Trivia: Born December 31, 1959, actor Val Kilmer's chameleon-like ability to plunge fully and breathlessly into his characters represents both the gift that catapulted him to fame in the mid eighties, and that which - by its very nature of anonymity - held him back from megastardom for some time. Such an ability - doubtless, the result of exhaustive, heavily-disciplined training and rehearsal - also explains Kilmer's alleged on-set reputation as a perfectionist (which caused a number of major directors to supposedly tag him as 'difficult'), but the results are typically so electric that Kilmer's influx of assignments has never stopped. He is also extraordinarily selective about projects. Trying valiantly to maintain a firm hold on his career, he turned down offers for box office blockbusters including Blue Velvet, Dirty Dancing, and Indecent Proposal for personal and artistic reasons. A Los Angeles native, Kilmer acted in high school with friend Kevin Spacey before attending the Hollywood Professional School and Juilliard. He appeared on the New York stage and in Shakespeare festivals before his cinematic debut as the rock idol Nick Rivers in the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker spy spoof Top Secret! (1984). An absurd role which Kilmer plays with complete sincerity, it reveals genuine musical talent and Kilmer achieves complete credibility as a rock star. Throughout the eighties, Kilmer played as diverse an assortment of roles as could be found: he was the goofy, playfully sarcastic, egghead roommate and mentor to Gabe Jarrett in Martha Coolidge's Real Genius, the cocky Ice Man in Top Gun, and warrior Madmartigan in the Ron Howard/George Lucas fantasy Willow (1988). Kilmer's cinematic breakthrough arrived in 1991, for his portrayal of rock icon Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's The Doors; some speculated that Stone hired Kilmer solely on the basis of the musical gifts showcased seven years prior in Top Secret!. As the philosophical, death-obsessed rocker (and druggie) Morrison, Kilmer performed a number of the Doors songs on the soundtrack, sans dubbing. Kilmer played other American icons in his next two films - gunslinger Doc Holliday in Tombstone and the spirit of Elvis in True Romance; both did remarkable business at the box office. Due to his persistent need for an on-set dialogue with his directors, Kilmer clashed with Michael Apted on the set of Thunderheart (1992) and Joel Schumacher on the set of Batman Forever. He openly refused to repeat the Bruce Wayne role for Batman and Robin (1997). Instead, Kilmer headlined Michael Mann's 1995 Heat with two legends, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. This time around, he met with a more accommodating (or at least more tolerant) director, Michael Mann. Working with another acting veteran, he co-starred with Michael Douglas for the hunting adventure The Ghost and the Darkness. Unfortunately, his next few films were disappointments, particularly The Saint and The Island of Dr. Moreau. He switched gears a few times with little success, turning to romantic drama in At First Sight and to science fiction in Red Planet, but neither fit his dramatic intensity. After lending his booming voice to the part of Moses in the Dreamworks animated film The Prince of Egypt (1998), Kilmer appeared in The Salton Sea (1991) as a tormented drug addict. In 2003, he lined up quite a few projects, including the crime thriller Mindhunters and the drama Blind Horizon. In the same year he earned a starring role as another aggressive American icon, John Holmes ("the John Wayne of porn"), for the thriller Wonderland (2003). That same fall, Kilmer re-teamed with Ron Howard for the director's lackluster Searchers retread, The Missing (2003). He also re-collaborated with Oliver Stone (for the first occasion since The Doors) in the director's disappointing historical epic Alexander (2004), opposite Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, and Colin Farrell. He returned to form (and a leading role) in 2005, with the comedy-thriller Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang. Kilmer (per his trademark ability) once again cut way against type, this time as a flagrantly (and aptly named) homosexual detective, Gay Perry, who lives and works in Tinseltown. When it opened in October 2005, the picture drew an avid response from critics and lay viewers alike, and brought in solid box office returns. The actor packed in an astonishingly full schedule throughout 2006, with no less than six onscreen appearances through the end of that year, in large and small-scaled productions - all extremely unique. Kilmer returned to his 1998 Dreamworks part with the lead role of Moses in Robert Iscove's stage musical The Ten Commandments, mounted at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Then, in a most unusual move that recalled Richard Gere's work for Akira Kurosawa and Burt Lancaster's work for Luchino Visconti, Kilmer went cross-cultural, by joining the cast of Polish director Piotr Uklanski's Summer Love (2006), screened at the Venice International Film Festival. It marked the first "Polish spaghetti western" and gracefully spoofed the genre; Kilmer appears as "The Wanted Man." The Disney studios sci-fi-action thriller Deja Vu teamed Kilmer and Denzel Washington (under the aegis of Kilmer's former Top Gun cohorts, Tony Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer) as feds who travel back in time to stop a terrorist's (Jim Caviezel) attempt to blow up a ferry. He also voiced the character of Bogardus in Marc F. Adler and Jason Maurer's family-friendly animated adventure Delgo. In 2008, NBC revived the classic series Knight Rider, and needed a distinct voice to play the super-intelligent car. Kilmer stepped in to play the iconic role, but he also signed on for numerous other simultaneous projects, including Werner Herzog's semi sequel Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (2009), Shane Dax Taylor's troubled, disappointing melodrama Bloodworth (2010), and Francis Ford Coppola's horror opus Twixt, which co-starred Bruce Dern, Elle Fanning and Ben Chaplin. Kilmer met British actress Joanne Whalley on the set of Willow in 1987; they married the following year and teamed up onscreen in John Dahl's Kill Me Again (1989). The couple had two children before the marriage ended in 1996.

Trivia: American actress Elisabeth Shue was first seen on a national basis as Jackie Sarnac, teenaged daughter of Air Force colonel Raynor Sarnac on the 1984 TV series Call to Glory. She spent the next few years concentrating on "best girl" film roles: girlfriend to Ralph Macchio in The Karate Kid (1984), to Tom Cruise in Cocktail (1988), and to Michael J. Fox in the second and third Back to the Future flicks. She gave a marvelous interpretation of resourceful teenager Chris Parker in 1987's Adventures in Babysitting and was the daughter Sally Field never knew in Soapdish (1991). In 1996, Elisabeth Shue was nominated for an Academy award for her starring role opposite Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. Shue shone again playing Woody Allen's much-younger girlfriend in Deconstructing Harry (1997). Shue is the sister of TV actor Andrew Shue, who played Billy on the popular Fox series Melrose Place.

Trivia: Considered one of the former Yugoslavia's finest actors, Rade Serbedzija (also credited as Rade Sherbedgia) appeared in over 40 of the fractured country's feature films and was a two-time winner of the Pula Film Festival's coveted Golden Arena for Best Actor. In addition to his film credits, Serbedzija was also a distinguished stage actor, once heralded as Yugoslavia's definitive Hamlet. In cinema, he gained international exposure in the Oscar-nominated Pred Dozhdot/Before the Rain (1994). The film earned ten awards at the 1994 Venice Film Festival, including the Grand Prix Golden Lion; Serbedzija also won the festival's Critics' Award for Best Actor. Thereafter, Serbedzija continued to star and co-star in international productions such as Italy's La Tregua (1997); however, beginning with the 1997 Hollywood adventure yarn The Saint, his presence in American films increased tenfold. He racked up subsequent A-list credits including Mighty Joe Young (1998), Polish Wedding (1998), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Mission: Impossible II (2000), and The Fog (2005). He also made memorable appearances on such U.S. television programs as the hit action thriller series 24 (as the villainous former Soviet Red Army general Dmitri Gredenko during season six) and the short-lived sci-fi show Surface (as a mysterious Serbian scientist). In 2008, Serbedzija teamed up with co-directors Xavier Palud and David Moreau and star Jessica Alba for a supporting role in the psychologically charged horror opus The Eye. He went on to appear in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, as well as in Angelina Jolie's directorial debut In the Land of Honey.

Trivia: Acting is only one of Valery Nikolaev's talents, but it is the one for which he is best known outside of his native Russia. In film, he made his American debut in The Saint (1997) and followed up with a co-starring role in Oliver Stone's U-Turn. He honed his acting skills through an internship at London's Barbican Centre, followed by studies at New York's Juilliard School, the Moscow Art Theater, and the McCarter Theater in Princeton, NJ. In Russia, Nikolaev appeared in many feature films, on stage, and on television, where he was best known for starring in the soap opera Trifles of Life. In addition to his successful acting career, Nikolaev is a professional hockey player and gymnast, a noted dancer, a stage combat instructor, and a linguist.

Trivia: British supporting actor Henry Goodman has been involved with everything from classical theater to television mysteries to movie comedies. On stage, he performed with the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Goodman made his feature film debut playing a cabbie in Queen of Hearts (1989).

Trivia: Thanks in part to Alun Armstrong, the works of Charles Dickens enjoyed widespread exposure before television and theater audiences in the late 20th century. A longtime fan of Dickens, Armstrong performed in two highly acclaimed TV productions of Dickens: David Copperfield as Dan Pegotty and Oliver Twist as Mr. Fleming. In addition, he played the cruel schoolmaster Squeers in the Royal Shakespeare Company's stage adaptation of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. The production won four 1982 Tony Awards, including the award for Best Play, after it moved from London to New York. Armstrong also played Squeers in a 1982 TV production of Nickleby that won an Emmy and was nominated for a British Academy Award. Such is Armstrong's passion for Dickens that he turned down a role in a high-profile Clint Eastwood film to do the David Copperfield production. However, he has gratefully accepted challenging roles in many other high-profile motion pictures. For example, he played Mornay in Braveheart, Owens in Patriot Games, Corporal Davies in A Bridge Too Far, Lacourbe in The Duellists, and Keith in Get Carter.Theatergoers who have never seen Armstrong on the stage have been missing performances of the first rank. He was nominated for the coveted Laurence Olivier Award six times for work in such plays as Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, Arthur Miller's The Crucible, and Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. He won the Olivier Award as Best Actor for his performance in Cameron Mackintosh's musical production of the Christopher Bond play Sweeney Todd. In film productions, Armstrong helped Jonathan Tammuz win a 1989 Oscar in the category of Best Live Action Short for his role as Stefano in The Childeater. And in TV productions, he earned a Best Actor nomination from the Royal Television Society for his performance in This Is Personal: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper. Armstrong was born on July 17, 1946, in County Durham, England. Though his face may have once been handsome, it is now a relief map of crevasses that make him ideal for roles as Dickens characters. Such a countenance works well, too, for Shakespeare characters whose visages are etched with the hardships of living. Armstrong put his wrinkles to work in the Royal Shakespeare Company productions of The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, The Winter's Tale, Troilus and Cressida, As You Like It, and Measure for Measure. Although never regarded as a famous actor, Armstrong has certainly been one of the hardest-working. Between 1999 and 2002, he performed in 17 productions, including two major films -- Sleepy Hollow and The Mummy Returns -- and a hit TV miniseries, The Aristocrats.

Trivia: In films since at least 1963's The Scarlet Blade, British actor Michael Byrne has had roles ranging from the benign to the malevolent. He was equally at home with the Olde English trappings of Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1973) as he was with the up-to-date gangster ambience of The Long Good Friday (1982). Among his credits were Butley (1974), A Bridge too Far (1977) (halfway down the cast sheet as Lt. Col. Vandelur), The Medusa Touch (1978) and Force 10 from Navarone (1978). In 1989, Michael Byrne played Vogel, one of the multitudes of plot motivators in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Trivia: An attractive and talented actress who is as comfortable in historical dramas as in modern day thrillers and comedies, Emily Mortimer was born in Great Britain in 1971. Mortimer's father is author John Mortimer, best known for his series of Rumpole of the Bailey mystery novels, and she seems to have absorbed her father's literary influence -- before her career as an actress took off, Mortimer wrote a column for the London Telegraph, and she's served as screenwriter for an screen adaptation of Lorna Sage's book Bad Blood. Mortimer was a student at the prestigious St. Paul's Girls School when she first developed an interest in acting, appearing in several student productions. After graduating from St. Paul's, she moved on to Oxford, where she majored in Russian. Mortimer found time to perform in several plays while studying at Oxford, and while acting in a student production she impressed a producer who cast her in a supporting role in a television adaptation of Catherine Cookson's The Glass Virgin in 1995. Several more television roles followed, including the British TV movie Sharpe's Sword, before she won her first film role, playing the wife of John Patterson (Val Kilmer) in 1996's The Ghost and the Darkness. Mortimer had a much showier role in the Irish coming-of-age story The Last of the High Kings, released later the same year, and in 1998, Mortimer played Miss Flynn in the TV miniseries Cider With Rosie, which was adapted for television by her father, John Mortimer. Also in 1998, Mortimer appeared as Kat Ashley in the international hit Elizabeth, and in 1999, she enjoyed three showy roles that raised her profile outside the U.K.: She was the ill-fated "Perfect Girl" dropped by Hugh Grant in Notting Hill, appeared as Esther in the American TV miniseries Noah's Ark, and was Angelina, the star of the film-within-a-film, in the upscale slasher flick Scream 3. In 2000, Mortimer was cast as Katherine in Kenneth Branagh's ill-fated musical adaptation of Love's Labour's Lost, but the experience had a happy ending for her -- she met actor Alessandro Nivola, and the two soon fell in love and have been together ever since. That same year, Mortimer took on her biggest role in an American film to date, playing opposite Bruce Willis in The Kid, and 2002 promised to be a big year for her, with major roles in two major releases -- The 51st State, starring opposite Samuel L. Jackson, and a key supporting character in John Woo's war drama Windtalkers.

Trivia: Was persuaded to try acting by his friend and fellow actor Robert Carlyle. Got his start with a theater company in his native Glasgow in the early 1990s after working as a dance-club DJ. First TV roles were in a 1992 episode of the BBC anthology series Screen One and a '93 episode of Taggart, a long-running Scottish detective series. His breakout movie was Braveheart (1995). The scars on his face are the result of a mugging by knife-wielding assailants, an incident that occurred before he began acting.

Trivia: Began his career as a stand-up comedian. Played the role of Tom Buckley in legal drama series Kavanagh QC between 1995 and 2001. Appeared as Minty Peterson on BBC soap opera Eastenders between 2002 and 2010.In 2019, took part in the 19th series of I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! As of 2020, has starred as Fred Buckle in ITV drama Call the Midwife since its 2012 debut.

Trivia: From her first stage appearance in Brighton in 1949, to her screen appearance in 1999's The Ninth Gate, British screen actress Barbara Jefford has often been seen in cool, "still waters run deep" roles (though she lists as her favorite characters the far from sedate Cleopatra and Saint Joan). British playgoers have long been familiar with the gifted Jefford via her work in such classics as Tiger at the Gates, Mourning Becomes Electra, Six Characters in Search of an Author, and her lengthy associations with the Old Vic and National Theater. American art-house aficionados first became aware of Jefford when she starred as the erotically lyrical Molly Bloom in the 1967 film version of James Joyce's Ulysses (1967). Barbara Jefford was honored with the Order of the British Empire in 1965 and the Jubilee Festival medal in 1977.