Trivia: Lanky blond and balding actor Anthony Edwards' career reached a pinnacle with his role as the easy-going Dr. Green on the hit NBC television series E.R.. While his rise to fame seems sudden, the actor has been in the business since he was 12 years old. At that young age, Edwards began acting on stage. For the next five years he would act in over 30 plays before going to study at the prestigious Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1980. He also studied drama at USC, Los Angeles. While there he made his feature-film debut in Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982). Unlike many actors who are typecast into certain roles in particular genres, Edwards has remained firmly between genres, having played in everything from teen exploitation flicks (Revenge of the Nerds [1984]), and serious drama (Mr. North [1988]), to actioners (Top Gun [1986]) and thrillers (Downtown [1990]). In 1992, Edwards had a recurring and memorable role as the environmentally-hypersensitive Bubble man on the popular offbeat CBS TV show Northern Exposure. He continued to work on ER until the show's 8th season in 2001, and co-starred Daryl Hannah and Ben Foster in the fantasy drama Northfolk in 2003. Edwards continued to find success as an actor and producer throughout the mid-2000s, and in 2007 took on the role of Inspector William Armstrong in Zodiac, director David Fincher's docudrama chronicling the gruesome story of the serial murderer known as the Zodiac killer. In 2008 he starred in The Dark Lurking, a sci-fi thriller, and starred along with Minnie Driver and Uma Thurman in the independent comedy Motherhood the following year. In 2010 he co-starred in director Rob Reiner's coming-of-age comedy Flipped.

Trivia: As the son of broadcast journalist Nick Clooney and the nephew of chanteuse Rosemary Clooney, George Clooney entered the world with show business coursing through his veins. Born May 6, 1961 in Lexington, Kentucky, the future E.R. headliner appeared at the tender age of five on his father's Cincinnati talk program, The Nick Clooney Show. In his youth, Clooney honed a sharp interest in sports - particularly baseball - but by adulthood, Clooney launched himself as an onscreen presence, seemingly without effort. Beginning with a string of television commercials, then signed with Warner Brothers Entertainment as a supporting player. By the time Clooney had paid his dues, he'd appeared in single episodes of The Golden Girls, Riptide, Crazy Like a Fox, Street Hawk and Hunter.After regular gigs on TV shows like The Facts of Life, Roseanne, and Sisters, Clooney scored a role on the NBC medical drama E.R., which proved his breakthrough to superstardom. When that program shot up to #1 in prime time ratings, Clooney carried it (much more, in fact, than a first-billed Anthony Edwards) - his inborn appeal to women and his onscreen grace and charm massive contributing factors. This appeal increased as his character - initially something of a callous womanizer - matured with the show, eventually evolving into a kind and thoroughly decent, if somewhat hotheaded, human being.The performer's newfound star power led to big screen opportunities, like an acid-mouthed, rifle-wielding antihero (one of the Gecko Brothers, alongside Quentin Tarantino) in the Robert Rodriguez-directed, Tarantino-scripted horror comedy From Dusk Till Dawn (1995). Not long after, Clooney shifted gears altogether, co-headlining (with Michelle Pfeiffer) in the charming romcom One Fine Day (1996). Though he would notoriously misstep in accepting the role of Bruce Wayne in the 1997 attempted Batman reboot Batman & Robin, Clooney's honesty about the part being a bad fit was refreshing to audiences, and he took little flack for the movie, moving on to critically acclaimed movies like the action-laced crime comedy Out of Sight, and Terrence Malick's adaptation of The Thin Red Line. Out of Sight represented a massive watershed moment for Clooney: the first of his numerous collaborations with director Steven Soderbergh. In 1999 -- following his much-talked-about departure from E.R. - Clooney continued to work on a number of high-profile projects. He would star alongside Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube as an American soldier reclaiming Kuwaiti treasure from Saddam Hussein in David O. Russell's Three Kings, and eventually win a 2000 Golden Globe for his portrayal of a pomade-obsessed escaped convict in the Coen brothers' Odyssey update O Brother Where Art Thou?. It was around this time that Clooney, now an established actor equally as comfortable on the big screen as the small, began to branch out as the Executive Producer of such made-for-TV efforts as Killroy (1999) and Fail Safe (2000). Soon producing such features as Rock Star (2001) and Insomnia (2002), Clooney next re-teamed with Soderbergh for a modern take on a classic Rat Pack comedy with Ocean's Eleven (2001). After the dynamic film duo stuck together for yet another remake, the deep-space psychological science-fiction drama Solaris (2002), busy Clooney both produced and appeared in Welcome to Collinwood and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind later the same year.Confessions marked Clooney's behind-the-camera debut, and one of the most promising actor-turned-director outings in memory. Adapted by Charlie Kaufman from Gong Show host Chuck Barris's possibly fictionalized memoir, the picture exhibited Clooney's triple fascinations with politics, media and celebrity; critics did not respond to it with unanimous enthusiasm, but it did show Clooney's promise as a director. He went on to star alongside Catherine Zeta-Jones in the Coen Brothers movie Intolerable Cruelty. The small film was a major sleeper hit among the lucky few who got to see it, and it proved to be a great showcase for Clooney's abilities as a comedian. He moved on to team up with Zeta-Jones again, along with almost the entire cast of Ocean's Eleven, for the sequel, Oceans Twelve, which earned mixed critical reviews, but (like its predecessor) grossed dollar one at the box office. By 2005, Clooney achieved his piece-de-resistance by writing, directing, and acting a sophomore outing: the tense period drama Good Night, and Good Luck.. Shot in black-and-white by ace cinematographer Robert Elswit, the picture followed the epic decision of 1950's television journalist Edward R. Murrow (played by David Strathairn) to confront Senator Joseph McCarthy about his Communist witch hunt. The picture drew raves from critics and received nominations for Best Picture and Best Director.Clooney next appeared in the harshly explicit and openly critical Syriana. He took the lead in this ensemble political thriller about the oil industry, directed by Stephen Gaghan of Traffic and heralded by critics as a disturbingly real look at a hopelessly flawed and corrupt system. Clooney won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a veteran CIA officer. Never one to rest for very long, Clooney then joined the cast of The Good German. Directed by longtime collaborator Steven Soderbergh, German unfolds in post-WWII Berlin, where Clooney plays a war correspondent who helps an ex-lover (Cate Blanchett) search for her missing husband. The actor-director team would pair up again the following year for the third installment in the Ocean's saga, Ocean's Thirteen. Next turning towards a more intimate, individualized project, Clooney earned yet more acclaim playing the title role in Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton, where his portrayal of a morally compromised legal "fixer" earned him strong reviews and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.Complications during the pre-production of the period comedy Leatherheads led to Clooney rewriting the script, as well as starring in and directing the picture. Though the movie made few ripples with audiences or critics, Clooney's adeptness continued to impress. In 2009, he gave voice to the lead character in Wes Anderson's thoroughly charming stop-motion animation feature Fantastic Mr. Fox, played a soldier with ESP in the comedy The Men Who Stare at Goats, and earned arguably the best notices of his career as corporate hatchet man Ryan Bingham in Jason Reitman's Up in the Air. His work in that well-reviewed comedy/drama earned him nominations from the Screen Actors Guild, the Golden Globes, and the Academy. In the midst of awards season, Clooney again produced a successful telethon, this time to help earthquake victims in Haiti.In 2011 Clooney would, for the second time in his already impressive career, score Oscar nominations for writing and acting in two different films. His leading role in Alexander Payne's The Descendants earned him a wave of critical praise, as well as Best Actor nods from the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy, as well as capturing the Best Actor award from the Golden Globes. The film he co-wrote and directed that year, the political drama The Ides of March garnered the heartthrob a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination from BAFTA, the Academy, and the Golden Globes. In 2012 he earned his second Oscar as one of the producers of that year's Best Picture winner, the Ben Affleck-directed political thriller/Hollywood satire Argo. The following year, he appeared in the critically-acclaimed, box office smash Gravity, and also produced August: Osage County. In 2014, he co-wrote and co-produced (with Grant Heslov) and starred in The Monuments Men, but the film was delayed from a late-2013 release and didn't score well with critics or at the box office.

Trivia: Forceful yet smooth actor Eriq La Salle worked on the stage and on television before breaking into films, directing, and producing his own projects. He is perhaps best known for his role of the confident Dr. Peter Benton on the NBC series ER, which has earned him several Emmy nominations. He grew up in New England and got a prestigious education at Juilliard and N.Y.U. Living in New York, he made a living doing Broadway, off-Broadway, and soap operas. He worked intermittently between film and television for a few years, with one of his first movies being the breakdancing drama Rappin' with Mario Van Peebles. During this time, he made numerous TV guest appearances, briefly joined the cast of the NBC soap Another World, and played the role of Jeri-curled Darryl in Coming to America. A couple TV movies later, he strayed away from comedy and got a small part in the drama Jacob's Ladder. In 1991 he moved to L.A. for a part in the series The Human Factor, giving him an introduction to the prolific world of medical dramas. He also played two detectives in a row for the thrillers Empty Cradle and Color of Night, and appeared in the crime series Under Suspicion. In 1994, he joined the cast of ER and got his first starring role in the drama Drop Squad, produced by Spike Lee. In 1996, he made his directorial debut with the HBO movie Rebound, about the life of basketball player Earl "The Goat" Manigault, which he also appeared in. The same year he directed the short film Psalms From the Underground. He moved on to producing for the made-for-TV thriller Mind Prey, which he also starred in. Along with some small roles in Biker Boyz and One Hour Photo, 2002 saw La Salle make his first feature as director, producer, and star with the psychological thriller Crazy as Hell. He appeared in the outrageous action film Biker Boyz in 2003, and went on to have major parts in a variety of projects including Inside Out, Johnny Was, and Megafault.

Trivia: Raven-haired Julianna Margulies may have become an award-winning TV star on NBC's phenomenally successful ER in the 1990s, but she was ready to exit the series to pursue movies and theater full time by decade's end. Born in Spring Valley, NY, Margulies spent part of her childhood living abroad before settling back in her hometown for a bohemian life with her free-spirit mother. Though she earned a B.A. in art history from Sarah Lawrence College, Margulies performed in college plays and decided to pursue an acting career. Margulies landed her first movie role in 1991, playing a prostitute in the Steven Seagal flick Out for Justice. With no more movie roles forthcoming, Margulies made a living with theater work and TV guest star stints on Law and Order and Homicide in the early '90s. Margulies subsequently landed a role in the pilot for Michael Crichton's new hospital drama ER in 1994, but her character was slated for death after that single episode. Due to a positive audience response, however, Margulies' compassionate Nurse Hathaway survived the pilot. During her six seasons on the most popular TV drama of the 1990s, Margulies won the Emmy and the SAG Award and became a perennial nominee. Buoyed by her TV fame, Margulies returned to films during her hiatuses, starring as the would-be victim of Bill Paxton's Irish con in Traveler (1996), a POW alongside Glenn Close and Cate Blanchett in the ensemble drama Paradise Road (1997), and as Matthew McConaughey's girlfriend in Richard Linklater's Western-esque bank robber saga The Newton Boys (1998). Continuing to avoid glossy big budget Hollywood fare in favor of a more independent sensibility, Margulies also appeared in Boaz Yakin's A Price Above Rubies (1998) and Gurinder Chadha's multiethnic Thanksgiving tale What's Cooking? (2000). Margulies finally took on a blockbuster of sorts when she voiced one of the pre-historic reptiles in the animated Dinosaur (2000). Despite an offer that would have made her one of the highest paid actresses on TV, Margulies announced in 2000 that six years of ER was enough. While Hathaway departed to a future with George Clooney's Dr. Ross, Margulies moved back to New York to hit the off-Broadway stage with Donald Sutherland in Ten Unknowns (2001). Margulies returned to the small-screen for the female-centric version of the King Arthur legend The Mists of Avalon, before appearing in The Man from Elysian Fields, and opposite Pierce Brosnan in the drama Evelyn. After an appearance in the horror film Ghost Ship, Margulies would not appear in another widely released motion picture until she landed one of the main parts in the 2006 summer phenomenon known simply as Snakes on a Plane. Three years later, the veteran actress was back on the small screen as the lead in The Good Wife -- a popular CBS series about a former litigator who returns to work following a public scandal involving her state attorney husband. Though her performance in the series earned Margulies a Best Lead Actress Emmy in 2010, the award that year went to Kyra Sedgwick for The Closer instead. But fans of the actress had good reason to hold out hope that she'd be a strong contender the next year as well, and indeed when the 2001 Emmy winners were announced Margulies emerged the victor.

Trivia: Best known in the mid-'90s for playing the earnest but often fumbling Dr. John Carter on the hit television drama ER, Noah Wyle has also appeared in a few feature films, notably Swing Kids in which he played a chillingly ardent member of the Hitler Youth. The son of an electrical engineer and an orthopedic nurse, Wyle was raised in Hollywood. He attended a boarding school and, while growing up, dreamed of becoming a basketball player. Lacking the height and the necessary skill, he turned toward acting. After graduation, he had the opportunity to go to college, but turned it down in favor of studying acting with Larry Moss. Wyle supported himself by working as a busboy and gained experience on stage, a venue he dearly loves. In 1990, he landed his first television role, albeit a very small one, in the NBC miniseries Blind Faith. In 1991, he made his feature film debut as the contented son Ask in the family drama Crooked Hearts (1992). More supporting roles followed, including a turn as Sir Lancelot in Guinevere, a made-for-cable look at the famed Arthurian queen as told from a feminist perspective. In 1997, Wyle starred in the independent drama The Myth of Fingerprints as a 23-year-old who has trouble getting over a breakup with his girlfriend. He had a memorable turn as Steve Jobs in the made-for-TV docudrama Pirates of Silicon Valley in 1999, and two years later he was in the cult favorite Donnie Darko. In 2004 he finished his work as a regular on ER after 11 years on the hit program, though he would return for the series finale three years later. Though he worked steadily, he returned to episodic TV for the scci-fi series Falling Skies.

Trivia: Signed by Universal in 1950, the perky, redheaded Piper Laurie (born Rosetta Jacobs) was a welcome presence in many a musical, situation comedy and costume drama. In later years, she tended to dismiss her ingenue years, noting that she spent most of her time posing for cheesecake layouts. Thanks in great part to her devastating performance as an alcoholic in the 1958 Playhouse 90 TV drama "The Days of Wine and Roses", Laurie completely altered her cuddly image, reinventing herself as a powerful dramatic actress. She earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Paul Newman's neurotic girlfriend in The Hustler (1961), then suddenly retired from acting upon her marriage to movie critic Joseph Morganstern. She made a brilliant return to films with another Oscar-nominated performance, this time as Sissy Spacek's religious fanatic mother in Carrie (1976). Ten years and several topnotch performances later, she was honored with a third Oscar nomination for Children of a Lesser God (1986). Laurie's television work has included a co-starring assignment opposite a very young Mel Gibson in the superb Australian TV movie Tim (1979) and an Emmy-nominated stint on David Lynch's 1990 "cult" series Twin Peaks. Working only when the spirit moves her in recent years, Piper Laurie has been seen in such prestige productions as Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993) and White Man's Burden (1995).

Trivia: New York native Ron Rifkin made his Broadway debut in the original 1960 production of Neil Simon's Come Blow Your Horn. He made his film debut in the chain-gang adventure film The Devil's 8 in 1969, followed by the sci-fi actioner Silent Running (1971). Rifkin was much more prolific on the stage throughout his career, in some cases leading to film adaptations (as in The Sunshine Boys [1975]). But he sure had a knack for showing up on television's most popular shows over a period of three decades. During the '70s, he appeared on Soap, The Bob Newhart Show, and Mary Tyler Moore. During the '80s, he appeared on Falcon Crest, Knots Landing, and Hill Street Blues. During the '90s, he appeared on ER, Law & Order, and The Outer Limits. He also had parts in the Woody Allen films Husbands and Wives and Manhattan Murder Mystery. After winning an Obie and Drama Desk award for his portrayal of Holocaust survivor Issac Geldhart in the Jon Robin Baitz play Substance of Fire, Rifkin reprised his role in the 1996 feature film version. The next year, he earned a starring role on the short-lived ABC drama Leaving L.A. On the big screen, he appeared in Curtis Hanson's crime drama L.A. Confidential followed by F. Gary Gray's action thriller The Negotiator. In 1998, he earned his first Tony award for Best Supporting Actor in the Broadway revival of Cabaret. Some of his TV movies from this time include Norma Jean and Marilyn and Flowers for Algernon. In 2001, Rifkin was cast on the ABC spy drama Alias as the calculating and sinister commanding officer Arvin Sloane. Transitioning to the Emmy-winning ABC crama series Brothers and Sisters after Alias went off the air in 2006, Rifkin stuck with the show for 5 years, and later landed a recurring role on NBC in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Trivia: Actor and filmmaker Adam Goldberg first made an impression on film critics and audiences alike as the cynical Private Mellish in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. In 1998, the same year that Ryan was released, Goldberg made his feature directorial, screenwriting, and executive-producing debut with Scotch and Milk, a neo-noir drama centering around a group of L.A. friends burdened by love (or lack thereof) and a fixation with the 1950s. The film, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1998 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, helped to establish Goldberg as a talent worth watching.Born in Santa Monica on October 25, 1970, Goldberg was raised in Hollywood. He began performing at a young age, studying with Tracy Roberts when he was 14 and enrolling at Los Angeles' Lee Strasberg Institute a year later. He continued to act on stage while attending Sarah Lawrence College, and he subsequently returned to L.A. to pursue his career. Goldberg made his film debut in 1992 alongside Billy Crystal in Mr. Saturday Night, and the following year he could be seen in Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused, which cast him as a neurotic high school junior. He continued to act in supporting roles in a number of varied films, earning little notice until Spielberg cast him in the award-winning Saving Private Ryan. He wrote and directed the indie Scotch and Mil in 1998, and also contributed a voice to Babe: Pig in the City. At the beginning of the 21st century he could be seen in the Best Picture Oscar winner A Beautiful Mind, as well as the comedy The Hebrew Hammer, and reteaming with Richard Linklater on Waking Life. In 2004 he returned to directing and writing with I Love Your Work. He continued to work in a variety of interesting projects including Déjà vu, 2 Days in Paris, and Zodiac. He had a major supporting role on the short-lived TV series The Unusuals and in 2012 he played the part of Harry Reems in the Linda Lovelace biopic Inferno.

Trivia: Roomed with Parker Posey in college. Took a year off in 1992 to travel in Europe. Appeared in a 1997 "Got Milk" ad that stated she was lactose intolerant, but still was able to drink a little milk each day. When she decided to leave ER in the third season of her five-year contract, she had to sign a no-work agreement that stipulated she could not appear on television until the termination of the original contract. During her first hiatus from ER, she taught a script-analysis class and directed several plays at her alma mater.

Trivia: Was the second youngest of six children born to a white father and black mother. Studied classical music and dance as a child. Started modeling at 16. Was crowned Miss Black Ontario in 1986. For a time, hosted the Canadian children's show Polka Dot Door. Toured with Tina Turner as a backup singer in 2000 after leaving her gig as Jeanie Boulet on ER. Released a solo album, Just for You, in 2004. In 2006, portrayed Condoleezza Rice in David Hare's play Stuff Happens at New York City's Public Theater. Served as executive producer of the Sundance Film Festival winner Padre Nuestro (2007). Supports many causes and speaks publicly on women's issues, HIV/AIDS, the environment and more.

Trivia: At times bearing a resemblance to a slightly stockier Tim Roth, former Golden Gloves contender Ron Eldard first became familiar to television audiences with his standout role as the love interest of Julianna Margulies on the hit television drama ER. Though Eldard had been appearing in film and television since the late '80s, it was the dawn of the new millennium that found Eldard's career reborn with roles in such acclaimed films as Barry Levinson's Sleepers (1996), Mystery, Alaska (1999), and Black Hawk Down (2001). Eldard was born into a large family of six siblings in New York City in 1965; his mother died when he was very young, forcing the siblings apart in order to live with various relatives. The second youngest of his siblings, Eldard sought a boxing career in the Golden Gloves after discovering his remarkable strength early in life. Following his graduation from New York's renowned High School of the Performing Arts, Eldard's passion for drama was ignited, and he went on to appear on One Life to Live before he made his feature debut in 1989's True Love. After competing for the love of Phoebe Cates in Drop Dead Fred, Eldard would subsequently appear in numerous roles in film (Scent of a Woman [1992] and The Last Supper [1995]) and television (Arresting Behavior and Men Behaving Badly). Eldard's onscreen romance with Margulies blossomed into true-life romance shortly after the two were paired up on ER, and the couple became an offscreen item as well. Though subsequent feature roles increased Eldard's recognition factor, he had yet to parlay his acting career into leading-man territory. The new millennium, however, found the now-established actor edging ever closer to headline status with roles in Just a Kiss (2002), Ghost Ship (also 2002), and House of Sand and Fog (2003). As a stage actor, Eldard has impressed Broadway audiences with roles in Biloxi Blues, On the Waterfront, and Death of a Salesman. In 2006 he took a supporting role in Freedomland, a crime drama starring Samuel L. Jackson, and starred alongside Paul Rudd and Lauren Ambrose for the independent comedy Diggers the same year. He continued to work steadily through the late 2000s, and received mainstream and critical success for his role in director J.J. Abram's Super 8. His talent was recognized again in Roadie (2011), wherein he played a middle aged man who doesn't know what to do with himself after spending the last two decades of his life as a roadie for the band Blue Oyster Cult.

Trivia: Massachusetts native Christine Elise began her onscreen career in the late '80s, kicking off her resumé at a furious pace. She began appearing in multiple films and TV shows every year, including a recurring role on the series China Beach and a role on the popular night-time soap Beverly Hills 90210. She would go on to play Harper Tracy on ER throughout its second season, and to make appearances on shows like Charmed and Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit. Elise also appeared in the documentary American Hardcore in 2005, in which she discussed the punk scene she experienced in high school.

Trivia: Television audiences know award-winning actress Laura Innes as ER's angry Dr. Kerry Weaver. She is also an accomplished stage performer and an Emmy-nominated director with writing credits on some of the most heralded television shows. Innes was born on August 16, 1959, in Pontiac, MI. She was raised in Birmingham with her parents, Laurette and Robert, and five older siblings. When Innes was growing up, her father, a college English professor, insisted that the family attend the heralded Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada. Innes grew more and more interested in acting with each performance. In 1977, she graduated from Birmingham Seaholm High School and, with her father's encouragement to follow her heart, enrolled in Northwestern University's theater arts program. In 1978, while still in college, Innes made her film debut in Brian De Palma's The Fury with Kirk Douglas and John Cassavetes. After graduation, the actress went straight to the stage. She performed at Chicago's Goodman Theatre for four years, where she played Stella opposite John Malkovich's Mitch in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire and portrayed Glenna in the original cast of David Mamet's Edmund. Innes also worked at the Body Politic and Widsom Bridge theaters, and then took her theater career on the road. She appeared as Glenna in the traveling production of Edmund, joined Eric Stoltz in Two Shakespearean Actors at Lincoln Center, starred in Our Town with Campbell Scott at the Seattle Repertory Theater, and performed in Three Sisters at the La Jolla Playhouse with Nancy Travis and Phoebe Cates. In 1987, Innes met her future husband, actor David Brisbin, while doing summer stock in Woodstock, NY. Days later, Innes' appendix burst and she was brought to the hospital. Brisbin remained by her side during the episode and the two were engaged shortly afterward. In 1989, Brisbin began work on Nickelodeon's children's comedy Hey Dude, as the owner of the fictional Bar None Dude Ranch. Innes made two guest appearances on the show and wrote one episode before its cancellation in 1990. Also in 1990, Innes gave birth to their son, Cal. Having a child influenced the couple to try and boost their income and they made a permanent move to Los Angeles in 1991. Innes made several television appearances throughout the early '90s. Besides landing a reoccurring role as Thomas Haden Church's flighty ex-wife on Wings, she guest starred on Rugrats, Brooklyn Bridge, Bakersfield, P.D., Party of Five, The Good Life, and My So-Called Life. Innes worked on a host of television movies -- including Desperate Rescue: The Cathy Mahone Story (1992), Telling Secrets (1993), and Torch Song (1993) -- and appeared in HBO's Emmy-winning adaptation And the Band Played On (1993). In 1994, Innes auditioned for a minor speaking role as George Clooney's girlfriend on NBC's top-rated series ER. She did not land the part and, in 1995, signed on to play a Midwest housewife in the Louie Anderson sitcom The Louie Show. Before that series began production, ER's casting directors called Innes back to read for the guest spot of Dr. Kerry Weaver. Producers hired Innes to portray the stern redheaded doctor for six episodes. She appeared in 14, and then became a regular cast member. The Louie Show, which aired in 1996 as a midseason replacement, was canceled. Innes won two Screen Actors Guild Awards as part of the ER ensemble and garnered two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal of Dr. Weaver. Her ER co-star, Anthony Edwards, suggested that Innes try directing an episode. Innes made her television directorial debut during the 1999 May sweeps with the episode "Power," in which an electrical failure compromises the functioning of the ER. Innes' work greatly impressed the show's producer, John Wells. Not only did he hire her to direct additional episodes, but he also invited Innes to direct an installment of his other hit series, The West Wing. Her episode of The West Wing, titled "Shibboleth," earned Innes her first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series. While enjoying her success on ER, Innes appeared in several feature films and television movies. In 1998, she worked on Deep Impact with Morgan Freedman and Elijah Wood. In 1999, she performed in Can't Stop Dancing with fellow ER cast member Noah Wyle. She also appeared in television's The Price of a Broken Heart (1999) and Taking Back Our Town (2001). In addition to being a celebrated actress/director, Innes is the first female celebrity Jeopardy champion and was voted one of People magazine's "Ten Most Beautiful People" in its yearly online poll in 2001. The actress left ER after 12 seasons in 2007, though she would return briefly for the series finale. Innes returned to television in 2010 to take on the role of Police Captain Tricia Harper in NBC's Awake.

Trivia: William H. Macy came to acting by way of Bethany and Goddard Colleges. At the latter school, Macy studied under playwright David Mamet, with whom he would be frequently associated throughout his career. After college, Macy was a member of Mamet's theater troupe, the St. Nicholas Company. The actor performed in a number of productions, many of them written by Mamet, until 1978 when he left the company and headed to New York. Some of his earliest work there included commercial voice-overs, such as the now infamous "Secret: Strong enough for a man, but PH balanced for a woman." Macy also continued his theater work, forming the Atlantic Theatre Company with Mamet in 1985 and acting in Broadway and off-Broadway shows. In addition, he worked in television and began doing feature films, debuting in '80s Foolin' Around. He continued to act in supporting roles throughout the decade, appearing in such films as Mamet's directorial debut, House of Games (1987) and Woody Allen's Radio Days (1987). In 1991, he won a more substantial role, in Mamet's Homicide, and subsequently began to find work in more well-known films, including Benny and Joon and The Client.Macy finally got a shot at a leading role with his turn in Mamet's Oleanna. He won positive notices and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his portrayal of a professor accused of sexual harassment. More acclaim followed with his starring role as a hapless car salesman in Joel Coen and Ethan Coen's Fargo (1996), for which he garnered a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. The next year, Macy's star rose a little higher, thanks to his work in three high-profile films, Wag the Dog, Air Force One, and Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights. He was similarly lauded for his versatility through work in such films as Psycho and Pleasantville, and in 1999 he continued his winning streak as an unconventional superhero in Mystery Men, a gay sheriff in Happy, Texas, and a member of the ensemble cast of Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia. Despite the fact that Macy drew praise for his turn as a reluctant hit man in the 2000 drama Panic, the film went largely unseen, and his next substantial role found him running from dinosaurs in Jurassic Park III. As always Macy continued to intercut his more commercial efforts with such decidedly non-mainstream fare as Focus and Stealing Sinatra. Surprisingly, it was just such work that netted Macy some of his most glowing reviews. Case in point was a memorable performance as a disabled traveling salesman in the 2003 drama Door to Door; a role that earned its convincing lead an Emmy. After sticking to the small screen with the Showtime miniseries Out of Order, Macy went wide with the theatrical hit Seabiscuit and the breathless Larry Cohen-scripted thriller Cellular. That same year, the actor would continue to nurture a succesful ongoing collaboration with famed writer/director David Mamet in the widely-praised but little-seen crime drama Spartan. Macy has also continued to do television work, appearing on such series as Spencer, Law & Order, and ER. For his role in the 2004 made for television drama The Wool Cap (which also found him teaming with writer Steven Schachter to adapt a story originally written by Jackie Gleason), Macy was nominated for multiple awards including a Best Actor at the Golden Globe and an Emmys. In 2005, Macy returned to home turf with the Mamet-scripted thriller Edmond, directed by Stuart "Reanimator" Gordon. The picture reunited the actor and director, who originally collaborated in the early eighties on the stage version of the playwright's Sexual Perversity in Chicago. Adapted from Mamet's 1982 one-acter, Edmond dramatizes the descent of a seemingly normal man (Macy) from sanity to unbridled psychosis. While Edmond didn't exactly bomb critically or commercially after its July 14, 2006 premiere, it fell below the bar of previous Mamet efforts on two levels: first, the studio opened it to decidedly more limited release than Mamet's directorial projects over the previous several years (such as Spartan and Heist), thus ensuring that fewer would see it, and it also suffered from somewhat lackluster reviews. Surprisingly, those who did complain of the work attacked Mamet's script in lieu Gordon's direction. Variety's Scott Foundas observed, "The problem is that, too often, we don't fully understand what motivates Edmond, and many of Mamet's efforts toward explanation -- that life is one big shell game, that we're all latent racists at heart -- feel like specious armchair philosophizing." Macy produced that same year's Transamerica, and graced the cast of Jason Reitman's hearty satire Thank You For Smoking, with a funny turn as senator and anti-tobacco promulgator Ortolan Finistirre. At around the same time, he also voiced a crooked, baseball bat-swiping security guard in that year's family friendly animated feature Everyone's Hero. Meanwhile, audiences geared up for Macy's contribution to the ensemble of actor-cum-director Emilio Estevez's semi-fictional, Altmanesque docudrama Bobby, which recounts the events that preceded RFK's assassination by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel. As the hotel manager, Macy joins a line-up of formidable heavyweights: Helen Hunt, Elijah Wood, Harry Belafonte, Martin Sheen, Estevez himself, Anthony Hopkins, Sharon Stone, and many others. The picture had journalists and moviegoers across America whispering 'Oscar contender' long before its initial release on November 22, 2006. Shortly after production wrapped, Macy made headlines in mid-late 2006 for a comment that involved his allegedly berating Bobby co-star Lindsay Lohan's on-set behavior, in reference to her constant tardiness. Meanwhile, the trades reported the everpresent Macy's involvement in two 2007 features: the animated Bee Movie (with a lead voice by Jerry Seinfeld), about a honeybee who decides to sue mankind for its use of honey, and Wild Hogs, a farce with Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and John Travolta as a trio of Hell's Angels. Over the coming years, Macy would appear in movies like Shorts, Dirty Girl, and The Lincoln Lawyer, as well as the critically acclaimed series Shameless.In 1997, William H. Macy married Felicity Huffman, with whom he appeared in Magnolia.

Trivia: Of Polish, Italian, German and Irish descent.Her name means winter in Polish.Drowning in L.A., a short story she wrote at age 15, was published in AIM Magazine.Wrote a novel at the age of 16.