Trivia: Possessing the sort of stylish, model-esque good looks that wouldn't be out of place in the glossy pages of Vogue, actress Rachel McAdams got her start on Canadian television before graduating to Hollywood features. Though McAdams' early screen roles found her specializing in the bitchy teen princess to maximum effect, closer inspection reveals a skilled dramatic actress who no doubt has the talent to move beyond the high-school trappings of such comedies as The Hot Chick and Mean Girls.Born to a truck driver and a nurse in London, Ontario, Canada, McAdams warmed to the spotlight early on by taking up competitive skating at just four years old. Though she would remain on the ice well into her teens, the toll of constant competition eventually frazzled her nerves, and she soon began gravitating toward the stage. Beginning in summer theater camp at the age of 13, the burgeoning actress' smooth handling of Shakespeare eventually led her to enroll in theater studies at York University. In the years that followed, McAdams' comfort on the stage translated exceptionally well to the screen, and a role as a bulimic teen in the popular Disney series The Famous Jett Jackson found the rising starlet making an impressive small-screen debut. Supporting roles in such television series as Shotgun Love Dolls and made-for-TV features such as Guilt by Association were quick to follow. After climbing the credits to make her feature debut in My Name is Tanino, McAdams was nominated for a Genie award (the Canadian equivalent of an Oscar) for her performance in 2002's Perfect Pie. The film, which cast her as a small-town girl whose best friend makes the big time by becoming a celebrated opera singer, provided McAdams with her breakout role, and she soon set her sights on Hollywood. Her bags packed for the trip west and stars shining in her eyes, the talented McAdams soon caught the eyes of studio heavies and was cast as a popular but excruciatingly cruel high-school teen who learns a hard lesson in The Hot Chick. McAdams made a move to weekly television in 2003 with a supporting role in Slings and Arrows before once again returning to torment the unpopular crowd in 2004's Mean Girls. A big-screen adaptation of Rosalind Wiseman's popular book Queen Bees and Wannabes, the film was also notable as the screenwriting debut of Saturday Night Live writer/cast member Tina Fey. Moving away from the cruel halls of high school, McAdams next appeared opposite Ryan Gosling in The Notebook, the feature adaptation of author Nicholas Sparks' top-selling novel. A romantic drama concerning a young couple separated by war, The Notebook found McAdams in a notably more sympathetic role.In 2005, she pulled off an impressive triple-feat with roles in three very different movies. First, she played the female lead in Wedding Crashers, a surprise, raunchy comedic hit. Her next film was in the thriller Red Eye, where she squared off against Cillian Murphy. Her third film of the year was the family dramedy The Family Stone, with McAdams playing the sardonic younger sister of the family. After this busy year, McAdams opted to take a nearly two-year break.She returned quietly, doing some smaller films, before returning in 2009 to main-stream fare with State of Play and The Time Traveler's Wife, and finally, playing Irene Adler in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes. In 2011, she was nominated for a SAG Ensemble Award for Midnight in Paris, once again paired up with Owen Wilson (her co-star from Wedding Crashers), in a film that won Woody Allen an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. She also reprised her role in the Sherlock Holmes sequel, A Game of Shadows. In 2012, McAdams returned to her romantic-drama roots and starred in The Vow, opposite Channing Tatum.McAdams continued to alternate between romcoms and other genres, like Richard Curtis' About Time and Brian De Palma's thriller Passion. In 2015, she took on a supporting role in Spotlight, earning McAdams her first Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actress.

Trivia: If Harrison Ford had listened to the advice of studio heads early in his career, he would have remained a carpenter and never gone on to star in some of Hollywood's biggest films and become one of the industry's most bankable stars. Born July 13, 1942, in Chicago and raised in a middle-class suburb, he had an average childhood. An introverted loner, he was popular with girls but picked on by school bullies. Ford quietly endured their everyday tortures until he one day lost his cool and beat the tar out of the gang leader responsible for his being repeatedly thrown off an embankment. He had no special affinity for films and usually only went to see them on dates because they were inexpensive and dark. Following high school graduation, Ford studied English and Philosophy at Ripon College in Wisconsin. An admittedly lousy student, he began acting while in college and then worked briefly in summer stock. He was expelled from the school three days before graduation because he did not complete his required thesis. In the mid-'60s, Ford and his first wife, Mary Marquardt (his college sweetheart) moved to Hollywood, where he signed as a contract player with Columbia and, later, Universal. After debuting onscreen in a bit as a bellboy in Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966), he played secondary roles, typically a cowboy, in several films of the late '60s and in such TV series as Gunsmoke, The Virginian, and Ironside. Discouraged with both the roles he was getting and his difficulty in providing for his young family, he abandoned acting and taught himself carpentry via books borrowed from the local library. Using his recently purchased run-down Hollywood home for practice, Ford proved himself a talented woodworker, and, after successfully completing his first contract to build an out-building for Sergio Mendez, found himself in demand with other Hollywood residents (it was also during this time that Ford acquired his famous scar, the result of a minor car accident). Meanwhile, Ford's luck as an actor began to change when a casting director friend for whom he was doing some construction helped him get a part in George Lucas' American Graffiti (1973). The film became an unexpected blockbuster and greatly increased Ford's familiarity. Many audience members, particularly women, responded to his turn as the gruffly macho Bob Falfa, the kind of subtly charismatic portrayal that would later become Ford's trademark. However, Ford's career remained stagnant until Lucas cast him as space pilot Han Solo in the megahit Star Wars (1977), after which he became a minor star. He spent the remainder of the 1970s trapped in mostly forgettable films (such as the comedy Western The Frisco Kid with Gene Wilder), although he did manage to land the small role of Colonel G. Lucas in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979). The early '80s elevated Ford to major stardom with the combined impact of The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and his portrayal of action-adventure hero Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), which proved to be an enormous hit. He went on to play "Indy" twice more, in 1984's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989. Ford moved beyond popular acclaim with his role as a big-city police detective who finds himself masquerading as an Amish farmer to protect a young murder witness in Witness (1984), for which he received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his work, as well as the praise of critics who had previously ignored his acting ability. Having appeared in several of the biggest money-makers of all time, Ford was able to pick and choose his roles in the '80s and '90s. Following the success of Witness, Ford re-teamed with the film's director, Peter Weir, to make a film adaptation of Paul Theroux's novel The Mosquito Coast. The film met with mixed critical results, and audiences largely stayed away, unused to the idea of their hero playing a markedly flawed and somewhat insane character. Undeterred, Ford went on to choose projects that brought him further departure from the action films responsible for his reputation. In 1988 he worked with two of the industry's most celebrated directors, Roman Polanski and Mike Nichols. With Polanski he made Frantic, a dark psychological thriller that fared poorly among critics and audiences alike. He had greater success with Nichols, his director in Working Girl, a saucy comedy in which he co-starred with Melanie Griffith and Sigourney Weaver. The film was a hit, and displayed Ford's largely unexploited comic talent. Ford began the 1990s with Alan J. Pakula's courtroom thriller Presumed Innocent, which he followed with another Mike Nichols outing, Regarding Henry (1991). The film was an unmitigated flop with both critics and audiences, but Ford allayed his disappointment the following year when he signed an unprecedented 50-million-dollar contract to play CIA agent Jack Ryan in a series of five movies based upon the novels of Tom Clancy. The first two films of the series, Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994), met with an overwhelming success mirrored by that of Ford's turn as Dr. Richard Kimball in The Fugitive (1993). Ford's next effort, Sydney Pollack's 1995 remake of Sabrina, did not meet similar success, and this bad luck continued with The Devil's Own (which reunited him with Pakula), despite Ford's seemingly fault-proof pairing with Brad Pitt. However, his other 1997 effort, Wolfgang Petersen's Air Force One, more than made up for the critical and commercial shortcomings of his previous two films, proving that Ford, even at 55, was still a bona fide, butt-kicking action hero. Stranded on an island with Anne Hesche for his next feature, the moderately successful romantic adventure Six Days, Seven Nights (1998), Ford subsequently appeared in the less successful romantic drama Random Hearts. Bouncing back a bit with Robert Zemeckis' horror-flavored thriller What Lies Beneath, the tension would remain at a fever pitch as Ford and crew raced to prevent a nuclear catastrophe in the fact based deep sea thriller K-19: The Widowmaker. As the 2000's unfolded, Ford would prove that he had a strong commitment to being active in film, continuing to work in projects like Hollywood Homicide, Firewall, Extraordinary Measures, Morning Glory, and Cowboys & Aliens. Ford would also reprise one of his most famous roles for the disappointing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Trivia: After rising to fame in a series of hit Woody Allen comedies, Diane Keaton went on to enjoy a successful film career both as an actress and as a director. Born Diane Hall on January 5, 1946, in Los Angeles, she studied acting at Manhattan's Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater and in 1968 understudied in Hair. On Broadway she met actor/director Allen and appeared in his 1969 stage hit Play It Again, Sam. In 1970, Keaton made her film debut in the comedy Lovers and Other Strangers and rose to fame as the paramour of Al Pacino's Michael Corleone in the 1972 blockbuster The Godfather. That same year, she and Allen -- with whom Keaton had become romantically involved offscreen -- reprised Play It Again, Sam for the cameras, and in 1973 he directed her in Sleeper. The Godfather Part II followed, as did Allen's Love and Death. All of these films enjoyed great success, and Keaton stood on the verge of becoming a major star; however, when her next two pictures -- 1976's I Will, I Will for Now and Harry and Walter Go to New York -- both flopped, she returned to the stage to star in The Primary English Class.In 1977, Allen released his fourth film with Keaton, Annie Hall. A clearly autobiographical portrait of the couple's real-life romance, it was a landmark, bittersweet, soul-searching tale which brought a new level of sophistication to comedy in films. Not only did the film itself win an Academy Award for Best Picture, but Keaton garnered Best Actress honors. That same year, she also headlined the controversial drama Looking for Mr. Goodbar. Two more films with Allen, 1978's Bergmanesque Interiors and the 1979 masterpiece Manhattan followed; however, when the couple separated, Keaton began a romance with Warren Beatty, with whom she co-starred in the 1981 epic Reds; she earned a Best Actress nomination for her work in Beatty's film. Continuing to pursue more dramatic projects, she next co-starred in 1982's Shoot the Moon, followed by a pair of box-office disappointments, The Little Drummer Girl and Mrs. Soffel. The 1986 Crimes of the Heart was a minor success, and a year later she made her directorial debut with the documentary Heaven. Keaton's next starring role in the domestic comedy Baby Boom (1987) was a smash, and after close to a decade apart, she and Allen reunited for Radio Days, in which she briefly appeared as a singer. Upon starring in 1988's disappointing The Good Mother, she began splitting her time between acting and directing. In between appearing in films including 1990's The Godfather Part III, 1991's hit Father of the Bride, and 1992's telefilm Running Mates, she helmed music videos, afterschool specials (1990's The Girl with the Crazy Brother), and TV features (1991's Wildflower). She even directed an episode of the David Lynch cult favorite Twin Peaks. After stepping in for Mia Farrow in Allen's 1993 picture Manhattan Murder Mystery, Keaton essayed the title role in the 1994 TV biopic Amelia Earhart: the Final Flight and in 1995 made her feature-length directorial debut with the quirky drama Unstrung Heroes. After co-starring with Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn in the 1996 comedy smash The First Wives Club, she earned another Oscar nomination for her work in Marvin's Room. In 1998, Keaton starred in The Only Thrill and followed that in 1999 with The Other Sister. She subsequently stepped into another familial role in 2000's Hanging Up with Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow. Despite participating amongst a star-studded cast including veterans Goldie Hawn, Garry Shandling, Charlton Heston, and Warren Beatty, 2001's Town & Country was not particularly well-received among audiences or critics. In 2003, Keaton played Jack Nicholson's love interest in director Nancy Meyers's Something's Gotta Give (for which she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination) and executive produced director Gus Van Sant's avant-garde Elephant), which won Best Director and Golden Palm awards at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. Keaton would spend the ensuing years appearing frequently on screen in films like Because I Said So, Mad Money, and Darling Companion.

Trivia: A handsome actor whose skills on stage and screen are only rivaled by his remarkable voice, Patrick Wilson made a name for himself in theater before making a gradual transition to the silver screen. The Norfolk, VA, native pursued his higher education at the famed Carnegie Mellon University, where he stood out from the pack when he was awarded the Charles Willard Memorial Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Music Theatre before earning his B.F.A. in drama in 1995. The next year, Wilson took the lead for a national tour of Carousel, followed by a performance in a Goodspeed Opera House production of Lucky in the Rain. After a memorable turn as pianist Erwin "Chopin" Boots in a La Jolla Playhouse production of Barry Manilow's Harmony, Wilson performed in the nonmusical, six-hour stage version of The Cider House Rules. Though his supposed "breakthrough" role in a stage production of Bright Lights, Big City failed to cement his career, the rising star made his Broadway debut in The Gershwin's Fascinating Rhythm shortly thereafter. Wilson's true breakthrough did eventually come when he took the lead for a stage version of the popular film The Full Monty, and in 2001, he made his screen debut in Dark Stories: Tales from Beyond the Grave. Though that film went largely unseen, a role in HBO's acclaimed miniseries Angels in America found his transition to the big screen moving along smoothly. The following year, Wilson tackled his biggest role to date in the eagerly anticipated historical drama The Alamo (2004) before gearing up for a key part in Joel Schumacher's Phantom of the Opera (also 2004).

Trivia: Tall, gangly, and oddly handsome, stage, screen, and television actor Jeff Goldblum is an unlikely sex symbol. But for many women, especially those fond of eccentric intellectual types, he fits the role perfectly. Known for the range of quirky, often otherworldly characters he has portrayed, Goldblum is adept at playing lead and supporting roles in dramas and comedies alike. A native of Pittsburgh, PA, where he was born October 22, 1952, Goldblum moved to New York at the age of 17 to pursue an acting career. He got his start at Sanford Meisner's distinguished Neighborhood Playhouse, and in the '70s began performing in a wide variety of on and off-Broadway productions. When he was 22, Goldblum made his film debut with a small role as a rapist in Michael Winner's brutal revenge drama Death Wish (1974). He was performing on-stage in the El Grande de Coca Cola review when Robert Altman gave him a small part in California Split (1974) and a slightly larger role in Nashville (1975). Afterwards, Goldblum was steadily employed as a bit player in both major and minor features, turning in one of his most notable performances as a nervous houseguest struggling to remember his mantra in the Los Angeles-set segment of Annie Hall (1977). In 1980, Goldblum branched out into television, starring opposite Ben Vereen in the short-lived television detective comedy Tenspeed and Brown Shoe. As Brown Shoe, Goldblum played an uptight stockbroker trying to make it as a hardboiled private detective. Although the role may have given him greater recognition, the actor gained his first really favorable reviews playing a tabloid magazine reporter in The Big Chill (1983). This led to leading roles in such films as Into the Night (1985), where Goldblum played an aerospace engineer opposite Michelle Pfeiffer, and Silverado (also 1985), which cast him as a villainous gambler. In 1986, he had his first hit movie with David Cronenberg's terrifying sci-fi-horror film The Fly (1986), playing a driven scientist whose research turns him into a gruesome mutant. His co-star was his then-wife, Geena Davis, whom he met while they were on the set of the comedy-thriller Transylvania 6-5000 (1985). The couple divorced in the early '90s and Goldblum then embarked on a highly publicized relationship with actress Laura Dern that broke up in the mid-'90s.In 1989, Goldblum made a favorable transatlantic impression in the British romantic comedy The Tall Guy, playing a perpetually unemployed actor who is cast as the lead of a musical about the Elephant Man. He continued to work steadily throughout the subsequent decade, appearing in films of markedly varying quality. He found great success in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, playing a mathematician in one of the decade's biggest blockbusters. In 1996, Goldblum again explored blockbuster territory with a leading role as a computer genius in Independence Day. He reprised his role from Jurassic Park in that film's sequel 1997 sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. He starred opposite Eddie Murphy in the notorious bomb Holy Man.At the beginning of the next decade Goldblum worked primarily in independent films such as Burr Steers' debut Igby Goes Down, and playing the romantic and professional rival to Bill Murray in Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. In 2006 he scored a role in his most mainstream film in quite sometime as part of the impressive ensemble in Barry Levinson's satire Man of the Year. In 2009, Goldblum joined the cast of Law & Order: Criminal Intent in the show's eighth season to play the role of Detective Zach Nichols. 2010 found the actor co-starring with Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton for the showbiz comedy Morning Glory. In 2014, he re-teamed with Anderson in The Grand Budapest Hotel. The following year, he appeared opposite Johnny Depp in Mortdecai and began filming his role in the long-awaited Indepdendence Day sequel, due in 2016.

Trivia: Raised outside of Chicago as the sixth of nine children, including older brother James, a founding member of the band Chicago. Left college in his junior year after seeing David Mamet's play, The American Buffalo, which inspired Pankow to enroll in the two-year training program at Chicago's St. Nicholas Theatre. Performed on Broadway (in his first stint) in Serious Money, The Iceman Cometh and as Mozart in Amadeus. Appeared in a numerous films of the late 1980s-early '90s, including To Live and Die in L.A., Talk Radio and Mortal Thoughts. Most recognized for his role as Ira Buchman, cousin of Paul Reiser's character, on the '90s NBC sitcom Mad About You. Returned to Broadway in the 2000s, performing in Twelve Angry Men, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Cymbeline. Took over the role of Merc Lapidus (from Thomas Haden Church) in 2011 on the Showtime/BBC show Episodes.

Trivia: Made his TV debut in Robert Altman's 1988 political satire Tanner '88, co-starring Sex and the City's Cynthia Nixon. First feature-film appearance was a small role in 1989 dramedy The Unbelievable Truth, which also featured The Sopranos' Edie Falco in a bit part. Has appeared on numerous police-themed shows, including Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NCIS, NYPD Blue, Third Watch and Without a Trace. Wife Cas is an assistant director; the two have worked on several films together.

Trivia: American actress Patti D'Arbanville was 13 when she was discovered by "underground" filmmaker Andy Warhol. Wary of Warhol's reputation, D'Arbanville's mother wouldn't permit her daughter to work for the director until the girl was 17 -- at which point she enacted a lesbian love scene in Warhol's Flesh (1968). Unlike many Warhol protegees, D'Arbanville was able to matriculate to mainstream movies, though many of these, particularly the 1977 Bilitis, were obsessed with sex and procreation. The actress endeared herself to middle-America movie fans in the Barbra Streisand/Ryan O'Neal vehicle The Main Event (1979), stealing the show as a girl with a hacking (and hilarious) cough. Other D'Arbanville performances of note include the role of Ken Wahl's lady love on the TV series Wiseguy, and the redoubtable Cathy Smith in the 1989 John Belushi biopic Wired.

Trivia: Tall and dark actor Ty Burrell has the kind of deep-set eyes and sharp features that make him ideal for roles such as the self-absorbed yuppie who cast a cold gaze in Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead and the authoritative yet undeniably vain plastic surgeon on the CBS sitcom Out of Practice. And while Burrell's background may indeed be in repertory theater, it is in the worlds of film and television that he has truly come into his own.Equally comfortable on screens both large and small, Burrell found his footing before the camera thanks to walk-on roles on Ellen and The West Wing before supporting performances in Ivan Reitman's Evolution and Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down singled him out as a talent to watch for on the big screen. Never one to stay away from the stage for too long a stretch, the Ashland, Oregon, native subsequently returned to the boards to star in the Signature Theatre off-Broadway production of Burn This opposite Edward Norton and Catherine Keener. While subsequent television roles in Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit served well to prepare Burrell for his regular role in the comedy series Out of Practice -- a lighthearted affair about a dysfunctional family of physicians -- big-screen roles in Dawn of the Dead, In Good Company, Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, and National Treasure: Book of Secrets virtually ensured a lasting career in film as well. In 2007, he was cast as a regular on the Kelsey Grammer/Patricia Heaton local-news sitcom Back to You as field reporter Gary Crezyzewski, but the show only lasted one season. Burrell bounced back in a big way with a prominent supporting role as Dr. Samson in the summer 2008 release The Incredible Hulk.In 2009 Burrell enjoyed his most high-profile success so far as a member of the ensemble in Modern Family, the hit ABC sitcom that would earn him a number of award nominations. On the big screen in 2010 he had a small but memorable part as a creepy morning-show host in Morning Glory, and the next year played a part in the political satire Butter as a champion butter carver.

Trivia: Was cast in his first play, a production of Philadelphia Here I Come, four days before the opening, replacing the original actor. Received the New York Emerging Talent Award at the 2011 Big Apple Film Festival for his work in the film The Pill. Is a founding member of Stage 13, a theater company in New York City.

Trivia: Attended first audition for a role in the television series Unsolved Mysteries. The audition was a literal race which Martinez won. Performed in Mail Order Bridge, a film which was almost entirely improvised. Won a screenwriting competition and earned an invitation to a conference for the National Association of Latino Independent Producers in 2009. One of only a handful of actors to have worked in the United Nations building on two separate occasions. A vocal advocate of self-empowerment for people of color, and frequently speaks on the importance of generating one's own opportunities.

Trivia: Raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In 2003, was approached about a job working at a call center while backpacking in India because of his American accent. Seven years later, was cast in the NBC series Outsourced, a comedy about a call center in Mumbai. Had recurring roles on three different network series in 2009 (Privileged, Three Rivers and Better Off Ted).

Trivia: Began her acting career at the age of 14.Appeared in television after-school specials in the 1980s.Is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Barnard College.Starred in many off Broadway and Broadway plays.Was introduced to Jace Alexander, her husband, by mutual friends.Known for Some Kind of Wonderful (1987), The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990) and Maid in Manhattan (2002).

Trivia: A multi-decade stalwart of CBS News, anchor Bob Schieffer jump-started his career as a beat reporter, covering such pivotal calamities as the John F. Kennedy assassination and the Vietnam War for a newspaper in his hometown of Austin, TX. Schieffer began his stint as a CBS Evening News correspondent at the age of 32 (in 1969) and would remain with the network for around 40 years, until he stepped down from the position to be formally replaced by Katie Couric in 2006. Beginning in 1991, Schieffer also moderated the popular public affairs-themed interview program Face the Nation. He announced his full retirement from broadcast journalism in early 2008 after surviving a bout with bladder cancer.

Trivia: One of the decades-long mainstays of the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes, Canadian broadcast journalist Morley Safer single-handedly altered the face of live and pre-taped correspondence. In particular, Safer's 1965 piece on American escalation in Vietnam (with its indelible image of Cam Ne blazing to the ground at the hand of U.S. Marines) is credited with doing much to turn the tide of public opinion against that miscalculated conflict. This and other similar efforts virtually established Safer as a household name. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Safer attended Harbord Collegiate Institute and the University of Western Ontario as a young man, and quickly launched his reporting career, first in traditional print journalism for several English and Canadian newspapers and wire services, then in broadcasting, as a correspondent for the CBC. Following a stint at the London CBS bureau, Safer traveled to Vietnam to open up the CBS Saigon office (1965) and received a promotion to CBS London bureau chief in 1967 -- a position from which he covered Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Safer joined the weekly anchorage of 60 Minutes in December 1970, following the departure of Harry Reasoner, and the program's producers appointed him as the premier documentary reporter. Over the following decades, Safer helped bring numerous unforgettable accounts into the nation's homes, via that series. In addition to his broadcast work, Safer appeared as an interviewee in the 1981 documentary Vietnam: Chronicle of a War. He also joined many of his 60 Minutes colleagues for amusing cameos on a 1993 episode of the Diane English/Candice Bergen series Murphy Brown, "All the Life That's Fit to Print."Safer continued to work for CBS and 60 Minutes up until 2016; he filed his last report in March of that year and passed away in May, at age 84.

Trivia: Over the trajectory of his life, preeminent television broadcast journalist Chris Matthews built formidable careers as a news correspondent, presidential speechwriter, published author, and newspaper bureau chief. The winner of the David Brinkley Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism, Matthews came to specialize in covering iconic events of global significance, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the premier post-apartheid election in South Africa, and Northern Ireland's Good Friday Peace Talks. Matthews graduated from Holy Cross College and studied economics at UNC-Chapel Hill, then spent the first 15 years of his lengthy career in the White House under the Carter administration, before moving on to a series of posts in Congress -- including staff positions for Edmund Muskie and Frank Moss, and an aide position for House speaker Tip O'Neill that spanned six years.Matthews subsequently moved into journalism, first in print work (holding court as the San Francisco Examiner's Washington Bureau Chief from 1987 to 2000 and as a columnist of San Francisco Chronicle from 2000 to 2002), then in broadcast journalism with several NBC and MSNBC programs. These included the syndicated news broadcast The Chris Matthews Show, and the politically themed talk show Hardball with Chris Matthews, inspired by Matthews' 1988 book, Hardball.

Trivia: Born Curtis James Jackson III in Queens, NY, superstar hardcore rapper 50 Cent -- more than any of his contemporaries -- lived out the mythology of the "urban gangsta," to such a degree that he's quite fortunate to be alive, let alone a pop-culture superstar. The product of a broken home, 50 Cent survived stabbings, shootings, crack dealing, multiple incarcerations, and many other calamities and near-misses, and then drew lyrically from his own violent personal history, using this authentic material (with the help of Run-D.M.C.'s Jam Master Jay and Eminem) to establish himself as one of the most important rap acts of the early 21st century. 50 Cent's albums Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003) and The Massacre (2005) thrived on the songster's outstanding hooks, clever lyrics, and superlative production values; consequently, each album sold several million copies and turned the rapper into an American icon. The musician's look also turned heads: tall, rippled, and tattooed, frequently sporting a bulletproof vest and a large pistol, he became the newest spokesperson for the "gangsta" subculture. The leap from rap superstardom to movie stardom can be a short one, as Ice-T and Ice Cube demonstrated. Although 50 Cent launched his cinematic career as an onscreen subject -- in the 2003 documentaries 50 Cent: The New Breed and 50 Cent: Unauthorized -- Shoot First -- he soon branched out into more challenging material. In 2005, 50 Cent headlined a gritty big-screen biopic of his own life, Get Rich or Die Tryin', directed by My Left Foot helmer Jim Sheridan. In that movie, the rapper hearkened back to his given name, with billing as Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson. In 2008, he went on to co-star in the cop thriller Righteous Kill, directed by Jon Avnet, with legendary actors Robert De Niro and Al Pacino as a pair of Manhattan cops on the trail of a serial murderer. He continued to appear in music-related documentaries and concert films, and in 2011 he produced the Mario Van Peebles film All Things Fall Apart. The next year he appeared in the thriller Odd Thomas as part of a cast that includes Anton Yelchin, Willem Dafoe, and Patton Oswalt.