Trivia: More coolly charismatic than drop-dead handsome, Richard Gere was one of the most successful sex symbols of the '80s and early '90s. Possessing something of an actual talent in addition to his good looks, Gere has proven himself to be a versatile actor since first starring as the pick-up artist who creeps out Diane Keaton in Looking For Mr. Goodbar. Capable of playing everything from romantic leads and action heroes to medieval knights and ruthless villains, Gere has moved beyond his role as cinematic eye candy to become one of the more enduring actors of his generation. Born in Philadelphia on August 31, 1949, Gere had a strict Methodist upbringing in upstate New York. Following his 1967 high school graduation, he studied philosophy and film at the University of Massachusetts -- only to leave school to pursue an acting career two years later. Gere became a professional actor and sometime musician, performing theatrically in Seattle and New York and attempting unsuccessfully to form a rock band. In 1973 the young actor landed in London, where he gained prominence playing Danny Zuko in Grease, a role he would later reprise on Broadway. While in London, Gere gained the privilege of becoming one of the few Americans ever to work with Britain's Young Vic Theater, with which he appeared in The Taming of the Shrew.Back in the U.S., Gere made his feature film debut in 1974 with a tiny part in Report to the Commissioner. He returned to the stage the following year as part of the cast of an off-Broadway production of Sam Shepard's Killer's Head; following Gere's turn in the 1977 Looking for Mr. Goodbar, he and Shepard would again collaborate in Terrence Malick's breathtaking Days of Heaven (1978). In 1979, Gere won considerable theatrical acclaim for his performance in the Broadway production of Martin Sherman's Bent, and the next year enjoyed his first shot at screen stardom with the title role in Paul Schrader's American Gigolo. Though the film was not a major critical or box-office success, it did earn recognition for the actor, who had taken the role after John Travolta turned it down. Gere did not become a real star until he appeared opposite Debra Winger in An Officer and a Gentleman in 1982, but his bona fide celebrity status was jeopardized with roles in several poorly received films including King David (1985). A lead role in Francis Ford Coppola's 1984 The Cotton Club also failed to perk up the actor's career; despite a legendary director and stellar cast, the film received mixed reviews and poor box-office turnout. With no recent major successes behind him by the end of the decade, it looked as if Gere's career was in a tailspin. Fortunately, he abruptly pulled out of the dive in 1990, first as a cop/crime lord in Mike Figgis' Internal Affairs and then as a ruthless businessman who finds true love in the arms of prostitute Julia Roberts in the smash romantic comedy Pretty Woman. Back in the saddle again, Gere continued to star in a number of films, including Sommersby (1993), Intersection (1994), and First Knight (1995). In 1996, he was highly praised for his portrayal of an arrogant hot-shot attorney in Primal Fear, and in 1999 found further financial, if not critical, success starring opposite Julia Roberts in Runaway Bride. The following year the actor enjoyed some of his best reviews to date as a gynecologist at once devoted to and bewildered by all of the women in his life in Robert Altman's aptly titled Dr. T & the Women; many critics noted that Gere seemed to have finally come into his own as an actor, having matured amiably with years and experience. In 2002, Gere played the too-perfect-for-words husband to Diane Lane in Unfaithful. While the film was not a huge critical success, Gere was praised for a game performance, and Lane was nominated for an Oscar. Unfortunately for Gere, a starring role in The Mothman Prophecies didn't do too much for his resume -- while critics once again lauded the actor's intensity, the film itself was widely hailed as too slow-paced to properly showcase his talents. Luckily, the same couldn't be said for his performance in the multiple Oscar winning Chicago, which found Gere in the role of another hotshot lawyer, this time alongside a diverse and talented cast including Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renée Zellweger, and Queen Latifah. In 2004, Gere starred opposite Jennifer Lopez and Oscar-winning Hollywood veteran Susan Sarandon in Peter Chelsom's Shall We Dance?.On- and offscreen, Gere uses his acting clout to promote his various political ventures. A devout Buddhist, Gere has been deeply involved with the struggles surrounding the Dalai Lama and the worldwide struggle for human rights -- the documentaries Return to Tibet (2003) and Shadow Over Tibet: Stories in Exile (1994) featured Gere as a prime interviewee, while 1997's Red Corner starred the versatile actor as a victim of a grossly corrupt Chinese court system.In 2005, Gere played a professor of religious studies in director David Siegel's drama Bee Season, and enjoyed success in 2007 with The Hoax, an edgy biographical drama, and The Hunting Party, a political tragi-comedy in which he played a discredited reporter mistaken as a member of a CIA hit squad. The actor joined the casat of Nights in Rodanthe in 2008, and worked with Hilary Swank in Amela, the 2009 Amelia Earhart biopic. Gere took on the role of a burnt out cop in Training Day (2009), director Antoine Fuqua's gritty crime drama Brooklyn's Finest.

Trivia: An international star of extraordinary, almost otherworldly beauty, French actress Juliette Binoche was born March 9, 1964, in Paris. The daughter of a sculptor/theater director and an actress, Binoche studied acting at the National School of Dramatic Art of Paris. After graduation, she followed in her mother's footsteps and became a stage actress, occasionally taking small parts in French feature films. Binoche first earned recognition in 1985 for playing a modernized, teenaged version of the Virgin Mary in Jean-Luc Godard's controversial Je Vous Salue, Marie (Hail Mary). The actress became a bona fide French star the same year with an acclaimed performance in André Téchiné's Rendez-Vous. Though she was the darling of the 1985 Cannes Film Festival, Binoche did not gain true international acclaim until she played Tereza in Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being in 1988.In the meantime, Binoche become involved with Leos Carax, a then-hot young filmmaker who cast her in a lead role in his chilling Mauvais Sang (Bad Blood). While involved with Carax, Binoche appeared in his Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (Lovers on the Bridge), a film they began in 1988 but did not finish until 1991 due to financial difficulties. She and Carax parted ways two years later after Binoche's great success starring opposite Jeremy Irons in Louis Malle's Damage (1992). The same year, the actress appeared with future English Patient co-star Ralph Fiennes in a new film version of Wuthering Heights, and followed that with the lead role in Krzysztof Kieslowski's Blue (1993). (She also appeared briefly in the trilogy's other installments, Red and White.) Following her work in that acclaimed film, Binoche took time off to have a son and did not return to her career until 1995 with Le Hussard sur le Toit (The Horseman on the Roof). In 1996, Binoche earned further international recognition with a Best Supporting Actress Oscar (as well as a host of other awards) for her role in The English Patient. Returning to her native France amidst a golden haze of critical acclaim, Binoche appeared in the same year's Un Divan à New York (A Couch in New York), a romantic comedy in which she starred opposite William Hurt. In 1998, she again collaborated with director Téchiné, this time on the romantic drama Alice et Martin.Revered as near royalty by the French press (who often simply refer to her as "La Binoche") and a beloved star worldwide, Binoche's remarkable second wind found her popularity soaring and her screen presence more powerful than ever. Binoche's daring and intense performance as 19th-century literary icon George Sand in the misguided drama The Children of the Century (1999) indeed impressed audiences and critics, though the film itself failed to live up to expectations. Of course, it wouldn't take long before Binoche was cast in a film whose quality would match her ample talent, and The Widow of Saint-Pierre (2000) would serve as just that cinematic endeavor. Not only did the redemption-themed drama perform smashingly at the international box office, but it also found its star honored with a César nomination for Best Actress. A collaboration with notorious feel-bad filmmaker Michael Haneke resulted in the intersecting lives drama Code Unknown (2000), though that role was ultimately overshadowed by Binoche's captivating performance in that same year's arthouse hit Chocolat. Cast opposite Johnny Depp as the free-spirited owner of a chocolate shop located in a small French town, the dedicated actress actually prepared for the role by learning to make chocolate at a popular Paris sweetshop. The film was an international runaway hit, and the beloved starlet was nominated for best actress awards across the globe. Following a lighthearted performance opposite French icon Jean Reno in the romantic comedy Jet Lag (2002), Binoche appeared with American star Samuel L. Jackson in director John Boorman's politically oriented drama Country of My Skull in 2004. Binoche maintained her status as one of the most respected actresses in the world by appearing in the well-regarded thriller Cache. She also co-starred with Richard Gere in the drama Bee Season. In 2006 she would appear alongside other stars as Jude Law, Robin Wirght Penn, and Ray Winstone in Anthony Minghella's drama Breaking & Entering.Binoche took on a starring role as Suzanne, a voice actress in a puppet theater and mother to a young boy in the award-winning drama Flight of the Red Balloon (2007), and found success once more with a co-starring part in filmmaker Peter Hedges' comedy Dan in Real Life (2007). The actress played another mother figure in 2008's Paris, a critically lauded romantic drama following a group of friends who find themselves at a crossroads in matters of love, health, and career. Binoche played yet another starring role Certified Copy, which followed the relationship between a British author and a French art-gallery owner (Binoche). 2012 found Binoche co-starring with Paul Giamatti and Keira Knightly for David Cronenberg's sci-fi thriller Cosmopolis, and in another lead role for the drama Open Heart.

Trivia: Best known as the son of late director Anthony Minghella (The English Patient) and Chinese choreographer Carolyn Choa, Max Minghella began life in Hampstead, England, and opted to become an actor in his teens for reasons that were (as he later recalled) entirely unrelated to his father's business. He attended Columbia University beginning in the early 2000s, then moved into feature roles, first with a bit part in his dad's Civil War opus Cold Mountain (2003), then striking out on his own with parts in Hollywood features including Syriana (2005), Art School Confidential (2006), How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (2008), and Hippie Hippie Shake (2009). In the years to come, Minghella would appear in numerous major films, like The Social Network, The Ides of March, and The Darkest Hour. In 2013, he landed a recurring role on The Mindy Project.

Trivia: A champion equestrian whose film debut came by chance after she auditioned for a role in Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer (1998) out of simple curiosity about the film industry, actress Kate Bosworth's inherent natural beauty has perfectly suited her to roles in such earthy films as her aforementioned debut and Blue Crush (2002), which found Bosworth taking the lead as an adrenalized competitive surfer who finds her balance shifting as she falls for a promising quarterback. Born in 1983 in Los Angeles, Bosworth displayed both brains and athletic skill early on with her membership in the National Honor Society and involvement with varsity soccer and lacrosse. Though her previous acting experience consisted of little more than an appearance in a community theater production of Annie, Bosworth's film debut in The Horse Whisperer found the burgeoning actress carefully considering a full-time career in front of the cameras. After taking an 18-month sabbatical during which she weighed her options and finished her high school education, Bosworth returned to the sound stage for roles in the short-lived television series The Young Americans, and such features as Remember the Titans and The Newcomers (both 2000). Developing into an engaging screen presence, Bosworth would next hit the waves during production of the romantic surf drama Blue Crush.Her comfort before the cameras increasingly evident thanks to substantial roles in such subsequent features as The Rules of Attraction, Wonderland, and Win a Date with Tad Hamilton, Bosworth would next tackle her most demanding role to date when she portrayed screen icon Sandra Dee in the 2004 Bobby Darin biopic Beyond the Sea. Cast opposite Kevin Spacey, Bosworth proved that she could indeed hold her own onscreen with one of the most respected actors in Hollywood. Though Bosworth's role in Beyond the Sea may have been the most dramatically challenging of her still relatively new career, her highest profile role would follow soon thereafter when the maturing actress accepted the role of iconinc Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane in 2006's Superman Returns. Taking over right where Margot Kidder left off in 1980's Superman II, Bosworth's expansion of the character to both mother and wife added an extra dimension to Lane that fans would find especially compelling within the Superman universe. She would next appear in the card-counting thriller 21, followed by the fantasy Western Warrior's Way, and some low-key fare like Another Happy Day and L!fe Happens, before appearing in the hard hitting remake of the 70's thriller Straw Dogs. Soon, Bosworth joined the cast of Big Sur, based on the Kerouac novel.In addition to her film work, Bosworth gave back to her community by volunteering in a Los Angeles-based program that helps physically disabled children learn to ride horses.

Trivia: Though he has done many other things since the late '60s and early '70s, comedian/actor Dick Martin will best be remembered as the co-host of the innovative sketch comedy series Laugh-In (1968-1973) with his longtime partner and straightman Dan Rowan. Rowan and Martin started out on television appearing briefly on the summer edition of the comedy variety show The Chevy Show in 1958. He and Rowan made their feature-film debut that year in the Western Once Upon a Horse. Between 1962 and 1964, Martin, sans Rowan, was a regular on The Lucy Show. The two reunited to appear regularly on The Dean Martin Summer Show (1966-1967). That year, Martin also made another solo appearance in the Doris Day feature The Glass Bottom Boat. Laugh-In was the comic duo's biggest success and at the peak of their popularity, the two attempted to further cash in by appearing in the Abbott and Costello-like horror spoof, The Maltese Bippy (1969). The film bombed and it would be years before Martin again appeared in a film. Since then, his acting appearances on television and in film have been sporadic.