Trivia: The most successful child performer since Shirley Temple (Mickey Rooney wasn't a star until his teen years), Macaulay Culkin first stepped onto a New York stage at the age of four. Extensively trained for his craft, including a stint with Balanchine's School of the American Ballet, young Culkin became a familiar TV-commercial face and was spotlighted in several film supporting roles, the best of which was as John Candy's inquisitive nephew in Uncle Buck (1989). After an unbilled cameo in Jacob's Ladder (1990) and prior to an appearance in a Michael Jackson video, Culkin was cast as the preteen protagonist of Home Alone, a Three Stooges-like combination of violent slapstick and sappy sentiment that was the highest-grossing film of 1990. Culkin thereby became the highest paid child actor of all time, and one of the few under-13 performers who could be counted on to "open" a picture. Two more blockbusters followed: My Girl (1991) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). At the time, the boy's career was under the tight control of his father Christopher "Kit" Culkin, an erstwhile actor who also managed the careers of Culkin's younger, equally photogenic siblings, and stories began to emerge from Hollywood concerning the elder Culkin's on-set behavior. Meanwhile, Macaulay's box-office appeal began waning, partly due to indifferent response to his next few films -- The Good Son (1993), Getting Even With Dad (1994), and Richie Rich (1994) -- but chiefly because he was outgrowing his cuteness and spontaneity. In June 1995, Culkin's mother went to court to remove the boy from Kit's custody, insisting that the father's contentiousness was ruining Macaulay's chances of revitalizing his career. At a few months shy of age 18, Culkin married actress Rachel Miner in 1998, but the couple separated in 2000. The former child star re-emerged in 2002 in documentarians Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato's feature debut, Party Monster, the true-life story of the rise and fall of a young club promoter. He enjoyed a lengthy relationship throughout the 2000s with Mila Kunis.

Trivia: A consummate character actor, Joe Pesci rose to success on the strength of a series of Martin Scorsese films which took full advantage of his gift for outlandishly menacing supporting performances. Born February 9, 1943, in Newark, NJ, Pesci was a child actor who began his radio career at the age of four. Broadway beckoned just a year later, and by 1953 he was a regular on the television variety program Star Time Kids. His acting career stalled during his teen years, however, and by the mid-'60s, he mounted a musical career under the name Joe Ritchie, recording an LP titled Little Joe Sure Can Sing and later playing guitar in the pop band Joey Dee & the Starliters. He also formed a vaudeville-style nightclub comedy act with Frank Vincent. Outside of 1961's Hey, Let's Twist!, Pesci did not appear in films prior to the little-seen 1975 feature The Death Collector; the film earned virtually no notice upon its release and he dropped out of acting, dejectedly returning to New York to run an Italian restaurant.While few people saw The Death Collector, one of those who did was actor Robert De Niro, who was so impressed by Pesci's performance that he brought the film to the attention of Scorsese, who cast Pesci in his 1980 masterpiece Raging Bull. The performance earned Pesci an Academy Award nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category, and he became one of the busiest character actors in the business, steadily appearing in films ranging from the 1983 Rodney Dangerfield comedy Easy Money to the 1984 Sergio Leone epic Once Upon a Time in America. After starring in a failed 1985 sitcom, Half Nelson, Pesci's onscreen visibility diminished, and over the next four years he appeared in only one film, 1987's Man on Fire. In 1989, however, he co-starred opposite Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the hit Lethal Weapon 2, a performance which put his talent for comic relief to such fine use that he later reappeared in the third chapter of the franchise, issued in 1992.By that point, Pesci had already become a star; 1990 was his breakthrough year, as he appeared in the family comedy blockbuster Home Alone and Scorsese's brilliant GoodFellas, winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his vivid portrayal of a psychotic mobster. While his first major starring role in 1991's The Super proved disastrous, he won good notices for his supporting turn in Oliver Stone's JFK and in 1992 starred in the hit courtroom comedy My Cousin Vinny. Later, following the disappointment of 1994's Jimmy Hollywood and With Honors, he reunited with Scorsese and De Niro for the 1995 epic Casino, essaying a variation on his GoodFellas character. However, a pair of poorly received 1997 comedies -- Eight Heads in a Duffel Bag and Gone Fishin' -- again called Pesci's capabilities as a lead actor into question. He found more success reprising his supporting role in Lethal Weapon 4, released in 1998. On the heels of his second outing with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, however, the popular character actor disappeared from the big screen for nearly a decade. It took his old friend DeNiro to get him back in front of the camera for the CIA thriller The Good Shepherd (2006), with the four year gap between that film and Pesci's next film Love Ranch hinting that the aging screen veterean was in no hurry to jump back into the fray. But the window between films seemed to start shrinking when it was announced that Pesci would be returning to the world of crime cinema in director Geo Santini's 2012 gangster drama The Irishman.

Trivia: Trained at the Hagen-Bergdorf studio, actor Daniel Stern hopscotched between stage and films during his first professional years, appearing on Broadway in Sam Shepard's True West and making his movie debut as Cyril in Breaking Away (1979). Biding his time with bits in such films as Stardust Memories (1980) and One Trick Pony (1980), Stern enjoyed a career breakthrough in the role of obsessive record collector Shrevie in Barry Levinson's Diner (1982). While he has been seen in a number of major roles since then, Stern is most fondly remembered for his portrayal of Marv, the Larry Fine-like burglar in the two Home Alone flicks of the early 1990s, and as cowboy wannabe Phil Berquist in Billy Crystal's City Slickers films. Stern's TV contributions include the role of Joey Nathan on the shortliver 1985 weekly Hometown, and a longer stint as the adult Kevin Arnold, the never-seen narrator of The Wonder Years (1989-92). Having previously directed several Wonder Years installments, Daniel Stern made his feature-film directorial bow with the 1993 baseball fantasy Rookie of the Year, and in 1995 functioned as both star and producer of the theatrical feature Tenderfoot. He went on to appear in Celtic Pride, the TV series Regular Joe, A Previous Engagement, and he played Drew Barrymore's father in her directorial debut Whip It.

Trivia: Catherine O'Hara was born on March 4, 1954, in Toronto, Ontario, though her heritage may or may not be a contributing factor to the strange quality she brings to her dry comedic style on the Hollywood screen. While the inspiration for O'Hara's forthright straight-faced demeanor is unknown, she is arguably a one-of-a-kind presence in many American films.O'Hara began acting in her hometown in 1974, when she first appeared on Second City Television, where she distinguished herself through impersonations. She performed on the program regularly during the mid-'70s, and also wrote for it beginning in 1976. Later that decade, she continued her television experience with voice-overs for cartoons, an endeavor she would revisit throughout her career in some notable roles.In 1980, she played Audrey in Nothing Personal, and in the mid-'80s played several small roles in feature films, including Martin Scorsese's After Hours (1985). In 1988, she made a parental splash as Delia Deetz in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice, with Winona Ryder playing her morose young goth daughter. Mainstream Hollywood featured O'Hara again two years later in Dick Tracy with Warren Beatty and Madonna. Also in 1990, she returned to big-screen motherhood, this time as mother to Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone (and she would also later appear in the sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York in 1992).By this point, O'Hara was well established in American popular culture, and she continued to take on creative roles. Revisiting the bizarre darkness of Tim Burton's imaginative projects, she performed the character voices of both Sally and Shock in his animated feature The Nightmare Before Christmas in 1993. Two years later, her voice-over credentials increased when she played Calamity Jane in Walt Disney's Tall Tale: The Unbelievable Adventures of Pecos Bill. Her voice work continued throughout the 1990s, and in 1996, O'Hara expanded her appeal to include the indie-film world when she starred in what became a revered independent feature, Christopher Guest's satirical mockumentary Waiting for Guffman. In Home Fries (1998) with Drew Barrymore, she played the role of Mrs. Lever.Satiric and campy, 2000's Best in Show showcased numerous strong performances, allowing for flamboyant and unique characterizations from all cast members, including O'Hara, whose pursed-lipped matter-of-factness instilled personality into Southern dog-owner Cookie Guggelman Fleck. In 2001, O'Hara appeared on the television shows Committed and Speaking of Sex, and she returned to the big screen in 2002 with a role in Orange County. Strong as ever in Guest's subsequent mock-docs A Mighty Wind (2003) and For Your Consideration (2006), she continued to impress with bit parts such features as Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Penelope, and Away We Go while continuing to do impressive voice work in films like Monster House and Spike Jonze's Where the WIld Things Are. 2010 proved to be a good year thanks to an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actress in Mick Jackson's made-for-HBO biopic Temple Grandin. While the award eluded her, O'Hara remained busy as ever thanks to her role in the cult Nickeledeon hit Glenn Martin DDS. Meanwhile, multiple voice roles in Burton's 2012 feature Frankenweenie offered her the opportunity to once again work with the quirky director who previously used her to striking effect in some of his most popular films.

Trivia: A veteran of Chicago's free-form Organic Theatre, the boyish, personable John Heard won the Theatre World Award for his performance in the 1976 play Streamers, and two years later was the recipient of the Obie Award for two separate off-Broadway productions. He made his film bow as the harried correspondent for an underground newspaper in Joan Micklin Silver's Between the Lines. In Silver's 1979 Head Over Heels, Heard again received top billing, this time as the obsessive ex-lover of Mary Beth Hurt. One of his first "mainstream" leading roles was in Paul Schrader's erotic thriller Cat People (1981). Heard was agreeable, if a little bullheaded, as Macaulay Culkin's dad in the two Home Alone films; less agreeable was his portrayal of Tom Hanks' abrasive business rival in Big (1988) On television, Heard was seen as the tormented Reverend Dimmesdale opposite Meg Foster's Hester Prynne in the PBS production of The Scarlet Letter, and was heard as one of the celebrity voices on the made-for-cable Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam (1987). John Heard was at one time married to actress Margot Kidder. He turned in fine supporting work in Beaches, and was the bad guy in the Tom Hanks hit Big. A well-respected character actor, Heard continued to work in projects as diverse as Rambling Rose, Radio Flyer, In the Line of Fire, and the comedy My Fellow Americans. He had a major part in the Brian De Palma thriller Snake Eyes in 1998, and the next year he had a brief recurring part on The Sopranos. He appeared in the 2000 biopic Pollock, and the next year was in the Shakespeare inspired high-school drama O. In 2002 he played legendary television executive Roone Arledge in the made for TV film Monday Night Mayhem, and in 2004 he appeared in the comedy White Chicks. He worked non-stop throughout the rest of the decade appearing in such films as The Great Debaters, The Guardian, and Formosa Betrayed. In 2007 he was cast in the short-lived ABC series Cavemen. In 2011 he was part of the ensemble in the well-regarded docudrama about the 2008 financial meltdown, Too Big to Fail.

Trivia: A character actor, Blossom has appeared onscreen from the early '70s.

Trivia: Canadian comic actor John Candy was geared toward a performing career even while studying for a journalism degree in college. Candy's bulky frame and built-in likability enabled him to secure small roles in Canadian film and TV productions. In the early '70s, Candy joined Canada's Second City Troupe, sharing the spotlight with such potent talent (and subsequent close friends) as Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Andrea Martin, and Catherine O'Hara. Second City TV, popularly known as SCTV, entered the Canadian TV airwaves in 1975 and was syndicated to the United States two years later. Candy scored an instant hit with such characters as porcine poseur Johnny LaRue, overly unctuous talk show sidekick William B., and ever-grinning "Lutonian" musician Yosh Shmenge. So popular did Candy become that suddenly many of his obscurer pre-starring Canadian films (It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, The Clown Murders) became hot properties on the video rental circuit. Candy stayed with the various SCTV syndicated and network programs until 1983, earning two Emmys in the process. One of the few genuine nice guys in the realm of comedy, Candy was beloved by both co-workers and fans -- even when this lovability was stretched to the breaking point in substandard films. He scored in supporting roles (Splash [1984], Brewster's Millions [1985]), but such thinnish starring features as Summer Rental (1985) and Who's Harry Crumb (1989) seemed to suggest that Candy couldn't carry a film by himself. Then he starred in Uncle Buck (1989), a disarming comedy about a ne'er-do-well with hidden nobility. Receiving relatively little promotion, Uncle Buck was a surprise hit, and stands today as perhaps Candy's best-ever vehicle after Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Unfortunately, most of his follow-up films were on a par with the disastrous Nothing but Trouble (1990) and Delirious (1992). At the same time, Candy's leading role in Only the Lonely (1991) and his supporting performance in JFK (1992) proved that a major talent was being squandered by the film industry. Candy was as frustrated as his fans, manifesting this frustration in excessive eating, drinking, and smoking. The actor's superlative seriocomic turn as a disgraced Olympic star in Cool Runnings (1993), which Candy also co-produced, seemed to point toward a career upswing. But while filming Wagons East in Mexico, 43-year-old John Candy suffered a heart attack and died in his sleep. Wagons East was released in the summer of 1994, utilizing Candy's existing footage as well as possible; it proved, sadly, an inadequate epitaph for one of film comedy's funniest and most ingratiating stars.

Trivia: Actress Angela Goethals propelled herself to child stardom during the late '80s and early '90s. Around 1985, at the tender age of eight, Goethals auditioned for -- and then landed -- a series of theatrical roles that carried her directly to the Great White Way. Several memorable supporting turns in A-list U.S. features followed, as well as the lead in a short-lived sitcom, before Goethals withdrew from the limelight to focus exclusively on her education. In 2002, the actress returned to Los Angeles with a renewed presence on television and in films. Born May 20, 1977, in Manhattan to Rosalind and Michael Goethals (the grandson of Panama Canal architect George Washington Goethals), Angela Bethany Goethals grew up in New York. Her father abandoned the family in 1979, leaving both Angela and her sister, Sara, in the custody of their mother, Rosalind, a kindergarten teacher. In the mid-'80s, Rosalind Goethals held a brief tenure as assistant stage manager for a local Shakespeare company, and opted to take both daughters to work; Angela reportedly fell in love with the theater at first glance, and auditioned at the behest of a friend, exuding natural dramatic ability that astonished everyone.A string of challenging and demanding stage portrayals followed, in such noteworthy Broadway productions as Tina Howe's Coastal Disturbances (1987) and John Guare's Four Baboons Adoring the Sun (1992, playing opposite Stockard Channing and James Naughton), as well as off-Broadway productions including Lynda Barry's period piece The Good Times Are Killing Me (1991). Goethals debuted on film opposite her sister Sara at the age of ten in the wistful, underrated ensemble piece Rocket Gibraltar (1988), directed by Daniel Petrie -- opposite Burt Lancaster, Kevin Spacey, Suzy Amis, and a very young Macaulay Culkin. Culkin and Goethals reunited onscreen two years later for an effects-laden comedy directed by Chris Columbus called Home Alone, and the fate of that picture is, by now, notorious. It outstripped everyone's expectations, shooting up like a rocket to qualify as not only the highest grosser of 1990, but one of the most lucrative films of all time -- reeling in around 450 million dollars globally. In the picture, Goethals played Linnie, the bratty and crass-mouthed older sister of Culkin's Kevin. Goethals doubled up this effort with a turn in the Jeff Kanew-directed box-office stinker V.I. Warshawski (1991), as the wisecracking teenage daughter of the titular private dick (Kathleen Turner). As a teenager, Goethals attended Manhattan's prestigious, academically advanced Stuyvesant High School and, not long after, signed with ABC for her first television series, Phenom. The sitcom (with more than a hint of autobiographical influence) cast the actress as Angela Doolan, a 15-year-old tennis prodigy being raised by her single mother (Judith Light) and honing her skills under the aegis of megalomaniacal coach Lou Del La Rosa (William Devane). Unfortunately, that program failed to catch fire with the public and was canceled at the tail end of its first season in 1994. Not long after, Goethals put acting on the shelf temporarily and -- save a role in Jerry Maguire (1996) -- focused exclusively on her studies as a French major at Vassar.Returning to acting in the early 2000s (first in New York, then in L.A.), Goethals drew on her prior experience (and resumé) to land an enviable series of roles that she tackled with great dexterity. These included the box-office sleeper Changing Lanes (opposite Sam Jackson and Ben Affleck) and recurring stints on the prime-time series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and 24. In 2003, Goethals signed for yet another series, the promising David E. Kelley comedy drama The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire (opposite Randy Quaid and Mare Winningham), but it folded only a month after it premiered. A few years later, Goethals received second billing in the low-budget horror comedy Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2007), a kind of Americanized Man Bites Dog remake about a documentarian (Goethals) and her crew following a serial killer around and spurring him on to increasingly grisly acts. The film opened to generally enthusiastic reviews but received only limited distribution. In addition to her on-camera work, Goethals voiced the audio books of Ann Brashares' novel The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Dan Gutman's novel The Get Rich Quick Club, and is an avid equestrian.

Trivia: Best known for playing mean big brother Buzz in the Home Alone series, New York native Devin Ratray scored his first acting gig at the age of nine in the 1986 movie Where Are the Children? He continued to act throughout the '80s and '90s, appearing in movies and on television, including a memorable episode of Law & Order in which he played a mentally ill murderer. Ratray has also pursued his artistic talents in music, singing and playing guitar for the band Little Bill and the Beckleys.

Trivia: Best known for playing mean Uncle Frank in the Home Alone series, Kansas-born Gerry Bamman began his acting career in the '80s with roles in a number of films including Cocktail and The Secret of My Success. He continued to work consistently throughout the '90s and 2000s, and became a familiar face to a new generation of fans with a recurring role on Law & Order as lawyer Stan Gillum.

Trivia: Best known for her role as big sister Megan in the Home Alone series, actress Hillary Wolf was born in 1977 in Chicago. She began acting as a child, appearing in films like 1986's Sunday Drive and 1992's Big Girls Don't Cry...They Get Even. In addition to her talents in acting, Wolf began training in judo at the age of seven, eventually winning the U.S. Senior National Championships and competing on the 1996 U.S. Judo Olympic team.

Trivia: American comic actor Larry Hankin was first seen on a major coast-to-coast basis in 1969. He was one of the members of a young, hip comedy troupe (including David Steinberg and Lily Tomlin) on an odd 45-minute TV variety series The Music Scene. Before this program, Hankin had a small part in the 1968 film domestic comedy How Sweet it Is (1968); after Music Scene, the actor had the misfortune to appear in the legendary all star fiasco The Phynx (1970), which never did get a general release. Hankin remained a supporting player, having a few moments here and there in such films as Thumb Tripping (1972), Ratboy (1986), She's Having a Baby (1988) and Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1991). TV fans could see Larry Hankin in the occasional guest role in series like All in the Family.

Trivia: Best known for his role as Big Pete on Nickelodeon's The Adventures of Pete & Pete, actor Michael C. Maronna's career began with that very role. Originating as a series of one-minute shorts, the quirky vignettes about two brothers with the same name soon turned into a series of half-hour specials before becoming a regular series in 1993. Maronna's resumé also included a role as one of the many McCallister siblings in 1990's Home Alone, but following Pete & Pete's three-season run, he took a break to attend college, earning his degree in filmmaking from Purchase College of the State University of New York. Maronna reappeared in 1999 in a series of smart, humorous ads for the brokerage firm Ameritrade, in which he played a punky, slacker employee named Stewart, who shows his boss how to use the Internet with over-caffeinated bombast. He even appeared with President Clinton in a parody of the ad for a comedy reel about Clinton's last days in office that was shown at the 2000 White House Correspondents' Association dinner. Maronna then got back into movies, appearing in a number of comedies like Slackers and 40 Days and 40 Nights.

Trivia: One of the Culkin clan of child actors, Kieran Culkin emerged from older brother Macauley Culkin's considerable shadow in the late 1990s. Born and raised in New York, Culkin made his movie debut playing his sibling's cousin in the blockbuster family comedy Home Alone (1990). Along with returning for the sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Culkin bolstered his presence as a cute foil playing Steve Martin's young son in Father of the Bride (1991) and Father of the Bride Part II (1995). Despite his parents' well-publicized custody battle over their acting brood in the mid-1990s, Culkin continued to work steadily, finally graduating to starring status in The Mighty (1998). As a physically challenged boy who forms a deep bond with an illiterate classmate, Culkin displayed his dramatic abilities as well as comedic, proving that he could be more than just an adorable face. Culkin followed up his lead turn with prominent supporting roles as another little brother in the teen romantic comedy She's All That (1999), Meryl Streep's teenage son in Music of the Heart (1999), and one of the orphans in The Cider House Rules (1999).After playing at the Sundance Film Festival, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys earned strong reviews for Culkin's performance as one of the imaginative, restless Catholic schoolboys grappling with adolescence and dour nun teacher Jodie Foster in the 1970s. A rare teen film with a brain, Altar Boys became an art house success. Delving into the rarified world of the genteel poor, and enhancing Culkin's status as an "alternative" teen lead, Igby Goes Down starred Culkin as the titular alienated son who must deal with harridan mother Susan Sarandon and superficial brother/romantic rival Ryan Phillippe while pondering whether he'll suffer the same fate as his schizophrenic father Bill Pullman.

Trivia: One of show-businesses busiest grandfatherly figures, actor Bill Erwin has been appearing in film and television since the early '40s, and as of 2003, he's shown no signs of slowing. His consistently reliable performances in such high-profile efforts as Somewhere in Time (1980), Home Alone (1990), and Forces of Nature (1999) have found Erwin enduring to become one of the most in-demand supporting players around. A Honey Grove, TX, native who earned his bachelor's in journalism at the University of Texas in Austin in 1935, Erwin went on to California to complete his Masters of Theater Arts at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1941. Though a stint in World War II would momentarily put his acting career on hold, Erwin returned stateside to make his film debut in, appropriately enough, the 1941 Phil Silvers comedy You're in the Army Now. Throughout the years, Erwin has appeared in numerous stage productions on both coasts, and repeat performances on such television classics as Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, Growing Pains, and Seinfeld have ensured Erwin's popularity with many generations of television viewers. His role in Seinfeld earned him an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1993. From high-profile releases like Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995) to edgy, low-budget sci-fi movies like Menno's Mind (1996), Erwin has done it all, and equally well. Outside of his film work, Erwin spends his time writing and illustrating cartoons in his North Hollywood home.

Trivia: A vaudeville and burlesque comedienne who went on to essay numerous film roles after being discovered at an orphanage at the age of eight, actress Billie Bird would later use her stage experience to entertain troops on 12 USO tours in the 1960s and '70s. Born Bird Berniece Sellen in Pocatello, ID, in February 1908, her chance discovery came when a traveling road show stopped to entertain the children at the orphanage in which she resided and immediately recognized her talent. Subsequently traveling with the troupe and studying with a tutor in her downtime, Bird went on to form a sister act and later appeared in such "light opera" works as Show Boat and New Moon. A move to Los Angeles in 1943 found Bird performing at such hot spots as Club Moderne and The Colony Club, and, from 1947 to 1955, she showed off her skills on the guitar, clarinet, vibraphone, and bagpipes in burlesque shows. Although Bird made her screen debut in the 1921 comedy Grass Widowers, it was the 1950s that found her edging away from the stage and toward television and film. Particularly active in movies in the '50s, Bird appeared in more than a dozen films, including Somebody Loves Me (1952) and The Joker Is Wild (1957). The actress remained relatively active in the '60s, as well, although her career slowed to a notable pace in the '70s with the exception of a featured role in the popular late-'70s sitcom Benson. However, her screen career later picked up momentum with such notable '80s comedies as Sixteen Candles (1984), One Crazy Summer (1986), and Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987), and Bird made a successful return to the world of sitcom television as an aged, but feisty, support-group member in Dear John. Roles in such films as Home Alone (1990) and Dennis the Menace (1993) followed. In 1995, she made her final screen appearance in the Pauly Shore comedy Jury Duty. Stricken with Alzheimer's disease in the '90s, Bird died in November 2002. She was 92.

Trivia: Displaying a sort of weary Botticelli beauty and a crisp brand of intelligence, Hope Davis has made a name for herself portraying good women wronged by bad men. Playing such characters in her two breakthrough films, The Daytrippers and Next Stop Wonderland, Davis displayed a remarkable blend of lovable bitterness and cynical charm, endearing herself to legions of art house filmgoers who recognized an unmistakable ring of truth in her performances.Born in Englewood, NJ, Davis had a childhood that was notable in part for her friendship with her neighbor across the street, Mira Sorvino. Davis' first brush with acting came when the two girls -- then eight or nine -- wrote a play and performed it for their neighbors. The actress' next encounter with fame came some years later, in the rather dubious form of her bit part as one of Billy Baldwin's used-and-abused girlfriends in the 1990 film Flatliners. Following a bit role as a French ticket agent in the same year's Home Alone, Davis had yet another dubious brush with fame in Kiss of Death (1995), in a role memorable for the sole reason that it required Davis to be bench-pressed by co-star Nicolas Cage. The following year brought with it more auspicious work in The Daytrippers, an independent comedy in which Davis played the suspicious wife of philandering Stanley Tucci. Co-starring Parker Posey, Liev Schreiber, and Anne Meara, the film was a hit on the independent circuit, but Davis would strike even more indie gold in 1998 with her starring role in Brad Anderson's Next Stop Wonderland. Critics adored her performance as Erin, a nurse recovering from a major -- and bitterly hilarious -- breakup with her activist boyfriend (played with joyful loathsomeness by Philip Seymour Hoffman).By this time, the actress had established a niche for herself in the realm of quirky, independently minded films, and she would continue to appear in similar films over the years, like Mumford, About Schmidt, American Splendor, Proof, Charlie Bartlett, The Lodger, and Synechdoche, New York. Davis would also make succesful runs on the small screen, with Six Degrees, In Treatment, and the HBO mini series Mildred Pierce.

Trivia: An American-born actor reared in Ireland and England, McGoohan made a memorable impression on the American and English viewing audiences by playing essentially the same role in three different television series. He began his performing career as a teen-ager, eventually played Henry V for the Old Vic company in London, and made mostly unremarkable films in the '50s. His movies include the delightful Disney film The Three Lives of Thomasina (1964). Success came in 1961, when McGoohan played government agent John Drake in Danger Man, a role he continued on Secret Agent (1965-66). He created, produced and often wrote episodes of the nightmarish, surrealistic cult series The Prisoner (1968-69). This show featured a character assumed to be the same John Drake (although he was known as Number 6 and his real name was never mentioned), who had been kidnapped and taken to a strange community. McGoohan later starred in the TV series Rafferty (1977) and directed the film Catch My Soul (1974). He won an Emmy Award in 1975 for his guest appearance on Columbo with Peter Falk.