Trivia: Equally adept at sober drama and over-the-top comedy, Michael Keaton has a knack for giving ordinary guys an unexpected twist. This trait ultimately made him an ideal casting choice for Tim Burton's 1989 Batman, and it has allowed him to play characters ranging from Mr. Mom's discontented stay-at-home dad to Pacific Heights's raging psychopath.The youngest of seven children, Keaton was born Michael Douglas on September 5th, 1951 in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania on September 9, 1951. After two years of studying speech at Kent State University, he dropped out and moved to Pittsburgh. While working a number of odd jobs--including a stint as an ice cream truck driver--Keaton attempted to build a career as a stand-up comedian, which proved less than successful. He ended up working as a cameraman for the Pittsburgh PBS station, a job that led him to realize he wanted to be in front of the camera, rather than behind it. Following this realization, Keaton duly moved out to Los Angeles, where he joined the L.A. Branch of Second City and began auditioning. When he started getting work he changed his last name to avoid being confused with the better-known actor of the same name, taking the name "Keaton" after seeing a newspaper article about Diane Keaton. He began acting on and writing for a number of television series, and he got his first big break co-starring with old friend Jim Belushi on the sitcom Working Stiffs (1979). Three years later, he made an auspicious film debut as the relentlessly cheerful owner of a morgue/brothel in Night Shift. The raves he won for his performance carried over to his work the following year in Mr. Mom, and it appeared as though Keaton was on a winning streak. Unfortunately, a series of such mediocre films as Johnny Dangerously (1984) and Gung Ho (1985) followed, and by the time Tim Burton cast him as the titular Beetlejuice in 1988, Keaton's career seemed to have betrayed its early promise. Beetlejuice proved Keaton's comeback: one of the year's most popular films, it allowed him to do some of his best work in years as the ghoulish, revolting title character. His all-out comic performance contrasted with his work in that same year's Clean and Sober, in which he played a recovering drug addict. The combined impact of these performances put Keaton back in the Hollywood spotlight, a position solidified in 1989 when he starred in Burton's Batman. Initially thought to be a risky casting choice for the title role, Keaton was ultimately embraced by audiences and critics alike, many of whom felt that his slightly skewed everyman appearance and capacity for dark humor made him perfect for the part. He reprised the role with similar success for the film's 1992 sequel, Batman Returns. Despite the acclaim and commercial profit surrounding Keaton's work in the Batman films, many of his subsequent films during the 1990s proved to be disappointments. My Life (1993), Speechless (1994), and The Paper (1994) were relative failures, despite star casting and name directors, while Multiplicity, a 1996 comedy featuring no less than four clones of the actor, further demonstrated that his name alone couldn't sell a movie. Some of Keaton's most successful work of the 1990s could be found in his roles in two Elmore Leonard adaptations, Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown (1997) and Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight (1998). An ATF agent in the former and Jennifer Lopez's morally questionable boyfriend in the latter, he turned in solid performances as part of a strong ensemble cast in both critically acclaimed films. In 1999, Keaton went back to his behind-the-camera roots, serving as the executive producer for Body Shots. Keaton continued to act throughout the early 2000s, and starred in Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005) alongside Lindsay Lohan. the actor took on another vehicle-oriented role when he agreed to voice the character of Chris Hicks in Pixar's Cars (2006). In 2010, Keaton voiced the Ken doll in Toy Story 3. Keaton enjoyed an unexpected career renaissance in 2014 playing the lead in Birdman, an older actor trying to stage a comeback by putting on a Broadway production. His work in the film was widely praised, and he earned his first Academy Award nomination when he was given a nod in the Best Actor category.

Trivia: Both a former Victoria's Secret model and card-carrying member of MENSA, Geena Davis established herself in Hollywood by playing the quirky protagonist in a wide variety of dramas and romantic comedies, though she has also tested the waters in action films and sci-fi horror. Davis showed an interest in show-business from childhood on, and transferred from New England College to Boston University in order to participate within the university's drama program. After receiving a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts in 1979, she moved to New York City in hopes of being discovered. Once there, Davis took on several odd jobs; the oddest, perhaps, being her stint as a department store mannequin. A then struggling actress turned in a job performance impressive enough to attract the attention of Zoli Agents, a prominent modeling company. No longer mere window dressing, the six-foot Davis worked as a lingerie model until making her acting debut in the television sitcom Buffalo Bill (1982); she would later write an episode for the same program. Her resume grew slowly but surely, and it wasn't long before she won a recurring role on the long-running Family Ties (1982-1989) as budding entrepreneur Alex P. Keaton's (Michael J. Fox) maid. Davis made her first feature-film appearance playing a small role in Tootsie (1982). In 1985, she played the title role in Sara, a short-lived NBC sit-com revolving around a single and fiercely independent lawyer trying to make ends meet in San Francisco. That same year, Davis co-starred with Jeff Goldblum in the vampire spoof Transylvania 6-5000. Goldblum, with whom she would later marry, once again was paired with Davis in director David Cronenberg's cult favorite The Fly (1986). The Fly's success officially put Davis on the map, and she would gain further critical notice for her role as a recently deceased housewife in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice. The following year she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in The Accidental Tourist (1988), in which she played an eccentric dog-walker, and reteamed with Jeff Goldblum in 1989's sci-fi musical Earth Girls Are Easy. Davis received a second Oscar nomination for her part in Ridley Scott's groundbreaking Thelma and Louise (1991), which cast her as an oppressed housewife opposite Hollywood veteran Susan Sarandon. With her film career steadily growing, Davis starred alongside Tom Hanks in the role of a whip-smart baseball ingenue in Penny Marshall's A League of Their Own (1992). She broke away from supporting roles and ensemble films to play the lead role in Martha Coolidge's Angie (1994), which featured Davis in the role of a single mother trying to keep her head above water. She went on to marry director Renny Harlin in 1993, who cast her in 1995's Cutthroat Island as well as the 1996 action-thriller The Long Kiss Good Night. Though playing herself in 2000's The Geena Davis Show proved unfruitful, Davis' role in Rob Minkoff's Stuart Little franchise fared much better. Even still, her most impressive comeback would arrive in the form a role as the President of the United States on the ABC Whitehouse drama Commander in Chief. Davis won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress after the series' first season in 2005 and the show proved to be a major critical success, though it was tragically cancelled the next year, despite vocal protestations by fans. Davis would continue to act in the following years, most notably in projects like the comedy Accidents Happen.

Trivia: Though he has played a variety of leading roles, tall, dark, and wholesomely handsome Christopher Reeve will always be the definitive Superman to an entire generation of "Man of Steel" fans. That his definitive character was such a model of physical prowess only serves to intensify the tragedy of Reeve's post-Superman years, marked by a 1995 horseback riding accident that left him almost completely paralyzed.A native of New York City, Reeve was born to journalist Barbara Johnson and professor/writer Franklin Reeve on September 25, 1952. When he was four, his parents divorced, and Reeve and his brother went with their mother to Princeton, NJ, after she married her second husband, a stockbroker. Reeve became interested in acting at the age of eight, an interest that complemented his musical studies at the time. The following year, he made his professional acting debut in a production of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta at Princeton's McCarter Theater. He would continue to work with the theater through his early teens and further enhanced his resumé at the age of 15, when he received a summer apprenticeship to study drama in Williamstown. The following year, he secured his first agent.Reeve went on to major in English and music at Cornell University. Following his graduation, he pursued a master's degree in drama at Juilliard and then studied under actor John Houseman's tutelage before heading to Europe to work at London's Old Vic and the Comedie Française of Paris. Upon his 1974 return stateside, Reeve took over the role of Ben Harper on the long-running soap opera Love of Life; he stayed with the show through 1978. During this period, he made his Broadway debut, starring opposite Katharine Hepburn in a production of A Matter of Gravity. Though he had made his feature-film debut with a small role in the undersea adventure Gray Lady Down (1977), Reeve did not become a star until he beat out a number of big name actors, including Robert Redford, Sylvester Stallone, and Clint Eastwood, to don the metallic blue body stocking and red cape in Richard Donner's 1978 blockbuster Superman: The Movie. Though the film abounded with exuberant, sly humor, Reeve played his Superman straight, giving him great charm, a touch of irony, and a clumsy wistfulness, thereby creating a believable alien hero who masquerades as a bungling newsman and pines for the love of unknowing colleague Lois Lane. The film was one of the year's most popular and earned Reeve a British Academy Award for Most Promising Newcomer. He went on to reprise the role in the film's three sequels, none of which matched the quality and verve of the original.In a concerted effort to avoid typecasting, Reeve attempted to prove his versatility by essaying a wide variety of roles. In 1980, while Superman II was in production, he returned to Broadway to appear as a gay amputee in Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July. That same year, he also starred in the romantic fantasy Somewhere in Time, playing a Chicago playwright who travels back in time to capture the attentions of a beautiful woman (Jane Seymour). Though generally cast as a good guy, Reeve occasionally attempted darker characters. In Deathtrap (1981), he played a crazed playwright, while he portrayed a corrupt priest in the dismal Monsignor (1982) and a reporter entangled in the prostitution industry in Street Smart (1987). Reeve returned to television in Sleeping Beauty, an entry in Shelley Duvall's distinguished Faerie Tale Theater. He subsequently had success appearing in television movies such as Anna Karenina (1985) and Death Dreams (1992). In the late '80s, Reeve became involved in various social causes and co-founded the Creative Coalition. He was also active with Amnesty International, even going to Chile in 1987 to show support for imprisoned authors. His interest in improving the world is apparent in the earnest but much-panned Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), for which he wrote the story.By the mid-'90s, Reeve was still busy juggling his film, television, and stage work. It all abruptly came to a halt in June 1995, when he fell from a horse during a steeplechase race. Having broken several key bones in his neck, Reeve was left completely paralyzed and could not even breathe without special assistance. The doctors' prognosis for his recovery remained grim, but Reeve still retained hope that advances in medical science would someday allow him to walk again. In 1996, he helped establish the UCI Reeve-Irvine Research Center, which specializes in spinal cord injuries; Reeve's work with the center was indicative of the strength and fortitude he had consistently displayed since his accident. In addition to his offscreen commitments, Reeve continued to work in film and television, making his directorial debut with the critically acclaimed made-for-cable drama In the Gloaming (1997) and starring in the 1998 TV-movie remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window.Reeve credited much of his post-accident survival to his wife, former cabaret singer Dana Morosini. The two married in 1992, after Reeve separated from Gae Exton. He and Exton -- a modeling executive whom he met while filming the first Superman in England -- never married, but had two children together. He also had a son with Morosini.On October 10, 2004, after years as an outspoken advocate for stem-cell and spinal-cord-injury research, Reeve passed away from heart failure at the age of 52. A year and a half later, his wife Dana died of lung cancer.Prior to their deaths, the Reeves began to develop a pet project, the CG-animated feature Everyone's Hero, with voices by an all-star line-up of performers. The picture told the story of a young boy in the 1930s whose talking bat is stolen by a crooked security guard. It was released in 2007.

Trivia: One of the more underrated actresses working in the cinema, Bonnie Bedelia has been impressing critics and audiences with her strong and understated screen presence for over three decades. Frequently cast as put-upon wives and mothers, Bedelia did particularly memorable work in this capacity in the first two Die Hard movies and in Presumed Innocent (1990), all of which allowed her to provide depth and complexity to what could have been stock characters.Born Bonnie Bedelia Culkin (she is the sister of Kit Culkin, father of Macaulay) in New York City on March 25, 1946, Bedelia began performing for an audience at a young age, beginning her study of ballet at the age of four and joining George Balanchine's School of Ballet three years later. At the advanced age of nine, she made her off-Broadway debut in a production of Tom Sawyer, then spent the next four years dancing professionally with the New York City Ballet and working in various summer stock and off-Broadway productions. Her television debut as a regular on the daytime soap Love of Life followed when Bedelia was 13; while working on the show, she also attended high school, studied at the Quintano School of Acting with Uta Hagen, and appeared in four Broadway productions. In 1967, Bedelia earned a Theatre World Award for her performance in the play My Sweet Charlie and subsequently joined actors Martin Sheen and Louis Gossett Jr. in their formation of a classical acting troupe in Los Angeles. Bedelia made her film debut with a supporting role in The Gypsy Moths, a 1969 drama directed by John Frankenheimer that starred Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr. That same year, she earned great acclaim for her work in Sydney Pollack's They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, which cast her as the pregnant wife of a hapless drifter (Bruce Dern). A role as a young bride-to-be in the similarly feted Lovers and Other Strangers followed in 1970, and Bedelia spent the remainder of the decade appearing largely in TV movies.1983 provided Bedelia with a meaty starring role in the theatrical feature Heart Like a Wheel, the true-life tale of drag racer Shirley "Cha-Cha" Muldowney. Though the movie made minor waves in theaters, Bedelia's hardscrabble portrayal received universal praise, so much so that there was strong Academy Awards buzz surrounding the actress. A Best Actress nomination eluded her, although she was duly recognized with a nod from the Golden Globes in 1984. She continued to do prolific television work in the 1980s, but also had enthusiastically received turns in such films as The Boy Who Could Fly (1986), a family drama that cast her as the widowed mother of two children, and Die Hard (1988), the action blockbuster that saw her prove an able foil for star Bruce Willis in her role as Willis' estranged wife. She reprised her role in the latter for Die Hard 2 two years later, and that same year gave a haunting portrayal of Harrison Ford's neglected and embittered wife in Alan J. Pakula's Presumed Innocent. Bedelia subsequently continued to do much of her work on TV, earning an Emmy nomination for her performance in the noirish made-for-cable Fallen Angels (1993) and a Cable Ace Award nomination for Any Mother's Son (1997), a drama about a young Navy seaman who was murdered for being gay. She made a colorful return to the big screen in 2000 as one of the stars of Sordid Lives, Del Shores' campy comedy about the reunion of three generations of a dysfunctional Texas family. The micro-budgeted film became something of a cult hit, and Bedelia parlayed the success into a starring role on the Lifetime network's police drama The Division. Though the award-winning series would eventually go off the air after four seasons, Bedelia continued to nurture a fruitful and rewarding career with series director Bobby Roth when she appeared in both his 2003 Jack the Dog follow-up Manhood, and his 2005 Vietnam-era drama Berkeley.She then took a five-year hiatus from movies and TV before returning in 2010 with a part in the NBC drama Parenthood.

Trivia: Actor Ernie Hudson received his training at Wayne State, Yale School of Drama and the University of Minnesota. Following a hitch with the Marines, Hudson appeared in such stage productions as The Great White Hope, The Cage and Daddy Goodness. He made his earlier film appearance in 1976's Leadbelly. Most of us know Hudson best as Winston Zeddmore in the two Ghostbusters films, a role he repeated in Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters" music video. His best--and most controversial--screen assignment was the The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992); Hudson played retarded handyman Solomon, virtually the only character in the film who doesn't buy into the "perfect" facade of homicidal baby-sitter Rebecca DeMornay. On TV, Ernie Hudson has been seen as Smythe in Highcliffe Manor (1977), undercover officer "Night Train" Lane in The Last Precinct (1986), and kleptomaniac cop Toby Baker in Broken Badges (1990). He had a memorable supporting part in the 1992 thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and appeared in Heart and Souls as well as the comedy Airheads. In 1994 he was cast in a prominent role in the action film The Crow, and followed that up in 1995 with part in Congo. In 1997 he started work on the HBO drama Oz, playing the warden of the meanest, cruelest inmates imaginable for six seasons. He co-starred with Sandra Bullock in the 2000 comedy Miss Congeniality. He continued to work steadily in projects as diverse as Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror, The Ron Clark Story, and 2010's Smokin' Aces 2: Assassin's Ball.

Trivia: Fuzzy-faced actor Charles Martin Smith took time off from his studies at Cal State to make his cinema debut in The Culpepper Cattle Company (1972). Specializing in nerdish, owl-eyed teenagers during the early stages of his career, Smith scored a hit as Terry "The Toad" Field in the two American Graffiti movies of the mid-1970s. He was afforded a rare star part as real-life Canadian author Farley Mowat in Never Cry Wolf (1983), delivering what amounted to a one-man show as he braved the treacherous Arctic to study the so-called predatory behavior of wolves. Other Smith performances worth noting include ill-fated FBI accountant Oscar Wallace in The Untouchables (1987) and AIDS researcher Henry Jaffe in the made-for-TV And the Band Played On. Turning director with the sloppy but endearing "horror musical" Trick or Treat (1986), Charles Martin Smith has gone on to man the megaphone on the love-'em-or-hate-'em comedies Boris and Natasha (1992) and Fifty/Fifty (1993).

Trivia: Good-ole-boy character actor Gailard Sartain first came to the attention of TV fans as a member of the comedy ensemble of The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour (1976-77 season). Sairtain enjoyed more TV-screen time as dufus short order cook Willie Billie Honey in the 1978 syndicated comedy-variety weekly Hee Haw Honeys; cast as Willie Billie's younger sister, by the way, was one Kathie Lee Johnson, who went on to chatshow fame as Kathie Lee Gifford. In films, Sairtain was prominently featured as the Big Bopper in The Buddy Holly Story (1981) and as bucolic bumpkin Chuck in Jim Varney's Ernest flicks. Active into the 1990s, Gailard Sairtain usually shows up these days in featured roles as redneck Southern sheriffs and state troopers.

Trivia: Square-jawed American actor Mitchell Ryan was born in Cincinnati and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. During a 1951 Navy hitch, Ryan was assigned to a special services entertainment unit; he liked the experience so much that he decided to pursue acting as a civilian. He went to New York, accepting bit roles in over two dozen plays; he then moved on to leading roles at the Barter Theatre in Abington, Virginia. More New York work (under the direction of Joseph Papp) followed, and finally Ryan attained a small recurring role on the TV serial Dark Shadows (1966-70). A stage appearance with Irene Papas in Euripedes attracted critical attention and better jobs, including a supporting part in Monte Walsh (1970), Ryan's first film. Jack Webb utilized Ryan quite often in the '70s in his series O'Hara United States Treasury, then hired the actor as one of the four leads of the 1973 series Chase. In 1976 producers top-billed Ryan on the TV series Executive Suite. While the series didn't last, Mitchell Ryan subsequently received solid roles on such TV series as The Chisholms (1980) and High Performance (1983) and in such made-for-TV films as Flesh & Blood (1979) and Margaret Bourke-White (1989).

Trivia: A bald and frequently bespectacled screen presence whose "average Joe" appearance and keen talent allow him the unique ability to truly transform into the character at hand, Willie Garson may have won over Sex and the City viewers as protagonist Carrie's (Sarah Jessica Parker) endlessly loyal friend, but with over a decade of film and television appearances to his credit by that time, his success should certainly be labeled more "long-time coming" than "overnight sensation." Garson began training as an actor at New York's Actor's Institute in his early teens, and in the years following high school graduation he studied theater and psychology at Wesleyan University. It didn't take long for the talented stage and screen presence to find roles following his higher education, with guest appearances in such popular television shows as Family Ties, Mr. Belvedere, and Quantum Leap eventually leading to a supporting role in the well-received made-for-television feature The Deliberate Stranger. If his film roles throughout the majority of the '90s were generally of the thankless variety, Garson nevertheless grew increasingly active thanks to roles in such high-profile features as Groundhog Day, Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, The Rock, and There's Something About Mary. A three-year stint in a supporting role in NYPD Blue showed Garson lending the series a decidedly human presence as Detective Simone's (Jimmy Smits) landlord. The stage-minded actor never forgot his roots, remaining constantly active with such New York-based theater companies as The Manhattan Theatre Club and The Roundabout Table. A long-time friend of actress Parker, Garson's friendship with the actress no doubt contributed to the easy rapport shared by the duo in the hit HBO series Sex and the City. With subsequent roles in Steven Spielberg's acclaimed sci-fi miniseries Taken, and in addition to such features as Freaky Friday proving that he was as much an "actor's actor" as a crowd-pleaser, Garson's post-Sex and the City career seemed as healthy as ever. He worked steadily in projects such as House of D, Fever Pitch, and in appeared in Jackass: Number Two. He returned to the small-screen as the lead in the series White Collar in 2009. In his increasingly non-existent spare time, Garson can be found reading to school children on a weekly basis as part of the Screen Actors Guild popular "Bookpals" program.

Trivia: California native Harry Shearer was one of the busier child actors of the 1950s. He appeared in such films as The Robe (1953) (as the boy David) and Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953); he could be heard on such radio programs as Suspense, Lux Radio Theatre, and the Jack Benny Show; and among his many TV guest roles was the character who would evolve into Eddie Haskell in the 1955 Leave It to Beaver pilot. After attending U.C.L.A., Shearer flourished as a standup comedian and comedy writer. He was frequently employed on the writing staff for such TV laughspinners as Laverne and Shirley and America 2Night; he also worked both sides of the camera in the 1984 rockumentary parody This Is Spinal Tap, co-starring as rock idol Derek Smalls and co-writing the script with director Rob Reiner and fellow cast members Christopher Guest and Michael McKean. In league with another top satirist, Albert Brooks, Shearer concocted the screenplay for another faux documentary, 1979's Real Lampoon. During the 1984-1985 TV season, Shearer joined the Not Ready for Prime Time Players on NBC's Saturday Night Live. The soft-spoken, saturnine Harry Shearer is most famous however for lending his voice to the Fox Network cartoon series The Simpsons.

Trivia: A standup comedian who delivers deadpan. surreal jokes, he has occasionally appeared onscreen in supporting roles from 1985.

Trivia: Appeared in Year of the Rabbit at the Ensemble Studio Theatre in Los Angeles in 2012. Started a small pop-up library in his West Los Angeles neighborhood, but ran into issues with the local government over the location. Starred in Love Life Alpha at the Sci-Fest LA festival in 2016.

Trivia: Actress Mary Pat Gleason debuted onscreen in the early '80s (with a bit part in the 1983 Rodney Dangerfield comedy Easy Money) and tackled a series of character portrayals in a variety of genres over the following decades. She specialized in playing dowdy, overweight, and slightly assertive matronly types, including waitresses, nurses, and librarians. Gleason's extensive resumé includes the films Soapdish (1991), Speechless (1994), Bruce Almighty (2003), and Moving McAllister (2007).

Trivia: Character actor Richard Schiff has done prolific work on both the large and small screens, and has appeared in films ranging from Seven (1995) to Living Out Loud (1998). Appearing as a cross between Wallace Shawn and Kevin Spacey, Schiff, a native of the East Coast, began his career as a stage director in New York. After founding and serving as the artistic director of the Manhattan Repertory Theatre and directing a number of on- and off-Broadway productions, he realized that he wanted to act. As such, Schiff began performing on both the stage and in independent films, then moved to Los Angeles so as to better pursue an acting career. He continued to work in the theatre, joining Tim Robbins' Actors Gang, and gradually broke into film. Appearances in such films as Spike Lee's Malcolm X (1992), the Coen Brothers' The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), and Steven Spielberg's The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) helped to put Schiff on the map as a character actor and led to substantial roles in Living Out Loud, which cast him as Danny De Vito's brother, and Dr. Dolittle (1998), in which he played one of Eddie Murphy's fellow men of medicine.Schiff also continued to do a great deal of work on television, appearing in shows ranging from Ally McBeal to E.R. In 2000, he joined the cast of the acclaimed NBC series The West Wing, playing the Chief Press Advisor to the President (Martin Sheen). That same year, he received a Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Emmy nomination for his portrayal. In the years to come, Schiff would remain active on screen, appearing on TV series like Past Life, The Cape, and House of Lies.