Trivia: Seemingly coming out of nowhere to essay the difficult role of famed shock-jock Howard Stern's wife in 1997's autobiographical Private Parts, actress Mary McCormack has since gone on to offer memorable performances in such fare as Mystery, Alaska (1999) and K-PAX (2001). A native of Plainfield, NJ, McCormack's interest in performing was piqued at an early age when the aspiring, 12-year-old actress gender-bent her way through a production of Menotti's Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors. Since none of the local boys possessed the necessary vocal abilities, McCormack donned a hat and hit the notes needed to carry the play. Subsequently performing in regional theater before continuing her education at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, it was there that McCormack would major in English and painting while continuing to hone her stage skills. After earning her Comparative Arts degree from Trinity, McCormack decided to further her acting career by studying at the William Esper Studio. Performances at such New York theaters as The Atlantic Theater Company were quick to follow, as was her film debut in the 1994 remake of Miracle on 34th Street. Simultaneously appearing on the small screen in the popular crime series Murder One (1995), it wasn't long before Private Parts would offer a stratospheric boost to her onscreen career. A cinematic love letter to Stern's real-life wife, Private Parts offered the burgeoning actress a complex emotional role that proved without a doubt what she was fully capable of. Follow-up roles in such high-profile fare as Deep Impact (1998) and Mystery, Alaska (1999) didn't quite offer McCormack the chance to shine that Private Parts did, though it was obvious to all who viewed her subsequent roles that her star was on the rise. The millennial turnover found McCormack successfully alternating between drama (Madison) and comedy (High Heels and Low Lifes) before once again heading the Hollywood route with a supporting performance in K-PAX. An unconventional role in director Steven Soderbergh's Full Frontal was quick to follow, and McCormack was soon beginning preparation for the television miniseries based on Soderbergh's Traffic (which was in turn inspired by 1989 U.K. series Traffik).She was the female lead in the creepy apocalyptic thriller Right at Your Door, and landed a small part in Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration. In 2008 she landed the lead role on the cable series In Plain Sight and enjoyed the most consistent success of her career.

Trivia: Made his professional stage debut as an understudy in the original New York production of Six Degrees of Separation. Made his silver screen debut playing the lead role of Matty Dean in Stonewall (1996), a film about the start of the gay rights movement. Played Brian Wilson in the ABC miniseries The Beach Boys: An American Family in 2000. Was directed by Neil LaBute in London and New York stage productions of The Shape of Things and also in the 2003 film version of the play. In 2005, he portrayed a talking lizard in the Lincoln Center Theater's revival of Edward Albee's Seascape. His first major TV role had him playing a cop in the police drama Missing Persons (1993-94). More than a decade later, his second major TV gig cast him in another crime-solving role as a U.S. Marshall in the USA Network series In Plain Sight. Wrote, directed and starred in Streetcar, a short film about an aspiring television actor that made the rounds at various film festivals in 2010.

Trivia: Studied set design in college and was asked to take on a part in a play, which led to his shift to acting. First appeared on television in the 1987 made-for-TV movie Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife. Won critical acclaim for his portrayal of Moe Howard in the 2000 made-for-TV biopic The Three Stooges. Has been cast in roles on many HBO series including The Wire, Entourage and John From Cincinnati. Co-authored the play The Good Steno with his mother, Leah Kornfeld Friedman. A guest appearance on an episode of the USA Network series Monk led to his role, beginning in 2008, on that network's In Plain Sight.

Trivia: Got her start in the comedy, Dude, Where's My Car? Roles in Shallow Hal and Austin Powers in Goldmember followed. Played a character who came between Clark and Lana in a 2006 episode of Smallville. Starred in the horror movies, May and Trailer Park of Terror. Was cast as more than one character for repeat appearances on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and NYPD: Blue. Landed a recurring role on Desperate Housewives.

Trivia: Publicity notwithstanding, Lesley Ann Warren did not exactly burst fully grown into the world in 1966 to star in the Rodgers and Hammerstein TV special Cinderella. Trained at New York's Professional Children's School, Lesley Ann studied under Lee Strasberg before making her Broadway debut in 110 in the Shade, the 1964 musical version of The Rainmaker. On the strength of Cinderella, Lesley Ann was signed to a Disney contract; but after starring in The Happiest Millionaire (1966) and The One and Only Genuine Original Family Band, she rebelled against her studio-imposed sweetness-'n'-light image. Upon replacing Barbara Bain in the long-running espionage TVer Mission: Impossible in 1970, Warren publicly emphasized that her character, Dana Lambert, was a "now" person, wise in the ways of sex. She stayed with Mission for only a year, after which she established herself as a leading light in the made-for-TV movie field, frequently cast as an older woman involved romantically with a much-younger man. She earned an Academy Award nomination for her hilarious performance as bleach-blond gangster's moll Norma in Victor/Victoria (1981), then starred in a couple of intriguing Alan Rudolph-directed dramas, Choose Me (1984) and The Songwriter (1986). Her more recent roles include Molly, the homeless woman in Mel Brooks' Life Stinks(1991), who goes into a "death throes" act whenever she feels like it, and the barracuda booking agent for c-and-w star George Strait in Pure Country (1994). For nearly a decade, Lesley Ann Warren was the wife of producer/hairstylist Jon Peters.

Trivia: A former Mexican television actor who went on to make a name for himself in U.S. film and television, Cristián de la Fuente served in the Chilean Air Force Reserve before he starting acted professionally; his military background may not have pointed to a cinematic career early on, but his speedy ascent to fame hinted at great things to come for the actor. Born to a chemist father and homemaker mother in Santiago, Chile, de la Fuente opted early on to study engineering while attending college in his native country. An only child, the licensed pilot was discovered by a talent scout and then made appearances in Chilean soap operas and variety shows before relocating to Mexico for a leading role in the popular television series Reyes y Rey (1998). Following a stateside television appearance in Family Law, the handsome Latino would subsequently turn up in the Sylvester Stallone racing drama Driven (2001). Claiming to be equally happy whether acting on stage, screen, or film, de la Fuente describes his acting method as loaning his body to the characters rather than portraying them, and he often becomes so entangled with his characters that he finds it difficult to wind down at the end of the day. Following his work with childhood idol Stallone, de la Fuente next took a role alongside another favorite from his youth, singer-turned-actor Jon Bon Jovi. As a man of the cloth dedicated to ridding the world of blood-sucking immortals, de la Fuente teamed with Bon Jovi to battle the legions of the undead in the vast deserts of Mexico in Vampires: Los Muertos (2002). Though that film ultimately proved to be a bit of a disappointment, de la Fuente's subsequent role in director John McTiernan's Basic (2003) seemed to ensure a healthy career for the promising young actor. The actor co-starred in the short lived television series In Plain Sight in 2008, and competed in the 6th season of Dancing with the Stars the same year.

Trivia: After graduating from Yale drama school in 1988, bookish actor Joshua Malina was cast in Aaron Sorkin's Broadway production of A Few Good Men and began a collaboration that would span decades. Malina had his first film role in the 1993 Hollywood adaptation of Sorkin's play and also appeared in the Sorkin-penned romantic drama The American President. A few small roles followed -- notably a part in 1998's Bulworth and a multiple-episode stint on HBO's The Larry Sanders Show -- before Sorkin came calling again in 1998, casting Malina as one of the leads in the critically acclaimed ensemble show Sports Night.Despite awards and a loyal cult-following, Sports Night was canceled after only two seasons. Meanwhile, another Sorkin-produced prime-time drama quickly became a hit with both critics and audiences. Though Malina wasn't part of the cast of The West Wing when it premiered in 1999, he joined up in 2002 to fill the void left by the departing Rob Lowe. Malina remained with The West Wing throughout its run, which ended in 2006, but wasted no time before landing another TV gig. In 2007, he was cast alongside former Alias star Michael Vartan in the ABC corporate drama Big Shots. After a five-year hiatus from the big and small screens, he took a small part in Jonathan Kasdan's The First Time.

Trivia: Tall, outdoorsy, easygoing, and known for giving consistently well-wrought, naturalistic performances, Fred Ward seems to have all the makings of a leading man, but for some reason he has had more success in supporting and character roles. He became an actor after a three-year Air Force stint and time spent studying at New York's Herbert Berghof Studio and in Rome. While in Italy he dubbed Italian movies and worked as a mime until he made his debut in two Roberto Rossellini films. Upon returning stateside in the early '70s, Ward spent time working in experimental theater and doing some television work. He made his first American film appearance playing a truck driver in Ginger in the Morning (1973). His first major role came in the Clint Eastwood vehicle Escape From Alcatraz (1979) as fellow escapee John Anglin. For Ward, 1983 was a very good year as he played key roles in three major films, Uncommon Valor, as an anguished Vietnam vet-turned-sculptor, Silkwood, as a brave union activist, and in a scene-stealing performance as Virgil "Gus" Grissom in Philip Kaufman's The Right Stuff. In 1985, Ward starred in Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, a James Bond-ian spy thriller; this was to be the film that made Ward a leading man. Unfortunately, it fizzled at the box office. This led to more leading roles, but again, none were particularly successful and he returned to major supporting roles. Notable performances from the '90s include that of a beaten-down, humiliated cop in Miami Blues, (Ward also co-produced it), a fascinating portrayal of author Henry Miller in Henry & June (both 1990), and as the studio security chief in The Player (1992). His role alongside Kevin Bacon in 1990's Tremors found Ward's comic abilities sharp and in tact, and after again appearing alongside Tim Robbins in the 1992 satire Bob Roberts, the talented actor would continue through the 1990s with role in The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994), and the Keanu Reeves thriller Chain Reaction (1996). Increasingly busy into the new millennium, Ward continued to move effortlessly between television and film roles, displaying his sense of humor in Joe Dirt and Corky Romano (both 2001), and his penchant for action in The Chaos Factor (2000) and Full Disclosure the following year. He worked continuously in projects such as Enough and Sweet Home Alabama (both 2002), the Bob Dylan vehicle Masked and Anonymous, and appeared briefly on the hit television series Grey's Anatomy. In 2010 he was part of the cast of The United States of Tara, and the next year he appeared in the crime comedy 30 Minutes or Less.

Trivia: Heavyset, memorably colorful character actor Louis Lombardi attained recognition for his ability to tackle both aggressive and jovial roles with equal deftness. A Bronx native, Lombardi specialized in a down-to-earth, unaffected acting style he later termed "naturalistic." The thespian debuted on film at age 25 (around 1993) in the drama Amongst Friends. Though it received limited theatrical exposure, its run on the festival circuit and appearance at Sundance caught the eye of Oliver Stone, who felt impressed by Lombardi and cast him as Deputy Sparky in the ultraviolent media evisceration Natural Born Killers. 1994 represented Lombardi's breakthrough year -- one that witnessed him not merely working with Stone, but with such heavyweights as John Landis (in Beverly Hills Cop 3) and Tim Burton (in Ed Wood). By affording the actor the exposure he needed, that triple play left the door wide open for Lombardi to tackle new and successive projects on the big screen and television, including the features 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001), Animal (2001), and Wonderland (2003), and such series as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Ugly Betty, and 24.