Trivia: With a rare beauty that has inspired countless platitudes and an almost-permanent place on People's Fifty Most Beautiful list, Michelle Pfeiffer had to work long and hard before getting respect for her talent, rather than mere adulation for her looks. Born April 29, 1957, in Santa Ana, CA, Pfeiffer got her first taste of fame in her late teens, when she won both the Miss Orange County beauty contest and then the title of Miss Los Angeles. After high school, Pfeiffer went to college for a year, deciding that she wanted to become a court reporter. It was while working in a supermarket that Pfeiffer realized that acting was her true calling and she auditioned for commercials and modeling assignments while she attended acting school.Pfeiffer debuted before the cameras in a one-line role on the TV series Fantasy Island and went on to a string of bit parts on TV. She debuted on the big screen in a small part in Falling in Love Again (1980) and then had small roles in two more films before getting her big break with the role of Stephanie in Grease 2 (1982). This led to her portrayal of Al Pacino's wife in Brian De Palma's 1983 classic Scarface, for which the actress garnered favorable attention and greater opportunities. Her first starring role was in the comedy thriller Into the Night (1984) with Jeff Goldblum and was followed by a turn in Richard Donner's fantasy adventure Ladyhawke (1985). Over the next couple of years, Pfeiffer acted in films of varying quality, but it was with 1987's The Witches of Eastwick that her career turned in a truly positive direction. Starring alongside Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Jack Nicholson, Pfeiffer received much acclaim for her work, acclaim that continued with her turn in Dangerous Liaisons (1988), for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. The same year, Pfeiffer took on an entirely different role as a Mafia wife in the 1988 hit comedy Married to the Mob. In 1990, she was rewarded with yet another Oscar nomination -- this time for Best Actress -- for her portrayal of a nightclub singer in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989). The 1990s proved to be a good decade for Pfeiffer, allowing her to branch out with a variety of roles that kept her from being pigeonholed and provided opportunities for her to showcase her versatility. Highlights from the first half of the decade included the 1991 romantic drama Frankie and Johnny, in which she played a frumpy, bitter waitress opposite Al Pacino; 1993's underrated Love Field, for which she received her second Best Actress nomination; Tim Burton's 1992 adventure Batman Returns, in which she co-starred with Michael Keaton and a lethally sexy cat suit; and the acclaimed 1993 Martin Scorsese adaptation of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. That same year, Pfeiffer would finally realize her lifelong goal of motherhood when she adpoted a baby girl named Claudia just a few short months before walking down the aisle for a second time to wed Ally McBeal and Boston Legal creator David E. Kelley (the actress' previous marriage to actor Peter Horton had dissolved in 1988). In 1994, Pfeiffer and Kelly would complete their nuclear family when the ecstatic mother gave birth to young John Henry.The second half of the decade saw Pfeiffer stick to dramas and romantic comedies, notably the 1996 hit One Fine Day with George Clooney, Jocelyn Moorhouse's 1997 adaptation of Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres, the star-studded 1999 adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the family drama The Deep End of the Ocean. Through it all, Pfeiffer maintained her siren status while increasing her bankability, no small feat in an industry where women over the age of 27 are often labeled as past their prime. Not that Pfeiffer would be in any danger of losing her looks in the near future; after perfectly meeting the rigorous standards of California plastic-surgeon Dr. Stephen Marquardt's complex "beauty formula" in 2001, the sultry actress was singled out as having the most beautiful face in all of Hollywood. Of course Pfeiffer's face alone couldn't be held accountable for her wild success, and the millennial turnover found the talented actress apprearing in such high-profile features as Rob Reiner's comedic marriage drama The Story of Us, Robert Zemeckis' supernatural thriller What Lies Beneath, and the Sean Penn drama I Am Sam. A supporting role in the 2002 literary adaptation White Oleander found Pfeiffer supporting an all-star cast of Hollywood up and comers, and a role as the voice of the goddess Eris in 2003's Sinbad: The Legend of the Seven Seas marked her first foray into animated feature territory. In 2006 Pfeiffer would continue to turn heads when she accepted the role of an older woman who falls for a younger man in director Amy Heckerling's I Could Never Be Your Woman. A small role in director Adam Shankman's phenominally successful remake of John Waters' Hairspray was quick to follow, and after enchanting fantasy fans in 2007's Stardust, the veteran actress was sexy as ever as an aging seductress in Stephen Frears' Cheri. And though her 2008 film Personal Effects only received a limited release, Pfeiffer would quickly returns to the screen in director Garry Marshall's episodic rom com New Years Eve, and Tim Burton's misguided feature adaptation of the popular supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows.

Trivia: Matthew Modine probably developed his love of performing through multiple viewings of films exhibited in the many Utah drive-in theaters managed by his father. His family moved a lot, so his adaptability as an actor may have grown out of learning to adapt as a child, as well. After dropping out of college and working a variety of odd jobs, Modine moved to New York, where he studied acting with Stella Adler and eventually began appearing in TV commercials and soap operas. He made his screen debut in 1983 in the film comedy Baby It's You, and won the Venice Film Festival's Best Actor award that year for his work in Robert Altman's Streamers. Refusing to trade on his freshly scrubbed, all-American good looks, Modinemade a point of treating each film role as a challenge and a chance to grow. How many other pretty-boy Brat Packers would have been willing to play a disturbed Vietnam vet who's thinks he's a bird in 1984's Birdy? His other film roles included dual characters in The Hotel New Hampshire (1984); Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987); love-struck FBI agent Mike Downey in Married to the Mob (1988); swashbuckler William Shaw in Cutthroat Island (1995); and the title role in the made-for-cable Biblical spectacle Jacob (1994). Modine was nominated for an Emmy for his performance as aloof AIDS researcher Don Francis in the 1993 TV movie And the Band Played On, and continued to accept occasional stage roles in between his film and TV projects. He made his screen directorial debut in 1994 with a short subject entitled Smoking. Modine woulds spend the next few decades appearing in a number of interesting projects, like Funky Monkey, Transporter 2, and The Dark Knight Rises.

Trivia: Fans of the science fiction television series Quantum Leap will know supporting and character actor Dean Stockwell as the scene-stealing, cigar chomping, dry-witted, and cryptic hologram Al. But to view him only in that role is to see one part of a multi-faceted career that began when Stockwell was seven years old.Actually, his ties with show business stretch back to his birth for both of his parents were noted Broadway performers Harry Stockwell and Nina Olivette. His father also provided the singing voice of the prince in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1931). Stockwell was born in North Hollywood and started out on Broadway in The Innocent Voyage (1943) at age seven. Curly haired and beautiful with a natural acting style that never descended into cloying cuteness, he made his screen debut after contracting with MGM at age nine in Anchors Aweigh (1945) and continued on to play sensitive boys in such memorable outings as The Mighty McGurk (1946), The Boy With Green Hair (1948), and The Secret Garden (1949). He would continue appearing in such films through 1951 when he went into the first of several "retirements" from films. When Stockwell resurfaced five years later it was as a brooding and very handsome 20-year-old who specialized in playing introverts and sensitive souls in roles ranging from a wild, young cowboy in Gun for a Coward (1957) to a murderous homosexual in Compulsion (1958) to an aspiring artist who cannot escape the influence of his domineering mother in Sons and Lovers (1960). Stockwell topped off this phase of his career portraying Eugene O'Neill in Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962). Stockwell would spend the next three years as a hippie and when he again renewed his career it was in such very '60s efforts as Psych-Out (1968) and the spooky and weird adaptation of a Lovecraft story, The Dunwich Horror. During this period, Stockwell also started appearing in television movies such as The Failing of Raymond (1971). In the mid-'70s, the former flower child became a real-estate broker and his acting career became sporadic until the mid-'80s when he began playing character roles. It was in this area, especially in regard to comic characters, that Stockwell has had his greatest success. Though he claims it was not intentional, Stockwell has come to be almost typecast as the king of quirk, playing a wide variety of eccentrics and outcasts. One of his most famous '80s roles was that of the effeminate and rutlhess sleaze, Ben, in David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986). Stockwell had previously worked with Lynch in Dune and says that when the director gave him the script for Velvet, his character was not specifically mapped out, leaving Stockwell to portray Ben in any way he felt appropriate. The actor's intuition has proven to be one of his greatest tools and helped create one of modern Hollywood's most creepy-crawly villains. Whenever possible, Stockwell prefers working by instinct and actively avoids over-rehearsing his parts. His career really picked up after he landed the part of Al in Quantum Leap. Since the show's demise, Stockwell has continued to appear on screen, starring on series like Battlestar Galactica.

Trivia: American actress Mercedes Ruehl was the daughter of a much-travelled FBI agent, who finally settled in Silver Spring, Maryland. After attending Catholic College in New Rochelle, Ruehl began her career in regional theatre, taking odd jobs during the many dry spells between engagements. For several years, it looked as though she'd be a permanent employee of the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company. In the late 1970s, Ruehl began chalking up New York stage successes, notably I'm Not Rappaport. She won an Obie for the off-Broadway The Wedding of Betty and Boo and a Tony for Lost in Yonkers. In films since 1979's The Warriors, Ruehl worked steadily but in relative anonymity until winning the Best Supporting Actress award for The Fisher King (1992). Ruehl wasn't able to fill houses as star of the lukewarm film version of Lost in Yonkers (1993), though she still is a most welcome supporting presence in such films as The Last Action Hero (1993).

Trivia: A hulking character actor who brings new meaning to the concept of versatility, Oliver Platt has appeared in a dizzying array of films that make him instantly recognizable but not instantly placeable to the average filmgoer. Since making his screen debut as an oily Wall Street drone in Mike Nichols' Working Girl (1988), Platt has lent his talents to almost every conceivable genre, including period dramas, political comedies, children's films, and campy horror movies.The son of a U.S. Ambassador, Platt was born in Windsor on January 12, 1960, Platt and his family soon moved to Washington, D.C. Thanks to his father's job, he had an exceptionally itinerant childhood. By the time he was 18, he had attended 12 different schools in places as diverse as Tokyo, the Middle East, and Colorado. Long interested in acting, Platt received a BA in drama from Boston's Tufts University; following graduation, he remained in Boston for three years to pursue his stage career. In 1986 he moved to New York, where he performed in a number of off-Broadway productions and had the lead in the 1989 Lincoln Center production of Ubu. Following his screen debut in Working Girl, Platt began finding steady work in such films as Married to the Mob (1988), Postcards from the Edge (1990), Beethoven (1992) -- which featured him and future collaborator Stanley Tucci as puppy thieves -- and Benny and Joon (1993). He also proved himself adept at cheesy period drama in The Three Musketeers (1993), which cast him as Porthos, and at all-out comedy, as demonstrated by his turn as a struggling comic in Funny Bones (1995). Rarely cast as a leading man, Platt has always been visible in substantial supporting roles, equally comfortable at portraying nice guys, bad guys, and just flat out weird guys alike. As Ashley Judd's suitor in Simon Birch (1998), he was the straight man, while in The Impostors (1998), his second collaboration with Tucci (two years earlier he served as associate producer for the latter's Big Night), he again displayed his capacity for broad physical comedy as a struggling actor who finds himself a stowaway on an ocean liner. In Dangerous Beauty (1998), Platt was able to exercise his nasty side as a bitter nobleman-turned-religious zealot in 16th-century Venice; that same year, his capacity for exasperated quirkiness was displayed in Bulworth, which cast him as Warren Beatty's put-upon, coke-snorting campaign manager.1999 proved to be a somewhat disappointing year for Platt, as two of his films, Three to Tango (which featured him as a gay architect) and the schlock-horror Lake Placid, which cast him as an idiosyncratic mythology expert, were both critical and commercial flops. A third film that year, Bicentennial Man -- in which Platt played the scientist who turns the titular robot (Robin Williams) into a man -- fared somewhat better. The following year, Platt's comic abilities were again on display in Gun Shy, in which he hammed it up as a bottom-rung mafioso with an overblown ego.Fortunately for the workhorse actor, the 2000s seemed to prove the boost -- and exposure -- his sagging career needed. Earning back to back Emmy nominations in 2006 and 2007 for his performance opposite former Tufts University classmate Hank Azaria in the weekly dramedy Huff, Platt was also nominated for a Screen Actor's Guild Award for his turn as New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner in the TV mini-series The Bronk is Burning (2007). With 2008 came yet another Ammy nomination -- this time for his guest role on the hit FX series Nip/Tuck -- and in 2009 he appeared as Nathan Detroit in the Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls. Other notable television appearances from this phase of Platt's career included a recurring character on the seriocomic HBO series Bored to Death and a prominent role as the husband of a suburban housewife diagnosed with cancer in the Showtime comedy drama series The Big C.

Trivia: Equally at home playing leads and character roles, actor Alec Baldwin is known for his work in just about every genre, from action thrillers to comedies to dramas. Born April 3, 1958, in Massapequa, Long Island, he was the second of six children (brothers William, Daniel, and Stephen would also become actors). Baldwin was a political science major at George Washington University before he decided to become an actor; following his change in vocation, he studied drama at NYU and the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. Early in his career, Baldwin was a busy man, simultaneously playing a role on the TV daytime drama The Doctors and performing in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream on-stage in the evenings. A few years after making his 1980 Broadway debut, the actor moved to Los Angeles, where he landed a part in the television series Knots Landing. He made his film debut in 1987 with a starring role in Forever, Lulu, which led to work in a number of major films. From 1988 to 1989 alone, Baldwin appeared in no less than seven films, including Tim Burton's black comedy Beetlejuice, Mike Nichols' Working Girl, Jonathan Demme's Married to the Mob, and Oliver Stone's Talk Radio. In 1990, Baldwin achieved big-budget success playing ace CIA agent Jack Ryan in the undersea thriller The Hunt for Red October. The film's popularity won him acclaim, so Baldwin surprised many by foregoing the opportunity to reprise his role in the sequel Patriot Games (he was replaced by Harrison Ford) in favor of returning to Broadway to star as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. Although his decision paid off -- he received a Tony nomination for his performance -- it also marked the point at which Baldwin's star wattage began to flicker. His 1991 film, The Marrying Man proved to be an all-out flop (although it did provide him an introduction to co-star Kim Basinger, whom he would marry in 1993), and the critical success of his next two films, Prelude to a Kiss and Glengarry Glen Ross was overshadowed by a subsequent string of flops, including Malice (1993), The Getaway (1994), and The Juror (1996). The actor rebounded a bit with his role in Al Pacino's acclaimed documentary Looking for Richard (1996) but then had the unfortunate luck of starring in the 1998 Bruce Willis disaster Mercury Rising. However, the following year proved more fortuitous for Baldwin, as he starred in the coming-of-age comedy Outside Providence, as well as in the crime drama Thick As Thieves and the ethical drama The Confession, appearing alongside Amy Irving and Ben Kingsley. In addition, the actor made an uncredited appearance in Notting Hill, sending up his macho Hollywood persona as Julia Roberts' piggish actor boyfriend.Baldwin started off the 2000s by re-teaming with David Mamet on the Hollywood satire State and Main as a lecherous leading man with a weakness for underage girls. He provided narration for Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums, and was one of the few people to escape unscathed from Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor. Although he continued to make headlines because of his politics, as well as his ongoing legal scuffles with now ex-wife Kim Basinger, Baldwin continued to do strong work in the comedies Along Came Polly (2004) and Fun with Dick and Jane (2005), and scored his first-ever Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor playing a menacing casino manager in 2003's The Cooler. He became a part of Martin Scorsese's stock company playing Juan Trippe in 2004's The Aviator, following it up as a federal agent in love with the Patriot Act in 2006's The Departed.Baldwin's longstanding association with the venerable sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (he has hosted over ten times) paid great dividends when he was hired to play the part of the boss on former SNL head writer Tina Fey's fall 2006 sitcom 30 Rock. He earned universal raves for his work on the show, and would earn a Golden Globe nomination every single year of the show's run, winning the award three times. He'd also pick up no less than five Emmy nods, winning that award twice as well. Baldwin was positively beloved on the series, but he would also continue to work in film as well, most notably in the 2009 romcom It's Complicated, which he starred in with Meryl Streep, and the 2012 Woody Allen ensemble film To Rome with Love.

Trivia: American stage and film actor Trey Wilson first gained a measure of public exposure on a very short-lived satirical TV series, The News Is the News, in 1983. Though only in his mid-thirties, Wilson's gravelly voice and bulky frame enabled him to play a variety of middle-aged toughs. He was seen in this capacity as Jimmy Hoffa in the 1985 TV miniseries Robert F. Kennedy and His Times. Wilson's least menacing screen role was as Skip, the laconic minor league baseball manager, in 1988's Bull Durham. Trey Wilson died the following year of a cerebral hemmorhage; he was barely 40 years old.

Trivia: One of Hollywood's funniest and most underappreciated actresses, Joan Cusack was for years relegated to playing the buddy sidekicks of her more glamorous co-stars and known primarily as John Cusack's older sister. Thanks to a couple of Oscar nominations and strong roles in a number of movies, Cusack finally began getting her due in the late 1990s, earning both recognition and respect for her singular talent.Born in New York City on October 11, 1962, Cusack grew up in the Chicago suburb of Evanston. The daughter of actor and filmmaker Richard Cusack, she and her siblings were encouraged to perform from an early age. As a result, Cusack grew up acting on the stage and training with the Piven Theatre Workshop. She broke into film while still in her teens, getting her start - -and often acting alongside her brother -- in such teen comedies as My Bodyguard (1980) and Sixteen Candles (1984). In 1985 she was offered a part on the Saturday Night Live roster, but felt constrained by the lack of quality material offered to women, and left the show after one season. Gradually getting better supporting work in such films as Broadcast News (1987) and Married to the Mob (1988), Cusack had her screen breakthrough in Working Girl (1988), earning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her role as Melanie Griffith's street-smart best friend. More strong notices followed in 1989 for Cusack's work in the drama Men Don't Leave, in which she played a nurse who helps get Jessica Lange's life back on track after her husband's death. Though Cusack would move to Chicago for much of the 90's to focus on her family, she would appear in a handful of memorable titles, like My Blue Heaven (1990), Addams Family Values, Corrina, Corrina, Nine Months, and In & Out. Cusack would amp it up in the coming years, however, with appearances in a slew of popular films like Grosse Point Blank, Runaway Bride, High Fidelity, and Cradle will Rock. As the 2000's rolled onward, Cusack would continue to maintain her status as a go-to character actor, appearing in fims like Friends with Money, My Sister's Keeper and Mars Needs Moms, and on the critically acclaimed series Shameless.

Trivia: Towering American character actor Charles Napier has the distinction of being one of the few actors to transcend a career start in "nudies" and sustain a successful mainstream career. Napier, clothed and otherwise, was first seen in such Russ Meyer gropey-feeley epics as Cherry, Harry and Raquel (1969) and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970). Graduating from this exuberant tawdriness, Napier became a dependable film and TV villain, playing nasty characters in films like Handle With Care (1977) and Rambo (1984). Napier would continue to become an ever more familiar face throughout the 80's and 90's, with roles in movies like The Blues Brothers (1980), Married to the Mob (1990), Ernest Goes to Jail (1991) and the-Oscar winning Silence of the Lambs (1991), Philadelphia (1994), The Cable Guy (1996), and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) - just to name a few. He would also remain active in the realm of TV, appearing on shows like Walker, Texas Ranger and Roswell. The new millennium would find Napier playing roles on shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, as well as lending his voice to animated shows like The Simpsons, Squidbillies, and Archer. Napier passed away in October of 2011 at the age of 75.

Trivia: The ever-fascinating Nancy Travis excelled in edgy, neurotic characterizations during the 1990s; she sounds like a chain-smoker or Valium-popper even when not playing one. Graduating with a BA degree from New York University, Travis apprenticed at Circle in the Square, acted in the touring company of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, and starred on Broadway with Judd Hirsch in I'm Not Rappaport. As a means of continually recharging her creative batteries, she helped found the Naked Angels, an off-Broadway acting troupe. After laboring in virtual anonymity in such TV movies as Malice in Wonderland (1985), Travis was afforded top billing in the 1986 two-parter Harem, lending a little artistry and dignity to an otherwise trivial affair. Her movie breakthrough was in the role of the errant, unmarried British mother Sylvia in Three Men and a Baby (1987) and its 1990 sequel Three Men and a Little Lady. More complex roles came her way in Internal Affairs (1992), The Vanishing (1993) and Chaplin (1993); in the latter film, she appeared as the real-life Joan Barry, whose spiteful and unfounded paternity suit against Charlie Chaplin (Robert Downey Jr.) was the beginning of the end of The Little Tramp's Hollywood career. Even when playing comedy in So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993), Travis retained her ticking-bomb, "don't turn your back on me" aura. Nancy Travis' television credits of the 1990s include her gravelly voiceover work as Aunt Bernice on the animated weekly Duckman (1993- ) and her starring stint on the so-so 1995 sitcom Almost Perfect.

Trivia: Occasionally billing himself Buster Poindexter, David Johansen is a supporting actor and former lead singer for the glam rock band the New York Dolls. He was also a vocalist for the live band on NBC's Saturday Night Live during the 1986-1987 season. Johansen made his film debut starring in Candy Mountain (1987). In 1997, he voiced a character in the animated musical feature Cats Don't Dance.

Trivia: Though never a prominent film or television actress, Maria Karnilova found her true calling as a performer with her Tony-winning performance opposite Zero Mostel in the Broadway hit Fiddler on the Roof. In addition to creating the role of Golde in Fiddler, she also appeared in such Broadway mainstays as Gypsy and earned another Tony nomination for her performance in John Kander and Fred Ebb's Zorba.The daughter of Russian immigrants, Karnivola was born in Hartford, CT, and spent the majority of her childhood studying ballet and dancing at folk festivals. Later training with the Metropolitan Opera's ballet school, Karnilova crossed over from ballet to musicals in the 1930s, though she would become a charter member of the American Ballet Theatre in 1939. Her film roles separated by more than two decades, Karnilova appeared in both the film adaptation of The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) and Married to the Mob (1988).On April 20, 2001, Maria Karnilova died of natural causes in Manhattan. She was 80.

Trivia: In another era, Chris Isaak's steely good looks and affable, unaffected screen presence would have made him an overnight leading man. Whether by choice or fate, however, Isaak seems to be content with his status as a part-time character actor and full-time rockabilly-influenced crooner. Born in Stockton, CA, in 1956, Isaak dabbled in surfing and competitive boxing as a teenager -- leaving him with his trademark bent nose -- before enrolling in an exchange student program in Japan. Upon his return to the U.S., Isaak completed college and endured a series of odd jobs as he led the life of the Northern California beach bum.In the mid-'80s, Isaak and his friends secured a record deal and began recording their unique brand of Southwestern retro-pop under the moniker Silvertone. It was director Jonathan Demme -- already a fan of Isaak's music -- who gave him bit parts in 1988's Married to the Mob and Demme's 1991 breakthrough, The Silence of the Lambs. Though Isaak's acting career was slowly gaining momentum, his Roy Orbison-influenced ballads still weren't catching on with the general public. When David Lynch featured the jilted-lover anthem "Wicked Game" in his road movie Wild at Heart, however, radio requests for the song quickly grew, and Isaak found himself with a Top Ten hit by the end of 1990 -- well over a year since the track was originally released. Thanks to Herb Ritts' sultry video for the song, Isaak had become a reluctant sex symbol as well. Lynch would be the first to capitalize on Isaak's heightened public profile, casting him as Special Agent Chester Desmond in 1992's baffling, elliptical Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.Despite the film's lackluster box-office performance, director Bernardo Bertolucci took notice and gave Isaak a lead role in his fantasy-biopic Little Buddha. Though convincing as the stoic family man whose son is mysteriously believed to be the latest reincarnation of Buddha, the neophyte actor couldn't withstand the wellspring of negative critical response to the film, causing some wags to slight his work in it. Perhaps as a response, Isaak has usually maintained a low profile in features since Buddha, choosing instead to take distinctive supporting roles in period films such as That Thing You Do! and Grace of My Heart, both in 1996.Though his feature-film aspirations hadn't panned out, Isaak did find some success acting on the small-screen in 2001, when he was given his own television show on Showtime. The Chris Isaak Show attracted a cult following with its witty semi-fictional portrayal of musician Chris Isaak. In 2004, Isaak took to the big-screen again, starring in the NC-17-rated John Waters sex comedy A Dirty Shame amidst an eclectic cast that included British comedian Tracey Ullman, Jackass co-creator Johnny Knoxville, indie-film actress Selma Blair, and such Waters regulars as Patricia Hearst and Mink Stole.

Trivia: Joe Spinell had the sort of face that you wouldn't want to confront in a dark alley -- which suited the actor fine. From his first film appearance in The Godfather (1972) onward, the powerfully built Spinell thrived in roles calling for heavy-breathing menace and brute strength. As such, he was the ideal "opposite" for the musclebound Sylvester Stallone in such films as Rocky (1975) and Paradise Alley (1978). Taking advantage of his established screen persona, Spinell produced, co-wrote, and starred in the 1980 scarefest Maniac, which one observer described as "nihilistic gore." Joe Spinell was the son of actress Mary Spinell, who had some 50 film appearances to her credit -- including the aforementioned Godfather.

Trivia: The memorable but fleeting appearance of American actor Tracey Walter as "Bob the Goon" in Batman was typical of Walter's career. In the grand tradition of such Hollywood character actors as Percy Helton, Dick Wessel and Louis Jean Heydt, Walter is in the "who is that?" category--familiar yet anonymous--and has developed a cult following amongst cinema buffs. The stage-trained Walters can be seen in such films as Repo Man (1984) City Slickers (1991), Pacific Heights (1992), and Philadelphia (1993). As far back as the 1984 critic's-darling sitcom Best of the West, Walter played Frog, the knuckle-dragging henchman of villain Leonard Frey.

Trivia: American character actor Frank Gio frequently played Italian gangsters on stage, both on and off Broadway, screen--during the '70s and '80s-- and television. Before becoming an actor, he worked as a prizefighter.

Trivia: Character actor and former juvenile actor Gary Goetzman first appeared onscreen in the '60s; he later became a producer.

Trivia: From the early days of MTV's Remote Control to his later success with the topical Comedy Central series Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn, gravelly voiced Brooklynite Colin Quinn has become a staple of the comedy scene thanks to his fearless, tell-it-like-it-is style and everyman attitude. Quinn proved to be a ubiquitous presence in the realm of popular comedians thanks to his stint at Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update desk, numerous film roles, and his marked tenacity (even after having no less that three television series canceled, Quinn still returned to host Tough Crowd). His topical brand of comedy doesn't appeal exclusively to New Yorkers, but to anyone who prefers their politics and current events news spiked with a healthy dose of irreverence. A native of Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY, who got his start as a standup comic in the mid-'80s, Quinn made a name for himself with performances at such popular Manhattan comedy clubs as Caroline's and The Comic Strip. He gained a healthy amount of exposure soon thereafter when he joined the cast of MTV's pop-culture game show Remote Control in 1987. Following the cancellation of that show, he took the reigns for the sports comedy series Colin Quinn's Manly World. Though Quinn would appear in such features as Who's the Man? and A Night at the Roxbury during the 1990s, his main focus would remain on television, where he hosted the popular A&E series Caroline's Comedy Hour before stepping in to replace Norm MacDonald as anchor for SNL's popular Weekend Update segment. When his short-lived 2002 series The Colin Quinn Show failed to find an audience, Quinn went back to the drawing board, eventually returning with a winner in the form of Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn. Eschewing the sketch comedy format of the former for a looser, more unpredictable topical approach that found comedians discussing various news stories, the show offered Quinn at his comic best. In the years to come, Quinn would remain an active force in comedy, appearing as a regular guest on the Howard Stern Show, and performing in several successful one-man comedy shows on Broadway, like Long Story Short and Unconstitutional.

Trivia: From the late '60s through the early '90s, Kenneth Utt produced or co-produced numerous feature films, notably Midnight Cowboy (1969), The French Connection (1971), All That Jazz (1979), Silence of the Lambs (1991), and Philadelphia (1993). Born and raised in Winston-Salem, NC, Utt began his entertainment industry career in New York television and radio shortly after the end of WWII. He also dabbled as a stage manager on Broadway. He started producing television programs in the 1950s and, in the early '60s, was the associate producer for the series The Defenders and Coronet Blue. Utt occasionally appeared in the films he produced. In Silence of the Lambs, he played Dr. Aiken.

Trivia: There is more to character actor Al Lewis than meets the eye. Best known to baby boomers for playing the roles of Officer Schnauzer in Car 54 Where Are You? and Grandpa in The Munsters, he holds a doctorate in child psychology from Columbia University, has penned two children's books, produced a kid-oriented home video, and once hosted a series of Saturday morning television shows on WTBS. He has also been a circus performer, a school teacher, and a vaudevillian. Lewis became an actor after earning his degree, teaching, and writing his books. He studied with the Paul Mann Actor's Workshop in New York. On television, he first appeared in "Trouble-In-Law" on The U.S. Steel Hour (1959). The following year, Lewis appeared in the feature film Naked City and then was cast opposite Fred Gwynne in Car 54, Where Are You? The show ran until 1963 and within a year, he was playing the vampiric Grandpa against Gwynne's Frankenstein, Herman Munster. Though The Munsters lasted two years, it has developed a cult following and has re-aired endlessly in syndication and spawned a feature-length sequel, Munster Go Home (1964), and a made-for-TV reunion movie, Munster's Revenge (1981). In 1994, he reprised his role as Schnauzer for the TV-movie version of Car 54 Where Are You? Lewis has gone on to continue making occasional guest appearances on television and a sporadic movie career. In addition to his other endeavors, Lewis has been a high school basketball scout and the owner of a restaurant in New York.

Trivia: With Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995) and Happiness (1998), director Todd Solondz established himself as one of the most eloquent interpreters of suburban hell and general human dysfunction. Himself a product of the suburbs he portrays in his films, Solondz was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1960. Saddled with years of suburban experience and a decidedly unconventional appearance (one of his trademarks is the thick black glasses that distort his face), Solondz decided to funnel his energies into filmmaking and duly enrolled at New York University's film school.On the strength of a few film shorts he made while at NYU (including "How I Became a Leading Artistic Figure in New York City's East Village Cultural Landscape" for Saturday Night Live), Solondz was offered three-picture deals by two major Hollywood studios. Unfortunately, his first film, Fear, Anxiety and Depression (1989) failed miserably. Following this disappointment, Solondz dropped out of filmmaking for a while, opting to teach English to Russian immigrants. An arrangement with a lawyer friend who secured him funding for a low-budget effort brought Solondz back into filmmaking, and the result was Welcome to the Dollhouse. The bleak, unforgiving, and perversely hilarious tale of pubescent outcast Dawn "Wienerdog" Wiener (played expertly by Heather Matarazzo) was first shown at the Toronto Film Festival (after being rejected from several other prominent festivals), and then at the Sundance Film Festival, where it was awarded the festival's Grand Prize in 1996. Upon its general (arthouse) release, Dollhouse was greeted with a positive reception, although more than one critic had trouble with the film's punishing content.Welcome to the Dollhouse's critical controversies were overshadowed by Solondz's next effort, 1998's Happiness. A very, very black comedy that served up a heaping dose of suburban dysfunction, Happiness, in the words of producer Christine Vachon, was a "nonjudgmental film about a pedophile." One of its central plotlines--about a father who has an unnatural attraction to his young son's friends--caused sizable unhappiness among various critics and cultural watchdogs. However, the film also won considerable acclaim, premiering at the 1998 Cannes Festival to a positive reception and going on to establish Solondz further as one of the most original and provocative directors of his era.Now a bona-fide auteur, Solondz began work on his next feature, courting Hollywood buzz and more controversy in equal measure. A planned triptych of tales about the fine line between authorship, fiction and reality, 2001's Storytelling found its plot threads cut down to two when heartthrob James Van Der Beek backed out of the production. It was the first segment - featuring Selma Blair as a naïve student whose professor (Robert Wisdom) demands she yell out racial epithets during sex - that garnered the wrath of the MPAA, who insisted certain moments be cut if the movie were to avoid a "NC-17" rating. Committed to delivering an "R," Solondz chafed at the restriction, choosing instead to place black boxes over the offending anatomical details. Ultimately, it mattered little, as neither audiences nor critics embraced Storytelling the way they had the director's prior two features.Four years later, the director regrouped for an even more formally adventurous experiment, the warped coming-of-age tale Palindromes. Chronicling the long, strange journey of a runaway named Aviva, Solondz decided to cast eight actresses of varying age, race and weight in the role; thematically, he touched on such hot-button issues as abortion, teen pregnancy and fundamentalism. Scaled back in both budget and profile, Solondz saw Palindromes open to staunchly mixed reviews and meager box-office.

Trivia: New York native Roma Maffia began her acting career on-stage, appearing in all sorts of Broadway and off-Broadway plays, from musicals to Shakespeare. She only made occasional appearances in movies until a director asked her to audition for Ron Howard's upcoming comedy drama The Paper. When she won the role of Carmen in the film, she began investing real time and energy in her onscreen acting career. She continued to make appearances in several films a year until she was cast as Grace Alvarez, forensic pathologist for the NBC series Profiler; she stayed with the show from 1996-2000. Following that, it wasn't long before she picked up another role in a series; this time she signed on to play the part of Dr. Liz Cruz on the controversial series Nip/Tuck. She had a major role in the showbiz comedy The Blue Tooth Virgin.

Trivia: Jonathan Demme proved to be that rare maverick filmmaker who managed to find a place for his talents within the Hollywood system while still making movies his own way and on his own terms. A director who invested his characters with an unusual depth and humanity, Demme was unafraid to take on challenging and controversial subject matters in his films, but also knew how to make his stories absorbing and entertaining, and the results have included both box-office blockbusters (The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia) and critical favorites (Melvin and Howard, Something Wild). Born in Baldwin, NY, on February 22, 1944, Demme's mother was an actress, and his father worked in public relations. When he was 15, his family moved to Miami, where his father had landed a job at the Fountainbleau Hotel. Demme's original career goal was to become a veterinarian, and, after working at animal clinics as a teenager, he enrolled at the University of Florida in Gainesville. College-level chemistry, however, proved to be his Achilles' heel, and, realizing animal medicine was not a practical goal, he began searching for a new path. An enthusiastic cinema fan since childhood, he applied for an open position as film critic at the university's newspaper. After finishing college, Demme continued as a film critic for a small paper in Coral Gables until his father introduced him to flamboyant producer Joseph E. Levine. Levine was impressed with the young man's writing, and, after a stint in the military, Demme was given a job as a publicist in the producer's organization. Over the next several years, Demme worked for several film companies, including United Artists, and continued to write about film and music during a stint in New York, where he helped to compile the score for a low-budget thriller called Sudden Terror. While in London in 1970, a friend from his days at UA recommended Demme as a unit publicist to Roger Corman, then in Ireland shooting Von Richtofen and Brown. The independent producer/director soon gave Demme the opportunity to write a motorcycle picture for him, and Demme teamed up with friend Joe Viola to turn the premise of Rashomon into a biker film; after a few rewrites, Corman hired Demme to produce the film and Viola to direct, and the result was called Angels Hard As They Come. After serving as producer and second unit director on another Corman production, The Hot Box, Demme was given the opportunity to direct a steamy women-in-prison picture called Caged Heat; along with the requisite nudity and violence, Demme inserted a subplot about prisoners being abused through medical experiments. After two more films for Corman -- the offbeat crime feature Crazy Mama and the revenge thriller Fighting Mad -- Demme was hired to make a film about the then-current CB radio craze. The result was a charming, low-key, comedy drama called Citizen's Band, which won enthusiastic reviews from a number of critics but was a dud at the box office, even after being retitled Handle With Care. But the film's notices were strong enough for Demme to be hired to direct the Hitchcockian thriller Last Embrace, and, in 1980, he landed a project perfectly suited to his style. Melvin and Howard was based upon the true story of Melvin Dummar, who claimed to have once given Howard Hughes a ride and is later named beneficiary of 150 million dollars in a will discovered after the reclusive billionaire's death. While the film was only a modest commercial success, it received uniformly positive reviews. Screenwriter Bo Goldman and supporting actress Mary Steenburgen both received Oscars for their work on the picture, while the New York Film Critics Circle named it the Best Film of 1980. The warm reception for Melvin and Howard led to Demme's involvement in Swing Shift, a picture about women working in defense plants during World War II. Demme wanted the picture to deal primarily with working women embracing their new freedoms during wartime, but leading lady Goldie Hawn felt the film should focus on her character's relationship with a musician (played by Kurt Russell) while her husband was at war. By most accounts, Demme and Hawn rarely saw eye-to-eye during the production, and he and his editor left the project before the film's final cut was completed. Although Swing Shift proved to be a commercial and critical disappointment, bootleg copies of Demme's edit have circulated among collectors, with many contending his version was markedly superior. The director's next movie was more low-key: a concert film documenting the striking multi-media stage show of the rock band Talking Heads. Stop Making Sense was both a massive critical success and a surprise commercial hit, and it confirmed Demme's fondness for music-oriented projects. He later directed music videos for artists such as Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, New Order, and Fine Young Cannibals, and helmed another concert film, Storefront Hitchcock, featuring the quirky singer/songwriter Robyn Hitchcock. (Demme later directed two other feature-length documentaries: Swimming to Cambodia, a record of Spalding Gray's acclaimed one-man show, and Cousin Bobby, about the life and work of his cousin, an Episcopal priest and political activist.)Demme's next two major projects, Something Wild and Married to the Mob, walked a fine line between the endearing and the oddball, and performed well, if not spectacularly, at the box office. But it was 1991's The Silence of the Lambs, a taut thriller with a strong feminist subtext, that propelled Demme into the first rank of American filmmakers, earning him an Oscar for Best Director, among others for Best Picture, Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins), Best Actress (Jodie Foster), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Ted Tally). Demme followed this success with the AIDS drama Philadelphia, another blockbuster and Tom Hanks' first Oscar win. Demme next tackled a controversial adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel Beloved, and then paid homage to the French Nouvelle Vague with a stylish remake of Charade entitled The Truth About Charlie. When not busy with his own projects, Demme has also served as a producer of other films, including Adaptation, That Thing You Do!, and Mandela. A political activist and collector of Haitian art, he has been married twice, first to after director/producer Evelyn Purcell and later artist Joanne Howard. Demme would continue to direct over the coming years, helming films like Rachel Getting Married, a remake of the Manchurian Candidate, and Ricki and the Flash as well as several documentaries like Jimmy Carter Man from Plains, I'm Carolyn Parker and Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids. Demme died in 2017, at age 73.