Trivia: Hayden Christensen made headlines in the spring of 2000, when director George Lucas announced that the 19-year-old actor would play the much-coveted role of Anakin Skywalker in Episode II and Episode III of the venerable Star Wars franchise. Born in Vancouver but raised in Toronto, Canada, Christensen became involved with Canadian television productions at a young age and carried his skills over to American TV movies and series in the late '90s. Though he would appear briefly in 1999's The Virgin Suicides for director Sofia Coppola -- a family friend of Lucas' -- it was Christensen's work in the Fox Family Channel's drama series Higher Ground which convinced Lucas to give the actor a reading. Adamant in his desire to find new talent for the role, Lucas passed over such potential adolescent Anakins as Ryan Phillippe, Jonathon Jackson, and even Leonardo DiCaprio in favor of Christensen. It remains to be seen whether the young actor will survive the typecasting that a similarly unknown Mark Hamill suffered some two and a half decades prior, in Episode IV.Before Episode II made it to the screen, Christensen won accolades -- including a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor -- playing a troubled goth teen in the family melodrama Life as a House. The stage thus set for his blockbuster debut, Christensen would be omnipresent on magazine covers and talk shows in the months leading up to Attack of the Clones' release. The film grossed more than 300 million dollars stateside, but sharp opinions on the movie's script did little to help Christensen's career. Even before the final Star Wars prequel Revenge of the Sith was released in 2005, Christensen began moving on as an actor, taking on more meaty character roles, like real life journalist Stephen Glass in the thriller Shattered Glass, and a fictional stand-in for Bob Dyaln in 2006's Factory Girl. He would als make a name for himself in thrillers like Jumper, Vanishing Point, and Takers.

Trivia: A champion equestrian whose film debut came by chance after she auditioned for a role in Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer (1998) out of simple curiosity about the film industry, actress Kate Bosworth's inherent natural beauty has perfectly suited her to roles in such earthy films as her aforementioned debut and Blue Crush (2002), which found Bosworth taking the lead as an adrenalized competitive surfer who finds her balance shifting as she falls for a promising quarterback. Born in 1983 in Los Angeles, Bosworth displayed both brains and athletic skill early on with her membership in the National Honor Society and involvement with varsity soccer and lacrosse. Though her previous acting experience consisted of little more than an appearance in a community theater production of Annie, Bosworth's film debut in The Horse Whisperer found the burgeoning actress carefully considering a full-time career in front of the cameras. After taking an 18-month sabbatical during which she weighed her options and finished her high school education, Bosworth returned to the sound stage for roles in the short-lived television series The Young Americans, and such features as Remember the Titans and The Newcomers (both 2000). Developing into an engaging screen presence, Bosworth would next hit the waves during production of the romantic surf drama Blue Crush.Her comfort before the cameras increasingly evident thanks to substantial roles in such subsequent features as The Rules of Attraction, Wonderland, and Win a Date with Tad Hamilton, Bosworth would next tackle her most demanding role to date when she portrayed screen icon Sandra Dee in the 2004 Bobby Darin biopic Beyond the Sea. Cast opposite Kevin Spacey, Bosworth proved that she could indeed hold her own onscreen with one of the most respected actors in Hollywood. Though Bosworth's role in Beyond the Sea may have been the most dramatically challenging of her still relatively new career, her highest profile role would follow soon thereafter when the maturing actress accepted the role of iconinc Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane in 2006's Superman Returns. Taking over right where Margot Kidder left off in 1980's Superman II, Bosworth's expansion of the character to both mother and wife added an extra dimension to Lane that fans would find especially compelling within the Superman universe. She would next appear in the card-counting thriller 21, followed by the fantasy Western Warrior's Way, and some low-key fare like Another Happy Day and L!fe Happens, before appearing in the hard hitting remake of the 70's thriller Straw Dogs. Soon, Bosworth joined the cast of Big Sur, based on the Kerouac novel.In addition to her film work, Bosworth gave back to her community by volunteering in a Los Angeles-based program that helps physically disabled children learn to ride horses.

Trivia: A top-selling country music star since the mid-'80s, multi-talented Dwight Yoakam branched out into acting in the 1990s.Born in Kentucky, Yoakam was raised in Ohio and attended college at Ohio State University. Inspired by music since childhood, Yoakam dropped out of school to move to Nashville in the late '70s. Finding the Nashville scene less than accommodating for his interpretation of country music, Yoakam subsequently headed to Los Angeles. Striking music gold with his first album in 1986, Yoakam became a renowned country-rock singer/songwriter of the '80s and '90s. Casting an eye on another facet of Los Angeles' entertainment world, Yoakam began acting. After appearing on TV, Yoakam played a truck driver in John Dahl's acclaimed neo-noir Red Rock West (1993); he then provided the music score for Red Rock West star Dennis Hopper's 1994 comedy Chasers. Yoakam played a larger part in the TV docudrama Roswell (1994) (not to be mistaken for the 1999 teen series). After moving to a starring role as a rodeo clown in the action movie Painted Hero (1995), Yoakam earned critical raves for his intense performance as an abusive drunk in Billy Bob Thornton's Oscar-winning drama Sling Blade (1996). Yoakam again garnered positive notices (though the movie did not) as a humble safecracking associate of the titular gang in The Newton Boys (1998). Sticking with off-center screen fare, Yoakam subsequently starred as one of the detectives that Owen Wilson's serial killer Van imagines is stalking him in Hampton Fancher's idiosyncratic crime story The Minus Man (1999). Aiming to try more creative pursuits, Yoakam wrote and directed, as well as scored and starred in, his next film, South of Heaven, West of Hell (2000). Yoakam returned to acting in David Fincher's thriller The Panic Room (2001). Yet despite his neverending drive to entertain, it wasn't all showbiz for the former country-boy made good, and in early 2006 Yoakam would team up with Modern Foods to produce his very own line of southern-flavored frozen foods. With products such as Dwight Yoakam's Chicken Lickin's Chicken Fries, Lanky Links Pork, Sausage Links, and Boom Boom Shrimp, the Grammy-winning recording artist and increasingly popular actor would do his very best to ensure that his fans were well fed. A 2005 new album entitled Blame the Vain found Yoakam recapturing the energy and intensity that defined his earliest and best musical efforts, and following a role as a neglectful sheriff in Tommy Lee Jones' The Three Buriels of Melquaides Estrada and a rare comedic turn in Wedding Crashers, Yoakam sould next be seen in the edge-of-your-seat assassin-on-the-run action thriller Crank. He had a bit part in the comedy Four Christmases, and returned for the sequel Crank High Voltage. He made a few more film appearances, but returned to music in 2012 with the release of his album 3 Pears.

Trivia: Fred Dalton Thompson spent 25 years as an active Nashville and Washington, D.C., attorney before making his film debut playing himself in a 1985 retelling of the true tale of a Tennessee woman who took on the state's crooked governor in Marie. When Thompson won more acclaim than the film's stars Sissy Spacek and Jeff Daniels, he decided to add "character actor" to his resumé, and went on to appear in numerous major features. Standing 6'5," he was a commanding presence and was usually cast as an authoritarian. Thompson put his film career on hold when he made a successful bid to become a Tennessee senator in 1994, then picked up where he left off when his term ended, playing DA Arthur Branch on Law & Order, along with other supporting film roles. Thompson returned to politics with an attempt at the 2008 presidential election, but was unsuccessful, and soon resumed his acting career. He played horse breeder Arthur Hancock in Secretariat (2010) and appeared in the Hank Williams biopic The Last Ride (2011). One of his final acting roles was as an FBI Director in the short-lived NBC series Allegiance in 2015. Thompson died later that year, at age 73.

Trivia: Bell is a supporting actor, onscreen from the '80s.