Trivia: British director Guy Ritchie frequently attributes the success of his unorthodox crime films -- 1998's Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, 2000's Snatch -- to the fact that his offbeat miscreants are more than believable, they are real. Preferring to cast for authenticity rather than resumé, Ritchie handpicks many of his actors from the true-life cult figures and rascals of London's underbelly. Actor Jason Statham is among the best of them.A one-time Olympic diver, fashion model, and black-market salesman, Statham came to acting by way of commercials and "street theater" -- a euphemism for hustling tourists on London's Oxford Street. Raised in Syndenham, London, he was the second son of a lounge singer and a dressmaker turned dancer. Although Statham had the familial background to go immediately into entertainment, he excelled first on the high dive. He was a member of the 1988 British Olympic Team in Seoul, Korea, and remained on the National Diving Squad for ten years. In the late '90s, a talent agent specializing in athletes landed Statham a gig in an ad campaign for the European clothing retailer French Connection. This led to an appearance in a Levi's Jeans commercial and a fledgling modeling career. Meanwhile, Statham had also earned local fame as a street corner con man, selling stolen jewelry and counterfeit perfume out of a briefcase. Thus, when French Connection's owner became one of the biggest investors in Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, he naturally introduced the diver/model/hustler to knave-hunting Ritchie.Intrigued by Statham's past and impressed by his modeling work, Ritchie invited him to audition for a part in the film. The director challenged Statham to impersonate an illegal street vendor and convince him to purchase a piece of imitation gold jewelry. Statham was evidently so persuasive that Ritchie bought four sets. When the director attempted to return his worthless acquisition -- pretending that the gold had turned to stainless steel -- Statham was so graciously inflexible that Ritchie hired him.This unorthodox audition resulted in Statham's big screen debut as Bacon, one of Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels' four primary characters engaged in a risky get-rich-quick scheme to repay a massive gambling debt. Bacon supplies a streetwise discipline and restraint that the other characters lack and a sense of humility crucial to Ritchie's film. In the director's follow-up crime comedy, Snatch, Ritchie rehired Statham to play Turkish, a smalltime hood vainly trying to break into the world of underground boxing. As this amateur but respectable hoodlum, Statham is attractive, urbane, immaculate, and smart enough to be bewildered by even his own laughable criminal ineptitude. The role began as a small supporting part in Snatch's star-filled ensemble cast but expanded throughout shooting. By the time of the film's theatrical release, Statham received top billing as its narrator and chief anti-hero.The Guy Ritchie oeuvre that supplied his breakthrough performances is not Statham's only acting arena. In 2000, he made his American film debut as a British drug dealer in Robert Adetuyi's Turn It Up starring Pras Michel. By 2001, he had finished shooting John Carpenter's sci-fi thriller Ghosts of Mars and joined Delroy Lindo in the cast of the Jet Li vehicle The One. A chance to reteam with former Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrel co-star Vinnie Jones proved too fun an opportunity to resist, and Stratham would round out a particularly busy 2001 with his role in the prison-bound sports remake Mean Machine. Just as audiences were finally standing up to take notice of the amiable tough-guy, Stratham stepped into his own as the action lead of the explosive 2002 adrenaline ride The Transporter. A sizable hit that would earn Statham increasingly prominent roles in such high profile pics as The Italian Job, and Cellular, The Transporter established Stratham as a bankable international action star and was eventually followed by a 2005 sequel that miraculously managed the improbable feat of upping the ante of the previous installment's over-the-top cartoon violence. A starring role in Ritchie's 2005 crime thriller Revolver found Stratham re-teaming with the director who launched his career with decidedly mixed results, and the following year it was off to race the clock and rescue the girl as a reformed assassin looking to make good in the hyper-intense action entry Crank. The positively outrageous Crank: High Voltage upped the ante (and the ampage) in every possible way in 2009, but not before Statham got behind the wheel for Resident Evil director Paul W.A. Anderson for the 2008 remake Death Race, discovered just how far a foolproof heist could go awry in The Bank Job, and once again put the pedal to the metal in The Transporter 3. All of this left little doubt that Statham had quickly become one of the most bankable action stars of his generation, and in 2010 he teamed with none other than Sylvester Stallone for the all-star action flick The Expendables. The action just kept coming in The Mechanic, Blitz, Killer Elite (which paired him with screen legend Robert DeNiro), Safe, and the super-sized The Expendables 2 in 2012. Statham next joined another franchise, making a cameo appearance in Fast & Furious 6. He also reprised his role in The Expendables 3. In 2015, Statham appeared in Furious 7 and flexed his comedy chops in Spy, opposite Melissa McCarthy, earning favorable reviews and opening him to another genre.

Trivia: A former model, Amy Smart began her acting career on television. In 1997, she began to be visible in such feature films as The Last Time I Committed Suicide and Starship Troopers. Two years later, the actress used her blond, wholesome good looks to great advantage in both Varsity Blues and Outside Providence. The former film, one of the more successful entries in the teensploitation genre, featured her as James Van Der Beek's intelligent, clean-cut girlfriend, while the latter film cast her as a rich girl who falls for a poor boy (Shawn Hatosy) at a 1970s boarding school. That same year, she was also visible on television, guest starring on the WB Network's Felicity.Smart's career really started to take off in 2001. Proving herself to be a major sex-symbol, her topless scene in the comedy Road Trip was partially responsible for the film's runaway success. That same year, Smart appeared in the ensemble film Rat Race and in the indie Macbeth adaptation Scotland, PA. In 2003, she could be seen both on HBO's reality show Project Greenlight and in The Battle of Shaker Heights, the film that was documented on the series. Smart started off the following year with a bang, appearing in two hit films by the end of the first quarter, The Butterfly Effect and Starsky and Hutch. Voice work in Seth Green's popular animated series Robot Chicken offered Smart a chance to work behind the scenes without the stress of having to look good for the cameras, with strong subsequent performances in The Best Man and Just Friends serving well to help the actress find her footing in the enduringly-popular romantic comedy genre. On the heels of a supporting performance in director Victor Salva's introspective drama The Peaceful Warrior, Smart would jump back into action for the first time since Starship Troopers as the endangered girlfriend of Jason Stratham's former assassin in the adrenaline-pounding thrill-ride Crank.

Trivia: David Carradine was born John Arthur Carradine, eldest son of John Carradine, the beloved and very busy character actor, whose roles encompassed everything from John Steinbeck's Reverend Casey to Bram Stoker's Dracula. David Carradine's early adult life was one of exploration -- though born in Hollywood, he tried on a lot of sides of living before he finally turned to acting as a profession. He worked with various community and semi-professional dramatic companies in San Francisco; hitchhiked his way to New York; did Shakespeare in Akron, OH, and parts of New Jersey; and all of the other things that aspiring would-be actors are supposed to do. He got a few early screen credits in television productions such as Armstrong Circle Theater ("Secret Document"), and in various series produced by Universal Pictures' ReVue television division, including episodes of The Virginian, Wagon Train, and Arrest & Trial, plus The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. He also made his big-screen debut thanks to Universal with a small role in the R.G. Springsteen-directed western Taggart (1964). His real professional breakthrough came a year later on the Broadway stage, however, in Peter Shaffer's The Royal Hunt of the Sun, in a cast headed by Christopher Plummer. He enjoyed an extended run in the Broadway production, which was accompanied by the first round of publicity for Carradine, even then focusing on his unpredictable, iconoclastic nature. He was lured back to Hollywood by the chance to star in the series Shane, based on the George Stevens movie and the Jack Schaefer novel. He was able to put his own stamp on the role, quite different from the portrayal that Alan Ladd had delivered in the film; but the viewing public had been swamped by westerns for a decade, and the series never had a chance to find an audience, lasting only 16 episodes. From 1967 until 1972, he was occasionally seen in one-off roles in dramatic series such as Coronet Blue and The Name of the Game, and was in a remake of Johnny Belinda with Mia Farrow and Ian Bannen, but was most often seen in westerns, including The Violent Ones (1967) and The McMasters (1969) (playing a Native American in the latter). In 1972 he was approached about the possibility of starring in a proposed series that was easily the most offbeat western ever considered by a network up to that time: Kung Fu. The public had long since lost interest in traditional westerns, but here was a story that combined a quest with a tale of pursuit and necessarily included philosophical conflict never before addressed in series television. The role appealed to Carradine, and he got the part of Kwai Chang Caine, the Chinese-American hero, despite knowing nothing of martial arts. Drawing on his ability as a dancer at his meeting with the producers, he was able to prove with one well-placed kick at a point above his head that he could pull it off. The series ran for three seasons, during which time Carradine put an increasing amount of himself into the portrayal. And the public responded, especially viewers under 40, who resonated to the character and the man behind it. Kung Fu became one of those odd cult shows, the fans of which were devoted beyond the usual casual weekly viewing. Carradine saw to it, however, even during the run of the series, that he kept busy on other projects, including the Martin Scorsese-directed Boxcar Bertha (1972), starring his paramour Barbara Hershey, and small roles in the Robert Altman revisionist detective film The Long Goodbye (1973) and Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973).Kung Fu made Carradine a star, but he eventually left the series, owing to disagreements with the producers. His withdrawal from the series could have damaged his career, but Carradine was fortunate enough to latch on to a script that Roger Corman was planning to produce -- a new kind of action movie, Death Race 2000 (1975), became a huge underground hit and proved that Carradine had some measure of big-screen appeal. He followed this up with Cannonball (1976) and other action pictures done for Corman. In the midst of those movies, he found the opportunity to star for the first time in a major, big-budget Hollywood feature, Bound for Glory (1976), portraying legendary folk singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie. Carradine put a lot of his own experience in music into the portrayal, and the movie was a critical success, though a box office disappointment. Good roles kept coming his way, however, not only through Corman but also from an unexpected quarter, Ingmar Bergman, who cast Carradine, in memorable turn, as a Jewish trapeze artist in The Serpent's Egg (1977), co-starring Liv Ullmann. Even some of the most routine movies in which he appeared during this period were often worth seeing solely for Carradine's performances, never more so than his work as Captain Gates in the submarine rescue drama Gray Lady Down (1978). Carradine made his directorial debut on a handful of episodes of Kung Fu. Upon leaving the series, he directed his first feature film, the drama You and Me (1975). The latter film co-starred Barbara Hershey and his brothers Keith Carradine and Robert Carradine were in the cast. His career across the next few decades involved a mix of major feature films, such as The Long Riders (1980), and offbeat smaller scale pictures such as Q (1982), interspersed with more personal projects such as Americana (1981), for which he served as screenwriter, director, and producer, as well as starring as a taciturn Vietnam veteran who heals himself and a troubled Midwestern town by refurbishing an old carousel. During the 1990s, he also returned to the role of Kwai Chang Caine in the series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. Among the best elements of the series were Carradine's interactions with his co-star, Robert Lansing (another Hollywood iconoclast), especially in the late episodes, when the latter actor was terminally ill. Even when he was doing action features such as Lone Wolf McQuade (1983) -- in which he played the antagonist to real-life martial arts expert Chuck Norris' hero -- Carradine maintained a reputation for quality in the nature of his own work, which served him in good stead in the years to come. Longtime fans, appreciative of his work since his days on Kung Fu, could always depend on him to deliver a worthwhile performance, even if the vehicles in which he worked were less than stellar, as was often the case -- outside of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues -- in the 1990s. The stars finally lined up in his favor again in 2003, when Carradine appeared in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1 with Uma Thurman, which led to his much-expanded part in the follow-up movie. Since those films, he has been busier than at any time in his career, with dozens of screen credits in the years that followed.Carradine has written two books, Spirit of Shaolin and the autobiography Endless Highway, and has made a pair of popular instructional videos, David Carradine: T'ai Chi Workout and David Carradine: Kung Fu Workout. When not working, the actor enjoys painting, sculpting, and performing music. He also wrote several songs for the 2003 film American Reel, in which he starred as struggling singer/songwriter James Lee Springer. Carradine has three children, one each from his first two marriages, to Donna Lee Brecht (1960-1968) and Linda Gilbert (1977-1983), and one with Barbara Hershey, with whom he lived from 1972 to 1975. In 2009, he was found dead, hanged in a Bangkok hotel. He was 72 years old.

Trivia: Bai Ling, whose name translates into English as "White Spirit," was born in China on October 10, 1970. Ling was born into a creative family -- her father was a musician and teacher, while her mother had been a stage actress -- but she was primarily raised by her grandmother after Ling's parents ran afoul of Chinese authorities during the Cultural Revolution. At the age of 14, Ling was enlisted in the People's Liberation Army, where she served as an entertainer, singing and dancing for the troops. However, the authoritarian atmosphere of the Army didn't suit Ling, who found herself accused of insubordination for use of tobacco and alcohol. After the end of her hitch with the Army, Ling joined a theater group in Beijing, where she appeared in traditional Chinese plays as well as dramas from the West. Ling began receiving small roles in Chinese films, and in 1988, Ling starred in Hu Guang, and attended the film's screening at the Moscow Film Festival; however, she was warned not to discuss political matters, particularly those related to the then-recent Tiananmen Square protests (in which Ling took part). Ling traveled to New York City at the age of 21 to study at New York University's Department of Film, and to hone her craft at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute; Ling arrived in New York not knowing a word of English, but soon mastered the language through daily immersion. In 1994, Ling landed her first American film role, as the villainous Myca in the dark fantasy The Crow, and she also auditioned for Oliver Stone's Vietnam war drama Heaven & Earth. While Ling didn't get the part, Stone was impressed enough to cast her in his film Nixon as Richard Nixon's interpreter during his first visit to China. Ling's next film project turned out to be highly controversial; she appeared as a lawyer defending an American journalist on assignment in China in 1997's Red Corner. The film's highly unflattering depiction of the Chinese legal system (and the nation's widespread human rights abuses) caused the picture to be banned in both China and Korea; Ling also found her contracts canceled to appear in a pair of Chinese films, and Chinese officials revoked her passport shortly afterward (in 1999, she was granted United States citizenship). Afterward, Ling continued to receive steady work in supporting roles, appearing in Wild Wild West, Anna and the King -- for which she cut off most of her waist-length hair. Her career's upward trajectory continued as the new millennium dawned, landing her roles in Spike Lee's She Hate Me and the highly stylized Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Ling also scored a cameo role in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, though most of her screen time was lost in editing. Ling was quoted as saying she felt she was cut because she'd subsequently graced the pages of Playboy magazine (as the first woman from the People's Republic of China to appear on its cover), but director George Lucas claimed her part was cut simply due to story and runtime. Prominent roles followed, however, including a part in Southland Tales, the 2006 film by Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly. She also made a splash on reality TV, appearing on the show But Can They Sing.

Trivia: Distinguished by his versatility and uncanny ability to immerse himself in the characters he portrays, filmgoers may recall Clifton Collins Jr. from his role as the intimidating thug Cesar in 187 (1997) or from his numerous other roles in such films as the Hughes brothers' Dead Presidents (1995) and Steven Soderbergh's acclaimed Traffic (2000). A native Angeleno, Collins Jr. is the grandson of actor Pedro Gonzalez. One of the first Mexicans to find Hollywood success, Gonzalez appeared alongside John Wayne in various Westerns and war films. Sometimes credited as Clifton Gonzalez Gonzalez in honor of his grandfather's name, Collins Jr.'s range has found him work in a rich variety of films throughout the 1990s both in television and film. Other roles in The Replacement Killers and Disney's The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (both 1998) showed great promise for a young actor on the verge of stardom heading into the new millennium. Supporting roles in such wide-release features as The Last Castle, and The Rules of Attraction found the young up-and-comer slowly gaining the momentum to set an enduring career in motion, and in 2004 Collins appeared opposite hot-property Eion Bailey in the thriller Mindhunters and the alcoholism-themed comedy drama Glory Days. That same year also found Collins taking a role in director Troy Duffy's Boondock II: All Saints Day - the eagerly anticipated follow-up to his 1999 cult hit The Boondock Saints.

Trivia: Actor Reno Wilson first began appearing onscreen in the late '80s, playing the recurring role of Howard on the sitcom The Cosby Show. He would go on to make many more TV appearances, guest starring on episodes of shows like Chicago Hope and Heist throughout the '90s and 2000s. Additionally, Wilson would find success in movies, with prominent roles in many feature films such as 2009's Crank High Voltage.

Trivia: An actor since the age of ten, Canadian Corey Haim is one of the few juvenile performers to thrive in wacky comedy roles. He started out with relatively straight parts in films like Lucas (1986), in which he effectively played one of filmdom's rare three-dimensional "nerds." But in laughgetters like License to Drive (1988) and Dream Machine (1991), Haim has demonstrated comic skills above and beyond those of the films' comparatively unimaginative screenwriters. He was also a regular on the TV sitcom Roomies (1987), where once again he was markedly better than his material. His recent appearances in theatrical bombs and direct-to-video potboilers have somewhat diminished Haim's industry clout but have not slowed him down. Haim is frequently co-starred (and frequently confused) with his contemporary namesake Corey Feldman.

Trivia: Family nickname is Butter. At 11, appeared with his father and brothers on the album I, in the Membership of My Days—Poems and Songs by Richard Harris & Sons. Was lead singer of the Irish rock band Halcyon Days for several years in the 1980s; once auditioned for the role of Riff Raff in a Los Angeles theater revival of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In 1990, he served as a production assistant on director Jim Sheridan's The Field, which starred his father; three years later made his big-screen debut in Sheridan's In the Name of the Father.

Trivia: Frequently discussed how several traumatic childhood events, including his parents' divorce when he was 11 years old, led to his cocaine and methamphetamine use as a teenager. Fronted the rock band Grey Daze in the late 1990s but eventually quit over creative differences. Soon after departing Grey Daze, joined the rap-metal group Hybrid Theory; he suggested they change their name to Linkin Park. Linkin Park made its full-length debut in 2000 with the hit Hybrid Theory, which was followed by the multiplatinum Meteora (2003) and Minutes to Midnight (2007). Formed a side band in the mid-'00s called Dead by Sunrise with Orgy members Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck Made his big-screen debut with a cameo in the 2006 action movie Crank.

Trivia: Fans of Zach Braff's comedy Garden State (2004) will invariably be able to identify actor Michael Weston from his participation in that film; he played Kenny, the loudmouthed (and profane) cokehead-turned-cop who turns up to read Braff's character the riot act for speeding. The impression made here was not unique; Weston first bowed onscreen during the very late '90s and developed and honed a reputation for memorable one- and two-scene performances over the course of many Hollywood projects. Credits included the slick urban comedy Coyote Ugly (2000), the light crime comedy Lucky Numbers (2000), and the war drama Hart's War (2002). With his performance as hayseed deputy Enos Strate in The Dukes of Hazzard (2005), Weston ascended to supporting billing; he subsequently joined the cast of the Jason Biggs comedy Wedding Daze (2006) and Marc Schoelermann's medical thriller Pathology (2008).

Trivia: Born in Japan and raised in Montgomery, AL, actor Glenn Howerton attended Juilliard before making his screen debut in the 2002 made-for-television feature Monday Night Mayhem. Recurring roles in That '80s Show and ER found Howerton settling into a comfortable small-screen schedule in 2002 and 2003, with supporting parts in such features as Serenity and Crank coming along just as Howerton joined the cast of the monumental FX comedy series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. In addition to his acting duties on the show, Howerton also served as writer, co-creator, and producer of the series. He would also take on regular roles on Unsupervised and lend his voice to The Cleveland Show.

Trivia: Attended the same high school as Emily Bergl and Jamie Gertz. First acting job was in a Chicago Bulls commercial. Records and performs with the rock band the Crashtones. Made big-screen debut in the 2007 film The Mist. Played Alex "Crashdown" Quartararo in the Battlestar Galactica series. Provides the voice of the character Starkiller in The Force Unleashed, a George Lucas Star Wars video game.

Trivia: His mother was a cryptographer for the OSS during World War II. High school classmates included actor Reginald VelJohnson and former CIA director George Tenet. An appearance in a 1978 issue of Playgirl magazine led to an adult-film director offering him a movie deal. Was a consultant on 9 1/2 Weeks (1987) and Boogie Nights (1997). Is the subject of the 2001 documentary Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy, and published his memoir, Ron Jeremy: The Hardest (Working) Man in Showbiz, in 2007. In February, 2013, had back-to-back emergency surgeries for an aneurysm near his heart. Has appeared in more than 2000 adult films and directed more than 280 of them, and has had roles in more than 60 mainstream movies and more than a dozen music videos. Had a limited-edition rum, Ron de Jeremy, named after him. Garnered a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records for Most Appearances in Adult Films. Had roles in five John Frankenheimer films.

Trivia: Efren Ramirez may not yet be a household name, but his visage is already etched in the minds of millions of moviegoers, thanks to one role. As Pedro, the diminutive, bumbling Latino sidekick who runs for student office in Jared Hess' quirky 2004 cult film Napoleon Dynamite, Ramirez does wonders with small-scale comic schtick. But Dynamite only marked the beginning; Ramirez refuses to be typed, continually testing his mettle and expanding his repertoire by branching out into a broad array of roles and character types. "Now I must tell you," he admitted to an interviewer, "[Dynamite] is only the beginning. Wait until you see my next films. I enjoy the exploration of characters...[and] I'm only getting started." Born in Los Angeles to a slightly itinerant family of mixed Salvadorian and Mexican descent, Ramirez attended parochial schools as a youngster, while his working-class parents sustained two jobs apiece to fund their children's private education. Mrs. Ramirez inadvertently sent Efren and his brothers to after-school drama classes in an effort to keep them out of trouble, but in Efren's case, the casual pastime blossomed into a passion. Mentored in drama by the famed actress Diane Venora (F/X, Bird, Heat), as well as thespians Laura Henry and Gloria E. Gifford, Ramirez expended blood, sweat, and tears to hone his acting ability to a fine point; he frequently landed supporting roles in such TV series as Judging Amy, The District, ER, and Boston Public. His official big screen debut, however, arrived in the form of Tom Musca's little-seen 1998 sociopolitical satire Race (aka Melting Pot), about a Chicano housepainter from East L.A. (Paul Rodriguez) who runs for city council office. Tertiary roles in Carl Schenkel's 2000 Hallmark Hall of Fame effort Missing Pieces and Ron Krauss' 2001 Rave followed, but Ramirez went little noticed in either film. Only in 2003, when director Jared Hess enlisted Ramirez to play Pedro in his debut feature Napoleon Dynamite did Ramirez's visibility shoot off like a rocket. He worked diligently to develop the Pedro characterization, and brushed up on his exposure to Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, weaving influences from each screen comedian into his own voice and emerging with a thoroughly unique character. Dynamite, of course, became the success d'estime of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and a surprise runaway hit; it also made Ramirez' career. Innumerable offers and projects followed, which saw Ramirez gradually ascend to higher and higher billing. The most immediate efforts included key contributions to four well-profiled 2006 productions. Crank, an urban thriller from Lionsgate with Jason Statham and Amy Smart, in which Ramirez portrays the transvestite Kaylo; the same year's comedy All You've Got, co-starring Faizon Love and Clara Harris; and the 2006 Dane Cook/Jessica Simpson vehicle Employee of the Month, wherein Ramirez appears as Jorge.2006's Walk Out, from MTV Films, marked Ramirez's first lead performance. He starrred opposite Edward James Olmos, Michael Pena, and Alexa Vega, as Bobby Verdugo, an East L.A.-born Chicano student who fights for better educational conditions during the Chicano movement in 1968.

Trivia: See Spice Girls.