Trivia: With his electrifying gaze, elegant comportment, and lips that look as if they could breathe life into concrete, Ralph Fiennes has caused many a jaded filmgoer to reaffirm the existence of British sex appeal. Since 1993, when he first impressed international audiences in the decidedly unglamorous role of Nazi sadist Amon Goeth in Schindler's List, Fiennes has delivered performances marked by dignified passion and relentless intensity.The oldest of six children, Fiennes was born in Suffolk on December 22, 1962. His father was a self-taught photographer and his mother a novelist who wrote under the pen name Jennifer Lash, professions which virtually ensured a unique upbringing. Fiennes' family moved a number of times while he was growing up, and the children were encouraged in their creative pursuits. Thus, it is less than surprising that four out of the six Fiennes siblings went on to work in the entertainment business, with Ralph and his brother Joseph becoming actors, his two sisters a director and a producer, and another brother a musician. Originally wanting to be a painter, Fiennes enrolled at the Chelsea College of Art and Design before transferring to London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to study acting. Following graduation, he joined the Royal National Theatre in 1987, and he became part of the Royal Shakespeare Company a year later. While a member of the company, he performed a wide range of the classics, playing everyone from Romeo to King Lear's Edmund. Fiennes first became known to a wider audience in 1991, when he starred as the title character in the acclaimed British television production of A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia. The next year, he gained additional exposure, making his film debut as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. Starring opposite Juliette Binoche, Fiennes glowered his way across the screen with suitable aplomb, something that he would do again to devastating effect the next year in Schindler's List. As the psychotic Nazi commandant Amon Goeth, Fiennes blended quiet yet absolute menace with surprising charisma (even more surprising given that he had gained over 30 pounds for his role) to such great effect that he earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination and a British Academy Award for his portrayal. Fiennes' work in the film incited a flurry of interest in the actor, whose intensity and odd name (its correct pronunciation is "Rafe Fines") made him the subject of many a magazine article.Interest in Fiennes only increased the following year, when, back to his normal weight and sporting an American accent, he played the more sympathetic (but tragically flawed) Charles Van Doren in Robert Redford's Quiz Show. Critics loved him in the role, and he further consolidated his acclaim two years later in Anthony Minghella's Oscar-winning adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, which won Fiennes Oscar and Golden Globe nominations as Best Actor. Given his newfound heartthrob status, many audience members were surprised to see Fiennes next turn up in the title role of the gawkish, ginger-haired minister with a gambling problem (playing opposite a then-unknown Cate Blanchett) in Oscar and Lucinda (1997). He gave a highly eccentric performance in the film, which received a mixed critical reception. Where Oscar and Lucinda was only vaguely disappointing, Fiennes' next project, a 1998 film version of the popular 1960s TV series The Avengers, was one of the most lambasted films of the year. Fiennes somehow managed to avoid most of the critical wrath directed at the film, and in 1999 he could be seen starring in no less than three disparate projects. In Onegin, directed by his sister, Martha, Fiennes played the title character, a blasé Russian aristocrat; in The End of the Affair, directed by Neil Jordan, he portrayed a novelist embroiled in an adulterous affair with the wife (Julianne Moore) of his best friend (Stephen Rea); while in Sunshine, directed by István Szabó, he played three different roles in a saga tracing 150 years of the affairs and intrigues of a family of Hungarian Jews.If his roles to date had served to showcase Fiennes' talent at about the rate of a solid performance per year, 2002 provided a trio of diverse and demanding roles that would prove just how well he could perform under pressure. In Red Dragon -- the first of those efforts to hit stateside screens that year -- Fiennes' chilling performance as serial killer Francis Dolarhyde shifted between meekness and menace at the drop of a hat. Thankfully eschewing the grandiose theatrics of Hannibal for a tone more in keeping with the original Silence of the Lambs, the film proved a hit at the box office, and Fiennes' performance rivaled that of Ted Levine's in providing the film with a chilling villain straight from the pages of the most lurid true-crime encyclopedia (Fiennes' character was purportedly based on the exploits of an uncaptured Wichita serial killer who went by the name "Bind, Torture, Kill"). A few short months later, audiences were treated to yet another deeply disturbed characterization by Fiennes, that of a schizophrenic man haunted by his childhood in director David Cronenberg's dark psychological drama Spider, based on author Patrick McGrath's bleak novel of the same name. Fiennes' performance substituted the menace of Red Dragon with a more sympathetic protagonist whose memory slowly regresses to reveal a scarring childhood tragedy. No doubt having had his fill of disturbed characters that year, Fiennes once again caught audiences off guard with a disarmingly charming role in the romantic comedy Maid in Manhattan.Fiennes would continue to find substantial and challenging roles in the years to come, most notably in his sister's film Chromophobia, the Merchant-Ivory film The White Countess, The Constant Gardener, the James Bond film Skyfall, and the ever-popular Harry Potter series, in which Fiennes played baddie Lord Voldemort. Fiennes would also earn accolades for directing and starring in a cinematic adaptation of William Shakespeare's war epic Coriolanus.

Trivia: An international star of extraordinary, almost otherworldly beauty, French actress Juliette Binoche was born March 9, 1964, in Paris. The daughter of a sculptor/theater director and an actress, Binoche studied acting at the National School of Dramatic Art of Paris. After graduation, she followed in her mother's footsteps and became a stage actress, occasionally taking small parts in French feature films. Binoche first earned recognition in 1985 for playing a modernized, teenaged version of the Virgin Mary in Jean-Luc Godard's controversial Je Vous Salue, Marie (Hail Mary). The actress became a bona fide French star the same year with an acclaimed performance in André Téchiné's Rendez-Vous. Though she was the darling of the 1985 Cannes Film Festival, Binoche did not gain true international acclaim until she played Tereza in Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being in 1988.In the meantime, Binoche become involved with Leos Carax, a then-hot young filmmaker who cast her in a lead role in his chilling Mauvais Sang (Bad Blood). While involved with Carax, Binoche appeared in his Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (Lovers on the Bridge), a film they began in 1988 but did not finish until 1991 due to financial difficulties. She and Carax parted ways two years later after Binoche's great success starring opposite Jeremy Irons in Louis Malle's Damage (1992). The same year, the actress appeared with future English Patient co-star Ralph Fiennes in a new film version of Wuthering Heights, and followed that with the lead role in Krzysztof Kieslowski's Blue (1993). (She also appeared briefly in the trilogy's other installments, Red and White.) Following her work in that acclaimed film, Binoche took time off to have a son and did not return to her career until 1995 with Le Hussard sur le Toit (The Horseman on the Roof). In 1996, Binoche earned further international recognition with a Best Supporting Actress Oscar (as well as a host of other awards) for her role in The English Patient. Returning to her native France amidst a golden haze of critical acclaim, Binoche appeared in the same year's Un Divan à New York (A Couch in New York), a romantic comedy in which she starred opposite William Hurt. In 1998, she again collaborated with director Téchiné, this time on the romantic drama Alice et Martin.Revered as near royalty by the French press (who often simply refer to her as "La Binoche") and a beloved star worldwide, Binoche's remarkable second wind found her popularity soaring and her screen presence more powerful than ever. Binoche's daring and intense performance as 19th-century literary icon George Sand in the misguided drama The Children of the Century (1999) indeed impressed audiences and critics, though the film itself failed to live up to expectations. Of course, it wouldn't take long before Binoche was cast in a film whose quality would match her ample talent, and The Widow of Saint-Pierre (2000) would serve as just that cinematic endeavor. Not only did the redemption-themed drama perform smashingly at the international box office, but it also found its star honored with a César nomination for Best Actress. A collaboration with notorious feel-bad filmmaker Michael Haneke resulted in the intersecting lives drama Code Unknown (2000), though that role was ultimately overshadowed by Binoche's captivating performance in that same year's arthouse hit Chocolat. Cast opposite Johnny Depp as the free-spirited owner of a chocolate shop located in a small French town, the dedicated actress actually prepared for the role by learning to make chocolate at a popular Paris sweetshop. The film was an international runaway hit, and the beloved starlet was nominated for best actress awards across the globe. Following a lighthearted performance opposite French icon Jean Reno in the romantic comedy Jet Lag (2002), Binoche appeared with American star Samuel L. Jackson in director John Boorman's politically oriented drama Country of My Skull in 2004. Binoche maintained her status as one of the most respected actresses in the world by appearing in the well-regarded thriller Cache. She also co-starred with Richard Gere in the drama Bee Season. In 2006 she would appear alongside other stars as Jude Law, Robin Wirght Penn, and Ray Winstone in Anthony Minghella's drama Breaking & Entering.Binoche took on a starring role as Suzanne, a voice actress in a puppet theater and mother to a young boy in the award-winning drama Flight of the Red Balloon (2007), and found success once more with a co-starring part in filmmaker Peter Hedges' comedy Dan in Real Life (2007). The actress played another mother figure in 2008's Paris, a critically lauded romantic drama following a group of friends who find themselves at a crossroads in matters of love, health, and career. Binoche played yet another starring role Certified Copy, which followed the relationship between a British author and a French art-gallery owner (Binoche). 2012 found Binoche co-starring with Paul Giamatti and Keira Knightly for David Cronenberg's sci-fi thriller Cosmopolis, and in another lead role for the drama Open Heart.

Trivia: Started acting in his teens after a girl he was dating signed them up to audition for the Dutch version of the musical Chicago.Started working for theatre company Toneelgroep Amsterdam after graduating from Maastricht Academy of Dramatic Arts.Was awarded a Golden Calf for Best Actor at the Netherlands Film Festival in 2013 for his role in the feature film Wolf.Speaks Dutch, Arabic, French and English.