Trivia: A Russian immigrant who came to the United States with his figure-skater parents when he was merely six months old, Anton Yelchin found success in his new land since making his acting debut at the age of nine in A Man Is Mostly Water (1999). Acquiring an impressive résumé by the ripe old age of ten, Yelchin appeared in no less than three major motion pictures in 2001 alone, including 15 Minutes, Along Came a Spider, and Hearts in Atlantis opposite Anthony Hopkins. He transitioned to older roles, taking the lead in Alpha Dog (2006) and playing the title character in Charlie Bartlett (2007). In 2009, Yelchin assumed two famous roles: Pavel Chekov in Star Trek (a role he'd reprise in two sequels) and Kyle Reese in Terminator Salvation. He voiced Clumsy Smurf in the 2011 big-screen version of the film and several subsequent sequels and shorts. Yelchin died in 2016, at the age of 27, after a freak car accident.

Trivia: Actress Olivia Thirlby accepted one of her earliest on-camera roles when she signed to work for director Paul Greengrass on his acclaimed docudrama United 93 -- and thereby delivered a haunting onscreen evocation of the late Nicole Carol Miller, 21-year-old college student and victim of one of the September 11th hijackings. Thirlby subsequently tackled supporting roles in such productions as David Gordon Green's explosive small-town drama Snow Angels (2007) and Jason Reitman's seriocomedy Juno (2007), then teamed up with Lili Taylor and X-Files stalwart David Duchovny for Vincent Perez's supernatural thriller The Secret (2007). The following year Thirlby made her stage debut in the 2008 off-Broadway production of Farragut North, and in 2009 she played the recurring role of Suzanne, Jonathan's ex-girlfriend, on HBO's Bored to Death. A supporting appearance in No Strongs Attached preceded a leading role in the sci-fi dud The Darkest Hour, and after lending her voice to David Gordon Green's animated comedy series Good Vibes, she landed the plum role of a young artist who upsets the delicate balance of a California household in the low-key drama Nobody Walks. But that was all talk, and Thirlby fans who craved a bit more action got exactly what they were looking for when she teamed with Karl Urban to battle a vicious gang of futuristic drug dealers in Dredd -- a feature adaptation of long-running comic strip that originated in the British science fiction comic 2000 A.D. (and was previously adapted for the screen in a 1995 Sylvester Stallone vehicle).

Trivia: With elegantly aristocratic features and a career marked by versatility and critical acclaim, Glenn Close is one of Hollywood's most celebrated actresses. Her acclaim is not limited to the film world, as she has also found great success in various television and stage productions, most notably Andrew Lloyd Webber's Broadway musical version of Sunset Boulevard and in the acclaimed 1991 made-for-TV movie Sarah, Plain and Tall (which was successful enough to have two sequels, Skylark and Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter's End.Born in Greenwich, CT, on March 19, 1947, Close grew up in Africa and Switzerland while her father, a doctor, maintained a clinic in the Belgian Congo. As a high school student at Greenwich's Rosemary Hall, the actress organized a touring rep-theater group and performed a number of folk-singing gigs. After graduating from the College of William and Mary, where she studied anthropology and acting, Close appeared in regional theater and then made her New York stage bow in 1974's Love for Love. Her theater work led to her first film role, when director George Roy Hill, after seeing her in the Broadway musical Barnum, cast her in The World According to Garp (1982). Close won the role of the protagonist's political-activist mother, a portrayal made all the more interesting by the fact that the actress was only five years older than Robin Williams, the actor playing her son. Close earned an Oscar nomination for her work, thus catalyzing the acclaim that was to surround much of her subsequent career.Close worked steadily through the remainder of the 1980s, winning Oscar nominations for her divergent performances in The Big Chill (1983), The Natural (1984), and Fatal Attraction (1987). In the last of these films, she all but caused the screen to combust with her fearsome portrayal of a woman who gets very, very angry with Michael Douglas. As evidence of her remarkable versatility, Close avoided being typecast as similarly psychotic women, going on to win another Oscar nomination the next year for her devastatingly wicked performance in Dangerous Liaisons. Further acclaim followed with her role as Sunny Von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune (1990), and Close spent the next decade turning in consistently strong performances in films both good and bad, from the critically and commercially lambasted Mary Reilly (1994) to the all-star Mars Attacks! (1996); 101 Dalmatians (1996), in which she got in touch with her inner drag queen as Cruella De Vil; and Air Force One (1997), which featured her as President Harrison Ford's harried Vice President. In 1999, Close took on two very different roles, first lending her voice to the animated Tarzan as the hero's gorilla mother, and then in Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune, in which she was able to explore Southern-style insanity as the terrifically unhinged Camille Orcutt.Nearly thirty years after her initial Oscar nomination for The World According to Garp, Close captured her sixth nod - this one for Best Actress - for her work in #Albert Nobbs where she played a woman in 19th Century Ireland who pretends to be a man in order to keep a job at a hotel. Close had played the part on stage very early in her career, and had worked for decades to bring the story to the big screen. Her perseverance was rewarded with not just Oscar, but Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for Best Actress as well.In addition to her film work, Close has maintained a television and stage career since the early '80s. Her stage work led to Tony Awards for her turns in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing (1984) and Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden in 1992. She garnered further raves and diva status for her starring role as the legendary Norma Desmond in the 1995 Broadway production of Sunset Boulevard (an excellent singer, Close annually performs the National Anthem for the New York Mets' opening-day game). On television, she continued to win prestige for performances in Stones for Ibarra (1988), 1991's Sarah, Plain and Tall, in which she starred opposite Christopher Walken, and Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (1995), for which she won an Emmy for her portrayal of the title character. However, it wasn't until 2005 that Close could be seen in a regular series role when she joined the cast of the critically acclaimed FX series The Shield. The gritty role was perfect for Close, and the small screen seemed to agree with her, so she next signed on for an even darker role, this time starring on the series Damages.In 2011, she was nominated for her sixth Academy Award for her work in Albert Nobbs, a film she also co-wrote and served as a producer. Damages came to a close in 2012 after five seasons, and Close was next seen in a supporting role in Guardians of the Galaxy, playing Nova Prime Irani Rael. She also returned to Broadway in the Edward Albee play A Delicate Balance, opposite John Lithgow.

Trivia: Eric Stoltz has appeared in a number of major and minor features and on television. While growing up, the pale, slender, and red-haired Stoltz spent time in American Samoa. His interest in acting began in high school where he not only acted in productions, but also occasionally accompanied them on piano. While attending U.S.C., Stoltz studied theater arts but left the program to study under Stella Adler, William Taylor, and Peggy Feury. Afterward, Stoltz spent a season in Edinburgh performing with an American repertory company. Upon his return stateside, Stoltz appeared in the television movie version of humorist Erma Bombeck's novel The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank (1978). He would appear in three more television films before making his film debut in Amy Heckerling's Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) alongside such other would-be stars as Sean Penn, Anthony Edwards, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. From there, Stoltz appeared in a series of low-budget films such as Running Hot (1982) and Surf 2 (1984), and he might well have remained at that level had he not been cast as Rocky Dennis in Peter Bogdanovich's Mask (1986). Playing a young teen suffering from lionitis, a terminal disease that drastically deforms the skull, Stoltz had to wear pounds of makeup and prosthetics (the makeup won Oscars for designers Zoltan Elek and Michael Westmore) that left him with only his voice, his eyes, and his body with which to convey emotions. Starring opposite Cher, who played his drug-addicted biker-chick mother, Stoltz gave a moving performance that earned him critical and audience acclaim. But though it made Stoltz popular, full-fledged stardom eluded him and he continued appearing in moderately successful and low-budget films, including John Hughes' romantic drama Some Kind of Wonderful (1987). In addition to his film work, Stoltz has had a busy Broadway career that began in 1988 with a Tony-nominated starring role in a revival of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, and a sporadic television career making guest appearances on such series as Mad About You and in TV movies. Stoltz has occasionally produced films such as Mr. Jealousy (1997). In 2002 Stoltz reteamed with Killing Zoe director Rogery Avery for the pitch-black college comedy The Rules of Attraction, and the following decade found him increasingly active on the small screen with roles in Will & Grace, Close to Home, Grey's Anatomy, and the 2009 Battlestar Galactica spin-off Capricia. Meanwhile, back on the silver screen, Stoltz earned accolades for his leading role as a conflicted barber of German heritage forced to suppress his American patriotism after moving his family to a post-World War II military base which houses a German POW camp.

Trivia: An imposing and highly memorable presence on the Broadway stage, actor Frank Langella has won only a fraction of the acclaim he's received in the theater for his film career; still, his brooding good looks and his ability to play both villains and comic foils with a touch of menace has made him a welcome (and increasingly familiar) fare to film buffs. Frank Langella was born in Bayonne, NJ, on New Year's Day, 1940. Langella caught the acting bug when he was 11, after playing an elderly man in a school play on the life of Abraham Lincoln, and he went on to earn a degree in Theater from Syracuse University. After studying acting with Elia Kazan, Langella began working with regional theater companies in the East Coast and the Midwest, and in 1963, made his New York stage debut when he landed the leading role in an off-Broadway revival of The Immoralist. Between 1964 and 1966, Langella would win three Obie awards for his work in off-Broadway theater, and in 1969, he received a Drama Desk award for his work in the drama A Cry of Players. In 1974, he made his Broadway debut in Edward Albee's Seascape, and, the following year, won another Drama Desk award as well as a Tony for his performance. Langella made his film debut in 1970 with a supporting role in Diary of a Mad Housewife, and later that same year, scored a larger part in The Twelve Chairs, written and directed by Mel Brooks. While Langella landed occasional television and film roles through much of the 1970s, he was still busiest as a stage actor. In 1977, Langella was cast in the leading role of a Broadway revival of Dracula, and his con brio performance as the bloodthirsty count earned rave reviews, turning the production into an unexpected hit. Langella was tapped to reprise his performance for a film version of Dracula released in 1979, but he was forced to tone down his unique take on the role for the screen, and what would have seemingly been the perfect screen vehicle for his talents became a critical and box-office disappointment. However, Langella maintained a busy schedule of stage work, and in the 1990s, finally scored a breakthrough screen role in the comedy Dave as the deceitful political puppet master Bob Alexander. A busy schedule of character roles in such films as Junior, Lolita, and The Ninth Gate followed, though Langella still remained a frequent and distinguished presence in the New York theatrical community. He worked steadily at the beginning of the twenty-first century in films as diverse as the romantic drama Sweet November, and David Duchovny's directorial debut House of D. He scored an artistic and critical success in 2005 playing William Paley in George Clooney's historical docudrama about Edward R. Murrow Good Night, and Good Luck. He was then tapped by Bryan Singer to embody Daily Planet editor Perry White in the 2006 summer blockbuster Superman Returns. In 2007, Langella earned strong reviews and some awards buzz for his starring role in Starting Out in the Evening, but it was actually the next year, 2008 when he captured a Best Actor Academy Award nomination, a well as a SAG nomination, for his portrayal of disgraced former president Richard Nixon in Ron Howard's big-screen adaptation of Frost/Nixon. Over the next several years, Langella would appear in many more films, includign The Box, All Good Things, Unknown, and Robot and Frank.