Trivia: While his police-chief father wanted him to become a soccer player, Austrian-born actor Arnold Schwarzenegger opted instead for a bodybuilding career. Born July 30, 1947, in the small Austrian town of Graz, Schwarzenegger went on to win several European contests and international titles (including Mr. Olympia) and then came to the U.S. for body-building exhibitions, billing himself immodestly but fairly accurately as "The Austrian Oak." Though his thick Austrian accent and slow speech patterns led some to believe that the Austrian Oak was shy a few leaves, Schwarzenegger was, in fact, a highly motivated and intelligent young man. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in business and economics, he invested his contest earnings in real estate and a mail-order bodybuilding equipment company.A millionaire before the age of 22, Schwarzenegger decided to try acting. Producers were impressed by his physique but not his mouthful of a last name, so it was as Arnold Strong that he made his film bow in the low-budget spoof Hercules in New York (1970, with a dubbed voice). He reverted to his own name for the 1976 film Stay Hungry, then achieved stardom as "himself" in the 1977 documentary Pumping Iron. In The Villain (1979), a cartoon-like Western parody, he played "Handsome Stranger," exhibiting a gift for understated comedy that would more or less go unexploited for many years thereafter. With Conan the Barbarian (1982) and its sequel, Conan the Destroyer (1984), the actor established himself as an action star, though his acting was backtracking into two-dimensionality (understandably, given the nature of the Conan role). As the murderous android title character in The Terminator (1984), Schwarzenegger became a bona fide box-office draw, and also established his trademark of coining repeatable catchphrases in his films: "I'll be back," in Terminator, "Consider this a divorce," in Total Recall (1990), and so on.As Danny De Vito's unlikely pacifistic sibling in Twins (1988), Schwarzenegger received the praise of critics who noted his "unsuspected" comic expertise (quite forgetting The Villain). In Kindergarten Cop (1991), Schwarzenegger played a hard-bitten police detective who found his true life's calling as a schoolteacher (his character was a cop only because it was expected of him by his policeman father, which could have paralleled his own life). Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), wherein Schwarzenegger exercised his star prerogative and insisted that the Terminator become a good guy, was the most expensive film ever made up to its time -- and one of the biggest moneymakers. The actor's subsequent action films were equally as costly; sometimes the expenditures paid off, while other times the result was immensely disappointing -- for the box-office disappointment Last Action Hero (1992), Schwarzenegger refreshingly took full responsibility, rather than blaming the failure on his production crew or studio as other "superstars" have been known to do.A rock-ribbed Republican despite his marriage to JFK's niece, Maria Shriver (with whom he has four children), Schwarzenegger was appointed by George Bush in 1990 as chairman of the President's Council of Physical Fitness and Sports, a job he took as seriously and with as much dedication as any of his films. A much-publicized investment in the showbiz eatery Planet Hollywood increased the coffers in Schwarzenegger's already bulging bank account. Schwarzenegger then added directing to his many accomplishments, piloting a few episodes of the cable-TV series Tales From the Crypt as well as a 1992 remake of the 1945 film Christmas in Connecticut.Schwarzenegger bounced back from the disastrous Last Action Hero with 1994's True Lies, which, despite its mile-wide streak of misogyny and its gaping plot and logic holes, was one of the major hits of that summer's movie season. Following the success of True Lies, Schwarzenegger went back to doing comedy with Junior, co-starring with Emma Thompson and his old Twins accomplice Danny De Vito. The film met with critically mixed results, although it fared decently at the box office. Undeterred, Schwarzenegger continued down the merry, if treacherous, path of alternating action with comedy with 1996's Eraser and Jingle All the Way, the latter of which proved to be both a critical bomb and a box-office disappointment. In a move that suggested he had realized that audiences wanted him back in the world of assorted weaponry and explosives, Schwarzenegger returned to the action realm with 1997's Batman & Robin, which unfortunately proved to be a huge critical disappointment, although, in the tradition of most Schwarzenegger action films, it did manage to gross well over 100 million dollars at the box office and over 130 million dollars more the world over.The turn of the century found Schwarzenegger's star losing some of its luster with a pair of millennial paranoia films, 1999's End of Days and 2000's The 6th Day. The former film -- in which a security consultant has to save the world from Satan -- was critically lambasted and, despite a powerful opening weekend, failed to recoup its cost in the States. The latter film -- a cloning parable which bore more than a passing resemblance to Total Recall -- received more positive notices, but took in less than half the receipts Days did just one year prior. Perhaps as a response to these failures, Schwarzenegger prepped three films reminiscent of former successes, all scheduled for release in 2001 and 2002: the terrorist action thriller Collateral Damage, True Lies 2, and the long-anticipated Terminator 3. Though Collateral Damage received a chilly reception at the box office and the development of True Lies 2 fell into question, longtime fans of the cigar-chomping strongman rejoiced when Arnold resumed his role as a seriously tough cyborg in Terminator 3. Though he made a cameo in director Frank Coraci's adaptation of Around the World in 80 Days, Arnold's most notable role of the new millenium was political -- Schwarzenegger replaced Gray Davis as governor of California in the highly controversial recall election of 2003.In 2010, Schwarzenegger played the character of Trench in The Expendables, an action thriller following a group of tough-as-nails mercinaries as they deal with the aftermath of a mission gone wrong, and reprised the role for The Expendables 2 in 2012.

Trivia: Born and raised in Brooklyn to Italian-American parents, actress Alyssa Milano started acting on the stage in a national tour of Annie at the age of eight. She rose to teen stardom as the tomboyish Samantha Micelli on the ABC sitcom Who's the Boss, which ran from 1984-1992. Never really making the transition to feature films, she appeared in sleazy made-for-TV movies, provocative ad campaigns, and nude photographs. In one of her more prominent TV performances, she portrayed Amy Fisher in Casualties of Love: The "Long Island Lolita" Story on CBS in 1993. Her few feature film credits include the quirky romantic comedy Hugo Pool and the thriller Below Utopia, starring Ice-T. She joined the cast of Melrose Place on FOX for the 1997-1998 season before moving over to the WB for Charmed, co-starring Shannen Doherty and Holly Marie Combs. In the late '90s, she released several pop/rock albums, which did quite well in Japan. Since the popularity of Charmed, she's appeared in major television ad campaigns and the comedies Kiss the Bride, Buying the Cow, and Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. She would go on to enjoy TV runs on My Name is Earl and Romantically Challenged, and movies like Hall Pass and New Year's Eve. In 2013, she returned to being a series regular on TV in the primetime soap Mistresses. After winning several legal battles involving her nude images on the Internet, Milano helped to launch the index safesearching.com.

Trivia: The daughter of comedian Tommy Chong, actress Rae Dawn Chong began appearing on Canadian television in her preteen years. Chong's first major TV role was on the popular 1974 sitcom The Wiz Kid of Riverton. Seven years later, she exploded onto the big screen as the mud-covered cave dweller Ika in Quest for Fire (1981), which earned her the Canadian equivalent of the Academy Award. Playing a variety of striking characters, she would be prominently cast in such films as The Color Purple (1985), American Flyers (1987), and Commando (1985). By the 90's, Chong was a bankable actress with multiple projects per year, including successful TV roles as well, on shows like Wild Card and Mysterious Ways.

Trivia: Dan Hedaya has played a wide variety of characters on the stage, screen, and television. Fans of the long-running sitcom Cheers will remember Hedaya for his portrayal of barmaid Carla's grease bag husband Nick Tortelli. Following studies in literature at Tufts University, Hedaya launched his acting career. He then went on to act in the New York Shakespeare Festival for many years. Hedaya made his feature film debut in The Passover Plot (1975). Since 1980, Hedaya has appeared in over 20 feature films, and is frequently cast as cops, criminals, or rough-edged regular joes. In Blood Simple (1984), he got the opportunity to play a leading role as Marty, the jealous husband who hires a creepy detective to kill his faithless wife. It is on television, that Hedaya has found most of his work. He has guest-starred on numerous shows ranging from police and courtroom dramas like Hill Street Blues and Law and Order, to sitcoms such as Family Ties.

Trivia: Supporting actor, onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: A graduate of Northwestern University, actor James Olson did stage work in and around Chicago before his 1956 film bow in The Sharkfighters. Angular and sandy-haired, Olson was well suited to classical stage roles. In films and on television, it was his lot to portray a long line of understanding husbands, doubting doctors, mystery killers and corporate bigwigs. James Olson garnered some of his best reviews for his performance as Joanne Woodward's autumn romance in Rachel, Rachel (1967), under the direction of Paul Newman.

Trivia: David Patrick Kelly specializes in playing sleazeballs, oily little punks, and crazies in actioners and urban dramas. While Kelly excels at such roles, they do not fully represent his training and potential. A former student of Stella Adler in New York and mime Marcel Marceau in Paris, Kelly first made his name on the New York stage, appearing in everything from musicals to experimental theater. Producer Joel Silver started him down the road to movie villainy when he cast him in Walter Hill's The Warriors (1979) and then 48 Hrs. (1982). Kelly has subsequently appeared in several more Hill films, including Last Man Standing (1997). Kelly also played supporting roles in two Spike Lee films, Malcolm X (1992) and Crooklyn (1994).

Trivia: Although many would likely recognize Bill Duke from his roles in such high-profile releases as Predator, Menace II Society, and Red Dragon, perhaps only a few connect the face in front of the camera with the name of the man who also directed such features as A Rage in Harlem and Hoodlum. A native of Poughkeepsie, NY, and the first in his family to graduate from college, the actor/director studied speech and drama at Boston University before earning his M.F.A. from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Subsequently penning off-Broadway plays and launching a film career with roles in Car Wash (1976) and American Gigolo (1979), Duke's early breakthrough came with a featured role in the critically acclaimed Alex Haley miniseries Palmerstown U.S.A. in 1980. Deciding to refine his skills behind the camera, the burgeoning actor later studied at the American Film Institute, where his student project The Hero earned him a solid reputation as a director to watch. In the years that followed, Duke earned a reputation as an efficient and effective television director as he took the helm for episodes of Hill Street Blues, Fame, Miami Vice, Spenser: For Hire, and Matlock. He soon moved into feature territory with the PBS drama The Killing Floor (which screened at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival and earned the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival). In 1989, Duke's adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun showed that, although his directing had thus far been limited to the small screen, he also had the potential to launch a lucrative career in theatrical features. After acting in such features as Commando (1985), Predator (1987), and Bird on a Wire (1990), Duke's first theatrical feature, A Rage in Harlem, was released in 1991. An effective crime drama featuring a gangster's moll, a trunk load of gold, and a slew of unsavory heavies, the film was unfairly interpreted by audiences to be a rip-off of the popular 1989 comedy Harlem Nights. For the dark crime thriller Deep Cover, Duke teamed with future collaborator Laurence Fishburne for the first time, and after lightening things up a bit with The Cemetery Club (1993), Duke earned a direct hit at the box office with the popular sequel Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit the same year. The remainder of the '90s found the actor/director evenly dividing his duties on both sides of the camera, and, in 1997, he re-teamed with Fishburne for the throwback gangster drama Hoodlum. With all of his directorial duties, Duke found little time to accept onscreen roles, though performances in Payback and Fever in 1999 reminded audiences that he was still a compelling screen presence. Duke returned to the small screen the following year to direct an episode of City of Angels and the Nero Wolfe mystery The Golden Spiders, and remained in television to shoot episodes of Fastlane and Robbery Homicide Division. In 2003, Duke directed the moving, made-for-TV drama Deacons for Defense. As roles in Red Dragon (2002) and National Security (2003) continued to fuel his feature career, Duke was also seen on the small screen in episodes of Fastlane and the Out of Sight (1998) spin-off Karen Sisco.

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: African-American actor Bob Minor gained his cinematic entree as a stuntman. His earliest speaking roles came by way of the blaxploitation pictures of the '70s. Two of the more profitable examples of this genre were Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974), both of which starred Pam Grier and featured Minor in supporting roles. The actor occasionally surfaced in mainstream films designed for a more generic audience, notably The Deep (1978) (as Wiley), White Dog (1982) and Glory (1989) but even after attaining this filmic level he couldn't quite escape such exploitation flicks as Swinging Cheerleaders (1976). Bob Minor worked with regularity on television, just missing consistent weekly work in such never-purchased pilots as Friendly Persuasion (1975), Dr. Scorpion (1978) and Samurai (1979).

Trivia: Burly stunt man Walter Scott appeared in a number of big-budget features of the '80s and '90s.

Trivia: Possessing a special talent for totally immersing himself in his roles, Bill Paxton did not always get the recognition he deserves. Tall, rangy, and boyishly good looking, Paxton's career was a curiosity that found the character actor-turned-filmmaker succeeding in intermittently pulling the rug from under filmgoers' feet with a constantly expanding sense of maturity and range.Paxton's interest in films emerged during his teens when he began making his own movies with a Super-8 camera. He formally entered the entertainment industry in 1974 as a set dresser for Roger Corman's New World Pictures. Paxton made his acting debut as a bit player in Crazy Mama (1975), and afterward, the young thespian moved to New York to hone his skills. Following performances in a couple of horror quickies, Paxton formally launched his Hollywood career with a tiny part in Ivan Reitman's Stripes (1981) and this led to a steady if not unremarkable career in film and television during the '80s. In addition to acting, Paxton made short independent films such as Fish Heads, (1982) which became a favorite on NBC's Saturday Night Live. Paxton's acting career got a much-needed boost in 1985 when he was cast as Ilan Mitchell-Smith's obnoxious big brother Chet Donolley in John Hughes' Weird Science. Some of Paxton's more memorable subsequent roles include that of a cocky intergalactic soldier in James Cameron's Aliens (1986), a crazed vampire in Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark, and sickly astronaut Freddie Hayes in Ron Howard's Apollo 13. In 1996, Paxton landed a starring role, opposite Helen Hunt, in the special-effects blockbuster Twister; his career took an upward turn and Paxton got more leads than ever. Though few audiences saw it in its limited release, critics were quick to praise Paxton's turn as con-artist Traveler in the 1997 movie of the same name. Following a doomed voyage on the Titanic the same year, the workhorse actor once again intrigued filmgoers as a small-town dweller struggling with his conscience after stumbling into over a million dollars in usually flamboyant director Sam Raimi's strikingly subdued A Simple Plan. A quiet and intense performance enhanced by a talented cast including Billy Bob Thornton and Bridget Fonda, the psychological crime drama once again provided further proof that Paxton's impressive range of emotion stretched beyond what many filmgoers may have previously suspected. Though subsequent performances in Mighty Joe Young (1998) and U-571 (2000) did little to backup the promise shown in A Simple Plan, Paxton still had a few tricks up his sleeve, as evidenced by his directorial debut Frailty (2002), a surprisingly competent and genuinely frightening tale of religious fervor and questionable sanity. Though cynical filmgoers may have initially viewed the trailer-touting praises of former collaborators Raimi and James Cameron as favors from old friends, the taut tale of a father who claims that God has provided him with a list of "demons" that he and his sons must cast from the earth blind-sided critics and filmgoers with its disturbingly minimalistic yet complex psychological thriller that recalled the thematic elements of previous efforts as Michael Tolkin's The Rapture (1991). His performance as a loving father who reluctantly embarks on God's mission was a vital component of the films emotional impact, and was once again proof that this former supporting player still had a few tricks up his sleeve.Though he hadn't paid much attention to television since his early career, in 2006, Paxton took on the lead role in HBO's Big Love, playing a polygamous husband with three wives. The show was a hit and garnered critical acclaim, including three Golden Globe nominations for Paxton. When the show wrapped up after five seasons, Paxton joined the miniseries Hatfields & McCoys, earning his only Emmy nomination of his career for the role. In 2014, Paxton took on a recurring role in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., playing the villainous John Garrett. He also played Sam Houston in 2015 miniseries Texas Rising. In 2017, his new network show Training Day (a small-screen version of the film) aired only three episodes before Paxton suddenly died of complications from surgery at age 61.

Trivia: Lead actress Chelsea Field first appeared onscreen in the late '80s.

Trivia: Mark L. Lester is either an exploitation director of modest talent and somewhat elevated taste, or one of the shrewdest political filmmakers ever to set foot in Hollywood. For those who only know his work on pictures like Truck Stop Women, Gold of the Amazon Women, Roller Boogie, or Class of 1999, he probably seems like the former, but for anyone who's followed his career from the beginning, when he was making movies that won prizes at the Venice Film Festival, there's no question that he's a serious filmmaker. Lester was born in Cleveland, OH, and raised in the San Fernando Valley, in the suburbs of Los Angeles. His interests in college centered far more on politics than filmmaking, and in 1968 he was chairman of California Youth for Senator Eugene McCarthy -- it was from those beginnings that the direction of his career, if not the career itself, became apparent. Lester turned to filmmaking after graduating from California State University at Northridge with a degree in political science. He headed to San Francisco with the idea of making movies which contained significant political and social statements. By that time, he had become a voracious moviegoer and watcher, and had seen several thousand movies dating from the silent era to the most recent releases. His idol was director/producer Howard Hawks, not only for his stylistic attributes, but also because Hawks was a filmmaker who couldn't be pegged to a single particular genre -- he made comedies, Westerns, dramas, action-adventure stories, and even science fiction, and all of it was acclaimed by critics and the public alike. Lester started his professional career with a documentary about the police, but his first full-length movie was a documentary entitled Twilight of the Mayas (1971), for which he spent six months living in Mexico; the film won the top prize for a documentary at the 1971 Venice Film Festival. He next wrote, produced, and directed Tricia's Wedding, a parody of the Nixon White House starring the satiric cabaret troupe the Cockettes. The mixing of political satire and a cast made up mostly of actors in drag was, in and of itself, a daring political statement at the time, and the movie -- which became an underground favorite and a hit on the "midnight movie" circuit -- put Lester on the cutting edge of new American filmmakers. In 1973, Lester released Steel Arena -- which he wrote, produced, and directed himself -- a movie about the people who make their livings pushing cars (and themselves) to the limit in demolition derby exhibitions. The movie was a success and also garnered enthusiastic reviews from Rolling Stone and other magazines, whose writers saw the movie's originality and bold approach to its subject as groundbreaking. With that film to his credit, Lester jumped into the profitable exploitation cinema field with Truck Stop Women (1974), a good-natured action thriller starring ex-Playboy Playmate Claudia Jennings, about a group of women who use their truck stop as a front for hijackings and prostitution, and have to fight for their survival when organized crime tries to take over their operation. Then it was back to his political roots in 1975 with White House Madness, a satirical look at Washington politics in the era of Watergate. By this time, Lester had organized his own production company, Mark L. Lester Films. In 1976, Lester made Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw, a violent action feature co-starring a pre-Wonder Woman Lynda Carter and evangelist-turned-actor Marjoe Gortner in a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde-type crime story, with a clever script by Vernon Zimmerman. In 1977, Lester released Stunts (aka Who Is Killing the Stuntmen?), a thriller about a company making an action-adventure film that proved exciting to audiences and absorbing to mainstream critics, who were now acknowledging Lester as one of the most talented and daring low-budget filmmakers in America. Ironically, despite the praise that he received for the best of these movies during the 1970s, he never moved up to the top rank of new directors, mostly because his work was confined to relatively low-budget productions and to genres that didn't get the full attention of film section editors or play very long in theaters. Instead, it was the contemporaries of Lester's, including George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, who emerged to prominence behind movies like Jaws, American Graffiti, and Star Wars, with the backing of major studios. Lester might not have had a Close Encounters of the Third Kind in him, but at the point where Spielberg was doing The Sugarland Express or Duel, he and Lester were peers and a good match to each other. Lester did move up a rung in industry commercial "legitimacy" when he graduated to made-for-television features, with Gold of the Amazon Women, starring Anita Ekberg, Bo Svenson, and Donald Pleasence. In 1979, he returned to theatrical exploitation fare with Roller Boogie, a quickie feature intended to cash in on the (very) short-lived roller-disco phenomenon, starring Linda Blair. By the early '80s, Lester had begun producing as well as directing, most notably on Tobe Hooper's chiller The Funhouse (1981). He was back directing again on Class of 1984 (1982), a sort of update of Blackboard Jungle about violence and delinquency in American high schools; that movie was Lester's most controversial of his whole career, capturing onscreen the worst fears of parents and politicians and disturbing critics, even as it enjoyed a successful presentation at the Cannes Film Festival. It also elicited a strongly positive review from Roger Ebert at the time, who waxed enthusiastic about both the movie and the filmmaker in the Chicago Sun-Times. The movie subsequently became a theatrical hit and has endured as a popular feature on cable television. Then came Firestarter, a Dino de Laurentiis production based on Stephen King's book, which Lester directed in 1984, with an all-star cast and a large budget. He followed this in 1985 with Commando, a more conventional action-adventure yarn starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rae Dawn Chong, which he made for 20th Century Fox. And, for a change of pace, Lester tried his hand at comedy with Armed and Dangerous (1986), which came as a sort of poor man's Police Academy, starring John Candy. The following year, Lester went into partnership with producer John Davis on the joint financing of his movies. He returned to writing and producing as well as directing with Class of 1999 (1990), a distant follow-up to Class of 1984 with a more satiric edge and a science-fiction twist. Lester continued as a busy director-producer of action-adventure films, both theatrical (Extreme Justice, Blowback, etc.) and occasionally for television (Guilty As Charged).

Trivia: One of the most popular and prolific film composers of the 1980s and 1990s, James Horner has displayed a gift for writing scores on the epic scale of such composers as Jerry Goldsmith, but has also shown a knack for bolder and more contemporary sounds as well as subtle and contemplative fare. Born in Los Angeles, California, in 1953, James Horner developed a precocious interest in piano at the age of five when he began learning the instrument. After graduating high school, Horner decided to study music, and he attended the Royal Academy of Music in London, England, before returning to the United States to receive a degree at the University of Southern California. Horner went on to earn a graduate degree in Composition at University of California, Los Angeles, and he wrote a contemporary classical piece entitled Spectral Shimmers, which was given its world premier by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Eager to find a larger audience for his work, Horner began seeking out commissions to write film music, and scored several short films for the American Film Institute. Horner's entry into commercial film music came courtesy of legendary exploitation filmmaker Roger Corman, who hired Horner to write music for several early-'80s releases for his production company New World Pictures, including Humanoids From the Deep and The Lady in Red (the latter scripted by another Corman discovery, John Sayles). Horner's breakthrough came in 1982, when he scored both Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and 48 Hrs. After composing for two of that year's biggest films, Horner found himself in great demand, and he had written 36 scores by the time he received his first two Academy Award nominations in 1986, having been cited for the animated children's feature An American Tail and the action-packed sci-fi thriller Aliens in the same year. Through the 1990s, Horner continued to work on a large number of prestigious productions, including Apollo 13, Braveheart, and Legends of the Fall, before finally winning an Oscar in 1997 for the score to James Cameron's blockbuster Titanic, and a second Oscar for the music to the film's theme song, "My Heart Will Go On," which became an international hit for Celine Dion. Over the coming years, Horner would remain one of the most prominent composers in Hollywood, penning scores for films like Apocalypto, Avatar, and The Amazing Spider-Man. Horner died at age 61 when his two-seater airplane, which he was piloting and was the sole passenger, crashed in the Los Padres National Forest in California.

Trivia: A movie buff practically since infancy, American producer Joel Silver attended the film school at New York University. After graduation Silver quickly worked his way up to an assistant producer post under Universal's Lawrence Gordon; after considerable success with a series of popular pictures, including a handful of Burt Reynolds vehicles, Silver was appointed president of Lawrence Gordon Productions. As head of his own Silver Pictures in 1980, Silver began inauspiciously with the mishmosh Olivia Newton-John vehicle Xanadu before finding his niche with the stylized violent action of 1984's Streets of Fire. Intense and demanding, Silver drove his staff, cast and crews mercilessly, but such prize properties as the Lethal Weapon and Die Hard series made the effort worthwhile. Silver was able to maintain his industry standing on the basis of these successes, permitting him to ride out his many failures, including Jumpin' Jack Flash (1985), Ford Fairlane (1990), and the potentially career-busting Hudson Hawk (1991). Silver more or less played himself (loud clothes and all) in the on-camera role of an explosive cartoon director in 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988).Silver's trademark franchises would continue to pad his resume as the years went by, as he produced sequels to movies like Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, and Predator. He would also produce new, but less successful action movies of a similar style, like 1993's Demolition Man and 1995's Fair Game. He would also executive produce countless episodes of the HBO series Tales from the Crypt between 1989 and 1996. Then, in 1999, Silver struck gold -- once again -- when he produced the monumentally successful sci-fi thriller The Matrix. The movie was a huge hit, even if its sequels, released in 2003 and 2004, were dramatically less so. Silver wouldn't be able to duplicate the Matrix's success with productions like 2001's Swordfish and 2002's Ghost Ship, but he gained some niche popularity with 2006's V for Vendetta, and as an executive producer for the series Veronica Mars. Middling projects like the 2009 horror flick Orphan and Arctic thriller Whiteout kept Silver hard at work, and he would find serious box office success again with the Robert Downy, Jr. hit Sherlock Holmes in 2009, and 2010's apocalyptic Denzel Washington picture, The Book of Eli.