Yearly Popular Actors Born(1920-1997)
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- Asa Butterfield was born in Islington, London, England, to Jacqueline Farr and Sam Butterfield. He began acting at the age of 8, after a talent spotting casting director saw him at his local after school drama club, The Young Actors Theatre in Islington. Following on from a couple of small roles in films, he was cast, at 10 as Bruno in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008). Since then, he has been acclaimed for his titular roles in Hugo (2011) and Ender's Game (2013), as well as other major roles as Nathan in A Brilliant Young Mind (2014), Jude in Ten Thousand Saints (2015), Jake in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016), Gardner Elliot in The Space Between Us (2017), Norman in Nanny McPhee Returns (2010), and Mordred in the BBC's Merlin (2008).
Asa was born Asa Maxwell Thornton Farr Butterfield, but now uses the middle name "Bopp" on his passport instead (after Comet Hale-Bopp), and is known as Asa Bopp Farr Butterfield. - Actor
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Liam James is a Canadian actor, known for his role as Noah Curtis in the 2009 film 2012, young Shawn Spencer on the USA Network television series Psych, and the lead character, Duncan, in 2013's The Way, Way Back.He also starred as Jack Linden in AMC's The Killing and Adam Warren in ABC's The Family, playing the son of main characters. James is from Vancouver, British Columbia.- Actor
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Luke began his acting career at the age of five, appearing as Mel Gibson's son in "We Were Soldiers." Not knowing how to read yet, he simply recited the pledge of allegiance-a move that would land him the role. He was also cast as "Stevie Dewberry" in the family film "Because of Winn-Dixie" at age eight, after choosing to audition with a toothpick in his mouth. The choice set him apart from the hundreds of boys vying for the role. The director, Wayne Wang, loved the idea and even used it in the film. In 2006, Luke was cast in Walden Media's "How to Eat Fried Worms" as the main character of "Billy Forrester." However, it wasn't until he was a freshman in high school that Luke realized that acting was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life, so in 2012 the family permanently moved to Los Angeles.
His past TV credits include the television pilots "Life on the Water," the WB's revival of "Family Affair" starring Tim Curry and Gary Cole, and the Disney Channel pilots "Madison High" and "Zombies and Cheerleaders." Other credits include starring in the Disney Channel's original movies "Minutemen" and "Girl vs. Monster." Luke's other past motion picture credits include playing the role of autistic teen "Alan Wheddon" in "Dear John." As well as a vast collection of failed pilots, including Amazon's "Point of Honor", helmed by Carlton Cuse.
Benward was born in Franklin, Tennessee, to Kenda Benward (née Wilkerson), an actress/coach, and Aaron Benward, a singer/ songwriter. His grandfather, Jeoffrey Benward, was a Contemporary Christian music singer. Part of an entertainment family, Luke got his acting bug by tagging along to auditions with his mother, actress, acting coach and CMT's first on-air personality, Kenda Benward. He got his musical heritage from his father, Aaron Benward, an award-winning producer, songwriter and recording artist. Luke is truly a triple threat. He studied dance with hip hop choreographer, Nick Bass (Britney Spears, Chris Brown, Christina Aguilera, and Michael Jackson) for four years. He also recorded his first five-song EP called Let Your Love Out in 2008 and supported that effort with a fall and spring 50 city tour.
Benward resides in Los Angeles, California .- Actor
- Soundtrack
Jake T. Austin was born Jake Austin Szymanski in New York City, to Giny Rodriguez Toranzo and Joe Szymanski. His middle initial is taken from his mother's name Toranzo. He has a younger sister, Ava. His father has Polish, English, and Irish ancestry, and his mother is of Puerto Rican, Argentinian, and Spanish descent. Jake started acting at age of seven in commercials. His first credited role was in a comedy sketch "Kid 1698". Jake starred in many animated movies, but he is mostly famous for his role as Max Russo on the series Wizards of Waverly Place (2007), the voice of Diego on Dora the Explorer (2000) and Go, Diego! Go! (2005), and Jesus Foster on the family/teen drama series The Fosters (2013).
He speaks English and Spanish fluently. Jake is living in L.A. but he often visits his family in New York.- Actor
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Will Poulter is an English actor, recognized for his performances as Lee Carter in Son of Rambow (2007), Eustace Scrubb in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010), and Kenny Rossmore in We're the Millers (2013). Will was born in Hammersmith, London, the son of Caroline (Barrah), a nurse, and Neil Poulter, a professor of cardiology. His mother was raised in an Anglo family in Kenya, where her own father was a prominent game warden at the Maasai Mara wildlife sanctuary.
Poulter was educated at The Harrodian School, where he participated in drama. He said in an interview that his drama teacher (Laura Lawson) encouraged his audition for the Hammer and Tongs film, Son of Rambow (2007), by knocking on his English class window and mouthing "auditions" while pointing at a flier. He was later cast as the spiky-haired delinquent "Lee Carter". Laura Lawson was also responsible for the E4 comedy sketch show, School of Comedy (2009), in which Poulter appears portraying various roles, such as "Mr. Mills" and a South African security guard. Beginning as an after-school club, School of Comedy (2009) involves children parodying the world of adults. The show was taken to The Edinburgh Festival Fringe and, in 2009, it was adapted into a 6-part television series for E4. The show has, so far, run for two seasons. In 2008, Poulter was cast as "Eustace Clarence Scrubb" in the third film of the "Narnia" franchise, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010). "Dawn Treader" was filmed in Queensland, Australia. During his almost six-month stay in Australia, Poulter was accompanied by his mother and younger sister. His father was not able to stay the entire time because of work, and his older siblings were able to stay for about two weeks, until they had to return to England. Poulter noted that, though it was hard to be separated from his family, they were able to keep in touch through phone calls and emails. More recently, Poulter appeared in the British independent film Wild Bill (2011), directed by Dexter Fletcher, and played Kenny Rossmore, his first American film character, in the comedic We're the Millers (2013), a major box office hit in the United States. His upcoming roles include The Maze Runner (2014), opposite Dylan O'Brien, and the lead in iBoy (2017).- One of today's leading talents across both independent and mainstream film, Logan Lerman is an immensely talented actor who takes on challenging roles and brings dynamic characters to life on screen.
Logan was born in Beverly Hills, to a Jewish family. His parents are Lisa (Goldman), who worked as his manager, and Larry Lerman, an orthotist and businessman. He has two siblings, Lindsey and Lucas, both older. His family operate the orthotics and prosthetics company Lerman & Son, which was founded by his great-grandfather, Jacob Lerman.
When he was two and a half years old, Logan told his mother that he wanted to be an actor. At the age of four, Logan had an agent and was booked for two commercials. He made his big screen debut as William, the youngest son of Mel Gibson's character, in Roland Emmerich's war drama The Patriot (2000), and then appeared as the younger version of Gibson's character Nick Marshall in Nancy Meyers's romantic comedy What Women Want (2000). After a small role in 2001's Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), by Penny Marshall, he starred in the John Grisham adaptation A Painted House (2003), a made-for-television film that won him the first of his three Young Artist Awards.
Logan played the younger version of Ashton Kutcher's character, Evan, in The Butterfly Effect (2004). After a guest-starring role in 10-8: Officers on Duty (2003), he starred in the WB Network's series Jack & Bobby (2004), where he portrays Bobby (Robert) McCallister, a teenager who will grow up to be President of the United States. After the show's cancellation in 2005, Logan returned to film, starring in the family adventure Hoot (2006). The next year, he played the son of Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) in the dark thriller The Number 23 (2007), and co-starred with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale in James Mangold's critically-acclaimed Western remake 3:10 to Yuma (2007). His next two roles were a foul-mouthed private school student in the comedy Meet Bill (2007) and actor George Hamilton in the period drama My One and Only (2009). Both were independent films that received limited releases. Also in 2009, Logan appeared with Gerard Butler in the R-rated action thriller Gamer (2009), as a foul-mouthed teenager who controls Butler's character in a real-life video game.
In 2010, Logan starred as Percy in the fantasy adventure Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), based on the best-selling young adult book series of the same title. The film gave him notice among a wider audience. Subsequently, he starred as D'Artagnan in a remake of The Three Musketeers (2011), which was Logan's grandfather's favorite childhood book. Lerman then headlined the coming-of-age indie drama The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), alongside Emma Watson, Paul Rudd and Ezra Miller, based on the 1999 novel of the same name. Perks garnered numerous nominations and wins at the People's Choice Awards, The Independent Spirit Awards and the Teen Choice Awards, and Logan received a 2013 Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor in a Drama. Around this time, he had a supporting role in the independent film Stuck in Love. (2012), and returned to star in Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013).
His first 2014 role was in Darren Aronofsky's acclaimed Biblical epic film Noah (2014), playing one of the title character's sons, Ham. The film, also starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Hopkins, Douglas Booth, and Emma Watson, grossed over $100 million at the North American box office. Logan next starred with Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Bernthal, and Michael Peña in the World War II-set action drama Fury (2014); in the film, he played one of several American soldiers engaged in tank combat against the German forces, during the last weeks of the Nazi regime.
Lerman next played the lead in writer-director James Schamus's 1950s-set drama Indignation (2016). Logan received rave reviews for his performance as Marcus Messner, an idealistic Jewish atheist from Newark who travels to Ohio to study at a conservative Midwestern Lutheran college. The film is based on Philip Roth's bestselling novel of the same name, and premiered at 2016's Sundance Film Festival.
In 2018, Logan voiced real-life soldier Robert Conroy in Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero (2018), about the famous World War I war dog. He began the 2020s starring with Al Pacino and Josh Radnor in the stylish television drama Hunters (2020), playing Jonah Heidelbaum, a Brooklyn teenager who joins a group hunting down escaped Nazis. His upcoming roles include Sean Fogle in the Irish-set drama End of Sentence (2019), with John Hawkes as his character's father, and Fred Nemser in the thriller Shirley (2020).
When Logan is not working, he likes to play soccer and baseball. He is an LA Lakers fan. - Actor
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Dylan O'Brien was born in New York City, to Lisa Rhodes, a former actress who also ran an acting school, and Patrick B. O'Brien, a camera operator. His father is of Irish descent and his mother is of English, Spanish, and Italian ancestry. Dylan grew up in Springfield Township, Union County, New Jersey, before moving with his family to Hermosa Beach, California when he was 12 years old. Before getting bit by the acting bug, Dylan planned to attend film school and become a cinematographer, just like his father. But once he landed the role of Scott's (Tyler Posey) goofy sidekick Stiles on Teen Wolf (2011), he decided to put off school (he was initially under consideration for the role of Scott, but he was more interested in playing Stiles).
Dylan has developed an extensive YouTube following for a series of comic online shorts which he directed, produced and starred in. He made his film debut as one of the stars of the entirely improvised independent feature film High Road (2011), directed by Upright Citizens Brigade. O'Brien's first lead role in a film was playing Dave in the comedy The First Time (2012), opposite Britt Robertson and directed by Jonathan Kasdan. He subsequently had a supporting role, playing tech expert Stuart, in the Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson comedy The Internship (2013), and headlined the fantasy adventure film The Maze Runner (2014), also starring Will Poulter and Kaya Scodelario, as well as its sequel, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) and the final movie, The Death Cure (2018). He landed the role of Stu in the first episode of Weird City (2019) and also got the role of Sam Taylor in the first episode of Amazing stories (2020). He made five other movies in the meantime, Love and Monsters, Flashback, Maximum Truth, Not Okay and The outfit. He also did one short film: All too well, produced by Taylor Swift and stared in the third episode of the third season in The Other Two.- Actor
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Aaron Taylor-Johnson is an English stage, television, and film actor.
He was born Aaron Perry Johnson in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, to Sarah and Robert Johnson, a civil engineer. He has a sister, Gemma Johnson, who had a small role in his movie Tom & Thomas (2002). Aaron is of English-Russian Jewish descent.
He began performing at age six, appearing in plays like Macbeth and All My Sons. He worked frequently on television as a young actor, having roles in the TV films The Apocalypse (2002), Behind Closed Doors (2003), The Best Man (2006), and Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars (2007), and series The Bill (1984), Family Business (2003), Feather Boy (2004), Casualty (1986), Talk to Me (2007), and Nearly Famous (2007). He made his feature debut in the British film Tom & Thomas (2002), where he played the dual title roles. His first American film was the sequel Shanghai Knights (2003), playing a child version of Charles Chaplin, and his early film credits also include Dead Cool (2004), The Thief Lord (2006), and The Illusionist (2006), where he played a young version of Edward Norton's character Eisenheim.
Aaron became known in England after playing a leading role in the film Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008), opposite Georgia Groome. He then co-starred with Carey Mulligan in the American drama The Greatest (2009), played John Lennon in the biography Nowhere Boy (2009), and had the lead role of a teenage would-be superhero, Dave Lizewski, in the action superhero riff Kick-Ass (2010), which introduced him to a wide American audience.
After appearing in the thriller Chatroom (2010), Aaron had a large part in the Irish-set drama Albert Nobbs (2011), and co-starred with Taylor Kitsch and Blake Lively in Oliver Stone's California-based action-thriller Savages (2012). Also in 2012, he played Keira Knightley's character's forbidden love interest, Count Vronsky, in the adaptation Anna Karenina (2012), set in Russia.
After reprising his role in the sequel Kick-Ass 2 (2013), Aaron had starring roles in his two biggest films to date, the blockbusters Godzilla (2014), as soldier Ford Brody, and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), as Pietro Maximoff (known as Quicksilver in the Marvel comic books). He first played Pietro in a mid-credits scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). Next, he won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the shady Ray in the drama Nocturnal Animals (2016), and co-starred with John Cena in the war thriller The Wall (2017).
While filming Nowhere Boy (2009), Aaron began a relationship with the film's director, artist Sam Taylor-Wood. The two married in 2012, and blended their surnames together. Aaron began being credited as Aaron Taylor-Johnson, while Sam became known as Sam Taylor-Johnson. The couple has two children together, and Aaron is also stepfather to Sam's two daughters from her previous marriage.- Actor
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Nicholas Hoult was born on December 7, 1989 in Wokingham, Berkshire, England, UK as Nicholas Caradoc Hoult. His parents are Glenis Hoult, a piano teacher and Roger Hoult, a pilot. He has three siblings, two sisters and one brother. His great-aunt was one of the most popular actresses of her time, Dame Anna Neagle. He attended Sylvia Young Theatre School, a school for performing arts, to start acting as a career.
His breakthrough role was as a child when he starred as Marcus Brewer in About a Boy (2002), alongside Hugh Grant. In 2005, he starred in his first American film The Weather Man (2005) as Nicolas Cage's son. At age 17, he received recognition for starring as Tony Stonem in the BAFTAs-awarded British teen-drama series Skins (2007). Later he played the role of Kenny Potter in the Oscar-nominated film A Single Man (2009) after being discovered by director Tom Ford.
Hoult was cast as Hank / Beast in the X-Men franchise and starred in the films X-Men: First Class (2011), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) and X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019).
He also starred as "R" in the romance / horror zombie film Warm Bodies (2013), Jack in Jack the Giant Slayer (2013), Nux in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and British novelist J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings, in the biographical film Tolkien (2019).- Jamie Campbell Bower was born in London, England, to Anne Elizabeth(Roseberry), a music manager, and David Bower, who works for Gibson Guitar Co. His four-times maternal great-grandfather was Sir John Campbell, the 7th Baronet of Ardnamurchan and Airds.
Jamie is also the lead singer in a band called "Counterfeit". He went to Bedales School in Hampshire. Whilst still at school he was told that he had got the part of Anthony in "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street", which he was recommended to audition for by family friend, Laura Michelle Kelly. Bower later went on to star in RocknRolla (2008) as Rocker, directed by Guy Ritchie. He made his next on-screen appearance as Caius, a member of the Volturi coven, in the tween franchise that is The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) alongside actors such as fellow Brit Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. Bower appeared in the third installment of Twilight, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010) and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (2011). He also joined the Harry Potter cast as Gellert Grindelward in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011). - Actor
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Zachary David Alexander Efron was born October 18, 1987 in San Luis Obispo, California, to Starla Baskett, a secretary, and David Efron, an electrical engineer. He has a younger brother, Dylan. The surname "Efron", which is Hebrew and a Biblical place name, comes from Zac's Polish Jewish paternal grandfather.
Zac was raised in Arroyo Grande, CA. He took his first step toward acting at the age of eleven, after his parents noticed his singing ability. Singing and acting lessons soon led to an appearance in a production of "Gypsy" that ran 90 performances, and he was hooked. After appearing on-stage in "Peter Pan", "Auntie Mame", "Little Shop of Horrors" and "The Music Man", guest parts quickly followed on television series, including Firefly (2002), ER (1994), CSI: Miami (2002), NCIS (2003), and The Guardian (2001). After guest-starring in several episodes of Summerland (2004), Zac joined the regular cast as girl-crazy Cameron Bale. He also starred in several pilots, such as The Big Wide World of Carl Laemke (2003) and Triple Play (2004), and played an autistic child in the television film Miracle Run (2004), alongside Mary-Louise Parker and Aidan Quinn. He graduated from Arroyo Grande High School in June 2006.
Efron came to fame for starring in the Disney Channel original film High School Musical (2006), for which he won the Teen Choice Award for Breakout Star. He returned to the role of Troy Bolton in High School Musical 2 (2007), which broke cable TV records with 17.5 million viewers.
He had the lead roles in the fantasy romance Charlie St. Cloud (2010) and the comedy 17 Again (2009), both from director Burr Steers, and as the lovable Link Larkin in 2007's smash hit musical Hairspray (2007), directed by Adam Shankman. As part of the all-star cast, he shared a Critics Choice Award for Best Acting Ensemble and the 2007 Hollywood Film Festival Award for Ensemble of the Year, and was honored with a Screen Actors Guild Award® nomination for Outstanding Motion Picture Cast. In addition, he won an MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Performance.
Efron then starred in Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles (2008), an adaptation of the novel by Robert Kaplow, which premiered to rave reviews at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival. That same year, he led Kenny Ortega's High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008), which set a box office record for the highest grossing opening weekend for a musical. In 2012, Efron took the lead in The Lucky One (2012), a film adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel, playing a marine who returns to North Carolina after serving in Iraq in search for the unknown woman he believes was his good luck charm during the war. He also lent his voice to the animated feature Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (2012), and co-starred in Lee Daniels' thriller The Paperboy (2012), alongside Nicole Kidman, John Cusack, Matthew McConaughey and Scott Glenn, as well as Josh Radnor's Liberal Arts (2012), which premiered to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. Another indie film he co-starred in, At Any Price (2012), was released in 2013.
Most recently, Zac starred with Seth Rogen in the hit comedy film Neighbors (2014), headlined the 2015 drama We Are Your Friends (2015), carried three 2016 comedies, Dirty Grandpa (2016), Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), and Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016), and starred opposite Hugh Jackman and Zendaya in the musical drama The Greatest Showman (2017), about showman P. T. Barnum. The latter title was a sleeper hit in the winter of 2017, becoming Zac's highest-grossing live action film in the U.S.
Zac's 2019 roles include a supporting part in Harmony Korine's The Beach Bum (2019), and playing serial killer Ted Bundy in Joe Berlinger's biographical drama Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019).
Efron's favorite sports include golf, skiing, rock climbing, and snowboarding. He added surfing after spending days on the beach for "Summerland." He played the piano at home. He has also fixed up two cars in his spare time, a Delorean and '65 Mustang convertible, both treasured hand-me-downs from his even-more-treasured grandfather.- Actor
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Armand Douglas Hammer was born in Los Angeles, California, to Dru Ann (Mobley) and Michael Armand Hammer, a businessman. His great-grandfather, Armand Hammer, was a prominent tycoon and philanthropist who ran the company Occidental Petroleum for many decades. Armie's ancestry includes Russian-Jewish, English, Scots-Irish, and German. He has a younger brother, Viktor Hammer (Armie and Viktor share the same first names as their great-grandfather and his brother). His father is chairman and CEO of the Armand Hammer Foundation, where his mother is a board member. His parents also serve together on the boards of the Los Angeles Dream Center and Knoedler & Hammer Galleries in New York. In addition, his father is a member of the board of trustees for Oral Roberts University, and his mother, a former bank loan officer, teaches Bible study in Los Angeles.
His family moved to Dallas, Texas, when he was approaching school age. They moved to the Cayman Islands in 1993, where they stayed for 5 years. While here, Armie attended the Grace Christian Academy, a school that his father set up. They returned to Los Angeles when Armie was thirteen. He attended L.A. Baptist High School and Calvary Junior High School. He made his stage debut playing "Rooster Hannigan" in a 6th-grade production of "Annie". He left school in the 11th grade so that he could pursue acting. His parents were keen for him to continue his studies, so he took courses at Pasadena City College and UCLA.
He had various small parts, before being cast as Billy Graham in Billy: The Early Years (2008). His breakthrough role came when he played the "Winklevoss Twins" in The Social Network (2010), in a dual role. He has since played "Clyde Tolson" in J. Edgar (2011), "Prince Alcott" in Mirror Mirror (2012), and starred in the title role, John Reid, in the 2013 version of The Lone Ranger (2013), opposite Johnny Depp as Tonto.
In 2015, Hammer starred with Henry Cavill in the spy thriller The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), playing Russian spy Illya Kuryakin and American agent Napoleon Solo, respectively. His 2016 films include the historical drama The Birth of a Nation (2016), the thrillers Nocturnal Animals (2016) and Mine (2016), and the crime drama Free Fire (2016). In 2017, he voiced Jackson Storm in the CGI sequel Cars 3 (2017), and starred as Oliver, an American scholar, in the drama Call Me by Your Name (2017), opposite Timothée Chalamet. For the role, Armie received his first Golden Globe nomination, for Best Supporting Actor.
In 2018, he played David in the drama Hotel Mumbai (2018), and starred as real life taxation law expert Martin D. Ginsburg in On the Basis of Sex (2018), a biopic of Martin's wife, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. More recently, he headlined the unusual horror film Wounds (2019) and was Maxim de Winter in the drama-thriller Rebecca (2020).
Armie was married to actress, model, and television personality Elizabeth Chambers in 2010. They announced their divorce in July 2020. They have two children, a boy and a girl.- Actor
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David John Franco was born in Palo Alto, California, to Betsy Franco, an author, and Douglas Eugene "Doug" Franco, who ran a Silicon Valley business. He has two older brothers, actors James Franco and Tom Franco. His father was of Portuguese and Swedish descent, and his mother is Jewish. Dave made his first television appearance at age 21, in 2006, in an episode of 7th Heaven (1996). A string of high-profile TV work followed, interspersed with roles in some moderately successful movies, including Charlie St. Cloud (2010) and Fright Night (2011), and he came to bigger prominence when he played Eric Molson in the hit movie version of the cult TV series 21 Jump Street (2012). He subsequently co-starred in the zombie romance Warm Bodies (2013) and the thriller Now You See Me (2013), and provided a voice role for The Lego Movie (2014). Some of his other films include Neighbors (2014), 22 Jump Street (2014), and Unfinished Business (2015).- Actor
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Kevin Joseph Zegers started acting at the tender age of six. He has starred in more than 40 films, including Air Bud (1997), Dawn of the Dead (2004), and Transamerica (2005), and has also appeared in several modeling campaigns.
Kevin was born in Woodstock, Ontario, to Mary-Ellen (Veldman), a teacher, and James Zegers, a quarry worker. All of his grandparents were Dutch immigrants. He lives in Los Angeles, CA, with his wife, agent Jaime Feld (CAA). Their daughters, Zoë Madison and Blake Everleigh, were born on August 17, 2015.- Actor
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Christopher "Chris" Hemsworth was born on August 11, 1983 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia to Leonie Hemsworth (née van Os), an English teacher & Craig Hemsworth, a social-services counselor. His brothers are actors, Liam Hemsworth & Luke Hemsworth; he is of Dutch (from his immigrant maternal grandfather), Irish, English, Scottish, and German ancestry. His uncle, by marriage, was Rod Ansell, the bushman who inspired the comedy film Crocodile Dundee (1986).
Chris saw quite a bit of the country in his youth, after his family moved to the Northern Territory before finally settling on Phillip Island, to the south of Melbourne. In 2004, he unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Robbie Hunter in the Australian soap opera Home and Away (1988) but was recalled for the role of Kim Hyde which he played until 2007. In 2006, he entered the Australian version of Dancing with the Stars (2004) and his popularity in the soap enabled him to hang on until show 7 (Episode #5.7 (2006)) when he became the fifth contestant to be eliminated.
His first Hollywood appearance was in the science fiction blockbuster Star Trek (2009), but it was his titular role in the superhero blockbuster Thor (2011) which propelled him to prominence worldwide. He reprised the character in the superhero blockbusters The Avengers (2012), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
Chris's American representative, management company ROAR, also manages actress Elsa Pataky, and it was through them that the two met, marrying in 2010. The couple have a daughter and twin sons. He was appointed Member of the Order of Australia at the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours for his services to the performing arts and to charitable organisations.- Actor
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Matt Smith is an English actor who shot to fame in the UK aged 26 when he was cast by producer Steven Moffat as the Eleventh Doctor in the BBC's iconic science-fiction adventure series Doctor Who (2005).
Matthew Robert Smith was born and raised in Northampton, the son of Lynne (Fidler) and David Smith. He was educated at Northampton School For Boys. He studied Drama and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. He got into acting through the National Youth Theatre and performed with the Royal Court and the National Theatre.
Smith made his television debut in The Ruby in the Smoke (2006) and won several further roles on television but was largely unknown when he was announced as the surprise choice for the role of the Eleventh Doctor in Doctor Who. He was younger than any other actor to have taken the role (Peter Davison was previously the youngest, aged 29 when he was cast in 1981). Smith starred in 49 episodes of Doctor Who (three short of his predecessor, David Tennant). He left in the momentous 50th anniversary year of the Doctor Who legend in 2013, which included starring in the 50th anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor (2013), which found him acting with Tennant, guest star John Hurt and the oldest living and longest-serving actor to play the Doctor, Tom Baker.
Since leaving Doctor Who, Smith has launched himself into a film career.- Actor
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Joseph Gordon-Levitt is an actor, filmmaker, and entrepreneur known for films such as 500 Days of Summer, Inception, Looper, and Snowden. He recently co-starred in the #1 Netflix hit, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F and as the infamous founder of Uber in Showtime's Super-Pumped. He wrote and directed the prescient Sundance favorite, Don Jon about online pornography addiction, and followed with the Apple TV+ series, Mr. Corman. Gordon-Levitt has always been passionate about the intersection of media and technology, co-founding the two-time Emmy-winning online community for creative collaboration, hitRECord. He recently penned a Washington Post OpEd entitled 'If artificial intelligence uses your work, it should pay you', and spoke at Taiwan's Plurality Summit in support of its luminary Minister of Digital Affairs, Audrey Tang.- Actor
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Born Ryan Thomas Gosling in London, Ontario, Canada, he is the son of Donna (Wilson), a secretary, and Thomas Ray Gosling, a traveling salesman. Ryan was the second of their two children, with an older sister, Mandi. His ancestry is French-Canadian, as well as English, Scottish, and Irish. The Gosling family moved to Cornwall, Ontario, where Ryan grew up and was home-schooled by his mother. He also attended Gladstone Public School and Cornwall Collegiate & Vocational School, where he excelled in Drama and Fine Arts. The family then relocated to Burlington, Ontario, where Ryan attended Lester B. Pearson High School.
Ryan first performed as a singer at talent contests with Mandi. He attended an open audition in Montreal for the TV series "The Mickey Mouse Club" (The All New Mickey Mouse Club (1989)) in January 1993 and beat out 17,000 other aspiring actors for a a spot on the show. While appearing on "MMC" for two years, he lived with co-star Justin Timberlake's family.
Though he received no formal acting training, after "MMC," Gosling segued into an acting career, appearing on the TV series Young Hercules (1998) and Breaker High (1997), as well as the films The Slaughter Rule (2002), Murder by Numbers (2002), and Remember the Titans (2000). He first attracted serious critical attention with his performance as the Jewish neo-Nazi in the controversial film The Believer (2001), which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. He was cast in the part by writer-director Henry Bean, who believed that Gosling's strict upbringing gave him the insight to understand the character Danny, whose obsessiveness with the Judaism he was born into turns to hatred. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award as Best Male Lead in 2002 for the role and won the Golden Aries award from the Russian Guild of Film Critics.
After appearing in the sleeper The Notebook (2004) in 2004, Gosling won the dubious honor of being named one of the 50 Hottest Bachelors by People Magazine. More significantly, he was named the Male Star of Tomorrow at the 2004 Show West convention of movie exhibitors.
Gosling reached a summit of his profession with his performance in Half Nelson (2006), which garnered him an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor. In a short time, he has established himself as one of the finest actors of his generation. Throughout the subsequent decade, he has become all three of an internet fixation, a box office star, and a critical darling, having headlined Blue Valentine (2010), Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011), Drive (2011), The Ides of March (2011), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), The Nice Guys (2016), and La La Land (2016). In 2017, he starred in the long-awaited science fiction sequel Blade Runner 2049 (2017), with Harrison Ford.
Ryan has two children with his partner, actress Eva Mendes.- Actor
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Aaron Paul was born Aaron Paul Sturtevant in Emmett, Idaho, to Darla (Haynes) and Robert Sturtevant, a retired Baptist minister. While growing up, Paul took part in church programs, and performed in plays.
He attended Centennial High School in Boise, Idaho. It was there, in eighth grade, that Aaron decided he wanted to become an actor. He joined the theatre department and became obsessed with the idea of acting for a living. After finishing school, Aaron moved to Los Angeles.
During the late '90's, he worked as an usher at the Universal Studios Movie Theatre in Hollywood. His television debut was in an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990), which was followed by an appearance in another Aaron Spelling series, Melrose Place (1992).
On the big screen, Aaron played the estranged son of Jeff Bridges in K-PAX (2001), and Tom Cruise's brother-in-law in Mission: Impossible III (2006).
After appearing in several roles on American television, his breakthrough role came as "Jesse Pinkman" in the AMC series Breaking Bad (2008). The character was only supposed to last for one season, but series creator Vince Gilligan changed his mind, due to Aaron's chemistry with Bryan Cranston. He has won three Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series" for this role (2010, 2012 and 2014).- Actor
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Known for his breakthrough starring role on Freaks and Geeks (1999), James Franco was born April 19, 1978 in Palo Alto, California, to Betsy Franco, a writer, artist, and actress, and Douglas Eugene "Doug" Franco, who ran a Silicon Valley business. His mother is Jewish and his father was of Portuguese and Swedish descent.
Growing up with his two younger brothers, Dave Franco, also an actor, and Tom Franco, 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, which, much to his parents' dismay, he left after only one year. After fifteen months of intensive study at Robert Carnegie's Playhouse West, James began actively pursuing his dream of finding work as an actor in Hollywood. In that short time, he landed himself a starring role on Freaks and Geeks (1999). The show, however, was not a hit to its viewers at the time, and was canceled after its first year. Now, it has become a cult-hit. Prior to joining Freaks and Geeks (1999), Franco starred in the TV miniseries To Serve and Protect (1999). After that, he had a starring role in Whatever It Takes (2000).
Although he'd been working steadily, it wasn't until the TNT made-for-television movie, James Dean (2001) that James rose to fan-magazine fame and got to show off his talent. Since then, he has been working non-stop. After losing the lead role to Tobey Maguire, James settled for the part of "Harry Osborne", Spider-Man's best friend in the summer 2002 major hit Spider-Man (2002). He returned to the Osborne role for the next two films in the trilogy.
Next was Deuces Wild (2002) and City by the Sea (2002), in which Robert De Niro personally had him cast, after viewing his performance in James Dean (2001). He was seen in David Gordon Green's Pineapple Express (2008) opposite Seth Rogen, in George C. Wolfe's Nights in Rodanthe (2008), starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane and in Paul Haggis' In the Valley of Elah (2007), starring Tommy Lee Jones. Also starring opposite Sean Penn in Gus Van Sant's Milk (2008) in which his performance earned him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor. Definitely growing out of his shyness, James Franco is turning into a legend of his own.- Actor
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With his breakthrough performance as Eames in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi thriller Inception (2010), English actor Tom Hardy has been brought to the attention of mainstream audiences worldwide. However, the versatile actor has been steadily working on both stage and screen since his television debut in the miniseries Band of Brothers (2001). After being cast in the World War II drama, Hardy left his studies at the prestigious Drama Centre in London and was subsequently cast as Twombly in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down (2001) and as the villain Shinzon in Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).
Edward Thomas Hardy was born on September 15, 1977 in Hammersmith, London; his mother, Elizabeth Anne (Barrett), is an artist and painter, and his father, Chips Hardy, is a writer. He is of English and Irish descent. Hardy was brought up in East Sheen, London, and first studied at Reed's School. His education continued at Tower House School, then at Richmond Drama School, and subsequently at the Drama Centre London, along with fellow Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender. After winning a modeling competition at age 21, he had a brief contract with the agency Models One.
Tom spent his teens and early twenties battling delinquency, alcoholism and drug addiction; after completing his work on Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), he sought treatment and has also admitted that his battles with addiction ended his five-year marriage to Sarah Ward. Returning to work in 2003, Hardy was awarded the Evening Standard Most Promising Newcomer Award for his theatre performances in the productions of "In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings" and "Blood". In 2003, Tom also co-starred in the play "The Modernists" with Paul Popplewell, Jesse Spencer and Orlando Wells.
During the next five years, Hardy worked consistently in film, television and theatre, playing roles as varied as Robert Dudley in the BBC's The Virgin Queen (2005), Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist (2007) and starring in "The Man of Mode" at the National Theatre. On the silver screen, he appeared in the crime thriller Layer Cake (2004) with Daniel Craig, Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006), and the romp Scenes of a Sexual Nature (2006).
In 2006, Hardy created "Shotgun", an underground theatre company along with director Robert Delamere, and directed a play, penned by his father for the company, called "Blue on Blue". In 2007, Hardy received a best actor BAFTA nomination for his touching performance as Stuart Shorter in the BBC adaptation of Alexander Masters' bestselling biography Stuart: A Life Backwards (2007). Hailed for his transformative character acting, Hardy was lauded for his emotionally and physically convincing portrayal in the ill-fated and warmhearted tale of Shorter, a homeless and occasionally violent man suffering from addiction and muscular dystrophy.
The following year, he appeared as gay hoodlum Handsome Bob in the Guy Ritchie film RocknRolla (2008), but this would be his next transformation that would prove his extensive range and stun critics. In the film Bronson (2008), Hardy played the notorious Charles Bronson (given name, Michael Peterson), the "most violent prisoner in Britain". Bald, pumped-up, and outfitted with Bronson's signature strongman mustache, Hardy is unrecognizable and gives a harrowing performance that is physically fearless and psychologically unsettling. Director Nicolas Winding Refn breaks the fourth wall with Hardy retelling his tales directly to viewers as well as performing them outright before an audience of his own imagining. The performance mixes terrifying brutality, vaudevillian showmanship, wry humor, and an alarming amount of commitment, and won Hardy a British Independent Film Award for Best Actor. The performance got Hollywood's attention, and in 2009, Hardy was named one of Variety's "10 Actors to Watch". That year, he continued to garner praise for his starring role in The Take (2009), a four-part adaptation of Martina Cole's bestselling crime novel, as well as for his performance as Heathcliff in a version of Wuthering Heights (2009).
Recent work includes the aforementioned breakthrough appearance in Inception (2010) alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Ken Watanabe, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard and Elliot Page. The movie was released in July 2010 and became one of top 25 highest grossing films of all time, collecting eight Oscar nominations (including Best Picture) and winning four.
Other films include Warrior (2011), opposite Joel Edgerton, the story of two estranged brothers facing the fight of a lifetime from director Gavin O'Connor, and This Means War (2012), directed by McG and co-starring Reese Witherspoon and Chris Pine. Tom also starred in the heralded Cold War thriller, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) with Colin Firth and Gary Oldman. Hardy rejoined Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight Rises (2012); he played the villain role of Bane opposite Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Gary Oldman. Hardy's menacing physique and his character's scrambled, hard-to-distinguish voice became a major discussion point as the film was released.
Outside of performing, Hardy is the patron for the charity "Flack", which is an organization to aid the recovery of the homeless in Cambridge. And in 2010, Hardy was named an Ambassador for The Prince's Trust, which helps disadvantaged youth. On the recent stage, he starred in the Brett C. Leonard play "The Long Red Road" in early 2010. Written for Hardy and directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, the play was staged at Chicago's Goodman Theater.
In 2015, Hardy starred as the iconic Mad Max in George Miller's reboot of his franchise, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). He also collected a British Independent Film Award for his portrayal of both the Kray twins, Ronnie and Reggie, in Legend (2015), and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as John Fitzgerald in The Revenant (2015). Hardy also starred on the BBC series Peaky Blinders (2013), alongside Cillian Murphy, and on the television series Taboo (2017), both created by Steven Knight.
He has an outlaw biker story among other projects in development. In 2010, Hardy became engaged to fellow English actress Charlotte Riley, whom he starred with in The Take (2009) and Wuthering Heights (2009), and is raising a young son, Louis Thomas Hardy, with ex-girlfriend Rachael Speed. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire at the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours for his services to drama.- Actor
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Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch was born and raised in London, England. His parents, Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton (born Timothy Carlton Congdon Cumberbatch), are both actors. He is a grandson of submarine commander Henry Carlton Cumberbatch, and a great-grandson of diplomat Henry Arnold Cumberbatch CMG. Cumberbatch attended Brambletye School and Harrow School. Whilst at Harrow, he had an arts scholarship and painted large oil canvases. It's also where he began acting. After he finished school, he took a year off to volunteer as an English teacher in a Tibetan monastery in Darjeeling, India. On his return, he studied drama at Manchester University. He continued his training as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art graduating with an M.A. in Classical Acting. By the time he had completed his studies, he already had an agent.
Cumberbatch has worked in theatre, television, film and radio. His breakthrough on the big screen came in 2004 when he portrayed Stephen Hawking in the television movie Hawking (2004). In 2010, he became a household name as Sherlock Holmes on the British television series Sherlock (2010). In 2011, he appeared in two Oscar-nominated films - War Horse (2011) and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011). He followed this with acclaimed roles in the science fiction film Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), the Oscar-winning drama 12 Years a Slave (2013), The Fifth Estate (2013) and August: Osage County (2013). In 2014, he portrayed Alan Turing in The Imitation Game (2014) which earned him a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award, British Academy of Film and Television Arts and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Cumberbatch was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2015 Birthday Honours for his services to the performing arts and to charity.
Cumberbatch's engagement to theatre and opera director Sophie Hunter, whom he has known for 17 years, was announced in the "Forthcoming Marriages" section of The Times newspaper on November 5, 2014. On February 14, 2015, the couple married at the 12th century Church of St. Peter and St. Paul on the Isle of Wight followed by a reception at Mottistone Manor. They have three sons, Christopher Carlton (born 2015), Hal Auden (born 2017), and Finn (born 2019).- Actor
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Jason Sudeikis was born on September 18, 1975 in Fairfax, Virginia as Daniel Jason Sudeikis. His father is Daniel Joseph Sudeikis, a vice-president of a business development and his mother is Kathryn (née Wendt), a travel agent at Brennco and President of the American Society of Travel Agents. He is of Lithuanian, Irish, and German ancestry. He has two younger sisters, Lindsay, a high school teacher and basketball coach, and, Kristen Sudeikis, an actress and dancer in New York City. His maternal uncle is actor George Wendt.
Sudeikis grew up in Overland Park, Kansas, where he attended Brookridge Elementary School before transferring to Holy Cross Catholic School. In 1990, he attended Jesuit Rockhurst High School, later transferring to Shawnee Mission West High School. He attended Fort Scott Community College on a basketball scholarship, but left before finishing. He began performing improvisational comedy at ComedySportz (now called Comedy City) in Kansas City.
Sudeikis moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he studied at the Annoyance Theatre and ImprovOlympic, and was one of the founding members of the long-form team, J.T.S. Brown (1998). He performed with Boom Chicago in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He was later cast in The Second City's National Touring Company. In the early 2000s, he became a founding member of The Second City Las Vegas.
In 2003, Sudeikis was hired as a sketch writer for Saturday Night Live (1975) and would occasionally make bit appearances as audience members or extras. In May 2005, he became a featured player and was upgraded to repertory status in 2006. In July 2013, Sudeikis announced that he was leaving SNL, but still occasionally makes appearances.
Sudeikis is known for starring in the films, Horrible Bosses (2011), Hall Pass (2011), We're the Millers (2013), Horrible Bosses 2 (2014), Sleeping with Other People (2015), Mother's Day (2016), Masterminds (2015), The Book of Love (2017), Colossal (2016), and voicing the character of Red in the animated-comedy, The Angry Birds Movie (2016).
From November 2011 until November 2020, Sudeikis was in a relationship with Olivia Wilde. They have two children, Otis Alexander Sudeikis (born April 20, 2014) and Daisy Josephine Sudeikis (born October 11, 2016).
Recently, Sudeikis has starred in the films, Downsizing (2017), Kodachrome (2017), Driven (2018) and The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019).- Producer
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Few actors in the world have had a career quite as diverse as Leonardo DiCaprio's. DiCaprio has gone from relatively humble beginnings, as a supporting cast member of the sitcom Growing Pains (1985) and low budget horror movies, such as Critters 3 (1991), to a major teenage heartthrob in the 1990s, as the hunky lead actor in movies such as Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Titanic (1997), to then become a leading man in Hollywood blockbusters, made by internationally renowned directors such as Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan.
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born in Los Angeles, California, the only child of Irmelin DiCaprio (née Indenbirken) and former comic book artist George DiCaprio. His father is of Italian and German descent, and his mother, who is German-born, is of German, Ukrainian and Russian ancestry. His middle name, "Wilhelm", was his maternal grandfather's first name. Leonardo's father had achieved minor status as an artist and distributor of cult comic book titles, and was even depicted in several issues of American Splendor, the cult semi-autobiographical comic book series by the late 'Harvey Pekar', a friend of George's. Leonardo's performance skills became obvious to his parents early on, and after signing him up with a talent agent who wanted Leonardo to perform under the stage name "Lenny Williams", DiCaprio began appearing on a number of television commercials and educational programs.
DiCaprio began attracting the attention of producers, who cast him in small roles in a number of television series, such as Roseanne (1988) and The New Lassie (1989), but it wasn't until 1991 that DiCaprio made his film debut in Critters 3 (1991), a low-budget horror movie. While Critters 3 (1991) did little to help showcase DiCaprio's acting abilities, it did help him develop his show-reel, and attract the attention of the people behind the hit sitcom Growing Pains (1985), in which Leonardo was cast in the "Cousin Oliver" role of a young homeless boy who moves in with the Seavers. While DiCaprio's stint on Growing Pains (1985) was very short, as the sitcom was axed the year after he joined, it helped bring DiCaprio into the public's attention and, after the sitcom ended, DiCaprio began auditioning for roles in which he would get the chance to prove his acting chops.
Leonardo took up a diverse range of roles in the early 1990s, including a mentally challenged youth in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), a young gunslinger in The Quick and the Dead (1995) and a drug addict in one of his most challenging roles to date, Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries (1995), a role which the late River Phoenix originally expressed interest in. While these diverse roles helped establish Leonardo's reputation as an actor, it wasn't until his role as Romeo Montague in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996) that Leonardo became a household name, a true movie star. The following year, DiCaprio starred in another movie about doomed lovers, Titanic (1997), which went on to beat all box office records held before then, as, at the time, Titanic (1997) became the highest grossing movie of all time, and cemented DiCaprio's reputation as a teen heartthrob. Following his work on Titanic (1997), DiCaprio kept a low profile for a number of years, with roles in The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) and the low-budget The Beach (2000) being some of his few notable roles during this period.
In 2002, he burst back into screens throughout the world with leading roles in Catch Me If You Can (2002) and Gangs of New York (2002), his first of many collaborations with director Martin Scorsese. With a current salary of $20 million a movie, DiCaprio is now one of the biggest movie stars in the world. However, he has not limited his professional career to just acting in movies, as DiCaprio is a committed environmentalist, who is actively involved in many environmental causes, and his commitment to this issue led to his involvement in The 11th Hour, a documentary movie about the state of the natural environment. As someone who has gone from small roles in television commercials to one of the most respected actors in the world, DiCaprio has had one of the most diverse careers in cinema. DiCaprio continued to defy conventions about the types of roles he would accept, and with his career now seeing him leading all-star casts in action thrillers such as The Departed (2006), Shutter Island (2010) and Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010), DiCaprio continues to wow audiences by refusing to conform to any cliché about actors.
In 2012, he played a mustache twirling villain in Django Unchained (2012), and then tragic literary character Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby (2013) and Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).
DiCaprio is passionate about environmental and humanitarian causes, having donated $1,000,000 to earthquake relief efforts in 2010, the same year he contributed $1,000,000 to the Wildlife Conservation Society.- Actor
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Sharlto Copley was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to Linda Stocks and Bruce Copley, a former university professor. His childhood dreams of acting were put on hold for many years when his television production company was one of few in his native South Africa granted licensing to create content for broadcast. Rather than acting in front of the camera, Copley found himself the businessman running the production behind the scenes, becoming South Africa's youngest television producer at age 25. It was during this time that he met a then-teen-aged Neill Blomkamp, who worked at Copley's company in exchange for use of the computers to pursue his talent for design. Blomkamp would many years later go on to direct Copley in his star-making debut as nervous bureaucrat Wikus van de Merwe in the Oscar nominated science fiction hit District 9 (2009). Copley followed this by fulfilling another childhood dream, landing the role of H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock in the big screen adaption of the 1980's TV hit The A-Team (2010) and was also directed by Blomkamp once again in the movie Elysium (2013). He now continues to split his time between his native South Africa and Hollywood, pursuing more opportunities in front of and behind the camera.