Trivia: An action specialist whose impossibly chiseled jaw makes him the ideal candidate to portray heroes who favor plenty of action over useless small talk, Casper Van Dien first made an impression on viewers with a recurring role on the teen soap Beverly Hills 90210 before taking a turn as James Dean (James Dean: Race with Destiny) and battling giant killer bugs on faraway planets (Starship Troopers). Raised in Ridgewood, NJ, on a street that was named after his great-great-grandfather, Van Dien enrolled in Admiral Farragut Academy when his family relocated to Florida, eventually graduating third in command. After finishing his education at Florida State University, it was off to Los Angeles to purse success on screens both big and small. While success doesn't always come fast in L.A., Van Dien's photogenic visage gave him something of an edge at auditions, and it wasn't long before the occasional television role blossomed into a full-on feature career. After taking the lead as the heroic Johnny Rico in Starship Troopers and as the Lord of the Jungle himself in Tarzan and the Lost City, Van Dien expanded his resumé to include the role of producer with the release of Richard Elfman's Modern Vampires in 1998. While subsequent years found Van Dien largely relegated to made-for-television features and straight-to-video B-movie fare, occasional roles in such wide releases as Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow showed that there was indeed a sense of humor behind the stone-faced veneer. Following Van Dien's wedding to second wife Catherine Oxenberg in 1999, the pair worked together on numerous projects in addition to co-founding a production company dedicated entirely to socially responsible, family-friendly entertainment. In 2005, Van Dien and Oxenberg made the production of the PC shooter Starship Troopers something of a family affair by enlisting aid of three of their five children in recording voice-overs for the video game. Subsequent roles in Slayer, The Curse of King Tut's Tomb, and Starship Troopers: Marauder proved without question that Van Dien wasn't looking to hang up his guns anytime in the near future.

Trivia: Modeled from age 9 to 16. Minored in French in college. Trained with Ron Stetson for three years at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York. Landed her first major role as Lucinda Nicholson on the show Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1993. Did many of her own stunts for her physically demanding roles in Starship Troopers, Johnny Mnemonic and Dragonheart.

Trivia: Green-eyed former model Denise Richards went in a few short years from complete obscurity to one of the many "Next Big Things" to entice filmgoers in the late 1990s. Born February 17, 1971 in a Chicago suburb, Richards moved with her family to San Diego at the age of twelve. Following a modeling stint in New York (which was of limited success due to Richards' 5' 6" height), Richards moved to Los Angeles to try her hand at acting. She found work in shows such as Doogie Howser, MD and Saved By the Bell before getting her first break in 1993 as Ben Affleck's girlfriend in the short-lived Against the Grain.1993 also marked Richards' film debut in National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1. This led to her first starring role in the bizarre 1994 "family film" Tammy and the T-Rex. Following a small part in Gregg Araki's Nowhere (1997), Richards acquired relative fame, not to mention a dedicated group of male followers, for her role in Paul Verhoeven's $100 million sci-fi action film Starship Troopers. Featuring an army of giant ants doing battle with an army of tawny-skinned, white-toothed young men and women who appeared to have wandered off a Nordic Track commercial, the movie met with enough success to constitute Richards' "big break." She gained further exposure (literally) and fame with her next venture, 1998's Wild Things. Cast as spoiled socialite Kelly Van Ryan, Richards gave a delightfully trashy performance in a film that called for her to lie, cheat, scheme, seduce, kill, and even perform a lesbian love scene with co-star Neve Campbell. The film was successful in its ability to satisfy its audience's desire for tacky and oversexed fun, and it provided Richards with further opportunities, including 1999's Drop Dead Gorgeous. Co-starring with Kirsten Dunst, Richards played a small-town beauty pageant contestant in a film that gleefully plays with America's beauty ideals, something that was undoubtedly familiar territory for the actress.Though 2001's horror flop Valentine and the straight-to-video Good Advice did little for her career, Richards saw her star rise further in 2002 with a set of high-profile films that did much to expand her range. In director Malcolm D. Lee's cheeky Blaxploitation send-up Undercover Brother, Richards was able to give her evil Wild Things persona an even broader, more satirical spin as White She-Devil, an operative for an evil caucasian conglomerate bent on converting the world to its mayonnaise-eating ways. Richards' intentionally wooden line readings and sly self-parody made her an invaluable part of Brother's comic ensemble, helping the film become a minor hit. The romantic comedy The Third Wheel came later that year.It was also in 2002 that Richards married actor Charlie Sheen, a somewhat notorious lothario in the Hollywood scene, whom she met of the set of Scary Movie 3. Gossip magazines predicted that the couple would inevitably split as a result of Sheen's wandering eye, but the couple had two daughters together, born in 2004 and 2005. Then in 2005, storm clouds gathered over the couple in the press, but instead of focusing on Sheen, they focused on Richards herself, with stories that she had been carrying on an affair with her family's neighbor, Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, who was married at the time to Richards' friend, actress and bombshell Heather Locklear. Richards, in turn, accused Sheen of gambling, drug abuse, and violence, and the two finalized their divorce in 2006.Richards subsequently appeared minor films like Blonde and Blonder and Deep in the Valley, but by this time, public perception of her career was greatly overshadowed in by her personal life. Leveraging her fame in this regard, Richards then became the star of her own candid reality show, Denise Richards: It's Complicated, which premiered on the E! network in 2008. The show turned the cameras on Richards' home, her daughters, her many pets, and her recently widowed father, who had begun living at her house. In 2009, Richards began gearing up for another season of the show, while at the same time preparing for a stint on the ABC competitive reality series Dancing with the Stars. 2010 found the actress starring in the comedy Cougar's, Inc, and in 2012 she appeared in Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection.

Trivia: Part of a burgeoning "second generation" of Hollywood actors, Jake Busey, the long-limbed son of Gary Busey, established himself as a reliable character actor in the 1990s. Though he made his film debut at age five in Straight Time (1978), Busey had no plans to become an actor until he took a drama class "on a whim" while attending Santa Barbara College. Busey spent three years auditioning before he finally broke through in the early '90s. Despite the slow start, Busey worked steadily throughout the decade, alternating between small roles in high profile studio movies, including I'll Do Anything (1994) and Twister (1996), and more substantial parts in smaller films, such as S.F.W. (1994) and Tail Lights Fade (1999). Busey starred a member of the gung ho young battalion in Paul Verhoeven's ironic, effects-laden science fiction adventure Starship Troopers (1997), but he was back to supporting duties in big movies when he and the more diminutive second generationer Scott Caan were paired as government assassins in Enemy of the State (1998). Happy to do more than dodge special effects, Busey played Luke Wilson's bully older brother in the romantic comedy Home Fries (1998) and co-starred with Jamie Foxx in the crime comedy Held Up (2000). Busey's foray into series TV as the laid-back Dennis on UPN's Shasta McNasty (1999) proved short-lived. Returning to movies after his unfortunate foray into series TV, Busey appeared in the weak Jamie Foxx comedy Held Up (2000). Busey then co-starred as a resolute bachelor moved to compete with Jerry O'Connell for Shannon Elizabeth's love in the tasteless comedy Tomcats (2001). Tomcats, however, mercifully failed at the box office. Busey's next comedy, the office farce The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest (2002), suffered a similar fate. Busey finally added a success to his resume, though, with the creepy murder by numbers thriller Identity (2003). Featuring Busey as a snarling convict trapped in a motel with other Agatha Christie-esque little Indians John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Ray Liotta and Clea DuVall, Identity reveled in movie-literate scares and deftly survived the pre-summer blockbuster late spring box office lull.

Trivia: Neil Patrick Harris made his first splash playing a 16-year-old doctor in the Steven Bochco television series Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989-1993). Following the series' demise, the young adult actor laid low for a few years, appearing in films like Starship Troopers and Shakespeare's Sister. Harris second act would come in 2004, however, when he played a hilariously insane, fictionalized version of himself for the stoner comedy Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. Harris would follow this up with a starring role on the hugely popular, left of center sitcom How I Met Your Mother, playing beloved rake and ladies' man Barney.In addition to his film and television career, Harris has also had a successful career on-stage. In 1997, he wowed California audiences playing the lead in the popular off-Broadway musical Rent.

Trivia: A tall, intense, hulking actor who was a natural to play Frankenstein's monster in The Bride (1985), Clancy Brown has utilized his naturally menacing exterior for a career's worth of villainous roles, most notably in films such as Highlander and The Shawshank Redemption. With good looks that could be described as somewhat Neanderthal in nature, he has also found the occasional sympathetic portrayal, and been equal to the task of acting it. Clancy Brown was born on January 5, 1959, in Urbana, OH, the son of a newspaperman-turned-U.S. congressman. He was raised in both Urbana and Washington, D.C., and claims to have been introduced to acting by a neighbor who got him into Shakespeare at a young age. Brown acted in high school and during his teenage summers before enrolling at Northwestern University on a track scholarship as a discus hurler. He graduated with a degree in speech and went on to mix drinks in Chicago while working in local theater. Brown's first film role established the trend for how his services would be used throughout his career. He appeared as Viking in the Sean Penn "juvy" drama Bad Boys (1983), in which he threw around his muscle as one of the detention center's intimidators. Next he appeared in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) as the cowboy Rawhide, then as Highlander's sword-wielding embodiment of evil, Kurgan, in the 1986 cult classic. A succession of roles as bruising heavies, often corrupt cops, followed during the late '80s and '90s, in films such as Dead Man Walking (1996) and The Hurricane (1999). The most memorable among these was Captain Byron Hadley, the crooked prison guard with the deadly billy club in the multiple-Oscar-nominated The Shawshank Redemption (1994). In 1997, he played one of his more infrequent good guy roles as Sergeant Zim in Starship Troopers. From 1997-1998, he had a prominent recurring guest role as a doctor on NBC's ratings champ ER. His prolific television career also includes a role on the sci-fi series Earth 2 (1994). In 2002, Brown appeared among an ensemble cast in the HBO film The Laramie Project, which was about the beating death of gay Wyoming teen Matthew Shepard. The next year, he took on the prominant role of Brother Justin Crowe on HBO's cryptic period drama Carnivàle, joining another talented ensemble cast and once again tapping into his dark side. Brown's distinctive voice has been in high demand throughout his career, resulting in dozens of voice-over credits in animated features such as The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004) and television series. Of course his distinctively brute face was still very much an important part of his career, with an onscreen role in the hit television series Lost serving well to provide viewers with a valuable history of the mysterious "hatch." A trip back in time found the hulking Brown assuming the role of a monstrous viking in director Markus Nispel's Pathfinder, and later that same year the actor could once again be spotted on the big screen in the Kevin Costner Coast Guard drama The Guardian. In 2008 he appeared in the college football film The Express, and the next year had small but crucial roles in the indie drama The Twenty, as well as Steven Soderbergh's The Informant! He continued to land small parts in bug budget Hollywood spectacles like the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Cowboys & Aliens, and Green Lantern.

Trivia: The handsome supporting actor and S.U.N.Y. graduate Seth Gilliam is most recognizable from gritty crime dramas on HBO. He started acting in the early '90s with small roles in feature films, most notably in the comedy Mad Dog and Glory. Also appearing in made-for-TV movies, his first starring role was in Assault at West Point as Johnson Whittaker, the first African-American cadet admitted to West Point. His next sizable role was in the Merchant Ivory production Jefferson in Paris, the story of Thomas Jefferson's affair with the 15-year-old slave girl Sally Hemmings. After appearing in a few scenes in Courage Under Fire and Starship Troopers, he made a successful move to HBO as Officer Clayton Hughes in the prison drama Oz. A few years later, he played Detective Ellis Carver in the crime series The Wire. He returned to feature filmmaking for the chest-baring role of Marcus in Punks, a comedy about the black gay male scene in West Hollywood. In 2002, he appeared in the third part of Rebecca Miller's Personal Velocity: Three Portraits.

Trivia: California native Patrick Muldoon began his acting career in the early '90s, appearing in several episodes of the teen sitcom Saved by the Bell. He soon scored another recurring role on the night-time soap Melrose Place, which he stayed with until 1996, as well as a part on the daytime drama Days of Our Lives (1992-1995). He would continue to rack up an impressive list of movie appearances including Starship Troopers, Stigmata, Whacked!, and Ice Spiders.

Trivia: Canadian actor Michael Ironside has specialized in tough, steel-fisted villainous film roles. Ironside played the ruthless brain-splitting cult leader in Scanners (1981), the unethical cop in Cross Country (1983), and the megalomaniacal cyborg in Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1984), among other wicked characterizations. He was also seen as Dick Wetherly in Top Gun, 1986's biggest hit, and as General Katana in Highlander II: The Quickening (1991). He'd go on to appear in films like The Machinist and Terminator Salvation, as well as TV series like ER, SeaQuest DSV: 2032, and Desperate Housewives.

Trivia: Graduating cum laude from the University of Tulsa, Rue McClanahan studied acting with Uta Hagen and at the Perry-Mansfield school. After her professional debut with a Pennsylvania stock company in 1957, McClanahan headed to New York, where between acting gigs she worked as a waitress, took shorthand and sold blouses. Grabbing any opportunity available, she made her TV bow on a 1960 episode of the TV series Malibu Run, then appeared in a handful of exploitation films with come-hither titles like Five Minutes to Love (she played "Poochie, the girl from the shack," a credit she has since dropped from her resumé). She managed to find more prestigious work on the New York stage, starring in such well-received productions as MacBird, Jimmy Shine, Sticks and Bones and California Suite. She also played regular roles on the TV soap operas Another World and Where the Heart Is. A 1972 guest shot on Norman Lear's controversial series All in the Family led to her being cast as Vivian Harmon on Lear's popular sitcom Maude, a role she played until the series' cancellation in 1978. McClanahan's next project was her own starring series, 1978's Apple Pie, which unfortunately bit the dust after three shows. She went on to play the vitriolic Aunt Fran on the network version of Mama's Family (1983-85), then was co-starred with her Maude colleague Bea Arthur in The Golden Girls (1985-92). Her well-rounded portrayal of overly amorous museum worker Blanche Devereaux won her an 1986 Emmy award; she reprised the character in the Golden Girls spin-off Golden Palace (1992-93). The star of several made-for-TV movies, McClanahan co-produced and appeared in a brace of "dramedies," Mother of the Bride (1991) and Baby of the Bride (1992).

Trivia: Bell is a supporting actor, onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: Supporting actor Bruskotter appeared onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: Father, Tony Ruivivar, is founder of the well-known Hawaiian musical group Society of Seven. First acting role was in a high-school production of Up the Down Staircase. Attended Boston University at the same time as his wife, Yvonne, a fellow Hawaii native and theater student. However, the two did not know each other well in college and did not become a couple until after both had graduated. Prepared for his role as paramedic Carlos Nieto on Third Watch by shadowing New York City paramedics as they responded to real medical emergencies. Directed and cowrote the play Safe, which was performed by the Imua! Theater Company in 2003. The cast featured Third Watch costars Coby Bell, Jason Wiles and Anthony's wife, Yvonne (who joined Third Watch in 2003).

Trivia: Brenda Strong's offscreen name might not immediately register with Seinfeld fans, but they will immediately identify the character actress after learning that she played the grating Sue Ellen Mischke, one of Elaine Benes's thorn-in-the-flesh nemeses, on that seminal American sitcom. Actually, Strong's television-heavy resumé reads like a best-of prime-time series list -- including not only Seinfeld, but Ally McBeal, Nip/Tuck, Gilmore Girls, 7th Heaven, and others. Strong remains best known, however, for her pivotal contribution to Desperate Housewives as the ill-fated Mary Alice Young, a social-climbing hausfrau who commits suicide in the opening episode of the program, and then hangs around (in a regular voice-over) to offer acerbic observations from the afterlife about her backstabbing earthbound friends. Once Desperate Housewives ended in 2012, Strong joined the continuation of the series Dallas, playing Ann Ewing, Bobby's wife.In addition to her television work, Strong also landed bit parts in such features as Spaceballs (1987), The Craft (1996), and Starship Troopers 2 (2004). In 2009 she appeared in Melora Hardin movie You. Strong hosted a series of exercise videos in the early 2000s as well, among them Yoga 4 Fertility (2001) and Yoga 4 Partners (2002).

Trivia: Began acting in plays as a child and did theatre at university. Visited New York City while at university to interview for jobs on Wall Street, but also used the time to go on auditions. Attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Often portrays some type of authority figure. Was cast as a cop in Lethal Weapon 2, a commanding officer in Starship Troopers, and a state trooper in Little Miss Sunshine, amongst others. Has created several videos parodying his cop persona, including a fictional show called Cop Talk and one that pokes fun at his character in the series Breaking Bad.

Trivia: Born in Puerto Rico, his parents were Canadian and moved the family back to Toronto when he was 13. Was a member of the high school swim team and student council. Enjoys collecting primitive art. Is a resident director at Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills. Established an acting scholarship at his high school. Is active in many charities, including Project Angel Food, the AIDS Project Los Angeles and the United Way.

Trivia: After a scant few supporting roles in both Tinseltown duds (Here Come the Littles, 1985) and respected Hollywood A-listers (Michael Apted's Class Action, 1991), American actor Robert David Hall connected with his broadest fan base via his multi-season portrayal of Dr. Albert Robbins, the middle-aged coroner on the television phenomenon CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. With his portly figure, balding pate, and ever-present white beard, Hall lent a distinguished aura to his evocation of Robbins, a character with the most unusual of personal and professional histories. Off-camera, Hall is a double-leg amputee who has served for long periods as the national chairperson of the Performers With Disabilities committees of SAG and AFTRA. His career includes a long tenure as the daytime music and voice director of KNX-FM, Los Angeles. In addition to his acting role on CSI and occasional movie work, Hall made occasional guest appearances on such series as L.A. Law and The Practice.

Trivia: A former model, Amy Smart began her acting career on television. In 1997, she began to be visible in such feature films as The Last Time I Committed Suicide and Starship Troopers. Two years later, the actress used her blond, wholesome good looks to great advantage in both Varsity Blues and Outside Providence. The former film, one of the more successful entries in the teensploitation genre, featured her as James Van Der Beek's intelligent, clean-cut girlfriend, while the latter film cast her as a rich girl who falls for a poor boy (Shawn Hatosy) at a 1970s boarding school. That same year, she was also visible on television, guest starring on the WB Network's Felicity.Smart's career really started to take off in 2001. Proving herself to be a major sex-symbol, her topless scene in the comedy Road Trip was partially responsible for the film's runaway success. That same year, Smart appeared in the ensemble film Rat Race and in the indie Macbeth adaptation Scotland, PA. In 2003, she could be seen both on HBO's reality show Project Greenlight and in The Battle of Shaker Heights, the film that was documented on the series. Smart started off the following year with a bang, appearing in two hit films by the end of the first quarter, The Butterfly Effect and Starsky and Hutch. Voice work in Seth Green's popular animated series Robot Chicken offered Smart a chance to work behind the scenes without the stress of having to look good for the cameras, with strong subsequent performances in The Best Man and Just Friends serving well to help the actress find her footing in the enduringly-popular romantic comedy genre. On the heels of a supporting performance in director Victor Salva's introspective drama The Peaceful Warrior, Smart would jump back into action for the first time since Starship Troopers as the endangered girlfriend of Jason Stratham's former assassin in the adrenaline-pounding thrill-ride Crank.

Trivia: Began studying theater at the age of 12 at the Seattle Children's Theater. Was Washington State Debate Champion in Dramatic Interpretation for two years. Worked as a hot-tar roofer between college semesters. Received the Jack Nicholson and James A. Doolittle Awards while attending USC for achievements in acting.

Trivia: Enlisted in the U.S. Marines at age 19; was wounded three times (and received a Bronze Star) during three tours of duty in Vietnam. Was a public-affairs officer in Beirut when the Marine base there was attacked by terrorists in 1983; retired from the USMC as a captain in 1984. Trained anti-communist guerrillas in Nicaragua and El Salvador while writing for Soldier of Fortune magazine in 1984-85. Founded Warriors, Inc., a company offering military advice to filmmakers, in 1985. First client: Oliver Stone, for Platoon (the first of seven Stone collaborations). All told, has advised on more than 40 movies and TV shows, including Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, The Pacific,The Thin Red Line, and Forrest Gump. Has acted in many of the films he advised on, as well in as such TV series as L.A. Law, JAG, Chuck, Cold Case and Entourage. Hosted a talk show on KFI radio in Los Angeles from 2003 to 2010. Has published numerous novels, including a novelization of Platoon. Son Chris is a member of the rock band The Fire Violets.