Trivia: One of the most instantly recognizable faces in Asia, Chow Yun-Fat is an actor of phenomenal renown and popularity. An icon of the action genre thanks to his numerous collaborations with Hong Kong directors John Woo and Ringo Lam, Chow gained fame playing the killer with a soul (and two large guns) in such films as Woo's classic A Better Tomorrow, and in doing so, inspired new trends in action filmmaking. However, although he is best known on the international level for his work in action films, Chow has also acted in films of almost every conceivable genre, proving himself equally adept in melodramas, romances, and comedies alike. Born May 18, 1955, on Lamma, a small island off of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor, Chow got his start as a professional actor while still in his teens. Chow's first break came in 1973, when he enrolled in Hong Kong TV station TVB's training program for young actors performing in a number of soap operas. In the early '80s, he would star in the station's popular series Shanghai Beach, earning lasting fame as the ultra-cool gangster Hui Man-Keung. Chow broke into films in the mid-'70s, winning a lead role in the forgettable Massage Girls in 1976. He had his first critical success five years later as the star of Ann Hui's The Story of Wu Viet. He won a Best Actor award from the Asian Pacific Film Festival and Taiwan's prestigious Golden Horse for his performance in Leung Po-Chi's Hong Kong 1941 (1984), a romantic drama set against the backdrop of World War II. Two years later, he had his true breakthrough when then-obscure director John Woo cast him as hitman Mark Gor in A Better Tomorrow, a hugely influential movie responsible for the birth of the Hong Kong gangster film genre. The character of Gor has remained one of Chow's most popular to date, and made him -- to say nothing of Woo -- an instant star in Asia. The actor's portrayal won him a prestigious Hong Kong Film Award, and Gor became something of an icon in the action genre, influencing such international directors as Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.Chow would star in the two Better Tomorrow sequels, which followed in 1988 and 1989, but in the meantime he continued to prove his abilities in a number of other films like Dream Lovers, An Autumn's Tale, My Will, I Will, Prison on Fire, and the particularly acclaimed City on Fire - which became the inspiration for Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. One of the most standout films Chow would appear in during this period would be Woo's Hard-Boiled - a movie that would earn acclaim on both sides of the Pacific. Cast as a tough cop with a heart of gold who teams up with a precariously unstable undercover agent (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), Chow did his part to help amass one of the highest body counts in cinematic history, and in doing so, he further exhibited the kind of graceful will to destruction that had become his trademark. The film was Woo's last before he departed for Hollywood, and was the inspiration for Face/Off, starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage in variants of the Chow/Leung roles.Having attained such unparalleled popularity in Asia, it was almost inevitable that Chow would make the crossover to American films. He did so in 1998 as the star of Antoine Fuqua's The Replacement Killers. The film received mixed reviews, but Chow kept at with The Corruptor, and Anna and the King. Interestingly, Chow would find more success in America with a movie based on Chinese folklore in director Ang Lee's martial arts epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Released to standing ovations at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, the picture -- which cast Chow as a warrior haunted by the unavenged death of a friend -- enjoyed a long and healthy life at the North American box office, eventually becoming the most successful foreign-language picture ever released in the States up to that point. Better yet, Chow's work was universally cited by critics as one of the actor's most soulful, compassionate turns.American audiences would next see Chow in House of Flying Daggers director Zhang Yimou's The Curse of the Golden Flower. A lavish and romantic period adventure set against the backdrop of the Tang Dynasty, The Curse of the Golden Flower presented a distinguished-looking Chow as the oppressive emperor struggling against a fierce rebellion. Though The Curse of the Golden Flower featured stunning cinematography courtesy of Zhao Xiaoding and took home multiple honors at the Hong Kong Film Awards, many fans felt that wasn't as cohesive as such previous Yimou efforts as Hero and the aforementioned House of Flying Daggers, and perhaps as a result, the film performed rather poorly at the American box office. Despite seemingly shying away from big-budget Hollywood efforts since 2003's Bulletproof Monk, Chow would make a swashbuckling return to the world stage as cunning Chinese pirate Sao Feng in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. The eagerly anticipated third installment of the highly profitable Disney film series, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End presented Chow in the minor yet pivotal role of the one man who may hold the key to preserving the Age of Piracy against the nefarious East India Trading Company and its dreaded leader Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander). 2010 would find the actor portraying the title role of the legendary Chinese philosopher Confucius in a biopic about the figure, but Chow was back to the action genre later that same year, with a role in the gangster film Let the Bullets Fly.

Trivia: Known in the halls of history as the smirking Stifler from the 1999 teen sex comedy American Pie, Seann William Scott found his niche in show business due in no small part to that very iconic, wisecracking character. Born on October 3rd, 1976 in Cottage Grove, MN, Scott finished high school early and moved to L.A., where he soon caught a break with a prominent role in the music video for "A Hole in My Soul" by Aerosmith. Within a couple of years of moving to the West Coast, Scott had an impressive list of appearances on his resumé -- though it would be the role of Stifler that would cement his place in Hollywood.He reprised the character for American Pie's two sequels in 2001 and 2003, but in the meantime, Scott found no shortage of work in movies geared toward a similar audience, starring in 2000s Road Trip and Dude, Where's My Car? He even appeared alongside martial arts legend Chow Yun-Fat in the tongue-in-cheek tribute to the kung-fu genre with 2003's Bulletproof Monk, and played the beloved character of Bo Duke in the feature film adaptation of The Dukes of Hazzard in 2005. The comedian also proved that his keen comic timing didn't always depend on the smarmy jackass characters that served as his bread-and-butter, playing a touchy-feely self-help book author (and former miserable nerd) in 2007's Mr. Woodcock. But Scott was never reluctant to do what he does best, and in 2008 he found a new, endearingly crude fast talker to play, starring alongside Paul Rudd in the super-sarcastic comedy Role Models. After taking several voice roles in the late 2000s, Scott joined the original cast of American Pie for 2012's American Reunion.

Trivia: A successful model (and, despite her masculine-sounding first name, most certainly not a man), James King has gone from gracing the pages of the world's leading fashion magazines to a promising career as an actress. Jaime King (James is a stage name) was born in Omaha, NE, in 1979; King's statuesque beauty became evident at a young age, and in her early teens, she began attending a local modeling school. When King was 14, a representative from a New York modeling agency saw her in a show, and a year later King's career was in high gear. King's picture had appeared in Vogue, Glamour, Allure, Harper's Bazaar, and Mademoiselle before she'd reached the age of 17, and she'd also become an in-demand runway model, with her lean good looks being used to promote the latest designs from Christian Dior, Marithe and Francois Girbaud, and Chanel. However, after rising to fame, King succumbed to the pressures and temptations of the high-pressure world of modeling, and she began to abuse alcohol and drugs, leading to a brief addiction to heroin; King had also become romantically involved with photographer David Sorrenti, and after he died of a drug overdose in 1997, King was inspired to get clean and sober and has remained drug-free since then.King's acting career really took flight, with appearances in the biopic Blow, the blockbuster Pearl Harbor, and the teen-horror satire Happy Campers. The actress would spend the 2000's cementing her role as an in-demand starlet, appearing in films like Sin City, Two for the Money, and Fanboys, as well as numerous TV shows, like The Class, Gary Unmarried, and Heart of Dixie.

Trivia: It may be difficult to believe that the slightly wiry and gaunt Czech actor Karel Roden is the same presence who made the Earth tremble as barrel-chested Grigori Rasputin in Hellboy (2004) -- consider it a testament not only to the magnificence of Hollywood special effects, but to Roden's raw versatility. Born in Ceské Budejovice, Czechoslovakia, in 1962, Roden studied drama in Prague and evinced a stunning ability to immerse himself into -- and flesh out -- almost any character. This quality soon carried over into his film and television roles. He tackled most of his early parts in his native country, in such little-seen-abroad films as the 1990 Cas Sluhu and the 1999 Praha Ocima. 2002's Blade II, however -- produced by Marvel Comics and Avi Arad -- finally brought Roden the attention of a wide international audience. He followed it up with a number of additional Hollywood pictures done in a similar genre vein -- usually effects-heavy action or fantasy romps. These included not only the aforementioned Hellboy, but Romeo Is Bleeding (1994), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), and Running Scared (2006). In 2007, he appeared in the comedy Mr. Bean's Holiday as a Russian film director named Emil.

Trivia: Belongs to one of the wealthiest families in Ireland. Won a spot at Bristol's Old Vic Theatre School at age 17, when her father gave her the ultimatum to either get into drama school or get a job. Appeared in a production of 10 Rounds at the Tricycle Theatre in London. Relocated with her husband from Ireland to the United States in 2011. Supports the children's NGO World Vision Ireland.

Trivia: Japanese actor Mako, born Makoto Iwamatsu, has spent most of his professional career in the United States. His first important film appearance was as Po-Han, Steve McQueen's assistant machinist, in The Sand Pebbles (1966), a performance that earned him an Oscar nomination. He remained in films into the 1990s, playing choice character parts in such films as Hawaiians (1967), Conan the Destroyer (1984), and Rising Sun (1993). Mako's TV credits include the role of Major Oshira on the weekly Hawaiian Heat (1984) and the 1990 TV movie Hiroshima: Out of the Ashes.