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.

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.