CoCo Lee, née Ferren Lee, was born in Hong Kong on the 17th of January 1975. Although she was born in Hong Kong, CoCo was raised in San Francisco where she grew up with her mother, stepfather and two older sisters (her father passed away when she was young). She shared her singing talent with her two older sisters and her mother, who was a doctor. Although the mother of the Lee sisters wanted her daughters to pursue more practical careers, the youngest CoCo knew at a young age that she would become a singer.
During her free time, CoCo would practice her singing abilities by singing material from her favorite pop artists, such as Madonna, Whitney Houston, George Michael and Debbie Gibson.
South African actress Charlize Theron made Oscar and Golden Globe-worthy impressions with heavy-hitting dramatic roles which often saw her struggling to survive oppressive environments. Theron’s own experiences surviving the strife of an unstable childhood home gave her a strong perspective, as did the strong-willed independence that inspired her to head to Europe and begin a professional modeling career while she was still a teenager. But if the 5’10” blonde was misdiagnosed as merely an actress-turned-model for her early supporting roles, that persona was shattered with a pair of Oscar-nominated starring performances in “Monster” (2003) and “North Country” (2005); both portraits of two women who came to deal with second-class citizen status in very different ways.
Welsh-born actress Catherine Zeta-Jones first captivated U.S. film audiences with her swashbuckling turn in “The Mask of Zorro” (1998) – leaving moviegoers so mesmerized by her ebony-tressed old Hollywoodesque beauty, it was a wonder she was able to move beyond all the comparisons to Ava Gardner and Vivien Leigh – enough to garner respect as a serious actress. It was her impressive turn in “Traffic” (2000) and Oscar-winning scenery-chewing for her musical showstoppers in “Chicago” (2002) which firmly established her as a Hollywood A-lister. That, and a fairytale-likened marriage to one of the industry’s most respected actors-producers, Michael Douglas; thusly, entry into one of Hollywood’s most famous and respected families.
This 16th "James Bond girl" followed in the spike-heeled footsteps of female actors as diverse as Ursula Andress, Jill St John, Jane Seymour and Joanna Lumley (as well as more than a few whose names are long-forgotten). A geologist's daughter, the New York-born Lowell grew up in Libya, Holland, Virginia and Texas. By the time she was a fine-featured high school graduate, she had been signed by the Ford modeling agency and was posing for Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein while attending college.
Since gaining national attention for his role as a religious army sniper in Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” (1998), actor Barry Pepper proved himself to be a dependable and versatile performer in a variety of lead and supporting roles.
A gifted actor with old-fashioned matinee-idol looks, Antonio Banderas smoldered his way to an international following with his sly send-ups of Latin machismo in the films of fellow Spaniard Pedro Almodovar. Born on August 10, 1960 in Malaga, Spain, Banderas actor set out to be a professional soccer player. But when a foot injury sidetracked his plans, Banderas turned his attention to the stage, completing his studies at Malaga's School of Dramatic Art before embarking upon a five-year stint with the prestigious National Theater of Spain, where he quickly caught the eye of Almodovar.
