Trivia: One who graduated from obscure actor to Hollywood icon in just a few years, Matt Damon became an instant sensation when he co-wrote and starred in Good Will Hunting with longtime buddy and collaborator Ben Affleck. A native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was born on October 8, 1970, Damon grew up in prosperous surroundings with his tax preparer father, college professor mother, and older brother. At the age of ten, he befriended Affleck, a boy two years his junior who lived down the street. Educated at Cambridge's Rindge and Latin School, Damon landed his first role in a Hollywood production before the age of 18, with a one-scene turn in Mystic Pizza (1988). Not long after, Damon gained acceptance to Harvard University, where he studied for three years before dropping out to pursue his acting career. During his time there, he had to write a screenplay for an English class, that served as the genesis of Good Will Hunting. Arriving in Hollywood, Damon scored his first big break with a plum role in School Ties opposite Affleck. As the film was a relative flop, Damon's substantial role failed to win him notice, and he was back to laboring in obscurity. It was around this time, fed up with his Hollywood struggles, that Damon contacted Affleck, and the two finished writing the former's Harvard screenplay and began trying to get it made into a film. It was eventually picked up by Miramax, with Gus Van Sant slated to direct and Robin Williams secured in a major role, opposite Damon as the lead. Before Good Will Hunting was released in late 1997, Damon won some measure of recognition for his role as a drug-addicted soldier in Courage Under Fire; various industry observers praised his performance and his dedication to the part, for which he lost forty pounds and suffered resulting health problems. Any praise Damon may have received, however, was overshadowed the following year by the accolades he garnered for Good Will Hunting. His Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay win alongside Damon, and strong performance in the film virtually guaranteed industry adulation and steady employment, a development that became readily apparent the following year with lead roles in two major films. The first, John Dahl's Rounders, cast Damon as a card shark with a serious gambling addiction, who risks his own personal safety when he becomes entangled with a reckless loser buddy (Edward Norton). Damon's second film in 1998, Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, brought him even greater recognition. As Ryan's title character, Damon headlined an all-star line-up and received part of the lavish praise heaped on the film and its strong ensemble cast. The following year, Damon signed for leads in two more highly anticipated films, Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley and Kevin Smith's Dogma. The former cast the actor against type as the title character, a psychotic bisexual murderer, with a supporting cast that included Cate Blanchett, Jude Law, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Dogma also allowed Damon to cut against the grain of his nice-guy persona by casting him as a fallen angel. One of the year's more controversial films, the religious comedy reunited him with Affleck, as well as Smith, who had cast Damon in a bit role in his 1997 film, Chasing Amy. Damon next delivered noteworthy performances in a pair of low-grossing, low-key dramas, The Legend of Bagger Vance and All the Pretty Horses (both 2000), before appearing in director Steven Soderbergh's blockbuster remake of the Rat Pack classic Ocean's Eleven the following year. 2002 found the actor vacillating between earnest indie projects and major Hollywood releases. Behind the camera, Damon joined forces with filmmaker Chris Smith for the Miramax-sponsored Project Greenlight, a screenplay sweepstakes that gave the winner the opportunity to make a feature film and have the process recorded for all to see on an HBO reality series of the same name. Toward the end of 2001, Damon scored a box office triumph with director Doug Liman's jet-setting espionage thriller The Bourne Identity. With this effort, Damon proved once again that he could open a film with just as much star power as his best friend and colleague. Better yet, Bourne reinforced Damon's standings with the critics, who found his performance understated and believable. The press responded less favorably, however, to Damon's reunion project with Van Sant, the experimental arthouse drama Gerry (2003). Also in 2003, Damon starred opposite Greg Kinnear in the Farrelly Brothers' broad comedy Stuck On You, as the shy half of a set of conjoined twins.In 2004, Damon reprised the role of Jason Bourne in The Bourne Supremacy. As the actor's biggest leading-man success to date, it reinforced Damon's continued clout with audiences. Staying on the high-powered sequel bandwagon, he reunited with Brad Pitt and George Clooney for the big-budget neo-rat pack sequel Ocean's Twelve later that year. 2005 was somewhat lower-key for the actor, as he toplined Terry Gilliam's disappointing The Brothers Grimm and joined the sprawling ensemble of Syriana. After working seemingly non-stop for a few years, Damon claimed only a call from Martin Scorsese would get him to give up his resolve to take some time off. Sure enough, that call came. The Departed, an American remake of the Hong Kong mob-mole thriller Infernal Affairs, co-starred Jack Nicholson and Leonardo DiCaprio. Playing the squirmy, opportunistic cop to DiCaprio's moral, tormented mobster, Damon underplayed his part to perfection while holding his own opposite his two co-stars. Damon then took the lead role in the Robert De Niro-directed CIA drama The Good Shepherd. In 2007, the actor once again returned to box office franchises for the sequels Ocean's Thirteen and The Bourne Ultimatum, the latter of which netted him -- by far -- the largest opening-weekend take of his career to that point. 2009 was another great year for the hard-working star. His turn as the unstable federal informant in Steven Soderbergh's wicked comedy The Informant! earned him rave reviews, and his supporting work in Clint Eastwood's Invicus, as the leader of the South African rugby team, earned Damon nominations from the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Academy. In 2010 he reteamed with Eastwood for the supernatural drama Hereafter, and continued working with the best filmmakers of his time by landing a supporting role in the Coen brothers remake of True Grit. Meanwhile, Damon tried his hand at small screen work with a memorable recurring role as Carol, an airline pilot and sometime boyfriend of Liz Lemon, on the NBC situation comedy 30 Rock and a lauded turn opposite Michael Douglas' Liberace in the TV movie Behind the Candelabra. Damon had long since established himself as an A-list movie star, however, and would continue to star in big screen projects for years to come, including notable titles like Contagion, The Adjustment Bureau, and We Bought a Zoo. Damon next turned in performances in three films set in outer space: Neill Blomkamp's Elysium (2013), a supporting role in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar (2014) and an Oscar-nominated spin in Ridley Scott's The Martian (2015).

Trivia: Although she initially gained fame for her real-life role as Brad Pitt's girlfriend, Gwyneth Paltrow went on to build a solid reputation as one of the leading actresses of her generation. Repeatedly summoning comparisons to such classic presences as Grace Kelly, the blonde, blue-eyed Paltrow has won acclaim for her parts in a number of films, most notably Shakespeare in Love, for which she won a Best Actress Oscar in 1999.The daughter of actress Blythe Danner and producer/director Bruce Paltrow, Paltrow was born in Los Angeles on September 28, 1972. When she was 11, her family moved to Massachusetts so that her father could direct summer stock productions -- it was there that the actress began to receive theatrical training under her parents' tutelage. Schooled at Manhattan's exclusive Spence School, Paltrow went on to study anthropology at the University of California before deciding to drop out to pursue her acting career. She got her first screen role in the 1991 movie Shout and in the same year she played the young Wendy in Steven Spielberg's Hook.Two years later, Paltrow made her first significant impression with a chilling turn as a young con artist in Flesh and Bone. She went on to minor but memorable roles in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994) and Jefferson in Paris (1995) before earning her first true taste of fame with her part as Brad Pitt's wife in Seven (1995). Unfortunately, she got more attention for her status as the actor's girlfriend than for her work in the film, becoming one of the world's most photographed arm ornaments.However, the actress was able to come into her own the following year with the title role in Douglas McGrath's adaptation of Emma. She won acclaim for her work and her flawless British accent, and the same year she could be seen in two more films: The Pallbearer, with David Schwimmer, and Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight. However, it was not until 1998 -- having broken off her engagement with Pitt the previous year -- that Paltrow became better-known for her acting than for her ability to look good in designer evening gowns. That year, she had starring roles in no less than five films. Although both Hush and A Perfect Murder proved disappointments, and Great Expectations received mixed reviews, Paltrow's two English excursions, the comedy Sliding Doors and John Madden's Shakespeare in Love, netted positive receptions. The latter film drew particular acclaim, eventually winning seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Paltrow.The following year, she had the lead in another high-profile project, Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley. Starring opposite Matt Damon, Jude Law, and Cate Blanchett, Paltrow took part in a film that boasted one of the most photogenic collections of young stars that audiences had seen that year and it further enhanced her reputation as one of the most celebrated members of her generation to step in front of a camera. As photogenic as she may be, however, Paltrow's healthy sense of humor would give the delicate actress the gusto she needed to take on the role of a 300-pound object of funnyman Jack Black's affection in the Farrelly brothers' cheerfully offensive Shallow Hal in 2001. With roles in The Anniversary Party, Possession, and Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums that same year, Paltrow's versatility and popularity showed no signs of waning - even if the subsequent flight attendant comedy View From the Top didn't even climb high enough at the box office to take a nosedive.Of course the failure of View From the Top could not be placed squarely on the shoulders of Paltrow, and given the film's troubled production history it's a small wonder that the film was released at all. If that film had simply been a glazed-over comedy that gave its starlet little chance to shine, Paltrow would close out the year with a commendable and notably heavier performance in Sylvia. A film based on the life of literary legend Sylvia Plath, Sylvia couldn't have been more different than A View From the Top and provided Paltrow with a role she could truly sink her teeth into. Both her performance as well as the film itself fared fairly well through the duration of its limited art-house run, despite the fact that Plath's real life daughter Frieda Hughes publicly denounced the endeavor. The film also provided Paltrow with the opportunity to appear onscreen opposite her real-life mother Danner, who also played her ill-fated character's mother in the film.In the wake of her accolades from Sylvia, Paltrow closed out 2003 by wedding Coldplay singer Chris Martin. The new family would soon expand five months later with the birth of their first child, a girl they bestowed with the unique moniker Apple Martin. But family life didn't slow Paltrow's film career too much. By Autumn she could be seen opposite Jude Law in the sci-fi actioner Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and before the close of the year, audiences could catch her in director John Madden's Proof. Paltrow played a supporting role in the drama Infamous in (2006), and co-starred with Joaquin Phoenix in the 2008 romantic drama Two Lovers. Paltrow appeared in Iron Man (2008) and Iron Man 2 (2011) as the loyal assistant of zillionaire and hero du jour Tony Stark. The actress played a brief but vital role in Steven Soderbergh's Contagion in 2011, and reprised her role of Pepper Potts for the summer blockbusters The Avengers in 2012 and Iron Man 3 in 2013.

Trivia: Although he first appeared as just one of the latest crop of golden-skinned English imports to caress the hormones of American filmgoers, Jude Law is steadily proving that his talents lie beyond his ability to smolder seductively in front of the camera. Since 1995, when Law made the transition from British soap opera to Broadway via Sean Mathias' Indiscretions (in which he co-starred with Kathleen Turner), his work has increasingly garnered favorable notice from critics and moviegoers alike.Born in London on December 29, 1972, Law started acting as a teenager. Before Indiscretions, his most notable role was in Shopping (1994), a British production that gave him both initial recognition and an introduction to his future wife, actress Sadie Frost (the couple has two children). After the critical and commercial success of Indiscretions, Law began finding more work in film, starring as Claire Danes' boyfriend in I Love You, I Love You Not (1997) and as the genetically privileged man who sells his identity to Ethan Hawke in Gattaca (1997). Also in 1997, Law took on the plum role of Alfred Lord Douglas (or Bosie), Oscar Wilde's volatile lover in Wilde. Although none of these films received unanimously positive critical (or box-office) attention, they did help to further establish Law as an actor to be taken seriously. Law followed them with a small part in Bent (1997) and the more pivotal role of Billy, Jim Williams' hotheaded and ill-fated lover in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997). Following that film, Law went on to make a few smaller films, including Music From Another Room (also starring a still unknown Gretchen Mol) and The Final Cut, in which he played a sinister, deceased version of himself.In 1999, Law appeared in David Cronenberg's cyberific eXistenZ and completed filming Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, and Cate Blanchett. The film earned widespread acclaim upon its release, much of which was lavished on Law's portrayal of the serially charming and devastatingly superficial Dickie Greenleaf. Law garnered both a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance, further cementing his reputation as one of the more promising up-and-coming actors on either side of the ocean.After a turn as a Russian marksman facing off against a Nazi sniper in Enemy at the Gates (2001), Law returned to sci-fi with his role as love machine Gigolo Joe in Steven Spielberg's eagerly anticipated A.I.In addition to his acting commitments, Law kept busy with Natural Nylon, the production company he founded with Sadie Frost, Sean Pertwee, Ewan McGregor, and Jonny Lee Miller. In 2002, Law starred alongside film veterans Tom Hanks and Paul Newman in the multiple Oscar-winning Road to Perdition and was on the path to an Oscar once again for his performance in Cold Mountain (2003) with Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger, who took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. After appearing in only two films in as many years, Law was virtually unavoidable in the last third of 2004, with substantial roles in a grand total of six films. First up, he played the title role in the blue-screened sci-fi action flick Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, starring alongside the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, and a "resurrected" Laurence Olivier. A month later, he could be found starring in the remake of Alfie as well as in the ensemble cast of David O. Russell's comedy I Heart Huckabees. And before the close of the year, audiences could catch him in Mike Nichols' romantic drama Closer, as Errol Flynn in Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, and providing the voice of the title character in the big-screen adaptation of Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events. Produced on an elephantine, effects-heavy budget by the wunderkind, billon-dollar powerhouse Scott Rudin (The Firm, Sister Act) and starring Jim Carrey, the film opened in December 2004 and received average to positive notices; such commentators as Newsweek's Sean Smith, The Washington Post's Desson Thomson, and others championed it (one referred to it as "a Tim Burton movie without the weird shafts of adolescent pain"); others were nonplussed. Roger Ebert complained, "It's odd, how the movie's gloom and doom are amusing at first, and then dampen down the humor. Although many Unfortunate Events do indeed occur in "Lemony Snicket," they cannot be called exciting because everyone is rather depressed by them." The picture nevertheless did excellent box office. Alfie - a remake of the 1966 Michael Caine vehicle, with Law taking over the Caine role - didn't fare so well with critics but performed adequately at the box. Law ducked out of films for a year or so between 2004 and 2005, which led Variety to ask, "Where in the world is Jude Law?" The actor apparently needed a vacation, but his absence was short lived: Law ended his sabbatical after a year or so, and triumphantly returns to cinemas in 2006. In All the King's Men, Law plays second-string fiddle to an over-the-top Sean Penn. A political tale adapted from Robert Penn Warren's novel by Schindler's List scribe Steven Zaillian (who also directs), the movie weaves the tale of a Huey Long-like southern demagogue (Penn). The film will hit cinemas across the U.S. in September '06. Law is also re-teaming with his Cold Mountain collaborator, Anthony Minghella, in Breaking & Entering. Over the next several years, Law would enjoy his status as a leading man, appearing in a number of films like the Sherlock Holmes franchise, Hugo, and Contagion. He played Alexei Karenin in Anna Karenina in 2012, and appeared in The Grand Budpest Hotel in 2014.

Trivia: With her regal and elegant visage, Aussie actress Cate Blanchett broke through the mob of aspiring actors and instantly ascended the ranks to Hollywood stardom with her Academy Award-nominated turn as Elizabeth I in Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth (1998). Her concomitantly poignant and fierce portrayal won admiration from critics and filmgoers, but she had maintained a low enough profile in years prior (and her celebrity materialized so quickly) that the Elizabeth triumph appeared to pull the heretofore unseen actress from out of thin air and caught just about everyone off guard. Born in Melbourne on May 14, 1969, Catherine Elise Blanchett entered the world as the daughter of an Australian mother and a Texas-born American father, with two siblings. Her dad died of a heart attack when she was ten; her mother subsequently raised her. Blanchett studied economics and fine art at the University of Melbourne, but -- reeling from ennui and dissatisfaction -- she set off in search of an alternate vocation and traveled for a period of time, perhaps in search of herself. Blanchett ultimately landed in Egypt, where a chance bit part in an Arabic boxing film introduced her to a newfound love of acting. Taking this as a firm cue, Blanchett harkened back to Sydney, where she enrolled in (and ultimately graduated from) the highly esteemed National Academy of Dramatic Art. Blanchett later joined the Sydney Theatre Company, where she earned positive notices in a production of Caryl Churchill's Top Girls. A subsequent role in Timothy Daley's musical Kafka Dances won Blanchett a 1993 New Comer Award from the Sydney Theatre Critics Circle, an honor doubled that same year when she gleaned a Rosemont Best Actress Award for her performance opposite future Elizabeth co-star Geoffrey Rush in David Mamet's Oleanna. The considerable prestige that accompanied these theatrical triumphs led Blanchett to the small screen, where she appeared in various programs for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, including the drama Heartland and the cop series Police Rescue. Her television performances caught the attention of director Bruce Beresford, who cast her in his 1997 POW drama Paradise Road as a shy Australian nurse, opposite Glenn Close and Frances McDormand. 1997 proved to be a busy year as it also found her staring in the comedy Thank God He Met Lizzie, for which she netted an Australian Film Institute Best Actress Award. By the end of the year she had an even bigger event than any successful acting gigs as she was married in December to British film technician Andrew Upton. With the considerable amount of praise and recognition Blanchett was receiving in her native country and a partner in her personal life to share it with, it was only a matter of time and opportunity before she became known to a wider audience. Her opportunity arrived that very same year, with her role in Gillian Armstrong's adaptation of Peter Carey's novel Oscar and Lucinda. Opposite Ralph Fiennes, Blanchett won almost uniform praise for her performance in a tepidly received film. Blanchett came first-billed in the following year's Elizabeth. The film drew swift and unequivocal praise, and Blanchett's portrayal of the queen turned her into Los Angeles' newest cause célèbre. A plethora of awards greeted Kapur's feature and Blanchett's performance, including a Best Actress Academy Award nomination and eight additional Oscar nods. The actress won a Golden Globe and British Academy Award, in addition to a host of critics' circle awards. With that experience under her belt, Blanchett starred opposite Angelina Jolie, John Cusack, and Billy Bob Thornton in the Mike Newell comedy Pushing Tin (1999). Although the film dive-bombed at the box office, critics singled out Blanchett's fine performance as a Long Island housewife. The same year, she played another domestic, albeit one of an entirely different stripe, in Oliver Parker's adaptation of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband. Despite a uniformly strong cast including Jeremy Northam, Rupert Everett, and Julianne Moore, the film divided critics, although Blanchett herself again earned favorable notices.Blanchett maintained a busy schedule after the Newell project, appearing in a plethora films throughout the early 2000s. She joined Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci with her role as a kindhearted albeit materialistic showgirl in The Man Who Cried, then starred as a fortune-teller who holds the key to a mysterious murder in director Sam Raimi's The Gift, an unwitting accomplice in the crime comedy Bandits, a British schoolteacher in Tom Tykwer's Kieslowski update Heaven, and Galadriel, Queen of Lothlórien, in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Blanchett also appeared in 2001's The Shipping News (as Petal) and director Gillian Armstrong's Charlotte Gray as the title character. That same year, she gave birth to her first son, Dashiell John.Blanchett's appeared as ill-fated Irish journalist Veronica Guerin in director Joel Schumacher and producer Jerry Bruckheimer's eponymously titled 2003 biopic. The film drew very mixed reviews and died a quick death in cinemas during its late-autumn run, but those reviewers who did respond favorably again singled out the actress' stunning interpretation of the role. The following year, Blanchett appeared in Wes Anderson's quirky film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou alongside Bill Murray and Owen Wilson. Blanchett wore a prosthetic belly in the film for her role as a seven months pregnant journalist and, interestingly enough, she later found that she was actually pregnant during filming. She gave birth to her second son, Roman Robert, later that same year. First, however, she effortlessly lit up the screen with a performance as film legend Katharine Hepburn in director Martin Scorsese's lavish Howard Hughes epic The Aviator. If The Aviator's Best Picture loss to Million Dollar Baby proved somewhat disappointing to Scorsese fans when the Oscars were handed out, Blanchett landed her greatest triumph that evening: she won the Best Supporting Actress award for her turn as Hepburn. Perhaps despairing the paucity of solid scripts in Hollywood, Blanchett went global after the Scorsese affair. She returned to her native Australia for a low-key follow-up, Rowan Woods' harrowing and skillful Little Fish (2005). 2006's multi-national production Babel, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, won the Best Director Award at Cannes; one of the narrative strands in its array of subplots featured Blanchett and Brad Pitt as husband and wife, grieving over the death of a child, and thrust into a desperate situation. Babel turned out to be a major critical success, as did another film Blanchett appeared in that same year, Notes on a Scandal. In the film, Blanchett played a mother and schoolteacher who becomes deeply embroiled in a maze of power and deception when she betrays her job and family by carrying on an affair with a student. The tautly suspenseful and intimate film also starred Judi Dench as Blanchett's friend and confidant, who soon becomes a source of emotional blackmail. The actresses were each praised for their performances, and each received both Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for their work in the film. Blanchett went on to play Lena Brandt in The Good German, Steven Soderbergh and Paul Attanasio's tale of a man (George Clooney) searching for his former mistress (Blanchett) in post-WWII Berlin. She also signed on for Poison helmer Todd Haynes' I'm Not There: Suppositions on a Film Concerning Dylan, slated for release in 2007. The eccentric bio of the pop singer co-starred Richard Gere, Julianne Moore, Adrien Brody, and Charlotte Gainsbourg with numerous varied performers playing the musician in different sequences. Also set for release in 2007 was Blanchett's return to one of her greatest triumphs as Elizabeth I in The Golden Age, Shekhar Kapur's sequel to his 1998 arthouse hit Elizabeth, which would take place later in the Virgin Queen's reign. Geoffrey Rush agreed to reprise his role as Sir Francis Walsingham, and the film would also feature Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh, establisher of the first New World colony and controversial figure of the Elizabethan court. Blanchett also agreed to join the cast of the David Fincher-directed fantasy The Curious Case of Benjamin Button -- a critically acclaimed hit of 2008 -- before moving on to play a nefarious baddie in the unique thriller Hanna in 2012. Soon, the actress was reprising the role of elvin queen Galadriel for the Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit. In 2013, she won her second Academy Award, this time for Lead Actress, for her portrayal of an unhinged socialite in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine. In 2015, Blanchett played the evil stepmother in the live-action version of Cinderella, took on a supporting role in Terrence Malick's Knight of Cups and earned her seventh Oscar nomination for Todd Haynes' Carol.

Trivia: One of the most original, versatile, and steadily employed actors in Hollywood, Philip Seymour Hoffman made a name for himself playing some of the most dysfunctional characters in movie history. Although he had been acting for years, most audiences were first introduced to the actor in the award-winning Boogie Nights, where he played a nebbishy soundman with a jones for Mark Wahlberg's Dirk Diggler. Imbuing his character with both humor and poignant complexity, Hoffman was one of the more memorable aspects of an unforgettable film.Born in Fairport, NY, in 1968, Hoffman trained at New York's Tisch School of Drama. Before breaking into film, he did a host of theater work, performing in New York, Chicago, and on a European tour. He made his film debut in the 1992 film Scent of a Woman, a critically acclaimed picture starring Al Pacino and Chris O'Donnell. Roles in a number of films of varying quality followed, including My New Gun (1992) and When a Man Loves a Woman (1994). The actor then nabbed a sizable role in Jan de Bont's 1996 tornado thriller Twister and the same year began an ongoing working relationship with Paul Thomas Anderson by appearing in his directorial debut Hard Eight. The crime drama, which also starred Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson, received positive critical attention, although it didn't create more than a minor blip at the box office. However, Hoffman's next feature and second collaboration with Anderson, Boogie Nights (1997), was both a critical and financial success, scoring a host of Academy Award nominations and simultaneously reviving the careers of some of its stars, such as Burt Reynolds and Mark Wahlberg, while providing a breakthrough for others, such as Heather Graham and Hoffman himself. He next appeared in the Robin Williams comedy Patch Adams (1998), and the same year starred in two critically acclaimed independent films, Todd Solondz's Happiness and Brad Anderson's Next Stop Wonderland. The prolific actor added an appearance in The Big Lebowski (also 1998) to his already impressive resumé. In addition to his burgeoning acting career, Hoffman won favorable notices for his directing debut with the off-Broadway In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings. Hoffman came into his own with three notable performances in 1999. He reunited with Paul Thomas Anderson to play empathic hospice nurse Phil Parma, one of the emotional anchors in Magnolia. His portrayal of upper-crust snob Freddie Miles in The Talented Mr. Ripley earned him strong notices from many critics. Hoffman's peers awarded him with a Screen Actors Guild nomination for his role as a cross dresser in Flawless opposite Robert De Niro. He returned to the Broadway stage with fellow Anderson regular John C. Reilly to play very different brothers in Sam Shepard's True West. They took a risk by switching the lead roles every three days. Their hard work earned critical raves, and each was nominated for a Tony award. In 2000, Cameron Crowe cast Hoffman as Crowe's childhood hero Lester Bangs in Almost Famous, and David Mamet tapped him to be part of the impressive ensemble in State and Main.Hoffman maintained his status as one of the most respected and hardest-working actors in the new decade by delivering an excellent supporting turn in Red Dragon as an unctuous tabloid reporter. That same year he co-starred in Spike Lee's 25th Hour, and played the bad guy for old collaborator Paul Thomas Anderson in the offbeat romantic comedy Punch-Drunk Love. 2002 also saw the release of Love Liza, a very low-budget film scripted by Hoffman's brother and directed by actor Todd Louiso that starred Phil as a grieving husband addicted to huffing gas fumes. The next year found Hoffman starring as a gambling addict in the small scale Canadian drama Owning Mahowny, and turning in a memorable supporting performance as an amoral preacher in the big screen adaptation of Cold Mountain. Hoffman was in theaters again at the beginning of 2004 as the best friend in the Ben Stiller comedy Along Came Polly. He was also part of yet another outstanding ensemble in the small screen adaptation of Richard Russo's Pulitzer prize-winning novel Empire Falls.In 2005, Hoffman took the role of a lifetime when he assumed the title role in Bennett Miller's Capote. The film had critics in agreement that Hoffman's portrayal of complex and idiosyncratic real-life author Truman Capote was the stuff of Hollywood legend. Hoffman not only mastered the character's distinct body-language and speech but also hauntingly interpreted the subtle psychological and emotional self that made the character whole-leading many to declare that he very nearly made the film everything it was. The performance earned him the Oscar for Best Actor, as well as a Golden Globe and countless other accolades. The attention also provided a boost in profile for the actor who had for so long proved his worth in the background. After playing the bad guy in the third Mission Impossible movie opposite Tom Cruise, Hoffman had a remarkable 2007, a year that saw him play a central part in three well-regarded films. His conniving brother in Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead was a model of self-loathing fermenting into fatal action. In addition to a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor, his highly-educated, emotionally fractured brother to Laura Linney's neurotic sister in The Savages offered him the chance to play numerous subtle and sharply observed scenes with her, the first meeting of these two revered performers. But it was his turn as the intense CIA operative in Charlie Wilson's War that won Hoffman the most widespread praise including Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor.Hoffman continued to solidify his status as one of his generation's finest actors in 2008 with two very different roles. By choosing to play the lead in Charlie Kaufmann's directorial debut Synecdoche, New York, Hoffman again displayed his fearlessness, as well as his desire to work with the very best writers and directors he can find. That willfully difficult film never connected with mainstream audiences, but that was not true at all for Hoffman's other picture of 2008, Doubt. John Patrick Shanley's cinematic adaptation of his own award-winning play earned acting nominations for Hoffman and his three costars (Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis) from both the Screen Actors Guild, and the Academy.Over the following years, Hoffman would continue to appear in a variety of interesting films, like Pirate Radio, The Ides of March, and Moneyball. In 2012 he again collaborated with Paul Thomas Anderson, playing a cult leader in the drama The Master opposite Joaquin Phoenix. For his work in that movie, Hoffman got a Best Supporting Actor nomination from both the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The following year, he appeared in the smash The Hunger Games: Catching Fire as rebel Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. Sadly, personal problems cut his illustrious career short, as Hoffman was found dead in his apartment of an apparent drug overdose at age 46.

Trivia: The only son of veteran British actors Nigel Davenport and Maria Aitken, Jack Davenport did not plan to follow his parents into show business. They even warned him against it, feeling that he falsely believed their lucrative careers were representative of the typical acting experience. But Davenport was too poor of an athlete to participate in any school sports and eventually wandered into the drama department, where he fell in love with performing. Born on March 1, 1973 in Suffolk, England, Davenport grew up in both Ibiza and Suffolk. He attended local schools until his parents' divorce in 1981, when he went to live at the Dragon School. Davenport then enrolled at his father's former school, Cheltenham College. After graduation, he took a year off before entering university, during which he took a summer drama course. Impressed by Davenport's performance as a rapper in a practice skit, the director of the Welsh national theater offered him a job. At 18, he moved to Wales to play bit parts in the theater's production of Hamlet. Davenport majored in English Literature and Film Studies at the University of East Anglia. When he finished school, his mother urged him to try getting a job behind the scenes in filmmaking or theater. At her suggestion, Davenport wrote actor/writer John Cleese to ask him if he could work as a production assistant on the set of his upcoming movie Fierce Creatures (1997) (in which his mother had a role). Cleese, instead, cast Davenport in the film. Fierce Creatures was barely in post-production when Davenport made his small-screen debut in This Life, a 1996 British television series about five young lawyers who share an apartment. His role as the self-absorbed Miles Stewart in the well-reviewed, much-watched show made him an instant celebrity in England. Davenport appeared as Malcolm in a television update of Macbeth (1998), before starring as a detective who is recruited into a mysterious troop of vampire hunters in the stylish hit miniseries Ultraviolet. After playing a similar role in the horror film The Wisdom of Crocodiles (1998), Davenport landed a supporting role in his first major international release, Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999). Critics hailed Davenport for giving soul to what could have easily been the cardboard cutout role of Ripley (Matt Damon)'s doomed lover, gentle musician Peter Smith-Kinsley. A year later, international audiences enjoyed Davenport again when Mystery! kicked off its 21st season with his performance as Derek Jacobi's son in The Wyvern Mystery. Based on Irish writer J.S. Le Fanu's 1869 thriller, the two-part miniseries also starred Naomi Watts and Iain Glen. He then tried his hand at comedy in Coupling, a television sitcom dubbed by reviewers as a British Friends. While continuing to appear onscreen -- in films such as Subterrain (2001), Not Afraid, Not Afraid (2001), Gypsy Woman (2001), and The Bunker (2001) -- Davenport returned to the stage to star in The Servant at England's Lyric Theater. Davenport is also an accomplished voice-over actor. He narrated the audio versions of John Buchan's The 39 Steps and Andy McNab's Crisis Four, as well as recorded parts in the radio productions of George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman, Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange, and Nicholas Monsarrat's A Cruel Sea. Most notably, however, he is the deep voice behind the famous "For everything else, there's MasterCard" commercials.In 2003 he landed a part in the smash hit The Pirates of the Caribbean, playing Norrington not just in that film but in the next two sequels as well. He appeared in the 2004 period drama The Libertine. He appeared in the failed TV drama Swingtown, but found greater small-screen success a few years later as part of NBC's behind-the-scenes Broadway drama Smash.

Trivia: One of America's most recognizable character actors, James Rebhorn was a veteran of over 100 television shows, feature films, and plays. While best known for portraying lawyers, politicians, doctors, and military men, he delivered equally notable performances in a variety of other roles, including that of a brutal serial killer on NBC's Law & Order, a shipping magnate in Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), and a comically doomed restaurateur in Billy Morrisette's Scotland, PA (2001).Born in Philadelphia, PA, on September 1, 1948, Rebhorn moved to Anderson, IN, as a child. A devout Lutheran, he attended the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Wittenburg University in Ohio, where he studied political science. After graduating in 1970, Rebhorn moved to New York City, where he earned a Master's of Fine Arts in acting from Columbia University's School of the Arts and joined the metropolitan theater scene.After making his television debut on the NBC soap opera The Doctors in 1977, Rebhorn starred on Another World: Texas and The Guiding Light, as well as earned a 1989 Soap Opera Digest Award for his performance as Henry Lange on As the World Turns. He displayed his comic talents during a recurring role on Kate and Allie, and in an unforgettable turn as the district attorney who jails the Seinfeld gang in the show's final episode. He also garnered recurring roles on some of television's most heralded dramas -- including Law & Order, Third Watch, Now and Again, and The Practice -- and memorable telefilms -- including Sarah, Plain and Tall (1981), North and South (1985), Skylark (1993), From the Earth to the Moon (1998), and A Bright Shining Lie (1998).Rebhorn's feature-film career began in the early '80s with roles such as "Lawyer" in Soup for One (1982), "Los Alamos Doctor" in Silkwood (1983), and "Drunken Business Man" in Cat's Eye (1985). As the decade progressed, his parts increased in importance and he emerged in the '90s as an established supporting actor with roles in several high-profile films. After appearing in 1991's Regarding Henry with Harrison Ford and Annette Bening, Rebhorn gave stand-out performances opposite Marisa Tomei and Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny (1992), Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas in Basic Instinct (1992), Chris O'Donnell and Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman (1992), and Susan Sarandon and Nick Nolte in Lorenzo's Oil (1992). He went on to earn prominent roles in Carlito's Way (1993), Guarding Tess (1994), I Love Trouble (1994), Up Close & Personal (1996), Independence Day (1996), If Lucy Fell (1996), and My Fellow Americans (1996). Rebhorn rounded out the '90s by playing the mysterious Consumer Recreation Services representative in The Game (1997), the prosecuting attorney in Snow Falling on Cedars (1999), and Jude Law's shipping magnate father in the above-mentioned The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999). The new millennium saw him starring as Robert De Niro's future in-law in Meet the Parents (2000) and a modern-day version of Macbeth's Duncan in the above-mentioned Scotland, PA, before gearing up for the Eddie Murphy sci-fi vehicle The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002), and Todd Haynes' long-awaited return to directing, Far From Heaven (2002).Towards the end of his career, Rebhorn returned to television, playing recurring characters on several different shows, playing the CEO of Abbadon Industries on HBO's Enlightened, an FBI special agent on USA's White Collar and, his final role, Carrie Mathison's father on Showtime's Homeland.While juggling his film and television work, Rebhorn frequently returned to the stage. He appeared at the Manhattan Theater Club, Playwright's Horizons, the New York Shakespeare Festival, the LaJolla Playhouse, the Ensemble Studio Theater, and Lincoln Center. In 2002, he earned rave reviews for his performance in the Roundabout Theater's production of Arthur Miller's first play, The Man Who Had All the Luck, with Chris O'Donnell and Samantha Mathis.Rebhorn was diagnosed with melanoma in 1992 and struggled with the disease for the next two decades, before succumbing in 2014 at the age of 65.

Trivia: Primarily a supporting and character actor, Philip Baker Hall has also played the occasional lead on stage, screen, and television. Hall made his film debut playing a priest in Cowards (1970). He then appeared in three television series during the mid-'70s, including Man From Atlantis (1977). He became best known during the '80s for his portrayal of Richard Nixon in Robert Altman's brilliant Secret Honor (1984), for which Hall also wrote the screenplay. Though the film garnered mixed reviews, the actor's portrayal of Nixon was hailed as a tour de force. Through the '80s and '90s, Hall continued to work steadily in films and on television; his talents were perhaps best, and most famously, utilized by director Paul Thomas Anderson, who cast Hall in substantial roles in Hard Eight (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), and Magnolia (1999), the last of which saw the actor in fine form as a game show host dying of cancer. Hall also had a memorable turn as a private investigator who is far too convinced of the infallibility of his own instincts in Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999); that same year, he gave a strong performance as CBS producer Don Hewitt in Michael Mann's The Insider. Clearly, Hall had no intention of slowing down, and he would spend the next several years remaining extremely active, appearing in such films as The Matador, Rush Hour 3, The Lodger, 50/50, and Mr. Popper's Penguins.

Trivia: Born and raised in South Carolina, character actress Celia Weston has played many a tough Southern gal despite her theater training in both London and New York. Working both on and off Broadway in the '70s, she moved over to television as the snappy Mel's Diner waitress Jolene Hunnicut on the CBS sitcom Alice. After that, she appeared in Southern-tinged feature films like Honky Tonk Freeway and Stars and Bars. Also adept at playing matronly types, she played the mother of Beastie Boy Adam Horowitz in Lost Angels, the mother of one of the victims in Dead Man Walking, and the supposed mother of Ben Stiller in Flirting With Disaster. Back on the stage in 1997, she earned a Tony nomination for her role as Southern Jew Reba Freitag in Alfred Uhry's Last Night at Ballyhoo and returned to Broadway in 2000 as Mom in the revival of Sam Shepard's True West. She made a comeback to films as well with supporting roles in Ride With the Devil, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Snow Falling on Cedars. In 2001, she played a Southern belle mental patient in K-PAX followed by the gossip-hound Mona in Far From Heaven, the Fowler's family friend in In the Bedroom, and the guardian of teenaged Bruce Banner in The Hulk. In 2003 she was back to the small screen as a cast member on the Showtime original series Out of Order. Her career continued to gain momentum throughout the decade thanks to roles in films like The Village, Observe & Report, The Box, and Knight and Day, then in 2010 Weston beat out Delta Burke, Dianne Wiest and Kathy Bates to secure the role of Cameron's mother on the ABC sitcom Modern Family. That same year Weston joined the cast of TNT's Memphis Beat, though the series was cancelled after just two seasons.

Trivia: Her early career showed great promise, and though she is still a highly respected and talented actress, Lisa Eichhorn has never quite reached the rarified heights of movie stardom. The U.S.-born actress studied at Oxford and then received dramatic training from London's prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She made her film debut in John Schlesinger's Yanks starring opposite Richard Gere and then appeared in the Merchant/Ivory production The Europeans (both 1979). Neither were box-office hits, and Eichhorn's budding film career languished. But then she played John Heard's wife in Cutter's Way/Cutter and Bone, a powerful drama about the complex relationships between an embittered crippled veteran, his former army buddy, and his depressive wife. The film was initially panned and pulled from release, but later it was rediscovered by critics and given rave reviews. Eichhorn's performance was particularly notable. Her subsequent film appearances have become increasingly sporadic. In addition to her film career, she has found success on television and particularly on the stage, where she has particularly shone in classic dramas.

Trivia: American actress Gretchen Egolf came of age in Lancaster, PA, and first honed her acting ability as a young child on the theatrical circuit. Upon graduation from high school, Egolf enrolled in New York's illustrious Juilliard as a drama major. She subsequently launched a career as an on- and off-Broadway actress, a film star, and a television player. TV roles included a regular part on the series Martial Law and a recurring role on Roswell, in addition to guest appearances on such programs as Law & Order, Without a Trace, Medium, Nero Wolfe, and others. Cinematically, Egolf landed supporting roles in two particularly high-profile features: the 1994 Quiz Show (directed by Robert Redford) and the 1999 Talented Mr. Ripley (directed by Anthony Minghella). She also portrayed Genevieve Halford, wife of Jackie Gleason, in the eponymous made-for-television biopic of that superstar, Gleason (2002). In 2007, Egolf scored a regular role on the sci-fi drama Journeyman as the lead character's (Kevin McKidd) wife; the series was canceled after its first season.

Trivia: Appeared on the big screen first in 1984 in The Cotton Club.Played in the 1990s in the soap opera One Life to Live.Is best known for his role as Geno in the 1995 comedy-crime film The Jerky Boys.Portrayed Jackie since 2017 in the comedy-drama web television series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.Is of Irish and Italian descent.