Trivia: The son of a trucking company manager, Brad Pitt was born December 18, 1963, in Shawnee, OK. Raised in Missouri as the oldest of three children, and brought up in a strict Baptist household, Pitt enrolled at the University of Missouri, following high school graduation, studying journalism and advertising. However, after discovering his love of acting, he dropped out of college two credit hours before he could graduate and moved to Hollywood. Once in California, Pitt took acting classes and supported himself with a variety of odd jobs that included chauffeuring strippers to private parties, waiting tables, and wearing a giant chicken suit for a local restaurant chain. His first break came when he landed a small recurring role on Dallas, and a part in a teenage-slasher movie, Cutting Class (1989) (opposite Roddy McDowall), marked his inauspicious entrance into the world of feature films. The previous year, Pitt's acting experience had been limited to the TV movie A Stoning in Fulgham County (1988). 1991 marked the end of Pitt's obscurity, as it was the year he made his appearance in Thelma & Louise (1991) as the wickedly charming drifter who seduces Geena Davis and then robs her blind. After becoming famous practically overnight, Pitt unfortunately chose to channel his newfound celebrity into Ralph Bakshi's disastrous animation/live action combo Cool World (1992). Following this misstep, Pitt took a starring role in director Tom Di Cillo's independent film Johnny Suede. The film failed to score with critics or at the box office and Pitt's documented clashes with the director allegedly inspired Di Cillo to pattern the character of the vain and egotistical Chad Palomino, in his 1995 Living in Oblivion, after the actor. Pitt's next venture, Robert Redford's lyrical fly-fishing drama A River Runs Through It (2002), gave the actor a much-needed chance to prove that he had talent in addition to physical appeal.Following his performance in Redford's film, Pitt appeared in Kalifornia and True Romance (both 1993), two road movies featuring fallen women and violent sociopaths. Pitt's next major role did not arrive until early 1994, when he was cast as the lead of the gorgeously photographed Legends of the Fall. As he did in A River Runs Through It, Pitt portrayed a free-spirited, strong-willed brother, but this time had greater opportunity to further develop his enigmatic character. Later that same year, fans watched in anticipation as Pitt exchanged his outdoorsy persona for the brooding, gothic posturing of Anne Rice's tortured vampire Louis in the film adaptation of Interview With the Vampire. Pitt next starred in the forgettable romantic comedy The Favor (1994) before going on to play a rookie detective investigating a series of gruesome crimes opposite Morgan Freeman in Seven (1995). In 1997, Pitt received a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a visionary mental patient in Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys; the same year, Pitt attempted an Austrian accent and put on a backpack to play mountaineer Heinrich Harrar in Seven Years in Tibet. The film met with mixed reviews and generated a fair amount of controversy, thanks in part to the revelation that the real-life Harrar had in fact been a Nazi. Following Tibet, Pitt traveled in a less inflammatory direction with Alan J. Pakula's The Devil's Own, in which he starred with fellow screen icon Harrison Ford. Despite this seemingly faultless pairing, the film was a relative critical and box-office failure. In 1998, Pitt tried his hand at romantic drama, portraying Death in Meet Joe Black, the most expensive non-special effects film ever made. Pitt's penchant for quirk was prevalent with his cameo in the surreal comic fantasy Being John Malkovich (1999) and carried over into his role as Tyler Durden, the mysterious and anti-materialistic soap salesman in David Fincher's controversial Fight Club the same year. The odd characterizations didn't let up with his appearance as the audibly indecipherable pugilist in Guy Ritchie's eagerly anticipated follow-up to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch (2000).In July of 2000, the man voted "Most Sexy Actor Alive" by virtually every entertainment publication currently in circulation crushed the hearts of millions of adoring female fans when he wed popular film and television actress Jennifer Aniston in a relatively modest (at least by Hollywood standards) and intimate service.Pitt's next turn on the big screen found him re-teamed with Robert Redford, this time sharing the screen with the A River Runs Through It director in the espionage thriller Spy Game (2001). A fairly retro-straight-laced role for an actor who had become identified with his increasingly eccentric roles, he was soon cast in Steven Soderbergh's remake of the Rat Pack classic Ocean's 11 (2001), the tale of a group of criminals who plot to rob a string of casinos. Following a decidedly busy 2001 that also included a lead role opposite Julia Roberts in the romantic crime-comedy The Mexican, Pitt was virtually absent from the big-screen over the next three years. After walking away from the ambitious and troubled Darren Aronofsky production The Fountain, he popped up for a very brief cameo in pal George Clooney's 2002 directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and lent his voice to the animated adventure Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, but spent the majority of his time working on the historical epic Troy (2004). Directed by Wolfgang Peterson, the film employed a huge cast, crew and budget.The media engulfed Pitt's next screen role with tabloid fervor, as it cast him opposite bombshell Angelina Jolie. While the comedic actioner Mr. and Mrs. Smith grossed dollar one at the box office, the stars' off-camera relationship that made some of 2005's biggest headlines. Before long, Pitt had split from his wife Jennifer Aniston and adopted Jolie's two children. The family expanded to three in 2006 with the birth of the couple's first child, to four in 2007 with the adoption of a Vietnamese boy, and finally to six in 2008, with the birth of fraternal twins.In addition to increasing his family in 2006, Pitt also padded his filmography as a producer on a number of projects, including Martin Scorsese's The Departed, the Best Picture Winner for 2006. He also acted opposite Cate Blanchett in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's drama Babel. Interestingly, that film hit theaters the same year as The Fountain, a film that was originally set to star the duo. Pitt also stayed busy as an actor, reteaming with many familiar on-screen pals for Ocean's Thirteen. At about the same time, Pitt teamed up with Ridley Scott to co-produce a period western, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; Pitt also stars in the film, as James. The year 2007 found Pitt involved, simultaneously, in a number of increasingly intelligent and distinguished projects. He signed on to reteam with David Fincher for the first occasion since Fight Club, with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - a bittersweet fantasy, adapted by Forrest Gump scribe Eric Roth from an F. Scott Fitzgerald story, about a man who falls in love while he is aging in reverse. When the special effects heavy film hit theaters in time for awards season in 2008, Pitt garnered a Best Actor nomination from both the Academy and the Screen Actors Guild. Also in 2007, Pitt produced an adaptation of Marianne Pearl's memoir A Mighty Heart that starred Angelina Jolie. In the years that followed, Pitt remained supremely busy. He delivered a funny lead performance as Lt. Aldo Raine in Quentin Tarantino's blistering World War II saga Inglourious Basterds (2009), then did some of the most highly-praised work of his career as a disciplinarian father in Terence Malick's The Tree of Life (2011) - a sprawling, cerebral phantasmorgia on the meaning of life and death that became one of the critical sensations of the year. He also won a great deal of praise for his turn as Billy Beane in Bennett Miller's adaptation of the non-fiction book Moneyball, a role that not only earned him critical raves but Best Actor nominations from the Academy, BAFTA, the Broadcast Film Association, the Golden Globes, and won him the New York Film Critics Circle award (though the institution also recognized his work in Tree of Life as figuring into their decision).In 2013, Pitt's Plan B production company produced 12 Years a Slave (he also appeared in the film, in a small supporting role), which earned Pitt an Academy Award when the film won Best Picture. The next year, Pitt won an Emmy as part of the producing team of the HBO tv movie The Normal Heart.

Trivia: A popular and easygoing Australian comedian whose keen adaptability lent itself well to aggressive-oriented early film roles, Eric Bana's hatred of firearms may seem ironic in contrast to the Aussie funnyman's fledgling film portrayals of real-life mass murderer (and popular cult celebrity figure in the land Down Under) Mark "Chopper" Read (Chopper [2000]) and a military man caught in heated battle on a rescue mission (Black Hawk Down [2001]). Born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, Bana's career as a comedian began while working as a bartender at his native city's Castle Hotel in 1991. Television offers began flowing in a few short years later, and in 1993, Bana took his sharp wit to the small screen as he assumed the roles of both writer and performer on one of Australia's top comedy programs, Full Frontal. His star on the rise, the increasingly popular comedian made audiences laugh even harder when he co-produced and starred in his own 1996 comedy special Eric (later to become a series) and kicked off The Eric Bana Show Live the following year. 1997 proved to be a busy year for Bana as he also made his feature debut in The Castle, though all of his hard work would pay off when he took a feature role in Australian television's Something in the Air in 2000 and was voted Australia's Most Popular Comedy Performer at the Logies. Bana next took on the role of notorious Aussie author/murderer Mark "Chopper" Read in Chopper (2000). Hollywood was soon calling for Bana, and he answered by accepting a role in the tense true story of the Battle of Mogadishu, Black Hawk Down, followed by the title role in Ang Lee's The Hulk. While Lee's adaptation of the comic would be universally panned, Bana continued his upward trajectory, playing a major role in the acclaimed film Munich, playing the head of the squadron assigned to avenge the murder of Israeli athletes at the 172 Olympics. He then showcased his range by playing opposite Drew Barrymore in the Curtis Hanson film Lucky You, followed by a turn as infamous Henry VIII in The Other Boleyn Girl. Bana would round out the next few years with roles that cemented his position in Hollywood, like Star Trek, Funny People, The Time Traveler's Wife, Hanna, and Deadfall.

Trivia: Orlando Bloom began reading J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a teenager before abandoning the books in favor of sports and girls. He did not complete the three volumes until his early twenties: first in print, and then on camera as one of a handful of actors carefully selected for New Line Cinema's highly anticipated, $270 million, three-film screen adaptation of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The international success of the trilogy's first installment, The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), made Bloom a sought-after young actor. The talented Brit works the talk show circuit, mugs in magazines, and appears at every important award show -- always with a playful demeanor and an uncorrupted smile that suggest he could still be just as easily fulfilled by rugby and romance. Bloom was raised in Canterbury, Kent, with his sister, Samantha. Their mother taught them to enjoy the arts and encouraged them to participate in the local Kent Festival. Bloom began by reciting poetry and prose, displaying an advanced sensitivity to tone and modulation. Yet, it wasn't this precociousness or his frequent trips to the theater that influenced Bloom to become a professional actor. He was in awe of larger-than-life characters -- from Superman to the members of the A-Team -- and knew the only way to become one was to play one on the screen. At 16, Bloom relocated to London and performed with the National Youth Theatre for two seasons before winning a scholarship to train with the British American Drama Academy. At the conclusion of his term with the group, he played the lead in A Walk in the Vienna Woods, and secured an agent. This led to small roles on British television and an appearance in Brian Gilbert's Wilde (1997). Wishing to further his education, Bloom then enrolled at London's prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama (the alma mater of Ewan McGregor, Joseph Fiennes, and Ben Chaplin, among others). There, he acted in several plays, including Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Chekov's Three Sisters, and Sophocles' Antigone. While still in school, Bloom was trying to make it onto a friend's rooftop terrace when he fell three stories and broke his back. The accident almost paralyzed the actor, but surgery let him walk out of the hospital on crutches. Soon afterward, all his peers auditioned for coveted roles in the upcoming The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The extensive and selective casting process took place in every English-speaking country. Bloom good-naturedly tried out for the role of Faramir, a character introduced in the second film, The Two Towers (2002). After meeting with the project's director, Peter Jackson, Bloom was not cast as Faramir. Instead, Jackson asked that he read for the part of Legolas Greenleaf, a much more prominent figure who is featured in all three films. The director offered Bloom the role a few weeks later, only two days before the burgeoning star graduated from drama school. Legolas, Tolkien's warrior elf, has super-human strength, swift reflexes, and heightened sensory awareness. To play him, Bloom trained in archery, swordplay, and horseback riding for two months prior to shooting. He developed a graceful style of combat based on the characters in Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai and worked to manage his posture, poise, and composure. As Legolas, Bloom is immortal, and at 2,931 years old, is a tall, athletic, and skilled fighter of evil -- he truly is larger than life. After finishing The Lord of the Rings -- all three films, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King, were shot simultaneously over 18 months in New Zealand -- Bloom headed to Morocco for a role in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down. The film chronicles the horrific Battle of Mogadishu in 1993, in which a "simple" mission left 18 U.S. soldiers dead and 73 wounded. Debuting his American accent, Bloom plays a neophyte ranger who breaks his back after falling 70 feet from a helicopter. This combat film opened only a few weeks after The Fellowship of the Ring and received equal acclaim. Following these blockbusters, Bloom performed in several quirky films with limited releases such as Lullaby of Clubland (2001). But it wouldn't be long before Bloom was blowing up the box-office once again with the 2003 crowd-pleaser The Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Bloom showed up opposite Brad Pitt and Black Hawk Dawn costar Eric Bana in the 2004 historical epic Troy, his intense star-power was unquestionable.Bloom faced a down year in 2005, failing to match the box office success of Troy with Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven. That same year he stepped into the role once occupied by Ashton Kutcher in Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown, but the film never recovered from the bad press it received after its initial film festival screening, failed to find an audience in theaters, and was unpopular with critics. Bloom rebounded one year later by returning with the other principles in back-to-back filmed sequels for Pirates of the Caribbean, the first of which, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, shattered box office records for opening day and opening weekend, and became the first film to take in one hundred million dollars in just two days. It will hardly strike one as prescient, then, that industry insiders and the trades were advance prepping Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End as one of the most lucrative releases of 2007, possibly of any year. The actor would appear in more down tempo projects in the coming years, like 2010's Main Street, and 2011's The Good Doctor, before hopping on board another swashbuckler, playing the Duke of Buckhingham in The Three Musketeers. Though the film wasn't a huge success in the States, Bloom would have another franchise ticket to cash in the following year, reprising the role of elf Legolas in the Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit.

Trivia: Born Diane Heidkrüger in Hildesheim, Germany, Diane Kruger initially aspired to be a dancer and studied with the Royal Ballet in London. When an injury ended her hopes for a dancing career, she began modeling in Germany, where she became a finalist of the Look of the Year contest at the age of 15. She worked with renowned fashion designers Dolce & Gabbana, and her pictures graced the covers of magazines like Vogue and Elle. Moving to Paris on the advice of film director Luc Besson, Kruger decided to take up acting and enrolled in the Ecole Florent, where she became top of her class in 2002. The same year, the actress made her big-screen debut opposite Dennis Hopper and Christopher Lambert in the indie feature The Piano Player (aka The Target), but she was not truly revealed until her role in Mon Idole, co-starring and directed by her then-real-life companion Guillaume Canet. After a couple more acting assignments in France, Kruger began her Hollywood career by acting alongside Josh Hartnett and Rose Byrne in Wicker Park, a remake of the 1996 French film L'Appartement. While still filming Wicker Park in 2003, she was selected among many other candidates to play the legendary beauty Helen of Troy in Wolfgang Petersen's historical epic Troy (2004). The latter film ended up being released before Wicker Park, thus becoming her high-profile introduction to the American public. She also starred opposite Nicolas Cage in Jon Turteltaub's National Treasure. In 2009 she had a small but important part in Quentin Tarantino's award-winning Inglourious Basterds. She followed that up with roles in Inhale and Unknown and branched out to American TV with The Bridge. Kruger played a supporting role in The Infiltrator, opposite Bryan Cranston and John Leguizamo, in 2016.

Trivia: Growing up in Scotland, the descendent of Irish immigrants, Brian Cox always felt an affinity to American cinema that eventually led him to pursue his career stateside. Born on June 1, 1946, in Dundee, Scotland, Cox knew he wanted to act from an early age, but identified more with the characters portrayed in American films than in "zany British comedies," to use his phrase. While working at the local theater, where he started by mopping the stage, the 15-year-old Cox would watch the actors and study their styles to separate the wheat from the chaff. He attended drama school in London and got caught up in British theater and television during the 1970s. Cox landed on Broadway in the early '80s, but found more closed doors than open ones. It was while performing a play transplanted from the U.K. that a casting agent for Michael Mann's Manhunter (1986) noticed him. The film would become the first cinematic treatment of Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter (spelled "Lecktor" at the time) character, which Anthony Hopkins would make his own in Silence of the Lambs (1991). Cox was cast in the role, paving the way for the success that had eluded him until his 40th year.Despite the breakthrough, Cox remained better identified with television than film during the late '80s and early '90s, though his roles significantly increased in number. His initiation to regular film work came through appearances in two 1995 sword epics, Braveheart and Rob Roy. Over the latter half of the 1990s he materialized in character-actor roles -- police officers, doctors, fathers -- in such films as The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), Kiss the Girls (1997), Rushmore (1998), and The Minus Man (1999). Although he appears more often in American than British cinema, Cox has also paid homage to his Scottish and Irish roots, such as playing an IRA heavy in Jim Sheridan's The Boxer (1997).In 2001, Cox secured major acclaim -- and an American Film Institute nomination for best supporting actor -- with the release of L.I.E., the debut film of director Michael Cuesta. Like Todd Solondz' critical darling Happiness (1998), the film presents a child molester (Cox) as one of its major characters without condemning him, if not actually leaving him altogether unjudged. Cox's complicated, intense portrayal enabled such shades of gray, raising the character above the bottom rung of the morality food chain.As the decade continued, so did Cox's visibility in bigger hollywood films. In 2002 alone, he took on substantial roles in The Bourne Identity, The Rookie, The Ring, The 25th Hour, and Adaptation, a film that saw him stealing scenes with an appropriately over-the-top turn as blowhard screenwriting guru Robert McKee. The following year audiences could see him in the blockbuster comic-book sequel X2: X-Men United, and in 2004 he starred alongside Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom in the epic retelling of the Iliad, Troy. He returned to the Bourne franchise for The Bourne Supremacy, and appeared in the thriller Red Eye. He was the psychiatrist in the comedy Running With Scissors, and in 2007 portrayed Melvin Belli in David Fincher's Zodiac. He was cast in the geriatric action film Red, and joined up with Wes Anderson a second time to lend his voice to a bit part in Fantastic Mr. Fox. In 2011 Ralph Finnes tapped Cox to play Menenius in his big-screen adaptation of The Bard's Coriolanus.

Trivia: Before enrolling in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Sean Bean was going to enter his father's Sheffield steel fabrication business as a welder. He changed his mind after he garnered praise for acting in a few roles in local theater while taking an art class at Rotherham College. Bean received a scholarship to the prestigious academy and graduated a few years later with the Silver Medal for his performance in Waiting for Godot. Shortly thereafter, Bean performed in several West End productions. He also appeared in Romeo and Juliet with the Glasgow Citizens Theatre and with the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon. In the first he played Tybalt and in the second he played Romeo. Following more stage experience, Bean made his feature film debut in 1986 in Derek Jarman's Carvaggio. Two years later, after returning to the stage, Bean appeared in Mike Figgis' Stormy Monday and in another Jarman effort, War Requiem. In addition to his filmwork, Bean also has a thriving television career that began in the mid-'80s. Notable television work includes Clarissa (1992) and Sharpe (1993). It is as a "bad guy" in films such as Patriot Games and Golden Eye that Bean is best-known in the U.S., though in the 1997 remake of Anna Karenina, he plays the dashing and romantic Count Vronsky. After joining Robert De Niro and Jean Reno for some international espionage in John Frankenheimer's Ronin (1998), taking a psychotic turn in Essex Boys (2000) and kidnapping the daughter of a respected adolescent therapist in Don't Say a Word (2001), Bean made his way to New Zealand for a role in director Peter Jackson's highly-successful Lord of the Rings trilogy.Bean maintained his career working in diverse projects such as Equilibrium, the old fashioned sword and sandal epic Troy, and National Treasure.He scored a supporting part in 2005's drama North Country, as well as a major part in Michael Bay's sci-fi spectacle The Island. He returned to the role of Sharpe for 2006's Sharpe's Challenge as well as 2008's Sharpe's Peril, and in between took on the role of the serial killer made famous by Rutger Hauer in the remake of The Hitcher.The steadily working actor continued his hot streak in such projects as Percy Jackson & the Olympians and Death Race 2, and he found success on the small screen when he was cast in a pivotal part in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones.

Trivia: A former teacher, burly Irish actor Brendan Gleeson spent the 1990s earning an increasing amount of acclaim for his work in a variety of films, most notably John Boorman's The General (1998). Gleeson, who made his feature film debut in Jim Sheridan's The Field (1990), first made an impression on audiences in the role of Hamish, William Wallace's hulking ally in Braveheart (1995).In 1997, the actor was given his first crack at a starring role in I Went Down, a likeable black comedy that cast him as a thick-skulled hitman. The role brought him a greater dose of recognition and respect on both sides of the Atlantic, but it was Boorman's The General (shot right after I Went Down wrapped) that truly demanded -- and received -- international attention. The story of real-life Irish criminal Martin Cahill, the film featured Gleeson in its title role, and his cocky, assured portrayal of Cahill was widely deemed the best part of an altogether excellent film. The numerous plaudits he won for his performance included awards from Boston and London film critics.His career flourishing, it was only a matter of time before Gleeson had the opportunity to expand his resumé to include the occasional Hollywood blockbuster. That opportunity came by way of John Woo's Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), which cast Gleeson, surprisingly enough, as one of the film's resident villains. After carefully balancing his roles between the mainstream and the more low-key, character-driven films in later 2000 and into 2001 (he gained notice for his starring role as a philanderous, boozing TV chef turned sensitive amnesiac in the romantic comedy Wild About Harry [2000]), Gleeson headed back to Hollywood with his lively turn as Lord Johnson-Johnson in Steven Spielberg's A.I. Appearing in Trainspotting director Danny Boyle's zombie thriller 28 Days Later the following year, it wasn't long before Gleeson was once again gracing stateside cinemas with appearances in such high-profile films as Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (2002) and the Kurt Russell police detective thriller Dark Blue (2003).Gleeson remained a presence in high-profile films over the ensuing two years. In 2004 he could be seen in both the M. Night Shyamalan brain-bender The Village and the sweeping historical epic Troy. The following year found the actor in another pair of big-budget Hollywood films, the box-office dud Kingdom of Heaven and the fourth installment in the Harry Potter franchise, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Subsequent years found him re-teaming with 28 Days Later star Cillian Murphy for the Neil Jordan comedy Breakfast on Pluto and reprising his role of Alastor "Mad Eye" Moody in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).He had a memorable turn in the Irish comedy In Bruges in 2008. Two years later he returned as Mad Eye for the final Harry Potter movie. That same year he turned in one of his best performances in The Guard. He played opposite the Oscar nominated Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs in 2011, and enjoyed roles in a couple of high-profile Hollywood films - The Raven and Safe House the next year.

Trivia: The legendary Irish-born thespian Peter O'Toole proves that when an actor is faced with a bitter personal crisis and struggles with addiction, spirit and determination can often lead to a forceful "third act" in that performer's career that rivals anything to have preceded it. Blessed with an immensity of dramatic power, the fair-haired, blue-eyed, flamboyant, and virile O'Toole chalked up one of the most formidable acting resumes of the 20th century during the 1950s and '60s, before experiencing an ugly bout of self-destruction in the mid-'70s that led to serious health problems, several disappointing and embarrassing roles, and the destruction of his marriage, and threatened (in the process) to bury his career. By 1980, however, O'Toole overcame his problems and resurfaced, triumphantly, as a box-office star.O'Toole began life in Connemara, Ireland, in either 1932 or 1933 (most sources list his birthdate as August 2, 1932, though the year is occasionally disputed). His family moved to Leeds, England in the early '30s, where O'Toole's father earned his keep as a racetrack bookie. Around 1946, 14-year-old O'Toole dropped out of secondary school and signed on with The Yorkshire Evening Post as copy boy, messenger, and eventually, a cub reporter. Within three years, he dropped the newspaper gig and joined the Leeds Civic Theatre as a novice player; this paved the way for ongoing parts at the much-revered Old Vic (after O'Toole's military service in the Royal Navy as a signalman and decoder), beginning around 1955. A half-decade of stage roles quickly yielded to screen parts in the early '60s. O'Toole actually debuted (with a bit role) in 1959, in The Savage Innocents, but international fame did not arrive for a few years, with several enviable back-to-back characterizations in the 1960s: that of the gallant, inscrutable T.E. Lawrence in Sir David Lean's 1962 feature Lawrence of Arabia (for which he received his first Best Actor Oscar nomination); Henry II in Peter Glenville's 1964 Becket (starring longtime friend Richard Burton), for which he received his second Best Actor Oscar nomination; the title character in Lord Jim (1965), and philandering fashion editor Michael James in the popular Clive Donner-Woody Allen sex farce What's New Pussycat? (1965). O'Toole's success continued, unabated, with yet another appearance as Henry II alongside Katharine Hepburn in Anthony Harvey's The Lion in Winter (1968), which netted him a third Best Actor Oscar nod. Unfortunately, O'Toole lost yet again, this time (in a completely unexpected turn of events) to Cliff Robertson in Charly, though a fourth nomination was only a year away, for the actor's work in 1969's Goodbye, Mr. Chips. The early 1970s were equally electric for O'Toole, with the highlight undoubtedly being his characterization of a delusional mental patient who thinks he's alternately Jesus Christ and Jack the Ripper in The Ruling Class (1972), Peter Medak's outrageous farce on the "deific" pretensions of British royalty. That gleaned O'Toole a fifth Oscar nomination; Jay Cocks, of Time Magazine called his performance one "of such intensity that it will haunt memory. He is funny, disturbing, and finally, devastating." Unfortunately, this represented the last high point of his career for many years, and the remainder of the '70s were marred by a series of disappointing and best-forgotten turns -- such as Don Quixote in Arthur Hiller's laughable musical Man of La Mancha (1972), covert CIA agent Larry Martin in Otto Preminger's spy thriller Rosebud (1975), and a Romanian émigré and refugee in Arturo Ripstein's soaper Foxtrot (1976). Meanwhile, O'Toole's off-camera life hit the nadir to end all nadirs. Though long known as a carouser (with friends and fellow Brits Burton, Richard Harris, Peter Finch, and others), O'Toole now plunged into no-holds-barred alcoholism, pushing himself to the very edge of sanity and death. The drinking necessitated major stomach surgery, and permanently ended his 20-year-marriage to Welsh actress Sian Phillips (best known as Livia in I, Claudius). Career-wise, O'Toole scraped the bottom of the gutter (and then some) when he made the foolish decision (around 1976 or 1977) to appear alongside Malcolm McDowell and Helen Mirren in the Bob Guccione/Tinto Brass Penthouse mega-production Caligula (released 1980) -- a period film wall-to-wall with hardcore sex and visceral, graphic violence that led celebrity critic Roger Ebert to echo another viewer's lament: "This movie is the worst piece of s*** I have ever seen." It did not help matters when O'Toole returned to The Old Vic not long after, and was roundly booed off the stage for his uncharacteristically wretched portrayal of Macbeth. The Macbeth calamity, however, masked a slow return to triumph, for O'Toole had since resolved to clean himself up; he moved in with Kate and Pat O'Toole, his two actress daughters from his marriage to Phillips, both of whom were teenagers in the late 1970s, and both of whom cared for him. And in 1979, he signed on to play one of the most esteemed roles of his career -- that of the sadistic, tyrannical director Eli Cross in Richard Rush's wicked black comedy The Stunt Man (1980) -- a role for which O'Toole received a sixth Oscar nomination. O'Toole again lost the bid, this time to Robert De Niro in Raging Bull. Not one to be daunted, however, the actor continued down the path to full professional and personal recovery by beginning an ongoing relationship with California model Karen Brown, and fathering a child by her in 1983. O'Toole then signed on for many fine roles throughout the 1980s and '90s: that of Alan Swann, a hard-drinking, hard-loving, has-been movie star, in Richard Benjamin's delightfully wacky 1982 film My Favorite Year (which drew the thesp yet another nomination for Best Actor -- his seventh); and as Professor Harry Wolper, a scientist obsessively trying to re-clone his deceased wife, in Ivan Passer's quirky, underrated romantic fantasy Creator (1985). Despite occasional lapses in taste and quality, such as 1984's Supergirl and 1986's Club Paradise, O'Toole was clearly back on top of his game, and he proved it with an admirable turn as Reginald Johnston in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987 Best Picture winner, The Last Emperor. That same year, O'Toole signed on to co-star in High Spirits (1988), fellow Irishman Neil Jordan's whimsical, spiritual ghost story with Shakespearean overtones. At the time, this looked like a solid decision, but neither Jordan nor O'Toole nor their co-stars, Steve Guttenberg, Liam Neeson, and Daryl Hannah, could have anticipated the massive studio interference that (in the words of Pauline Kael) "whacked away at the film, removing between 15 and 25 percent of the footage" and turned it into one of that year's biggest flops. Ditto with Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1990 comedy fantasy The Rainbow Thief, where studio interference again all but destroyed the work.O'Toole remained active throughout the 1990s, largely with fine supporting roles, such as Willingham in King Ralph (1991), Welsh nobleman Lord Sam in Rebecca's Daughters (1992), Bishop Cauchon in the made-for-television Joan of Arc (1999), and Von Hindenburg in the telemovie Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003). In late 2006, O'Toole hit another career peak with a fine turn as a wily old thesp who enjoys a last-act fling with a twentysomething admirer, in the Roger Michell-directed, Hanif Kureishi-scripted character-driven comedy Venus. The effort reeled in an eighth Best Actor Oscar nomination for the actor. In 2007 he voiced the part of the critic in Pixar's Ratatouille, and in 2008 he joined the cast of The Tudors playing Pope Paul III. He played a priest in 2012's For Greater Glory and filmed a role for Katherine of Alexandria (2014) before he died at age 81 in 2013.

Trivia: One of the most luminous actresses to grace the British screen, as well as those of the rest of the world, Julie Christie is known for both her onscreen magnetism, which has not faded as she has grown older, and her offscreen reclusiveness. The daughter of an India-based British tea planter, she was born in Chukua, Assam, India, on April 14, 1941, and grew up on her father's tea plantation. Educated in England and on the Continent, she planned to become an artist or a linguist before she altered her life's goals by enrolling in the Central School of Speech Training in London. In 1957, she first stepped on-stage as a paid professional with the Frinton Repertory of Essex.Celebrated less for her stage work than for her continuing role in a popular British TV serial, A for Andromeda, Christie made her film debut in a small role in Crooks Anonymous (1963). After a rather charming ingénue stint in The Fast Lady (1963) (the lady was a car, not the ingénue), she received her first prestige part in Billy Liar (1963), gaining critical acclaim for this and her subsequent supporting part in Young Cassidy (1965). Thus, Christie was not the "newcomer" that some perceived her to be when she shook film audiences to their foundations in Darling (1965), a poignant time capsule about a stylishly amoral sexual butterfly. Christie won numerous awards for Darling, not the least of which were the British Film Academy award and the American Oscar.Her star further ascended into box-office heaven when she was cast in the big-budget Doctor Zhivago (1965), in which she gave a radiant performance as the tragic Lara. She followed this with a dual role in Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 (1967) and a starring turn in John Schlesinger's acclaimed 1967 adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd. Roles of wildly varying quality followed, until in 1971 Christie began a professional and romantic liaison with Warren Beatty. The romance was over within a few years, but Beatty and Christie ultimately worked together on three major films of the 1970s: McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), Shampoo (1975), and Heaven Can Wait (1978).Few of Christie's films of the 1970s and 1980s seemed worthy of her talents -- The Go-Between (1971) and her cameo in Nashville (1975) being exceptions -- though, in fact, she was less interested in pursuing a career than in campaigning for various social and political causes. Christie's performance in the British TV movie The Railway Station Man (1992) was a choice example of her devotion to social issues -- in this case, the ongoing ideological (and shooting) war in Ireland. Indeed, Christie had become such an enigma that it was a surprise to many audiences when she turned up as Gertrude in Kenneth Branagh's 1996 adaptation of Hamlet. She won acclaim for the role, embellished the following year with her portrayal of Nick Nolte's estranged wife in Afterglow. Nominated for her third Best Actress Oscar for her performance, Christie convinced many that, although she had chosen to neglect the limelight for awhile, she hadn't chosen to neglect her talent.Christie's fifth decade as a performer found her continuing to work with a variety of collaborators, earning a Screen Actors Guild nomination as part of the ensemble of Finding Neverland. She worked with the young Canadian actress Sarah Polley on The Secret Life of Words, a role that led directly to Christie being cast in Polley's directorial debut - the alzheimer's drama Away From Her. Christie's work in that film earned her some of the strongest reviews of her lengthy career and garnered her numerous year end accolades including Best Actress awards from the Golden Globes, the New York Film Critics, and the Screen Actors Guild, as well as a nomination from the Academy in that same category.She was one of the many performers in the omnibus film New York, I Love You, and took the roll as Grandma in the modernized retelling of Red Riding Hood directed by Katherine Hardwicke.

Trivia: With his mountainous, imposing, and slightly terrifying presence, it seemed fitting that Hollywood character actor Tyler Mane achieved his greatest recognition in the first decade of his career by donning a mask, seizing a butcher knife, and stalking coeds as psychopath Michael Myers in Rob Zombie's 2007 gorefest Halloween. The film, of course, constituted a remake of John Carpenter's seminal horror classic, and Mane inherited the role from Tony Moran and others, but few doubted that Mane and Zombie would make it their own. Prior to this turn, Mane waxed equally threatening as the furry, ravenous villain Sabretooth in the effects-laden blockbuster X-Men (2000), and wielded massive force as two barrel-chested heroes of old: Ajax in Wolfgang Petersen's historical epic Troy (2004) and Antaeus in Roger Young's HBO miniseries Hercules (2005). Mane grew up in Saskatoon, Canada. Reportedly something of an underdog, who suffered from relentless bullying as a child, he took this mistreatment and spun it into determination, with an aggressive immersion into all forms of martial arts -- including karate, judo, and tae kwon do. Then wrestling beckoned; Mane trained from the age of 19 on, first in Calgary, Alberta, then in Los Angeles. From 1986 through 1999, this Canuck import assumed the characterization of Big Sky (in a tag team with Kevin Nash) and as Nitron, and competed in professional wrestling tournaments around the world for the WCW and UWF. The jump from wrestling to acting constituted a short one, and Mane took that leap with X-Men. His resumé also includes portrayals in such features as Black Mask 2 and Joe Dirt, and he first worked with Zombie in The Devil's Rejects (2005); Halloween thus represented their sophomore collaboration. Mane publicly described his evocation of Myers as "demanding...both physically and emotionally," because of the extent to which Zombie sought to lay bare the maniac's psychopathology in the film.

Trivia: Trained at RADA, spindly British actor Julian Glover made his film bow as Lt. Matherton in the Oscar-winning Tom Jones (1963). Glover has since proven equally adept at chop-licking villainy and eccentric comedy relief. His movie roles include Shrdlu in The Adding Machine (1968), Kristatos in For Your Eyes Only (1977), General Veers in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), King Richard in the made-for-TV Ivanhoe (1982), Walter Donahue in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Dr. Livesey in the Charlton Heston version of Treasure Island (1989) and King Gustav in King Ralph (1992). Julian Glover also appeared as megalomanic heavy Dr. Stefan Kilkis in the campy TV series QED (1982).

Trivia: Was introduced to powerlifting while an inmate of Boggo Road Gaol for 7 years for armed robbery. Nicknames include "The Megaman" and "The Colossus of Boggo Road". Was once the bodyguard of entrepreneur Rene Rivkin. Represented Australia in the 1995 Word's Strongest Man competition; his arm was broken in the second round. Became the World Wrestling All-Stars Champion in 2002. Played Thessalian warrior Boagrius in 2004's Troy.

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: Midwestern-born actor Garrett Hedlund debuted in the mid-2000s with a series of plum roles in A-list features. In the beginning, he seemed typecast as a well-rounded, average American young man, and made particularly strong impressions in that vein with his portrayal of high-school football hero Don Billingsley in Friday Night Lights, opposite Billy Bob Thornton. Yet Hedlund surprised and delighted his followers with a strong show of versatility thereafter, with effective portrayals as struggling musician Jack Mercer, who joins forces with his siblings to determine the reasons behind his mother's death, in John Singleton's urban drama Four Brothers (2005), and as Murtagh in the otherworldly fantasy Eragon (2006). In 2007, Hedlund essayed two very different roles: he joined Jane Fonda and Lindsay Lohan in the gentle rural drama Georgia Rule, then co-starred alongside Kevin Bacon in the one-man vigilante drama Death Sentence, about a father who attempts to wreak vengeance on those who rubbed out his family. Over the next several years, Hedlund would enjoy increasing success on screen, starring in TRON: Legacy, showing off his singing chops in Country Strong, and appearing in the highly anticipated Kerouac adaptation On The Road.Hedlund had an impressive string of films, working with big-name directors, in the following years: Inside Llewyn Davis with the Coen brothers, Lullaby with noted Renaissance man Andrew Levitas, Unbroken with Angelina Jolie and the live-action Peter Pan film Pan, playing a young James Hook, with Joe Wright.

Trivia: As the grizzled warrior Campbell in Braveheart, James Cosmo impressed filmgoers worldwide. His impassioned performance made it seem possible that such a man as Campbell really existed 700 years ago, a man who cared so much about his beloved Scotland that he could endure the bite of an English arrow, break it off, and go on fighting with Achillean fury. But it was not only Cosmo's formidable acting skills -- honed in scores of film and television productions dating back to the '60s -- that animated his performance. It was also his real-life love of Scotland. He believes his native country, small as it is, has a thousand and one other stories to tell just as exciting as Braveheart, and he has enlisted himself as actor, producer, and financier to bring them to the movie screen. For example, he singlehandedly engineered a project to construct Scotland's first film studio on a 40-acre site near Inverness. Both novice and experienced filmmakers will be welcome to reserve any of its sound stages. A nearby William Wallace Theme Park, named after the rebel leader depicted in Braveheart, will present reenactments of Wallace's rebellion against England between 1297 and 1305. Cosmo also was the brainchild of a major film project about Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796), a national hero who attracted 30,000 mourners to his funeral. Cosmo selected Edinburgh as the setting, Scottish writer Alan Sharp to pen the script, and Scottish composer Derek William Dick to write an overture. The film, entitled Clarinda, centers on the love affair between Burns and an Edinburgh woman, Agnes Maclehose. Another Scottish writer, the great historical novelist Sir Walter Scott, provided the material for a triumphal Cosmo performance in the TV miniseries Ivanhoe, shown worldwide. Cosmo portrayed Ivanhoe's estranged father, Lord Cedric, with the same fiery spleen of Campbell in Braveheart. However, Cosmo does not perform only in films about the age of the horse and sword. In the critically acclaimed Trainspotting, he played the father of an Edinburgh heroin addict. Cosmo also portrayed a World War II POW in the heralded 2001 film To End All Wars, Mr. Weston in the 1996 Gwyneth Paltrow version of Jane Austen's Emma, and an oil-rig worker in the 1994 TV series Roughnecks. In addition, he was the voice of Thelonius, an orangutan, in Babe: Pig in the City. Cosmo grew up in Clydebank in west central Scotland, where he received an education in a stalwart brick-and-mortar high school while the smell of the sea invaded classrooms and beckoned aspiring young adventurers to set sail for exotic climes. Clydebank was a shipbuilding city; there, craftsmen puzzled together great Cunard liners, including the Queen Elizabeth II. Although Cosmo did not go to sea, he did set sail for a journey through the world of drama. For his outstanding work onscreen and his charitable work off, he received the lifetime achievement award of the Sunday Mail/McEwan's People's Film Festival.

Trivia: In his role as TV super sleuth Eddie Shoestring, Trevor Eve drove a used car and dressed in rumpled clothes -- just like Peter Falk portraying Columbo. Unlike Columbo, though, Eddie went on the radio to get his cases from telephone callers, then later explained the outcome to listeners. Playing Eddie Shoestring made Eve famous in nearly every household in Great Britain in 1979 and 1980, when nearly half the population of the country tuned in on Sunday nights to watch him ratiocinate in 21 episodes. The role catapulted the Shakespearean-trained actor to superstardom in Britain and won him important roles in other productions shown on both sides of the Atlantic. His portrayal of cruel Mr. Murdstone in the 2000 TV miniseries David Copperfield earned him critical acclaim from London to Los Angeles. When Warner Bros. signed him on for a 2002 film, Possession, he was asked to perform with Gwyneth Paltrow in a sleuthing saga of another kind -- about scholars who hold their Sherlock magnifiers to the love lives of two Victorian poets.Eve was born on July 1, 1951, in Birmingham, England, as the younger son of a businessman. In school, he played cricket and read stacks of film magazines that fed his fascination with acting. After practicality led him to enroll at Kingston Polytechnic in London to study architecture, his desire to perform overcame his desire to design. So, after looking up drama schools in the telephone book, he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, got noticed playing Iago in Shakespeare's Othello, then lucked into productions directed by Laurence Olivier and Franco Zeffirelli. Not long afterward, Eddie Shoestring was born.Although Eve has also starred in other detective dramas -- including Heat of the Sun, in which he plays a Scotland Yard investigator sent to Kenya in the 1930s to clean up corruption -- he is equally at home in horror (Dracula, 1979), politics (The Politician's Wife, 1995), classic drama (A Doll's House, 1992), and history (Parnell and the Englishwoman, 1990, and In the Name of the Father, 1993). On the stage, Eve won a Laurence Olivier Award in 1997 for his performance in Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. After he and his wife, actress Sharon Maughan, founded their own film company in London, Projection Productions, Eve produced two major TV programs: Cinderella (2000) and Alice Through the Looking Glass (1998). In the latter production, he had the daunting task of supervising one of Britain's greatest actors, Ian Holm, and one of its most promising newcomers, Kate Beckinsale. Although he no longer suits up as a batsman on the cricket field, Eve does enjoy tennis and golf.

Trivia: Welsh-born actor Owain Yeoman studied theater at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and English Literature at Brasenose College at Oxford University before beginning his professional career, playing the role of Lysander in 2004's Troy. He soon later scored the role of Steven Daedelus on the series Kitchen Confidential, and later Lucas Dalton on The Nine. More TV success would follow in 2008, as Yeoman picked up the roles of Sgt. Eric Kocher on Generation Kill and Wayne Rigsby on The Mentalist.

Trivia: Tall, slim, and possessing impossibly large cheekbones, English actress Saffron Burrows first came to the attention of international audiences with her role in Circle of Friends (1995). Burrows, who had made her screen debut two years earlier in Jim Sheridan's In the Name of the Father, was cast as one of Minnie Driver's titular circle, an Irish girl who makes the mistake of getting involved with an older, morally suspect Englishman (Colin Firth).Thanks to the film's great success, Burrows found herself steadily employed, though not always in films of great quality. In 1999, she earned the label of "star on the rise" thanks to leading roles in four different films. Two of these, Wing Commander and Deep Blue Sea, were big-budget action films, while the others were art-house dramas directed by Mike Figgis. The first, The Loss of Sexual Innocence, cast Burrows as identical twins separated at birth, while the second, Miss Julie, was an adaptation of August Strindberg's play that featured Burrows as the title character, a wealthy young woman who enters into a ruinous affair with a servant.Later gravitating toward television with roles in Boston Legal, My Own Worst Enemy, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Bones, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Burrows continued to hone her skills as a journalist by penning articles for such prominent British publications as The Guardian and The Times of London while she wasn't plying her trade in front of the cameras.

Trivia: Though Australian-born actress Rose Byrne made her film debut in 1994, when she played a supporting role in the eccentric drama Dallas Doll alongside Sandra Bernhard and Jake Blundell, her breakout performances within her native country were both on the small screen; namely, in the soap opera Echo Point and the long-running drama series Heartbreak High. After developing a fan base and gaining some critical recognition, Byrne was cast alongside fellow Aussie Heath Ledger in Two Hands (1999), which featured the actress playing an innocent country girl whose would-be suitor has unwittingly found himself in the midst of a mafia scandal. Though she undoubtedly caught the eye of American filmmakers after Two Hands' premiere at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, Byrne wouldn't appear in an American film until several years later, when she made a very small appearance in a very big movie -- Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones. However, before Star Wars, Byrne starred in two little-known, but nonetheless significant, Australian parts, including her first lead role in The Goddess of 1967 (2000), in which she portrayed a blind, emotionally unstable orphan, and My Mother Frank, which featured her as the unrequited love interest of a pining college student. After the 2002 release of Attack of the Clones, Byrne could be seen in a minor but indelible supporting role in Matt Dillon's City of Ghosts. Byrne went on to perform in two critically acclaimed Australian features -- The Rage in Placid Lake (2003) and The Night We Called It a Day (2003) -- as well as the U.K. release I Capture the Castle (2003), in which she co-starred as the beautiful daughter of a once-grand English family. In 2004, Byrne played a supporting role in Wolfgang Petersen's big-budget historical epic Troy, and went on to star with Josh Hartnett, Matthew Lillard, and Troy alumna Diane Kruger in director Paul McGuigan's thriller Wicker Park. In 2006 she was cast in a supporting role in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. In 2007 she had a hit on the small-screen as one of the leads in the series Damages. Although she continued to work steadily in movies as well, she didn't find herself in a big hit until 2011 when she was one of the main characters in the Oscar nominated comedy Bridesmaids. That same year she also appeared in X-Men: First Class as Dr. Moira MacTaggert.Byrne soon became a mainstay in the comedy world, appearing in The Internship, Neighbors and Spy. She also appeared in the 2014 remake of Annie, playing Grace, and reprised her role of in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016).

Trivia: Attended the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in London. Began his acting career as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Made his television debut in the movie Unwanted Woman in 1992. Appeared in several films associated with Ancient Greece – Troy (2004), 300 (2006) and Clash of the Titans (2010). Helped launch South London's Landor Theatre.

Trivia: Breaking into the entertainment business in 1960 as assistant director for Hamburg's Ernest Deutsch Theatre, German filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen went on to Berlin's German Film and Television Academy. He kicked off his film directorial career in television, winning several awards in the process; his 1976 TV movie For Your Love Only served as the debut for actress Nastassja Kinski. Petersen's 1977 theatrical feature The Consequence, a discreetly handled study of male homosexuality which he both wrote and directed, won him praise on the international scene. In 1981, Petersen helmed Das Boot, a vastly popular wartime drama set on a German submarine; the film earned Petersen two Oscar nominations, one for directing, the other for best screenplay. Petersen made his English-language debut with the 1984 children's fantasy The Neverending Story and had his big stateside breakthrough with the blockbuster Clint Eastwood assassination thriller In the Line of Fire (1993). With his status as an A-list Hollywood director well established, Petersen next directed Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo in 1995's Outbreak, a film that successfully played on the public's fear of the unseen threat inherent in communicable diseases like ebola. While Outbreak was only a modest hit, Petersen scored very big just two years later when he helmed the Die Hard-on-the-President's-plane actioner Air Force One. Starring Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman, the film would go on to gross more than 300 million dollars worldwide. Anyone who thought Air Force One may have been a fluke for the filmmaker need look no further than Petersen's next film, the true high-seas adventure The Perfect Storm (2000). After back-to-back films that each passed the 300-million-dollar mark worldwide, Petersen had no problem securing a 185-million-dollar budget for 2004's Troy, a historical epic starring Brad Pitt. Based on Homer's The Illiad, the film opened stateside with an impressive 46-million-dollar weekend.

Trivia: Is the son of Stephen Friedman, who was an executive with Goldman Sachs, an advisor to President George W. Bush and a chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Was on the wrestling team in high school. Wrote a master's thesis on Samuel Beckett. Met fellow student D.B. Weiss while attending Trinity College, Dublin. The two became friends and eventually adapted George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series of novels into the TV series Game of Thrones, which debuted on HBO in 2011. Worked as a high-school teacher, DJ and club bouncer. Wrote a novel as his creative writing thesis in 1999. Titled The 25th Hour, it was published in 2001; he also wrote the screenplay for its 2002 film adaptation. Was married in 2006 in New York City at Friends Seminary, a Quaker school his wife, Amanda Peet, attended.