Barbara Hershey

Born: February 5, 1948
Where: Hollywood, California

This versatile and prolific actress has never quite reached superstar status, but has enjoyed a career of middling success for over three decades.

Probably best known as Bette Midler's dying best friend in the classic weepie Beaches, and as Leigh in Wooody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters, Hershey has also spent years carving a name fort herself on the small screen.

She was discovered on her school stage, and soon took a leap onto the small screen, in the Western series The Monroes.

For years she garnered positive reviews for her roles, but in was her performance opposite Peter O'Toole in The Stunt Man in 1980 that brought Hershey fame at last.

In 1972 she starred as the title character in Martin Scorsese's first feature, Boxcar Bertha, and infamously, during filming she gave Scorsese a copy of her favourite novel, Nikos Kazantzakis' The Last Temptation of Christ. She wanted to play the part of Mary Magdalene, which she did 16 years later when Scorsese made the film for Universal.

Eventually Hershey became the first actress to win two consecutive Best Actress awards at the Cannes Film Festival: for Andre Konchalovsky's Shy People in 1987 and Chris Menges' A World Apart in 1988.

The 90's were also busy for Hershey. She appeared in a handful of features including Tune in Tomorrow; Defenseless and Falling Down.

One of her best screen roles in recent years was as the mother of a recently deceased young man who seduces one of his friends in The Pallbearer.

Later in 1996, she co-starred in Jane Campion's film adaptation of the Henry James' novel Portrait of a Lady.

In 1999 Hershey returned to the small screen in a co-starring role in the TV medical drama series Chicago Hope.