Trivia: Possessing a special talent for totally immersing himself in his roles, Bill Paxton did not always get the recognition he deserves. Tall, rangy, and boyishly good looking, Paxton's career was a curiosity that found the character actor-turned-filmmaker succeeding in intermittently pulling the rug from under filmgoers' feet with a constantly expanding sense of maturity and range.Paxton's interest in films emerged during his teens when he began making his own movies with a Super-8 camera. He formally entered the entertainment industry in 1974 as a set dresser for Roger Corman's New World Pictures. Paxton made his acting debut as a bit player in Crazy Mama (1975), and afterward, the young thespian moved to New York to hone his skills. Following performances in a couple of horror quickies, Paxton formally launched his Hollywood career with a tiny part in Ivan Reitman's Stripes (1981) and this led to a steady if not unremarkable career in film and television during the '80s. In addition to acting, Paxton made short independent films such as Fish Heads, (1982) which became a favorite on NBC's Saturday Night Live. Paxton's acting career got a much-needed boost in 1985 when he was cast as Ilan Mitchell-Smith's obnoxious big brother Chet Donolley in John Hughes' Weird Science. Some of Paxton's more memorable subsequent roles include that of a cocky intergalactic soldier in James Cameron's Aliens (1986), a crazed vampire in Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark, and sickly astronaut Freddie Hayes in Ron Howard's Apollo 13. In 1996, Paxton landed a starring role, opposite Helen Hunt, in the special-effects blockbuster Twister; his career took an upward turn and Paxton got more leads than ever. Though few audiences saw it in its limited release, critics were quick to praise Paxton's turn as con-artist Traveler in the 1997 movie of the same name. Following a doomed voyage on the Titanic the same year, the workhorse actor once again intrigued filmgoers as a small-town dweller struggling with his conscience after stumbling into over a million dollars in usually flamboyant director Sam Raimi's strikingly subdued A Simple Plan. A quiet and intense performance enhanced by a talented cast including Billy Bob Thornton and Bridget Fonda, the psychological crime drama once again provided further proof that Paxton's impressive range of emotion stretched beyond what many filmgoers may have previously suspected. Though subsequent performances in Mighty Joe Young (1998) and U-571 (2000) did little to backup the promise shown in A Simple Plan, Paxton still had a few tricks up his sleeve, as evidenced by his directorial debut Frailty (2002), a surprisingly competent and genuinely frightening tale of religious fervor and questionable sanity. Though cynical filmgoers may have initially viewed the trailer-touting praises of former collaborators Raimi and James Cameron as favors from old friends, the taut tale of a father who claims that God has provided him with a list of "demons" that he and his sons must cast from the earth blind-sided critics and filmgoers with its disturbingly minimalistic yet complex psychological thriller that recalled the thematic elements of previous efforts as Michael Tolkin's The Rapture (1991). His performance as a loving father who reluctantly embarks on God's mission was a vital component of the films emotional impact, and was once again proof that this former supporting player still had a few tricks up his sleeve.Though he hadn't paid much attention to television since his early career, in 2006, Paxton took on the lead role in HBO's Big Love, playing a polygamous husband with three wives. The show was a hit and garnered critical acclaim, including three Golden Globe nominations for Paxton. When the show wrapped up after five seasons, Paxton joined the miniseries Hatfields & McCoys, earning his only Emmy nomination of his career for the role. In 2014, Paxton took on a recurring role in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., playing the villainous John Garrett. He also played Sam Houston in 2015 miniseries Texas Rising. In 2017, his new network show Training Day (a small-screen version of the film) aired only three episodes before Paxton suddenly died of complications from surgery at age 61.

Trivia: Chameleon-like British actor Ben Kingsley has proven he can play just about anyone, from Nazi war criminals to Jewish Holocaust survivors to quiet British bookshop owners. For many viewers, however, he will always be inextricably linked with his title role in Gandhi, a film that won him an Oscar and the undying respect of critics and filmgoers alike.Of English, East Indian, and South African descent, Kingsley was born Krishna Bhanji on December 31, 1943 in Snaiton, Yorkshire, England. The son of a general practitioner, Kingsley started out in amateur theatricals in Manchester before making his professional debut at age 23. In 1967 he made his first London appearance at the Aldwych theater and then joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, devoting himself almost exclusively to stage work for the next 15 years (with the exception of two obscure films, Fear Is the Key [1972] and Hard Labour [1973]). When asked about his favorite stage roles, he listed Hamlet, The Tempest's Ariel, and Volpone's Mosca.American audiences first saw Kingsley in 1971, when he made his Broadway debut with the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1982, actor and director Richard Attenborough selected Kingsley for the demanding title role in the epic Gandhi. The film swept the international awards that year, earning the 39-year-old actor overnight success. Among the several awards he was honored with, Kingsley won a Best Actor Oscar. Adamantly refusing to recycle the same roles, Kingsley spent the next decade playing a wide spectrum of characters. Among his more notable parts were an Arab potentate in Harem (1985), an introverted bibliophile and "social rebel" in Turtle Diary (also 1985), a spy of little import in Pascali's Island (1988), an incorruptible American vice president in Dave (1992), New York gangster Meyer Lansky in Bugsy (1992), a Jewish bookkeeper in Schindler's List (1993), and a suspected Nazi war criminal in Death and the Maiden (1994). So many of his characters have been either taciturn or downright villainous that, upon being cast in a good-guy role in the escapist sci-fier Species (1995), Kingsley publicly expressed his relief in several widely circulated magazine articles.In the latter half of the 1990s, Kingsley continued to embrace a variety of eclectic roles, with turns as the Fool in Trevor Nunn's 1996 film adaptation of Twelfth Night, a media mogul in the 1997 made-for-HBO satire Weapons of Mass Distraction, and the barbarous barber Sweeney Todd in John Schlesinger's 1998 The Tale of Sweeney Todd. Kingsley also took Broadway by storm with his one-man show Edward Kean (later taped for cable), which was directed by his wife, Alison Sutcliffe. Though Kingsley had retained the variety in his career that he had so diligently pursued, the ever-sharp actor remained as focused as ever heading into the new millennium. For his role as a manipulative criminal with a strong power for persuasion in Sexy Beast (2001), Kingsley earned both a Golden Globe nomination and a third Oscar nomination. His fourth Academy nod would come just 2 years later with his role as a proud Arab-American patriarch in The House of Sand and Fog. Along with the Best Actor Oscar nomination, the role also netted Kingsley Golden Globe and Screen Actor's Guild nominations. Kingsley lost his Oscar bid for House to Sean Penn, who collected the statue for his contribution to Clint Eastwood's Mystic River. Over the next several years, Sir Ben Kingsley's acting choices often demonstrated the degree of difficulty that A-listers may encounter when seeking multilayered roles in respectable films, with solid scripts and direction; like many of his contemporaries, the magnificent thespian Kingsley turned up in more than one schlocky Hollywood stinker after House of Sand and Fog -- from Jonathan Frakes's ugly Thunderbirds revamp (2004) to Uwe Boll's horrendous, gothic fx-extravaganza BloodRayne (2006) (as evil ruler Lord Kagan). If anyone could ferret out the creme-de-la-creme of roles, however, Kingsley could, and he simultaneously proved it with contributions to the interesting 2005 biopic Mrs. Harris (as the ill-fated Scarsdale Diet Doctor) and the wondrous documentary I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life and Legacy of Simon Rosenthal (2007).2007 marked a banner year for Kingsley - his most active in quite some time, with contributions to no less than seven key pictures. In the most prominent, the John Dahl-directed crime comedy You Kill Me, Kingsley plays Frank Falenczyk, an alcoholic hit man who travels to Los Angeles to dry out, takes a job in a morgue, and strikes up a relationship with a relative of one of his victims. That same year, Kingsley re-projected his innate ability to essay ethnic roles convincingly, with his turn as one of two Russian police offers investigating an espionage case on a train, in Brad Anderson's thriller Trans-Siberian.Later that same year, Kingsley appeared opposite lead Dan Fogler in English director Chase Palmer's Number Thirteen - a period drama about Alfred Hitchcock's ill-fated attempt to realize one of his first movie projects.

Trivia: A conservative, bourgeois vicar's daughter who reportedly made a concerted effort to avoid errant behavior as a young woman, the refined and genteel British actress Sophia Myles paradoxically found herself typecast, throughout her early years, in rebellious and "edgy" roles. Myles specialized in tackling parts in adaptations of the classics, and was particularly memorable, for example, as Agnes Fleming in Oliver Twist (1999), Kate in Nicholas Nickleby (2000), and Isolde in Tristan & Isolde (2005). With Myles' transition to Hollywood material, she branched out into more conventional buttered-popcorn fare, such as the effects-heavy sci-fi opuses Underworld: Evolution (2006) and Outlander (2008), and similarly essayed one of the main roles on the fantasy television series Moonlight (2007), playing a beautiful investigative reporter whose life is saved by the program's vampiric lead character. In the years to come, Myles would continue to find success on the small screen, particularly with the British series MI-5.

Trivia: A native of Belgrade, MT, actor Philip Winchester culled professional inspiration from his father, who took acting courses at Montana State University and whom young Philip would often watch from backstage. Winchester similarly found his roots on the stage; though he officially debuted onscreen in his teenage years, opposite Steven Seagal in the 1998 action yarn The Patriot, his true passion and gifts lay in theater, and he had his future virtually cut out for him. With marvelous dramatic instincts, he both applied and was accepted to the exclusive London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) in Great Britain. The young thespian then wowed critics with astonishing portrayals in such productions as The Master and Margarita, Blood Wedding, and The Crucible before moving onto an exciting (if slightly less classicist) film career with supporting roles in such productions as the family-oriented sci-fi yarn Thunderbirds (2004) (a live-action cinematization of the puppet show series from Britain) and the World War I-era period adventure Flyboys (2006). Winchester signed for his major Hollywood lead as an amnesiac who may be guilty of murder in Allen Wolf's mind-bending thriller In My Sleep.

Trivia: Quit school to take a role in K-19: The Widowmaker, which his father was also in. Played Romeo in the Chichester Festival Theatre's 2002 production of Romeo and Juliet. Was nominated for the Milton Shulman Award for Outstanding Newcomer at the 2008 Evening Standard Awards for his work in Henry IV Part I. Appeared in 2009's Minder, a reboot of the popular series that originally debuted in 1979.

Trivia: Born December 14th, 1988, actress Vanessa Hudgens showed a talent for performing so early in life that she was appearing on-stage in musicals by the time she was eight years old. After cutting her teeth in shows like The Wizard of Oz, Carousel, and The Music Man, Hudgens won an audition for a commercial, which was the catalyst her career needed to transplant her to L.A. Her feature-film debut came in 2002 with the movie Thirteen, though it wasn't until a few years later that her popularity skyrocketed when she was cast in the Disney TV movie High School Musical. A chance both to showcase her charisma and her singing ability, the movie became a huge success that was wildly popular among kids and preteens, and the young actress signed on for the sequel while heading into the studio to record her first solo CD.Hudgens reprised her role as Gabriella Montez for High School Musical 2 in 2007, and again for High School Musical 3: Senior Year in 2009. Fresh off the success from the High School Musical franchise, Hudgens decided to further focus on her acting career, and took on a role of a socially awkward teenager for the musical comedy Bandslam. Hudgens' performance was praised despite the film's lack of mainstream success. 2011 found the actress starring in Beastly, a modern day take on Beauty & the Beast in which she played (what else?) the beauty, though her role in sucker punch, in which she played a mental patient, took her out of her comfort zone. Hudgens joined the cast of 2012's Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (the follow-up to 2008's Journey to the Center of the Earth), which also starred Dwayne Johnson and Joh Hutcherson.She finally broke out of her family-friendly mold with Spring Breakers (2012), directed by Harmony Korine, playing one of a group of girls that robs a restaurant to fuel their spring break trip. Opposite James Franco, Ashley Benson and Selena Gomez, the film had a buzzy marketing campaign, featuring Hudgens and the other girls in bikinis. The following year, she appeared in Robert Rodriguez's Machete Kills. In 2015, she made her Broadway debut as the title character in Gigi. In early 2016, she played Rizzo in Fox's Grease: Live. Hudgen's father succumed to cancer the day before the broadcast, and she was widely praised for going on with show and turning in a strong performance.

Trivia: Lanky blond and balding actor Anthony Edwards' career reached a pinnacle with his role as the easy-going Dr. Green on the hit NBC television series E.R.. While his rise to fame seems sudden, the actor has been in the business since he was 12 years old. At that young age, Edwards began acting on stage. For the next five years he would act in over 30 plays before going to study at the prestigious Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1980. He also studied drama at USC, Los Angeles. While there he made his feature-film debut in Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982). Unlike many actors who are typecast into certain roles in particular genres, Edwards has remained firmly between genres, having played in everything from teen exploitation flicks (Revenge of the Nerds [1984]), and serious drama (Mr. North [1988]), to actioners (Top Gun [1986]) and thrillers (Downtown [1990]). In 1992, Edwards had a recurring and memorable role as the environmentally-hypersensitive Bubble man on the popular offbeat CBS TV show Northern Exposure. He continued to work on ER until the show's 8th season in 2001, and co-starred Daryl Hannah and Ben Foster in the fantasy drama Northfolk in 2003. Edwards continued to find success as an actor and producer throughout the mid-2000s, and in 2007 took on the role of Inspector William Armstrong in Zodiac, director David Fincher's docudrama chronicling the gruesome story of the serial murderer known as the Zodiac killer. In 2008 he starred in The Dark Lurking, a sci-fi thriller, and starred along with Minnie Driver and Uma Thurman in the independent comedy Motherhood the following year. In 2010 he co-starred in director Rob Reiner's coming-of-age comedy Flipped.

Trivia: A native of Englewood, NJ, Genie Francis would become one of the most recognizable soap opera actresses of all time because she portrayed Laura Webber Spencer on General Hospital. The character's relationship with Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary) enthralled millions, with their wedding drawing the largest rating for any soap opera episode ever up to that time. In addition to her work on General Hospital, Francis has been a regular at different times on other serials including Days of Our Lives and All My Children. She has done one-off appearances on numerous series including Fantasy Island, Murder, She Wrote, and 3rd Rock from the Sun.

Trivia: Started her acting career with the Cambridge Footlights while studying for her degree in 1990. Won a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art but turned it down in favour of paid acting work. After university, shared a flat with Sue Perkins, Sarah Phelps and Emma Kennedy. Left series 5 of Spooks to have her son Harry, who is named after Harry Pearce, the Spooks character played by Peter Firth.