Trivia: With sleek, well-muscled good looks that easily lend themselves to romantic leading roles or parts that call for running, jumping, and handling firearms, Wesley Snipes became one of the most popular Hollywood stars of the 1990s. First coming to prominence with roles in Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues and Jungle Fever, Snipes went on to prove himself as an actor who could appeal to audiences as a man that women want and men want to be.Born in Orlando, FL, on July 31, 1962, Snipes grew up in the Bronx. He developed an early interest in acting and attended Manhattan's High School for the Performing Arts. His mother moved him back to Florida before he could graduate, but after finishing up high school in Florida, Snipes attended the State University of New York-Purchase and began pursuing an acting career. It was while performing in a competition that he was discovered by an agent, and a short time later he made his film debut in the Goldie Hawn vehicle Wildcats (1986). Although he appeared in a few more films during the 1980s, it was Snipes' turn as a street tough who menaces Michael Jackson in the Martin Scorsese-directed video for "Bad" that caught the eye of director Lee. He was so impressed with the actor's performance that he cast him in his 1990 Mo' Better Blues as a flamboyant saxophonist opposite Denzel Washington. That role, coupled with the exposure that Snipes had received for his performance as a talented but undisciplined baseball player in the previous year's Major League, succeeded in giving the actor a tentative plot on the Hollywood map. With his starring role in Lee's 1991 Jungle Fever, Snipes won critical praise and increased his audience exposure, and his career duly took off.That same year, Snipes further demonstrated his flexibility with disparate roles in New Jack City, in which he played a volatile drug lord, and The Waterdance, in which he starred as a former wild man repenting for his ways in a hospital's paraplegic ward. Both performances earned strong reviews, and the following year Snipes found himself as the lead in his first big-budget action flick, Passenger 57. The film, which featured the actor as an ex-cop with an attitude who takes on an airplane hijacker, proved to be a hit. Snipes' other film that year, the comedy White Men Can't Jump, was also successful, allowing the actor to enter the arena of full-fledged movie star. After a few more action stints in such films as Rising Sun (1993), which featured him opposite Sean Connery, Snipes went in a different direction with an uncredited role in Waiting to Exhale (1995). The same year he completely bucked his macho, action-figure persona with his portrayal of a flamboyant drag queen in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. Snipes continued to focus on less testosterone-saturated projects after a turn as a baseball player in The Fan (1996), starring as an adulterous director in Mike Figgis' One Night Stand (1997) -- for which he won a Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival -- and as Alfre Woodard's handsome cousin in Down in the Delta in 1998. That same year, Snipes returned to the action genre, playing a pumped-up vampire slayer in Blade and a wrongfully accused man on the run from the law in the sequel to The Fugitive, U.S. Marshals. The former would prove to be a massive cult hit and one of his biggest box-office successes to date. And while the new millenium would see most of Snipes' films relegated to straight-to-video releases, a pair of Blade sequels in 2002 and 2004 helped the actor remain a presence at the multiplexes.Sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion in 2008, Snipes began serving his term in 2010.

Trivia: Diane Lane was born in New York City in 1965, the daughter of drama coach Burt Lane and Playboy centrespread Colleen Farrington; her eyes seemed to sparkle with stars from the tender age of six. Cast in a La Mama Experimental Theatre production of Medea, Lane would subsequently appear on stage in numerous productions, both in her native New York and abroad. It wasn't long before the late-'70s found Lane reaching the apex of her early career, and in 1978 she made her film debut in director George Roy Hill's A Little Romance. Cast alongside no less than Sir Laurence Olivier, Lane held her own in the role of an American student who finds love while studying abroad, and as a result gained remarkable exposure on the cover of Time Magazine in August of the following year. Lane was touted as one of the most promising actors of her generation, and this success parlayed her into a series of neglected films. In a number of these instances, she could not be faulted for choosing substandard material; her appearance in Lamont Johnson's fresh and rousing female western Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1981), for example (alongside Amanda Plummer, Burt Lancaster and Rod Steiger) drew lavish critical praise even as the studio inexplicably threw the film into the wastecan. Lane fared better with twin roles in a pair of teen dramas from director Francis Ford Coppola in 1983 (The Outsiders and Rumble Fish) once again earned the burgeoning film actress the spotlight and reminded audiences of her immense talent; she became a Coppola favorite, but didn't fare as well with his Cotton Club, a massive critical and commercial flop that did little to boost her career, even as it introduced her to co-star Richard Gere (with whom she would reteam, professionally, years later).After rounding out the decade with yet another memorable turn in the television miniseries Lonesome Dove (1989), Lane's career once again became a more low-key affair, though her performances frequently outshined the otherwise unremarkable series of films she appeared in.Though roles in such efforts as Chaplin (1992), A Streetcar Named Desire (1995), and Jack (1996) kept her from falling off the radar, Lane didn't truly shine again until her role as a housewife who embarks on a fragile extramarital affair in A Walk on the Moon (1998). Following that film with a pair of memorable performances in My Dog Skip and The Perfect Storm (both in 2000), Lane's career seemed to have achieved some stability, but it wasn't before a pair of forgettable features (Hardball and The Glass House, both in 2001) that Lane scored with yet another tale of marital infidelity. Director Adrian Lyne's Unfaithful, a retooling of Claude Chabrol's La Femme Infidèle, once again found Lane in the throes of an alluring stranger. Unfaithful - the anticipated onscreen reunion of Lane with Richard Gere - pondered the crushing reverberations of extramarital carnality, and Lane provided an ample and intriguing center of gravity for the film. When February 2003 rolled around and the Academy announced its nominations for the previous year, Lane received her first-ever Oscar nod for her emotional turn in Unfaithful. It did not pay off with a win, but Lane's follow-ups with roles in substantial fare including Just Like Mona (2002) and the wildly-popular Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) suggested that Lane's career had finally found solid box-office ground. Time validated this assertion: 2005's Must Love Dogs, a romantic comedy vehicle co-starring Lane and John Cusack, drew positive responses from many moviegoers and did decent, if not spectacular, box office, despite the excoriation of some critics (Salon's Stephanie Zacharek moaned, "It's ostensibly about adults, but there's nothing remotely adult about it.") 2006's Hollywoodland casts Lane in a mystery about the enigmatic demise of Superman's George Reeves. Over the next several years, Lane would prove she had no intention of slowing down , appearing in films like Untraceable, Nights in Rodanthe, and Secretariat. She appeared in the Superman reboot Man of Steel in 2013 as Martha Kent.Married to Highlander Christopher Lambert from 1988 to 1994 (with a single daughter from that marriage), Lane wed actor Josh Brolin in late 2004, before divorcing in 2013. In addition to her high-profile movie career, she is also an avid photographer; the January 2005 issue of InStyle Magazine prominently published a series of landscapes that Lane shot during one of her road trips into the American west.

Trivia: The son of actor Robert Alda, Alan Alda grew up around vaudeville and burlesque comedians, soaking up as many jokes and routines as was humanly possible. Robert Alda hoped that his son would become a doctor, but the boy's urge to perform won out. After graduating from Fordham University, Alda first acted at the Cleveland Playhouse, and then put his computer-like retention of comedy bits to good use as an improvisational performer with Chicago's Second City and an ensemble player on the satirical TV weekly That Was the Week That Was. Alda's first film was Gone Are the Days in 1963, adapted from the Ossie Davis play in which Alda had appeared on Broadway. (Among the actor's many subsequent stage credits were the original productions of The Apple Tree and The Owl and the Pussycat.) Most of Alda's films were critical successes but financial disappointments. He portrayed George Plimpton in the 1968 adaptation of the writer's bestseller Paper Lion and was a crazed Vietnam vet in the 1972 movie To Kill a Clown. Alda's signature role was the wisecracking Army surgeon Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H, which ran from 1972 through 1983. Intensely pacifistic, the series adhered to Alda's own attitudes towards warfare. (He'd once been an ROTC member in college, but became physically ill at the notion of learning how to kill.) During his M*A*S*H years, Alda also began auxiliary careers as a director and scriptwriter, winning numerous Emmy awards in the process. He also developed a separate sitcom, 1974's We'll Get By. In 1978, Alda took advantage of an unusually lengthy production break in M*A*S*H to star in three films: California Suite, Same Time, Next Year, and The Seduction of Joe Tynan. He made his theatrical-movie directorial debut in 1981 with The Four Seasons, a semiserious exploration of modern romantic gamesmanship; it would prove to be his most successful film as a director, with subsequent efforts like Sweet Liberty (1986) and Betsy's Wedding (1989) no where close. Long associated with major political and social causes and well-known both offscreen and on as a man of heightened sensitivity, Alda has occasionally delighted in going against the grain of his carefully cultivated image with nasty, spiteful characterizations, most notably in Woody Allen'sCrimes and Misdemeanors (1989) and as death row inmate Caryl Chessman in the 1977 TV movie Kill Me if You Can. Alda later continued to make his mark on audiences with his more accustomed nice-guy portrayals in films such as Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993), Everyone Says I Love You (1996), Flirting With Disaster (1996), and The Object of My Affection (1998).The next several years saw Alda show up in a handful of supporting roles, but in 2004, he had his biggest year in more than a decade. First, he appeared opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorcese's critically-acclaimed Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator. Playing Senator Ralph Owen Brewster, Alda would go on to receive a Best Supporting Actor Oscar-nomination, the first nod from the Academy in his long and impressive career. Meanwhile, on the small-screen, Alda played presidential-hopeful Arnold Vinick on NBC's political drama The West Wing, another Senator and his first regular series role since M*A*S*H. He would also enjoy recurring roles on 30 Rock and The Big C, and would continue to flex his comedy muscles in movies like Tower Heist and Wanderlust.

Trivia: An alumnus of Eastern New Mexico University, American actor Ronny Cox received one the best early film showcases an actor could ask for. In 1972, he was cast as one of the four unfortunate rafters in Deliverance; it was Cox who engaged in the celebrated "dueling banjos" sequence with enigmatic albino boy Hoyt J. Pollard. Two years later, Cox found himself in Apple's Way, a homey TV dramatic weekly described as a "modern Waltons". Most of his subsequent roles were in this benign, All-American vein--and then Cox shocked his followers by portraying Jerry Rubin in the 1975 PBS TV drama The Trial of the Chicago Seven. During this telecast, Cox became one of the first (if not the first) actors to mouth a now-familiar expletive of disgust on American television. As his physique thickened and his hairline thinned in the 1980s, Cox was much in demand in films as a corporate villain, notably in Paul Verhoeven's Robocop (1984) and Total Recall (1990). The flip side of this hard-nosed screen image was his portrayal of the apoplectic but scrupulously honest police chief in Eddie Murphy's Beverly Hills Cop films.

Trivia: First big break was writing and performing humorous essays on a local Pittsburgh show, PM Magazine, in the early 1980s. Appeared on Star Search, where he lost to Sinbad. Younger brother Jimmy has managed the careers of several major comedians, including Jim Carrey, Will Ferrell and Gary Shandling. His two sons are named for Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in Catcher in the Rye, and legendary actor Marlon Brando. Penned a series of books based on his signature stream-of-consciousness-style monologues, starting with 1997's Rants. Mocked the annual Presidential address on Comedy Central's State of the Union: Undressed, but then sat in the House gallery as a guest of President Bush for the 2004 State of the Union. Launched his own radio program, The Dennis Miller Show, for Westwood One radio network in March of 2007. In 2008, became a spokesperson for USA Cares, a nonprofit organization that provides financial assistance to military families. Appears periodically as a commentator on Fox News political talk shows.

Trivia: Actress Diane Baker's well-scrubbed, all-American beauty has frequently been employed as a cool veneer for film characters of smoldering passions. The daughter of actress Dorothy Harrington, Diane was studying at USC when she was tapped for her first film role as Millie Perkins' sister in 20th Century-Fox's The Diary of Anne Frank (1959); the studio then cast Diane as Pat Boone's "girl back home," who didn't get to go along on Boone's Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959). She remained at Fox until 1962, essaying the title role in the studio's re-remake of Tess of the Storm Country (1961). Her most famous screen assignment was at Columbia, where she portrayed axe murderess Joan Crawford's supposedly well-balanced daughter in Straitjacket (1963). Diane became a documentary director in the 1970s with Ashanya, and a producer with Never Never Land (1982). The best of Diane Baker's latter-day roles was the media-savvy politico mother of the kidnap victim in Silence of the Lambs (1991).

Trivia: With his handsome, everyman looks and strong abilities on stage and screen, actor Tate Donovan has endured to become one of the most talented actors that no one recognizes. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing; with previous girlfriends such as Sandra Bullock and Jennifer Aniston and solid performances in Clean and Sober (1988) and Memphis Belle (1990), it's readily apparent that he has the charm to match his talent. A Tenafly, NJ, native who took up acting in his teens, Donovan's early screen appearances came with troubled teen roles in such efforts as Not My Kid and Into Thin Air (both 1985), as well as a memorable appearance in the 1986 sci-fi adventure Space Camp. A move to Los Angeles found Donovan closer to the world of film production while he pursued his higher education at U.S.C., and it was there that he made the acquaintance of longtime friends such as George Clooney. A post-collegiate role in Memphis Belle (1990) proved that Donovan was indeed honing his skills in front of the camera to good effect, and following an appearance as a recovering drug addict in Clean and Sober (1988), he took his first leading role in the 1992 romantic comedy Love Potion No. 9. Though a relationship with that film's co-star, Sandra Bullock, would result in an engagement, the couple parted ways two short years later, and Donovan began a series of appearances in such art-house efforts as Ethan Frome (1993). A role in the Buena Vista comedy Holy Matrimony (1994) found Donovan getting in good with the folks at Disney, and in three short years he would be providing the voice for the eponymous character in the animated Disney adventure Hercules. More success came in the late '90s with appearances in the popular television series Ally McBeal and Friends, and in addition to a memorable appearance in Homicide: Life on the Street, Donovan gained even more exposure when he was spotted around Tinseltown with high-profile squeeze Jennifer Aniston. Though such later efforts as The Office Party (2000) and Exposed (2002) went largely unseen, Donovan returned to the small screen in 2003 with supporting roles in the series The O.C. and Mister Sterling. Over the coming years, Donovan would continue to appear in several projects, including movies like The Pacifier, Shooter, and Argo, as well as TV series like The O.C. and Damages.

Trivia: Solemn, soulful-eyed character actor Harris Yulin made his 1963 off-Broadway debut in Next Time I'll Sing for You. Though Yulin remained a frequent visitor to the New York theatrical scene (he made his Broadway bow in a 1980 revival of Watch on the Rhine), he preferred to live and work in his home state of California. As one of the founders of the Los Angeles Classic Theater, he became a mentor and spiritual advisor for a number of film stars with theatrical aspirations. His own movie work includes the roles of Wild Bill Hickok in the 1971 revisionist Western Doc, Bernstein in the 1983 remake of Scarface, and King Edward in 1996's Looking for Richard, a contemporary spin on Shakespeare's Richard III. On television, Harris Yulin has been seen as Senator Joseph McCarthy in Robert F. Kennedy and His Times (1985) and as girl-chasing TV anchorman Neal Frazier in the weekly WIOU (1990).

Trivia: American character actor Nicholas Pryor has played his share of weak or ineffectual characters, but can exert authority and strength if the need arises. One of the busiest actors on the daytime-drama scene, Pryor has been a regular on such soapers as All My Children (he was the third of four actors to play Link Tyler) Young Dr. Malone, The Nurses, Another World, The Edge of Night, Love is a Many Splendored Thing and The Nurses. His prime-time TV roles include John Quincy Adams II in The Adams Chronicles (1976), vice principal Jack Felspar in Bronx Zoo (1987), and chancellor Arnold in Beverly Hills 90210 (1990- ). Among Nicholas Pryor's best film assignments were the roles of beauty-contest organizer Barbara Feldon's long-suffering husband in Smile (1975) and Tom Cruise's clueless dad in Risky Business (1983).

Trivia: Best known as a distinguished thespian -- an actor with an aura of earnest authority about him -- Nigel Bennett actually held the status of a multihyphenate, prolifically working as not merely an actor, but an author, director, and occasional producer as well. In terms of dramatic roles, Bennett cultivated the majority of his professional experience on the British stage in a host of productions, including The Country Wife, Loot, Hamlet, and Art to name merely a handful. After a decade and a half spent in this arena, Bennett relocated to Canada in 1986 and shifted gears to focus on film and television work, frequently though not always essaying character roles. The many filmed projects in which Bennett appeared include the Gene Hackman/Anne Archer thriller The Narrow Margin (1990), the Anthony Hopkins/Aidan Quinn epic western Legends of the Fall (1994), and the direct-to-video sci-fi thriller Darkman III: Die Darkman Die (1996). In 2007, Bennett both produced and signed for a supporting role in the Chaz Thorne-helmed black comedy Just Buried (2007).

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

Trivia: Best known for Connor Undercover and Repo Men (2010).

Trivia: Saturnine character actor Martin Landau was a staff cartoonist for the New York Daily News before switching to acting. In 1955, his career got off to a promising beginning, when out of 2,000 applicants, only he and one other actor (Steve McQueen) were accepted by Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. Extremely busy in the days of live, Manhattan-based television, Landau made his cinematic mark with his second film appearance, playing James Mason's henchman in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959). In 1966, Landau and his wife Barbara Bain were both cast on the TV adventure/espionage series Mission: Impossible. For three years, Landau portrayed Rollin Hand, a master of disguise with the acute ability to impersonate virtually every villain who came down the pike (banana-republic despots were a specialty). Unhappy with changes in production personnel and budget cuts, Landau and Bain left the series in 1969. Six years later, they costarred in Space: 1999 a popular syndicated sci-fi series; the performances of Landau, Bain, and third lead Barry Morse helped to gloss over the glaring gaps in continuity and logic which characterized the show's two-year run. The couple would subsequently act together several times (The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island (1981) was one of the less distinguished occasions) before their marriage dissolved.Working steadily in various projects throughout the next few decades, Landau enjoyed a career renaissance with two consecutive Oscar nominations, the first for Francis Ford Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), and the second for Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). Landau finally won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's 1994 Ed Wood; his refusal to cut his acceptance speech short was one of the high points of the 1995 Oscar ceremony. He would continue to work over the next several years, appearing in movies like City of Ember and Mysteria, as well as on TV shows like Without a Trace and Entourage.