Trivia: Morgan Freeman has enjoyed an impressive and varied career on stage, television, and screen. It is a career that began in the mid-'60s, when Freeman appeared in an off-Broadway production of The Niggerlovers and with Pearl Bailey in an all-African-American Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968. He went on to have a successful career both on and off-Broadway, showcasing his talents in everything from musicals to contemporary drama to Shakespeare. Before studying acting, the Memphis-born Freeman attended Los Angeles Community College and served a five-year stint with the Air Force from 1955 to 1959. After getting his start on the stage, he worked in television, playing Easy Reader on the PBS children's educational series The Electric Company from 1971 through 1976. During that period, Freeman also made his movie debut in the lighthearted children's movie Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow? (1971). Save for his work on the PBS show, Freeman's television and feature film appearances through the '70s were sporadic, but in 1980, he earned critical acclaim for his work in the prison drama Brubaker. He gained additional recognition for his work on the small screen with a regular role on the daytime drama Days of Our Lives from 1982 to 1984. Following Brubaker, Freeman's subsequent '80s film work was generally undistinguished until he played the dangerously emotional pimp in Street Smart (1987) and earned his first Oscar nomination. With the success of Street Smart, Freeman's film career duly took off and he appeared in a string of excellent films that began with the powerful Clean and Sober (1988) and continued with Driving Miss Daisy (1989), in which Freeman reprised his Obie-winning role of a dignified, patient Southern chauffeur and earned his second Oscar nomination for his efforts. In 1989, he also played a tough and cynical gravedigger who joins a newly formed regiment of black Union soldiers helmed by Matthew Broderick in Glory. The acclaim he won for that role was replicated with his portrayal of a high school principal in that same year's Lean on Me.Freeman constitutes one of the few African-American actors to play roles not specifically written for African-Americans, as evidenced by his work in such films as Kevin Costner's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), in which he played Robin's sidekick, and Clint Eastwood's revisionist Western Unforgiven (1992). In 1993, Freeman demonstrated his skills on the other side of the camera, making his directorial debut with Bopha!, the story of a South African cop alienated from his son by apartheid. The following year, the actor received a third Oscar nomination as an aged lifer in the prison drama The Shawshank Redemption. He went on to do steady work throughout the rest of the decade, turning in memorable performances in films like Seven (1995), in which he played a world-weary detective; Amistad (1997), which featured him as a former slave; Kiss the Girls (1997), a thriller in which he played a police detective; and Deep Impact, a 1998 blockbuster that cast Freeman as the President of the United States. Following an appearance opposite Renee Zellweger in director Neil LaBute's Nurse Betty, Freeman would return to the role of detective Alex Cross in the Kiss the Girls sequel Along Came a Spider (2001). Freeman continued to keep a high profile moving into the new millennium with roles in such thrillers as The Sum of All Fears (2002) and Stephen King's Dreamcatcher, and the popular actor would average at least two films per year through 2004. 2003's Jim Carrey vehicle Bruce Almighty cast Freeman as God (a tall role indeed, and one he inherited from both George Burns and Gene Hackman). The story finds the Supreme Being appearing on Earth and giving Carrey temporary control over the universe - to outrageous comic effect. By the time Freeman appeared opposite Hilary Swank and Clint Eastwood in Eastwood's acclaimed 2004 boxing drama Million Dollar Baby, his reputation as one of Hollywood's hardest-working, most-respected actors was cemented in place. When Freeman took home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar at the 77th Annual Academy Awards for his performance as the former boxer turned trainer who convinces his old friend to take a scrappy female fighter (Hilary Swank) under his wing, the award was considered overdue given Freeman's impressive body of work.The Oscar reception lifted Freeman to further heights. In summer 2005, Freeman was involved in three of the biggest blockbusters of the year, including War of the Worlds, Batman Begins and March of the Penguins. He joined the cast of the first picture as the foreboding narrator who tells of the destruction wrought by aliens upon the Earth. The Batman Begins role represented the first in a renewed franchise (the second being 2008's The Dark Knight), with the actor playing Lucius Fox, a technology expert who equips Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) with his vast assemblage of gadgetry. Freeman also provided narration for the most unpredictable smash of the year, the nature documentary March of the Penguins.That fall, Miramax's drama An Unfinished Life cast Freeman in a difficult role as Mitch, a bear attack victim reduced to near-paraplegia, living on a derelict western ranch. The picture was shelved for two years; it arrived in cinemas practically stillborn, and many critics turned their noses up at it. After a brutal turn as a sociopathic mob boss in Paul McGuigan's Lucky Number Slevin (2006), Freeman reprised his turn as God in the 2007 Bruce Almighty sequel Evan Almighty; the high-budgeted picture flopped, but Freeman emerged unscathed. Versatile as ever, he then opted for a much different genre and tone with a key role in the same year's detective thriller Gone, Baby, Gone. As written and directed by Ben Affleck (and adapted from the novel by Dennis Lehane) the film wove the tale of two detectives searching for a missing four-year-old in Boston's underbelly. He returned to the Batman franchise in The Dark Knight, a film that broke box-office records, in 2008, and he would stick with the franchise for its final installment, The Dark Knight Rises, in 2012. Freeman would remain a top tier actor in years to come, appearing in such films as Red, Invictus (which saw him playing Nelson Mandela), Conan the Barbarian, and The Magic of Belle Isle.

Trivia: With looks that have been compared to Julia Roberts', Monica Potter emerged as one of the more promising actresses of the late '90s. The second of four girls in a close-knit family, Potter was raised in Cleveland, OH, where she was born on June 30, 1971. At the age of 12, she started modeling and doing commercials, and she further pursued her career with modeling stints in Chicago and Miami. Her dedication to acting became evident with a move to Los Angeles in 1994, where she was soon cast in the CBS soap The Young and the Restless. Potter's film debut came with a minor part in the 1996 Adam Sandler comedy Bulletproof, followed by a leading role in the Richard Grieco vehicle Heaven or Las Vegas, which played briefly in theaters before hightailing it to video. Fortunately, more high-profile work was to come, first as Nicolas Cage's wife in the 1997 action film Con Air and then as a medical student in the Robin Williams comedy Patch Adams (1998). After acting in the shadow of these formidable co-stars, Potter ventured into the limelight with lead roles in two 1998 films, the romantic comedy Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel, and Laurence and the Steve Prefontaine biopic Without Limits, co-starring Billy Crudup. In 1999, Potter had yet another leading role, this time in A Cool, Dry Place, in which she starred with Vince Vaughn and Joey Lauren Adams. Her rising star was given an additional push by her 1999 appearance on the cover of Vanity Fair's annual Hollywood issue, where she was photographed in the company of such fellow actors on the brink of stardom as Sarah Polley, Giovanni Ribisi, and Adrien Brody. She had a major role in the serial killer film Along Came a Spider in 2001, and the next year she was in the comedy I'm With Lucy. She appeared in the first of the Saw films when it was released in 2004, and that same year she was cast in the TV show Boston Legal. In 2009 she starred in the remake of The Last House on the Left, and the next year she became part of the cast of NBC's family drama Parenthood.

Trivia: Michael Wincott's filmography contains a veritable rogues' gallery of brooding villains and charismatic scalawags. Interestingly, he consistently wins high marks for his performances but remains largely unknown outside of a growing circle of devoted fans. He was born in London, Ontario, and trained at the prestigious Juilliard School. He launched his professional career on the New York Stage, appearing in such productions as The Plough and the Stars, When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder, and 'Tis a Pity She's a Whore. He also appeared in a few Broadway dramas, including Sam Shepard's premiere production of States of Shock. He made his feature film debut in a Canadian production, Wild Horse Hank (1979). Some of his more memorable roles include his reprisal of his Broadway performance as a zoned-out rocker in Oliver Stone's film adaptation of Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio (1988). In villainous roles, Wincott projects a charismatic intensity that eclipses the actor behind the them, which is perhaps one reason why major stardom has eluded him. He was riveting as Top Dollar, the supervillain in The Crow (1994). Wincott's brother, Jeff Wincott, is also an actor.

Trivia: With her flowing golden locks and expressive, curiously mature eyes, young Mika Boorem has gained an impressive acting track record since her television debut at the age of nine in television's popular Touched By an Angel.Born in Tucson, AZ, in August of 1987, Boorem does her best to balance the strenuous schedules that often accompany movie shoots with her education and the valuable time she spends with her friends and family. Nominated twice for a Young Artist Award for her roles in Jack Frost (1998) and The Patriot (2000), Boorem began acting on stage at the age of six before signing with an agent and appearing in commercials and on television. After appearing as a young Ally McBeal in the pilot episode of the popular series, the youngster went on to appear in such features as Along Came a Spider, Hearts in Atlantis, and Riding in Cars With Boys.

Trivia: The daughter of Mark Miller, an actor best known for his starring role on the mid-1960s TV sitcom Please Don't Eat the Daisies, actress Penelope Ann Miller was born in California and raised in Texas. After a year of attending Menlo College, Miller dropped out to train with acting coach Herbert Berghof. Her first role of note was as ditsy ingenue Daisy in the Neil Simon Broadway comedy Biloxi Blues, a role she would later recreate in the film version. For her role in Our Town she was nominated for a Tony award in 1989. In 1987, the blonde, saucer-eyed actress made her film debut in the wacked-out comedy Adventures in Babysitting, after which she costarred with popular leading men ranging from Pee-Wee Herman (Big Top Pee-Wee) to a GOlden Globe nominated performance alongside Al Pacino in Carlito's Way. Some of Miller's best known film roles have included that of Marlon Brando's enigmatic daughter in The Freshman (1990), a brief turn as silent film actress Edna Purviance in Chaplin (1992), and the svelte 1930s pulp heroine Margot Lane in The Shadow (1994). As the 1990s progressed Miller alternated ever more frequently between television and film, tempering high profile roles in The Shadow (1994) and The Relic (1997) with more intimate small screen roles in mini-series The Last Don (1997) and as the titular character in the true-life television feature The Mary Kay Letorneau Story: All American Girl (2000). If her roles in the following years weren't as high profile as in the previous decade, solid performances in Along Came a Spider (2001) and Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story (2003) eventually led to a role in the popular but shortlived Norm Macdonald sitcom A Minute with Stan Hooper. Cast as the titular character's (Macdonald) city-slicker wife, the coupled opted to eschew the city for small town life to Newhart-like effect. Her gift for comedy more obvious than ever, Miller was subsequently cast in the made for television feature National Lampoon's Thanksgiving Family Reunion (2003).

Trivia: Detroit-born Michael Moriarty was still in his teens when he received a Fulbright Fellowship to study acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. At 22, Moriarty played Octavius Caesar in a New York Shakespeare Festival production of Antony and Cleopatra, the first of many Shakespearean assignments. He made his Broadway bow in Trial of the Catonsville 9 and his film debut in 1972's Hickey and Boggs. In 1973 and 1974, no one was a likelier candidate for big-time stardom than Michael Moriarty. He starred as ingratiatingly egotistical ballplayer Henry Wiggen in theatrical feature Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), earned an Emmy for his portrayal of the Gentleman Caller in a TV adaptation of The Glass Menagerie, and won the Tony award for his work in the Broadway play Find Your Way Home. While his stage career flourished (he'd later star in well-received revivals of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial and My Fair Lady) his movie career was not as successful. It was television that made Moriarty a "name" in the eyes of the public, especially after his chillingly effective Emmy-winning turn as pasty-faced Nazi bureaucrat Erik Dorf in the 1978 miniseries Holocaust. In his film appearances of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Moriarty evinced a preference for working in director Larry Cohen's low-budget horror efforts, which brought little in the way of prestige but which assured him juicy leading roles. He was particularly good in Cohen's Q (1982), as a scuzzy, unprincipled mercenary who becomes the film's hero-by-default. From 1990 to 1994, Moriarty earned three Emmy nominations for his work as Assistant DA Ben Stone in TV's Law and Order; he left the series in 1995, complaining that Attorney General Janet Reno's criticisms of TV violence seriously endangered his ability to perform at fullest capacity. In addition to his considerable acting accomplishments, Moriarty is a superb jazz pianist; he has cut albums with his own jazz trio, and is a frequent performer at Michael's Pub, a New York nitery which occasionally features director Woody Allen on the clarinet. In addition, Michael Moriarty can be seen as the Governor of New Jersey in Crime of the Century, a 1996 TV-movie recreation of the Bruno Richard Hauptmann trial.

Trivia: Born to a pair of lawyers in Syracuse, NY, and raised in nearby Lynchburg, Dylan Baker attended Georgetown Prep and William and Mary College before earning his B.F.A. at Southern Methodist University, where his passion for acting was ignited with numerous stage roles. Later refining his talents at Yale's School of Drama, Baker would turn professional with big screen roles in movies like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Delirious (1991), and Love Potion No. 9 (1992). The mid-'90s found the increasingly busy actor dividing his time between stage, screen, and television, and Baker would soon wed actress Becky Ann Baker (the couple later appeared together in Woody Allen's Celebrity [1998]). A successful stage performance of La Bete found Baker nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards, and Baker and his wife continued to develop a close association with New York's Drama Department theater troupe. Following his remarkable performance in Happiness, Baker would appear in films such as Random Hearts, The Cell, and Thirteen Days (all 2000). As the 2000's unfolded, Baker would remain an active force on screen, appearing in movies like The Tailor of Panama, and Along Came a Spider, and on TV shows like 24, Damages, and Hawaii Five-O.

Trivia: A Russian immigrant who came to the United States with his figure-skater parents when he was merely six months old, Anton Yelchin found success in his new land since making his acting debut at the age of nine in A Man Is Mostly Water (1999). Acquiring an impressive résumé by the ripe old age of ten, Yelchin appeared in no less than three major motion pictures in 2001 alone, including 15 Minutes, Along Came a Spider, and Hearts in Atlantis opposite Anthony Hopkins. He transitioned to older roles, taking the lead in Alpha Dog (2006) and playing the title character in Charlie Bartlett (2007). In 2009, Yelchin assumed two famous roles: Pavel Chekov in Star Trek (a role he'd reprise in two sequels) and Kyle Reese in Terminator Salvation. He voiced Clumsy Smurf in the 2011 big-screen version of the film and several subsequent sequels and shorts. Yelchin died in 2016, at the age of 27, after a freak car accident.

Trivia: Raven-haired screen heartthrob Billy Burke traces his career back to the early '90s, but made his first substantial impression in 1998. The role in question that brought him serious public recognition was, ironically, a truly wacky one: he played Joey Cortino, the "psychotic" son of nutty godfather Vincenzo Cortino (the late Lloyd Bridges) in Mafia!, the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team's gag-filled spoof of American gangster pictures. After a string of smaller parts in features of lesser attention, Burke demonstrated his aptitude for the thriller genre with a small turn as Ben Devine in the Morgan Freeman headliner Along Came a Spider (2001). He made several guest appearances on Gilmore Girls and landed a small role in season two of the massive-hit series 24. Burke also delivered a stellar performances as firefighter Dennis Gauquin in the uneven melodrama Ladder 49 (2004), but he achieved his greatest coup in 2007, with four high-billed roles in Hollywood A-listers. These included -- among others -- the part of David in Robert Benton's ensemble drama Feast of Love and that of a detective in the Anthony Hopkins psychological thriller Fracture. Burke would go on to spend the next several years appearing in a number of films like New Moon, Drive Angry, and Highland Park, as well as TV series like Rizzoli & Isles and My Boys.

Trivia: After attending State University of New York at Purchase, Jay O. Sanders made his off-Broadway debut in a 1976 production of Shakespeare's Henry V. Three years later, he graduated to Broadway in Loose Ends. Sanders' first major film role was Charles Rawlings, the husband of novelist Marjorie Rawlings (Mary Steenburgen) in Cross Creek (1980). He went on to spend a year in the role of feckless resident physician Dr. Gene Pfeiffer in TV's After MASH (1982). He later portrayed Steven Kordo in the 1987-88 (and last) season of the serialized prime time weekly Crime Story. In the 1990s, Jay O. Sanders played real-life "political prisoner" Terry Anderson in the made-for-TV film Hostages (1993), and was also seen in such theatrical features as JFK (1991) and Angels in the Outfield (1994). Bit roles in such Hollywood comedies as For Richer or Poorer and The Odd Couple II helped keep Sanders a familiar face to moviegoers between frequent independent roles. Meanwhile, the busy character actor also found steady work narrating audio books and television shows such as Nova and Wide Angle. In 2011 he joined the cast of Law & Order: Criminal Intent as Captain Joseph Hannah, but by then the show was in its tenth and final season. Guest appearances on such high-profile television series' as Pan Am, Blue Bloods, and Person of Interest were quick to follow.

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