Trivia: In a business where public scandal and bad-boy behavior are the rule rather than the exception, Paul Newman is as much a hero offscreen as on. A blue-eyed matinee idol whose career successfully spanned five decades, he was also a prominent social activist, a major proponent of actors' creative rights, and a noted philanthropist. Born January 26, 1925, in Cleveland, OH, Newman served in World War II prior to attending Kenyon College on an athletic scholarship; when an injury ended his sports career, he turned to drama, joining a summer stock company in Wisconsin. After relocating to Illinois in 1947, he married actress Jacqueline Witte, and, following the death of his father, took over the family's sporting-goods store. Newman quickly grew restless, however, and after selling his interest in the store to his brother, he enrolled at the Yale School of Drama. During a break from classes he traveled to New York City where he won a role in the CBS television series The Aldrich Family. A number of other TV performances followed, and in 1952 Newman was accepted by the Actors' Studio, making his Broadway debut a year later in Picnic, where he was spotted by Warner Bros. executives.Upon Newman's arrival in Hollywood, media buzz tagged him as "the new Brando." However, after making his screen debut in the disastrous epic The Silver Chalice, he became the victim of scathing reviews, although Warners added on another two years to his contract after he returned to Broadway to star in The Desperate Hours. Back in Hollywood, he starred in The Rack. Again reviews were poor, and the picture was quickly pulled from circulation. Newman's third film, the charming Somebody Up There Likes Me, in which he portrayed boxer Rocky Graziano, was both a commercial and critical success, with rave reviews for his performance. His next film of note was 1958's The Long Hot Summer, an acclaimed adaptation of a pair of William Faulkner short stories; among his co-stars was Joanne Woodward, who soon became his second wife. After next appearing as Billy the Kid in Arthur Penn's underrated The Left-Handed Gun, Newman starred opposite Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, scoring his first true box-office smash as well as his first Academy Award nomination.After appearing with Joanne Woodward in Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! -- the couple would frequently team onscreen throughout their careers -- Newman traveled back to Broadway to star in Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth. Upon his return to the West Coast, he bought himself out of his Warner Bros. contract before starring in the 1960 smash From the Terrace. Exodus, another major hit, quickly followed. While by now a major star, the true depths of Newman's acting abilities had yet to be fully explored; that all changed with Robert Rossen's 1961 classic The Hustler, in which he essayed one of his most memorable performances as pool shark "Fast" Eddie Felson, gaining a second Oscar nomination. His third nod came for 1963's Hud, which cast him as an amoral Texas rancher. While a handful of creative and financial disappointments followed, including 1964's The Outrage and 1965's Lady L, 1966's Alfred Hitchcock-helmed Torn Curtain marked a return to form, as did the thriller Harper.For 1967's superb chain-gang drama Cool Hand Luke, Newman scored a fourth Academy Award nomination, but again went home empty-handed. The following year he made his directorial debut with the Joanne Woodward vehicle Rachel Rachel, scoring Best Director honors from the New York critics as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. The couple next appeared onscreen together in 1969's Winning, which cast Newman as a professional auto racer; motor sports remained a preoccupation in his real life as well, and he was the most prominent of the many celebrities who began racing as a hobby. He then starred with Robert Redford in 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which went on to become the highest-grossing Western in movie history. It was followed by 1971's W.U.S.A., a deeply political film reflecting Newman's strong commitment to social activism; in addition to being among Hollywood's most vocal supporters of the civil rights movement, in 1968 he and Woodward made headlines by campaigning full time for Democratic Presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy.After directing and starring in 1971's Sometimes a Great Notion, Newman announced the formation of First Artists, a production company co-founded by Barbra Streisand and Steve McQueen. Modeled after the success of United Artists, it was created to offer performers the opportunity to produce their own projects. Newman's first film for First Artists' was 1972's Pocket Money, followed by another directorial effort, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. After a pair of back-to-back efforts under director John Huston, 1972's The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean and the next year's The Mackintosh Man, Newman reunited with Redford in The Sting, another triumph which won the 1973 Best Picture Oscar. He next appeared in the star-studded disaster epic The Towering Inferno, followed by 1975's The Drowning Pool, a sequel to Harper. His next major success was the 1977 sports spoof Slap Shot, which went on to become a cult classic.A string of disappointments followed, including Robert Altman's self-indulgent 1979 effort Quintet. The 1981 Absence of Malice, however, was a success, and for 1982's courtroom drama The Verdict Newman notched his fifth Best Actor nomination. He finally won the Oscar on his sixth attempt, reprising the role of Eddie Felson in 1986's The Color of Money, Martin Scorsese's sequel to The Hustler. After starring in two 1989 films, Blaze and Fat Man and Little Boy, Newman began appearing onscreen less and less. In 1991, he and Joanne Woodward starred as the titular Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, and three years later he earned yet another Academy Award nomination for his superb performance in Robert Benton's slice-of-life tale Nobody's Fool. His films since then have been fairly sparse and of mixed quality, with Joel Coen's and Ethan Coen's The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) being at the higher end of the spectrum and the Kevin Costner vehicle Message in a Bottle (1999) resting near the bottom. Newman again graced screens in 2000 with Where the Money Is, a comedy that cast him as a famous bank robber who fakes a stroke to get out of prison. For his role as a kindly crime boss in 2002's Road to Perdition, Newman became a ten-time Oscar nominee.Turning 80 in 2005, Newman nonetheless remained a presence in Hollywood. That year, audiences could see him on the small-screen in the critically-acclaimed HBO miniseries Empire Falls, for which he won a Golden Globe, and the following year, he lent his voice to the Pixar animated film Cars.Despite his movement away from Hollywood, Newman remained a prominent public figure through his extensive charitable work; he created the Scott Newman Foundation after the drug-related death of his son and later marketed a series of gourmet foodstuffs under the umbrella name Newman's Own, with all profits going to support his project for children suffering from cancer. Newman died on September 26, 2008 after a battle with lung cancer.

Trivia: With spouse Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward comprised one of the most successful husband-and-wife tandems in Hollywood history; not only among the most acclaimed film actresses of her era, she was also highly visible as a television and theatrical performer, as well as a prominent social activist. Woodward was born February 27, 1930, in Thomasville, GA, and later acted in campus productions while attending Louisiana State University. After relocating to New York she studied at both the Neighborhood Playhouse and the Actors' Studio, and in 1953 signed on as an understudy in the Broadway production of William Inge's Picnic; there she met Newman, and they soon fell in love. After starring in 1954's The Lovers, Woodward turned to television, appearing in dozens of programs. A performance in an episode of Four Star Playhouse caught the attention of Fox production chief Buddy Adler, who quickly snapped her up with a long-term contract.Woodward made her film debut in the 1955 Western Count Three and Pray. Her next project, the 1956 thriller A Kiss Before Dying, ran into controversy over its advertising campaign, and as a result appeared in theaters only briefly. Director Nunnally Johnson then requested Woodward's services for the starring role in his schizophrenia drama The Three Faces of Eve; Fox initially refused, but after everyone from Judy Garland to Susan Hayward rejected the role, the studio finally relented. The performance won Woodward a Best Actress Academy Award in 1957, but Fox remained unsure how best to utilize her skills; they next cast her in the Martin Ritt drama No Down Payment, appearing with a number of the studio's other aspiring talents. In 1958, Woodward and Newman co-starred in The Long Hot Summer; the couple married that same year, and then reunited for Leo McCarey's Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! After starring in the 1959 adaptation of the William Faulkner classic The Sound and the Fury, Woodward co-starred with Marlon Brando in The Fugitive Kind before teaming with Newman in the 1960 hit From the Terrace; they were again together in 1961's Paris Blues. By now a mother as well as a wife, Woodward retreated from film for two years to focus on domestic duties. Upon returning to Hollywood in 1963, her career took a nosedive: Her comeback vehicle The Stripper performed poorly at the box office, and A New Kind of Love -- another project with Newman -- did not fare much better. When 1964's Signpost to Murder also failed, she again went on a two-year hiatus. Upon resurfacing, she starred in A Fine Madness with Sean Connery and in A Big Hand for the Little Lady with Henry Fonda. Despite good critical notice, neither was a hit, and Woodward spent the next year absent from moviemaking. The 1968 Rachel, Rachel was the outcome of Woodward's exile; she and Newman admitted it was carefully designed as a vehicle to resuscitate her career, and the ploy worked brilliantly -- he directed, she starred, and together they led the film to four Oscar nominations, including Best Actress and Best Picture.The following year Woodward and Newman reunited onscreen for the auto-racing drama Winning, and again starred together in 1970s politically charged W.U.S.A., a reflection of the couple's high-profile support of liberal causes; when 1971's They Might Be Giants proved unsuccessful, Newman directed Woodward to Best Actress honors at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival for The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. The follow-up Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams earned Woodward another Academy Award nomination. The Drowning Pool (1975) was Woodward's last feature film for three years; she instead turned to television, co-starring with Sally Field in the award-winning Sybil and appearing in a remake of Come Back, Little Sheba in 1977. After winning an Emmy for 1978's See How She Runs, Woodward returned to feature films with the Burt Reynolds farce The End; it was her final big-screen appearance for six years; instead, she focused solely on TV, delivering a cameo in A Christmas to Remember before starring in 1979's The Streets of L.A. After Newman directed her in 1980's The Shadow Box, Woodward earned an Emmy nomination for her work in Crisis at Central High and then spent the next four years exclusively on-stage, appearing in productions of The Glass Menagerie, Candida, and Hay Fever. In 1984, she finally returned to films in Newman's Harry and Son and that same year made her own directorial debut with the PBS feature Come Along With Me. As a professor stricken with Alzheimer's disease, she won a third Emmy for 1985's Do You Remember Love? In 1987, Newman directed her in a film adaptation of The Glass Menagerie. Woodward did not reappear for four more years, when she and Newman starred as the titular Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, a performance which earned her an Oscar nomination. In 1993, she suddenly enjoyed a major resurgence, appearing in two major theatrical releases, Philadelphia and The Age of Innocence (which she narrated) as well as a pair of TV movies, Blind Spot and Foreign Affairs. A small-screen adaptation of the Anne Tyler Pulitzer-winner Breathing Lessons earned Woodward an Emmy nomination in 1994. In 1996, she continued her television work playing herself in James Dean: A Portrait, and two years later she narrated My Knees Were Jumping: Remembering the Kindertransports, a documentary about children who had been rescued from Nazi concentration camps. She continued to participate in documentaries, and lend her voice to various projects as a narrator, but she returned to acting in 2005's made-for-HBO adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel Empire Falls.

Trivia: American actress Blythe Danner brings a kind of classy elegance to her work that betrays her real-life background: the daughter of a Philadelphia bank executive, she enjoyed an expensive prep school education and undergraduate study at Bard College. Her earliest theatrical work was with the Theater Company of Boston and the Trinity Square Playhouse of Boston; by the time she was 25, Danner had won the Theatre World Award for her performance in the Lincoln Center Rep's production of The Miser. In 1970, she earned a Tony for her performance in Butterflies are Free; based on the true story of a blind attorney, Danner played the central character's free-spirit love interest. Given the tenor of '70s newspaper publicity, Danner was featured in several magazine and newspaper photo spreads because she spent much of Butterflies' first act clad in nothing but her underwear. Subsequently, the actress was frequently cast opposite fellow up-and-comer Ken Howard, notably in the short-lived 1973 TV sitcom Adam's Rib. She worked so well with Howard that many fans assumed that the two were married; in fact, Danner's longtime husband is Broadway and TV producer Bruce Paltrow.A "critic's darling" thanks to her husky voice and pleasantly mannered acting style, Danner has worked with distinction in TV and on stage, though her film roles have tended to be few and far between. She was memorable as Robert Duvall's long-suffering wife in The Great Santini (1980) and as Nick Nolte's wife in The Prince of Tides (1991), while in 1986's Brighton Beach Memoirs, the decidedly WASPish Danner surprised fans by portraying a middle-aged Jewish woman. Danner's film appearances became more frequent during the latter half of the '90s: she did starring work in such films as To Wong Foo: Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995), The Myth of Fingerprints (1997), The X-Files (1998), and The Love Letter (1999). A memorable turn opposite Robert DeNiro in the 2000 comedy found the established dramatic actress reaching the apex of a particularly impressive comedy run, and a year after reprising her role in the 2004 sequel Meet the Fockers, Danner would make showbiz history by earning a record three Emmy nominations for her roles in Huff, Will and Grace, and Back when We Were Grownups. When the smoke cleared and all of the winners had been announced, Danner did ineed come out on top when she took home the "Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series" award for Huff, with nominations for both Huff and Will and Grace at the following year's ceremony offering telling testament as to just how strong her work truly was. In 2006 Danner could be seen performing opposite Zack Braff in the romantic comedy drama remake The Last Kiss. She continued to work steadily, often in comedies such as Paul, Little Fockers, and What's Your Number, and she starred in the 2012 drama The Lucky One.Frequently seen in TV guest roles (she managed to make her Mrs. Albert Speer in 1982's Inside the Third Reich sympathetic, no mean feat), Danner could be seen on television on a regular basis in the brief 1989 series Tattingers, produced by her husband. In 1992, she did stellar work in the made-for-TV movie Cruel Doubt, in which she played the matriarch of a broken family. Her daughter Gwyneth Paltrow was also featured in the movie.

Trivia: In 1986, clean-cut American actor Robert Sean Leonard made his Broadway debut in Brighton Beach Memoirs and his film debut in The Manhattan Project. His first starring film role was as a high-school vampire in the '80s teen comedy My Best Friend Is a Vampire (1988). But Leonard's chiseled features and dark brown eyes made him perfect for the role of Neil Perry, the sensitive prep-school student whose acting aspirations are crushed by his wealthy father in the much-loved drama Dead Poets Society (1989). His next few films were period pieces: the Merchant-Ivory production Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990), Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing (1993), and Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (also 1993). Leonard also earned a Young Artist award for his performance in the WWII-era musical Swing Kids in 1993 and earned his first Tony nomination that same year for a revival of Candida. Though he often chose the stage over the screen, his theatrical training directed him toward roles in the talky feature films Married to It (1993), Safe Passage (1994), and The Last Days of Disco (1998). He also fared well in television adaptations of stage productions (The Boys Next Door [1996], In the Gloaming [1997]) and based-on-a-true-story docudramas (Killer: A Journal of Murder [1995], A Glimpse of Hell [2001]).In 2001, Leonard reunited with Dead Poets Society co-star Ethan Hawke to appear in the independent drama Chelsea Walls, Hawke's directorial debut. He also co-starred with Hawke and Uma Thurman in Richard Linklater's intensely talky drama Tape. After spending most of his career on the stage, Leonard finally earned a Tony award for his portrayal of A.E. Houseman in Tom Stoppard's The Invention of Love. Also on Broadway, he could be seen in A Long Day's Journey Into Night and The Violet Hour. Though Leonard's 2004 projects would include the feature film The I Inside, based on the play Point of Death, it would soon become apparent that television was his true calling when, later that same year, he donned a white coat as Dr. James Wilson on the phenominally successful series House.

Trivia: Born August 19th, 1965, actress Kyra Sedgwick was seemingly born into fame, as a cousin of '60s mod icon and muse of Andy Warhol Edie Sedgwick. While only 16 when she made her professional acting debut on the TV soap Another World in 1982, Kyra proved much more stable than her ill-fated predecessor, graduating from USC and going on to cultivate a successful acting career on the stage, screen, and television. With high cheekbones, piercing eyes, full lips, and a mane of striking blonde curls, the young actress had no problem landing the film and TV roles to sustain her life as a working actress, but her solid, pensive presence onscreen proved to be an even more useful asset than her looks. Landing at least two substantial parts a year, she built up a resumé over the next decade that included the title role in 1985's Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale and a part in the acclaimed 1987 TV movie Lemon Sky, where she met co-star and future husband Kevin Bacon. The two were married the following year and would have two children.As the '90s approached, Sedgwick gained big-screen attention with a supporting role in Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July (1989). In 1992, she notably had the chance to embrace her Jewish side -- as a person who'd openly spoken about her mixed ethnic identity -- with a role in Miss Rose White, starring as a Polish-born woman sent to New York as a child to escape the Holocaust, but who is forced to confront the Jewish heritage she's since denied when she finds that the sister she was separated from is still alive.That same year, Sedgwick scored the "big break" part that she would long be remembered for when Cameron Crowe cast her as the female lead in his film Singles. A sweet and funny generational opus about life and love after college, the dramedy was filmed on location in Seattle in 1991, just as the grunge music movement was beginning to take off. In addition to supporting cast members like Matt Dillon and Bridget Fonda, the film featured artists like Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell in minor roles as musicians. Sedgwick's placement in a movie that would prove to be so iconic for its time and place endeared her greatly to Gen-Xers, though she would lie low throughout the '90s and 2000s, frequently choosing smaller, independent projects.In 2004, Sedgwick and husband Kevin Bacon undertook a joint project, The Woodsman, which Bacon also produced. Still more daunting for the spouses than the notoriously stressful task of working together, the film cast Bacon as a paroled pedophile, examining the character's recovery and the tentative relationship that he forms with a somewhat emotionally hardened fellow lumberyard worker, played by Sedgwick. While hardly blockbuster subject matter, the project was praised by critics, as was Sedgwick's intimate, minimalist performance.It seemed clear that Sedgwick's interests as an actor lay outside the harshest glare of the Hollywood limelight, but in 2006 she managed to stumble into its illumination anyway, starring in the TNT drama The Closer. Playing a Southern-born police detective with an uncanny skill for extracting confessions, Sedgwick brought a multi-dimensional quality to the character of Brenda Johnson that made the series considerably more well-rounded than the other procedural crime shows that flooded prime time. The complex nature of the role earned her immense praise, as in a singe episode, Brenda could share the screen with her arrogant co-workers, her flirtatious beau, her beloved but nagging mother, and several criminal suspects that she might persuade to confess through any number of personal approaches. Audiences were awed at the genuineness with which Sedgwick was able to portray a character who is so frequently choosing her words and actions with careful precision, and the series was picked up for a second season in 2007. That same year, Sedgwick took home a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Drama.When The Closer ended in 2012, Sedgwick returned to movies, including a small role in Man on a Ledge (2012), the lead in the horror film The Possession (2012) and an uncredited cameo in 2013's Kill Your Darlings.

Trivia: Stout, jovial character actor Simon Callow has been enlivening the stage and screen for years, often in roles that highlight his versatility and capacity for a particular brand of good-natured, self-deprecating humor.Born in London on June 13, 1949, Callow began going to the theatre when he was 18 and working at a bookstore with no idea of what to do with his life. He took a particular interest in the Old Vic, which was being run by Laurence Olivier at the time. Deeply impressed with Olivier's talent, Callow wrote to him. To his great surprise, the esteemed actor responded in kind, telling the young man that if he was interested in acting, he should consider taking a job at the Old Vic's box office. Callow did so, and thus made his entrance into the theatre world. He subsequently became a fixture on the London stage, appearing in numerous productions over the years.Callow made his film debut with a substantial supporting role in 1984 in Milos Forman's Amadeus. Two years later, he endeared himself to transatlantic audiences with his portrayal of the bumbling reverend Mr. Beeb in Merchant-Ivory's celebrated adaptation of E.M. Forster's A Room with a View. He would also appear in two more Merchant-Ivory-Forster adaptations, Maurice (1987), in which he had a brief role as the title character's deluded school teacher, and Howards End (1992), which featured him in the small but memorable role of a pompous lecturer on music appreciation.In addition to his numerous collaborations with Merchant-Ivory (which also include Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, 1990, and Jefferson in Paris, 1995), Callow has worked in a number of diverse British and American productions. Perhaps one of his best-loved and most recognizable roles was in the popular Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). As one of Hugh Grant's motley circle of friends, the ebullient, flamboyant Gareth, Callow injected both poignance and joie de vivre into the proceedings. His character particularly stood out for being in an open, unapologetic relationship with another man (John Hannah), something that at the time had few parallels in American films. The character also highlighted Callow's status as one of Britain's openly gay actors, which also had regrettably few parallels across the Atlantic.Among the other diverse films he appeared in throughout the '90s, Callow particularly stood out in the animated James and the Giant Peach (1996), in which he voiced the wise Grasshopper; the acclaimed Shakespeare in Love (1998), which featured him as the obnoxious, party-pooping Master of Revels; and Rose Troche's omnisexual romantic comedy Bedrooms & Hallways (1998), in which Callow starred as the painfully sincere guru of a men's consciousness-raising group.Keeping busy into the new millenium, Callow noteably appeared among the ensemble cast of Mike Nichols' critically-acclaimed HBO mini-series Angels in America.In addition to working in front of the camera, Callow has spent a fair amount of time behind it as a director. In 1991, he made his feature directorial and screenwriting debut with the film version of Carson McCullers' Ballad of the Sad Cafe. Two years earlier, he had made his Broadway debut as the director of Shirley Valentine. And, apparently averse to having too much free time, Callow is also the author of numerous books on acting and actors. In particular, his biographies of Orson Welles and Charles Laughton have met with great acclaim, further establishing Callow as an actor who is more than just the sum of his parts.

Trivia: Character actor, onscreen from 1970.

Trivia: An alumnus of the Yale School of drama, American actor Austin Pendleton was lucky enough to latch onto a starmaking stage role relatively early in life. Pendleton was the first performer to play the part of tailor Motel Kamzoil in the evergreen musical Fiddler on the Roof, in which he had one of the play's best non-Tevye songs, "Miracle of Miracles." Hollywood has been less generous to Pendleton in terms of good roles. He was cast in a supporting role in Skidoo (1968), a smash miss frequently cited as the worst film in the careers of most of its participants (Jackie Gleason, Groucho Marx, Carol Channing, Otto Preminger, et al.) He was shown to better advantage in What's Up, Doc? (1972), while in The Front Page (1974) he sparkled as a condemned killer plagued by a bad head cold on the eve of his execution. A first-rate character player, Austin Pendleton has never quite scaled the heights of stardom in films, though his theatre work as both actor and director has always been critically lauded.

Trivia: Supporting actress Gale Garnett first appeared onscreen in the '60s.

Trivia: Began surfing at age 9, surfed competitively during high school and was invited three times to the East Coast Championships.Dropped out of college during his junior year to pursue acting.Studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City for two years.Met his wife, actor Susan Walters, on the set of the soap opera Loving in 1983.A student of martial arts, trained in Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Kung Fu and Chinese styles.

Trivia: UCLA grad Joanna Merlin made her first film appearance in 1956, as one of Jethro's daughters in the Cecil B. DeMille superspectacular The Ten Commandments. Five years later she first stepped on a Broadway stage in Jean Anouilh's Becket. Her subsequent theatrical credits include the role of Tzeitel in the original 1964 production of Fiddler on the Roof. In films, she has specialized in such ethnically oriented character roles as the landlady in Hester Street (1975). From bag ladies to judges, Merlin has played 'em all. More recently, Joanna Merlin has functioned as a Hollywood casting director.

Trivia: Character actor Al Christy started out in radio. He began his brief film career in In Cold Blood (1967). He did not make another film appearance until Stand Alone (1985). Christy also occasionally appeared on television, guest starring on such shows as Bonanza and Peter Gunn.