MSN Entertainment: Top Celebrities

Miley Cyrus

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:59:00 GMT

The daughter of country-music superstar Billy Ray Cyrus, Miley Cyrus got her start in the entertainment industry on an episode of her father's PAX TV medical series Doc before appearing in Tim Burton's fantastical 2003 adventure Big Fish. A fateful appearance as the character Hannah Montana in the Disney Channel series The Suite Life of Zack and Cody followed in 2006, and her character proved so popular that a spin-off series called Hannah Montana was launched shortly thereafter. In the series, Cyrus portrayed... [more]

Heath Ledger

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:59:00 GMT

Already something of an established actor in his native Australia, "Heath Ledger" first came to the attention of American audiences in 1999 with his winning turn in the teen comedy "10 Things I Hate About You", playing the rebellious Patrick Verona in the update of The Taming of the Shrew.

Born in Perth, Western Australia on April 4, 1979, Ledger first became interested in acting while attending the all-boys Guilford Grammar School. He began his career performing onstage with the Guildford Theatre Company... [more]

Angelina Jolie

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:59:00 GMT

Next to "Liv Tyler", "Angelina Jolie" is the only actress of her generation who can thank her famous father for the lips that have become her trademark. The actress was born Angelina Jolie Voight to the pillow-lipped "Jon Voight" and actress Marcheline Bertrand on June 4, 1975, in Los Angeles.

Raised mostly by her mother after her parents divorced while she was still a baby, Jolie moved around a lot with her mother and brother. She also did a fair amount of traveling as a professional model, living in such... [more]

Sienna Miller

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:59:00 GMT

With a mother who ran London's famed Lee Strasberg drama school -- and being the sort of knockout blonde beauty adored by the cameras -- it was not surprising that Sienna Miller eventually gravitated to an acting career. Born in New York to an American banker father and a mother who was always associated with the arts, young Miller received her primary education at the Heathfield School in Ascot, Surrey, before pursuing acting at New York's Lee Strasberg Institute. Her feature debut in the 2002 drama Joy Rider... [more]

Jennifer Garner

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:59:00 GMT

While landing a guest spot on a hit television series would be a welcome event for most up-and-coming actresses, "Jennifer Garner"'s brief run on "Felicity" proved especially fortunate for her -- thanks to her appearance on the show, she met her future husband, and the producer who would cast her in the leading role of the successful action/adventure series "Alias".

"Jennifer Garner" was born in Houston, TX, in 1972; when she was very young, her family relocated to Charleston, WV, where she grew up. Garner... [more]

Christian Bale

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:59:00 GMT

"Christian Bale" is one of the few actors in Hollywood whose child stardom has successfully translated to steady and respectable adult employment. With a wistful handsomeness to complement his impressive, sometimes underrated talent, Bale has become something of a quiet sensation, netting choice roles in a number of unconventional, critically acclaimed films.

Born January 30, 1974, in Pembrokeshire, Wales, Bale was raised in England, Portugal, and the U.S. The product of a creative family (his mother was a... [more]

Brad Pitt

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:59:00 GMT

With looks that have inspired countless People magazine covers, Internet shrines, and paparazzi blitzkreigs, "Brad Pitt" is an actor whose very name inspires drooling platitudes, more about male beauty than about acting. Following his breakthrough as the wickedly charming drifter who seduces "Geena Davis" and then robs her blind in "Thelma & Louise" (1991), Pitt became one of Hollywood's hottest properties and spent most of the 1990s being lauded as everything from "Robert Redford"'s heir apparent to the... [more]

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:59:00 GMT

A child performer who went on to become an adult actor in one of the more radical transformations in the history of the American entertainment industry, "Sarah Jessica Parker" has captained both a career and a public image that could be accurately classified under the heading Revenge of the Nerd. As a pubescent actor most famous for her roles in the acclaimed high school-set TV series Square Pegs and in the big screen's "Footloose" and "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", Parker played the skinny girl with frizzy... [more]

Madonna

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:59:00 GMT

Possessing one of the most distinctive voices in pop music and one of the most distressing résumés on the big screen, "Madonna" has proven that whatever the role -- screwball seductress, martyred Argentinian first lady, embittered single mom-cum-yoga instructrix -- her abilities as a performer will manage to undermine any production whose credits bear her name. Like "Elvis" before her, "Madonna" has proven that no matter how sterling a pop reputation an artist may have, success on the Billboard Top 100 does... [more]

Nicole Kidman

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:59:00 GMT

Once relegated to decorative parts for years and long acknowledged as the wife of "Tom Cruise", "Nicole Kidman" spent the latter half of the 1990s and the first decade of the new millennium earning much-deserved critical respect. Standing a willowy 5'11" and sporting one of Hollywood's most distinctive heads of frizzy red hair, the Australian actress first entered the American mindset with her role opposite Cruise in "Days of Thunder" (1990), but it wasn't until she starred as a homicidal weather girl in "Gus... [more]

Kirsten Dunst

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:59:00 GMT

One of the leading actors of her generation, "Kirsten Dunst" made her name in teen films without succumbing to entrapment in the teen film ghetto. Skinny, blonde, and possessing a charmingly crooked Pepsodent smile, she has repeatedly demonstrated her talent and charisma in projects ranging from kiddie comedies to high school romances to towering summer blockbusters.

Born in Point Pleasant, NJ, on April 30, 1982, Dunst first appeared in front of a camera at the age of three, when she became a Ford model and... [more]

Jessica Biel

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:59:00 GMT

"Jessica Biel" rose to fame as the wholesome preacher's daughter on the WB television show 7th Heaven, then gained greater notoriety for trying to get herself kicked off the show via a risqué photo spread in the men's magazine Gear. Making such statements as, "Mary Camden is dead," the 17-year-old Biel indeed got out of her contract to pursue a movie career; when that floundered, she - amusingly - found herself reconsidering her haste and returned for guest spots on the program.

Biel was born on March 3,... [more]