Trivia: With his mountainous, imposing, and slightly terrifying presence, it seemed fitting that Hollywood character actor Tyler Mane achieved his greatest recognition in the first decade of his career by donning a mask, seizing a butcher knife, and stalking coeds as psychopath Michael Myers in Rob Zombie's 2007 gorefest Halloween. The film, of course, constituted a remake of John Carpenter's seminal horror classic, and Mane inherited the role from Tony Moran and others, but few doubted that Mane and Zombie would make it their own. Prior to this turn, Mane waxed equally threatening as the furry, ravenous villain Sabretooth in the effects-laden blockbuster X-Men (2000), and wielded massive force as two barrel-chested heroes of old: Ajax in Wolfgang Petersen's historical epic Troy (2004) and Antaeus in Roger Young's HBO miniseries Hercules (2005). Mane grew up in Saskatoon, Canada. Reportedly something of an underdog, who suffered from relentless bullying as a child, he took this mistreatment and spun it into determination, with an aggressive immersion into all forms of martial arts -- including karate, judo, and tae kwon do. Then wrestling beckoned; Mane trained from the age of 19 on, first in Calgary, Alberta, then in Los Angeles. From 1986 through 1999, this Canuck import assumed the characterization of Big Sky (in a tag team with Kevin Nash) and as Nitron, and competed in professional wrestling tournaments around the world for the WCW and UWF. The jump from wrestling to acting constituted a short one, and Mane took that leap with X-Men. His resumé also includes portrayals in such features as Black Mask 2 and Joe Dirt, and he first worked with Zombie in The Devil's Rejects (2005); Halloween thus represented their sophomore collaboration. Mane publicly described his evocation of Myers as "demanding...both physically and emotionally," because of the extent to which Zombie sought to lay bare the maniac's psychopathology in the film.

Trivia: American actress Scout Taylor-Compton debuted as an ingenue, appearing on several television series in guest and recurring roles during the 1990s and 2000s, including Charmed, ER, and Gilmore Girls. She then segued into feature roles in the mid-2000s, with memorable contributions to the Jennifer Garner-headlined age-swap fantasy 13 Going on 30, and -- later that same year -- with the all-girl teen comedy Sleepover (2004). Taylor-Compton made her biggest splash, however, by essaying the role of Laurie Strode, perpetually stalked slasher victim (and sister of Michael Myers), in Rob Zombie's much-anticipated horror remake Halloween (2007); the actress inherited the role, of course, from former scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis. Taylor-Compton also made headlines in August 2005 when officially declared "missing" from her family's Apple Valley, CA, home. She was recovered a short time later.

Trivia: Actress Danielle Harris spent much of her childhood playing small supporting roles on television and in feature films. She made her feature film debut portraying Jamie Lloyd, the confused niece of slasher Michael Myers in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) and its follow-up Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989). She has also appeared in films such as Free Willy (1993), City Slickers (1991), and Daylight (1996). Harris' television credits include appearances on Growing Pains, One Life to Live, and a regular role on Roseanne. She also appeared in the made-for-television movies Don't Touch My Daughter and The Women Who Loved Elvis.

Trivia: Brad Dourif is a quirky character actor whose gallery of killers, sociopaths, and other lost souls brought to life any number of contemporary horror and science fiction projects. Born March 18, 1950, in Huntington, WV, he began his professional acting career after graduating from college, honing his skills during a three-year apprenticeship with New York's Circle Repertory under the celebrated drama coach Sanford Meisner. While appearing off-Broadway in a production of When You Comin' Back, Red Rider?, Dourif was spotted by director Milos Forman, who immediately cast him in his 1975 film adaptation of the Ken Kesey novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Dourif's turn as a suicidal teen asylum inmate was one of the most acclaimed film debuts in memory, earning a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe as well as an Oscar nomination. However, the performance also typecast him as a talent best suited to idiosyncratic, off-center character roles, a straitjacket he remained unable to break from for the duration of his career. He then did not reappear onscreen for another two years before co-starring in the 1977 West German production Gruppenbild mit Dame. Dourif's next major performance came in the 1978 Irvin Kershner thriller The Eyes of Laura Mars, followed by a superb starring turn as a damaged war veteran in John Huston's Wise Blood. Upon completing a supporting role in the 1980 television film Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones, Dourif next surfaced in Michael Cimino's legendary flop Heaven's Gate, the first in a string of big-budget disasters to which the actor was attached including Forman's Ragtime and David Lynch's Dune. A series of low-budget projects followed before Dourif reunited with Lynch for a small role in the director's 1986 masterpiece Blue Velvet. However, no other offers of a similar caliber were immediately forthcoming, and instead he found himself providing the voice of the evil doll Chuckie in the Child's Play series of slasher movies. In the years which followed, Dourif occasionally reappeared in more substantial projects (including the 1988 Alan Parker film Mississippi Burning, the 1990 Ken Loach picture Hidden Agenda, and Hanif Kureishi's 1991 directorial debut London Kills Me), but he remained primarily confined to low-budget genre work; additionally, he often guest starred on television, appearing in series including The X-Files, Millennium, and Star Trek: Voyager. In 2001, Dourif took a break from low-budget fright flicks to appear in a decidedly more enormous production, director Peter Jackson's eagerly anticipated Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Trivia: American actress and clothing entrepreneur Sheri Moon Zombie rode the crest of fame to cult status in the late '90s and early 2000s, largely via her many collaborations with boyfriend and then husband Rob Zombie. The latter, of course, is the controversial heavy metal rocker and White Zombie progenitor who created the gore-fest features House of 1000 Corpses (2002), The Devil's Rejects (2005), and Halloween (2007). Sheri essentially followed Rob's lead, first by appearing in his music videos (and those of other metal bands), then by signing for meaty roles in each of her husband's films. She was particularly visible in House and Rejects, as Baby, the sexy yet lethal backwoods maniac with a penchant for butchering almost everyone with the most gruesome methods devisable. In 2008, director Mr. Lawrence devised an onscreen animated version of Sheri Moon Zombie, Suzi X (and had the actress voice the character), in The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. Meanwhile, Moon Zombie branched out into a wholly different arena, founding and marketing her own goth-themed clothing line, Total Skull.

Trivia: Blue-eyed British actor Malcolm McDowell has a history of playing angry, cruel characters that still managed to be charming. Born in working-class Leeds, England, he sold coffee around Yorkshire before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in the late '60s. By 1967, he had made his big-screen debut in Poor Cow, the first feature-length film from director Ken Loach. Moving to New York, McDowell met director Lindsay Anderson and appeared in his off-Broadway production of Look Back in Anger. (He would reprise his role of angry young man Jimmy Porter in the 1980 film version.) He then played Mick Travis, the rebellious boarding school student in If.... (1968), a role he would continue in Anderson's next two films, O Lucky Man! (which he co-wrote) and Britannia Hospital (1982). Director Stanley Kubrick took notice of his work with Anderson and gave McDowell his international breakthrough with A Clockwork Orange, based upon the novel by Anthony Burgess. His portrayal of the sadistic Alex earned him two Best Actor nominations, but also cemented a dark image that would persist throughout his career. He would occasionally get breaks with characters such as Captain Flashman, the hero in the adventure satire Royal Flash or the naïve fighter in the WWI drama Aces High. But his unscrupulous reputation was reinforced in 1979, when he starred in the title role as the Roman emperor in Bob Guccione's notorious production of Caligula. He made his first American film the same year, playing H.G. Wells in Time After Time alongside young actress Mary Steenburgen (they were married from 1980-1990). McDowell went on to star in the horror remake Cat People, the action-adventure Blue Thunder, and the rock musical-comedy Get Crazy. McDowell made several TV movies toward the late '80s, including Gulag, Arthur the King, and Monte Carlo. After a serious bout with a persistent drug problem, his hair turned white and he started playing regular villains in largely forgettable U.S. releases. He had better casting luck abroad, such as the leading role in the Russian film Assassin of the Tsar. After a cameo in The Player in 1992, the actor started lending his voice talent to cartoons, including Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Superman, Spider-Man, Batman: The Animated Series, Biker Mice From Mars, and the features The Fist of the North Star and Happily Ever After. He also provided the voice of Commodore Geoffrey Tolwyn for the Wing Commander video game series and subsequent cartoon. His villainous roles started to gravitate toward science fiction with Tank Girl, Cyborg 3: The Recycler, and, most notably, Dr. Soran in Star Trek: Generations. On television, he played the evil Benny Barrett on the BBC series Our Friends in the North and the sinister Mr. Roarke on the ABC revival series Fantasy Island. In the late '90s, he appeared in a lot of direct-to-video and made-for-cable movies before making a return to U.K. theatrical features with the family drama My Life So Far in 1999 and Gangster No. 1 in 2000. In 2003, he appeared in the horseracing film Hidalgo, Robert Altman's The Company, and the Russian film Evilenko as serial killer Andrei Chikatilo. For better or worse, McDowell's most recognizable role of the decade would likely be that of Dr. Samuel Loomis in Rob Zombie's Halloween (2008) and its 2009 sequel -- thouigh a recurring role on the NBC hit Heroes certainly didn't hurt in boosting his exposure among viewers too young to remember his dramatic defining roles. Occasional voice work in The Disney Channel's Phineas and Ferb continued that trend - albiet in a less conspicuous manner -- then in 2011 the screen veteran turned in a brief but memorable performance in Michel Hazanavicius' Oscar favorite The Artist, proving that even without so much as a line of dialogue, McDowell still had the charisma to command the screen.

Trivia: Actress Brea Grant grew up in the Lone Star State and studied at the University of Texas. After graduation, she realized her ambitions for a serious acting career and moved to Los Angeles, aggressively breaking into show business. Grant scored her first major role on the critically worshipped (yet low-rated) prime-time drama Friday Night Lights, as the spunky and outspoken high-school student Jean in a few episodes of the series' second season. After that, NBC producers promptly tapped Grant for another series, this one a blockbuster hit: the sci-fi drama series Heroes. She signed on to play Daphne, also known as "The Speedster," a supersonic character of mysterious origin and background who attempts to steal a long-guarded secret from the family of Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka). Grant's unusual look -- thick, bleach-blonde locks in a Dutchboy haircut -- served her as a trademark on Friday Night Lights, and Heroes' producers decided to retain the same look for their program. In 2011, on the heels of an appearance in Rob Zombie's Halloween II, Grant joined the cast of Showtime's hit series Dexter as a Miami Metro Homicide forensics intern whose obsession with the Ice Truck Killer led her to steal the madman's prosthetic arm from the police department's evidence room.

Trivia: Lead actor, onscreen from 1985.

Trivia: Attended University of Southern California on a debate scholarship. While touring as a stand-up comedian, he opened for such major acts as Rodney Dangerfield and Jerry Seinfeld. Won an NAACP award in 1990 for his role in the Ken Davis play Glass House. Portrayed Fats Domino in the 1999 made-for-TV movie Shake, Rattle and Roll: An American Love Story. Landed the role of Big Mike on Chuck after auditioning for the Harry Tang character.

Trivia: Howard Hesseman's early credits have sometimes been hard to trace, mainly because he often billed himself as "Don Sturdy." The mustachioed, prematurely balding Hesseman was a founding member of the San Francisco-based improv troupe The Committee. During his decade-long tenure with this aggregation, he was featured in such films as Petulia (1968) and A Session with the Committee (1970), and showed up on such TV series as The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Dick Cavett Show. Through the auspices of his Committee cohort Peter Bonerz, Hesseman played a recurring role on TV's The Bob Newhart Show (1972-78), playing the unsuccessful producer of such TV disasters as "The Nazi Hour." His screen roles in the 1970s included a showy part as a harried TV-commercial director in the opening sequence of The Sunshine Boys. In 1978, Hesseman achieved celebrity in the role of counterculture deejay Dr. Johnny Fever (aka Johnny Caravella) on the popular sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. Following WKRP's cancellation in 1982, he spent two seasons playing Ann Romano's third (and presumably final) husband Sam Royer on the weekly One Day at a Time. From 1986 to 1990, he starred as urbane high school teacher Charlie Moore in TV's Head of the Class. During all this activity, Howard Hesseman continued showing up in feature films, playing such roles as smarmy promoter Terry Ladd in This is Spinal Tap (1984) and child star Patty Duke's manipulative manager/guardian John Ross in the TV biopic Call Me Anna (1989). Over the following several years, Hessman would remain active on screen, appearnig on shows like That 70's Show and Crossing Jordan, and in movies like The Rocker.

Trivia: Lanky comedian "Weird Al" Yankovic is best known for his goofy but dead-on send-ups of pop hits and their videos. He attempted to translate his popularity to feature films with UHF (1989) with little success. He has made cameo appearances in feature films as well. In 1997, he launched a children's television show in which he showed his video parodies and played different characters. It was canceled after a single season, not because the show was bad, but because the network, CBS, canceled all of its live-action children's Saturday morning programming due to consistently low ratings.

Trivia: Played football on scholarship at the University of Idaho before quitting after two years; after landing a part in a production of Godspell, he changed his major to Theater Arts. While studying for his MFA at Southern Methodist University, he roomed with actor/writer Nick Bakay, who wrote Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Appeared in a 1986 Off-Broadway production of The Nice and the Nasty, opposite Jane Adams and William H. Macy. Is one of the tallest actors in Hollywood at 6'6". Named a co-chair of a multi-phase renovation project to the main theatre at his alma mater in 2012.

Trivia: Made his movie debut in the 1984 comedy Preppies. Has appeared in a number of stage plays and was nominated for a Best Solo Performance Award by LA Weekly for his 1995 one-man show, The Participant. Wrote the screenplays for two movies released in 1996: the crime drama The Last Days of Frankie the Fly and the thriller Executive Target (also acted in both films). Though known mostly for dramatic roles, he has appeared in such sitcoms as Kate & Allie, Murphy Brown, Ellen and Seinfeld. Worked with television-show creator David Milch on Deadwood, John From Cincinnati and NYPD Blue.

Trivia: A Windy City native, distinguished character actor Richard Riehle earned his undergraduate degree from Notre Dame and his master's from the University of Minnesota, then took his first cinematic bow with a bit part in 1975's Western Rooster Cogburn -- opposite John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn. After Rooster, Riehle abandoned screen work for over a decade to hit the East Coast and focus almost exclusively on Broadway and regional theater. Ed Zwick's acclaimed Civil War opus Glory (1989) marked Riehle's Hollywood comeback; he subsequently increased his screen time dramatically, and chalked up a resumé playing everymen -- usually heavyset and unpolished working stiffs such as policemen, detectives, judges, and bartenders -- in literally dozens of films. Riehle's credits include Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), Mercury Rising (1998), Office Space (1999), Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999), and National Lampoon's Dorm Daze 2 (2006). The actor is also known for his regular presence on two television series: the 1990 Ferris Bueller (as Principal Ed Rooney) and the 2001-2005 Grounded for Life (as Walt Finnerty). Riehle subsequently returned to National Lampoon work with the 2007 frat-boy comedy National Lampoon Presents The Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell.

Trivia: The daughter of a mining engineer, Canadian actress Margot Kidder spent her first two-and-a-half years living in a caboose. While attending the University of British Columbia, Kidder was talked into appearing in a college stage production of Take Me Along; she was hooked, though she later learned there was more to acting than crying on cue and partying. In her first professional years with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation headquarters in Vancouver, Kidder played everything from simpering ingenues to an unhinged murderess. She made her first film in 1969, an American production titled Gaily Gaily, then worked with Gene Wilder in the British-made Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (1970). Kidder disliked the seamier side of the movie business and retreated to Canada in hopes of learning how to become a film editor, but was brought back to the U.S. in 1971 for a continuing role in the James Garner TV series Nichols. She liked Garner but not the hassles of making a weekly series, and for the next decade concentrated on film work, plunging headfirst into a kinky Brian DePalma chiller titled Sisters (1972). Kidder's best-known work in the '70s and '80s was as Lois Lane in the Superman films starring Christopher Reeve. Other movie roles and a stint on 1987 TV series Shell Game followed. She continued to work steadily in a variety of projects including 1988's Body of Evidence, White Room, and Hanry & Verlin, however she earned the most press she had in quite some time after a bizarre incident in 1996 where she went missing for a few days and was found dazed and confused outside a stranger's home in Glendale, California. She recovered and went back to work in numerous films and TV series including Touched By an Angel and Tribulation. She was a major figure in Peter Biskind's book about '70s cinema, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, and figured prominently in the documentary made from that book. In 2007 she appeared on the reality program Who Do You Think You Are, and went on to act in Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween II.Kidder married and divorced writer Tom McGuane and actor John Heard (their union lasted six days!) and remains a vocal activist for political and ecological causes.

Trivia: Created and performed a one-woman stage show based on the behind-the-scenes life of Judy Garland called Judy Speaks. Appeared as a correspondent on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and was a regular on the short-lived Comedy Central satire Crossballs. Lead singer for country/indie pop band Cottonhead. Provided her voice for the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Portrayed bumbling Dep. Kimball on Reno 911 in 2007. Was a member of the Broadway cast of Hairspray in 2008. Appears in the 2011 George Clooney film The Descendants.