Trivia: Handsome, well-built and able to communicate a rangy sort of charm in front of the camera, Dennis Quaid possesses many star qualities. Despite attaining heartthrob status for his work in such films as The Big Easy, however, Quaid has had a difficult time maintaining this status, thanks in part to work in a number of films that have failed to fully exploit his talent.The son of an electrician and younger brother of actor Randy Quaid, Dennis was born in Houston, Texas on April 9, 1954. He began acting in high school, and in college he enrolled in a drama program. He dropped out at the age of 20 to follow his brother to Hollywood and spent the next year mired in rejection and relative unemployment. He got his first break in 1977 when he was cast in minor roles in I Never Promised You a Rose Garden and 9/30/55, but it was not until 1979, when he starred in the seminal coming-of-age drama Breaking Away, that Quaid gained attention. It was his role as astronaut Gordo Cooper in The Right Stuff four years later that finally gave the actor his Hollywood breakthrough. He subsequently went on to appear in a number of films of widely varying quality. 1987 proved to be a particularly good year for Quaid, as he did acclaimed work in The Big Easy and Suspect. That same year, he also starred in the comedy Innerspace; that experience proved to be an auspicious one, as it provided him with an introduction to co-star Meg Ryan, whom he would marry in 1991. The two also starred together in the 1988 mystery D.O.A. and in the crime drama Flesh and Bone in 1993. Other notable roles for Quaid included that of wild man Jerry Lee Lewis in Great Balls of Fire (1989), a 1930s union organizer in Come See the Paradise (1990), and Meryl Streep's love interest in Postcards From the Edge (1990). During a large part of the '90s, Quaid starred in a string of disappointing films, including the disastrous Wyatt Earp (1994) and the failed medieval fantasy Dragonheart (1996). He made something of a comeback in 1998, appearing in the ensemble film Playing By Heart and the successful remake of The Parent Trap, in which he starred opposite Natasha Richardson. The following year, he had a starring role as a Miami football team's legendary quarterback in Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday, and then starred in the supernatural thriller Frequency (2000) as a dead man who is able to communicate with his son (James Caviezel) over ham radio. Though both films proved moderately successful, it was two-years-later that Quaid would truly return to the good graces of critics with his striking turn in director Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven. As a closeted homosexual husband living a typical suburban dream in 1950s era Connecticut, Quaid's sensitive performance proved integral to convincingly recreating the tone of a Douglas Sirk era melodrama. Quaid portrayed a middle-aged man whose life is turned upside-down by the arrival of a young upstart who takes over his job in 2004's comedy drama Good Company, and appeared in The Alamo and Flight of the Phoenix the same year. Despite Quaid's involvement in several commercial and critical failures throughout the 2000s (The Day After Tomorrow, American Dreamz, Cold Creek Manor), the actor shone as widower Lawrence Wetherhold in Smart People (2008), and again as the stern Reverend Shaw Moore in 2011's Footloose reboot. Quaid appeared in the ensemble film What To Expect When You're Expecting, had a supporting role in the 2012 romcom Playing for Keeps and was in the anthology film Movie 43 (2013).

Trivia: The second of three children, David Thewlis grew up in an apartment above his family's combination toy store and wallpaper shop. He received his training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. A veteran of the London stage and English television (Prime Suspect 3), Thewlis found his particular cinematic niche as the antihero of director Mike Leigh's Naked (1993). From the moment that Thewlis, playing an indigent from Manchester, showed up unannounced at the doorstep of his old girlfriend and immediately proceeded to verbally trash everyone in sight, the audience knew it wasn't in for a Noël Coward revival. The result of Thewlis's antisocial screen behavior was the unqualified praise of discriminating moviegoers, not to mention awards from the Cannes jury, the New York Film Critics, and the National Society of Film Critics. He went on to demonstrate his versatility in a number of diverse roles, including Paul Verlaine in 1995's Total Eclipse, an animated earthworm in James and the Giant Peach (1996), a mountaineer in Seven Years in Tibet (1997, a role for which the actor was subsequently banned from entering China), and an expatriate British composer living in Rome in Bernardo Bertolucci's Besieged in 1998. Also that year, Thewlis could be seen doing a brief but hilarious turn as a giggling conceptual artist in The Big Lebowski. As rare as it is for an actor to possess the versatility needed to alternate between such adult-oriented fare as director Mike Leigh's Naked and such innocent fun as James and the Giant Peach, Thewlis could be as effective in the former as he was endearing in the latter. Following a chilling performance as the leader of a London gang in the 2002 crime drama Gangster No. 1, Thewlis switched gears somewhat to portray the villain in the made-for-television family adventure Dinotopia shortly thereafter. In 2003, Thewlis expanded his resumé by making his feature directorial debut with Cheeky, a comedy drama concerning a mournful widower (Thewlis) whose life takes a change for the better after appearing in a popular game show of questionable taste. His profile steadily increasing thanks to roles in such high-profile releases as Timeline and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (as Professor Remus Lupin), the actor began to make as big a name for himself in large-scale Hollywood blockbusters as he previously had in intimate independent dramas. Of course, that's not to say that Thewlis had lost his taste for smaller-scale films, just that his skills were now in increased demand stateside as a direct result of his powerful early-career performances. After a busy year in 2005 with roles in the historical dramas Kingdom of Heaven and The New World, Thewlis drifted back into modern times to play a small but pivotal role in an American-shot segment of the international short anthology All the Invisible Children -- a powerful meditation on the modern mistreatment of youth by the increasingly jaded adult population. A brief turn as the Scotland Yard homicide detective trailing Sharon Stone in the belated and ill-fated sequel Basic Instinct 2 may have gone unseen by many fans after the film received considerably negative word of mouth, though a fun turn as the paranoid, bubblegum-chomping reporter hot on the trail of the young Antichrist in the 2006 remake of The Omen gave audiences much more to chew on and offered Thewlis the opportunity to have a bit of fun, to the delight of fans everywhere. The following year, Thewlis reprised his role of Prof. Lupin in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and appeared in the title role in The Inner Life of Martin Frost. He could next be seen in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, a film adaptation of the John Boyne Holocaust novel, which focuses on the friendship that develops between the child of a Nazi commander at a concentration camp and a young Jewish prisoner. Thewlis enjoyed a high-profile 2011 when the last of the Harry Potter films hit screens, as did other films he was cast in including the Shakespearean drama Anonymous, and Steven Spielberg's Oscar nominated War Horse.

Trivia: Was a drama teacher before becoming an actor. Studied at the Bristol Old Vic Drama School in Bristol, England. Appeared in plays with the Royal Shakespeare Company in England. Breakthrough film performance came playing the role of a violent father in Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988). His role in In the Name of the Father (1993) won him widespread acclaim and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. First portrayed a romantic lead in 1997's Among Giants. In 2002, he performed in the one-man play Scaramouche Jones. Awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in 2004. Appeared in the 2009 climate-change film The Age of Stupid. Portrayed Spyros, the adoptive father of Perseus, in 2010's Clash of the Titans. Passed away in January 2011 after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Trivia: Modeled from age 9 to 16. Minored in French in college. Trained with Ron Stetson for three years at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York. Landed her first major role as Lucinda Nicholson on the show Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1993. Did many of her own stunts for her physically demanding roles in Starship Troopers, Johnny Mnemonic and Dragonheart.

Trivia: One of the most luminous actresses to grace the British screen, as well as those of the rest of the world, Julie Christie is known for both her onscreen magnetism, which has not faded as she has grown older, and her offscreen reclusiveness. The daughter of an India-based British tea planter, she was born in Chukua, Assam, India, on April 14, 1941, and grew up on her father's tea plantation. Educated in England and on the Continent, she planned to become an artist or a linguist before she altered her life's goals by enrolling in the Central School of Speech Training in London. In 1957, she first stepped on-stage as a paid professional with the Frinton Repertory of Essex.Celebrated less for her stage work than for her continuing role in a popular British TV serial, A for Andromeda, Christie made her film debut in a small role in Crooks Anonymous (1963). After a rather charming ingénue stint in The Fast Lady (1963) (the lady was a car, not the ingénue), she received her first prestige part in Billy Liar (1963), gaining critical acclaim for this and her subsequent supporting part in Young Cassidy (1965). Thus, Christie was not the "newcomer" that some perceived her to be when she shook film audiences to their foundations in Darling (1965), a poignant time capsule about a stylishly amoral sexual butterfly. Christie won numerous awards for Darling, not the least of which were the British Film Academy award and the American Oscar.Her star further ascended into box-office heaven when she was cast in the big-budget Doctor Zhivago (1965), in which she gave a radiant performance as the tragic Lara. She followed this with a dual role in Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 (1967) and a starring turn in John Schlesinger's acclaimed 1967 adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd. Roles of wildly varying quality followed, until in 1971 Christie began a professional and romantic liaison with Warren Beatty. The romance was over within a few years, but Beatty and Christie ultimately worked together on three major films of the 1970s: McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), Shampoo (1975), and Heaven Can Wait (1978).Few of Christie's films of the 1970s and 1980s seemed worthy of her talents -- The Go-Between (1971) and her cameo in Nashville (1975) being exceptions -- though, in fact, she was less interested in pursuing a career than in campaigning for various social and political causes. Christie's performance in the British TV movie The Railway Station Man (1992) was a choice example of her devotion to social issues -- in this case, the ongoing ideological (and shooting) war in Ireland. Indeed, Christie had become such an enigma that it was a surprise to many audiences when she turned up as Gertrude in Kenneth Branagh's 1996 adaptation of Hamlet. She won acclaim for the role, embellished the following year with her portrayal of Nick Nolte's estranged wife in Afterglow. Nominated for her third Best Actress Oscar for her performance, Christie convinced many that, although she had chosen to neglect the limelight for awhile, she hadn't chosen to neglect her talent.Christie's fifth decade as a performer found her continuing to work with a variety of collaborators, earning a Screen Actors Guild nomination as part of the ensemble of Finding Neverland. She worked with the young Canadian actress Sarah Polley on The Secret Life of Words, a role that led directly to Christie being cast in Polley's directorial debut - the alzheimer's drama Away From Her. Christie's work in that film earned her some of the strongest reviews of her lengthy career and garnered her numerous year end accolades including Best Actress awards from the Golden Globes, the New York Film Critics, and the Screen Actors Guild, as well as a nomination from the Academy in that same category.She was one of the many performers in the omnibus film New York, I Love You, and took the roll as Grandma in the modernized retelling of Red Riding Hood directed by Katherine Hardwicke.

Trivia: The latest in an illustrious line of actors to convince American audiences that the British make the cinema's most sinister and cold-hearted villains, Jason Isaacs earned the vicarious enmity and disgust of filmgoers everywhere in his role as the vile Colonel Tavington in the 2000 summer blockbuster The Patriot. Actually an incredibly versatile performer whose previous characterizations included a priest, a brilliant scientist, and a drug dealer, the tall, blue-eyed actor won admiration and respect for his performance, and soon found himself being hailed in the American press as one of the most exciting British imports of the early 21st century.The third of four sons of a Liverpool merchant, Isaacs was born in his father's hometown on June 6, 1963. He initially planned to go into law -- a white-collar profession that would have fit nicely with those of his brothers, who became a doctor, lawyer, and accountant -- but was swayed by acting early in the course of his law studies at Bristol University. Although he first became interested in acting in part because "it was a great way to meet girls," Isaacs soon found deeper meaning in the theater (in one interview he was quoted as saying "I could release myself into acting in a way that I was not released socially") and duly dropped out of Bristol to hone his skills at London's Central School of Speech and Drama. Once in London, Isaacs began landing professional work almost immediately, appearing on the stage and on television. He made his big-screen debut in 1989 with a minor turn as a doctor in Mel Smith's The Tall Guy and that same year won a steady role on the TV series Capital City. Isaacs exhibited his versatility in several more TV series and on-stage in such productions as the Royal National Theatre's 1993 staging of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America. He also began to find more work onscreen, receiving his first nod of Hollywood recognition in his casting in the Bruce Willis blockbuster Armageddon (1998). Initially called upon to take a fairly substantial role, Isaacs was eventually cast in a much smaller capacity as a planet-saving scientist so that he could accommodate his commitment to Divorcing Jack (1998), a comedy thriller he was making with David Thewlis. After portraying a priest opposite Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes in Neil Jordan's acclaimed adaptation of Graham Greene's The End of the Affair, Isaacs got his biggest international break to date when he was picked to portray Colonel Tavington, the resident villain of Roland Emmerich's Revolutionary War epic The Patriot. Starring opposite Mel Gibson, who (naturally) played the film's hero, Isaacs made an unnervingly memorable impression as a man whose pastimes included infanticide, rape, and church- burning, emerging as one of summer 2000s most indelible screen presences. Although his work in the film earned him comparisons to Ralph Fiennes' portrayal of evil Nazi Amon Goeth in Schindler's List and talks of a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, the actor was not content to be typecast in the historical scum mold. Thus, he logically signed on to play none other than a drag queen for his next project, Sweet November (2001), a romantic comedy-drama starring Charlize Theron and Keanu Reeves. For his lead portrayal in the 2007 miniseries The State Within, Isaacs received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television. Over the next several years, Isaacs appeared in films like Green Zone and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Part 2. He would also star in TV series like Case Histories and Awake.

Trivia: Lead actor, onscreen from the '80s.

Trivia: One of the theatre's greatest legends, Sir John Gielgud spent almost 80 of the 96 years of his life appearing in countless plays that saw him portray every major Shakespearean role. The last surviving member of a generation of classical actors that included Laurence Olivier, Peggy Ashcroft, and Ralph Richardson, Gielgud worked up to a month before his death, performing in over 50 films and numerous television productions when he wasn't busy with his stage work.The grandnephew of famed stage actress Ellen Terry, Gielgud was born in London on August 14, 1904. He received his education at Westminster School and would have studied to be an architect had he not rebelled against his parents by announcing his plans to be an actor. Persuading his parents to let him train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Gielgud promised them that if he had failed to make a stage career by the age of 25, he would become an architect. As it turned out, Gielgud was playing Hamlet by the time he was 26, having made his stage debut eight years earlier at the Old Vic. His reputation was made in 1924, when he played Romeo to rave reviews; in addition to Hamlet, roles in plays by Chekov and Ibsen followed, and in 1928, Gielgud traveled to the U.S. for the first time to play the Grand Duke Alexander in The Patriot. The epitome of the kind of old-school Englishness associated with the Victorian theatre, he went on to break theatre box office records when he brought his Hamlet to Broadway in the 1930s.Gielgud began appearing on the big screen in the 1920s, and over the course of the next seven decades, he lent his name to films of every imaginable genre and level of quality. In addition to starring in a number of film adaptations of Shakespeare, he could be seen in projects as disparate as Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight (1967), the 1977 porn extravaganza Caligula, and Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books (1991), in which he was able to fulfill a lifelong dream by playing the role of the Shakespearean patriarch Prospero.In 1981, Gielgud was awarded his only Oscar for his portrayal of Dudley Moore's butler in Arthur; he reprised the role for the film's 1988 sequel, despite the fact that the character had died. Gielgud continued to appear onscreen until the year preceding his death, making enthusiastically-received turns in Shine (1996), in which he played pianist David Helfgott's mentor; Al Pacino's Looking for Richard (1996); and Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth (1998), in which he made a brief appearance as the Pope.Gielgud also did notable work on television, particularly in Brideshead Revisited (1981), which cast him as a stodgily eccentric patriarch, and Merlin (1998), a lavish and well-received take on Arthurian legend. He wrote several books as well, including an autobiography entitled Early Stages. Gielgud was knighted in 1953 and was honored on his 90th birthday with the decision to rename the West End's Globe Theatre as the Gielgud Theatre. He died on May 21, 2000, at the age of 96, having spent the last 25 years of his life with his partner, Martin Hensler.

Trivia: Best known as the fourth incarnation of Dr. Who from the 1960s BBC sci-fi series of the same name, Tom Baker continues to play character roles in feature films and television.