Trivia: Has appeared in 3 films nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture (Goodfellas, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle) Has appeared in 6 films directed by Martin Scorsese and 5 by Woody Allen Has appeared in 16 films that star Robert DeNiro Had recurring roles on two popular HBO series, The Sopranos and Entourage Received a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for American Hustle in 2014

Trivia: Though he appeared to be the archetypal tense, tightly wound street punk, Tony Musante was in fact a reasonably well-behaved kid while growing up in Connecticut. After attending Oberlin College, Musante worked as a schoolteacher before making his off-Broadway acting bow in 1960. Three years later, producer David Susskind chose Musante to play a switchblade-wielding juvenile delinquent in the hour-long TV drama Ride With Terror; this developed into the 1967 film The Incident, with Musante repeating his role and winning several festival awards as a result. Following a healthy leading-man career in Italian pictures and in such Hollywood productions as The Last Run (1971), Musante returned to TV to star as chameleonlike New Jersey cop Dave Toma in the 1973 series Toma. When he left the series over creative differences after a single season, the program was retooled as Baretta, with Robert Blake in the title role. Tony Musante went on to earn an Emmy nomination for his performance in the 1975 TV movie A Quality of Mercy, and that same year made his long-overdue Broadway debut in PS Your Cat is Dead. He played Mafia boss Nino Schibetta on the first season of the HBO series Oz and continued working steadily up until his death in 2013 at age 77, as a result of complications from surgery.

Trivia: Staying true to his last name, Joaquin Phoenix has made a career out of making a couple of films, disappearing, and then reappearing from the ashes to rise upward toward greater glory. The actor, who began his career under the name of "Leaf," lived for a long time in the shadow of his older brother, River. After River's tragic death at the age of 23, Leaf abandoned his career for two years, making a comeback in 1995 with his performance in To Die For, directed by Gus Van Sant (who ironically directed River in one of his last films, 1993's Even Cowgirls Get the Blues). Since then, the actor, who changed his name back to Joaquin in the early '90s, has worked steadily in Hollywood, solidifying both his experience and reputation.Born Joaquin Raphael Phoenix on October 28, 1974, in Puerto Rico, Phoenix was raised in a close-knit, unconventional family. His parents encouraged all of their children to go into acting, and Phoenix did just that, following in the footsteps of older siblings River and Rain. As Leaf Phoenix, he got his first significant role in 1986's Spacecamp, and then went on to star in Russkies (1987) and Parenthood (1989), the latter of which was successful enough to make Phoenix something of a fledgling star. However, he chose to retreat from Hollywood, spending a few years traveling and living with his father in Mexico.It was River's 1993 death that brought his younger brother -- now called Joaquin -- back into the limelight, albeit a very unwelcome limelight. The 911 call that Phoenix made as his older brother lay dying was broadcast over radio and television in the aftermath of River's death. Again, Phoenix left Hollywood, not to be seen again until 1995, when his performance as the tragically confused and horny Jimmy Emmett won him an array of positive reviews. From there, Phoenix went on to film Inventing the Abbotts (1997), which failed at the box office but introduced the actor to his co-star Liv Tyler, with whom he had a three-year relationship.Phoenix's next project, Oliver Stone's U-Turn (1997), also proved to be a modest flop, but Return to Paradise (1998), in which he starred with Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche, was a bigger hit among critics and filmgoers. He starred again with Vaughn in Clay Pigeons (1998), which unfortunately didn't fare as well as his previous film. However, his next endeavor, 8MM with Nicolas Cage, although not a huge box office hit, did win him acclaim for his portrayal of thoughtful porn shop owner Max California, further proving that the family talent was not solely the province of Phoenix's late, great older brother. In 2000 Phoenix took one of his biggest and most extravagant roles to date as Commodus in director Ridley Scott's big-budget peplum Gladiator. Phoenix's turn as the devious Commodus was a marked departure from the actor's generally likeable characterizations, and proved further indication of his dramatic versitility. On the opposite end of the period piece spectrum, Jaoquin appeased art-house crowds with a memorable performance as the priest who runs the asylum housing the Marquis de Sade in Quills before moving closer to the present and impressing critics with a leading role in Buffalo Soldiers (2001). As a bored military camp clerk who runs goods in the black market, Phoenix's impressive performance was well recieved by festival critics and continued to provide further argument for his viability as a leading man. Phoenix would next turn-up alongside Mel Gibson in The Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan's rural alien invasion thriller Signs. Replacing actor Mark Ruffalo after Ruffalo pulled out of the film due to ill-health, Phoenix stepped into the role as Gibson's younger brother, a member of a family caught in an alien invasion following the appearance of crop circles in the family's cornfield. In 2003, Phoenix lent his voice to the Disney animated film Brother Bear, before re-teaming with M. Night Shyalaman for The Village, a thriller in the same vein as Signs that proved a major disappointment to audiences and critics alike. He followed this with a small part in the highly respected Hotel Rwanda, playing an American camera man covering the 1994 war in Rwanda that ended in 1 million deaths as a result of genocidal murder. This performance, along with his role as a rookie firefighter in Ladder 49 helped him establish himself as an everyman, as well as a character actor.By 2005, Phoenix had developed a reputation as a dependable, versatile actor, but he would rise from respectability to greatness with his depiction of legendary country singer Johnny Cash in James Mangold's biopic Walk the Line. Performing all his own singing for the part and learning the guitar from scratch, Phoenix received a Golden Globe Award for the film, along with his costar Reese Witherspoon.Phoenix's reputation for reliability fell under question when he arrived for a guest spot on Late Night with David Letterman disheveled and seemingly intoxicated. Though his appearance on Letterman was intended as a promotional piece for Two Lovers (2008), a romantic drama following a depressed young man (Phoenix) who finds himself in the middle of a love triangle, it was eventually revealed that the Letterman appearance was intended for I'm Still Here, a "biopic" depicting Phoenix as a drug-addled, emotional disaster. Shortly before the premier of I'm Still Here, director Casey Affleck admitted the film was satirical in nature and not meant to be taken literally.Two years after that public-relations hiccup, Phoenix returned earning rave reviews for his role as a disturbed war veteran who falls under the spell of a charismatic cult leader in Paul Thomas Anderson's drama The Master. His work in that film was recognized by the Academy, who tapped Phoenix for the Best Actor category.

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: A fiercely independent actress who refuses to be pressed into a conventional mode or typecast, Eva Mendes was studying marketing in the late '90s when an agent stumbled across her photo while perusing Mendes's neighbor's portfolio. She soon appeared in an Aerosmith video and made her film debut in Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror. Mendes next appeared in a few made-for-television productions and hammed it up with Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan in A Night at the Roxbury before being cast in a prominent role in Urban Legends: Final Cut. Working against typecasting despite her teen horror resumé, Mendes next took roles in Exit Wounds, Training Day, and All About the Benjamins. Mendes next began work on a children's book titled Crazy Leggs Beshee in which she wanted to introduce art, history, vocabulary, and values to children in a fun and easily comprehendable medium.In 2003, Mendes' career took off, with the actress taking on large roles in an ecclectic quartet of high-profile films. In 2 Fast 2 Furious she played a customs agent working with Paul Walker to bring down a Miami drug cartel. Out of Time found her reteaming with Training Day costar Denzel Washington. Flexing her comedic chops, Mendes was the love interest of half a pair of conjoined twins in the Farrelly brothers' Stuck on You. And in Once Upon a Time in Mexico she played another government agent, this time opposite Johnny Depp.Mendes would go on to appear in a number of films over the coming years, like The Wendell Baker Story, Hitch, Ghost Rider, The Other Guys, and Girl in Progress. She took several years off in order to focus on her growing family, but in 2015, it was announced she would reprise her role from 2 Fast 2 Furious in a future Fast film.

Trivia: Russian actor and mixed martial artist Oleg Taktarov earned accolades in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the PRIDE Fighting Championship before retiring in 2001 to focus on a career on-screen. Leveraging his popularity in the fighting world, he began making appearances in action films like Bad Boys II, National Treasure, and Miami Vice, before coming out of retirement in 2007 to rack up additional successes, before retiring again in 2008. Taktarov then resumed his focus on movies, appearing in Predators and Righteous Kill.

Trivia: Before he started acting, Mark Wahlberg was best known as Marky Mark, the pants-dropping rapper who attained fame and notoriety with his group the Funky Bunch. In the tradition of Will Smith and Ice Cube, Wahlberg has made a successful transition from music to film, garnering particular early praise for his role in Boogie Nights.Born June 5, 1971, in Dorchester, MA, Wahlberg had a troubled early life. One of nine children, he dropped out of school at 16 (he would later earn his GED) and committed a number of minor felonies. After working various odd jobs, Wahlberg briefly joined brother Donnie and his group New Kids on the Block before forming his own, Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch. The group had widespread popularity for a time, most notably with its 1992 hit single "Good Vibrations." However, it was Wahlberg himself who received the lion's share of attention, whether it was for the homophobia controversy that surrounded him for a time, or for the 1992 Calvin Klein ad campaign featuring him wearing nothing more than his underwear, Kate Moss, and an attitude. In 1993, Wahlberg turned his attentions to acting with a role in The Substitute. The film, co-starring a then-unknown Natasha Gregson Wagner, was a critical and commercial failure, but Wahlberg's next project, 1994's Renaissance Man, with Danny De Vito, gave him the positive notices that would increase with the release of his next film, The Basketball Diaries (1995). Although the film received mixed reviews, many critics praised Wahlberg's performance as Mickey, Leonardo Di Caprio's friend and fellow junkie. Following Diaries, Wahlberg appeared in Fear (1996) in the role of Reese Witherspoon's psychotic boyfriend.It was with the release of Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights in 1997 that Wahlberg finally received across-the-board respect for his commanding yet unassuming performance as busboy-turned-porn-star Eddie Adams/Dirk Diggler. The film was nominated for three Oscars and a slew of other awards by associations ranging from the British Academy to the New York Film Critics Circle to MTV. The positive attention landed Wahlberg on a wide range of magazine covers and gave him greater Hollywood pulling power. He had, as they say, arrived. Wahlberg's follow-up to Boogie Nights was 1998's The Big Hit, an action comedy that, particularly in the wake of Boogie Night's acclaim, proved to be a disappointment. This disappointment was hardly lessened by the relative critical and commercial shortcomings of Wahlberg's next film, The Corruptor (1999). An action flick that co-starred Chow Yun-Fat, The Corruptor showcased Wahlberg's familiar macho side and indicated that success in Hollywood is a strange and unpredictable thing. Though he gained positive notice for his role in David O. Russell' s unconventional war film Three Kings the same year, the film was only a moderate success, paving the way for an even more dramatic turn in the downbeat true story of the ill-fated Andrea Gail, The Perfect Storm, in 2000.The following year found Wahlberg filling some big shoes -- and receiving some hefty criticism as a result -- with his lead role in Tim Burton's much-anticipated remake of Planet of the Apes. Taking over the role that Charlton Heston made famous, Wahlberg found himself pursued onscreen by sinister simians, as well as offscreen by critics who decried the lack of depth that the actor brought to the role. Late that summer, Wahlberg came back down to Earth -- specifically to the everyday-Joe-rises-to-fame territory of Boogie Nights -- with Rock Star, the story of a tribute-band singer who gets a chance to sing for the band he idolizes. Though his noble attempt to fill the considerable shoes of Hollywood legend Cary Grant in the 2002 Charade remake The Truth About Charlie would be only slightly exceeded by his assumption of the role originally played by Michael Caine in the following year's remake of The Italian Job, Wahlberg would subsequently prove that there's nothing like the fresh breeze of an original script in director David O. Russell's existential 2004 comedy I Heart Huckabees. Of course, Wahlberg was never one to let a crowd down, and after riling audiences alongside Tyrese Gibson and André Benjamin in the Detroit-based revenge flick Four Brothers, the athletic actor would take to the gridiron to tell the inspirational story of one football fan whose dreams of playing in the NFL actually came true in the 2006 sports drama Invincible. Also released in the fall of 2006, The Departed allowed Wahlberg to act opposite such heavy hitters as Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin, and his old Basketball Diaries co-star Leonardo Di Caprio under the direction of Martin Scorsese. Not only did Wahlberg hold his own against the cast of critics' darlings, he landed the film's only acting Academy Award nod. In 2007, Wahlberg starred in the suspense actioner The Shooter, as well as in director Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lovely Bones. Wahlberg starred as the leader of a ragtag group trying to survive amidst murderous plant life in M. Night Shyamalan's so-bad-it's-good The Happening (2008), and played the titular role of Max Payne, which was adapted from a video game of the same name. In 2010 the actor starred in the inspirational docudrama chronicling the life of brothers Micky and Dicky Ecklund as they take on the world of boxing. Wahlberg earned an Academy Award nomination for producing the film; that same year, he began producing a new show for HBO, Boardwalk Empire. Wahlberg had a huge hit in 2012 with Seth MacFarlane's Ted, and joined the Transformer franchise in Transformers: Age of Extinction in 2014. Wahlberg continued his steady work, starring and producing both Deepwater Horizon (which was nominated for two Oscars) and Patriots Day (about the Boston Marathon bombing) in 2016.

Trivia: Did his Israel military service in an IDF entertainment troupe.Joined the Haifa Theater after studying drama in university, and stayed with the group for 5 years.Made his feature film debut in the 1977 drama Masa Alunkot a.k.a. Paratroopers.Co-hosted Zehu Ze! (This is it!), the long-running satirical Israeli entertainment television program, with Shlomo Baraba from 1978 to 1998.Performed children's songs while starring in five Festigal song festivals during the 1980's.