Sam Rockwell

Born: 1968
Where: Daly City, California, USA

For an actor who has confessed he's not sure whether he actually likes making movies, Rockwell hasn't had a bad run at it.

After 10 years in the trenches of independent filmmaking, he found himself deluged with scripts following his off-kilter performance in Tom DeCillo's Box of Moonlight.

A child of actors, Rockwell moved with his father to San Francisco from New York after his parents divorced when he was five.

He first performed on stage with his mother at the age of ten and made his feature debut in Clownhouse.

Roles in movies like Last Exit to Brooklyn and In the Soup, which began a three-picture association with critically-acclaimed indie director Alexandre Rockwell, followed but his career did not really take off until after Box of Moonlight.

He was featured in numerous independent films, including a much acclaimed role as a working-class cutter of lawns who bonds with a 10-year-old in Lawn Dogs and starred as Jerry opposite Joe Mantegna's Tom in Jerry and Tom in 1998.

The transition from independent films to starring roles in mainstream Hollywood fare would begin in 1998 with a bit part in his biggest film yet, Woody Allen's all-star comedy Celebrity.

The following year, Rockwell received critical acclaim for his role as evil "Wild Bill" Wharton in Frank Darabont's Oscar nominated The Green Mile and went on to secure the role of Guy Fleegman in the box office hit Galaxy Quest.

His profile was raised with a starring turn as billionaire software mogul Eric Knox in the 2000 summer smash Charlie's Angels.

In 2002, Rockwell appeared with Gene Hackman and Danny DeVito in the excellent crime thriller Heist and played the scheming Pero in the Russo brother's crime comedy Welcome to Collinwood.

Though not really a household name, Rockwell was well on his way with roles in Matchstick Men, a Nicolas Cage vehicle, and George Clooney's directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

In 2005, he played Emperor of the Galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox in the big screen adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.