Trivia: An actor whose name became synonymous with all-American entertainment, Tom Cruise spent the 1980s as one of Hollywood's brightest-shining golden boys. Born on July 3, 1962 in Syracuse, NY, Cruise was high-school wrestler until he was sidelined by a knee injury. Soon taking up acting, he found that the activity served a dual purpose: performing satiated his need for attention, while the memorization aspect of acting helped him come to grips with his dyslexia. Moving to New York in 1980, Cruise's first big hit was Risky Business in 1982, in which he entered movie-trivia infamy with the scene wherein he celebrates his parents' absence by dancing around the living room in his underwear. The Hollywood press corps began touting Cruise as one of the "Brat Pack," a group of twenty-something actors who seemed on the verge of taking over the movie industry in the early '80s. Top Gun 1985 established Cruise as an action star, but again he refused to be pigeonholed, and followed it up with a solid characterization of a fledgling pool shark in the Martin Scorsese film The Color of Money in 1986, for which co-star Paul Newman earned an Academy Award. In 1988, he played the brother of an autistic savant played by Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, a dramatic turn for sure, though Cruise had not yet totally convinced critics he was more than a pretty face.His chance came in 1989, when he played a paraplegic Vietnam vet in Born on the Fourth of July. Though his bankability faltered a bit with the expensive disappointment Far and Away in 1990 (though it did give him a chance to co-star with his-then wife Nicole Kidman), 1992's A Few Good Men brought him back into the game. By 1994, the star was undercutting his own leading man image with the role of the slick, dastardly vampire Lestat in the long-delayed film adaptation of the Anne Rice novel Interview with the Vampire. Although the author was vehemently opposed to Cruise's casting, Rice famously reversed her decision upon seeing the actor's performance, and publicly praised Cruise's portrayal.In 1996, Cruise scored financial success with the big-budget action film Mission: Impossible, but it was with his multilayered, Oscar-nominated performance in Jerry Maguire that Cruise proved once again why he is considered a major Hollywood player. 1999 saw Cruise reunited onscreen with Kidman in a project of a very different sort, Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. The film, which was the director's last, had been the subject of controversy, rumor, and speculation since it began filming. It opened to curious critics and audiences alike across the nation, and was met with a violently mixed response. However, it allowed Cruise to once again take part in film history, further solidifying his position as one of Hollywood's most well-placed movers and shakers.Cruise's enviable position was again solidified later in 1999, when he earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role as a loathsome "sexual prowess" guru in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia. In 2000, he scored again when he reprised his role as international agent Ethan Hunt in John Woo's Mission: Impossible II, which proved to be one of the summer's first big moneymakers. He then reteamed with Jerry Maguire director Cameron Crowe for a remake of Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar's Abre los Ojos titled Vanilla Sky. Though Vanilla Sky's sometimes surreal trappings found the film receiving a mixed reception at the box office, the same could not be said for the following year's massively successful sci-fi chase film Minority Report, directed by Steven Spielberg , or of the historical epic The Last Samurai, directed by Edward Zwick.For his next film, Cruise picked a role unlike any he'd ever played; starring as a sociopathic hitman in the Michael Mann psychological thriller Collateral. He received major praise for his departure from the good-guy characters he'd built his career on, and for doing so convincingly. By 2005, he teamed up with Steven Spielberg again for the second time in three years with an epic adaptation of the H.G. Wells alien invasion story War of the Worlds.The summer blockbuster was in some ways overshadowed, however, by a cloud of negative publicity. It began in 2005, when Cruise became suddenly vocal about his beliefs in Scientology, the religion created by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. Cruise publicly denounced actress Brooke Shields for taking medication to combat her postpartum depression, calling going so far as to call the psychological science a "Nazi science" in an Entertainment Weekly interview. On June 24, 2005, he was interviewed by Matt Lauer for The Today Show during which time he appeared to be distractingly argumentative in his insistence that psychiatry is a "pseudoscience," and in a Der Spiegel interview, he was quoted as saying that Scientology has the only successful drug rehabilitation program in the world.This behavior caused a stirring of public opinion about Cruise, as did his relationship with 27-year-old actress Katie Holmes. The two announced their engagement in the spring of 2005, and Cruise's enthusiasm for his new romantic interest created more curiosity about his mental stability. He appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on May 23, where he jumped up and down on the couch, professing his love for the newly-Scientologist Holmes. The actor's newly outspoken attitude about Scientology linked to the buzz surrounding his new relationship, and the media was flooded with rumors that Holmes had been brainwashed.Some audiences found Cruise's ultra-enthusiastic behavior refreshing, but for the most part, the actor's new public image alienated many of his viewers. As he geared up for the spring 2006 release of Mission: Impossible III, his ability to sell a film based almost purely on his own likability was in question for the first time in 20 years.Despite this, the movie ended up performing essentially as expected, and Cruise moved on to making headlines on the business front, when -- in November 2006 -- he and corporate partner Paula Wagner (the twin forces behind the lucrative Cruise-Wagner Productions) officially "took over" the defunct United Artists studio. Originally founded by such giants as Douglas Fairbanks and Charles Chaplin in 1921, UA was all but completely defunct. The press announced that Cruise and Wagner would "revive" the studio, with Wagner serving as Chief Executive Officer and Cruise starring in and producing projects.One of the fist films to be produced by the new United Artists was the tense political thriller Lions for Lambs, which took an earnest and unflinching look at the politics behind the Iraq war. This was followed by the World War II thriller Valkyrie. Cruise would find a solid footing as the 2010s progressed, with films like Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and Rock of Ages. Cruise and Holmes would announce they were divorcing in 2012.

Trivia: One of Hollywood's most distinguished, popular, and versatile actors, Robert Duvall possesses a rare gift for totally immersing himself in his roles. Born January 5, 1931 and raised by an admiral, Duvall fought in Korea for two years after graduating from Principia College. Upon his Army discharge, he moved to New York to study acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse, where he won much acclaim for his portrayal of a longshoreman in A View From the Bridge. He later acted in stock and off-Broadway, and had his onscreen debut as Gregory Peck's simple-minded neighbor Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).With his intense expressions and chiseled features, Duvall frequently played troubled, lonely characters in such films as The Chase (1966) during his early film career. Whatever the role, however, he brought to it an almost tangible intensity tempered by an ability to make his characters real (in contrast to some contemporaries who never let viewers forget that they were watching a star playing a role). Though well-respected and popular, Duvall largely eschewed the traditionally glitzy life of a Hollywood star; at the same time, he worked with some of the greatest directors over the years. This included a long association with Francis Ford Coppola, for whom he worked in two Godfather movies (in 1972 and 1974) and Apocalypse Now (1979). The actor's several Oscar nominations included one for his performance as a dyed-in-the-wool military father who victimizes his family with his disciplinarian tirades in The Great Santini (1980). For his portrayal of a has-been country singer in Tender Mercies -- a role for which he composed and performed his own songs -- Duvall earned his first Academy Award for Best Actor. He also directed and co-produced 1983's Angelo My Love and earned praise for his memorable appearance in Rambling Rose in 1991. One of Duvall's greatest personal triumphs was the production of 1997's The Apostle, the powerful tale of a fallen Southern preacher who finds redemption. He had written the script 15 years earlier, but was unable to find a backer, so, in the mid-'90s, he financed the film himself. Directing and starring in the piece, Duvall earned considerable acclaim, including another Best Actor Oscar nomination.The 1990s were a good decade for Duvall. Though not always successful, his films brought him steady work and great variety. Not many other actors could boast of playing such a diversity of characters: from a retired Cuban barber in 1993's Wrestling Ernest Hemingway to an ailing editor in The Paper (1994) to the abusive father of a mentally impaired murderer in the harrowing Sling Blade (1996) to James Earl Jones's brother in the same year's A Family Thing (which he also produced). Duvall took on two very different father roles in 1998, first in the asteroid extravaganza Deep Impact and then in Robert Altman's The Gingerbread Man. Throughout his career, Duvall has also continued to work on the stage. In addition, he occasionally appeared in such TV miniseries as Lonesome Dove (1989) and Stalin (1992), and has even done voice-over work for Lexus commercials. In the early 2000s, he continued his balance between supporting roles in big-budget films and meatier parts in smaller efforts. He supported Nicolas Cage in Gone in 60 Seconds and Denzel Washington in John Q., but he also put out his second directorial effort, Assassination Tango (under the aegis of old friend Coppola, which allowed him to film one of his life's great passions -- the tango. In 2003, Kevin Costner gave Duvall an outstanding role in his old-fashioned Western Open Range, and Duvall responded with one of his most enjoyable performances.Duvall subsequently worked in a number of additional films, including playing opposite Will Ferrell in the soccer comedy Kicking & Screaming, as well as adding a hilarious cameo as a tobacco king in the first-rate satire Thank You For Smoking. In 2006 he scored a hit in another western. The made for television Broken Trail, co-starring Thomas Haden Church, garnered strong ratings when it debuted on the American Movie Classics channel. That same year he appeared opposite Drew Barrymore and Eric Bana in Curtis Hanson's Lucky You.In 2010, Duvall took on the role of recluse Felix "Bush" Breazeale for filmmaker Aaron Schneider's Get Low. The film, based on the true story of a hermit who famously planned his own funeral, would earn Duvall a nomination for Best Actor at the SAG Awards, and win Best First Feature for Schneider at the Independent Spirit awards. He picked up a Best Supporting Actor nod from the Academy for his work in 2014's The Judge, playing a beloved judge on trial for murder.

Trivia: Once relegated to decorative parts for years and long acknowledged as the wife of Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman spent the latter half of the 1990s and the first decade of the new millennium earning much-deserved critical respect. Standing a willowy 5'11" and sporting one of Hollywood's most distinctive heads of frizzy red hair, the Australian actress first entered the American mindset with her role opposite Cruise in Days of Thunder (1990), but it wasn't until she starred as a homicidal weather girl in Gus Van Sant's 1995 To Die For that she achieved recognition as a thespian of considerable range and talent. Though many assume that the heavily-accented Kidman hails from down under, she was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on June 20, 1967, to Australian parents. Her family, who lived on the island because of a research project that employed Kidman's biochemist father, then moved to Washington, D.C. for the next three years. After her father's project reached completion, Nicole and her family returned to Australia.Raised in the upper-middle-class Sydney suburb of Longueville for the remainder of the 1970s and well into the eighties, Kidman grew up infused with a love of the arts, particularly dance and theatre. Kidman took refuge in the theater, and landed her first professional role at the age of 14, when she starred in Bush Christmas (1983), a TV movie about a group of kids who band together with an Aborigine to find their stolen horse. Brian Trenchard-Smith's BMX Bandits (1983) -- an adventure film/teen movie -- followed , with Kidman as the lead character, Judy; it opened to solid reviews. Kidman then worked for the gifted John Duigan (The Winter of Our Dreams, Romero) twice, first as one of the two adolescent leads of the Duigan-directed "Room to Move" episode of the Australian TV series Winners (1985) and, more prestigiously, as the star of Duigan's acclaimed miniseries Vietnam (1987).In 1988, Kidman got another major break when she was tapped to star in Phillip Noyce's Dead Calm (1989). A psychological thriller about a couple (Kidman and Sam Neill) who are terrorized by a young man they rescue from a sinking ship (Billy Zane), the film helped to establish the then-21-year-old Kidman as an actress of considerable mettle. That same year, her starring performance in the made-for-TV Bangkok Hilton further bolstered her reputation. By now a rising star in Australia, Kidman began to earn recognition across the Pacific. In 1989, Tom Cruise picked her for a starring role in her first American feature, Tony Scott's Days of Thunder (1990). The film, a testosterone-saturated drama about a racecar driver (Cruise), cast Kidman as the neurologist who falls in love with him. A sizable hit, it had the added advantage of introducing Kidman to Cruise, whom she married in December of 1990.Following a role as Dustin Hoffman's moll in Robert Benton's Billy Bathgate (1991), and a supporting turn as a snotty boarding school senior in the masterful Flirting (1991), which teamed her with Duigan a third time, Kidman collaborated with Cruise on their second film together, Far and Away (1992). Despite their joint star quality, gorgeous cinematography, and adequate direction by Ron Howard, critics panned the lackluster film.Kidman's subsequent projects, My Life and Malice ( both 1993), were similarly disappointing, despite scattered favorable reviews. Batman Forever (1995), in which she played the hero's love interest, Dr. Chase Meridian, fared somewhat better, but did little in the way of establishing Kidman as a serious actress even as it raked in mile-high returns at the summer box office. Kidman finally broke out of her window-dressing typecasting when Gus Van Sant enlisted her to portray the ruthless protagonist of To Die For (1995). Directed from a Buck Henry script, this uber-dark comedy casts Kidman as Suzanne Stone, a television broadcaster ready and eager to commit one homicide after another to propel herself to the top. Displaying a gift for impeccable comic timing, she earned Golden Globe and National Broadcast Critics Circle Awards for Best Actress. Further critical praise greeted Kidman's performance as Isabel Archer in Jane Campion's 1996 adaptation of Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady. Now regarded as one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood, Kidman starred opposite George Clooney in the big-budget action extravaganza The Peacemaker (1997) and opposite Sandra Bullock in the frothy Practical Magic (1998). In 1999, Kidman starred in one of her most controversial films to date, Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. Adapted from Arthur Schnitzler's Traumnovelle and cloaked in secrecy from the beginning of its production, the film also stars Cruise as Kidman's physician husband. During the spring and summer of 1999, the media unsurprisingly hyped the couple's onscreen pairing as the two major selling points. However, despite an added measure of intrigue from Kubrick's death only weeks after shooting wrapped, Eyes Wide Shut repeated the performance of prior Kubrick efforts by opening to a radically mixed reaction.As the new millennium arrived, problems began to erupt between Kidman and Tom Cruise; divorce followed soon after, and the tabloids swirled with talk of new relationships for the both of them. She concurrently plunged into a string of daring, eccentric film roles much edgier than what she had done before. The trend began with a role in Jez Butterworth's Birthday Girl (2001) as a Russian mail order bride, and Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge (2001), which cast her, in the lead, as a courtesan in a 19th century Paris hopped up with late 20th century pop songs. The picture dazzled some and alienated others, but once again, journalists flocked to Kidman's side.Following this success (the picture gleaned a Best Picture nod but failed to win), Kidman gained even more positive notice for her turn as an icy mother after the key to a dark mystery in Alejandro Amenabar's spooky throwback, The Others. When the 59th Annual Golden Globe Awards finally arrived, Kidman received nominations for her memorable performances in both films. Though it couldn't have been any further from her flamboyant turn in Moulin Rouge, Kidman's camouflaged role as Virginia Woolf in the following year's The Hours (2002) (she wears little makeup and a prosthetic nose), for which she delivered a mesmerizing and haunting performance, kept the Oscar and Golden Globe nominations steadily flowing in for the acclaimed actress. The fair-haired beauty finally snagged the Best Actress Oscar that had been so elusive the year before. Post-Oscar, Kidman continued to take on challenging work. She played the lead role in Lars von Trier's Dogville, although she declined to continue in Von Trier's planned trilogy of films about that character. She swung for the Oscar fences again in 2003 as the female lead in Cold Mountain, but it was co-star Renee Zellweger who won the statuette that year. Kidman did solid work for Jonathan Glazer in the Jean-Claude Carriere-penned Birth, as a woman revisited by the incarnation of her dead husband in a small child's body, but stumbled with a pair of empty-headed comedies, Frank Oz's The Stepford Wives and Nora Ephron's Bewitched (both 2005), that her skills could not save. She worked with Sean Penn in the political thriller The Interpreter in 2005. For the most part, Kidman continued to stretch herself with increasingly demanding and arty roles throughout 2006. In Steven Shainberg's Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, Kidman plays controversial housewife-cum-photographer Diane Arbus. Meanwhile, Kidman returned to popcorn pictures by playing Mrs. Coulter in Chris Weitz's massive, $150-million fantasy adventure The Golden Compass (2007), adapted from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series of books. She also headlined the sci-fi thriller The Invasion, a loose remake of the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Also in 2007, Kidman teamed up with Noah Baumbach for a starring role as a supremely dysfunctional mother in Margot at the Wedding (2007). The actress then set out to recapture her Moulin Rouge musical success with a turn in director Rob Marshall's 8 1/2 remake Nine (2009), teamed up with indie cause-célèbre John Cameron Mitchell and Aaron Eckhart for the psychologically-charged domestic drama Rabbit Hole (2010), and starred opposite Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler in the Dennis Dugan-helmed comedy Go With It (2011). Kidman would spend the next few years continuing her high level of activity, appearing in movies like Trespass and The Paperboy.

Trivia: Six-foot four-inch, beefy character actor with rubbery, homely face, Quaid's first professional show-business work was as the "straight man" half of a comedy duo with actor Trey Wilson in Houston. While a third-year college drama student he was cast by Peter Bogdanovich in a supporting role in The Last Picture Show (1971), then went on to have small roles in Bogdanovich's next two movies. He made a big impression as a naive sailor alongside Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail (1973), for which he received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. By the mid '70s, he worked in films frequently, usually typecast as a dim-witted fool or redneck. In the mid '80s he was (for one season) in the regular cast of the weekly sketch-comedy series "Saturday Night Live," on which he demonstrated his considerable comedic talent and often impersonated President Ronald Reagan. More recently he has gotten straight dramatic roles, a transition marked by his off-Broadway stage debut in True West in 1983. He has also worked frequently in TV movies, portraying Lenny in Of Mice and Men (1981) and Lyndon Johnson in LBJ: The Early Days (1987); for his portrayal of Mitch in the TV version of A Streetcar Named Desire (1984) he won an Emmy. He is the brother of actor Dennis Quaid, with whom he appeared in The Long Riders (1980).

Trivia: The handsome blonde actor Cary Elwes (pronounced El-Ways) was born in London to a portrait painter and an interior designer. He moved to the U.S. to study at Sarah Lawrence College, but made his film debut in the U.K. with the coming-of-age drama Another Country (1984), co-starring alongside fellow handsome young actors Rupert Everett and Colin Firth. He soon started a pattern of appearing in historical dramas and other period pieces, first with Lady Jane (1985), opposite Helena Bonham Carter, and then as the lead role in Maschenka (1986), based on the book by Vladimir Nabokov. However, he didn't make his international film breakthrough until 1987 with Rob Reiner's classic adventure fairy tale The Princess Bride. He seemed to possess a timeless quality essential for the role of Westley, the sensitive-yet-daring farm boy who becomes the swashbuckling Dred Pirate Roberts and gallantly fights for his love. Continuing with historical films, he capably handled a Southern accent for the Civil War drama Glory and then tried a one-time stint as associate producer for the little-seen drama Leather Jackets. Next, he made a successful jump to broad comedy with lead roles in Hot Shots! (1991) and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993). Switching to darker themes, he played Lord Arthur Holmwood in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) and Alicia Silverstone's object of obsession in The Crush (1993). The following year, he briefly returned to adventures for The Jungle Book before moving on to playing authority figures in the thrillers Twister and Kiss the Girls. In the late '90s, he voiced cartoons and appeared in a few made-for-TV movies and miniseries until 1999, when he transformed his usually slender frame for the role of portly producer John Houseman (Orson Welles' colleague) in Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock. He continued portraying cinematic legends in his next few films, including the German cinematographer Fritz Arno Wagner in Shadow of the Vampire and pioneering producer Thomas H. Ince in The Cat's Meow. In 2001,he played a reoccurring role on The X-Files as FBI Assistant Brad Follmer and returned to romantic comedy adventures as Prince Regent Edgar in Ella Enchanted (2003).He was the lead in the infamous 2004 slasher movie Saw, and had a lead part in the 2006 National Lampoon comedy Pucked. In 2007 he appeared in the ill-fated Lindsay Lohan movie Georgia Rule. He came back for Saw: The Final Chapter in 2010. 2011 turned out to be a busy year for Elwes with parts in the comedy No Strings Attached, the Spielberg-directed The Adventures of Tintin, and the ensemble romantic comedy New Year's Eve.

Trivia: Raised in Chicago by his divorced mother, Michael Rooker lived a hand-to-mouth existence until his teens. Rooker successfully auditioned for the Goodman School, and upon graduation, appeared in Chicago-area stage productions. He made a spectacular film debut in the sociopathic title role of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, which was filmed in 1986 but not given a general release until four years later. Henry established Rooker as a gifted purveyor of "don't screw with me" roles, such as chief "Black Sox" conspirator Chick Gandil in Eight Men Out (1988). Michael Rooker's more rugged film assignments of the 1990s included Cliffhanger (1993) and Tombstone (1994).

Trivia: One of the screen's most versatile and woefully under-appreciated character actors, John C. Reilly has appeared in a series of films united only in their complete lack of similarity. To date, he has been used most intelligently by director Paul Thomas Anderson, who has cast him in Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, and Magnolia.A native of Chicago, where he was born May 24, 1965, Reilly broke into film in 1989, the year he starred in Casualties of War and We're No Angels, both of which featured Sean Penn and a less than stellar reception. Reilly subsequently spent the early '90s appearing in films of every conceivable genre, from the Tom Cruise testosterone extravaganza Days of Thunder (1990) to Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog (1992) to What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993). Thanks to his unglamorous appearance, Reilly also did an obligatory turn as a backwoods psycho, popping up alongside Kevin Bacon in The River Wild (1994) long enough to freak out Meryl Streep and her family.1996 marked the beginning of Reilly's collaboration with director Anderson. That year, he starred as a none-too-bright loser stranded in Vegas in Hard Eight, Anderson's feature-length directorial debut. Reilly earned wide praise for his work in the film, which went largely unseen by audiences. The same couldn't be said of Reilly and Anderson's second collaboration, Boogie Nights, the following year. One of the most critically lauded films of 1997, it featured Reilly as another loser, a dim porn actor with dreams of becoming a magician/songwriter.Thanks to the film's success, Reilly finally earned a bit of long-overdue recognition, as was evidenced by his subsequent casting in Terrence Malick's adaptation of The Thin Red Line (1998). The actor's visibility further increased the following year, thanks to prominent roles in no less than four films. One of these was Magnolia, Anderson's follow-up to Boogie Nights. Like his previous film, Magnolia boasted a large ensemble cast of first-rate actors; among them, Reilly stood out as a lonely police officer who becomes involved with an emotionally unstable woman.With his career continuing to build momentum, Reilly was next cast alongside George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg in the 2000 big-budget adaptation of the best-selling book The Perfect Storm. However, his biggest year to date came in 2002. Not only could Reilly be seen in prominent roles in four high-profile films, but his scene-stealing turn in the musical Chicago netted him his first Academy Award nomination. Riding high on his escalating stardom, Reilly spent 2003 hard at work on three big releases, The Aviator, Dark Water, and Criminal. Of Reilly's 2004 projects, Criminal arrived first - in September of that year. A remake of the late Argentinian director Fabian Bielinsky's debut crime, the American version tells the story of a couple of scammers (Reilly and Diego Luna) who con members of the Beverly Hills upper-crust, the picture (brought to fruition by Steven Soderbergh) received average to positive reviews. On the enthusiastic end, The Los Angeles Times's Carina Chocano called the picture "funny, original and very well observed," and The Philadelphia Inquirer's Carrie Rickey remarked, "Gregory Jacobs' zircon remake of that glowing Argentine gem Nine Queens is the film equivalent of Chinese boxes or Russian matrushka dolls. If you've never played with them before, then there's a prize inside for you." Less enthused was The Charlotte Observer's Lawrence Toppmann, who compared the film somewhat unfavorably to its original: "a watered-down version of the same pleasures." Issued in December 2004, Martin Scorsese's The Aviator fared immeasurably better (with critics and at the box) and left in its wake the most enduring legacy of Reilly's 2004 efforts. As Noah Dietrich, the individual who manages Howard Hughes's (Leonardo di Caprio) business affairs, Reilly contributed to a strong ensemble cast that included Cate Blanchett and the splendid Alan Alda. Dark Water, Walter Salles's gothic horror opus, hit cinemas in July 2005. As the real estate agent who leases young mother Jennifer Connelly a possessed New York City apartment, Reilly delivers effective and substantial menace, even as the motion picture divided critics. In 2006, Reilly starred in two key A-list releases. Released in June 2006, Bob Altman's Garrison Keillor cinematization A Prairie Home Companion lays out a "genial" Altmanesque tapestry of the backstage shenanigans at a fictionalized version of Prairie, that transpire between the cast members. Reilly (who established himself with such force in Altman protege Paul Anderson's similar films) portrays Lefty, one half of a cowboy duo opposite Woody Harrelson's Dusty; they bicker throughout the film and ultimately perform a dirty-lyrics musical number together. The picture opened, almost unanimously, to glowing reviews. The supporting cast includes Keillor, Meryl Streep, Lindsay Lohan, and Kevin Kline. Reilly showcased his versatility by following up his work in the Altman film by co-starring opposite Will Farrell in the NASCAR comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.In 2007 he was the lead in the musical biopic spoof Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, also singing a number of song spoofs for the movie. The next year he reteamed with Will Farrell in Step Brothers. He had a major role in Cirque Du Freak in 2009. It was easy to find the well-respected character actor on screen in 2011, a year in which he appeared in the winning comedy Cedar Rapids, Roman Polanski's adaptation of the award-winning play Carnage, and the husband of Tilda Swinton in the psychological drama We Need to Talk About Kevin.

Trivia: Supporting player, onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: Noted producer Don Simpson was a co-founder of the prestigious Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Productions, a company responsible for a number of highly successful features of the '80s through the early '90s, including Flashdance (1983), Top Gun (1986), and Crimson Tide (1995). Born in Seattle, WA, but raised in Anchorage, AK, Simpson began his highly successful career in San Francisco representing Warner Bros. as an account executive at the Jack Woodell Agency. He moved to Warner Bros. in 1971 and became a marketing executive. His first assignment was to promote the studio's quasi-sequel to Woodstock, Medicine Ball Caravan (1971). It was not until Simpson became friends with producer Steve Tisch while the latter was moving from New York to L.A. that Simpson became interested in the nuts and bolts aspect of the film industry. Tisch provided much support while Simpson struggled to find a niche as a producer. He got his first real break when Tisch introduced him to Jerry Bruckheimer. Next the well-connected Tisch introduced Simpson to Paramount's vice president of production during the mid-'70s, Richard Sylbert. Simpson impressed Sylbert enough to get hired as a production executive. By 1981, Simpson had been promoted to Paramount's president of production. After that, Simpson and Bruckheimer began their successful partnership with American Gigolo (1979). The two producers proved dynamite together, but like the explosive, they were volatile. Bruckheimer was the outgoing one and did not hesitate to do whatever it took to promote a film, even if it meant standing atop a submarine in the midst of Venice Harbor to tout their 1995 film Crimson Tide at that year's Venice Film Festival. Simpson, on the other hand, was quiet and complicated. His tendency toward substance abuse began interfering with his professional life in 1990, after they signed what they called a "dream deal" with Paramount. Blaming the duo's tendency toward extravagant spending, the studio destroyed their contract after only nine months. The two signed with Disney in 1991, but Simpson was seldom seen around the offices. Knowing that his partner was caught up in drug abuse, but not willing to throw away such a lucrative relationship, Bruckheimer and Simpson's many powerful friends covered for the errant producer at Disney. Simpson was allegedly undergoing drug rehabilitation with his doctor and long-time friend, Stephen Ammerman, when the latter was found dead of an overdose in Simpson's poolhouse on August 14, 1996. After that, Simpson fell into a deep depression and was unable to assist Bruckheimer with the production chores on their latest film, The Rock (1996), starring Sean Connery. Still Bruckheimer remained loyal and said nothing of Simpson's problems until December 1995, when he publicly announced that while he and Simpson were still good friends, their partnership would be dissolved. Simpson was busy planning new projects at Disney when he was found dead in his Bel-Air home on January 19, 1996. At first the cause of death was unknown, but later police deduced that the 52-year-old producer probably died of heart failure.

Trivia: While some may not recognize Margo Martindale's name, many recognize her face. An actress onscreen from the early '90s, Martindale's list of memorable roles is long, and the character actress found a strong niche playing mothers (Million Dollar Baby) grandmothers (Hannah Montana: The Movie), and generally maternal figures (Practical Magic). Martindale even parodied her own typecasting, playing the mother of the title character in the biopic spoof Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Martindale would continue to act at a furious pace for years to come, appearing in movies like Secretariat, and on shows like Justified and A Gifted Man.

Trivia: An everyman character actor with a slightly authoritarian bent, Nick Searcy spent his first two decades onscreen specializing in portrayals of such easily recognizable types as policemen, FBI agents, private detectives, and military colonels. Searcy took one of his first bows as a highway patrol officer in the Tom Cruise-headlined Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer outing Days of Thunder (1990), then followed this up with roles in such projects as the telemovies Nightmare in Columbia County and White Lie (both 1991) and the Barbra Streisand feature drama The Prince of Tides (1991). Moviegoers may also associate Searcy with another portrayal from that same year, albeit a far nastier one: that of Frank Bennett, the slug of a husband who ends up as human barbecue at the Whistle Stop Café in Jon Avnet's sleeper hit Fried Green Tomatoes.As the following two decades unfurled, Searcy maintained an almost constant onscreen presence in dozens of films (albeit frequently low-profiled ones). Some of his more memorable projects included Michael Apted's Nell (1994) opposite Jodie Foster, Robert Zemeckis' Cast Away (2000) opposite Tom Hanks, and The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004) opposite Sean Penn. In 2008, Searcy signed on as a regular -- portraying Roy Buffkin -- in the CW network's series drama Easy Money. That series was short-lived, but Searcy kept going with roles in The Ugly Truth and Blood Done Sign My Name. He was part of the cast for Justified, the hit cable series based on the work of Elmore Leonard, and in 2011 he played Matt Keough in the Brad Pitt sports drama Moneyball.