Trivia: Sydney Pollack -- one of Meryl Streep's collaborators time and again -- once proclaimed her the most gifted film actress of the late 20th century. Most insiders would concur with this assessment. To avid moviegoers, she represents the essence of onscreen dramatic art. Like Hoffman (and De Niro), she demonstrates a transcendent ability to plunge into her characters and lose herself inside of them, transforming herself physically to meet the demands of her roles. A luminous blonde with nearly translucent pale skin, intelligent blue eyes, and an elegant facial bone structure, Streep sustains a fragile, fleeting beauty that allows her to travel the spectrum between earthily plain (Ironweed), and ethereally glamorous and radiant (Manhattan, Heartburn).Born June 22, 1949, in Summit, NJ, Streep took operatic voice lessons, and subsequently cultivated a fascination with acting while she attended Bernards High School. Upon graduation, Streep studied drama at Vassar, Dartmouth, and Yale, where she appeared in 30 to 40 productions with the Yale Repertory Theater. With a five-star education and years of collegiate stage work under her belt, Streep headed for the New York footlights and launched her off-Broadway career. Streep's performance in Tennessee Williams' 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, for which she received a Tony nomination, constitutes a particularly strong theatrical highlight from this period. She made her television debut in Robert Markowitz's The Deadliest Season (1977). That year she also appeared onscreen for the first time in Fred Zinnmann's Julia (1977) as Anna Marie, opposite heavyweights Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, and Hal Holbrook. The following year, Streep picked up an Emmy for her performance in Marvin J. Chomsky's miniseries Holocaust. She first teamed with De Niro in Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978).Around this time, Streep became involved with the diminutive performer John Cazale, whom she met on the set of the Cimino film. Tragically, this marriage was ill-fated from day one, Cazale's frail body ridden with bone cancer. Forty-two at the time, he passed away in March 1978, nine months prior to the premiere of The Deer Hunter. Streep later wed Don Gummer, who was not associated with Hollywood in any capacity.Streep next appeared as Woody Allen's ruthless lesbian ex-wife in his elegiac comedy drama Manhattan (1979) and Alan Alda's Southern mistress in the scathing political satire The Seduction of Joe Tynan. Her shattering interpretation of the scarred and torn Joanna Kramer opposite Dustin Hoffman in Robert Benton's heartbreaking divorce saga Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), earned her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1980 -- which she famously left on top of a toilet at the festivities -- alongside a plethora of L.A. Film Critics Association, New York Film Critics Circle, and Golden Globe Awards for the Allen, Benton, and Alda films.Streep continued her ascent over the next decade by establishing herself as Hollywood's top box-office draw and a critical darling. Her double performance in the innovative Karel Reisz/Harold Pinter triumph The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), her gut-wrenching interpretation of the titular Holocaust survivor in Alan J. Pakula's haunting adaptation Sophie's Choice (1982), and her thoughtful evocation of Karen Silkwood in Mike Nichols' drama Silkwood were highlights of the period. In the latter, she portrays a real-life victimized nuclear-plant worker who mysteriously disappears just prior to turning in crucial evidence against her employers.Streep's decision to headline Sydney Pollack's lush epic Out of Africa (1985), as Karen Blixen, sustained her reputation. She would go on over the next decade to appear in projects like but Ironweed, Heartburn, She-Devil, Postcards from the Edge, and Death Becomes Her. In 1994, she again surprised her fans when she appeared as a muscular expert whitewater rafter who must fight a raging river and two dangerous fugitives to save her family in the action thriller River Wild (1994). In interviews, she said she did the film because she wanted to have an adventure like Harrison Ford and to overcome a few of her own fears.Streep returned to the depth and multifacetedness of her early roles -- with much concomitant success -- when she took a more low-key role as a dowdy, Earthbound farm wife who finds Illicit love with an itinerant photographer (Clint Eastwood) in The Bridges of Madison County. Following the critical and commercial heights of Bridges, Streep picked up yet another Oscar nomination for her performance as a terminally ill wife and mother in Carl Franklin's One True Thing (1998).Streep then signed on to replace Madonna as the lead in 1999's Music of the Heart, tackling what outwardly appeared to be a cookbook Hollywood plot (a teacher on a mission to teach violin to a class of inner-city youth in Harlem) with absolute commitment, teaching herself to play the violin by practicing six hours a day for eight weeks. In the new millennium, Streep hit audiences with the back-to-back with lauded performances in Adaptation and The Hours, earning an Oscar nomination for the former and a Golden Globe nomination for the latter.On the heels of this success, Streep won an Emmy in 2004 for her participation in longtime friend and collaborator Mike Nichols' Angels in America mini-series. She soon afterward won even greater audience and critic approval for her biting role as a corporate and political conspirator in Jonathan Demme's remake of the 1962 thriller The Manchurian Candidate. Streepfollowed this up with a part in the lighthearted comedies Prime, A Prairie Home Companion, and The Devil Wears Prada.In 2007 Streep starred in a pair of timely dramas about the Iraq War, Lions for Lambs and Rendition, before returning to the musical comedy milieu with 2008's Mamma Mia!. The adaptation of the smash stage musical shattered box-office records, becoming the highest grossing film in the history of the United Kingdom, and the biggest American hit of her illustrious career. She followed that up with the lead role in John Patrick Shanley's adaptation of his award-winning play Doubt, a performance that earned her fifteenth acting nomination from the Academy, as well as nods from the Screen Actors Guild, and the Hollywood Foreign Press.The renowned actress was nominated yet again for the Academy Award and the Screen Actors Guild the following year for her turn as Julia Child in the comedy Julie & Julia, a role that also garnered her a win for Best Actress from the New York Film Critics as well as the Golden Globes. That same year she played the lead for Nancy Myers in the box office hit It's Complicated, only to dive directly back into the Oscar spotlight again the next year with her acclaimed performance as English Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 2012's The Iron Lady. The role garnered Streep her 17th Academy Award nomination -- resulting in her third win, this time for Best Actress, in addition to Best Actress wins from the New York Film Critics Circle and the Golden Globes. She was back in the Oscar race in 2014, securing yet another nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category for her work as the wicked witch in Rob Marshall's big-screen adaptation of the musical Into the Woods.

Trivia: One of the most versatile and respected actors of his generation, Kevin Kline has made a name for himself on the stage and screen. Equally comfortable in comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of those rare actors whose onscreen characterizations are not overshadowed by his offscreen personality; remarkably free of ego, he has impressed both critics and audiences as a performer in the purest sense of the word.A product of the American Midwest, Kline was born in Saint Louis, MO, on October 24, 1947. He became active in theater while growing up in the Saint Louis suburbs, performing in a number of school productions. He continued to act while a student at Indiana University at Bloomington, and following graduation, moved to New York, where he was accepted at the Juilliard School. In 1972, Kline added professional experience to his formal training when he joined New York's Acting Company, led at the time by John Houseman. He toured the country with the company, performing Shakespeare and winning particular acclaim for his portrayals of Romeo and Hamlet. This praise translated to the New York stage a few years later, when Kline won Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his role in the 1978 Broadway production of On the Twentieth Century. Three years later, he earned these same honors for his work in the Broadway production of The Pirates of Penzance (he later reprised his role for the musical's 1983 film adaptation). After a stint on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow, Kline made his film debut in Alan Pakula's 1982 Sophie's Choice. It was an inarguably auspicious beginning: aside from the wide acclaim lavished on the film, Kline earned a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of Nathan Landau. The following year, he again struck gold, starring in The Big Chill, Lawrence Kasdan's seminal exploration of baby-boomer anxiety. Two years later, Kline and Kasdan enjoyed another successful collaboration with Silverado, an homage to the Westerns of the 1950s and '60s. After turning in a strong performance as a South African newspaper editor in Cry Freedom, Richard Attenborough's powerful 1987 apartheid drama, Kline won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his relentlessly hilarious portrayal of dimwitted petty thief Otto West in A Fish Called Wanda (1988). The award gave him international recognition and established him as an actor as adept at comedy as he was at drama, something Kline again proved in Soapdish; the 1991 comedy was a major disappointment, but Kline nonetheless managed to turn in another excellent performance, earning a Golden Globe nomination.The '90s saw Kline -- now a married man, having wed actress Phoebe Cates in 1989 -- continue to tackle a range of diverse roles. In 1992, he could be seen playing Douglas Fairbanks in Chaplin, while the next year he gave a winning portrayal of two men -- one, the U.S. President, the other, his reluctant stand-in -- in Dave, earning another Golden Globe nomination. Kline then appeared in one of his most high-profile roles to date, starring as a sexually conflicted schoolteacher in Frank Oz's 1997 comedy In & Out. His portrayal earned him another Golden Globe nomination, as well as a number of other accolades (including an MTV Award nomination for Best Kiss with Tom Selleck). Further praise followed for Kline the next year, when he turned in a stellar dramatic performance as an adulterous family man in 1973 Connecticut in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm. He then turned back to Shakespeare, portraying Bottom in the star-studded 1999 adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. His work in that film was so well received that it helped to overshadow his involvement in Wild Wild West, one of the most critically lambasted and financially disappointing films of the year.2001 found Kline returning to straight drama in the introspective Life as a House. The actor continued in this niche the following year, starring as an unorthodox prep school teacher in The Emperor's Club. After playing songwriter Cole Porter in the 2004 biopic De-Lovely, Kline began work on his return to comedy, a remake of the classic The Pink Panther, with him cast opposite Steve Martin.Kline played Guy Noir in Robert Altman's film adaptation of the radio program Prairie Home Companion, and fulfilled the hopes of Shakespeare enthusiasts around the world when he appeared in the Kenneth Branagh directed adaptation of As You Like It, marking the first time the two respected Shakespearean performers collaborated on a work by the Bard. Over the next several years, Kline woudl continue to remain a charismatic force on screen, appearing in films like De-Lovely, Definitely, Maybe, The Conspirator, No Strings Attached, Darling Companion, and TV shows like Bob's Burgers.

Trivia: Upon graduating from the University of Minnesota, Peter MacNicol traveled the length and breadth of the U.S. as a regional repertory actor. In his first film, Dragonslayer (1981), MacNicol essayed one of his few leading-man roles as Galen, a hapless assistant sorcerer who makes good. His most celebrated film assignment was as Stingo, the innocent-bystander narrator of Sophie's Choice. Most of the time, MacNicol has been seen in comical, sycophantic roles, such as the easily demonized Janocz in Ghostbusters II (1989) and the unctuous camp counselor in Addams Family Values (1993). On television, Peter MacNicol starred in the brief Norman Lear political lampoon The Powers That Be (1992) and co-starred as Alan Birch on the CBS medical drama Chicago Hope (1994).MacNicol continued to play small but indelible roles in a variety of small but indelible films throughout the mid-'90s. There was 1992's underrated Housesitter with Goldie Hawn and Steve Martin; acclaimed director Mel Brooks' Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995); and a starring role opposite cult comedian Rowan Atkinson in 1997's Bean. Despite his respectable feature-film success, however, MacNicol wouldn't get solid mainstream recognition until the 1997 debut of Ally McBeal. The show featured MacNicol as John Cage, an immensely insecure but highly gifted lawyer whose lovable, if over-sensitive, nature tugged at the heartstrings of Ally (Calista Flockhart) and television audiences alike. MacNicol remained a lead character on the show from 1997 to 2002, and was able to participate not just as an actor, but also as a director, screenwriter, and amateur karaoke singer. No longer the affable John Cage, MacNicol could be seen assigning Jamie Foxx the unpleasant task of letting his employees know of a rapidly approaching downsizing in 2004's Breakin' All the Rules. Recurring roles on Numbers and 24 as well as voice work in such animated shows as Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, The Batman, The Spectacular Spider-Man helped MacNicol maintain a high profile in the following years, and in 2012 he could be seen as the Secretary of Defense in the big-budget game board adaptaion Battleship.

Trivia: Actress Rita Karin was born and raised in Poland. Both of her parents were killed during the Holocaust. At that time she was studying in the Moscow State Jewish theater. In 1945, she moved to Germany where she narrated a documentary about American troops freeing concentration camp prisoners, The Mills of Death for the U.S. Information Agency. Following the war, Karin and her spouse Norbert Horowitz founded a traveling Yiddish theater group for those surviving the Holocaust. In 1949, Karin moved to New York and became a well-respected member of the Yiddish theater community. She also worked on- and off-Broadway, in television, and in a few films from the early '70s though the early '90s.

Trivia: Started her professional acting career in 1974.At the start of her career, learned to type to work in offices while also auditioning in New York.In 2008, was awarded the School of Theatre Distinguished Alumni Award by the Boston University College of Fine Arts.Has played a teacher in multiple projects, including Lean on Me (1989), If Looks Could Kill (1991), Curb Your Enthusiasm and Brooklyn Nine-Nine.In 2016, was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female for her work in the film H. (2014).

Trivia: An understudy to blacklisted actor Zero Mostel in Broadway's The Merchant, one might have to maintain a keen eye to spot character actor Joseph Leon in such films as Shaft (1971) and Sophie's Choice (1982). With such credit listings as Cab Driver #2 and Stamp Store Proprietor, as well as voiceover credits in numerous television commercials, Leon's face may not have etched itself into one's memory, but the feeling of "seen him somewhere before" is unavoidable. Born in 1918, in New York, NY, Leon appeared in features before moving to Broadway to understudy Mostel (taking over for the actor after his death) and appear in numerous New York productions, including Glengarry Glen Ross and Café Crown. Beginning a six-year tenure as a drama professor at Hofstra University in 1966, Leon shared his skills with students while frequently appearing on TV, stage, and in film. Joseph Leon died of natural causes in Bradenton, FL, in March 2001. He was 82.