Trivia: Actor Nicolas Cage has always strived to make a name for himself based on his work, rather than on his lineage. As the nephew of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, Cage altered his last name to avoid accusations of nepotism. (He chose "Cage" both out of admiration for avant-garde musician John Cage and en homage to comic book hero Luke Cage). Even if he had retained the family name, it isn't likely that anyone would consider Cage holding fast to his uncle's coattails. Time and again, Cage travels to great lengths to add verisimilitude to his roles.Born January 7, 1964, in Long Beach, CA, to a literature professor father and dancer/choreographer mother, Cage first caught the acting bug while a student at Beverly Hills High School. After graduation, he debuted on film with a small part in Amy Heckerling's 1982 classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Following a lead role in Martha Coolidge's cult comedy Valley Girl (1983), Cage spent the remainder of the decade playing endearingly bizarre and disreputable men, most notably as Crazy Charlie the Appliance King in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), Hi McDonough in Raising Arizona (1987), and Ronny Cammareri in the same year's Moonstruck, the last of which won him a Golden Globe nomination and a legion of female fans, ecstatic over the actor's unconventional romantic appeal.The '90s saw Cage assume a series of diverse roles, ranging from a violent ex-con in David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990) to a sweet-natured private eye in the romantic comedy Honeymoon in Vegas (1992) to a dying alcoholic in Mike Figgis' astonishing Leaving Las Vegas (1995). For this last role, Cage won a Best Actor Oscar for his quietly devastating portrayal, and, respectability in hand, gained an official entrance into Hollywood's higher ranks. After winning his Oscar, along with a score of other honors for his performance, Cage switched gears in a way that would prove to be, with the occasional exception, largely permanent. He dove into a series of action movies like the Michael Bay thriller The Rock, the prisoners-on-a-plane movie Con Air, and the infamous John Woo flick Face/Off. Greeted with hefty paychecks and audience approval, Cage forged ahead on a career path lit largely with explosions.There would be exceptions, like 1998's City of Angels, a remake of Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire, and Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead, and the the lightly dramatic romantic comedy The Family Man, but Cage stuck mostly to thrillers and action movies. A spate of such films would fill his resume, like Gone in 60 Seconds, The Life of David Gale, 8MM, and Snake Eyes, but Cage would briefly revisit his roots in character work, teaming with Being John Malkovich director Spike Jonze in 2002 for a duel role in the complex comedy Adaptation (2002). With Cage appearing as both screenwriter Charlie Kaufman as well as his fictional brother Donald, Adaptation followed Charlie's attempt to adapt author Susan Orlean's seemingly unfilmable novel The Orchid Thief as a feature film, and Donald's parallel efforts to write his own hacky yet lucrative script by following the guidance of a caustic, Syd Field-like screenwriting instructor (Brian Cox). A weighty role that demanded an actor capable of portraying characters that couldn't differ more emotionally despite their outward appearance, Adaptation brought Cage his second Oscar nomination -- and he was soon back to business as usual.2004 saw the release of the megahit adventure film National Treasure, which cast Cage as an archaeologist convinced there's a treasure map on the back of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. The outrageous film would earn a sequel in 2007, but first Cage made the ill-advised decision to star in Neil LaBute's reworking of the Robin Hardy/Anthony Shaffer collaboration The Wicker Man (2006). Though video compilations of the movie's most hilariously hackneyed moments would become popular on the internet, Cage was soon portraying a motorcycle-driving stuntman who sells his soul to Mephistopheles -- in Mark Steven Johnson's live-action comic book adaptation Ghost Rider. Upon premiering in the States, the film became a big success. In the same year's sci-fi thriller Next, directed by Lee Tamahori, Cage plays Cris Johnson, a man who attains the ability to see into the future and must suddenly decide between saving himself and saving the world; the film failed to ignite the way Ghost Rider did just a couple months before it. Next came Bangkok Dangerous, Knowing, The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans, Drive Angry, Seeking Justice, and Trespass -- all high octane, high adrenaline movies that found Cage diving, leaping, and shooting his way through the story. Cage found himself with a surprise hit in Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass (2010), playing a vigilante former cop in the black comedy film. He voiced the main character in 2013's animated The Croods, but then mostly stuck to action-crime-thriller-type movies for the next couple of years, including films like Left Behind (2014), The Runner (2015) and The Trust (2016).

Trivia: Intimidation often looms large for a legendary director's son who wishes to follow in the footsteps of his famous parent; perhaps for this reason, more than a few opt to establish themselves in another field. For Danny Huston, however -- the scion of mythically revered, Academy Award-winning filmmaker John Huston -- it wasn't at all a question of intimidation, merely one of circumstance. After pursuing directorial work fervently and dauntlessly, but encountering mixed success and frustration about his own inability to get studio backing for projects, Danny Huston found himself being drawn, one assignment at a time, into bit roles before the camera. In the process, Huston inadvertently launched himself as one of the most respected character actors of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.Born May 14, 1962, in Rome, as the illegitimate child of John Huston and European actress Zoe Sallis (during the former's separation from his then-wife, the late Ricki Soma), Daniel Huston came of age in Ireland and London. He studied art and cinema as a young adult, often spending a considerable amount of time on his father's movie sets, and honed his skills in his early twenties not in the arena of directing (as might be expected), but in that of painting.Danny Huston's directorial assignments began inconspicuously, at the age of 24, with the 1987 made-for-television comic fantasies Bigfoot and Mr. Corbett's Ghost (the second of which featured John Huston in the cast). The elder Huston -- then riding on the tails of his mid-'80s comeback with Under the Volcano and Prizzi's Honor -- engineered Danny's premier A-list feature. For it, Danny signed to helm a cinematization of Thornton Wilder's picaresque fantasy novel Theophilus North, co-adapted by John Huston, Prizzi's Honor scribe Janet Roach, and James Costigan. The Hustons assembled a dream cast: Anthony Edwards, Lauren Bacall, Harry Dean Stanton, Mary Stuart Masterson, Anjelica Huston (Danny's half-sister), David Warner, and Virginia Madsen, who dated and then married Danny in the fall of 1989. Robert Mitchum replaced John Huston in a key role when he died during production. Mr. North stars Edwards as the title character, a Yale graduate who wheedles his way into the upper crust of Newport, RI, in 1926, thanks to an inherent surge of electricity in his body that enables him to relieve the ailments of locals and thus charm them irrepressibly.Unfortunately, Mr. North -- which took its stateside bows in early August 1988 -- received tepid and lackluster reviews. Perhaps for this reason, Huston found it difficult to lock down a follow-up. Within a decade, the assignments were few and far between, and he occasionally found himself directing embarrassing fare like the 1995 direct-to-video horror exploitationer The Maddening (where psychotic marrieds Burt Reynolds and Angie Dickinson trap a poor woman and her daughter in their home and torture them systematically), and waiting, ever so patiently, for additional projects to take shape. Huston's personal life also decrescendoed during the early '90s, given his separation and divorce from Madsen. With no other immediate options visible to him, Huston started accepting Hollywood friends' invitations to play on-camera bit roles -- and scored tremendous success in this arena to rival anything prior in his career. He debuted as a bartender in Mike Figgis' late-1995 critical smash Leaving Las Vegas, then followed it up with turns in such cause célèbres as Timecode (2000), 21 Grams (2003), Silver City (2004), and The Aviator (2004). Huston was particularly memorable as British agent Sandy Woodrow in Fernando Mereilles' The Constant Gardener (2005), and as sociopath Arthur Burns in John Hillcoat's ultraviolent Western The Proposition (2005). He would go on to appear in films like Robin Hood, Stolen, and on the series Magic City.

Trivia: Home schooled. Her acting career was boosted with her appearance as Baby June in an off-Broadway production of Gypsy. However, the experience of taking on an acting-and-dancing gig at the age of 12 took its toll on her life back home in Florida, where other children had trouble coping with her fame. Was featured in the 2007 Broadway production of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical! In 2010, took on the role of Nicky in the popular CBS drama Blue Bloods, which stars Tom Selleck.

Trivia: Hunky soap star Mark Valley felt the bite of the acting bug in high school, but the young man's long-term plans didn't include the bright lights of Hollywood. After graduation, Valley attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he earned a degree in mathematics before being stationed in Germany for the better part of five years. The soldier also put his training into action as part of the ground forces in Operation Desert Storm, but it was in Berlin that a talent agent noticed his photogenic face and charismatic nature. The agent convinced Valley to explore the artistic talent he'd noticed so many years before, and he took up the acting profession when his tour of duty ended. The agent helped Valley land small roles on German television while he studied his new craft at the Etage School of Arts. With a few credits on his resumé, Valley then headed back to the States, where he scored a role in the 1993 John Schlesinger film The Innocent, and a role on the soap opera Another World. It was a part on another soap, however, that would earn Valley a loyal fan base. In 1994, he assumed a prominent role on Days of Our Lives, playing Jack Deveraux. Even though three other actors had played the part before, Valley rose to the occasion, winning the hearts of skeptical fans. He would continue to play the role until 1997, at which point he explored his new professional freedom by taking supporting roles in a variety of movies such as The Siege, Some Girl, and The Next Best Thing. As the new millennium began, a slew of TV appearances carried Valley from project to project as he assumed a regular role as the bad-news ex-husband of Maura Tierney on ER, and a government agent on The 4400. Then in 2003, Valley landed his first starring role in a prime-time show, Keen Eddie. He was cast as the titular New York City police detective, Eddie Arlette, who follows the trail of several criminals to London where he then works together with law enforcement during an extended stay. Co-starring with him in the series was soon-to-be up-and-coming actress Sienna Miller, playing his unexpected flatmate. Only a handful of episodes of the series aired on Fox before it was canceled, but it fared better when it was later shown on Bravo, including the episodes that had never been aired on network TV. Wasting no time, Valley soon found another regular TV role the following year, playing attorney Brad Chase on the quirky drama Boston Legal. He was able to hold his own alongside big-name veteran actors James Spader and William Shatner, and the show proved to be a major success. In 2006, Valley signed on to appear in Nanking, Bill Guttentag's documentary about the 1937 massacre of the Chinese city.

Trivia: Notorious for his uncanny portrayals of jocks, rednecks, hellraisers, and good ol' boys, the rough-hewn American character actor M.C. Gainey built a career for himself as the prototypical onscreen lowlife. Gainey observed in an interview, "With a face like this, there aren't a lot of lawyers or priest roles coming my way. I've gotta face that was meant for a mug shot and that's what I've been doing for the past 30 years...by and large I play cowboys, bikers, and convicts."Born in Jackson, MS, in 1947, Gainey debuted onscreen -- effectively portraying a young police officer -- in Herbert Ross' fascinating, ambitious, and stillborn musical film version of the Dennis Potter miniseries Pennies from Heaven (alongside Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, and Christopher Walken). Some might call Gainey's evocation of a cop uncharacteristic, given his later turns, but at least two additional roles as a policeman followed during the '80s, in John Carpenter's Starman (1984) and Sondra Locke's ill-advised sentimental fantasy Ratboy (1986). Gainey landed a number of additional assignments through the end of that decade, but his career did not fully catch fire until the '90s, when he sustained several turns per year. Additional films during this period include 1993's Geronimo: An American Legend (as a miner), 1996's Citizen Ruth (as Harlan), 1997's Con Air (as the villain Swamp Thing), 1999's Happy, Texas (as Bob Allen), and 2003's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (as a bouncer).In the late '90s and early 2000s, Gainey delivered two particularly memorable and dark performances that gave him instant recognition among viewers. In the first picture -- Jonathan Mostow's Breakdown (1997) -- Gainey played Earl, one of the psychopathic redneck kidnappers who torments Kurt Russell. In the second, Alexander Payne's character comedy Sideways (2004), Gainey played the unnamed husband of waitress Cammi, who chases intruder Thomas Haden Church out of his house while fully naked.Gainey found his broadest exposure to date, however, as Mr. Friendly/Tom -- seemingly the leader of the Others and as enigmatic as can be -- in the blockbuster ABC series Lost. In 2006 he began a six episode run as Bow Crowder in the popular FX crime drama series Justified, with feature roles in The Babymakers and Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained following in 2012.

Trivia: Parents were peace/anti-nuclear activists who moved frequently while he was young. As a result, he lived in 30 different places before he turned 13. His family did not have a TV until 1984, when they purchased one to watch the Olympics. Realized he wanted to become an actor in 1987 when he was mesmerized by Michael Douglas's Oscar-winning portrayal of Gordon Gekko in Wall Street. Made film debut in 1993's Alive. As an up-and-coming actor, he appeared in a number of off-Broadway shows in New York, including Terrence McNally's controversial drama Corpus Christi in 1998. Made his Broadway debut in 2005 in a revival of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. Put on 43lbs. for the part of Texas Western coach Don Haskins in Glory Road (2006). In 2008, he appeared in an off-Broadway production of Fault Lines, a play directed by David Schwimmer. Portrayed a crime boss opposite James Franco in the drama William Vincent, an independent feature that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2010.

Trivia: Malin Akerman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1978, but her European life turned a surprising corner when she and her family packed up and moved to Canada before her third birthday. Akerman's ravishing looks seemed harbingers of a successful acting and modeling career, and indeed, at five years old she began to snag a myriad of commercials and small acting roles. Her popularity and recognition was boosted by a win of the Ford Supermodel of Canada search at age 17, and she was soon tackling print and runway work across Europe, followed by an enrollment in York University in Toronto. In 2001, the actress moved to Los Angeles and secured almost instant representation. She landed a series of guest spots on TV shows including Entourage, Doc and Witchblade, as well as a regular role as Juna on the short-lived but critically acclaimed HBO comedy The Comeback, with Lisa Kudrow. She also had a memorable bit part in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) as the attractive wife, Liane, of a disgusting truck driver known only as Freakshow (Christopher Meloni).Akerman achieved her first major acting coup when she signed on as one of the leads in the Farrelly Brothers' remake The Heartbreak Kid (2007), a comedy about a dissatisfied fortysomething newlywed named Eddie (Ben Stiller) who jilts his wife, Lila, only a few days into his honeymoon and instead snags a feisty and independent young free spirit named Miranda. In what seemed to those familiar with the 1971 film like a surprising casting choice, the Farrellys selected the alluring blonde Akerman to play not Miranda (as might be expected) but Lila -- a character no longer dowdy (or Jewish) in their hands. That same year, Akerman also essayed a part in the gag-laden comedy The Brothers Solomon, about a couple of socially impaired losers (Will Arnett, Will Forte) desperate to find a woman to have their baby.Her exposure in those two films soon led to steady work as a major supporting player in a variety of movies. She played the bride-to-be/sister Tess to Katherine Heigl's perpetual bridesmaid in 27 Dresses (2008), and had a busy 2009, with the release of big-budget superhero film Watchmen, followed by Couples Retreat and The Proposal. She showed off her singing chops playing a Rolling Stone reporter in the jukebox musical Rock of Ages in 2012.Akerman has also done extensive television work, playing Dr. Valerie Flame in Adult Swim's Childrens Hospital and a homeless bachelorette in the first season of the web series Burning Love. In 2012, she joined the cast of Suburgatory in the recurring role of Alex, Tessa's (Jane Levy) birth mother before nabbing the lead in her own show, Trophy Wife, the following year.