Trivia: The day after 79-year-old Robert Mitchum succumbed to lung cancer, beloved actor James Stewart died, diverting all the press attention that was gearing up for Mitchum. So it has been for much of his career. Not that Mitchum wasn't one of Hollywood's most respected stars, he was. But unlike the wholesome middle-American idealism and charm of the blandly handsome Stewart, there was something unsettling and dangerous about Mitchum. He was a walking contradiction. Behind his drooping, sleepy eyes was an alert intelligence. His tall, muscular frame, broken nose, and lifeworn face evoked a laborer's life, but he moved with the effortless, laid-back grace of a highly trained athlete. Early in his career critics generally ignored Mitchum, who frequently appeared in lower-budget and often low-quality films. This may also be due in part to his subtle, unaffected, and deceptively easy-going acting style that made it seem as if Mitchum just didn't care, an attitude he frequently put on outside the studio. But male and female audiences alike found Mitchum appealing. Mitchum generally played macho heroes and villains who lived hard and spoke roughly, and yet there was something of the ordinary Joe in him to which male audiences could relate. Women were drawn to his physique, his deep resonant voice, his sexy bad boy ways, and those sad, sagging eyes, which Mitchum claimed were caused by chronic insomnia and a boxing injury. He was born Robert Charles Duran Mitchum in Bridgeport, CT, and as a boy was frequently in trouble, behavior that was perhaps related to his father's death when Mitchum was quite young. He left home in his teens. Mitchum was famous for fabricating fantastic tales about his life, something he jokingly encouraged others to do too. If he is to be believed, he spent his early years doing everything from mining coal, digging ditches, and ghost writing for astrologer Carroll Richter, to fighting 27 bouts as a prizefighter. He also claimed to have escaped from a Georgia chain gang six days after he was arrested for vagrancy. Mitchum settled down in 1940 and married Dorothy Spence. They moved to Long Beach, CA, and he found work as a drop-hammer operator with Lockheed Aircraft. The job made Mitchum ill so he quit. He next started working with the Long Beach Theater Guild in 1942 and this led to his becoming a movie extra and bit player, primarily in war movies and Westerns, but also in the occasional comedy or drama. His first film role was that of a model in the documentary The Magic of Make-up (1942). Occasionally he would bill himself as Bob Mitchum during this time period. His supporting role in The Human Comedy (1943) led to a contract with RKO. Two years later, he starred in The Story of G.I. Joe and earned his first and only Oscar nomination. Up to that point, Mitchum was considered little more than a "beefcake" actor, one who was handsome, but who lacked the chops to become a serious player. He was also drafted that year and served eight months in the military, most of which he spent promoting his latest film before he was given a dependency discharge. Mitchum returned to movies soon after, this time in co-starring and leading roles. His role as a woman's former lover who may or may not have killed her new husband in When Strangers Marry (1944) foreshadowed his import in the developing film noir genre. The very qualities that led critics to dismiss him, his laconic stoicism, his self-depreciating wit, cynicism, and his naturalism, made Mitchum the perfect victim for these dark dramas; indeed, he became an icon for the genre. The Locket (1946) provided Mitchum his first substantial noir role, but his first important noir was Out of the Past (1947), a surprise hit that made him a real star. Up until Cape Fear (1962), Mitchum had played tough guy heroes and world-weary victims; he provided the dying noir genre with one of its cruelest villains, Max Cady. In 1955, Mitchum played one of his most famous and disturbing villains, the psychotic evangelist Reverend Harry Powell, in Charles Laughton's Night of the Hunter, a film that was a critical and box-office flop in its first release, but has since become a classic. While his professional reputation grew, Mitchum's knack for getting into trouble in his personal life reasserted itself. He was arrested in August 1948, in the home of actress Lila Leeds for allegedly possessing marijuana and despite his hiring two high-calibre lawyers, spent 60 days in jail. Mitchum claimed he was framed and later his case was overturned and his record cleared. Though perhaps never involved with marijuana, Mitchum made no apologies for his love of alcohol and cigarettes. He had also been involved with several public scuffles, this in contrast with the Mitchum who also wrote poetry and the occasional song. Though well known for noir, Mitchum was versatile, having played in romances (Heaven Knows Mr. Allison [1957]), literary dramas (The Red Pony [1949]), and straight dramas (The Sundowners [1960], in which he played an Australian sheepherder). During the '60s, Mitchum had only a few notable film roles, including Two for the See Saw (1962), Howard Hawks' El Dorado (1967), and 5 Card Stud (1968). He continued playing leads through the 1970s. Some of his most famous efforts from this era include The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) and a double stint as detective Phillip Marlowe in Farewell My Lovely (1975) and The Big Sleep (1978). Mitchum debuted in television films in the early '80s. His most notable efforts from this period include the miniseries The Winds of War (1983) and its sequel, War and Remembrance (1989). Mitchum also continued appearing in feature films, often in cameo roles. Toward the end of his life, he found employment as a commercial voice-over artist, notably in the "Beef, it's what's for dinner" campaign. A year before his death, Robert Mitchum was diagnosed with emphysema, and a few months afterward, lung cancer. He is survived by his wife, Dorothy, his daughter, Petrine, and two sons, Jim and Christopher, both of whom are actors.

Trivia: Crusty, craggy British leading man Jack Hawkins began as a child actor, studying at the Italia Court School of Acting. After his first film, 1930's Birds of Prey, Hawkins languished for several years in secondary roles before achieving minor stardom by the end of the '30s. During the war, Hawkins was a colonel in ENSA, the British equivalent of the USO. He became a major movie "name" in the postwar era, often as coolly efficient military officers in such films as The Cruel Sea (1953), Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), The League of Gentlemen (1961), and Lawrence of Arabia (1962, as General Allenby). He was considered an Academy Award shoe-in for his portrayal of Quintus Arrius in 1959's Ben-Hur, but the "Best Supporting Actor Oscar" went to another actor in that blockbuster, Hugh Griffith. Around this same time, Hawkins was one of four rotating stars in the J. Arthur Rank-produced TV series The Four Just Men; the other three were Vittorio de Sica, Dan Dailey and Richard Conte. In 1966, Hawkins underwent an operation for cancer of the larynx. Though the operation cost him his voice, publicity releases indicated that Hawkins was training himself to talk again with an artificial device -- and also that he defiantly continued chain-smoking. Hawkins remained in films until his death, but his dialogue had to be dubbed by others. In his next-to-last film Theatre of Blood (1973), he was effectively cast in a substantial role that required no dialogue whatsoever -- something that the viewer realizes only in retrospect. Ironically, Hawkins' biography was titled Anything for a Quiet Life. Jack Hawkins was married twice, to actresses Jessica Tandy and Doreen Lawrence.

Trivia: The son of an Indian mahout, or elephant driver, Sabu spent much of his adolescence as a stable boy for the Maharajah of Mysore. At age 11, Sabu was discovered by documentary filmmaker Robert Flaherty, who cast the youth in the title role of the 1937 feature Elephant Boy. The personable Indian lad scored a hit with audiences, and was subsequently cast in such Alexander Korda productions as The Drum (1938), The Thief of Baghdad (1940), and The Jungle Book (1941). Sabu then went to Hollywood, where he fit right into the exotic derring-do of those legendary Jon Hall/Maria Montez vehicles Arabian Nights (1942), White Savage (1943), and Cobra Woman (1944). He interrupted his Hollywood career to serve in the Army Air Force as a tail gunner. Sabu's film career began losing momentum in the postwar era, though he continued to offer creditable adult performances in films like Black Narcissus (1947) and The End of the River (1947). He made films in both America and Europe during the 1950s, unsuccessfully attempting several times to launch a TV series of his own. Sabu died of a heart attack at age 39, shortly after completing his last film, Disney's A Tiger Walks.

Trivia: Character player Emile Genest first appeared onscreen in the '60s.

Trivia: The son of German pianist Artur Schnabel, Stefan Schnabel prepared for a theatrical career at the University of Bonn and London's Old Vic. Schnabel made his Broadway debut in 1937 as a member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre, playing meaty roles in such ambitious Mercury efforts as Julius Caesar and Shoemaker's Holiday. He made his first film appearance in the Welles-produced Journey Into Fear (1942), and thereafter was seen in roles calling for Teutonic bombast. Back on Broadway in the 1950s and 1960s, Schnabel essayed one of his best-loved roles: Papa Yoder in the musical Plain and Fancy. In the late 1960s-early 1970s, he was seen in a number of off-Broadway productions, including Tango and In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer. On television, Stefan Schnabel spent several years in the role of Dr. Steven Jackson in the CBS daytimer The Guiding Light, and in 1959 played "Firebeard" in the syndicated adventure weekly Tales of the Vikings.

Trivia: If you can smell what the Rock is cookin' then you're no doubt familiar with superstar wrestler Dwayne Johnson's swaggeringly cocky alter ego. With his trademark right eyebrow raised and a penchant for implementing the patented "People's Elbow" to unwary opponents, the self-proclaimed "Most Electrifying Man in Sports-Entertainment" slammed, crashed, and crushed his way to becoming the youngest Intercontinental Champion in WWF history at the age of 24 before winning the WWF title record six times. After conquering the world of sports-entertainment, Johnson next set his sights on conquering Hollywood.Born May 2, 1972 in Hayward, CA, Johnson became a third-generation wrestler after shifting from a career in professional football to professional wrestling when an injury sidelined his gridiron aspirations. After flexing his acting muscles on television in Saturday Night Live, That '70s Show (in which he played his own father), and The Net, Johnson made his feature debut with his role as the dreaded Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns (2001). Returning as the same character the following year in the appropriately titled The Scorpion King, Johnson did little to enhance his reputation of a trained thespian, though he did get the summer film season off to a rousing start for audiences hungering for some energetic escapist fun. Recalling John Milius' 1982 hit Conan the Barbarian (another film that launched the cinematic action career of a then-little-known athlete named Arnold Schwarzenegger), the sword-and-sandal adventure raked in 36 million dollars on its opening weekend and stayed at the top of the box office in the weeks following its impressive debut.Though he would return to the ring for the remainder of 2002, it didn't take Johnson long to soften on the prospect of a return to the silver screen -- and with the following year's The Rundown, he did just that. Cast as a bounty hunter who is sent to Brazil to retrieve the son of a well-known mob boss (American Pie's Seann William Scott), the film provided Johnson with the sort of opportunity to display his comic flair -- a notable talent that was mostly neglected in the special-effects-laden Scorpion King. By this point, his screen career had earned the wrestler-turned-actor a notable fan base that reached well beyond the WWE universe, and in 2004 he took the law into his own hands with the feature remake (in name and general concept only) Walking Tall. Based on the exploits of hard-case Southern sheriff Buford Pusser (played by Joe Don Baker in the original 1973 version) -- the film found Johnson cast as an honest, retired soldier who -- upon return to his small, rural Washington State hometown -- discovers his former high-school rival Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough) has corrupted the once-prosperous town by introducing drugs and gambling and effectively shutting down the formerly successful lumber mill. Anyone who saw the original (and even those who didn't) could no doubt tell what follows -- and if there ever was a man to lay the smack down on the criminal element, few could doubt that Johnson would be up for the task. With his role as a gay bodyguard in the 2005 Get Shorty sequel, Be Cool, Johnson showed once and for all that he wasn't above poking a little fun at his tough-guy persona, and though he would return to the action genre with the sci-fi video-game adaptation Doom, the next year found the increasingly prolific entertainer cast in the complex role of a sporadically amnesiac actor who begins to have trouble separating reality from fantasy in Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly's apocalyptic sophomore effort, Southland Tales. Later that same year, Johnson turned his attention toward the sport of football to tell the inspirational true story of a detention-camp probation officer who teaches his troubled young charges the meaning of self-respect and social responsibility in Gridiron Gang -- a feature adaptation of the Emmy-winning 1993 documentary of the same name.He would appear in Get Smart and Race to Witch Mountain the following year, followed by Why Did I Get Married Too? in 2010 -- all films that grounded the actor in relatable, humorous roles. Never one to shy away from his roots, however, Johnson was back to action fare soon enough, and he joined the Fast & Furious series for the fifth installment (Fast Five) in 2011 and played Roadblock in G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Johnson once again mixed action and comedy in Michael Bay's Pain & Jain. In 2014, he built up his already-impressive physique even more to play the title character in Hercules, and continued on the action route with roles in San Andreas and another Furious film.

Trivia: Spiky-haired actress Naomie Harris was raised by her single mother in London. After studying political science at Cambridge, she enrolled at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School for professional stage training. In the '90s, she made a few appearances on U.K. television series, including reoccurring roles on Runaway Bay and The Tomorrow People. She gained more recognition for her role in the miniseries White Teeth as Clara, the Jamaican daughter of a fanatical Jehovah's witness mother. Adapted from the book by Zadie Smith, White Teeth was shown in the U.S. on PBS Masterpiece Theater in 2002. She made her international breakthrough the same year in Danny Boyle's post-apocalyptic thriller 28 Days Later. For the role of urban survivor Selena opposite attractive lead Cillian Murphy, Harris trained in kickboxing and learned how to properly wield a machete. Quickly becoming noticed for her talent and skill, she also appeared in Fritz Baumann's German drama Anansi as an immigrant from Ghana. Back on television, she played a radical activist for the New Labour party in the two-part BBC1 drama The Project. Harris' feature films for 2004 include the live-action remake Thunderbirds and the thriller Trauma, starring Colin Firth.Though her star was steadily rising in Hollywood, it wasn't until 2006 that Harris would really make a splash on stateside screens; and after supporting roles in Brett Ratner's After the Sunset and Michael Winterbottom's A Cock and Bull Story, Harris took to the high seas for her role as Tia Dalma in the eagerly anticipated summer sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Though her role in the first sequel to the hugely successful 2003 original was something of a minor affair, Harris' loyal fans could rest assured that they would be seeing plenty more of her in the final installment of the series that was set to hit screens in 2007. Just a few short months after Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest sailed into the multiplexes, Harris would trade her Jamaican accent for a Bronx inflection when she took the role of a tough New York cop in director Michael Mann's Miami Vice - a slick, big screen adaptation of the show that made pink t-shirts and white blazers all the rage in the 1980s.

Trivia: Malin Akerman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1978, but her European life turned a surprising corner when she and her family packed up and moved to Canada before her third birthday. Akerman's ravishing looks seemed harbingers of a successful acting and modeling career, and indeed, at five years old she began to snag a myriad of commercials and small acting roles. Her popularity and recognition was boosted by a win of the Ford Supermodel of Canada search at age 17, and she was soon tackling print and runway work across Europe, followed by an enrollment in York University in Toronto. In 2001, the actress moved to Los Angeles and secured almost instant representation. She landed a series of guest spots on TV shows including Entourage, Doc and Witchblade, as well as a regular role as Juna on the short-lived but critically acclaimed HBO comedy The Comeback, with Lisa Kudrow. She also had a memorable bit part in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) as the attractive wife, Liane, of a disgusting truck driver known only as Freakshow (Christopher Meloni).Akerman achieved her first major acting coup when she signed on as one of the leads in the Farrelly Brothers' remake The Heartbreak Kid (2007), a comedy about a dissatisfied fortysomething newlywed named Eddie (Ben Stiller) who jilts his wife, Lila, only a few days into his honeymoon and instead snags a feisty and independent young free spirit named Miranda. In what seemed to those familiar with the 1971 film like a surprising casting choice, the Farrellys selected the alluring blonde Akerman to play not Miranda (as might be expected) but Lila -- a character no longer dowdy (or Jewish) in their hands. That same year, Akerman also essayed a part in the gag-laden comedy The Brothers Solomon, about a couple of socially impaired losers (Will Arnett, Will Forte) desperate to find a woman to have their baby.Her exposure in those two films soon led to steady work as a major supporting player in a variety of movies. She played the bride-to-be/sister Tess to Katherine Heigl's perpetual bridesmaid in 27 Dresses (2008), and had a busy 2009, with the release of big-budget superhero film Watchmen, followed by Couples Retreat and The Proposal. She showed off her singing chops playing a Rolling Stone reporter in the jukebox musical Rock of Ages in 2012.Akerman has also done extensive television work, playing Dr. Valerie Flame in Adult Swim's Childrens Hospital and a homeless bachelorette in the first season of the web series Burning Love. In 2012, she joined the cast of Suburgatory in the recurring role of Alex, Tessa's (Jane Levy) birth mother before nabbing the lead in her own show, Trophy Wife, the following year.

Trivia: Was born on Valentine's Day. Credits an elementary-school theater teacher with inspiring him to act. Played competitive soccer, basketball and ice hockey as a youngster. Has appeared in stage productions of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Two Gentlemen of Verona. Played Chip on the daytime soap opera The Guiding Light. Was waiting tables in New York when he auditioned and landed his role in the ABC sitcom Better With You. Also worked as a barback at a club and a receptionist at a gym. Is a fan of Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Buster Keaton and Jim Carrey.

Trivia: Played football, basketball and volleyball at his Pittsburgh high school. Attended Carnegie Mellon University at the same time as Matt Bomer; the two later co-starred in Magic Mike. Toured with the band Goldfinger as a roadie. Made his film debut as Eugene "Flash" Thompson in the 2002 adaptation of the Marvel comic-book series Spider-Man. In lieu of wedding gifts, he and Sofia Vergara asked guests to donate money to Pittsburgh Children's Hospital and St. Jude's Children's Hospital.

Trivia: An actress whose fresh-faced girl-next-door beauty has adapted easily to both comic and dramatic roles, Marley Shelton was born in southern California on April 12, 1974. Her mother was a schoolteacher who dabbled in acting while her father worked as a director for film, television, and the stage. During her high-school days, Shelton was a member of the cheerleading squad and was named prom queen in her senior year. She began to develop an interest in acting, and in 1991 won her first film role, a slam supporting part in Lawrence Kasdan's Grand Canyon. In the next two years, Shelton made a few appearances on episodic television and appeared in the made-for-TV movie In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco, but it was in 1993's The Sandlot that she made her first real impression on the big screen as Wendy, the lust-inducing teenage lifeguard. That same year, Shelton earned a recurring role on the dramatic television series Angel Falls, alongside fellow cast members Jean Simmons, Shirley Knight, Peggy Lipton, and James Brolin, but the show only lasted one season. More television work followed, including key roles in several made-for-TV movies and appearances on Hercules and the revived Fantasy Island, before Shelton's film career began to take hold. She played Tricia Nixon in Oliver Stone's biopic Nixon and a beautiful but fickle teenager in the little-seen comedy Trojan War, but her first major hit came in 1998 with Pleasantville, in which she played Margaret, the love interest of leading man Tobey Maguire (and one of the first teens to become "colorful"). In 1999, she played Kristin, one of the "popular girls" in Never Been Kissed, and two years later scored her first leading role, in which she got to put her cheerleading skills to use as Diane, the pep-squad girl-turned-teenage mother and criminal in Sugar & Spice. Offscreen, in 2001, Shelton married television and movie producer Beau Flynn, who helped cast her as Chloe, the beautiful girl next door in the comedy Bubble Boy.In the following few years, Shelton's onscreen career seemed to plateau somewhat when a variety of indie projects including Just a Kiss, Dallas 362, Grand Theft Parsons, and Moving Alan -- directed by her father, Christopher, and starring her sister Samantha -- failed to achieve mainstream success. Nevertheless the actress remained busy, and it was shortly after appearing in a failed updating of the once-popular gothic soap opera Dark Shadows that Shelton landed the role which, however small, seems to have been a turning point in her career. Though her role opposite Josh Hartnett in Robert Rodriguez's violent comic-book adaptation Sin City amounted to little more than a glorified cameo, it did provide wide-scale exposure in addition to connecting her with one of the most innovative and tireless filmmakers of his generation. Subsequent roles in Wim Wenders' Don't Come Knocking, Paul Weitz's American Dreamz, and the Paul Haggis-scripted The Last Kiss were quick to follow, and in 2007, Shelton reunited with Sin City director Rodriguez for a substantial role in "Planet Terror" -- Rodriguez' zombie-filled contribution to the ambitious double-feature throwback Grindhouse. Shelton would go on to appear in films like W. and Scream 4, as well as on the TV series Eleventh Hour.

Trivia: Became interested in acting at the age of 10 and began studying performance art, singing and dancing at the Summer Musical Workshop in Washington, D.C. Performed in numerous theater productions during middle and high school. In 2001, played a soldier in a stage production of Shakespeare Theatre Company's The Oedipus Plays at the Landsburgh Theatre. Received the Andrew Carnegie Undergraduate Award for artistic merit while studying at Carnegie Mellon. In 2010, performed in an off-Broadway production of Black Angels Over Tuskegee at St. Luke's Theatre. Participated in a celebrity reading of Orson Welles' Vodou Macbeth at the Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble Gala Fundraiser in 2011. Operates a production company, Conservatory Media Group, the mission of which involves assisting underprivileged youth to receive access to training in the arts. Is co-owner of a mens' clothing line, Robert James Pradia, that specializes in bow ties, hats, cuff links and other accessories.

Trivia: Spent lots of time on film sets as a kid, visiting his movie-star parents (Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid) at work. Started acting in school plays in middle school. Was part of the NYU sketch-comedy group Hammerkatz and is a founding member of online sketch-comedy group Sasquatch Comedy. Made his film debut as a bad guy in The Hunger Games (2012), a role that required him to consume extra calories and do weight training. Starred in Ithaca (2015), which was the directorial debut of his mother. Is a fan of classic rock and credits his father for this, claiming his dad always played rock classics in the car when he was young.

Trivia: Korean-American actor Will Yun Lee began training for a career in action movies almost from birth. His father is a Taekwondo grandmaster, and Lee attended UCLA on an athletic scholarship for the school's Taekwondo team. He began his acting career with projects like the family comedy What's Cooking?, the Asian-American drama Face, and the TNT fantasy-action series Witchblade. Then in 2002, he was named as one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People, making him a more familiar face and landing him more high-profile jobs, like Die Another Day, Torque, and Elektra. In 2006, he appeared in the documentary The Slanted Screen, discussing the history of how Asians and Asian Americans have been portrayed in film. That same year, he signed on to the cast of the show Thief, followed by a remake of The Bionic Woman in 2007. Also that year, Lee was named by People as one of the "Sexiest Men Alive." In the years to come, Lee would appear in several films, like the Total Recall and Red Dawn remakes, as well as on the remake of Hawaii Five-0.

Trivia: Many actors know from childhood that acting is the only job they'll ever want, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a rare exception. He pursued basketball in high school with tremendous success, until a knee injury ended his sports career, and he then trained and worked as a graphic artist for some time. Eventually, however, his interest in acting became overpowering, and Morgan moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting as a career, rather than just an interest. He found steady work appearing on shows like ER and Angel, eventually scoring a huge break in 2005 when he was cast in recurring roles on three different series: Grey's Anatomy, Weeds, and Supernatural. The shows put him on the map, especially Grey's Anatomy, and oddly enough, his characters died on all three shows. Morgan's career was still alive and kicking, however, and he was soon appearing in the comedy Kabluey opposite Christine Taylor and The Accidental Husband with Uma Thurman and Colin Firth. As the 2000's continued, Morgan would remain a consistant form on screen, appearing memorably as the Comedian in The Watchmen, Texas Killing Fields, and Red Dawn.