Trivia: Over the course of a single decade - the 1990s - Leonardo DiCaprio graduated from supporting work in television to a status as one of the most sought-after Hollywood actors under 30. After leading roles in William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet and James Cameron's Titanic, the actor became a phenomenon, spawning legions of websites and an entire industry built around his name. DiCaprio was born November 11, 1974, in Hollywood, CA. The son of a German immigrant mother and an underground comic book artist father who separated shortly after Leonardo's birth, he was raised by both of his parents, who encouraged his early interest in acting. At the age of two and a half, the fledgling performer had his first brush with notoriety and workplace ethics when he was kicked off the set of Romper Room for what the show's network deemed "uncontrollable behavior." After this rather inauspicious start to his career, DiCaprio began to hone his skills with summer courses in performance art while he was in elementary school. He also joined The Mud People, an avant-garde theater group, with which he performed in Los Angeles. In high school, DiCaprio acted in his first real play and began doing commercials, educational films, and the occasional stint on the Saturday morning show The New Lassie. In 1990, after securing his first full-time agent at the age of 15, DiCaprio landed a role as a teenage alcoholic on the daytime drama Santa Barbara. He also continued to appear on other TV shows, such as The Outsiders and Parenthood, and made his film debut in the 1991 horror film Critters 3. The actor got the first of many big breaks with a recurring role on the weekly sitcom Growing Pains. His portrayal of a homeless boy won him sufficient notice to get him an audition for Michael Caton-Jones's harrowing screen adaptation of Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life. DiCaprio won the film's title role after beating out 400 other young actors and it became his career breakthrough. The 1993 film, and DiCaprio's performance opposite Robert DeNiro, won raves and the actor further increased the adulation surrounding him when, later that year, he played Johnny Depp's mentally retarded younger brother in Lasse Hallström's What's Eating Gilbert Grape. DiCaprio won an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance, and at the tender age of 19, was hailed as an actor to watch. Subsequent roles in three 1995 films, Sam Raimi's Western The Quick and the Dead; Total Eclipse (as the bisexual poet Rimbaud) and The Basketball Diaries (as a struggling junkie) all put the actor in the limelight, but it wasn't until the following year that he became a bona fide star, thanks to his portrayal of Romeo opposite Claire Danes in director Baz Luhrmann's William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (1996). The success of the film brought DiCaprio international fame, many lucrative opportunities, and frequent comparisons to predecessors such as James Dean. After starring with Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep, and DeNiro in Marvin's Room (1996), DiCaprio achieved iconic status with his starring role in James Cameron's Titanic. With Kate Winslet as the female lead, the film became a box office sensation, earning garnered 14 Oscar nominations, winning 11, including Best Picture and Best Director, and earned a whopping 1.8 billion dollars at the global box office. DiCaprio's much-discussed exclusion from the Oscar nominations did nothing to hurt his popularity, and somewhat ironically, he next chose to parody his own celebrity with an appearance in Woody Allen's Celebrity (1998) as a badly behaved movie star. After displaying his nastier side, he tackled a dual role as twins in the same year's swashbuckler The Man in the Iron Mask, opposite Jeremy Irons, Gabriel Byrne, John Malkovich, and Gérard Depardieu. Following the commercial success of the film, DiCaprio then traveled in a completely different direction, with a lead role in Danny Boyle's screen adaptation of Alex Garland's novel The Beach. The film met with eager anticipation from its first day of shooting, as Leo fans everywhere waited with baited breath to see what kind of impression their golden child would next make on the film world; unfortunately, the muddled Beach drew neither praise nor box-office success. In 2002, DiCaprio began what became a series of collaborations with the legendary director Martin Scorsese, starting with the the epic Gangs of New York (2002) - a sprawling tale of gangland violence in early America. Reportedly delayed by a year given much-publicized disagreements between director Scorsese and producer Harvey Weinstein, the film was ultimately released in time for the 2002 holiday/Oscar season. The tireless actor re-united with director Steven Spielberg with the release of Catch Me if You Can, the true-life tale of Frank Abagnale, Jr., a scam artist so effective that he eluded authorities while assuming a number of high-profile false identities and racking-up over $2.5 million in fraudulent checks. Two years later, DiCaprio and Scorsese embarked on a sophomore collaboration - the biopic The Aviator (2004), with DiCaprio in a critically-praised, star-making turn as eccentric billionaire genius Howard Hughes in The Aviator. DiCaprio and Scorsese scaled even greater heights in 2006 with The Departed, a crime drama in which DiCaprio played an undercover cop trying to bring down criminal Jack Nicholson. Doubling up during Oscar season yet again, that same year he played the lead in Edward Zwick's Blood Diamond, as an Afrikaner who must team up with a South African mercenary in order to find a rare gem of great value to both of them. Both films opened to praise and box-office success, resulting in dual Golden Globe nominations. Perhaps pushing its luck, Warner Bros. -- the studio behind both films -- campaigned DiCaprio for a lead Oscar in Diamond and a supporting one in Departed; Oscar voters only nominated him for Diamond. In the years that followed, DiCaprio showed no signs of tapering off when it came to challenging and even iconic roles. He joined Titanic co-star Kate Winslet, megaproducer Scott Rudin and others for the blistering marriage drama Revolutionary Road (2008), teamed with Scorsese a fourth time for the thriller Shutter Island (2010), toplined Christopher Nolan's complex, elusive sci-fi drama Inception (2010), and in 2011, worked with director Clint Eastwood and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black on the biopic J. Edgar (2011), playing the famous titular FBI director. Meanwhile, DiCaprio also signed on for another collaboration with Baz Luhrmann - a new adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, co-starring Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan, not to mention a first-time collaboration with Quinten Tarantino for Django Unchained. In 2013, he and Scorsese joined forces yet again for The Wolf of Wall Street, earning DiCaprio two Oscar nominations, for both Best Actor and Picture.DiCaprio took the next two years off, focusing on environmental causes, but came back in 2015 in Alejandro G. Iñárritu's The Revenant. He nabbed his sixth Oscar nom for the film and finally landed his first win, for Best Actor.The hybrid-car driving DiCaprio has also been an outspoken proponent of environmentalism, a topic he is so passionate about he was allowed to interview then-President Bill Clinton on the issue in a 2000 televised prime-time special.

Trivia: The son of a trucking company manager, Brad Pitt was born December 18, 1963, in Shawnee, OK. Raised in Missouri as the oldest of three children, and brought up in a strict Baptist household, Pitt enrolled at the University of Missouri, following high school graduation, studying journalism and advertising. However, after discovering his love of acting, he dropped out of college two credit hours before he could graduate and moved to Hollywood. Once in California, Pitt took acting classes and supported himself with a variety of odd jobs that included chauffeuring strippers to private parties, waiting tables, and wearing a giant chicken suit for a local restaurant chain. His first break came when he landed a small recurring role on Dallas, and a part in a teenage-slasher movie, Cutting Class (1989) (opposite Roddy McDowall), marked his inauspicious entrance into the world of feature films. The previous year, Pitt's acting experience had been limited to the TV movie A Stoning in Fulgham County (1988). 1991 marked the end of Pitt's obscurity, as it was the year he made his appearance in Thelma & Louise (1991) as the wickedly charming drifter who seduces Geena Davis and then robs her blind. After becoming famous practically overnight, Pitt unfortunately chose to channel his newfound celebrity into Ralph Bakshi's disastrous animation/live action combo Cool World (1992). Following this misstep, Pitt took a starring role in director Tom Di Cillo's independent film Johnny Suede. The film failed to score with critics or at the box office and Pitt's documented clashes with the director allegedly inspired Di Cillo to pattern the character of the vain and egotistical Chad Palomino, in his 1995 Living in Oblivion, after the actor. Pitt's next venture, Robert Redford's lyrical fly-fishing drama A River Runs Through It (2002), gave the actor a much-needed chance to prove that he had talent in addition to physical appeal.Following his performance in Redford's film, Pitt appeared in Kalifornia and True Romance (both 1993), two road movies featuring fallen women and violent sociopaths. Pitt's next major role did not arrive until early 1994, when he was cast as the lead of the gorgeously photographed Legends of the Fall. As he did in A River Runs Through It, Pitt portrayed a free-spirited, strong-willed brother, but this time had greater opportunity to further develop his enigmatic character. Later that same year, fans watched in anticipation as Pitt exchanged his outdoorsy persona for the brooding, gothic posturing of Anne Rice's tortured vampire Louis in the film adaptation of Interview With the Vampire. Pitt next starred in the forgettable romantic comedy The Favor (1994) before going on to play a rookie detective investigating a series of gruesome crimes opposite Morgan Freeman in Seven (1995). In 1997, Pitt received a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a visionary mental patient in Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys; the same year, Pitt attempted an Austrian accent and put on a backpack to play mountaineer Heinrich Harrar in Seven Years in Tibet. The film met with mixed reviews and generated a fair amount of controversy, thanks in part to the revelation that the real-life Harrar had in fact been a Nazi. Following Tibet, Pitt traveled in a less inflammatory direction with Alan J. Pakula's The Devil's Own, in which he starred with fellow screen icon Harrison Ford. Despite this seemingly faultless pairing, the film was a relative critical and box-office failure. In 1998, Pitt tried his hand at romantic drama, portraying Death in Meet Joe Black, the most expensive non-special effects film ever made. Pitt's penchant for quirk was prevalent with his cameo in the surreal comic fantasy Being John Malkovich (1999) and carried over into his role as Tyler Durden, the mysterious and anti-materialistic soap salesman in David Fincher's controversial Fight Club the same year. The odd characterizations didn't let up with his appearance as the audibly indecipherable pugilist in Guy Ritchie's eagerly anticipated follow-up to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch (2000).In July of 2000, the man voted "Most Sexy Actor Alive" by virtually every entertainment publication currently in circulation crushed the hearts of millions of adoring female fans when he wed popular film and television actress Jennifer Aniston in a relatively modest (at least by Hollywood standards) and intimate service.Pitt's next turn on the big screen found him re-teamed with Robert Redford, this time sharing the screen with the A River Runs Through It director in the espionage thriller Spy Game (2001). A fairly retro-straight-laced role for an actor who had become identified with his increasingly eccentric roles, he was soon cast in Steven Soderbergh's remake of the Rat Pack classic Ocean's 11 (2001), the tale of a group of criminals who plot to rob a string of casinos. Following a decidedly busy 2001 that also included a lead role opposite Julia Roberts in the romantic crime-comedy The Mexican, Pitt was virtually absent from the big-screen over the next three years. After walking away from the ambitious and troubled Darren Aronofsky production The Fountain, he popped up for a very brief cameo in pal George Clooney's 2002 directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and lent his voice to the animated adventure Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, but spent the majority of his time working on the historical epic Troy (2004). Directed by Wolfgang Peterson, the film employed a huge cast, crew and budget.The media engulfed Pitt's next screen role with tabloid fervor, as it cast him opposite bombshell Angelina Jolie. While the comedic actioner Mr. and Mrs. Smith grossed dollar one at the box office, the stars' off-camera relationship that made some of 2005's biggest headlines. Before long, Pitt had split from his wife Jennifer Aniston and adopted Jolie's two children. The family expanded to three in 2006 with the birth of the couple's first child, to four in 2007 with the adoption of a Vietnamese boy, and finally to six in 2008, with the birth of fraternal twins.In addition to increasing his family in 2006, Pitt also padded his filmography as a producer on a number of projects, including Martin Scorsese's The Departed, the Best Picture Winner for 2006. He also acted opposite Cate Blanchett in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's drama Babel. Interestingly, that film hit theaters the same year as The Fountain, a film that was originally set to star the duo. Pitt also stayed busy as an actor, reteaming with many familiar on-screen pals for Ocean's Thirteen. At about the same time, Pitt teamed up with Ridley Scott to co-produce a period western, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; Pitt also stars in the film, as James. The year 2007 found Pitt involved, simultaneously, in a number of increasingly intelligent and distinguished projects. He signed on to reteam with David Fincher for the first occasion since Fight Club, with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - a bittersweet fantasy, adapted by Forrest Gump scribe Eric Roth from an F. Scott Fitzgerald story, about a man who falls in love while he is aging in reverse. When the special effects heavy film hit theaters in time for awards season in 2008, Pitt garnered a Best Actor nomination from both the Academy and the Screen Actors Guild. Also in 2007, Pitt produced an adaptation of Marianne Pearl's memoir A Mighty Heart that starred Angelina Jolie. In the years that followed, Pitt remained supremely busy. He delivered a funny lead performance as Lt. Aldo Raine in Quentin Tarantino's blistering World War II saga Inglourious Basterds (2009), then did some of the most highly-praised work of his career as a disciplinarian father in Terence Malick's The Tree of Life (2011) - a sprawling, cerebral phantasmorgia on the meaning of life and death that became one of the critical sensations of the year. He also won a great deal of praise for his turn as Billy Beane in Bennett Miller's adaptation of the non-fiction book Moneyball, a role that not only earned him critical raves but Best Actor nominations from the Academy, BAFTA, the Broadcast Film Association, the Golden Globes, and won him the New York Film Critics Circle award (though the institution also recognized his work in Tree of Life as figuring into their decision).In 2013, Pitt's Plan B production company produced 12 Years a Slave (he also appeared in the film, in a small supporting role), which earned Pitt an Academy Award when the film won Best Picture. The next year, Pitt won an Emmy as part of the producing team of the HBO tv movie The Normal Heart.

Trivia: Took circus classes in 1998 and earned a trapeze certificate the same year. Began acting professionally at the age of 17. Rose to fame playing Donna Freedman from 2008 to '11 in Neighbours. Enjoys surfing and snowboarding; was on a snowboarding holiday in Canada when she found out she has been cast in Neighbours. Shortly after arriving in the United States in 2011, landed the role of Laura Cameron in the short-lived TV series Pan Am. First major film role was playing Nadine Belfort in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). Founded her production company, LuckyChap Entertainment, in 2014. In 2017, was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and was featured by Forbes in its 30 Under 30 list.

Trivia: Emile Hirsch rose to prominence in 2002 with showy roles in two high-profile films: The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys and The Emperor's Club. Hirsch was born in Topanga Canyon, CA, on March 13, 1985. He made his television debut at the age of 11 in an episode of the series Kindred: The Embraced. After a number of small guest roles on Two of a Kind, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and Third Rock From the Sun, Hirsch moved on to more dramatic roles with appearances of NYPD Blue and ER. He appeared in a pair of made-for-TV movies, Gargantua and Houdini (in the latter playing the famed magician Harry Houdini as a boy) before making his big-screen debut as pensive Catholic school student Francis in The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, which earned the teenager a number of enthusiastic reviews. After appearing in the made-for-cable drama Wild Iris, Hirsch appeared as a bright but rebellious student in the Kevin Kline vehicle The Emperor's Club. Hirsch was praised for his roles in Imaginary Heroes (2004) and Lords of Dogtown (2005), though the films themselves received lukewarm reviews. His luck would change when he was cast as a young man who finds himself while hitchhiking America for 2007's Into the Wild. Based on the popular novel from Jon Krakauer, Sean Penn directed the film, which would earn Hirsch a Best Actor nom from the Broadcast Film Critics Association. Hirsch reunited with Penn to play a young gay rights activist in Milk, the multi-Academy Award winning biopic of politician and activist Harvey Milk. He lent his voice for X Games 3D: The Movie in 2009, and starred in Taking Woodstock (2009), a biopic chronicling a face-off between the owners of a small motel, and the organizers of the original Woodstock. He took a supporting role in Oliver Stone's 2012 film The Savages.

Trivia: While growing up, she and her sister Rainey were debutantes, and they made their debuts in Paris at Le Bal des Debutantes at L'Hotel de Crillon.Initially trained as a ballerina at North Carolina School of the Arts and New York's Professional Children's School, and also earned an apprenticeship at the American Ballet Theatre.Started modeling at age 16 for Alberta Ferretti at New York Fashion Week, and went on to model for Valentino, Chanel, Ralph Lauren, W, Vogue, and several others.Made her first screen appearance playing Raquel in the 2013 Gia Coppola film Palo Alto.First recurring role in a TV series was Jill Garvey in the HBO drama series The Leftovers.

Trivia: Bearing the kind of sharp-eyed, vaguely sinister good looks that often get actors cast as charismatic drug dealers or murder suspects, Timothy Olyphant first impressed film audiences playing none other than the resident charismatic drug dealer of Doug Liman's Go (1999). Born in Hawaii on May 20, 1968, Olyphant grew up in California. After attending the University of California, where he swam competitively, the actor made his professional debut in the Playwrights Horizons' production of The Monogamist, for which he won a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance. Olyphant's first film appearance came courtesy of a miniscule role in The First Wives Club (1996); somewhat more substantial work followed in 1997's Scream 2, in which the actor was cast as one of Neve Campbell's friends. After a turn in When Trumpets Fade (1998), a critically acclaimed made-for-TV WWII drama, and a memorable guest-shot on an episode of Sex and the City, Olyphant gave a scene-stealing performance in Go, managing to stand out in an ensemble cast that included Sarah Polley, Katie Holmes, Taye Diggs, and Scott Wolf. His work caught the notice of more than one industry observer, and by the following year, the actor had a number of projects in the works. Included among them were The Broken Hearts Club, a comedy that cast Olyphant as a gay photographer; Gone in Sixty Seconds, which featured him as a detective on the trail of a car thief (Nicolas Cage); and Auggie Rose, a drama about assumed identity in which Olyphant played the ex-cellmate of a dead con man. In 2001, Olyphant would turn up in the tale of an aspiring singer who gets to live a dream, Rock Star.Once touted as "the next big thing," Olyphant's stock seemed to drop after attaching himself to a string of duds, most notably the aforementioned Rock Star, Dreamcatcher, and A Man Apart, the latter two both released in 2003. Fortunately, the following year saw things looking up for the actor, with a starring role on the critically acclaimed series from HBO, the Western Deadwood. Over the next several years, Olyphant would appear in films like Live Free or Die Hard and I Am Number Four, in addition to a role on the night time drama Damages, as well as the massively popular series Justified.

Trivia: Worked as a baby model.Started acting at age two.Director Quentin Tarantino sought her for the role of Trudi Fraser in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) after seeing her on American Housewife.Was asked by director Quentin Tarantino to watch the western series Lancer to prepare for her role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) as she had never seen a western before.Co-star Leonardo DiCaprio invited her, and her parents, to his house to rehearse lines for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).Before meeting actor Brad Pitt, she thought he was a musician.Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) costar Leonardo DiCaprio has described her as a young Meryl Streep.

Trivia: Was spotted by an agent while at the Orange County Fair. Home schooled for most of his education and completed his GED after 10th grade. Nominated for two Young Artist Awards in 2010, for his work on Aliens in the Attic and Ruby & the Rockits. Appeared in Death of the Author at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles in 2014, opposite Orson Bean.

Trivia: Kicking off an impressive career in front of the camera at the tender age of five, it was a mere three years later that actress Dakota Fanning would become the youngest person ever to be nominated for a Screen Actor's Guild Award for her role in the Sean Penn drama I Am Sam. She subsequently appeared in such efforts as Sweet Home Alabama (2002) and director Steven Spielberg's sci-fi miniseries Taken. A Conyers, GA, native whose acting abilities became apparent when, at the age of three, she acted out the entire process of pregnancy and childbirth (with her younger sister Elle substituting for the newborn baby) to her amused parents. Advised by an agent to take their daughter to Los Angeles, it wasn't long before young Fanning was cast in a commercial for Tide detergent. Television appearances in ER and Ally McBeal were quick to follow, and in 2001 she made her feature debut in the comedy Tomcats. Though the film was only seen by an unlucky few, her role in the same year's I Am Sam was a wide release that found the adorable young starlet a solid fan base. Later alternating between television and film with features such as Trapped and roles on such high-profile series as Spin City and Malcolm in the Middle, her part opposite Brittany Murphy in the 2003 comedy Uptown Girls found the precocious youngster playing well off of her older co-star. In 2003 Fanning could be spotted in The Cat in the Hat, and it wasn't long before she was gearing up to appear alongside Denzel Washington and Christopher Walken in the Tony Scott thriller Man on Fire.As the 2000's continued to unfold, Fanning appeared in a number of films, like Hide and Seek, War of the Worlds, and The Secret Life of Bees. By the time the actress was 16, she was playing legendary girl-band member Cherie Currie in The Runaways, setting the stage for adult roles to comes.

Trivia: Bruce MacLeish Dern is the scion of a distinguished family of politicians and men of letters that includes his uncle, the distinguished poet/playwright Archibald MacLeish. After a prestigious education at New Trier High and Choate Preparatory, Dern enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, only to drop out abruptly in favor of Lee Strasberg's Actors' Studio. With his phlegmatic voice and schoolyard-bully countenance, he was not considered a likely candidate for stardom, and was often treated derisively by his fellow students. In 1958, he made his first Broadway appearance in A Touch of the Poet. Two years later, he was hired by director Elia Kazan to play a bit role in the 20th Century Fox production Wild River. He was a bit more prominent on TV, appearing regularly as E.J. Stocker in the contemporary Western series Stoney Burke. A favorite of Alfred Hitchcock, Dern was prominently cast in a handful of the director's TV-anthology episodes, and as the unfortunate sailor in the flashback sequences of the feature film Marnie (1964). During this period, Dern played as many victims as victimizers; he was just as memorable being hacked to death by Victor Buono in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1965) as he was while attempting to rape Linda Evans on TV's The Big Valley. Through the auspices of his close friend Jack Nicholson, Dern showed up in several Roger Corman productions of the mid-'60s, reaching a high point as Peter Fonda's "guide" through LSD-land in The Trip (1967). The actor's ever-increasing fan following amongst disenfranchised younger filmgoers shot up dramatically when he gunned down Establishment icon John Wayne in The Cowboys (1971). After scoring a critical hit with his supporting part in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), Dern began attaining leading roles in such films as Silent Running (1971), The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), The Great Gatsby (1974), and Smile (1975). In 1976, he returned to the Hitchcock fold, this time with top billing, in Family Plot. Previously honored with a National Society of Film Critics award for his work in the Jack Nicholson-directed Drive, He Said (1970), Dern received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of an unhinged Vietnam veteran in Coming Home (1978), in which he co-starred with one-time Actors' Studio colleague (and former classroom tormentor) Jane Fonda. He followed this triumph with a return to Broadway in the 1979 production Strangers. In 1982, Dern won the Berlin Film Festival Best Actor prize for That Championship Season. He then devoted several years to stage and TV work, returning to features in the strenuous role of a middle-aged long distance runner in On the Edge (1986).After a humorous turn in the 1989 Tom Hanks comedy The 'Burbs, Dern dropped beneath the radar for much of the '90s. He would appear in cult favorites like Mulholland Falls and the Walter Hill Yojimbo re-make Last Man Standing (both 1996), as well as The Haunting (1999) and All the Pretty Horses (2000). As the 2000's unfolded, Dern would continue to act, apperaing most notably in film like Monster and Django Unchained.Formerly married to actress Diane Ladd, Bruce Dern is the father of actress Laura Dern.

Trivia: Born October 10th, 1965, Ohioan Luke Perry did well enough on the high school baseball team, but he was a somewhat lackadaisical student, with no real aim in life except for a vague desire to become an actor someday. That desire solidified into reality when Perry headed for Los Angeles in 1984, took acting lessons, and sought out auditions while supporting himself with construction and asphalting jobs. Eventually he landed the role of Ned Bates on the TV daytime drama Loving. In 1990, Perry was cast in the Fox Network's Beverly Hills 90210 in the supporting role of Dylan McKay. Audience response to Perry was so overwhelming that, by the time 90210 swung into its second season, he was not only one of the series' leading characters, but a full-fledged teen idol. From all accounts, Perry handled his "hunk heartthrob" status with class and diplomacy; this latter quality served him well during the well-publicized brouhaha over co-star Shannen Doherty. Perry finally left Beverly Hills 90210 for the greener pastures of theatrical films.Perry won cult notoriety for his portrayal of a hapless teenage vampire hunter in 1992's Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which inspired Joss Whedon's phenomenally popular series of the same name). After working in a series of critical and commerical failures, Perry co-starred with Chris Tucker and Gary Oldman in 1997's iconic sci-fi thriller The Fifth Element. The actor worked for a short time on HBO's prison drama Oz, in which he played a well meanng, yet ill-fated priest, and went the opposite direction when he guest-starred on Law & Order: SVU in the role of rapist Noah Sibert. In 2009, Perry starred in a music video for The Killers' fourth annual Christmas single.

Trivia: London-born actor Damian Lewis cultivated a reputation in the press not only for his well-received performances, but for his ability to effectively slip out of his English accent and into American characterizations. The actor first came to prominence in the early 2000s via his participation in the Steven Spielberg WWII miniseries Band of Brothers (2001) on HBO, then delivered a pair of high-profile cinematic portrayals over the next three years: as a man who gets possessed by an extraterrestrial in the widely panned Stephen King/Lawrence Kasdan horror opus Dreamcatcher (2003) -- and a critically acclaimed lead role as a schizophrenic father bereft of his little girl in Lodge Kerrigan's psychodrama Keane (2004). Lewis's turn as a volatile and psychotic ex-husband opposite Jennifer Lopez in Lasse Hallström's An Unfinished Life turned a few heads; unfortunately, Miramax shelved the film after its production in 2003, and it failed to reach theaters before the fall of 2005. Thereafter, Lewis signed for a lead role opposite Connie Nielsen and Mido Hamada in the politically charged thriller The Situation (2006) and garnered a lead on the small-screen series drama Life, as a former police officer once sentenced to years in jail for a crime he did not commit, who, now exonerated, returns to his old career. He appeared in The Baker and The Escapist in 2008, and in 2011 he was cast in the well-reviewed made-for-cable series Homeland. That same year he appeared in the period pot comedy Your Highness.

Trivia: Brooding and intense, Al Pacino has remained one of Hollywood's premier actors throughout his lengthy career, a popular and critical favorite whose list of credits includes many of the finest films of his era. Pacino was born April 25, 1940, in East Harlem, NY. Raised in the Bronx, he attended the legendary High School for Performing Arts, but dropped out at the age of 17. He spent the next several years drifting from job to job, continuing to study acting and occasionally appearing in off-off-Broadway productions. In 1966, Pacino was accepted to train at the Actors' Studio, and after working with James Earl Jones in The Peace Creeps, he starred as a brutal street youth in the off-Broadway social drama The Indian Wants the Bronx, earning an Obie Award as Best Actor for the 1967-1968 theatrical season. A year later, he made his Broadway debut in Does the Tiger Wear a Necktie? Although the play itself closed after less than 40 performances, Pacino was universally praised for his potent portrayal of a sociopathic drug addict, and he won a Tony Award for his performance. Pacino made his film debut in the 1969 flop Me, Natalie. After making his theatrical directorial debut with 1970's Rats, he returned to the screen a year later in Panic in Needle Park, again appearing as a junkie. (To prepare for the role, he and co-star Kitty Winn conducted extensive research in known drug-dealer haunts as well as methadone clinics.) While the picture was not a success, Pacino again earned critical raves. Next came Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 Mafia epic The Godfather. As Michael Corleone, the son of an infamous crime lord reluctantly thrust into the family business, Pacino shot to stardom, earning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his soulful performance. While the follow-up, 1973's Scarecrow, was received far less warmly, the police drama Serpico was a smash, as was 1974's The Godfather Part II for which he earned his third Academy Award nomination. The 1975 fact-based Dog Day Afternoon, in which Pacino starred as a robber attempting to stick up a bank in order to finance his gay lover's sex-change operation, was yet another staggering success.The 1977 auto-racing drama Bobby Deerfield, on the other hand, was a disaster. Pacino then retreated to Broadway, winning a second Tony for his performance in the title role in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. Upon returning to Hollywood, he starred in ...And Justice for All, which did not appease reviewers but restored him to moviegoers' good graces. Pacino next starred in William Friedkin's controversial Cruising, portraying a New York City cop on the trail of a serial killer targeting homosexuals; it was not a hit, nor was the 1982 comedy Author! Author! Brian DePalma's violent 1983 remake of Scarface followed; while moderately successful during its initial release, the movie later became a major cult favorite. Still, its lukewarm initial reception further tarnished Pacino's star. However, no one was fully prepared for the fate which befell 1985's historical epic Revolution; made for over $28 million, the film failed to gross even $1 million dollars at the box office. Pacino subsequently vanished from the public eye, directing his own film, The Local Stigmatic, which outside of a handful of 1990 showings at the Museum of Modern Art was never screened publicly. While his name was attached to a number of projects during this time period, none came to fruition, and he disappeared from cinema for over four years. Finally, in 1989, Pacino returned with the stylish thriller Sea of Love; the picture was a hit, and suddenly he was a star all over again. A virtually unrecognizable turn as a garish gangster in 1990's Dick Tracy earned him a sixth Oscar nomination, but The Godfather Part III was not the financial blockbuster many anticipated it to be. The 1991 romantic comedy Frankie and Johnny was a success, however, and a year later Pacino starred in the highly regarded Glengarry Glen Ross as well as Scent of a Woman, at last earning an Oscar for his performance in the latter film. He reunited with DePalma for 1993's stylish crime drama Carlito's Way, to which he'd first been slated to star in several years prior. Remaining in the underworld, he starred as a cop opposite master thief Robert De Niro in 1995's superb Heat, written and directed by Michael Mann. Pacino next starred in the 1996 political drama City Hall, but earned more notice that year for writing, directing, producing, and starring in Looking for Richard, a documentary exploration of Shakespeare's Richard III shot with an all-star cast. In 1997, he appeared with two of Hollywood's most notable young stars, first shooting Donnie Brasco opposite Johnny Depp, and then acting alongside Keanu Reeves in The Devil's Advocate. Following roles in The Insider and Any Given Sunday two-years later, Pacino would appear in the film version of the stage play Chinese Coffee (2000) before a two-year periods in which the actor was curiously absent from the screen. Any speculation on the workhorse actor's slowing down ended when in 2002 Pacino returned with the quadruple-threat of Insomnia, Simone, People I Know and The Recruit. With roles ranging from that of a troubled detective investigating a murder in the land of the midnight sun, to a film producer who builds the worlds first virtual actress, Pacino reenforced his image as a versatile, energetic and adventurous an actor. The films struck uneven chords, however; Insomnia hit a zenith, critically and commercially, while Pacino scraped bottom with Simone. Pacino fared better at the box and in the press with Michael Radford's December 2004 Merchant of Venice but dodged critical bullets with the D.J. Caruso-helmed 2005 gambling drama Two for the Money. Circa 2006, Pacino starred as Jack Gramm in 88 Minutes, the gripping tale of a college prof who moonlights as a forensics expert for the feds. He also announced plans, that year, to join the cast of Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Thirteen and a remake of Jules Dassin's seminal Rififi, to reunite him with City Hall helmer Harold Becker.

Trivia: The son of actress Eileen Bennett, Nicholas Hammond was 13 when he made his first movie appearance in Lord of the Flies (1963). Hammond's most visible screen role was as Friedrich von Trapp in the 1965 megahit The Sound of Music. After making the transition from juvenile to young leading man, he spent several seasons in daytime soaps. In 1978, a pumped-up Nicholas Hammond starred in the brief weekly TV adaptation of The Amazing Spider-Man.

Trivia: Began appearing in TV commercials when he was 8 years old. At age 10, landed the role of Frank Errol in the Australian series The Sullivans; he received three Logie nominations for his work on the show. Appeared alongside his father, Noel Herriman, in Candy (2006). Appeared in the Sydney Theatre Company's Tot Mom, directed by Steven Soderbergh, in 2009.

Trivia: Comedian, actress and writer Lena Dunham caught the attention of greats in her industry when she wrote, direct, and starred in her first film, Tiny Furniture in 2010, winning Best Narrative Feature at the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference. The then 24 year old had studied creative writing at Oberlin College, and soon scored a production deal with HBO for her own series, Girls, executive produced by Judd Apatow. Dunham wrote, directed, and starred in the series, and would garner much acclaim and numerous awards and nominations for the show.

Trivia: Pursued competitive horseback riding before becoming an actor. Has stated that her sister marrying a writer sparked her interest in acting. Started her acting career appearing in short films including James Gadd's award-winning Bound for Greatness. Has credited her psychologist parents for helping her understand people and their behaviors, which is useful when getting into character.

Trivia: Singing voice is Soprano/ Belter.Before studying acting in university, she would act in school performances, though her school didn't have a theater program, only a drama club with few members.First major role was Eleanor "Nell" Crain in the Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House in 2018.Had auditioned and received a callback for the series You before graduating from Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama.Made her feature film debut playing Leslie Van Houten, a.k.a. Lulu in the 2019 Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.

Trivia: Actress Danielle Harris spent much of her childhood playing small supporting roles on television and in feature films. She made her feature film debut portraying Jamie Lloyd, the confused niece of slasher Michael Myers in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) and its follow-up Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989). She has also appeared in films such as Free Willy (1993), City Slickers (1991), and Daylight (1996). Harris' television credits include appearances on Growing Pains, One Life to Live, and a regular role on Roseanne. She also appeared in the made-for-television movies Don't Touch My Daughter and The Women Who Loved Elvis.

Trivia: During the early 2000s, actor Scoot McNairy quickly came to specialize in portrayals of colorful and individualistic young men with a slightly rebellious edge. McNairy began during the early to mid-2000s, with bit parts in films including Wonderland (2003), Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), and Art School Confidential (2006). He took his first bow as a producer with 2007's In Search of a Midnight Kiss, in which he also starred. That indie romantic comedy concerns a young man (McNairy) all washed up on New Year's Eve -- until an impulsive ad on Craigslist leads him to the great love of his life (Sara Simmonds) and an extraordinary night on the town.

Trivia: Distinguished by his versatility and uncanny ability to immerse himself in the characters he portrays, filmgoers may recall Clifton Collins Jr. from his role as the intimidating thug Cesar in 187 (1997) or from his numerous other roles in such films as the Hughes brothers' Dead Presidents (1995) and Steven Soderbergh's acclaimed Traffic (2000). A native Angeleno, Collins Jr. is the grandson of actor Pedro Gonzalez. One of the first Mexicans to find Hollywood success, Gonzalez appeared alongside John Wayne in various Westerns and war films. Sometimes credited as Clifton Gonzalez Gonzalez in honor of his grandfather's name, Collins Jr.'s range has found him work in a rich variety of films throughout the 1990s both in television and film. Other roles in The Replacement Killers and Disney's The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (both 1998) showed great promise for a young actor on the verge of stardom heading into the new millennium. Supporting roles in such wide-release features as The Last Castle, and The Rules of Attraction found the young up-and-comer slowly gaining the momentum to set an enduring career in motion, and in 2004 Collins appeared opposite hot-property Eion Bailey in the thriller Mindhunters and the alcoholism-themed comedy drama Glory Days. That same year also found Collins taking a role in director Troy Duffy's Boondock II: All Saints Day - the eagerly anticipated follow-up to his 1999 cult hit The Boondock Saints.

Trivia: Began performing at Joseph Papp's Public Theatre as a teenager. Performed opposite Lee Strasburg at age 14 in the film Boardwalk. Received the Desi Arnaz Vanguard Award in 1990.

Trivia: Participated in child beauty pageants in Florida in the late 1990s. Performed in a pop band during her teen years called S*coolgirlz. Moved to New York to pursue acting when she was 17. Was working as a waitress the first time she was recognized for her role on Gossip Girl. Has stood on boxes in order to compensate for her small stature while on camera.

Trivia: Made her off-Broadway debut in Commons of Pensacola, written by Amanda Peete, in 2013. Studied at the Atlantic Theater Company.

Trivia: The daughter of actress Demi Moore and actor Bruce Willis, Rumer Willis debuted onscreen with two roles opposite her mother: a bit part at the age of six in the ensemble seriocomedy Now and Then (1995, billed as Willa Glen), and a more substantial supporting role as Moore's onscreen daughter in the notorious (but lucrative) Andrew Bergman farce Striptease (1996). Willis' show-business activity grew prolific in the late 2000s; the summer of 2008 witnessed her debut as a jazz vocalist at Teddy's on Hollywood Boulevard, and at around the same time, the then-19-year-old actress graced the casts of several films, including a supporting role in the comedy The House Bunny, opposite Anna Faris. Willis then signed for another supporting turn in a teen comedy, Dana Lustig's Wild Cherry (2009). She then took a on a recurring role on the CW's teen soap 90210, playing the love interest of Jessica Lowndes' character, Adrianna. Willis continued to work in TV, nabbing guest roles on shows like Hawaii Five-0 and Pretty Little Liars. In 2015, she won season 20 of Dancing with the Stars, with pro partner Val Chmerkovskiy.

Trivia: Actor Clu Gulager started out as the latest in a long line of Brando/Dean "method" types in the late 1950s. Gulager's searing interpretation of Mad Dog Coll on a 1959 episode of The Untouchables, coupled with his multi-faceted portrayal of Billy the Kid on the TV western series The Tall Man (1960-62) gained him a brief fan following. He was also quite impressive as Lee Marvin's fellow hit man in The Killers (1964), which would have been the very first made-for-TV movie had not its excessive violence necessitated a theatrical release. Turning prematurely gray in the late 1960s, Gulager went on to play flinty authority figures on such weekly series as The Survivors (1969), San Francisco International Airport (1971) and The MacKenzies of Paradise Cove (1979). He was also seen in numerous miniseries, most prominently as Lt. Merrick in Once an Eagle (1976) and General Sheridan in North and South II (1986). One of his better big-screen roles was Abilene in Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show (1971). Briefly entertaining notions of becoming a film director, Clu Gulager helmed the obscure 1969 short subject A Day with the Boys.

Trivia: Like many New York actors, Martin Kove was willing to go unbilled to pick up extra paychecks in such East Coast-filmed efforts as Little Murders (1971) and Last House on the Left (1972). By 1984, Kove was pulling down third billing in such films as The Karate Kid, wherein he played Kreese, the "bad" karate expert who trained the film's principal heavy William Zabka for his bout against the simon-pure Ralph Macchio (Kove replaced Chuck Norris, who turned down the role of Kreese because he didn't want karate trainers to be shown in an unsympathetic light). Martin Kove's work on series TV has included the roles of detective Victor Isbecki on Cagney and Lacey and an extraterrestrial named Jesse on Hard Time on Planet Earth.

Trivia: For years recognizable solely for her work as "the Noxzema Girl," Rebecca Gayheart has become one of many models to attempt the transition to acting. Gayheart, if not widely known, has certainly increased her recognition with her work in films such as Urban Legend and Jawbreaker. Born August 12, 1972 in Hazard, KY, Gayheart moved to New York at the age of 15 following a summer modeling job in the city. She studied acting at the prestigious Lee Strasberg Studio, and during her education there, she landed her first role, on the NBC soap opera Loving. Her stint on the show lasted from 1992 to 1993 and led to further television work, most notably on Beverly Hills 90210. During this time, she also acted in a number of forgettable television shows, and it wasn't until her part as a sorority girl in 1997's Scream 2 that she started to find film work. Her first project after Scream 2 was in Nothing to Lose, but her following film, 1998's Urban Legend, was successful enough to earn her a place among Hollywood's latest batch of up-and-coming starlets.After Legend, Gayheart co-starred with fellow Scream-er Neve Campbell in the obscure Canadian film Hair Shirt (1998). Her next project, the Heathers take-off Jawbreaker, faltered both at the box office and with critics, but did Gayheart the service of casting her in another leading role, helping to increase her fresh-scrubbed profile. After portraying a grim reaper in 2003 in Showtime's fantasy comedy Dead Like Me, she went on to play the role of Trudy Nye, a blind woman who, albeit briefly, won the attention of plastic surgeon and ladies man Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) in FX's prime-time medical drama Nip/Tuck (2004-2006).

Trivia: One of the most iconic action stars of all time, Kurt Russell (born March 17th, 1951) is among the few to make the successful transition from child star to successful adult actor. As a youth, Russell aspired to follow the footsteps of his father, Bing Russell, who, in addition to being a big league baseball player, was also an actor (he was perhaps best known for his role as the sheriff on the TV Western Bonanza). That his heroes Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris did the same thing only strengthened Russell's resolve to have both a baseball and acting career.He first broke into acting on television, starring in the series The Travels of Jamie McPheeters, and he made his film debut playing the boy who kicks Elvis in the 1963 Elvis Presley vehicle It Happened at the World's Fair. After signing a ten-year contract with Disney, Russell got his big break as a juvenile actor in 1966, starring opposite Fred MacMurray in Disney's live-action feature Follow Me Boys! His association with the studio lasted through 1975, and produced such comedic family movies as The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit (1968), The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), The Barefoot Executive (1971), and The Strongest Man in the World (1975). The last film marked Russell's final collaboration with Disney, aside from his voicing the character of Copper in the studio's The Fox and the Hound (1981). Still an avid baseball enthusiast during those years, Russell nurtured his dreams of becoming a professional ball player until a shoulder injury permanently changed his plans.After ending his association with Disney, Russell disappeared from features for a few years. He appeared in a few television movies, most notably playing the title role in Elvis, John Carpenter's made-for-television biopic. His next role as a sleazy used car salesman in Robert Zemeckis' hilariously caustic Used Cars (1980) allowed him to counter his wholesome, all-American nice guy image, and prove that he was an actor of untapped range. Director Carpenter recognized this and cast Russell as ruthless mercenary Snake Plissken in his brooding sci-fi/action film Escape From New York (1981). The role would prove to be one of legendary status, and one that would cement Russell as a cult hero for generations to come. Carpenter also cast Russell as a scientist stranded in the Antarctic in his chilling 1982 remake of The Thing. Realizing that his characters were larger than life, Russell typically played them with a subtle tongue- in-cheek quality. He also used this comic intuition in comedies like 1987's Overboard, in which he starred alongside his long-time life-partner and mother of his child Golide Hawn.In 1983, Russell moved to serious drama, playing opposite Cher and Meryl Streep in Silkwood. The success of that film helped him break into a more mainstream arena, and he was later able to win praise for his dramatic work in such films as Swing Shift (1984), Tequila Sunrise (1988), and Winter People (1989). However, it is with his performances in action films that Russell remains most widely associated. He has appeared in a number of such films, all of disparate quality. Some of Russell's more memorable projects include Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Tango and Cash (1989), Backdraft (1991), Tombstone (1993), and Executive Decision (1996). In 1996, he reprised his Snake Plissken character for Carpenter's Escape From L.A. The following year, he starred opposite Kathleen Quinlan in the revenge thriller Breakdown before returning to the sci-fi/action realm with Soldier in 1998. It would be two years before movie-going audiences would again catch a glimpse of Russell, though with his roles in 2000 Miles to Graceland (again carrying on the Elvis associations that have haunted his career) and Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky, the versatile actor proved that he was still very much on the scene. Is some of Russell's later day roles had stressed the action angle a bit more than the more dramatic aspects of the stories, the release of Dark Blue in 2003 combined both with Russell cast as a volitile police officer tracking a killer against the backdrop of the 1992 L.A. riots. In 2005, Russell played a frustrated father and horse-man in Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story, showing audiences that for all his on-screen bombast, he still had a sensitive side. He quickly leapt back into the action-packed saddle, however, with a leading role in 2006's remake of The Poseidon Adventure, Poseidon. Soon afterward, he accepted a role that took a decidedly self-aware perspective on his own fame as an over-the-top action star as he signed on for the leading role in Death Proof, Quinten Tarantino's half of the double-feature Grindhouse. A tribute to the fantastically violent B-exploitation films of its title, Grindhouse would cast Russell as Stuntman Mike, a literal lady-killer with a car that can be crashed and smashed without ever allowing the driver to be hurt.

Trivia: A stuntwoman-turned-action star, New Zealander Zoe Bell established herself by standing in for A-list actresses on some of filmdom's most dangerous and intimidating stunts. Bell achieved her first major career coup in her native country, by doubling for Lucy Lawless on the hit fantasy-action series Xena: Warrior Princess, and accompanied that with additional stunt work on small-screen programs including The Chosen, Shortland Street, and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Bell subsequently moved to Hollywood and commenced a multi-film collaboration with Quentin Tarantino that included the pictures Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003), Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004), and Tarantino's Death Proof segment of the omnibus Grindhouse (2007), before signing to headline her own action feature in 2008. Aside from her Tarantino collaborations, Bell's Hollywood resumé also includes such pictures as Catwoman (2004) and Poseidon (2006). The documentary Double Dare (2003) provided biographical portraits of Bell and fellow stuntwoman Jeannie Epper.

Trivia: Michael Madsen, who admits to being more interested in delivering a good performance than the perks of fame, formerly worked as a gas station attendant in his hometown of Chicago, IL. The older brother of actress Virginia Madsen, Michael's first acting experience took place inside of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, where he studied under the direction of fellow actor John Malkovich. This stage training provided him with the background needed to land a host of small roles, beginning with a bit part in the 1983 film WarGames. After relocating to Los Angeles, Madsen made several television and film appearances, including NBC's Emmy-winning Special Bulletin (1983), and The Natural (1984), director Barry Levinson's celebrated sports drama. Madsen continued to build credibility, gradually going on to land larger parts. Though his profile was raised substantially after appearing in the 1991 film Thelma & Louise, it was his 1989 performance as a psychotic killer in John Dahl's Kill Me Again that caught the attention of Quentin Tarantino, who would later give Madsen his true breakthrough opportunity in 1992's Reservoir Dogs. This ear-splitting performance earned Madsen critical acclaim, as well as further cementing his reputation for playing psychopathic murderers. Sure enough, Madsen would go on to perform in several decidedly evil roles. From the kitten-loving sociopath in The Getaway (1994), to mafia tough guy Sonny Black in Donnie Brasco, Madsen proved himself more than capable of playing a good bad guy. Rather than allowing himself to be typecast, however, Madsen readily accepted the role of a loving foster parent in Free Willy (1993), a seasoned alien assassin in Species (1995), and CIA Agent Damon Falco in director Lee Tamahori's Die Another Day (2002). Over the course of the next decade, however, the veteran actor largely stuck to his tough-guy image, though his reflective role in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films displayed a sense of depth that most filmmakers fail to coax out of him.

Trivia: With lean hangdog looks that make him a natural for the criminals and fringe dwellers he usually plays, Tim Roth has the uncanny and incredibly effective ability to make sleaze look sexy, or at least raggedly photogenic. Since his debut in the made-for-TV Made in Britain at the age of 18, Roth has joined fellow Briton Gary Oldman as one of the leading interpreters of society's underbelly. His ability has been particularly appreciated by director Quentin Tarantino, who helped to propel Roth to international recognition with prominent roles in Resevoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction in the early '90s. Since then, Roth has continued to portray a variety of gritty characters, occasionally making room for the odd sympathetic or lighthearted role.Born in London on May 14, 1961, to a journalist father and landscape painter mother, Roth initially wanted to become a sculptor. After an education at London's Camberwell School of Art, he decided to try his hand at acting, first appearing in a production of Jean Genet's The Screens. Roth's television debut in the 1981 film Made in Britain garnered critical raves for the actor, who portrayed a poverty-stricken juvenile delinquent with profanity-spewing gusto. The same year, he appeared with Gary Oldman in Mike Leigh's Meantime, a made-for-TV movie that was eventually released theatrically, but Roth's bona fide screen debut didn't come until 1984, when he played an apprentice hitman in Stephen Frears' The Hit. Co-starring Terence Stamp and John Hurt, the film did moderately well and earned Roth an Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Newcomer. Thanks to such positive notices, the young actor continued to find work throughout the rest of the decade, making appearances in a variety of films, including former Kinks frontman Ray Davies' 1985 musical Return to Waterloo. In 1990, Roth began to enjoy a limited amount of international attention, thanks to two starring roles, his acclaimed portrayal of Vincent Van Gogh in Robert Altman's Vincent and Theo and a title role in the critically lauded film adaptation of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Starring opposite Gary Oldman, Roth made an impression on many a filmgoer, including Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino cast Roth as undercover policeman Mr. Orange in his 1992 ensemble piece Resevoir Dogs, a film that allowed the actor to prove he could do an American accent and bleed to death convincingly. The success of Resevoir Dogs paved the way for more Hollywood work for Roth. In a drastic departure from his previous work, he next starred in the 1993 comedy Bodies, Rest & Motion alongside Bridget Fonda, Phoebe Cates, and Eric Stoltz. The following year, Roth returned to more familiar territory, as a hit man in Little Odessa and as one of the robbers who catalyzes the action of Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. After the enormous success of the latter film, the actor appeared the same year in the psychologically terrifying TV adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness alongside John Malkovich, who played the unhinged Kurtz. After a disastrous third collaboration with Tarantino, the critically and commercially disemboweled Four Rooms (1995), Roth had significantly greater success portraying an ominously prissy English nobleman in Rob Roy, winning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his work, along with a Golden Globe nomination and a British Academy Award. Staying true to his habit of jumping from genre to genre, Roth next appeared as a convict with a jones for Drew Barrymore in Woody Allen's musical comedy Everyone Says I Love You (1996) before playing a mobster in 1930s Harlem in Hoodlum (1997). Roth remained in a down and dirty milieu for his next film, Vondie Curtis-Hall's Gridlock'd, which featured the actor, as well as Thandie Newton and Tupac Shakur, as modern-day heroin addicts. Although the film received critical praise, it failed to make a significant impression at the box office. Roth's subsequent films unfortunately suffered from similarly lackluster performances: 1998's Liar went straight to video and the actor's film with Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore, La Leggenda del Pianista Sull'Oceano, remained mired in obscurity. However, Roth continued to keep busy with other projects, appearing in the 1998 Sundance entry Animals (And the Tollkeeper) and making his directing debut the same year with The War Zone. Though it gained positive critical notice for its' downbeat story of a disfunctional family skidding towards oblivion, the subject matter found the film getting little exposure even though it won multiple film festival awards. Roth's next turn as the menacing General Thade in Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes (2001) would be arguably his most mainstream, prolific and scenery-chewing role to date. As the sinister simian on an obsessive quest to kill Mark Wahlberg's Capt. Leo Davis at any cost, Roth provided more than enough gusto to adequately fill the film's evil villian quota. While the film was a box-office hit, Roth opted to follow it up by returning to more obscure films. However, his visibility was raised considerably in 2004 by a pair of projects. First, he acted alongside the likes of Oscar-winners Chris Cooper and Richard Dreyfuss in director John Sayles' highly-anticipated political film Silver City and then showed up opposite Jennifer Connelly and John C. Reilly in Dark Water.He starred in the 2007 Francis Coppola film Youth Without Youth as well as the English-language remake of Funny Games. He was one of the main players in 2008's The Incredible Hulk, then enjoyed a well-regarded run on the FOX procedural show Lie To Me. In 2010 he played the title character in Pete Smalls Is Dead, and two years later he acted opposite Richard Gere in the drama Arbitrage.

Trivia: Hard-working character actor James Remar has been mainly typecast as a psychopathic killer in a wide variety of thrillers, both blockbusters and low-budget straight-to-video. A native of Boston, he studied acting at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse and made his Broadway debut with Bent, opposite Richard Gere. His first major film role was gangster Ajax in Walter Hill's 1979 action drama The Warriors. The film gained a minor cult following and seemed to cement Remar's reputation as a bad guy. He would continue to work with director Hill for Windwalker (1980), 48 Hrs. (1982), and Wild Bill (1995).During the '80s, he played psycho gangster Dutch Schultz in Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club, a maniac killer in Rent-a-Cop, and a Neanderthal in The Clan of the Cave Bear. He got a little break in 1989 as the cop Gentry in Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy. During the '90s, he made a deal with the devil in Tales From the Darkside: The Movie and appeared in many movies that ended up on TV or home video. He had played so many villains that he was able to spoof himself as Max Shady in the comedic thriller parody Fatal Instinct. A few gentle comedy dramas followed with Penny Marshall's Renaissance Man and Herbert Ross' Boys on the Side.Many film roles opened up in the late '90s, from Victor Salva's independent comedy Rites of Passage to the big-budget Robert Zemeckis mystery What Lies Beneath. After playing Frank Cisco on the TV series Total Security, he showed up on HBO's Sex and the City as Richard, Samatha's (Kim Cattrall) rich boyfriend of the moment. He then joined the cast of the USA original series The Huntress as fugitive Tiny Bellows, the love interest of Dottie Thorson (Annette O'Toole). In 2003, he could be seen in feature films from the action moneymaker 2 Fast 2 Furious to the light comedy Duplex.

Trivia: Brooklynite Brenda Vaccaro was raised in Texas, where she began acting in amateur theatricals. She returned to New York to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse, securing stage and TV roles from 1961 onward. Vaccaro's first important film appearance was as Jon Voigt's "intellectual" vis-à-vis in the latter portions of Midnight Cowboy (1969). In 1971 she co-starred in Summertree with her longtime lover Michael Douglas; the eventual breakup of this relationship was made doubly traumatic by the disproportionate amount of press coverage it received. Shortly after earning an Oscar nomination for 1975's Once Is Not Enough, Brenda Vaccaro briefly became a weekly TV star, playing a 19th century frontier schoolteacher in Sara; she later appeared in another short-lived series, 1979's Dear Detective.

Trivia: Charming, handsome, and easy-going, lead actor and megastar Burt Reynolds entered the world on February 11, 1936. He attended Florida State University on a football scholarship, and became an all-star Southern Conference halfback, but - faced with a knee injury and a debilitating car accident - switched gears from athletics to college drama. In 1955, he dropped out of college and traveled to New York, in search of stage work, but only turned up occasional bit parts on television, and for two years he had to support himself as a dishwasher and bouncer.In 1957, Reynolds's ship came in when he appeared in a New York City Center revival of Mister Roberts; shortly thereafter, he signed a television contract. He sustained regular roles in the series Riverboat, Gunsmoke, Hawk, and Dan August. Although he appeared in numerous films in the 1960s, he failed to make a significant impression. In the early '70s, his popularity began to increase, in part due to his witty appearances on daytime TV talk shows. His breakthrough film, Deliverance (1972), established him as both a screen icon and formidable actor. That same year, Reynolds became a major sex symbol when he posed as the first nude male centerfold in the April edition of Cosmopolitan. He went on to become the biggest box-office attraction in America for several years - the centerpiece of films such as Hustle (1975), Smokey and the Bandit (1977) (as well as its two sequels), The End (1978), Starting Over (1979), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), and The Man Who Loved Women (1983). However, by the mid-'80s, his heyday ended, largely thanks to his propensity for making dumb-dumb bumper-smashing road comedies with guy pals such as Hal Needham (Stroker Ace, The Cannonball Run 2). Reynolds's later cinematic efforts (such as the dismal Malone (1987)) failed to generate any box office sizzle, aside from a sweet and low-key turn as an aging career criminal in Bill Forsyth's Breaking In (1989). Taking this as a cue, Reynolds transitioned to the small screen, and starred in the popular sitcom Evening Shade, for which he won an Emmy. He also directed several films, created the hit Win, Lose or Draw game show with friend Bert Convy, and established the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theater in Florida. In the mid-'90s, Reynolds ignited a comeback that began with his role as a drunken, right-wing congressman in Andrew Bergman's Striptease (1996). Although the film itself suffered from critical pans and bombed out at the box office, the actor won raves for his performance, with many critics citing his comic interpretation of the role as one of the film's key strengths. His luck continued the following year, when Paul Thomas Anderson cast him as porn director Jack Horner in his acclaimed Boogie Nights. Reynolds would go on to earn a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, and between the twin triumphs of Striptease and Nights, critics read the resurgence as the beginning of a second wind in the Deliverance star's career, ala John Travolta's turnaround in 1994's Pulp Fiction. But all was not completely well chez Burt. A nasty conflict marred his interaction with Paul Thomas Anderson just prior to the release of Boogie Nights. It began with Reynolds's disastrous private screening of Nights; he purportedly loathed the picture so much that he phoned his agent after the screening and fired him. When the Anderson film hit cinemas and became a success d'estime, Reynolds rewrote his opinion of the film and agreed to follow Anderson on a tour endorsing the effort, but Reynolds understandably grew peeved when Anderson refused to let him speak publicly. Reynolds grew so infuriated, in fact, that he refused to play a role in Anderson's tertiary cinematic effort, 1999's Magnolia. Reynolds's went on to appear in a big screen adatpation of The Dukes of Hazzard as Boss Hogg, and later returned to drama with a supporting performance in the musical drama Broken Bridges; a low-key tale of a fading country music star that served as a feature debut for real-life country music singer Toby Kieth. Over the coming years, Reynolds would also enjoy occasional appearances on shows like My Name is Earl and Burn Notice.