Trivia: Born Walter Willis -- an Army brat to parents stationed in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany -- on March 19, 1955, Bruce Willis grew up in New Jersey from the age of two. As a youngster, he developed a stutter that posed the threat of social alienation, but he discovered an odd quirk: while performing in front of large numbers of people, the handicap inexplicably vanished. This led Willis into a certified niche as a comedian and budding actor. After high-school graduation, 18-year-old Willis decided to land a blue-collar job in the vein of his father, and accepted a position at the DuPont Chambers Works factory in Deep Water, NJ, but withdrew, shaken, after a co-worker was killed on the job. He performed regularly on the harmonica in a blues ensemble called the Loose Goose and worked temporarily as a security guard before enrolling in the drama program at Montclair State University in New Jersey. A collegiate role in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof brought Willis back in touch with his love of acting, and he instantly decided to devote his life to the profession.Willis made his first professional appearances on film with minor roles in projects like The First Deadly Sin, starring Frank Sinatra, and Sidney Lumet's The Verdict. But his big break came when he attended a casting call (along with 3000 other hopefuls) for the leading role on Moonlighting, an ABC detective comedy series. Sensing Willis' innate appeal, producers cast him opposite the luminous Cybill Shepherd. The series, which debuted in 1985, followed the story of two private investigators working for a struggling detective agency, with Willis playing the fast-talking ne'er-do-well David Addison, and Shepherd playing the prim former fashion model Maddie Hayes. The show's heavy use of clever dialogue, romantic tension, and screwball comedy proved a massive hit with audiences, and Willis became a major star. The show ultimately lasted four years and wrapped on May 14, 1989. During the first year or two of the series, Willis and Shepherd enjoyed a brief offscreen romantic involvement as well, but Willis soon met and fell in love with actress Demi Moore, who became his wife in 1987.In the interim, Willis segued into features, playing geeky Walter Davis in the madcap 1987 comedy Blind Date. That same year, Motown Records -- perhaps made aware of Willis' experiences as a musician -- invited the star to record an LP of blue-eyed soul tracks. The Return of Bruno emerged and became a moderate hit among baby boomers, although as the years passed it became better remembered as an excuse for Willis to wear sunglasses indoors and sing into pool cues.Then in 1988, Willis broke major barriers when he convinced studios to cast him in the leading role of John McClane in John McTiernan's explosive action movie Die Hard. Though up until this point, action stars had been massive tough guys like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, execs took a chance on Willis' every-guy approach to the genre - and the gamble paid off. Playing a working-class cop who confronts an entire skyscraper full of terrorists when his estranged wife is taken hostage on Christmas Eve, Willis' used his wiseacre television persona to constantly undercut the film's somber underpinnings, without ever once damaging the suspenseful core of the material. This, coupled with a smart script and wall-to-wall sequences of spectacular action, propelled Die Hard to number one at the box office during the summer of 1988, and made Willis a full-fledged movie star.Willis subsequent projects would include two successful Die Hard sequels, as well as other roles the 1989 Norman Jewison drama In Country, and the 1989 hit comedy Look Who's Talking, in which Willis voiced baby Mikey. Though he'd engage in a few stinkers, like the unsuccessful Hudson Hawk and North, he would also continue to strike told with hugely popular movies like The Last Boyscout , Pulp Fiction, and Armageddon.Willis landed one of his biggest hits, however, when he signed on to work with writer/director M. Night Shyamalan in the supernatural thriller The Sixth Sense. In that film, Willis played Dr. Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist assigned to treat a young boy (Haley Joel Osment) plagued by visions of ghosts. The picture packs a wallop in its final minutes, with a now-infamous surprise that even purportedly caught Hollywood insiders off guard when it hit U.S. cinemas in the summer of 1999. Around the same time, tabloids began to swarm with gossip of a breakup between Willis and Demi Moore, who indeed filed for divorce and finalized it in the fall of 2000.Willis and M. Night Shyamalan teamed up again in 2000 for Unbreakable, another dark fantasy about a man who suddenly discovers that he has been imbued with superhero powers and meets his polar opposite, a psychotic, fragile-bodied black man (Samuel L. Jackson). The movie divided critics but drew hefty grosses when it premiered on November 22, 2000. That same year, Willis delighted audiences with a neat comic turn as hitman Jimmy the Tulip in The Whole Nine Yards, which light heartedly parodied his own tough-guy image. Willis followed it up four years later with a sequel, The Whole Ten Yards.In 2005, Willis was ideally cast as beaten-down cop Hartigan in Robert Rodriguez's graphic-novel adaptation Sin City. The movie was a massive success, and Willis was happy to reteam with Rodriguez again the next year for a role in the zombie action flick Planet Terror, Rodriguez's contribution to the double feature Grindhouse. Additionally, Willis would keep busy over the next few years with roles in films like Richard Donner's 16 Blocks, Richard Linklater's Fast Food Nation, and Nick Cassavetes' crime drama Alpha Dog. The next year, Willis reprised his role as everyman superhero John McClane for a fourth installment of the Die Hard series, Live Free or Die Hard, directed by Len Wiseman. Though hardcore fans of the franchise were not overly impressed, the film did expectedly well at the box office.In the latter part of the decade, Willis would keep up his action star status, starring in the sci-fi thriller Surrogates in 2009, but also enjoyed poking fun at his own persona, with tongue-in-cheek roles in action fare like The Expendables, Cop Out, and Red. He appeared as part of the ensemble in Wes Anderson's quirky Moonrise Kingdom and in the time-travel action thriller Looper in 2012, before appearing in a string of sequels -- The Expendables 2 (2012), A Good Day to Die Hard, G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Red 2 (all 2013) and Sin City: A Dame to Die For (2014).

Trivia: Possibly Ireland's hottest cinematic export since Liam Neeson got his kilt off in Rob Roy, Colin Farrell enjoyed a generous helping of trans-Atlantic buzz for his work in Joel Schumacher's 2000 military drama Tigerland. Previously known in his native Ireland for supporting parts in film and television productions, Farrell earned both industry recognition and international heartthrob status for his portrayal of a young drifter recruited to fight in the Vietnam War, winning over critics and audiences with talent, charisma, and his fearless assumption of a Texan accent.The son of famed footballer Eamon Farrell, Farrell was born in Dublin, on May 31, 1976. Growing up, he planned to follow in the footsteps of his father and an uncle, who was also a well-known footballer in the 1960s. However, Farrell's plans changed when, while he was still in high school, his sister enrolled in acting classes at Dublin's Gaiety School of Drama. His interest piqued, the nascent actor followed suit, signing up for classes at the Gaiety School and then making his film debut in a low-budget production called Drinking Crude before he even made it to the Gaiety's classrooms.Having dropped out of high school in order to pursue acting, Farrell dropped out again -- this time from the Gaiety -- after a successful audition for the Irish TV series Ballykissangel. Joining the show in 1996, he earned a degree of fame in his native country, which opened the door for further work in the U.K. In 1999, he could be seen in the family drama The War Zone, Tim Roth's directorial debut, and on TV in Love in the 21st Century, a segmented series that also featured such up-and-comers as Ioan Gruffudd and Catherine McCormack.His first glint of overseas recognition came the following year, when Farrell was cast in a supporting role in Thaddeus O'Sullivan's Ordinary Decent Criminal, an Irish gangster drama starring Kevin Spacey and Linda Fiorentino. Criminal, which didn't fare well on U.S. shores, was quickly followed by Joel Schumacher's Tigerland. Although the low-key ensemble film, which was set in a Louisiana boot camp in 1971, received a lukewarm reaction from critics and audiences, Farrell's performance was the subject of almost ubiquitous praise. Quickly labeled as one of the most exciting new actors to be detected by the Hollywood radar, the young Dubliner subsequently found himself enmeshed in the distinctly American phenomenon of almost overnight success; before the year was out, he had secured starring roles in a number of projects, including American Outlaws, in which he starred as Jesse James alongside Scott Caan and Kathy Bates, and Joel Schumacher's Phone Booth, a thriller about a young man (Farrell) fighting for his life inside the titular enclosure. Although the long-delayed Outlaws did little for Farrell's career, far more ticket buyers were able to see the young actor alongside Bruce Willis in the somber POW drama Hart's War in early 2002. The following year, Farrell was virtually unavoidable. Not only did 2003 see the release of the aforementioned The Phonebooth, is also found the actor on the right side of the law in both The Recruit and SWAT and on the wrong side as the villainous Bullseye in the comic book superhero film Daredevil. As if the year was busy enough, he also turned up in a pair of smaller films, Veronica Guerin and Intermission.The two ensuing years might not have seen Farrell churning out a half-dozen pictures apiece, but he continued to grow in stature, first with a supporting part in the indie period piece A Home at the End of the World, then the title role in Oliver Stone's ambitious flop Alexander (both 2004). Indeed, Farrell's most notorious appearance around this time was, like so many before him, in a much-circulated sex tape leaked on the Internet. Two major roles in films by well-respected directors followed: The lead in Terrence Malick's critically-acclaimed but, again, little-seen The New World (2005), and the challenging role of author Arturo Bandini in Robert Towne's Ask the Dust. 2006 brought Michael Mann's much-anticipated remake of his own groundbreaking '80s TV show, Miami Vice, which he quickly followed with a turn in Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream, as well as the critically acclaimed crime comedy In Bruges in 2008.Having all but completely cemented his position in Hollywood, Farrell joined the ranks of other leading men like Johnn Depp and Jude Law, who all stepped in to play various incarnations of the universe-hopping protagonist in Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, filling in for the film's original lead Heath Ledger, who died tragically, midway through filming. Farrell would spend the coming years enjoying a variety of projects, most notably in movies like Crazy Heart, Horrible Bosses, and Fright Night.

Trivia: Though Terrence Howard's great grandmother Minnie Gentry was a successful New York stage actress, Howard didn't venture onto the screen himself until the age of twenty. Raised in a multiracial Jehovah's Witness household, the young man studied chemical engineering at Pratt Institute before being discovered on the street in New York. This quickly led to appearances on such television shows as Coach, Street Legal, Living Single, and Picket Fences. His breakout role in 1995's Mr. Holland's Opus helped pave the way for Howard's film career, as did his critically acclaimed performance as Cowboy in the Hughes brothers film Dead Presidents. By the time he took the role of Quentin in 1999's The Best Man, Howard had established a reputation as an actor of both skill and integrity. The new millennium finally brought Howard work that showcased his talent and made him a well-known name, like his role in the Paul Haggis film Crash, as well as his work in the John Singleton's Four Brothers. He also attracted the spotlight on the small screen with parts in the acclaimed TV films Their Eyes Were Watching God with Halle Berry, and Lackawanna Blues with S. Epatha Merkerson. This set the stage for his career-making performance as a pimp desperate to create a new life for himself as a musician in Hustle & Flow, for which he earned an Oscar nomination. Over the coming years, Howard would remain a vital force on screen, appearing in several films, likeGet Rich or Die Tryin', Idlewild, Iron Man, and On the Road. In 2013, he played a supporting role in Lee Daniel's The Butler and reprised his role in The Best Man Holiday. Howard returned to television in Fox's smash-hit Empire, playing music mogul Lucious Lyon.

Trivia: After making his film debut alongside a cast of future stars, Cole Hauser made his own mark as a TV and indie film actor in the 1990s. Raised in Santa Barbara, Hauser got hooked on acting in junior high. Shortly after he moved to Los Angeles at age 15 to pursue his chosen career, Hauser was cast in the prep school anti-Semitism drama School Ties (1992) along with up-and-comers Brendan Fraser, Chris O'Donnell, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck. After this auspicious beginning, Hauser became part of an equally noteworthy ensemble of young stars-to-be in Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused (1993), appeared in the NBC TV movie A Matter of Justice (1993), played a skinhead in John Singleton's college drama Higher Learning (1995), and starred as an abusive boyfriend in All Over Me (1997). Hauser was cast in the lead role in the ABC series High Incident in 1996, but the show lasted only two seasons. Following a supporting role as one of Damon and Affleck's Boston cronies in their breakthrough hit Good Will Hunting (1997), Hauser played a small part in Stephen Frears' little seen modern Western The Hi-Lo Country (1998) and scored a hit as one of the marooned travelers battling mutant aliens in the sci-fi sleeper Pitch Black (2000). After reuniting with his Tigerland (2000) co-star Colin Farrell in the box office failure Hart's War (2002), Hauser gained more notice for his supporting role later that year in the women's melodrama White Oleander (2002). Though he only appeared in a few scenes, Hauser's kindly and sexy young foster dad Ray easily caught the eye of the audience as well as troubled foster teen Alison Lohman. Returning to more testosterone-friendly work, Hauser subsequently co-starred with Hart's War officer Bruce Willis in Antoine Fuqua's action thriller Man of War (2003), and got behind the nitro-charged wheel for the sequel The Fast and the Furious 2 (2003). He continued to work in little-seen fare like Paparazzi and The Cave, but did score a part as one of Vince Vaughn's brothers in the aptly titled comedy The Break-Up. Over the next several years, Hauser would remain active on screen, appearing in films like The Cave, The Break-Up, and The FAmily That Prays, as well as on TV series like K-Ville and Chase. Hauser's father is actor Wings Hauser.

Trivia: Romanian actor Marcel Iures took his cinematic bow in the early '70s and spent the next several decades specializing in character portrayals. He often appeared as distinguished and educated men (Pope Pius XII in the 2002 Amen; a doctor in The Cave [2005]; a professor in Youth Without Youth [2007]) or Eastern European ethnic types. Iures' role in the 1994 Interview With the Vampire for director Neil Jordan -- that of a Parisian vampire -- not only took full advantage of the actor's near-Transylvanian origins but channeled his ruddy looks into something far more sinister than his usual evocations.

Trivia: Possessing a wistful handsomness and vulnerable charisma, British actor Linus Roache first gained recognition -- and controversy -- as a gay Catholic priest in Antonia Bird's 1994 Priest. A native of Manchester, where he was born in 1964, Roache is the son of actor William Roache, best known for his long-running role on the popular TV series Coronation Street. It was on that show that the younger Roache made his debut at the age of nine, playing his father's son. Following his debut, he spent much of the next decade on stage, performing with the likes of the Royal Shakespeare Company.Following the success of Priest, as well as a role in the popular BBC TV series Seaforth that same year, Roache took some time off to recuperate from the grueling experience of making Priest. When he returned to the screen, it was in Iain Softley's adaptation of Henry James' The Wings of the Dove (1997). Roache won acclaim for his complex portrayal of Merton Densher, an impoverished journalist who becomes caught up in a disastrous scheme involving his girlfriend (Helena Bonham Carter) and a dying heiress (Alison Elliott). The film itself was roundly praised and helped put Roache back in the spotlight that he had rejected just two years earlier.The actor could subsequently be seen doing work in a number of diverse films, including Shot Through the Heart (1998), which cast him as a Yugoslavian marksman caught up in the horrors of war; and The Venice Project (1999), a drama in which he played both a 17th-century Italian count and a member of the 20th-century California art world.

Trivia: Started his acting career in local theaters at a very young age.Is a founding and active member of the Buffalo Nights Theatre Company of Santa Monica, California.Is skilled at Kung Fu.Is an animal advocate.In April 2020 participated along with fellow cast members of Homeland in a charity auction for Yes To Life foundation, aimed to empower people with cancer in the U.K.

Trivia: With his distinct yet pleasant "everyman" appearance, Sam Jaeger largely built up his career resumé with a string of guest appearances on television programs during the late '90s and into the first decade of the new millennium -- including Law & Order, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Scrubs. Cinematically, Jaeger tackled small roles in the 2006 gangster comedy Lucky Number Slevin (starring Ben Kingsley) and the 2007 Jennifer Garner-headlined romantic comedy-drama Catch and Release. The next year, he was cast on the fantastical legal drama Eli Stone as slick, competitive lawyer Matt Dowd. Over the next few years, Jaeger would find success on the TV series Parenthood.

Trivia: Supporting actor Rory Cochrane made his film debut with a small role in James Dearden's A Kiss Before Dying (1991). Prior to that, while still enrolled at New York City's LaGuardia High School, he had appeared in the CBS television docudrama Saturday Night With Connie Chung (1989); he then appeared in an episode of the ABC series H.E.L.P. (1990). Cochrane has subsequently earned recognition for playing memorable character roles in independent features. He is best known for playing the constantly zoned-out teenaged stoner Slater in Richard Linklater's ode to adolescence in the 1970s, Dazed and Confused (1993). Other notable roles include a turn as a troubled teen wrangling with a dysfunctional father (Jeff Goldblum) in Fathers and Sons (1992) and Cochrane's multilayered and funny portrayal of a paranoid, gun-loving biker in Love and a .45 (1994). Cochrane continued to work steadily in little-seen independent films like Empire Records, and The Low Life. He did have a major role in James Toback's confrontational Black and White. He appeared in Hats's War opposite fellow Dazed and Confused alum Cole Hauser. Cochrane scored a role on the CSI spin-off CSI: Miami, but his character was killed off. In 2006 Cochrane would be cast again by Richard Linklater in his adaptation of A Scanner Darkly. Cochrane would remain active on screen as the years rolled on, apperaing in movies like Public Enemies and on shows like The Company, CSI: Miami, and 24.

Trivia: Born in 1976, Grenier grew up in Brooklyn and attended Bard College. It was during his studies that he was cast as the titular lead in the independent film The Adventures of Sebastian Cole (1998). His natural, unaffected portrayal of a young man growing up with his pre-op transsexual stepfather in 1980s upstate New York was a hit among critics, and Grenier was soon being touted as one to watch. That same year, the young actor -- who had made his film debut in the 1997 independent film Arresting Gena -- also gained a significant amount of exposure playing a member of Leonardo DiCaprio's entourage in Woody Allen's Celebrity. Following the critical and arthouse success of Sebastian Cole, Grenier was cast in his first mainstream film, Drive Me Crazy (1999). After a decidedly Manson-esque turn as a cinematic terrorist in director John Waters' Cecil B. Demented, Grenier could be seen in a small but notably less-psychotic role in Steven Spielberg's 2001 sci-fi drama A.I. He would appear in other films, like Hart's War and Anything Else, but it was the move to the small screen in 2004 with the lead on HBO's critically acclaimed Entourage that landed Grenier his most substantial notice and success to date. The massively popular show would run until 2011, and Grenier would also appear in the popular comedy The Devil Wears Prada. Grenier's interest would shift to documentary filmmaking, however, as the 2000's unfolded, and he would produce several projects, like Teenage Paparazzo and My Name is Faith, as well as the documentary series Alter Eco.

Trivia: Fans of Zach Braff's comedy Garden State (2004) will invariably be able to identify actor Michael Weston from his participation in that film; he played Kenny, the loudmouthed (and profane) cokehead-turned-cop who turns up to read Braff's character the riot act for speeding. The impression made here was not unique; Weston first bowed onscreen during the very late '90s and developed and honed a reputation for memorable one- and two-scene performances over the course of many Hollywood projects. Credits included the slick urban comedy Coyote Ugly (2000), the light crime comedy Lucky Numbers (2000), and the war drama Hart's War (2002). With his performance as hayseed deputy Enos Strate in The Dukes of Hazzard (2005), Weston ascended to supporting billing; he subsequently joined the cast of the Jason Biggs comedy Wedding Daze (2006) and Marc Schoelermann's medical thriller Pathology (2008).

Trivia: Born in Danbury, CT, fresh-faced Jonathan Brandis began acting in commercials before elementary school. His family relocated to Los Angeles when he was nine and he promptly landed guest spots on several TV series, including Blossom and L.A. Law, as well as roles in miniseries and films. After a supporting part in The Stepfather II (1989), Brandis garnered his first starring film role as the boy adventurer in The Neverending Story 2: The Next Chapter (1991). Brandis followed up with starring roles as a ringer for a girls' soccer team in Ladybugs (1992) and a weakling who lives his dream of practicing martial arts with Chuck Norris in Sidekicks (1993). His two seasons on TV's SeaQuest DSV (1993-1994) further helped turn the boyishly handsome Brandis into a teen-magazine idol. With substantial roles in several TV movies, including Good King Wenceslas (1994) and Born Free: A New Adventure (1996), Brandis stuck to TV for several years after SeaQuest. He returned to feature films in the late '90s with a small part in Ang Lee's Civil War drama Ride With the Devil (1999) and a sizable supporting role as Rhode Island teen Shawn Hatosy's best friend in the coming-of-age comedy Outside Providence (1999). Jonathan Brandis committed suicide at his home in Los Angeles just before midnight on November 11, 2003, though the trades reported that he actually died the following morning, after being transported to nearby Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. His final film appearance -- in John T. Kretchmer's low-budget comedy Bad Girls from Valley High -- arrived posthumously, in 2005.

Trivia: While other students at Berkeley were weaving flowers in their hair and blowing weed, Joe Spano was laying the groundwork for an acting career. After establishing himself on the San Francisco theatrical scene, Spano began showing up on screen in such supporting roles as Vic in American Graffiti (1974) and Ace in Roadie (1980). From January 1981 through May 1987, Spano could be seen on a weekly basis as Henry Goldblume, the bespectacled and bowtied community affairs officer on the TV series Hill Street Blues. In 1992, Joe Spano made his Broadway debut in a revival of Arthur Miller's The Price.

Trivia: Australian-born actor Sam Worthington got his first break in the Belvoir Street Theatre production Judas Kiss, shortly after graduating from Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art. He eventually made the transition to the screen, appearing in the Australian movie Bootmen. Worthington earned small roles in other films such as Hart's War, and eventually won the lead in the drama Dirty Deeds opposite Toni Collette. He later earned a prominent role in the critically acclaimed Somersault, which won a slew of awards, including an AFI for Worthington in the category of Best Actor. In 2006, he joined many young men of the acting community in going up for the role of James Bond, and while the legendary part went to Daniel Craig, Worthington took the title role in a modern retelling of Shakespeare's Macbeth, garnering the 30-year-old actor a lot of attention. He caught the eye of director James Cameron, who cast Worthington as the lead in his sci-fi thriller Avatar. That film would become one of the biggest box-office successes in movie history and he would follow up that newfound celebrity with turns in another effects-laden extravaganza Clash of the Titans, as well as the indie drama Last Night. In 2012 he returned to the role of Perseus for Wrath of the Titans, and starred in the thriller Man on a Ledge. In 2013, he appeared in the Australian film Drift, followed by another Australian film, Paper Planes, in 2014. The following year, he appeared in Cake, opposite Jennifer Aniston, and in the disaster film Everest.

Trivia: Born in the Bronx, NY, in 1972, actor Michael Landes began his acting career on the opposite coast, with a recurring role on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. After getting his feet wet with more television work, Landes landed an even bigger break when he was cast as Jimmy Olsen on the series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman in 1993. After the first season, however, producers decided that the young actor's chiseled good looks were a little too manly for the boyish role, and Landes was cut loose. He continued to work in films like Hart's War and on series like The Drew Carey Show, and in 1998, he both produced and starred in the film Getting Personal. In 2000, he married actress Wendy Benson, and he continued to build up his resumé, even snagging a staring role in the British series Love Soup. Then, in 2008, he was cast in the independent film Possession, boosting his profile and gearing him up for his next role in the thriller Homecoming, in which he starred alongside Mischa Barton.