Trivia: An actor-turned production assistant-turned-director, Michael Anderson had a relatively undistinguished record in motion pictures until the mid 1950s, when he directed The Dam Busters. One of the more successful British films about World War II, it involved mixed drama and special effects work in a combination that pointed the way toward Anderson's later career in international pictures. His mid 1950s version of 1984 received mixed notices but wide distribution, and Around The World In 80 Days brought him into international prominence, despite producer Michael Todd being the dominant personality involved in shaping the movie, and Anderson worked in the United States as often as he did in England over the next two decades. Operation Crossbow and The Shoes of the Fisherman were dramas featuring international casts and large canvases for their action, in which Anderson largely held the proceedings together, in spite of major script problems. His most popular movie, other than Around The World In 80 Days, is the science-fiction adventure Logan's Run, in which he once again overcame a weak script by getting some strong performances out of his actors and pulling them together around extremely impressive special-effects sequences.

Trivia: With cool-eyed charisma and looks suggesting he had borrowed DNA from Paul Newman and Dennis Hopper, Barry Pepper first caught the attention of audiences and critics as the Bible-quoting Private Jackson in Saving Private Ryan. Before his role in the hit 1998 World War II epic, Pepper, a native of Canada, had been largely unheard of outside of his homeland. Born in Campbell River, British Columbia, on April 4, 1970, Pepper had what can only be described as a unique upbringing. When he was five years old, his parents built a boat and, setting sail with Pepper and his two older brothers, spent the next three years traveling around the world. Pepper was schooled in places as far-flung as Tahiti, Fiji, and New Zealand, and after returning to Canada, went to college to study graphic design. By his own account a poor student, Pepper dropped out of college and decided to give acting a try. He made his professional debut on the popular Vancouver TV series Madison and stayed with the show for four years. After parts in a couple of obscure films and a stint on the television series Titanic with George C. Scott, Pepper attracted the attention of director Steven Spielberg, who cast him in Saving Private Ryan. The critical and commercial success of the film put Pepper -- and several of his co-stars -- in the spotlight, and he soon had a coveted spot on the cover of Vanity Fair's 1999 Hollywood issue, alongside several other up-and-coming young actors. That same year, Pepper further enhanced his visibility with a role in the action thriller Enemy of the State. Hollywood hype being Hollywood hype, Pepper was soon being hailed as a Next Big Thing by any number of publications and his role as a prison guard in the hotly anticipated The Green Mile (1999) seemed to attest to this status. Whether the young actor really was a star in the making or not, his career had gotten off to an inarguably positive start.Over the next several years, Pepper would find success in movies like Flags of Our Fathers and True Grit, as well as the TV mini-series The Kennedys.

Trivia: Cornell University alumnus Mary Woronov fell under the influence of Andy Warhol's "Factory" when she was barely out of her teens. Billed as Mary Might, she showed up in such Warhol film projects as Chelsea Girls. She made her "mainstream" off-Broadway debut in 1968's Kitchenette, and seven years later won the Theater World Award for her performance in the Broadway comedy The Boom Boom Room. Though eminently employable for conformist Hollywood film and TV productions (she appeared in four consecutive episodes of the weekly series Flying Blind), Woronov was at her best in inexpensive, quasi-underground productions, often playing oversexed lesbians and/or physical culturalists. She frequently collaborated with actor/director Paul Bartel, appearing to excellent advantage in such Bartel efforts as Death Race 2000 (1975) and Rock 'n' Roll High School (1978). Best of all was Bartel's Eating Raoul, in which Woronov stars as one Mary Bland, who, in order to raise money for her husband's restaurant, poses as a dominatrix to lure lusty male customers into her home, then murders her clients in a variety of inventive ways. A gifted writer and artist, Mary Woronov has published two books, Wake for the Angels: Paintings and Stories (1994) and Swimming Underground: My Years in the Warhol Factory (1995).