Trivia: Matthew Modine probably developed his love of performing through multiple viewings of films exhibited in the many Utah drive-in theaters managed by his father. His family moved a lot, so his adaptability as an actor may have grown out of learning to adapt as a child, as well. After dropping out of college and working a variety of odd jobs, Modine moved to New York, where he studied acting with Stella Adler and eventually began appearing in TV commercials and soap operas. He made his screen debut in 1983 in the film comedy Baby It's You, and won the Venice Film Festival's Best Actor award that year for his work in Robert Altman's Streamers. Refusing to trade on his freshly scrubbed, all-American good looks, Modinemade a point of treating each film role as a challenge and a chance to grow. How many other pretty-boy Brat Packers would have been willing to play a disturbed Vietnam vet who's thinks he's a bird in 1984's Birdy? His other film roles included dual characters in The Hotel New Hampshire (1984); Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987); love-struck FBI agent Mike Downey in Married to the Mob (1988); swashbuckler William Shaw in Cutthroat Island (1995); and the title role in the made-for-cable Biblical spectacle Jacob (1994). Modine was nominated for an Emmy for his performance as aloof AIDS researcher Don Francis in the 1993 TV movie And the Band Played On, and continued to accept occasional stage roles in between his film and TV projects. He made his screen directorial debut in 1994 with a short subject entitled Smoking. Modine woulds spend the next few decades appearing in a number of interesting projects, like Funky Monkey, Transporter 2, and The Dark Knight Rises.

Trivia: Like so many other prominent actors of the 1970s, the versatile James Caan rose to success on the strength of his riveting performance in The Godfather. Born March 26, 1939, in the Bronx, NY, Caan decided to pursue a career in acting while attending college and in 1960 was accepted by Sanford Meisner into the Neighborhood Playhouse. After making his debut off-Broadway in I Roam, he landed in the Broadway production of Mandingo but exited after just four performances because of artistic difficulties with star Franchot Tone. Caan then landed in television, where he became a busy character actor; he made his film debut in an unbilled performance in 1963's Irma La Douce, followed by a meatier role in Lady in a Cage the following year. The 1965 Howard Hawks auto-racing drama Red Line 7000 was his first starring role, followed two years later by the Hawks Western El Dorado, which cast him opposite John Wayne and Robert Mitchum; in 1968, Caan starred in Robert Altman's Countdown, and in 1969, he appeared in Francis Ford Coppola's The Rain People. Caan shot to fame thanks to a poignant performance in the 1970 television movie Brian's Song, in which he played the ill-fated Chicago Bears star Brian Piccolo; his turn as the similarly ill-fated Sonny Corleone in Coppola's 1972 masterpiece The Godfather solidified his stardom and earned him an Academy Award nomination, but his subsequent films, including 1973's Slither and the next year's Freebie and the Bean, failed to live up to expectations. After earning a Golden Globe bid for his work in 1974's The Gambler, Caan briefly appeared in 1974's The Godfather Pt. 2 before co-starring with Barbra Streisand in the hit Funny Lady, followed by Norman Jewison's futuristic parable Rollerball. When both 1975's Sam Peckinpah thriller The Killer Elite and 1976's Harry and Walter Go to New York met with failure, Caan's career took a downward turn, and apart from cameo appearances in both Mel Brooks' Silent Movie and the star-studded A Bridge Too Far, he was largely absent from screens for a time. He also made any number of ill-considered decisions; he and Coppola were unable to come to terms for Apocalypse Now, and he also rejected roles in hits including One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Superman, and Kramer vs. Kramer.By the end of the decade, Caan's career had hit the skids, as projects including the 1978 Western Comes a Horseman (co-starring Jane Fonda) and the following year's Neil Simon drama Chapter Two all failed to live up to expectations. His directorial debut in 1980's Hide in Plain Sight fared no better, although Michael Mann's thriller Thief garnered a cult following; when 1982's Kiss Me Goodbye bombed, Caan disappeared from sight for the next five years. Finally, in 1987, Caan resurfaced, starring in Coppola's war drama Gardens of Stone; the next year's science fiction picture Alien Nation was a hit, as was his next major project, Rob Reiner's 1990 feature Misery. After 1991's For the Boys failed to connect with audiences, Caan spent much of the decade in prominent supporting roles which showcased his smart, edgy persona; among the more high-profile were 1992's Honeymoon in Vegas, 1996's Eraser, and the wonderful indie hit Bottle Rocket.Caan would prove over the coming decades that he liked to work, appearing in projects that ran the gamut from big to small. He'd appear in comedies like Mickey Blue Eyes and Elf, thrillers like City of Ghosts and In the Shadows, indie films like Lars Von Trier's Dogville and Tony Kaye's Detachment. Caan would also delight audiences on the small screen with a starring role on the TV series Las Vegas from 2003 to 2007,

Trivia: With her blue eyes, pillow lips and sex-kitten-on-helium voice, Joey Lauren Adams looks and sounds like Melanie Griffith's long-lost little sister. Adams, however, is an actress in her own right, having done solid work in a number of films, including Dazed and Confused and Chasing Amy.Hailing from North Little Rock, Arkansas, where she was born January 6, 1971, Adams began acting early in her life, performing at local church productions. She left home for Los Angeles while still a teenager, and got her first break with roles on various television shows. She won a limited amount of fame--or notoriety, depending on one's point of view--for her work on Married with Children, on which she played the woman who relieved Bud Bundy of his virginity.Work on the short-lived series Vinnie & Bobby and Top of the Heap followed before Adams broke into film in 1993. That year, she had supporting roles in The Program, Coneheads and Dazed and Confused, the last of which featured her as one of Parker Posey's high school cronies. The next year, she appeared in the independent films S.F.W. and Sleep with Me, and then had a secondary role in Mallrats (1995), her first collaboration with then-boyfriend Kevin Smith. It was Smith who gave Adams her true film breakthrough when he cast her as the female lead in Chasing Amy. The 1997 film--a look at the relationship between a comic book artist (Ben Affleck) and his "ideal" woman (Adams), who happens to be a lesbian--won favorable reviews and effectively put Adams on the Hollywood map. In 1999 she had a lead role in another independent film, the drama A Cool Dry Place with Vince Vaughn, and also starred in her first big-budget Hollywood feature, the hit Adam Sandler comedy Big Daddy.The actress entered the new millennium without slowing down, appearing in a wide variety of low-profile films and independent features such as Anne Heche's 2001 project Reaching Normal and the 2002 crime thriller Beeper with Harvey Keitel. In 2004's The Big Empty, she starred alongside Jon Favreau, who she would rejoin for 2006's (un)romantic comedy The Break-Up. Supporting mainstream stars Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn bolstered the actresses profile, while her performance as Aniston's best friend and ally in her hilariously messy break-up won audiences over.The actress co-starred with Nathan Fillion and Benjamin Bratt in the 2009 slice-of-life drama Trucker, and worked in the second season of The United States of Tara the following year. Adams took on a supporting role as psychiatrist Dr. Jane Sheppard in the 2011 psychological thriller Apart, and continues to be active in film and television.

Trivia: Distinguished and versatile actor Cuba Gooding Jr. spent many years in bit roles before finally becoming a star. The son of Cuba Gooding, lead singer for the '70s pop group the Main Ingredient, he was born in the Bronx on January 2, 1968, but moved to Los Angeles after his father's group had a hit single with "Everybody Plays the Fool" in 1972. Unfortunately, the elder Gooding abandoned his family two years later. The subsequently tumultuous nature of Gooding Jr.'s upbringing did not deter him from achievement: During his teens, he attended four different high schools but managed to become class president of three of them. Gooding Jr. made his professional debut in 1984 as a breakdancer for Lionel Richie's show at the Olympics. As an actor he was discovered by an agent while performing in a high school play, and began working steadily in television commercials, which led to a bit part on an episode of Hill Street Blues. The experience inspired him to take acting lessons and after attending workshops and classes, he began to get a few more parts in television and films. He made his first feature-film appearance in Coming to America (1988) in which he was credited as "Boy Getting Haircut." Gooding Jr.'s first real break came when he was cast as Tre Styles in Boyz 'N the Hood (1990). The film earned him considerable acclaim and seemed to offer the promise of a great career. Sure enough, Gooding began landing fairly substantial parts in feature films. Unfortunately, save for a few exceptions like A Few Good Men (1992), most of the films were not well regarded, and the actor continued to work in relative obscurity. The comic talents he demonstrated as Paul Hogan's sidekick in 1994's Lightning Jack were overshadowed by further mediocre films, and it was not until 1997 that he truly came into the spotlight. That year, he starred as a loyal football player in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire and won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his efforts. Following this triumph, Gooding Jr. next appeared in the acclaimed As Good as It Gets alongside Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, and Greg Kinnear. Two relatively obscure films, the suspense drama A Murder of Crows and the mockumentary Welcome to Hollywood, followed before Gooding Jr. took part in another high-profile picture, What Dreams May Come. Starring opposite Robin Williams, Gooding Jr. played the deceased Williams' tour guide to heaven. Unfortunately, the film was critically savaged and failed to do much business at the box office. In 1999, Gooding Jr. kept busy with both television and film. In addition to starring in a series of Pepsi commercials, the actor appeared opposite Anthony Hopkins in Instinct and had a lead role in Chill Factor, an action extravaganza which featured him as an ice cream man trying to keep a top-secret military chemical safe with the help of a short-order cook (Skeet Ulrich). Gooding Jr. would star opposite screen legend Robert De Niro in 2000's military drama Men of Honor, in which he portrayed the real life experience of Carl Brashear, the first African-American to serve as a diver in the United States Navy. Just one year later, he stepped into the role of an ill-fated serviceman in Pearl Harbor, though he took a break from heady, big-budget war dramas in favor of comedies Rat Race (2001) and Snow Dogs (2002). The year 2003 would prove another busy year for the actor, who starred in three wildly different movies including Boat Trip, a comedy of errors in which he played an unwitting straight man aboard an entirely gay cruise; Radio, which featured Gooding Jr. as the film's mentally challenged protagonist; and The Fighting Temptations, a musical comedy starring Beyoncé Knowles. In 2004, the young actor lent his vocal chords to voice the role of Jake the Horse in Disney's Home on the Range. He next appeared in Lee Daniels' directorial debut, Shadowboxer, playing a contract killer opposite Helen Mirren. In 2007, he appeared in the critically reviled Norbit, playing a supporting role to Eddie Murphy, and also starred in Daddy Day Camp, the sequel to Daddy Day Care, replacing Murphy in the lead role. Gooding again played a Tuskegee pilot in 2012's Red Tails (he had previously appeared in the 1995 HBO made-for-TV movie The Tuskegee Airmen). In 2013, he re-teamed with director Daniels on The Butler and had a small role in Robert Rodriguez's Machete Kills.

Trivia: Actor Lillo Brancato Jr. found his niche in acting early on, playing the young Calogero Anello in Robert De Niro's A Bronx Tale in 1993. Born in Colombia in 1976, Brancato was adopted by Italian-Amerian parents when he was only months old, and grew up in Yonkers, NY -- an upbringing that would create his sense of heritage and cultural identity. Noticed by a talent scout who thought he looked like a young DeNiro, Brancato fell into an acting career at 17, appearing in a number of films and TV shows, most notably playing Matthew Bevilaqua on The Sopranos. The actor has also struggled with the law and was arrested in 2005 on suspicion of second-degree murder of a police officer.

Trivia: Avery was a versatile American character actor onscreen from 1956, beginning with The Harder They Fall.