Trivia: Brooding and intense, Al Pacino has remained one of Hollywood's premier actors throughout his lengthy career, a popular and critical favorite whose list of credits includes many of the finest films of his era. Pacino was born April 25, 1940, in East Harlem, NY. Raised in the Bronx, he attended the legendary High School for Performing Arts, but dropped out at the age of 17. He spent the next several years drifting from job to job, continuing to study acting and occasionally appearing in off-off-Broadway productions. In 1966, Pacino was accepted to train at the Actors' Studio, and after working with James Earl Jones in The Peace Creeps, he starred as a brutal street youth in the off-Broadway social drama The Indian Wants the Bronx, earning an Obie Award as Best Actor for the 1967-1968 theatrical season. A year later, he made his Broadway debut in Does the Tiger Wear a Necktie? Although the play itself closed after less than 40 performances, Pacino was universally praised for his potent portrayal of a sociopathic drug addict, and he won a Tony Award for his performance. Pacino made his film debut in the 1969 flop Me, Natalie. After making his theatrical directorial debut with 1970's Rats, he returned to the screen a year later in Panic in Needle Park, again appearing as a junkie. (To prepare for the role, he and co-star Kitty Winn conducted extensive research in known drug-dealer haunts as well as methadone clinics.) While the picture was not a success, Pacino again earned critical raves. Next came Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 Mafia epic The Godfather. As Michael Corleone, the son of an infamous crime lord reluctantly thrust into the family business, Pacino shot to stardom, earning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his soulful performance. While the follow-up, 1973's Scarecrow, was received far less warmly, the police drama Serpico was a smash, as was 1974's The Godfather Part II for which he earned his third Academy Award nomination. The 1975 fact-based Dog Day Afternoon, in which Pacino starred as a robber attempting to stick up a bank in order to finance his gay lover's sex-change operation, was yet another staggering success.The 1977 auto-racing drama Bobby Deerfield, on the other hand, was a disaster. Pacino then retreated to Broadway, winning a second Tony for his performance in the title role in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. Upon returning to Hollywood, he starred in ...And Justice for All, which did not appease reviewers but restored him to moviegoers' good graces. Pacino next starred in William Friedkin's controversial Cruising, portraying a New York City cop on the trail of a serial killer targeting homosexuals; it was not a hit, nor was the 1982 comedy Author! Author! Brian DePalma's violent 1983 remake of Scarface followed; while moderately successful during its initial release, the movie later became a major cult favorite. Still, its lukewarm initial reception further tarnished Pacino's star. However, no one was fully prepared for the fate which befell 1985's historical epic Revolution; made for over $28 million, the film failed to gross even $1 million dollars at the box office. Pacino subsequently vanished from the public eye, directing his own film, The Local Stigmatic, which outside of a handful of 1990 showings at the Museum of Modern Art was never screened publicly. While his name was attached to a number of projects during this time period, none came to fruition, and he disappeared from cinema for over four years. Finally, in 1989, Pacino returned with the stylish thriller Sea of Love; the picture was a hit, and suddenly he was a star all over again. A virtually unrecognizable turn as a garish gangster in 1990's Dick Tracy earned him a sixth Oscar nomination, but The Godfather Part III was not the financial blockbuster many anticipated it to be. The 1991 romantic comedy Frankie and Johnny was a success, however, and a year later Pacino starred in the highly regarded Glengarry Glen Ross as well as Scent of a Woman, at last earning an Oscar for his performance in the latter film. He reunited with DePalma for 1993's stylish crime drama Carlito's Way, to which he'd first been slated to star in several years prior. Remaining in the underworld, he starred as a cop opposite master thief Robert De Niro in 1995's superb Heat, written and directed by Michael Mann. Pacino next starred in the 1996 political drama City Hall, but earned more notice that year for writing, directing, producing, and starring in Looking for Richard, a documentary exploration of Shakespeare's Richard III shot with an all-star cast. In 1997, he appeared with two of Hollywood's most notable young stars, first shooting Donnie Brasco opposite Johnny Depp, and then acting alongside Keanu Reeves in The Devil's Advocate. Following roles in The Insider and Any Given Sunday two-years later, Pacino would appear in the film version of the stage play Chinese Coffee (2000) before a two-year periods in which the actor was curiously absent from the screen. Any speculation on the workhorse actor's slowing down ended when in 2002 Pacino returned with the quadruple-threat of Insomnia, Simone, People I Know and The Recruit. With roles ranging from that of a troubled detective investigating a murder in the land of the midnight sun, to a film producer who builds the worlds first virtual actress, Pacino reenforced his image as a versatile, energetic and adventurous an actor. The films struck uneven chords, however; Insomnia hit a zenith, critically and commercially, while Pacino scraped bottom with Simone. Pacino fared better at the box and in the press with Michael Radford's December 2004 Merchant of Venice but dodged critical bullets with the D.J. Caruso-helmed 2005 gambling drama Two for the Money. Circa 2006, Pacino starred as Jack Gramm in 88 Minutes, the gripping tale of a college prof who moonlights as a forensics expert for the feds. He also announced plans, that year, to join the cast of Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Thirteen and a remake of Jules Dassin's seminal Rififi, to reunite him with City Hall helmer Harold Becker.

Trivia: After studying Drama at Oberlin College and Boston University, wiry-nosed, melancholy character actor John Cazale established himself as one of the off-Broadway scene's most intensely fascinating talents. He won Obie Awards for his stage performances in The Indian Wants the Bronx and The Line. At the invitation of his close friend Al Pacino, Cazale tried out for a role in The Godfather (1972), landing the part of Fredo Corleone. He was subsequently seen in The Godfather Part II (1974) and Dog Day Afternoon (1975). Looking far older than his forty-two years, John Cazale made his last appearance in The Deer Hunter (1978), which co-starred his then-fiancée Meryl Streep, but died of cancer before it was released.

Trivia: Before he became an actor, Charles Durning, the son of an Army man, continued in his father's footsteps with valor and distinction, earning a silver star and purple heart in World War II. Durning held down several "joe jobs" -- iron worker, elevator operator, cabbie, waiter, and dance instructor -- until turning to acting in the late 1950s. Fresh from the national tour of The Andersonville Trial, Durning began his long association with Joseph Papp in 1962, distinguishing himself in Shakespearean roles. He made his earliest film appearance in Ernest Pintoff's Harvey Middleman, Fireman (1965). Durning's film roles increased in size and importance after his interpretation of a crooked cop in the Oscar-winning The Sting (1973). He went on to appear in several Burt Reynolds films, most memorably as the singing governor in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982). That performance landed him an Oscar nomination, as did his spin on "Concentration Camp" Erhardt in the 1983 remake of To Be or Not to Be. In 1975, Durning was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his portrayal of ulcerated police lieutenant Moretti in the theatrical feature Dog Day Afternoon (1975); he finally won that award 15 years later for his work as "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald in the TV miniseries The Kennedys of Massachusetts. Other notable film roles to his credit include Peter Stockmann in the Steve McQueen-produced An Enemy of the People (1978), Dustin Hoffman's "suitor" in the cross-dressing classic Tootsie (1982) (he later co-starred with Hoffman in the 1984 stage revival of Death of a Salesman), and the foredoomed Waring Hudsucker in the Coen Brothers' Hudsucker Proxy (1994).On television, Durning played Lt. Gil McGowan on the daytime soap Another World, officer Frank Murphy in The Cop and the Kid (1975), Big Ed Healey in Captains and the Kings (1976), Studs' dad in Studs Lonigan (1979), private-eye Oscar Poole in Eye to Eye (1985), the title character in PBS' I Would Be Called John: Pope John XXIII (1987), crooked industrialist Dan Packard (the old Wallace Beery role) in Dinner at Eight (1989), and Dr. Harrlan Eldridge in the Burt Reynolds TV vehicle Evening Shade (1990-1994), an assignment which afforded the far-from-sylph-like Durning his first nude scene.While his television and film career have continued to be prolific, Durning has also continued to earn acclaim for his stage work. In 1990, he won a Tony Award for his performance as Big Daddy in the Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.He continued to work steadily well into his seventies in a variety of projects including Jodie Foster's dysfunctional family comedy/drama Home for the Holidays, the absurd comedy Spy Hard, and Jerry and Tom. At the beginning of the 20th century he reteamed with the Coen Brothers for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and was part of the impressive ensemble in David Mamet's State and Main. He was also part of the original cast of the firefighter drama series Rescue Me. Durning died at age 89 in late December 2012, two months before his 90th birthday.

Trivia: Authoritative American character actor James Broderick is best known to filmgoers of the flower-power generation for his performance as Alice's husband in the 1969 film Alice's Restaurant. It was but one of many incisive film characterizations for Broderick, who was equally effective in such films as The Group (1966), The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1973) and Dog Day Afternoon (1975). From 1976 through 1980, Broderick played lawyer/patriarch Doug Lawrence in the weekly TV drama Family; he had previously starred in the detective series Brenner, playing the rookie-cop son of Edward Binns (who wasn't that much older). James Broderick was the father of contemporary film star Matthew Broderick, who paid homage to his dad by prominently displaying the elder Broderick's photograph in the 1990 film The Freshman.

Trivia: Formerly husband to Susan Sarandon, whom he met while attending the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., Chris Sarandon spent nearly a decade performing on-stage before making his first television appearance alongside Gene Wilder and Bob Newhart in Thursday's Game in 1974. While that appearance was well received by its audience, Sarandon wouldn't achieve widespread critical recognition from the film industry until his portrayal of an overwrought transsexual opposite Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon (1975). Sarandon's performance earned him two prestigious nominations (New Star of the Year - Male from the Golden Globes and Best Actor from the Academy), and by all indications, Sarandon was headed toward a bright future on the silver screen. Rather than jumping into a full-time movie career, however, Sarandon continued his work in theater (he replaced Raul Julia in the Tony-winning Broadway musical The Two Gentlemen of Verona) and appeared in a series of television roles, some of which (such as A Tale of Two Cities in 1980) mirrored his affinity for the classics, while others -- namely The Day Christ Died, in which he played the title role -- offered an opportunity for the actor to get in touch with his religious side. Oddly enough, Sarandon would also appear in a slew of satanic or otherwise horror-themed films, including The Sentinel (1976), Fright Night (1985), and Child's Play (1988). It was his decidedly less grim role as the insidious Prince Humperdinck in Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride, however, that would bring his name back into the hearts of American audiences, albeit his place therein was reserved for fairy tale bad guys. Despite his success, Sarandon was unable to gain mainstream American recognition for a starring role, though his performance as a Holocaust survivor in Forced March (1990) did not go unnoticed by critics. Not long afterward, select U.S. filmgoers were treated to his portrayal of a man obsessed with his deceased ancestor's rumored ability to raise the dead in Alien scriptwriter Dan O'Bannon's The Resurrected (1991). In 1993, Sarandon earned no small amount of approval for giving voice to Jack Skellington, the bony star of Tim Burton's gleefully sinister The Nightmare Before Christmas. After participating in a vampire documentary, an episode of the cult-favorite Tales From the Crypt Presents Bordello of Blood, and, of all things, the film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's family classic Little Men, Sarandon landed a recurring role as Dr. Burke on NBC's long-running medical drama ER. He continued to work steadily into the 21st century in a variety of projects including Voices in Wartime, Loggerheads, The Chosen One, the remake of Fright Night, and 2012's Safe.

Trivia: A professional actress since age 14, Ohio-born Carol Kane is best known for essaying a staggering variety of characterizations in her career. Most of her early film roles were fleeting but memorable, such as that of the hippie girlfriend of Art Garfunkel in Carnal Knowledge (1971), the "sailor's plaything" in The Last Detail (1973) and the terrified bank teller in Dog Day Afternoon (1973). Kane's first starring appearance was in Hester Street (1975), wherein she was Oscar-nominated for her portrayal of a Jewish newlywed in turn-of-the-century New York. From 1981 through 1983, Kane played Simka, the wife of immigrant mechanic Latka Gavras (Andy Kaufman) on the TV sitcom Taxi. Simka's country of origin was fictitious, but Kane and Kaufman managed between them to "create" a Slavic language peppered with ridiculous, non-sequitur terms of endearment. The actress won an Emmy for her work on Taxi. Other regular TV sitcom assignments for Kane have included 1986's All Is Forgiven and 1990's American Dreamer. Kane has excelled in bizarre character roles, notably the kvetching old peasant wife in The Princess Bride (1986), the abusive "Ghost of Christmas Present" in Scrooged (1988), and the toothless, witchlike Grandmama in the two Addams Family theatrical features. She remained an in-demand character actress appearing in a variety of movies and TV shows including Even Cowgirls Get the blues, Trees Lounge, Office Killer, and appearing as herself in the Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon. She slowed down not a whit in the 21st century playing parts in My First Mister, Love in the Time of Money, The Pacifier, My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, and the 2012 indie Sleepwalk With Me.

Trivia: Upon graduation from the Actor's Studio, Manhattan-born Lance Henriksen spent nearly two decades playing villains. An agreeable-looking fellow offscreen, Henriksen portrayed the foulest of murderers, rapists, perverts, extraterrestrials, and other antisocial types on the stage (Richard III) and screen. He made his first film, It Ain't Easy, in 1972 (although his studio bios list his screen debut as Dog Day Afternoon in 1975), then concentrated his skills on the melodramatic requirements of The Jagged Edge (1985), Johnny Handsome (1989), Jennifer Eight (1992), Dead Man (1995), and many others. In interviews, Henriksen claimed to "live" his parts while portraying them, which, he admitted, was a self-defeating practice. A close friend of director James Cameron, Henriksen posed for Cameron's preliminary character sketches for the robotic antagonist of the 1984 thriller The Terminator. The producers liked the sketches but not Henriksen, and the role instead went to Arnold Schwarzenegger. In compensation, Cameron saw to it that Henriksen was cast as a heroic android in his 1986 film Aliens.In the years that followed Henriksen gained reputation as an actor who could bring compelling nuance to even the most mundane of roles. Moving into the 1990s Henriksen did indeed appear in a number of forgettable films, but the ones that did leave an impression on audience did so with remarkable zeal. From his menacing role as the head of a tribe of nomadic vampires in Near Dark to a tortured portrayal of a vengeful father in Pumpkinhead, Henriksen's colorful characters consistantly elevated what may have been dismissive, two-dimensional players in the hands of a lesser actor. After reprising his role as Bishop in the troubled Alien 3, Henriksen packed heat as an over the top hunter of human's in Hong Kong action film director John Woo's American debut Hard Target. By this point the dedicated actor had earned a reputation for doing whatever it takes to make his characters truly memorable, and a scene in the climactic showdown of Hard Target found him continuing to chew scenery evern after he accidentally caught on fire (a scene that actually made it into the final cut of the film)! Henriksen's role as a cocky gunfighter in director Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead proved without question a highlight of his roles from the '90s. In 1996 Henriksen made quite an impression on television audiences as the lead character in producer Chris Carter's shortlived X-Files spin-off Millennium. As a former FBI profiler with a unique gift for peering into the minds of some of the nation's most feared criminals, Henriksen gained his most notable exposure to date and longtime fans ate it up. Unfortunately the series only ran for three seasons and Henriksen was back to his old bag of tricks in a seemingly undending series if B-movies. It certainly appeared as if Henriksen was becoming less choosy with his roles, and though the integrity he would bring to those roles generally helped him to stay afloat in a sea of forgettable efforts, it appeared as if the waters were finally threatening to overtake him. While it was indeed a relief to see Henriksen back on the big screen in Scream 3, there was little even he could do to make The Mangler 2 more watchable. Fortunately during this period, actors were becoming more prominant in video games, and Henriksen's distinct voice lent notable atmosphere to such efforts as Red Faction II and Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse. Henriksen's role in the suprisingly agreeable horror sequel Mimic: Sentinel helped to lend the movie some weight even if his actual screentime amounted to a little more than ten minutes, and if a wince of pain could be heard following the announcement of his involvement in Hellraiser: Hellworld fans could at least hold out hope for a return to the franchise that helped to launch his career in the long-anticipated Alien vs. Predator. Unfortunately, it didn't, though Henrickson continued to enjoy success in voice roles, among them including When a Stranger Calls (2006), a teen horror film in which he voiced the role of a serial killer who stalks his victims over the phone before hunting them down, and Superman: Braniac Attacks, in which he voiced the character of Brainiac (2006). Henrickson took on a starring role in Abominable (2006), which followed the effort to save a group of girls from death by Yeti. 2007 was another busy year for the actor, who worked in a slew of horror films including Pumpkinhead: Blood Feud and The Seamstress, as well as the crime thriller Bone Dry. In 2008 he joined the cast of Pistol Whipped, an action thriller following a down-and-out man hired to kill a notorious gangster. In 2011 he worked alongside Lauren Holly in Scream of the Banshee, another supernatural horror, and played Henry Gale in The Witches of Oz (2011), a fantasy adventure following the tales of an adult Dorothy Gale battling to keep the Wicked Witch of the West from crossing into her reality.

Trivia: Character actress Judith Malina is best known for co-founding the innovative Living Theater in 1946 with Julian Beck, who would become her husband. Malina is the daughter of an orthodox Jewish-German rabbi who moved to the U.S. in 1928 to escape political oppression. She became friends with Beck when she was 17. While Beck was interested in painting, Malina wanted to be an actress, and in 1945, she attended Erwin Piscator's Dramatic Workshop at the New School on a partial scholarship. Malina and Beck's Living Theater was closely related to the avant-garde theater movement of the early '40s. Their one-act productions were often improvisational or penned by such esteemed playwrights as Gertrude Stein, Bertold Brecht, or Paul Goodman. The subject matter of the plays became increasingly political during the '50s and Malina and Beck were no strangers to jail as a result of their involvement in nonviolent protests. In 1959, they won an Obie Award for their July 16, 1959, production of Jack Gelber's The Connection. The play's success landed them an invite to perform at the Theatre des Nations in Paris and their efforts there won them a grand prize. By the early '60s, the Living Theater was plagued with heavy debt and tax troubles. Malina and Beck were eventually tried for tax debt and jailed for contempt of court. Their Living Theater then moved to Europe where troupe members led a nomadic existence and changed the types of plays they put on. They returned to the U.S. to tour. In 1969, the main troupe split up and Malina and Beck went to Brazil in the early '70s. In addition to her theatrical work, Malina had a sporadic film career that began in 1975 with a small role in Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon. In Barry Sonnenfeld's Addams Family (1991), Malina played Granny. She had a starring role as an Italian immigrant in Household Saints (1993).

Trivia: After decades of honing his acting skills on stage and screen, and eventually carving out a niche for himself as a "gangster," Dominic Chianese came upon his most widely recognized role as Uncle Junior on the hit HBO mob series The Sopranos, beginning in 1999. Born in 1931, in Bronx, NY, Chianese attended Brooklyn College, and began appearing on-stage in 1952. He would appear on and off-Broadway in theater for over 45 years before his famous role on The Sopranos, adding film and television to his repertoire along the way.After his first film role in 1972, as a panhandler in a drama called Fuzz, he embarked on what would become the trademark of his career with his first gangster role, as Johnny Ola in Coppola's The Godfather Pt. II (1974), the classic, starring Al Pacino. Chianese also appeared in All the President's Men in 1976, and would work with Pacino again in the 1979 thriller ...And Justice for All.Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Chianese had numerous roles of all kinds from major feature films to stage to made-for-TV movies. He was featured in Fort Apache, the Bronx in 1981, and had a small role in Pacino's Looking for Richard in 1996. In 1999, HBO debuted its mobster series The Sopranos, starring James Gandolfini, and Chianese's long-term experience acting in all kinds of mob-related roles finally paid off with his part as Corrado "Uncle Junior" Soprano. The series earned incredible success, and in 2001, Chianese was nominated for an Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series for his role on the program. In 2002, he was featured in Adrian Lyne's drama Unfaithful, starring Diane Lane, Richard Gere, and Olivier Martinez.

Trivia: African-American supporting actor, onscreen from the 60s.'

Trivia: Actor Robert Costanzo is generally typecast an urban Italian-American, prone to mouthing such lines as "You gotta problem with that?" Costanzo began popping up with regularity in such films as Saturday Night Fever in the late '70s. The first of his many TV-series stints was as plumber Vincent Pizo, the blue-collar father of Travolta clone Joe Piza (Paul Regina), in 1978's Joe and Valerie. He retained his man-of-the-people veneer as maintenance engineer Hank Sabatino in the weekly series Checking In (1980), Lt. V.T. Krantz in the 1990 TVer Glory Days, and the voice of Detective Bullock in Warner Bros.' Batman: The Animated Series (1992). In 1995, Robert Costanzo joined the cast of television's NYPD Blue as Detective Giardella.