A tall, soft-spoken and leathery leading man who, since the 1960s, has diversified into directing and producing after achieving iconic status, Clint Eastwood arose from the world of television westerns to become the number-one box-office star in the world, and subsequently earned critical acclaim as a director. His production company, Malpaso, has crafted moderate-budget features that range from mainstream fare to personal and ambitious endeavors. Eastwood is not entirely part of the Hollywood establishment—his business is run out of Carmel, California, on the Monterey Peninsula, where he has also served as mayor and ran a restaurant.

 A child star who enjoyed that rare successful transition to onscreen adulthood, Christina Ricci’s continuing film presence was aided in no small part by the fact that her early roles did not depend on dimpled cuteness, but on an unnerving maturity that suggested her characters were smarter than their adult counterparts. Ricci spent her teens as a gloomy, precocious lead in Goth-tinged big budget comedies and heavier independent dramas – all of which best showcased her flair for unconventional teen females burdened by fear and identity issues. As the actress matured, she enjoyed increasing respect from the art house crowd, but had difficulty translating her persona as an intelligent, tough-talking, yet vulnerable outsider into the limited confines of Hollywood female characters.

This affable blond performer took a decade to advance from second lead and character actor to starring status. Like James Stewart in an earlier generation, the unthreatening, wholesome Pullman labored through small parts in good films and leading roles in bombs before finally coming into his own. A doctor's son, he earned his MFA from the University of Massachusetts and then worked in construction and as a drama teacher and director before trying acting.