Actor. Born April 3, 1924, in Omaha, Nebraska. Brando grew up in Illinois, and after expulsion from a military academy, he dug ditches until his father offered to finance his education. Brando moved to New York to study with acting coach Stella Adler and at Lee Strasberg's Actors' Studio. Adler has often been credited as the principal inspiration in Brando's early career, and with opening the actor to great ...

Film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, born in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. He wrote his first screenplay, True Romance (1987, released 1993) while working at Video Archives, Manhattan Beach. Lacking the finance to direct the project himself, he sold his script, and also that of Natural Born Killers (released 1994), thus enabling him to start production of Reservoir Dogs (1992), in which he was dir ...

Professional basketball player, Olympic athlete, businessperson, actor. Born on February 17, 1963, in Brooklyn, New York. Considered one of the best basketball players ever, Michael Jordan dominated the sport from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. He led the Chicago Bulls to six national championships as well as earned the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Most Valuable Player Award five times. Growing ...

Professional bodybuilder, actor, California governor. Born on July 30, 1947, near Graz, Austria. Schwarzenegger first became famous as a bodybuilder. He began strength training in his teens and went on to become a world champion bodybuilder, winning numerous awards for his amazing physique. He won the Mr. Universe title five times and the Mr. Olympia title six times. He immigrated to the United States in th ...

Actor, producer, director. Born Michael Kirk Douglas, on September 25, 1944, to actor Kirk Douglas and mother Diana Dill. He is the brother of Joel, Peter, and Eric. Douglas studied drama at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and in New York at the Neighborhood Playhouse and the American Place Theatre. He began his Hollywood career as an assistant director on some of father Kirk Douglas' 1960s fil ...

Actor, comedian, musician. Born on September 9, 1966, in New York City. Raised in Manchester, New Hampshire, as one of seven children, Sandler was always the class clown. However, he never aspired to be a comedian until age 17 when his brother encouraged him to perform at a Boston comedy club. Sandler continued to perform after he left Boston to attend New York University. After graduation, he became a regu ...

(born July 12, 1937, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) American comedian, actor, and producer, who played a major role in the development of a more positive portrayal of blacks on television. Cosby left high school without earning his diploma and joined the U.S. Navy in 1956. While enlisted he passed a high school equivalency exam, and after his discharge he received an athletic scholarship to Temple University in P ...

Actor. Born Ewan Gordon McGregor on March 31, 1971 to schoolteachers James Charles Stuart McGregor and Carole Diane Lawson. McGregor was born in Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland, just a few miles north of Edinburgh. He also has a brother Colin, who is an RAF pilot. As a child, Ewan McGregor did little acting, but enjoyed singing, and became a soloist for his school's orchestra and choir. He also helped his fath ...

Actor, model. Born on July 1, 1977, in New York City, New York. Liv Tyler, often praised for her beauty and natural acting abilities, is perhaps best known for her work in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. She grew up in Portland, Maine, with her mother, Bebe Buell. Until she was about 11 years old, she believed that rocker Todd Rundgren was her father. It was while at an Aerosmith concert that she discov ...

Actor, producer. Born March 25, 1965 in Nelsonville, Ohio. The fourth of eight siblings, Parker grew up in relative poverty. After her parents divorced, she was raised by her mother, a school teacher, and her often out-of-work stepfather. She helped support the family at a young age, bringing home paychecks from early dancing and singing gigs. In 1976, after winning her first Broadway role in The Innocents, ...