Trivia: Known almost as much for his off-screen pastimes as his on-screen characterizations, Woody Harrelson is an actor for whom truth is undeniably stranger than fiction. Son of a convicted murderer, veteran of multiple arrests, outspoken environmentalist, and tireless hemp proponent, Harrelson is colorful even by Hollywood standards. However, he is also a strong, versatile actor, something that tends to be obscured by the attention paid to his real-life antics. Born in Midland, TX, on July 23, 1961, Harrelson grew up in Lebanon, OH. He began his acting career there, appearing in high-school plays. He also went professional around this time, making his small-screen debut in Harper Valley P.T.A. (1978) alongside Barbara Eden. While studying acting in earnest, Harrelson attended Indiana's Hanover College; following his graduation, he had his first speaking part (one line only) in the 1986 Goldie Hawn vehicle Wildcats. On the stage, Harrelson understudied in the Neil Simon Broadway comedy Biloxi Blues (he was briefly married to Simon's daughter Nancy) and at one point wrote a play titled Furthest From the Sun. His big break came in 1985, when he was cast as the sweet-natured, ingenuous bartender Woody Boyd on the TV sitcom Cheers. To many, he is best remembered for this role, for which he won a 1988 Emmy and played until the series' 1993 conclusion. During his time on Cheers, Harrelson also played more serious roles in made-for-TV movies such as Bay Coven (1987), and branched out to the big screen with roles in such films as Casualties of War (1989) and Doc Hollywood (1991). Harrelson's big break as a movie star came with Ron Shelton's 1992 sleeper White Men Can't Jump, a buddy picture in which he played a charming (if profane) L.A. hustler. His next film was a more serious drama, Indecent Proposal (1993), wherein he was miscast as a husband whose wife sleeps with a millionaire in exchange for a fortune. In 1994, Harrelson appeared as an irresponsible rodeo rider in the moronic buddy comedy The Cowboy Way, which proved to be an all-out clinker. That film's failings, however, were more than overshadowed by his other film that year, Oliver Stone's inflammatory Natural Born Killers. Playing one of the film's titular psychopaths, Harrelson earned both raves and a sizable helping of controversy for his complex performance. Following work in a couple of low-rated films, Harrelson again proved his mettle, offering another multi-layered performance as real life pornography magnate Larry Flynt in the controversial People Vs. Larry Flynt (1996). The performance earned Harrelson an Oscar nomination. The next year, he earned further praise for his portrayal of a psychotic military prisoner in Wag the Dog. He then appeared as part of an all-star lineup in Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line (1998), and in 1999 gave a hilarious performance as Matthew McConaughey's meathead brother in EdTV. That same year, he lent his voice to one of his more passionate causes, acting as the narrator for Grass, a documentary about marijuana. In 2000, Harrelson starred in White Men collaborator Ron Shelton's boxing drama Play It to the Bone as an aspiring boxer who travels to Las Vegas to find fame and fortune, but ends up competing against his best friend (Antonio Banderas). The actor temporarily retired from the big screen in 2001 and harkened back to his television roots, with seven appearances as Nathan, the short-term downstairs boyfriend to Debra Messing's Grace, in producer David Kohan's long-running hit Will and Grace (1998-2006). After his return to television, Harrelson seemed content to land supporting roles for several years. He reemerged in cineplexes with twin 2003 releases. In that year's little-seen Scorched, an absurdist farce co-starring John Cleese and Alicia Silverstone, Harrelson plays an environmentalist and animal activist who seeks retribution on Cleese's con-man for the death of one of his pet ducks. Unsurprisingly, most American critics didn't even bother reviewing the film, and it saw extremely limited release. Harrelson contributed a cameo to the same year's Jack Nicholson/Adam Sandler vehicle Anger Mangement, and a supporting role to 2004's critically-panned Spike Lee opus She Hate Me. The tepid response to these films mirrored those directed at After the Sunset (2004), Brett Ratner's homage to Alfred Hitchcock. Harrelson stars in the diamond heist picture as federal agent Stan Lloyd, opposite Pierce Brosnan's master thief Max Burdett. Audiences had three chances to catch Harrelson through the end of 2005; these included Mark Mylod's barely-released, Fargo-esque crime comedy The Big White , with Robin Williams and Holly Hunter; Niki Caro's October 2005 sexual harrassment docudrama North Country, starring Charlize Theron; and the gifted Jane Anderson's period drama Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio. In the latter, Harrelson plays, Leo 'Kelly' Ryan, the drunken, increasingly violent husband of lead Julianne Moore, who manages to hold her family together with a steady stream of sweepstakes wins in the mid-fifties, as alcoholism and the financial burden of ten children threaten to either tear the family apart or send it skidding into abject poverty. Harrelson then joined the cast of maestro auteur Robert Altman's ensemble comedy-drama A Prairie Home Companion (2006), a valentine to Garrison Keillor's decades-old radio program with a strong ensemble cast that includes Meryl Streep, Lindsay Lohan and Kevin Kline. He also works wonders as a key contributor to the same year's Richard Linklater sci-fi thriller Through a Scanner Darkly, an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's 1977 novel that, like one of the director's previous efforts, 2001's Waking Life, uses rotoscoping to animate over live-action footage. It opened in July 2006 to uniformly strong reviews. As Ernie Luckman, one of the junkie hangers-on at Robert Arctor's (Keanu Reeves) home, Harrelson contributes an effective level of despondency to his character, amid a first-rate cast. After Harrelson shot Prairie and Scanner, the trades announced that he had signed up to star in Paul Schrader's first UK-produced feature, Walker, to co-star Kristin Scott-Thomas, Lauren Bacall, Ned Beatty, Lily Tomlin and Willem Dafoe. Harrelson portrays the lead, a Washington, D.C.-based female escort; Schrader informed the trades that he envisions the character as something similar to what American Gigolo's Julian Kaye would become in middle-age. Shooting began in March 2006. He also signed on, in June of the same year, to join the cast of the Coen Bros.' 2007 release No Country for Old Men, which would capture the Academy Award for Best Picture. Harrelson showed off his versatility in 2008 by starring in the Will Ferrell basketball comedy Semi-Pro as well as the thriller Transsiberian. He continued to prove himself capable of just about any part the next year with his entertaining turn in the horror comedy Zombieland, and his powerful work as a damaged soldier in Oren Moverman's directorial debut The Messenger. For his work in that movie, Harrelson captured his second Academy Award nomination, as well as nods from the Golden Globes, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the Screen Actors Guild - in addition to winning the Best Supporting Actor award from the National Board of Review. In 2012, the actor appeared as the flawed but loyal mentor to two young adults forced to compete to the death in the film adaptation of author Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games.

Trivia: Making an art out of portraying dysfunctional losers and likable freaks, Steve Zahn worked for years before getting his due as one of the most engaging and unconventionally gifted actors in Hollywood. Hailing from Marshall, MN, where he was born in 1968, Zahn was first introduced to improvisational acting in high school. Following a year at Gustavus-Adolphus College, he was accepted at the prestigious American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA, where he trained for two years. After completing his tenure there, Zahn settled in Hoboken, NJ, and tried to support himself with acting in New York, working a variety of odd jobs on the side. He found work in various theater productions, including a 13-month road tour of Bye, Bye Birdie, which provided both steady employment and an introduction to his wife, who was a dancer in the musical.Zahn's break came when he was cast in Sophistry, a play that also starred Ethan Hawke. His performance was seen by Ben Stiller, who offered him a role in his upcoming film, Reality Bites. Zahn took the part of Sammy, Winona Ryder's amiable, slightly conflicted gay friend. The film, which was released in 1994, was actually Zahn's second feature, the first being the 1993 drama Rain Without Thunder. Reality Bites met with relative success and helped to jump-start not only Zahn's career, but those of Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo, as well. Zahn proceeded to take a significant role in Eric Bogosian's play SubUrbia and his work in the production led to his casting in the 1995 submarine thriller Crimson Tide, starring Denzel Washington. The following year, he won a leading role in Tom Hanks' That Thing You Do! and subsequently re-created his SubUrbia role for the play's film adaptation, which also featured Giovanni Ribisi and Parker Posey. In 1998, Hollywood began to take notice of the actor, as he was featured in four different films. Three of them, You've Got Mail, Out of Sight, and The Object of My Affection, proved to be box-office successes; the other one, Safe Men, was released into general obscurity. The following year, Zahn made an appearance in the romantic comedy Forces of Nature, co-starring Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock, and had a leading role in Happy, Texas, which was released at Sundance. For his performance as a con artist forced to play gay, Zahn won a special acting award at the festival, a much-deserved token of appreciation for an actor as underrated as he is original.In the years that followed, Zahn elevated his portrayal of lovable losers to a virtual art form. Though he would head up an impressive cast in the 2000 feature Chain of Fools, the film would be inexplicably relegated to cinematic limbo and audiences would next catch an unexpected glimpse of the rising star in director Michael Almereyda's Hamlet (2000). If the following year's Saving Silverman found Zahn back to his usual antics, abysmal reviews and poor audience reaction quickly sunk the romantic comedy and audiences would catch their next glimpse of him in John Dahl's edge-of-your-seat thriller Joy Ride (also 2001). His portrayal of Drew Barrymore's character's well-intending but hopeless husband in the 2001 comedy drama Riding in Cars with Boys showed a dramatic side many audiences had yet to experience from Zahn, and after a brief break from the screen Zahn returned in 2003 with a pair of high profile comedies. After joining comedian/actor Martin Lawrence as one half of a pair of hapless security guards in the 2003 comedy National Security, Zahn attempted to bring up baby opposite actor/comedian Eddie Murphy in the family friendly comedy Daddy Day Care. A series of supporting performances in Shattered Glass, Speak and Employee of the Month (all 2004) were quick to follow, ensuring that audiences who couldn't get their fill of Zahn's unique and endearing quirkiness wouldn't be left out in the lurch for long.Behind the camera, Zahn has provided vocal work for such family films as Stuart Little (as well as its 2002 sequel), Doctor Dolittle 2 and Chicken Little (2005). In 2006, Zahn again tried his hand at more dramatic work with a role in the Werner Herzog POW film Rescue Dawn, but soon he was going back to his comedic roots with 2008's Sunshine Cleaning and Strange Wilderness. He was one of the stars of the thriller A Perfect Getaway in 2009. Zahn then changed gears by taking on the role of dad Frank Heffley in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

Trivia: A Briton with a long face and a slightly roguish look, Toby Kebbell's appearance might have led one to believe -- at the outset of his career -- that he would have been predestined for aggressive and slightly menacing character roles. Such is exactly what happened, though few could have foreseen the breadth that Kebbell imparted to his characterizations. The actor grew up in Newark, England, as the fourth of five children, and endured a parental divorce at the age of two; when he reached 15, he decided to drop out of school. It marked a risky bid, but within a few years his path intersected with that of the Carlton Television Workshop; he witnessed a performance by actor Johann Myers, and -- feeling deeply impressed -- decided to give acting a go by attending one of Carlton's "over 16" auditions. That gave Kebbell the direction and structure he needed to launch an acting career, while his formal training at Carlton under the aegis of the legendary Ian Smith imparted him with a need for exhaustive role preparation.Kebbell landed his first prominent role in Hollywood as Pausanius in Oliver Stone's flawed but successful epic Alexander (on Alexander the Great); he truly ascended to stardom and began drawing critical praises with top-tiered billing as Anthony, a mentally challenged young man whose older sibling (Paddy Considine) takes psychotic and violent revenge on the thugs who wronged his brother in the thriller Dead Man's Shoes (2004). The actor landed a bit part as a policeman in Woody Allen's thriller Match Point (2005) and eked out a memorably colorful role as a profanity-spewing DJ responsible for lifting Joy Division to stardom in Anton Corbijn's Ian Curtis bio Control (2007), then signed on to work for Guy Ritchie playing mercurial punk rocker Johnny Quid in Ritchie's explosive crime comedy RocknRolla (2008).

Trivia: Is of Honduran descent.Played professional soccer when he was young.Was selected in the United States Olympic Development Program.Was encouraged by his older brother to audition for his first movie.Is skilled at basketball.Is the co-founder of the West Coast Elite FC soccer club.Founded his own music label, G & B Music Group.

Trivia: Was a competitive figure skater when she was younger. Professional acting debut was in a 2006 stage production of 1984 in Edmonton. Played Nicky Hilton in 2008's Paparazzi Princess: The Paris Hilton Story. Had her breakthrough in 2009, appearing in TV movie Taken in Broad Daylight, TV show The Vampire Diaries and feature film Black Field.

Trivia: Sang in the British Columbia Boys Choir for most of his childhood. Made his TV debut at age 11 in the MacGyver episode "The Madonna." Studied opera while in college and performed in a Vancouver opera troupe; occasionally appeared as a guest artist with the University of British Columbia Ensemble. Has worked as a sound designer and composer on a number of small independent films. Frequently performs onstage in Vancouver when not filming.

Trivia: Actor Timothy Webber -- a tough-looking, stark-featured character player -- jump-started his career in early-'80s Canada and quickly amassed a substantial array of supporting roles on both sides of the border. Efforts included the 1981 and 1982 Genie winners for Best Picture, Ticket to Heaven and The Grey Fox, respectively; Tony Richardson's underrated John Irving adaptation The Hotel New Hampshire (1984); Alan Rudolph's period drama The Moderns (1988); and Michael Anderson's unusual science fiction outing Millennium (1989). Webber is perhaps best known, however, for his prominent regular role as Jerome on the prime-time seriocomedy Men in Trees (2006).

Trivia: His family moved from Jamaica to Vancouver when he was 11. His first airplane flight at age 11 inspired him to become a pilot. Acted in church and school plays, but never considered doing it professionally until after college, while waiting for a pilot job to open up. Worked as a stuntman on 21 Jump Street.

Trivia: Not to be confused with the right-wing U.S. political commentator of the same name, the distinguished-looking Australian character actor Jason Clarke burst onto the scene in the early 2000s with a series of critically praised and somewhat edgy roles. He began down under, opposite Aussie superstar Bryan Brown, in the crime thiller Risk (2000), and was particularly memorable two years later as a slimy constable in the politically tinged period docudrama Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002). Clarke then took on a four-episode guest role the Sci-Fi Channel's Farscape (2003), playing Jenek. After that, he signed for a lead role -- local politician Tommy Caffee -- in the acclaimed Showtime series Brotherhood, opposite Jason Isaacs. Over the coming years, Clarke would remain an active force on screen, appearing in films like Public Enemies, Trust, and Texas Killing Fields.

Trivia: Whether playing a punk rocker, an assassin, a war vet, or a ghoul, Gary Oldman has consistently amazed viewers with his ability to completely disappear into his roles. Though capable of portraying almost any type of character, Oldman has put his stamp on those of the twisted villain/morally ambiguous weirdo variety, earning renown for his interpretations of the darker side of human nature.Born Leonard Gary Oldman in New Cross, South London, on March 21, 1958, Oldman was raised by his mother and two sisters after his father, an alcoholic welder, left them when Oldman was seven. Nine years later, Oldman left high school to work in a sporting goods store; in his spare time, he studied literature and later acting under the tutelage of Roger Williams. He went on to act with the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and, after attending drama school on a scholarship, worked with the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow. Oldman next worked in London's West End, where, in 1985, he won a Best Actor and a Best Newcomer award for his performance in The Pope's Wedding. By this time, he had made his film debut in Remembrance (1982) and had appeared in two television movies, notably Honest, Decent and True (1985). Oldman got his first big break when he was cast as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), Alex Cox's disturbing docudrama account of the punk rocker's tragic relationship with Nancy Spungen. Oldman's unnervingly accurate portrayal of the doomed rocker won rave reviews and effectively propelled him out of complete obscurity. The following year, he turned in a completely different but equally superb performance as famed playwright Joe Orton in Stephen Frears' Prick Up Your Ears and earned a Best Actor nomination from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for his work. After moving to the U.S. that same year, Oldman appeared in Nicolas Roeg's Track 29 (1988), and in 1990, he had one of his most memorable -- to say nothing of cultish -- roles as Rosencrantz opposite Tim Roth as Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard's brilliant Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.Oldman's first American role in a major Hollywood film was that of alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in Oliver Stone's JFK (1991). He then gave a creepy, erotic performance in the title role of Francis Ford Coppola's rendition of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), a lavish film that proved to be the most commercially successful (next to JFK) of Oldman's career to date. In addition to playing such eccentrics as Drexl Spivey, a white pimp with dreadlocks who tries to prove himself a black Rastafarian in True Romance (1993), Oldman went on to play more conventional characters, as evidenced by his straightforward portrayal of a crooked cop in Luc Besson's The Professional (1994), his performance as Beethoven in Immortal Beloved (1994), and his role as Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale in the disastrous 1995 adaptation The Scarlet Letter.In 1997, Oldman made his directorial bow with Nil by Mouth, a bleak, semi-autobiographical drama about a dysfunctional blue-collar London family that Oldman dedicated to his late father. The film proved to be a controversial hit at that year's Cannes Festival, and the first-time director won a number of international awards and a new dose of respect for his work. He subsequently returned to acting with Luc Besson's The Fifth Element that same year, made while he took a break from editing Nil by Mouth. He also gave an enduringly cheesy portrayal of the sinister Russian terrorist bent on wresting world domination from American president Harrison Ford in the blockbuster Air Force One (1997) and followed that up by playing yet another villain in the 1998 feature-film version of the classic TV series Lost in Space.Two years later, the veteran actor was earning accolades on screens big and small with both his critically acclaimed performance in Rod Lurie's Oscar-nominated political drama The Contender, and his Emmy-nominated guest appearance in the popular TV sitcom Friends. Meanwhile, after escaping the clutches of the silver screen's most notorious cannibal in Ridley Scott's Hannibal (2001), Oldman joined the casts of not one but two of the most successful film franchises of the 2000s: The Harry Potter Series and Christopher Nolan's brooding Batman saga. As benevolent wizard Sirius Black in the former, he helped Hogwarts' most famous student battle the forces of evil, and as Lt. Jim Gordon in the later, he aided The Dark Knight in defeating some of Gotham's most powerful supervillains. And while he wasn't performing exorcisms in The Unborn or searching unlimited power in The Book of Eli, Oldman was showing his versatility by voicing characters in such popular video games as The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning and Call of Duty: Black Ops. In 2011, as if to remind audiences that he could still be a compelling lead in addition to a strong supporting player, Oldman tackled the role of veteran MI6 spy George Smiley -- who comes out of retirement to sniff out a Russian mole in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. A highly stylized take on the classic John le Carre novel, the film not only drew rave reviews from critics, but also an Academy Award-nomination for Oldman. Oldman wrapped up his work in Harry Potter the same year, with a cameo in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 and Nolan's Batman trilogy finished the following year with The Dark Knight Rises. In 2014, he appeared in the remake of RoboCop, followed by a major role in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Trivia: Well known for his works as teen heartthrob on the NBC series Freaks and Geeks and films like Never Been Kissed (1999) starring Drew Barrymore, James Franco has the dark, refined looks of a classic movie star. Indeed, he was cast in the TNT film James Dean playing the screen legend himself, for which he won a Golden Globe Award for his performance in 2002.Born on April 19, 1978, Franco has lived in California throughout his life. After high school, he studied acting intensely under Robert Carnegie, Jeff Goldblum, and Tony Savant. He also spent time training at the Playhouse West in North Hollywood. Soon after landing the role as dark and pessimistic Daniel on Freaks and Geeks, where the teenage crowd found his performance accessible and realistic, Franco would earn a series of roles in teen-oriented motion pictures. Along with Never Been Kissed, he appeared in Whatever It Takes, on the set of which he met girlfriend Marla Sokoloff, a fellow actor. In a film about a group of "bad" students called Mean People Suck (2000), Franco appeared in the role of Casey, and then starred in Blind Spot in 2001.After retaining heartthrob status with his award-winning performance as James Dean, he would appear in Deuces Wild (2002), a '50s-style gang drama. That same year, he played the part of Harry Osborn in the live-action rendition of Stan Lee's superhero comic Spider Man, also starring Tobey Maguire, Willem Defoe, and Kirsten Dunst. The following year would find an emerging Franco in his most dramatically challenging role to date, as a murder suspect who happens to be the son of an NYPD police detective (Robert DeNiro) in City by the Sea. Impressed by Franco's turn as flm legend James Dean, DeNiro personally lobbied to have Franco cast in the film. Franco would continue to work with talented collaborators, landing a role in Robert Altman's ballet movie The Company in 2003. He returned to the role of Harry Osbourn in Spider-Man 2 a year after that. 2005 was a busy year for the young actor who directed an adaptation of his own play, The Ape, and starred in a couple of historical dramas. Neither The Great Raid nor Tristan & Isolde made much of an impression with audiences, but the films showed an actor willing to try new things. He was back in theaters early in 2006 with the Naval Academy/boxing movie Annapolis. That fall he again appeared in theaters in the World War 1 drama Flyboys, directed by Tony Bill. He also agreed to reprise the role of Harry Osborn one more time in Spider-Man 3.Having long nurtured an aptitude for painting, Franco had his first public exhibition of his work in 2006, with a show at a Los Angeles gallery. He also began writing and directing his own short films, like 2007's Good Time Max and 2009's The Feast of Stephen. Around this time, Franco made the unexpected decision to enroll at UCLA as an English major. After receiving special permission to take on a heavier than normal course-load, he received his degree in 2008, and promptly began working on his MFA at Columbia University in New York, which he completed in 2010. He next enrolled as a Ph.D. student in English at Yale University. All the while that he was completing his higher education, Franco was living up to the description often given by his co-stars and collaborators as having a superhuman ability to complete numerous projects at once. In 2008, Franco found an awesome vehicle for his comedic chops with the action-stoner-comedy Pineapple Express, pairing him with Seth Rogen as an adorably friendly weed dealer. That same year, he earned accolades for his performance as Scott Smith in the Award Winning biopic Milk, opposite Sean Penn. Even stranger, in 2009 - at the height of success - Franco decided curiously to join the cast of the daytime soap opera General Hospital, as a performance artist, not unlike himself, named Franco. He would later refer to the role as "performance art," but the tongue-in-cheek nature of a heart-throb Hollywood star joining the ranks of daytime TV only added to Franco's fun and mischievous image. He would also appear on the show 30 Rock that year as himself, in an episode in which the actor carries out a fake relationship for the press, in order to draw public attention from rumors that he's in love with a Japanese body pillow.Franco would make appearances in films like Eat, Pray, Love and Date Night over the coming years, but his next big splash came in 2011, when he starred in the gripping thriller 127 Hours. Playing a mountain climber who becomes immovably wedged in an isolated crevice, the almost completely solo performance earned Franco yet more praise from critics and fans, as well as numerous nominations from the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and more. Never standing still after even the biggest victory, however, Franco was soon onto the next project, reteaming with his Pineapple Express director and costars for the 2011 fantasy-stoner-comedy Your Highness.

Trivia: A distinguished actor of stage, television, and movies who is at home playing everything from menacing villains, big-hearted transsexuals, and loopy aliens, John Lithgow is also a composer and performer of children's songs, a Harvard graduate, a talented painter, and a devoted husband and father: in short, he is a true Renaissance man. Once hailed by the Wall Street Journal as "the film character actor of his generation," Lithgow is the son of a theater director who once headed Princeton's McCarter Theater and produced a series of Shakespeare festivals in Ohio, where Lithgow was six when he made his first theatrical bow in Henry VI, Part 3. His parents raised Lithgow in a loving home that encouraged artistic self-expression and took a broad view of the world. As a youth, Lithgow was passionate about painting and at age 16, he was actively involved with the Art Students League in New York. When the acting bug bit, Lithgow's father was supportive. After Lithgow graduated from Harvard, he received a Fulbright scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art; while in England, Lithgow also worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and for the Royal Court Theatre. He returned to the U.S. in the early '70s and worked on Broadway where he won his first Tony and a Drama Desk Award for his part in The Changing Room (1973). Lithgow remained in New York for many years, establishing himself as one of Broadway's most respected stars and would go on to appear in at least one play per year through 1982. He would subsequently receive two more Tony nominations for Requiem for a Heavyweight and M. Butterfly. He made his first film appearance in Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1972). The film itself was an inauspicious affair as were his other subsequent early efforts, though by the early '80s, his film roles improved and diversified dramatically. Though capable of essaying subtle, low-key characters, Lithgow excelled in over-the-top parts as the next decade in his career demonstrates. He got his first real break and a Best Supporting Actor nomination when he played macho football player-turned-sensitive woman Roberta Muldoon in The World According to Garp (1982). In 1983, he provided one of the highlights of Twilight Zone--The Movie as a terrified airline passenger and earned a second Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination in Terms of Endearment where he appeared with Shirley Maclaine and Jack Nicholson, as well as playing a fiery preacher in Footloose. That year, he won his first Emmy nomination for his work in the scary nuclear holocaust drama The Day After. In 1984, he played the crazed Dr. Lizardo in the cult favorite The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. In Ricochet (1992), Lithgow proved himself a terrifying villain with his portrayal of a psychopathic killer hell-bent for revenge against Denzel Washington, the man who incarcerated him. In 1990, he made Babysong video tapes of his performing old and new children's songs on the guitar and banjo. Though he had already established himself on television as a guest star, Lithgow gained a large and devoted following when he was cast as an alien captain who, along with his clueless crew, attempts to pass for human in the fresh, well-written NBC sitcom Third Rock From the Sun (1996). The role has won him multiple Emmys and Golden Globe awards. When that show's run ended in 2001, Lithgow kept busy with roles in such high-profile features as The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004) (in which he essayed the role of comedy legend Blake Edwards), Kinsey, Dreamgirls, and Leap Year. Yet through it all the small screen still beckoned, and in 2010 the Lithgow won an Emmy for his role as Arthur Mitchell (aka The Trinity Killer) on the hit Showtime series Dexter. A poignant turn as a once-brilliant scientist stricken with Alzheimer's disease revealed a gentler side of Lithgow in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and in 2012 he reminded us that he could still get big laughs with roles in both This is 40 (Judd Apatow's semi-sequel to Knocked Up) and the Will Ferrell/Zach Galifianakis political comedy The Campaign. When not busy working on the show, in theater, or in feature films, Lithgow is at home playing "Superdad" to his children and his wife, a tenured college professor at U.C.L.A.

Trivia: Indian-born actress Freida Pinto attended St. Xavier's College in Mumbai before embarking upon a career in modeling. The striking young woman had no trouble attracting attention in the industry, and within a few years she caught the eye of filmmaker Danny Boyle, who cast her in his 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire. She then appeared in the Woody Allen-directed 2010 comedy You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, before tackling the title role in 2011's Miral, an autobiographical drama about an orphaned Palestinian girl drawn into the conflict following the Arab-Israeli war. She appeared in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and starred in Michael Winterbottom's modern retelling of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Ubervilles.