Trivia: American leading actor Tom Hanks has become one of the most popular stars in contemporary American cinema. Born July 9, 1956, in Concord, CA, Hanks spent much of his childhood moving about with his father, an itinerant cook, and continually attempting to cope with constantly changing schools, religions, and stepmothers. After settling in Oakland, CA, he began performing in high-school plays. He continued acting while attending Cal State, Sacramento, and left to pursue his vocation full-time. In 1978, Hanks went to find work in New York; while there he married actress/producer Samantha Lewes, whom he later divorced.Hanks debuted onscreen in the low-budget slasher movie He Knows You're Alone (1979). Shortly afterward he moved to Los Angeles and landed a co-starring role in the TV sitcom Bosom Buddies; he also worked occasionally in other TV series such as Taxi and Family Ties, as well as in the TV movie Mazes and Monsters. Hanks finally became prominent when he starred opposite Daryl Hannah in the Disney comedy Splash!, which became the sleeper hit of 1984. Audiences were drawn to the lanky, curly headed actor's amiable, laid-back style and keen sense of comic timing. He went on to appear in a string of mostly unsuccessful comedies before starring in Big (1988), in which he gave a delightful performance as a child in a grown man's body. His 1990 film Bonfire of the Vanities was one of the biggest bombs of the year, but audiences seemed to forgive his lapse. In 1992, Hanks' star again rose when he played the outwardly disgusting, inwardly warm-hearted coach in Penny Marshall's A League of Their Own. This led to a starring role in the smash hit romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle (1993).Although a fine comedic actor, Hanks earned critical respect and an even wider audience when he played a tormented AIDS-afflicted homosexual lawyer in the drama Philadelphia (1993) and won that year's Oscar for Best Actor. In 1994 he won again for his convincing portrait of the slow-witted but phenomenally lucky Forrest Gump, and his success continued with the smash space epic Apollo 13 (1995). In 1996, Hanks tried his hand at screenwriting, directing, and starring in a feature: That Thing You Do!, an upbeat tale of a one-hit wonder group and their manager. The film was not particularly successful, unlike Hanks' next directing endeavor, the TV miniseries From Earth to the Moon. The series was nominated for and won a slew of awards, including a series of Emmys. The success of this project was outdone by Hanks' next, Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (1998). Ryan won vast critical acclaim and was nominated for 11 Oscars, including a Best Actor nomination for Hanks. The film won five, including a Best Director Oscar for Spielberg, but lost Best Picture to Shakespeare in Love, a slight that was to become the subject of controversy. No controversy surrounded Hanks' following film, Nora Ephron's You've Got Mail (1998), a romantic comedy that paired Hanks with his Sleepless co-star Meg Ryan. Although the film got mixed reviews, it was popular with filmgoers, and thus provided Hanks with another success to add to his resumé. Even more success came soon after when Hanks took home the 2000 Golden Globes' Best Actor in a drama award for his portrayal of a shipwrecked FedEx systems engineer who learns the virtues of wasted time in Robert Zemeckis' Cast Away. Though absent from the silver screen in 2001, Hanks remained in the public eye with a role in the acclaimed HBO mini-series Band of Brothers as well as appearing in September 11 television special America: A Tribute to Heroes and the documentary Rescued From the Closet. Next teaming with American Beauty director Sam Mendes for the adaptation of Max Allan Collins graphic novel The Road to Perdition (subsequently inspired by the Japanese manga Lone Wolf and Cub, the nice-guy star took a rare anti-hero role as a hitman (albiet an honorable and fairly respectable hitman) on the lam with his son (Tyler Hoechlin) after his son witnesses a murder. That same year, Hanks collaborated with director Spielberg again, starring opposite Leonardo Dicaprio in the hit crime-comedy Catch Me if You Can.For the next two years, Hanks was essentially absent from movie screens, but in 2004 he emerged with three new projects: The Coen Brothers' The Lady Killers, yet another Spielberg helmed film, The Terminal, and The Polar Express, a family picture from Forrest Gump and Castaway director Robert Zemeckis. 2006 was a very active year for Hanks starting with an appearance at the Oscar telecast that talented lip-readers will remember for quite some time. In addition to helping produce the HBO Series Big Love, he scored a major international success by reteaming with director Ron Howard for the big-screen adaptation of {Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, which was such a success that he signed on for the sequel in 2009, Angels and Demons. His Playtone production company would have a hand in the animated feature The Ant Bully in 2008, and that same year he filmed The Great Buck Howard co-starring his son Colin Hanks. He also signed on to co-star with Julia Roberts in two different films: Mike Nichols' Charlie Wilson's War in 2008 and the romcom Larry Crowne in 2011. Later that same year, Hanks would make dramatic waves in the post-9/11 drama Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture.Ranked by Empire Magazine as 17th out of "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" in October 1997, Hanks is married to actress Rita Wilson, with whom he appeared in Volunteers (1985). The couple have two children in addition to Hanks' other two from his previous marriage.

Trivia: A fixture of 1980s TV series and movies, prolific character actor David Morse became a reliable and much lauded supporting presence in feature films from the 1990s onward.Raised in Hamilton, MA, Morse began his professional career after high school, joining the Boston Repertory Theater in 1971. Over the next six years, Morse acted in over 30 productions, amply preparing him for a move to New York theater in 1977. Morse subsequently got his first big movie break when he was cast in the drama Inside Moves (1980). Though Morse proved that he could handle lighter films with Neil Simon's comedy Max Dugan Returns (1983), his detour into television in 1982 was initially more fruitful. As Dr. Jack "Boomer" Morrison, Morse spent six seasons on the esteemed hospital drama St. Elsewhere, co-starring with, among others, Denzel Washington. During his stint on St. Elsewhere, Morse also starred in a diverse collection of TV movies. He was a priest in love with Valerie Bertinelli's nun in Shattered Vows (1984), a prisoner attempting a breakout from Alcatraz in Six Against the Rock (1987), a detective in Down Payment on Murder (1987), and a mental hospital escapee in Winnie (1988). Continuing his presence on the small screen after St. Elsewhere, Morse appeared in several more TV movies, including starring as a deranged kidnapper in Cry in the Wild: The Taking of Peggy Ann (1991).Though he co-starred as a drifter in the indie film Personal Foul (1987) and appeared in Michael Cimino's noir remake The Desperate Hours (1990), Morse did not concentrate most of his energies on feature films until the 1990s. After starring as Viggo Mortensen's brother in Sean Penn's directorial debut, The Indian Runner (1991), Morse moved to more mainstream work with supporting roles in The Good Son (1993), the Alec Baldwin-Kim Basinger version of The Getaway (1994), and medical thriller Extreme Measures (1996). While he appeared in Terry Gilliam's thoughtful La Jetée (1962) remake 12 Monkeys (1995), faced off with Jack Nicholson in Penn's The Crossing Guard (1996), and starred as a janitor-turned-rich man in George B. (1997), Morse really captured audience attention in a concurrent string of high-profile projects. Returning to Alcatraz, Morse projected quiet menace as one of Ed Harris renegade Marines in the blockbuster hit The Rock (1996). Morse tapped his bad self again in the action romp The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), then cemented his versatility with a small yet vital role as Jodie Foster's gentle father in Contact (1997). Notching his third major summer release in a row, Morse played a SWAT team commander up against Samuel L. Jackson's wrongly accused cop in The Negotiator (1998). Returning to serious blockbuster fare, Morse then co-starred with Tom Hanks as prison guards who witness miracles in The Green Mile (1999). After a foray into comedy with Bait (2000), Morse stole hostage drama Proof of Life (2000) from his glamorous tabloid-ready co-stars Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe with his intense performance as Ryan's kidnapped husband. Even as he became a popular Hollywood second lead, however, Morse wasn't afraid to veer away from the multiplex, winning an Obie Award for Paula Vogel's acclaimed play How I Learned to Drive and putting a believably human face on an utterly hateful character in Lars von Trier's bleak, award-winning musical Dancer in the Dark (2000). Continuing his protean career, Morse appeared in another gentle Stephen King adaptation Hearts of Atlantis (2001) and starred in Diary of a City Priest (2001) for PBS. Morse followed the ill fated Hearts of Atlantis with a lead role in the indie drama The Slaughter Rule (2002), which was well received on the film festival circuit. Morse subsequently returned to series television, and received top billing, in the CBS drama Hack (2002). Starring Morse as an ex-cop-turned-cab driver, Hack was pummeled by critics, but audiences took to Morse's well intentioned, marginalized law enforcer and Hack became a modest ratings success. He had a recurring part on the medical drama House as a police detective driven to put the title character behind bars. In 2007 he played the bad guy in the teen thriller Disturbia. He appeared in a pair of award-winning projects in 2008 - he was a military man in The Hurt Locker, and tackled the role of George Washington in the Emmy-winning miniseries John Adams for HBO. In 2011 he had a major part in Drive Angry, and the next year he was in the family-oriented fantasy film The Odd Life of Timothy Green.

Trivia: Blonde, vivacious actress Bonnie Hunt made a memorable film debut as the waitress who drops toothpicks after she is inadvertently intimidated by autistic savant Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man (1989). The sixth of seven children, Hunt was born in Chicago, on September 22, 1964. Her love of acting began in high school and, though she wanted to become a professional actor, her father pushed her toward nursing, the profession she pursued after graduation. Even after her father passed away while she was in nursing school, Hunt continued with the program and upon graduation worked in the oncology ward of Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Working with so many terminally ill cancer patients had a profound effect on her, inspiring her not to wait to pursue her original dream. While still working as a nurse, she landed roles in small plays and began studying at the Second City Improvisational Theater. She worked for a time with a different improv troupe before being invited to join Second City's touring company in 1986. Within a few weeks, she had proven to be such a gifted comedienne that she was promoted to the troupe's first string of performers. Shortly after debuting in Rain Man, Hunt accepted an offer to work with Second City's Los Angeles-based troupe; two months later, she left the troupe and within a few days of her initial unemployment was offered the chance to star in a sitcom on NBC. However, the show, entitled Grand, lasted less than a season. She made a second attempt at television, playing Jonathan Winters' daughter on Davis Rules, but she again found herself unemployed when it was cancelled. In 1992, Hunt made her first appearance on Late Night With David Letterman. The appearance proved to be an important juncture for Hunt as she not only charmed the irascible Letterman, but wowed the audience with her witty stories. Hunt became a personal friend of the talk show host and made frequent return visits. Around 1993, Letterman produced the short-lived CBS sitcom The Building, which Hunt had created and for which she penned 20 episodes. Hunt herself starred along with cronies from her Second City days; with the show's first airing, she became the first woman to write and star in her own series.In film, Hunt had her first starring role in Beethoven (1992), followed by a cameo role as a White House tour guide in the romantic comedy Dave (1993). She has subsequently alternated between supporting and leading roles. One of her best-known parts was the sharp-tongued Laurel in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire (1996). She also appeared in Frank Darabont's The Green Mile (1999) as the wife of a prison security guard (Tom Hanks). In 2000, Hunt added feature film directing and screenwriting to her resume with Return to Me, a romantic comedy starring David Duchovny and Minnie Driver. Hunt also took on a supporting role in the film which went on to become a modest sleeper hit. After trying her hand behind the camera, in 2002 Hunt decided to take her fourth shot at the small screen (1995's The Bonnie Hunt Show was a flop too), producing and starring in ABC's Life With Bonnie. A mix of traditional sitcom and improv, the show proved to be a hit and netted the actress consecutive Best Actress Golden Globe nominations.In the wake of the show's success, Hunt returned to film, starring alongside Steve Martin in 2003's Cheaper by the Dozen. The film saw Hunt play the mother of twelve children and proved to by quite a success, raking in well over $100 million at the box-office. A featured role in Tim Kirkman's episodic indie-drama Loggerheads preceded a trip back into the realm of Pixar magic when Hunt provided the voice of sexy Porche Sally in 2006's computer animation hit Cars. Hunt rejoined Pixar in 2010 to voice Dolly the doll in Toy Story 3, and reprised her role as Sally for Cars 2.

Trivia: Long-time character actor James Cromwell has spent much of his career on stage and television, only occasionally appearing in feature films until the early '90s, when his film work began to flourish. The tall, spare actor first became known to an international audience with his role as the taciturn but kindly Farmer Hoggett, the owner of a piglet that wants to be a sheepdog, in the smash hit Babe (1995). His work in the film earned Cromwell an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, as well as numerous opportunities for steady work in Hollywood.The son of noted director John Cromwell and actress Kay Johnson, he originally aspired to become a mechanical engineer, attending both Vermont's Middlebury College and the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). But after a summer spent on a movie set with his father, the acting bug bit, and Cromwell decided to become an actor. He started out in regional theater, acting and directing in a variety productions for ten years, and he was a regular performer at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Cromwell made his television debut in the recurring role of "Stretch" Cunningham on All in the Family in 1974, and he subsequently spent the rest of the decade and much of the 1980s on television, as a regular on such shows as Hot L Baltimore and The Last Precinct. Cromwell also appeared in such miniseries as NBC's Once an Eagle and in such made-for-television movies as A Christmas Without Snow (1980). Cromwell made his feature film debut in the comedy Murder By Death (1976). His film work was largely undistinguished until Babe; following the film's success, he began appearing in more substantial roles in a number of popular films, including The People Vs. Larry Flynt (1996), in which he played Charles Keating; Star Trek: First Contact (1996), which cast him as the reluctant scientist responsible for Earth's first contact with alien life forms; and L.A. Confidential (1997), in which he gave a marvelously loathsome performance as a crooked police captain. Adept at playing nice guys and bottom-dwelling scum alike, Cromwell next earned strong notices for his portrayal of a penitentiary warden in The Green Mile (1999).The respected character actor continued strongly into the next decade with appearances in Clint Eastwood's Space Cowboys as well as the live-on-TV production of Fail Safe in 2000. He enjoyed a recurring role on E.R. in 2001. He played the president in the 2002 Jack Ryan movie The Sum of All Fears. In 2003 he took on a recurring role in the respected HBO drama Six Feet Under, and also appeared in the award-winning HBO adaptation of Angels in America. In 2006 he acted opposite Helen Mirren playing Prince Philip in The Queen, and played another head of state for Oliver Stone when he portrayed George Herbert Walker Bush in the biopic W. In 2011 he was the loyal butler to the main character in the Best Picture Oscar winner for that year, The Artist.

Trivia: With his trademark red moustache, personable smile, and childlike demeanor, longtime character actor Michael Jeter brought smiles to children nationwide with his role on Sesame Street as Mr. Noodle's Brother. Aside from his memorable role on that children's television mainstay, Jeter could also be seen in a number of memorable film roles in such efforts as Miller's Crossing (1990) and The Fisher King (1991). Chances are, if you don't recognize his name you would certainly recognize his face. Born in Lawrenceburg, TN, in August of 1952, Jeter first opted to follow a career in medicine, though a stint at Memphis State University found the creative young student leaning ever closer to a career as an actor. Taking on minor film roles beginning with 1979's Hairspray, the burgeoning young actor would subsequently appear in such films as Milos Foreman's Ragtime (1981) and Woody Allen's Zelig (1983), though early struggles with alcohol and substance abuse threatened to sideline his screen career in the mid-'80s. Abandoning the screen for a career as a legal secretary the same year that Zelig was released, fate guided Jeter back into his true calling when a producer, recalling his role in television's Designing Women, asked that he take a supporting role on the Burt Reynolds' sitcom Evening Shade. Accepting the role as assistant football coach Herman Stiles, Jeter's enthusiasm for acting was re-ignited as he was honored with an Emmy for the role in 1992. A busy stage actor as well, Jeter won a Tony in 1990 for his performance in Grand Hotel. From 1990 on, Jeter maintained his film career with a series of memorably quirky roles. Perhaps his most unique and affecting role came with the release of director Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King. As a homeless transvestite who croons for Amanda Plummer's character after making a flamboyant entrance into her quiet office, Jeter's carefree ditty was a highlight of the film. The 1990s proved a busy decade for Jeter, and roles in such popular films as Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), Air Bud (1997), and The Green Mile (1999) assured that his career would flourish well into the new millennium. Announcing that he had been infected with HIV in 1997, audiences could never have known how quickly the deadly virus would take its toll on the energetic and optimistic actor. Though Jeter would usher in the new millennium with roles in such prominent box-office releases as The Gift (2000) and Jurassic Park III (2001), it was his role on Sesame Street that endeared him to children and made good use of his genuinely playful nature. Sadly, Jeter succumbed to complications from the HIV virus in late March of 2003. Before his untimely death, Jeter would complete roles in Kevin Costner's Open Range (2003) and Robert Zemeckis' family fantasy The Polar Express (2004).

Trivia: A full-blooded Oneida from the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada, actor Graham Greene is best known for playing Native American roles; his characters are almost always positive and very dignified. Though he has provided a strong role model and has proved that there is a place for Native American actors outside the Western genre, he considers himself neither a spokesperson for Native rights, nor a great trail blazer paving the way for other Native American actors in film and television. Instead Greene prefers to think of himself simply as an actor capable of playing any role that comes his way, and indeed, in the rare instances when he is cast in other parts, such as that of a New York detective in Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995), he excels.Unlike other performers, Greene did not grow up with a burning desire to act. Rather his becoming an actor was literally due to the luck of the draw. It happened in the early '70s when he was working as a sound engineer for a popular Canadian band. One of his cohorts thought Greene might make a good actor, but Greene was indifferent. They discussed the matter for a week before they decided to cut a deck of cards. If he lost, he would become an actor. Shortly thereafter, Greene found work on the London stage. It took almost a decade of hard work -- he made his feature film debut in the 1983 sports drama Running Brave -- before he made a name for himself with his Oscar-nominated performance as Kicking Bird in Kevin Costner's epic directorial debut Dances With Wolves (1990). Following his success with Costner's film, Greene became a guest star on various television series, notably L.A. Law, Murder She Wrote, and Northern Exposure, where he had a recurring role as a medicine man/teacher. He also appeared in the PBS American Playhouse production Where the Spirit Lives (1990) and in the well-wrought HBO film The Last of His Tribe (1992). In 1992, he also was excellent as a Sioux policeman who acts as a foil/teacher to starchy FBI agent Val Kilmer in Michael Apted's Thunderheart (1992). In addition to a continued but sporadic film career that included the 1997 Canadian release Wounded, in which he played a recently rehabilitated alcoholic detective who helps solve the murder of a slain forest ranger, Greene appeared on-stage -- most frequently in Toronto -- and did television work that included hosting documentaries. In March of 1997, Greene was reportedly hospitalized following a several hours-long stand-off with Toronto police. Depressed over family and other personal matters, Greene was suicidal and according to the person who called the police, he had guns in his home, though no weapons were used during the encounter which ended peacefully. Greene shares his name with a renowned British author and essayist.

Trivia: An idiosyncratic actor known for both his versatility and sinewy, off-kilter sexiness, Sam Rockwell is one of the stage and screen's most imaginative and least predictable performers. Once dubbed "the male Parker Posey" for his voluminous work in independent films, Rockwell has also earned notice for his work in more mainstream fare, including Frank Darabont's The Green Mile (1999).Born in Daly City, CA, on November 5, 1968, Rockwell enjoyed a steadfastly bohemian upbringing. The son of artists and actors, Rockwell moved to New York City with his parents when he was two. Three years later, his parents divorced, and he spent much of his youth traveling back and forth between them. Raised by his father in San Francisco, he spent his summers in New York with his mother, whose unconventional lifestyle -- replete with sex, drugs, and flamboyant hippies -- introduced Rockwell to some very adult pastimes at an extremely young age. It was through his mother that he became involved in theater, making his stage debut at the age of ten. He later attended San Francisco's High School of the Performing Arts, where, at the age of 18, he was chosen to star in Clown House (1988), an ill-fated thriller revolving around three brothers' fight to the death with a group of maniacal circus entertainers.Following his screen debut, Rockwell moved to New York and proceeded to make 20 more films, including Last Exit to Brooklyn (1990) and Tom Di Cillo's Box of Moonlight (1996). It was the actor's work in the latter film that first won him recognition: as The Kid, a coonskin cap-clad free spirit whose backwoods existence alters the mundane life of a burnt-out engineer (John Turturro), Rockwell gave an engaging performance that sparked industry attention; unfortunately, the independent film disappeared at the box office. The actor next garnered attention for his lead role in John Duigan's Lawn Dogs (1997), a tale about the unconventional friendship between a white trash lawn boy (Rockwell) and a ten year-old girl (Mischa Barton) with a heart problem. Employing a heavy helping of magical realism to tell its story, the film earned fairly positive reviews, and Rockwell drew particular praise for his complex, low-key performance.The actor subsequently appeared in a series of comedies that made good use of his quirky persona, most notably Safe Men (1998), which cast him and Steve Zahn as two singers of dubious quality who find themselves the unwitting targets of the Jewish mafia. In 1999, more mainstream audiences were introduced to Rockwell thanks to his memorable work in three films: A Midsummer Night's Dream, which cast him as the cross-dressing Francis Flute; Galaxy Quest, a comedy spoof in which Rockwell played a cast member of a failing circa-'70s sci-fi TV series; and The Green Mile, in which the actor got to fully exhibit his twisted versatility as Wild Bill, a death-row inmate whom Rockwell himself characterized as "a disgusting, racist, pedophile freak." Switching gears almost as much as humanly possible, Rockwell's following role in Galaxy Quest (1999) found him a quirky cast member of a Star Trek-like television sci-fi series. The contrast between Rockwell's ultra-lightweight Galaxy Quest characterization and his former role as a genuinely revolting criminal was a testament to his versatility, and though he would stick to comedy with Charlie's Angels, a series of small roles would follow before Rockwell teamed with actor George Clooney for Welcome to Collinwood and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (both 2002). Appearing as former host of the cult television sensation The Gong Show in the latter, Rockwell brought Chuck Barris' compellingly quirky (and partially fictionalized) biography to the screen under first-time director George Clooney. In addition to his work onscreen, Rockwell has continued to act on the stage, appearing in such productions as a 1998 off-Broadway run of Mike Leigh's Goosepimples.Over the next several years, Rockwell would remain a constant force on screen, appearing in films like The Assassination of Jesse James, Choke, Frost/Nixon, Choke, Moon, Conviction, Cowboys & Aliens, and The Sitter.

Trivia: One of Hollywood's shoe-ins for deft portrayals of creepy, underhanded, Machiavellian types with an anarchic bite, Doug Hutchison distinguished himself with two career-defining portrayals in the late '80s: he played Obie, a member of a sinister student league at an all-boys' Catholic school, in director Keith Gordon's The Chocolate War (1988), and Sproles, an undercover cop's younger brother who causes problems for an economically divided couple (Andrew McCarthy and Molly Ringwald) in David Anspaugh's romantic drama Fresh Horses (1988). Hutchison frequently rose above the inherent weaknesses of the material he was handed, as in the two said films; one critic observed that Sproles "hoist[ed] [Horses] onto his shoulders for the duration of his scenes." That ability didn't emerge serendipitously; a classically trained performer who received his formal education at Juilliard, Hutchison later studied drama one-on-one under the tutelage of legendary acting coach Sanford Meisner. Unfortunately, within a few years of his astonishing onscreen debuts in 1988, Hutchison's screen activity somewhat declined, and when he did crop up, the projects were unworthy of him (such as 1992's The Lawnmower Man and 1996's Love Always). By the late '90s, however, Hutchison rebounded, with additional roles in A-listers including The Green Mile (1999), I Am Sam (2002), and The Salton Sea (2002). By the tail end of that decade, Hutchison moved into more sensationalistic material, signing for turns in J.T. Petty's horror western The Burrowers (2008) and Lexi Alexander's comic-book superhero film Punisher: War Zone (2008).

Trivia: With cool-eyed charisma and looks suggesting he had borrowed DNA from Paul Newman and Dennis Hopper, Barry Pepper first caught the attention of audiences and critics as the Bible-quoting Private Jackson in Saving Private Ryan. Before his role in the hit 1998 World War II epic, Pepper, a native of Canada, had been largely unheard of outside of his homeland. Born in Campbell River, British Columbia, on April 4, 1970, Pepper had what can only be described as a unique upbringing. When he was five years old, his parents built a boat and, setting sail with Pepper and his two older brothers, spent the next three years traveling around the world. Pepper was schooled in places as far-flung as Tahiti, Fiji, and New Zealand, and after returning to Canada, went to college to study graphic design. By his own account a poor student, Pepper dropped out of college and decided to give acting a try. He made his professional debut on the popular Vancouver TV series Madison and stayed with the show for four years. After parts in a couple of obscure films and a stint on the television series Titanic with George C. Scott, Pepper attracted the attention of director Steven Spielberg, who cast him in Saving Private Ryan. The critical and commercial success of the film put Pepper -- and several of his co-stars -- in the spotlight, and he soon had a coveted spot on the cover of Vanity Fair's 1999 Hollywood issue, alongside several other up-and-coming young actors. That same year, Pepper further enhanced his visibility with a role in the action thriller Enemy of the State. Hollywood hype being Hollywood hype, Pepper was soon being hailed as a Next Big Thing by any number of publications and his role as a prison guard in the hotly anticipated The Green Mile (1999) seemed to attest to this status. Whether the young actor really was a star in the making or not, his career had gotten off to an inarguably positive start.Over the next several years, Pepper would find success in movies like Flags of Our Fathers and True Grit, as well as the TV mini-series The Kennedys.

Trivia: Born and raised in New Orleans, deep-voiced actress Patricia Clarkson studied drama at Yale. She stayed on the East coast working in theater productions before her feature film debut in The Untouchables (1987) as the wife of Elliot Ness. Continuing to work in film, she gained attention for her role as the drug-addicted Greta in the independent film High Art. Also working in TV, she had reoccuring roles on Wonderland and Fraser, and even won an Emmy award for her role as Sarah on the HBO drama Six Feet Under. She gave memorable performances in her smaller film roles, such as the bedridden wife in The Green Mile. Her career really picked up in 2002 with appearances in such films as the Russo brothers' Welcome to Collinwood, Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven, and Lars von Trier's Dogville. In 2003, Clarkson appeared in several films at the Sundance Film Festival, where she won the Outstanding Performance award for her work in All the Real Girls, The Station Agent, and Pieces of April. She continued to work steadily in projects such as the inspirational hockey drama Miracle, and George Clooney's Oscar-nominated Good Night, and Good Luck. She was part of the high-powered ensemble put together for the box-office disappointment All the King's Men, but remained one of the most in-demand character actresses of her time, In 2007 she appeared in Lars and the Real Girl, Married Life, and No Reservations. In 2008 she began a working relationship with Woody Allen when she was cast in Vicky Cristina Barcelona that continued with Whatever Works. She had a single scene in Martin Scorsese's paranoid thriller Shutter Island in 2010, the same year she appeared in the sleeper hit Easy A. The next year she acted in the romantic drama One Day as well as the comedy Friends With Benefits.

Trivia: Began acting as a member of the Mountebanks, the oldest student theater group in the U.S. In college, planned to be an engineer. Was a member of the National Shakespeare Company and did summer seasons at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center. Actually voiced O'Neill in the 1983 PBS documentary A Glory of Ghosts. Made his Broadway debut in 1976 in Comedians. Has appeared in a number of projects for writer-director Frank Darabont, who considers him a "good-luck charm." One of his most thrilling acting moments was his scene with James Cagney in 1981's Ragtime. Won a Cable ACE Award for his performance in HBO's Citizen X (1995).

Trivia: A perpetually haggard character actor with hound-dog eyes and the rare ability to alternate between menace and earnest at a moment's notice, Harry Dean Stanton has proven one of the most enduring and endearing actors of his generation. From his early days riding the range in Gunsmoke and Rawhide to a poignant turn in David Lynch's uncharacteristically sentimental drama The Straight Story, Stanton can always be counted on to turn in a memorable performance no matter how small the role. A West Irvine, KY, native who served in World War II before returning stateside to attend the University of Kentucky, it was while appearing in a college production of Pygmalion that Stanton first began to realize his love for acting. Dropping out of school three years later to move to California and train at the Pasadena Playhouse, Stanton found himself in good company while training alongside such future greats as Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall. A stateside tour with the American Male Chorus and a stint in New York children's theater found Stanton continuing to hone his skills, and after packing his bags for Hollywood shortly thereafter, numerous television roles were quick to follow. Billed Dean Stanton in his early years and often carrying the weight of the screen baddie, Stanton gunned down the best of them in numerous early Westerns before a soulful turn in Cool Hand Luke showed that he was capable of much more. Though a role in The Godfather Part II offered momentary cinematic redemption, it wasn't long before Stanton was back to his old antics in the 1976 Marlon Brando Western The Missouri Breaks. After once again utilizing his musical talents as a country & western singer in The Rose (1979) and meeting a gruesome demise in the sci-fi classic Alien, roles in such popular early '80s efforts as Private Benjamin, Escape From New York, and Christine began to gain Stanton growing recognition among mainstream film audiences; and then a trio of career-defining roles in the mid-'80s proved the windfall that would propel the rest of Stanton's career. Cast as a veteran repo man opposite Emilio Estevez in director Alex Cox's cult classic Repo Man (1984), Stanton's hilarious, invigorated performance perfectly gelled with the offbeat sensibilities of the truly original tale involving punk-rockers, aliens, and a mysteriously omnipresent plate o' shrimp. After sending his sons off into the mountains to fight communists in the jingoistic actioner Red Dawn (also 1984) Stanton essayed what was perhaps his most dramatically demanding role to date in director Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas. Cast as a broken man whose brother attempts to help him remember why he walked out on his family years before, Stanton's devastating performance provided the emotional core to what was perhaps one of the essential films of the 1980s. A subsequent role as Molly Ringwald's character's perpetually unemployed father in 1986's Pretty in Pink, while perhaps not quite as emotionally draining, offered a tender characterization that would forever hold him a place in the hearts of those raised on 1980s cinema. In 1988 Stanton essayed the role of Paul the Apostle in director Martin Scorsese's controversial religious epic The Last Temptation of Christ. By the 1990s Stanton was a widely recognized icon of American cinema, and following memorably quirky roles as an eccentric patriarch in Twister and a desperate private detective in David Lynch's Wild at Heart (both 1990), he settled into memorable roles in such efforts as Against the Wall (1994), Never Talk to Strangers (1995), and the sentimental drama The Mighty (1998). In 1996, Stanton made news when he was pistol whipped by thieves who broke into his home and stole his car (which was eventually returned thanks to a tracking device). Having previously teamed with director Lynch earlier in the decade, fans were delighted at Stanton's poignant performance in 1999's The Straight Story. Still going strong into the new millennium, Stanton could be spotted in such efforts as The Pledge (2001; starring longtime friend and former roommate Jack Nicholson), Sonny (2002), and The Big Bounce (2004). In addition to his acting career, Stanton can often be spotted around Hollywood performing with his band, The Harry Dean Stanton Band.

Trivia: If you're a fan of movies, you've no doubt seen William Sadler's face countless times. With a versatile career that has spanned from long-haired, small-town rock star to banjo-plucking entertainer to Shakespearean actor to his role as Death in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey (1991), William Sadler attacks all roles with equal gusto with his characters never ceasing to leave an impression on viewers, even if they can't recall the name of "that guy in that movie."Born in April of 1950 in Buffalo, NY, Sadler's imagination was fueled from a young age on his family's sprawling farm where he would pass the time with friends reenacting scenes from their favorite television and radio programs. Around the age of eight, Sadler's father's interest in music sparked a passion in the young boy as well with his father's gift of a ukulele. The two frequently performed at family functions together: Sadler Sr. on the guitar and Jr. on the uke. Later taking interest in a number of stringed instruments, after following in his father's footsteps and taking up the guitar, Sadler quickly learned that the mystique of the musician's life was difficult to resist. Forming a cover band with his Orchard Park High schoolmates, he began to gain popularity and a surprising amount of attention from the opposite sex. Armed with a banjo and a fistful of jokes, Sadler soon took on the persona of "Banjo Bill Sadler" for the school's annual variety show, and the result was an instant success. The students and teachers loved the performance, and English teacher Dan Larkin soon persuaded Sadler to audition for a role in Harvey, the senior play. Winning the lead and igniting a fire within the young performer, Sadler would soon follow his dreams and enroll in the drama program at State University College in Geneseo, NY. After spending two intense years in Cornell University's Fine Arts following his tenure at State University College, Sadler was finally prepared to be humbled in the grueling trials of the aspiring actor.Sadler took his first post-school role in Florida and soon relocated to Boston, moving in with his sister while scrubbing the floors of a lobster boat by day and cutting his acting chops at night. Slowly working up the nerve to take a shot at the big time in New York, a chance meeting with an old schoolmate on a trip into the city resulted in Sadler's casting in an off-off-Broadway production of Chekhov's Ivanov. After a brief turn at the Trinity Square Repertory Company in Providence, RI, Sadler moved back to New York and rented an apartment in the East Village, beginning a grueling 12 years in which he appeared in over 75 productions. It was here that Sadler would meet Marni Bakst, the woman who would soon become his wife, and a young actor named Matthew Broderick, in a Broadway production of Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues, who would kick-start Sadler's film career with a role in Project X (1987).After memorable turns in such films as Die Hard 2 (1990), Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, and The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Sadler found himself becoming one of the most sought-after character actors working in Hollywood. His friendly demeanor and warm sense of humor standing in stark contrast to his usually villainous onscreen antics, Sadler has gained a reputation among actors as a helpful and good-natured craftsman, always willing to offer advise and assistance without being pushy or overbearing. Increasingly busy in both television and films in the latter '90s, Sadler gained widespread recognition with his film roles in Disturbing Behavior (1998) and The Green Mile (1999) and on television with his role as Sheriff Jim Valenti on Roswell.

Trivia: A founding member of the Chicago's influential Steppenwolf Theatre Company (along with Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry) when he was barely 19, Gary Sinise made his professional acting debut at the age of 17 in a 1973 production of The Physicist. Sinise himself would sum up his career best by noting that the secret to a successful career is not to focus on taking off like a rocket, but to "always keep the engine running." With a prolific and well-defined career on each side of the camera in addition to his stage work, keeping the engine running is precisely what Sinise has done, and that engine has been well maintained.Born March 17th, 1955 in Blue Island, IL, Sinise's attraction to the stage was supported early on through the encouragement of Barbara Patterson, his high school drama teacher. After a role in West Side Story, Sinise's love for the stage was set in stone, leading him to found the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where he would meet his future wife, actress Moira Harris. Initially based in a church basement, the Steppenwolf quickly grew in stature and respectability, serving as the breeding ground for such talents as John Malkovich and Laurie Metcalf, and earning critical praise with productions like Sam Shepard's True West, which would eventually become the company's Broadway debut. Sinise's film and television career began as a director on such television series' as Crime Story and thirtysomething, eventually leading to his feature directorial debut with the rural drama Miles From Home (starring fellow Steppenwolfers Metcalf and Malkovich) and his feature acting debut in the haunting war drama A Midnight Clear (1991). Sinise's love for the stage resurfaced with his ambitious 1992 remake of Of Mice and Men (in which he also starred, again with fellow Steppenwolf alum Malkovich, in the roles they had both portrayed on stage).But it was his performance as the physically crippled and emotionally shattered Lt. Dan in Robert Zemeckis' blockbuster Forrest Gump (1994) that brought Sinise to light as an actor of considerable talent. His sensitive portrait of a once invincible soldier reduced to a pathetic self-pitying ghost of his own former glory was the perfect vessel for the actor's quiet intensity and florid emotional capabilities, and brought him the Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. That same year Sinise had a starring role in the long-anticipated television adaptation of Stephen King's apocalyptic thriller The Stand.Sinise continued to display his dramatic abilities through the '90s, rejoining Gump co-star Tom Hanks in Ron Howard's Apollo 13 and starring as both Harry S. Truman and George Wallace in the biopics Truman (1995) (for which he won a Cable Ace Award and a Golden Globe) and George Wallace (1997) (for which he won an Emmy). With minor appearances in The Green Mile and Being John Malkovich (both 1999), Sinise brought in the year 2000 in a sci-fi mode, with Brian De Palma's existential thriller Mission to Mars and as a weapons engineer with questionable motives in Imposter. Throughout the next decade Sinise worked in a variety of films including The Big Bounce, The Human Stain, and The Forgotten. However he had is most visible role on the small screen when he was cast as the male lead in the third of the popular CSI series, CSI: NY. In 2006 he brought his theater trained voice to the animated Open Season.

Trivia: One of the most prolific of the "Who IS that?"school of character actors, Dabbs Greer has been playing small-town doctors, bankers, merchants, druggists, mayors and ministers since at least 1950. His purse-lipped countenance and Midwestern twang was equally effective in taciturn villainous roles. Essentially a bit player in films of the 1950s (Diplomatic Courier, Deadline USA, Living It Up), Greer was given more screen time than usual as a New York detective in House of Wax (1953), while his surface normality served as excellent contrast to the extraterrestrial goings-on in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and It! The Terror from Beyond Space. A television actor since the dawn of the cathode-tube era, Greer has shown up in hundreds of TV supporting roles, including the "origin" episode of the original Superman series, in which he played the dangling dirigible worker rescued in mid-air by the Man of Steel. Greer also played the recurring roles of storekeeper Mr. Jones on Gunsmoke (1955-60) and Reverend Robert Alden on Little House on the Prairie (1974-83). Showing no signs of slowing down, Dabbs Greer continued accepting roles in such films as Two Moon Junction (1988) and Pacific Heights (1990) into the '90s. He died following a battle with kidney and heart disease, on April 28, 2007, not quite a month after his 90th birthday.

Trivia: Left home at 15 to travel Europe before landing in New York's East Village in 1991. Discovered while working as a bartender in New York by director Michael Almereyda, who cast her---as a bartender--- in his film Another Girl Another Planet (1992). Produced and directed first film, In the A.M. of Dec. 26th at Mickey's (on the Corner of Cunningham & Kongosak in Barrow), in 2008. Was the first actor cast in the sci-fi television series Caprica.

Trivia: A character actor beloved particularly for playing villains, Bill McKinney was born in Chattanooga, TN, in 1931. After spending some time in Los Angeles while on leave in the Navy, McKinney decided to settle there following his discharge in order to pursue his dream of becoming an actor. He studied at the Pasadena Playhouse and Lee Strausberg's Actors Studio while paying the bills as a high-school teacher before he began landing TV roles on shows like The Monkees and I Dream of Jeannie. In 1972, McKinney was cast as a sadistic mountain man in the thriller Deliverance alongside Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight. His visage was soon synonymous with ominousness and violence, leading to a slew of roles as baddies in a wide variety of films over the coming years, like Cleopatra Jones, The Shootist, First Blood, and The Parallax View. McKinney also began collaborating with Clint Eastwood on a series of films, including The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet, Every Which Way but Loose, Any Which Way You Can, and Pink Cadillac. By the 2000s, the actor, now in his seventies, was still going strong. He appeared in such films as 2007's Lucky You, 2008's Pride and Glory, and 2010's How Do You Know before passing away in December 2011 at age 80.

Trivia: Just over a decade into his young life, Scotty Leavenworth had already managed to accumulate an impressive list of credits to his name as an actor. Appearing in films that starred the likes of Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Jim Carrey, the youthful performer achieved a high level of exposure by the time he was old enough to take on featured roles like that of Patrick Cavanaugh on the TV series Philly in 2000. Born on May 21, 1990, in California, Leavenworth, like many child-actors, started in commercials, at the ripe age of four. His television appearances continued in a recurring part on The Young and the Restless while he was very young, and he was featured in the TV-movies Meego and Any Day Now. Into the late '90s, he started performing in small roles in feature films, often supporting big names in large-budget films. He was featured in the Disney movie Simon Birch in 1998, and earned more attention within an audience of his own age group with vocal credits on the feature Babe: Pig in the City, which gave comedic voice to live-action animal drama. Along with increased attention for his starring role on the Philly series, he played the son of Melissa Gilbert's character in the drama Soul Collector. More television exposure came with his appearance in the Partridge family story Come On, Get Happy. While many of Leavenworth's roles were limited to that of supporting cast status due to the restraints of his age, he managed to make himself known through the importance of the films in which he has appeared. In 1999, for example, he had a small supporting role in the Green Mile, starring Tom Hanks. A year later, he starred as the son of Erin Brockovich, a single woman struggling to keep her family from poverty (played by Julia Roberts) in a film of the same name. A convoluted tale of mistaken identities, The Majestic, starring Jim Carrey, also featured young Leavenworth in 2001.

Trivia: Standing 6'5" and weighing over 300 pounds, African American actor Michael Clarke Duncan inarguably possesses one of Hollywood's more unforgettable figures. A former bodyguard and bouncer, Duncan first gained attention when he appeared as one of a group of oil drillers sent to stop an asteroid from annihilating the Earth in the 1998 blockbuster Armageddon. A year later, Duncan's career got another significant boost when the actor earned lavish critical plaudits for his portrayal of a wrongfully convicted death row inmate in The Green Mile.Born in Chicago on December 10, 1957, Duncan was raised on the city's south side by his single mother. A serious student, Duncan decided that he wanted to play football in high school; after his mother refused to let him, fearing he would get hurt, he developed an interest in acting instead. Following his graduation from high school, the aspiring actor studied communications at Mississippi's Alcorn State University. His studies were cut short when he returned to Chicago to attend to his mother, who had fallen ill. He subsequently found work digging ditches with the Peoples Gas Company and moonlighted as a club bouncer. His work led to a chance encounter with a stage producer who hired him as a security guard for a traveling theatre company, which eventually brought Duncan to Hollywood. Upon his arrival in L.A., Duncan, who was hovering dangerously close to bankruptcy, secured further work as a security guard and found his first agent. He got his professional start on television, appearing in commercials, sitcoms, and on the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. He started his film career playing -- surprisingly enough -- bouncers in such films as The Players Club and Bulworth (both 1998), finally getting his big break -- and the first role that didn't require him to boot people out of clubs -- in Armageddon. Thanks to the great commercial success of Armageddon, Duncan was able to find subsequent employment in a number of productions, most notably The Green Mile. He earned overwhelmingly strong reviews for his portrayal of doomed, saintly John Coffey, a man whose conviction for a brutal double murder seems at odds with his exceedingly gentle, almost child-like demeanor. Duncan garnered Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for his work in the film. He next switched genre gears, re-teaming with Armageddon co-star Bruce Willis to star in the comedy The Whole Nine Yards, which cast him a brutish thug who terrorizes mild-mannered dentist Matthew Perry. Once again utilizing his massive girth to maximum effect in the following year's The Planet of the Apes Duncan followed up the big budget remake with the made-for-television They Call Me Sirr before once again flexing formidably, this time opposite The Rock, in The Scorpion King. Later turning up as the villainous Kingpin in the comic book superhero film Daredevil (2003), Duncan would also loan his voice to the same character in Spider-Man: The Animated Series later that same year. A string of vocal performances in such animated efforts as Kim Possible: A Stitch in Time, The Proud Family, and Crab Nebula found Duncan's vocal chords in increased demand in television, films, and even videogames, yet by 2005 the hard-working actor was back on the big screen with roles in both Robert Rodriguez's Sin City, and Michael Bay's The Island. Though action may have always been the best genre for the physically imposing actor to make an impression on the big screen, fans would take note that the hulking Duncan also had a keen sense of humor, a point made all the more evident by his role in the 2006 Will Ferrell NASCAR laugher Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Duncan continued to work in television in the following years, making appearances on popular shows including Chuck, Two and a Half Men, and Bones. In 2012, Duncan landed a starring role in The Finder, a short-lived series in which he once again took on the role of former lawyer Leo Knox, whom he had portrayed in Bones. In July of that same year, Duncan suffered a heart attack and never fully recovered; he died on September 3rd at the age of 54.