Jake Weber
Born: March 19 1964
Where: London, UK
The consummate stage actor has made a virtue of strong supporting roles in movies ranging from Amistad to horror remake Dawn of the Dead.
He made his big screen debut in 1989 in the low-budget farce Identity Crisis and Oliver Stone's blockbuster Born on the Fourth of July with Tom Cruise.
However, he subsequently turned down roles in Glory and Reversal of Fortune to continue his studies as Juilliard.
After stage work including Shakespeare in the Park productions and off-Broadway productions, he made his Broadway debut in Alan Ayckbourn's farcical A Small Family Business.
Weber had small roles as an ill-fated Hassid in Sidney Lumet's A Stranger Among Us and as an informer who puts his life on the line in The Pelican Brief.
TV work, including Gene Wilder's Something Wilder, upped his profile and he attracted attention for the supernatural American Gothic.
However, increasing work on the big screen meant he moved on from stage and TV work to appear in Steven Spielberg's Amistad, Meet Joe Black with Anthony Hopkins and opposite John Cusack in Pushing Tin.
His stock rising, he played the German-speaking mastermind of the plot to steal the Enigma machine in U-571.
Subsequent roles included an FBI agent in the J-Lo vehicle The Cell and the horror film Wendigo with Patricia Clarkson.
In 2002, he appeared with Joseph Fiennes in Leo and starred in the comedy 100 Mile Rule.
Recent work includes the horror remake Dawn of the Dead and as "bondage man" in Love Thy Neighbour.
