Trivia: Internationally known for his charisma and smoldering good looks, Antonio Banderas is the ultimate manifestation of the Latin heartthrob. Born in Málaga, Spain on August 10, 1960, Banderas wanted to become a professional soccer player until a broken foot sidelined his dreams at the age of fourteen. He went on to enroll in some drama classes, eventually joining a theatre troupe that toured all over Spain. His work in the theatre, and his performances on the streets, eventually landed him a spot with the National Theatre of Spain. While performing with the theatre, Banderas caught the attention of director Pedro Almodóvar, who cast the young actor in his film debut, Laberinto de Pasione (Labyrinth of Passion) (1982). He went on to appear in the director's La Ley del Deseo (Law of Desire) (1984), making headlines with his performance as a gay man, which required him to engage in his first male-to-male onscreen kiss. After Banderas appeared in Almodóvar's Matador (1986), the director cast him in his internationally acclaimed Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) (1988). The recognition Banderas gained for his role increased two years later when he starred in Almodóvar's controversial Atame! (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!) as a mental patient who kidnaps a porn star (Victoria Abril) and keeps her tied up until she returns his love.Banderas made his first stateside appearance as an unwitting object of Madonna's affections in Truth or Dare (1991). The following year, still speaking next to no English, he starred in his first American film, The Mambo Kings. It was a testament to his acting abilities that, despite having to learn all of his lines phonetically, Banderas still managed to turn in a critically praised performance as a struggling musician. He broke through to mainstream American audiences as the gay lover of AIDS-afflicted lawyer Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) in Philadelphia (1993). The film's success earned Banderas wide recognition, and the following year he was given a substantial role in Neil Jordan's high-profile adaptation of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, which allowed him to share the screen with the likes of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. Banderas subsequently appeared in a number of films of widely varying quality, doing particularly strong work in Desperado (1995), Evita (1998), and The Mask of Zorro (1998). In 1999, he made his first foray into directing with Crazy in Alabama, a black comedy starring Melanie Griffith, to whom he had been married since 1996. The following year he starred as an aspiring boxer opposite Woody Harrelson in Play It to the Bone, portrayed a Cuban tycoon with a bad seed bride (Angelina Jolie) in Original Sin, and starred alongside Bob Hoskins and Wes Bentley in The White River Kid. Well established as a hearthrob and a talented dramatic actor by the end of the 1990s, the fact that Desperato director Robert Rodriguez was the only director to have expolored Banderas' comic potential (Banderas provided one of the few memorable performances in Rodriguez's segment of the otherwise abysmal Four Rooms (1995)) hinted at a heretofore unexplored but potentially lucrative territory for the actor. Later approached by Rodriguez to portray the super-spy patriarch in the family oriented adventure comedy Spy Kids (2001), Banderas charmed children and adults alike with his role as a kidnapped agent whose children must discover their inner stregnth in order to rescue their mother and father. After reprising his role in the following year's Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams, Banderas would next return to more adult oriented roles in both Brian DePalma's Femme Fatale and the ill-fated Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (both 2002). After essaying a more historic role in the dramatic biopic Frida (also 2002), the remarkably diverse actor would one again team with Rodriguez for the sprawling Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003). In 2004 he joined the highly successful Shrek franchise voicing Puss In Boots, and the character became so popular that he appeared in each of the following sequels, and was the subject of his own feature in 2011. In 2005 he played Zorro again, and he had a major part in the dance film Take the Lead. In 2011 he reteamed for the first time in two decades with Pedro Almodovar in the Hitchcock-inspired The Skin I Live In, and the next year he appeared as a mysterious international espionage figure in the action film Haywire. He appeared in a small role in Rodriguez's Machete Kills (2013) and later appeared in The Expendables 3 (2014).

Trivia: Although she has also proven herself as a dramatic actress, Meg Ryan used her blonde hair, blue eyes, and effervescent personality to greatest effect in romantic comedies of the 1980s and '90s. Initially getting her start on television, Ryan became a star with her titular role in the smash 1989 comedy When Harry Met Sally, earning both fame and permanent notoriety for her ability to fake an orgasm for Billy Crystal during a scene in a New York restaurant.The daughter of a casting agent, Ryan was born Margaret Mary Emily Anna Hyra in Fairfield, Connecticut on November 19, 1961. Raised in New York, she went on to study journalism at New York University. In need of money to pay for her night classes, Ryan turned to acting to raise some extra cash. With her mother's help, she landed a role on a short-lived television series, and then made her film debut in Rich and Famous. The 1981 film -- director George Cukor's last -- cast Ryan as Candice Bergen's daughter, and proved to be a positive enough experience that the young actress was soon looking for more work. A lucky break led to her being cast in the daytime drama As the World Turns, on which she performed from 1982 until 1984.After appearing in Amityville 3-D (1983), Ryan secured more auspicious work when she was cast as the wife of doomed flyboy Goose (Anthony Edwards) in Top Gun (1986). Although her role was minor, the film's success paved the way for more work for the actress, and the following year she starred in Innerspace, a comedy that cast her as Dennis Quaid's girlfriend. Her onscreen status as Quaid's love interest soon became off-screen reality, and after starring together in D.O.A. (1988), the two married in 1991.In 1989, Ryan had her breakthrough role as Sally Albright in Rob Reiner's When Harry Met Sally. The following year, she starred opposite Tom Hanks in Joe Versus the Volcano. Although the film received a lukewarm critical and commercial reception, it began an onscreen collaboration between Ryan and Hanks that would prove to be very successful in future films. Before she next appeared onscreen with Hanks, Ryan took an uncharacteristic turn towards the purely dramatic, playing Jim Morrison's drug-addicted wife Pamela in Oliver Stone's The Doors (1991). She received wide critical praise for her portrayal, proving that she was capable of extending her range beyond light comedy. She further demonstrated her capabilities in the dark 1993 drama Flesh and Bone. Her performance as a hitchhiker received strong notices, although the film, which cast her opposite husband Quaid, was largely ignored by audiences.That same year, Ryan returned to romantic comedy, starring opposite Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle. Nominated for a Golden Globe for her work, she then starred in another romantic comedy, I.Q., the following year. However, 1994 also brought more dramatic roles with Restoration, a period drama that cast Ryan as Robert Downey, Jr.'s doomed love, and When a Man Loves a Woman, in which she played an alcoholic. After further bucking her bubbly persona with a turn as a Gulf War solider in Courage Under Fire (1996) and a somewhat nasty portrayal of a vengeful ex-girlfriend in Addicted to Love (1997), Ryan again starred opposite Hanks in You've Got Mail (1998). Another romantic comedy, it put the actress back in her most successful milieu and was popular among critics and audiences alike. That same year, Ryan had further success starring opposite Nicolas Cage in the romantic drama City of Angels, and essayed the unlikely role of a world-weary exotic dancer in Hurlyburly.2000 saw Ryan return to comedy, starring alongside Lisa Kudrow and Diane Keaton in Keaton's Hanging Up and also serving as the producer of the supernatural thriller Lost Souls. However, it was Ryan's offscreen activities that same year that truly aroused the public's notice and allowed her to break away from her perky, girl-next-door persona more effectively than any number of dramatic film roles could ever hope to: following the news of her affair with Proof of Life co-star Russell Crowe, Ryan and husband Quaid filed for divorce. Ironically, this real-life drama mirrored the premise of Proof, a romantic drama in which the wife (Ryan) of a man kidnapped in South America enlists the help of a "freelance hostage negotiator" (Crowe) to find her husband, only to enter into an adulterous affair with the negotiator.In 2001, Ryan took a short break from feature films in order to participate in a documentary titled In the Wild: The White Elephants of Thailand, though she would return to the top of the romantic-comedy It-list in the whimsical Kate and Leopold alongside then rising romantic lead Hugh Jackman. In 2002, Ryan provided interview footage with fellow acting colleagues Whoopi Goldberg, Diane Lane, Teri Garr, and Holly Hunter, among others, in Searching for Debra Winger, which was directed by Rosanna Arquette. In 2003, the actress reappeared on the scene for the release of In the Cut, a throwback to '70s psycho-sexual thrillers, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. In 2004, Ryan stared in Charles S. Dutton's feature-length directorial debut, which is based on the real-life story of Jackie Kallen, a small-time Michigan woman turned successful boxing manager. For her next film, Ryan joined the cast of the 2007 ensemble drama In the Land of Women, and then headlined another ensemble production, The Women, a poorly recieved update of the 1939 George Cukor film with the same name. 2009's Serious Moonlight, directed by Cheryl Hines, would be her last film before she took a long hiatus from acting.

Trivia: Colin Hanks, son of the famous Tom Hanks, was born on November 24, 1977. He spent his youth in Sacramento, and, after deciding to follow in his father's dramatic footsteps, began studying acting. Attending Loyola Marymount University in Westchester, CA, he gained experience that would help to make him a talent in his own right, in addition to the name his father had already made. Before graduation, he had a bit part in That Thing You Do! (1996), directed by his father. Hanks landed a role on WB's Roswell after he finished college, and soon followed it up with a turn in the youthful, modern version of the Cyrano de Bergerac story, Whatever It Takes (2000). In 2002, he starred in Orange County with Jack Black, a stoner comedy involving misplaced college applications and a wide range of hilarious characters. Hanks would make a habbit of appearing in Black's films, appearing in Peter Jackson's King Kong in 2005, and Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny in 2006. He would spend the next few years picking up roles in movies like 2008's Homeland Security and The House Bunny, before joining the cast of the action-comedy series The Good Guys in 2010. The show only lasted for 20 episodes, but TV prooved to be a good fit for Hanks, who would go on to become a regular face on TV, on shows like Dexter and Burning Love.

Trivia: After a couple of years of independent films and TV, Selma Blair began to make her name in late-'90s teen-targeted work. The Michigan-born and educated Blair originally moved to New York to pursue a career as a photographer, but wound up taking acting classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory instead. After being discovered by an agent, Blair played substantial roles in indie films Strong Island Boys (1997), Girl (1998), and Brown's Requiem (1998), and the TV movie No Laughing Matter (1997). She truly arrived, as the proverbial young actress to watch, in 1999 as level-headed New York teen Zoe in the WB sitcom Zoe, Duncan, Jack, and Jane (retitled Zoe in 2000), and more prominently, as the gullible and bumbling Cecile Caldwell in the popular Les Liaisons Dangereuses update Cruel Intentions (1999). Although Cecile played a secondary role in the film's nefarious sexual machinations among rich Manhattan prep schoolers, Blair's attention-getting onscreen kiss with co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar earned the teen seal of approval with an MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss in June 2000. Blair continued her youth movie work as a school drop-out-turned-porn star in the college romantic comedy Down to You (2000). After the cancellation of Zoe, Blair turned her attention again to movies. Though she played the lead in Kill Me Later (2001), Blair had a higher profile supporting role in the hit summer comedy Legally Blonde (2001). As the WASP Harvard law student Vivian Kensington, Blair was the uptight, brunette opposite of Cruel Intentions co-star Reese Witherspoon's pink and blonde Los Angeles princess Elle Woods, initially sneering at her vulgar rival before being won over by Elle's legal smarts and their shared love interest's idiocy. Taking a break from Hollywood froth, Blair also appeared as a co-ed who has a fateful intimate encounter with her writing professor in indie film provocateur Todd Solondz's customarily acidic third feature Storytelling (2001). A role as Elle Woods' (Reese Witherspoon) adversary turned friend in the hit 2001 comedy Legally Blonde found Blair offering an effective ying to star Witherspoon's yang, and subsequent roles in The Sweetest Thing (2002) and A Guy Thing (2003) found her offering a pair of winning supporting performances. Her status as an of-the-moment ingenue was further sealed by her participation, along with such other actresses as Julia Stiles and Mena Suvari, in the newfangled, tasteful 2002 version of the Pirelli Tires Calendar, and in 2004 Blair opted to expand her resume into special-effects laden blockbuster territory with the larger-than-life comic-to-screen adaptation Hellboy. After returning to fight the forces of darkness in the 2008 sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Blair began gravitating toward television with roles ni Kath & Kim, Portlandia, and Charlie Sheen's post-Two and a Half Men sitcom Anger Management.

Trivia: British actor Tom Adams played leading and supporting roles in films of the '60s and '70s, most notably The Great Escape (1963). Adams also appeared in television series such as Remington Steele and Dr. Who as well as performing in the occasional television movie. Adams died in 2014, at age 76.

Trivia: Chances are likely that you would recognize his face, and it's even more likely that although the face is familiar, you don't know that his name is Enrico Colantoni. Though he struck a funny bone in audiences with his role as a befuddled alien in the 1999 comedy hit Galaxy Quest, Colantoni had been appearing in minor film and television roles since the late '80s. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in February of 1963 and raised in a prominent Italian neighborhood of the city, his early interest in acting would result in frequent neighborhood skits to entertain family and friends. His interest in performing peaked after seeing his older brother in a high school play, and despite his interest in the stage Colantoni would later opt to study law at the University of Toronto. Coming from an inartistic background, his parents frowned upon Colantoni's passion for acting, and the aspiring thespian quietly opted for a drama class as an elective as he focused most of his energy on law studies. Colantoni's drama teacher quickly recognized the young actor's potential, and it wasn't long before the bright lights of New York City became to glaring to resist. When his parents announced that they were moving back to Italy, Colantoni made the difficult decision to remain in New York and live the life of a struggling actor. His gamble would soon pay off when Colantoni made his television debut in an episode of Friday the 13th: The Series in 1989. Later deciding that he still needed time to refine his talent, Colantoni subsequently attended Yale and later spent a season at Minneapolis' Guthrie Theater in 1994. Soon thereafter returning to the Big Apple, more stage roles followed until Colantoni was cast in an episode of NYPD Blue as the schizophrenic son of Peter Boyle's character. He made his film debut in the 1995 action comedy Money Train, and subsequent feature roles included Albino Alligator (1996), The Wrong Guy (1997), and 1999's Stigmata. It was during this time that Colantoni was also cast in the weekly comedy series Just Shoot Me. Later essaying the aforementioned role in Galaxy Quest, Colantoni appeared as a murderer in Steven Spielberg's A.I. before taking on roles in The First $20 Million is Always the Hardest and Full Frontal in 2002. He continued to have success in television series' throughout the 2000s, and became known for his roles as Keith Mars on Veronica Mars (2005-2006), and Sergeant Greg Parker on Flashpoint (2008-2011).

Trivia: Gaining notice for his bullying role opposite Haley Joel Osment in the massively popular 1999 supernatural sleeper hit The Sixth Sense, Trevor Morgan has quickly risen through the ranks to appear in some of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters. Born in Chicago, IL, in November 1986, Morgan found his calling early in life when, at the age of six, he told his parents that he wanted to become an actor. Soon after his family relocated to California in order to pursue his youthful dreams, young Morgan began to win roles in television commercials and in such popular series as Baywatch and Touched By an Angel in 1997. Making his feature debut in Family Man the same year, he began to realize his dreams, taking roles in Barney's Big Adventure and the made-for-television In the Doghouse the year before his role in The Sixth Sense gained him positive notice and widespread recognition. Nominated for Best Performance in TV Movie or Pilot at the Young Artist Awards for his turn as a child genius leading a double life in Disney's Genius the same year, Morgan appeared again alongside Osment in I'll Remember April (1999) before turning up as Mel Gibson's son in The Patriot in 2000. Soon after, Morgan would have his biggest adventure yet, facing off against dinosaurs in Jurassic Park III (2001).