A blonde Southern beauty with a fearless attitude – which some described over the years as foolhardy – Cybill Shepherd was a former beauty queen who rose to fame in the early 1970s, after a star-making turn in director Peter Bogdanovich’s Oscar-winning “The Last Picture Show.” Her fame waned by the middle of the decade, thanks to a string of flops and a highly public break-up with her Svengali director/boyfriend, Bogdanovich, but she returned with a vengeance as the sassy P.I. Maddie Hayes on the smart TV comedy, “Moonlighting” (ABC, 1985-89) and as campier TV version of herself on the hit sitcom, “Cybill” (CBS, 1995-98).

A gregarious actor with a smile that lights up the screen, Cuba Gooding, Jr. experienced the highs and lows of show business growing up as the son of his famous singer father. As he explained to the Los Angeles Times on January 5, 1997: "We lived in a big house and had chauffeurs, we'd go backstage at the concerts and then in the fifth grade . . . bang! Rock bottom." When his parents divorced, he moved with his mother, brother and sister out of the limelight and began facing financial hardships, which included stretches of being evicted and living in a car, as well as time on the welfare rolls. While the family was staying in a cheap motel in suburban Orange County, Gooding befriended future personal assistant Shawn Suttles and production company partner Derek Broes, and the three perfected their breakdancing moves, christening themselves the Majestic Vision Breakdancers.

Whether it was a sexy role in “Summer School” (1987), a smart role on “Ally McBeal” (Fox,1997-2000) or a troubled role on “Melrose Place” (Fox 1992-97), earthy blonde beauty Courtney Thorne-Smith delighted fans for almost twenty years, providing her own wit, depth and charm to “good girl” parts, which in lesser hands, could have come across as thankless and bland.

Thorne-Smith was born on Nov. 8, 1967 in San Francisco, CA and later graduated from Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, CA. She realized her love of acting while performing in a kindergarten production of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Her father, a computer market researcher, and her mother, a therapist, divorced when she was seven years old, leaving her to live with one or both of them at different stages of her childhood and teenage years. She began her career with the Ensemble Theatre Company in Mill Valley, CA while still a student in high school.

While some music sensations plunge into movies with fanfare, Courtney Love was as hot as hot could be on the music scene, but decided not to take the spotlighted route of Madonna and Whitney Houston, instead easing her way into the medium with independent pictures. After a handful of small roles, the lead singer of the group Hole found herself in the spotlight when Milos Forman cast her as Althea Leasure in the biopic "The People vs. Larry Flynt" (1996).

While some music sensations plunge into movies with fanfare, Courtney Love was as hot as hot could be on the music scene, but decided not to take the spotlighted route of Madonna and Whitney Houston, instead easing her way into the medium with independent pictures. After a handful of small roles, the lead singer of the group Hole found herself in the spotlight when Milos Forman cast her as Althea Leasure in the biopic "The People vs. Larry Flynt" (1996).

A whisper-thin, raven-haired beauty of TV and film, Courteney Cox first registered with audiences when she was plucked from the crowd by Bruce Springsteen in the Brian De Palma-directed video for The Boss' hit 1984 single "Dancing in the Dark". Work for the prestigious Ford Modeling Agency and appearances in Noxzema and Maybelline commercials (among others) and a bit part on the CBS soap "As the World Turns" preceded the video, after which she snagged a regular role in the short-lived primetime series "Misfits of Science" (NBC, 1985-86). Cox then joined the cast of the hit NBC sitcom "Family Ties" for the final two seasons (1987-89) as the brainy girlfriend of Alex P Keaton (Michael J Fox). She made the leap to the big screen, appearing in the little-seen caper film "Down Twisted" and the children's sci-fi epic "Masters of the Universe" (both 1987), and "Cocoon: The Return" (1988), none of which registered much with critics or audiences.

A whisper-thin, raven-haired beauty of TV and film, Courteney Cox first registered with audiences when she was plucked from the crowd by Bruce Springsteen in the Brian De Palma-directed video for The Boss' hit 1984 single "Dancing in the Dark". Work for the prestigious Ford Modeling Agency and appearances in Noxzema and Maybelline commercials (among others) and a bit part on the CBS soap "As the World Turns" preceded the video, after which she snagged a regular role in the short-lived primetime series "Misfits of Science" (NBC, 1985-86). Cox then joined the cast of the hit NBC sitcom "Family Ties" for the final two seasons (1987-89) as the brainy girlfriend of Alex P Keaton (Michael J Fox). She made the leap to the big screen, appearing in the little-seen caper film "Down Twisted" and the children's sci-fi epic "Masters of the Universe" (both 1987), and "Cocoon: The Return" (1988), none of which registered much with critics or audiences.

A statuesque Danish beauty, Connie Nielsen has lent her considerable talents to parts that have cast her as everything from Satan's spawn to an astronaut to an emperor's daughter. Regardless of the role or the quality of the script, she has managed to transcend the limitations and delivered memorable full-bodied performances. Raised in a small coastal village in Denmark, Nielsen became enamored with movies at a young age through weekly visits at the local movie theater. She was encouraged to pursue a theatrical career by her actress-writer mother, alongside whom she made her stage acting debut at age 15. Three years later, Nielsen moved to Paris to pursue a career and she further studied her craft in such far-flung locations as South Africa, NYC and Rome. Fluent in several languages, she easily found work in films produced in Italy and France and caught a break with the American made-for-cable movie "Voyage" (USA Network, 1993).

British actor Colin Firth achieved international renown in 1995 with his arguably definitive screen portrayal of Fitzwilliam Darcy in the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." He began his career in West End dramas and on the big screen in period, often literary adaptations, before a number of successful romantic comedies including “Bridget Jones’ Diary” (2001) and broader historic dramas like “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” (2003) turned him into “the thinking woman’s heartthrob.” The moniker stuck throughout his career, but Firth continued to showcase untapped facets of his talent in independent films, family-friendly hits, and gutsy cable movies just the same.

A handsome, dark-haired Irish actor with an intense screen presence, Colin Farrell shot to fame in the USA as a cagey army recruit with a penchant for troublemaking in "Tigerland" (2000). Like so many actors who seem to achieve overnight stardom, the Dublin-born actor had paid his dues with film and TV roles. Raised in the Castleknock section of Dublin, this son of a soccer player admits to a somewhat rebellious youth, attending several schools and indulging in beer drinking. After spending a year in Australia, he returned to Ireland and enrolled at the Gaiety School of Acting but left after a year when his career began to take off. Farrell landed his first film role in "Drinking Crude" (1997) and the following year had a supporting role in the period TV drama "Falling For a Dancer" (aired in the USA on Romance Classics). He then landed the regular role of Danny Byrne on the popular Irish series "Ballykissangel", which he played for two seasons.