Trivia: Like so many others before him, Kris Kristofferson pursued Hollywood success after first finding fame in the pop music arena. Unlike the vast majority of his contemporaries, however, he could truly act as well as make music, delivering superb, natural performances in films for directors like Martin Scorsese, Sam Peckinpah, and John Sayles. Born June 22, 1936, in Brownsville, TX, Kristofferson was a Phi Beta Kappa at Pomona College, earning a degree in creative writing. At Oxford, he was a Rhodes Scholar, and while in Britain he first performed his music professionally (under the name Kris Carson). A five-year tour in the army followed, as did a stint teaching at West Point. Upon exiting the military, he drifted around the country before settling in Nashville, where he began earning a reputation as a gifted singer and songwriter. After a number of his compositions were covered by Roger Miller, Kristofferson eventually emerged as one of the most sought-after writers in music. In 1970, Johnny Cash scored a Number One hit with Kristofferson's "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down," and that same year he released his debut LP, Kristofferson. Upon composing two more hits, Janis Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee" and Sammi Smith's "Help Me Make It Through the Night," Kristofferson was a star in both pop and country music. In 1971, his friend, Dennis Hopper, asked him to write the soundtrack for The Last Movie, and soon Kristofferson was even appearing onscreen as himself. He next starred -- as a pop singer, appropriately enough -- opposite Gene Hackman later that year in Cisco Pike, again composing the film's music as well. Another role as a musician in 1973's Blume in Love threatened to typecast him, but then Kristofferson starred as the titular outlaw in Sam Peckinpah's superb Western Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. For Peckinpah, Kristofferson also appeared in 1974's Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, followed by a breakthrough performance opposite Oscar-winner Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese's acclaimed Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. After a two-year hiatus to re-focus his attentions on music, he followed with a villainous turn in the little-seen Vigilante Force and the much-hyped The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea. Amid reports of a serious drinking problem, Kristofferson next starred as an aging, alcoholic rocker opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1976 remake of A Star Is Born, an experience so grueling, and which hit so close to home, that he later claimed the picture forced him to go on the wagon. In 1977, Kristofferson teamed with Burt Reynolds to star in the football comedy Semi-Tough, another hit. He next reunited with Peckinpah for 1978's Convoy. Hanover Street was scheduled to follow, but at the last minute Kristofferson dropped out to mount a concert tour. Instead, he next appeared with Muhammad Ali in the 1979 television miniseries Freedom Road. He then starred in Michael Cimino's legendary 1981 disaster Heaven's Gate, and when the follow-up -- Alan J. Pakula's Rollover -- also failed, Kristofferson's film career was seriously crippled; he received no more offers for three years, appearing only in a TV feature, 1983's The Lost Honor of Kathryn Beck, and performing his music. His comeback vehicle, the 1984 thriller Flashpoint, earned little attention, but Alan Rudolph's Songwriter -- also starring Willie Nelson -- was well received. In 1986, Kristofferson reunited with Rudolph for Trouble in Mind, and starred in three TV movies: The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James, Blood and Orchids, and a remake of John Ford's Stagecoach.Remaining on television, Kristofferson co-starred in the epic 1987 miniseries Amerika. The year following, he appeared in a pair of Westerns, The Tracker and Dead or Alive, and unexpectedly co-starred in the comedy Big-Top Pee-Wee. The 1989 sci-fi disappointment Millennium was his last major theatrical appearance for some years. In the early '90s, the majority of his work was either in television (the Pair of Aces films, Christmas in Connecticut) or direct-to-video fare (Night of the Cyclone, Original Intent). In many quarters, Kristofferson was largely a memory by the middle of the decade, but in 1995 he enjoyed a major renaissance; first, he released A Moment of Forever, his first album of new material in many years, then co-starred in Pharoah's Army, an acclaimed art-house offering set during the Civil War. The following year, Kristofferson delivered his most impressive performance as a murderous Texas sheriff in John Sayles' Lone Star. He turned in another stellar performance two years later in James Ivory's A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries. After a turn in the Mel Gibson vehicle Payback and Father Damien, Kristofferson again collaborated with Sayles, playing a pilot of dubious reputation in 1999's Limbo. In the decades to come, Kristofferson would remain active on screen, appearing in movies like He's Just Not That Into You, Fastfood Nation, and Dolphin Tale.

Trivia: A popular screen figure of the 1980s and '90s whose casting in HBO's runaway hit series Sex and the City provided her career with a solid second wind, Emmy-winning actress Kim Cattrall has endured to prove that older women can retain their sexuality and femininity while simultaneously maintaining a vital screen presence. Born in Liverpool, England, Cattrall's parents immigrated the family to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, when the future actress was three years old. After returning to England at age 11 to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, Cattrall finished high school in Vancouver, and at age 16 struck out on her own after winning a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Though director Otto Preminger would sign Cattrall to a five-year contract and give the actress her film debut in Rosebud (1975), Universal would soon step in to buy out her contract, making Cattrall one of the last actors to participate in the now defunct Universal Contract Player System. Following with television appearances in Starskey and Hutch and Charlie's Angels, and turning up in such features as Deadly Harvest (1977), it appeared as if good things were in store for Cattrall in the future. The dawn of the 1980s found Cattrall's star ascending in such features as Porky's (1981), and with the release of Police Academy in 1984 her face was becoming a familiar one to film and television audiences.Following up with such typically '80s fare as Turk 182! (1985), Cattrall essayed the role of the green-eyed girl whose fate was questionable in John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China (1986), the year before her most famous (until Sex and the City of course) role in Mannequin (1987). Essentially a typical '80s throwaway comedy, Cattrall's effervescent presence, combined with Starship's catchy title tune "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now," gave the film such a boost that it even spawned a Cattrall-less sequel. It was following Mannequin that Cattrall's career began to stall in the wake of such instantly forgettable films as Honeymoon Academy (1990) and the Gary Busey actioner Breaking Point (1993), though her role in 1995's Live Nude Girls proved a curious precursor to her role on Sex and the City. A frank and funny HBO series based on the writings of New York Observer columnist Candace Bushnell, Sex and the City gave Cattrall a chance to shine as a lusty an unabashedly sexual PR executive whose confidence in the bedroom rivals only her confidence in the boardroom. A runaway hit that's popularity only grew as the show entered is sixth season, Sex and the City once again made Cattrall a household name as it influenced everything from fashion to the drinks of the New York scene. Cattrall's character made her a bigger pop culture icon than ever, and she would stick with the franchise throughout its spin-off movies, while also appearing in feature films like Ice Princess and The Ghost Writer.

Trivia: Lead actor, onscreen from the late '80s.