Trivia: Born December 15th, 1949, film and television actor Don Johnson first studied his trade at the University of Kansas and the American Conservatory Theatre. A professional actor by his late teens, Johnson's earliest stage and screen assignments frequently found him cast as a fallen innocent. Johnson first gained national press coverage as the 20-year-old star of the counterculture comedy The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart (1970). His next significant credit was the 1975 cult favorite A Boy and His Dog, based on a trenchant Harlan Ellison yarn. Personal and professional entanglements kept him alternately on and offscreen until 1984, when he staged a comeback as Sonny Crockett, a rough-shod yet impossibly hip, sailboat-dwelling Miami-area vice squad detective assigned to work opposite Detective Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas), in Michael Mann's seminal small-screen cop drama Miami Vice (1984-89). To call the program (and Johnson's role in it) "trend-setting" would be a massive understatement; the character of Crockett, with his pastel sports jackets worn atop scoop-neck t-shirts, dark sunglasses, pants without socks, and a two or three-day growth of unshaven beard, rewrote the rules of men's haute-couture for almost a decade and posited Johnson as one of American culture's top male sex symbols for a lengthy duration as well (for a time, it became seemingly impossible to look at the cover of GQ or Esquire without spotting the actor). As the series rolled on, it witnessed Crockett's character undergoing many life changes, including the violent deaths of numerous colleagues on the force and a strange, strange plot point in which he accidentally began to confuse his own identity with that of his drug-pushing alter ego in the Miami crime world. During this second flush of fame, Johnson also distinguished himself as a dependable TV-movie leading man (notably as Ben Quick in the 1985 remake of The Long Hot Summer) and a champion powerboat racer. He also played a series of interesting leading roles in films of extremely variable quality, including Dennis Hopper's post-noir thriller The Hot Spot (1990), Mary Agnes Donoghue's romantic drama Paradise (1991) (opposite longtime partner Melanie Griffith) and Kevin Costner's hard-living buddy in Ron Shelton's gentle sports-themed romantic comedy Tin Cup (1996). During the 1995-96 season, Johnson enjoyed another career renaissance that distinctly mirrored his Vice success, as star of the TV weekly Nash Bridges. On that program, Johnson played the title character, a tough-as-nails San Francisco cop working the beat as an inspector with the municipal police department's Special Investigators Unit. Episodes found him artnered up, from assignment to assignment, with the wiseacre Hispanic detective Joe Dominguez (Cheech Marin). With relentless devotion to the demands of the force and an ere-present jocularity, Bridges worked his way through a series of seemingly impossible criminal investigations over the course of five seasons. He also attempted to balance life on the squad with a difficult personal life that included a strained relationship with his ex (Annette O'Toole) and the provision of much-needed paternal guidance for his teenage daughter (Jodi O'Keefe). No matter where he has stood careerwise, Johnson has always proven good copy for the gossip columns and tabloids thanks to his on-again off-again marriage to actress Melanie Griffith, whom he wed and divorced twice over the course of twenty years; the two ended their union for the second time in 1996. Though he found little in the way of success, Johnson worked steadily through out the late nineties and early 2000s on films including Goodbye Lover (1999), Word of Honor (2003), and Moondance Alexander (2007). The actor also played a small role in the action thriller Machete in 2010.

Trivia: Charismatic, muscular, handsome, and often exuding a dangerous sexuality, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa specializes in playing the evilest of vile villains, most of whom despite their exceptional martial arts skills, are skilled in spectacular manners. Tagawa's willingness to accept villainous roles such as that of the wicked sorcerer Shang Tsung in Mortal Combat (1995) has drawn criticism from certain Asian American groups, who fear that he is perpetuating negative stereotypes, but Tagawa offers an interesting perspective, citing the fact that the action film is the most popular genre worldwide. When Tagawa plays a bad guy, he plays it to the hilt, trying to imbue his villains with depth to demonstrate that in order to be so successful at being bad, they must possess a certain amount of positive qualities, including discipline, intelligence, and commitment. In his personal life, Tagawa is the antithesis of the characters he plays. He is known for his unusual courtesy, non-violent demeanor, his wisdom, and for his unflagging devotion to helping young people. A deeply spiritual man, Tagawa has developed a unique philosophical approach to martial arts, Chun Shin, which primarily centers on developing the inner state and spirituality of the practitioner rather than on the physical movements of fighting. The purpose of the exercises of Chun Shin is to release the energy centers within, creating a harmony between mind and body. Tagawa was born in Tokyo, Japan, the son of a Japanese American father and a Tokyo actress. His father, a native of Hawaii, worked for the U.S. military and when Tagawa was five, his family moved to Texas. This was during the 1950s, when racism was rampant throughout the South. For Tagawa, the change from a supportive environment to a hostile one was a great shock. As a young adult, Tagawa briefly attended the University of Southern California where he studied martial arts. The following year, he returned to Japan to further his studies at a prestigious school under the tutelage of master Nakayama, one of the most highly regarded fighters in Japan. But for Tagawa, there was a spiritual component missing from training -- that, and perhaps the feeling that he was not accepted into Japanese society, led him to return to the U.S.Although he had been interested in acting for many years, Tagawa did not become an actor until he was 36 years old. He made his feature film debut in The Last Emperor (1984) and went on to work steadily in feature films and on television. Many of his film appearances have been in the direct-to-video category. Still, Tagawa has managed to develop a devoted following and has at least one web site devoted to him on the Internet. As mentioned, Tagawa specializes in villains, but occasionally he plays different roles as he did in the much-honored independent drama Picture Bride (1994) in which he plays a sugar cane farmer who orders a Japanese mail-order bride 25 years younger than himself. The latter 1990s also found Tagawa's Hollywood work coming more frequently and in larger profile releases. After small roles in such films as Vampires (1998) and Snow Falling on Cedars (1999), Tagawa could be seen in such eagerly anticipated large-scale productions as Pearl Harbor and Planet of the Apes (both 2001).

Trivia: Founded what would become Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1974 with his high-school friends Gary Sinise and Terry Kinney, and served as its artistic director in the 1980s. Met first wife, Laurie Metcalf, when both were theater students at Illinois State University. Made movie debut in Remember My Name, a 1978 drama produced by Robert Altman; appeared in The Wedding (directed by Altman) later that year. Has appeared on some 40 TV series, including Columbo, Family Ties, thirtysomething, L.A. Law, Frasier, NYPD Blue, ER, The West Wing, Lost, Prison Break, Cold Case, C.S.I: Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: New York. Was a regular on CBS's Nash Bridges (1996-2001) A semiregular on Grey's Anatomy (he plays Meredith Grey's father, Thatcher), he's married to series casting director Linda Lowy.