD Blue until the series was completed in 2002 after a 10 season run.

Trivia: Fresh out of CCNY, David Margulies made his off-Broadway bow in Golden 6 (1958). Margulies made his first film, A New Leaf, in 1971, and two years later first appeared on Broadway in The Iceman Cometh. Shuttling between plays, movies and TV in the 1980s and 1990s, Margulies was most often cast as doctors, lawyers and rabbis. In Ghostbusters II (1989), David Margulies has several good scenes as the Mayor of New York. He originated the role of Roy Cohn in Angels in America on Broadway; one of his final roles was as Elie Weisel in the miniseries Madoff. Margulies died in 2016, at age 78.

Trivia: Not to be confused with the honey-voiced radio tenor of the same name, British dwarf actor Kenny Baker was a fixture of science-fiction and horror films of the 1970s and 1980s. A nightclub performer who, like America's Michael Dunn, traded in more on his talent than his size, the 3'8" Baker was cast in Star Wars (1977) as the beep-boop-beeping minirobot R2-D2, while his nightclub partner Jack Purvis was given the smaller role of the chief Jawa. Baker gave one of the few all-motorized human performances in film history. Once jammed into his robot costume, he was unable to move about and had to rely on a sophisticated remote controls - and when those didn't work, he had to be pulled around on nylon ropes. Additionally, the noisemaking computer controls on the R2D2 shell were so loud that Baker didn't know if a take was over unless someone banged on the costume with a hammer. Somehow Baker survived both his tight hardware exterior and the sweltering Tunisian heat on location, and appeared in both Star Wars sequels, as well as such other oddball movie projects as The Elephant Man (1980), Time Bandits (1981) and Mona Lisa (1988). And in the Oscar-winning Amadeus (1984), Kenny Baker could be seen without his R2D2 getup as a jester-like performer in one of Mozart's comic operas.Baker returned to R2 in the second set of Star Wars films, beginning in 1999, but retired from the role once that trilogy ended in 2005. He was a consultant on 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Baker died in 2016, at age 81.

Trivia: Started his acting career while attending the University of Tennessee during the early 1950s.Sang with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra.Winner of the Grace Moore Award.In 2005, his artwork was featured in the Venice Centennial Art Walk.Author of the autobiographical trilogy/memoir Papa's Footprint.

Trivia: South African-born Basil Rathbone was the son of a British mining engineer working in Johannesburg. After a brief career as an insurance agent, the 19-year-old aspiring actor joined his cousin's repertory group. World War I service as a lieutenant in Liverpool Scottish Regiment followed, then a rapid ascension to leading-man status on the British stage. Rathbone's movie debut was in the London-filmed The Fruitful Vine (1921). Tall, well profiled, and blessed with a commanding stage voice, Rathbone shifted from modern-dress productions to Shakespeare and back again with finesse. Very much in demand in the early talkie era, one of Rathbone's earliest American films was The Bishop Murder Case (1930), in which, as erudite amateur sleuth Philo Vance, he was presciently referred to by one of the characters as "Sherlock Holmes." He was seldom more effective than when cast in costume dramas as a civilized but cold-hearted villain: Murdstone in David Copperfield (1934), Evremonde in Tale of Two Cities (1935), and Guy of Gisbourne in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) (Rathbone was a good friend of Robin Hood star Errol Flynn -- and a far better swordsman). Never content with shallow, one-note performances, Rathbone often brought a touch of humanity and pathos to such stock "heavies" as Karenin in Anna Karenina (1936) and Pontius Pilate in The Last Days of Pompeii (1936). He was Oscar-nominated for his portrayals of Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (1936) and the crotchety Louis XVI in If I Were King (1938). In 1939, Rathbone was cast as Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles, the first of 14 screen appearances as Conan Doyle's master detective. He also played Holmes on radio from 1939 through 1946, and in 1952 returned to the character (despite his despairing comments that Holmes had hopelessly "typed" him in films) in the Broadway flop The Return of Sherlock Holmes, which was written by his wife, Ouida Bergere. Famous for giving some of Hollywood's most elegant and elaborate parties, Rathbone left the West Coast in 1947 to return to Broadway in Washington Square. He made a movie comeback in 1954, essaying saturnine character roles in such films as We're No Angels (1955), The Court Jester (1956), and The Last Hurrah (1958). Alas, like many Hollywood veterans, Rathbone often found the pickings lean in the 1960s, compelling him to accept roles in such inconsequential quickies as The Comedy of Terrors (1964) and Hillbillies in the Haunted House (1967). He could take consolation in the fact that these negligible films enabled him to finance projects that he truly cared about, such as his college lecture tours and his Caedmon Record transcriptions of the works of Shakespeare. Basil Rathbone's autobiography, In and Out of Character, was published in 1962.