Sean Penn

Born : Sean Justin Penn, August 17, 1960 (1960-08-17) (age 48), Santa Monica, California, USA
Years active : 1974–present
Spouse(s) : Madonna (1985–1989), Robin Wright Penn (1996–present)

Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American film actor, filmmaker, libealr political activist and member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 2004. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his role in Mystic River.
Early life
Penn was born in Los Angeles County, California, the son of Leo Penn, an actor and director, and Eileen Ryan, an actress. He has one living brother, musician Michael Penn. Another brother, actor Chris Penn, died in 2006. His paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Lithuania and Russia. Penn's mother is a Catholic of Italian and Irish descent. According to Penn's mother, Leo Penn may have had distant Spanish ancestry, as the family's surname was originally "Piñón".Penn was raised in a secular homeand is an Agnostic.
Acting career
Penn appeared in a 1974 episode of Little House on the Prairie as a then blond-haired extra when his father, Leo, directed some of the episodes. Penn launched his career with the 1981 film Taps, followed a year later with the hit comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High (in the role of stoner Jeff Spicoli). Penn's portrayal of Spicoli was immensely popular and the film remained his most commercially successful work for many years. In 1983, Penn turned in one of his best early performance as Mick O'Brien, a troubled youth in the drama Bad Boys. It earned Penn favorable reviews and jump started his career as a serious actor.
In 1985, Penn gave a memorable performance in the role of Andrew Daulton Lee in The Falcon and the Snowman. Lee was a former drug dealer by trade, convicted of espionage for the Soviet Union and was originally sentenced to life in prison. Lee was paroled in 1998. According to an April 8, 2005, interview in The Guardian, Penn later hired Lee as his personal assistant, partly because he wanted to reward Lee for allowing him to play Lee in the film, and also because he was a firm believer in rehabilitation and thought Andrew Lee should be reintegrated into society now that he is a free man again.
In 1986 he starred in the drama At Close Range, opposite Christopher Walken. The film was based on a true story and gained positive reviews from critics. The film featured his then wife Madonna's single "Live to Tell". The music video for the song, which featured clips from the film, played heavily on MTV and helped promote the film.
Penn was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor five times and won the award once. The academy first recognized his work playing a racist murderer on death row in Tim Robbins' 1995 drama Dead Man Walking. Penn was noted in 1999 for his comedic performance as an egotistical jazz guitarist in the Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown. He received his third nomination in 2001 after portraying a mentally challenged father seeking custody of his child in the drama I am Sam. In 2003 Penn finally won for his role in Clint Eastwood's Boston crime-drama Mystic River. He portrayed a hot-headed father with ties to criminals, who seeks revenge for the murder of his daughter. He was nominated once more for his role as Harvey Milk in the 2008 film Milk.
Penn's interest in progressive or liberal politics is reflected in some of his recent film roles. In 2004, he played a disturbed man bent on killing the president in The Assassination of Richard Nixon. In 2006 he portrayed populist governor Willie Stark (based on Huey Long) in an adaptation of the classic American novel All the King's Men, though the film was a critical and commercial failure. In November 2008, Penn earned rave reviews for his portrayal of real-life gay rights icon and politician Harvey Milk in the biopic Milk and was nominated for best actor for the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards.
Personal life
Penn was supposedly engaged to actress Elizabeth McGovern, his co-star in 1984's Racing with the Moon, after which he dated Susan Sarandon. Penn's personal life began to attract media attention when he married pop star Madonna in 1985. The relationship was marred by violent outbursts against the press, including one incident for which he was arrested for violently beating a photographer. It is also suggested that when Penn discovered the paparazzo in his hotel room, he hung him by his ankles from the ninth-floor balcony. Madonna dedicated her third studio album, True Blue to Penn, referring to him in the liner notes as "the coolest guy in the universe". Later in the marriage, Penn was charged with felony domestic assault, a charge for which he pleaded to a misdemeanor. Penn and Madonna divorced in 1989.
He soon began a relationship with Robin Wright, and their first child, Dylan Frances, was born in 1991. Their second child, Hopper Jack, was born in 1993. Penn and Wright married in 1996 and lived in Ross, California. On December 27, 2007, the couple's representative announced that the Penns were divorcing, however, they later stopped divorce proceedings in April 2008.
During a separation from Wright in the mid 1990s, Penn dated singer and songwriter Jewel. He was also the director of the original video for Jewel's hit song "You Were Meant for Me"
Penn's younger brother, Chris, who played "Nice Guy Eddie" in Reservoir Dogs, died from an enlarged heart (drug induced) in his Santa Monica condominium on January 24, 2006.
Along with Johnny Depp, Mick Hucknall, and John Malkovich, Penn is a part-owner of the Parisian restaurant-bar Man Ray.
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Meryl Streep

Born : Mary Louise Streep, June 22, 1949 (1949-06-22) (age 59), Summit, New Jersey, United States
Years active : 1977–present
Spouse(s) : Don Gummer (1978–present)
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American award-winning actress who has worked in theatre, television, and film. She is widely regarded as being one of the most talented and respected movie actors of the modern era. She made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, and her screen debut came in 1977's made-for-television movie, The Deadliest Season. Streep made her film debut in Julia (1977), starring opposite Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave.
Both critical and commercial success came quickly with roles in The Deer Hunter, with Robert De Niro and John Cazale, and Kramer vs. Kramer, with Dustin Hoffman, the former giving Streep her first Oscar nomination and the latter her first win. Streep's work has earned her two Academy Awards, a Cannes award, six Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG), four Grammy Award nominations, two Emmy Awards, a BAFTA award, and a Tony Award nomination. She has received 15 Academy Award nominations, more than any other actor or actress in the history of the awards, and is tied with Angela Lansbury and Jack Nicholson for most Golden Globe Award wins, with six each. She has now been nominated a record-breaking 23 times for a Golden Globe award, beating Jack Lemmon, who had 22. She is now the most nominated actor in the history of the awards. She is also one of the few actors to have won all four major screen acting awards (Oscars, Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, and BAFTA awards).
Early life
Streep was born Mary Louise Streep in Summit, New Jersey, the daughter of Mary W. Streep, a commercial artist, and Harry William Streep, Jr., a pharmaceutical executive. Streep's mother was of Swiss, Irish, and English ancestry, and her father's family was of Dutch descent. Streep was raised Presbyterian; the name "Streep" means "straight line" in Dutch. She has two younger brothers, Dana and Harry. Streep was raised in Bernardsville, New Jersey, where she attended and graduated from Bernards High School. She received her B.A. in Drama at Vassar College in 1971 but also enrolled as a transfer student at Dartmouth College for a semester before that school had become coeducational. She subsequently earned an M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama.
Early career
She performed in several theater productions in New York after graduating from Yale, including the New York Shakespeare Festival productions of Henry V, The Taming of the Shrew with Raul Julia, and Measure for Measure opposite Sam Waterston and John Cazale, who became her fiancé. She starred on Broadway in the Brecht/Weill musical Happy End, and won an Obie for her performance in the all-sung off-Broadway production of Alice at the Palace.
Streep's first feature film was Julia, in which she played a small but pivotal role during a flashback scene. The Deer Hunter (1978) was her second feature film, and it earned Streep her first Academy Award nomination (for Best Supporting Actress). The following year, she won an Academy Award for her role opposite Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer (Best Supporting Actress, 1979). In 1982 she won again, for Sophie's Choice (Best Actress), where she starred alongside Peter MacNicol and Kevin Kline.
In 1978, she won her first Emmy Award, for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series for the miniseries Holocaust. A year later, she appeared in her only Woody Allen film, Manhattan. Streep was engaged to John Cazale ("Fredo" in The Godfather), her costar in The Deer Hunter, until his death from bone cancer on March 12, 1978. In September 1978, she married sculptor Don Gummer. They have four children: Henry W. Gummer (1979), Mary Willa Gummer (Mamie Gummer) (1983), Grace Jane Gummer (1986), and Louisa Jacobson Gummer (1991). While Streep still continued her career during motherhood, she chose to raise her family and be there for her children rather than work full time. Henry is an actor, filmmaker and co-founder of the rock band Bravo Silva. Mamie has chosen acting as a career, and made her off-Broadway debut as Lucy in a 2005 production of Mr. Marmalade at the Laura Pels Theatre. Grace made her acting debut at the Wild Project in New York in The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents, by the Swiss playwright Lukas Bärfuss in November 2008.
Awards
Streep holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations of any actor, having been nominated 15 times since her first nomination in 1979 for The Deer Hunter (12 for Best Actress and 3 for Best Supporting Actress).
Meryl Streep also holds the record for actress with the most Golden Globe Awards, with six wins. She is the most nominated performer for a Golden Globe Award (she has 23 nominations) and is also tied with Jack Nicholson for most Golden Globes overall by an actor or actress (six wins). Streep has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 2003, she was awarded an honorary César award by the French Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinema. In 2004 at the Moscow International Film Festival, Meryl Streep was honored with the Stanislavsky Award for the outstanding achievement in the career of acting and devotion to the principles of Stanislavsky's school.
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Phil Collins,

Birth name : Philip David Charles Collins
Born : 30 January 1951 (1951-01-30), Chiswick, London, England
Genre(s) : Progressive rock, rock, pop, big band
Occupation(s) : Singer-songwriter, Musician, Actor
Instrument(s) : Vocals, drums, keyboards, bagpipes, guitar, bass
Years active : 1968–present
Label(s) : Virgin, Atlantic, WEA
Associated acts : Genesis, Brand X, Flaming Youth, Philip Bailey, The Phil Collins Big Band
Website : philcollins.co.uk
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO, (born 30 January 1951 in Chiswick, London) is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, keyboardist and actor best known as the lead singer and drummer of English progressive rock group Genesis and as a Grammy and Academy Award-winning solo artist. He has also appeared in several films.
Collins sang the lead vocals on eight American chart-toppers between 1984 and 1989; seven as a solo artist and one with Genesis. His singles, often dealing with lost love, ranged from the drum-heavy "In the Air Tonight", to the dance pop of "Sussudio", to the political statements of his most successful song, "Another Day in Paradise". His international popularity transformed Genesis from a progressive rock group to a regular on the pop charts and an early MTV mainstay.
Collins' professional career began as a drummer, first with obscure rock group Flaming Youth and then more famously with Genesis. In Genesis, Collins originally supplied backing vocals for front man Peter Gabriel, singing lead on only two songs: "For Absent Friends" from 1971's Nursery Cryme album and "More Fool Me" from Selling England by the Pound, which was released in 1973. On Gabriel's departure in 1975, Collins became the group's lead singer. As the decade closed, Genesis's first international hit, "Follow You, Follow Me", demonstrated a drastic change from the band's early years.
His concurrent solo career, heavily influenced by his personal life, brought both him and Genesis commercial success. According to Atlantic Records, Collins' total worldwide sales as a solo artist, as of 2002, were 150 million.
Early life and career
Collins was given a toy drum kit for Christmas when he was five. Later, his uncle Mark Wade made him a makeshift one that he used regularly. As Collins grew older these were followed by more complete sets bought by his parents. He practised by playing alongside the television and radio, and never learned to read and write conventional musical notation; instead, he uses a system he devised himself
His professional training began at fourteen when he entered Barbara Speake Stage School. He began a career as a child actor and model, and won his first major role as The Artful Dodger in a London production of Oliver!. He was an extra in The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night - one of hundreds of screaming teenagers during the TV concert sequence and seen fleetingly in a close-up. He was also in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He also auditioned for the role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (1968). In 1970, the 19-year old Collins played percussion on the George Harrison song "The Art of Dying". Harrison credited him in the liner notes to the remastered CD version of the album released in 2000. Collins was among the last three finalists for the role of "I.Q." on the children's American television show The Bugaloos (he lost out to English actor/musician John McIndoe).
Despite the beginnings of an acting career, Collins continued to gravitate towards music. While attending Chiswick Community School he formed a band called The Real Thing and later joined The Freehold. With the latter group, he wrote his first song titled "Lying Crying Dying"
Collins' first record deal came as drummer for Flaming Youth who released a single album, Ark 2 (1969). A concept album inspired by the recent media attention surrounding the moon landing, Ark 2 (with Ronnie Caryl, Brian Chatton and Gordon (Flash) Smith), failed to make much commercial success despite positive critical reviews. Melody Maker featured the album as "Pop Album of the Month", describing it as "adult music beautifully played with nice tight harmonies".The album's main single, "From Now On", failed on the radio. After a year of touring, band tensions and the lack of commercial success dissolved the group.
Personal life
Collins married Canadian Andrea Bertorelli in 1975. They met as students in a drama class in London, in 1975. They had a son, Simon Collins, and Collins adopted Bertorelli's daughter Joely Collins, now a Canadian actress. They divorced in 1980, after she started an affair with their painter and decorator. Collins later appeared on the BBC's Top of the Pops singing his 1981 solo hit In The Air Tonight with a pot of paint and brush positioned on his piano.
Collins and his second wife, Sue Collins whom he met in 1980, were married from 1985 to 2000. They had a daughter and a son, Paul & Pippa Collins. Collins openly admits that some of their divorce-related correspondence was by fax (one, about access to their daughter, was reproduced in The Sun), but denies that this took her by surprise. Collins paid Jill £17M as final settlement.[
After a five year romance, Collins married his third wife, Orianne Cevey, in 2005, with guests Eric Clapton and Sir Elton John in attendance. The couple have two sons, Nicholas and Matthew. They bought Sir Jackie Stewart's former house located in Begnins, Switzerland, overlooking Lake Geneva. Announcing their separation on 16 March 2006, they were divorced in 2008. Collins paid Cevey £25M in settlement. Collins has said he will continue to live in Switzerland to be near the children. He is presently residing in Féchy, maintaining a home in New York City and Oxford. In 2008, Collins was quoted in People Magazine: "Marriage is a difficult proposition. But I haven't given up on it, either
Collins was appointed a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order in 1994 in recognition of his work on behalf of the Prince's Trust.
Collins was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2005 for his contribution to music and his ongoing commitment to fighting world poverty.
Bob Geldof said of Collins after recording the drums for the Band Aid single 'Feed The World (Do They Know its Christmas)', "Phil Collins, is a magnificent soul, he has touched the world through his music and he continues to fight against world poverty. He is one of life's true heroes."
Collins is a supporter of animal rights and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). In 2005, he donated autographed drumsticks in support of PETA's campaign against Kentucky Fried Chicken.
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Cher

Birth name : Cherilyn Sarkisian
Also known as : Cherilyn LaPierre, Cleo, Cher Bono
Born : May 20, 1946 (1946-05-20) (age 62), El Centro, California, USA
Origin : Los Angeles, California, USA
Genre(s) : Pop, dance, disco, folk, pop rock, R&B
Instrument(s) : Vocals
Voice type(s) : Deep contralto
Years active : 1963- present
Website : www.cher.com
Cher (IPA: /ʃɛɹ/born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20, 1946) is an American pop singer-songwriter, actor, director and record producer. She has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards and was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Cher came to prominence in 1965 as one half of the pop/rock duo Sonny & Cher. She subsequently established herself as a solo recording artist, a television star in the 1970s, and a film actress in the 1980s, starring a string of hit filmsincluding The Witches of Eastwick, Silkwood, Mask and Moonstruck, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Her smash hit single "Believe" (1998) is the biggest-selling dance song, having sold over 10 million copies worldwide. She is the only female recording artist to have Top 10 hits in every decade beginning in the 1960s and the oldest female artist to reach number one. With a career lasting over 40 years, Cher is an enduring pop culture icon and one of the most popular and biggest-selling artists in music history, having sold over 100 million records worldwide (includes the ones with Sonny Bono). She is currently performing at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas with her show "Cher at the Colosseum". Cher is well known for her deep contralto vocal range.
Early life
Cher was born in El Centro, California, on May 20, 1946, at 7:25 a.m. Her father, John Sarkisian, was an Iranian-Armenian refugee who worked as a truck driver. Her mother, Georgia Holt (born Jackie Jean Crouch), born in Sharp County, Arkansas, June 20, 1927, an aspiring actress and occasional model, is of Cherokee, English and French descent. Cher's half sister is actress Georganne LaPiere. Cher's parents divorced when she was young and she was raised primarily by her mother, who at one time was married to Gilbert LaPierre, a banker who adopted Cher. Due to financial problems, Cher's mother placed her in foster care for a time as a child. Later, her mother provided money for acting lessons to help further her career. Due to severe, undiagnosed dyslexia, she left Fresno High School at the age of 16. In those years Cher had a brief relationship with Warren Beatty.
Personal life
Marriages and relationships
In the early 1960s Cher had a relationship with actor Warren Beatty. Sonny and Cher first met in 1962. Though they had claimed to be married as early as 1963, and had a wedding ceremony in Tijuana, Mexico on October 27, 1964, it is rumored that they weren’t legally married until an impromptu ceremony in 1968. Their only child is Chastity Bono, born on March 4, 1969. After 11 years, they divorced on June 27, 1975. The divorce resulted in the cancellation of The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. Later that year, Cher married her second husband, rock star Gregg Allman. Their son, Elijah Blue Allman of the band Deadsy, was born on July 10, 1976. They separated in 1977 and were officially divorced in January 1979. Between Bono and Allmann, Cher revealed that she had a fling with Elvis Presley while they were performing in Las Vegas, but rejected him when he asked her up to his room because she was too nervous of spending the night with him. In February 2008, Cher stated on Good Morning America that she deeply regrets turning him down. In the interview, she also claimed to being asked out by Marlon Brando on a plane ride. Cher was also involved with record executive David Geffen, KISS bassist Gene Simmons, and senior account manager Garreth Crawford.
In the 1980s, Cher dated several younger men that included actors Val Kilmer, Tom Cruise, and Rob Camilletti, the 22 year old bagel baker and bartender whom she met on her 40th birthday and lived with for three years. It was widely speculated in the tabloid press that the couple were planning to marry, but this never occurred. Cher was involved with Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora for two years in the early 1990s, and was also linked to musicians Eric Clapton and Mark Hudson. Rumors also circulated that Cher was romantically involved with a member of her band during her lengthy Farewell Tour.
Influence
In her early career Cher was a fashion trend-setter, popularizing long straight hair, bell-bottoms and an exposed midriff. She is noted by fashion designers and television historians as being the first female to ever expose her bellybutton on television. She stepped that up a notch in 1989 when she boarded the U.S. Navy's USS Missouri ship in thong and fishnets for the "If I Could Turn Back Time" music video, becoming one of the first video by a mainstream pop artist to be banned by MTV (after the video was banned, it grew to mass popularity, forcing MTV to play the video after 9 p.m.). Through her 1970s television shows she became a sex symbol and pushed the censors with her revealing outfits and creative ensembles, frequently designed by Bob Mackie. She has also inspired many celebrities who have noted her as being a major influence on them, such as Britney Spears , Beyonce Knowles, Tracy Chapman, Oprah Winfrey, Cindy Lauper, Gene Simmons, Meryl Streep, Anastacia, Rosie O'Donnell, Madonna, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, Elton John among others.
In July 1999 Cher ranked 43rd on VH1’s 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll poll and in September 2002 ranked 26th on VH1’s 100 Sexiest Artists. She has appeared on the cover of People magazine thirteen times. In a 2007 poll A&E's Biography magazine ranked her as the third favorite actress of all time behind two of her Hollywood idols, Katharine Hepburn and Audrey Hepburn. To state this fact Cher has also been frequently mention in a large number of TV programs, songs, films and books.
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Michelle Pfeiffer

Born : Michelle Marie Pfeiffer, April 29, 1958 (1958-04-29) (age 50), Santa Ana, California, USA
Occupation : Actor
Years active : 1979 - present
Spouse(s) : Peter Horton (1981-1988), David E. Kelley (1993-)
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer (IPA: /mɪˈʃɛl ˈfаɪfɜr/;born April 29, 1958) is an American actress. Over the course of her film career, she has been the recipient of a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award, for her performances in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) and Dangerous Liaisons (1988) respectively, as well as three Academy Award nominations. She is considered one of the most beautiful women in the cinema, having appeared on the cover of the first People Magazine's '50 Most Beautiful People in the World' issue in 1990, and re-appearing a record six times during that decade, making the cover again in 1999. She is married to television writer and producer, David E. Kelley.
Early life
Pfeiffer was born in Santa Ana, California, the second of four children born to Richard Pfeiffer, a heating and air-conditioning contractor, and Donna (née Taverna), a homemaker; she has one elder brother, Rick, and two younger sisters, Dedee Pfeiffer and Lori Pfeiffer, both actresses. The family moved to Midway City, California, where Pfeiffer spent her childhood. She attended Fountain Valley High School and worked as a check-out girl at Vons supermarket. After a short stint training to be a court stenographer, she decided upon an acting career, and entered the Miss Orange County beauty pageant in 1978 (which she won), and the Miss Los Angeles contest later that year, after which she was signed by a Hollywood agent who appeared on the judging panel. Moving to Los Angeles, she began to audition for commercials and bit parts in films.
Marriages
At the start of her career, Pfeiffer met Peter Horton (who would later achieve fame playing Gary Shepherd on Thirtysomething) at an acting class taught by Milton Katselas in Los Angeles. They married in Santa Monica when Pfeiffer was 22, and it was on their honeymoon that she discovered she had won the lead role in Grease 2. Horton directed Pfeiffer in a 1985 ABC TV special, One Too Many, in which she played the high school girlfriend of an alcoholic student (Val Kilmer); and in 1987, the real-life couple then played an on-screen couple in the 'Hospital' segment of John Landis's comedy skit compilation, Amazon Women on the Moon. However, they decided to separate in 1988, and were divorced two years later; Horton later blamed the split on their devotion to their work rather than their marriage.
In 1993, Pfeiffer was set up on a blind date with television writer and producer David E. Kelley (creator of Chicago Hope, Picket Fences, Ally McBeal, Boston Public, The Practice and Boston Legal), but it became a group event and they barely spoke to each other. The following week, Kelley took her to the movies to see Bram Stoker's Dracula, and they began dating seriously. They married on November 13, 1993. Since then, she has made an uncredited cameo appearance in one episode of Kelley's television series, Picket Fences (reportedly to the surprise of Kelley, who was unaware that she had filmed it), and played the titular character in To Gillian On Her 37th Birthday, for which Kelley wrote the screenplay.
Other relationships
In between her marriages to Horton and Kelley, Pfeiffer had a three-year relationship with Fisher Stevens (Early Edition, Hackers and Short Circuit). They met when Pfeiffer was starring in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Twelfth Night, in which Stevens had the part of Sir Andrew Aguecheek. She has also been romantically linked to some of her male co-stars, including John Malkovich (Dangerous Liaisons), Michael Keaton (Batman Returns) and Val Kilmer.
Source : en.wikipedia.org