Trivia: Bearing the kind of golden-skinned, blue-eyed handsomeness that often leads to predictions of superstardom, Sean Patrick Flanery has been acting on screens big and small since the 1980s. Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana on October 11, 1965, Flanery was raised in Houston, Texas. While attending Houston's University of Saint Thomas, he decided to take a drama class in the hopes of pursuing a fellow drama student. Flanery's interest in the girl proved fleeting, but the same could not be said of his interest in the theatre: after getting hooked, he packed up and headed out to Los Angeles, where he had an obligatory stint waiting tables before he found an agent. After eight months of looking for work, Flanery began acting in television commercials, which in turn led to work on various television shows. Although he made his film debut in 1987's A Tiger's Tale, it was his work in the 1992 television series Young Indiana Jones that gave Flanery his first taste of recognition. Although the series was short-lived, it did manage to build up something of a fan base, and Flanery continued to make Young Indy specials until 1996. In 1995, the actor returned to film, appearing in an adaptation of Truman Capote's The Grass Harp and starring in Powder. Unfortunately for Flanery, the latter film was mired in controversy surrounding suspect actions on the part of its director, which obscured the quality of the actor's performance. Flanery continued to appear in a number of films, including 1997's Suicide Kings and the 1998 Drew Barrymore vehicle Best Men. Also in 1998, he could be seen portraying a callous rocker in the independent film Girl. The following year, Flanery starred opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar in the romantic comedy Simply Irresistible. Later that same year, he could be seen giving romance another try in Body Shots, a tale of angst-ridden twenty-somethings in L.A.'s treacherous dating scene.He was in The Boondock Saints and the gentle family drama Kiss the Bride. He was the lead in Tobe Hooper's The Damned Thing, which was part of the Masters of Horror series. He worked on The Dead Zone TV series, and returned as Connor MacManus for The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. He appeared in the horror film Saw: The Final Chapter, the thriller InSight, and the moving drama Lake Effects.

Trivia: A veteran character actor of film, television, and stage, George Hall's formidable skill for comedy was equally matched by his remarkable versatility and dramatic range. Though television viewers will likely recognize Hall for his appearances on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and AMC's Remember WENN, the busy actor also essayed frequent Broadway roles, including There's a Girl in My Soup, A Moon for the Misbegotten, and Bent. Born in Toronto, Hall refined his skills on vaudeville stages and, later, Le Ruban Bleu and Upstairs at the Downstairs before making his Broadway debut in 1946's Call Me Mister. He subsequently gained frequent exposure on the stages of Broadway, and appeared in such films as A Canterbury Tale (1944), From the Hip (1986), and Mrs. Brown (1997). As comfortable in front of a camera as he was before a live audience, Hall made his final television appearance in the 2001 series Murder in Small Town X. He died the following year due to complications from a stroke.

Trivia: An actor whose sad eyes and brooding presence often get him cast as moody, tragic figures, John Lynch first lent his haunted charm to the title role of Pat O'Connor's Cal (1984). Cast as a young IRA recruit who falls in love with the widow (Helen Mirren) of a man he has killed, Lynch earned wide praise for his sensitive, complex performance, and more than held his own opposite the more seasoned Mirren.Born in Corrinshego, Newry, Northern Ireland, on December 26, 1961, Lynch was raised as the eldest of five children (his sister, Susan Lynch, also went into acting). He got his first break during his second year at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, when he was picked to star in Cal. Following his work on the film, Lynch dropped out of the movies for almost a decade, preferring to work on the stage in England and Ireland. When he resurfaced in front of the cameras in the mid-'90s, he began working steadily, appearing in films ranging from Agneiszka Holland's celebrated 1993 adaptation of The Secret Garden, to Jim Sheridan's acclaimed political drama In the Name of the Father (1993), to John Sayles' similarly feted family fantasy The Secret of Roan Inish (1994), which also featured Lynch's sister, Susan. In addition to In the Name of the Father, Lynch did starring work in subsequent dramas that focused on the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Among them were Thaddeus O'Sullivan's Nothing Personal (1995), in which the actor portrayed an apolitical but conflicted Catholic; and Terry George's Some Mother's Son (1996), an account of the 1981 Belfast prisoner's hunger strike that, in addition to casting Lynch as IRA prisoner and strike leader Bobby Sands, reunited him with Cal co-star Mirren. In 1998, he appeared in the little-seen This Is the Sea, a romantic drama about the relationship between a Protestant woman and a Catholic man living in post-1994 cease-fire Northern Ireland.Lynch has also worked in films that have taken him out of the geographical and topical boundaries of Northern Ireland. Peter Howitt's Sliding Doors (1998) saw him play Gwyneth Paltrow's hapless, two-timing boyfriend, while Best (2000), which Lynch co-wrote with his wife, Mary McGuckian, who also directed, cast him as the title figure of real-life football legend George Best. And, like many actors hailing from that section of the world, Lynch has also put in time in various period dramas, including the 1996 TV adaptation of Moll Flanders.

Trivia: Dignified, passionate Vanessa Redgrave is widely regarded as one of Great Britain's finest modern dramatic actresses. She is perhaps the most internationally famous of the Redgrave dynasty of actors that includes her father Sir Michael Redgrave, mother Rachel Kempson and siblings Corin and Lynn Redgrave. Born January 30, 1937 in London, Redgrave studied drama at London's Central School of Music and Dance. She made her theatrical debut in 1957 and her film debut the following year in the dreadful Behind the Mask, which starred her father. Redgrave would not venture into films again for another eight years, and during the early '60s established herself as a key member of the distinguished Stratford-Upon-Avon Theater Company. During her time with the repertory, she gave life to Shakespeare's works with some of her country's finest performers and met her future husband, the director Tony Richardson.Redgrave returned to films in 1966, making an unbilled appearance as Anne Boleyn in Fred Zinneman's all-star adaptation of A Man for All Seasons, and co-starring in Karel Reisz's comedy Morgan. In the same year, she played a small but key role as the girl in the photograph in Michelangelo Antonioni's first English language film, Blow-Up. In 1967, Redgrave appeared in the first of several films directed by her husband, Red and Blue and The Sailor from Gibralter. Also in 1967, she made a radiant Guenevere opposite Richard Harris' King Arthur in Joshua Logan's adaptation of the stage musical Camelot. That same year, Redgrave divorced Richardson on grounds of adultery. She had two children, Joely and Natasha Richardson, by him, and in 1969 had a child by her Camelot co-star Franco Nero. During these early years of her career, Redgrave hovered on the brink of stardom, due in large part to the uneven quality of the films in which she appeared. In 1968, she played the title role in Isadora, the biography of avant garde dancer Isadora Duncan, earning her first Oscar nomination and her second best actress award at Cannes (her first was for Morgan). The film represented one of Redgrave's first attempts at creating an independent, strong-willed, feminist character with strong socialist leanings. Throughout the 1970s, Redgrave continued to appear in films of varying quality, although her characters were almost always complex and controversial; the highlights from this period include The Trojan Women (1971), her Oscar-nominated turn in Mary Queen of Scotts (1971) and most notably the tragic Julia (1977), which won Redgrave an Oscar for best supporting actress. At the Oscar ceremony, the actress generated considerable controversy during her acceptance speech by using the ceremony as a forum for her tireless campaign for Palestinian rights in Israel. That, coupled with her outspoken support for the communist-oriented Workers' Revolutionary Party, made life difficult for Redgrave, who at one time was considered the British equivalent to actress/social activist Jane Fonda. Though she continued appearing in mainstream as well as politically oriented films and documentaries such as Roy Battersby's The Palestinians (1977), her views cost Redgrave roles on stage and screen and damaged her popularity, particularly in the U.S. Redgrave's television debut in Playing for Time (1980) generated further controversy when Redgrave won an Emmy for her portrayal of a Jewish violinist interned in a Nazi death camp who is ordered to help serenade women on their way to the gas chambers. Due to her anti-Zionist stand, many, including Fana Fenelon, the real-life violinist whom Redgrave was portraying, objected to her playing a Jewish woman. During the '80s, Redgrave came into her own as a leading character actress. She has subsequently appeared in a number of distinguished television movies, including Second Serve (1986) and a remake of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1991), which co-starred her sister Lynn Redgrave. Her film work also remains distinguished and she has received Oscar nominations for James Ivory's The Bostonians (1984) and Howards End (1992). Her taste for playing a variety of characters has not changed, as evidenced by portrayals ranging from Oscar Wilde's mother in Wilde (1997) to her role as a doomed earthling in the 1998 summer blockbuster Deep Impact. Redgrave's television work was singled-out for recognition as she took home the 2000 Golden Globe for Best TV Series Supporting Actress in for her role in If These Walls Could Talk 2.She continued working steadily into the next decade appearing in Sean Penn's drama The Pledge, and the historical drama The Gathering Storm. She joined the cast of Nip/Tuck in 2004, and appeared opposite Peter O'Toole in Venus two years later. She played the grown-up version of the main character in the Oscar-nominated WWII drama Atonement. In 2011 she lent her voice to Cars 2, earned rave reviews for her work as the mother of Ralph Fiennes' Coriolanus, and portrayed Queen Elizabeth in Anonymous.

Trivia: Considered to be one of the world's most famous arm ornaments, model, and sometimes-actress, Elizabeth Hurley first became the topic of gossip sheets when she appeared on the arm of boyfriend Hugh Grant at the premiere for his Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994. Scantily clad in a Versace gown held up by safety pins, audacity, and little else, Hurley was soon attracting as much press coverage as Grant, and a career as one of the most photographed women of the 1990s was born.Hurley, who was born in Basingstoke, England, on June 10, 1965, originally wanted to be a dancer. Her interest in dancing soon gave way to acting pursuits, and following studies in dance and theater at the London Studio Centre, she began going on casting calls. The aspiring actress found work in a number of forgettable films and TV miniseries, and it was while working on a film set that she met fellow actor Hugh Grant. Although she first became recognizable due to activities associated with Grant's onscreen work, it was her boyfriend's dubious offscreen exploits that really put Hurley in the spotlight. Thanks to Grant's notorious dalliance with a prostitute by the name of Divine Brown, Hurley was thrust into the public eye with little room to hide. Further complicating the situation was her work as the spokesmodel for Estee Lauder at the time, a position that both heightened her fame and compounded the problems associated with Grant's infamous behavior.After the ruckus surrounding the Brown scandal died down, Hurley began earning more recognition for her work in Hollywood, both as a producer (she and Grant founded the production company Simian Films in 1994) and an actress. Perhaps her most famous role to date has been as Vanessa Kensington, sidekick and eventual paramour of Mike Myers in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997). She reprised the role for the film's 1999 sequel, although her character was killed off only minutes into the movie. Hurley has also appeared in such films as Permanent Midnight (1998), in which she played the wife of a heroin addict; and EdTV (1999), which featured her as a model who provides heady temptation for the film's titular protagonist (Matthew McConaughey). Hurley would play a temptress of a different sort -- a busty, female version of Satan -- in 2000's Bedazzled with Brendan Fraser. In 2001, Hurley took part in the four part documentary The Human Face, which was narrated by fellow Briton John Cleese, and later starred as a beautiful doctor in Double Whammy with Steve Buscemi and Dennis Leary. Hurley met up with Leary once again for Dawg, the follow-up to Double Whammy (2002). Unfortunately for Hurley, most of the notoriety the young actress gained during 2002 was, once again, of the tabloid variety -- a heated paternity battle with former boyfriend Steve Bing made more headlines than Dawg or Serving Sara. In 2004, Hurley starred alongside Jermey Sisto in Duncan Roy's thriller Method, and joined actress Jennifer Tilly in the showbiz comedy Made in Romania. Her acting career slowed after that, though she did have a season-long guest arc on the last season of Gossip Girl.

Trivia: An actor turned screenwriter whose sharp wit propelled him to an Oscar for his keen screenplay for Robert Altman's Gosford Park, Julian Fellowes had plenty of time to soak up the English upper crust's disdain for anything pop culture-related while growing up, and was sure to filter those observations in a script that crackled with bitter insight into England's upper-class master/servant relationships. Born to a diplomat father in England in 1954, Fellowes lived his early life in luxury. After receiving his primary schooling in Britain's prestigious Ampleforth, Fellowes studied English literature at Cambridge before enrolling in drama school at 21. As an aspiring actor, Fellowes found himself straddling the complicated class system as he resided in squalor during the week, only to return home and have the servants do his laundry on the weekend. Settling into a comfortable stint as a character actor, Fellowes alternated between film and television with roles in such films as Baby: The Secret of the Lost Legend (1985) and as Noel Coward in Goldeneye: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming (1989). Appearing in numerous miniseries and made-for-television films throughout the 1990s, Fellowes took his first stab at screenwriting in the 1994 miniseries Little Lord Fauntleroy. After hearing that famed director Robert Altman was seeking a screenwriter with a working knowledge of England's class system, Fellowes quickly shot to the top of a short list of potential writers for the film. With numerous personal stories from which to work, the now established screenwriter turned years of passive observation and quiet dissent into a stinging screenplay that would serve as a springboard for the talents of the film's noteworthy cast.

Trivia: British actress Margaret Tyzack's activities were confined to the stage at the time of her film entree in the early '60s. Her rare film appearances include The Whisperers (1967), with Edith Evans, and the Stanley Kubrick productions 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) (as Elena) and A Clockwork Orange (1971) (as "a Conspirator"). American TV fans are most familiar with Margaret Tyzack through her appearance in several British series telecast in the '60s and '70s by PBS. The actress played Winnifred in The Forsyte Saga (1969), was one of The First Churchills (1971), and had the title role in Cousin Bette (1972).