Josh Lucas

Born: June 20 1971

Where: Arkansas, USA

The actor has made his mark in roles ranging from the love interest in Sweet Home Alabama to Russell Crowe's nemesis in A Beautiful Mind.

As a child, Lucas' family criss-crossed the southern states before finally settling in Washington State, where Lucas took up acting in high school.

Despite twice winning an annual statewide drama competition, he found acting a struggle but still found the ambition to move to Los Angeles.

He made his small screen debut in the sitcom True Colors and went on to make the TV movies Child of Darkness, Child of Light and played General Custer in Class of '61.

Lucas made his big screen debut in 1993 in Alive! as a member of the infamous Uruguayan rugby team that crash lands in the Andes and turns cannibal to survive.

Then came Father Hood with Halle Berry and Patrick Swayze and a brief side trip to Australia to play Luke McGregor in the TV series Snowy River: The McGregor Saga.

Back in the states, he joined Malcolm McDowell, John Rhys-Davies, Mark Hamill and porn star Ginger Lynn to make the bestselling video game Wing Commander II.

Subsequent roles included the low-budget movies True Blue, Restless and Drop Back Ten.

He also appeared opposite Anson Mount in the Manhattan Theater Club's controversial production of Terrence McNally's Corpus Christi.

In 2000, he raised his profile as the deadbeat dad in Kenneth Lonergan's award-winning You Can Count on Me and a corporate banker in the drama American Psycho.

He played Sean Penn's brother in the present day segments of Kathryn Bigelow's The Weight of Water and the gay night-club owner in The Deep End.

The following year he was cast as Russell Crowe's rival-turned-buddy in A Beautiful Mind and went on to star as Reese Witherspoon's backwoods husband in Sweet Home Alabama.

In 2003, he was cast by Ang Lee as Eric Bana's romantic rival in the big screen adaptation of The Hulk.

The same year he has a supporting role alongside Michael Caine in the drama Secondhand Lions and played the gang leader who makes Val Kilmer unzip in front of party guests in Wonderland.

In 2005, Lucas reteamed with Caine for the poignant drama Around The Bend, also starring Christopher Walken.

He played the role of a shifty uncle in the southern gothic drama Undertow with Jamie Bell and a fighter pilot in Stealth.

Recent work includes Wolfgang Petersen's remake of the watery disaster classic Poseidon opposite Kurt Russell.