The Best Actors

Kurt Russell landed a part in the Elvis Presley movie, It Happened at the World's Fair, when he was 10-years-old. In 1960, Walt Disney himself signed Russell to a 10-year contract. Once his stint as a child actor ended, he spent the early 1970s playing minor league baseball. In 1979, he gave a classic performance as Elvis Presley in John Carpenter's ABC-TV movie...

Born June 22, 1958 (the youngest of 3 brothers) in Royal Oak, Michigan. As a child, Bruce watched Lost in Space on TV, and ran around dressed as Zorro. He got the acting bug at age 8; his dad was performing in local community theater. At 14, Bruce got to play the young prince in "The King and I" and even got to sing...

Jason Statham has done quite a lot in a short time. He has been a Diver on the British National Diving Team and finished 12th in the World Championships in 1992. He has also been a fashion model, black market salesman and finally of course, actor. He got the audition for his debut role as Bacon in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels through French Connection...

Dan Aykroyd attended Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada (1969), where he majored in Criminology and Sociology. He dropped out to work with Second City Stage Troupe in Toronto and started his acting career at Carleton University with Sock'n'Buskin, the campus theater/drama club. Married to Donna Dixon...

Highly talented, lightly built Italian American actor who always looks unsettled and jumpy has become a favourite of cult/arthouse film aficionados with his compelling performances in a broad range of cinematic vehicles. Has become a regular in the thought provoking films of Spike Lee and the off the wall comedies of Joel Coen & Ethan Coen...

Sylvester Stallone became one of Hollywood's highest paid actors,usually playing monosyllabic, anti society, underdog heroes and also known for his machismo. Stallone is an American actor,screenwriter,film director,filmmaker and occasional painter. While Stallone has attempted to extend his range into film comedies and drama, his real box office success continues in action films.

American leading man who has played his fair share of irritating pests and brash, ambitious hustlers, Richard Dreyfuss worked his way up through bit parts (The Graduate, for one) and TV before gaining attention with his portrayal of Baby Face Nelson in John Milius' Dillinger. He gained...

Lean, angular-faced and authoritatively spoken lead / supporting actor Roy Scheider obviously never heard the old actor's axiom about "never appearing with kids or animals" lest they overshadow your performance. Breaking that rule did him no harm, though, as he achieved pop cult status by finding, fighting...

He breathed life into Batman. Adam West was born Billy (William) West Anderson in Walla Walla, Washington, to parents Otto West Anderson and his wife Audrey. At age 10 Adam had a cache of comic books, and "Batman" made a big impression on him--the comic hero was part bat-man (a la Count Dracula) and part world's greatest detective (a la Charlie Chan and Sherlock Holmes)...

Apprenticed to the China Drama Academy (or "opera school") by his parents at the age of 6, Jackie Chan was rigorously trained in music, dance, and traditional martial arts. A visiting filmmaker offered Chan his first (tiny) role as a stunt player. Chan took the part, and soon left the Opera to pursue the world of film...

Panom Yeerum was born on February 5, 1976, in the northeastern province of Surin, Thailand. His parents were elephant herders. Panom watched martial arts films as a young kid and began to emulate some of his idols, from Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan to Jet Li. After seeing the Thai action film Born to Fight ("Born to Fight")...

Born in Peekskill, New York, on August 27, 1952, Paul Reubenfeld grew up in Sarasota, Florida, where his parents owned a lamp store. During winters, The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus called Sarasota home, and young Paul counted such big-top families as the Wallendas and the Zacchinis among his neighbors...

Gregory Peck was born in La Jolla, California. His father was a druggist in San Diego. His parents divorced when he was five years old. An only child, he was sent to live with his grandmother. He never felt he had a stable childhood. His fondest memories are of his grandmother taking him to the movies every week and of his dog...

Malcolm John Taylor was born on June 13, 1943 in Leeds, England, to working-class parents Charles and Edna Taylor. His father was a publican and an alcoholic. Malcolm hated his parents' ways and fought against it. His father was keen to send his son to private school to give him a good start in life...

Steven Seagal is a striking and somewhat boyishly handsome looking (often with ponytail) and usually impeccably dressed action star who burst onto the martial arts film scene in 1988 in the fast-paced Warner Bros. film Above the Law. The enigmatic Seagal commenced his martial arts training at the age of seven under the tutelage of well-known karate instructor and author Fumio Demura...

He was the ultra-cool male film star of the 1960s, and rose from a troubled youth spent in reform schools to being the world's most popular actor. Over 25 years after his untimely death from mesothelioma in 1980, Steve McQueen is still considered hip and cool, and he endures as an icon of popular culture...

Jack Nicholson, an American actor, producer, screenwriter, and director, is a 3-time Academy Award winner and 12-time nominee. Nicholson is also notable for being one of two actors - the other being Michael Caine - who have received Oscar nods in every decade from 1960s through the 2000s. Born April 22...

Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt was born on February 17, 1981 in Los Angeles, California to parents Jane Gordon and Dennis Levitt. Joseph was raised in a Jewish family with his late older brother, Daniel Levitt, who passed away in October 2010. His maternal grandfather, Michael Gordon, had been a well-known movie director...

A likable, boyish-looking actor with thick eyebrows and a friendly smile, Justin Long is a native of Connecticut. He grew up in Fairfield, the second of three sons. His father, R. James Long, is a Professor of Philosophy at Fairfield University and his mother, Wendy Lesniak, is a former Broadway actress...

Best known for his breakthrough starring role on Freaks and Geeks, James Franco was born in Palo Alto, California on April 19, 1978. Growing up with his two younger brothers, James graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1996 and went on to attend UCLA, majoring in English. To overcome his shyness, he got into acting while studying there...

Alfred Molina was born in 1953 in London, England, of a Spanish father and an Italian mother. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. His stage work includes two major Royal National Theatre productions, Tennessee Williams' "The Night of the Iguana" (as Shannon) and David Mamet's "Speed the Plow" (as Fox)...

Born Cornelius Crane Chase, his grandmother gave him the name Chevy when he was two years old and has gone by that name ever since. Chevy Chase, who was a part of the Saturday Night Live crew, embarked on a highly successful movie career. Chase scored in the eighties with hits such as Caddyshack...

Christopher Crosby Farley, who was born on February 15, 1964, grew up in Madison, Wisconsin. He studied theatre and communications on Marquette University. After finishing University Chris was in the cast of the Second City Theatre, where he was discovered by the producer of the great comedy-show Saturday Night Live...

James Belushi was born June 15, 1954, in Chicago. The third of four children - his brother was John Belushi - he grew up in Wheaton, Illinois. A high school teacher, impressed by his improvisational skills while giving speeches, convinced him to to be in a school play. After that, he joined the school's drama club...

The son of a legendary country singer/actor Tex Ritter and his wife Dorothy Fay, who was also an actress, John Ritter started out his life as Jonathan Southworth Ritter, born in Burbank, California, on September 17, 1948. After his father married Dorothy Fay Southworth in 1941, the couple had their first child...

Moe Howard, the "Boss Stooge" and brother of Stooges Curly Howard and Shemp Howard, began his acting career in 1909 by playing bit roles in silent Vitagraph films. At 17 he joined a troupe working on a showboat and also appeared in several two-reel comedy shorts. In 1922 he, brother Shemp and Larry Fine joined roughhouse vaudeville comic Ted Healy...

Jerome "Curly" Howard, the rotund, bald Stooge with the high voice was the most popular member of The Three Stooges. His first stage experience was as a comedic conductor for the Orville Knapp Band in 1928. Curly joined The Three Stooges in 1932, replacing his brother Shemp Howard. He made more than...

American leading actor of a number of horror films, probably best known as Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street and all of its sequels. Englund became a cult favorite after that film but had started working in the 1970s. He was cast as a sex-crazed maniac in Eaten Alive by Tobe Hooper, who also directed The Texas Chain Saw Massacre...

Critically hailed for his forceful, militant, authoritarian roles, Laurence Fishburne, who is sometimes mistaken for another tall, gap-toothed, mercurial, immensely talented African-American actor, Samuel L. Jackson, came out of the black theater in New York. Born in Augusta, Georgia, on July 30, 1961...

Edward Norton was born on August 18, 1969 to parents Edward, an attorney who works for the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Robin Norton, a former foundation executive and teacher who passed away of brain cancer on March 6, 1997. Edward also has two younger siblings named James and Molly...

Born in California, Tom Hanks grew up in what he calls a "fractured" family. His parents were pioneers in the development of marriage dissolution law in that state, and Tom moved around a lot, living with a succession of step-families. No problems, no abuse, no alcoholism - just a confused childhood...

Actor and musician Bruce Willis is well known for his film appearances as wisecracking or hard-edged characters, often in spectacular action films. Collectively, he has appeared in films that have grossed in excess of $2.5 billion USD placing him in the top ten stars in terms of box office receipts...

Alex Winter was born in London to two modern dancers and he, himself, received dance training as a child. While still a youth, he relocated with his family to St. Louis, Missouri, where he studied improvisation. He made his Broadway debut in "The King and I" and spent the next several years on stage while studying film (writing and editing) at New York University...

Wayne Brady was born in Columbus, Georgia and lived in Orlando, Florida. At 16, Brady had already decided on a career in the military. Little did he know that a chance performance in a high school play would garner him not only rave reviews but also permanently alter his long-range plans. Soon, he was heavily involved in the central Florida theater community...

William Shatner was born on March 22, 1931 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Handsome actor who-despite his detractors-has notched up an impressive 50-plus years in front of the camera, most recently displaying comedic talent, and being instantly recognizable to several generations of cult television fans as the square-jawed Captain James T...

Vanilla Ice was born Robert Van Winkle on October 31st, 1967 in South Dallas, Texas. His father left him when he was 4 years old and since then, had many stepfathers. In his teenage years, he was a poor student who got dismal grades and skipped school often. He was 18 when he was in the 10th grade, and dropped out of school...

Henry Franklin Winkler was born on October 30, 1945, in Manhattan, New York. His parents, Harry Irving and Ilse Anna Maria Winkler, were Jewish immigrants who avoided the German Holocaust, moving to the US in 1939. His dad was the president of an international lumber company while his mother worked alongside his father...

Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. was born on November 17, 1944, in Neptune, New Jersey. His father, Daniel, Sr., was a small business owner whose ventures included a dry cleaning shop, a dairy outlet, a diner, and a pool hall. His mother, Julia, was a homemaker. While growing up in Asbury Park, his parents sent him to private schools...

Jim Carrey, a Canadian-born actor who became a naturalized American citizen in 2004, is an actor and producer famous for his rubbery body movements and flexible facial expressions. The two-time Golden Globe-winner rose to fame as a cast member of the Fox sketch comedy In Living Color but leading roles in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective...

Elijah Jordan Wood was born on January 28, 1981, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Warren and Debbie Wood. He has an older brother Zack and a younger sister Hannah Wood. At an early age Elijah showed a knack for entertaining and wowing audiences, and his mother decided to take him to Los Angeles for an Annual International Modeling and Talent Association convention...

Ian Murray McKellen was born on May 25, 1939 in Burnley, Lancashire, England. His parents, Denis and Margery, soon moved with Ian and his sister Jean to the mill town of Wigan. It was in this small town that young Ian rode out World War II. He soon developed a fascination with acting and the theater...

Harrison Ford was born on July 13, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. His father was Irish, his mother Russian-Jewish. He was a lackluster student at Maine Township High School East in Park Ridge Illinois (no athletic star, never above a C average). After dropping out of Ripon College in Wisconsin, where he did some acting and later summer stock...

Born on July 6, 1951, in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, but raised in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia after his parents (he an accountant, she a sales clerk) split up, actor Geoffrey Rush attended Everton Park State High School during his formative years. His early interest in the theatre led to his 1971 stage debut at age 20 in "Wrong Side of the Moon" with the Queensland Theatre Company...

Rodney Dangerfield was born in Deer Park, New York in 1921. His birth name was Jacob Cohen. Jacob Cohen began writing jokes at the age of 15, and started performing before he was 20. He took his act to the road for ten years, his stage name was Jack Roy. While working as a struggling comedian Rodney Dangerfield worked as a singing waiter...