Trivia: As the son of broadcast journalist Nick Clooney and the nephew of chanteuse Rosemary Clooney, George Clooney entered the world with show business coursing through his veins. Born May 6, 1961 in Lexington, Kentucky, the future E.R. headliner appeared at the tender age of five on his father's Cincinnati talk program, The Nick Clooney Show. In his youth, Clooney honed a sharp interest in sports - particularly baseball - but by adulthood, Clooney launched himself as an onscreen presence, seemingly without effort. Beginning with a string of television commercials, then signed with Warner Brothers Entertainment as a supporting player. By the time Clooney had paid his dues, he'd appeared in single episodes of The Golden Girls, Riptide, Crazy Like a Fox, Street Hawk and Hunter.After regular gigs on TV shows like The Facts of Life, Roseanne, and Sisters, Clooney scored a role on the NBC medical drama E.R., which proved his breakthrough to superstardom. When that program shot up to #1 in prime time ratings, Clooney carried it (much more, in fact, than a first-billed Anthony Edwards) - his inborn appeal to women and his onscreen grace and charm massive contributing factors. This appeal increased as his character - initially something of a callous womanizer - matured with the show, eventually evolving into a kind and thoroughly decent, if somewhat hotheaded, human being.The performer's newfound star power led to big screen opportunities, like an acid-mouthed, rifle-wielding antihero (one of the Gecko Brothers, alongside Quentin Tarantino) in the Robert Rodriguez-directed, Tarantino-scripted horror comedy From Dusk Till Dawn (1995). Not long after, Clooney shifted gears altogether, co-headlining (with Michelle Pfeiffer) in the charming romcom One Fine Day (1996). Though he would notoriously misstep in accepting the role of Bruce Wayne in the 1997 attempted Batman reboot Batman & Robin, Clooney's honesty about the part being a bad fit was refreshing to audiences, and he took little flack for the movie, moving on to critically acclaimed movies like the action-laced crime comedy Out of Sight, and Terrence Malick's adaptation of The Thin Red Line. Out of Sight represented a massive watershed moment for Clooney: the first of his numerous collaborations with director Steven Soderbergh. In 1999 -- following his much-talked-about departure from E.R. - Clooney continued to work on a number of high-profile projects. He would star alongside Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube as an American soldier reclaiming Kuwaiti treasure from Saddam Hussein in David O. Russell's Three Kings, and eventually win a 2000 Golden Globe for his portrayal of a pomade-obsessed escaped convict in the Coen brothers' Odyssey update O Brother Where Art Thou?. It was around this time that Clooney, now an established actor equally as comfortable on the big screen as the small, began to branch out as the Executive Producer of such made-for-TV efforts as Killroy (1999) and Fail Safe (2000). Soon producing such features as Rock Star (2001) and Insomnia (2002), Clooney next re-teamed with Soderbergh for a modern take on a classic Rat Pack comedy with Ocean's Eleven (2001). After the dynamic film duo stuck together for yet another remake, the deep-space psychological science-fiction drama Solaris (2002), busy Clooney both produced and appeared in Welcome to Collinwood and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind later the same year.Confessions marked Clooney's behind-the-camera debut, and one of the most promising actor-turned-director outings in memory. Adapted by Charlie Kaufman from Gong Show host Chuck Barris's possibly fictionalized memoir, the picture exhibited Clooney's triple fascinations with politics, media and celebrity; critics did not respond to it with unanimous enthusiasm, but it did show Clooney's promise as a director. He went on to star alongside Catherine Zeta-Jones in the Coen Brothers movie Intolerable Cruelty. The small film was a major sleeper hit among the lucky few who got to see it, and it proved to be a great showcase for Clooney's abilities as a comedian. He moved on to team up with Zeta-Jones again, along with almost the entire cast of Ocean's Eleven, for the sequel, Oceans Twelve, which earned mixed critical reviews, but (like its predecessor) grossed dollar one at the box office. By 2005, Clooney achieved his piece-de-resistance by writing, directing, and acting a sophomore outing: the tense period drama Good Night, and Good Luck.. Shot in black-and-white by ace cinematographer Robert Elswit, the picture followed the epic decision of 1950's television journalist Edward R. Murrow (played by David Strathairn) to confront Senator Joseph McCarthy about his Communist witch hunt. The picture drew raves from critics and received nominations for Best Picture and Best Director.Clooney next appeared in the harshly explicit and openly critical Syriana. He took the lead in this ensemble political thriller about the oil industry, directed by Stephen Gaghan of Traffic and heralded by critics as a disturbingly real look at a hopelessly flawed and corrupt system. Clooney won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a veteran CIA officer. Never one to rest for very long, Clooney then joined the cast of The Good German. Directed by longtime collaborator Steven Soderbergh, German unfolds in post-WWII Berlin, where Clooney plays a war correspondent who helps an ex-lover (Cate Blanchett) search for her missing husband. The actor-director team would pair up again the following year for the third installment in the Ocean's saga, Ocean's Thirteen. Next turning towards a more intimate, individualized project, Clooney earned yet more acclaim playing the title role in Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton, where his portrayal of a morally compromised legal "fixer" earned him strong reviews and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.Complications during the pre-production of the period comedy Leatherheads led to Clooney rewriting the script, as well as starring in and directing the picture. Though the movie made few ripples with audiences or critics, Clooney's adeptness continued to impress. In 2009, he gave voice to the lead character in Wes Anderson's thoroughly charming stop-motion animation feature Fantastic Mr. Fox, played a soldier with ESP in the comedy The Men Who Stare at Goats, and earned arguably the best notices of his career as corporate hatchet man Ryan Bingham in Jason Reitman's Up in the Air. His work in that well-reviewed comedy/drama earned him nominations from the Screen Actors Guild, the Golden Globes, and the Academy. In the midst of awards season, Clooney again produced a successful telethon, this time to help earthquake victims in Haiti.In 2011 Clooney would, for the second time in his already impressive career, score Oscar nominations for writing and acting in two different films. His leading role in Alexander Payne's The Descendants earned him a wave of critical praise, as well as Best Actor nods from the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy, as well as capturing the Best Actor award from the Golden Globes. The film he co-wrote and directed that year, the political drama The Ides of March garnered the heartthrob a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination from BAFTA, the Academy, and the Golden Globes. In 2012 he earned his second Oscar as one of the producers of that year's Best Picture winner, the Ben Affleck-directed political thriller/Hollywood satire Argo. The following year, he appeared in the critically-acclaimed, box office smash Gravity, and also produced August: Osage County. In 2014, he co-wrote and co-produced (with Grant Heslov) and starred in The Monuments Men, but the film was delayed from a late-2013 release and didn't score well with critics or at the box office.

Trivia: One who graduated from obscure actor to Hollywood icon in just a few years, Matt Damon became an instant sensation when he co-wrote and starred in Good Will Hunting with longtime buddy and collaborator Ben Affleck. A native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was born on October 8, 1970, Damon grew up in prosperous surroundings with his tax preparer father, college professor mother, and older brother. At the age of ten, he befriended Affleck, a boy two years his junior who lived down the street. Educated at Cambridge's Rindge and Latin School, Damon landed his first role in a Hollywood production before the age of 18, with a one-scene turn in Mystic Pizza (1988). Not long after, Damon gained acceptance to Harvard University, where he studied for three years before dropping out to pursue his acting career. During his time there, he had to write a screenplay for an English class, that served as the genesis of Good Will Hunting. Arriving in Hollywood, Damon scored his first big break with a plum role in School Ties opposite Affleck. As the film was a relative flop, Damon's substantial role failed to win him notice, and he was back to laboring in obscurity. It was around this time, fed up with his Hollywood struggles, that Damon contacted Affleck, and the two finished writing the former's Harvard screenplay and began trying to get it made into a film. It was eventually picked up by Miramax, with Gus Van Sant slated to direct and Robin Williams secured in a major role, opposite Damon as the lead. Before Good Will Hunting was released in late 1997, Damon won some measure of recognition for his role as a drug-addicted soldier in Courage Under Fire; various industry observers praised his performance and his dedication to the part, for which he lost forty pounds and suffered resulting health problems. Any praise Damon may have received, however, was overshadowed the following year by the accolades he garnered for Good Will Hunting. His Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay win alongside Damon, and strong performance in the film virtually guaranteed industry adulation and steady employment, a development that became readily apparent the following year with lead roles in two major films. The first, John Dahl's Rounders, cast Damon as a card shark with a serious gambling addiction, who risks his own personal safety when he becomes entangled with a reckless loser buddy (Edward Norton). Damon's second film in 1998, Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, brought him even greater recognition. As Ryan's title character, Damon headlined an all-star line-up and received part of the lavish praise heaped on the film and its strong ensemble cast. The following year, Damon signed for leads in two more highly anticipated films, Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley and Kevin Smith's Dogma. The former cast the actor against type as the title character, a psychotic bisexual murderer, with a supporting cast that included Cate Blanchett, Jude Law, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Dogma also allowed Damon to cut against the grain of his nice-guy persona by casting him as a fallen angel. One of the year's more controversial films, the religious comedy reunited him with Affleck, as well as Smith, who had cast Damon in a bit role in his 1997 film, Chasing Amy. Damon next delivered noteworthy performances in a pair of low-grossing, low-key dramas, The Legend of Bagger Vance and All the Pretty Horses (both 2000), before appearing in director Steven Soderbergh's blockbuster remake of the Rat Pack classic Ocean's Eleven the following year. 2002 found the actor vacillating between earnest indie projects and major Hollywood releases. Behind the camera, Damon joined forces with filmmaker Chris Smith for the Miramax-sponsored Project Greenlight, a screenplay sweepstakes that gave the winner the opportunity to make a feature film and have the process recorded for all to see on an HBO reality series of the same name. Toward the end of 2001, Damon scored a box office triumph with director Doug Liman's jet-setting espionage thriller The Bourne Identity. With this effort, Damon proved once again that he could open a film with just as much star power as his best friend and colleague. Better yet, Bourne reinforced Damon's standings with the critics, who found his performance understated and believable. The press responded less favorably, however, to Damon's reunion project with Van Sant, the experimental arthouse drama Gerry (2003). Also in 2003, Damon starred opposite Greg Kinnear in the Farrelly Brothers' broad comedy Stuck On You, as the shy half of a set of conjoined twins.In 2004, Damon reprised the role of Jason Bourne in The Bourne Supremacy. As the actor's biggest leading-man success to date, it reinforced Damon's continued clout with audiences. Staying on the high-powered sequel bandwagon, he reunited with Brad Pitt and George Clooney for the big-budget neo-rat pack sequel Ocean's Twelve later that year. 2005 was somewhat lower-key for the actor, as he toplined Terry Gilliam's disappointing The Brothers Grimm and joined the sprawling ensemble of Syriana. After working seemingly non-stop for a few years, Damon claimed only a call from Martin Scorsese would get him to give up his resolve to take some time off. Sure enough, that call came. The Departed, an American remake of the Hong Kong mob-mole thriller Infernal Affairs, co-starred Jack Nicholson and Leonardo DiCaprio. Playing the squirmy, opportunistic cop to DiCaprio's moral, tormented mobster, Damon underplayed his part to perfection while holding his own opposite his two co-stars. Damon then took the lead role in the Robert De Niro-directed CIA drama The Good Shepherd. In 2007, the actor once again returned to box office franchises for the sequels Ocean's Thirteen and The Bourne Ultimatum, the latter of which netted him -- by far -- the largest opening-weekend take of his career to that point. 2009 was another great year for the hard-working star. His turn as the unstable federal informant in Steven Soderbergh's wicked comedy The Informant! earned him rave reviews, and his supporting work in Clint Eastwood's Invicus, as the leader of the South African rugby team, earned Damon nominations from the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Academy. In 2010 he reteamed with Eastwood for the supernatural drama Hereafter, and continued working with the best filmmakers of his time by landing a supporting role in the Coen brothers remake of True Grit. Meanwhile, Damon tried his hand at small screen work with a memorable recurring role as Carol, an airline pilot and sometime boyfriend of Liz Lemon, on the NBC situation comedy 30 Rock and a lauded turn opposite Michael Douglas' Liberace in the TV movie Behind the Candelabra. Damon had long since established himself as an A-list movie star, however, and would continue to star in big screen projects for years to come, including notable titles like Contagion, The Adjustment Bureau, and We Bought a Zoo. Damon next turned in performances in three films set in outer space: Neill Blomkamp's Elysium (2013), a supporting role in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar (2014) and an Oscar-nominated spin in Ridley Scott's The Martian (2015).

Trivia: Born Andrés Arturo García-Menéndez on April 12th, 1956, actor Andy Garcia was five-years-old when he fled with his family from his native Cuba to Miami, where Garcia's father, a former lawyer, established a successful cosmetics business upon becoming an American citizen. Following his graduation from Florida International University, Garcia moved to L.A. and performed briefly as a standup comic, working as a furniture expediter and waiter when jobs were scarce. While his TV debut was a small role in the 1981 pilot of Hill Street Blues, Garcia did not have to travel far from his adopted hometown for his film bow, Blue Skies Again (1983), which was shot on location in Florida. (Also making her first screen appearance in this forgettable baseball comedy was actress Mimi Rogers).It was not until he was cast as a drug kingpin in Hal Ashby's 8 Million Ways to Die (1985) that Garcia's career really took off. After turning in strong roles in both The Untouchables (1987) and Stand and Deliver (1988), he achieved an additional degree of stardom when he was cast as Michael Corleone's hot-headed nephew in The Godfather Part III (1990), a role for which he earned Best Supporting Actor Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. The range of Garcia's talents was impressive enough for screenwriter Henry Bean to write the script for the 1990 police-corruption drama Internal Affairs with the actor specifically in mind. But after several years of on-the-edge characters, Garcia softened his screen image as the too-good-to-be-true husband of an alcoholic (Meg Ryan) in When a Man Loves a Woman (1994). Garcia's career waned a bit during the second half of the '90s, and the actor concentrated some of his energies on starring in various made-for-TV movies and such Spanish-made films as Death in Granada (1997). Although Garcia found his place in American cinema -- indeed, he was one of the few Latino stars to successfully cross over into Hollywood films -- his deep connection and loyalty to his Cuban heritage was illustrated by his involvement in projects that reflect that sentiment. He has produced and directed a tribute to Cuban mambo artist Cachoao entitled Cachoao: Like His Rhythm There Is No Other, and, at one time, he planned to direct and star in a film adaptation of The Lost City, an epic novel of revolution and exile by Cuban writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante.Garcia worked alongside George Clooney and Brad Pitt for 2001's Ocean's 11, in which he portrayed the unscrupulous owner of a casino, and appeared in the film's sequels Ocean's 12 (2004) and Ocean's 13 (2007). He joined the cast of The Pink Panter 2 in 2009, and took a lead role in the historical drama Greater Glory (2012), which follows a group of Mexican patriots devoted to defending future generations from tyranny. A devoted family man, Garcia lives outside of the spotlight with his wife Maria Victoria (also a Cuban immigrant) and their three daughters.

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: Born October 28th, 1967, Georgia native Julia Roberts was raised in a fervently pro-theater environment. Her parents regularly hosted acting and writing workshops, and both of the Roberts children (Julia and her brother Eric) showed an interest in the performing arts at an early age. Ironically enough, Eric was the first to break into film; in 1978, one year after their father died of lung cancer at 47, Eric Roberts starred in director Frank Pierson's psychological drama King of the Gypsies. Though her older brother would go on to have a solid acting career, it was, of course, Julia Roberts who earned a spot among Hollywood's elite.After making her film debut in Blood Red -- which wouldn't be released until 1989, despite having been completed in 1986 -- and appearing in several late '80s television features, Roberts got her first real break in the 1988 made-for-cable drama Satisfaction. That role, consequently, led to her first significant supporting role -- a feisty pizza parlor waitress in 1989's Mystic Pizza with Annabeth Gish, Lili Taylor, and a then 19-year-old Matt Damon. While Mystic Pizza was not a star-making film for Roberts, it certainly helped earn her the credentials she needed to land the part of Shelby, an ill-fated would-be mother in Steel Magnolias. The 1989 tearjerker found her acting alongside Sally Field and Shirley MacLaine, and culminated in an Oscar nomination for Roberts. While the success of Steel Magnolias played no small part in launching Roberts' career, and undoubtedly secured her role in the mediocre Flatliners (1990) with former flame Kiefer Sutherland, it was director Garry Marshall's romantic comedy Pretty Woman with Richard Gere that served as her true breakthrough role. Roberts' part in Pretty Woman (a good-hearted prostitute who falls in love with a millionaire client) made the young actress a household name and cemented what would become a permanent spot in tabloid fodder. Roberts broke off her engagement with Sutherland in 1991, just three days before they were scheduled to be married, and surprised the American public in 1993, when she began her two-year marriage to country singer Lyle Lovett. Roberts' personal life kept her name in the spotlight despite a host of uneven performances throughout the early '90s (neither 1991's Dying Young or Sleeping With the Enemy garnered much acclaim), as did a reputed feud with Steven Spielberg during the filming of Hook (1991). Luckily, Roberts made decidedly less embarrassing headlines in 1993, when her role alongside future Oscar winner Denzel Washington in The Pelican Brief reaffirmed her status as a dramatic actress. Her career, however, took a turn back to the mediocre throughout the following year; both Prêt-à-Porter and I Love Trouble proved commercial flops, and Mary Reilly (1996) fizzled at the box office as well. The downward spiral reversed directions once again with 1996's Michael Collins and Conspiracy Theory with Mel Gibson, and led to several successful comic roles including Notting Hill with Hugh Grant, Runaway Bride, and most notably, My Best Friend's Wedding with Rupert Everett and a then virtually unknown Cameron Diaz. Roberts' biggest success didn't present itself until 2000, though, when she delivered an Oscar-winning performance playing the title role in Steven Soderbergh's Erin Brockovich. The film, based on the true story of Erin Brockovich, a single mother who, against all odds, won a heated battle against corporate environmental offenders, earned Roberts a staggering 20-million-dollar salary. Officially the highest paid actress in Hollywood, Roberts went on to star in 2001's America's Sweethearts with Billy Crystal, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and John Cusack, as well as The Mexican with Brad Pitt. While on the set of The Mexican, Roberts met cameraman Danny Moder, whom she would marry in 2001 almost immediately after ending a four-year relationship with fellow actor Benjamin Bratt. Indeed, 2001 was a banner year for Roberts; in addition to America's Sweethearts and The Mexican, Roberts starred in the crime caper Ocean's Eleven, in which she rejoined former co-stars Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, and acted for the first time with George Clooney and Don Cheadle. Julia Roberts worked with Soderbergh once again in 2002's Full Frontal, which, despite a solid cast including Mary McCormack and Catherine Keener, among others, did not even begin to fare as well as Erin Brockovich. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), which featured Roberts as a femme fatale alongside George Clooney, Sam Rockwell, and Drew Barrymore did much better, and preceded 2003's Mona Lisa Smile with young Hollywood's Julia Stiles, Kirsten Dunst, and Maggie Gyllenhaal. In 2004, Roberts signed on for the sequel to Ocean's Eleven -- the aptly titled Ocean's Twelve. A supporting performance in the animated 2006 feature The Ant Bully marked the glamorous Hollywood beauty's first foray into the world of animation, which she would continue for Christmas of 2006 with the role of everone's favorite selfless spider in Charlotte's Web. In the coming years, Roberts would reteam with Tom Hanks for Charlie Wilson's War in 2007, and then again for Larry Crowne in 2011. In the meantime, the A-lister would keep busy with a critically acclaimed performance in 2010's Eat, Pray, Love, in which she portrayed a divorcee on a journey of self discovery, and 2012's retelling of Snow White, Mirror, Mirror.

Trivia: The younger brother of actor Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck spent the last few years of the 1990s working his way out of his brother's muscular shadow. The younger Affleck, who remarkably bears almost no resemblance to his older brother, was born August 12, 1975, in Falmouth, MA. He made his television debut in the 1987 American Playhouse special Lemon Sky and three years later played the young Robert Kennedy in the TV miniseries The Kennedys of Massachusetts. The young actor's film debut came in 1995, with Gus Van Sant's To Die For, in which he had a supporting role as one of Joaquin Phoenix's slacker friends. The next year, he appeared in the largely unseen Race the Sun, and in 1997 benefited from the Power of Ben with roles in two of his brother's films. In the first, Chasing Amy, Affleck was little more than a blip on the screen, but in the second, Van Sant's Good Will Hunting, he had a decidedly more substantial part as one of Matt Damon's South Boston homeboys. Following the astounding, Oscar-winning success of Hunting, Affleck landed substantial roles in two films with casts featuring Who's Who lineups of Hollywood's Young and Hot: Desert Blue (1998), in which he starred with Christina Ricci, Kate Hudson, and Brendan Sexton III; and 200 Cigarettes (1999), in which he appeared as a soft-hearted punk alongside Desert Blue co-stars Ricci and Hudson, along with Paul Rudd, Courtney Love, Janeane Garofalo, and brother Ben. Although the film basically flopped, it did little to hurt the actor's career and the same year he attained added credibility with an unbilled appearance in the summer smash American Pie. The next few years found the younger Affleck in some notable more noticeable roles with his work in Hamlet, Committed, and Drowning Mona (all 2000). In 2001 he would get his largest billing yet, as well as his induction into the teen horror craze, with Soul Survivors.A re-teaming with Good Will Hunting co-horts Van Sant and Damon in 2002's deliberate independent drama Gerry was bookended by sizable supporting roles in director Steven Soderbergh's carefree crime comedies Ocean's Eleven and Ocean's Twelve, and in 2005 the younger Affleck would prove without question his ability to carry a dramatic feature with his subtle portrayal of an aimless twenty-something hindered by familial obligations in Steve Buscemi's Sundance-nominated drama Lonesome Jim. In 2006 Casey would star opposite Zach Braff in director Tony Goldwin's romantic comedy re-make The Last Kiss. 2007 would prove to be a turning point for the actor. In addition to reprising his character for the third installment of the Ocean's Eleven franchise, Affleck earned strong reviews for two drama that year. He headlined brother Ben Affleck's directorial debut, an adaptation of Dennis Lehane's Gone Baby Gone, bring to life the character of Patrick Kenzie, a private eye with close ties to the mean streets of Boston. But his work as the title coward in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford brought him numerous good reviews even though the film failed to make much of a splash at the box office. His work earned him a number of year-end accolades including nominations from the Academy and the Screen Actors Guild for Best Supporting Actor (even though he is the lead).After these critical successes he was poised for a breakthrough, but he was away from the big screen for three years, not returning to movies until 2010 as the star of the Jim Thompson adaptation The Killer Inside Me, and as director/producer/screenwriter/editor of I'm Still Here, a mockumentary that satirized celebrity meltdowns starring Joaquin Phoenix. He was part of the ensemble in Tower Heist the next year, and followed that up by voicing a part in ParaNorman in 2012.

Trivia: The eldest son of actor James Caan, Scott Caan started to make a name for himself in such films as Enemy of the State and Varsity Blues. Five feet-five inches of muscle and machismo, the actor was born in 1976 and spent his childhood shuttling between his divorced father and mother. Although as a child he preferred sports to acting, Caan was offered the title role in the 1995 drama A Boy Called Hate. Following his performance in the film, he attended acting classes at Los Angeles' West Playhouse and acted in a few subsequent features, including Gregg Araki's 1997 Nowhere. In 1998, the actor got another break with a part in Tony Scott's thriller Enemy of the State and went on to make a number of small films that same year, including Wild Horses, which was co-directed by a post-Punky Brewster Soleil Moon Frye. In 1999 came Varsity Blues and an accompanying rush of exposure for Caan, who supplied the film's comic relief as a hell-raising wide receiver. In addition, the actor increased his indie credibility with Saturn, which was screened at the 1999 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival.As the new decade began, Caan appeared in Boiler Room, but he landed one of his most high-profile role in 2011 when he became one of Ocean's Eleven, playing a number of funny scenes opposite Casey Affleck. In 2005 he was in the thriller Into the Blue, and the next year had a small role in the indie comedy Friends With Money.Over the course of the decade he would return to the Ocean's franchise two more times, and take a major part in the Eddie Murphy comedy Meet Dave. He would act opposite his famous father in 2009's Mercy, a film he also wrote. In 2010 Caan would find success on the small-screen in the reboot of Hawaii Five-O.

Trivia: An acclaimed character actor of the stage, screen, and television, Don Cheadle often manages to steal most of the scenes in which he appears. That is no small feat, for the slender African-American actor has, at first glance, a rather unassuming physical presence, particularly when compared to some of his big-name co-stars. An actor whose style compliments rather than overshadows the performances of those around him, Cheadle stands out for his rare ability to bring a laid-back intensity and subtle charisma to his roles.A native of Kansas City, MO, Cheadle was born on November 29, 1964, to a psychologist father and bank manager mother. During his early childhood, his family moved to Denver and then Nebraska. One thing that remained a constant in Cheadle's childhood was his interest in performing, which began around the age of five. In addition to acting, he was interested in jazz music and his parents supported both of these endeavors. By the time he graduated from high school, he had scholarships from both music and acting schools; choosing the latter, he attended the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. Following graduation, Cheadle made his film debut with a small role as a hamburger server in Moving Violations (1985). He honed his acting skills as a guest star on television series ranging from Hill Street Blues to Night Court, and, in 1992, he landed a regular role as a fussy hotel manager on The Golden Palace. Although the show faltered after only one season, Cheadle landed on his feet, subsequently snagging the plum role of earnest district attorney John Littleton on Picket Fences (1993-1995). While he was building a career on television, Cheadle was also earning a reputation in feature films. He first made an impression on audiences with his lead role in Hamburger Hill (1987), and, in 1994, he had his true screen breakthrough portraying Denzel Washington's best friend in Devil in a Blue Dress. So good was his performance -- which earned him a number of film critics awards -- that many felt an Oscar nomination was inevitable; when the Academy passed him over, many, including Cheadle, wondered why. However, the actor chalked it up to politics and got on with his career, working steadily throughout the remainder of the decade. 1997 proved to be a big year for him: he co-starred in three major films, Volcano, Boogie Nights, and John Singleton's Rosewood. He won particular praise for his work in the latter two films, earning nominations for SAG and Image awards.The following year, Cheadle made a triumphant return to television with his portrayal of Sammy Davis Jr. in The Rat Pack, winning an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe award. Also in 1998, he did stellar work in Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight and Warren Beatty's Bulworth, playing a down and dirty ex-con in the former and a drug lord in the latter. Another Emmy nomination followed in 1999, for Cheadle's powerful portrayal of a school teacher sent in to counsel a young man on death row, in A Lesson Before Dying. Cheadle would become something of a fixture in Soderbergh's films, and in fact delivered a stunning performance as a federal drug agent in the director's epic muckraking drama Traffic (2000).Cheadle then turned up in Soderbergh's remake of the Rat Pack classic Ocean's Eleven in 2002.The chasm between Traffic and Ocean's Eleven (not in terms of quality but in terms of intended audience and depth) is instructive; it established a definitive career pattern for Cheadle during the mid-late 2000s. Throughout that period, the gifted actor continually projected versatility by alternating between buttered-popcorn pictures - such as Soderbergh's 2004 and 2007 follow ups to Eleven (Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen) - and more complex, demanding, intelligent material. For example, in 2004 (a particularly vital year for Cheadle) the actor delivered a four-barrelled lead portrayal in the heart-wrenching docudrama Hotel Rwanda. In that politically-tinged, factually-charged account, the actor plays the Rwandan manager of a Kigali hotel, so devastated by the surrounding massacres of his fellow countrymen that he turns the establishment into a clandestine refugee camp. Cheadle justly netted an Oscar nomination for his work. That same year, the thespian held his own against lead Sean Penn (no small feat, that) in the depressing and despairing yet critically acclaimed psychodrama The Assassination of Richard Nixon. Cheadle reserved his most formidable coup, however, for 2005, when he both produced and co-starred (opposite many, many others) in Paul Haggis's difficult ensemble film Crash-a searing, biting meditation on racism and the Best Picture winner of its year. In early 2007, Cheadle paired up with actor Adam Sandler and writer-director Mike Binder for Reign Over Me, a two-character drama about a dentist (Cheadle) reunited with his displaced college roommate (Sandler) after the trauma of 9/11. The picture reeled in generally favorable, if not universally positive, reviews. Later that same year, the actor essayed the lead role in Talk to Me. As directed by Kasi Lemmons, this period drama recreated the life and times of the controversial 1960s convict-cum-shock jock Petey Greene (Cheadle) who rides to fame amid the throes of the civil rights movement and Vietnam-era tumult; many critics tagged the portrayal as definitively Oscar worthy.Cheadle would remain a top star over the coming years, appearing in everything from the kid-friendly Hotel for Dogs to the gritty crime thriller Brooklyn's Finest. Cheadle would also take over the role of Lt. James Rhodes in the Iron Man sequel, replacing Terrence Howard. Cheadle would also find success on the small screen, producing and starring in the critically acclaimed comedy series House of Lies.

Trivia: Elliot Gould was one of Hollywood's hottest actors of the early '70s and though he reached the peak of his popularity years ago, he remains a steadily employed supporting and character actor. Gould's lifelong involvement in show business is partially the result of his mother. In classical stage mother fashion, she made an eight-year-old Gould take numerous classes in performing, singing, and dance, including ballet. She enrolled him in Manhattan's Professional Children's School and then had him perform in hospitals, temples, and sometimes on television. Gould was also a child model. During summers, Gould performed at Catskill mountain resorts. When he was 18, he made it into a Broadway chorus line. Working odd jobs in between minor stage gigs, Gould did not get his big break until he joined the chorus line of the musical Irma La Douce. From there he won the leading role opposite Barbra Streisand in I Can Get It for You Wholesale. Though the two leads got good reviews, the show did not and rapidly closed. During its short run, Gould and Streisand fell in love, and in 1963, married. The following year, Gould made an inauspicious feature-film debut playing a deaf-mute in The Confession (1964). He did much better in his second film, The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968). While Gould's career seemed jammed in neutral, his wife's popularity hit the stratosphere, and for a time, he helped arrange her television appearances. By 1967, after years of being called Mr. Streisand and undergoing analysis, Gould untied the knot with Streisand. Gould became a star in 1969 when his co-starring role in the sex comedy Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination. After playing Trapper John in Robert Altman's counterculture classic M*A*S*H, Gould at last made it to the big league. Tall, curly-haired, more homely than handsome, laid-back, unconventional, sensitive, and unabashedly Jewish, Gould was tremendously popular with young adults who strongly identified with the often confused and neurotic characters he played. Gould's subsequent few films, notably Getting Straight (1970) and Little Murders, reinforced his counterculture image. For a while, he seemed to be everywhere, but by 1973, his career had already begun tapering off. A powerfully subtle performance as Philip Marlow in Altman's Long Goodbye (1973) proved that Gould had talent to spare, but over the next few years, he chose several independent, under the radar films, like California Split and Capricorn One. Over the coming decades, Gould would eventually find an ideal level of fame and activity, appearing in a massive number of films, like Dangerous Love, Bugsy, Ocean's Eleven (and its sequels), and Contagion. Gould would also enjoy a beloved recurring role on the massively successful sitom Friends as the father of Ross and Monica Geller.

Trivia: An edgy comic who skyrocketed to comedy fame with his memorably side-splitting appearance in Spike Lee's The Original Kings of Comedy, Bernie Mac may have seemed an unlikely candidate for a television sitcom, but with the debut of The Bernie Mac Show, the inventive comedian began on a high note, leaving many pondering the apparent overnight success of the comedian who had ostensibly come from nowhere to become a ubiquitous presence. Born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough in Chicago, IL, Mac was a member of a large extended family living under one roof, which provided the energetic youngster with plenty of fuel for refining his ability to perform dead-on impressions and humorously recall memorable family occurrences. Time spent as a gopher for performers at the Regal Theater also served as a primer for his showbiz aspirations (as well as a cautionary warning of the destructive temptations that go along with fame). Mac's first experiences with standup came at the age of eight, when he performed a routine about his grandparents at the dinner table in front of the congregation at church. Though it resulted in some strict reprimanding from his grandmother, he had the audience feeding out of his palm and the young impressionist quickly had the epiphany that humor meant more to him than the sting of discipline. From that point on, Mac refined and developed his comic abilities on the tracks of Chicago's El trains and in local parks. Though he earned a modest keep from his public performances, Mac craved the legitimacy of the club circuit and he began to perform professionally in 1977. After early film work -- including memorable appearances in Above the Rim (1994) and The Walking Dead (1995), which followed on the heels of his big-screen debut in 1992's Mo' Money -- Mac was offered and appeared in the television series Midnight Mac in 1995. Hesitation as to the neutering of his material made the comedian leery of television, and the show didn't last. The comic actor earned more attention when he turned up frequently the following year in television's Moesha, though mainstream acceptance was still four years and numerous bit film parts away. Following The Original Kings of Comedy, Mac began to develop an idea for a sitcom that revolved around similar family experiences and retained the edge that had initially shocked his audiences into laughter. In 2001, he debuted the family sitcom The Bernie Mac Show, and it was a success, running for five seasons. 2001 would indeed prove to be the year of the Mac as he also took on a substantial role in director Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's 11. He reprised that character in the two Ocean's sequels, as well as lead roles as a vice presidential candidate in the Chris Rock political satire Head of State and as a washed-up baseball player in 2004's Mr. 3000. 2007 saw Mac in a more serious role as a kindly janitor in the inspirational sports drama Pride. Upon his death in August 2008 of complications from pneumonia, Soul Men, in which he stars alongside Samuel L. Jackson as a soul singer embarking on a reunion tour, had yet to hit theaters.­

Trivia: Carl Reiner knew he wanted to be an actor -- preferably a Shakespearean actor -- from the time he was wearing knee pants. Trained in New York's Works Progress Administration Dramatic Workshop, he spent the war years touring with Maurice Evans' G.I. Hamlet, appearing with another young hopeful, Howard Morris. After the war he accumulated scores of stock company and Broadway credits, then in 1948 made his television debut in the short-lived series Fashion Story. While starring in NBC's 54th Street Revue, he was hired as one of the regulars on Your Show of Shows, appearing on a weekly basis with Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, and old pal Howie Morris. During the scripting sessions for Show of Shows, Reiner became friends with a bombastic staff writer named Mel Brooks, with whom he improvised a number of wild stream-of-consciousness comedy bits which would eventually crystallize as the classic "2000 Year Old Man" routines. An Emmy winner for his work on the various Sid Caesar programs, he entered films as a character actor in 1959. That same year, he wrote, produced, and starred in the pilot episode for a proposed series about a comedy writer named Rob Petrie, titled Head of the Family. The network executives liked the concept, but vetoed Reiner as the star; swallowing his pride, he retooled the property with another leading man, and that's how the Emmy-winning Dick Van Dyke Show was born. During the series' five-year run, Reiner made innumerable cameo appearances on the program, most memorably as Rob Petrie's mercurial TV-comedian boss Alan Brady. In 1967 he made his film directorial debut with Enter Laughing, an adaptation of his own semi-autobiographical 1958 novel (the book had already been transformed into a Broadway play with Alan Arkin as star). Reiner's later directing assignments included The Comic (1967), a bittersweet farce based on the lives of Stan Laurel, Harry Langdon, and Buster Keaton; the black comedy cult favorite Where's Poppa? (1970); the whimsical fantasy Oh, God (1977); and a popular series of Steve Martin vehicles, among them The Jerk (1978) and Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982). His film output decreased in number and quality in the l980s and 1990s, though critics enjoyed his offbeat 1989 working-class comedy Bert Rigby, You're a Fool and his 1997 Bette Midler starrer That Old Feeling. In 1995, he earned yet another Emmy award for his revival of the Alan Brady character on a memorable episode of TV's Mad About You. And though Reiner appeared to retire from directing following That Old Feeling, he still maintained a notable presence in film and television with roles in Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven and it's two sequels, House M.D., Hot in Cleveland, and Parks and Rec.Carl Reiner is the father of directors Rob Reiner and Lucas Reiner; his wife Estelle has enjoyed a latter-day career as a night club singer and as a cameo performer in her son Rob's films (she's the lady who says, "I'll have what she's having!" in When Harry Met Sally).

Trivia: Delivered the catchphrase "Yes I am" in Bud Light ads in the early '90s. Sang and played guitar in the pop-rock band Love Kit, producing three albums in the late '90s. Nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award, for excellence in Chicago theater, for his role in The Wizards of Quiz. Played tech expert Livingston Dell in Ocean's Eleven, and reprised the role in the two sequels. Played Ronnie Haxon, the second husband of Anne Heche's character, on the HBO series Hung.

Trivia: Though Lennox Lewis showed promise in a variety of sports during his youth, he chose boxing as his favorite medium and quickly became successful on the amateur circuit. Just one year after winning the title of world amateur junior, Lewis represented Canada in heavyweight boxing in the 1984 Summer Olympics. The boxer ultimately came to share a prestigious honor along with fellow boxing greats Evander Holyfield and Muhammad Ali by winning the Heavyweight Championship on three occasions. In 2002, Lewis was the clear winner of a highly publicized match with Mike Tyson. While he has retired from boxing, Lewis agreed to compete on the celebrity edition of NBC's business reality show The Apprentice.

Trivia: American actor Michael de Lano has appeared on television and in feature films. In the former medium, he has worked as a guest star on such series as Taxi, The Rockford Files, and Buck Rogers in the 21st Century. He has also had regular roles in a couple of series, including Rhoda and the short-lived Firehouse (1974). De Lano made his feature-film debut playing a supporting role in Sam Wannamaker's Catlow. Since that time de Lano has played small and supporting roles in a number of feature films.

Trivia: One of the first independent producers to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Jerry Weintraub, the son of a gem salesman, began his career as a talent agent for MCA in the 1950s. He was to represent such clients as Jack Paar and singer Jane Morgan who became his second wife. He formed Management III in 1965, and from a quite modest beginning (two partners, three clients, a small backing), became a leading concert promoter. With the founding of Concerts West, he was to handle such clients as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, and the Beach Boys.Robert Altman's groundbreaking Nashville (1975) was Weintraub's first production venture. This was soon followed with the successful comedy Oh, God! starring the legendary George Burns and 9/30/55 (aka 24 Hours of the Rebel [1977]), the controversial Cruising (1980), and All Night Long (1981). In 1982, he produced Barry Levinson's Diner, which premiered a new generation of actors including Kevin Bacon, Paul Reiser, Mickey Rourke, Tim Daly, Ellen Barkin, and Steve Guttenberg. In 1984, he became involved with the first film in the Karate Kid series (1984, 1986, 1989, 1994, 2010).In 1984, Weintraub helped deliver the Olympic Gala and the ABC telecast preceding the opening of the Los Angeles Olympic Games. There are over 100 television specials, such as Sinatra: The Main Event and An Evening With John Denver, with which Weintraub has been involved. In 1986, Weintraub was named Producer of the Year by the National Association of Theater Owners, and in March 1991, President George Bush appointed Weintraub to the Board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 1987, Weintraub produced Happy New Year and in 1992 Pure Country. He made his first acting foray as the character Sonny Capps in Sydney Pollack's The Firm released in 1993. 1994 saw the creation of The Specialist, a thriller vehicle for Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone, released in Spanish as El Especialista. Weintraub again appeared in a bit part as Jilly in National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation (1997) which he also produced. After establishing Jerry Weintraub Productions, he generated a film remake of the modish British TV series The Avengers (1998), a sci-fi-thriller with Kurt Russell entitled Soldier (1998), The Independent (2000), Ocean's Eleven (2001), in which Weintraub acted the part of High Roller, and Dino (2002). Weintraub has also appeared as the character of Jerry for Full Frontal (2002), and as Larry Goldberg in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002). He later returned as a producer on Ocean sequels Twelve (2004) and Thirteen (2007). In 2015, his new series The Brink premiered on HBO; three weeks later, Weintraub died of cardiac arrest, at age 77.Weintraub's many philanthropic activities included the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Music Center, and the Children's Museum. In 1988, the esteemed Scopus Award from the American Friends of the Hebrew University was given to Weintraub and his wife in gratitude for their continuous support.

Trivia: Born in Brooklyn of Puerto Rican parentage, Henry Silva supported himself with delivery jobs as he trained for an acting career with the Group Theater and the Actors Studio. Though definitely an "ethnic type," Silva's actual heritage was nebulous enough to permit him to play a wide variety of nationalities. He has successfully portrayed Mexicans, Native Americans, Italians, Japanese, and even extraterrestrials. Among Henry Silva's best-known film roles were the treacherous North Korean "houseboy" to Laurence Harvey in The Manchurian Candidate (1962), the vengeful eponymous gangster in Johnny Cool (1963), and the shrewd Oriental title character in The Return of Mr. Moto (1965).

Trivia: Father was from Sicily, mother from Turkey, and both were Sephardic Jews. The family spoke English and Spanish and she was so fluent in the latter that after high school she worked as a translator at the United Nations. Was a high-school classmate of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. Born Edith, she changed her name for professional reasons to Edie, but when too many people called her Eddie, she altered the spelling to Eydie. Originally given a two-week assignment in 1953 on the local New York City program, The Steve Allen Show (which would later become The Tonight Show), and had it extended every two weeks for four years. Met husband, Steve Lawrence, when the two performed as regulars on The Steve Allen Show in the mid-'50s. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were married the same day at the same location in Las Vegas, and were witnesses to her wedding. Had great success in the Latin-music market in the 1960s with a number of hits performed in Spanish. Considered for the role of Fanny Brice in the 1964 Broadway production of Funny Girl, but turned it down when producers wouldn't cast her husband. Following the sudden 1986 death of their 23-year-old son Michael, she and her husband took a year off from touring and performing. Steve and Eydie covered "Black Hole Sun," by the rock band Soundgarden, for the 1997 compilation album Lounge-A-Palooza.

Trivia: Born in Kulm, North Dakota and educated at Glendale College and Immaculate Heart College, Angeline Brown acquired her professional name Angie Dickinson when she married college football star Gene Dickinson. A beauty contest winner, Dickinson entered films with an unbilled bit in the 1954 Warner Bros. musical Lucky Me. Her earliest films consisted mostly of "B" Westerns (at one point, she dubbed in actress Sarita Montiel's voice in 1957's Run of the Arrow) and television (Dickinson was rather nastily murdered in very first episode of Mike Hammer). She moved to the A-list when selected by Howard Hawks to play the female lead in Rio Bravo (1958). The film gave Dickinson ample opportunity to display her celebrated legs, which, for publicity purposes, were reportedly insured by Lloyd's of London. She went on to star in films both famous and forgettable: one of the roles for which she is best remembered is as the mistress of gangster Ronald Reagan (!) in The Killers (1964). In 1974, Dickinson jump-started her flagging career as the star of the TV cop drama Police Woman, which lasted four seasons and represented a tremendous step up in popularity for Dickinson. On that program, the actress played Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson, an undercover agent with the LAPD's criminal conspiracy division, whose assignments nearly always included donning a crafty and sexy guise in order to nab an underworld criminal.At about the same time, Dickinson also moved into motion pictures and (after years of consciously avoiding nude scenes), went au naturel for exploitation king Roger Corman in that producer's depression-era romp Big Bad Mama, which unsurprisingly became a cult favorite. (Years later, in 1987, she teamed up with Z-grade shlockmeister Jim Wynorski for New World's Big Bad Mama II). Brian DePalma's Psycho-influenced thriller Dressed to Kill (1980) brought the actress greater visibility, and like the Corman assignments, required Angie to do erotic nudity (though in this case, the below-the-waist shower shots were reportedly performed by a body double).In later years, Dickinson leaned more heavily on starring and supporting turns in made-for-television productions, including a telemovie follow-up to Police Woman, Police Woman: The Freeway Killings (1987); the Oliver Stone miniseries Wild Palms (1993); the direct-to-video thriller The Maddening (1995) (opposite longtime friend and colleague Burt Reynolds); and the prime-time soaper Danielle Steele's Rememberance (1996). The next decade found the septuagenarian actress unexpectedly returning to A-list Hollywood features, albeit in small supporting roles; these included Duets (2000), Pay it Forward (2000) and Ocean's Eleven (2001) (in a cameo as herself, nodding to her involvement in the original).Angie Dickinson was married to composer Burt Bacharach from 1965 to 1980.

Trivia: A veteran of films, television, and the Las Vegas stage, musician Steve Lawrence is probably most recognizable to film audiences as The Blues Brothers' Maury Sline. Born Sidney Leibowitz in Brooklyn, New York, on July 8, 1935, Lawrence began writing music at the age of 16 and broke into television as a performer on Steve Allen's Tonight Show in the mid-'50s. A fixture of various TV variety shows throughout the '60s, including The Carol Burnett Show, Lawrence entered the realm of film cult stardom with his role in The Blues Brothers (1980), and went on to do sporadic screen work for the next couple of decades. In addition to supporting roles in Blues Brothers 2000 (1998), the boxing drama Play It to the Bone (2000), and the crime mystery The Yards, Lawrence had a recurring role on the TV sitcom The Nanny. Along with his wife Eydie Gorme, whom he married in 1957, Lawrence was a fixture of the Las Vegas stage for a long time, where he and Gorme often performed as the supporting act for Frank Sinatra.

Trivia: Aptly nicknamed "Mr. Vegas" for his constant presence in Glitter Gulch, master showman Wayne Newton swept audiences off their feet for many a decade with a slick crooning style modeled upon such influences as Frank Sinatra and Bobby Darin (one of Newton's personal mentors). Newton distinguished himself, however -- at least in the early years -- via his unusually high vocal register and his choice of material; he took such numbers as "Red Roses for a Blue Lady" and the seminal "Danke Schoen" and made them synonymous with himself. In his prime, Newton reportedly commandeered up to a million dollars per month for his live shows (to say nothing of his recordings), and bought up a healthy amount of property in Las Vegas, including the Aladdin Casino. Cinematically, Newton debuted on an absurd note, with the lead role in the critically reviled Gerd Oswald musical 80 Steps to Jonah (1969) -- playing a convict on the lam who flees from the law and ends up at a camp for blind children. That picture bombed, effectively convincing Newton to place a greater emphasis on singing than acting, but by the early '90s, he began cropping up in Hollywood films once again, this time with more respectable cameo roles in such films as The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990), Vegas Vacation (1997), and Ocean's Eleven (2001). In the fall of 2007, the ABC network tapped Newton to perform as one of the celebrity dancers on the fifth season of its competitive reality series Dancing with the Stars, opposite dancer Cheryl Burke.

Trivia: Lanky, personable, and looking for all the world like Alan Alda's long-lost son, Topher Grace made an impressive film debut with his role in Traffic (2000), Steven Soderbergh's epic and widely acclaimed look at the American war on drugs. Grace received positive notices for his work in the film, which cast him as a cocky prep-school boy who turns his girlfriend (Erika Christensen) on to heroin and cocaine. The role marked a drastic departure from the young actor's regular job on the popular Fox sitcom That '70s Show, where he portrayed Eric Forman, a level-headed and predominantly wholesome high school student coming of age in "Me Decade" Wisconsin.A native New Yorker, Grace was born in the city on July 12, 1978. Raised in Connecticut and Massachusetts, he began acting in school plays and was a student at New Hampshire's Brewster Academy when his performance in a school production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum effectively secured him his first professional job. Among those to see the play were Bonnie and Terry Turner, parents of one of Grace's classmates and the would-be producers of That '70s Show. Impressed with the young actor's work in the play, they tapped him for the role of Eric Forman during his freshman year at the University of Southern California. Grace, who had studied acting at the Groundlings Improvisation School and the Neighborhood Playhouse, made his television debut in 1998, winning over both new fans and critical approval. His acclaimed work in Traffic two years later saw the actor's popularity further increase, acting as another testament to the beginnings of a promising career.While continuing to appear on That '70s Show, Grace remained selective of his film roles. Aside from showing up in a cameo as himself in Traffic director Steven Soderbergh's 2001 remake of Ocean's 11, he didn't appear in a film for three years. However, with his supporting turn in the Julia Roberts drama Mona Lisa Smile, it appeared Grace's film career was building steam.For his first big-screen starring role, Grace played opposite Kate Bosworth and Josh Duhamel in the 2004 love-triangle comedy Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!, which was mostly well received by critics and audiences. Later in 2004, the young actor could be seen in the ensemble film sophomore effort from Roger Dodger director Dylan Kidd, entitled P.S. Cast as a twentysomething student who appears to be the reincarnation of an older woman's deceased high-school sweetheart, Grace offered a sense of soulful gravity to the under-seen romantic fantasy before rounding out his breakthrough year with a powerful performance as an ambitious young executive whose sense of synergy sets the boardroom ablaze in In Good Company. In the short span of just one year, Grace had proven himself capable of believably playing both a lovelorn Piggly Wiggly manager who can't muster the courage to express his love to the woman of his dreams, and an overambitious white-collar powerhouse who discovers something called a soul after casually assuming the position coveted by an experienced ad man twice his age. Whereas most actors of his generation would have been happy doing teen comedies and cashing in on the success of That '70s Show, it was obvious that Grace was opting for quality over quantity in making his transition to the big screen. After wrapping up his impressive run on That '70s Show in 2006, Grace henceforth chose his roles selectively, speaking often about having little hunger for fame, but a big appetite for interesting, fun, or challenging projects. He would appear in a number of feature films over the coming years, ranging form big budge action adventure fare, like Spiderman 3, to lighthearted comedies like Take Me Home Tonight, to offbeat, independent projects, like The Giant Mechanical Man. In 2014, he had a supporting role in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi film Interstellar.

Trivia: From The Mighty Ducks to the mighty Dawson, Joshua Jackson has proven to be one of the more promising members of the Hollywood teen invasion. The Canadian actor, best known for his portrayal of hellion-with-a-heart-of-gold Pacey Witter on Dawson's Creek, has enjoyed a rising popularity since Dawson's 1998 premiere and was named one of Teen People's "21 Hottest Stars Under 21" in 1999.Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, on June 11, 1978, Jackson spent most of his early childhood in California with his casting director mother. After moving back to Vancouver, Jackson got his start in commercials, and from there went on to appear in a number of forgettable films. His big break came in 1992 with The Mighty Ducks and its two sequels. Following these, he got a bit role in a film that was helping to usher in the teen horror flick craze, Scream 2 (1997). Then, in 1998, Jackson landed the part that was to give him stardom in Dawson's Creek. As the show gained popularity among both critics and television viewers, Jackson was able to broaden his film experience with 1998's Apt Pupil and Urban Legend. In 1999 he appeared as the gay and peroxided Blaine Tuttle in Cruel Intentions, which he starred in with fellow teen sensations Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Reese Witherspoon. For his next role, however, Jackson chose to stray from the teen genre with his appearance in Muppets From Space (1999), where his co-stars were more likely to do advertisements for the Children's Broadcasting Network than Noxzema.In 2000, the young actor returned to the teen genre with two separate projects, The Skulls and Gossip. Both films were set on elite college campuses and featured Jackson as upright young men forced to right the wrongs committed by their peers, something that signified the audience's growing identification with the actor as an unlikely hero for the new millennium.When Dawson's Creek finally came to a close, he kept plugging away at a movie career showing up in the indie comedy I Love Your Work, Cursed, and Emilio Estevez's Bobby. However, he found his greatest success on the small screen when he was the center of Fringe, a J.J. Abrams sci-fi show that built and maintained a cult audience and ran from 2008 to 2013. Once Fringe wrapped up, he was immediately cast in The Affair, opposite Dominic West, Ruth Wilson and Maura Tierney. The show was critically lauded and Jackson received a People's Choice Award nomination for his work.

Trivia: An actress since her childhood, Holly Marie Combs appeared in several feature films before becoming a well-known prime time television presence in the 1990s. Born in San Diego, Combs moved to New York as a child with her actress mother. She soon embarked on her own acting career, appearing in TV commercials and studying at the Professional Children's School. Combs made her film debut playing Susan Sarandon's daughter in Sweet Hearts Dance (1988), moving on to small parts in Oliver Stone's second Vietnam saga Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and arthouse favorite Hal Hartley's Simple Men (1992). Combs established herself as an up-and-coming TV actress, though, in the role of Tom Skerritt and Kathy Baker's daughter on producer/writer David E. Kelley's Emmy award-winning family drama Picket Fences (1992-1996). After the series ended, Combs stayed with the medium, starring as Texas teen-killer Diane Zamora in the TV docudrama Love's Deadly Triangle: The Texas Cadet Murder (1997), and as the daughter of a murdered heiress in USA Network's Our Mother's Murder (1997). Combs returned to series TV as grounded middle sibling Piper on producer Aaron Spelling's Charmed in 1998. Co-starring TV vixens Shannen Doherty and Alyssa Milano, the tale of three beautiful, supernaturally endowed sisters appealed to the WB network's young female audience, and Charmed became a hit. Combs worked on Charmed until the series ended in 2002, and found success on the small screen once again in 2010, when she joined the cast of ABC's Pretty Little Liars.

Trivia: With an appearance and aura that seemed tailor-made for heartthrob roles, actor Barry Watson indeed made his name as an onscreen post-adolescent hunk -- playing nice guy preacher's son Matt Camden (one of the seven children of Rev. Eric Camden) on the blockbuster series 7th Heaven -- a character that made millions of young women swoon and did much to account for the program's runaway success. As Watson crested the peak of his popularity, it seemed that only wonderful things lay ahead for him. Then, an unexpected piece of devastating news hit the international press in 2002. Watson announced his own diagnosis with Hodgkin's disease, a form of lymphatic cancer. Utterly imperturbable, the courageous young actor determined to beat the condition, and in fact did so by enduring a six-month course of chemotherapy that brought him back to 100 percent. Concurrently, Camden not only continued to appear on Heaven but even forked off into supporting roles in theatrical features. Projects included Kevin Williamson's jet-black comedy thriller Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), the George Clooney heist outing Ocean's Eleven (2001), and the horror vehicle Boogeyman (2005). In 2006, not long before Heaven wrapped, Watson (perhaps sensing the drama's closure) signed to appear on a new program. Producers tapped him for first-billing in the hour-long weekly drama What About Brian -- an ensemble series that told of a young, single thirtysomething in Los Angeles surviving a series of desperate attempts by his married friends to help him find his soul mate. Unfortunately, that program folded, but within a year, the actor landed another plum small-screen role, as the steady boyfriend of an amnesia patient (Christina Applegate) on the sitcom Samantha Who?

Trivia: The sultry Shane West -- a Gemini whose genuine handsomeness is doubly effective in combination with his mesmerizing raspy voice -- made his mark on the Hollywood scene within the realm of teen drama. Beginning with appearances on television shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Picket Fences, West was soon cast as a more permanent staple in teenage tube-life, as well as on the big screen.West was born on June 10, 1978, in Baton Rouge, LA, where he spent his life until he made the decision to pursue an acting career in 1995. Upon moving to L.A., West found much success on dramatic television, landing a starring role on ABC's Once and Again (1999) as Eli Sammler after appearing in the Showtime original movie The Westing Game (1997). A more contemporary rendition of the Cyrano de Bergerac story, Whatever It Takes (2000) featured a book-smart West. He appeared in Dracula in 2000, and made a cameo in the 2001 remake of Ocean's Eleven. Huge publicity surrounding the pop superstar status of Mandy Moore brought West much attention as her love interest in 2002's A Walk to Remember. From the cool crowd, West's character, Landon Carter, learns of matters of a deeper significance during his interaction with Jamie Sullivan (Moore). West's adoring fan base increased in significance as well in his role as sexy and romantic Landon. He joined the cast of ER for that show's final three seasons, and then went on to appear as punk hero Darby Crash in the biopic What We Do Is Secret. He followed that up with The Lodger, Red Sands, and The Presence.

Trivia: At the age of 26, Steven Soderbergh permanently altered the face of independent cinema when he became the youngest-ever winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival for sex, lies and videotape, his feature-film directorial debut. A simmering exploration of the nature of modern relationships and the links between sexuality and voyeurism, the film was an international sensation that established its director as one of the golden boys of world cinema. Born in Georgia on January 14, 1963, Soderbergh grew up in Baton Rouge, LA. While still in high school, Soderbergh enrolled in the university's film animation class and began making short 16 mm films with second-hand equipment. After he graduation, he went to Hollywood, where he worked as a freelance editor. Soderbergh's time in Hollywood was brief, and he soon returned home, where he continued making short films and writing scripts. One of his films, a documentary about the rock group Yes, earned him an assignment to direct a full-length concert film for the band. The finished product, 9012 Live, was nominated for a 1986 Grammy. Following this achievement, Soderbergh filmed the short subject Winston, a study of sexual gamesmanship that he would expand into sex, lies and videotape. In the wake of the 1989 film's great success, Soderbergh made Kafka, a darkly comic fictional account of the author's life. The austere film turned out to be something of a disappointment, as did the modest King of the Hill, Soderbergh's 1993 portrait of a young boy's coming-of-age during the Depression. The Underneath, his 1995 film, was a post-noir crime drama that offered further existential meditation and an exploration of the destructive effects of sexuality: unfortunately, like Soderbergh's previous two efforts, it remained mired in relative obscurity. The same could be said of Schizopolis and Gray's Anatomy (both 1996), the former a loopy, inventive look at the intricacies of communication that Soderbergh termed an "artistic wake-up call" to himself, the latter a filmed performance of one of Spalding Gray's monologues. In 1998, Soderbergh made good on his "wake-up call" with Out of Sight, his most critically and commercially successful film since sex, lies and videotape. Adapted from the novel by Elmore Leonard, it was an irreverent, enjoyable affair that remained true to the book's spirit and featured believable chemistry between leads George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez. The following year, Soderbergh continued on his critical winning streak with The Limey, the generally well-received tale of an ex-con (Terence Stamp) bent on revenge for his daughter's mysterious death. He earned even greater plaudits in 2000 as the director of Erin Brockovich; starring Julia Roberts as its eponymous secretary-heroine who uncovers a major environmental scandal, the film was enthusiastically embraced by audiences and critics alike. Later that same year, Soderbergh raised the bar on issue-oriented drama with Traffic, a multi-layered, multi-character look at the United States' "War on Drugs." The long-gestating project started life as a British miniseries in the early '90s; when Soderbergh realized director Ed Zwick was working on his own exposé on the same subject, the two joined forces, with Zwick producing. Originally developed at Fox with Harrison Ford in the lead, Traffic then switched hands to the major-indie studio USA Films when Ford dropped out, and Michael Douglas snapped up the part. Easily Soderbergh's most ambitious effort, the 50 million-dollar production boasted a seven-city shooting schedule with over 100 speaking parts; almost a third of which were spoken completely in Spanish. What's more, the director insisted on serving as cinematographer for the primarily hand-held, naturally lit film. (Soderbergh originally wanted his credit to read "photographed and directed by," but since WGA regulations prohibit a cinematographer to be credited over a screenwriter, he opted for a pseudonym, Peter Andrews -- his father's first and middle names.) The gamble paid off, both critically and commercially. Soderbergh's touch with actors yielded best-yet performances from Catherine Zeta-Jones, Miguel Ferrer, and Benicio Del Toro, the latter of whom walked away with a slew of year-end critics awards, a Golden Globe, and an Oscar. The film itself shared a berth with Brockovich when the Academy Awards nominations were announced, and Soderbergh made it into the history books as the first person to be doubly nominated for Best Director for two films that were also both nominated for Best Picture. When the winners were finally announced, Traffic earned four Oscars including a Best Director statue for Soderbergh; his work on Brockovich helped snag a long-awaited Best Actress Oscar for Roberts. Soderbergh then plunged headlong into two big-budget adaptations of classic films, both starring his Out of Sight muse George Clooney: 2001's Ocean's Eleven and 2002's Solaris. The former, a star-laden update of 1960's Rat Pack favorite, garnered favorable reviews and a box-office total of more than $180 million -- the director's biggest take yet. The latter marked Soderbergh's return to screenwriting: Encouraged by producer James Cameron to adapt Stanislaw Lem's philosophical sci-fi short story, Soderbergh also signed on to direct in the wake of his 2000 Oscar win. Rather than tamper with director Andrei Tarkovsky's acclaimed 1972 adaptation of Solaris, Soderbergh promised his version would be closer in spirit to the source material. Despite an economical editing job and generally encouraging reviews, audiences let the moody, psychological sci-fi film die a quick death. Between these high-profile projects, the director managed to sandwich in a $2 million ensemble piece, shot mostly on digital video in less than three weeks. 2002's Full Frontal reunited him for the third time with Julia Roberts, but Soderbergh's grungy, esoteric take on the discord between movie life and "real" life was generally reviled by critics and ignored at the box office. The director would retreat to safer waters in 2004 with the successful sequel Ocean's Twelve, a more self-reflexive, globe-trotting take on the first film. A string of almost deliberately obscure work followed. On HBO, Soderbergh and Clooney satisfied their political leanings with K Street, a gritty soap that attempted to meld fiction with documentary as it charted the lives of two high-powered lobbyists (played by high-powered lobbyists James Carville and Mary Matalin). The drab Midwestern anti-thriller Bubble boasted a unique releasing scheme, in which it premiered on pay-per-view cable, in art-house theaters and on DVD at the same time in early 2006. Later that year, The Good German divided critics who found it either enthrallingly retro or needlessly opaque and austere; whatever their opinions, the film failed to catch on with audiences. Once again, Soderbergh licked his wounds by providing the company with another installment of its profitable Ocean's franchise in summer 2007. He followed this up with a slew of projects that continued to alternate between arthouse and commercial, including the wildly ambitious Che (2008) - a 4-hour+ biopic of revolutionary leader Che Guevara (starring Benicio del Toro; a cinematization of the television series The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and a biopic of Liberace starring Michael Douglas. Soderbergh's next "vanity project" was a semi-experimental arthouse film called The Girlfriend Experience, in which real-life porn star Sasha Grey played a prostitute who offers clients the short-term simulation of a real relationship. He next made the quirky comedy/drama The Informant!, starring Matt Damon as the real life blundering informant and white collar criminal Marc Whitacre, before oscillating back to less commerical fare, with The Last Time I Saw Michael Gregg. Soon he was moving on to another big-budget picture: the 2011 epidemic thriller Contagion, which he soon followed up with the hotly anticipated action movie Haywire, starring real-life female mixed martial arts champion Gina Carano as the hard-hitting lead. In an August 2011 article in the New York Times, Soderbergh confirmed his intention to retire from filmmaking to pursue painting full-time, indicating that his 2012 comedy Magic Mike, which told the story of a male stripper who longs to get out of the business while training a handsome young protege, would be his cinematic swan song.In addition to his directorial work, Soderbergh has also served as a producer and screenwriter for other directors' projects; he first made major headway into the world of producing when he and Clooney opened up an exclusive, first-look deal to develop projects under the shingle Section Eight in late 2001. Among Section Eight's first endeavors were pictures helmed by Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven), and Christopher Nolan (Insomnia); though the shingle rarely produced runaway hits, through it, Soderbergh was able to show support for micro-budgeted debuts not unlike his own.