Trivia: Distinguished and versatile actor Cuba Gooding Jr. spent many years in bit roles before finally becoming a star. The son of Cuba Gooding, lead singer for the '70s pop group the Main Ingredient, he was born in the Bronx on January 2, 1968, but moved to Los Angeles after his father's group had a hit single with "Everybody Plays the Fool" in 1972. Unfortunately, the elder Gooding abandoned his family two years later. The subsequently tumultuous nature of Gooding Jr.'s upbringing did not deter him from achievement: During his teens, he attended four different high schools but managed to become class president of three of them. Gooding Jr. made his professional debut in 1984 as a breakdancer for Lionel Richie's show at the Olympics. As an actor he was discovered by an agent while performing in a high school play, and began working steadily in television commercials, which led to a bit part on an episode of Hill Street Blues. The experience inspired him to take acting lessons and after attending workshops and classes, he began to get a few more parts in television and films. He made his first feature-film appearance in Coming to America (1988) in which he was credited as "Boy Getting Haircut." Gooding Jr.'s first real break came when he was cast as Tre Styles in Boyz 'N the Hood (1990). The film earned him considerable acclaim and seemed to offer the promise of a great career. Sure enough, Gooding began landing fairly substantial parts in feature films. Unfortunately, save for a few exceptions like A Few Good Men (1992), most of the films were not well regarded, and the actor continued to work in relative obscurity. The comic talents he demonstrated as Paul Hogan's sidekick in 1994's Lightning Jack were overshadowed by further mediocre films, and it was not until 1997 that he truly came into the spotlight. That year, he starred as a loyal football player in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire and won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his efforts. Following this triumph, Gooding Jr. next appeared in the acclaimed As Good as It Gets alongside Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, and Greg Kinnear. Two relatively obscure films, the suspense drama A Murder of Crows and the mockumentary Welcome to Hollywood, followed before Gooding Jr. took part in another high-profile picture, What Dreams May Come. Starring opposite Robin Williams, Gooding Jr. played the deceased Williams' tour guide to heaven. Unfortunately, the film was critically savaged and failed to do much business at the box office. In 1999, Gooding Jr. kept busy with both television and film. In addition to starring in a series of Pepsi commercials, the actor appeared opposite Anthony Hopkins in Instinct and had a lead role in Chill Factor, an action extravaganza which featured him as an ice cream man trying to keep a top-secret military chemical safe with the help of a short-order cook (Skeet Ulrich). Gooding Jr. would star opposite screen legend Robert De Niro in 2000's military drama Men of Honor, in which he portrayed the real life experience of Carl Brashear, the first African-American to serve as a diver in the United States Navy. Just one year later, he stepped into the role of an ill-fated serviceman in Pearl Harbor, though he took a break from heady, big-budget war dramas in favor of comedies Rat Race (2001) and Snow Dogs (2002). The year 2003 would prove another busy year for the actor, who starred in three wildly different movies including Boat Trip, a comedy of errors in which he played an unwitting straight man aboard an entirely gay cruise; Radio, which featured Gooding Jr. as the film's mentally challenged protagonist; and The Fighting Temptations, a musical comedy starring Beyoncé Knowles. In 2004, the young actor lent his vocal chords to voice the role of Jake the Horse in Disney's Home on the Range. He next appeared in Lee Daniels' directorial debut, Shadowboxer, playing a contract killer opposite Helen Mirren. In 2007, he appeared in the critically reviled Norbit, playing a supporting role to Eddie Murphy, and also starred in Daddy Day Camp, the sequel to Daddy Day Care, replacing Murphy in the lead role. Gooding again played a Tuskegee pilot in 2012's Red Tails (he had previously appeared in the 1995 HBO made-for-TV movie The Tuskegee Airmen). In 2013, he re-teamed with director Daniels on The Butler and had a small role in Robert Rodriguez's Machete Kills.

Trivia: Bearing sharp, blue-eyed features and the outward demeanor of an everyday Joe, Ed Harris possesses a quiet, charismatic strength and intensity capable of electrifying the screen. During the course of his lengthy career, he has proven his talent repeatedly in roles both big and small, portraying characters both villainous and sympathetic.Born Edward Allen Harris in Tenafly, NJ, on November 28, 1950, Harris was an athlete in high school and went on to spend two years playing football at Columbia University. His interest in acting developed after he transferred to the University of Oklahoma, where he studied acting and gained experience in summer stock. Harris next attended the California Institute of the Arts, graduating with a Fine Arts degree. He went on to find steady work in the West Coast theatrical world before moving to New York. In 1983, he debuted off-Broadway in Sam Shepard's Fool for Love in a part especially written for him. His performance won him an Obie for Best Actor. Three years later, he made his Broadway debut in George Firth's Precious Sons and was nominated for a Tony. During the course of his career, Harris has gone on to garner numerous stage awards from associations on both coasts. Harris made his screen debut in 1977's made-for-television movie The Amazing Howard Hughes. The following year, he made his feature-film debut with a small role in Coma (1978), but his career didn't take off until director George Romero starred Harris in Knightriders (1981). The director also cast him in his next film, Creepshow (1982). Harris' big break as a movie star came in 1983 when he was cast as straight-arrow astronaut John Glenn in the film version of Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff. Twelve years later, Harris would again enter the world of NASA, this time playing unsung hero Gene Krantz (and earning an Oscar nomination) in Ron Howard's Apollo 13.The same year he starred in The Right Stuff, Harris further exhibited his range in his role as a psychopathic mercenary in Under Fire. The following year, he appeared in three major features, including the highly touted Places in the Heart. In addition to earning him positive notices, the film introduced him to his future wife, Amy Madigan, who also co-starred with him in Alamo Bay (1985). In 1989, Harris played one of his best-known roles in The Abyss (1989), bringing great humanity to the heroic protagonist, a rig foreman working on a submarine. He did further notable work in David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, and turned in a suitably creepy performance as Christof, the manipulative creator of Truman Burbank's world in Peter Weir's The Truman Show (1998). Harris earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his work. The following year, he could be seen in The Third Miracle, starring as a Catholic priest who finds his faith sorely tested.The new millennium found Harris' labor of love, the artist biopic Pollock, seeing the light of day after nearly a decade of development. Spending years painting and researching the modernist painter, Harris carefully and lovingly oversaw all aspects of the film, including directing, producing, and starring in the title role. The project served as a turning point in Harris' remarkable career, showing audiences and critics alike that there was more to the man of tranquil intensity than many may have anticipated; Harris was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for his work. 2001 saw Harris as a German sniper with his targets set on Jude Law in the wartime suspense-drama Enemy at the Gates, and later as a bumbling Army captain in the irreverent Joaquin Phoenix vehicle Buffalo Soldiers. With his portrayal of a well known author succumbing to the ravages of AIDS in 2002's The Hours, Harris would recieve his fourth Oscar nominattion. 2004 found the actor working with Zooey Deschanel for Winter Passing, a psychological drama in which he played a one-time popular novelist who claims he is working on one last book. Harris was praised for his work in Empire Falls (2005), a two-part miniseries from HBO chronicling a middle-aged man who is concerned he has wasted his life, though his work as a scarred stranger with a score to settle in David Cronenberg's award-winning psychological thriller A History of Violence was his biggest success in 2005. In 2007, Harris played a Boston police detective in Ben Affleck's adaptation of author Dennis Lehane's Gone, Baby, Gone. A year later, Harris wrote, starred, directed, and produced Appaloosa, a western following a small town held under the thumb of a ruthless rancher and his crew, and continued to work throughout 2009 and 2010 in films including Once Fallen, Virginia, and The Way Back. Praise came his way once more in 2011's What I Am, a gentle coming-of-age comedy in which Harris plays a teacher who is a catalyst for the friendship of two young boys. In 2012, he earned Emmy and SAG nominations and a Golden Globe award for playing John McCain in the HBO movie Game Change. The next year had him appearing in six films, including playing a detective in Pain & Gain and voicing mission control in Gravity, a throwback to his earlier work in Apollo 13.

Trivia: Intense, versatile African-American actress Alfre Woodard attended Boston University, then made her stage bow in 1974 with Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage. After a few minor appearances in films like Remember My Name (1978) and H.E.A.L.T.H (1979), the Tulsa, OK, native was nominated for an Oscar for her performance as Geechee in 1983's Cross Creek. She went on to further television acclaim during the decade, appearing on St. Elsewhere and winning Emmys for her recurring roles on Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law, and an ACE award for the made-for-cable Mandela (1987). In film, the actress consistently shone in roles that featured her as unconventional women who usually had a troubled past; after a memorable appearance in Miss Firecracker (1989), she went on to star in such films as Lawrence Kasdan's Grand Canyon (1991) and John Sayles' Passion Fish (1992), for which she won a Golden Globe nomination. Other notable film appearances included those in Rich in Love (1993), Crooklyn (1994), and Maya Angelou's Down in the Delta, in which Woodard played a single mother with drug and alcohol problems who returns to her family's southern hometown. In 1999, the actress starred in two films, Funny Valentines and Mumford, Lawrence Kasdan's tale of a small-town psychologist.Woodard has also continued to work in television, earning considerable acclaim for her performances. In 1995, she won an Emmy nomination and a Screen Actors Guild Best Actress Award for her performance in the The Piano Lesson, and two years later won an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a SAG Award for her portrayal of the title character of Miss Evers' Boys, a nurse who consoled many of the subjects of the notorious 1930s Tuskeegee Study of Untreated Blacks with Syphilis. In addition, she has done a fair amount of narration, lending her voice to a variety of television documentaries.The actress reteamed with HBO in 2003 for the film Unchained Memories, and took on a starring role on ABC's Desperate Housewives in 2006. In addition to appearing on a variety of popular television shows (Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, The Practice, Homicide: Life on the Street). Woodard played the part of a woman falsely accused of drug trafficking in the 2009 drama American Violet, and was nominated for yet another Emmy in 2010 for her work on HBO's hit drama True Blood.

Trivia: S. Epatha Merkerson is a Tony-nominated and Obie-winning, African-American stage actress, but is best known for her portrayal of detective squad chief Lt. Anita Van Buren in the series Law and Order. Born and raised in Detroit as the youngest of five children, she was a fine arts graduate of Wayne State University and began her New York theater career in the late 1970s. Merkerson was nominated for a Tony award for Best Actress for her performance as Berniece in The Piano Lesson and won an Obie award in 1992 for her work in I'm Not Stupid. Her screen credits include Jacob's Ladder and Loose Cannons and, perhaps most visibly, her role as Joe Morton's terrified wife in James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Merkerson made her television debut as Reba, the Mail Lady on Pee Wee's Playhouse, and has appeared on The Cosby Show, among other series, but her most important single television appearance may have been in the first season Law and Order show "Mushrooms," in which she portrayed the grief-stricken mother of an 11-month-old boy who is shot accidentally. Her work was not only memorable to the audience during that key first season, but also to the producers, who later picked Merkerson for the role of the new detective squad chief in the series' fourth season--a role she continued to play for over ten years. Merkerson's talent on the small screen led to roles in numerous TV movies such as Breaking Through and A Mother's Prayer, as well as roles in such films as Radio and The Rising Place. Still, her monumental gifts in both presence and interpretation may not have truly been utilized until she took the part of a strong matriarch who runs a 1960's boarding house in HBO's mini series Lackawanna Blues. Her first leading role in almost twenty years on screen, her performance earned her an Emmy Award as well as a Golden Globe. After her triumphant turn in Lackawanna Blues she returned to the big-screen in Craig Brewer's follow-up to Hustle & Flow, Black Snake Moan co-starring Christina Ricci and Samuel L. Jackson.Over the coming years, Merkerson would appear in a number of films, like The Six Wives of Henry Lefay and Mother and Child.

Trivia: The daughter of a Kosher frozen-food distributor, American actress Debra Winger dropped out of high school at 16 in order to join an Israeli kibbutz. Upon returning to the U.S., she studied criminology and sociology at California State University, but before long she had dropped out and became a tour guide at the Magic Mountain amusement park. A serious accident suffered on the job at age 18 gave Winger time to contemplate her future, and it was then that she settled upon an acting career. Her first taste of fame was as the superpowered younger sister of Lynda Carter in the fantasy TV series Wonder Woman. But Winger chafed at the impositions placed on her by tight TV filming schedules and she retreated to theatrical films, where she made a most inauspicious debut in the award-losing Slumber Party '57 (1977). Winger became a full-fledged audience favorite for her peppery role opposite John Travolta in Urban Cowboy (1980), which led to the most famous of her "working-class" roles in An Officer and a Gentleman (1982). Already balking at the "Hollywood Game," Winger made no secret of her discomfort in that film's famous nude love scene, nor of her failure to truly connect with co-star Richard Gere. The actress' next truly important part was as Shirley MacLaine's foredoomed daughter in Terms of Endearment (1983). Her resultant Terms performance was so good that it warranted an Oscar nomination. Winger never again had a box-office success to match Terms of Endearment, though she remained a darling of the film critics for her work in such little-seen epics as Mike's Murder (1984) and Black Widow (1986). As the actress' star stature diminished, media scrutiny of her private life increased thanks to her romance with Nebraska governor Robert Kerrey. Winger's roles became fewer and more unorthodox as she continued to seek out acting challenges -- never more so than when she popped up in a lengthy, unbilled male part (complete with goatee) in Made in Heaven (1987), which starred her then-husband, Timothy Hutton. Winger continued to appear in high-profile but low-grossing films into the 1990s, delighting critics and fans in such films as The Sheltering Sky (1990) and Shadowlands (1993). Winger missed out on appearing in one of the most profitable films of the 1990s when she was replaced by Geena Davis in A League of Their Own (1993); it was not temperament but personal injuries and a recurring back ailment that prevented Winger from participating in two other major moneymakers, Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) and Bull Durham (1988). She did appear opposite Billy Crystal in the romantic comedy Forget Paris. As the 21st century began, Winger starred in and produced Big Bad Love, and the next year she was the subject of Searching for Debra Winger, a fascinating documentary about how actresses balance their lives and their career. She went on to appear in Radio, Rachel Getting Married, the third season of the HBO drama In Treatment, and the 2012 comedy Lola Versus.

Trivia: Character actor and screenwriter Chris Mulkey is best remembered for his convincing portrayal of creepy former convict Hank Jennings in David Lynch's innovative television series Twin Peaks. A five-year veteran of the Children's Theatre Company of Minnesota, Mulkey, who had previously studied theater at the University of Minnesota, made his feature film debut in the comedy Loose Ends (1975). He made his screenwriting debut in 1988, with Patti Rocks.

Trivia: Actress Sarah Drew projected an amiable, down-to-earth quality that served her perfectly in Middle American, girl-next-door roles. An East Coast native, Drew grew up in a conservative evangelical household as the daughter of a Connecticut-based Presbyterian minister. She actually commenced work in the entertainment industry before she finished high school by voicing the character of Stacy on MTV's popular animated sitcom Daria from 1998-2002, and in the meantime received her formal education at the University of Virginia, marrying almost immediately after graduation. Within the following two years Drew began signing for supporting roles in features and series. Some of the more memorable included a portrayal of Ed Harris' daughter in the disability-themed inspirational drama Radio (2003), a brief but funny one-scene turn as a girlfriend lovestruck by another man in the Michael Showalter comedy The Baxter (2004), and -- on a higher profile note -- a multiseason portrayal of Hannah, a shy Colorado high schooler with a terminally ill father, on the third and fourth seasons of the popular television series Everwood. In 2007, Drew signed for a supporting role in director Desmond Nakano's racially themed period sports drama American Pastime. She had a recurring role on Mad Men, playing Sal Romano's clueless wife, before joining the regular cast of Grey's Anatomy, playing Dr. April Kepner.

Trivia: Played Lt. Schrank in a touring production of West Side Story for almost five years after college. A 2005 comedy he starred in, Full Disclosure, became the No. 1 downloaded short film on iTunes. Plays guitar.

Trivia: Began his career as a model after attending the 1997 International Modeling and Talent Association (IMTA) convention in New York, where he roomed with fellow Cedar Rapids native Ashton Kutcher. An agent saw him in ads and flew him out to Los Angeles to audition for the WB pilot Minor Threat. Big TV break came when he appeared in FOX's 24 for a six-episode arc in 2003. Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen handpicked him to play a love interest in their feature film New York Minute (2004). Is the front man for the band Life of Riley; the group released a CD of live performances in 2010.

Trivia: As a respected American supporting player in film, television, and theater who occasionally moonlights as a screenwriter, Patrick Breen first culled recognition in the American press in 1991. That spring, the then-30-year-old delivered a bravura performance as an emotionally damaged son in Jon Robin Baitz's disappointing play The Substance of Fire. Breen hit his zenith as a film actor during the mid-'90s, with turns in several memorable (if uneven) Hollywood movies. These included For Love or Money (1993), Barry Sonnenfeld's Get Shorty (1995) and Men in Black (1997), and Carl Franklin's One True Thing (1998). Breen's generally nondescript, albeit pleasant, appearance enabled him to fill practically any role, from a doctor (in the Sonnenfeld picture) to Mr. Tweedy (in the Franklin film).Breen first branched off into screenwriting just after the turn of the new millennium, with back-to-back indie features which he both acted in and scripted. The 2000 picture East of A constitutes a slice-of-life drama about a trio of New York City roommates over the course of ten years. Unfortunately, East of A received extremely limited distribution and was reviewed by very few mainstream critics. Its follow-up, the 2002 ensemble comedy Just a Kiss (directed by the character actor and comic Fisher Stevens and starring Ron Eldard, Kyra Sedgwick, and Marisa Tomei) provides a surrealistic exploration of the romantic vicissitudes among a group of swinging singles. That film fared better in terms of pedigree, but demonstrated an extremely unstable overtone, meandering between lighthearted romantic comedy and darker, more cynical black comedy; perhaps as a result, it premiered in 2002 to almost unanimously devastating reviews, opening and closing practically overnight, and effectively turning Breen away from produced screenwriting work for quite some time. In 2004, he returned to A-list acting as a character player in the holiday comedy Christmas with the Kranks, starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis. He was away from movie screens for five years, returning next in 2009's Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant and had the leading role two years later in the horror film The Bleeding House.

Trivia: Fresh from a nondescript Liverpudlian musical group known as Rory Storme and the Hurricanes, Ringo Starr made the quantum leap to superstardom in 1962 when he replaced Pete Best as drummer for the burgeoning Beatles. Starr was regarded by many music aficionados as the least creative of the foursome, though he may well have enjoyed the largest fan following -- especially among young ladies who felt the urge to "mother" the diminutive Mr. Starr (though he appeared to be the baby of the group, Ringo was in fact the oldest of the Fab Four). In the Beatles' first two films, A Hard Day's Night (1964) and Help! (1965), most of the comedy material went to Ringo, whose Chaplinesque demeanor and droll, deadpan dialogue delivery paid off in big laughs. Upon the group's breakup in 1970, it was Ringo who fared best as a solo screen actor. He had already brightened up the dull proceedings of Candy (1968) and The Magic Christian (1970); after the Beatles' split, he was seen to good advantage as the Pope in Ken Russell's Lisztomania (1975), as one of Mae West's bewildered amours in Sextette (1978) and as a bumbling Cro-Magnon in Caveman (1979), in which he co-starred with his second wife, Barbara Bach. In 1973, Ringo produced the bizarre horror movie spoof Son of Dracula, appearing onscreen with fellow rock icon Harry Nilsson. A big draw all over again in the 1980s thanks to his All-Star Band tours, Ringo Starr remains a most welcome, if infrequent TV guest star; he has also shown up in several entertaining commercials, including a 1995 Pizza Hut spot in which he co-starred with ex-Monkees Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, and Peter Tork. Ringo continued to record music and often appeared in music documentaries, not all of which were about the Beatles. He made memorable contributions to both Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)? as well as George Harrison: Living In the Material World.