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1.
Vincent Gallo
Actor, Buffalo '66
Vincent Gallo. American-born, Buffalo, New York, 1961. Left home, moved to New York City in 1978, and began playing in the experimental musical group, Gray, with artist Jean Michel Basquiat. After leaving Gray, he formed the band, Bohack, and recorded the highly regarded avant-garde industrial noise album, "It Took Several Wives"...
2.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Actor, Inception
Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt was born on February 17, 1981 in Los Angeles, California to parents Jane Gordon and Dennis Levitt. Joseph was raised in a Jewish family with his late older brother, Dan Gordon-Levitt, who passed away in October 2010. His parents worked for the Pacifica Radio station KPFK-FM and his maternal grandfather...
3.
Tim Roth
Actor, Pulp Fiction
Often mistaken for an American because of his skill at imitating accents, actor Tim Roth was born Timothy Simon Smith in London, England on May 14, 1961. His mother, Ann, was a teacher and landscape painter. His father, Ernie, was a journalist who changed the family name to "Roth"; Ernie had been in Brooklyn, New York, to an immigrant family of Irish ancestry...
4.
Tom Cruise
Actor, Top Gun
If you had told fourteen-year-old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV that one day in the not-too-distant future he would be considered one of the top hundred movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and told you that his ambition was to become a priest. None the less...
5.
Dustin Hoffman
Actor, Kramer vs. Kramer
Dustin Lee Hoffman was born in Los Angeles, California, to Chicago-born parents, Lillian (Gold) and Harry Hoffman, who was a furniture salesman, and prop supervisor for Columbia Pictures. He was raised in a Jewish family (from Hungary and Russia). Hoffman graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1954...
6.
Malcolm McDowell
Actor, A Clockwork Orange
Malcolm John Taylor was born on June 13, 1943 in Leeds, England, to working-class parents Charles and Edna Taylor. His father was a publican and an alcoholic. Malcolm hated his parents' ways and fought against it. His father was keen to send his son to private school to give him a good start in life...
7.
Michael Caine
Actor, The Dark Knight
Michael Caine was born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite in London, to Ellen Frances Marie (Burchell), a charlady, and Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, a fish-market porter. 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...
8.
Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy
Actor, Stalker
Alexandr Kajdanovsky, Russian actor, director and screenwriter, now best remembered for his work in Andrei Tarkovsky's films. Kajdanovsky left Junior High School to enroll in technical college where he was training to become a welder. Apparently a prospect of becoming a worker did not appeal to him and in 1965 he started studying acting at The Shchukhin Theatre School in Moscow...
10.
Anatoliy Solonitsyn
Actor, Andrei Rublev
The famous russian actor was actually discovered by Andrei Tarkovsky. He was looking for Andrei Rublov for his second full-lengh fiim and acccidentaly found absolutely unkown by the public Solonitsyn in Chelyabinsk. He worked there as unprofessional actor. After the Rublov role he played main parts in tens of russian best movies.
12.
Yuriy Nikulin
Actor, The Diamond Arm
Yuri Nikulin was a Russian film actor, comedian, mime, and circus clown who was also Artistic Director of Moscow Circus and popular TV show host. He was born Yuri Vladimirovich Nikulin on December 18, 1921, in the town of Demidov, Smolensk province, Central Russia. His father, Vladimir Andreevich Nikulin...
16.
Evgeniy Leonov
Actor, Kin-dza-dza!
Evegeni Leonov was a Russian actor best known for leading roles in comedies, such as Kin-dza-dza! and Gentlemen of Fortune. He was born Evgeni Pavlovich Leonov on September 2, 1926, in Moscow, Russia, USSR (now Moscow, Russia). He was the second son in the family. His father, Pavel Vasilevich Leonov...
17.
Steve Buscemi
Actor, Fargo
Steve Buscemi was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Dorothy (Wilson), a restaurant hostess, and John Buscemi, a sanitation worker. He is of Italian (father) and English, Dutch, and Irish (mother) descent. He became interested in acting during his last year of high school. After graduating, he moved to Manhattan to study acting with John Strasberg...
18.
Marcello Mastroianni
Actor, 8½
Marcello Mastroianni was born in Fontana Liri, Italy on 28 September 1924, but soon his family moved to Turin and then Rome. During WW2 he was sent to a German prison camp, but he managed to escape and hide in Venice. He debuted in films as an extra in Marionette, then started working for the Italian department of "Eagle Lion Films" in Rome and joined a drama club...
19.
Benicio Del Toro
Actor, Snatch.
Benicio Del Toro emerged in the mid-'90s as one of the most watchable and charismatic character actors to come along in years. A favorite of film buffs, Del Toro gained mainstream public attention as the conflicted but basically honest Mexican cop in Steven Soderbergh's Traffic. Born in Puerto Rico on February 19...
20.
Willem Dafoe
Actor, Spider-Man
William Dafoe was born in Appleton, Wisconsin, to Muriel Isabel (Sprissler), a nurse, and Dr. William Alfred Dafoe, a surgeon. He is of French, German, English, Irish, and Scottish descent. In 1979, Dafoe was given a small role in Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate from which he was fired. His first feature role came shortly after in Kathryn Bigelow's The Loveless...
22.
Brad Pitt
Actor, Inglourious Basterds
An actor and producer known as much for his versatility as he is for his handsome face, Golden Globe-winning actor Brad Pitt's most widely recognized role may be Tyler Durden in Fight Club. But his portrayals of Billy Beane in Moneyball, and Rusty Ryan in the remake of Ocean's Eleven and its sequels, also loom large in his filmography...
23.
Andy Garcia
Actor, The Godfather: Part III
One of Hollywood's most private and guarded leading men, Andy Garcia has created a few iconic characters while at the same time staying true to his acting roots and personal projects. Garcia was born on April 12, 1956, in Havana, Cuba, to Amelie Menéndez, a teacher of English, and René García Núñez...
24.
Antonio Banderas
Actor, Desperado
Antonio Banderas, one of Spain's most famous faces who was a soccer player until he broke his foot at age 14, is now an international film star best known as Zorro in the eponymous film series. He was born José Antonio Domínguez Banderas on August 10, 1960, in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain. His father, Jose Dominguez...
25.
Jackie Chan
Actor, Rush Hour
Hong Kong's cheeky, lovable and best known film star, Jackie Chan endured many years of long, hard work and multiple injuries to establish international success via his early beginnings in Hong Kong's manic martial arts cinema industry. Jackie was born Kong-sang Chan on Hong Kong's famous Victoria Peak on April 7...
26.
John Malkovich
Actor, Dangerous Liaisons
John Malkovich was born in Christopher, Illinois, to Joe Anne (Choisser), who owned a local newspaper, and Daniel Leon Malkovich, a state conservation director. His paternal grandparents were Croatian. In 1976, Malkovich joined Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, newly founded by his friend Gary Sinise...
27.
Jack Nicholson
Actor, The Shining
Jack Nicholson, an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director, is a three-time Academy Award winner and 12-time nominee. Nicholson is also notable for being one of two actors - the other being Michael Caine - who have received Oscar nods in every decade from 1960s through the 2000s. Nicholson was born on April 22...
28.
Johnny Depp
Actor, Edward Scissorhands
Johnny Depp is perhaps one of the most versatile actors of his day and age in Hollywood, who has recuperated his image greatly since his portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow in the acclaimed Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. He was born John Christopher Depp II in Owensboro, Kentucky, on June 9, 1963, to Betty Sue (Wells), who worked as a waitress, and John Christopher Depp, a civil engineer...
29.
Jean Renoir
Director, La Grande Illusion
Son of the famous Impressionist painter Pierre Auguste, he had a happy childhood. Pierre Renoir was his brother, and Claude Renoir was his nephew. After the end of World War I, where he won the Croix de Guerre, he moved from scriptwriting to filmmaking. He married Catherine Hessling, for whom he began to make movies; he wanted to make a star of her...
30.
Alain Delon
Actor, The Samurai
The product of a broken home, Alain Delon had a stormy childhood. He was frequently expelled from school. During the early 1950s he was a paratrooper with French Marines in Indochina. In the mid-'50s he worked at various odd jobs including waiter, salesman and porter in Les Halles market. He decided to try an acting career and in 1957 made his film debut in Yves Allégret's Quand la femme s'en mêle...
31.
Pierre Richard
Certainly one of France's supreme farceurs in the classic tradition, comedian Pierre Richard was born to an uppercrust family with an embarrassing riches of middle names as he was christened Pierre Richard Maurice Charles Leopold Defays. Working and building up his trade at the Paris Music Hall in the early years...
32.
Javier Bardem
Actor, No Country for Old Men
Javier Bardem is the youngest member of a family of actors that has been making films since the early days of Spanish cinema. He was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, to actress Pilar Bardem (María del Pilar Bardem Muñoz) and businessman José Carlos Encinas Doussinague. His maternal grandparents were actors Rafael Bardem and Matilde Muñoz Sampedro...
33.
Sean Penn
Actor, Mystic River
Sean Penn is a powerhouse film performer capable of intensely moving work, who has gone from strength to strength during a colourful film career, and who has drawn much media attention for his stormy private life and political viewpoints. Sean Justin Penn was born in Los Angeles, California, the second son of actress Eileen Ryan (née Annucci) and director...
34.
David Bowie
Soundtrack, Memento
David Bowie is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers of pop music. Born David Jones, he changed his name to Bowie in the 1960s, to avoid confusion with the then well-known Davy Jones (lead singer of The Monkees). The 1960s were not a happy period for Bowie, who remained a struggling artist...
35.
Robert De Niro
Actor, Goodfellas
Robert De Niro, thought of as one of the greatest American actors of all time, was born in New York City, to artists Virginia (Admiral) and Robert De Niro Sr. His paternal grandfather was of Italian descent, and his other ancestry is Irish, Dutch, English, French, and German. He was trained at the Stella Adler Conservatory and the American Workshop...
36.
Al Pacino
Actor, The Godfather
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. Pacino was born on April 25, 1940, in the Bronx, New York, to an Italian-American family. His parents...
37.
Anthony Hopkins
Actor, Hannibal
Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937, in Margam, Wales, to Muriel Anne (Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His parents were both of half Welsh and half English descent. Influenced by Richard Burton, he decided to study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, he moved to London and joined the National Theatre...
38.
Terry Jones
Terry Jones was born in Colwyn Bay, North Wales. His father was a bank clerk, mother - mistress of the house. He has an older brother, Nigel Jones (1940-). He studied at St. Edmund Hall College, Oxford University. In 1965, with his friend Michael Palin, he made The Late Show for television, which was his first success...
39.
Sean Connery
Actor, Dr. No
Thomas Sean Connery was born on August 25, 1930 in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh. His mother, Euphamia McBain (Maclean), was a cleaning lady, and his father, Joseph Connery, was a factory worker and truck driver. He also has a brother named Neil Connery, who works as a plasterer in Edinburgh. He is of Irish and Scottish descent...
40.
Alberto Sordi
Actor, Il marchese del Grillo
One of Italy's most captivating and talented cinematic comedy stars, Italian veteran Alberto Sordi was known for satirizing his country's social mores in pungent black comedies, farcical tales and grim drama. He, along with peers Vittorio Gassman, Ugo Tognazzi and Nino Manfredi, arguably represent the finest of post-war Italian cinema history...
41.
John Travolta
Actor, Pulp Fiction
John Travolta was born in Englewood, New Jersy, one of six children of Helen Travolta (née Helen Cecilia Burke) and Salvatore Travolta. His father was of Italian descent and his mother was of Irish ancestry. His father owned a tire repair shop called Travolta Tires in Hillsdale, NJ. Travolta appeared in a local production of "Who'll Save the Plowboy?"...
43.
Totò
Actor, The Hawks and the Sparrows
Natural son of Anna Clemente and Giuseppe de Curtis (son of Marquis de Curtis). In 1929 lives with Liliana Castagnola famous cafe-concert singer who comittes suicide after being abandoned in 1930. In 1932 marries Diana Rogliani and has a daughter in 1933 named Liliana in hommage to previous lover. In 1933 adoptted by Marquis Franc isco Maria Gagliardi Focos from who inherites the titles...
44.
Mickey Rourke
Actor, The Wrestler
Mickey Rourke was born Phillip Andre Rourke, Jr., in Schenectady, New York, in 1952, the son of Annette (Cameron) and Phillip Andre Rourke. He is of Irish (father) and French, Scottish, English, and German (mother) descent. When he was 6 years old, his parents divorced. A year later, his mother married Eugene Addis...
45.
Patrick Swayze
Actor, Ghost
Patrick Wayne Swayze was born on August 18, 1952 in Houston, Texas, to Patsy Yvonne Helen (Karnes) and Jesse Wayne Swayze, a chemical plant engineer draftsman. His mother, choreographer Patsy Swayze, owned a dance school in Houston, where Patrick was also a student. His father passed away in 1982...
46.
Ugo Tognazzi
Actor, La Cage aux Folles
Despite his many superb performances accumulated over a four-decade stretch (and I do mean many), this virile, mustachioed, stocky-framed Italian character star will be forever cherished if only for his one classic comedy role, that of slightly mincing gay cabaret owner Renato Baldi in La Cage aux Folles...