Curated category
21st-century American male actors
- Rob PaulsenRob Paulsen's most famous moment may have happened before most people knew his name. In 1993, a radio announcer asks a desperate question about Alexander…
- Christopher WalkenChristopher Walken was born Ronald Walken on the 31st of March 1943, in Astoria, Queens, New York City. His parents were Rosalie Russell, a Scottish…
- Brian T. DelaneyBrian T. Delaney appeared in the episode titled "Bad Choices" of the series Hack during his early live-action career. He played a character named Troy Pappas…
- Fred TatascioreFred Tatasciore was born on the 15th of June 1967 to Fred Sr and Marianne Ryan Tatasciore. As a child, he used his father's recorder to capture voice…
- Greg EaglesGreg Eagles has spent decades giving voice to characters on opposite ends of the moral spectrum: a hockey-masked warrior in the Metal Gear Solid franchise, a…
- Michael Patrick McGillMichael Patrick McGill was born on the 2nd of July 1973. He began his professional acting career in 2001 with small parts on television shows like Touched by…
- Martin ScorseseMartin Scorsese had asthma as a boy and could not play sports or join in games with the other children. So his parents and his older brother took him to the…
- Woody AllenWoody Allen has made 50 feature films. That single fact sits at the center of a career so long and so productive it resists easy summary.
- LeBron JamesLeBron Raymonde James Sr. was born on the 30th of December 1984, at Cleveland Clinic Akron General, to a 16-year-old mother named Gloria Marie James.
- Al PacinoAl Pacino was born Alfredo James Pacino on the 25th of April 1940, in East Harlem, Manhattan, to Sicilian Italian-American parents.
- Travis WillinghamTravis Willingham was born in Dallas, Texas. He grew up with a brother named Carson. His interest in acting began during fifth grade.
- Quentin TarantinoQuentin Tarantino was born on the 27th of March 1963, in Knoxville, Tennessee, to a mother who let him watch R-rated films as a child and a father he never…
- Matt HullumMatthew Jay Hullum entered the world on the 29th of September 1974. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia to Cheri Johnston and Everett Hullum.
- Kevin SmithKevin Patrick Smith was born on the 2nd of August 1970, in Red Bank, New Jersey. He grew up in the nearby clamming town of Highlands as the son of Grace and…
- Samuel L. JacksonSamuel Leroy Jackson was born on the 21st of December, 1948, in Washington, D.C., the only child of Elizabeth Harriett and Roy Henry Jackson.
- Marlon BrandoMarlon Brando Jr. was born on the 3rd of April 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska, and by the time he died on the 1st of July 2004, he had remade what it means to act…
- Kirk DouglasKirk Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch on the 9th of December 1916, the only son among seven children in a Russian-Jewish immigrant family in Amsterdam…
- Harrison FordHarrison Ford was born on the 13th of July, 1942, at the Swedish Covenant Hospital in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Chicago.
- William HurtWilliam McChord Hurt was born on the 20th of March 1950 in Washington, D.C., the son of a State Department official who would take the family to Lahore…
- Stephen ColbertStephen Colbert walked to the podium at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, stood a few yards from President George W.
- Jack NicholsonJack Nicholson improvised a single line for a 1980 horror film, and it outlived almost everything else he ever filmed. "Here's Johnny!" was not in Stanley…
- Clint EastwoodClinton Eastwood Jr. entered the world at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco on the 31st of May, 1930, weighing 11 pounds 6 ounces.
- Lil WayneLil Wayne left school in tenth grade because his mother found a gun in his school bag. He was fifteen years old, already signed to a major label, already…
- Michael DouglasMichael Kirk Douglas was born on the 25th of September, 1944, into a household already saturated with Hollywood ambition.
- Tom HanksTom Hanks lost 35 pounds for a single role. He thinned his hair, learned to walk differently, and prepared to play a dying man on screen.
- Will SmithWill Smith was born on the 25th of September 1968 in Philadelphia, and before he turned thirty, he had already won Grammy Awards as a rapper, anchored a hit…
- Sean CombsSean Combs was born on the 4th of November 1969, in Harlem, New York City, and by the time he reached his mid-twenties he had reshaped American popular music…
- Ryan ReynoldsRyan Rodney Reynolds chose not to get paid for Deadpool to make sure the film would actually get made. That detail, small as it sounds, tells you almost…
- Sam RockwellSam Rockwell was ten years old when he stepped onto a stage in an East Village improv sketch and played Humphrey Bogart opposite his mother.
- Snoop DoggCalvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. was born on the 20th of October 1971, in Long Beach, California, to a Vietnam War veteran who walked out on the family just three…
- Bradley CooperBradley Charles Cooper was born on the 5th of January 1975, in Abington Township, Pennsylvania, a child who wanted to move to Japan and become a ninja.
- Robert Downey Jr.Robert Downey Jr. was born on the 4th of April 1965 in Manhattan, into a world already saturated with film sets and controlled substances.
- David LettermanDavid Michael Letterman was born on the 12th of April 1947, in Indianapolis, Indiana, and over the next six decades he would reshape what American late-night…
- 50 Cent50 Cent was shot nine times at close range outside his grandmother's former home in South Jamaica, Queens, on the 24th of May 2000.
- Conan O'BrienConan Christopher O'Brien was born on the 18th of April 1963, in Brookline, Massachusetts, into a family defined by high achievers.
- J. K. SimmonsJ. K. Simmons has accumulated more than 200 screen and stage credits since his 1986 debut, and yet for decades most audiences could not quite name him.
- James SpaderJames Todd Spader was born on the 7th of February, 1960, in Boston, Massachusetts, and somewhere along the way he became the actor nobody wanted in their…
- Vin DieselMark Sinclair Vincent arrived in New York City during the late 1960s, born on the 18th of July 1967. He grew up in Alameda County before moving to Manhattan…
- Ewan McGregorEwan Gordon McGregor was born on the 31st of March 1971 in Perth, Scotland, and grew up in the nearby town of Crieff. He left school at 16 to work as a…
- Ron HowardRon Howard was five years old when he stood on a set holding a toy turtle, pretending it was dead. He had to cry. The director helping him through the scene…
- Shaquille O'NealShaquille Rashaun O'Neal was born on the 6th of March, 1972, in Newark, New Jersey, to a mother named Lucille and a biological father, Joe Toney, who would…
- LL Cool JLL Cool J was four years old when he walked in on his father's act of violence. James Todd Smith found his mother and grandfather shot and bleeding inside…
- Chris PrattChris Pratt was once homeless in Maui, Hawaii, living out of a van and a tent on the beach. He was working minimal hours, spending his money on gas, food…
- Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Alois Schwarzenegger arrived in the United States in October 1968 at age 21, speaking little English and carrying little money.
- Monty OumMonyreak "Monty" Oum was born on the 22nd of June 1981, and by the time he died on the 1st of February 2015, he had remade what amateur animation on the…
- Robin WilliamsRobin McLaurin Williams was voted "Most Likely Not to Succeed" by his high school classmates in 1969. Within a decade, he was on the cover of Time magazine…
- Donald GloverDonald McKinley Glover Jr. was voted "Most Likely to Write for The Simpsons" in his high school yearbook at Stephenson High School in Stone Mountain, Georgia.
- Adam DriverAdam Douglas Driver was born on the 19th of November 1983 in Fontana, California. His family moved to San Diego when he was seven years old before settling…
- Lorne MichaelsLorne Michaels once offered The Beatles $3,000 to reunite on live television. He made the offer in front of a studio audience, on a brand-new NBC show…
- Ice-TIce-T was born Tracy Lauren Marrow on the 16th of February 1958 in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Solomon and Alice Marrow.