MSN Entertainment: Top Celebrities

Kim Kardashian

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:16:37 GMT

Kim Kardashian, the wealthy daughter of the high-powered defense attorney Robert Kardashian and Kris Kardashian (and the stepdaughter of Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner), grew up in Beverly Hills, CA, and attended an exclusive all-girls Catholic high school in the City of Angels. As a young woman, Kardashian worked at her father's music marketing firm, Movie Tunes, then parlayed her entrepreneurial instincts into a successful career as a wardrobe stylist for television programs, magazine photo layouts, and... [more]

Patrick Swayze

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:16:37 GMT

An athlete practically from birth, Patrick Swayze was a football player in high school and then earned a gymnastics scholarship to pay for college. His father had been a dancer/choreographer, and Swayze began to study dance early on, eventually working with the prestigious Harkness and Joffrey Ballet companies. He made his professional debut as a dancer with the lead role of Prince Charming in a traveling company of Disney on Parade, but an old knee injury from his football days threatened to cut his... [more]

Portia de Rossi

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:16:38 GMT

Luxuriantly tressed blonde "Portia de Rossi" combined her former interest in the law with her subsequent acting career and achieved TV fame when she joined the cast of the Fox TV hit Ally McBeal in 1998. Born Mandy Rogers in Melbourne, Australia, de Rossi acted in TV commercials as a teen and modeled, but entered college to become a lawyer. She changed professions, however, when she was cast as one of the titular beauties tempting the wife of stuffy "Hugh Grant" in "John Duigan"'s comedy "Sirens" (1994). de... [more]

Jessica Alba

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:16:38 GMT

One of the crop of bright-eyed, dewy-skinned young actors to attain teen idoldom and a regular paycheck during the late 1990s, "Jessica Alba" closed out the century as one of Hollywood's more promising new talents. Born in Pomona, California, on April 28, 1981, Alba, whose father was in the Air Force, moved with her family to Biloxi, Mississippi, when she was an infant, but she eventually moved back to California nine years later. It was back in California that she embarked on an acting career; having been in... [more]

Loni Anderson

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:16:38 GMT

Loni Anderson's first acting appearance, at age 10, was in the auditorium of her St. Paul grammar school. An art student at the University of Minnesota, Loni worked her way through her freshman year by winning beauty contests. Married and divorced at 18, Loni was compelled to take a teaching job to support herself and her infant daughter, but she was able to eventually complete her college education. Still a brunette in the early stages of her professional career, Loni acted in Midwestern repertory companies... [more]

Justin Long

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:16:38 GMT

An actor whose wide, affable grin and heavy eyebrows lend him an uncanny resemblance to "Tim Allen", "Justin Long" unwittingly became a footnote to the illustrious history of "Britney Spears"' ascent to world domination when he appeared with the post-pubescent entertainer in her 2002 film debut, "Crossroads". Cast as Britney's prom date, Long shared a kiss with the singer that earned him breathless adulation on Britney websites everywhere.

Three years before he locked lips with the peppy pop star, Long made... [more]

Natascha McElhone

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:16:38 GMT

An actress whose refinement is evident in both her coolly regal beauty and well-measured performances, "Natascha McElhone" first impressed international critics and audiences with her portrayal of Francoise Gilot, the long-suffering but ultimately triumphant wife of Pablo Picasso in Merchant Ivory's "Surviving Picasso" (1996).

Born Natasha Taylor in Hampstead, London, on March 23, 1971, McElhone was raised in Brighton as the only daughter (she has several brothers) of journalist parents. After studying... [more]

Liv Tyler

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:16:38 GMT

Possessing an unusual beauty marked by perhaps the most distinctive set of lips in the business (an inheritance from father "Steven Tyler"), "Liv Tyler" unsurprisingly made her entrance into acting via the world of modeling. Since her breakthrough role in 1996's "Stealing Beauty", she has emerged as a performer with bona fide talent, dropping her "model-actress" hyphenate in favor of just "actress."

Born in Portland, ME, on July 1, 1977, to model and former 1970s rock groupie Bebe Buell, "Tyler" spent most... [more]

Nicole Kidman

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:16:38 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]

Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:16:38 GMT

Many actors know from childhood that acting is the only job they'll ever want, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a rare exception. He pursued basketball in high school with tremendous success, until a knee injury ended his sports career, and he then trained and worked as a graphic artist for some time. Eventually, however, his interest in acting became overpowering, and Morgan moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting as a career, rather than just an interest. He found steady work appearing on shows like ER and Angel,... [more]

Karen Allen

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:16:38 GMT

Trained at the Washington Theatre Laboratory and Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, Karen Allen was primarily a stage actress when she began to accept small film roles in such productions as "National Lampoon's Animal House" (1978) and "Manhattan" (1979), although her most celebrated film assignment was as the plucky Marion in Steven Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981). Spielberg reportedly acknowledged his appreciation of Allen's performance by gallantly kissing her hand after each take; even so, they... [more]

Minka Kelly

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:16:38 GMT

Daughter of Aerosmith guitarist Rick Dufay, actress Minka Kelly was raised in New Mexico and started her acting career with roles in projects like the movie State's Evidence and with a recurring role on the show What I Like About You. In 2006, she was cast as head cheerleader Lyla Garrity on the series Friday Night Lights, a show based on the movie of the same name, about a small town in Texas where high-school football is among the most important things in life. In 2007, she took a role in the Jamie Foxx... [more]