Roger Donaldson

Born: November 15 1945
Where: Ballarat, Australia

Donaldson is the director you can credit (or blame) for foisting Tom Cruise onto an unsuspecting world.

The casting of the then practically unknown actor in Cocktail, supplied Cruise with a phenomental box office smash.

Equally at home with thrillers or light-hearted crowd-pleasers, Donaldson has directed the Cuban missile crisis thriller Thirteen Days as well as conspiracty theory drama No Way Out.

Other film credits include the effective Dante's Peak with Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton and Species with Ben Kingsley.

Donaldson also notched up notable successes with The Getaway, starring Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, and Cadillac Man with Robin Williams.

The LA-based director's most recent offering was the lukewarm thriller The Recruit, starring Colin Farrell and Al Pacino.