Trivia: As one of the most impressively talented members of the emerging New Hollywood of the early 21st century, Reese Witherspoon has proven that she can do far more than just pose winsomely for the camera. Born March 22, 1976, in Nashville, TN, Witherspoon was a child model and acted in television commercials from the age of seven. She had a part in the 1991 Lifetime cable movie Wildflower before making her 1991 film debut in the coming-of-age story The Man in the Moon (1991). The 14-year-old Witherspoon made an immediate impact on critics and audiences alike, netting widespread praise for her portrayal of a tomboy experiencing love for the first time.While still in high school, Witherspoon completed two more feature films, Jack the Bear (1993), starring Danny De Vito, and Disney's A Far Off Place (1993), which required the actress to spend several months living in the Kalahari Desert. Following a supporting role in the 1993 CBS miniseries Return to Lonesome Dove and a lead in the critically disembowelled S.F.W., Witherspoon temporarily set aside her career to study English literature at Stanford University. She then returned to film as the abused girlfriend of a psychotic Mark Wahlberg in the thriller Fear (1996). In the same year, she had to deal with yet another crazed male in Freeway, a satirical version of Little Red Riding Hood in which Witherspoon co-starred with Kiefer Sutherland, who took on the role of the aforementioned crazed male.Her career began to take off in 1998, with roles in two high-profile films. The first, Twilight, saw her sharing the screen with Gene Hackman, Susan Sarandon, and Paul Newman. The film received mixed reviews and lackluster box office, but Pleasantville, her other project that year, proved to be both a critical and financial hit. The actress won wide recognition for her leading role as Tobey Maguire's oversexed sister, and this recognition -- along with critical respect -- increased the following year with another leading role, in Alexander Payne's acclaimed satire Election. Starring opposite Matthew Broderick, Witherspoon won raves for her hilarious, high-strung portrayal of student-council presidential candidate Tracy Flick. The character stood in stark contrast to the one Witherspoon subsequently portrayed in Cruel Intentions, Roger Kumble's delightfully trashy all-teen update of Dangerous Liaisons. As the virginal Annette, Witherspoon was convincing as the object of Ryan Phillippe's reluctant affection, perhaps due in part to her real-life relationship with the actor, whom she married in June 1999.After turning up in an amusing minor role as serial killer Patrick Bateman's burnt-out yuppie girlfriend in American Psycho (2000), Witherspoon again pleased critics and audiences alike with her decidedly Clueless-esque role in 2001's Legally Blonde. Her star turn as a seemingly dimwitted sorority blonde-turned-Harvard law-school-prodigy unexpectedly shot the featherweight comedy to number one, despite such heavy summer contenders as Steven Spielberg's A.I. and the ominously cast heist thriller The Score. The 18-million-dollar film went on to gross nearly 100 million dollars, proving that Witherspoon had finally arrived as a box-office draw.Though she would test out her chops in the Oscar Wilde adaptation The Importance of Being Earnest, Witherspoon's proper follow-up to Legally Blonde came in the form of 2002's Sweet Home Alabama, a culture-clash romantic comedy as embraced by audiences as it was rejected by critics. As with Drew Barrymore before her, Witherspoon used her newfound standing among the Hollywood elite to start her own production company, Type A Films, as well as to up her asking price to the rarefied 15-million-dollar range for the sequel to Legally Blonde. Though Blonde 2 didn't perform quite as well as the first film, the power player/doting mother of two wasted no time in prepping other projects for the screen, taking the lead in 2004's elaborate costume drama Vanity Fair as Becky Sharp, a woman who strives to transcend class barriers in 19th century England. For all its lavish costumes and sets, Vanity Fair received mixed reviews, but Witherspoon's winning performance still garnered praise.The next year, she appeared in the heaven-can-wait romantic comedy Just Like Heaven with Mark Ruffalo, as well as James Mangold's biopic Walk the Line as June Carter Cash, wife of country music legend Johnny Cash. This role proved to be a pivotal one, earning Witherspoon both a Best Actress Academy Award and a Golden Globe for her performance, and cementing her as an actress whose abilities go far beyond her charm and pretty face.As with others before her, however, the Best Actress statue portended a breakup between her and her husband; in October, 2006, she and Phillippe began their divorce proceedings, shortly after his starring turn in Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers. Career-wise, however, she didn't miss a beat, continuing to appear in popular romantic comedies like Four Christmases and Just Like Heaven, before getting more serious for the 1930's period drama Water for Elephants in 2011. By the next year, Witherspoon was crossing genres, playing the femme fatale at the center of a love triangle between two deadly secret agents in the action comedy This Means War.She did strong work in a supporting role in Mud, and in 2014 she returned to the Oscar race, garnering a Best Actress nomination for her work in Wild, playing a recovering addict who takes a grueling hike through California and Oregon in order to purge herself of her problems.

Trivia: Noted for playing quirky and shy guys in his youth and charming leading men in his adult life, contemporary American actor Patrick Dempsey became a rising star in Hollywood during the late '80s and '90s. A state downhill skiing champion in high school, he began performing nonprofessionally as a juggler, magician, and puppeteer. He would soon parlay his performing skills onto the screen, becomming well known for the role of a loveable geek in the 1987 teen romcom Can't Buy Me Love.He would go on to appear in a number of films over the coming years, like With Honors, Outbreak, and Sweet Home Alabama. Dempsey would find his most definitive role in 2005 however, when he was cast as Dr. Derek Shepherd on the medical drama Grey's Anatomy. Dempsey's portrayal of the handsom doctor made him so popular, he became regularly referred to by the nickname "Dr. McDreamy," and he would stick with the series for many seasons to come.

Trivia: American actress Candice Bergen was a celebrity even before she was born. As the first child of popular radio ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his young wife Frances, Candice was a hot news item months before her birth, and headline material upon that blessed event (her coming into the world even prompted magazine cartoons which suggested that Edgar would try to confound the nurses by "giving" his new daughter a voice). Candice made her first public appearance as an infant, featured with her parents in a magazine advertisement. Before she was ten, Candice was appearing sporadically on dad's radio program, demonstrating a precocious ability to throw her own voice (a skill she hasn't been called upon to repeat in recent years); at 11 she and Groucho Marx's daughter Melinda were guest contestants on Groucho's TV quiz show You Bet Your Life. Candice loved her parents and luxuriated in her posh lifestyle, though she was set apart from other children in that her "brothers" were the wooden dummies Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd - and Charlie had a bigger bedroom than she did! Like most 1960s teens, however, she rebelled against the conservatism of her parents and adopted a well-publicized, freewheeling lifestyle - and a movie career. In her first film, The Group (1965), Candice played a wealthy young lesbian - a character light years away from the sensibilities of her old-guard father. She next appeared with Steve McQueen in the big budget The Sand Pebbles (1966), simultaneously running smack dab into the unkind cuts of critics, who made the expected (given her parentage) comments concerning her "wooden" performance. Truth to tell, Candice did look far better than she acted, and this status quo remained throughout most of her film appearances of the late 1960s; even Candice admitted she wasn't much of an actress, though she allowed (in another moment that must have given papa Edgar pause) that she was terrific when required in a film to simulate an orgasm. Several films later, Candice decided to take her career more seriously than did her critics, and began emerging into a talented and reliable actress in such films as Carnal Knowledge (1971) and The Wind and the Lion (1975). Most observers agree that Candice's true turnaround was her touching but hilarious performance as a divorced woman pursuing a singing career - with little in the way of talent - in the Burt Reynolds comedy Starting Over (1979). Candice's roller-coaster offscreen life settled into relative normality when she married French film director Louis Malle; meanwhile, her acting career gained momentum as she sought out and received ever-improving movie and TV roles. In 1988, Candice began a run in the title role of the television sitcom Murphy Brown, in which she was brilliant as a mercurial, high-strung TV newsmagazine reporter, a role that won Ms. Bergen several Emmy Awards. While Murphy Brown capped Candice Bergen's full acceptance by audiences and critics as an actress of stature, it also restored her to "headline" status in 1992 - when, in direct response to the fictional Murphy Brown's decision to become a single mother, Vice President Dan Quayle delivered his notorious "family values" speech.Murphy Brown finished its successful run in 1997, and Bergen would make a handful of big-screen appearances in the ensuing years including Miss Congeniality, Sweet Home Alabama, and The In-Laws. In 2004 she became part of the cast of Boston Legal, another hit show that ran for five often award-winning seasons. When that show came to a close, she appeared in films such as The Women, Sex and the City, and Bride Wars - where she portrayed the country's leading wedding planner.

Trivia: University of Tulsa graduate Mary Kay Place hightailed it to Hollywood in hopes of becoming a writer and performer of comedy material. She was hired for 1970s The Tim Conway Comedy Hour as a production assistant to both star Conway and producer Norman Lear. It was Conway who gave her her first on-camera break, while Lear saw to it that Place received her first writing credit on his subsequent All in the Family. Lear displayed her to even better advantage in the role of senseless, tactless, and eminently lovable would-be C&W star Loretta Haggers on the satirical soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976-1977). She won an Emmy for her work as Loretta, and was later nominated for a Grammy for her spin-off musical album, Tonight! At the Capri Lounge...Loretta Haggers. She wrote scripts for such TV sitcoms as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Phyllis, and MASH, usually in collaboration with her professional partner (and future Designing Women producer), Linda Bloodworth. In films since 1976's Bound for Glory, Place has only occasionally been given a chance to shine on the big screen; the best of her movie roles include the washout nightclub singer who briefly replaces Liza Minnelli in New York, New York (1976), and the reconstituted "child of the '60s" who eagerly volunteers for surrogate motherhood in The Big Chill (1983). Place then continued to work on a variety of projects throughout the 80's and 90's, playing family friend Camille Chersky on the tragically-cancelled dramatic series My So-Called Life, and directing episodes of TV shows like Friends and Arli$$. With the new millennium, Place turned once again towards the big screen, enjoying appearances in films like Being John Malkovich and Girl, Interrupted, but she continued to work in TV as well, with a recurring role on the Showtime series Big Love -- which earned her an Ammy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress on a Drama Series in 2010.

Trivia: After service with the U.S. Air Force Fred Ward studied acting in New York and Rome, where he worked in mime, dubbed Italian movies, and appeared in two Roberto Rossellini films. Back in America he did much experimental stage work and also had roles on TV. He debuted onscreen in America in 1978, then appeared in several films during the next few years; his screen career took off in 1983, when he appeared in The Right Stuff, Silkwood, and Uncommon Valor. He went on to become a busy screen actor in supporting roles and some leads, but he has yet to appear in a major hit.

Trivia: Don't let actress Jean Smart's filmography fool you, because though she seems to have a penchant for appearing in fairly light-hearted fare of the family-oriented variety, she possesses all the skill of the most talented dramatic stage and screen actresses around. Unafraid to take the sort of risks necessary to keep her career and her personal life in fair balance, fans balked when Smart left television's hugely popular Designing Women while the series was in its prime, though her subsequent performances have found her sound judgment well justified. A Seattle native who received her B.A. from the University of Washington, it wasn't long before Smart was taking the stage at the 1975 Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Relocating to New York City, Smart's performance in the off-Broadway play Last Summer at Bluefish Cove earned the emerging actress a Drama Desk nomination. Her performance in the Broadway production of Piaf found Smart heading to Hollywood to tape the play for PBS, and it wasn't long before she began appearing in such films as Protocol (1984) and Project X (1987). A pivotal moment came when Smart was cast in the television series Designing Women; following the show's premier in 1986 she would remain a member of the cast until the 1991 season. It was while on that series that friend and fellow castmate Delta Burke set Smart up on a date with actor Richard Gilliland, whom Smart would later wed. The birth of their son Conner prompted Smart to reassess her career; though she would soon depart from Designing Women, she would continue to act in such efforts as the television feature Locked Up: A Mother's Rage (1991) and Overkill: The Aileen Wuornos Story (1992), in which she essayed the role of America's most notorious female serial killer. As the 1990s progressed Smart became something of a television fixture, and performances in The Yearling (1994) and A Change of Heart (1998) found her career continuing to flourish. Roles in such features as Disney's The Kid and Snow Day (2000) found Smart ever more associated with family-friendly fare, an association which she would continue to embrace with a role in the 2002 Disney Channel animated series Kim Possible. Other series in which Smart appeared included Hercules, Frasier, and The Oblongs; and in 2003 Smart teamed with her husband for the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of Audrey's Rain.In 2004, Smart joined the cast of the bittersweet romantic comedy Garden State, and made a brief appearance in I Heart Huckabees during the same year. In 2006, Smart was earned nominations for two Emmy awards (Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series and Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series) for her turn as the mentally fragile First Lady of the United States, whom she portrayed in the fifth season of 24. The actress wouldn't win an Emmy, however, until 2008, when she took home the coveted award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role on the sitcom Samantha, Who?. Smart played another mother in the film adaptation of C.D. Payne's novel Youth in Revolt in 2009, and took on the role of Hawaii Governor Pat Jameson for Hawaii Five-0, the CBS remake of the popular 1970s police procedural of the same name.

Trivia: Was a competitive gymnast during his youth and often performs his own stunts. Placed sixth in the overall competition of California finals for the U.S. Gymnastics Federation at the age of 10. Won a Young Artist Award in 1992 for his starring role of Doyle Standish in the drama Dutch (1991). Served as a producer and assistant director on the short film A Dog and His Boy (1992). With Vegas Vacation (1997), became the fourth actor to play Rusty Griswold.

Trivia: When Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures was released to international acclaim in 1994, it launched the career of a then-unknown actress by the name of Kate Winslet. Unfortunately, it didn't do the same for Winslet's co-star, the similarly unknown and equally talented Melanie Lynskey. As Pauline Parker, a New Zealand schoolgirl who, along with best friend Juliete Hulme (Winslet), brutally murders her mother, Lynskey turned in a performance that combined sullen adolescent alienation with cold-blooded brutality. Although marked as a promising newcomer, she did not enjoy a subsequent breakthrough of the magnitude of Winslet's but instead worked quietly for a few years, gradually earning belated recognition from audiences and industry figures alike.Born in New Plymouth, New Zealand, on May 16, 1977, Lynskey was a high school student when she was discovered by Peter Jackson's wife, Frances Walsh, who cast her in Heavenly Creatures. Following the film's success, the fledgling actress moved to Los Angeles, but encountered endless rejection thanks to her non-blonde, non-waifish physique, and after only six weeks returned to her native country. Eighteen months of film, theatre, and English studies at Victoria University followed, as did a supporting role in Jackson's The Frighteners (1996). A self-professed attitude change -- the result of her friendship with director Gaylene Preston, who encouraged the actress to make herself a stronger person -- also altered Lynskey's approach to acting, and she subsequently won a role in her first Hollywood film, Andy Tennant's Ever After (1998). Cast as the not-so-evil stepsister of Drew Barrymore's Cinderella-like heroine, Lynskey enjoyed the greater recognition the film's success afforded her and went on to supporting roles the next year in Detroit Rock City, in which she co-starred with Natasha Lyonne and Edward Furlong, and Michael Cacoyannis' adaptation of The Cherry Orchard, which also starred Alan Bates, Charlotte Rampling, and Katrin Cartlidge. With another successful independent film, Jamie Babbit's But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), and a Jerry Bruckheimer chick flick, Coyote Ugly, also under her belt, Lynskey began the new decade on a decidedly promising note.

Trivia: With a quiet exterior and a unique array of facial expressions that hint at something hilarious simmering beneath the surface, actress/comedian Mary Lynn Rajskub, born June 22nd, 1971, has come a long way since joining the cast of Mr. Show back in 1995. Born in Detroit, Michigan on June 22nd, 1971, Rajskub's entry into the comedy scene wasn't entirely intentional, the former performance artist decided to try her hand at humor when a non-comedic performance at the San Francisco Art Institute elicited unexpected laughs from the audience. Subsequently realizing the absurdity inherent in overly serious performance art, Rajskub soon adjusted her act to become a parody of performance art. The unique take on live comedy quickly caught on with audiences, and shortly thereafter, Rajskub was approached by Bob Odenkirk and David Cross and asked to join the cast of their upcoming HBO stream-of-consciousness comedy series Mr. Show. A somewhat bitter falling out with series co-creator Cross found Rajskub departing from the series after a year to take a job at Seattle's Best Coffee, but her career as a caffeine dealer would quickly come to an end when Garry Shandling caught wind of her act. Subsequently cast as the enthusiastic but somewhat awkward talent booker on The Larry Sanders Show, Rajskub also began to branch out into feature territory with supporting roles in such films as Bury Me in Kern County and the mockumentary The Thin Pink Line (both 1998). Blink-and-you'll-miss-her roles in such high-profile releases as Man on the Moon and Road Trip were quick to follow, with a small but memorable turn as a bubble-wrapped cult member in Dude, Where's My Car? preceding yet another fleeting appearance in the "Fiction" segment of director Todd Solondz's Storytelling. By this point, Rajskub had expanded her presence on television with a recurring role in Veronica's Closet, and after appearing with Girls Guitar Club bandmate Karen Kilgariff in the independent drama The Anniversary Party, she made a move back to the small screen with the ill-fated sketch comedy series The Downer Channel. If that series didn't last long, Rajskub didn't need to worry since appearances in such features as Punch-Drunk Love, Sweet Home Alabama, and Legally Blonde 2 found her slowly drifting toward more substantial roles on the silver screen. After becoming a frequent player in the 2003-2004 season of the wildly popular television series 24, Rajskub took an ominous turn with her role as Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme in the 2004 made-for-television remake Helter Skelter.In 2006 she took on supporting roles in the Academy Award winning comedy drama Little Miss Sunshine, and director Christine Jeffs slice-of-life comedy drama Sunshine Cleaning. The continued to deliver solid supporting performances in 2008's Julie & Julia, and 2011's Safety Not Guaranteed.

Trivia: British actress Rhona Mitra's rise to success was helped by two unlikely and dissimilar factors: a video game and an American teen drama. Born in London's Paddington district on August 9, 1976, Mitra was, by her own admission, a troubled adolescent who was expelled from two boarding schools and spent several years involved in London's club culture. In time, she developed an interest in acting and, deciding it was time to take a more serious approach to her life, enrolled in drama school. After one year in the three-year program, Mitra was convinced she knew enough to start looking for work, and began performing in regional theater. In 1997, after landing small roles in several British television shows, she was cast as Flora in a three-part television adaptation of Jilly Cooper's novel The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, and made her film debut the same year in a fantasy adventure for children, A Kid in Aladdin's Palace, in which she played Sheherazade. In 1998, Mitra's resemblance to Laura Croft, the heroine of the popular video game Tomb Raider, won her a job impersonating Croft at trade shows and gaming conventions in the U.K.; she spent most of the year as Croft, and even made an album in which she sang several songs as the character. That same year, Mitra found time to play a small role in the acclaimed British drama Croupier. In 1999, her career got a major boost in the United States when she was cast in the recurring role of Holly Beggins, a British student studying medicine in America, on the successful television series Party of Five. Mitra spent the better part of a year on the show, and in 2000, found herself moving up to portraying a full-fledged doctor, Dr. Ollie Klein, on the well-regarded medical drama Gideon's Grossing, which left the air in 2001. Mitra's television work helped raise her profile in the film industry, and she earned showy supporting roles in Hollow Man, Get Carter, and Sweet Home Alabama.

Trivia: Wrote and acted in 1997's Paradise Falls, which won awards at the Atlanta Film Festival, the Hollywood Film Awards, and WorldFest Charleston. Son Jackson Bridgers acted with him in two separate series: Deadwood and Justified. Won Best Actor award at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival for his star turn in The Woman. In 2012, he wrote and directed a short film, The Birthday Present, starring his daughter Kate. Started an independent film production company, Travelin' Productions, with friend Michael Hemschoot.

Trivia: Studied acting with Uta Hagen. Had a recurring role on The Big Bang Theory starting with its second series, and was promoted to series regular in 2012 for the sixth series. Plays the owner of a comic-book shop in The Big Bang Theory, and once worked at a similar establishment in New York City. Both of his parents are schoolteachers. Has appeared in more than 30 US adverts, including Eggos and FedEx.

Trivia: Kicking off an impressive career in front of the camera at the tender age of five, it was a mere three years later that actress Dakota Fanning would become the youngest person ever to be nominated for a Screen Actor's Guild Award for her role in the Sean Penn drama I Am Sam. She subsequently appeared in such efforts as Sweet Home Alabama (2002) and director Steven Spielberg's sci-fi miniseries Taken. A Conyers, GA, native whose acting abilities became apparent when, at the age of three, she acted out the entire process of pregnancy and childbirth (with her younger sister Elle substituting for the newborn baby) to her amused parents. Advised by an agent to take their daughter to Los Angeles, it wasn't long before young Fanning was cast in a commercial for Tide detergent. Television appearances in ER and Ally McBeal were quick to follow, and in 2001 she made her feature debut in the comedy Tomcats. Though the film was only seen by an unlucky few, her role in the same year's I Am Sam was a wide release that found the adorable young starlet a solid fan base. Later alternating between television and film with features such as Trapped and roles on such high-profile series as Spin City and Malcolm in the Middle, her part opposite Brittany Murphy in the 2003 comedy Uptown Girls found the precocious youngster playing well off of her older co-star. In 2003 Fanning could be spotted in The Cat in the Hat, and it wasn't long before she was gearing up to appear alongside Denzel Washington and Christopher Walken in the Tony Scott thriller Man on Fire.As the 2000's continued to unfold, Fanning appeared in a number of films, like Hide and Seek, War of the Worlds, and The Secret Life of Bees. By the time the actress was 16, she was playing legendary girl-band member Cherie Currie in The Runaways, setting the stage for adult roles to comes.

Trivia: Michael Snow is best known for his influential 1967 film Wavelength, which remains one of the landmarks of structuralist cinema. Already an accomplished musician, sculptor, painter, and photographer in his native Canada when he became interested in film after moving to New York in the early '60s, he saw filmmaking as a natural extension of his other artmaking activities. His first film, New York Eye and Ear Control, incorporated the "Walking Woman" figure he had already employed in a series of widely-exhibited paintings and sculptures. His subsequent films investigate the medium's formal possibilities and are often structured on the mechanical properties of the camera itself. Wavelength is organized around a 42-minute zoom across a New York City loft. His next film, Back and Forth, is built around continuous horizontal and vertical pans across a classroom. These experiments reached their logical extreme with La Région Centrale, for which he built a computer-controlled apparatus which could move the camera in any direction at any speed and set it up in the Canadian wilderness north of Montreal.Snow was never particularly interested in movies while growing up and his approach to filmmaking reflects an experimental impulse unburdened by cinematic tradition. Much of his work focuses on film's effects on perception. One Second in Montreal forces the audience to confront their own perception of time and duration by presenting a series of landscape photographs for varying lengths of time. "Rameau's Nephew" by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen improvises on the possibilities of synch sound for more than four hours and See You Later/Au Revoir uses slow motion to create an elegant study of movement. Though he remains known in the United States primarily for his contributions to avant-garde film, Snow has continued to work in other media throughout his career. In Canada, he is equally well-known for his painting and sculpture, and was even commissioned to make the monumental sculptures that adorn Toronto's Skydome stadium.

Trivia: Character actor Afemo Omilami built a career out of portraying gritty, urban types in Hollywood features, often with an aggressive edge, such as taxi drivers, longshoremen, barkeeps, drill sergeants, and angry spouses. Omilami debuted onscreen in the late '70s and evolved into an increasingly common screen presence as the years passed. The dozens of projects in which he appeared include the Tom Hanks-Shelley Long disaster comedy The Money Pit (1986), the Sydney Pollack-directed legal thriller The Firm (1993), Best Picture winner Forrest Gump (1994) (as a screaming drill sergeant), and the Ray Charles biopic Ray (2004). In 2007, Omilami joined the cast of director Deborah Kampmeier's rape-themed period drama Hounddog.

Trivia: Taught and performed at Whole World Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. Was a member of The Groundlings sketch comedy troupe. Her first onscreen gig was in Sweet Home Alabama in 2002, but her scenes were cut. Was a recurring guest-star on the NBC sitcom Go On before being upped to a series regular for the back half of the first season.

Trivia: Parents were peace/anti-nuclear activists who moved frequently while he was young. As a result, he lived in 30 different places before he turned 13. His family did not have a TV until 1984, when they purchased one to watch the Olympics. Realized he wanted to become an actor in 1987 when he was mesmerized by Michael Douglas's Oscar-winning portrayal of Gordon Gekko in Wall Street. Made film debut in 1993's Alive. As an up-and-coming actor, he appeared in a number of off-Broadway shows in New York, including Terrence McNally's controversial drama Corpus Christi in 1998. Made his Broadway debut in 2005 in a revival of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. Put on 43lbs. for the part of Texas Western coach Don Haskins in Glory Road (2006). In 2008, he appeared in an off-Broadway production of Fault Lines, a play directed by David Schwimmer. Portrayed a crime boss opposite James Franco in the drama William Vincent, an independent feature that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2010.

Trivia: A Southern-born performer who struck an equal balance between acting and modeling, Ambre Lake studied music and dance at Troy State University in Troy, AL, then did graduate studies at Michigan State University, where she received her Master's in Fine Arts. Lake leapt into film acting immediately after leaving MSU, appearing in an uncredited role as the wedding coordinator in the 2002 Reese Witherspoon-Patrick Dempsey romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama, and then in the shoestring-budgeted, barely released horror opus Dead End Road (2005). Lake made her next major film appearance with a supporting role in Paul Leuer's offbeat seriocomedy Eden Court (2008). She was prominently featured in the dating-themed competitive reality series Rock of Love with Bret Michaels, when she won the program's second season.