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 and raised in Los Angeles, Jonah Hill first started to find success in show business as a cast member of the brilliant but canceled Judd Apatow series Undeclared. Like many of the actors who were fortunate to work for the successful writer/director/producer, Hill became a part of Apatow's extended stock company, going on to appear in a number of films including The 40-Year-Old Virgin, as a young man who really wants to buy some boots, and Knocked Up, as the buddy who suggested his friend's pregnant girlfriend get "something that rhymes with smushmortion." He also starred alongside his onetime roommate Justin Long in a variety of projects, including the college comedy Accepted. Hill re-teamed with Apatow and company for their second major effort of summer 2007, the Greg Mottola-directed, Seth Rogen-scripted comedy Superbad, but on that occasion, Hill scored his first lead. He starred as Seth, a slightly geeky high school senior desperate for sex and suffering from some fairly serious adolescent angst. The film rang in as a blockbuster and won critical raves across the board. At about the same time, Hill signed on for a much different screen assignment (and target audience), agreeing to provide one of the voices in the animated outing Horton Hears a Who (2008). He followed that up with a small but funny role in the heartbreak comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall as a starstruck hotel worker who really, really wants a visiting rock star to listen to his demo.He scored laughs in the Judd Apatow-directed Funny People, and worked again with Russell Brand in Get Him to the Greek. Hill shored up his indie cred by starring in the Duplass Brothers comedy Cyrus as a young man who is way too attached to his mother.2011 found Hill earning the best notices of his career in Moneyball, as the numbers-crunching Ivy Leaguer who helps Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) build the Oakland A's into a first-rate baseball team with seemingly second-rate players. His work in the movie brought him Best Supporting Actor nods from the Academy, BAFTA, the Golden Globes, and the Screen Actors Guild. Soon however, the actor was ready to get back to his comedic roots, pairing with Chaning Tatum for a satirical big-screen take on the 80's TV show 21 Jump Street, and following that up starring alongside Ben Stiller in The Watch.

Trivia: One of the most original, versatile, and steadily employed actors in Hollywood, Philip Seymour Hoffman made a name for himself playing some of the most dysfunctional characters in movie history. Although he had been acting for years, most audiences were first introduced to the actor in the award-winning Boogie Nights, where he played a nebbishy soundman with a jones for Mark Wahlberg's Dirk Diggler. Imbuing his character with both humor and poignant complexity, Hoffman was one of the more memorable aspects of an unforgettable film.Born in Fairport, NY, in 1968, Hoffman trained at New York's Tisch School of Drama. Before breaking into film, he did a host of theater work, performing in New York, Chicago, and on a European tour. He made his film debut in the 1992 film Scent of a Woman, a critically acclaimed picture starring Al Pacino and Chris O'Donnell. Roles in a number of films of varying quality followed, including My New Gun (1992) and When a Man Loves a Woman (1994). The actor then nabbed a sizable role in Jan de Bont's 1996 tornado thriller Twister and the same year began an ongoing working relationship with Paul Thomas Anderson by appearing in his directorial debut Hard Eight. The crime drama, which also starred Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson, received positive critical attention, although it didn't create more than a minor blip at the box office. However, Hoffman's next feature and second collaboration with Anderson, Boogie Nights (1997), was both a critical and financial success, scoring a host of Academy Award nominations and simultaneously reviving the careers of some of its stars, such as Burt Reynolds and Mark Wahlberg, while providing a breakthrough for others, such as Heather Graham and Hoffman himself. He next appeared in the Robin Williams comedy Patch Adams (1998), and the same year starred in two critically acclaimed independent films, Todd Solondz's Happiness and Brad Anderson's Next Stop Wonderland. The prolific actor added an appearance in The Big Lebowski (also 1998) to his already impressive resumé. In addition to his burgeoning acting career, Hoffman won favorable notices for his directing debut with the off-Broadway In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings. Hoffman came into his own with three notable performances in 1999. He reunited with Paul Thomas Anderson to play empathic hospice nurse Phil Parma, one of the emotional anchors in Magnolia. His portrayal of upper-crust snob Freddie Miles in The Talented Mr. Ripley earned him strong notices from many critics. Hoffman's peers awarded him with a Screen Actors Guild nomination for his role as a cross dresser in Flawless opposite Robert De Niro. He returned to the Broadway stage with fellow Anderson regular John C. Reilly to play very different brothers in Sam Shepard's True West. They took a risk by switching the lead roles every three days. Their hard work earned critical raves, and each was nominated for a Tony award. In 2000, Cameron Crowe cast Hoffman as Crowe's childhood hero Lester Bangs in Almost Famous, and David Mamet tapped him to be part of the impressive ensemble in State and Main.Hoffman maintained his status as one of the most respected and hardest-working actors in the new decade by delivering an excellent supporting turn in Red Dragon as an unctuous tabloid reporter. That same year he co-starred in Spike Lee's 25th Hour, and played the bad guy for old collaborator Paul Thomas Anderson in the offbeat romantic comedy Punch-Drunk Love. 2002 also saw the release of Love Liza, a very low-budget film scripted by Hoffman's brother and directed by actor Todd Louiso that starred Phil as a grieving husband addicted to huffing gas fumes. The next year found Hoffman starring as a gambling addict in the small scale Canadian drama Owning Mahowny, and turning in a memorable supporting performance as an amoral preacher in the big screen adaptation of Cold Mountain. Hoffman was in theaters again at the beginning of 2004 as the best friend in the Ben Stiller comedy Along Came Polly. He was also part of yet another outstanding ensemble in the small screen adaptation of Richard Russo's Pulitzer prize-winning novel Empire Falls.In 2005, Hoffman took the role of a lifetime when he assumed the title role in Bennett Miller's Capote. The film had critics in agreement that Hoffman's portrayal of complex and idiosyncratic real-life author Truman Capote was the stuff of Hollywood legend. Hoffman not only mastered the character's distinct body-language and speech but also hauntingly interpreted the subtle psychological and emotional self that made the character whole-leading many to declare that he very nearly made the film everything it was. The performance earned him the Oscar for Best Actor, as well as a Golden Globe and countless other accolades. The attention also provided a boost in profile for the actor who had for so long proved his worth in the background. After playing the bad guy in the third Mission Impossible movie opposite Tom Cruise, Hoffman had a remarkable 2007, a year that saw him play a central part in three well-regarded films. His conniving brother in Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead was a model of self-loathing fermenting into fatal action. In addition to a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor, his highly-educated, emotionally fractured brother to Laura Linney's neurotic sister in The Savages offered him the chance to play numerous subtle and sharply observed scenes with her, the first meeting of these two revered performers. But it was his turn as the intense CIA operative in Charlie Wilson's War that won Hoffman the most widespread praise including Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor.Hoffman continued to solidify his status as one of his generation's finest actors in 2008 with two very different roles. By choosing to play the lead in Charlie Kaufmann's directorial debut Synecdoche, New York, Hoffman again displayed his fearlessness, as well as his desire to work with the very best writers and directors he can find. That willfully difficult film never connected with mainstream audiences, but that was not true at all for Hoffman's other picture of 2008, Doubt. John Patrick Shanley's cinematic adaptation of his own award-winning play earned acting nominations for Hoffman and his three costars (Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis) from both the Screen Actors Guild, and the Academy.Over the following years, Hoffman would continue to appear in a variety of interesting films, like Pirate Radio, The Ides of March, and Moneyball. In 2012 he again collaborated with Paul Thomas Anderson, playing a cult leader in the drama The Master opposite Joaquin Phoenix. For his work in that movie, Hoffman got a Best Supporting Actor nomination from both the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The following year, he appeared in the smash The Hunger Games: Catching Fire as rebel Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. Sadly, personal problems cut his illustrious career short, as Hoffman was found dead in his apartment of an apparent drug overdose at age 46.

Trivia: Became a model at age 14 after being spotted rollerskating by a photographer; worked in France and Japan before quitting the business and deciding to be an actor. Received three Daytime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Ingenue in a Drama Series for her work on the NBC soap Santa Barbara (1986-88); also chosen as Outstanding Heroine by readers of Soap Opera Digest in 1988. Her wedding to Sean Penn was attended by Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, and the best man was producer Art Linson (Fast Times at Ridgemont High). Shortly after marrying Penn in 1996, was carjacked in their Santa Monica driveway; neither she nor their children were hurt, and both perpetrators were apprehended. Was a juror at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival; ex-husband Sean Penn was the jury's president in 2008.

Trivia: Born June 21, 1979, native Minnesotan actor Chris Pratt scored his first big break on television as the troubled physician's son Bright Abbott on the WB series drama Everwood, opposite Treat Williams and others, and segued into film with a prominent role in the biting satire Strangers with Candy (2005) alongside Amy Sedaris and Stephen Colbert. Successive features included Deep in the Valley (2008), Wanted (2008), and Bride Wars (2009) (as the ineffectual fiancé of Anne Hathaway). In 2009, Pratt joined the NBC sitcom Parks & Recreation as a guest star, but his turn as the dim-witted Andy Dwyer was so well-received that he was promoted to series regular for season 2. While on the show, Pratt also juggled some major movie roles, co-starring with Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill as baseball player Scott Hatteberg in the blockbuster Moneyball (2011) and appearing as a Navy SEAL in 2012's controversial Zero Dark Thirty.

Trivia: Pleasant-looking and genial American character player Reed Diamond delivered a number of early performances prior to his first major assignment -- as Detective Mike Kellerman on the series Homicide: Life on the Street. Diamond carried the role from 1995 through 1998, and reprised it in Jean de Segonzac's 2000 feature Homicide: The Movie. After essaying the Lloyd Bridges role in that same year's telemovie remake of High Noon, Diamond then branched off into cinematic work. He was memorable as John Aaron in George Clooney's Edward R. Murrow biopic Good Night, and Good Luck., and lent supporting roles to the horror picture The Darkroom (2006) and the thriller Adrenaline (2007). Diamond continued to work on the small screen as well, playing Stuart Collins for many episodes of Judging Amy and appearing in episodes of such popular series as CSI, Law & Order, The West Wing, and Ghost Whisperer. In 2007, he scored a regular role on the short-lived sci-fi drama Journeyman, as Jack Vassar, the brother of main character Dan Vasser (Kevin McKidd). He also appeared in the first season of Joss Whedon's short-lived series Dollhouse in 2009, and the next year he landed a recurring part on the 8th season of the FOX action series 24. He returned to the big screen in 2011 playing Mark Shapiro in Moneyball, and returned to the Whedonverse with a role in the director's 2012 adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

Trivia: Actress Tammy Blanchard turned more than a few heads by evoking the young Judy Garland in the critically praised made-for-television drama Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001). The effort (which Blanchard graduated to after three seasons on the soap opera Guiding Light) netted several award nominations for the rising star, and in fact won her an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie. Blanchard followed it up with two very different assignments -- a turn as a young Ivy League coed-to-be in the Tom Green-headlined frat-boy comedy Stealing Harvard (2002), and a much more difficult evocation of a young deaf girl who nearly snares the heart of CIA agent Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) in Robert De Niro's Cold War epic The Good Shepherd (2006). Also in 2006, Blanchard signed for a more conventional romantic lead opposite Eduardo Verástegui in the drama Bella; the actress portrays a pregnant waitress, heartbroken when she loses her job -- only to feel her hopes soar as she encounters the love of her life.

Trivia: Was president of his high-school class. Sang backup for The Young Rascals pop group in the 1960s. Became a New York City fireman in 1977 to support his pursuit of an acting career. Made his feature-film debut in 1985's Turk 182, playing a firefighter. Is a colon-cancer survivor and supports several cancer-research organizations.

Trivia: An everyman character actor with a slightly authoritarian bent, Nick Searcy spent his first two decades onscreen specializing in portrayals of such easily recognizable types as policemen, FBI agents, private detectives, and military colonels. Searcy took one of his first bows as a highway patrol officer in the Tom Cruise-headlined Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer outing Days of Thunder (1990), then followed this up with roles in such projects as the telemovies Nightmare in Columbia County and White Lie (both 1991) and the Barbra Streisand feature drama The Prince of Tides (1991). Moviegoers may also associate Searcy with another portrayal from that same year, albeit a far nastier one: that of Frank Bennett, the slug of a husband who ends up as human barbecue at the Whistle Stop Café in Jon Avnet's sleeper hit Fried Green Tomatoes.As the following two decades unfurled, Searcy maintained an almost constant onscreen presence in dozens of films (albeit frequently low-profiled ones). Some of his more memorable projects included Michael Apted's Nell (1994) opposite Jodie Foster, Robert Zemeckis' Cast Away (2000) opposite Tom Hanks, and The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004) opposite Sean Penn. In 2008, Searcy signed on as a regular -- portraying Roy Buffkin -- in the CW network's series drama Easy Money. That series was short-lived, but Searcy kept going with roles in The Ugly Truth and Blood Done Sign My Name. He was part of the cast for Justified, the hit cable series based on the work of Elmore Leonard, and in 2011 he played Matt Keough in the Brad Pitt sports drama Moneyball.

Trivia: Was a high-school senior when he landed his first movie role, the Texas-set teen comedy-drama Drive-In. The Dallas native's second TV role was in a 1978 episode of Dallas (his TV debut came earlier that year in an episode of Police Woman). Appeared with 24 castmate Xander Berkeley in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (as sheriffs) and the 1997 movie Air Force One. Has played five characters in three Star Trek series and one Trek movie. Is a motivational speaker whose "Extra Mile" seminar helps participants develop techniques for achieving their goals. Has appeared in three Transformer movies, even though his character was killed in the first film (2007). Morshower returned as a different character in the 2009 and 2011 installments.

Trivia: Actress Kerris Dorsey began her professional career as an actress when she was just seven years old, appearing in movies like 2005's Just Like Heaven before being cast in the starring role of Paige Whedon on the popular drama Brothers & Sisters.

Trivia: American actor Arliss Howard was born in Missouri, but he became well known to moviegoers of 1987 as a Texan named "Cowboy" in Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam picture Full Metal Jacket. Many viewers assumed that this tall, lithe actor made his film debut in the Kubrick picture, but Howard had in fact been showing up in "hick" roles for several years, notably as the naive vacuum cleaner salesman in Door To Door (84). After his tour of duty with Kubrick, Howard was back to baby-faced roles with his performance as a 24-year-old detective posing as a high schooler in Plain Clothes (88). Howard has developed into something of a George Brent for the 1990s, willing to play second fiddle (albeit a very good one) to some of the more dynamic actresses of the era. He was one of lovelorn Jessica Lange's many "Mr. Perfect" candidates in Men Don't Leave (90); he was second-billed to Goldie Hawn as a disturbed Vietnam vet in Crisscross (92); and in 1991's For the Boys, Howard appeared unbilled as USO performer Bette Midler's doomed GI husband. Arliss Howard's TV movie appearances have included I Know My First Name is Stephen (89) and Iran: Days of Crisis (91).

Trivia: While the majority of professional American sports commentators, such as Mike Ditka and Terry Bradshaw, inherit that job after retiring from the "field," broadcaster extraordinaire Bob Costas marks something of an exception. Though overwhelmingly well-versed in a myriad of sports -- including baseball, basketball, football, and the Olympics -- Costas (at 5' 7," with a slender frame) -- never played any of those games professionally. Yet, ironically, many regard Costas as far better versed than the game-to-sideline "crossovers." When he arrived on the scene in the early '80s, Costas essentially reinvented sports broadcasting by imparting levels of articulation, intelligence, polish, insight, and wit that were, according to one publication, unseen since the retirement of Howard Cosell. But unlike Cosell, Costas projected a congenial aura and probed effectively, without grating. Born March 22, 1952, in Queens, NY, Costas attended Long Island's Commack South High and, as an undergraduate, Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Communications. In the late '70s, he announced games for the Spirits of St. Louis, held a position at KMOX radio in St. Louis, and worked -- very briefly -- for CBS, before NBC signed him as a broadcaster in 1980, under the aegis of Don Ohlmeyer. From that position, Costas' assignments included emceeing NFL, NBA, and MLB games, alongside such legends as Tony Kubek, Bob Uecker, Isiah Thomas, and Bob Trumpy. Sports Illustrated summed up the audience appeal of Costas in 1986 by asserting, "[Costas is] able to pull together an audience. He appeals to the Tommy Dorsey crowd because he can talk about the DiMaggios, worships the old ballparks, and knows when to be reverent.... But he also pulls in the baby-boomers because he's one of them, and he knows when to be irreverent." In late August 1988, Costas expanded his network responsibilities with NBC to include hosting a late-night, Monday-Thursday talk show, Later With Bob Costas. Each 30-minute telecast featured Costas chatting, amiably and casually, with a single guest, usually an actor, actress, sports hero, politician, or newscaster. Memorable bits included conversations with Chevy Chase, Valerie Harper, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Mario Cuomo, Steve Allen, Wilt Chamberlain, Dan Rather, Richard Lewis, Wayne Gretzky, and innumerable others. The program debuted on August 22, 1988, and wrapped five and a half years later, on February 25, 1994. Beginning in 2005, Costas signed with HBO to host the sports news magazine program Costas Now. Alongside Costas' obvious contributions to filmed sporting events, his work in feature films and documentaries (like that of Cosell and Uecker) is somewhat limited, predominantly to cameos in such pictures as The Scout and The Paper (both 1994). Costas lent a voice-only cameo, as Jake, to a 1996 episode of Frasier, cameoed as himself in a 1999 episode of The Drew Carey Show, and -- as a close friend of the late, mythic Mickey Mantle -- participated in an extended interview for the eponymous documentary about that superstar, Mantle (2005). Costas also parodied himself by voicing an automobile, Bob Cutlass, in the Disney-Pixar animated feature Cars (2006).

Trivia: Won the crown of Miss Nisei Queen while she and her family lived in Chicago.Made her Broadway debut playing Gwenny in Josh Logan's production of The World of Suzie Wong in 1958.Performed The Vagina Monologues with playwright Eve Ensler at the famed Apollo Theatre.Frequently works with Los Angeles's East West Players, the oldest Asian-American theater company in America, performing in several of their productions.Has lent her voice talents to a number of popular cartoon series, such as Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Teen Titans, Justice League Unlimited, The Wild Thornberrys, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Captain Planet and the Planeteers and A Pup Named Scooby-Doo among many others.

Trivia: As a 17-year-old, was called up from the minor leagues for a brief stint with the St. Louis Cardinals in his first exposure to the majors. Later won two World Championships in his career with the Cardinals. Was the catcher of choice for two Hall of Fame pitchers--Bob Gibson and Steve Carlton. Retired in 1979 to work as a broadcaster, but returned briefly in 1980 to become one of few players to compete in four different decades. Has done broadcasting for all four major TV networks. Served as co-host with Paula Zahn for the 1992 Winter Olympics on CBS. Had buckets of water dumped on him by Deion Sanders after criticizing him on TV in 1992. Had a minor-league stadium named after him in Memphis, which has since been torn down. Is the host for his own syndicated interview program on TV, The Tim McCarver Show. Has written and co-written numerous baseball books and recorded an album--Tim McCarver Sings Songs from the Great American Songbook.

Trivia: A fiercely independent actress known for never trading on her blonde good looks, Robin Wright Penn strayed even further from the mainstream when she married iconoclast actor-director Sean Penn in 1996. Though she's appeared in such audience favorites as The Princess Bride (1987) and Forrest Gump (1994), the list of blockbusters she's turned down is far longer. Her professional essence remains linked with the daring, blue-collar cinema of her husband and frequent collaborator. Wright Penn has also followed his lead by vehemently shunning the spotlight, at least in matters unrelated to her craft.Born on April 8, 1966, in Dallas and raised in San Diego by her divorced mother, Robin Wright Penn got her first glimpses of show business as a model in Paris and Japan, having pursued that line of work only to raise money for a trip to Europe. Ditching her thoughts of ministering to the poor, Wright Penn heeded the advice of her modeling agent and made her acting debut in the soap opera Santa Barbara, where she played Kelly, the youngest daughter of rich socialites C.C. and Sophia Capwell. Thrice nominated for daytime Emmys, Wright Penn caught the eye of Rob Reiner, who cast her as Princess Buttercup in his beloved fairytale The Princess Bride. Proud and unrelenting, Buttercup nonetheless had a passive role in the events of that comic romantic fantasy, and Wright Penn determined to play neither the princess nor the victim in future projects. This resolve prompted her to reject scripts for Jurassic Park (1993), Batman Forever (1995), and Sabrina (1995), among others.To an audience expecting a big follow-up, Wright Penn slipped into obscurity for a number of years after Bride made her famous. She appeared with her future husband for the first time in State of Grace in 1990, becoming pregnant with their first child, then followed that up with the small Irish film The Playboys (1992). The famously picky actress finally relented to Robert Zemeckis, agreeing to play Jenny, the title character's decade-spanning love interest in Forrest Gump, the 1994 Best Picture winner. Wright Penn was again well received, flummoxing countless producers who wanted her in their movies.Soon after Forrest Gump, Wright Penn began to be identified almost exclusively with Sean Penn's endeavors. After working together on his second directorial effort, The Crossing Guard (1995), Robin Wright and Sean Penn decided to marry, and she would continue appearing opposite him and in front of his camera over the next half-dozen years. Given their against-the-grain tendencies, the pair were perfectly suited to play the impoverished, unbalanced, star-crossed lovers of She's So Lovely (1997), Nick Cassavetes' homage to his father John's body of work. Wright Penn also appeared with her husband in the talky ensemble Hurlyburly (1998). In 2001, she was cast as Jack Nicholson's love interest in Penn's third film, The Pledge, which earned critical but not popular acclaim. Her willingness to eschew vanity has never been more evident, as Wright Penn donned a pair of crooked fake teeth to emphasize her character's lower-class upbringing.As she has retreated into a family life that's as private and intense as anything about her, focusing more on her husband and children than in forging a traditional career, Wright Penn has also made some curious choices that have defied her typical abhorrence for the mainstream. One such example was starring in the four-hanky Kevin Costner romance Message in a Bottle (1999) -- in turn reinforcing the sense of unpredictability she holds so dear. Wright Penn also appeared in M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable (2000), and was set to act opposite Robert Downey Jr. in The Singing Detective (2003). After essaying the role of a mother whose daughter appears to have been blessed by immaculate conception in the 2003 drama Virgin, Penn would make a powerful impression with her role as a questionable cab fare in the post-9/11 racism drama Sorry, Haters. In 2006 Penn would join an impressive cast that included Jude Law, Ray Winstone, and Juliette Binoche to tell the tale of intersecting lives in modern day London in director Anthony Minghella's Breaking & Entering.