Born: April 27, 1962

Thanks in large part to the independent film movement of the late '80s, the boyishly handsome James LeGros went from being an underrated bit player in Hollywood schlock to a well-respected character actor. A Minnesota native, LeGros found steady work when he migrated to Los Angeles after college in the early '80s, popping up as a guest star in such TV series as Knight_Rider, and in Danny DeVito's directorial debut, the made-for-cable satire The_Ratings_Game (a.k.a. The_Mogul). Sci-fi made up the bulk of LeGros' early feature-film roles, including the dreadful post-apocalyptic teen flop Solarbabies (1986) and the thriller sequel Phantasm II (1988).


It was director Gus_Van_Sant who afforded LeGros the opportunity to show his skills with a meaty supporting role in 1989's much-acclaimed Drugstore_Cowboy. As part of a quartet of drifters stealing their way across the Pacific Northwest, the actor held his own against the iconic Matt_Dillon as well as newcomer Heather_Graham. More challenging parts followed in the early '90s, including the psychological drama The_Rapture (1991), Cameron_Crowe's ensemble romantic comedy Singles (1992), and a pair of firearm-obsessed indies, Guncrazy and My_New_Gun (also 1992). Pairing with director Todd_Haynes for his 1995 sophomore feature Safe, LeGros garnered more acclaim as a confidante/romantic interest for the mysteriously ailing character played by Julianne_Moore. That same year, he hilariously sent up a narcissistic Hollywood actor -- not-so-secretly based on Brad_Pitt -- in director Tom DiCillo's satire on the perils of indie filmmaking, Living in Oblivion.


As the millennium drew to a close, LeGros would re-team with Moore in the ensemble dramedy The Myth of Fingerprints (1997), playing an eccentric New England townie who has a crush on Moore's icy, cosmopolitan yuppie. With the film, LeGros began a long-standing collaboration with the film's writer-director -- and Moore's real-life beau -- Bart_Freundlich, who would go on to cast LeGros in his subsequent films, including the road movie World_Traveler (2001), the family film Catch_That_Kid (2003), and the screwball relationship comedy Trust the Man (2006).


In the intervening years, LeGros made a successful return to the medium that gave him his first break: television. He was exposed to perhaps his widest audience to date in 1998 on the venerable medical drama ER, and then on the popular series Ally McBeal, in 2000 and 2001. A starring role on Showtime's gritty, controversial terrorist drama Sleeper_Cell followed in 2005. Michael Hastings, Rovi

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