Christian Slater

Born: 18 August 1969
Where: New York, New York, USA

The hellraising actor is known as much for his antics off-screen as much as he is for his film work.

High-profile roles have included a young monk in The Name of the Rose, Jason Dean in Heathers and Daniel Malloy in Interview With The Vampire.

However, a series of high-profile run-ins with the law have landed him in prison - one once occasion his cowboy boots were treated as a "deadly weapon".

The son of a casting agent, he attended New York's Dalton School and made his stage debut aged nine in The Music Man.

Slater's career continued on stage and the small screen and in 1985 he was cast in The Legend of Billie Jean - a role which turned him into one of the famous 'Brat Pack' of the 80's.

Racing ahead of most of his peers, he was starring in high profile, big budget movies almost immediately.

He was only 23 when he played out a significant role opposite Sean Connery in In The Name Of the Rose, and only two years later he starred in the skateboarding movie, Gleaming the Cube.

In 1989, Slater starred as teenage killer JD in the black comedy Heathers opposite Wynona Ryder, who would become his girlfriend.

He also starred in shock-jock comedy drama Pump Up The Volume as a mouthy DJ who enthralls his teenager listeners.

However, in the same year he was jailed for ten days for a drink driving offence in West Hollywood.

A police spokesman claimed Slater crashed into a telephone pole, kicked a cop after getting out of his car, and then tried to escape over a fence.

He was charged with evading police, driving under the influence, assault with a deadly weapon {his cowboy boots} and driving with a suspended license.

However, his behaviour did not affect his career - only months later he was cast opposite Kevin Costner as Will Scarlett in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

When River Phoenix's death rocked the movie world, Slater was chosen to replace him in another huge project - Interview With The Vampire, opposite Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.

But in the same year he was caught by the police again - this time for attempting to bring a gun onto an aircraft - and he was given a sentence of community service.

In 1996 Slater co-starred with John Travolta in John Woo's Broken Arrow and also made his directorial debut with the 30-minute TV short Museum Of Love.

The following year he debuted as a producer on the action thriller Hard Rain in which he also starred alongside Morgan Freeman.

However, his dark side emerged again when he jailed for three months for assaulting ex-girlfriend Michelle Jonas as well as a police officer.

In 2000, he played a young senator in the Joan Allen film The Contender, and then appeared in John Woo's war drama Windtalkers opposite Nicolas Cage.

Recent work includes the role of Winston Churchill - an American GI - in the comedy spoof Churchill: The Hollywood Years.

He also received positive reviews for the revival of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest on the London stage.