Trivia: Dubbed Britain's "very own Leonardo DiCaprio" after his role as the ship officer who rescues Kate Winslet in Titanic, Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd (pronounced "Yo-wan Griffiths") went from relative unknown to rapidly ascending Hot Young Thing in just a few short years. Bearing the kind of looks that inspire more than a few torrid fantasies, the arrestingly photogenic actor has proved to be the hottest Welsh export since Catherine Zeta-Jones. Hailing from Cardiff, where he was born on October 6, 1973, Gruffudd enjoyed a fairly happy childhood. Raised as one of three children by parents who were Welsh language educators, he developed an early interest in performing. This interest was directed at music, rather than acting, and Gruffudd developed into an accomplished oboist and singer while he was growing up. At the age of eleven, he decided to give acting a whirl, and two years later, he became a professional actor with a role in the Welsh soap opera Pobol Y Cwm (People of the Valley). Gruffudd's interest in acting proved lasting, and he was accepted at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art when he was eighteen. He studied there for three years, and, following graduation, he landed a part on the popular BBC series Poldark. He made his film debut in 1997, playing one of Oscar Wilde's lovers in Wilde. That same year, in his small role dredging Kate Winslet out of the Atlantic in Titanic, he managed to make an impression on more than a few viewers. In 1998, Gruffudd again went out to sea, in the acclaimed BBC series Horatio Hornblower. His title role in the series, adapted from C.S. Forester's 18th century tales of adventure on the high seas, made him a star in the UK, and soon there was no shortage of articles detailing everything from his physical attributes to his personal life. Thus, it was only a matter of time before Gruffudd got his first starring role on the big screen, and a year later, he did just that. 1999 saw him star in Solomon and Gaenor, a love story between a Jewish man and a Welsh woman set in turn-of-the-century Wales. Gruffudd won strong notices for his performance, and that same year he earned additional raves for his work in the BBC television adaptation of Great Expectations. He then exchanged period etiquette for contemporary perversion with his role in the BBC miniseries Love in the 21st Century, playing a man whose obsessive interest in masturbation threatens his relationship with his wife. 2001 saw Gruffudd showing off his American accent in the critically-acclaimed cinematic retelling of the bloody Battle of Mogadishu. The film cast him alongside several other up-and-comers such as Orlando Bloom and Eric Bana. Following roles in smaller fare like Happy Now and This Girl's Life, Gruffudd was cast opposite Clive Owen and Keira Knightly as Sir Lancelot in director Antoine Fuqua's gritty King Arthur. Gruffudd joined the cast of Fantastic Four in 2005, and again for its sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, in 2007. The actor was praised for his role as Tony Blair in W. (2008), Oliver Stone's biopic chronicling the life and career of former President George W. Bush. Playing the part of self-made millionaire Andrew Martin, Gruffudd co-starred with Sarah Michelle Gellar in Ringer, a short-lived television series from The CW.

Trivia: One of the crop of bright-eyed, dewy-skinned young actors to attain teen idoldom and a regular paycheck during the late 1990s, Jessica Alba closed out the century as one of Hollywood's more promising new talents. Born in Pomona, California, on April 28, 1981, Alba, whose father was in the Air Force, moved with her family to Biloxi, Mississippi, when she was an infant, but she eventually moved back to California nine years later. It was back in California that she embarked on an acting career; having been in love with the idea of acting since she was five, Alba took her first acting class at the age of 12, and nine months later, she landed her first agent. She got her start on television, making appearances on shows like Beverly Hills 90210, and she made her film debut in the 1994 kids comedy Camp Nowhere. Originally cast in a minor role in the film, she got her first big break when the principal actress dropped out and she was asked to take over. Following her debut, Alba did a great deal of work on television. She got her first substantial film role as the object of the protagonist's disastrous affection in the teen horror comedy Idle Hands in 1999; that same year, she played one of the nasty popular girls who terrorize Drew Barrymore in the romantic comedy Never Been Kissed.The following year Alba made waves on the small screen when she was cast in the much hyped Fox series Dark Angel, executive produced by James Cameron. She was cast as a genetically-engineered woman who escapes from the lab and joins a cyberjournalist named Logan Cale (Michael Weatherly) in his neverending fight against crime in a post-apocalyptic future. Though the series was cancelled after two seasons, Alba continued to appear in such indie features as Paranoid (2000) and The Sleeping Dictionary (2002); the little-seen Glitter-esque dancer drama Honey similarly did little to enhance her profile.All that would change, however, when Alba became one of the core members of the quartet of the Fantastic Four franchise. Mostly reviled by critics but a solid success with audiences, her role as the spontaneously invisible Susan Storm endeared her to 10-year-old sci-fi geeks everywhere. Now a blockbuster actress, Alba attempted to balance this heightened profile with a wide variety of genre roles, appearing in thrillers (Into the Blue, The Killer Inside Me, The Eye), grindhouse fare and pulp noirs (Sin City, Machete) and comedies (Good Luck Chuck, Valentine's Day, A.C.O.D.). Alba even appeared in the 2010 Meet the Fockers sequel, Little Fockers, as well as the kids' adventure flick Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D.

Trivia: A handsome young actor whose breakout role as a popular jock in Not Another Teen Movie found him in high demand, Chris Evans (born June 13th, 1981) followed with a role in the moderately successful comedy The Perfect Score before truly coming into his own before the cameras. Born in Sudbury, MA, Evans spent the majority of his childhood in Boston before his love of acting brought him to New York City the summer after his junior year of high school. It was during this time that the aspiring actor alternated between an internship at a casting office and summer acting classes. With a little help from a contact he made that summer, Evans began auditioning shortly after graduating from high school. A supporting role in the short-lived television series Opposite Sex gave the up-and-comer his first break on the small screen, and a supporting role in the feature The Newcomers preceded an appearance in the popular prime-time drama Boston Public.At this point it appeared as if everything was going smoothly for Evans, but his career would soon shift gears and kick into overdrive thanks to a featured role in the teen comedy parody Not Another Teen Movie. Cast as the popular jock who transforms an ugly duckling into a popular princess, Evans ran with the role and proved a more than capable comic talent. If audiences had wondered where Evans had disappeared to in the following few years, their curiosities were answered when the young actor took a leading role in the moderately successful comedy The Perfect Score. Though to many it may have seemed that Evans career had stalled somewhat, a role as an unsuspecting young man who receives a desperate phone call from a kidnapping victim in the 2004 thriller Cellular offered some relief from the seeming drought of choice roles. A subsequent role in the same year's The Orphan King served as a strong follow-up before hearty roles in such 2005 releases as Fierce People and The Fantastic Four found him leaning ever closer to becoming a true marquee draw.The role of Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four would be somewhat telling of what was in store for the actor -- though not for a few more years. He would appear in projects like the romcom The Nanny Diaries in 2007 and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World in 2010, but none of these breaks compared to the big one he scored in 2011, playing the title role in 2011's Captain America: America's Soldier. He found similar success in 2012's wildly successful The Avengers, for which he reprised his role as Captain America.

Trivia: Though known mainly for his role as complicated police officer Vic Mackey on F/X's television cop drama The Shield, Massachusetts native Michael Chiklis has been acting professionally since the age of 13, when he made several appearances at the Town and Country Playhouse in Salem, NH. From there, Chiklis enlisted in a variety of classical, occasionally Shakespearian theatrical productions at the prestigious Merrimack Repertory Theatre and ultimately studied acting in the drama program at Boston University's College of Fine Arts. After graduating, Chiklis traveled to New York and began the auditioning process. In 1988, he was picked to portray John Belushi in the feature film Wired, though litigation and controversy delayed the release and proper promotional process, and the picture itself was a wretched mess (not to mention a depressing affair).By 1991, after making guest appearances in some of the most popular sitcoms of the time (Murphy Brown, L.A. Law, and Seinfeld, to name a few), Chiklis was cast as amiable police commissioner Tony Scali on ABC's The Commish. Though a few extra pounds at that time helped him land the role after his audition, his subsequent weight loss required him to wear a "fat suit" to remain in character (though the actor was only in his mid-twenties, series producers created the role for someone much older). When The Commish ceased to be after a five-year run, Chiklis took on a small role in Oliver Stone's Nixon (1995) and starred in the ill-fated NBC sitcom Daddio (2000). Two years later, the series premiere of The Shield catapulted Chiklis back into the forefront of network success. His role on the popular series would bring him two Best Actor nominations from the Golden Globes, as well as one from the Screen Actor's Guild.Chiklis contented himself with this part for several years, but in 2005, he returned to cinematic ventures and went big budget with the FX-laden summer extravaganza Fantastic Four. This film - like the famous Stan Lee comic strip - concerns a group of individuals who journey into outer space to investigate a cosmic storm, and find each of their DNA codes altered in a unique way; one by one, they become The Human Torch, The Thing, The Invisible Girl, and Mr. Fantastic (four superheroes, each of whom has a unique power) -- and must collectively take on the seemingly invincible Doctor Doom (Julian McMahon). Chiklis plays The Thing (nee Ben Grimm), a creature made entirely of stone. Though broadly derided in the press, the public ignored the negative critical responses and helped The Fantastic Four reel in an estimated worldwide gross of around $330 million -- paving the way for a 2007 sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. The Shield would end its run in 2008, but that same year, Chiklis signed for a supporting role in director D.J. Caruso's psychological thriller Eagle Eye. He was soon back on the small screen, however, with a starring role on the short-lived comedy series No Ordinary Family.

Trivia: The second of three children, Julian McMahon was born in Sydney, Australia, where his father served as prime minister from 1971-1972. McMahon didn't show any particular interest in acting during his youth; in fact, he went to the University of Sydney fully intending to study law, but became bored with college life and left with dreams of a modeling career in 1987. While that path was fruitful enough to take McMahon to some of the world's most prominent fashion arenas (including Milan, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, and Rome), it was a blue jeans commercial in his native country that led to an 18-month stint on a popular Australian prime-time soap opera. After his departure, he landed a role in the television series Home and Away (1988), which was eventually adapted into a musical. A supporting role in Wet and Wild Summer! (1992) prompted McMahon to make a more permanent move to Los Angeles, where he planned to pursue acting full-time. Sure enough, McMahon quickly found a role on NBC's long-running daytime soap Another World, and, after leaving the show two years later, he participated in a series of plays, as well as several unremarkable films (including Magenta in 1996). McMahon's forte, clearly, was in the world of prime-time television: In 1996, he co-starred in Profiler, and later took on a role in Charmed, a WB fantasy series in which he played a love interest saddled with the unfortunate trait of being a demon. Though McMahon starred alongside Jeff Daniels in director Michael Walker's psychological thriller Chasing Sleep in 2000, his true breakout role would come in 2003, when he won the starring role of playboy plastic surgeon Dr. Christian Troy in Nip/Tuck, F/X's joyfully over-the-top nighttime drama.McMahon would also appear in feature films like Fantastic Four, Premonition, Red, and Faces in the Crowd.

Trivia: Actress Kerry Washington's strong background in theater and academics found the talented and ambitious young starlet, even at the start of her career, setting her sights on producing, screenwriting, and eventually directing -- a goal that certainly seemed reachable given her early success in such films as Lift and Save the Last Dance. The daughter of a real-estate broker, Washington was born in New York City and attended the Spence School of Manhattan before enrolling in George Washington University's theater program. It wasn't long after her 1998 graduation that the aspiring actress made her feature debut in the 2000 drama Our Song, with nominations for the film at the Independent Spirit Awards and the Sundance Film Festival serving to increase her exposure among cinephiles, even if the film did go largely unseen by the masses. Of course it would take more than a small independent film to truly set Washington apart from the pack, and many saw her performance in the 2001 romantic drama Save the Last Dance as one of the few redeeming qualities in the otherwise forgettable teen drama. Though her only true experience as a thief resulted in the stealing of an apple from a New York deli when directors DeMane Davis and Khari Streeter encouraged her to engage in a minor bit of thievery in preparation for her role as a shoplifter in the 2001 drama Lift, Washington ultimately proved so convincing and effective in the role that she received a nomination as Best Female Lead at the 2002 Independent Spirit Awards. Of course the all-too-honest actress would return to the deli to pay for the apple following completion of the film. By this point there was little doubt as to Washington's talent, and despite the fact that she would be overshadowed by such big names as Anthony Hopkins and Meg Ryan in such subsequent efforts as Bad Company, The Human Stain, and Against the Ropes, she still managed to make an impression with a series of memorable supporting roles. A substantial role as a lesbian looking to be impregnated by her ex-boyfriend in director Spike Lee's 2004 comedy drama She Hate Me threatened to put an end to the trend of casting Washington almost exclusively in supporting roles; a role as the wife of legendary musician Ray Charles in the same year's Ray truly took her career to the next level. Despite her recent onscreen success, Washington remains true to her stage roots by remaining active in theater and has also begun to branch out by attempting to make a name for herself as a writer and producer as well.Still, it was on the screen that Washington truly earned her keep, and following roles in Sexual Life, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Fantastic Four, Washington took a trip to the courtroom for a supporting role on David E. Kelley's Emmy-winning television comedy Boston Legal. In 2006 Washington would find herself the recipient of a most unusual houseguest when a diminutive thief appeared on her doorstep disguised as an abandoned toddler in the Wayans brothers comedy Little Man. She was in Chris Rock's romantic comedy I Think I Love My Wife, and appeared in Spike Lee's World War II movie Miracle at St. Anna. As the 2010's approached, Washington soon found herself a bonified star, remaining adored and in demand due to performances in high profile features like Django Unchained and her star turn as Olivia Pope in ABC's smash hit Scandal.

Trivia: Gaining notice in the early '90s for his Emmy-winning portrayal of Detective Francis Xavier "Frank" Pembleton on the popular television police drama Homicide: Life on the Street, tireless Chicago native Andre Braugher remained with the show through 1998 while simultaneously building a feature career with roles in such theatrical releases as Primal Fear (1996) and City of Angels (1998). A graduate of Stanford University who also received a M.F.A. from the prestigious Juilliard School, Braugher claims to have originally taken up acting to meet girls. He later changed his major after realizing his true calling during a production of Hamlet, and his first professional role came in a performance at the Berkley Shakespeare Festival. Making the leap from stage to screen with the 1989 civil war drama Glory proved an eye opening experience, and following numerous appearances as Detective Winston Blake in a series of made-for-TV Kojak features, Braugher held onto his badge by joining the cast of Homicide in 1993. Later alternating successfully between film and television, Braugher was voted one of the "50 Most Beautiful" people in a 1997 issue of People magazine; the following year, the handsome actor turned down a prominent role in the sci-fi drama Sphere in order to spend more time with his family. Jumping back into features in 2000, roles in Frequency, Duets and A Better Way to Die proved that Braugher was still in top form, and, in 2002, he turned back to the small screen with the made-for-TV feature Hack (and later reprised his role when the feature was turned into a weekly series). Following a role in the made-for-TV feature A Soldier's Girl (2002), Braugher joined the cast of the television remake of the Stephen King vampire chiller Salem's Lot (2004), then returned to television - and changed camps to tap into the underground element - on the weekly crime drama Thief. As Nick Atwater, one of the most genial and principled of all television criminals (!), Braugher evoked an unusual ethical balance in his character and tapped into the fence's deep-seated devotion to his family, even as he drummed up a fiery intensity from episode to episode. Successive years found the actor moving into supporting roles in Hollywood A-listers with a heightened emphasis on effects-heavy action, adventure and fantasy-themed material; projects included Poseidon (2006), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) and Stephen King's The Mist (2007).Braugher would star in the TV mini-series The Andromeda Strain in 2008, before taking on a role in the cult favorite comedy series Men of a Certain Age from 2009-2011. He would also enjoy a recurring role on House M.D., and play a memorable supporting role in the Angelina Jolie action flick Salt.

Trivia: You may not recognize his face on first (or even second) glance, but chances are if you're a fan of film and television you're already more familiar with Doug Jones than you realize. A master of disguise who could be equated to a modern-day Boris Karloff, Jones can frequently be spotted under some of the most elaborate special-effects makeup ever to appear on camera and has an uncanny ability to instill his characters with a soulful sense of personality that simply isn't achievable through computer-generated animation. Jones was born in Indianapolis, IN, the youngest of four brothers and raised on the city's northeast side. Upon graduating from Bishop Chatard High School, Jones enrolled in Ball State University to study telecommunications and theater. It was there that Jones first took to miming, and his skill as a contortionist soon lead to frequent commercial work (one of his earliest successes was being cast as the popular "Mac Tonight" character in a prominent, mid-'80s McDonald's advertising campaign). While a stint in the Indiana theater circuit helped Jones to get comfortable performing in front of an audience, it wasn't until moving to Los Angeles in 1985 that he would become a regular fixture in the worlds of film and television. Early film roles for Jones included bit parts in Batman Returns, Hocus Pocus, and Tank Girl, with a small role in emerging Mexican director Guillermo del Toro's sophomore effort, Mimic (1997), serving to launch an enduring and fruitful partnership. An appearance by Jones as one of the terrifying "Gentlemen" in an Emmy-nominated Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode entitled "Hush" proved a highlight of the entire series. In the following year, Jones would appear in such prolific box-office blockbusters as Men in Black II and The Time Machine -- his visage frequently hidden under copious amounts of prosthetic special-effects makeup. While it was Jones' remarkable ability to project emotion through layer upon layer of monster makeup that enabled him to create unusual characters whom the audience could connect with, his talents as a contortionist also allowed him to instill those characters with a strangely fluid sense of movement that made them entirely believable. While Jones' collaboration with del Toro momentarily lapsed with such efforts as The Devil's Backbone and Blade II, the release of Hellboy in 2004 found the partnership between the pair growing stronger than ever. Cast in the part of aquatic fish-man Abe Sapien, Jones proved so effective that actor David Hyde Pierce refused to take credit for voicing the role. Two short years later, Jones essayed the roles of both the titular character and the horrifying Pale Man in Del Toro's Oscar-winning fantasy film Pan's Labyrinth. Additional roles for Jones have included various imps in the movie Doom and Cesare in the 2005 "remake" The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. In 2006 and 2007, the increasingly prolific actor reprised his role as Abe Sapien in a pair of animated Hellboy tales before portraying the titular otherworldly visitor in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and preparing to bring Sapien back to the big screen in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.

Trivia: Raised in the Santa Monica Mountains area of Topanga Canyon, CA. Was an accomplished competitive horseback rider as a child. Discovered by a modeling scout at a shopping mall, and subsequently modeled for Guess. Appeared in the 2004 music video for "Cold" by hard-rock band Crossfade. Made her big-screen debut in the box-office disappointment Turistas (2006); went on to appear in the blockbuster sequels 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) and Tron: Legacy (2010). Landed her first series-regular role on Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, playing Gina LaSalle, a character she debuted on a 2010 episode of the original Criminal Minds.

Trivia: Best known for his trademark deadpan delivery and behind-the-mic evocations of the stoner mentality, Sacramento-born stand-up comedian, character actor, and television mainstay Brian Posehn graduated from Sonoma Valley High School in 1984 before cultivating his schtick at age 21 as a "road comic" in contests across the country and with appearances on MTV's 1/2 Hour Comedy Hour. Many small-screen turns followed, including bit parts on Seinfeld (as Artie, a patient in the episode where Kramer "contracts" gonorrhea) and Friends. In two roles with a slightly higher profile, Posehn joined the Mr. Show sketch comedy troupe on HBO and became a periodic fixture on NBC's Just Shoot Me, as mail clerk Kevin Liotta. Posehn occasionally contributed as well to Comedy Central's Jerky Boys-like puppetcast Crank Yankers. A handful of big-screen roles followed, including that of a store clerk in the yuk-yuk (Jim Carrey-less) comedy sequel Dumb and Dumberer (2003), Jimmy in Rob Zombie's 2005 splatterfest The Devil's Rejects, and a spot as himself in Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic. As an offshoot of Mr. Show, Posehn teamed with Bob Odenkirk and many others to co-author the script of 2002's Run Ronnie Run!, a project intended for the big screen (ala Jackass: The Movie) but disastrously reedited and all but disowned by its creators. Following The Devil's Rejects, Posehn signed on to provide a voice for helmer Mr. Lawrence's second directorial outing (which Rob Zombie scripted), 2007's animated The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. He had some prior experience, via his voice work on a number of animated series, including Mission Hill, 3 South, and several Adult Swim projects. Something of an underground, counterculture figure, Posehn -- a self-proclaimed "metal head" and comic-book devotee -- is good friends with the gifted Southern California-based comic Patton Oswalt (whom he joined on the Comedians of Comedy tour) and, more tellingly, with Anthrax's Scott Ian (with whom he collaborated on the tongue-in-cheek song, "Metal by Numbers.") Posehn has been married to comic Melanie Truhett since 2004.

Trivia: An actor whom you've probably seen in more films than you realize, Zach Grenier possesses the rare ability to take the smallest of roles and transform them into memorable appearances that stick with audiences long after the credits have finished -- even if his frequently unsympathetic characters have often met an unpleasant demise. It was this ability and skill that found Grenier steadily building a career with appearances in such blockbusters as Cliffhanger (1993), Donnie Brasco (1997), Shaft (2000), and Swordfish (2001). Born in February 1954, Grenier's family lived a somewhat nomadic existence in his early years, moving 18 times before the worldly teen graduated from high school, where, in his junior year, the young man discovered his love of the stage while performing in a production of Shakespeare's Henry V. Continuing to hone his acting skills and frequently appearing on-stage following graduation, Grenier appeared in such other plays as Talk Radio and A Question of Mercy, and made his film debut in the 1987 drama The Kid Brother (aka Kenny). Soon appearing in such films as Working Girl and Talk Radio in 1988, and See No Evil, Hear No Evil the following year. The actor's parts may have been small, but his talent was growing and appearances memorable; his roles continued to expand throughout the '90s, and viewers saw the rising star in Twister and Maximum Risk (both 1996), among several other movies. A turn as Joseph Goebbels in that year's Mother Night gave him a chance to prove his dramatic skills in front of the camera, and a subsequent role in David Fincher's cult hit Fight Club (1999) found him holding his own well against the film's talented leads. Alternating between television and movies in subsequent work, Grenier starred in the little-seen thriller Chasing Sleep (2000) and joined the cast of the popular weekly suspense series 24 in 2001.

Trivia: Is of Chinese and Scottish descent. Began acting in church plays at the age of 5. Lived with her family in Hong Kong between the ages of 8 and 10. Entered show business as a model, notably posing for video games like Need for Speed and Fight Night. Performed in the burlesque show Stocking Up on Sugar. Opened a restaurant in Vancouver with her husband called Hyde.

Trivia: Actress Vanessa Minnillo grew up as an army brat, living in Germany, Japan, Florida, Nevada, and California before her family settled in South Carolina. After her parents divorced when she was six, Minnillo lived with her mother and stepfather at the Air Force base in Turkey where he was stationed, before returning to the States when Saddam Hussein's forces invaded Kuwait. Thereafter, Minnillo began living with her father and stepmother in South Carolina, where she settled in and began competing in the pageant circuit. She won the Miss Teen USA pageant in 2000, and continued to model and host other pageants. After some bit acting parts, including a stint on The Bold and the Beautiful, Minnillo landed a hosting job on MTV's Total Request Live, where she would continue to work until 2007. Once she left the show, she continued hosting, but occasionally forayed into acting, with small screen appearances on How I Met Your Mother, CSI: NY and Hawaii Five-0.

Trivia: One of the preeminent anchors of the E! Entertainment Network's News Division, Giuliana Rancic (occasionally billed by her maiden name of Giuliana DePandi) also served as its managing editor. A native of Naples, Italy, Rancic immigrated to the District of Columbia with her family at the age of six, and immediately came face-to-face with her desire to be a broadcast journalist. With a family too financially strapped to afford a professional tutor, Rancic learned English exclusively from watching television, and after high school earned her BA in journalism from the University of Maryland and her master's in journalism from the American University in D.C., then moved to Los Angeles. Drifting squarely in the direction of entertainment news coverage, Rancic held posts as an anchor for Load Media and an entertainment journalist for the website of Detour Magazine before E! tapped her to serve as one of its correspondents. That led, in turn, to the said promotion to anchor and managing editor, a dual tenure that commenced in January 2005.Rancic also appeared as herself in a few films, including the Jamie Kennedy comedy Malibu's Most Wanted (2003), the Mel Gibson-produced vigilante yarn Paparazzi (2004), and the superhero fantasy Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007).

Trivia: In addition to being the man who crafted both the "Marvel Universe" as well as some of the most popular comic book superheroes of modern times, longtime artist and writer Stan Lee played a pivotal role in bringing genuine human emotion into comic book characters, a trait that, up until the creation of such characters as the enduring Spider-Man, was sorely lacking in comics. Born in New York in 1922, it was at the age of 17 that Lee began work as an assistant editor for Timely Comics. Promoted to editor soon thereafter, Lee remained with the company as it changed its name to Atlas and fought slumping sales in the following years. At first simply carrying on with the stories of the characters that had already been created, the company got a fresh burst of creativity when, in 1961, it changed its name from Atlas to Marvel Comics. Soon carrying stories of emotionally complex and multi-dimensional characters such as Spider-Man, The Hulk, and Daredevil, Lee's intelligent story lines -- coupled with artist Jack Kirby's impressive images -- helped Marvel's popularity surge during the '60s. Advancing to the position of publisher and editorial director in 1972, it was during this decade that such popular television series as The Incredible Hulk and The Amazing Spider-Man truly came to life on the small screen. Though many of the characters had appeared in cartoon form on television in the previous decade, their transformation from animated characters to living, breathing humans truly brought comics into a new light and exposed them to audiences who otherwise might have scoffed at such fiction. Of course, this was only the beginning, and throughout subsequent years, Lee's characters made the leap to feature films in such blockbusters as Bryan Singer's X-Men (2000) and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (2002). In addition to his role as a popular writer in comics, Lee also played a pivotal role in reducing censorship in the medium. Addressing the issue of drug addition in an issue of The Amazing Spider-Man at the request of public health officials, Lee defied the strict rules set by the Comics Code Authority (which banned any portrayal of drug use whether it be in a positive or negative light) and ultimately put the downfall of the CCA into motion. In the decades since, Lee's creations have not only graced the pages of comic books, but have sprung to life as never before with numerous film and television adaptations most successfully in the box-office smash The Avengers.