Actors

He's best known for his scene-stealing performance in High Fidelity as a sarcastic record store clerk. He is also the lead singer of the rock-folk comedy group Tenacious D. The group appeared on HBO, went on tour and recorded an album. Black's other roles include the films Shallow Hal, Orange County and Saving Silverman. He's currently starring in the film The School of Rock.

He won an Oscar this year for his role in Roman Polanski's The Pianist. Brody played Wladyslaw Szpilman, the Polish pianist and Holocaust survivor. Brody's other films include Summer of Sam, The Thin Red Line, Restaurant, and The Affair of the Necklace. He's now starring in Dummy.

Nigerian-born actor Chiwetel Ejiofor stars in the new Stephen Frears film Dirty Pretty Things. Ejiofor plays an immigrant former doctor who now must make his living in London as a cab driver and hotel clerk. Ejiofor graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and was named Outstanding Newcomer in The London Evening Standard Awards 2000. He recently completed a sell-out run at London's National Theatre as Christopher in Blue/Orange. At the age of 19 he had a role in Steven Spielberg's film Amistad.

He died June 15, 2003, of prostate cancer at the age of 92. His first film role was in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt. He went on to star in several more Hitchcock films, later co-writing the screenplays for Rope and Under Capricorn. He also had starring roles in the films The Postman Always Rings Twice, Brute Force and Ziegfeld Follies. In the 1950s and 60s, Cronyn went to Broadway, often co-starring with his wife, the late Jessica Tandy. He won a Tony award in 1964 for his role as Polonius in the Broadway production of Hamlet.

He starred on Broadway in M Butterfly, and in the TV series Law & Order: SVU and HBO's Oz. He's the author of the new book Following Foo (the electronic adventures of the Chestnut Man). It's about the premature birth of his twin sons in August 2000. The twins suffered a rare medical disorder. One of them died shortly after birth, and the other twin, Jackson Foo, was in neonatal intensive care for three months. At the time Wong began an e-mail correspondence with family and friends on Jackson Foo's progress.

Film critic John Powers pays tribute to comedian Bob Hope, who is 100 years old today.

He won an Academy Award for his performance as John Laroche in the film Adaptation. His latest project is the HBO film My House in Umbria, starring Maggie Smith, which debuts May 25, 2003. Cooper is also in the soon-to-be-released Seabiscuit, and he had roles in American Beauty, The Bourne Identity, and The Horse Whisperer.

Actor John Malkovich is making his directorial debut with the new film The Dancer Upstairs. Malkovich has been nominated twice for an Academy Award for his work in the films In the Line of Fire and Places in the Heart. His other films include Heart of Darkness, Being John Malkovich, Shadow of the Vampire, Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog and Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun. Malkovich is also a founding member of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

He's currently performing in the Brooklyn Academy of Music's concurrent productions of Twelfth Night and Uncle Vanya. Beale is a member of London's acclaimed Donmar Warehouse company. He plays Malvolio in Twelfth Night and Vanya in Uncle Vanya. Beale has won a number of Olivier Awards and has appeared in several films, including An Ideal Husband and The Temptation of Franz Schubert.

He's a two-time Academy Award winner for his performances in The Usual Suspects and American Beauty. His other films include L.A. Confidential, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Negotiator and The Shipping News. On television he was a regular in the series Wiseguy. In 1997 Spacey formed Trigger Street Productions, which has produced films and Broadway plays. Recently Spacey launched TriggerStreet.com, an interactive Web site dedicated to nurturing and developing undiscovered talent. Spacey's new film, The Life of David Gale, hits theaters this weekend.