Trivia: Despite spending the first 25 years of his life in Adelaide, Australia, Anthony LaPaglia is best known for playing street-savvy Italian New Yorkers. This was not, however, LaPaglia's original plan. Rather than testing the waters of show business, LaPaglia traveled to the United States intending to pursue a full-time teaching career. As luck would have it, however, one of LaPaglia's odd jobs was a small role in Cold Steel (1987), a low-budget detective drama. LaPaglia began pursuing theater and television in his spare time -- one of his more notable early performances was in 1988's Frank Nitti: The Enforcer -- and considered himself a full-time actor by 1989, when he made his feature-film debut in Slaves of New York. It was 1990, however, when the young actor earned critical recognition for his role as an exceedingly polite mobster in Betsy's Wedding.LaPaglia continued to build his résuméthroughout the early '90s, most of which he spent playing either kindly policemen or good-hearted mobsters, and was delighted to work alongside a variety of noted actors so early in his career. Among those actors were Alan Alda in Betsy's Wedding, Michael Keaton in One Good Cop (1991), and Nathan Lane, Sharon Stone, and Kevin Bacon in He Said, She Said (1992). Later in 1992, LaPaglia could be found playing his first leading role in George Gallo's gangster farce 29th Street. Though the film did not fare particularly well, audiences were nonetheless impressed with LaPaglia's intensity, and he played a more serious gangster with great success opposite Susan Sarandon in The Client (1994). The actor switched gears for his next handful of films; in Mixed Nuts (1994) he played a disillusioned Santa Claus, while Empire Records (1995) found him as a down-on-his-luck store manager, and the Australian-helmed Brilliant Lies (1996) featured him as the defendant in a sketchy sexual-harassment case.Despite a smattering of mediocre films between 1995 and the early 2000s, LaPaglia continued to earn critical acclaim for many of his endeavors, such as Steve Buscemi's directorial debut, Trees Lounge (1996), for which LaPaglia joined a star-studded supporting cast, as well as for his role as a detective in Spike Lee's Summer of Sam (1999). Luckily for him, 2000 and 2001 proved excellent for his career, as it was during this period that he played a wealthy businessman in The House of Mirth and an adulterous police detective in Lantana. In addition to receiving international success, Lantana earned LaPaglia the prestigious Best Actor award from the Australian Film Institute, as well as a nomination from the Film Critics Circle. In the meantime, he was adding several major television credits to his résumé, including a starring role as the head of the FBI's Missing Persons Squad on CBS's Without a Trace, and a recurring role on the long-running sitcom Frasier, a performance for which he would receive an Emmy in 2002. Far removed from his fledgling days as a teacher, 2002 also found LaPaglia working with Val Kilmer for The Salton Sea; Sigourney Weaver for The Guys; Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal in Analyze That; and Eric Stoltz in Happy Hour. In 2003, after filming Manhood with Janeane Garofalo and the late John Ritter, LaPaglia agreed to star in director Josh Sternfeld's Winter Solstice (2004).Over the next several years, LaPaglia would appear in a number of big screen projects, like Balibo (2009), Overnight (2012) and A Good Marriage (2014).

Trivia: Harboring an awesome wellspring of determination, Australian émigré actress Poppy Montgomery moved from down under to Los Angeles in 1993 (at the tender age of 18) and, with no connections or leads to her name, bought a copy of a book called How to Make it in Hollywood. In that text, Montgomery read an anecdote about one of Julia Roberts' early managers, who had helped engineer some of the actress' early successes. Montgomery searched diligently until she found the manager's telephone number, then so plagued him with calls, one after another, that she ultimately wore down his resistance; he put Montgomery in touch with a manager who helped launch her career. The self-assurance evident in this "breakout strategy" had taken root early in Montgomery's life; born June 19, 1975, in Paddington, New South Wales, Australia (a suburb of Sydney), Montgomery realized as a young girl that she only wanted to spend her life acting. Once in Hollywood, she refused to be snubbed or overlooked. As an ingenue in Los Angeles, Montgomery sustained smaller turns for seven years, including a role on NYPD Blue and performances in the Eddie Murphy comedy Life and the Garry Marshall tearjerker The Other Sister, until late 2000, when she landed the highly coveted lead role of Marilyn Monroe in the autobiographical miniseries about the superstar, Blonde, adapted from the book by esteemed belletrist Joyce Carol Oates. Though critics felt the telemovie uneven, most singled out Montgomery and raved over her interpretation.This unique, inherent ability to reach down deep into a character and understand her on the most intuitive level shone through again and again in Montgomery's work, and doubtless enabled her to land a recurring role on the CBS drama Without a Trace, about the day-to-day searches of a missing-persons unit headed by Anthony LaPaglia. When she received the call about Without a Trace, Montgomery had contributed exemplary work to two otherwise unsuccessful series -- Elizabeth Waclawek in The Beat (2000) and Ellie Sparks in Glory Days (2002) -- and needed a boost. The program, of course, became a massive hit, thanks in no small part to Montgomery's fine work. In the series she portrays FBI agent Samantha Spade with marked believability. As one season of Without a Trace after another unfolded, Montgomery worked with equal emphasis in film and television. Her cinematic roles included Allison in the Gen-X indie comedy How to Lose Your Lover (2004) and Nadine Roberts in David Ocañas' metaphysical thriller Between (2004); in 2005, Montgomery played Generosa Rand, the issue-ridden (and possibly homicidal) wife of wealthy investment banker Ted Ammon, in the made-for-television true crime saga Murder in the Hamptons. TV would prove a good fit for Montgomery, and she would find additional success with series like Without a Trace and Unforgettable.

Trivia: British actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste first became known to an international audience through her breakthrough performance in Mike Leigh's Secrets & Lies (1996). Jean-Baptiste has received Best Supporting Actress Oscar, BAFTA, and Golden Globe nominations for her measured, insightful portrayal of a young woman who is reunited with her biological mother who gave her up for adoption at birth. Jean-Baptiste subsequently began doing steady work in both film and television, appearing in a disparate number of films, including Noah Baumbach's Mr. Jealousy (1997), the psychological thriller A Murder of Crows (1998), the independent comedy How to Make the Cruelest Month (1998), and Nancy Savoca's The 24-Hour Woman (1999). The beginning of the next decade founding Jean-Baptiste scoring roles in the thriller The Cell, the comedy drama 28 Days, and the thriller Spy Game. From 2002 to 2009 Jean-Baptiste could be seen in the Jerry Bruckheimer produced CBS television series Without a Trace as FBI agent Vivian Johnson who works in the missing persons division. She appeared in the 2006 drama Jam, and joined the cast of City of Ember (2008), a science-fiction fantasy drama following a society living in an underground city following a nuclear war. In 2010 the actress joined the cast of Takers, a crime thriller, and starred in Secrets in the Walls, a made-for-television horror film from Lifetime the same year. In addition to acting, Jean-Baptiste is also a composer. She supplied the music for Leigh's Career Girls in 1997.

Trivia: As far as role choice is concerned, Cuban-American supporting actor Enrique Murciano Jr. arrived in Hollywood at something of a low ebb -- with an appearance in one of the most embarrassing duds of the late '90s: the action thriller Speed 2: Cruise Control. Mercifully, his constituted a brief turn, and Murciano subsequently evinced a more acute predilection for solid material. He was memorable as Ruiz in Ridley Scott's Mogadishu-themed war drama Black Hawk Down (2001) and as Jeff Foreman in Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005), but is probably best known for his ongoing portrayal of Missing Persons Agent Danny Taylor in the crime-investigation series drama Without a Trace, opposite Anthony LaPaglia and Poppy Montgomery. Murciano also signed for a small role in Michelle Danner's 2006 indie comedy How to Go Out on a Date in Queens.

Trivia: Actor Eric Close found his breakthrough role on the prime-time serial drama Sisters (1991), opposite Julianne Phillips, Sela Ward, and Swoosie Kurtz. Close's performance as a policeman in the sixth season of the program established his onscreen reputation as a solid and reliable performer. Alongside that program, Close landed roles in low-rent films such as Hercules and the Lost Kingdom (1994) and the made-for-television soaper The Stranger Beside Me (1995). The actor then received second billing after small-screen mainstay Michael Biehn in the Western series The Magnificent Seven (1998), joined the regular cast of the short-lived sci-fi drama The Sky Is Falling (1999), and scored a lead in Glenn Gordon Caron's eccentric, short-lived superhero series Now and Again. Close drew his largest audience, however, with his contributions to the outstanding crime-investigation drama Without a Trace, as Martin Fitzgerald, the missing-persons agent amorously, and perhaps unwisely, involved with colleague Samantha Spade (Poppy Montgomery).

Trivia: Actress Angela Goethals propelled herself to child stardom during the late '80s and early '90s. Around 1985, at the tender age of eight, Goethals auditioned for -- and then landed -- a series of theatrical roles that carried her directly to the Great White Way. Several memorable supporting turns in A-list U.S. features followed, as well as the lead in a short-lived sitcom, before Goethals withdrew from the limelight to focus exclusively on her education. In 2002, the actress returned to Los Angeles with a renewed presence on television and in films. Born May 20, 1977, in Manhattan to Rosalind and Michael Goethals (the grandson of Panama Canal architect George Washington Goethals), Angela Bethany Goethals grew up in New York. Her father abandoned the family in 1979, leaving both Angela and her sister, Sara, in the custody of their mother, Rosalind, a kindergarten teacher. In the mid-'80s, Rosalind Goethals held a brief tenure as assistant stage manager for a local Shakespeare company, and opted to take both daughters to work; Angela reportedly fell in love with the theater at first glance, and auditioned at the behest of a friend, exuding natural dramatic ability that astonished everyone.A string of challenging and demanding stage portrayals followed, in such noteworthy Broadway productions as Tina Howe's Coastal Disturbances (1987) and John Guare's Four Baboons Adoring the Sun (1992, playing opposite Stockard Channing and James Naughton), as well as off-Broadway productions including Lynda Barry's period piece The Good Times Are Killing Me (1991). Goethals debuted on film opposite her sister Sara at the age of ten in the wistful, underrated ensemble piece Rocket Gibraltar (1988), directed by Daniel Petrie -- opposite Burt Lancaster, Kevin Spacey, Suzy Amis, and a very young Macaulay Culkin. Culkin and Goethals reunited onscreen two years later for an effects-laden comedy directed by Chris Columbus called Home Alone, and the fate of that picture is, by now, notorious. It outstripped everyone's expectations, shooting up like a rocket to qualify as not only the highest grosser of 1990, but one of the most lucrative films of all time -- reeling in around 450 million dollars globally. In the picture, Goethals played Linnie, the bratty and crass-mouthed older sister of Culkin's Kevin. Goethals doubled up this effort with a turn in the Jeff Kanew-directed box-office stinker V.I. Warshawski (1991), as the wisecracking teenage daughter of the titular private dick (Kathleen Turner). As a teenager, Goethals attended Manhattan's prestigious, academically advanced Stuyvesant High School and, not long after, signed with ABC for her first television series, Phenom. The sitcom (with more than a hint of autobiographical influence) cast the actress as Angela Doolan, a 15-year-old tennis prodigy being raised by her single mother (Judith Light) and honing her skills under the aegis of megalomaniacal coach Lou Del La Rosa (William Devane). Unfortunately, that program failed to catch fire with the public and was canceled at the tail end of its first season in 1994. Not long after, Goethals put acting on the shelf temporarily and -- save a role in Jerry Maguire (1996) -- focused exclusively on her studies as a French major at Vassar.Returning to acting in the early 2000s (first in New York, then in L.A.), Goethals drew on her prior experience (and resumé) to land an enviable series of roles that she tackled with great dexterity. These included the box-office sleeper Changing Lanes (opposite Sam Jackson and Ben Affleck) and recurring stints on the prime-time series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and 24. In 2003, Goethals signed for yet another series, the promising David E. Kelley comedy drama The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire (opposite Randy Quaid and Mare Winningham), but it folded only a month after it premiered. A few years later, Goethals received second billing in the low-budget horror comedy Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2007), a kind of Americanized Man Bites Dog remake about a documentarian (Goethals) and her crew following a serial killer around and spurring him on to increasingly grisly acts. The film opened to generally enthusiastic reviews but received only limited distribution. In addition to her on-camera work, Goethals voiced the audio books of Ann Brashares' novel The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Dan Gutman's novel The Get Rich Quick Club, and is an avid equestrian.

Trivia: Red-haired, occasionally bearded American actor Timothy Busfield was a stage professional virtually from the moment he left East Tennessee State University. His earliest regular TV work was on the short-lived 1983 sitcom Reggie, playing the layabout aspiring-actor son of Richard Mulligan. One year later, Busfield was cast as Pernell Roberts' intern son on Trapper John, MD. He also appeared as Poindexter in Revenge of the Nerds and its sequel. In 1987, Busfield was fortuitously cast on the "yuppie" TV weekly thirtysomething, playing Elliot Weston, the business partner and best friend of series lead Michael Steadman (Ken Olin). From this point onward, Busfield was able to secure choice film supporting roles, generally as a stuffy, snotty "upwardly mobile" type. In addition to being honored with Emmy nominations from 1988-1990 for his work on thirtysomething, Busfield won a Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Emmy in 1991. His most likeable screen portrayal was as Kevin Costner's uptight, money-conscious, and essentially decent brother-in-law in the 1989 blockbuster Field of Dreams.Busfield forged a career behind the scenes as well, starting with directing episodes of thirtysomething while he was acting on that show. Among the series for which he has directed episodes are Sports Night, Ed, Las Vegas, and Joan of Arcadia. He also took on co-executive producing with the shows Ed and Without a Trace. Busfield still acted regularly throughout the '90s and into the new millenium in both film and television, but his more major roles tended to be on the small screen. He starred in the family drama Byrds of Paradise and the sitcom Champs, also making guest-starring appearances on numerous shows, including Ed and Without a Trace. But Busfield's most memorable and notable TV role of this period was that of White House reporter Danny Concannon on the critically acclaimed series The West Wing. Busfield played the character off-and-on through the whole series, appearing in the second-to-last episode, wooing Allison Janney's C.J. Cregg. Busfield worked on Aaron Sorkin's follow-up series, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, playing director Cal Shanley on the show, and also helmed six episodes. Studio 60 was canceled after only one season, and since then, Busfield has alternated between guest spots and directing gigs.