Trivia: The stepdaughter of the fire chief of Salisbury, MD, Linda Hamilton began her acting career with local children's theater groups. After college training and dramatic lessons conducted by former director Nicholas Ray, Hamilton was cast in a handful of inexpensive film programs. She briefly costarred in the prime-time TV soap opera Secrets of Midland Heights (1980) which led to an equally short stint on the weekly series King's Crossing (1982). Hamilton's stock in the film industry rose substantially when she was cast as Sarah Connor, the target for the homicidal intentions of futuristic android Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator (1984). No shivering ingenue, the agile and athletic Hamilton proved a formidable foe for the forces of evil in both The Terminator and its sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, where at times she came off tougher than the "kinder, gentler" Arnold. From 1987-1989, Hamilton starred as Catherine Chandler on the cult TV fantasy series Beauty and the Beast, eventually leaving the show to have her first child. In 1995 Hamilton earned a Golden Globe nomination for her performance as a single mother who learns she has contracted AIDS in A Mother's Prayer, and though with the exception of Dante's Peak (1997) she stuck mainly to made-for-television movies in the following decade, notable guest spots on Showtime's Weeds and NBC's Chuck served as strong reminders of her onscreen charisma. Married to actor Bruce Abbot throughout much of the '80s, Hamilton later wed Terminator 2 director James Cameron, though their union ended after just two years.

Trivia: While his police-chief father wanted him to become a soccer player, Austrian-born actor Arnold Schwarzenegger opted instead for a bodybuilding career. Born July 30, 1947, in the small Austrian town of Graz, Schwarzenegger went on to win several European contests and international titles (including Mr. Olympia) and then came to the U.S. for body-building exhibitions, billing himself immodestly but fairly accurately as "The Austrian Oak." Though his thick Austrian accent and slow speech patterns led some to believe that the Austrian Oak was shy a few leaves, Schwarzenegger was, in fact, a highly motivated and intelligent young man. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in business and economics, he invested his contest earnings in real estate and a mail-order bodybuilding equipment company.A millionaire before the age of 22, Schwarzenegger decided to try acting. Producers were impressed by his physique but not his mouthful of a last name, so it was as Arnold Strong that he made his film bow in the low-budget spoof Hercules in New York (1970, with a dubbed voice). He reverted to his own name for the 1976 film Stay Hungry, then achieved stardom as "himself" in the 1977 documentary Pumping Iron. In The Villain (1979), a cartoon-like Western parody, he played "Handsome Stranger," exhibiting a gift for understated comedy that would more or less go unexploited for many years thereafter. With Conan the Barbarian (1982) and its sequel, Conan the Destroyer (1984), the actor established himself as an action star, though his acting was backtracking into two-dimensionality (understandably, given the nature of the Conan role). As the murderous android title character in The Terminator (1984), Schwarzenegger became a bona fide box-office draw, and also established his trademark of coining repeatable catchphrases in his films: "I'll be back," in Terminator, "Consider this a divorce," in Total Recall (1990), and so on.As Danny De Vito's unlikely pacifistic sibling in Twins (1988), Schwarzenegger received the praise of critics who noted his "unsuspected" comic expertise (quite forgetting The Villain). In Kindergarten Cop (1991), Schwarzenegger played a hard-bitten police detective who found his true life's calling as a schoolteacher (his character was a cop only because it was expected of him by his policeman father, which could have paralleled his own life). Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), wherein Schwarzenegger exercised his star prerogative and insisted that the Terminator become a good guy, was the most expensive film ever made up to its time -- and one of the biggest moneymakers. The actor's subsequent action films were equally as costly; sometimes the expenditures paid off, while other times the result was immensely disappointing -- for the box-office disappointment Last Action Hero (1992), Schwarzenegger refreshingly took full responsibility, rather than blaming the failure on his production crew or studio as other "superstars" have been known to do.A rock-ribbed Republican despite his marriage to JFK's niece, Maria Shriver (with whom he has four children), Schwarzenegger was appointed by George Bush in 1990 as chairman of the President's Council of Physical Fitness and Sports, a job he took as seriously and with as much dedication as any of his films. A much-publicized investment in the showbiz eatery Planet Hollywood increased the coffers in Schwarzenegger's already bulging bank account. Schwarzenegger then added directing to his many accomplishments, piloting a few episodes of the cable-TV series Tales From the Crypt as well as a 1992 remake of the 1945 film Christmas in Connecticut.Schwarzenegger bounced back from the disastrous Last Action Hero with 1994's True Lies, which, despite its mile-wide streak of misogyny and its gaping plot and logic holes, was one of the major hits of that summer's movie season. Following the success of True Lies, Schwarzenegger went back to doing comedy with Junior, co-starring with Emma Thompson and his old Twins accomplice Danny De Vito. The film met with critically mixed results, although it fared decently at the box office. Undeterred, Schwarzenegger continued down the merry, if treacherous, path of alternating action with comedy with 1996's Eraser and Jingle All the Way, the latter of which proved to be both a critical bomb and a box-office disappointment. In a move that suggested he had realized that audiences wanted him back in the world of assorted weaponry and explosives, Schwarzenegger returned to the action realm with 1997's Batman & Robin, which unfortunately proved to be a huge critical disappointment, although, in the tradition of most Schwarzenegger action films, it did manage to gross well over 100 million dollars at the box office and over 130 million dollars more the world over.The turn of the century found Schwarzenegger's star losing some of its luster with a pair of millennial paranoia films, 1999's End of Days and 2000's The 6th Day. The former film -- in which a security consultant has to save the world from Satan -- was critically lambasted and, despite a powerful opening weekend, failed to recoup its cost in the States. The latter film -- a cloning parable which bore more than a passing resemblance to Total Recall -- received more positive notices, but took in less than half the receipts Days did just one year prior. Perhaps as a response to these failures, Schwarzenegger prepped three films reminiscent of former successes, all scheduled for release in 2001 and 2002: the terrorist action thriller Collateral Damage, True Lies 2, and the long-anticipated Terminator 3. Though Collateral Damage received a chilly reception at the box office and the development of True Lies 2 fell into question, longtime fans of the cigar-chomping strongman rejoiced when Arnold resumed his role as a seriously tough cyborg in Terminator 3. Though he made a cameo in director Frank Coraci's adaptation of Around the World in 80 Days, Arnold's most notable role of the new millenium was political -- Schwarzenegger replaced Gray Davis as governor of California in the highly controversial recall election of 2003.In 2010, Schwarzenegger played the character of Trench in The Expendables, an action thriller following a group of tough-as-nails mercinaries as they deal with the aftermath of a mission gone wrong, and reprised the role for The Expendables 2 in 2012.

Trivia: Briefly worked as a model in college. The first film she acted in was Breathe In. Did gender studies in university and is an outspoken feminist. Audited online classes at MIT to learn the Python programming language in preparation for her role as computer hacker Cameron Howe on Halt and Catch Fire. Her hobby is making bone sculptures from mouse skeletons she retrieves from owl pellets.

Trivia: Is a founding member of the Austin-based Paper Chairs Theater Company. Is cofounder of the production company Brains Everywhere Productions. In 2009, played the title role in the stage production of Orestes alongside his wife, Smaranda Luna. Received the 2010 Best Lead Actor award from the Austin Critics' Association for his portrayal of Sergei in the stage production of Black Snow.

Trivia: Worked as an actor in Mexican television from the age of 12, including a stint on the soap opera Rebelde. Despite acting in Mean Girls 2, he did not attend high school; was tutored while working. Recorded his first album Diego in Spanish in 2005, and then rerecorded it in Portuguese in 2006. Produced and wrote most of Indigo, his second Spanish-language album, in 2008. Hobbies include surfing and horseback riding.

Trivia: Falling back on the old cliché, it runs in the family might be the best way to describe the Corbould family's work in the realm of special effects. Ushered into special effects work under the tutelage of Oscar-winning uncle Colin Chilvers (Superman [1978], X-Men [2000]), Neil Corbould (along with siblings Ian, Chris, and Paul) has carved part of a successful familial niche of talented special effects wizards within the film industry -- a niche so influential and enticing that one addition was the Corbould clan's father, Cliff Corbould. Beginning his career in cinematic illusion on such films as Victor/Victoria (1982), Neil Corbould soon began finding consistent work under the likes of such prolific directors as Ridley Scott (for whom he supplied effects for a Coca-Cola commercial in 1989) and Ron Howard (Far and Away [1992]). With strong family support and a talent for convincing and detailed special effects, Corbould continued working on such effects-heavy projects as director Luc Besson's The Fifth Element (1997) and Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (1998). Over a decade after teaming with Scott, Corbould would re-team with the prolific director for Gladiator (2000). The challenging task of creating a convincing Coliseum and transporting audiences back to the days of swords and sandals paid off handsomely for Corbould, earning him the Oscar for Best Visual Effects at the 2000 Academy Awards.

Trivia: A young actor noted for his intense, older-than-his-years demeanor, Edward Furlong was 12 years old when he was picked for the role of John Connor in Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991). Discovered in a Boys Club in his native Pasadena, California, Furlong shot to stardom with his film debut, managing to impress both critics and audiences with his ability to hold his own against Arnold Schwarzenegger. Despite this auspicious breakthrough, Furlong's subsequent films, though generally well-received by the critics, went virtually unseen by audiences. Such was the case with American Heart, in which Furlong gave an affecting performance as the son of a hardened ex-con (Jeff Bridges) (1993); Little Odessa (1994), in which he played the younger brother of a hitman for the Russian Mafia (Tim Roth); and The Grass Harp, a touching adaptation of Truman Capote's novel about a young orphan (Furlong) who comes of age in the company of some eccentric relatives.Furlong gave another strong performance in Barbet Schroeder's Before and After (1996), playing a young man accused of murdering his girlfriend. Unfortunately, as with many of his previous films, the favorable critical response it received failed to translate to commercial success. It was not until John Waters cast Furlong as the titular hero of Pecker two years later that his career began to rebound; one of Waters' most popular films to date, it allowed Furlong to demonstrate his ability to play quirky satire as well as serious drama. He earned additional acclaim later that year for his portrayal of the impressionable younger brother of a neo-Nazi (Edward Norton) in American History X; combined with the success of his role in Pecker, the film seemed to point the way toward steady work for Furlong in the future. Furlong would spend the next several years playing roles in movies like The Crow: Wicked Prayer and The Green Hornet. He made a couple of television appearances in series like Perception and The Glades in 2012, before returning to direct-to-DVD fare like Assault on Wall Street and The Zombie King (co-starring Corey Feldman).Although Furlong's acting career has been varied, anyone familiar with Japanese pop culture will know that thanks to his love of music, Furlong has enjoyed huge success in Japan. Following the Japanese release of his first album, Hold on Tight, he garnered a reputation as one of the country's most popular singers.