Trivia: Born and raised in Los Angeles, Jonah Hill first started to find success in show business as a cast member of the brilliant but canceled Judd Apatow series Undeclared. Like many of the actors who were fortunate to work for the successful writer/director/producer, Hill became a part of Apatow's extended stock company, going on to appear in a number of films including The 40-Year-Old Virgin, as a young man who really wants to buy some boots, and Knocked Up, as the buddy who suggested his friend's pregnant girlfriend get "something that rhymes with smushmortion." He also starred alongside his onetime roommate Justin Long in a variety of projects, including the college comedy Accepted. Hill re-teamed with Apatow and company for their second major effort of summer 2007, the Greg Mottola-directed, Seth Rogen-scripted comedy Superbad, but on that occasion, Hill scored his first lead. He starred as Seth, a slightly geeky high school senior desperate for sex and suffering from some fairly serious adolescent angst. The film rang in as a blockbuster and won critical raves across the board. At about the same time, Hill signed on for a much different screen assignment (and target audience), agreeing to provide one of the voices in the animated outing Horton Hears a Who (2008). He followed that up with a small but funny role in the heartbreak comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall as a starstruck hotel worker who really, really wants a visiting rock star to listen to his demo.He scored laughs in the Judd Apatow-directed Funny People, and worked again with Russell Brand in Get Him to the Greek. Hill shored up his indie cred by starring in the Duplass Brothers comedy Cyrus as a young man who is way too attached to his mother.2011 found Hill earning the best notices of his career in Moneyball, as the numbers-crunching Ivy Leaguer who helps Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) build the Oakland A's into a first-rate baseball team with seemingly second-rate players. His work in the movie brought him Best Supporting Actor nods from the Academy, BAFTA, the Golden Globes, and the Screen Actors Guild. Soon however, the actor was ready to get back to his comedic roots, pairing with Chaning Tatum for a satirical big-screen take on the 80's TV show 21 Jump Street, and following that up starring alongside Ben Stiller in The Watch.

Trivia: As the son of comedians Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara Ben Stiller's decision to establish himself as a comic writer and actor surprised almost no one.Born in New York City on November 30, 1965, Stiller began to shoot his own comic films from the age of ten. After high-school graduation, Stiller attended UCLA and landed bit parts in several features, notably the Steven Spielberg-directed, Tom Stoppard and Menno Meyjes-scripted, late 1987 opus Empire of the Sun.Meanwhile, Stiller continued to turn out comedy shorts, including the 30-minute Elvis Stories (1989), a spoof of obsessive Elvis fans featuring an already-established John Cusack. One of Stiller's shorts, a Tom Cruise parody called The Hustler of Money, won him a spot as a writer and player on Saturday Night Live in 1989. His stint on the show was short-lived, but led to his own eponymous series, The Ben Stiller Show, first on MTV (1990) and later on Fox (1992-1993). The program failed to draw a substantial audience, and folded within a couple of months on each network, but Stiller netted an Emmy for comedy writing in 1993.The following year, Stiller debuted as a feature film director with the twentysomething angst romcom Reality Bites (1994), in which he also starred alongside Winona Ryder and a memorably grungy Ethan Hawke. The film was a relative critical and commercial success and scored with Gen-Xers; unfortunately, Stiller's next directorial effort, 1996's The Cable Guy failed to register with critics and audiences. After a small part as nursing-home orderly Hal in the Adam Sandler comedy Happy Gilmore (1996), Stiller rebounded with a starring role in David O. Russell's Flirting With Disaster (1996). The relatively positive reception afforded to that comedy helped to balance out the relative failure of Stiller's other film that year, If Lucy Fell. It was not until two years later, however, that Stiller truly stepped into the limelight. Thanks to starring roles in three wildly, wickedly different films, he emerged as an actor of versatility, equally adept at playing sensitive nice guys and malevolent hellraisers. In the smash gross-out comedy There's Something About Mary (1998), Stiller appeared as the former type, making comic history for outrageous sight gags that involved misplaced bodily fluids and mangled genitalia. That same summer, Stiller did time as a gleefully adulterous theatrical instructor in Neil LaBute's jet-black evisceration of contemporary sexual mores, Your Friends and Neighbors. Finally, Stiller starred in the intensely graphic and disturbing addiction drama Permanent Midnight, earning critical acclaim for his portrayal of writer-cum-heroin addict Jerry Stahl -- a personal friend of the Stiller family from Stahl's days scripting the TV series ALF. Now fully capable of holding his own in Hollywood, with the license to prove it, Stiller starred alongside William H. Macy, Paul Reubens, Hank Azaria, and pal Janeane Garofalo in the fantasy comedy Mystery Men (1999) as the leader of a group of unconventional superheroes. Stiller also landed a supporting role in The Suburbans, a comedy about the former members of a defunct new wave band. The following year, Stiller starred as a rabbi smitten with the same woman as his best friend, a Catholic priest (Edward Norton), in the well-received romantic comedy Keeping the Faith (2000), which Norton also co-produced and directed. Stiller found his widest audience up to that point, however, with the Jay Roach-directed madcap comedy Meet the Parents. As the tale of a nutty father-in-law to be (Robert De Niro) who wreaks unchecked havoc on his daughter's intended (Stiller) via covert CIA operations and incessant interrogation, this disastrously humorous tale of electrical interference gone wild scored with ticket-buyers and qualified as the top box-office draw during the holiday season of 2000.In the autumn of 2001, Stiller brought one of his most popular MTV Video Music Awards incarnations to the big screen in the outrageously silly male-model comedy Zoolander, in which he successfully teamed with (real-life friend) Owen Wilson to carry stupidity to new heights.In 2001 Stiller once again teamed with Wes Anderson collaborator Wilson for the widely praised comedy drama The Royal Tenenbaums. Cast as the estranged son of eccentric parents who returns home, Stiller infused his unmistakable comic touch with an affecting sense of drama that found him holding his ground opposite such dramatic heavies as Gene Hackman and Anjelica Huston. Though his work in 2002 offered little more than a few cameo performances and some vocal contributions to various animated children's shows, the busy comedic actor returned to the big screen for the 2003 comedy Duplex, directed by Danny DeVito. Though the film pairs Stiller and Hollywood bombshell Drew Barrymore as a couple willing to go to horrific extremes to land the much-desired eponymous living space, reviews were unkind and the comedy died a quick death at the box office. Stiller's next film -- the romantic comedy Along Came Polly -- fared considerably better on a fiscal level, but suffered from an implausible premise.Spring 2004 promised a rebound when the electrifying duo of Stiller and Owen Wilson returned to the big screen with director Todd Phillips' celluloid recycling job Starsky & Hutch. Though Stiller and Wilson seemed the ideal pair for such a conceptually rich re-imagining of 1970s television, and the film boasted wonderful villainous turns by rapper Snoop Dogg and Vince Vaughn, reviews were once again lackluster and the film struggled to find an audience. Yet Starsky & Hutch did actually reap a profit, which (in a business sense) placed it miles ahead of Stiller's next film. Released a mere two months after Starsky & Hutch, the Barry Levinson comedy Envy sports a wacky premise; it explores the comic rivalry that erupts between two longtime friends and neighbors when one invents a product that makes dog excrement disappear. It also boasts a marvelous cast, replete with Stiller, the maniacal Jack Black, and the brilliant Christopher Walken. But for whatever reason (speculated by some as the film's inability to exploit the invention at the story's center) the film's sense of humor failed to catch fire and Envy died a quick box-office death. Stiller fared better with the ribald, anarchic summer 2004 comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, starring himself, Vince Vaughn, and Rip Torn. For the following two years, Stiller once again contented himself largely with bit parts (2004's Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgundy, 2006's Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny) until the Christmas 2006 release A Night at the Museum. In this effects-heavy fantasy, adapted from the popular children's book by Milan Trenc, Stiller plays Larry Daley, the new night watchman at New York City's Museum of Natural History, who discovers that the exhibits all spring to life after hours, from a giant skeletal Tyrannosaurus Rex to a waxen Teddy Roosevelt -- and seem content to hold Larry hostage. The effort split critical opinion, but shot up to become one of the top three box-office draws during the holiday season of 2006.Meanwhile, Stiller signed on to team with the Farrelly brothers for The Heartbreak Kid (2007), a remake of the 1972 Elaine May comedy of the same title; he also produced Blades of Glory, a comedy with Will Ferrell and Jon Heder as rival figure-skating champions vying with one another for Olympic gold. He wrote, directed and starred in the hit comedy Tropic Thunder (2008) as a moronic Hollywood actor toplining a war film, voiced Alex in the same year's animated picture Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and in 2009, reprised his Larry Daley role for Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Stiller's emphasis on sequels then continued with 2010's Little Fockers and 2012's Madagascar 3. In 2013, Stiller picked up the role originally made famous by Danny Kaye, as the lead in the remake The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which Stiller also directed and produced. The following year, he appeared in the next film in the Night at the Museum series, Secret of the Tomb.

Trivia: His mother is from Norway; his father is Nigerian. Won the Martin Steele Prize for play production during university. Was President of the Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club between 1997 and 1998. Nominated for a Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for Garth Marenghi's Fright Knight in 2000. Won a Perrier Comedy Award for Garth Marenghi's Netherhead in 2001. Won Best Video for "My Mistakes" by The Last Shadow Puppets at the 2007 NME Awards. Nominated for both Best Director and Best Rock Video at the 2008 UK Music Video Awards. Published his first book Ayoade on Ayoade: A Cinematic Odyssey in 2014, satirising the documented work of film directors. Helped write The Mighty Book of Boosh with Noel Fielding and various others. Published his second book The Grip of Film in 2017, an 'A-Z of film' with rankings and detailed footnotes.

Trivia: Actress Rosemarie DeWitt premiered onscreen in the early to mid-2000s and essayed a series of bit roles -- initially in A-list features such as Cinderella Man (2005) and Off the Black (2006). She scored a lead opposite Ron Livingston on the small screen, as a federal agent in the hostage-crisis drama Standoff (2006), but unfortunately, that program folded after a rather short life span, and DeWitt returned to supporting turns -- notably a colorful characterization as Midge Daniels, the bohemian mistress of a successful ad executive during the early '60s on AMC's serialized drama Mad Men (2007). In 2008 DeWitt co-starred with Anne Hathaway in director Jonathan Demme's drama Rachel Getting Married, and landed a supporting role in the first two seasons of The United States of Tara (2009-2010), a Showtime drama following a suburban woman living with Dissociative Personality Disorder. In 2011 she co-starred and consulted for Your Sister's Sister, a drama wherein she portrayed a heartsick young woman who bonds with a man grieving the death of his brother. She co-starred with Jennifer Garner and Dianne Weist in The Odd Life of Timothy Green the following year.

Trivia: A graduate -- like Will Ferrell, Kathy Griffin, and many others -- of the famed Groundlings comedy troupe in Southern California, comic-turned-actor/screenwriter Will Forte segued from that stage ensemble into a series of small-screen producing assignments, on such sitcoms as 3rd Rock From the Sun and That '70s Show. Forte only began to gain national attention, however, when he signed on as one of the regular cast members of Saturday Night Live in 2002. Within the framework of that series, the comic parlayed his versatile all-American winsomeness into a host of diverse characterizations including President George W. Bush, The Falconer, Senator Zell Miller, and Tim Calhoun. Meanwhile, he also authored scripts for Late Night with David Letterman on the side and penned a feature script, for the comic vehicle The Brothers Solomon (2007), in which he also starred opposite Will Arnett. In that picture, the men played John and Dean Solomon, two socially hopeless brothers desperate to find a woman to have their baby, to fulfill their dying father's last wish. At about the same time, Forte also joined scripters Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and others by contributing to the screenplay of the teen sex comedy Parental Guidance Suggested (2007). As an actor, Forte's resumé also includes roles in such comic romps as Beerfest (2006) and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. In 2008 he had a small part in Tina Fey's Baby Mama, and the next year he appeared in the Broken Lizard vehicle The Slammin' Salmon. In 2010 he wrote and starred in a big-screen adaptation of his recurring SNL character MacGruber, but the film met a chilly box office reception. In 2012 he had a part in the jukebox musical Rock of Ages.

Trivia: Actor Nicholas Braun got his start in the business while he was still a teenager, making small appearances on shows like Law & Order: SVU and Without a Trace in the early 2000s. His bright smile and impressive 6'4" stature made him a memorable presence onscreen, and he soon began appearing in Disney projects, like 2005's Sky High and 2008's Minutemen. Braun later starred in the 2009 Disney TV movie Princess Protection Program, and later that same year he was cast in the TV series adaptation of 10 Things I Hate About You.

Trivia: You may not recognize his face on first (or even second) glance, but chances are if you're a fan of film and television you're already more familiar with Doug Jones than you realize. A master of disguise who could be equated to a modern-day Boris Karloff, Jones can frequently be spotted under some of the most elaborate special-effects makeup ever to appear on camera and has an uncanny ability to instill his characters with a soulful sense of personality that simply isn't achievable through computer-generated animation. Jones was born in Indianapolis, IN, the youngest of four brothers and raised on the city's northeast side. Upon graduating from Bishop Chatard High School, Jones enrolled in Ball State University to study telecommunications and theater. It was there that Jones first took to miming, and his skill as a contortionist soon lead to frequent commercial work (one of his earliest successes was being cast as the popular "Mac Tonight" character in a prominent, mid-'80s McDonald's advertising campaign). While a stint in the Indiana theater circuit helped Jones to get comfortable performing in front of an audience, it wasn't until moving to Los Angeles in 1985 that he would become a regular fixture in the worlds of film and television. Early film roles for Jones included bit parts in Batman Returns, Hocus Pocus, and Tank Girl, with a small role in emerging Mexican director Guillermo del Toro's sophomore effort, Mimic (1997), serving to launch an enduring and fruitful partnership. An appearance by Jones as one of the terrifying "Gentlemen" in an Emmy-nominated Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode entitled "Hush" proved a highlight of the entire series. In the following year, Jones would appear in such prolific box-office blockbusters as Men in Black II and The Time Machine -- his visage frequently hidden under copious amounts of prosthetic special-effects makeup. While it was Jones' remarkable ability to project emotion through layer upon layer of monster makeup that enabled him to create unusual characters whom the audience could connect with, his talents as a contortionist also allowed him to instill those characters with a strangely fluid sense of movement that made them entirely believable. While Jones' collaboration with del Toro momentarily lapsed with such efforts as The Devil's Backbone and Blade II, the release of Hellboy in 2004 found the partnership between the pair growing stronger than ever. Cast in the part of aquatic fish-man Abe Sapien, Jones proved so effective that actor David Hyde Pierce refused to take credit for voicing the role. Two short years later, Jones essayed the roles of both the titular character and the horrifying Pale Man in Del Toro's Oscar-winning fantasy film Pan's Labyrinth. Additional roles for Jones have included various imps in the movie Doom and Cesare in the 2005 "remake" The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. In 2006 and 2007, the increasingly prolific actor reprised his role as Abe Sapien in a pair of animated Hellboy tales before portraying the titular otherworldly visitor in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and preparing to bring Sapien back to the big screen in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.

Trivia: First TV role was a guest role on the Law & Order. Made his big screen debut in the 1999 comedy Wirey Spindell. In 2002, landed a recurring role of Frank on the George Lopez show. Did voice-over work for the 2006 animated comedy flick Shark Bait.

Trivia: Chose to pursue an acting career over a college degree upon graduating from high school.Shares a name with CBS correspondent Erin Moriarty, who has worked on the series 48 Hours since 1990.First credited role in a feature film was the Vince Vaughn character's daughter Chelsea in the 2012 comedy The Watch.Earned a spot on IndieWire's list of 20 Actors to Watch That Are Under 20 in 2014.

Trivia: A few character actors make such an indelible impression with one role that they find it consistently impossible to outgrow that image. Anthony Perkins had it with Norman Bates, M. Emmet Walsh has it with Visser (from Blood Simple), and R. Lee Ermey will forever be associated with the sadomasochistic verbal rapist of a drill instructor, Gunnery Sgt. Hartman, from Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam opus, Full Metal Jacket (1987). Though Ermey never again quite matched the intensity of this role (or the gutter-bucket poetic invention of its obscene dialogue), it was enough to give him permanent recognition as a character actor among filmgoers, and to typecast him in a series of variants on that role, again and again, throughout his life.Born on March 24, 1944, in Emporia, KS, Ermey enlisted in the armed forces as a young man and hightailed it to Vietnam on a non-commissioned basis, but injuries forced him to retire from active duty. He received full disability pay and moved to Manila in the early '70s, where he managed to ably support himself on his USAF allotment (thanks to the lower cost of living) while studying for a degree in criminology. Each morning, Ermey visited the coffee shop at the Manila Hilton -- well-reputed as the haunt of American filmmakers shooting on-location in the Philippines -- until one of the directors happened to notice Ermey and asked him to pose for a series of blue jeans ads. This experience led to his film debut, a role as a retired soldier in a local production. By 1976, Ermey had appeared in several Filipino films. He broke into Hollywood films that year, when he slipped onto the set for Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now and convinced Coppola to hire him as a helicopter pilot. Indeed, the ex-officer's Vietnam experience came in handy and Coppola utilized him as a technical advisor. Ermey made his American cinematic debut -- and held to the military-man typecasting -- in Sidney J. Furie's comedy drama The Boys in Company C (1978), and the director's follow-up, Purple Hearts (1984). But his biggest break came shortly thereafter, when Stanley Kubrick -- a notorious tyrant himself -- tapped him to portray Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in Full Metal Jacket (1987). Ermey's evocation of the satanically profane, vile, and sadistic Hartman, laden with the thankless, brutal job of toughening up raw recruits before sending them to Vietnam (who eventually gets blown away by one of his trainees) dominates the film's first 45 minutes and provides an unforgettably realistic, disturbing portrait of military training. Thanks to his unique countenance and authoritative voice, Ermey maintained his image as a rough-hewn, tough-as-nails SOB onscreen.Neither Company C or Purple Hearts received substantial critical and public recognition (or a very wide release); in contrast, the broader exposure of Full Metal Jacket (it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay and a National Board of Review nomination for Best Picture) boosted Ermey's prominence -- immeasurably so. He followed it up with spots in such well-received pictures as Alan Parker's racial drama Mississippi Burning (1988) and Abel Ferrara's Body Snatchers (1993). In 1995, Ermey spoofed himself to great effect as the voice of the leader of the little green soldiers in Toy Story, and doubled it up with a turn as the vengeful father of a homicide victim in Tim Robbins' capital punishment drama Dead Man Walking. A third role in that same year -- as the boss of Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt in David Fincher's seminal work Seven -- elicited a positive (if limited) critical and public response for Ermey's portrayal.During the early 2000s, Ermey once again drew on his military expertise and background, albeit in a much different fashion, as host of the small-screen program Mail Call. Episodes featured him answering a series of viewer questions about various aspects of military life and history. In 2003, he returned to his dramatic roots (and managed to top the despicability of Sgt. Hartman) in Marcus Nispel's Tobe Hooper remake, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Ermey plays Sheriff Hoyt, the deviant backwater law officer -- in cahoots with the family of slaughter-happy cannibals -- who refuses to listen the cries and wails of Jessica Biel's Erin. (In fact, Nispel invented Ermey's role for the remake). After a comic turn as yet another tough-nosed authority figure, Captain Nichols, in the 2005 Tommy Lee Jones vehicle Man of the House, Ermey reprised the Hoyt role for the sequel to the Chainsaw remake, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006). In that picture, Hoyt precipitates the central crisis by happening upon another group of teens, murdering one in cold blood, and dragging the others back to the house where maniac Leatherface and his cronies reside. R. Lee Ermey married his wife, Nila Ermey, in 1975. They have four children.

Trivia: His father, grandfather and great-grandfather are all doctors who worked or trained at the famed Mayo Clinic. Was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis as a child; coincidentally, his father is a specialist in colon and rectal surgery. Failed his driver's test three times. In Los Angeles, took improv classes with the Upright Citizens Brigade. For the MTV series MegaDrive, which he hosted, he got to pilot a jet-powered semi, a 16-foot-tall motorcycle and a Czech fighter jet. Once did more than $30,000 worth of damage to an armored vehicle that was featured on MegaDrive. Has appeared in commercials for Honda, Best Buy and Gillette.

Trivia: After gaining a cult following with the online sketch group Lonely Island, Andy Samberg shot to stardom with the Gen-Y crowd in 2005 when he was added to the cast of Saturday Night Live. His first crack at the big screen came in 2007, when he was cast as the lead in Hot Rod, a comedy about a motorcycle daredevil directed by Samberg's Lonely Island cohort Akiva Schaffer. He voiced the lead animal in the animated Space Chimps, and appeared in I Love You, Man. The SNL Digital Shorts he created with his longtime collaborators helped make him one of the most popular members of the cast during his stint on that show and in 2012 he got to play opposite one of the venerable program's most celebrated alumni when he was cast as Adam Sandler's son in the comedy That's My Boy.

Trivia: Comic actor and writer Jorma Taccone first started to make a name for himself in the world of comedy as a member of the comedy troupe Lonely Island, the same group that gave Andy Samberg the exposure that helped land him on Saturday Night Live. Taccone rode the trio's on-line success into appearances on Channel 101 as well as the occasional appearance on Saturday Night Live. He and Samberg teamed up in the comedy Hot Rod in 2007, the same year Taccone contributed to the script for Parental Guidance Suggested.

Trivia: Enjoys snowboarding, playing volleyball and doing yoga. After college, she moved to L.A. and found work in independent films as well as in sketch comedy and improv shows. Played Pam Dawber in Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of 'Mork & Mindy.'

Trivia: An actor whose strong features and sinewy 6'4" physique appear to have been chiseled from a slab of testosterone, Vince Vaughn is Hollywood's closest human approximation of a Chevy pick-up. Born March 28th, 1979, Vaughn's roles invariably reflect these qualities, and have given him a genial affability among middle Americans. Thanks to Vaughn's skills as a performer, however, he continues to resist typecasting, lending effortless portrayals to characters ranging from slick bachelors to raging psychopaths to morally conflicted limo drivers. A tried-and-true Midwestern boy, Vaughn was born in Minneapolis on March 28, 1970, and raised in the wealthy Chicago suburb of Lake Forest. The son of a self-made businessman and a stock and real-estate broker, Vaughn diverged from the upwardly mobile path forged by his parents. A hyperactive teen (and lackluster student), Vaughn spent time in special ed. and ran with a fast crowd (though he later claimed that he never felt the need for all-out rebellion). Despite his poor scholastic performance, Vaughn derived ambition from his interest in acting -- an interest that first blossomed at the age of seven -- and even served as senior class president. Upon graduation, with only his diploma and a role in a Chevy commercial as his credentials, Vaughn headed for Hollywood. Upon arrival, he proceeded to work in almost complete obscurity for the next seven years.During this period, Vaughn made the acquaintance of Jon Favreau, another struggling actor who hailed from the East. Their ensuing friendship and real-life adventures provided the inspiration for their ticket to the bigtime, 1996's Swingers. Directed by Doug Liman, the comedy stars Vaughn and Favreau (who also co-wrote the script) as two amiable, Rat Pack-obsessed, "so money" bachelors prowling the streets and bars of L.A. for "beautiful babies" and the occasional job opportunity. This irreverent-but-insightful Miramax release became a bona-fide sleeper hit. Vaughn, whose character, Trent, was the film's resident fast-talking ladies' man, emerged as a sex symbol in the making. A supporting role in Steven Spielberg's The Lost World: Jurassic Park heightened the actor's profile and revealed his ability to transition with great fluidity between indie films and box-office blockbusters. Nevertheless, Vaughn subsequently took the small, quiet film route, starring in The Locusts (1997), an overheated but half-baked melodrama in debt to both Tennessee Williams and East of Eden, and A Cool, Dry Place, a family drama that garnered a cool, dry reception from both audiences and critics. In 1998, the actor fared substantially better with his turn as a limo driver who is called upon to make a great sacrifice for a friend in Joe Ruben's Return to Paradise, and he brought a fine admixture of dark humor and sublimated menace to his part as a charismatic sociopath in Clay Pigeons. Vaughn evoked colossal mental dysfunction as Norman Bates in Gus Van Sant's truly ugly and ill-advised remake of Psycho that same year. Critics and viewers regarded his performance -- like the film itself -- with a tepid blend of indifference and bewilderment. After that egregious misfire, Vaughn wisely took a couple of years off before re-emerging with a number of projects in 2000. These included The Cell, a surrealistic horror picture co-starring Jennifer Lopez and Vincent D'Onofrio, Prime Gig, with Vaughn as California's best telemarketer, and South of Heaven, West of Hell, an ensemble western that marked the directorial debut of country singer Dwight Yoakam. Following-up with a part in writer Favreau's Made, Vaughn's next big role arrived in the form of a deceptive stepfather harboring a dark secret in the thriller Domestic Disturbance. Unfortunately, the film bombed on a critical front. Vaughn again ducked out of sight for several years, but Todd Phillips's 2003 comedy Old School brought him back to the top of the heap. Teaming Vaughn with Will Ferrell and Luke Wilson as a trio of over-the-hill party animals who relive their Animal House days by returning to frat house life, Old School became a sleeper hit, and inspired the press to term Vaughn, Wilson, Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Jack Black and others as The Frat Pack. The next of the "Frat Pack" vehicles arrived in 2004, with Todd Phillips's spoofy retread of the 1970s hit Starsky & Hutch, featuring Vaughn as the slimy villain, Reese Feldman. The picture (predictably) became a mega-hit, and the actor's newfound momentum continued to build when, only a few months later, he starred in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. Apparently channeling Bill Murray circa-1985, Vaughn received positive reviews for playing the good-guy opposite muscle-bound baddie Ben Stiller.Vaughn next graced the Will Ferrell vehicle Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) with a small but memorable role, before he made an about-face for the comedy-drama Thumbsucker. Vaughn impressed critics with his characterization and received praise for his funny and heartfelt performance. He returned to the popcorn humor that initially made him a star, however (and joined the $200-million-gross club in the process) with a leading part in the comedy The Wedding Crashers, a raunchy, R-rated film that proved once and for all the actor could open a movie.Throughout 2006, rumors swarmed about Vaughn's offscreen life, and alleged romantic relationship with newly divorced Jennifer Aniston -- a relationship that blossomed on the set of The Break-Up (ironically, a comedy about an couple ending their two-year relationship and trying to divide their possessions, friends and condo without killing each other). Gossip amped up anticipation and heightened curiosity. Meanwhile, Aniston aggressively denied rumors of an engagement. Upon release, The Break-Up bolstered Vaughn's reputation as a strong comic lead, and became another surprise hit.In the holiday comedy Joe Claus -- which marks Vaughn's third outing with director David Dobkin -- he plays the title character, the no-account, loser brother of Santa Claus who teams up with his more famous sibling at the North Pole to defeat villain Kevin Spacey. Vaughn undertook a personal venture for the documentary Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show, tooling around the country on a tour bus with four aspiring stand-up comics as they travel from gig to gig. And he stayed true to form with another "Frat Pack" comedy, Outsourced. In the years to come, Vaughn would remain an ever present force in the comedy world, appearing in movies like Four Christmases, Couples Retreat, and The Watch, as well as producing projects like The Internship and the sitcom Sullivan & Son.

Trivia: Initially known for his work on the stage, Billy Crudup emerged in the late '90s as a young actor of considerable talent, gracing the screen in an increasing number of films. Tall, lean, and possessing one of the best-defined jaws in the Western Hemisphere,Crudup was born on Long Island, NY, on July 8, 1968. Raised in Florida and Texas, he earned an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and then received a Master's degree from New York University.Crudup first won audience attention and critical acclaim in his role as an amorous tutor in the widely praised New York production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. His performance netted him both an Outer Critics Circle Outstanding Newcomer Award and a Theater World Award. He followed this success with a lead in the stage production of Bus Stop, winning similarly excellent reviews for his performance. He made his film debut in 1996 with a small part in Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You, and the same year he got a more sizable part among the all-star cast of Sleepers. Acting alongside Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Brad Pitt, Jason Patric, and Minnie Driver, Crudup received some recognition for his portrayal of a troubled survivor of childhood abuse. This recognition was amplified the following year, when he starred with Joaquin Phoenix in Inventing the Abbotts, a small film that cast him as an amorous, destructive ladies' man. That same year, he starred with Woody Harrelson in Stephen Frears' critically maligned The Hi-Lo Country (1998), and he won kudos for his performance as runner Steve Prefontaine in Without Limits. Critics praised both his physical resemblance to the late athlete and his ability to portray him with a vivid blend of arrogance, pathos, and sympathy. In 1999, Crudup could be seen starring in the acclaimed independant film Jesus' Son, but his mainstream breakthrough would happen the following year in Cameron Crowe's ode to 70s-era rock-and-roll, Almost Famous. Cruddup's performance as an up-and-coming rock star made him a stop tier star as well as a sex-symbol, and he would capitalize on his success over the coming years with selective, prominent roles in films like Charlotte Grey, Big Fish, The Good Shepherd, Watchmen, Eat Pray Love, and Too Big to Fail.