Trivia: With a rangy handsomeness that makes him look as if he would be equally comfortable branding cattle, Matthew McConaughey found fame shortly after making his screen debut in Richard Linklater's 1993 Dazed and Confused. After being cast in two high-profile 1996 films, Lone Star and A Time to Kill, the actor was soon being hailed as one of the industry's hottest young leading men, inspiring comparisons to such charismatic purveyors of cinematic testosterone as Paul Newman and Tom Cruise.A product of Texas, McConaughey was born in Uvalde on November 4, 1969 and raised in Longview. The son of a substitute teacher and a former member of the Green Bay Packers, he excelled in sports as a high school student and was voted "Most Handsome" by his senior class. After graduating, McConaughey spent some time working in Australia and then returned to the States to attend the University of Texas at Austin. It was there that he met producer and casting director Don Phillips, who introduced him to director Linklater, and, after directing from UT in 1993 with a degree in film production, McConaughey was cast in Dazed and Confused. Although his role as Wooderson, a slacker old enough to know better, was relatively small, McConaughey succeeded in winning a degree of immortality with lines like, "That's what I like about high school girls: I keep getting older, they stay the same age." After Dazed, McConaughey took on a number of supporting roles in films of varying quality, appearing in everything from 1994's Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre to 1995's Boys on the Side, in which he was cast as Drew Barrymore's straight-arrow cop boyfriend. The latter film won him some notice, heightened a year later when he was cast in John Sayles' acclaimed Lone Star. McConaughey made a distinct impression in his small but pivotal role as the town's beloved late sheriff, Buddy Deeds, and was duly given his first leading role in Joel Schumacher's 1996 adaptation of John Grisham's A Time to Kill. Although the film met with lackluster reviews, McConaughey managed to attract favorable attention, holding his own against Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, and Sandra Bullock.Finding himself elected to the throne of Hollywood Golden Boy, a status cemented by his appearance on the cover of the August 1996 Vanity Fair, McConaughey paradoxically followed his initial success with a string of small, largely unseen films before landing a starring role as a property lawyer in Amistad, Steven Spielberg's 1997 slave epic. The same year, he also starred in Contact, playing a New Age theologian in Robert Zemeckis' adaptation of Carl Sagan's best-selling novel. After again collaborating with Linklater in 1998 on The Newton Boys, in which he starred alongside Ethan Hawke, Skeet Ulrich, and Vincent D'Onofrio as the remarkably photogenic family of titular robbers, McConaughey banded together with off-screen pal Bullock on her directorial debut, the short Making Sandwiches, the same year. For all the hype surrounding the beginning of his career, by the time he was cast in the lead role of Ron Howard's EdTV, McConaughey had receded somewhat from the public eye, with many critics noting that despite his talent and physical attributes, the actor seemed to have trouble finding roles that would do him justice. But McConaughey's turn as the laid-back everyman who becomes an overnight celebrity when he allows his life to be broadcast on TV proved a relative success, with the actor winning praise for his endearingly dopey performance. The film itself garnered a number of positive reviews and gave a decent box office performance, and by the end of that year, McConaughey had his name attached to a number of projects, including those of his own production company, J.K. Livin'. In October 1999, McConaughey achieved notoriety of a different sort, when he was arrested for resisting transport after the Austin, Texas police responded to noise complaints about his late-night naked bongo-playing; drug charges against him were dropped for lack of a proper warrant.After submerging in a tense struggle to find a German Enigma machine in order to defeat the Nazis in the taut World War II thriller U-571 (2000), McConaughey sweetened things up a bit by co-starring alongside Jennifer Lopez in the romantic comedy The Wedding Planner (2002). A lightweight comedy that did little to further his appeal as an actor of dramatic or comic range, the film nevertheless kept McConaughey in the public eye and once again warmed him to a public unsure how to approach him after numerous rumors of bizarre behavior. McConaughey's performance as a cocky lawyer forced to re-evaluate his quest for happiness after a life-altering experience in 2001's 13 Conversations About One Thing forced critics and audiences to re-evaluate their approach to the eccentric actor, and he would next re-team with U-571 co-star Bill Paxton for the nail-biter sleeper Frailty (2001). In late 2001 and early 2002 the eccentric actor at last received favorable press after coming to the aid of both woman who fainted at the Toronto International Film Festival and a sound man who suffered a seizure during McConaughey's Access Hollywood interview for Reign of Fire (2002), and though the aforementioned film fared only moderately well at the box office, its kindly star seemed to be back in the public's good graces. McConaughey next opted to lighten things up a bit by co-starring alongside Kate Hudson in the romantic comedy How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. In 2005, McConaughey and Al Pacino co-headlined D.J. Caruso's gritty gambling thriller Two for the Money. McConaughey stars as Brandon Lang, a onetime collegiate football hero with a knack for picking winners, who unofficially signs on as the protege - and later the nemesis - of Pacino's seedy high-roller. The film brought in only moderate returns and received mixed reviews from the press, but McConaughey fared substantially better with 2006's romantic comedy Failure to Launch. In the latter, he stars alongside Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker as Tripp, a thirtysomething mama's boy whose parents coax him out of the house by setting him up with dreamgirl Paula (Parker). The film shot up to become the primo box office draw on its opening weekend and did incredible business thereafter. McConaughey would spend the 2000's enjoying leading man status, with memorable roels in We Are Marshall, Fool's Gold, Tropic Thunder, and Magic Mike.

Trivia: An actress whose first big screen gig also proved to be her breakthrough, Anne Hathaway became a familiar face to millions of moviegoers thanks to her starring role in Garry Marshall's 2001 hit The Princess Diaries. Cast as a clumsy high school girl who finds out she is the princess of a small country, Hathaway was able to prove her comedic timing opposite no less than Julie Andrews.Hailing from Brooklyn, where she was born November 12, 1982, Hathaway became involved in the theater at a young age, and as a teenager performed with the Barrow Group, a prestigious New York theatre company. She did her first industry work in the short-lived but critically praised TV series Get Real before auditioning for Marshall, who, according to legend, cast the actress as the accident-prone princess after she fell off a chair during her audition. The success of The Princess Diaries opened a number of doors for Hathaway, but she chose the one that led to Vassar College, where she enrolled in 2000, taking some time off from film.Though a supporting performance in the 2002 box-office disappointment Nicholas Nickleby offered Hathaway little chance to shine, a lead performance as the eponymous character in thefantasy-themed romantic comedy Ella Enchanted (2004) found her stepping into some big slippers for another Cinderella-style story not unlike the obligatory Princess Diaries 2 that same year. As if to anounce her acendancy out of the teen fantasy ghetto, Hathaway plunged into edgier territory with the gritty teen drama Havoc (also 2004), although the explicit film merited only a video release. It was her next two roles, however, that would announce the young actor's arrival into adulthood. As one of the two quietly suffering wives in Ang Lee's acclaimed Brokeback Mountain, Hathaway exhibited an irrepressible rodeo-girl spirit broken down over the course of a sham marriage. As the co-star of the chick-lit adaptation The Devil Wears Prada in 2006, she entered the world of contemporary, high-fashion power players, suffering the slings and arrows of a deliciously evil (and Oscar-nominated) Meryl Streep. The film played throughout the summer, becoming a bona-fide sleeper hit. Although initially cast in 2007's runaway summer comedy, Knocked Up, Hathaway backed out of the role that eventually went to Katharine Heigl. She chose instead to follow the period-romance path with Becoming Jane, a Shakespeare in Love-style speculative fiction on the life and one true love of Jane Austen.2008 turned out to be a banner year for the actress who scored a box office hit starring opposite Steve Carell in the big-screen adaptation of Get Smart, and garnered the best reviews of her career thus far for her work as a recovering addict in Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married. That role earned her a number of year-end critics awards, as well as Best Actress nominations from the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy. Hathaway would subsuquently find herself free to enjoy leading lady status, appearing in a number of iconic projects over the coming years, like the White Queen in Alice in Wonderland and a slinky Selina Kyle/Catwoman inThe Dark Knight Rises. In 2012 she landed the part of Fantine in Tom Hooper's adaptation of the phenomenally successful stage musical Les Miserable. Getting to deliver the production's most beloved song, "I Dreamed a Dream", Hathaway made the most of the small but juicy part and was rewarded with the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.In 2014, Hathaway appeared in the indie film Song One and reteamed with her Dark Knight Rises director Christopher Nolan for the sci-fi epic film Interstellar. She next starred in The Intern, opposite Robert De Niro, and reprised her role Alice Through the Looking Glass.

Trivia: Actress Jessica Chastain studied her craft at the Julliard School in New York, before launching into her professional career. After landing a few appearances on TV shows like Veronica Mars and ER, Chastain eventually landed the title role in the 2008 independent film Jolene, and soon found herself in other prominent roles, like a Mossaad agent in the 2009 mystery The Debt, though that film didn't reach American screens unti 2011, a year in which Chastain seemes to be in every movie. In addition to playing the loving mother in Terrence Malick's Tree of Life, and playing the struggling wife of a schizophrenic in the underrated Take Shelter, and being cast as the wife to Ralph Finnes' Coriolanus, and earning good reviews for the indie drama Texas Killing Fields, Chastain played a kooky, mentally unstable Southern woman in the box office smash The Help, and earned her first Oscar nomination for her supporting work in the film. She was back in the Oscar race the very next year, this time in the Best Actress field for her work as a determined CIA agent hunting Osama Bin Laden in Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty.

Trivia: Icon of British cool in the 1960s, leading action star in the late '70s, and knighted into official respectability in 1993, Michael Caine has enjoyed a long, varied, and enviably prolific career. Although he played a part in some notable cinematic failures, particularly during the 1980s, Caine remains one of the most established performers in the business, serving as a role model for actors and filmmakers young and old. The son of a fish-porter father and a charwoman mother, Caine's beginnings were less than glamorous. Born Maurice Micklewhite in 1943, in the squalid South London neighborhood of Bermondsey, Caine got his first taste of the world beyond when he was evacuated to the countryside during World War II. A misfit in school, the military (he served during the Korean War), and the job pool, Caine found acceptance after answering a want ad for an assistant stage manager at the Horsham Repertory Company. Already star struck thanks to incessant filmgoing, Caine naturally took to acting, even though the life of a British regional actor was one step away from abject poverty. Changing his last name from Micklewhite to Caine in tribute to one of his favorite movies, The Caine Mutiny (1954), the actor toiled in obscurity in unbilled film bits and TV walk-ons from 1956 through 1962, occasionally obtaining leads on a TV series based on the Edgar Wallace mysteries. Caine's big break occurred in 1963, when he was cast in a leading role in the epic, star-studded historical adventure film Zulu. Suddenly finding himself bearing a modicum of importance in the British film industry, the actor next played Harry Palmer, the bespectacled, iconoclastic secret agent protagonist of The Ipcress File (1965); he would go on to reprise the role in two more films, Funeral in Berlin (1966) and The Billion Dollar Brain (1967). After 12 years of obscure and unappreciated work, Caine was glibly hailed as an "overnight star," and with the success of The Ipcress Files, advanced to a new role as a major industry player. He went on to gain international fame in his next film, Alfie (1966), in which he played the title character, a gleefully cheeky, womanizing cockney lad. For his portrayal of Alfie, Caine was rewarded with a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination. One of the most popular action stars of the late '60s and early '70s, Caine had leading roles in films such as the classic 1969 action comedy The Italian Job (considered by many to be the celluloid manifestation of all that was hip in Britain at the time); Joseph L. Manckiewic's Sleuth (1972), in which he starred opposite Laurence Olivier and won his second Oscar nomination; and The Man Who Would Be King (1976), which cast him alongside Sean Connery. During the 1980s, Caine gained additional acclaim with an Oscar nomination for Educating Rita (1983) and a 1986 Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Hannah and Her Sisters. He had a dastardly turn as an underworld kingpin in Neil Jordan's small but fervently praised Mona Lisa, and two years later once again proved his comic talents with the hit comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, in which he and Steve Martin starred as scheming con artists. Although Caine was no less prolific during the 1990s, his career began to falter with a series of lackluster films. Among the disappointments were Steven Seagal's environmental action flick On Deadly Ground (1994) and Blood and Wine, a 1996 thriller in which he starred with Jack Nicholson and Judy Davis. In the late '90s, Caine began to rebound, appearing in the acclaimed independent film Little Voice (1998), for which he won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of a seedy talent agent. In addition, Caine -- or Sir Michael, as he was called after receiving his knighthood in 2000 -- got a new audience through his television work, starring in the 1997 miniseries Mandela and de Klerk. The actor, who was ranked 55 in Empire Magazine's 1997 Top 100 Actors of All Time list, also kept busy as the co-owner of a successful London restaurant, and enjoyed a new wave of appreciation from younger filmmakers who praised him as the film industry's enduring model of British cool. This appreciation was further evidenced in 2000, when Caine was honored with a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of an abortionist in The Cider House Rules. After launching the new millennium with both a revitalized career momentum and newfound popularity among fans who were too young to appreciate his early efforts, Caine once again scored a hit with the art-house circuit as the torturous Dr Royer-Collard in director Phillip Kaufman's Quills. Later paid homage by Hollywood icon Sylvester Stallone when the muscle-bound actor stepped into Caine's well-worn shoes for a remake of Get Carter (in which Caine also appeared in a minor role) the actor would gain positive notice the following year for his turn as a friend attempting to keep a promise in Last Orders. As if the Get Carter remake wasn't enought to emphasize Caine's coolness to a new generation of moviegoers, his turn as bespectacled super-spy Austin Powers' father in Austin Powers in Goldfinger proved that even years beyond The Italian Job Caine was still at the top of his game. Moving seamlessly from kitsch to stirring drama, Caine's role in 2002's The Quiet American earned the actor not only some of the best reviews of his later career, but another Oscar nomination as well. Caine had long demonstrated an unusual versatility that made him a cult favorite with popular and arthouse audiences, but as the decade wore on, he demonstrated more box-office savvy by pursuing increasingly lucrative audience pleasers, almost exclusively for a period of time. The thesp first resusciated the triumph of his Muppet role with a brief return to family-friendly material in Disney's Secondhand Lions, alongside screen legend Robert Duvall (Tender Mercies, The Apostle). The two play quirky great-uncles to a maladjusted adolescent boy (Haley Joel Osment), who take the child for the summer as a guest on their Texas ranch. The film elicited mediocre reviews (Carrie Rickey termed it "edgeless as a marshmallow and twice as syrupy") but scored with ticket buyers during its initial fall 2003 run. Caine then co-starred with Christopher Walken and Josh Lucas in the family issues drama Around the Bend (2004). In 2005, perhaps cued by the bankability of Goldfinger and Lions, Caine landed a couple of additional turns in Hollywood A-listers. In that year's Nicole Kidman/Will Ferrell starrer Bewitched, he plays Nigel Bigelow, Kidman's ever philandering warlock father. Even as critics wrote the vehicle off as a turkey, audiences didn't listen, and it did outstanding business, doubtless helped by the weight of old pros Caine and Shirley Maclaine. That same year's franchise prequel Batman Begins not only grossed dollar one, but handed Caine some of his most favorable notices to date, as he inherited the role of Bruce Wayne's butler, a role he would return to in both of the film's sequels, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. Caine contributed an elegiac portrayal to Gore Verbinski's quirky late 2005 character drama The Weatherman, as Robert Spritz, the novelist father of Nic Cage's David Spritz, who casts a giant shadow over the young man. In 2006, Caine joined the cast of the esteemed Alfonso Cuaron's dystopian sci-fi drama Children of Men, and lent a supporting role to Memento helmer Christopher Nolan's psychological thriller The Prestige. In 2009 Caine starred as the title character in Harry Brown, a thriller about a senior citizen vigilante, and the next year worked with Nolan yet again on the mind-bending Inception.

Trivia: The younger brother of actor Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck spent the last few years of the 1990s working his way out of his brother's muscular shadow. The younger Affleck, who remarkably bears almost no resemblance to his older brother, was born August 12, 1975, in Falmouth, MA. He made his television debut in the 1987 American Playhouse special Lemon Sky and three years later played the young Robert Kennedy in the TV miniseries The Kennedys of Massachusetts. The young actor's film debut came in 1995, with Gus Van Sant's To Die For, in which he had a supporting role as one of Joaquin Phoenix's slacker friends. The next year, he appeared in the largely unseen Race the Sun, and in 1997 benefited from the Power of Ben with roles in two of his brother's films. In the first, Chasing Amy, Affleck was little more than a blip on the screen, but in the second, Van Sant's Good Will Hunting, he had a decidedly more substantial part as one of Matt Damon's South Boston homeboys. Following the astounding, Oscar-winning success of Hunting, Affleck landed substantial roles in two films with casts featuring Who's Who lineups of Hollywood's Young and Hot: Desert Blue (1998), in which he starred with Christina Ricci, Kate Hudson, and Brendan Sexton III; and 200 Cigarettes (1999), in which he appeared as a soft-hearted punk alongside Desert Blue co-stars Ricci and Hudson, along with Paul Rudd, Courtney Love, Janeane Garofalo, and brother Ben. Although the film basically flopped, it did little to hurt the actor's career and the same year he attained added credibility with an unbilled appearance in the summer smash American Pie. The next few years found the younger Affleck in some notable more noticeable roles with his work in Hamlet, Committed, and Drowning Mona (all 2000). In 2001 he would get his largest billing yet, as well as his induction into the teen horror craze, with Soul Survivors.A re-teaming with Good Will Hunting co-horts Van Sant and Damon in 2002's deliberate independent drama Gerry was bookended by sizable supporting roles in director Steven Soderbergh's carefree crime comedies Ocean's Eleven and Ocean's Twelve, and in 2005 the younger Affleck would prove without question his ability to carry a dramatic feature with his subtle portrayal of an aimless twenty-something hindered by familial obligations in Steve Buscemi's Sundance-nominated drama Lonesome Jim. In 2006 Casey would star opposite Zach Braff in director Tony Goldwin's romantic comedy re-make The Last Kiss. 2007 would prove to be a turning point for the actor. In addition to reprising his character for the third installment of the Ocean's Eleven franchise, Affleck earned strong reviews for two drama that year. He headlined brother Ben Affleck's directorial debut, an adaptation of Dennis Lehane's Gone Baby Gone, bring to life the character of Patrick Kenzie, a private eye with close ties to the mean streets of Boston. But his work as the title coward in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford brought him numerous good reviews even though the film failed to make much of a splash at the box office. His work earned him a number of year-end accolades including nominations from the Academy and the Screen Actors Guild for Best Supporting Actor (even though he is the lead).After these critical successes he was poised for a breakthrough, but he was away from the big screen for three years, not returning to movies until 2010 as the star of the Jim Thompson adaptation The Killer Inside Me, and as director/producer/screenwriter/editor of I'm Still Here, a mockumentary that satirized celebrity meltdowns starring Joaquin Phoenix. He was part of the ensemble in Tower Heist the next year, and followed that up by voicing a part in ParaNorman in 2012.

Trivia: Lanky, personable, and looking for all the world like Alan Alda's long-lost son, Topher Grace made an impressive film debut with his role in Traffic (2000), Steven Soderbergh's epic and widely acclaimed look at the American war on drugs. Grace received positive notices for his work in the film, which cast him as a cocky prep-school boy who turns his girlfriend (Erika Christensen) on to heroin and cocaine. The role marked a drastic departure from the young actor's regular job on the popular Fox sitcom That '70s Show, where he portrayed Eric Forman, a level-headed and predominantly wholesome high school student coming of age in "Me Decade" Wisconsin.A native New Yorker, Grace was born in the city on July 12, 1978. Raised in Connecticut and Massachusetts, he began acting in school plays and was a student at New Hampshire's Brewster Academy when his performance in a school production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum effectively secured him his first professional job. Among those to see the play were Bonnie and Terry Turner, parents of one of Grace's classmates and the would-be producers of That '70s Show. Impressed with the young actor's work in the play, they tapped him for the role of Eric Forman during his freshman year at the University of Southern California. Grace, who had studied acting at the Groundlings Improvisation School and the Neighborhood Playhouse, made his television debut in 1998, winning over both new fans and critical approval. His acclaimed work in Traffic two years later saw the actor's popularity further increase, acting as another testament to the beginnings of a promising career.While continuing to appear on That '70s Show, Grace remained selective of his film roles. Aside from showing up in a cameo as himself in Traffic director Steven Soderbergh's 2001 remake of Ocean's 11, he didn't appear in a film for three years. However, with his supporting turn in the Julia Roberts drama Mona Lisa Smile, it appeared Grace's film career was building steam.For his first big-screen starring role, Grace played opposite Kate Bosworth and Josh Duhamel in the 2004 love-triangle comedy Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!, which was mostly well received by critics and audiences. Later in 2004, the young actor could be seen in the ensemble film sophomore effort from Roger Dodger director Dylan Kidd, entitled P.S. Cast as a twentysomething student who appears to be the reincarnation of an older woman's deceased high-school sweetheart, Grace offered a sense of soulful gravity to the under-seen romantic fantasy before rounding out his breakthrough year with a powerful performance as an ambitious young executive whose sense of synergy sets the boardroom ablaze in In Good Company. In the short span of just one year, Grace had proven himself capable of believably playing both a lovelorn Piggly Wiggly manager who can't muster the courage to express his love to the woman of his dreams, and an overambitious white-collar powerhouse who discovers something called a soul after casually assuming the position coveted by an experienced ad man twice his age. Whereas most actors of his generation would have been happy doing teen comedies and cashing in on the success of That '70s Show, it was obvious that Grace was opting for quality over quantity in making his transition to the big screen. After wrapping up his impressive run on That '70s Show in 2006, Grace henceforth chose his roles selectively, speaking often about having little hunger for fame, but a big appetite for interesting, fun, or challenging projects. He would appear in a number of feature films over the coming years, ranging form big budge action adventure fare, like Spiderman 3, to lighthearted comedies like Take Me Home Tonight, to offbeat, independent projects, like The Giant Mechanical Man. In 2014, he had a supporting role in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi film Interstellar.

Trivia: Actress Ellen Burstyn enjoyed her greatest prominence during the '70s, a decade during which she was a virtual fixture of Academy Award voters' ballots. Born Edna Rae Gillooly in Detroit, MI, on December 7, 1932, as a teen she studied dancing and performed in an acrobatic troupe. She later became a model for paperback book covers, subsequently dancing in a Montréal nightclub under the name "Keri Flynn." In 1954, she was tapped to appear as a Gleason Girl on television's Jackie Gleason Show, and in 1957, she made her Broadway debut in Fair Game, again with a new stage name, "Ellen McRae." While in New York, Burstyn studied acting under Stella Adler, and later married theatrical director Paul Roberts. She briefly relocated to Los Angeles for television work but soon returned east to work at the Actors' Studio. She made her film debut in 1964's For Those Who Think Young, quickly followed by Goodbye Charlie. The cinema did not yet suit her, however, and she spent the remainder of the decade appearing on the daytime soap opera The Doctors.It was after marrying her third husband, actor Neil Burstyn, that she adopted the name most familiar to audiences, and was so billed in 1969's film adaptation of Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer. While the picture was unsuccessful, it did attract the notice of director Paul Mazursky, who cast her in his 1970 project Alex in Wonderland. Burstyn then began a string of high-profile films which established her among the preeminent actresses of the decade: The first, Peter Bogdanovich's 1971 masterpiece The Last Picture Show, earned her a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination, but she lost out to co-star Cloris Leachman. Burstyn next appeared opposite Jack Nicholson in Bob Rafelson's acclaimed The King of Marvin Gardens before starring in William Friedkin's 1973 horror hit The Exorcist, a performance which earned her a Best Actress nomination. For Mazursky, she co-starred in the whimsical 1974 tale Harry and Tonto, and then appeared in a well-received TV feature, Thursday's Game.However, it was 1974's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore which truly launched Burstyn to stardom. Warner Bros. had purchased the screenplay at her insistence two years earlier, but her efforts to bring it to the screen were met with considerable resistance. Her first choice for director was Francis Ford Coppola, who declined, but he suggested she approach Martin Scorsese. In the wake of Mean Streets, Scorsese was eager to attempt a "woman's film," and agreed to take the project on. The result was a major critical and commercial success, and on her third attempt Burstyn finally won an Oscar. That same year, she won a Tony for her work on Broadway in the romantic drama Same Time, Next Year, the first actress to score both honors during the same awards season since Audrey Hepburn two decades prior. However, upon wrapping up her theatrical run, Burstyn was not besieged by the offers so many expected her to receive. In fact, she did not appear onscreen for three years, finally resurfacing in Alain Resnais' Providence.The film was not a success, nor was 1978's Jules Dassin-helmed A Dream of Passion. With co-star Alan Alda, Burstyn reprised her Broadway performance in a 1978 feature version of Same Time, Next Year, but it too failed to meet expectations, although she was again Oscar-nominated. After a two-year hiatus, she starred in Resurrection, followed in 1981 by Silence of the North, which went directly to cable television. For the networks, she starred in 1981's The People vs. Jean Harris, based on the notorious "Scarsdale diet" murder. After 1984's The Ambassador, Burstyn co-starred in the following year's Twice in a Lifetime, which was to be her last feature film for some years. She instead turned almost exclusively to television, appearing in a series of TV movies and starring in a disastrously short-lived 1986 sitcom, The Ellen Burstyn Show. Finally, in 1988, she returned to cinemas in Hanna's War, followed three years later by Dying Young. Other notable projects of the decade included 1995's How to Make an American Quilt, The Spitfire Grill (1996), and the 1998 ensemble drama Playing by Heart, in which she played the mother of a young man dying of AIDS. If her success and talents had eluded younger audiences for the past decade all of that would change with Burstyn's role as the delusional mother of a heroin addict in Darren Aranofsky's grim addiction drama Requiem for a Dream. An adaptation of Hubert Selby, Jr.'s novel of the same name, Burstyn's heartbreaking performance as an abandoned mother whose dreams come shattering down around proved an Oscar nominated performance. She subsequently appeared in such made-for-television dramas as Dodson's Journey and Within These Walls (both 2001) and such films as Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Cross the Line (both 2002). Burstyn appeared in a variety of well-received television films including Mrs. Harris and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and had a role in the short-lived series The Book of Daniel. She maintained her presence on the big screen by reteaming with Arronofsky in his big-budget tale The Fountain, and she appeared in Neil La Bute's remake of The Wicker Man. Burstyn was soon gearing up to reteam with Aranofsky for the time travel fantasy thriller The Fountain. She continued to work steadily in various projects such as the political biopic W.; Lovely, Still; and played a stern matriarch in the indie drama Another Happy Day.

Trivia: Wes Bentley was a relative newcomer to film when he starred in Sam Mendes' American Beauty (1999), but his haunting portrayal of the battered, enigmatic Ricky Fitts made him one of the most talked about young actors of the year. Dark, lanky, and possessing a pair of blue eyes of diamond-cutting intensity, Bentley beat out 20 young Hollywood actors for the role (according to Mendes), and his breakthrough performance was soon generating Oscar buzz. The actor originally hailed from Jonesboro, AR, where he was tormented by school bullies for being a "pretty boy," and he came to film via New York's Juilliard School, where he acted in a number of productions. While in New York, Bentley also sought other work, and an open casting call for Rent led to a casting director's request for him to do some reading for a small film. Prior to American Beauty, Bentley's film experience had been limited to roles in independent films such as Three Below Zero and Halfway to Pleasantville, and a small part in Jonathan Demme's Beloved. Following his acclaimed role in American Beauty, Bentley appeared in The White River Kid, in which he played the film's titular murderer.In the wake of American Beauty, Bentley starred in Michael Winterbottom's The Claim, as well as yet another version of the classic adventure tale The Four Feathers. He was away from screens for three years at that point, but returned in 2005's The Game of Their Lives and continued to work steadily in a variety of projects including Ghost Rider and Jonah Hex. He scored his most high-profile role since American Beauty in 2012 when he played the part of Seneca Crane, the elaborately bearded game-master in The Hunger Games. He played a supporting role in Christopher Nolan's outerspace epic Interstellar in 2014.

Trivia: Began modeling at the age of 3 for Ralph Lauren and has since modeled for Disney, Target, Gap and Guess. Appeared in TV commercials for Burger King, Comcast, Pantene and Kohl's. Collected money from her co-stars of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn on set for swearing and donated the sum to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Nominated for Best Performance in a Feature Film by a Supporting Young Actress at the 34th Annual Young Artist Awards for her role as Renesmee in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2. In 2015, was nominated for Best Movie Actress in Sci-Fi/Fantasy at the Teen Choice Awards for her role as Murph in Interstellar. Is a junior black belt in taekwondo.

Trivia: One who graduated from obscure actor to Hollywood icon in just a few years, Matt Damon became an instant sensation when he co-wrote and starred in Good Will Hunting with longtime buddy and collaborator Ben Affleck. A native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was born on October 8, 1970, Damon grew up in prosperous surroundings with his tax preparer father, college professor mother, and older brother. At the age of ten, he befriended Affleck, a boy two years his junior who lived down the street. Educated at Cambridge's Rindge and Latin School, Damon landed his first role in a Hollywood production before the age of 18, with a one-scene turn in Mystic Pizza (1988). Not long after, Damon gained acceptance to Harvard University, where he studied for three years before dropping out to pursue his acting career. During his time there, he had to write a screenplay for an English class, that served as the genesis of Good Will Hunting. Arriving in Hollywood, Damon scored his first big break with a plum role in School Ties opposite Affleck. As the film was a relative flop, Damon's substantial role failed to win him notice, and he was back to laboring in obscurity. It was around this time, fed up with his Hollywood struggles, that Damon contacted Affleck, and the two finished writing the former's Harvard screenplay and began trying to get it made into a film. It was eventually picked up by Miramax, with Gus Van Sant slated to direct and Robin Williams secured in a major role, opposite Damon as the lead. Before Good Will Hunting was released in late 1997, Damon won some measure of recognition for his role as a drug-addicted soldier in Courage Under Fire; various industry observers praised his performance and his dedication to the part, for which he lost forty pounds and suffered resulting health problems. Any praise Damon may have received, however, was overshadowed the following year by the accolades he garnered for Good Will Hunting. His Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay win alongside Damon, and strong performance in the film virtually guaranteed industry adulation and steady employment, a development that became readily apparent the following year with lead roles in two major films. The first, John Dahl's Rounders, cast Damon as a card shark with a serious gambling addiction, who risks his own personal safety when he becomes entangled with a reckless loser buddy (Edward Norton). Damon's second film in 1998, Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, brought him even greater recognition. As Ryan's title character, Damon headlined an all-star line-up and received part of the lavish praise heaped on the film and its strong ensemble cast. The following year, Damon signed for leads in two more highly anticipated films, Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley and Kevin Smith's Dogma. The former cast the actor against type as the title character, a psychotic bisexual murderer, with a supporting cast that included Cate Blanchett, Jude Law, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Dogma also allowed Damon to cut against the grain of his nice-guy persona by casting him as a fallen angel. One of the year's more controversial films, the religious comedy reunited him with Affleck, as well as Smith, who had cast Damon in a bit role in his 1997 film, Chasing Amy. Damon next delivered noteworthy performances in a pair of low-grossing, low-key dramas, The Legend of Bagger Vance and All the Pretty Horses (both 2000), before appearing in director Steven Soderbergh's blockbuster remake of the Rat Pack classic Ocean's Eleven the following year. 2002 found the actor vacillating between earnest indie projects and major Hollywood releases. Behind the camera, Damon joined forces with filmmaker Chris Smith for the Miramax-sponsored Project Greenlight, a screenplay sweepstakes that gave the winner the opportunity to make a feature film and have the process recorded for all to see on an HBO reality series of the same name. Toward the end of 2001, Damon scored a box office triumph with director Doug Liman's jet-setting espionage thriller The Bourne Identity. With this effort, Damon proved once again that he could open a film with just as much star power as his best friend and colleague. Better yet, Bourne reinforced Damon's standings with the critics, who found his performance understated and believable. The press responded less favorably, however, to Damon's reunion project with Van Sant, the experimental arthouse drama Gerry (2003). Also in 2003, Damon starred opposite Greg Kinnear in the Farrelly Brothers' broad comedy Stuck On You, as the shy half of a set of conjoined twins.In 2004, Damon reprised the role of Jason Bourne in The Bourne Supremacy. As the actor's biggest leading-man success to date, it reinforced Damon's continued clout with audiences. Staying on the high-powered sequel bandwagon, he reunited with Brad Pitt and George Clooney for the big-budget neo-rat pack sequel Ocean's Twelve later that year. 2005 was somewhat lower-key for the actor, as he toplined Terry Gilliam's disappointing The Brothers Grimm and joined the sprawling ensemble of Syriana. After working seemingly non-stop for a few years, Damon claimed only a call from Martin Scorsese would get him to give up his resolve to take some time off. Sure enough, that call came. The Departed, an American remake of the Hong Kong mob-mole thriller Infernal Affairs, co-starred Jack Nicholson and Leonardo DiCaprio. Playing the squirmy, opportunistic cop to DiCaprio's moral, tormented mobster, Damon underplayed his part to perfection while holding his own opposite his two co-stars. Damon then took the lead role in the Robert De Niro-directed CIA drama The Good Shepherd. In 2007, the actor once again returned to box office franchises for the sequels Ocean's Thirteen and The Bourne Ultimatum, the latter of which netted him -- by far -- the largest opening-weekend take of his career to that point. 2009 was another great year for the hard-working star. His turn as the unstable federal informant in Steven Soderbergh's wicked comedy The Informant! earned him rave reviews, and his supporting work in Clint Eastwood's Invicus, as the leader of the South African rugby team, earned Damon nominations from the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Academy. In 2010 he reteamed with Eastwood for the supernatural drama Hereafter, and continued working with the best filmmakers of his time by landing a supporting role in the Coen brothers remake of True Grit. Meanwhile, Damon tried his hand at small screen work with a memorable recurring role as Carol, an airline pilot and sometime boyfriend of Liz Lemon, on the NBC situation comedy 30 Rock and a lauded turn opposite Michael Douglas' Liberace in the TV movie Behind the Candelabra. Damon had long since established himself as an A-list movie star, however, and would continue to star in big screen projects for years to come, including notable titles like Contagion, The Adjustment Bureau, and We Bought a Zoo. Damon next turned in performances in three films set in outer space: Neill Blomkamp's Elysium (2013), a supporting role in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar (2014) and an Oscar-nominated spin in Ridley Scott's The Martian (2015).

Trivia: Is of French descent. As a child, appeared in several television adverts. In 2012, made his television debut in the drama series Homeland playing Finn Walden. Made his film debut in 2014, playing Danny Vance in Men, Women & Children. Played Jim Quinn in the Manhattan Theatre Club's 2016 production of The Prodigal Son.

Trivia: A distinguished actor of stage, television, and movies who is at home playing everything from menacing villains, big-hearted transsexuals, and loopy aliens, John Lithgow is also a composer and performer of children's songs, a Harvard graduate, a talented painter, and a devoted husband and father: in short, he is a true Renaissance man. Once hailed by the Wall Street Journal as "the film character actor of his generation," Lithgow is the son of a theater director who once headed Princeton's McCarter Theater and produced a series of Shakespeare festivals in Ohio, where Lithgow was six when he made his first theatrical bow in Henry VI, Part 3. His parents raised Lithgow in a loving home that encouraged artistic self-expression and took a broad view of the world. As a youth, Lithgow was passionate about painting and at age 16, he was actively involved with the Art Students League in New York. When the acting bug bit, Lithgow's father was supportive. After Lithgow graduated from Harvard, he received a Fulbright scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art; while in England, Lithgow also worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and for the Royal Court Theatre. He returned to the U.S. in the early '70s and worked on Broadway where he won his first Tony and a Drama Desk Award for his part in The Changing Room (1973). Lithgow remained in New York for many years, establishing himself as one of Broadway's most respected stars and would go on to appear in at least one play per year through 1982. He would subsequently receive two more Tony nominations for Requiem for a Heavyweight and M. Butterfly. He made his first film appearance in Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1972). The film itself was an inauspicious affair as were his other subsequent early efforts, though by the early '80s, his film roles improved and diversified dramatically. Though capable of essaying subtle, low-key characters, Lithgow excelled in over-the-top parts as the next decade in his career demonstrates. He got his first real break and a Best Supporting Actor nomination when he played macho football player-turned-sensitive woman Roberta Muldoon in The World According to Garp (1982). In 1983, he provided one of the highlights of Twilight Zone--The Movie as a terrified airline passenger and earned a second Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination in Terms of Endearment where he appeared with Shirley Maclaine and Jack Nicholson, as well as playing a fiery preacher in Footloose. That year, he won his first Emmy nomination for his work in the scary nuclear holocaust drama The Day After. In 1984, he played the crazed Dr. Lizardo in the cult favorite The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. In Ricochet (1992), Lithgow proved himself a terrifying villain with his portrayal of a psychopathic killer hell-bent for revenge against Denzel Washington, the man who incarcerated him. In 1990, he made Babysong video tapes of his performing old and new children's songs on the guitar and banjo. Though he had already established himself on television as a guest star, Lithgow gained a large and devoted following when he was cast as an alien captain who, along with his clueless crew, attempts to pass for human in the fresh, well-written NBC sitcom Third Rock From the Sun (1996). The role has won him multiple Emmys and Golden Globe awards. When that show's run ended in 2001, Lithgow kept busy with roles in such high-profile features as The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004) (in which he essayed the role of comedy legend Blake Edwards), Kinsey, Dreamgirls, and Leap Year. Yet through it all the small screen still beckoned, and in 2010 the Lithgow won an Emmy for his role as Arthur Mitchell (aka The Trinity Killer) on the hit Showtime series Dexter. A poignant turn as a once-brilliant scientist stricken with Alzheimer's disease revealed a gentler side of Lithgow in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and in 2012 he reminded us that he could still get big laughs with roles in both This is 40 (Judd Apatow's semi-sequel to Knocked Up) and the Will Ferrell/Zach Galifianakis political comedy The Campaign. When not busy working on the show, in theater, or in feature films, Lithgow is at home playing "Superdad" to his children and his wife, a tenured college professor at U.C.L.A.

Trivia: Parents emigrated from Ghana to London in 1966. Studied performing arts as part of his curriculum in sixth-form college. Played the role of Eric in Foxes at West Yorkshire Playhouse. In 2006, performed the role of Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing at Library Theatre in Manchester. Performed in a national tour of the UK as Jose in The Wedding Dance in 2007. In 2008, played the role of Captain Stewart in the critically-acclaimed stage production of War Horse at the National Theatre in London. Is an avid supporter of Tearfund, a Christian-based relief and development organisation aimed at fighting poverty in undeveloped countries.

Trivia: Studied acting in England at Strode's College, as well as at the Oldham Theatre Workshop and the Northern Kids Theatre Company. Got his first break playing a 3232-year-old pharaoh on a Canadian-produced family sitcom called I Love Mummy. Nominated for Best Newcomer at 2005's National Television Awards in the U.K. for his role on the BBC medical drama Casualty. Likes to play sports, including tennis and English football. Is a singer-songwriter who has recorded several songs.

Trivia: Participated in high-school plays and community theater in her hometown in Virginia. Graduated from high school a year early. Her first film audition led to her first film role, starring in the 2006 comedy The Foot Fist Way.

Trivia: As a child, lived for seven years in Nigeria, where his parents were born and his family descended from royalty. Was a member of London's National Youth Music Theatre, which is where he met his wife. Played King Henry VI in a 2001 Royal Shakespeare Company trilogy of the Bard's plays, and was the first black actor to portray an English king in an RSC production. For his role in the British spy drama Spooks, he met with British-intelligence officers. Co-wrote a 2006 romantic comedy-drama for the BBC called Graham and Alice, about two London loners who decide to rob a betting shop. Fulfilled a bucket-list wish by working with Steven Spielberg on 2012's Lincoln. As part of the training for his role as a WWII Tuskegee Airman in 2012's Red Tails, he got to fly in vintage P-51 Mustangs. Appointed an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2016 New Year Honours.

Trivia: AADA alumnus William Devane first came to the attention of critics while working with the New York Shakespeare Festival. In the angry off-Broadway satire MacBird (1967), Devane played the first of many sharkish young men on the make. His entree into films came by way of the 16-millimeter In Country (1969), after which he alternated between icewater villainy (Hitchcock's Family Plot [1976]) and unexpected heroics (Rolling Thunder [1977]). Much of Devane's best work was seen on television: his marked resemblance to the Kennedy clan has served him well as JFK in TV's The Missiles of October (1974) and the Teddy-like patriarch in the 1995 series The Monroes; and he brought just the right blend of aggression, indignation and confusion to his portrayal of blacklisted TV personality John Henry Faulk in Fear on Trial (1977). Devane has also starred as Sgt. Mike Warden on the TV-series version of From Here to Eternity (1979) and duplicitous state senator Gregory Sumner in Knot's Landing . In the following decades, Devane would continue to appear on both the large and small screens, most notably on What About Brian? and 24, as well as movies like Payback and Space Cowboys.

Trivia: A Michigan native, clean-cut actor and television emcee Jeff Hephner broke himself in as an actor by performing in regional theatrical productions in the Great Lakes State and in Florida. He attended Ferris State University in Grand Rapids, MI, before debuting on film with a small supporting role in the 2000 Joel Schumacher period drama Tigerland and a bit part as a waiter in the 2002 comedy Maid in Manhattan. Hephner received his broadest exposure, however, with recurring roles on the television series The Jury (as attorney Keenan O'Brien), and a multi-episode stint as Matt Ramsey on the primetime, teen-oriented soaper The O.C. Meanwhile, Hephner made guest appearances on programs including House, Nip/Tuck, and Without a Trace. In 2008, Hephner signed for the lead role of Morgan Buffkin in the CW primetime drama series Easy Money. A role in the short-lived CW cheerleading drama Hellcats follwed in 2009, and two years later Hephner could be seen opposite Kelsey Grammer in the dark Starz crime drama Boss.