Trivia: Equally adept at sober drama and over-the-top comedy, Michael Keaton has a knack for giving ordinary guys an unexpected twist. This trait ultimately made him an ideal casting choice for Tim Burton's 1989 Batman, and it has allowed him to play characters ranging from Mr. Mom's discontented stay-at-home dad to Pacific Heights's raging psychopath.The youngest of seven children, Keaton was born Michael Douglas on September 5th, 1951 in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania on September 9, 1951. After two years of studying speech at Kent State University, he dropped out and moved to Pittsburgh. While working a number of odd jobs--including a stint as an ice cream truck driver--Keaton attempted to build a career as a stand-up comedian, which proved less than successful. He ended up working as a cameraman for the Pittsburgh PBS station, a job that led him to realize he wanted to be in front of the camera, rather than behind it. Following this realization, Keaton duly moved out to Los Angeles, where he joined the L.A. Branch of Second City and began auditioning. When he started getting work he changed his last name to avoid being confused with the better-known actor of the same name, taking the name "Keaton" after seeing a newspaper article about Diane Keaton. He began acting on and writing for a number of television series, and he got his first big break co-starring with old friend Jim Belushi on the sitcom Working Stiffs (1979). Three years later, he made an auspicious film debut as the relentlessly cheerful owner of a morgue/brothel in Night Shift. The raves he won for his performance carried over to his work the following year in Mr. Mom, and it appeared as though Keaton was on a winning streak. Unfortunately, a series of such mediocre films as Johnny Dangerously (1984) and Gung Ho (1985) followed, and by the time Tim Burton cast him as the titular Beetlejuice in 1988, Keaton's career seemed to have betrayed its early promise. Beetlejuice proved Keaton's comeback: one of the year's most popular films, it allowed him to do some of his best work in years as the ghoulish, revolting title character. His all-out comic performance contrasted with his work in that same year's Clean and Sober, in which he played a recovering drug addict. The combined impact of these performances put Keaton back in the Hollywood spotlight, a position solidified in 1989 when he starred in Burton's Batman. Initially thought to be a risky casting choice for the title role, Keaton was ultimately embraced by audiences and critics alike, many of whom felt that his slightly skewed everyman appearance and capacity for dark humor made him perfect for the part. He reprised the role with similar success for the film's 1992 sequel, Batman Returns. Despite the acclaim and commercial profit surrounding Keaton's work in the Batman films, many of his subsequent films during the 1990s proved to be disappointments. My Life (1993), Speechless (1994), and The Paper (1994) were relative failures, despite star casting and name directors, while Multiplicity, a 1996 comedy featuring no less than four clones of the actor, further demonstrated that his name alone couldn't sell a movie. Some of Keaton's most successful work of the 1990s could be found in his roles in two Elmore Leonard adaptations, Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown (1997) and Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight (1998). An ATF agent in the former and Jennifer Lopez's morally questionable boyfriend in the latter, he turned in solid performances as part of a strong ensemble cast in both critically acclaimed films. In 1999, Keaton went back to his behind-the-camera roots, serving as the executive producer for Body Shots. Keaton continued to act throughout the early 2000s, and starred in Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005) alongside Lindsay Lohan. the actor took on another vehicle-oriented role when he agreed to voice the character of Chris Hicks in Pixar's Cars (2006). In 2010, Keaton voiced the Ken doll in Toy Story 3. Keaton enjoyed an unexpected career renaissance in 2014 playing the lead in Birdman, an older actor trying to stage a comeback by putting on a Broadway production. His work in the film was widely praised, and he earned his first Academy Award nomination when he was given a nod in the Best Actor category.

Trivia: Following her breakthrough in 1988's Beetlejuice, Winona Ryder emerged as one of the most celebrated actresses of her generation. Adept at playing characters ranging from depressed, angst-ridden goths to Edith Wharton debutantes, the saucer-eyed, porcelain-skinned Ryder has attained critical respect in addition to widespread popularity.Ryder was born in and named after the city of Winona, MN, on October 29, 1971. The daughter of communal hippies and the goddaughter of LSD guru Timothy Leary, she grew up on a commune in Northern California. Ryder's family moved to Petaluma when she was ten; following regular abuse from her classmates, who targeted her for her unconventional, androgynous appearance (she was once jumped by a group of boys who had mistaken her for a gay boy), she was home schooled. At the age of 11, she joined the American Conservatory Theatre, and was soon trying out for movie roles. An audition for the part of Jon Voight's daughter in Desert Bloom failed to yield a role but did land the actress an agent, and at the age of 14, Ryder -- who had changed her last name from Horowitz -- made her film debut in Lucas (1986).Finding popularity with her turn as a suicidal teen who has more in common with the ghosts living in her attic than with her yuppie parents in Tim Burton's black comedy Beetlejuice, Ryder quickly became one of the most steadily employed actresses in Hollywood. She continued to corner the alienated and/or confused teen market with starring roles in a number of offbeat films, including the 1989 cult classic Heathers, Great Balls of Fire (in which she played Jerry Lee Lewis' 13-year-old bride), Burton's Edward Scissorhands, and Mermaids.The early '90s saw Ryder begin to branch out from teen roles toward parts requiring greater maturity. Following a turn as a taxi driver in Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth (1991), the actress starred in Francis Ford Coppola's lavish adaptation Bram Stoker's Dracula and then went on to play Antonio Banderas' lover in the critically disembowelled The House of the Spirits. Greater success came with Martin Scorsese's 1993 adaptation of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. Ryder won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Daniel Day-Lewis' picture-perfect wife, and in the process started getting taken seriously as an actress capable of playing more adult characters.A second Oscar nomination -- this time for Best Actress -- followed the next year for Ryder's portrayal of Jo March in Gillian Armstrong's adaptation of Little Women. The same year, the actress took on an entirely different role in Reality Bites, in which she played a twentysomething suffering from post-graduation angst. Similar twentysomething angst followed in How to Make an American Quilt (1995) but was then traded for Puritanical adultery, hair extensions, and another turn with Daniel Day-Lewis in Nicholas Hytner's 1996 adaptation of The Crucible.Following a starring role in the highly anticipated and almost as highly criticized Alien Resurrection in 1997, Ryder had a turn as the waif-ish object of Kenneth Branagh's affections in Woody Allen's Celebrity. She managed to escape much of the criticism leveled at both of these films, and in 1999 and 2000, she reappeared with lead roles in two films, Girl, Interrupted, in which she played a mental institution inmate in the female answer to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and the supernatural thriller Lost Souls. Winona shed her skin once more in 2002, when she took the romantic lead in Mr. Deeds, a typically goofy Adam Sandler vehicle. This was a surprising move for Ryder, who, despite making a niche for herself in nearly every imaginable genre, has rarely delved into the world of madcap romantic comedies. Of course, 2001-2002 wouldn't be complete without mention of Winona's inexplicable thievery; the young millionaire was convicted for stealing $5,500 worth of merchandise from a Beverly Hills Saks Fifth Avenue. 2003, meanwhile, meant more unfamiliar territory for Ryder -- she left fiction behind for a part in the documentary The Day My God Died. An uncredited turn as a warped child psychologist in director Asia Argento's The Heart is Decietful Above all Things showed without question that Ryder was still willing to shake things up on the silver screen, and in 2006 she would play an insurance claims investigator assigned the task of investigating a curious death in the aptly titled comedy The Darwin Awards. Later that same year, Ryder would be rotoscoped for a supporting role in director Richard Linklater's animated adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel A Scanner Darkly. The next few years found the maturing actress eschewing Hollywood for roles in smaller independent features such as Sex and Death 101 and David Wain's The Ten, and on the heels of a brief yet memorable turn as Spock's mother in 2009's Star Trek, Ryder channeled her dark energy into the role of a former ballet ingenue on the decline in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan. Meanwhile, in 2012, a voice role in Tim Burton's canine creature feature Frankenweenie found Ryder reuniting with the director who helped launch her to cinema stardom in the late-1980s.

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: Is of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent.Is the fourth of six children.Began acting at the age of 9.In 2017, starred in Jacob Sartorius's music video for "Chapstick."Is the voice of Princess Isabel in the Disney Channel animated television series Elena of Avalor.

Trivia: With his handsome looks and playful demeanor, Justin Theroux made a memorable feature debut as a determined revolutionary in the successful indie film I Shot Andy Warhol.A graduate of Bennington College who was born and raised in Washington, D.C., Theroux later relocated to New York to pursue a career in the visual arts before stumbling across acting and immersing himself in the stage. Gaining momentum in off-Broadway plays before making the leap to features, Theroux made appearances in such popular television shows as Sex and the City and Ally McBeal while gravitating toward the big screen in Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion (1997), American Psycho, and eccentric director David Lynch's Mullholland Drive. After appearing in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and the dud Duplex, Theroux appeared in a couple of episodes of the critically respected HBO series Six Feet Under. Over the next couple of years he combined little independent projects like The Baxter and Strangers with Candy with more high-profile films like Michael Mann's Miami Vice. He reteamed with David Lynch for Inland Empire alongside other former Lynch collaborators Laura Dern, and Hayy Dean Stanton. He played Jesus in the religious-themed comedy The Ten, and in 2008 he co-wrote Ben Stiller's Hollywood satire Tropic Thunder, which led to an assignment writing the hit sequel Iron Man 2. In 2012 he co-starred in Wanderlust opposite Jennifer Aniston who he ended up in a high-profile relationship with. That same year he had a screenwriting credit on the hair-metal musical Rock of Ages. Theroux next starred in the bleak HBO drama The Leftovers and wrote the screenplay for Zoolander 2.

Trivia: Known for the darkly eccentric characters he often plays, Willem Dafoe is one of the screen's more provocative and engaging actors. Strong-jawed and wiry, he has commented that his looks make him ideal for playing the boy next door -- if you happen to live next door to a mausoleum.Although his screen persona may suggest otherwise, Dafoe is the product of a fairly conventional Midwestern upbringing. The son of a surgeon and one of seven siblings, he was born on July 22, 1955 in Appleton, Wisconsin. Dafoe began acting as a teenager, and at the age of seventeen he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Growing weary of the university's theatre department, where he found that temperament was all too often a substitute for talent, he joined Milwaukee's experimental Theatre X troupe. After touring stateside and throughout Europe with the group, Dafoe moved to New York in 1977, where he joined the avant-garde Wooster Group. Dafoe's 1981 film debut was a decidedly mixed blessing, as it consisted of a minor role in Michael Cimino's disastrous Heaven's Gate . Ultimately, Dafoe's screen time was cut from the film's final release print, saving him the embarrassment of being associated with the film but also making him something of a nonentity. He went on to appear in such films as The Hunger (1983) and To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) before making his breakthrough in Platoon (1986). His portrayal of the insouciant, pot-smoking Sgt. Elias earned him Hollywood recognition and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination.Choosing his projects based on artistic merit rather than box office potential, Dafoe subsequently appeared in a number of widely divergent films, often taking roles that enhanced his reputation as one of the American cinema's most predictably unpredictable actors. After starring as an idealistic FBI agent in Mississippi Burning (1988), he took on one of his most memorable and controversial roles as Jesus in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). Dafoe then portrayed a paralyzed, tormented Vietnam vet in Born on the Fourth of July (1989), his second collaboration with Oliver Stone. Homicidal tendencies and a mouthful of rotting teeth followed when he played an ex-marine in David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990), before he got really weird and allowed Madonna to drip hot wax on his naked body in Body of Evidence (1992). Following a turn in Wim Wenders' Faraway, So Close in 1993, Dafoe entered the realm of the blockbuster with his role as a mercenary in Clear and Present Danger (1994). That same year, he earned acclaim for his portrayal of T.S. Eliot in Tom and Viv, one of the few roles that didn't paint the actor as a contemporary head case. His appearance as a mysterious, thumbless World War II intelligence agent in The English Patient (1996) followed in a similar vein. In 1998, Dafoe returned to the contemporary milieu, playing an anthropologist in Paul Auster's Lulu on the Bridge and a member of a ragingly dysfunctional family in Paul Schrader's powerful, highly acclaimed Affliction. He then extended his study of dysfunction as a creepy gas station attendant in David Cronenberg's eXistenZ (1999). After chasing a pair of killers claiming to be on a mission from God in The Boondock Saints, Dafoe astounded audiences as he transformed himself into a mirror image of one of the screens most terrfiying vampires in Shadow of the Vampire (2000). A fictional recount of the mystery surrounding F.W. Murnau's 1922 classic Nosferatu, Dafoe's remarkable transformation into the fearsome bloodsucker had filmgoers blood running cold with it's overwhelming creepiness and tortured-soul humor. After turning up as a cop on the heels of a potentially homicidal yuppie in American Psycho that same year, the talented actor would appear in such low-profile releases as The Reconing and Bullfighter (both 2001), before once again thrilling audiences in a major release. As the fearsome Green Goblin in director Sam Raimi's long-anticipated big-screen adaptation of Spider-Man Dafoe certainly provided thrills in abundance as he soared trough the sky leaving death and destruction in his wake. His performace as a desperate millionare turned schizphrenic supervillian proved a key component in adding a human touch to the procedings in contrast to the dazzling action, and Dafoe next headed south of the border to team with flamboyant director Robert Rodriguez in Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Dafoe impressed critics with his performance of John Carpenter in the Bob Crane biopic Auto Focus. In 2003 he voiced one of the fish in the dentist's tank in Finding Nemo, and the next year he reprised his role as the Green Goblin in Spider-Man 2. He played a small role for Martin Scorsese in 2004's The Aviator, and had a memorable supporting turn in Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou that same year. In 2005 he appeared in Lars Von Trier's Manderlay. He appeared in Spike Lee's successful heist thriller Inside Man. In 2007 he appeared as a film director in Mr. Bean's Holiday. In 2009 he reteamed with two different directors he's worked with before; he voiced the role of the rat in Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox, and played a husband in Lars Von Trier's audience-dividing Antichrist. In 2012 he lent his vocal talents to the infamous Disney flop John Carter.

Trivia: Film critics are quick to compare Monica Bellucci to previous Italian beauties, but she is her own brand of sultry icon. With roles as a topless vampire in Bram Stoker's Dracula, a taciturn war widow in Malèna (2000), a charmed courtesan in Le Pacte des Loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf) (2002), and a sci-fi vixen in the Matrix sequels (2003), Bellucci has proved to be a bold blend of earthy and ethereal, actress and star.Born on September 30, 1968, Bellucci grew up in the small Italian village of Citta di Castello, where her father owned a trucking company. At 18, she enrolled at the University of Perugia with plans to study law. To pay her tuition, Bellucci started modeling. Two years later, she dropped out of school to relocate to Milan, where she signed with Elite Model Management. Besides strutting the cat walk in fashion shows, Bellucci appeared in international advertising campaigns for designers such as Dolce & Gabbana. With her modeling career in full swing, she began to take acting classes and made her screen debut in the television film Vita Coi Figli (Life With the Sons) in 1990.After acting in several Italian features, Bellucci graced American screens for the first time as one of Dracula's (Gary Oldman) brides in Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), which also starred Keanu Reaves and Winona Ryder. She subsequently returned to Italy to appear in the heist film I Mitici (The Heroes) (1994) and the children's movie Palla di Neve (Snowball) (1995). As time passed, Bellucci grew increasingly frustrated with the failure of Italy's film industry to promote its projects abroad. She starred opposite Ben Kingsley and Dominique Sanda in the American television movie Joseph (1995), before looking for work in French films.Bellucci made her French-language debut in 1996's award-winning romance L'Appartement (The Apartment). She earned a César nomination for her performance in the role, as well as began dating her co-star, French actor Vincent Cassel. The couple (who married a few years later) re-teamed onscreen immediately, portraying comically troubled lovers in the gender-bending romance Come Mi Vuoi (As You Want Me) (1996) and murderous bank robbers in Jan Kounen's infamous thriller Dobermann (1997).In 2000, Bellucci returned to Hollywood to play Gene Hackman's estranged trophy wife in Under Suspicion. The film's director, Stephen Hopkins, had seen L'Appartement on a transatlantic flight and requested that she star in the thriller. That same year, the actress earned unprecedented worldwide acclaim for her performance as the title character in Malèna. Helmed by award-winning director Giuseppe Tornatore, the film featured Bellucci as a quiet young bride who is left alone in a small Sicilian town when her husband goes off to fight in World War II. Stunningly attractive, she struggles to keep her dignity as she is spurned by the female villagers and preyed upon by the men. Bellucci followed up Malèna's success with another international hit, Christophe Gans' genre hybrid Le Pacte des Loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf) (2002). The stylish cross between period piece and kung-fu flick (which also starred Cassel) was the fourth most successful film of its year in France. After conquering Europe, the film became an art house hit in the States and Bellucci received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress from the U.S. Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films.The subject of numerous fan sites and men's magazine articles, Bellucci went on to star as the seductive Queen of the Nile in the comic book adaptation Astérix & Obélisk: Mission Cléopâtre. In 2001, she joined Dracula co-star Keanu Reeves in the cast of the highly anticipated follow-ups to The Matrix (1999), The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003). Soon after, Bruce Willis personally chose Bellucci to play a humanitarian doctor whom he must save from war-torn Nigeria in Tears of the Sun, director Antoine Fuqua's follow-up to his hit Training Day (2001).In 2004, Bellucci's momentum continued to build when she starred as Mary Magdalene in The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson's self-produced blockbuster retelling of the final 12 hours of Jesus Christ. In the wake of that film's success, Bellucci teamed with two other renowned directors, Terry Gilliam and Spike Lee, with roles in The Brothers Grimm and She Hate Me, respectively.She continued to work steadily with high profile projects as The Brothers Grimm, the action film Shoot 'Em Up, and the family fantasy film The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

Trivia: Born in Santiago, Chile, but raised in London, Romania, Toronto, and Madrid, worldly actor Santiago Cabrera had professional soccer aspirations long before he entered into acting. After playing soccer on a college scholarship for three years in his native Chile and even going semi-pro in London, the future Heroes star enrolled in Drama Centre London and appeared on-stage in productions of Britannicus and The Last Days of Don Juan, among other works. A post-graduation role as Montano in the Northampton Royal Theatre and Greenwich Theater productions of Othello found Cabrera's career getting off to an impressive start, with his performance as Octavius in the ABC miniseries Empire serving well to ignite a small-screen career. Later, Cabrera also made a bid for feature success opposite Brittany Murphy and Orlando Bloom in the romantic comedy Love and Other Disasters. Subsequently cast in Heroes as heroin-addicted artist Isaac Mendez, whose paintings foreshadow ominous events, Cabrera finally found his footing on the small screen.

Trivia: Born in Los Angeles, California, where his father was a professor of linguistics at UCLA, the family moved back to their native London when he was 7. Went by the name BB Burn when he competed as a beatboxer. His big television breakthrough came in BBC's Bleak House, an adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel, in the role of William Guppy. Appeared in the 2009 West End revival of Oliver! as Bill Sikes, opposite Rowan Atkinson; he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical in the Whatsonstage Theatre Awards for the role. He and his wife had a third child, a daughter, Rosa in 2014. The couple split up in 2017.

Trivia: Perhaps no Hollywood actor continually stirs up more of a gleeful admixture of feelings in his viewers than Danny DeVito. Singlehandedly portraying characters with mile-long, obnoxious jerk streaks that are nonetheless somehow loveable, DeVito -- with his diminutive stature, balding head, and broad Jersey accent -- made an art form out of playing endearingly loathsome little men.Born November 17, 1944, in Neptune, NJ, Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. survived a Catholic school upbringing and started his career from the ground up, laboring as a cosmetician in his sister's beauty parlor. Working under the name "Mr. Danny," DeVito decided to enter New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts for the purpose of acquiring additional makeup expertise. However, he soon discovered his true theatrical calling and made his screen debut with a small part in the 1968 drama Dreams of Glass. After a few discouraging experiences within the film industry, DeVito decided to concentrate on stage work. During this time, he met actress Rhea Perlman, whom he later married in 1982. In 1972, the actor made his way back into films with a role in Lady Liberty, a comedy starring Sophia Loren. His first notable film part came three years later, when he reprised his stage role of Martini, a sweet-natured mental patient, in Milos Forman's screen version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Produced by DeVito's old friend Michael Douglas and co-scripted by Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman, the film won wide acclaim and nine Oscar nominations, eventually gleaning five statuettes (including Best Picture). Despite the adulation surrounding the film, DeVito's screen career remained lackluster, but he skyrocketed to fame three years later with his role as the obnoxious dispatcher Louie on the long-running television sitcom Taxi. From there, DeVito's career swung upward and he spent the next decade playing similarly repugnant characters with enormous success. He reunited with Douglas for Romancing the Stone (1984) and its 1985 sequel, Jewel of the Nile, teamed up with co-star Joe Piscopo and director Brian De Palma (as a scam artist on the run) in Wise Guys (1986), and signed with Disney's R-rated offshoot, Touchstone, for two comedies, the 1986 Ruthless People, and the 1987 Barry Levinson-directed Tin Men.Throw Momma from the Train (1987) marked DeVito's premier directorial outing. A madcap farce directed from a script by Benson and Soap scribe Stu Silver, Momma cast DeVito as Owen, a dim-bulb student living under the thumb of his loudmouthed mother, who is enrolled in a writing course taught by failing novelist Larry Donner (Billy Crystal). Stumbling into a repertory screening of Strangers on a Train one night, Owen has the not-so-bright idea of emulating the film, by bumping off Larry's conniving ex-wife in exchange for having Larry rub out his momma -- without asking Larry first.Throw Momma from the Train opened during the Christmas season of December 1987 and received mixed reviews. The picture nonetheless became a massive hit, grossing upwards of 57 million dollars, and thus paving the way for future DeVito-directed efforts. The War of the Roses (1989) recast DeVito with his Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile co-stars, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, but could not have been any more different in terms of theme, content, tone, or intended audience. Co-adapted by Warren Adler and Michael Leeson (from Adler's novel), this acerbic, black-as-coal comedy tells the story of Oliver and Barbara Rose, a seemingly happy and well-adjusted married couple whose nuptials descend into a violent hell when Barbara announces that she wants a divorce -- and Oliver refuses to give her one. DeVito plays the cherubic lawyer who relays their story to another client, and famously reflects, "If love is blind, then marriage must be like having a stroke." The picture instantly grossed dollar one, garnered legions of fans, and delighted critics across the board.Ida Random produced Momma, and DeVito's Taxi collaborator, James L. Brooks, produced War, but by the early '90s, DeVito gained additional autonomy by branching out into production duties himself, with the establishment of his own Jersey Films. Some of Jersey's more successful endeavors were 1994's Pulp Fiction (on which DeVito served as executive producer), Reality Bites (1994), Get Shorty (1995), Gattaca (1997), Out of Sight (1998), and Living Out Loud (1998). In the meantime, DeVito continued to act in a number of movies throughout the late '80s and '90s, his most notable being Twins (1988, in which he played the "twin" of Arnold Schwarzenegger), the disappointing Jack the Bear (1993), the delightful Other People's Money (1991, for which he took on the role of corporate monster Larry the Liquidator), Barry Sonnenfeld's Get Shorty, the screen adaptation of Roald Dahl's Matilda (1996, which he also directed and produced), L.A. Confidential (1997), and Living Out Loud. For the last of these DeVito won particular acclaim, impressing critics with his touching, sympathetic portrayal of a lonely elevator operator. In 1999, he added to his already impressive resumé with a role in Milos Forman's biopic of Taxi co-star Andy Kaufman, Man on the Moon, and a supporting turn in Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides.Despite solid performances in a series of recent high-profile hits and decades of big-screen success, the millennial turnover found DeVito's star somewhat clouded as such efforts as Screwed (2000), What's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001), Death to Smoochy (2002), and Duplex (2003) failed to live up to box-office potential. DeVito fared only slightly better as producer of the critically acclaimed 2003 television series Karen Sisco and the ugly Get Shorty sequel, Be Cool. He also acted as executive producer for the acclaimed Zach Braff dramedy Garden State and could be spotted in director Tim Burton's imaginative fable Big Fish. As 2005 rolled around, audiences could spot DeVito in films such as The OH in Ohio, as well as on television as the actor found himself accepting a role in the quirky, taboo-busting series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.During 2006, DeVito balanced a full plate of work, temporarily retiring from the director's chair, but juggling small roles in no less than three A-list features. These included Brad Silberling's 10 Items or Less, a drama about the unlikely friendship that evolves between a has-been Hollywood star (Morgan Freeman) and a supermarket checkout clerk (Paz Vega); Jake Paltrow's directorial debut, The Good Night, a slice-of-life dramedy starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Penélope Cruz; and the holiday comedy Deck the Halls. The latter starred DeVito and Matthew Broderick as neighbors who go to "war" with competing decorations at Christmastime to see who can be the first to make his house visible from space. The film co-starred Kristin Davis and Kristin Chenoweth. Meanwhile, Jersey Films geared up to produce the 2007 Freedom Writers, directed by Richard LaGravenese -- a kind of retread of Stand and Deliver and Dangerous Minds, with Hilary Swank as a teacher determined to break through to her difficult students. Also in 2007, DeVito starred in Randall Miller's violent black comedy Nobel Son, DeVito joined longtime friend and collaborator Michael Douglas with a supporting role in the 2009 Solitary Man, then in 2012 voiced Dr. Seuss's title character in the classic animated fable The Lorax. DeVito and Perlman have three children.

Trivia: At 16, was cast as the understudy of the lead role in The Phantom of the Opera.Studied at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts and the National Youth Music Theatre.Is a classically trained vocalist.Her first album was nominated for a Classical Brit Award.On July 14, 2011, the University of Bolton awarded her an Honorary Doctorate of Arts.