Harry Connick Jr

Born: September 11 1967
Where: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

The piano-playing crooner and actor made his big screen debut as B-17 tail-gunner Clay Busby in the 1990 Second World War drama Memphis Belle.

He has since enjoyed a variety of roles ranging from a mass murderer in Copycat to Will Smith's best buddie in the disaster movie Independence Day.

The son of New Orleans district attorney Harry Connick Sr and Louisiana Supreme Court justice Anita Connick, he was a proficient piano player by the age of six.

He recorded with a local jazz band when he was just ten before attending Jesuit High School while being taught music by Ellis Marsalis and James Booker.

He moved to New York to study at Hunter College and the prestigious Manhattan School of Music, where a Columbia Records executive persuaded him to sign up.

His first record was a mainly instrumental album of standards and he soon acquired a reputation because of extended stays at high-profile New York jazz venues.

After his next album, 20, he was asked by director Rob Reiner to provide a soundtrack for his 1989 romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal.

The soundtrack consisted of several standards, including It Had to Be You, Let's Call the Whole Thing Off and Don't Get Around Much Anymore, and achieved double-platinum status in the USA.

Connick made his screen debut in 1990's Memphis Belle about a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber crew in World War II.

Promise Me You'll Remember, his contribution to the Godfather III soundtrack, was nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe in 1991.

In October, he starred in Little Man Tate, directed by Jodie Foster, playing the friend of a child prodigy who goes to college.

(Connick was arrested in 1992 and charged with having a 9mm pistol at JFK International Airport. After spending a day in jail, he agreed to make a public-service television commercial warning against breaking gun laws).

In his third film, Copycat, Connick played a killer opposite Holly Hunter and Sigourney Weaver and he went on to star in 1996's Independence Day.

The following year he starred in Excess Baggage opposite Alicia Silverstone and Benicio del Toro and subsequently had his first leading role in director Forest Whitaker's Hope Floats, with Sandra Bullock as his female lead.

In 1999, he provided the voice of Dean McCoppin in the animated film The Iron Giant and went on to narrate the film My Dog Skip.

Subsequent film outings included Mickey (scripted by John Grisham) and he also enjoyed a fruitful run as Grace Adler's boyfriend (and later husband) Leo Markus on the sitcom Will & Grace.

In 2002, Connick appeared in the film Basic with John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson and also starred in William Friedkin's psychological thriller Bug in 2005.

Recent work includes the rom-com P.S. I Love You opposite Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler.