Trivia: Though perhaps best-known internationally for playing tough-guy roles in Romper Stomper (1993), L.A. Confidential (1997), and Gladiator (2000), New Zealand-born actor Russell Crowe has proven himself equally capable of playing gentler roles in films such as Proof (1991) and The Sum of Us (1992). No matter what kind of characters he plays, Crowe's weather-beaten handsomeness and gruff charisma combine to make him constantly watchable: his one-time Hollywood mentor Sharon Stone has called him "the sexiest guy working in movies today."Born in Wellington, New Zealand, on April 7, 1964, Crowe was raised in Australia from the age of four. His parents made their living by catering movie shoots, and often brought Crowe with them to work; it was while hanging around the various sets that he developed a passion for acting. After making his professional debut in an episode of the television series Spyforce when he was six, Crowe took a 12-year break from professional acting, netting his next gig when he was 18. In film, he had his first major roles in such dramas as The Crossing (1990) and Jocelyn Moorhouse's widely praised Proof (1991) (for which he won an Australian Film Institute award). He then went on to gain international recognition for his intense, multi-layered portrayal of a Melbourne skinhead in Geoffrey Wright's controversial Romper Stomper (1992), winning another AFI award, as well as an Australian Film Critics award. It was Sharon Stone who helped bring Crowe to Hollywood to play a gunfighter-turned-preacher opposite her in Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead (1995). Though the film was not a huge box-office success, it did open Hollywood doors for Crowe, who subsequently split his time between the U.S. and Australia. In 1997, the actor had his largest success to date playing volatile cop Bud White in Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confidential (1997). Following the praise surrounding both the film and his performance in it, Crowe found himself working steadily in Hollywood, starring in two films released in 1999: Mystery, Alaska and The Insider. In the latter, he gave an Oscar-nominated lead performance as Jeffrey Wigand, a real-life tobacco industry employee whose personal life was dragged through the mud when he chose to blow the whistle on his former company's questionable business practices.In 2000, however, Crowe finally crossed over into the public's consciousness with, literally, a tour de force performance in Ridley Scott's glossy Roman epic Gladiator. The Dreamworks/Universal co-production was a major gamble from the outset, devoting more than 100 million dollars to an unfinished script (involving the efforts of at least half a dozen writers), an untested star (stepping into a role originally intended for Mel Gibson), and an all-but-dead genre (the sword-and-sandals adventure). Thanks to an aggressive marketing campaign and mostly positive notices, however, the public turned out in droves the first weekend of the film's release, and kept coming back long into the summer for Gladiator's potent blend of action, grandeur, and melodrama -- all anchored by Crowe's passionate man-of-few-words performance.Anticipation was high, then, for the actor's second 2000 showing, the hostage drama Proof of Life. Despite -- or perhaps because of -- the widely publicized affair between Crowe and his co-star Meg Ryan, the film failed to generate much heat during the holiday box-office season, and attention turned once again to the actor's star-making role some six months prior. In an Oscar year devoid of conventionally spectacular epics, Gladiator netted 12 nominations in February 2001, including one for its lead performer. While many wags viewed the film's eventual Best Picture victory as a fluke, the same could not be said for Crowe's Best Actor victory: nudging past such stiff competition as Tom Hanks and Ed Harris, Crowe finally nabbed a statue, affirming for Hollywood the talent that critics had first noticed almost ten years earlier.Crowe's 2001 role as real-life Nobel Prize-winning schizophrenic mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. brought the actor back into the Oscar arena. The film vaulted past the 100-million-dollar mark as it took home Golden Globes for Best Picture, Supporting Actress, Screenplay, and Actor and racked up eight Oscar nominations, including a Best Actor nod for Crowe. The film cemented Crowe as a top-tier leading man, and he would spend the following years proving this again and again, with landmark roles in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Cinderella Man, A Good Year, 3:10 to Yuma, Robin Hood, and State of Play.

Trivia: Staying true to his last name, Joaquin Phoenix has made a career out of making a couple of films, disappearing, and then reappearing from the ashes to rise upward toward greater glory. The actor, who began his career under the name of "Leaf," lived for a long time in the shadow of his older brother, River. After River's tragic death at the age of 23, Leaf abandoned his career for two years, making a comeback in 1995 with his performance in To Die For, directed by Gus Van Sant (who ironically directed River in one of his last films, 1993's Even Cowgirls Get the Blues). Since then, the actor, who changed his name back to Joaquin in the early '90s, has worked steadily in Hollywood, solidifying both his experience and reputation.Born Joaquin Raphael Phoenix on October 28, 1974, in Puerto Rico, Phoenix was raised in a close-knit, unconventional family. His parents encouraged all of their children to go into acting, and Phoenix did just that, following in the footsteps of older siblings River and Rain. As Leaf Phoenix, he got his first significant role in 1986's Spacecamp, and then went on to star in Russkies (1987) and Parenthood (1989), the latter of which was successful enough to make Phoenix something of a fledgling star. However, he chose to retreat from Hollywood, spending a few years traveling and living with his father in Mexico.It was River's 1993 death that brought his younger brother -- now called Joaquin -- back into the limelight, albeit a very unwelcome limelight. The 911 call that Phoenix made as his older brother lay dying was broadcast over radio and television in the aftermath of River's death. Again, Phoenix left Hollywood, not to be seen again until 1995, when his performance as the tragically confused and horny Jimmy Emmett won him an array of positive reviews. From there, Phoenix went on to film Inventing the Abbotts (1997), which failed at the box office but introduced the actor to his co-star Liv Tyler, with whom he had a three-year relationship.Phoenix's next project, Oliver Stone's U-Turn (1997), also proved to be a modest flop, but Return to Paradise (1998), in which he starred with Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche, was a bigger hit among critics and filmgoers. He starred again with Vaughn in Clay Pigeons (1998), which unfortunately didn't fare as well as his previous film. However, his next endeavor, 8MM with Nicolas Cage, although not a huge box office hit, did win him acclaim for his portrayal of thoughtful porn shop owner Max California, further proving that the family talent was not solely the province of Phoenix's late, great older brother. In 2000 Phoenix took one of his biggest and most extravagant roles to date as Commodus in director Ridley Scott's big-budget peplum Gladiator. Phoenix's turn as the devious Commodus was a marked departure from the actor's generally likeable characterizations, and proved further indication of his dramatic versitility. On the opposite end of the period piece spectrum, Jaoquin appeased art-house crowds with a memorable performance as the priest who runs the asylum housing the Marquis de Sade in Quills before moving closer to the present and impressing critics with a leading role in Buffalo Soldiers (2001). As a bored military camp clerk who runs goods in the black market, Phoenix's impressive performance was well recieved by festival critics and continued to provide further argument for his viability as a leading man. Phoenix would next turn-up alongside Mel Gibson in The Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan's rural alien invasion thriller Signs. Replacing actor Mark Ruffalo after Ruffalo pulled out of the film due to ill-health, Phoenix stepped into the role as Gibson's younger brother, a member of a family caught in an alien invasion following the appearance of crop circles in the family's cornfield. In 2003, Phoenix lent his voice to the Disney animated film Brother Bear, before re-teaming with M. Night Shyalaman for The Village, a thriller in the same vein as Signs that proved a major disappointment to audiences and critics alike. He followed this with a small part in the highly respected Hotel Rwanda, playing an American camera man covering the 1994 war in Rwanda that ended in 1 million deaths as a result of genocidal murder. This performance, along with his role as a rookie firefighter in Ladder 49 helped him establish himself as an everyman, as well as a character actor.By 2005, Phoenix had developed a reputation as a dependable, versatile actor, but he would rise from respectability to greatness with his depiction of legendary country singer Johnny Cash in James Mangold's biopic Walk the Line. Performing all his own singing for the part and learning the guitar from scratch, Phoenix received a Golden Globe Award for the film, along with his costar Reese Witherspoon.Phoenix's reputation for reliability fell under question when he arrived for a guest spot on Late Night with David Letterman disheveled and seemingly intoxicated. Though his appearance on Letterman was intended as a promotional piece for Two Lovers (2008), a romantic drama following a depressed young man (Phoenix) who finds himself in the middle of a love triangle, it was eventually revealed that the Letterman appearance was intended for I'm Still Here, a "biopic" depicting Phoenix as a drug-addled, emotional disaster. Shortly before the premier of I'm Still Here, director Casey Affleck admitted the film was satirical in nature and not meant to be taken literally.Two years after that public-relations hiccup, Phoenix returned earning rave reviews for his role as a disturbed war veteran who falls under the spell of a charismatic cult leader in Paul Thomas Anderson's drama The Master. His work in that film was recognized by the Academy, who tapped Phoenix for the Best Actor category.

Trivia: Hailed in Entertainment Weekly's 2000 Hot Issue as a mature female sex symbol, transplanted Dane Connie Nielsen also revealed that she could act in the Best Picture-winning blockbuster Gladiator (2000).Raised in Copenhagen, Nielsen trained to be a singer and dancer, as well as an actress. She began performing at age 15, with her mother, in local shows and headed to Paris when she was 18, to pursue her career in earnest. After stints in Italy and South Africa, the multi-lingual Nielsen finally landed in New York; she made her English language film debut as a terrorized passenger in the made-for-TV thriller Voyage (1993).Nielsen really began to attract Hollywood's attention, however, with her performance as the sizzlingly seductive, redheaded daughter of Satan (Al Pacino) in the supernatural potboiler The Devil's Advocate (1997). Along with smaller roles in the drug addiction drama Permanent Midnight (1998) and Wes Anderson's Rushmore (1998) (as the gorgeous mother of Max's friend Dirk), Nielsen landed her first starring role in 1998, as a planet pioneer who nurses Kurt Russell back to health in the science fiction actioner Soldier. Following roles in the low profile thriller Dark Summer (1999) and the higher profile Brian De Palma sci-fi saga Mission to Mars (2000), Nielsen notched a critically acclaimed hit with Ridley Scott's sword and sandal epic Gladiator. As the emperor's sister Lucilla, Nielsen got to hold her own against Joaquin Phoenix's scenery-chewing Commodus while falling in love with and quietly championing Russell Crowe's steely Maximus, proving that she could do more than just look good in Gladiator's Roman chic. Moving ever-closer to widespread recognition, Nielsen played a member of a family who attracts a menacing photo clerk (a dark turn by funnyman Robin Williams) in the taut thriller One Hour Photo. Alternating between smaller independent films and big-budget Hollywood extravaganzas, Nielsen turned up in Demonlover before turning back to the bright lights of Tinseltown with Basic and The Hunted (both 2003). Nielsen has one son.

Trivia: Burly British actor Oliver Reed juggled over 60 film roles in 40 years and a full-blooded social life of women, booze, and bar fights, both of which became fodder for stories about one of England's darker leading men and villainous character actors. After getting his start in cult monster movies from Hammer Studios, Reed forged a body of work most associated with acclaimed directors Ken Russell, Richard Lester, and Michael Winner, in which he was able to sidestep his typecasting as a brooding heavy. Reed remains one of the only prominent British thespians never to amass any stage work, making him a pure film actor. Reed was born on February 13, 1938, in Wimbledon, England, a nephew of film director Sir Carol Reed (The Third Man). An antsy type given to partying with friends, Reed did not complete high school. He ended up taking on a variety of blue-collar jobs, including nightclub bouncer and hospital porter, and even a short career in pugilism. In 1960, he suddenly burst into films, showing up in the background of the Hammer films The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll and Sword of Sherwood Forest, and as a gay ballet dancer in The League of Gentlemen. His first starring role came with Hammer in 1961, as the title character in Curse of the Werewolf. Years later, he would serve as narrator on a full Hammer retrospective, putting his sonorous speaking voice to good use and paying homage to his roots. Such early work paved the way for a steady flow of bad-guy roles in horrors, costume dramas, and suspense thrillers. Reed's intense, glowering features could also be manipulated for believable ethnic characterizations. Titles such as These Are the Damned and Pirates of Blood River (both 1962) followed. His first of six collaborations with Michael Winner came with The Girl Getters in 1966. In 1968, he won his first leading role in a universally well-received film, the Oscar-winner Oliver!, directed by his uncle, in which he played murderous thief Bill Sikes. Despite complaints of nepotism, Reed insisted he had to persuade his uncle to cast him, even though his credentials closely matched the needs of the part. Another watershed moment came in 1969, when Ken Russell cast him as one of the leads in his adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's Women in Love. While the film was a well-received treatise on sexuality and marriage, it achieved some notoriety for featuring the first-ever full-frontal male nudity in an English-language commercial film. Reed and Alan Bates engage in a memorable nude wrestling match that audaciously fleshes out the film's themes. Reportedly, Russell had planned to scrap the scene, worried about censor backlash, until Reed wrestled him into including it, literally pinning him down, in Russell's kitchen. Still, Reed told the Los Angeles Times he had to drink a bottle of vodka before he could relax enough to film the scene. The actor and director would work together five more times, including The Devils (1971) and Tommy (1975), in which Reed played Frank Hobbs. Reed was also known for portraying musketeer Athos in three of Richard Lester's film versions of Alexandre Dumas' famous tale. Reed appeared in The Three Musketeers (1973) and its sequel, The Four Musketeers (1975), which originally had been planned as one long movie. He revived the role in 1989 for The Return of the Musketeers. During filming of the windmill scene in the first film, Reed was nearly killed when he received an accidental stab wound in the neck. Add in 36 facial stitches following a bar fight in 1963, and the actor had more than his share of scrapes. Reed peaked in many ways in the mid-'70s, and had to settle on genre work for much of his career. Films such as Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hipe (1980), Venom (1982), Gor (1987), and Dragonard (1987) became his regular source of paychecks for many years. For every respite, such as Nicolas Roeg's Castaway (1987) or Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989), there was a return to familiar territory with garbage like House IV: Home Deadly Home (1991). Reed's most familiar role for modern audiences was also his last. The actor appeared in Oscar-winner Gladiator (2000) as Proximo, the amoral merchant who trains the enslaved fighters to kill and be killed. When he died midway through production, Reed unwittingly became part of a groundbreaking three-million-dollar endeavor by director Ridley Scott to digitally re-create his likeness in order to film Proximo's death scene. A three-dimensional image of Reed's face was scanned into computers so it could smile and talk, then digitally grafted onto a body double. Reed died in Malta, where Gladiator was being filmed, on May 2, 1999, the result of a heart attack brought on by one last night of hard drinking, which included three bottles of downed rum and arm wrestling victories over five sailors. He was survived by his third wife, Josephine Burge, as well as a son (Mark) and a daughter (Sarah), one each from his previous two marriages.

Trivia: One of Britain's most distinguished stage performers, Derek Jacobi is one of two actors (the other being Laurence Olivier) to hold both Danish and English knighthoods. Primarily known for his work on the stage, he has also made a number of films and remains best-known to television audiences for his stunning portrayal of the titular Roman emperor in I, Claudius.Born in Leytonstone, East London, on October 22, 1938, Jacobi was raised with a love of film, and he began performing on the stage while attending an all-boys school. Thanks to the school's single sex population, his first roles with the drama club -- until his voice broke -- were all female. It was with one of his first male roles that Jacobi earned his first measure of acclaim: playing Hamlet in a school production staged at the 1957 Edinburgh Festival, he made enough of an impression that he was approached by an agent from Twentieth Century Fox. Ultimately deemed too young to be signed to the studio, Jacobi instead went to Cambridge University, where he studied history and continued acting. His stage work at Cambridge was prolific and allowed him to work with classmates Ian McKellen and Trevor Nunn, and, thanks to his performance as Edward II, landed him his first job after graduation. Jacobi acted with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre until his portrayal of Henry VIII attracted the attention of Laurence Olivier. Olivier was so impressed with Jacobi's work that he invited him to London to become one of the eight founding members of the prestigious National Theatre.Jacobi went on to become one of his country's most steadily employed and respected actors, performing in numerous plays over the years on both sides of the Atlantic (in 1985, he won a Tony Award for his work in Much Ado About Nothing). He also branched out into film and television, making his film debut with a secondary role in Douglas Sirk's Interlude (1957). He acted in numerous film adaptations of classic plays, including Othello (1965) and The Three Sisters (1970). However, it was through his collaborations with Kenneth Branagh on various screen adaptations of Shakespeare that he became most visible to an international film audience, appearing as the Chorus in Branagh's acclaimed 1989 Henry V and as Claudius in the director's 1996 full-length adaptation of Hamlet. Jacobi made one of his most memorable (to say nothing of terrifying) screen impressions in Branagh's Hitchcock-inspired Dead Again (1991), portraying a hypnotist with a very shady background. In 1998, Jacobi earned more recognition with his portrayal of famed painter Francis Bacon in John Maybury's controversial Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon.On television, in addition to his celebrated work in I, Claudius, Jacobi has also earned praise for his roles in a number of other productions. In 1989, he won an Emmy for his performance in the 1988 adaptation of Graham Greene's The Tenth Man.In 1994 he began a successful run as a mystery-solving monk in the TV series Cadfael, a program that ran for three years. He had a Shakespeare heavy 1996 playing Claudius opposite Branagh's Hamlet, and appearing in Al Pacino's documentary Looking for Richard. He lent his voice to the animated version of Beowulf. He began the new century appearing in the Best Picture winner Gladiator, and was part of the rich ensemble compiled by Robert Altman for Gosford Park. In 2005 he was in the cast of the hit children's film Nanny McPhee, and two years later he was in The Golden Compass. In 2010 he appeared in another Oscar winning best picture when he was in The King's Speech. The next year he appeared in Anonymous as well as My Week With Marilyn.

Trivia: Actor Djimon Hounsou first gained acting attention in Steven Spielberg's Amistad (1997). Born April 24th, 1964 in West Africa, he moved with his family to Paris, France, at age 13. When he left school, he became homeless and spent a couple of years wandering the streets of Paris before being discovered by fashion designer Thierry Mugler. After he resettled himself, Hounsou moved to Los Angeles to try his hand at acting. While on the way to stardom, Hounsou appeared in music videos, including those of Madonna, Janet Jackson, and Steve Winwood. After his turn as a rebellious slave in Amistad, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination, he found increasingly steady employment on both the big and small screens, becoming a semi-regular on the hospital drama ER and appearing in such films as the historical epic Gladiator (2000). After such high-profile projects, Hounsou's success in the following two years would prove no surprise to anyone who glanced at his filmography. Aside from prominent roles in such high-profile French films as 2002's Le Boulet (Dead Weight) and the following year's Muraya -- l'Expérience Secrète de Mike Blueberry (The Adventures of Mike S. Blueberry), Hounsou's bid for screen stardom was simultaneously on display in such stateside features as The Four Feathers (2002), Biker Boyz, and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider -- The Cradle of Life (both 2003).In 2003, Hounsou received his first Oscar nomination for his acclaimed supporting role in Jim Sheridan's In America. And while he spent much of the next three years appearing in films that earned mixed reactions from both audiences and critics, he was back in top form in 2006's Blood Diamond, which found him opposite Leonardo DiCaprio. The film appeared on a number of Top Ten lists, garnered Hounsou accolades from countless critics groups and snagged him his second Oscar nod.Following the success of Blood Diamond, Hounsou made several guest appearances on th popular television show Alias, and joined filmmaker Michae Bay's 2005 action drama The Island, which co-stars Scarlet Johansson, Steve Buscemi, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Sean Bean. In 2009, Hounsou played the rle of n aget determined to thwart the plans of a group of telekinetic American ex-pats. The actor joined the Academy-award winning actress Helen Mirren in the 2011 film adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest, in which Mirren played the traditionally male role of Prospero.

Trivia: A native of Manchester, England, born in 1951, actor David Schofield grew up in a working-class family as one of 10 children, and first caught the drama bug at age 12 at an all-boy's school located in his hometown. Deeply interested in the theater, Schofield began not on-stage but in the wings, taking backstage positions at a local repertory theater that included waiting tables, making tea, building props, sweeping the stage, and -- ultimately -- scripting plays. At age 19, Schofield left this establishment to enroll in London's legendary Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and soon began regularly accepting professional roles with a much heavier emphasis on theater than film; in fact, Schofield frequently performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company and at theaters in the West End of London. He moved into film work in the early '70s and thereafter maintained a steady output of assignments in films and on television. Memorable features included Ridley Scott's Best Picture-winner Gladiator (2000), the Hughes Brothers' Jack the Ripper thriller From Hell (2001), the elaborate fantasy-adventure Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), and the Tom Cruise-produced World War II thriller Valkyrie (2008). Series (mostly British) that featured Schofield in recurring or guest capacities included The Bill, Our Friends in the North, and Holby City.

Trivia: On stage, the classically trained, stark-featured English character actor John Shrapnel wove a forceful, occasionally even scabrous dramatic undercurrent into his evocations of the figures inhabiting the great tragedies of literature. Maintaining a frequent presence at theaters such as The Aldwych, The Warehouse, and The Piccadilly, Shrapnel earned enthusiastic notices for his supporting contributions to productions of Julius Caesar, The Greeks, Hamlet, and innumerable others. On camera, the thespian built up a massive resumé beginning in the early '70s and emphasized both television and cinematic work. Filmed roles in the early years (such as that of Petya in the 1971 Nicholas and Alexandra, or that of Hector in the 1982 Troilus and Cressida) seemed primarily an offshoot of his theatrical stock, but by the late 1980s, he expanded his repertoire to include more commercial (Hollywood-oriented) fare. On that note, Shrapnel did effective supporting work in films as diverse as How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989), 101 Dalmatians (1996), and K-19: The Widowmaker (2002). Producers still often reserved him for classical and/or historical roles, however, per his portrayal of Lord Howard in Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007).

Trivia: Though a multihyphenate ad extremis who racked up a litany of influential accomplishments in the theater, modern art, and film worlds, distinguished Tomas Arana is perhaps best known for his contributions to cinema as a character actor, where he initially specialized in portrayals of period figures from ancient times. Over the course of his career Arana set himself apart from the pack by refusing to limit himself to productions from one country; he seemed equally at home working in the U.S., Italy, and Japan.A native of San Francisco, Arana received formal, classical training in stage work at the American Conservatory Theatre, then hitchhiked all over Europe, working as an itinerant artist and collaborating with giants including Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Joseph Beuys. Upon returning to the States, Arana began signing for film roles; memorable studio parts included Lazarus in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Leginov the cook in The Hunt for Red October (1990), and Quintus in Ridley Scott's Best Picture winner Gladiator (2000). As time rolled on, Arana also turned up in independent films such as the porn star coming of age drama This Girl's Life (2003) and the natural horror shlockfest Frankenfish (2004). International directors with whom he collaborated include Liliana Cavani, Carlo Verdone, and Michele Soavi. Theatrically, Arana made headlines by serving as producer and starring in numerous productions with the Naples-based theatrical ensemble Falso Movimento.

Trivia: Studied at Hindley Elementary School, Middlesex Middle School and Darien High School in Darien, Connecticut.Was a member of his high school's a cappella group called Oriocos.Kept a journal of his days on the set of Gladiator (2000).Has appeared on multiple television series like Mad Men, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Animal Kingdom.Best known for playing Lucius in Gladiator (2000).

Trivia: When the film version of the Broadway musical Camelot was released in 1967, critics had a jolly old time lambasting director Joshua Logan for casting non-singers in the leading roles. While it's certainly true that Lynn Redgrave, Richard Harris and Franco Nero seemed to suffer from Tin-Ear Syndrome, the critics were most unfair in picking on the fellow who played Mordred: David Hemmings. The son of a cookie merchant, Hemmings was a successful touring boy soprano at age nine, performing with the English Opera Group. He briefly left the musical world when his voice changed, studying painting at the Epsom School of Art and staging his first exhibition at 15. He returned to singing in his early 20s, first in nightclubs, then on the musical stage. Easing into acting, Hemmings appeared as misunderstood youths and belligerent "Teddy Boys" in a number of British programmers before attaining international stardom as the existential fashion photographer "hero"of Antonioni's Blow-Up (1966). With 1971's Running Scared, the indefatigable Hemmings began yet another new career as director; he has since helmed theatrical and made-for-TV films in England, Australia and Canada. With business partner John Daly, Hemmings formed the Hemdale Corporation for the express purpose of allowing the actor to do pretty much what he pleased both before and behind the cameras. In later years, he added novel writing to his considerable list of accomplishments. David Hemmings was the former husband of American actress Gayle Hunnicutt.