Favorite Actors

Robert De Niro, who is thought of as one of the greatest actors of his time, was born in New York City in 1943 to two artists. He was trained at the Stella Adler Conservatory and the American Workshop. He first gained fame for his role in Bang the Drum Slowly, but he gained his reputation as a volatile actor in Mean Streets...

Born in New Zealand, Russell has made his home in Australia since he was a small child. The son of movie set caterers, Russell got the acting bug early in life. Beginning as a child star on a local Australian TV show, Russell's first big break came with two films ... the first, Romper Stomper, gained him a name throughout the film community in Australia and the neighboring countries...

Born Maurice Micklewhite in London, Michael Caine was the son of a fish-market porter and a charlady. He left school at 15 and took a series of working-class jobs before joining the British army and serving in Korea during the Korean War, where he saw combat. Upon his return to England he gravitated toward the theater and got a job as an assistant stage manager...

With an authoritative voice and calm demeanor, this ever popular American actor has grown into one of the most respected figures in modern US cinema. Born in June 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee, the young Freeman attended Los Angeles Community College before serving several years in the US Air Force as a mechanic between 1955 and 1959...

Once told by an interviewer, "Everybody would like to be Cary Grant," Grant is said to have replied, "So would I." His early years in Bristol, England, would have been an ordinary lower-middle-class childhood except for one extraordinary event. At age nine, he came home from school one day and was told his mother had gone off to a seaside resort...

Jamie's mother, Louise, was an adopted child. When her marriage to his father failed, his grandparents, Mark and Estelle Talley, stepped in and, at age 7 months, adopted him too. He says he had a very rigid upbringing that placed him in the Boy Scouts and the church choir. During high school, he played quarterback for his high school team and was good enough that he got press in Dallas newspapers...

Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is the only person in film history to win the Oscar award for Best Actor three times. Born in London, England, he is the second child of Cecil Day-Lewis (A.K.A. Nicholas Blake) (Poet Laureate of England) and his second wife, Jill Balcon. His maternal grandfather was Sir Michael Balcon...

Bradley Cooper was born in Philadephia, Pennsylvania, the son of Gloria (Campano) and Charlie Cooper, who was a stockbroker. He has a sister, Holly. Immediately after Bradley graduated from the Honors English program at Georgetown University in 1997, he moved to New York City to enroll in the Masters of Fine Arts program at the Actors Studio Drama School at New School University...

Veteran actor and director Robert Duvall was born on January 5, 1931, in San Diego, CA, the son of a career military officer who later became an admiral. Duvall majored in drama at Principia College (Elsah, IL), then served a two-year hitch in the army after graduating in 1953. He began attending The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre In New York City on the G.I...

One of the greatest actors in all of film history, Al Pacino established himself during one of film's greatest decades, the 1970s, and has become an enduring and iconic figure in the world of American movies. Born on April 25, 1940, in the Bronx, New York, Pacino's parents (Salvatore and Rose) divorced when he was young...

Christian Charles Philip Bale was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales on January 30, 1974. Bale's father, David, was a commercial pilot, and the family lived in different countries throughout Bale's childhood, including England, Portugal, and the United States. Bale acknowledges the constant change was one of the influences on his career choice...

Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg was born June 5th, 1971 in the poor working class district of Boston known as Dorchester, the youngest of nine children. His parents were Alma & Donald Wahlberg. The large Wahlberg brood didn't have a lot growing up, especially after his parents divorced when he was eleven...

Born into an academic family - his father is a history lecturer at Winchester University College (formerly King Alfred's College) in Winchester and his mother is a comparative religions lecturer at the Open University - Colin Firth's first acting experience came in infant's school when he played "Jack Frost" in a Christmas pantomime...