Nicolas Cage

Born: 7th January 1964
Where: Long Beach, California

The Oscar-winning actor has forged a reputation for playing oddballs in a series of hit movies ranging from Wild at Heart to Adaptation.

Though haunted by cries of nepotism early in his career, the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola led anything but a charmed existence.

His mother's treatment for severe depression kept her away from the family for long intervals.

The subsequent divorce coupled with his adolescent feelings of "dorkiness" made it easy for him to identify with James Dean's outsider status in 1955's East of Eden.

Credited as Nicolas Cage for the first time, he channeled his frustrations through his initial leading character in 1983's Valley Girl.

His name change was inspired by Luke Cage, the black comic-book hero who suffers from depression and insecurity.

Cage graduated from teenage angst after providing a strong presence in a small part in his uncle's underrated Rumble Fish.

He made his first serious dramatic waves as the sensitive, strong and fiercely loyal friend of Matthew Modine in Alan Parker's Birdy in 1984.

Peggy Sue Got Married attracted the attention of Cher who, likening his strangely compelling performance to watching a two-hour car crash, proposed him for the role of Ronny in Moonstruck.

She apparently walked out of the production for a day until the producers gave in.

Cage showcased his wacky qualities in such movies as the Coen brothers' screwball comedy Raising Arizona and David Lynch's odyssey, Wild at Heart.

He probably single-handedly guaranteed a perpetual cult status for Vampire's Kiss when he ate a live cockroach in a method-acting stunt.

It was his wacky charm which was central to the success of Andrew Bergman's comedy Honeymoon In Vegas.

Unfortunately Bergman couldn't repeat the formula for It Could Happen To You - despite the presence of Cage in that cast.

Returning to the Nevada city in Mike Figgis' Leaving Las Vegas, Cage delivered an uncharacteristically subtle, multi-layered performance as an alcoholic writer out to commit suicide.

Bringing warmth and humour to what could have been an unsympathetic role, Cage won a Best Actor Academy Award.

Following his Oscar win, Cage reinvented himself as an action hero, starring in The Rock with Sean Connery, John Malkovich in Con Air and John Travolta in John Woo's Face/Off.

Cage then enjoyed a respite from actioners in City of Angels, a love story inspired by Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire before taking his turn in Brian De Palma's crime thriller Snake Eyes.

In 1999, Cage starred in two edgey thrillers, 8mm directed by Joel Schumacher and Bringing Out the Dead directed by Martin Scorsese.

2000 brought Cage back in touch with his action movie side, starring in the car theft movie Gone In 60 Seconds with Angelina Jolie.

Cage's next three films did not fare as well, with Family Man, Captain Corelli's Mandolin and "Windtalkers all receiving lukewarm reception with audiences and critics.

After becoming better known for his unorthodox personal life (such as his three-month marriage to Elvis Presley's daughter Lisa Marie in 2002), Cage was ripe for a comeback.

He starred as real-life screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and his fictional twin brother Donald in the reality-bending Adaptation, which which he received a second best actor Oscar nomination.

Also in 2002, Cage saw the release of his first directorial effort, Sonny, about a man who wants out of the family business as a professional gigolo.

Cage followed up Adapatation with a much-admired turn in director Ridley Scott's Matchstick Men as a small time con man who comes alive when he discovers the 14-year-old daughter he never knew.

On a personal note, the actor married his girlfriend Alice Kim in 2004, making it his third time down the aisle - after wife number 1, Patricia Arquette and number 2, Lisa Marie Presley.

In 2004, he starred alongside Sean Bean in the family adventure National Treasure.