100 MOST POPULAR “STARS” IN THE WORLD

Daniel Jacob Radcliffe was born on July 23, 1989 in Fulham, London, England, to literary agent Alan Radcliffe and casting agent Marcia Gresham. His father is from a Northern Irish Protestant background, while his mother was born in South Africa, to a Jewish family (from Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Germany)…

If you had told fourteen-year-old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV that one day in the not-too-distant future he would be considered one of the top hundred movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and told you that his ambition was to become a priest. None the less…

Charlie Chaplin, considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular “Little Tramp” character; the man with the toothbrush mustache, bowler hat, bamboo cane, and a funny walk…

Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born in Concord, California, to Janet Marylyn (Frager), a hospital worker, and Amos Mefford Hanks, an itinerant cook. His father had English, and some German, ancestry, while his mother’s family, originally surnamed “Fraga”, was entirely Portuguese. Tom grew up in what he has called a “fractured” family…

Matthew Paige Damon was born on October 8, 1970, in Boston Massachusetts, to Kent Damon, a stockbroker, realtor and tax preparer, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an early childhood education professor at Lesley University. Matt has an older brother named Kyle who is now a sculptor. His father is of English and Scottish descent…

Willard Carroll Smith, Jr. was born in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second of four children of Caroline (Bright), a school board employee, and Willard Carroll Smith, Sr., who owned a refrigeration company. He grew up in a middle class area in West Philadelphia called Wynnefield. Will attended the Overbrook High School located in the Overbrook section of Philadelphia…

Cameron Diaz was born in 1972 in San Diego, California, to Billie Joann (Early), an import-export agent, and Emilio Diaz, who worked for an oil company. Her mother has English, Scots-Irish, and German ancestry, and her father was from a Cuban family (of Spanish origin). Self-described as “adventurous…

Undoubtedly one of the most influential film personalities in the history of film, Steven Spielberg is perhaps Hollywood’s best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. Spielberg has countless big-grossing, critically acclaimed credits to his name, as producer, director and writer…

Robert De Niro, thought of as one of the greatest American actors of all time, was born in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, to artists Virginia (Admiral) and Robert De Niro Sr. His paternal grandfather was of Italian descent, and his other ancestry is Irish, German, Dutch, English, and French…

Robert Downey Jr. has evolved into one of the most respected actors in Hollywood. With an amazing list of credits to his name, he has managed to stay new and fresh even after over four decades in the business. Downey was born April 4, 1965 in Manhattan, New York, the son of writer, director and filmographer Robert Downey Sr. and actress Elsie Downey (née Elsie Ann Ford)…

Liam Neeson was born on June 7, 1952 in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, UK, to Katherine (Brown), a cook, and Bernard Neeson, a school caretaker. Liam worked as a forklift operator for Guinness, truck driver, assistant architect and an amateur boxer. He had originally sought a career as a teacher by attending St…

American actor Mark Wahlberg is one of a handful of respected entertainers who successfully made the transition from teen pop idol to respected actor. A Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee for The Departed who went on to receive positive critical reviews for his performance in The Fighter, Wahlberg also is a solid comedy actor, proven by his starring role inTed…

Pierce Brendan Brosnan was born in Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland, to May (Smith), a nurse, and Thomas Brosnan, a carpenter. He lived in Navan, County Meath, until he moved to England, UK, at an early age (thus explaining his ability to play men from both backgrounds convincingly). His father left the household when Pierce was a child and although reunited later in life…

Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Bloom was born in Canterbury, Kent, England on January 13, 1977. His mother, Sonia Constance Josephine (Copeland), was born in Kolkata, India, to an English family then-resident there. The man he briefly knew as his father, Harry Bloom, was a legendary political activist who fought for civil rights in South Africa…

Hong Kong’s cheeky, lovable and best known film star, Jackie Chan endured many years of long, hard work and multiple injuries to establish international success via his early beginnings in Hong Kong’s manic martial arts cinema industry. Jackie was born Kong-sang Chan on Hong Kong’s famous Victoria Peak on April 7…

Adam Richard Sandler was born September 9, 1966 in Brooklyn, New York, to Judith (Levine), a teacher at a nursery school, and Stanley Alan Sandler, an electrical engineer. He is of Russian Jewish descent. At 17, he took his first step towards becoming a stand-up comedian when he spontaneously took the stage at a Boston comedy club…

When a hunky, twenty-year-old heart-throb Heath Ledger first came to the attention of the public in 1999, it was all too easy to tag him as a “pretty boy” and an actor of little depth. He spent several years trying desperately to sway this image, but this was a double-edged sword. Heath Ledger was born on the fourth of April 1979…

Jessica Marie Alba was born on April 28, 1981, in Pomona, CA, to Catherine (Jensen) and Mark David Alba, who served in the US Air Force. Her mother has Danish, Welsh, German, English and French-Canadian ancestry, while her father is of Mexican descent (including Spanish, Indigenous Mexican and distant Sephardic Jewish…

Keira Christina Knightley was born in the South West Greater London suburb of Richmond on March 26th 1985. She is the daughter of actor Will Knightley and actress turned playwrightSharman Macdonald. An older brother, Caleb Knightley, was born in 1979. Her father is English, while her Scottish-born mother is of Scottish and Welsh origin…

Will Ferrell was born in Irvine, California, to Betty Kay (Overman), a teacher, and Roy Lee Ferrell, Jr., a musician. His parents were both originally from Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. A graduate of the University of Southern California, Ferrell became interested in performing while a student at University High School in Irvine…

Nicolas Cage was born in Long Beach, California, the son of comparative literature professor August Coppola (a brother of director Francis Ford Coppola) and dancer/choreographer Joy Vogelsang. He is of Italian (father) and German, English, and Polish (mother) descent. Cage changed his name early in his career to make his own reputation…

Keanu Reeves, whose first name means “cool breeze over the mountains” in Hawaiian, was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1964, the son of English-born Patricia Taylor, a showgirl, and American-born Samuel Nowlin Reeves, a geologist. Keanu’s father was born in Hawaii, of British, Portuguese, Native Hawaiian…

Halle Berry was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father, Jerome Jesse Berry, was African-American, and worked as a hospital attendant. Her mother, Judith Ann (Hawkins), who is Caucasian, has English and German ancestry, and is a retired psychiatric nurse. Halle has an older sister named Heidi Berry…

Samuel L. Jackson was born in Washington, D.C., to Elizabeth (Montgomery) and Roy Henry Jackson. He was raised by his mother, a factory worker. Jackson was active in the black student movement. In the seventies, he joined the Negro Ensemble Company (together with Morgan Freeman). In the eighties, he became well known after three movies made bySpike Lee – Do the Right Thing…

Tommy Lee Jones was born in San Saba, Texas, the son of Lucille Marie (Scott), a police officer and beauty shop owner, and Clyde C. Jones, who worked on oil fields. Tommy himself worked in underwater construction and on an oil rig. He attended St. Mark’s School of Texas, a prestigious prep school for boys in Dallas…

Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. was born on December 28, 1954 in Mount Vernon, New York. He is the middle of three children of a beautician mother, Lennis (Lowe), from Georgia, and a Pentecostal minister father, Denzel Washington, Sr., from Virginia. After graduating from high school, Denzel enrolled at Fordham University…

Shia Saide LaBeouf was born in Los Angeles, California, to Shayna (Saide) and Jeffrey Craig LaBeouf, and is an only child. His mother is from an Ashkenazi Jewish family, while his father has Cajun (French) ancestry. His parents are divorced. He started his career by doing stand-up comedy around places in his neighborhood…

Known for his breakthrough starring role on Freaks and Geeks, James Franco was born in Palo Alto, California on April 19, 1978. His mother, Betsy Franco, is Jewish, and his father, Douglas Eugene “Doug” Franco, was of Portuguese and Swedish descent, and ran a Silicon Valley business. James’s mother, a writer, has occasionally acted…

Vin Diesel was born Mark Sinclair in Alameda County, California, along with his fraternal twin brother, Paul Vincent. He was raised by his astrologer/psychologist mother, Delora Sherleen (Sinclair), and adoptive father, Irving H. Vincent, an acting instructor and theater manager, in an artist’s housing project in New York City’s Greenwich Village…

Robin McLaurin Williams was born on Saturday, July 21st, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois, a great-great-grandson of Mississippi Governor and Senator, Anselm J. McLaurin. His mother, Laurie McLaurin (née Janin), was a former model from Mississippi, and his father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams, was a Ford Motor Company executive from Indiana…

Jason Matthew Biggs was born on May 12, 1978, in Pompton Plains, New Jersey, to Angela (Zocco), a nurse, and Gary Biggs, a shipping company manager. Jason has two sisters, Heather, a tax specialist born in 1971, and Chiara born in 1980. He was raised Catholic, and is of English and Italian descent. Jason started acting at age 5…

Van Damme was born in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Brussels, Belgium, to Eliana and Eugène Van Varenberg, an accountant. “The Muscles from Brussels”, originally known as Jean-Claude Van Varenberg, started martial arts at the age of 11. His father introduced him to martial arts when he saw his son was physically weak…

Self-proclaimed troublemaker Owen Wilson was born in Dallas, to Irish-American parents originally from Massachusetts. He grew up in Texas with his mother, Laura (Cunningham), a photographer; his father, Robert Andrew Wilson, an ad exec; and his brothers, Andrew Wilson (the eldest) and Luke Wilson(the youngest)…

Peter Jackson was born as an only child in a small coast-side town in New Zealand in 1961. When a friend of his parents bought him a super 8 movie camera (because she saw how much he enjoyed taking photos), the then eight-year-old Peter instantly grabbed the thing to start recording his own movies, which he made with his friends…

Bruce Lee remains the greatest icon of martial arts cinema and a key figure of modern popular media. Had it not been for Bruce Lee and his movies in the early 1970s, it’s arguable whether or not the martial arts film genre would have ever penetrated and influenced mainstream North American and European cinema and audiences the way it has over the past four decades…

Macaulay Carson Culkin, one of the most famous American child stars, was born on August 26, 1980 in New York City, New York, USA, as the third of seven children of his fatherChristopher Culkin (a former stage and child actor and also Macaulay’s former manager) and mother Patricia Brentrup. He is the brother of Shane Culkin…

Bill, the fifth of nine children, was born in Wilmette, Illinois, to Lucille (Collins), a mailroom clerk, and Edward Joseph Murray II, who sold lumber. He is of Irish descent. Among his siblings are actors Brian Doyle-Murray, Joel Murray, and John Murray. He and most of his siblings worked as caddies…

Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal was born in Los Angeles, to producer/screenwriter Naomi Foner (née Achs) and directorStephen Gyllenhaal. He is the brother of actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, who played his sister in Donnie Darko. His godmother is actress Jamie Lee Curtis. His mother is from a Jewish family, and his father’s ancestry includes Swedish, English, and Swiss-German…

Jason Statham was born in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, to Eileen (Yates), a dancer, and Barry Statham, a street merchant and lounge singer. Statham has done quite a lot in a short time. He has been a Diver on the British National Diving Team and finished 12th in the World Championships in 1992. He has also been a fashion model…

Kate Beckinsale was born on 26 July 1973 in England, and has resided in London for most of her life. Her mother is Judy Loe, who has appeared in a number of British dramas and sitcoms and continues to work as an actress, predominantly in British television productions. Her father was Richard Beckinsale…

Marlon Brando is widely considered the greatest movie actor of all time, rivaled only by the more theatrically orientedLaurence Olivier in terms of esteem. Unlike Olivier, who preferred the stage to the screen, Brando concentrated his talents on movies after bidding the Broadway stage adieu in 1949…

Channing Tatum was born in a small town, Cullman, Alabama, 50 miles north of Birmingham. He is the son of Kay (Faust), an airline worker, and Glenn Matthew Tatum, whose occupation was in construction. Growing up, he was full of energy and somewhat troublesome, so his parents decided to enroll him in different sports such as track and field…

Born to Mir Taj Muhammad Khan and Lateef Fatima in New Delhi, India. His mother always believed her son was destined to be a great actor often citing resemblance between Khan andDilip Kumar , another Bollywood legend. His name literally translates into ‘Face of the King’. According to some critics he may have influences of the legends Mr…

Emily Jean “Emma” Stone was born in Scottsdale, Arizona, to Krista (Yeager), a homemaker, and Jeffrey Charles Stone, a contracting company founder and CEO. She is of Swedish (from her paternal grandfather), English, German, Scottish, and Irish descent. Stone began acting as a child as a member of the Valley Youth Theatre in Phoenix…

McAvoy was born on 21 April 1979 in Glasgow, Scotland, to Elizabeth (nee Johnstone), a nurse, and James McAvoy, Sr. He was raised in Drumchapel, Glasgow by his grandparents after his father, a roofer by trade, abandoned his mother when James Jr. was 7. He went to St Thomas Aquinas Secondary in Jordanhill, Glasgow, where he did well enough and started ‘a little school band with a couple of mates’…

The trademark deep baritone voice, the tall, brooding persona, and intense eyes, made Amitabh Bachchan the ideal “Angry Young Man” in the 1975-84. The son of the late poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan and Teji Bachchan, he was born in Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. After completing his education from Sherwood College…

Rachel Anne McAdams was born on November 17, 1978 in London, Ontario, Canada, to Sandra Kay (Gale), a nurse, and Lance Frederick McAdams, a truck driver and furniture mover. She is of English, Welsh, Irish, and Scottish descent. Rachel became involved with acting as a teenager and by the age of 13 was…

Aamir was first introduced as a child artiste in the 1970’s hitYaadon Ki Baaraat — he was the youngest child in the trio. He then concentrated on school and became a state tennis champion for Maharashtra. Aamir fell in love with the girl next door in the meantime. He proposed to her the day he turned 21…