Trivia: Born November 6, 1946, in Pasadena, CA, actress Sally Field was the daughter of another actress, Margaret Field, who is perhaps best known to film buffs as the leading lady of the sci-fi The Man From Planet X (1951). Field's stepfather was actor/stunt man Jock Mahoney, who, despite a certain degree of alienation between himself and his stepdaughter, was the principal influence in her pursuit of an acting career. Active in high-school dramatics, Field bypassed college to enroll in a summer acting workshop at Columbia studios. Her energy and determination enabled her to win, over hundreds of other aspiring actresses, the coveted starring role on the 1965 TV series Gidget. Gidget lasted only one season, but Field had become popular with teen fans and in 1967 was given a second crack at a sitcom with The Flying Nun; this one lasted three seasons and is still flying around in reruns.Somewhere along the way Field made her film debut in The Way West (1967) but was more or less ignored by moviegoers over the age of 21. Juggling sporadic work on stage and TV with a well-publicized first marriage (she was pregnant during Flying Nun's last season), Field set about shedding her "perky" image in order to get more substantial parts. Good as she was as a reformed junkie in the 1970 TV movie Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring, by 1972 Field was mired again in sitcom hell with the short-lived weekly The Girl With Something Extra. Freshly divorced and with a new agent, she tried to radically alter her persona with a nude scene in the 1975 film Stay Hungry, resulting in little more than embarrassment for all concerned. Finally, in 1976, Field proved her mettle as an actress in the TV movie Sybil, winning an Emmy for her virtuoso performance as a woman suffering from multiple personalities stemming from childhood abuse. Following this triumph, Field entered into a long romance with Burt Reynolds, working with the actor in numerous films that were short on prestige but long on box-office appeal.By 1979, Field found herself in another career crisis: now she had to jettison the "Burt Reynolds' girlfriend" image. She did so with her powerful portrayal of a small-town union organizer in Norma Rae (1979), for which she earned her first Academy Award. At last taken completely seriously by fans and industry figures, Field spent the next four years in films of fluctuating merit (she also ended her relationship with Reynolds and married again), rounding out 1984 with her second Oscar for Places in the Heart. It was at the 1985 Academy Awards ceremony that Field earned a permanent place in the lexicon of comedy writers, talk show hosts, and impressionists everywhere by reacting to her Oscar with a tearful "You LIKE me! You REALLY LIKE me!" Few liked her in such subsequent missteps as Surrender (1987) and Soapdish (1991), but Field was able to intersperse them with winners such as the 1989 weepie Steel Magnolias and the Robin Williams drag extravaganza Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). Field found further triumph as the doggedly determined mother of Tom Hanks in the 1994 box-office bonanza Forrest Gump, which, in addition to mining box-office gold, also managed to pull in a host of Oscars and various other awards.Following Gump, Field turned her energies to ultimately less successful projects, such as 1995's Eye for an Eye with Kiefer Sutherland and Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco (1996). She also did some TV work, most notably in Tom Hanks' acclaimed From the Earth to the Moon miniseries (1998) and the American Film Institute's 100 Years....100 Movies series. The turn of the century found Field contributing her talents to a pair of down-home comedy-dramas, first with a cameo matriarch role in 2000's Where the Heart Is and later that year as director of the Minnie Driver vehicle Beautiful. Both films met with near-universal derision from critics; only the Steel Magnolias-esque Heart found a modest box-office following.In 2003, Field took a role alongside Reese Witherspoon in the legal comedy Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, & Bllonde, and in 2006 joined the cast of ABC's Brothers & Sisters in the role of matriach Nora Walker. The role earned her an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2007. The actress was cast in the role of Aunt May for The Amazing Spiderman (2012), and was so revered as Mary Todd Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln that she earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Trivia: Born January 19th 1946, Dolly Parton has risen from relative poverty to become one of the most famous and wealthy country music stars in the world. Easily recognizable for her flamboyant platinum blonde wigs, vivid makeup, petite physique, and extra-large breasts -- which figure prominently in her humorous on-stage remarks -- Parton has shown a real knack for marketing herself in creative, lucrative ways that belie the downhome mannerisms and apple pie sweetness of her public persona. Parton's ventures range from a songwriting career,a semi-successful crossover to pop music, a sporadic acting career, a 100-million-dollar company, Dolly Parton Enterprises, and her ultimate self-promotion, the Dollywood musical theme park in Tennessee, which has become so popular since it's opening in 1986 that in 1997, it was largely responsible for the closing of its only rival, Opryland. Parton's singing career began with television appearances in Knoxville at age 12. The following year she had a recording contract and was appearing at the Grand Ole Opry and at age 21, she had her first hit song, "Dumb Blonde" (1967). It was, however, Porter Wagoner who made her a star when he hired her to duet with him. Together, they toured the country, made records, and appeared numerous times at the Opry. She went solo in 1974 and soon had a string of hits, including the semi-autobiographical "Coat of Many Colors." During the '70s, Parton was a favorite on talk shows and music specials. In 1980, she made her acting debut opposite Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dabney Coleman in the hit revenge comedy 9 to 5. As in most of her subsequent acting endeavors, Parton essentially played herself. She wrote and performed the film's title song and earned an Oscar nomination. She has since continued composing and singing in her films. Parton offered one of her best acting performances as a big-hearted beautician in Steel Magnolias (1989).Parton would continue to selectively revisit the realm of acting over the coming years, appearing in Frank McKlusky, C.I. and Joyful Noise, as well as on TV shows like Hannah Montana.

Trivia: A dancer, singer, highly regarded actress and metaphysical time traveler, Shirley MacLaine is certainly among Hollywood's most unique stars. Born Shirley MacLane Beaty on April 24, 1934 in Richmond, Virginia, MacLaine was the daughter of drama coach and former actress Kathlyn MacLean Beaty and Ira O. Beaty, a professor of psychology and philosophy. Her younger brother, Warren Beatty, also grew up to be an important Hollywood figure as an actor/director/ producer and screenwriter. MacLaine's mother, who gave up her own dreams of stardom for her young family, greatly motivated her daughter to become an actress and dancer. MacLaine took dance lessons from age two, first performed publicly at age four, and at 16 went to New York, making her Broadway debut as a chorus girl in Me and Juliet (1953). When not scrambling for theatrical work, MacLaine worked as a model. Interestingly, MacLaine's big break was the result of another actress's bad luck. In 1954, MacLaine was understudying Broadway actress Carol Haney The Pajama Game when Haney fractured her ankle. MacLaine replaced her and was spotted and offered a movie contract by producer Hal Wallis. With her auburn hair cut impishly short, the young actress made her film debut in Hitchock's black comedy The Trouble With Harry (1955). Later that year, she co-starred opposite Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in the comedy Artists and Models. In her next feature, Around the World in 80 Days (1956), she appeared as an Indian princess. MacLaine earned her first Oscar nomination for her portrayal of a pathetic tart who shocks a conservative town by showing up on the arm of young war hero Frank Sinatra in Some Came Running (1959). She then got the opportunity to show off her long legs and dancing talents in Can-Can (1960). Prior to that, she appeared with Rat Packers Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford in Oceans Eleven (1960). MacLaine, the only female member of the famed group, would later recount her experiences with them in her seventh book My Lucky Stars. In 1960, she won her second Oscar nomination for Billy Wilder's comedy/drama The Apartment, and a third nomination for Irma La Douce (1963). MacLaine's career was in high gear during the '60s, with her appearing in everything from dramas to madcap comedies to musicals such as What a Way to Go! (1964) and Bob Fosse's Sweet Charity! (1969). In addition to her screen work, she actively participated in Robert Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign and served as a Democratic Convention delegate. She was similarly involved in George McGovern's 1972 campaign. Bored by sitting around on movie sets all day awaiting her scenes, MacLaine started writing down her thoughts and was thus inspired to add writing to her list of talents. She published her first book, Don't Fall Off the Mountain in 1970. She next tried her hand at series television in 1971, starring in the comedy Shirley's World (1971-72) as a globe-trotting photographer. The role reflected her real-life reputation as a world traveler, and these experiences resulted in her second book Don't Fall Off the Mountain and the documentary The Other Half of the Sky -- A China Memoir (1975) which she scripted, produced and co-directed with Claudia Weill. MacLaine returned to Broadway in 1976 with a spectacular one-woman show A Gypsy in My Soul, and the following year entered a new phase in her career playing a middle-aged former ballerina who regrets leaving dance to live a middle-class life in The Turning Point. MacLaine was memorable starring as a lonely political wife opposite Peter Sellers' simple-minded gardener in Being There (1979), but did not again attract too much attention until she played the over-protective, eccentric widow Aurora Greenway in James L. Brooks' Terms of Endearment (1983), a role that finally won MacLaine an Academy Award. That same year, she published the candid Out on a Limb, bravely risking public ridicule by describing her experiences and theories concerning out-of-body travel and reincarnation. MacLaine's film appearances were sporadic through the mid '80s, although she did appear in a few television specials. In 1988, she came back strong with three great roles in Madame Sousatzka (1988), Steel Magnolias (1989) and particularly Postcards from the Edge (1990), in which she played a fading star clinging to her own career while helping her daughter Meryl Streep, a drug addicted, self-destructive actress. Through the '90s, MacLaine specialized in playing rather crusty and strong-willed eccentrics, such as her title character in the 1994 comedy Guarding Tess. In 1997, MacLaine stole scenes as a wise grande dame who helps pregnant, homeless Ricki Lake in Mrs. Winterbourne, and the same year revived Aurora Greenway in The Evening Star, the critically maligned sequel to Terms of Endearment.MacLaine's onscreen performances were few and far between in the first half of the next decade, but in 2005 she returned in relatively full force, appearing in three features. She took on a pair of grandmother roles in the comedy-dramas In Her Shoes and Rumor Has It..., and was a perfect fit for the part of Endora in the bigscreen take on the classic sitcom Bewitched. In the coming years, McLaine would continue to give critically acclaimed performances in movies like Coco Chanel, Valentine's Day, and Bernie.For a long time, MacLaine did seminars on her books, but in the mid '90s stopped giving talks, claiming she did not want "to be anyone's guru." She does, however, continue writing and remains a popular writer.

Trivia: Born October 28th, 1967, Georgia native Julia Roberts was raised in a fervently pro-theater environment. Her parents regularly hosted acting and writing workshops, and both of the Roberts children (Julia and her brother Eric) showed an interest in the performing arts at an early age. Ironically enough, Eric was the first to break into film; in 1978, one year after their father died of lung cancer at 47, Eric Roberts starred in director Frank Pierson's psychological drama King of the Gypsies. Though her older brother would go on to have a solid acting career, it was, of course, Julia Roberts who earned a spot among Hollywood's elite.After making her film debut in Blood Red -- which wouldn't be released until 1989, despite having been completed in 1986 -- and appearing in several late '80s television features, Roberts got her first real break in the 1988 made-for-cable drama Satisfaction. That role, consequently, led to her first significant supporting role -- a feisty pizza parlor waitress in 1989's Mystic Pizza with Annabeth Gish, Lili Taylor, and a then 19-year-old Matt Damon. While Mystic Pizza was not a star-making film for Roberts, it certainly helped earn her the credentials she needed to land the part of Shelby, an ill-fated would-be mother in Steel Magnolias. The 1989 tearjerker found her acting alongside Sally Field and Shirley MacLaine, and culminated in an Oscar nomination for Roberts. While the success of Steel Magnolias played no small part in launching Roberts' career, and undoubtedly secured her role in the mediocre Flatliners (1990) with former flame Kiefer Sutherland, it was director Garry Marshall's romantic comedy Pretty Woman with Richard Gere that served as her true breakthrough role. Roberts' part in Pretty Woman (a good-hearted prostitute who falls in love with a millionaire client) made the young actress a household name and cemented what would become a permanent spot in tabloid fodder. Roberts broke off her engagement with Sutherland in 1991, just three days before they were scheduled to be married, and surprised the American public in 1993, when she began her two-year marriage to country singer Lyle Lovett. Roberts' personal life kept her name in the spotlight despite a host of uneven performances throughout the early '90s (neither 1991's Dying Young or Sleeping With the Enemy garnered much acclaim), as did a reputed feud with Steven Spielberg during the filming of Hook (1991). Luckily, Roberts made decidedly less embarrassing headlines in 1993, when her role alongside future Oscar winner Denzel Washington in The Pelican Brief reaffirmed her status as a dramatic actress. Her career, however, took a turn back to the mediocre throughout the following year; both Prêt-à-Porter and I Love Trouble proved commercial flops, and Mary Reilly (1996) fizzled at the box office as well. The downward spiral reversed directions once again with 1996's Michael Collins and Conspiracy Theory with Mel Gibson, and led to several successful comic roles including Notting Hill with Hugh Grant, Runaway Bride, and most notably, My Best Friend's Wedding with Rupert Everett and a then virtually unknown Cameron Diaz. Roberts' biggest success didn't present itself until 2000, though, when she delivered an Oscar-winning performance playing the title role in Steven Soderbergh's Erin Brockovich. The film, based on the true story of Erin Brockovich, a single mother who, against all odds, won a heated battle against corporate environmental offenders, earned Roberts a staggering 20-million-dollar salary. Officially the highest paid actress in Hollywood, Roberts went on to star in 2001's America's Sweethearts with Billy Crystal, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and John Cusack, as well as The Mexican with Brad Pitt. While on the set of The Mexican, Roberts met cameraman Danny Moder, whom she would marry in 2001 almost immediately after ending a four-year relationship with fellow actor Benjamin Bratt. Indeed, 2001 was a banner year for Roberts; in addition to America's Sweethearts and The Mexican, Roberts starred in the crime caper Ocean's Eleven, in which she rejoined former co-stars Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, and acted for the first time with George Clooney and Don Cheadle. Julia Roberts worked with Soderbergh once again in 2002's Full Frontal, which, despite a solid cast including Mary McCormack and Catherine Keener, among others, did not even begin to fare as well as Erin Brockovich. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), which featured Roberts as a femme fatale alongside George Clooney, Sam Rockwell, and Drew Barrymore did much better, and preceded 2003's Mona Lisa Smile with young Hollywood's Julia Stiles, Kirsten Dunst, and Maggie Gyllenhaal. In 2004, Roberts signed on for the sequel to Ocean's Eleven -- the aptly titled Ocean's Twelve. A supporting performance in the animated 2006 feature The Ant Bully marked the glamorous Hollywood beauty's first foray into the world of animation, which she would continue for Christmas of 2006 with the role of everone's favorite selfless spider in Charlotte's Web. In the coming years, Roberts would reteam with Tom Hanks for Charlie Wilson's War in 2007, and then again for Larry Crowne in 2011. In the meantime, the A-lister would keep busy with a critically acclaimed performance in 2010's Eat, Pray, Love, in which she portrayed a divorcee on a journey of self discovery, and 2012's retelling of Snow White, Mirror, Mirror.

Trivia: Olympia Dukakis is one of those character actresses who infallibly lends a touch of class to whatever picture she's in. Despite her extraordinary dignity and class, she is able to make even the most outrageous character believable. Though she is well regarded in film, Dukakis has spent the bulk of her distinguished career on-stage as an actress and a director. She is also a highly respected drama teacher. The daughter of Greek immigrants, Dukakis once worked as a physical therapist. Her interest in acting came after appearing in summer stock and then taking adult-ed classes in drama at Boston University, where she graduated with a master's in Fine Arts. After graduation, she began her theatrical career and then co-founded Boston's renowned Charles Playhouse. Dukakis made her film debut in director Robert Rossen's last film Lillith (1964). She continued to make sporadic and undistinguished appearances in movies though much of the '80s, but did not gain notice until 1987 when she won an Academy Award for playing Cher's Italian mother in Moonstruck. Since then, Dukakis has specialized in playing older women from different ethnic backgrounds or mothers. Subsequent film appearances include Steel Magnolias (1989), where she played the elegant widow Clairee Belcher, Mighty Aphrodite (1995), and Picture Perfect (1997). In addition to her film and stage work -- she has appeared in over 100 plays -- Dukakis has also occasionally appeared on television in movies and mini-series. One of her most famous roles was that of the mysterious and kooky Annie Madrigal in the PBS adaptation of Armistad Maupin's Tales of the City (1993). Though the miniseries' gay themes led to considerable controversy, a sequel starring Dukakis was released in 1998. In addition to her Oscar win, she has earned Obie Awards, a New York and Los Angeles Critics Award, and a Golden Globe. As a drama teacher, Dukakis has worked at New York University and Yale. Her cousin, Michael Dukakis, was a presidential candidate for the Democratic party in 1988.She co-starred with Juli Dench for The Last of the Blonde Bombshells in 2000, and took a leading role in 2001's Further Tales of the City. Though she remained busy throughout the early and mid-2000s, it wasn't until 2006 that she would enjoy critical success in the acclaimed drama Away From Her. In 2007 she co-starred in the comedy drama The Land of Women. In 2011 she appeared in The Misadventures of the Dunderheads and Cloudburst, and joined the cast of Joe Papp in Five Acts in 2012.

Trivia: Born December 3rd, 1960, the older sister of actress Page Hannah and niece of cinematographer Haskell Wexler, leading lady Daryl Hannah trained for the ballet before switching to acting at the Goodman Theatre. Taking the stage would prove quite a daunting task for the girl who suffered from agoraphobia and was once such a wallflower that she was diagnosed as borderline autistic, and though it would take Hannah a few years to become truly comfortable in front of an audience, she eventually overcame her fear to stunning results. In addition to ballet Hannah also exuded a certain grace on the high school soccer field. Her interest in film was sparked by a severe case of insomnia early in life, and young Hannah would spend hours on end soaking in film into the wee hours of the night. Before completing her theatrical training under the guidance of Stella Adler, the young hopeful appeared in the Brian De Palma film The Fury (1978) at the age of 18 . After delivering a remarkable performance as a tough android in Blade Runner (1982), Hannah achieved full stardom with her winsome portrayal of a mermaid in Splash (1983). Not all of her subsequent films -- nor her performances -- have been as successful, though she was highly praised for her interpretation of a nerdish hairdresser in Steel Magnolias, and was treated kindly by the press and public for her characterization in the title role of the made-for-TV Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman (1992). Her often turbulent private life achieved an even keel with her long-term relationship with lawyer/ publisher John F. Kennedy Jr. Sadly, their relationship was doomed from the start due to Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis' disapproval of her son marrying an actor, the two eventually parted ways. In 1996 Kennedy wed Carolyn Besette, and the rest of their story is history. Despite public perception that Hannah withdrew from acting in the later 1990s, it was simply an unfortunate series of career missteps that kept the enigmatic actress out of the multiplexes and in such mediocre fare as The Last Days of Frankie the Fly and Gun (both 1997). Of course not all was lost during the 1990s, and audiences could indeed catch memorable performances by Hannah in Grumpy Old Men (1993) (as well as that film's 1995 sequel), the Emmy-nominated mini-series The Last Don and the Robert Altman thriller The Gingerbread Man. As the millennium turned Hannah was still stuck in a sort of celluliod limbo, though such edgy efforts as Cord and Dancing at the Blue Iguana (both 2000) showed the actress had a fearless side that had been left virtually unexplored since her days in The Fury and Blade Runner. Of course Hannah still had a soft spot, and following a supporting performance in Mark and Michael Polish's quirky 2001 drama Jackpot she went family friendly with the mini-series Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story and the comparitively earnest and innocent teen drama A Walk to Remember (2002). Having formed a friendly working relationship with the Polish brothers with Jackpot, Hannah returned to the screen for the filmmakers in their acclaimed 2003 drama Northfork. The critical success of Northfork marked the beginning of a critical year for the veteran actress. A turn as a contract killer with a conscience followed with The Job, and after a trip to the middle of nowhere in The Big Empty Hannah aspired to adopt a Mexican orphan in John Sayles Casa de los Babys. Teamed with a powerhouse cast that included Lili Taylor, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Marcia Gay Harden, the critically acclaimed drama cemented the comeback that would continue with Kill Bill Vol. 1 just a few short months later. Cast as deadly assassin Elle Driver (Codename: California Mountain Snake), Hannah's eye-patch wearing killer was inspired by the exploitation roughie Thriller (also known as They Call Her One Eye). Though Hannah was still breathing at the end of Kill Bill Vol. 1, audiences held their breath to discover the ultimate fate of her viscous character until the release of Kill Bill Vol. 2 four months later.

Trivia: Tom Skerritt is probably the best-known actor whose name is never remembered. A rugged "outdoors" type, Skerritt briefly attended Wayne State University and UCLA before making his film bow in War Hunt (1962). His subsequent film and TV roles were sizeable, but so adept was Skerritt at immersing himself in his character that he seemed to have no tangible, recurrent personality of his own. Billed second as "Duke" in the original M*A*S*H* (1970), Skerritt did his usual finely-honed job, but audiences of the time preferred the demonstrative, mannered acting technique of Elliott Gould, Donald Sutherland and Robert Duvall; significantly, Skerritt's character was not carried over into the even more unsubtle M*A*S*H TV series. Finally, in 1980, Skerritt began to attain a following with his authoritative performance in Alien. Since that time, there's been no stopping him. He posed in a popular series of "Guess?" Jeans ads, appeared as a 1987-88 regular on "Cheers," starred in 1992's A River Runs Through It (directed by his long-ago War Hunt costar Robert Redford), and won a 1994 Emmy for his work on the TV series "Picket Fences."Skerritt would continue to work at a remarkable pace, usually appearing in several projects a year. From 1999's family drama The Other Sister to 2003's war thriller Tears of the Sun, the actor could be spotted by fans of seemingly every area of film throughout the 90's and 2000's. In 2006, he took a recurring role in the hit primetime drama Brothers and Sisters, and in 2008 he signed on for the redneck comedy Beer for my Horses. He went on to appear in Whiteout, Multiple Sarcasms, and he made a cameo as himself in the R rated talking teddy bear movie Ted.

Trivia: A Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (for 1979's Buried Child), an Oscar-nominated actor, and a director and screenwriter to boot, multi-talented Sam Shepard has made a career of plumbing the darker depths of middle-American rural sensibilities and Western myths. The son of a military man, he was born Samuel Shepard Rogers on November 3, 1943, in Fort Sheridan, IL. Following a peripatetic childhood, part of which was spent on a farm, Shepard left home in late adolescence to move to New York City, where by the age of 20, he already had two plays produced. As a playwright, Shepard went on to win a number of Obies for such dramas as Curse of the Starving Class (1977), which he made into a film in 1994, and True West (aired on PBS in 1986). As an actor, the lanky and handsome Shepard made his feature film debut with a small role in Bronco Bullfrog (1969) and didn't resurface again until Bob Dylan's disastrous Renaldo and Clara (1978). The film followed Shepard's residence in London during the early '70s, where he worked on-stage as an actor and director when not playing drums for his band, The Holy Modal Rounders, which had performed as part of Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue in 1975. Also in 1978, Shepard made a big impression playing a wealthy landowner in Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven, but it was not until he received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for playing astronaut Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff (1983) that he became a well-known actor. Following this success, he went on to specialize in playing drifters, cowboys, con artists, and eccentric characters with only the occasional leading role. Some of his more notable work included Paris, Texas (1984), which he also wrote; Fool For Love (1985), which was adapted from his play of the same name; Baby Boom (1987), Steel Magnolias (1989), and The Pelican Brief (1993). In addition to acting and writing, Shepard has also directed: in 1988, he made his debut with Far North, a film he wrote especially for his off-screen leading lady, Jessica Lange, with whom he has acted in Frances (1982), Country (1984), and Crimes of the Heart (1986).In 1999, Shepard could be seen on both the big and small screen. He appeared in Snow Falling on Cedars and Dash and Lilly, a made-for-TV movie for which he won an Emmy nomination in the role of the titular Dashiell Hammett. In addition, he also lent his writing skills to Simpatico, a Nick Nolte vehicle about friendship and loss adapted from Shepard's play of the same name.As the new decade began, he could be seen as the ghost in a modern-set Hamlet. He appeared in Black Hawk Down, as well as in Sean Penn's The Pledge. His play True West enjoyed a highly successful revival starring John C. Riley and Philip Seymour Hoffman as feuding brothers, which was notable because the actors traded parts every third performance. In 2004 he appeared in the popular romantic drama The Notebook, and wrote Don't Come Knocking the next year. He was the legendary outlaw Frank James in 2007's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. He was cast as Valerie Plame's father in Fair Game, and portrayed a dog-loving sheriff in Lawrnece Kasdan's Darling Companion.

Trivia: Proving that there is a reason for the existence of the cliché "tall, dark, and handsome," Dylan McDermott has won many a heart, as well as many a critical nod, for his role on the Emmy-winning television series The Practice. The actor struggled for years before landing his part as a lawyer on the show in 1997. Since then, the critical appreciation he has garnered has been complemented by his regular appearances in the style sections of a number of magazines, making him one of the most visible actors in Hollywood.Born October 26, 1962, in Waterbury, CT, McDermott had a tumultuous childhood. After his parents' divorce, his mother died when the actor was very young. McDermott was, by his own account, something of a delinquent, but his life began to turn around when he discovered acting as a teenager. His interest in the theater was given an additional boost by his stepmother, the playwright Eve Ensler. Ensler encouraged the actor, whom she formally adopted when he was 19, and he began training for his career at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse. After acting in stage productions such as Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues, McDermott made his film debut as platoon leader Sgt. Franz in 1987's Hamburger Hill. His next notable role was as Julia Roberts' husband in Steel Magnolias. Despite being part of one of the biggest hits of 1989, real fame eluded McDermott, who secured limited recognition for his reported real-life role as Roberts' boyfriend rather than for his acting in the film.After appearing in leading man roles in a string of disappointing films, including Jersey Girl with Jami Gertz, McDermott's luck began to change, with a part in Clint Eastwood's 1993 smash In the Line of Fire. The following year, he got a lead role as Elizabeth Perkins' lawyer love interest in Miracle on 34th Street. The relative success of that film was inversely proportional to McDermott's next, the ill-received Woody Harrelson vehicle The Cowboy Way (1994). McDermott rebounded somewhat with his leading role as Holly Hunter's love interest in the following year's Home for the Holidays, but it wasn't until two years later, when he appeared in a few episodes of Ally McBeal and landed his role on The Practice, that McDermott began to find true success. Winning a 1999 Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe award for his work on the show, the actor (who by this point was also the subject of numerous articles and Best Dressed photos with his wife, stage actress Shiva Ashfar) found previously closed doors being opened, most notably in the form of a big-screen starring role in the 1999 romantic comedy Three to Tango, co-starring Matthew Perry and Neve Campbell. Increasingly in demand as a television actor in the following years, McDermott turned up in the boardroom jungle series Big Shots and the short-lived police drama Dark Blue before shattering small screen taboos as a cheating husband who unwittingly moves his family into a haunted house in the twisted FX Network series American Horror Story. In 2012, as if to balance the morbidity of his latest television endeavor, the handsome and versatile actor flexed his comic chops opposite Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis in the election year political comedy The Campaign. He also appeared in the teen pic The Perks of Being a Wallflower, playing the lead character's father. McDermott returned to TV shortly thereafter, starring in the short-lived Hostages before taking the lead in Stalker.

Trivia: Kevin J. O'Connor found immediate fame just after college for his role as a leading love-interest in Francis Ford Coppola's 1986 film Peggy Sue Got Married. Though he has yet to attain star status, O'Conner has subsequently worked steadily, playing supporting roles in films such as Steel Magnolias (1990), F/X2 (1992), Hero (1993), and Disney's remake of The Love Bug (1997).Entering the new millennium, O'Connor secured supporting roles in two short-lived television series, The Others and Gideon's Crossing, before turning up as Igor in the 2004 big-budget horror-actioner Van Helsing.

Trivia: A popular comic actor of stage, screen, and film who was comfortable regardless of the platform he was performing on, eight-year Sesame Street veteran and Obie, Tony, and Emmy award-winning actor Bill McCutcheon provided laughter for young and old alike during his many years as an entertainer. A native of Russell, KY, who was born in 1924, McCutcheon rose to prominence early on with his memorable role as Leo the Leprechaun on The Howdy Doody Show. Following with a recurring role on Dom DeLuise's 1968 comedy-variety show and later a three-time daytime Emmy-winning stint as Uncle Wally on children's television mainstay Sesame Street, McCutcheon also gained nods in the theater community for his roles in the 1988 revival of Anything Goes and in Christopher Durang's The Marriage of Bette and Boo. Concurrently appearing in such films as Steel Magnolias and Family Business (both 1989), the tireless versatile actor also continued to tour with regional theater in various roles. McCutcheon's first film appearance was in the cult-classic Santa Claus Conquers the Martians in 1964.In January of 2002, Bill McCutcheon died of natural causes in Ridgewood, NJ. He was 77.

Trivia: Hailing from Texas, actress Anne Wedgeworth first appeared on Broadway in the 1958 production Make a Million. She began making film appearances playing slightly tarnished golddiggers and seductresses in the early '70s. One of Ms. Wedgeworth's best appearances in this vein was in Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), in which she portrays the fading "baseball groupie" who hopes to leech off dying ballplayer Robert De Niro. For her performance as Joyce Rissley in 1977's Citizen's Band (aka Handle with Care), Wedgeworth won the National Society of Film Critics award. Wedgeworth's TV credits include the same role on two separate '70s soap operas: she was Lahoma Vane Lucas on both Another World and its spin-off, Somerset. She also had recurring roles on the weekly series Three's Company (appearing in the 1979-80 season as neighbor Lana Shields) and 1982's Filthy Rich (as Bootsie). Ann Wedgeworth came full circle when she played a supporting role in another "dead baseball player" opus, the made-for-cable Cooperstown (1993).

Trivia: The daughter of Austrian actress Gusti Huber, Bibi Besch has been a Hollywood fixture since 1977, and a TV regular since long before that. A versatile character actress with nary a trace of a European accent, Besch's film roles have ranged from Carol in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Kahn (1979) to Belle in Steel Magnolias. Her television career has encompassed the daytime soaps The Edge of Night, The Secret Storm, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, and Somerset, and the nighttime serials The Secrets of Midland Heights (1980) and The Hamptons (1983). Devotees of the late Northern Exposure will have vivid memories of Bibi for her Emmy-nominated portrayal of the mother of Maggie O'Connell (Janine Turner), who reacts to a mid-life crisis by accidentally burning her daughter's home to the ground. In real life, Bibi Besch is the far less inflammatory mother of actress Samantha Mathis. Besch died of cancer on September 7, 1996, in the home of her sister-in-law, Jenny Besch. The actress was 56.

Trivia: Actress Janine Turner was trained at New York's Professional Children's School. (She can still do a mean tap-dance if called upon.) Though she endured the usual audition rounds while seeking out acting and modelling work, Turner's break came by way of fortuitous happenstance--at 17, she was spotted while standing in a supermarket checkout line by TV producer Leonard Katzman, who asked her to read for a small part on "Dallas." Two years later she was cast as kleptomaniac espionage agent Laura Templeton on TV's "General Hospital," a role that required her to dye her coffee-brown hair blonde. Turners's film debut was in Young Doctors in Love (1982), a spoof of daytime dramas that costarred several other soap regulars. In 1990, Turner was cast as fiesty Alaskan mail pilot Maggie O'Connell on the quirky prime-time series "Northern Exposure," a role that made her a major star. She continued to essay the part until the series' demise in 1995. Turner's more recent assignments have included a standard damsel-in-distress turn in the Sylvester Stallone vehicle Cliffhanger (1993), and a series of automobile advertisements, each as graceful and classy as Turner herself. In the years to come, Smith would remain active on screen, starring on the series Strong Medicine, and appearing on Friday Night Lights.

Trivia: Quite possibly the quintessential cinematic personification of the sexually repressed high school gym teacher, Nancy Parsons had a curiously interesting and diverse catalog of film roles, though that of fearsome phys ed nightmare Beulah Balbricker in Porky's and its sequels will likely live eternally in the hearts of teen sex-comedy aficionados as her defining role.A native of Lake Minnetonka, MN, Parsons' passion for Shakespeare led her to California at the age of 16, where she studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse. Though she found work in the L.A. theater scene early on, Parsons soon turned away from acting in favor of marriage and family life. Her marital bliss short-lived, Parsons returned to her passion after her divorce, finding small roles in such films as I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977). Though her comic abilities were hinted at in the 1980 Bill Murray comedy Where the Buffalo Roam, that same year yielded her breakout role in the horror-spoof Motel Hell, playing opposite Jimmie Dean wannabe Rory Calhoun in the gruesomely humorous tale of a farmer with questionable practices in sausage manufacturing. Following the next year with Pennies From Heaven and Porky's, Parsons' fate was sealed as a talented and versatile actress with a good sense of humor.The following years brought Parsons a number of comedic roles, always shifting effortlessly between the dramatic and comedic with roles in such polar opposites as Porky's Revenge (1985) and Steel Magnolias (1989). Parsons also appeared frequently on television, in roles ranging from Charlie's Angels to Star Trek: The Next Generation (on the set of which she frequently traded Shakespearian dialogue with fellow Bard-fan Patrick Stewart). Continuing her television work through the '90s with recurring roles in Days of our Lives, one of Parsons' fondest memories of that decade's film appearances was her role in The Doctor (1991). A fan of actor William Hurt, Parsons cherished the opportunity to appear with Hurt on film. Though ailing in health in the later '90s, Parsons continued to appear on television in L.A. Law and The Pretender, before her death in early 2001 after an extended battle with diabetes.

Trivia: Robert Harling often bases his plays and screenplays on his past personal experiences. He originally studied to become a lawyer, but shortly before graduating from the Tulane University School of Law, he decided that acting was the better profession and never took his Bar exam. He lived in New York for several years, acting and working as a voiceover artist before penning the script for what remains his most famous work, Steel Magnolias, which he adapted, in 1989, into a popular film starring Shirley MacLaine, Julia Roberts, Dolly Parton, and Sally Field. The story behind Harling's second screenwriting effort, Soapdish (1991), came from his personal experience as an actor. He made his directorial debut with his adaptation of novelist Larry McMurty's The Evening Star (1997), which in turn was a sequel to the popular melodrama Terms of Endearment (1983).

Trivia: Actress Carole Cook showed a knack for comic timing from early on, so much so that the legendary Lucille Ball took her on as a protégé. Cook would make many appearances on Ball's TV shows, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy, as well as other shows like Magnum, P.I., Dynasty, and Grey's Anatomy. She would also appear in several movies, like Sixteen Candles and The Incredibles, while maintaining an active stage career and supporting many AIDS charities.

Trivia: Actor Trent Dawson attained widest recognition for his extended portrayal of Henry Coleman on the daytime soap opera As the World Turns but also evinced a deft hand, off-camera, for Elizabethan stage roles. A native of Baton Rouge, LA, Dawson landed an early bit part during his late teens, by virtue of the fact that an A-list Hollywood production -- Herb Ross' tearjerker Steel Magnolias (1989) -- was shot near his hometown. (Dawson turns up uncredited, as a choir member in the film.) The performer attended Boston University for a short time but subsequently took a year-long sabbatical in Europe, and ultimately earned his degree in drama from the University of Colorado at Boulder. In that venue, Dawson became entranced by the works of the great Bard (participating avidly in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival), and indeed spent his immediate post-collegiate years acting in Broadway productions of Love's Labour's Lost, As You Like It, Macbeth, and other Shakespearean plays, as well as innumerable regional productions of contemporary efforts such as Pal Joey and School for Scandal. Dawson signed for his Coleman role on World in the autumn of 1999 and carried the part for many seasons; for his efforts, he earned Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2006 and 2007. Dawson would appear on other shows over the coming years as well, including The Good Wife and Homeland.