Ernie Hudson

Born: December 17 1945
Where: Benton Harbor, Michegan, USA

The ex-US Marine is best known as ectoplasm-chasing Winston Zeddemore in the hit comedy-thriller Ghostbusters.

He also attracted attention as the retarded handyman Solomon in the 1992 thriller The Hand The Rocks The Cradle and as Sandra Bullock's boss in Miss Congeniality.

As a child he wrote stories and poems and - after a short stint in the Marine Corps - moved to Detroit where he became the resident playwright at Concept East, the oldest black theatre in the country.

He also enrolled at Wayne State University, where he established the Actors' Emsemble Theatre for black writers to direct and appear in their own works.

After graduation he attended Yale School of Drama where he was approached to appear in the Los Angeles production of Lonnie Elder's musical Daddy Goodness.

This led to his first meeting with Gordon Parks who gave Hudson the co-starring role in his first feature film Leadbelly in 1976.

Bit parts followed - including parts in Fantasy Island and Little House on the Prairie - before he was cast as a killer in the Barbra Streisand movie The Main Event.

In 1980, he appeared as a heckler in the Neil Diamond movie The Jazz Singer and minor roles followed.

However, he landed the role of Zeddemore in Ghostbusters in 1984, raising his profile and landing the part of Solomon in The Hand The Rocks The Cradle.

Subsequent appearances included 1994 Gothic sci-fi thriller The Crow, rock band comedy Airheads and the action adventure Congo.

Hudson is now a stalwart of low-budget action movies, including Operation Delta Force, Shark Attack and Stealth Fighter.

In 2000, he starred as Sandra Bullock's FBI boss in Miss Congeniality and reprised the role in 2005's Miss Congeniality 2.