Trivia: Diane Lane was born in New York City in 1965, the daughter of drama coach Burt Lane and Playboy centrespread Colleen Farrington; her eyes seemed to sparkle with stars from the tender age of six. Cast in a La Mama Experimental Theatre production of Medea, Lane would subsequently appear on stage in numerous productions, both in her native New York and abroad. It wasn't long before the late-'70s found Lane reaching the apex of her early career, and in 1978 she made her film debut in director George Roy Hill's A Little Romance. Cast alongside no less than Sir Laurence Olivier, Lane held her own in the role of an American student who finds love while studying abroad, and as a result gained remarkable exposure on the cover of Time Magazine in August of the following year. Lane was touted as one of the most promising actors of her generation, and this success parlayed her into a series of neglected films. In a number of these instances, she could not be faulted for choosing substandard material; her appearance in Lamont Johnson's fresh and rousing female western Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1981), for example (alongside Amanda Plummer, Burt Lancaster and Rod Steiger) drew lavish critical praise even as the studio inexplicably threw the film into the wastecan. Lane fared better with twin roles in a pair of teen dramas from director Francis Ford Coppola in 1983 (The Outsiders and Rumble Fish) once again earned the burgeoning film actress the spotlight and reminded audiences of her immense talent; she became a Coppola favorite, but didn't fare as well with his Cotton Club, a massive critical and commercial flop that did little to boost her career, even as it introduced her to co-star Richard Gere (with whom she would reteam, professionally, years later).After rounding out the decade with yet another memorable turn in the television miniseries Lonesome Dove (1989), Lane's career once again became a more low-key affair, though her performances frequently outshined the otherwise unremarkable series of films she appeared in.Though roles in such efforts as Chaplin (1992), A Streetcar Named Desire (1995), and Jack (1996) kept her from falling off the radar, Lane didn't truly shine again until her role as a housewife who embarks on a fragile extramarital affair in A Walk on the Moon (1998). Following that film with a pair of memorable performances in My Dog Skip and The Perfect Storm (both in 2000), Lane's career seemed to have achieved some stability, but it wasn't before a pair of forgettable features (Hardball and The Glass House, both in 2001) that Lane scored with yet another tale of marital infidelity. Director Adrian Lyne's Unfaithful, a retooling of Claude Chabrol's La Femme Infidèle, once again found Lane in the throes of an alluring stranger. Unfaithful - the anticipated onscreen reunion of Lane with Richard Gere - pondered the crushing reverberations of extramarital carnality, and Lane provided an ample and intriguing center of gravity for the film. When February 2003 rolled around and the Academy announced its nominations for the previous year, Lane received her first-ever Oscar nod for her emotional turn in Unfaithful. It did not pay off with a win, but Lane's follow-ups with roles in substantial fare including Just Like Mona (2002) and the wildly-popular Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) suggested that Lane's career had finally found solid box-office ground. Time validated this assertion: 2005's Must Love Dogs, a romantic comedy vehicle co-starring Lane and John Cusack, drew positive responses from many moviegoers and did decent, if not spectacular, box office, despite the excoriation of some critics (Salon's Stephanie Zacharek moaned, "It's ostensibly about adults, but there's nothing remotely adult about it.") 2006's Hollywoodland casts Lane in a mystery about the enigmatic demise of Superman's George Reeves. Over the next several years, Lane would prove she had no intention of slowing down , appearing in films like Untraceable, Nights in Rodanthe, and Secretariat. She appeared in the Superman reboot Man of Steel in 2013 as Martha Kent.Married to Highlander Christopher Lambert from 1988 to 1994 (with a single daughter from that marriage), Lane wed actor Josh Brolin in late 2004, before divorcing in 2013. In addition to her high-profile movie career, she is also an avid photographer; the January 2005 issue of InStyle Magazine prominently published a series of landscapes that Lane shot during one of her road trips into the American west.

Trivia: One of Canada's most respected actresses, Sandra Oh is one of her country's growing number of talented performers to make their presence felt in Hollywood. Oh, who is of Korean heritage, was born in Nepean, Ottawa, and began acting at the age of ten. Despite the disapproval of her traditionally-minded parents, she embarked on a professional acting career when she was barely out of her teens. After attending the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal, Oh had her breakthrough in the 1993 CBC production of Runaway: The Diary of Evelyn Lau. Her portrayal of the title character, a 14-year-old runaway who endured hard times while living on the street, earned Oh a FIPA d'Or for Best Actress at Cannes.On the big screen, Oh first earned raves and recognition for her portrayal of a Chinese-Canadian woman struggling with both the demands of her conservative parents and those placed on her by society in response to her ethnic identity in Double Happiness. Her thoughtful, funny performance earned Oh her first Genie Award (Canada's equivalent of the Oscar), but unfortunately, further work was not immediately forthcoming. Things began to look up when Oh was cast on the popular HBO series Arli$$ in 1996, and in a bit part in the hit comedy Bean (1997).Oh found greater success as one of the stars of Don McKellar's Last Night (1998), a comedy-drama about the end of the world that cast the actress as a woman trying to get across town in time to make good on a suicide pact she has with her husband (David Cronenberg). An internationally praised film that enjoyed a particularly strong reception at the Toronto and Cannes Festivals, it received a number of awards, including a second Genie for Oh. The following year, Oh took part in another critical hit with Audrey Wells' Guinevere, in which she appeared alongside fellow Canadian Sarah Polley as one of a number of young women taken under the wing of a dubious mentor (Stephen Rea).Oh ushered in the new millenium with a role in the largely-improvised ensemble film Dancing at the Blue Iguana, and the ensuing years saw the actress primarily take on a variety of small character roles in such films as Big Fat Liar and Under the Tuscan Sun. In 2004, however, she garnered a number of positive responses playing the impulsive-but-tough Stephanie in then-husband Alexander Payne's dramedy Sideways. The role would be a breakthrough, even if Payne and Oh announced the end of their marriage shortly after the film was honored at the 2005 Academy Awards. Oh's professional life continued to improve landing a major role on the television series Gray's Anatomy. Her caustic, hilarious and often heartbreaking work in that series earned her strong reviews, as well as a Golden Globe Award and Emmy recognition. In 2006 she took time off from the show to appear opposite Robin Williams in the thriller The Night Listener. Oh would go on to appear in a number of feature films in the coming years, like Blindness, Defendor, and Ramona and Beezus.

Trivia: All that glitters is not Hollywood gold, Scottish actress Lindsay Duncan believes. Although she could easily command million-dollar paychecks for performing in big-budget American films, she prefers acting in new or vintage stage plays and in screen adaptations of classic novels. So she does Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Henry Fielding, and Oscar Wilde. But her loyalty to literary giants such as these is not without its rewards: She won the 2002 Olivier Award as best actress for her performance in Noël Coward's Private Lives, a 1988 London Evening Standard Award as best actress for her performance in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and a 1987 Tony nomination as leading actress for her performance in Pierre Cholderlos de Laclos' Les Liaisons Dangereuses. However, she is not averse to accepting an occasional fun role in a major Hollywood film. For example, she was the voice of protocol droid TC-14 in Star Wars, Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. For her ability to bring to life characters of every description, whether futuristic robots or here-and-now reprobates, critics agree that she is one of Britain's most talented actresses. Duncan was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on November 7, 1950. After studying at London's Central School of Drama, she labored in mostly unheralded theater roles before graduating to television productions in the 1980s. These productions included On Approval (1982), Reilly: The Ace of Spies (1983), Dead Head (1985), and Traffik (1989). In the 1990s, well seasoned and ready for limelight drama, Duncan picked herself a bouquet of choice roles that put her on prestigious London stages, in movie theaters from Liverpool to Los Angeles, and in the living rooms of television viewers throughout the English-speaking world. One well-known production that exhibits her talents is the 1999 TV miniseries Oliver Twist, in which she portrays Elizabeth Leeford, a woman so evil that the devil himself would fear her. Duncan also appears in the 1999 film adaptation of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park in dual roles as the heroine's mother and drug-addicted aunt, in the 1997 TV miniseries A History of Tom Jones: A Foundling as Lady Ballaston, in the 1996 film adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream as Hippolyta and Titania, and in the 1993 TV miniseries A Year in Provence as the wife of author Peter Mayle. Her real-life husband, Hilton McRae, is also an actor. They have one son, born in 1990.

Trivia: Italian lead actor in international films, onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: In 1985, won the National Competition of Miss Teenager.Moved to Paris to learn French for several months before returning to Italy at age 22.Speaks Italian, English, Spanish and French.Supports the center-left Italian Democratic Party.Has a black belt in Taekwondo.

Trivia: Played hockey and basketball in high school, continuing his hoops career in college until a career-ending back injury. Discovered acting when his college roommate was casting a play and was in need of performers. Debuted professionally in a Molson beer commercial. Dabbled in celebrity games on the World Poker Tour, developing skills he applied in auditions for his police-officer role on Cracked. Practices a form of emotional therapy called Core Energetics, for which he produced a Web docuseries called GROUP. Continues to play ice hockey in an older men's league.

Trivia: Bearing a sort of Catherine Deneuve-by-way-of-Kelly Clarkson look, Kate Walsh may have an impressive list of film and TV roles on her resumé, but her primary acting venue was the stage. Starting out in regional theater in Tucson, AZ, where she went to college, Walsh later got involved with the Piven Theatre Workshop and Shakespeare Repertory in Chicago, as well as the comedy troupe Burn Manhattan in New York. By the mid-'90s, Walsh began slowly but surely making the transition to the screen with appearances on TV shows like Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order. Walsh's list of film and TV appearances soon grew, and among her scads of roles were a number of prominent parts on very popular shows. She became a regular on The Drew Carey Show in 1997, donning a fat suit to play Drew's weight-struggling girlfriend, and in 2001, she took a recurring role on the HBO series The Mind of the Married Man.In 2005, Walsh joined the cast of the smash-hit series Grey's Anatomy, playing Dr. Addison Montgomery-Shepherd, estranged (and eventually ex-) wife of "Doctor McDreamy," Patrick Dempsey. Walsh suddenly went from a working actress to a well-known face, and it looked like the perfect time for the actress to segue into the big screen in a starring capacity, after a string of minor appearances in major films. Sadly, this wasn't to be, but the actress did join the cast of Private Practice in 2007, and appeared in the films Legion (2010), Angel's Crest (2011), and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012).

Trivia: Actor-turned-producer Matt Salinger made his acting debut playing Burke in Revenge of the Nerds (1984). For the rest of the '80s, Salinger primarily appeared in television movies and low-budget features. During the early '90s, he abandoned acting only to return mid-decade as the producer of such films as Australian director Kevin Dowling's Mojave Moon (1996). Salinger is the son of the great contemporary author J.D. Salinger.

Trivia: An actor since the age of six, when he began appearing in TV commercials, Elden Henson got his first big break in 1998 when he was cast as a warm-hearted giant opposite Sharon Stone and Kieran Culkin in The Mighty. Often cast as social misfits, the red-haired, stocky actor was born in Rockville, MD, on August 30, 1977. Two years later he entered show business as a model, and at the age of six moved to Los Angeles with his family in order to better pursue his career.After getting bit parts in Jaws: The Revenge (1987) and Turner and Hooch (1989), Henson won a more substantial role in the 1992 preteen hockey comedy The Mighty Ducks, and also appeared in the film's 1994 and 1996 sequels. Following his recognition in The Mighty, which earned him some positive critical notices, he became part of the late-'90s teen flick trend when he was chosen for supporting roles in the Freddy Prinze Jr./Rachael Leigh Cook romantic comedy She's All That (1999) and Idle Hands (1999), a schlocky teen murder ditty that had the misfortune of being released in the wake of the Columbine High School massacre.In 2001, Henson won one of his most substantial roles to date in Manic, a teen-ensemble drama directed by first-time filmmaker Jordan Melamed. Set entirely in a teen psychiatric ward, it cast Henson as an angry young man in the company of Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, as well as the always reliable Don Cheadle. That same year he further increased his exposure by appearing opposite Julia Stiles, Josh Hartnett, and Mekhi Phifer in O, Tim Blake Nelson's modern-day prep school take on Shakespeare's Othello.

Trivia: Began acting in plays as a child at his synagogue. Wrote an original stage play, I Know You Are, But What Am I?, which he later adapted into his film All Over the Guy. Performed with the Groundlings improv troupe in New York. Wrote Lisa Kudrow's part in All Over the Guy specifically for her, after the two became friends while attending Vassar College. Wrote a book about being a gay parent called Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight? Confessions of a Gay Dad. Runs a production company, Is or Isn't Entertainment, with Lisa Kudrow.