Trivia: The son of a trucking company manager, Brad Pitt was born December 18, 1963, in Shawnee, OK. Raised in Missouri as the oldest of three children, and brought up in a strict Baptist household, Pitt enrolled at the University of Missouri, following high school graduation, studying journalism and advertising. However, after discovering his love of acting, he dropped out of college two credit hours before he could graduate and moved to Hollywood. Once in California, Pitt took acting classes and supported himself with a variety of odd jobs that included chauffeuring strippers to private parties, waiting tables, and wearing a giant chicken suit for a local restaurant chain. His first break came when he landed a small recurring role on Dallas, and a part in a teenage-slasher movie, Cutting Class (1989) (opposite Roddy McDowall), marked his inauspicious entrance into the world of feature films. The previous year, Pitt's acting experience had been limited to the TV movie A Stoning in Fulgham County (1988). 1991 marked the end of Pitt's obscurity, as it was the year he made his appearance in Thelma & Louise (1991) as the wickedly charming drifter who seduces Geena Davis and then robs her blind. After becoming famous practically overnight, Pitt unfortunately chose to channel his newfound celebrity into Ralph Bakshi's disastrous animation/live action combo Cool World (1992). Following this misstep, Pitt took a starring role in director Tom Di Cillo's independent film Johnny Suede. The film failed to score with critics or at the box office and Pitt's documented clashes with the director allegedly inspired Di Cillo to pattern the character of the vain and egotistical Chad Palomino, in his 1995 Living in Oblivion, after the actor. Pitt's next venture, Robert Redford's lyrical fly-fishing drama A River Runs Through It (2002), gave the actor a much-needed chance to prove that he had talent in addition to physical appeal.Following his performance in Redford's film, Pitt appeared in Kalifornia and True Romance (both 1993), two road movies featuring fallen women and violent sociopaths. Pitt's next major role did not arrive until early 1994, when he was cast as the lead of the gorgeously photographed Legends of the Fall. As he did in A River Runs Through It, Pitt portrayed a free-spirited, strong-willed brother, but this time had greater opportunity to further develop his enigmatic character. Later that same year, fans watched in anticipation as Pitt exchanged his outdoorsy persona for the brooding, gothic posturing of Anne Rice's tortured vampire Louis in the film adaptation of Interview With the Vampire. Pitt next starred in the forgettable romantic comedy The Favor (1994) before going on to play a rookie detective investigating a series of gruesome crimes opposite Morgan Freeman in Seven (1995). In 1997, Pitt received a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a visionary mental patient in Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys; the same year, Pitt attempted an Austrian accent and put on a backpack to play mountaineer Heinrich Harrar in Seven Years in Tibet. The film met with mixed reviews and generated a fair amount of controversy, thanks in part to the revelation that the real-life Harrar had in fact been a Nazi. Following Tibet, Pitt traveled in a less inflammatory direction with Alan J. Pakula's The Devil's Own, in which he starred with fellow screen icon Harrison Ford. Despite this seemingly faultless pairing, the film was a relative critical and box-office failure. In 1998, Pitt tried his hand at romantic drama, portraying Death in Meet Joe Black, the most expensive non-special effects film ever made. Pitt's penchant for quirk was prevalent with his cameo in the surreal comic fantasy Being John Malkovich (1999) and carried over into his role as Tyler Durden, the mysterious and anti-materialistic soap salesman in David Fincher's controversial Fight Club the same year. The odd characterizations didn't let up with his appearance as the audibly indecipherable pugilist in Guy Ritchie's eagerly anticipated follow-up to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch (2000).In July of 2000, the man voted "Most Sexy Actor Alive" by virtually every entertainment publication currently in circulation crushed the hearts of millions of adoring female fans when he wed popular film and television actress Jennifer Aniston in a relatively modest (at least by Hollywood standards) and intimate service.Pitt's next turn on the big screen found him re-teamed with Robert Redford, this time sharing the screen with the A River Runs Through It director in the espionage thriller Spy Game (2001). A fairly retro-straight-laced role for an actor who had become identified with his increasingly eccentric roles, he was soon cast in Steven Soderbergh's remake of the Rat Pack classic Ocean's 11 (2001), the tale of a group of criminals who plot to rob a string of casinos. Following a decidedly busy 2001 that also included a lead role opposite Julia Roberts in the romantic crime-comedy The Mexican, Pitt was virtually absent from the big-screen over the next three years. After walking away from the ambitious and troubled Darren Aronofsky production The Fountain, he popped up for a very brief cameo in pal George Clooney's 2002 directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and lent his voice to the animated adventure Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, but spent the majority of his time working on the historical epic Troy (2004). Directed by Wolfgang Peterson, the film employed a huge cast, crew and budget.The media engulfed Pitt's next screen role with tabloid fervor, as it cast him opposite bombshell Angelina Jolie. While the comedic actioner Mr. and Mrs. Smith grossed dollar one at the box office, the stars' off-camera relationship that made some of 2005's biggest headlines. Before long, Pitt had split from his wife Jennifer Aniston and adopted Jolie's two children. The family expanded to three in 2006 with the birth of the couple's first child, to four in 2007 with the adoption of a Vietnamese boy, and finally to six in 2008, with the birth of fraternal twins.In addition to increasing his family in 2006, Pitt also padded his filmography as a producer on a number of projects, including Martin Scorsese's The Departed, the Best Picture Winner for 2006. He also acted opposite Cate Blanchett in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's drama Babel. Interestingly, that film hit theaters the same year as The Fountain, a film that was originally set to star the duo. Pitt also stayed busy as an actor, reteaming with many familiar on-screen pals for Ocean's Thirteen. At about the same time, Pitt teamed up with Ridley Scott to co-produce a period western, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; Pitt also stars in the film, as James. The year 2007 found Pitt involved, simultaneously, in a number of increasingly intelligent and distinguished projects. He signed on to reteam with David Fincher for the first occasion since Fight Club, with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - a bittersweet fantasy, adapted by Forrest Gump scribe Eric Roth from an F. Scott Fitzgerald story, about a man who falls in love while he is aging in reverse. When the special effects heavy film hit theaters in time for awards season in 2008, Pitt garnered a Best Actor nomination from both the Academy and the Screen Actors Guild. Also in 2007, Pitt produced an adaptation of Marianne Pearl's memoir A Mighty Heart that starred Angelina Jolie. In the years that followed, Pitt remained supremely busy. He delivered a funny lead performance as Lt. Aldo Raine in Quentin Tarantino's blistering World War II saga Inglourious Basterds (2009), then did some of the most highly-praised work of his career as a disciplinarian father in Terence Malick's The Tree of Life (2011) - a sprawling, cerebral phantasmorgia on the meaning of life and death that became one of the critical sensations of the year. He also won a great deal of praise for his turn as Billy Beane in Bennett Miller's adaptation of the non-fiction book Moneyball, a role that not only earned him critical raves but Best Actor nominations from the Academy, BAFTA, the Broadcast Film Association, the Golden Globes, and won him the New York Film Critics Circle award (though the institution also recognized his work in Tree of Life as figuring into their decision).In 2013, Pitt's Plan B production company produced 12 Years a Slave (he also appeared in the film, in a small supporting role), which earned Pitt an Academy Award when the film won Best Picture. The next year, Pitt won an Emmy as part of the producing team of the HBO tv movie The Normal Heart.

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

Trivia: Although she initially gained fame for her real-life role as Brad Pitt's girlfriend, Gwyneth Paltrow went on to build a solid reputation as one of the leading actresses of her generation. Repeatedly summoning comparisons to such classic presences as Grace Kelly, the blonde, blue-eyed Paltrow has won acclaim for her parts in a number of films, most notably Shakespeare in Love, for which she won a Best Actress Oscar in 1999.The daughter of actress Blythe Danner and producer/director Bruce Paltrow, Paltrow was born in Los Angeles on September 28, 1972. When she was 11, her family moved to Massachusetts so that her father could direct summer stock productions -- it was there that the actress began to receive theatrical training under her parents' tutelage. Schooled at Manhattan's exclusive Spence School, Paltrow went on to study anthropology at the University of California before deciding to drop out to pursue her acting career. She got her first screen role in the 1991 movie Shout and in the same year she played the young Wendy in Steven Spielberg's Hook.Two years later, Paltrow made her first significant impression with a chilling turn as a young con artist in Flesh and Bone. She went on to minor but memorable roles in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994) and Jefferson in Paris (1995) before earning her first true taste of fame with her part as Brad Pitt's wife in Seven (1995). Unfortunately, she got more attention for her status as the actor's girlfriend than for her work in the film, becoming one of the world's most photographed arm ornaments.However, the actress was able to come into her own the following year with the title role in Douglas McGrath's adaptation of Emma. She won acclaim for her work and her flawless British accent, and the same year she could be seen in two more films: The Pallbearer, with David Schwimmer, and Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight. However, it was not until 1998 -- having broken off her engagement with Pitt the previous year -- that Paltrow became better-known for her acting than for her ability to look good in designer evening gowns. That year, she had starring roles in no less than five films. Although both Hush and A Perfect Murder proved disappointments, and Great Expectations received mixed reviews, Paltrow's two English excursions, the comedy Sliding Doors and John Madden's Shakespeare in Love, netted positive receptions. The latter film drew particular acclaim, eventually winning seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Paltrow.The following year, she had the lead in another high-profile project, Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley. Starring opposite Matt Damon, Jude Law, and Cate Blanchett, Paltrow took part in a film that boasted one of the most photogenic collections of young stars that audiences had seen that year and it further enhanced her reputation as one of the most celebrated members of her generation to step in front of a camera. As photogenic as she may be, however, Paltrow's healthy sense of humor would give the delicate actress the gusto she needed to take on the role of a 300-pound object of funnyman Jack Black's affection in the Farrelly brothers' cheerfully offensive Shallow Hal in 2001. With roles in The Anniversary Party, Possession, and Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums that same year, Paltrow's versatility and popularity showed no signs of waning - even if the subsequent flight attendant comedy View From the Top didn't even climb high enough at the box office to take a nosedive.Of course the failure of View From the Top could not be placed squarely on the shoulders of Paltrow, and given the film's troubled production history it's a small wonder that the film was released at all. If that film had simply been a glazed-over comedy that gave its starlet little chance to shine, Paltrow would close out the year with a commendable and notably heavier performance in Sylvia. A film based on the life of literary legend Sylvia Plath, Sylvia couldn't have been more different than A View From the Top and provided Paltrow with a role she could truly sink her teeth into. Both her performance as well as the film itself fared fairly well through the duration of its limited art-house run, despite the fact that Plath's real life daughter Frieda Hughes publicly denounced the endeavor. The film also provided Paltrow with the opportunity to appear onscreen opposite her real-life mother Danner, who also played her ill-fated character's mother in the film.In the wake of her accolades from Sylvia, Paltrow closed out 2003 by wedding Coldplay singer Chris Martin. The new family would soon expand five months later with the birth of their first child, a girl they bestowed with the unique moniker Apple Martin. But family life didn't slow Paltrow's film career too much. By Autumn she could be seen opposite Jude Law in the sci-fi actioner Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and before the close of the year, audiences could catch her in director John Madden's Proof. Paltrow played a supporting role in the drama Infamous in (2006), and co-starred with Joaquin Phoenix in the 2008 romantic drama Two Lovers. Paltrow appeared in Iron Man (2008) and Iron Man 2 (2011) as the loyal assistant of zillionaire and hero du jour Tony Stark. The actress played a brief but vital role in Steven Soderbergh's Contagion in 2011, and reprised her role of Pepper Potts for the summer blockbusters The Avengers in 2012 and Iron Man 3 in 2013.

Trivia: A few character actors make such an indelible impression with one role that they find it consistently impossible to outgrow that image. Anthony Perkins had it with Norman Bates, M. Emmet Walsh has it with Visser (from Blood Simple), and R. Lee Ermey will forever be associated with the sadomasochistic verbal rapist of a drill instructor, Gunnery Sgt. Hartman, from Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam opus, Full Metal Jacket (1987). Though Ermey never again quite matched the intensity of this role (or the gutter-bucket poetic invention of its obscene dialogue), it was enough to give him permanent recognition as a character actor among filmgoers, and to typecast him in a series of variants on that role, again and again, throughout his life.Born on March 24, 1944, in Emporia, KS, Ermey enlisted in the armed forces as a young man and hightailed it to Vietnam on a non-commissioned basis, but injuries forced him to retire from active duty. He received full disability pay and moved to Manila in the early '70s, where he managed to ably support himself on his USAF allotment (thanks to the lower cost of living) while studying for a degree in criminology. Each morning, Ermey visited the coffee shop at the Manila Hilton -- well-reputed as the haunt of American filmmakers shooting on-location in the Philippines -- until one of the directors happened to notice Ermey and asked him to pose for a series of blue jeans ads. This experience led to his film debut, a role as a retired soldier in a local production. By 1976, Ermey had appeared in several Filipino films. He broke into Hollywood films that year, when he slipped onto the set for Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now and convinced Coppola to hire him as a helicopter pilot. Indeed, the ex-officer's Vietnam experience came in handy and Coppola utilized him as a technical advisor. Ermey made his American cinematic debut -- and held to the military-man typecasting -- in Sidney J. Furie's comedy drama The Boys in Company C (1978), and the director's follow-up, Purple Hearts (1984). But his biggest break came shortly thereafter, when Stanley Kubrick -- a notorious tyrant himself -- tapped him to portray Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in Full Metal Jacket (1987). Ermey's evocation of the satanically profane, vile, and sadistic Hartman, laden with the thankless, brutal job of toughening up raw recruits before sending them to Vietnam (who eventually gets blown away by one of his trainees) dominates the film's first 45 minutes and provides an unforgettably realistic, disturbing portrait of military training. Thanks to his unique countenance and authoritative voice, Ermey maintained his image as a rough-hewn, tough-as-nails SOB onscreen.Neither Company C or Purple Hearts received substantial critical and public recognition (or a very wide release); in contrast, the broader exposure of Full Metal Jacket (it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay and a National Board of Review nomination for Best Picture) boosted Ermey's prominence -- immeasurably so. He followed it up with spots in such well-received pictures as Alan Parker's racial drama Mississippi Burning (1988) and Abel Ferrara's Body Snatchers (1993). In 1995, Ermey spoofed himself to great effect as the voice of the leader of the little green soldiers in Toy Story, and doubled it up with a turn as the vengeful father of a homicide victim in Tim Robbins' capital punishment drama Dead Man Walking. A third role in that same year -- as the boss of Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt in David Fincher's seminal work Seven -- elicited a positive (if limited) critical and public response for Ermey's portrayal.During the early 2000s, Ermey once again drew on his military expertise and background, albeit in a much different fashion, as host of the small-screen program Mail Call. Episodes featured him answering a series of viewer questions about various aspects of military life and history. In 2003, he returned to his dramatic roots (and managed to top the despicability of Sgt. Hartman) in Marcus Nispel's Tobe Hooper remake, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Ermey plays Sheriff Hoyt, the deviant backwater law officer -- in cahoots with the family of slaughter-happy cannibals -- who refuses to listen the cries and wails of Jessica Biel's Erin. (In fact, Nispel invented Ermey's role for the remake). After a comic turn as yet another tough-nosed authority figure, Captain Nichols, in the 2005 Tommy Lee Jones vehicle Man of the House, Ermey reprised the Hoyt role for the sequel to the Chainsaw remake, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006). In that picture, Hoyt precipitates the central crisis by happening upon another group of teens, murdering one in cold blood, and dragging the others back to the house where maniac Leatherface and his cronies reside. R. Lee Ermey married his wife, Nila Ermey, in 1975. They have four children.

Trivia: Blaxploitation superstar Richard Roundtree earned screen immortality during the 1970s as the legendary Shaft, "the black private dick that's the sex machine to all the chicks." Born July 9, 1942, in New Rochelle, NY, Roundtree attended college on a football scholarship but later gave up athletics to pursue an acting career. After touring as a model with the Ebony Fashion Fair, he joined the Negro Ensemble Company's acting workshop program in 1967. He made his film debut in 1970's What Do You Say to a Naked Lady?, but was still an unknown when filmmaker Gordon Parks Sr. cast him as Shaft. The role shot Roundtree to instant fame, launching the blaxploitation genre and proving so successful at the box office that it helped save MGM from the brink of bankruptcy. Thanks to the film's popularity -- as well as its two sequels, 1972's Shaft's Big Score! and the following year's Shaft in Africa, and even a short-lived television series -- Roundtree became an icon of '70s-era cool, and his image graced countless magazine covers. Outside of the Shaft franchise, he also appeared in films including the 1974 disaster epic Earthquake, 1975's Man Friday, and the blockbuster 1977 TV miniseries Roots. By the end of the decade, however, the blaxploitation movement was a thing of the past, and Roundtree's stardom waned; apart from the 1981 big-budget flop Inchon, he spent the 1980s appearing almost exclusively in TV roles or low-rent, direct-to-video features. Still, he continued working steadily, and in 1995 appeared in David Fincher's smash thriller Seven. The following year he co-starred in the acclaimed Once Upon a Time...When We Were Colored, and also teamed with fellow blaxploitation vets Pam Grier and Fred "the Hammer" Williamson in Original Gangstas. In 1997, Roundtree returned to series television in 413 Hope St.

Trivia: John McGinley, often credited as John C. McGinley, has become one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood since he first got noticed in Oliver Stone's Platoon (1986). The intense, unblinking actor specializes in sarcasm, cynicism, and a used car dealer's unctuous insincerity, meaning he can play either wacky or sinister in both comedies and dramas. Although he has appeared in six Stone films, his breakout performance came in a very different format, as the acerbic and piercingly straightforward Dr. Perry Cox on the hit NBC sitcom Scrubs (2001).McGinley was born on August 3, 1959, in New York City. Growing up in Millburn, NJ, he was more involved in sports than theater. He began studying acting at Syracuse University, continuing at N.Y.U.'s Tisch School of the Arts. McGinley then toiled both on and off-Broadway, as well as two years on the soap opera Another World, scoring his first film role in the Alan Alda-directed Sweet Liberty (1986). It was while he was serving as John Turturro's understudy on the play Danny and the Deep Blue Sea that a casting scout in Stone's employ spotted him and got him an audition for Platoon. McGinley was cast as the sycophantic Sgt. Red O'Neill in the eventual Oscar winner.McGinley followed up Platoon with another one-two punch of Stone movies, Wall Street (1987) and Talk Radio (1988). In interviews, McGinley has described theirs as a "strong working relationship," not a friendship per se with the demanding director. He appeared in a handful of other films before his fourth Stone collaboration, Born on the Fourth of July (1989), which was quickly followed by his first screenwriting effort. McGinley co-scripted and co-starred in the 1990 film Suffering Bastards, alongside Talk Radio's Eric Bogosian.The 1990s were a period of intense work for the actor, who appeared in an average of three movies a year, sometimes as many as seven -- a necessary but no less tricky feat for a character actor earning modest paychecks. The most heralded of these were David Fincher's Seven and Stone's Nixon (both 1995); the most forgettable were Highlander II: The Quickening (1991) and the Steven Seagal starrer On Deadly Ground (1994). For most moviegoers, he remained under the radar.Two showy roles in 1999 ably demonstrated McGinley's facility for comedy. As a callous efficiency expert brought aboard to reorganize (i.e., downsize) the tech firm at the heart of Office Space, McGinley grinned and joked his way through a round of heartless layoffs. A similar oiliness informed his loud, obnoxious, kiss-ass portrayal of a Jim Rome-type sports interviewer in Stone's Any Given Sunday. It was soon after, in 2001, that McGinley was brought aboard for the role destined to identify him beyond any single film. As the default mentor on Scrubs, McGinley alternated hard-knocks frankness, biting wit, and a genuine desire to be left alone, in turn creating a hilarious persona and sealing his fate as an unwitting cult figure to the young surgeons. The sitcom work schedule has given him the necessary stability to spend time with his young son, Max, who has Down's syndrome.

Trivia: An actor whose remarkable versatility has often been described as chameleon-like, Kevin Spacey has made an art of portraying a gallery of morally ambiguous characters ranging from the mildly shady to the all-out murderous. His reputation as one of the best-respected actors of his generation was bolstered by an Oscar, a Tony, and an award as Best Actor of the Decade from England's Empire magazine in 1999.The son of a technical procedure writer and a secretary, Spacey was born in South Orange, NJ, on July 26, 1959. His family moved a great deal thanks to his father's job, eventually settling for a time in Los Angeles. It was there that Spacey -- who had previously done a stint at military school -- attended Chatsworth High School, where he was very active in the theater. After an attempt at standup comedy, Spacey went to Juilliard, though his time was cut short after his second year, when he decided to quit school and begin his career.He made his theatrical debut in 1981 with Shakespeare in the Park, performing alongside the likes of Mandy Patinkin and John Goodman. The actor continued to be a fixture on the theater scene throughout the decade, performing both on Broadway and in regional productions. It was through the theater that he got his first big break: While auditioning for a Tom Stoppard play, Spacey was approached by director Mike Nichols, who cast him in his production of David Rabe's Hurlyburly. The actor's work in the play led Nichols to cast him as a subway mugger in his 1986 Heartburn. Two years later, the director and actor worked together again in Working Girl, in which Spacey had a small but memorable role as a sleazy businessman.By this time, Spacey was starting to work steadily in film, although he maintained his stage work, winning a 1990 Tony Award for his role in the Broadway production of Lost in Yonkers. He also did a substantial amount of television work, appearing on the series Wiseguy as deranged criminal Mel Proffitt. Criminal or morally questionable activities were to figure largely in Spacey's subsequent portrayals: His first starring role in a film was as the husband of a murdered woman in the 1992 Consenting Adults. The same year, he won acclaim for his portrayal of a foul-mouthed, leech-like real estate agent in James Foley's screen adaptation of the David Mamet play, Glengarry Glen Ross. Spacey landed his next memorable film role as yet another foul-mouthed jerk in the 1994 Swimming With Sharks, which he also co-produced. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for his portrayal of an abusive studio executive, and he gained further recognition the same year for his entirely different role in The Ref, in which he played one half of a constantly arguing married couple. However, it was with his performance in the following year's The Usual Suspects that Spacey fully stepped into the spotlight. As the enigmatic, garrulous "Verbal" Kint, Spacey was one of the more celebrated aspects of the critically lauded sleeper hit, winning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work. The actor won additional acclaim the same year for his role as a serial killer in the stylish and unrelentingly creepy thriller Seven. Spacey went on to make his directorial debut the following year with Albino Alligator. A New Orleans-based crime drama starring Matt Dillon, Faye Dunaway, and Gary Sinise, the film won some positive reviews, though it made little impact at the box office. In addition to directing, Spacey kept busy with acting, appearing the same year in A Time to Kill and Al Pacino's documentary Looking for Richard. The actor went on to star in Clint Eastwood's highly anticipated 1997 adaptation of John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and then had a sizable role in the big-budget The Negotiator in 1998. The same year, he also lent his voice to the computer-animated A Bug's Life and starred in the screen adaptation of Hurlyburly. While doing steady film work, Spacey also continued to appear on the stage, winning raves for his performance in an adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, first on the London stage in 1998, and then on Broadway the following year. Also in 1999, Spacey won an Academy Award as Best Actor for American Beauty, director Sam Mendes' dark comedy about a man experiencing a mid-life crisis. Following up Beauty with starring roles in The Big Kahuna and Ordinary Decent Criminal, Spacey would later appear as a mental patient who claims to be from a distant planet in K-PAX. K-Pax proved to be a minor flop, as did the actor's other major film in 2001, Lasse Hallstrom's adaptation of The Shipping News. Although Spacey drew positive notices for his portrayal of a man trying to start a new life in Newfoundland, the film, which also starred Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett, and Judi Dench, quickly sank at the box office and received only a lukewarm reception from critics.Spacey maintained a busy schedule throughout 2003, appearing in three disparate projects that reflected his extraordinary versatility. Besides cropping up as himself in the third Austin Powers outing, Austin Powers: Goldmember, he played the title character of The Life of David Gale, the story of a University of Texas professor whose anti-capital punishment stance assumes very personal meaning when he is convicted of rape and murder and lands on death row; the picture received a critical drubbing and faded quickly from view. That year, Spacey also starred in The United States of Leland, playing the father of a fifteen-year-old (Ryan Gosling) who murders an autistic child.2004 marked a key year for Spacey. The actor -- who had dreamed of portraying crooner Bobby Darin since childhood, and spent years striving to produce a biopic of the late singer through his production house, Trigger Horse Productions, ultimately realized that goal in December '04. In addition to starring Spacey as Darin, the biopic, entitled Beyond the Sea, enlisted Kate Bosworth as Sandra Dee, John Goodman as Steve Blauner, and Brenda Blethyn as Polly Cassotto. Beyond earned a decidedly mixed critical reception.In 2005, Spacey cut back on his acting schedule and devoted more attention to his role as artistic director of the legendary Old Vic Theatre in London -- a position he had assumed in 2003, under ten-year contract. In a Charlie Rose appearance c. 2005, the actor openly discussed his desire to use his position to revive a series of theatrical classics and reestablish The Vic as one of the world's premier stage venues. Unfortunately, Spacey's work here also earned some derision; under his aegis, The Vic mounted Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues in May 2006 - an effort helmed by Robert Altman - and it drew vicious critical pans, one from a reviewer who demanded that Spacey resign. Although Spacey listened to the complaints about the Altman effort, (shelving the production during the theater's busy summer tourist season), he vowed to continue his efforts at the Vic unabated.Summer 2006 also saw the actor appearing in the highly anticipated big-budget extravaganza Superman Returns, playing Lex Luthor to Brandon Routh's Superman/Clark Kent and Kate Bosworth's Lois Lane. With a powerhouse supporting cast that includes Frank Langella (Good Night, and Good Luck.), and Eva Marie Saint (North by Northwest), the picture predictably opened up to spectacular box office (becoming one of summer's top grossers) and enthusiastic critical notices. Those who did criticize the film singled out Spacey's interpretation of the Luthor role.About a month prior to the Superman debut, Spacey signed with Warner Brothers to co-star in Joe Claus (originally titled Fred Claus), a Christmas comedy that reteamed Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin with funnyman Vince Vaughn, and enlisted Paul Giamatti (American Splendor, Sideways) as a co-star. Additional roles in the years that followed further reflected Spacey's penchant for the offbeat, such as his portrayal of an envious military man caught up in psychic phenomena in the satire The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009), corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff in the acerbic comedy Casino Jack (2010) and a sadistic boss with a taste for humiliation in Horrible Bosses (2011). Meanwhile, at about the same time, Spacey took on the role of one of Shakespeare's most iconic villains in the Old Vic's production of Richard III - for which he earned considerable critical praise. In 2013, Spacey returned to television on Netflix's House of Cards, playing ruthless congressman Frank Underwood, earning Spacey nominations from the Emmys, SAGs and Golden Globes. In 2015, he earned both a Special Olivier Award for his work as the artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic, and was awarded an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II (though, as he's not a British or Commonwealth citizen, he's not entitled to be called "Sir.")

Trivia: Burly and heavyset character actor Mark Boone Jr. specialized in portrayals of thuggish rednecks and imposing blue-collar types, occasionally those with a slightly shady undercurrent. Boone first stepped in front of the camera in the early '80s, and grew more prolific over time; he was memorable in films such as the 1990 Die Hard 2 (as a terrorist), the 1995 Seven (as a greasy FBI agent), and the 2003 2 Fast 2 Furious (as a detective). His onscreen activity crescendoed circa 2005, with performances in four of that year's features, including Batman Begins. The following year, Boone signed for one of the key supporting roles in David Slade's supernatural horror opus 30 Days of Night (2007).

Trivia: A former San Francisco Giants baseball player turned character actor, Daniel Zacapa has worked steadily from the 1970s to the 1990s, amassing a series of television credits, as well as roles in Up Close and Personal and Seven.

Trivia: Moved to Germany from the United States at six years old. Was roommates with theater director Jim Simpson at Yale. Is an accomplished saxophonist. Taught drama to kids on a Navajo Reservation in Tuba City, Arizona. Made his Broadway debut in The Green Bird in 2000.

Trivia: Character actor Richard Portnow has worked steadily in theater, feature films, and on television for many years. On stage, he has appeared both on and off Broadway, as well as in many regional productions, and at London's Royal Court Theatre. Portnow made his feature film debut with a bit part in Susan Seidleman's Desperately Seeking Susan (1985). On television, Portnow has guest starred on many series, including Seinfeld, NYPD Blue, and The Nanny.

Trivia: Character actor Richard Schiff has done prolific work on both the large and small screens, and has appeared in films ranging from Seven (1995) to Living Out Loud (1998). Appearing as a cross between Wallace Shawn and Kevin Spacey, Schiff, a native of the East Coast, began his career as a stage director in New York. After founding and serving as the artistic director of the Manhattan Repertory Theatre and directing a number of on- and off-Broadway productions, he realized that he wanted to act. As such, Schiff began performing on both the stage and in independent films, then moved to Los Angeles so as to better pursue an acting career. He continued to work in the theatre, joining Tim Robbins' Actors Gang, and gradually broke into film. Appearances in such films as Spike Lee's Malcolm X (1992), the Coen Brothers' The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), and Steven Spielberg's The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) helped to put Schiff on the map as a character actor and led to substantial roles in Living Out Loud, which cast him as Danny De Vito's brother, and Dr. Dolittle (1998), in which he played one of Eddie Murphy's fellow men of medicine.Schiff also continued to do a great deal of work on television, appearing in shows ranging from Ally McBeal to E.R. In 2000, he joined the cast of the acclaimed NBC series The West Wing, playing the Chief Press Advisor to the President (Martin Sheen). That same year, he received a Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Emmy nomination for his portrayal. In the years to come, Schiff would remain active on screen, appearing on TV series like Past Life, The Cape, and House of Lies.

Trivia: The son of acclaimed actor Morgan Freeman, Alfonso Freeman used his imposing presence to great effect in character roles. He took his first onscreen bows in the mid-'90s, gracing the casts of many productions that starred his father, including The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Se7en (1995), Nurse Betty (2000), and The Bucket List (2007). Making light of this, he voiced a lead character, Fred Redding, in the short parody The SharkTank Redemption in 2000 as well as narrating a Robot Chicken spoof of March of the Penguins, for which Morgan Freeman had provided English narration. Alfonso also appeared in such films as Burn (1998) and Lord Help Us (2007), as well as taking on guest roles on such popular TV series as The West Wing, ER, and The Practice. In addition to his onscreen work, Freeman is an accomplished stage actor and gospel singer.

Trivia: Landed bit parts in the David Fincher-directed movies Seven (1997), The Game (1997), Fight Club (1999) and Zodiac (2007). Appeared in commercials for Subway and Fiber One cereal. Starred in PSAs for California's controversial Proposition 8 that spoofed the Mac vs. PC series of TV commercials. Played the pilot in Con Air (1997), a film produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, before being cast in Bruckheimer's TV series, ABC's The Forgotten.

Trivia: Became interested in acting after playing the role of Tiny Tim in a stage production of A Christmas Carol in third grade. Studied at American Conservatory Theater's Young Program. Lived in Italy and other locations in Europe while attempting to find work as an international banker. First professional acting job was in a Folgers commercial. Began appearing on TV in the early 1990s, performing in small roles on Cheers, The X-Files, NYPD Blue and Mad About You. Wrote, directed and starred in a 2010 film titled Morning opposite his wife, actress Jeanne Tripplehorn.

Trivia: Lead actress, onscreen from The Border (1982).

Trivia: Even if you don't know who Andrew Kevin Walker is, you may know what he looks like. Walker appeared as the first dead body in Seven (1995) and played the sleeping neighbor who Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart signal for help in Panic Room (2002). You may also have seen his name. He lent it to the three detectives -- Andrew, Kevin, and Walker -- who try to castrate Edward Norton in Fight Club (1999). Walker's true claim to fame is as one of Hollywood's leading screenwriters and script doctors. He specializes in big-budget thrillers that are just as gutsy as their artsy counterparts; he has also gotten the first crack at the industry's most anticipated screenplays, as well as put the final touches on today's most popular films.Raised in Mechanicsburg, PA, Walker attended Penn State University where he earned a bachelor's degree in Film Production. After graduating, he moved to New York City and toiled on several low-budget films. In 1991, while working at Tower Records, Walker slipped into a deep depression. He channeled his black mood into Seven (1994), a dark screenplay in which a serial killer murders people based on the seven deadly sins. New Line Cinema bought the crime thriller and Walker relocated to Los Angeles soon afterward.It took several years for Seven to go into production, during which time Walker contributed to HBO's Tales From the Crypt and wrote the thrillers Brainscan (1994) and Hideaway (1995). At the request of New Line, he also reluctantly toned down Seven's gruesome ending -- which included the female lead's severed head turning up inside a box -- to make it more palatable. However, when director David Fincher agreed to helm the project, he had done so based on Walker's first draft. Fincher and the film's stars, Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, rallied behind Walker's shocking finale, eventually convincing executive producer Arnold Kopelson to keep the gore in the film (Pitt's contract even stipulated that the studio could not alter Seven's final segment). The film became one of 1995's biggest hits, both critically and commercially, and established Walker as an A-list screenwriter.The next few years saw Walker penning uncredited rewrites on films such as Fincher's The Game (1997) and Fight Club (1999), Paul Anderson's Event Horizon (1997), and David Koepp's Stir of Echoes (1999), and writing an early draft of Bryan Singer's X-Men (2000). He also sold his original screenplay 8MM (1999) -- about a private eye who is hired to investigate the authenticity of a snuff movie -- to Columbia Pictures for a reported 1.25 million dollars. But the studio grew wary of the film's sordid subject matter, and began pressuring Walker into making major changes to the script. Walker thought he was saved when Joel Schumacher agreed to direct the film and supported him against the studio heads. But Schumacher simply made changes of his own, rearranging the script and doctoring scenes to lighten up the film. In a publicized debate, Walker walked off the set and later refused to watch the film, which opened to scathing reviews and disappointing box-office returns.Walker went on to adapt Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow into Tim Burton's eerie homage to Britain's Hammer films, Sleepy Hollow (1999), starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci. Though Burton admired Walker and co-writer Kevin Yagher's work on the film, he still hired Shakespeare in Love (1998) scribe Tom Stoppard to cut down its violence. Walker then wrote two installments of the BMW promotional short-film series The Hire (2001), starring Croupier's Clive Owen as a hired driver. In the first, John Frankenheimer's Ambush (2001), Owen must protect his passenger from mysterious masked gunmen who accuse the man of smuggling diamonds. In the second, Wong Kar-Wai's The Follow (2001), Owen is hired by Mickey Rourke to spy on his wife, who he thinks is an adulteress. Both films premiered on the BMW film site and helped fans whet their appetites for Walker's next projects, an adaptation of Marvel Comics' Silver Surfer for FOX and a screenplay that pairs DC Comic heroes Superman and Batman for director Wolfgang Petersen.