Trivia: Although Matthew Broderick has built a solid reputation as one of the stage and screen's more talented and steadily working individuals, he will forever be associated with the role that gave him permanent celluloid infamy, the blissfully irresponsible title hero of John Hughes's 1986 Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Thanks to his association with the character, as well as his own boyish looks, Broderick for a long time had trouble obtaining roles that allowed him to play characters of his own age. However, with the success of films like Election (1999) and a 1994 Tony Award for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, audiences finally seemed ready to accept the fact that Broderick had indeed graduated from high school.The son of late actor James Broderick and playwright/screenwriter Patricia Broderick, Broderick was born in New York City on March 21, 1962. With the theatre a constant backdrop to his childhood, Broderick's entrance into the entertainment world seemed a natural outcome of his upbringing. He began appearing in theatre workshops with his father when he was seventeen, and was soon acting on Broadway in plays like Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues and Brighton Beach Memoirs and Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy. Broderick played Fierstein's adopted son in Torch Song; in the Simon plays, he portrayed the playwright's alter ego, winning a Tony Award for his 1983 performance in Brighton Beach Memoirs. The same year, Broderick made his film debut in WarGames, playing a young man who unwittingly plants the seeds of a nuclear war; the film was a success and launched the actor's onscreen career. Films like Max Dugan Returns and Ladyhawke followed, as did an acclaimed television adaptation of Athol Fugard's Master Harold and the Boys, but it was the 1986 Ferris Bueller's Day Off that made Broderick a star. As a then-23-year-old playing a 17-year-old, Broderick became a champion of smart-asses everywhere, and in so doing earned a certain kind of screen immortality. The success of the film allowed him to work steadily in films like Project X and the screen adaptations of Biloxi Blues and Torch Song Trilogy (in which Broderick now played Fierstein's lover, instead of his adopted son). Widely publicized tragedy struck for Broderick in 1988 when he and Jennifer Grey were vacationing in Ireland: after losing control of the car he was driving, Broderick crashed into an oncoming car, killing the mother and daughter in it. The actor was hospitalized, and his ensuing legal problems were the subject of much media scrutiny. However, he continued to work, winning critical acclaim for his portrayal of a Civil War colonel in the 1989 Glory. He then kicked off the 1990s with the title role of a naive film student in The Freshman; following that film's relative success, he starred in the poorly received comedy The Night We Never Met, and in 1994, he was cast against type as one of Dorothy Parker's unsympathetic lovers in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. That same year, he ventured back to Broadway, where he found acclaim as the lead in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, winning a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Over the next few years, Broderick had his hits (The Lion King) and misses (The Road to Wellville, The Cable Guy, Addicted to Love). In 1996, he made his directorial debut with Infinity, which also featured a screenplay by his mother. A love story based on the life of famed physicist Richard Feynman, the film made a brief blip on the box-office radar, although it did garner some positive reviews. In 1997 he wed actress Sarah Jessica Parker who gave birth to their son, James Wilke Broderick, in October of 2002. The same couldn't be said for Broderick's massively budgeted, hyper-marketed 1998 feature, Godzilla. The subject of critical abuse and audience evasion, the film was a disappointment. Fortunately for Broderick, his role as the film's hero was largely ignored by critics who preferred to level their attacks at the film's content. The actor managed to rebound successfully the following year, first playing against type as a high-school teacher caught up in an ethical conundrum in Alexander Payne's hilarious satire Election. The film received positive reviews, with many critics praising Broderick's performance as the morally ambiguous Mr. McAllister. The actor then could be seen as the title character in the giddy action flick Inspector Gadget. It was a role that would have made Ferris Bueller proud: not only did Broderick get to shoot flames from his limbs and sprout helicopter blades from his skull, he also got to defeat the bad guys and, in the end, get the girl. In 2000, Broderick played a supporting role in Kenneth Lonergan's critically acclaimed You Can Count On Me with Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo, and appeared in a well received television adaptation of The Music Man later that year. Broderick lent his vocal chords for both 2003's The Good Boy and 2004's The Lion King 1/2, and signed on to appear in three hotly anticipated 2004 films; namely, The Last Shot with William H. Macy, Tom Cairns' black comedy Marie and Bruce, and The Stepford Wives with Nicole Kidman, Christopher Walken, and Bette Midler. Of course, Broderick's biggest achievement of the 2000's was not on the silver screen, but on stage with Nathan Lane in Mel Brooks' hugely successful comedy The Producers, which won a record 12 Tony awards in 2001. He reprised the role for a film adaptation in 2005, with Will Ferrell and Uma Thurman joining the cast. 2006 found the actor appearing in the big screen adaptation of Strangers with Candy, as well as the drama Margaret, tough post-production problems kept that film from being released until 2011, and the holiday comedy Deck the Halls. Broderick worked in animated films such as Bee Movie and The Tale of Despereaux, and was also part of the ragtag crew planning the perfect crime in the comedy Tower Heist.

Trivia: American actress Mia Sara started out in TV commercials and in a brief recurring role on the daytime soaper All My Children. Her first film, lensed in England, was 1985's Legend, in which she played a fairy tale ingenue opposite Tom Cruise. Few of her later films are worthy of mention, though she was effectively cast as Matthew Broderick's girlfriend and prankish co-conspirator in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). Banking on her slight resemblance to actress Merle Oberon, Sara adequately filled the role of the Oberon counterpart in the 1987 TV movie Queenie.

Trivia: A supporting actor in theater, television, and feature films, Alan Ruck is best-known for playing the troubled Cameron opposite Matthew Broderick in John Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) and for co-starring on the ABC network situation comedy Spin City (1996-2002). A native of Cleveland, OH, Ruck's interest in acting began in high school. After earning a degree in theater from the University of Illinois, he spent five years actively involved in Chicago theater. Ruck made his feature film debut in 1983, appearing in two Chicago-produced films, Class and Bad Boys. Ruck's television career began around the same time, when he appeared in the telemovies First Steps and Hard Knox. His subsequent TV credits include guest appearances in shows such as Going Places and in movies like The Ransom of Red Chief. He took his first Broadway bow in the original 1985 production of Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues. Over the coming years, Ruck would remain active on screen, playing recurring characters on shows like The Bronx is Burning, Greek and Persons Unknown.

Trivia: American actress Jennifer Grey grew up among the sort of people who'd be her co-workers later in life. She was the granddaughter of comedian Mickey Katz and the daughter of Broadway star Joel Grey and actress Jo Wilder. Childhood dance lessons helped her get a start dancing in television commercials. After spending time with the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater in New York, Grey appeared in the off-Broadway production Album. More theatrical experience followed. Grey made her screen debut in the 10th-billed role of Cathy Bennario in the 1984 romantic drama Reckless. That year, she also played small roles in The Cotton Club and Red Dawn. Her first real break came when she played Matthew Broderick's sister in the hit teen comedy Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). Grey followed up that success with an even bigger one starring opposite Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing (87): coincidentally, the film was set in a Catskill Mountains resort, the same kind of establishment where Grey's father and grandfather began their careers. Though her performance won her accolades, Grey subsequently experienced the all too common difficulty that many teen actors faced, attempting to enter the ream of adult acting. She would appear in a handful of films like Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989) and Portraits of a Killer (1996), before finding her footing with films like Bounce and Redbelt, as well as TV series like It's Like You Know, John from Cincinnati, and The New Adventures of Old Christine.

Trivia: Lead actress, onscreen from the late '70s.

Trivia: Short, pleasantly plump, and endowed with an endearingly resonant voice, American actress Edie McClurg is still best remembered as the perky school secretary in Ferris Beuler's Day Off. McClurg has been a favorite supporting performer since her 1976 film debut in Carrie, and much of her TV work has been as a comedy sketch performer, notably on Tony Orlando and Dawn (1976), The David Letterman Show (a 1980 daytimer), The Big Show (1980) and No Soap, Radio (1982). Ms. McClurg has also played many a nosy neighbor/in-law/secretary on such TV sitcoms as Harper Valley PTA (1982), Small Wonder (1985) and The Hogan Family (1988). McClurg received larger roles in the TV series The Kallikaks (1977), in which she was the wife of series star David Huddleston. In the years to come, McClurg would continue to keep up a prolific career, most memorably staring on the series Life with Louie and 7th Heaven, as well as in movies like Flubber, Van Wilder, and Fired Up!.

Trivia: A leading man who has displayed a knack for action, comedy, and dramatic roles, Charlie Sheen is nearly as well known for his offscreen exploits as for his acting, though after suffering through scandals that would have ended many performers' careers, he overcame bad press and bad habits to enjoy a major comeback on television in the late '90s. Charlie Sheen was born Carlos Irwin Estevez to actor Martin Sheen (born Ramon Estevez) and his wife, Janet Templeton, on September 3rd, 1965. By all accounts, young Charlie wasn't an especially distinguished student; though he was a star on Santa Monica High School's baseball team, he was expelled due to poor attendance and bad grades only a few weeks before his class graduated. During his school days, Sheen developed an interest in filmmaking, making amateur Super-8 films starring his school friends (who included Rob Lowe and Sean Penn), and after leaving school, Sheen decided to take a stab at an acting career, like his father (and his older brother, Emilio Estevez). While Sheen played a bit part in one of his father's films, The Execution of Private Slovik, when he was nine, he began his screen career in earnest in 1984, playing Matt Eckhart in the Cold War thriller Red Dawn. (Earlier that same year, Sheen played a small role in a sequel to the horror film Grizzly which didn't see release until 1987; Grizzly 2: The Predator also featured a then-unknown George Clooney.) After good-sized roles in several made-for-TV movies and smaller roles in better-known feature films (including Lucas and Ferris Bueller's Day Off), Sheen got his big break in 1986 when he was cast as Chris, a soldier with conscience in Oliver Stone's Oscar-winning Vietnam drama Platoon. In 1987, Sheen starred in Stone's next project, Wall Street, and after establishing himself as a solid dramatic actor, Sheen proved he also had a flair for comedy in the 1989 hit Major League. The role also gave Sheen a chance to show off his pitching arm; a year earlier, Sheen got to play real-life center fielder Hap Felsch in John Sayles' drama about the 1919 "Chicago Black Sox" scandal, Eight Men Out. Sheen's next major success was also a comedy, the 1991 military-film satire Hot Shots, and while box-office blockbusters tended to elude him, Sheen worked steadily over the next several years, and racked up a respectable number of box-office successes.By this time, Sheen had developed a reputation as a hard-living star who spoke his mind regardless of the consequences, but his fun-loving image began to take on a darker hue in the mid-'90s. In 1990, Sheen was engaged to marry actress Kelly Preston, but she left him shortly after an incident in which he accidentally shot her in the arm. In 1995, Sheen tied the knot with model Donna Peele, but the marriage ended in divorce only 14 months later. The same year he was wed, Sheen was called to testify in the trial of "Hollywood Madame" Heidi Fleiss, and admitted he was a frequent customer of Fleiss' call girl service, spending over 50,000 dollars on the services of prostitutes. In the wake of the Heidi Fleiss scandal, Sheen did himself no favors in terms of public relations by openly dating a pair of adult film actresses, Ginger Lynn Allen and Brittany Ashland; his relationship with Ashland came to an end when she filed assault charges against him. Sheen's bad-boy image turned especially grim in 1998, when he was hospitalized for drug and alcohol abuse; after a short-lived stay in rehab, Sheen gave sobriety another try, and by 1999 he was, by all accounts, clean and sober and ready to get his career back on track. In 1999, Sheen's brother, Emilio Estevez, cast him as real-life adult filmmaker Artie Mitchell in the made-for-cable feature Rated X -- a daring role, given Mitchell's drug abuse and sexual promiscuity -- and the following year, Sheen became Hollywood's comeback kid when he was cast in the leading role of the popular situation comedy Spin City after the departure of actor Michael J. Fox. In 2002, a clean, sober, and successful Sheen made headlines once again with his love life, though this time in a positive manner: He announced his engagement to actress Denise Richards; alas, a lengthy marriage was not to be, and the couple divorced after four years. Beginning in 2003, Sheen signed for an ongoing role opposite Jon Cryer and Melanie Lynskey on the popular situation comedy Two and a Half Men. The show became a massive success, running until 2011. In the meantime, Sheen married Brooke Mueller in 2008, with whom he had twin boys, Bob and Max. The marriage was short, ending in 2010 amid rumors of rampant drug use and partying, an arrest on suspicion of domestic violence, and brief stints in rehab - culminating in a 2010 incident in which Sheen was removed from the Plaza hotel after causing $7,000 worth of damage to a hotel room, allegedly following an altercation with a prostitute. Even grander spectacles were soon to come, as disagreements with producers of Two and a Half Men in 2011 led to Sheen making what sounded like near manic public statements, nominally defending his demands for a 50% raise for his work on the show. He gave a series of interviews in which he disclosed that he lived with two girlfriends, who he called his "goddesses," graphic designer Natalie Kenly and porn star Bree Olsen. He also infamously described himself as "winning" (presumably at life), as well as having "tiger's blood," and being a "bitchin' rock star from Mars." The media explosion following his statements led to rampant speculation that he was in the throes of drug addiction. Sheen capitalized on the attention, however, embarking on a stand-up/performance tour titled "My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat is Not An Option." Sheen was officially fired from Two and a Half Men in March of 2011, but Sheen continued to reach out to the public through internet videos available on UStream titled Torpedoes of Truth. In 2012, Sheen scored the lead in the FX comedy Anger Management (a spin-off from the 2003 movie with the same name), which earned a 100 episode production order.In addition to his career as an actor, Sheen has also dabbled in production; he produced two of his films, Comicitis and The Chase, before forming a production company with rock singer Bret Michaels. Sheen also wrote the screenplay for the company's first release, No Code of Conduct. In addition, Sheen published a book of his poetry, A Peace of My Mind.

Trivia: Was in the same grade as journalist Carl Bernstein in high school; Goldie Hawn was one year behind them. In the 1970s, worked as a speech writer and lawyer for presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Early big-screen roles included small parts in the comedies Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Beginning in 1997, hosted the Daytime-Emmy-winning Comedy Central quiz show Win Ben Stein's Money for several years. Has written columns for a number of major publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The American Spectator. Has authored, co-authored and published dozens of fiction and nonfiction books.

Trivia: American standup comedian Del Close was one of the founding members of Chicago's Second City comedy troupe. In his prime, Close was a confrontational comic in the abrasive, scatological vein of his admitted role model Lenny Bruce. Working at Second City as a director, he helped nurture and channel the talents of another comic genius, John Belushi. Having made his first TV appearances in the 1960s in such sitcoms as Camp Runamuck and Get Smart, Del Close returned to acting full force in the 1980s, playing farcical authority-figure roles in such productions as Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), The Blob (1988 remake), Fat Man and Little Boy (1989), and Opportunity Knocks (1990).

Trivia: Black character actress Capers appeared onscreen from 1967.

Trivia: American actress Kristy Swanson has been in films since 1986's Deadly Friend, but cemented her reputation on TV with recurring roles in Knot's Landing (1987) and Nightingales (1988). Her forte has been the portrayal of young ladies with prom-queen looks and room-temperature I.Q.s. Among her leading roles in films have been the title characters in Mannequin 2 (1991) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992). The failure of the highly touted Buffy has resulted in a number of negligible career moves for Kristy Swanson, most recently the role of a Beverly Hills princess accidentally kidnapped by fugitive Charlie Sheen in the doomed-from-the-start The Chase (1994).

Trivia: Supporting actor Richard Edson first appeared onscreen in Stranger Than Paradise (1984).

Trivia: American actor Tom Spratley played character roles on-stage and in films of the 1970s and '80s.

Trivia: A former counselor of abused children from Minneapolis, MN, Louie Anderson has found great success as a standup comedian, author, provider of cartoon voices, and actor. Born in St. Paul as one of 11 children, Anderson began his performing career in late 1978 in a small Minneapolis comedy club in answer to a dare from a co-worker at the children's home where he worked. People responded well to his act and Anderson felt he'd found his true vocation. After winning the St. Louis Comedy Competition in 1981, Anderson became a gag writer for Henny Youngman and then moved to Los Angeles to try to launch his own career by getting a contract with one of the major television networks, but success did not come quickly to the portly, blond comedian and he returned to Minneapolis where friends and cohorts helped him finance a comedy special. Showtime bought and aired the show which became a hit and the highest-rated program on the network for a month. This led Anderson to take to the talk show circuit and also won him a coveted spot on Comic Relief. Anderson also began working as an actor on such television series as Remington Steele and Grace Under Fire. He began a career as a character actor in feature films in Cloak and Dagger (1984). Since he became a star, Anderson has gone on to make several more cable television specials. Originally, his humor was centered upon his obesity, but in time, he began to focus more on his childhood and the experiences he'd had growing up with an alcoholic father and many siblings. But though he often joked about it in public, he was haunted by painful incidents from his youth and, following his father's death, he began keeping a sort of diary comprised of letters to his dad. One of these was published in People magazine. Tremendous reader response led to his penning the best-selling Dear Dad -- Letters From an Adult Child. In 1993, he penned a second, more upbeat tome that reflected an upturn in his personal life, Good-bye Jumbo, Hello Cruel World. In 1994, he and Matt O'Callghan created the animated Fox series Life With Louie. For Anderson, it was his second stint as a voice artist; his first was with the animated feature film Bebe's Kids earlier that year. Life With Louie has since garnered high critical praise that culminated in his winning a daytime Emmy in May 1997.

Trivia: Character actor Max Perlich spent many years playing bit parts on television and in teen films such as Can't Buy Me Love (1987) and Lost Angels (1989); his roles usually were of the slacker or juvenile delinquent variety. As he outgrew the teen genre, his later performances, although still minor, were distinguished by eccentricity and twitchy, nervous energy, fully realized in the film Drugstore Cowboy. He has excelled in supporting roles in films such as Rush (1991) and Georgia (1995). Along with his continuing work in films, he has had recurring roles in television shows such as Homicide: Life on the Streets (1997) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1998).

Trivia: Lead actor Scott Coffey was first seen in film in the late '80s.