byname of Paul David Hewson Singer, activist. Born Paul Hewson on May 10, 1960, in Dublin, Ireland. The son of a Roman Catholic postal worker, Bono's Protestant mother died when the boy was just 14. He joined the band U2 in October 1976 when he was in high school, and was dubbed “Bono Vox� (good voice). He was made frontman for the Irish rock band though his singing at the time was less compelling than his stage presence.U2 began touring almost immediately and released its first album, Boy, in 1980. In 1987, they released The Joshua Tree, their sixth album and the one that catapulted the band—and its outspoken frontman—to stardom. Subsequent albums secured U2's reputation for range and innovation, including 1991's industrial-sounding Achtung Baby, 1993's funkier-edged Zooropa, and techno-influenced 1997's Pop. More recently, U2 has returned to its modern rock roots with 2000 's All That You Can't Leave Behind. Creating simple, but powerful music, the group scored with such tracks as the soaring “Beautiful Day,� which won the Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of Year. The group's last studio album, 2004's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, also fared well, both commercially and critically. Its two leading singles, “Vertigo� and “Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own,� made strong showings on the charts and won several Grammy Awards. Throughout U2's career, Bono has written most of the band's lyrics, often focusing on untraditional themes like politics and religion. In fact, social activism has always been close to the singer's heart, and he continues to use his music to raise consciousness with performances at Band Aid, Live 8, and Net Aid, among others. In 2006, U2 joined forces with the punk-influenced band Green Day to record a cover of the Skids' “The Saints Are Coming� to benefit the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The next year, Bono and the rest of U2 contributed the title track to Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur. Outside of music, Bono has used his celebrity to generate awareness about many global problems. Over the years, he has met with world leaders and many U.S. politicians to discuss such issues as debt relief for developing countries, world poverty, and AIDS. Bono has lobbied tirelessly on behalf of many causes, including two he helped create. DATA, which stands for Debt AIDS Trade Africa, is dedicated to fighting AIDS and ending poverty in Africa. Started in 2004, One is a nonpartisan campaign to “Make Poverty History� and is supported by more than 100 nonprofit organizations as well as millions of individuals, including many celebrities, such as Ben Affleck, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Brad Pitt. In 2005, Bono and his wife Ali Hewson established EDUN, a socially responsible clothing line. While it is a for-profit enterprise, its mission is to foster “sustainable employment in developing areas of the world, particularly Africa,� according to its website. That same year, Bono was named one of Time magazine's Persons of the Year for his charitable work along with Bill and Melinda Gates. Across the Atlantic, Queen Elizabeth II made him an honorary knight of the British Empire in 2007. Bono and his wife Ali have been married since 1982. They have two daughters, Jordan and Memphis Eve, and two sons, Elijah and John Abraham. © 2008 A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved.

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Actress. Born in Melbourne, Australia. Blanchett began making a name for herself in the theater world soon after graduating from Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1992. She quickly won roles in the Sydney Theater Company's productions of Top Girls and Kafka Dances and won the Sydney Theatre Critics Circle Newcomer Award for the latter in 1993. Blanchett also received critical acclaim for roles in theater productions of Hamlet, The Tempest, and The Seagull.After several appearances on Australian and American television, Blanchett made her feature film debut in 1997's Paradise Road. Later that year, she grabbed Hollywood's attention with her performance opposite Ralph Fiennes in Oscar and Lucinda (1997). In 1998, Blanchett's Golden Globe-winning portrayal of England's queen in Elizabeth earned the 29-year-old actress her first Academy Award nomination. Blanchett turned in a superb supporting performance in 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley, also featuring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jude Law. In 2000, she starred as a psychic woman in a small Southern town in the thriller The Gift. The following year, she costarred with Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton in the comic caper Bandits and with Kevin Spacey and Julianne Moore in The Shipping News. She also headlined the World War II-era drama Charlotte Gray, playing a British woman who is drawn into the French resistance movement. In 2005, Blanchett earned an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her portrayal of the legendary Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic, The Aviator. In 2007, Blanchett returned to one of her most famous characters in Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Picking up a later chapter in the life of Queen Elizabeth I, the film explores how the monarch handled threats to her rule as well as her relationship with explorer Sir Walter Raleigh. She earned a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination and Golden Globe nomination for her work on the film. That same year, Blanchett took on another famous figure. She was one of the actors to portray music legend Bob Dylan in I'm Not There, which garnered her another Screen Actors Guild Award nomination and a Golden Globe nomination in the supporting actress categories. Blanchett and her husband, screenwriter Andrew Upton, have two sons, Dashiell John born in 2001 and Roman Robert born in 2004. The couple is expecting a third child in April 2008. © 2008 A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved.

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Anna Maria Louisa Italiano Actress. Born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano on September 17, 1931, in New York, New York. An award-winning actress for her work on film, stage, and television, Anne Bancroft is best remembered for her role as the dedicated teacher in The Miracle Worker and as the mature seductress in The Graduate. She grew up in the Bronx and studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1948. Initially, Bancroft found work on television in the early 1950s. She appeared on such shows as Studio One and used the stage name Anne Marno. In 1952, she got a film contract with 20th Century Fox and the head of the studio, Darryl F. Zanuck, renamed Anne Bancroft. She made her film debut opposite Marilyn Monroe in 1952's Don't Bother to Knock. Over the next few years, Bancroft appeared in several other, largely forgettable films, which failed to advance her career. Returning to New York in the late 1950s, Bancroft found success on the Broadway stage. She co-starred with Henry Fonda in William Gibson's Two for the Seesaw, which was directed by Arthur Penn. Her portrayal of a bohemian dancer netted her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 1958. Again showing her talent for transformation, Bancroft tackled another challenging role in The Miracle Worker the next year. Again working with Penn, she played Annie Sullivan, a teacher of the blind, who tries to help Helen Keller (played by Patty Duke), a young blind and deaf girl, learn to communicate. Bancroft won another Tony Award for her convincing performance as the devoted and determined educator. Reprising their roles, Bancroft and Duke starred in the 1962 film adaptation of The Miracle Worker. They each won an Academy Award for their performances—Bancroft in the Best Actress category and Duke in Best Supporting Actress category. Bancroft's next major film role had her as a woman trapped in a loveless marriage in The Pumpkin Eater (1964), which brought her an Academy Award nomination. Around this time, she married the multitalented Mel Brooks, known as a comedic actor, director, and writer. The two formed one of Hollywood's greatest love stories and remained devoted to each other throughout her life. Bancroft had been previously married to Martin May in the 1950s, but their union ended in divorce. In 1967, Bancroft took on her signature role of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate. Playing an elegant, but bitter and manipulative wife and mother, her character seduced her daughter's boyfriend, Benjamin, played by Dustin Hoffman. Ironically, Bancroft was only about six years older than Hoffman when the film was made. She was widely praised for her work on the film and earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance. Winning her first Emmy Award in 1970, Bancroft starred in Annie, The Women in the Life of a Man, which also featured her husband Mel Brooks. She took some time off from acting after the birth of their son, Max, in 1972. Showing her range as a performer, she returned to the big screen in the Neil Simon comedy, The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975), with Jack Lemmon, and in the historical drama, The Hindenburg (1975), with George C. Scott. Starring an aging ballerina, Bancroft starred opposite Shirley MacLaine in the drama The Turning Point (1977). That same year, she played the first female prime minister of Israel, Golda Meir, on Broadway in Golda, which reunited her with director Arthur Penn. Bancroft received a Tony Award nomination for her portrait of this famed world leader. In addition to co-starring on the film, Bancroft directed the 1980 comedy Fatso featuring Dom DeLuise. The rest of the decade was filled with memorable comedic and dramatic performances by Bancroft. In To Be or Not To Be (1983), she and her real-life husband played a husband-wife acting team in this underrated World War II comedy. Taking on much darker material, she played the mother superior in Agnes of God (1985), which led to her final Academy Award nomination. Bancroft went on to play the mother in the suicide drama ‘Night, Mother (1986) with Sissy Spacek. In the 1990s, Bancroft took on a lot of supporting roles in films and on television. For her television work, she received several Emmy Award nominations for her work and won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for Deep In My Heart in 1999. In the television movie, she played a woman who has a daughter as a result of being raped. On the big screen, Bancroft appeared as Ms. Dinsmoor in the modern adaptation of the Charles Dickens' classic, Great Expectations (1998), with Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow. Continuing to work, Bancroft appeared on television in Haven (2001). Based on a true story, she played Ruth Gruber, an American woman who helped hundreds of Jewish people escape Nazi Germany. Bancroft received an Emmy Award nomination for her work. Her last completed performance was in the television adaptation of the Tennessee Williams' play The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, which earned her a final Emmy Award nomination. While filming Spanglish with Adam Sandler, Bancroft was forced to drop out of the project because of illness. She died of uterine cancer on June 6, 2005, at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. She was survived by her husband, their son, Max, and their grandson. © 2007 A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved.

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Actress. Born on November 25, 1971 in Los Angeles, California. Applegate was raised by her actress mother, Nancy Priddy, after Priddy split from Applegate's father, record executive Bobby Applegate. When Christina was three months old, she made her acting debut in her mothers arms on the daytime soap Days of our Lives. After performing in commercials for KMart and appearing in several movies and TV shows, she received her breakthough role as teen airhead Kelly Bundy on Fox's popular sitcom Married... With Children at age fifteen. After an impressive 11 seasons, the show called it quits in 1997, and Applegate has since successfully distanced herself from her Bundy persona. In 1998, she starred opposite Mark Wahlberg in the Hong Kong-tinged action-comedy The Big Hit and played the fiancée of a Mob scion in the Mafia parody, Mafia! Inspired by her experience with her own mother growing up, Applegate returned to TV in 1998 to star as a single mom balancing work and family in the sitcom Jesse. Though the show had bright moments, including a People's Choice award in 1999, it was canceled two years later. Following an ill-executed return to movies in 2001 with the time-travel comedy Just Visiting, Applegate managed to hold her own opposite some of her more lustrous film peers. She received strong reviews as Cameron Diaz's levelheaded best friend in The Sweetest Thing in 2002, and will appear next with Gwyneth Paltrow in the flight attendant comedy A View From the Top. Applegate married her longtime boyfriend, actor Johnathan Schaech, in October 2001. They filed for divorce in December 2005. © A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved.

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Actor, screenwriter. Born Benjamin Geza Affleck, on August 15, 1972, in Berkeley, California,to Chris and Tim Affleck. His parents separated soon after he was born and divorced when he was 11. Affleck grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His first acting experience was in The Dark End of the Street(1979), an independent film produced by a friend of the family. At the age of eight, Affleck appeared in a PBS production, The Voyage of the Mimi. That same year, he met his future best friend, Matt Damon, a 10-year-old who lived two blocks away. The boys later attended the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School,where they both took drama classes. While still in high school, Affleckappeared in several network TV dramas.Affleck briefly attended the University of Vermont and California'sOccidental College, but left when Hollywood beckoned too strongly. Hisfirst major film was School Ties (1992), which also featured MattDamon and Brendan Fraser. He appeared as a bully in Richard Linklater's paean to 1970s sex,drugs and rock & roll, Dazed and Confused (1993). Ben was part ofan ensemble cast for Kevin Smith's Mallrats (1995) and was theromantic lead in Smith's Chasing Amy (1997). In 1992, Affleck and Damon began collaborating on a screenplay,Good Will Hunting, about a troubled young math genius working as a janitor in the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After a long struggle to get the script produced, Miramaxpurchased rights to the film in 1996. Starring Damon and Robin Williams (Affleck costarred as the best friend to Damon?s character) anddirected by Gus Van Sant, Good Will Hunting was released in 1997 to critical andpopular acclaim. Affleck and Damon won Golden Globe and Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay. Affleck began getting a great deal of media coverage after the Oscars, especially when he began a high-profile romance with another rising young film star,Gwyneth Paltrow. Though they announced their breakup in late 1998, the two remain friends. Affleck?s profile shot up even higher when he starred alongside Bruce Willis and Liv Tyler in the blockbuster disaster spectacle, Armageddon, which became the top-grossing movie of that year, earning over $520 million worldwide. He also had a supporting turn in the acclaimed film Shakespeare in Love, which won a number of Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress (Paltrow). He had less success in 1999 with Kevin Smith's irreverent comedy Dogma, costarring Damon and Chris Rock, and the poorly reviewed romantic comedy, Forces of Nature, costarring Sandra Bullock. In 2000, he turned in a supporting performance in the slick stock-market drama Boiler Room, and headlined the fast-paced action thriller Reindeer Games, costarring Charlize Theron and Gary Sinise. He also costarred opposite Paltrow in the romantic drama Bounce. In the summer of 2001, Affleck reteamed with Armageddon director-producer team Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer for the extravagantly marketed World War II-era action epic, Pearl Harbor, costarring Kate Beckinsale, Josh Hartnett, and Cuba Gooding Jr., and budgeted at $135 million. Affleck has a younger brother, Casey, who is also an actor?he appeared with his brother in Good Will Hunting and 200 Cigarettes (1999), and starred opposite Heather Graham in Committed (2000). In fall 2002, Affleck coproduced the ABC mystery series Push, Nevada. The show promised $1 million cash to the viewer who solved its mystery, but was canceled just a few weeks into the season. That year, he appeared as Tom Clancy's young Jack Ryan in The Sum of All Fears. In 2003, he starred in the comic book fantasy adventure Daredevil, which set a box-office record for its Presidents' Day weekend debut. In summer 2003, he co-starred with Jennifer Lopez in the box office bomb, Gigli. Upcoming films include Jersey Girl (also with Lopez), Surviving Christmas with James Gandolfini and director John Woo's sci-fi thriller Paycheck with Uma Thurman. In August 2001, Affleck checked himself into an exclusive rehabilitation center in Malibu, California, to undergo treatment for alcohol abuse. The son of an alcoholic (his father, Tim, has been sober since 1990), Affleck announced through a spokesman that he has "decided that a fuller life awaits him without alcohol." In 2002, headlines paired Affleck with actress/songstress Jennifer Lopez. The couple announced their engagement in November but called off the wedding in early 2004. Affleck married Alias actress Jennifer Garner in April 2005. Their daughter, Violet, was born the following November. ? 2005 A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved.

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Gwyneth Paltrow Gwyneth Kate Paltrow (born September 28, 1972) is an Oscar-winning American actress.   Personal life Paltrow was born in Los Angeles to the late Bruce Paltrow (a Jewish American f...

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Christina Applegate Christina Applegate (born November 25, 1971) is an American actress, best known for her role as Kelly Bundy on the sitcom Married... with Children. Born in Hollywood, California, her...

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Brad Pitt Brad Pitt (born William Bradley Pitt on December 18, 1963), is an American film actor, and one of the most widely recognized people in the world. He was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma to strictly S...

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Angelina Jolie Angelina Jolie (who was born Angelina Jolie Voight on June 4, 1975 in Los Angeles, California) is an American actress and humanitarian. She is renowned for her award winning acting talent ...

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