Trivia: A woman whose combination of talent, tenacity, and beauty has made her one of Hollywood's busiest actors, Halle Berry has enjoyed a level of success that has come from years of hard work and her share of career pitfalls. Berry's interest in show business came courtesy of her participation in a number of beauty pageants throughout her teens, including the 1986 Miss U.S.A. Pageant. A native of Cleveland, OH, where she was born to an African-American father and white mother on August 14, 1968, Berry was raised by her mother, a psychiatric nurse, following her parents' divorce. At the age of 17, she appeared in the spotlight for the first time as the winner of the Miss Teen All-American Pageant, and subsequently became a model. Berry won her first professional acting gig on the TV series Living Dolls, and then appeared on Knots Landing before winning her first big-screen role in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever. It was on the set of the film that she first earned her reputation for her full commitment to acting, reportedly refusing to bathe for weeks in preparation for her portrayal of a crack addict.Following her film debut, Berry was cast opposite Eddie Murphy in Boomerang (1992) as the comedian's love interest; not only did she hold her own against Murphy, but the same year she did acclaimed work in the title role of the Alex Haley miniseries Queen, playing a young woman struggling against the brutal conditions of slavery.After a comedic turn as sultry secretary Sharon Stone in the 1994 live-action version of The Flintstones, Berry returned to more serious fare with her role in the adoption drama Losing Isaiah (1995). Starring opposite Jessica Lange as a former crack addict battling to win custody of her child, who as a baby was adopted by an affluent white couple, Berry earned a mixed reception from critics, some of whom noted that her scenes with Lange highlighted Berry's own shortcomings.However, critical opinion of the actress' work was overwhelmingly favorable in 1998, when she starred as a street smart young woman who comes to the aid of a bumbling politician in Warren Beatty's Bullworth. The following year, Berry won even greater acclaim -- and an Emmy and Golden Globe -- for her turn as tragic screen siren Dorothy Dandridge in the made-for-cable Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Unfortunately, any acclaim Berry enjoyed was overshadowed by her widely publicized brush with the law in February of 2000, when she allegedly ran a red light, slammed into another car, and then left the scene of the accident. The actress, who suffered a gash to her forehead (the driver of the other car sustained a broken wrist), was booked in a misdemeanor court in early April of that year.Fortunately for Berry, her subsequent onscreen work removed the spotlight from her legal troubles; that same year, she starred as Storm in Bryan Singer's hugely successful adaptation of The X-Men. The film was a box office hit, but her next popcorn flick, the thriller Swordfish, which touted itself as the first movie to feature Berry baring her breasts, had a less impressive reception.Berry again bared more than her character's inner turmoil in Monster's Ball (2001), a romantic drama directed by Marc Forster that starred the actress as a woman who becomes involved with an ex-prison-guard (Billy Bob Thornton) who oversaw the prison execution of her husband (Sean Combs). Berry earned wide critical praise for her work in the film, as well as Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Actress. And though she may have lost out to Sissy Spacek in the Golden Globes, her night at the Oscars found Berry the favored performer as took home a statue for Best Actress. A momentous footnote in Academy Award history, Berry's win marked the first time an African American had been bestowed that particular honor.Although her turn in the James Bond flick Die Another Day was so successful that talk began of a spin-off film, Berry's first true post-Oscar vehicle Gothika proved to be unpopular with both critics and moviegoers. Luckily, 2003 wasn't a total loss for her though as X2: X-Men United was a box-office smash and was regarded by many to be superior to its predecessor. Sticking with comic-books as source-material, Berry could be seen in Catwoman the following Summer. The film was the biggest flop of her career, panned by audiences and critics, and earning the actress a coveted Razzie for her terrible performance. She won back a great deal of respect, however, by starring in the made for TV adaptation of the Zora Neale Hurston novel Their Eyes Were Watching God the next year. She followed this moving performance with a return to her X-Men comrades for X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006, then signed on to star alongside a decidedly creepy Bruce Willis in the suspense thriller Perfect Stranger (2007), directed by James Foley.As the 2010's unfolded, Berry continued to enjoy top-tier status as one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, taking on roles in films like Things We Lost in the Fire, Dark Tide, Cloud Atlas, and The Call. In 2014, she reprised her role of Storm yet again in X-Men: Days of Future Past and took the lead role in her own TV series, Extant, which lasted for two seasons.

Trivia: Hailed by many critics as one of the most brilliant and versatile actors of his generation, Robert Downey Jr. chalked up a formidable onscreen track record that quickly launched the young thesp into the stratosphere. Although, for a time, Downey's stormy offscreen life and personal problems threatened to challenge his public image, he quickly bounced back and overcame these setbacks, with a continued array of impressive roles on the big and small screens that never sacrificed his audience appeal or affability.The son of underground filmmaker Robert Downey, Downey Jr. was born in New York City on April 4, 1965. He made his first onscreen appearance at the age of five, as a puppy in his father's film Pound (1970). Between 1972 and 1990, he made cameo appearances in five more of his father's films. The actor's first significant role, in 1983's Baby, It's You, largely ended up on the cutting-room floor; it wasn't until two years later that he began landing more substantial parts, first as a one-season cast member on Saturday Night Live and then in the comedy Weird Science. In 1987, he landed plum roles in two films that capitalized on the Brat Pack phenomenon, James Toback's The Pick-Up Artist, (opposite Molly Ringwald), and Less Than Zero, for which he won acclaim playing cocaine addict Julian Wells.Through it all, Downey cultivated an enviable instinct for role (and script) selection. His turns in Emile Ardolino's classy reincarnation fantasy Chances Are (1989), Michael Hoffman's Soapdish (1992), Robert Altman's Short Cuts (as the Iago-like Hollywood makeup artist Bill Bush), and Richard Loncraine's Richard III (1995) wowed viewers around the world, and often, on those rare occasions when Downey did choose substandard material, such as the lead in Richard Attenborough's deeply flawed Chaplin (1992), or an Australian media parasite in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994), his performance redeemed it. In fact, critics deemed Downey's portrayal as one of the only worthwhile elements in the Chaplin biopic, and it earned the thesp a Best Actor Oscar nomination, as well as Golden Globe and British Academy Award noms.Around this time, Downey's personal life took a turn for the worse. In June 1996, the LAPD arrested the actor (who had already spent time in three rehabilitation facilities between 1987 and 1996) on counts including drug use, driving under the influence, possession of a concealed weapon, and possession of illegal substances, a development which struck many as ironic, given his star-making performance years prior in Less than Zero. A month after this arrest, police found Downey Jr. unconscious on a neighbor's lawn, under the influence of a controlled substance, and authorities again incarcerated him, taking him -- this time -- to a rehab center. A third arrest soon followed, as did another stint in rehab. His stay in rehab didn't last long, as he walked out, thereby violating the conditions of his bail. More arrests and complications followed -- in fact, the actor had to be released from rehab to make James Toback's Two Girls and a Guy -- but he still landed a few screen appearances and won praise for his work in Mike Figgis' One Night Stand (1997) and Altman's otherwise-disappointing Gingerbread Man (1998). In addition, he starred in one of his father's films, the offbeat Hugo Pool (1997). In 1999, he had three films out in theaters: Friends and Lovers, Bowfinger, and In Dreams. He delivered a particularly chilling performance in the latter, as longhaired psychopathic child murderer Vivian Thompson, that arguably ranked with his finest work. But Downey's problems caught up with him again that same year, when he was re-arrested and sentenced to 12 months in a state penitentiary. These complications led to the actor's removal from the cast of the summer 2001 Julia Roberts/Billy Crystal comedy America's Sweethearts and his removal from a stage production of longtime friend Mel Gibson's Hamlet, although a memorably manic performance in Curtis Hanson's Wonder Boys made it to the screen in 2000. Downey's decision -- after release -- to pursue television work, with a recurring role on Ally McBeal, marked a brief comeback (he won a 2001 Best TV Series Supporting Actor Golden Globe for the performance). Nevertheless, series creator David E. Kelley and the show's other producers sacked Downey permanently when two additional arrests followed. During this period, Downey also allegedly dated series star Calista Flockhart.In 2002, a Riverside, CA, judge dismissed all counts against Downey. In time, the former addict counseled other celebrity addicts and became something of a spokesperson for rehabilitation. He starred as a hallucination-prone novelist in The Singing Detective in 2003, and while the film didn't achieve mainstream success, critics praised Downey for his interpretation of the role, alongside Oscar winners Adrien Brody and Mel Gibson. The same could be said for Gothika (2003), the psychological thriller that placed him opposite Hollywood heavyweight Halle Berry. In 2004, Downey appeared in Steven Soderbergh's portion of the film Eros.Downey achieved success throughout 2005 with appearances in George Clooney's critically lauded Good Night, and Good Luck -- as one of Ed Murrow's underlings -- and he paired up with Val Kilmer in Shane Black's directorial debut Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. He continued balancing more mainstream fare, such as Disney's Shaggy Dog remake, with challenging films such as Richard Linklater's rotoscoped adaptation A Scanner Darkly. That same year, Downey wrapped production on Hanson's Lucky You, the story of a card shark (Eric Bana) who faces off against his father (Robert Duvall) at the legendary World Series of Poker, while simultaneously attempting to woo a beautiful singer (Drew Barrymore).Downey continued to show his versatility by joining the casts of Zodiac, David Fincher's highly-touted film about the Zodiac Killer, and the Diane Arbus biopic Fur, with Nicole Kidman. A supporting role in Jon Poll's 2007 directorial debut Charlie Bartlett followed. The biggest was yet to come, however, as 2007 found Downey taking on the roles that would make him an even bigger star than he'd been in his youth, as he took on the leading role of sarcastic billionaire and part-time super hero Tony Stark in the big screen adaptation of the comic book Iron Man, as well as self-important actor Kirk Lazarus in the comedy Tropic Thunder. Both films turned out to be not just blockbuster successes at the box office, but breakaway hits with critics as well, and in addition to major praise, the actor also walked away from 2008 with an Oscar nomination for his performance in Tropic Thunder.After Iron Man premiered, Marvel studios decided to move forward with a film empire, and Downey's Tony Stark became the anchor of the series, starring in his own Iron Man trilogy and appearing in many other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe like the Avengers (2012) and its sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron (2014). Downey still found time to appear in side projects, like The Judge (2014), which he also produced.

Trivia: Born January 30, 195, Charles Dutton attended the Yale School of Drama, and in 1983 he first appeared off-Broadway in Richard III. Before long he was delivering Tony-calibre performances in such Broadway productions as Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and The Piano Lesson. In films since 1986's No Mercy, the forceful, thunder-voiced Dutton has been seen in movies ranging from the mirth-provoking Crocodile Dundee 2 to the spine-chilling Alien 3. In 1991, Charles Dutton began a long TV run as the star of the Fox Network sitcom Roc.Dutton became an actor while serving a seven and a half-year prison sentence for stabbing a man during a street fight. While in prison, Dutton was stabbed in the neck with an ice pick during a fight with another inmate. The incident proved to be the turning point in Dutton's life when he refused to retaliate. Shortly thereafter, he became interested in drama and while serving his sentence completed a two-year college degree course. Upon his release from prison, Dutton was admitted into the Yale School of Drama. There he studied under playwright August Wilson and director Lloyd Richards.In 2000, Dutton directed The Corner, an acclaimed miniseries from HBO adapted from David Simon and Ed Burns' novel "The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood". The Corner won several awards, including an Emmy for Best Miniseries, and Dutton himself was honored for his direction. This would not be the last Emmy he received; the actor won Emmy Awards in 2002 and 2003 for supporting roles in televisiond dramas The Practice and Without a Trace. In 2003, Dutton starred in the made-for-TV drama D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear, and continued to make appearances on popular television shows including The L Word, The Sopranos, and House, M.D. Dutton joined the cast of Threshold in 2005. While the CBS science fiction series gained a loyal following, the show was short-lived. The actor went on to appear in filmmaker John Sayles' 2007 drama Honeydripper, which follows the owner of a blues club that was revitalized by a young electric guitarist.

Trivia: Character actor John Carroll Lynch first gained notice for his performance as Frances McDormand's sweet and supportive husband in the Coen brother's critically acclaimed Fargo. He subsequently appeared on the ABC sitcom The Drew Carey Show as the title character's cross-dressing brother. The role was initially a recurring one, but Lynch was eventually added as a full-time cast member. Along the way, he also popped up in a number of small roles in large films like 1997's Volcano and 2000's Gone in 60 Seconds.Following the cancellation of The Drew Carey Show, Lynch switched gears from comedy to drama, but stayed on the small screen, taking a role on HBO's bleak and bizarre Carnivàle. That stint was followed by a season on the CBS legal drama Close to Home. And in 2007, he was cast alongside Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser in Fox's post-Hurricane Katrina cop show K-Ville. That same year, he could be seen on the big-screen in David Fincher's Zodiac. Lynch would remain an active perormer for years to come, appearing in movies like Shutter Island and Crazy, Stupid, Love, as well as starring on TV shows like Body of Proof.

Trivia: When producers of the Lord of the Rings trilogy needed an actor of eminence and power to play King Théoden in the second and third films, they went fishing and reeled in a prize catch: Bernard Hill. It was Hill who portrayed Captain E.J. Smith in the 1997 box-office blockbuster Titanic. By sinking to the bottom as the stiff-upper-lipped commanding officer of the doomed ship, Hill rose to new heights in his profession, receiving international recognition for his acting skill. Although Titanic was mediocre artistically, audiences loved it for its soapy melodrama, special effects, and strong performances from veteran actors like Hill. But who was Hill? When fans checked into his background, they discovered that he was among Britain's most accomplished actors. In the 1980s, he earned critical acclaim for roles in stage and television productions of Shakespeare's plays and won Britain's Press Guild award for Achievement of the Decade for his performance in the TV miniseries Boys From the Blackstuff. In 1994, he received a British Academy award for his starring role in Skallagrigg. Further research revealed that Hill had portrayed Gratus in what was unquestionably one of the top three or four TV miniseries of all time -- I, Claudius (1976) -- and Sergeant Putnam in the 1982 Academy Award-winning biodrama Gandhi. Hill was born on December 17, 1944, in Manchester, England, and eventually resided with his own family in Suffolk. Since the early '70s, he has acted in television and film, as well as theater. Hill has appeared in TV adaptations of such classics as The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot; The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame; and Antigone by Sophocles. Hill accepted roles in a string of films with offbeat names: Besides Skallagrigg, he appeared in Madagascar Skin (1995), Drug-Taking and the Arts (1994), Dirtysomething (1993), Drowning by Numbers (1988), Bellman and True (1987), Milwr Bychan (1986), Squaring the Circle (1984), The Spongers (1978), and Pit Strike (1977). In the Lord of the Rings films, Hill plays white-haired Théoden Ednew, the 17th king of Rohan and a defender of Middle-earth. Made old and decrepit beyond his chronological age by the machinations of Grima Wormtongue and Saruman, Théoden regains his vigor through the intervention of Gandalf and rides his horse, Snowmane, to battlefield glory.

Trivia: African American leading man Dorian Harewood attended the University of Cincinnati before establishing his theatrical reputation, first in the cast of the Broadway rock musical Two Gentlemen of Verona, then in the road company of Jesus Christ, Superstar. He won a Theatre Guild Award for his work in the 1974 production Don't Call Back. In films since 1976's Sparkle, Harewood is best known for his powerful supporting roles, most notably the unfortunate "grunt" Eightball in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987). His television resumé includes the part of Alex Haley's father in the 1979 miniseries Roots: The Next Generation and the title roles in the made-for-TV movies The Jessie Owens Story (1984) and Guilty of Innocence: The Lenell Geter Story (1987); he has also played recurring roles on such series as Glitter, The Trials of Rosie O'Neill, and Viper. Harewood has always attributed much of his success to actress Bette Davis, who while lecturing at the U. of Cincinnati encouraged the young actor to aggressively pursue his dreams of stardom. Dorian Harewood is the husband of actress Ann McCurry.

Trivia: An alluring red-headed siren and a genial presence in U.S. theatrical films and television during the first decades of the new millennium, actress Amy Sloan first caught the attention of viewers when cast in the 2000 telemovie A Diva's Christmas Carol, starring Vanessa Williams as an aggressive and acid-mouthed variant on Ebenezer Scrooge. Sloan then teamed with the gifted director Euzhan Palcy (of Sugar Cane Alley and A Dry White Season fame) for a small supporting role in the gritty, sobering prison drama The Killing Yard (2001). After a spin as a reporter in the made-for-cable production No Ordinary Baby, Sloan once again demonstrated her keen instinct for picking exemplary filmmakers as collaborators, by signing on to work with acclaimed stage director Peter Masterson in the psychological thriller Lost Junction. Unfortunately, this -- like The Killing Yard -- failed to generate substantial recognition, and a supporting role in the disappointing Halle Berry/Robert Downey Jr. thriller Gothika (2003) (as an inmate) provided Sloan with only a small amount of screen time. Sloan fared better -- and received slightly higher billing -- as Sheila on television's popular Gilmore Girls and as Wendy on the short-lived 2007 series Big Shots.

Trivia: Actor Noah Bernett entered acting during his primary school years, and both developed and sustained a reputation at an early age for taking edgy, slightly provocative roles. He debuted on film as Tim, the young ghost-boy spotted by psychiatrist Dr. Miranda Grey at the conclusion of director Mathieu Kassovitz's poorly received supernatural thriller Gothika (2003), and after a series of fleeting appearances on television turned up with his second major movie role as an über-gay 12 year old who illuminates the lives of a closeted homosexual uncle and his partner in the 2007 drama Breakfast with Scot.

Trivia: One of Spain's foremost leading ladies of the 1990s, Penélope Cruz has managed to make her mark with international audiences as well. Born in Madrid on April 28, 1974, Cruz was one of three children of a merchant and a hairdresser. After years of intensive study in ballet and jazz, she broke into acting in 1992. That year, she had starring roles in Jamón Jamón and Belle Epoque, two very disparate films. The former cast her as the desperately poor daughter of a village prostitute, while the latter featured her as one of four lusty daughters of a wealthy man in pre-Franco Spain. Belle Epoque proved to be a huge success, winning nine Goya Awards (the Spanish equivalent of an Academy Award) and an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Its success gave Cruz a dose of international recognition, and after starring in a number of Spanish films, she enhanced this recognition in 1997 with the Sundance entry Abre los Ojos (Open Your Eyes). That same year, she had a brief but memorable role in Pedro Almodóvar's Carne Trémula (Live Flesh). In 1998, Cruz had her first starring role in an English-language film, playing Billy Crudup's Mexican-American love interest in Stephen Frears' The Hi-Lo Country. She had another go at English later that year in the Spanish-British romantic comedy Twice Upon a Yesterday, which cast her as a Spanish barmaid living in London. In 1999, she returned to Spain to collaborate once again with Almodóvar on Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother), a wildly acclaimed film that premiered at Cannes that year.The next two years would prove to be a critical turning point in both Cruz's personal and professional life, with increasingly visible roles in large-scale Hollywood productions as well as a developing relationship with one Tinseltown's most popular leading men. Gaining notice for her roles in All the Pretty Horses in 2000 and Blow the following year, it appeared as if Cruz's career had suddenly kicked into overdrive. After starring alongside Nicolas Cage in the underperforming Captain Corelli's Mandolin in 2001, Cruz dove back into familiar territory with director Cameron Crowe's remake of Abre los Ojos, Vanilla Sky (2001). Developing a close relationship with lead Tom Cruise as his much publicized breakup with Nicole Kidman drew to a close, the pair soon found themselves the center of considerable paparazzi attention as they became Hollywood's hottest new couple.While "Cruz & Cruise" outlasted most celebrity couplings born on movie sets -- even generating wedding talk -- the duo went their separate ways in 2004. Perhaps not coincidentally, Cruz's career took a backseat to her paramour's while she was dating him; between 2001 and 2004, most of her roles were either minor ones in uncelebrated American indies (Waking Up in Reno, Masked and Anonymous, Noel) or meatier ones in foreign films that failed to gain traction in the States (Fanfan la Tulipe, Don't Move, Bandidas). Luckily, the actress rebounded with a performance thought by many critics to be the best of her career, when she re-teamed with one of her earliest champions, Pedro Almodóvar, for his nostalgic, bittersweet Volver in 2006. Warm, witty, and biting, Cruz's performance kept her name in the running for many year-end awards, even garnering her her first Oscar nomination for Best Actress.In 2008, Cruz earned strong reviews for her work in Elegy, but it was her turn in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona that garnered her Best Supporting Actress nods from the Hollywood Foreign Press, the Screen Actors Guild, and winning the trophy in that category from the Academy.She was nominated the next year for the Golden Globe, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Oscar for her sexy supporting turn in Rob Marshall's big-screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Nine. Despite the film itself doing poorly, Cruz proved that she'd found a solid career trajectory as the 2010's progressed, appearing in projects like Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.