Edward Norton

Born: 18th August 1969
Where: Boston, Massachusetts

American History X - which earned Norton a Best Actor Oscar nomination - put the actor firmly on the map.

Norton made his professional debut at the age of eight in a theatre production of Annie Get Your Gun and went on to act at Yale University.

After graduation, he worked in Osaka, Japan, consulting for his grandfather's company, Enterprise Foundation, which works to create decent, affordable housing for low-income families.

On his return to the US, he moved to New York, which led to some off-off-Broadway work.

He caught the attention of legendary playwright Edward Albee, who was so impressed with the actor that he cast him in his play Fragments in 1994.

Norton's big screen debut was the 1996 legal thriller Primal Fear, from which he received a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination.

After adding 30 pounds of sculpted muscle to his formerly small frame, and shaving off his hair, Edward transformed himself into a skinhead for his starring debut as a brilliant and violent white supremacist in 1998's American History X.

Continuing the violent theme, he starred opposite Brad Pitt in the nihilistic Fight Club.

In 2000 he not only starred in but also made his directing debut with Keeping The Faith, about a priest and a rabbi who are best friends and who both have strong feelings for the same girl.

Next up was The Score with Robert De Niro and Danny De Vito's Death To Smoochy opposite Robin Williams.

He played Nelson Rockefeller in artist biopic Frida and also played detective Will Graham in Silence of the Lambs prequel Red Dragon.

Recently, Norton took a star turn as the drugs dealer facing jail in 25th Hour.

He also played the double-crossing gold thief in F Gary Gray's routine American remake of the Michael Caine classic The Italian Job.