Nick Nolte

Born: February 1940
Where: Omaha, Nebraska, USA

This tough guy with soul has openly admitted to lying to the press from the beginning, creating a persona in which even he has trouble separating the fact from fiction.

Nolte was well into his thirties when he first received attention for his role as rebellious younger brother Tom Jordache in the 1976 TV miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man.

He left the small screen behind after making his mark there, establishing himself in features in the late 70s, primarily as bad boys in action-oriented roles.

He made a commercial impact in 1982's 48 Hours with Eddie Murphy and was outstanding as the villainous racist, sexist cop in Q & A, but the sequel Another 48 Hours was a pale imitation of its precursor.

Offscreen, he was drinking heavily until 199o after Katharine Hepburn accused him of falling down drunk in every gutter in town.

Nolte was back on top in 1991 with Cape Fear and he scored an even bigger success as Tom Wingo in Barbra Streisand's The Prince of Tides, which earned him a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar nomination as Best Actor.

But, after turning in an excellent performance in Lorenzo's Oil in 1992, Nick lent himself to a series of critical and commercial disappointments.

He was also in trouble with the law after being arrested for suspected drink-driving in Malibu, Calfornia.

Subsequent tests showed that he was under the influence of GHB, the "date rape" drug.

In 1997, he delivered two of the most compelling performances of his career in small films that epitomise his willingness to embrace intriguing scripts in lieu of a big pay packet.

The charismatic womanising husband of Alan Rudolph's Afterglow and the loser who can never get his bearings in Paul Schrader's Affliction showed he still had it in him.

The critically-lauded Thin Red Line was followed by Simpatico and the Merchant/Ivory misfire The Golden Bowl.

Trixie with Emily Watson didn't bother the box office and Alan Rudolph's Investigating Sex didn't stand up to close scrutiny.

However, Nolte was back on firmer ground as the ex-pat American criminal on the Cote D'Azur in Neil Jordan's crime caper The Good Thief.

In 2004, he played a priest in eco-drama Northfork and UN officer Colonel Oliver in Terry George's Oscar nominated Hotel Rwanda.

Recent work includes the French director Olivier Assayas' drama Clean alongside Maggie Cheung.