Christopher Walken is that rare actor who made the successful transition from child player to adult star. Born and raised in Astoria, Queens, he studied dance as a youngster and, from the age of 10, appeared in live musicals and dramas in the so-called "Golden Age of Television" in the 1950s. (He also occasionally traded off with his brother Glenn playing the character of Mike Bauer on the CBS daytime serial "Guiding Light" between 1954 and 1956.) The tall, angular blue-eyed performer was in his mid-teens when he made his Broadway debut (then billed as 'Ronnie' (short for Ronald) Walken) in Archibald MacLeish's award-winning verse play "J.B." in 1959.

It was unclear which fact was more extraordinary about Anna Paquin – that she won an Academy Award at age 11 for her performance in “The Piano” (1993), or that after the win, she had no plans to continue acting.