Tom Sizemore

Born: September 29 1964
Where: Detroit, Michigan, USA

The actor has specialised in thuggish roles ranging from harcore cop Cody Nicholson in True Romance to Michael Cheritto in Heat.

Off screen, he has suffered a chequered private life including drug addiction and allegations of assault.

He grew up idolizing the tough guy actors such as Marlon Brando and James Dean before attending Wayne State University.

After getting his Master's Degree in theatre from the University of Temple in 1986, he moved to New York and waited tables while performing in plays.

(he worked for three years as a waiter at the World Trade Center).

In 1989, His first break came when Oliver Stone cast him in a bit part in Vietnam War drama Born on the Fourth of July.

Roles followed in the cop thriller Blue Steel, as DEA Agent Deets in Point Break and the Wesley Snipes thriller Passenger 57 in 1992.

The same year he auditioned unsuccessfully six time for the role of Mr Pink (which went to Steve Buscemi) in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs.

In 1993, he starred in True Romance and followed that with the key part of Bat Masterson in Kevin Costner's star-studded biopic Wyatt Earp.

His first truly memorable roles was as Detective Jack Scagnetti in Oliver Stone's controversial Natural Born Killers in 1994.

In 1995, he appeared in Devil in a Blue Dress, Strange Days as well as the acclaimed crime epic Heat, directed by Michael Mann.

Sizemore earned his first big leading role in Peter Hyams' horror thriller Relic after successfully entering a drug rehabilitation programme.

The same year he was arrested in Los Angeles after his wife called police claiming she'd been physically injured during an argument at their apartment.

Rumour has it his mother and close friend Robert De Niro ppeared on his doorstep during the filming of Witness to the Mob and gave him the choice of rehab or jail.

Director Steven Spielberg threatened to hold up the shooting of Saving Private Ryan if Sizemore, who played Sergeant Horvath, failed drugs test even once.

The film went ahead and gave Sizemore a more rounded role than he's previously been offered.

After an uncredited mobster role in Enemy of the State, Sizemore then portrayed a psychotic ambulance driver in Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead.

Supporting roles followed in Play It to the Bone, sci-fi thriller Red Planet and Michael Bay's lavish World War II epic Pearl Harbor.

Staying with a military theme, Sizemore starred in Ridley Scott's helicopter gunship drama Black Hawk Down and as Morgan Freeman's second in the command in Dreamcatcher.

Offscreen, he provided the voiceover for Sonny Forelli in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

He was married to actress Maeve Quinlan for three years and was also engaged to Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss.

In 2003, the relationship ended in jail for Sizemore, who was convicted of physical abuse and harassment.

Fleiss alleged in court that Sizemore stubbed a cigarette on her and pulled her across the room by her hair.

He was sentenced to six months in prison, reduced to ninety days on condition he attended anger management counselling and drug rehabilitation.

In 2004, he played a vicious tabloid photographer in the woeful Paparazzi with Cole Hauser.