Trivia: Playing characters ranging from wide-eyed virgins to willful sirens to drug-addicted losers, Laura Dern (born February 10, 1967) is among the screen's most interesting modern actresses. Her parents, Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, are both successful actors but initially discouraged her from becoming involved in the profession. Still, acting was Dern's childhood goal, and after her parents divorced, she made her film debut at the age of six in White Lightning (1973).The following year, Dern played a bit part in Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. She got her first major role in 1980, playing a teenager in Adrian Lyne's Foxes. By 1983, she had appeared in more films, and in defiance of her parents' wishes, decided to get some formal dramatic training at the Lee Strasberg Institute, where she studied Method acting. She went on to appear in films such as Teachers (1984) and Mask (1985) and gained a reputation for realistic portrayals of goodhearted innocents. Dern could have easily been typecast into such roles had Joyce Chopra not cast her as a rebellious teen anxious to experience a sexual awakening in Smooth Talk (1986). The young actress' portrayal earned her a New Generation Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics. That same year, Dern became an even more marketable actress when she played a fresh-faced young sleuth in David Lynch's disturbing, groundbreaking Blue Velvet. She again worked with Lynch in the flamboyantly bizarre Wild at Heart (1990), in which she played an oversexed 20-year-old on the run with her lover (Nicholas Cage). The film proved to be a family affair, as Ladd played her villainous mother. The two appeared together again the following year in the beautifully wrought Rambling Rose. Dern's naturalistic performance as a troubled 19-year-old who wants love, but has confused it with sex, won her considerable acclaim that culminated in an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Ladd was also nominated, making it the first time a mother-daughter team had been so honored in the same year.In 1993, Dern became a bigger star portraying a courageous paleo-botanist in Steven Spielberg's blockbuster Jurassic Park. Three years later, she played one of her most offbeat roles as a paint-huffing, spiteful, pregnant, and dumb as a box-of-doorknobs homeless girl who finds herself caught in the middle of a battle royale between pro- and anti-abortion groups in the black comedy Citizen Ruth. In 1999, she took on two very diverse roles, first playing a supportive high school teacher in October Sky and then returning to the realm of eccentricity -- and to sharing the screen with her mother -- as part of an unconventional Alabama family in Billy Bob Thornton's Daddy and Them. Though audiences were no doubt eager to see what Slingblade director Thornton had up his sleeve for the eagerly anticipated feature, Daddy and Them did recieve stateside release into a full two-years after production wrapped - and when it finally did find it's way into theaters critical and popular response was lukewarm at best.The disappointment was more than counterbalanced that year however when Dern and boyfriend Ben Harper gave birth to their first baby boy Ellery, and in addition to also returning to the land of dinosaurs with Jurassic Park III in 2001. Dern essayed memorable supporting performances in a number of films including Novcaine, Focus and I Am Sam. Stepping back into the lead for her role as true life HMO whistle-blower Linda Peeno in the made-for-HBO film Damaged Goods, many found Dern's performance so moving that whispers of an Emmy nomination began to circulate. That wasn't in the cards however, and the following year Dern returned to feature work with the adulterous drama We Don't Live Here Anymore.In addition to her film career, Dern has appeared on stage and television. In 1992, she won an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe award for performing in the HBO docudrama Afterburn. In 1997, she again proved her versatility by offering a convincing, Emmy-nominated portrayal of a lesbian who is comfortable with her sexuality in a landmark episode of the sitcom Ellen in which star Ellen DeGeneres "comes out of the closet.""In 2000, Dern teamed with Robert Altman for the Texas-based comedy Dr. T & The Women, and co-starred in the films Within These Walls, Focus, and Novocaine. After returning to the Jurrassic Park franchise for a minor role in Jurassic Park III, Dern took on a supporting role in I Am Sam, and starred in 2002's Damaged Care and 2004's We Don't Live Here Anymore. The 2000s would prove a busy period for the actress; in 2005 she joined the ensemble cast of the comedy-drama Happy Endings, appeared in The Prize WInnder of Defiance, Ohio in 2006, reunited with David Lynch for Inland Empire (also in 2006), and worked alongside Molly Shannon, John C. Reilly, and Peter Sarsgaard for Year of the Dog (2007). In 2008, Dern won a Golden Globe award for "Best Supporting Actress" in Recount, a made-for-TV political drama about the United States' controversial Presidential election of 2000. She played a self-destructive woman piecing her life back together for two seasons on the HBO series Enlightened, winning a Golden Globe for her work on the program. In 2014 she played moms in two very different movies. She cared for a teenage daughter living with cancer in the tearjerker The Fault In Our Stars, and she earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination from the Academy for her work in Wild as the mother of a self-destructive former drug addict who tries to get her head straight by going on a grueling hike across the Pacific Northwest.

Trivia: Kristen Stewart was poised to become a preteen star with her role opposite Jodie Foster in David Fincher's atmospheric thriller Panic Room (2002). A resident of Los Angeles, Stewart's nascent acting career got off to a promising start when she was cast in two vastly different films. Eschewing fluffy kids' movies, Stewart played troubled single mother Patricia Clarkson's tomboy daughter in independent film darling Rose Troche's tough examination of suburban angst, The Safety of Objects (2002). Stewart subsequently got her first taste of major Hollywood success with Panic Room. Replacing the original child actress cast as divorcée Meg's sullen, diabetic daughter Sarah, Stewart became an even more felicitous choice when original star Nicole Kidman dropped out and Foster stepped in. Though critics were less than ecstatic about the film, Stewart still garnered positive notice for her believable presence as Foster's offspring.Following a supporting performance as the daughter of a couple who unknowingly move into a seemingly haunted house in the 2003 chiller Cold Creek Manor, Stewart took top billing in the emotionally charged drama Speak in 2004. Cast as a traumatized high school freshman whose status as a selective mute draws the concern of friends and family, Stewart's handling of the remarkably intimate material drew praise from critics and Sundance audiences. Stewart would also continue to impress critics with her thoughtful performances in movies like 2007's The Cake Eaters and Into the Wild, but one of her most attention-grabbing roles would come in 2008, when she was cast as Bella Swan in the big screen adaptation of the teen-centric vampire romance novel Twilight. A franchise already adored by legions of tween fans, the ensuing series of films, 2009's New Moon, 2010's Eclipse, 2011's The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1, and 2012's The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, would make Stewart a household name. Despite this, the actress remained selective and thoughtful in her other roles, starring opposite Jesse Eisenberg in the cult hit 2009 comedy/drama Adventureland, and playing innovating rock star Joan Jett in 2010's The Runaways.2012 would see Stewart joining Sam Riley and Kirsten Dunst for a much anticipated cinematic adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road and starring as Snow White in Snow White and the Huntsman. In 2014, she appeared in Clouds of Sils Maria, which earned her a César Award for Best Supporting Actress, and also made her the first American actress to win a César Award. She also appeared in Still Alice, opposite Julianne Moore in her Academy Award-winning performance.

Trivia: As semi-reformed bad girl Jennifer Lindley on Dawson's Creek, actress Michelle Williams garnered a certain type of notoriety unavailable to her more morality-inclined co-stars. In spite of this notoriety--or perhaps because of it--the role provided Williams with a wealth of opportunities, making her one of the foremost teen stars of the late 1990s. Born September 9, 1980 in small-town Kalispell, Montana and raised there until she was ten, Williams started acting after her family moved to San Diego. Beginning with roles in community theatre productions, she was soon shuttling back and forth to Los Angeles for auditions. Williams made her film debut in 1994 with Lassie, and then had a small but memorable part as the young version of the nubile and bloodthirsty alien in Species (1995). After the dismal and virtually unseen Timemaster (1995), Williams moved on to more auspicious fare with Jocelyn Moorhouse's A Thousand Acres (1997). Williams was cast as Michelle Pfeiffer's daughter, and the film's small-town setting must have given her some context for her next role, that of Jenn in Dawson's Creek. The show, which premiered in January of 1998, gave Williams her break-out role, and in short time she was besieged with movie offers and a stream of interviews.Williams' first film to exploit her newfound Dawson's fame was Halloween: H2O (1998), in which she starred opposite Jamie Lee Curtis. The film opened to poor reviews but a strong box office performance, and paved the way for her to star in future films, including 1999's thoroughly weird political satire Dick. The film, which looks at the Watergate scandal from the point of view of two teenage girls (played by Williams and Kirsten Dunst), provided Williams with a chance to expand her range beyond the constraints of her Dawson's Creek character. As the new millennium began, Williams found herself more and more comfortable exploring independent film, participating in smaller but often extremely influential projects like Perfume (2001), The Station Agent (2003) and Prozac Nation (2003). In 2005, Williams signed on to appear in the groundbreaking Ang Lee film Brokeback Mountain. The critical acclaim surrounding the movie was overwhelming, bringing Williams a new level of notoriety. Her popularity was also bolstered when the public learned that she and costar Heath Ledger had become involved during filming. The two became engaged and had a daughter together, Matilda, in 2005, and though they would later separate in 2007, they remained close for the well being of their daughter. Tragically, Ledger was found dead of an accidental overdose the following year. The heartbreaking loss for both Williams and her daughter forced the actress to deal with additional public scrutiny at a time when she was most vulnerable, but she coped with the grief as best she could, by investing more energy in her work. In 2008 alone she would appear in numerous films, including the drama Incendiary with Ewan McGregor and the highly anticipated Charlie Kaufman directorial debut Synecdoche, New York.Williams persisted in working with very good directors, as well as indie helmers who could offer her challenging work. She earned strong reviews for her starring role in Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy, and they worked together again on the western Meek's Cutoff. In addition, she worked with Martin Scorsese in his adaptation of Shutter Island.She also continued to earn awards for a steady string of impressive work including Blue Valentine, where her work as the female half of a failing marriage scored her Oscar, Golden Globe, and Independent Spirit nominations for Best Actress. Then in 2011 she took on the challenge of playing Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn, and was rewarded with rave reviews as well as Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild nominations for Best Actress.

Trivia: Thanks in large part to the independent film movement of the late '80s, the boyishly handsome James LeGros went from being an underrated bit player in Hollywood schlock to a well-respected character actor. A Minnesota native, LeGros found steady work when he migrated to Los Angeles after college in the early '80s, popping up as a guest star in such TV series as Knight Rider, and in Danny DeVito's directorial debut, the made-for-cable satire The Ratings Game (a.k.a. The Mogul). Sci-fi made up the bulk of LeGros' early feature-film roles, including the dreadful post-apocalyptic teen flop Solarbabies (1986) and the thriller sequel Phantasm II (1988).It was director Gus Van Sant who afforded LeGros the opportunity to show his skills with a meaty supporting role in 1989's much-acclaimed Drugstore Cowboy. As part of a quartet of drifters stealing their way across the Pacific Northwest, the actor held his own against the iconic Matt Dillon as well as newcomer Heather Graham. More challenging parts followed in the early '90s, including the psychological drama The Rapture (1991), Cameron Crowe's ensemble romantic comedy Singles (1992), and a pair of firearm-obsessed indies, Guncrazy and My New Gun (also 1992). Pairing with director Todd Haynes for his 1995 sophomore feature Safe, LeGros garnered more acclaim as a confidante/romantic interest for the mysteriously ailing character played by Julianne Moore. That same year, he hilariously sent up a narcissistic Hollywood actor -- not-so-secretly based on Brad Pitt -- in director Tom DiCillo's satire on the perils of indie filmmaking, Living in Oblivion.As the millennium drew to a close, LeGros would re-team with Moore in the ensemble dramedy The Myth of Fingerprints (1997), playing an eccentric New England townie who has a crush on Moore's icy, cosmopolitan yuppie. With the film, LeGros began a long-standing collaboration with the film's writer-director -- and Moore's real-life beau -- Bart Freundlich, who would go on to cast LeGros in his subsequent films, including the road movie World Traveler (2001), the family film Catch That Kid (2003), and the screwball relationship comedy Trust the Man (2006).In the intervening years, LeGros made a successful return to the medium that gave him his first break: television. He was exposed to perhaps his widest audience to date in 1998 on the venerable medical drama ER, and then on the popular series Ally McBeal, in 2000 and 2001. A starring role on Showtime's gritty, controversial terrorist drama Sleeper Cell followed in 2005.

Trivia: British actor Jared Harris first won recognition for his riveting portrayal of influential American pop artist Andy Warhol in the acclaimed I Shot Andy Warhol (1996). Though he is the son of esteemed British actor Richard Harris, he showed little interest in following his father's path until he was cast in a college production while attending North Carolina's Duke University during the early '80s. Following graduation, he returned to Britain and worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company for several years, before heading back to the states to appear off-Broadway. The actor made his screen debut in The Rachel Papers (1989). Following his appearances as Harvey Keitel's slightly retarded shop assistant in Smoke and its companion piece Blue in the Face (both 1995), Harris became a familiar face in American independent films, though he still made the occasional foray into mainstream films, appearing in Lost in Space in 1998. After portraying a sleazy Russian cab driver in Todd Solondz's acclaimed Happiness (1998), Harris could be seen in Michael Radford's B. Monkey, starring opposite Asia Argento, Rupert Everett, and Jonathan Rhys Myers. He went on to appear in Perfume and Igby Goes Down in the next few years. In 2003 he found himself playing one of Europe's most famous historical figures when he tackled the role of King Henry VIII in The Other Boleyn Girl. The next year he had small parts in The Day After Tomorrow and Ocean's Twelve. Although he was in the notorious flop Lady in the Water in 2006, two years later he appeared in the multiple Oscar nominated The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. In 2009 he had his most high-profile success joining the cast of the award-winning drama Mad Men as a British businessman. He was the bad guy in the second of Robert Downey Jr's Sherlock Holmes films, and played one of the important figures in American history when Steven Spielberg cast him in Lincoln as General Ulysses S. Grant.

Trivia: While his name might suggest a birthplace somewhere in France -- or at the very least Quebec -- actor Rene Auberjonois was born in New York City. However, his well-to-do parents were of noble European blood, thus French was the language of choice in his household. Despite his first-born-American status, Auberjonois was shunned by many of his schoolmates as a foreigner, and teased for having a "girl's" name. As a defense mechanism, Auberjonois became the class clown, which somehow led naturally to amateur theatricals. The influence of such neighborhood family friends as Burgess Meredith and Lotte Lenya solidified Auberjonois' determination to make performing his life's work. He was cast in a production at Stratford (Ontario)'s Shakespeare company by John Houseman -- another neighbor of his parents' -- and after moving with his family to England, Auberjonois returned to complete his acting training at Carnegie-Mellon University. There he decided to specialize in character parts rather than leads -- a wise decision, in that he's still at it while some of his handsomer and more charismatic Carnegie-Mellon classmates have fallen by the wayside. Three years with the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. led Auberjonois to San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre, of which he was a founding member. Movie and TV work was not as easy to come by, so the actor returned to New York, where he won a Tony for his Broadway role in the musical Coco. An introduction to director Robert Altman led Auberjonois to his first film, M*A*S*H (1970), in which he introduced the character that would later be fleshed out on TV as Father Mulcahy (with William Christopher in the role). He worked in two more Altman films before he and the director began to grow in opposite directions. More stage work and films followed, then TV assignments; Auberjonois' characters ranged from arrogant dress designers to snooty aristocrats to schizophrenic killers on film, while the stage afforded him more richly textured roles in such plays as King Lear and The Good Doctor. In 1981, Auberjonois was cast as Clayton Endicott III, the terminally fussy chief of staff to Governor Gatling on Benson. Like so many other professional twits in so many other films, Auberjonois' job was to make life miserable for the more down-to-earth hero, in this case Robert "Benson" Guillaume. Blessed with one of the most flexible voiceboxes in show business, Auberjonois has spent much of his career providing voice-overs for cartoon characters in animated projects like the Disney's The Little Mermaid, The Legend of Tarzan, Justice League, and Pound Puppies. In 1993, Rene Auberjonois assured himself a permanent place in the hearts of "Trekkies" everywhere when he was cast as Odo (complete with understated but distinctive "alien" makeup) on the weekly syndicated TV show Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which he appeared on until 1999.Auberjonois would remain extremely active on screen in the years to come, appearing in movies like The Patriot, and on shows like Boston Legal.

Trivia: Lead actor John Getz first appeared onscreen in the '80s.

Trivia: Supporting actor Boyd has appeared onscreen from the '70s.