Trivia: Giving new meaning to the term America's Sweetheart, Sandra Bullock won over scores of filmgoers and critics with her wholesome, exuberant portrayals of ordinary women in extraordinary circumstances. Since her breakthrough role as Speed's unwitting heroine, Bullock has enjoyed the type of popularity that was in the past reserved for actresses along the lines of Mary Pickford or Shirley Temple.Born in Washington, D.C., on July 26, 1964, Bullock was the elder daughter of a vocal coach dad and an opera singer mom. Touring through Europe with her mother, Bullock was given her first taste of show business while still a child. Back in the States, she attended high school in Virginia and was a popular cheerleader, whose classmates dubbed her the person Most Likely to Brighten Your Day. After a stint at East Carolina University, Bullock took her sunny nature to New York, where she began concentrating on an acting career. After tending bar and studying her craft with dramatician Sanford Meisner, she got her start with a number of stage productions. It was for one of these productions, the off-Broadway No Time Flat, that Bullock received a rave review for her portrayal of a Southern belle, the strength of which was enough to land her an agent. Television work followed, with a small role in the 1989 Bionic Showdown: The Six-Million-Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman and, after her migration to Los Angeles, Melanie Griffith's role in the short-lived television version of Working Girl. Miraculously surviving the widespread career fallout that surrounded her first starring film role in Love Potion No. 9 (1992), the actress went on the following year to star in the similarly ill-fated The Thing Called Love. However, things began to look up the same year when the struggling actress became the last-minute replacement for Lori Petty in the Sylvester Stallone action flick Demolition Man. Though her role was essentially limited to intermittent saliva exchanges with Stallone, her performance won the attention of the film's producer, Joel Silver, who in turn recommended her to Jan de Bont. De Bont, then in the process of casting his upcoming bus-with-a-bomb action film, chose the struggling actress for the part of Annie, the film's reluctant heroine. In casting Bullock against Keanu Reeves, de Bont reportedly came up against considerable resistance from studio executives, who wanted someone blonde and buxom for the part. The director persevered and, in 1994, Bullock took her place in movie history as part of Speed, one of the most successful action films ever made. The film propelled the actress to stardom, surprising no one more than Bullock herself, who later remarked, "never in a million years did I think a bus movie would open every door I ever possibly wanted open."Doors now wide open, Bullock next starred in the 1995 romantic comedy While You Were Sleeping. The film was a critical and commercial hit, and the actress followed it up with a screen adaptation of John Grisham's A Time to Kill, co-starring Ashley Judd and Matthew McConaughey. The success of that film was the last that Bullock would enjoy for a while, as she then entered something of a sophomore slump with disappointments such as In Love and War (1996), Two If By Sea (1996), and, perhaps most excruciating, Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997). Fortunately for Bullock, her audiences seemed to be inclined to forgive and forget, and she had a modest rebound with the following year's Hope Floats, which also happened to be the first project of the production company she founded, Fortis Films. The same year, Bullock also starred in another romantic comedy, Practical Magic, opposite Nicole Kidman. The film provided another modest success for Bullock, who, back in the saddle again, proceeded to do yet another romantic comedy, this time starring with Ben Affleck in Forces of Nature (1999). Although the film proved to be a critical and commercial disappointment, Bullock was back on the radar with a number of projects in 2000, including the critically disembowelled comedy Gun Shy and 28 Days, a comedy that starred the actress as a newspaper columnist forced to enter rehab after her drinking problem assumes uncontrollable proportions. Following her role in Miss Congeniality (2000) as an FBI agent forced to go undercover in the Miss U.S.A. beauty pagent in order to prevent a bombing, Bullock faced off against a more low-key menace in the thriller Murder By Numbers (2002) before returning to lighthearted drama with Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (also 2002). Her status as the reigning queen of the chick flick permanantly established, Bullock next teamed with Hugh Grant for the amiable romantic comedy Two Weeks Notice before taking a two year furlough from the big screen - during which time she would assume the duty of executive producer for the George Lopez show in addition to turning in the occasional guest appearance. In 2005, Bullock found herself at the center of Oscar talk when she essayed the role of the racist wife of a prominant district attorney in Paul Haggis' critically acclaimed drama Crash. An unflinching look at racism in the multicultural melting pot of Los Angeles, Crash defied expectations to take home best editing, best screenplay, and best motion picture at the 77th Annual Academy Awards. That same year, a return to her role as bumbling undercover FBI agent Gracie Heart in Miss Congeniality 2 found Bullock returning to familiar lighthearted territory, although the sequel performed far more poorly than the first film. With her role as a lovelorn doctor who discovers a curious rift in time in 2006's romantic fantasy The Lake House (a remake of the 2000 South Korean film Siworae), the actress marked a graceful return to swooning, romantic pictures, not to mention a reteaming with her Speed man Keanu Reeves. Determined to remain firmly planted in serious acting, Bullock singed on to play author Harper Lee in the movie Infamous which, because of its unfortunate timing, was swallowed by comparisons to the film Capote, and went largely unnoticed. Undaunted, Bullock singed on for the supernatural thriller Premonition, about a woman who experiences shifts in the events of the universe and must use the visions to prevent her husband's death.2009 turned out to be one of the popular actresses most memorable years. In addition to producing and playing the lead in the smash hit romantic comedy The Proposal, Bullock earned the best reviews of her career as a protective mother helping raise a struggling high-school football player in The Blind Side. For her work in that movie, Bullock won the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actress, not to mention the Oscar for Best Leading Actress. Fresh off her win, Bullock next took on another dramatic film, the post-9/11 drama Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. She starred in 2013's Gravity, opposite George Clooney, earning herself a second Oscar nomination. In 2015, she starred in, and produced, Our Brand Is Crisis.

Trivia: Actress Ellen Burstyn enjoyed her greatest prominence during the '70s, a decade during which she was a virtual fixture of Academy Award voters' ballots. Born Edna Rae Gillooly in Detroit, MI, on December 7, 1932, as a teen she studied dancing and performed in an acrobatic troupe. She later became a model for paperback book covers, subsequently dancing in a Montréal nightclub under the name "Keri Flynn." In 1954, she was tapped to appear as a Gleason Girl on television's Jackie Gleason Show, and in 1957, she made her Broadway debut in Fair Game, again with a new stage name, "Ellen McRae." While in New York, Burstyn studied acting under Stella Adler, and later married theatrical director Paul Roberts. She briefly relocated to Los Angeles for television work but soon returned east to work at the Actors' Studio. She made her film debut in 1964's For Those Who Think Young, quickly followed by Goodbye Charlie. The cinema did not yet suit her, however, and she spent the remainder of the decade appearing on the daytime soap opera The Doctors.It was after marrying her third husband, actor Neil Burstyn, that she adopted the name most familiar to audiences, and was so billed in 1969's film adaptation of Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer. While the picture was unsuccessful, it did attract the notice of director Paul Mazursky, who cast her in his 1970 project Alex in Wonderland. Burstyn then began a string of high-profile films which established her among the preeminent actresses of the decade: The first, Peter Bogdanovich's 1971 masterpiece The Last Picture Show, earned her a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination, but she lost out to co-star Cloris Leachman. Burstyn next appeared opposite Jack Nicholson in Bob Rafelson's acclaimed The King of Marvin Gardens before starring in William Friedkin's 1973 horror hit The Exorcist, a performance which earned her a Best Actress nomination. For Mazursky, she co-starred in the whimsical 1974 tale Harry and Tonto, and then appeared in a well-received TV feature, Thursday's Game.However, it was 1974's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore which truly launched Burstyn to stardom. Warner Bros. had purchased the screenplay at her insistence two years earlier, but her efforts to bring it to the screen were met with considerable resistance. Her first choice for director was Francis Ford Coppola, who declined, but he suggested she approach Martin Scorsese. In the wake of Mean Streets, Scorsese was eager to attempt a "woman's film," and agreed to take the project on. The result was a major critical and commercial success, and on her third attempt Burstyn finally won an Oscar. That same year, she won a Tony for her work on Broadway in the romantic drama Same Time, Next Year, the first actress to score both honors during the same awards season since Audrey Hepburn two decades prior. However, upon wrapping up her theatrical run, Burstyn was not besieged by the offers so many expected her to receive. In fact, she did not appear onscreen for three years, finally resurfacing in Alain Resnais' Providence.The film was not a success, nor was 1978's Jules Dassin-helmed A Dream of Passion. With co-star Alan Alda, Burstyn reprised her Broadway performance in a 1978 feature version of Same Time, Next Year, but it too failed to meet expectations, although she was again Oscar-nominated. After a two-year hiatus, she starred in Resurrection, followed in 1981 by Silence of the North, which went directly to cable television. For the networks, she starred in 1981's The People vs. Jean Harris, based on the notorious "Scarsdale diet" murder. After 1984's The Ambassador, Burstyn co-starred in the following year's Twice in a Lifetime, which was to be her last feature film for some years. She instead turned almost exclusively to television, appearing in a series of TV movies and starring in a disastrously short-lived 1986 sitcom, The Ellen Burstyn Show. Finally, in 1988, she returned to cinemas in Hanna's War, followed three years later by Dying Young. Other notable projects of the decade included 1995's How to Make an American Quilt, The Spitfire Grill (1996), and the 1998 ensemble drama Playing by Heart, in which she played the mother of a young man dying of AIDS. If her success and talents had eluded younger audiences for the past decade all of that would change with Burstyn's role as the delusional mother of a heroin addict in Darren Aranofsky's grim addiction drama Requiem for a Dream. An adaptation of Hubert Selby, Jr.'s novel of the same name, Burstyn's heartbreaking performance as an abandoned mother whose dreams come shattering down around proved an Oscar nominated performance. She subsequently appeared in such made-for-television dramas as Dodson's Journey and Within These Walls (both 2001) and such films as Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Cross the Line (both 2002). Burstyn appeared in a variety of well-received television films including Mrs. Harris and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and had a role in the short-lived series The Book of Daniel. She maintained her presence on the big screen by reteaming with Arronofsky in his big-budget tale The Fountain, and she appeared in Neil La Bute's remake of The Wicker Man. Burstyn was soon gearing up to reteam with Aranofsky for the time travel fantasy thriller The Fountain. She continued to work steadily in various projects such as the political biopic W.; Lovely, Still; and played a stern matriarch in the indie drama Another Happy Day.

Trivia: Breathes there a theatergoer or film fan on Earth who has not, at one time or another, fallen in love with the sublimely brilliant British comedic actress Dame Maggie Smith? The daughter of an Oxford University pathologist, Smith received her earliest acting training at the Oxford Playhouse School. In 1952, she made her professional stage bow as Viola in Twelfth Night. Four years later she was on Broadway, performing comedy routines in Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1956; that same year, she made her first, extremely brief screen appearance in Child in the House (she usually refers to 1959's Nowhere to Go as her screen debut).In 1959, Smith joined the Old Vic, and in 1962 won the first of several performing honors, the London Evening Standard Award, for her work in the West End production The Private Ear/The Public Eye. Her subsequent theatrical prizes include the 1963 and 1972 Variety Club awards for Mary Mary and Private Lives, respectively, and the 1990 Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway play Lettice and Lovage. In addition, Smith has won Oscars for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and California Suite (1978), and British Film Academy awards for A Private Function (1985), A Room With a View (1986), and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987).These accolades notwithstanding, Smith has had no qualms about accepting such "lightweight" roles as lady sleuth Dora Charleston (a delicious Myrna Loy takeoff) in Murder By Death (1976), the aging Wendy in Steven Spielberg's Peter Pan derivation Hook (1991), and the Mother Superior in Whoopi Goldberg's Sister Act films of the early '90s. During the same decade, she also took more serious roles in Richard III (1995), Washington Square (1997), and Tea With Mussolini (1999). On a lighter note, her role in director Robert Altman's Gosford Park earned Smith her sixth Oscar nomination. She earned a whole new generation of fans during the first decade of the next century when she was cast as Professor McGonagall in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, a part she would return to for each of the film's phenomenally successful sequels. She worked in other films as well including Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Becoming Jane, and Nanny McPhee Returns. In 2010 she earned rave reviews for her work in the television series Downton Abbey.Made a Dame Commander in 1989, Smith was elected to the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1994. Previously married to the late actor Sir Robert Stephens, she is the wife of screenwriter Beverly Cross and the mother of actors Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin.

Trivia: Educated in Switzerland and England, Irish actress Fionnula Flanagan studied for her trade at Dublin's Abbey Theatre. With her portrayal of Gerty McDowell in the 1967 film version of Ulysses, Flanagan established herself as one of the foremost interpreters of James Joyce. She made her 1968 Broadway bow in Brian Friel's Lovers then appeared in such Joycean theatrical projects as Ulysses in Nighttown and James Joyce's Women (1977). The last-named project earned her "Critic's Circle" awards in Los Angeles and San Francisco; it was subsequently committed to film in 1988, with Flanagan repeating her portrayal of Harriet Shaw Weaver. A familiar presence in American television, Flanagan has appeared in several made-for-TV movies, among them The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975), Mary White (1977), The Ewok Adventure (1984) and A Winner Never Quits (1986). She won an Emmy for her work as Clothilde in the 1976 network miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man. Fionnula Flanagan's weekly-series stints have included Aunt Molly Culhane in How the West Was Won (1977), which earned her a second Emmy nomination; Lt. Guyla Cook in Hard Copy (1987) and Kathleen Meacham, wife of police chief John Mahoney (another transplant from the British Isles) in Help (1990).

Trivia: Was a child extra, along with her siblings, in the 1955 film Picnic. Studied opera and journalism before acting. While a drama student of Jeff Corey and Lee Strasberg, classmates included Jack Nicholson, Sally Kellerman, Dean Stockwell and Robert Blake. First TV role was in 1957 on NBC's Matinee Theater; playing a teen mother opposite Michael Landon. Made her Broadway debut in a 1964 revival of the Anton Chekhov play The Three Sisters, directed by Strasberg and co-starring Geraldine Page. Received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Lake Forest College in 1979.

Trivia: Blessed with a rare combination of beauty, brains, and talent, actress Ashley Judd spent the 1990s gaining critical acclaim, industry respect, and a broad fan base that made her one of the most in-demand actresses of the latter half of the decade.The daughter of country-music superstar Naomi Judd and the younger half-sister of singer Wynonna Judd, Judd was born in Los Angeles, on April 19, 1968. A single parent, her mother supported Judd and her sister by taking odd jobs in California and Kentucky. The actress spent her first 13 years shuttling between the two states and attended 12 different schools, often living in poverty in remote areas of Kentucky. With no external sources of entertainment, Judd read books and amused herself by pretending to be various characters while her sister and mother whiled away the time singing. Their singing paid off; after Naomi and Wynonna Judd became country-music sensations, the family was finally able to leave their financial hardship in the past. Judd went on to attend the University of Kentucky, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1990 with a degree in French.At her sister's encouragement, Judd, blessed with an outgoing, forthright nature, was able to secure an agent on her first try and, in 1987, won a part on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. She went on to do more TV, landing a recurring role as Swoosie Kurtz's daughter on Sisters in 1991 (she stayed with the show until 1994). The following year, she made her film debut with a small part in Kuffs (1992). She was originally meant to have a larger part, but rejected it when she learned of a nude scene. The actress' first major film role was in the hit independent drama Ruby in Paradise (1993). She garnered considerable acclaim for her subtle, realistic portrayal of a spoiled Tennessee heiress who runs away to sell tourist trinkets in a ramshackle resort, winning Best Actress at the 1994 Independent Spirit Awards. After filming Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, only to have her scenes end up on the cutting-room floor, Judd next found acclaim with her turn in the 1995 film Smoke, in which she played the pregnant, drug-addicted daughter of Harvey Keitel and Stockard Channing. The same year, she appeared in the much-lauded Heat, then went on to star with Mira Sorvino in the 1996 made-for-TV Marilyn Monroe biopic Norma Jean and Marilyn.Following a substantial role as Matthew McConaughey's wife in Joel Schumacher's adaptation of John Grisham's A Time to Kill in 1996, and a lead in the crime film A Normal Life (also 1996), Judd starred in the 1997 thriller Kiss the Girls. The film received mixed reviews but did decent business at the box office, further increasing Judd's glowing star wattage. She landed another lead role the following year, in the well-received drama Simon Birch and, in 1999, could be seen starring in Bruce Beresford's Double Jeopardy as an ex-convict planning revenge on those who framed her for a crime she did not commit. The film was a substantial box-office hit, further cementing Judd's arrival as a major Hollywood star. Judd didn't turn up again until 2004's Twisted, a crime thriller about a female homicide detective who finds herself at the center of a series of murders. That same year, she starred alongside Kevin Kline in the critically acclaimed De-Lovely, a musical biography of Cole Porter. She then laid low until a project by a truly legendary filmmaker came her way. William Friedkin, director of The Exorcist, cast her in the leading role in his 2007 psychological horror film Bug. A gritty, pared down thriller with a five person cast, Judd handled the disturbing project like a pro. Ready for something more grounded in reality, the actress next chose a project that dealt with issues ripped straight from the headlines, signing on to appear in Crossing Over, a film about immigrants struggling to obtain legal citizenship in the US.

Trivia: The son of an Oklahoma carpet layer, James Garner did stints in the Army and merchant marines before working as a model. His professional acting career began with a non-speaking part in the Broadway play The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (1954), in which he was also assigned to run lines with stars Lloyd Nolan, Henry Fonda, and John Hodiak. Given that talent roster, and the fact that the director was Charles Laughton, Garner managed to earn his salary and receive a crash course in acting at the same time. After a few television commercials, he was signed as a contract player by Warner Bros. in 1956. He barely had a part in his first film, The Girl He Left Behind (1956), though he was given special attention by director David Butler, who felt Garner had far more potential than the film's nominal star, Tab Hunter. Due in part to Butler's enthusiasm, Garner was cast in the Warner Bros. TV Western Maverick. The scriptwriters latched on to his gift for understated humor, and, before long, the show had as many laughs as shoot-outs. Garner was promoted to starring film roles during his Maverick run, but, by the third season, he chafed at his low salary and insisted on better treatment. The studio refused, so he walked out. Lawsuits and recriminations were exchanged, but the end result was that Garner was a free agent as of 1960. He did quite well as a freelance actor for several years, turning in commendable work in such films as Boys' Night Out (1962) and The Great Escape (1963), but was soon perceived by filmmakers as something of a less-expensive Rock Hudson, never more so than when he played Hudson-type parts opposite Doris Day in Move Over, Darling and The Thrill of It All! (both 1963).Garner fared rather better in variations of his Maverick persona in such Westerns as Support Your Local Sheriff (1969) and The Skin Game (1971), but he eventually tired of eating warmed-over stew; besides, being a cowboy star had made him a walking mass of injuries and broken bones. He tried to play a more peaceable Westerner in the TV series Nichols (1971), but when audiences failed to respond, his character was killed off and replaced by his more athletic twin brother (also Garner). The actor finally shed the Maverick cloak with his long-running TV series The Rockford Files (1974-1978), in which he played a John MacDonald-esque private eye who never seemed to meet anyone capable of telling the truth. Rockford resulted in even more injuries for the increasingly battered actor, and soon he was showing up on TV talk shows telling the world about the many physical activities which he could no longer perform. Rockford ended in a spirit of recrimination, when Garner, expecting a percentage of the profits, learned that "creative bookkeeping" had resulted in the series posting none. To the public, Garner was the rough-hewn but basically affable fellow they'd seen in his fictional roles and as Mariette Hartley's partner (not husband) in a series of Polaroid commercials. However, his later film and TV-movie roles had a dark edge to them, notably his likable but mercurial pharmacist in Murphy's Romance (1985), for which he received an Oscar nomination, and his multifaceted co-starring stints with James Woods in the TV movies Promise (1986) and My Name Is Bill W. (1989). In 1994, Garner came full circle in the profitable feature film Maverick (1994), in which the title role was played by Mel Gibson. With the exception of such lower-key efforts as the noir-ish Twilight (1998) and the made-for-TV thriller Dead Silence (1997), Garner's career in the '90s found the veteran actor once again tapping into his latent ability to provoke laughs in such efforts as Space Cowboys (2000) while maintaining a successful small-screen career by returning to the role of Jim Rockford in several made-for-TV movies. He provided a voice for the popular animatedfeature Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and appeared in the comedy-drama The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002). Garner enjoyed a career resurgance in 2003, when he joined the cast of TV's 8 Simple Rules, acting as a sort of replacement for John Ritter, who had passed away at the beginning of the show's second season. He next appeared in The Notebook (2004), which earned Garner a Screen Actors Guild nomination and also poised him to win the Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award. His last on-screen role was a small supporting role in The Ultimate Gift (2007). In 2008, Garner suffered a stroke and retired acting. He died in 2014, at age 86.

Trivia: Breakout film role came in 1992's Romper Stomper as Russell Crowe's love interest; she received the Stockholm International Film Festival's Best Actress award for her performance. Won two awards in 1995 from the Australian Film Institute for her performances as a multiple-personality sufferer in an episode of the Australian TV series Halifax F.P. and a schizophrenic in the film Angel Baby. Starred in a 2001 production of Proof at the Sydney Opera House. Took up painting after she was encouraged to help decorate the set of an artist's studio for Paul Cox's independent film Human Touch. Contributed a song called "Shy Baby" to the soundtrack of her USA Network series The 4400.

Trivia: At age 19, Matthew Settle moved to New York City and joined a rock band. When his lack of musical talent eventually forced him to rethink his career, he chose to become an actor. Numerous drama classes, failed pilots, and television films later, this Johnny-come-lately to the movie business landed his first high-profile role as the oldest principal cast member in the teen scream flick I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998). He was almost 29 years old.Born on September 17, 1969, in Hickory, NC, Settle is the youngest of two girls and four boys. In 1983, his father, a Baptist preacher, and his mother, a church organist, relocated the family to Sevierville, TN. Settle sold records at Dolly Parton's nearby theme park, Dollywood, before deciding to become a musician himself. After getting kicked out of his New York-based rock group, he hawked meat and seafood off a truck on Long Island before Jay Julian, Robert De Niro's lawyer, got him into acting school. Settle borrowed money from friends to afford the classes, and then moved out to Los Angeles to begin his career.Settle made his small-screen debut opposite Sarah Paulson as an Irish-American settler in the 1996 CBS pilot Shaughnesy. He went on to portray a frat boy in the movie of the week What Happened to Bobby Earl? (1997) with Kate Jackson and Kristian Alfonso, land a small role in the television film Murder in Mind (1997) with Ellen Burstyn and Kristin Davis, and play Green Lantern in the pilot for Justice League of America (1997) with David Ogden Stiers and Miguel Ferrer. In 1998, Settle graduated to feature films when he starred as Jennifer Love Hewitt's deceptively perfect college boyfriend in the thriller I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, the much-hyped sequel to I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). After a brief return to television to play a young Bugsy Siegel in the Emmy-nominated HBO biopic Lansky (1998) and real-life teenage rapist Alex Kelly in the CBS television film Crime in Connecticut: The Story of Alex Kelly (1999), Settle joined Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, and Harvey Keitel in the cast of the World War II submarine film U-571 (2000).Settle's next two films, The In Crowd (2000) and Attraction (2000), were psychosexual thrillers that failed both critically and commercially. In fact, after a disappointing premiere at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival, Attraction went straight to video. Yet, Settle's work in U-571 helped him join David Schwimmer, Ron Livingston, and Donnie Wahlberg as the officers of Easy Company in HBO's unforgettable World War II miniseries Band of Brothers. Executive-produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, the series earned unprecedented acclaim and garnered numerous awards, including the Golden Globe for Best Miniseries.After returning home from Band of Brothers' European shoot, Settle began taking fencing instruction, sailing classes, and tap-dancing lessons in an effort to widen his skills as actor. He landed a guest-starring role on five episodes of NBC's ER as Brian Westlake, the abusive young husband of Maura Tierney's next-door neighbor. Shortly after his ER stint ended, Settle appeared as Ashley Judd's love interest in Callie Khouri's Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002), which also featured Sandra Bullock, Ellen Burstyn, James Garner, and Maggie Smith. He went on to play Warren Beatty in The Mystery of Natalie Wood and had a major part in The Celestine Prophecy. In 2007 he was cast in the hit teen soap opera Gossip Girl as Rufus Humphrey.No stranger to the theater, Settle has also performed on-stage in productions of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park, Eugene O'Neill's Beyond the Horizon, William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and Anton Chekov's The Seagull.

Trivia: Well known as a premiere theater actress and an advocate for gay rights, Cherry Jones has also appeared in a number of high-profile films. Born and raised in Tennessee, Jones headed north to study drama at Carnegie Mellon University. A founding member of the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA, Jones spent the early years of her professional career performing in a wide range of plays. After she relocated to New York, Jones acted in numerous Broadway productions, including Angels in America, The Night of the Iguana, Our Country's Good, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. Her performance as the lonely heroine in the 1995 production of The Heiress earned Jones several awards, including the Tony. Even as she became a theater star, Jones added TV and films to her repertoire in the 1980s, with supporting roles in the TV docudrama Alex: The Life of a Child (1986) and Paul Schrader's Light of Day (1987). Though drama was her primary forte, Jones also appeared in the hit comedies Housesitter (1992) and A League of Their Own (1992). After several years of stage work, Jones returned to films in the independent black comedy Julian Po (1997), and Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer (1998). Jones brought an air of forceful integrity to her roles as the embattled head of the Federal Theater Project in Tim Robbins' 1930s tapestry Cradle Will Rock (1999) and as one of the chemical contamination victims in Steven Soderbergh's Erin Brockovich (2000). Unabashedly out since her professional debut at age 21, Jones made theater history of sorts when she thanked her same-sex domestic partner from the podium when she won her Tony for The Heiress. Jones added her voice to Out of the Past (1998), a documentary about the struggles of the gay rights movement throughout U.S. history, and co-starred in the TV movie about lesbian parents, What Makes a Family (2001).Continuing to take smaller roles in big movies between her stage work, Jones followed Erin Brockovich with a turn as one of the residents on land forced to come to grips with the tragic effects of The Perfect Storm (2000). Back on summer movie screens two years later in two heavily hyped releases, Jones was one of the many oddly monikered women populating the eccentric female universe in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002). In M. Night Shyamalan's spiritual science fiction hit Signs (2002), Jones quietly shined with her gentle yet no-nonsense performance as the local cop who gets involved in teasing out the meaning of the crop circles in anguished father Mel Gibson's corn field. Both Soderbergh and Shyamalan would continue to feature her such films as Ocean's Twelve and The Village, as Jones continued to rack up acclaim for her stage work, including a Best Actress Tony in 2005 for John Patrick Shanley's Doubt. In 2007 Fox announced that Jones would be portraying the first female president on the seventh season of 24.In 2009 she would play a first lady embodying Eleanor Roosevelt in the biopic Amelia, and had a busy 2011 appearing in Jodie Foster's The Beaver as well as Garry Marshall's ensemble romantic comedy New Year's Eve. She returned to TV in 2012 with a role in the series Awake.

Trivia: A product of Scotland, Angus MacFadyen possesses a burly build, deeply expressive eyes, and enviable charisma. He first made an impression on an international audience with his portrayal of Robert the Bruce in Braveheart (1995). Born in 1964, MacFadyen had a nomadic upbringing; thanks to his father's job with the World Health Organization, he spent his childhood and adolescence in places no less diverse than Africa, Australia, France, the Philippines, Singapore, and Denmark. He went on to attend the University of Edinburgh and received theatrical training at the Central School of Speech and Drama. MacFadyen got his professional start on the Edinburgh stage, appearing in a number of productions at the famed Fringe Festival. Breaking into television in the early '90s, MacFadyen appeared in a number of series for the BBC, including an acclaimed adaptation of David Leavitt's The Lost Language of Cranes (1992). Following the critical and commercial success of Braveheart, the actor got a rudimentary dose of recognition across the Atlantic, but remained largely unknown outside of the U.K. He starred with Gabriel Byrne and Bill Campbell in the World War II drama The Brylcreem Boys in 1996, playing a German pilot being held captive in neutral Ireland. Until 1998, when he portrayed Peter Lawford in the made-for-cable The Rat Pack, MacFadyen's other screen appearances tended to be in films that were widely ignored by audiences and critics alike. The sort of attention surrounding The Rat Pack paled in comparison to that surrounding MacFadyen's films the following year. In 1999, the actor could be seen in two highly publicized films, first playing Orson Welles in Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock and then starring as Lucius, son of the title character in Julie Taymor's Titus, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. Before returning to the big screen in such efforts as Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Equilibrium (both 2002), MacFayden took a brief turn as Zues in the made-for-television Jason and the Argonauts (2000) and turned up in such low-budget efforts as Second Skin and A Woman's a Helluva Thing (both 2000).

Trivia: Fairly well-known in her native Britain for her work on such television series as Our Friend in the North, The Brass Eye, and The Lenny Henry Show, Gina McKee started earning recognition among transatlantic audiences with her work in a series of films during the late '90s.McKee made her film debut in 1988, when she had a bit part as a nurse in Ken Russell's Lair of the White Worm, a camp-fest starring a then-unknown Hugh Grant. Although McKee would eventually work with Grant again eleven years later in Notting Hill, in the meantime she played bit roles in such films as The Rachel Papers (1989) and Mike Leigh's Naked (1993). In 1999 McKee could be seen in a major role in the aforementioned Notting Hill; over the course of that same year, she did more substantial work in Michael Winterbottom's ensemble family drama Wonderland, and Women Talking Dirty, the latter of which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. McKee also had secondary roles in Mike Figgis' The Loss of Sexual Innocence and Luc Besson's The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc.

Trivia: A graduate of Elmhurst College and the University of Chicago, David Rasche's off-Broadway debut was in the 1976 production John. Rasche went on to co-star in Michael Cristofer's Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Shadow Box. In movies since 1979's Manhattan, Rasche was especially active in made-for-TV features like Special Bulletin, in which he was cast as anti-nuke activist Dr. David McKeeson. Obsessive roles of this nature led to David Rasche's most famous characterization: the merciless, gun-worshipping eponymous detective in the satirical TV sitcom Sledge Hammer (1986-88).

Trivia: Boyishly handsome in a Rob Lowe sort of way, Boyd Kestner's career in front of the camera gained increasing momentum in the early to mid-'90s with roles in such television series as The Outsiders and Knot's Landing, eventually resulting in a feature career that pointed to great things ahead in the early years of the new millennium. A Manassas, VA, native who fell into acting after relocating to New York City, Kestner didn't find his true calling until laboring as a bartender among legions of aspiring actors. Prompted by his peers to take acting classes, and soon thereafter embarking on a seemingly endless series of auditions, Kestner finally got his break when he landed a role in the short-lived television series The Outsiders. Later toiling in made-for-television movies and minor film roles, fate once again smiled on Kestner when he landed his first major film role in director Ridley Scott's G.I. Jane (1997). The first in a series of minor roles in such major Hollywood films as The General's Daughter (1999) and Hannibal (2001, again with director Scott), Kestner's role as a houseguest who wears out his welcome in the psychosexual thriller Cleopatra's Second Husband (1998) earned him critical kudos and found him climbing the credit rungs. Taking his menacing act on the road for Snakeskin (2001) found Kestner establishing himself as an actor with the ability to maintain a curiously enigmatic screen presence, with roles in Scott's Black Hawk Down (also 2001) and the affectionate 2002 comedy-drama Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood coinciding with a relocation to the West Coast and pointing to a promising future.

Trivia: Actor Robert Longstreet appeared onscreen beginning in the mid-2000s, typically in supporting roles and bit parts. His credits include the films Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002), Ball of Wax (2003), Low and Behold (2006), and Great World of Sound (2007).

Trivia: Nina Repeta may be best known for the role of Bessie Potter on the popular teen drama Dawson's Creek. Having attended East Carolina University with the show's creator, Kevin Williamson, Repeta had the inside track, but her resumé also includes roles in films like Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and the TV series Matlock.