Joseph Gordon-Levitt
as Don Jon
Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt was born on February 17, 1981 in Los Angeles, California to parents Jane Gordon and Dennis Levitt. Joseph was raised in a Jewish family with his late older brother, Dan Gordon-Levitt, who passed away in October 2010. His maternal grandfather, Michael Gordon, had been a well-known movie director. After working for several years as a child actor, Joseph became better known for starring on the hit television series "3rd Rock from the Sun" (1996), for which he earned two Hollywood Reporter Young Star Awards. In addition, the show earned three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Outstanding Peformance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. Prior to his success on television, Joseph had already worked steadily in feature films, debuting in the Robert Redford film A River Runs Through It (1992).
Scarlett Ingrid Johansson was born in New York City to mother, Melanie Sloan and father, Karsten Johansson. Scarlett showed a passion for acting at a young age and starred in many plays. She has a sister named Vanessa Johansson, a brother named Adrian, and a twin brother named Hunter Johansson born three minutes after her. She began her acting career starring as Laura Nelson in the comedy film North (1994). The acclaimed drama film The Horse Whisperer (1998) brought Johansson critical praise and worldwide recognition. Following the film's success, she starred in many other films including the critically acclaimed cult film Ghost World (2001) and then the hit Lost in Translation (2003) with Bill Murray in which she again stunned critics. Later on, she appeared in the drama film Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003). In 2003, she was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, one for drama (Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)) and one for comedy (Lost in Translation (2003)). She dropped out of Mission: Impossible III (2006) due to scheduling conflicts. Her next film role was in The Island (2005) alongside Ewan McGregor which earned weak reviews from U.S. critics. After this, she appeared in Woody Allen's Match Point (2005) and was nominated again for a Golden Globe Award.
The daughter of a military judge and a Scottish social worker, Julianne Moore was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina on December 3, 1960. She spent the early years of her life in over two dozen locations around the world with her parents before she finally found her place at Boston University, where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) degree in acting from the School of the Performing Arts. After graduation (in 1983), Julianne moved to New York and worked extensively in theater, including appearances off-Broadway in two Caryl Churchill plays, Serious Money and Ice Cream With Hot Fudge and as Ophelia in Hamlet at The Guthrie Theatre. But despite her formal training, Julianne fell into the attractive actress' trap of the mid-1980's: TV soaps and miniseries. She appeared briefly in the daytime serial "The Edge of Night" (1956) and from 1985 to 1988 she played two half-sisters Frannie and Sabrina on the soap "As the World Turns" (1956). This performance later led to an Outstanding Ingénue Daytime Emmy Award in 1988. Her subsequent appearances were in mostly forgettable TV-movies, such as Money, Power, Murder. (1989) (TV), The Last to Go (1991) (TV) and Cast a Deadly Spell (1991) (TV). She made her entrance into the big screen with 1990's Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990), where she played the victim of a mummy. Two years later, Julianne appeared in feature films with supporting parts in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) and the comedy The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag (1992). She kept winning better and more powerful roles as time went on, including a small but memorable role as a nurse who spots Kimble Harrison Ford and attempts to thwart his escape in The Fugitive (1993). (A role that made such an impression on Steven Spielberg that he cast her in the Jurassic Park (1993) sequel without an audition in 1997). In one of Moore's most distinguished performances, she recapitulated her "beguiling Yelena" from Andre Gregory's workshop version of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya in Louis Malle's critically acclaimed Vanya on 42nd Street (1994). Director Todd Haynes gave Julianne her first opportunity to take on a lead role in Safe (1995). Her portrayal of Carol White, an affluent L.A. housewife who develops an inexplicable allergic reaction to her environment, won critical praise as well as an Independent Spirit Award nomination. Later that year she found her way into romantic comedy, co-starring as Hugh Grant's pregnant girlfriend in Nine Months (1995). Following films included Assassins (1995), where she played an electronics security expert targeted for death (next to Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas) and Surviving Picasso (1996), where she played Dora Maar, one of the numerous lovers of Picasso (portrayed by her hero, Anthony Hopkins). A year later, after co-starring in Spielberg's The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), opposite Jeff Goldblum, a young and unknown director, Paul Thomas Anderson asked Julianne to appear in his movie, Boogie Nights (1997). Despite her misgivings, she finally was won over by the script and her decision to play the role of Amber Waves, a loving porn star who acts as a mother figure to a ragtag crew, proved to be a wise one, since she received both Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations. Julianne started 1998 by playing an erotic artist in The Big Lebowski (1998), continued with a small role in the social comedy Chicago Cab (1997) and ended with a subtle performance in Gus Van Sant's remake of Psycho (1960). 1999 had Moore as busy as an actress can be. She starred in a number of high-profile projects, beginning with Robert Altman's Cookie's Fortune (1999) , in which she was cast as the mentally challenged but adorable sister of a decidedly unhinged Glenn Close. A portrayal of the scheming Mrs. Cheveley followed in Oliver Parker's An Ideal Husband (1999) with a number of critics asserting that Moore was the best part of the movie. She then enjoyed another collaboration with director Anderson in Magnolia (1999) and continued with an outstanding performance in The End of the Affair (1999), for which she garnered another Oscar nomination. She ended 1999 with another great performance, that of a grieving mother in A Map of the World (1999), opposite Sigourney Weaver.
Tony Danza received an Emmy nomination for a guest-starring role in "The Practice" (1997) and acclaim for his performance in the Broadway revival of "The Iceman Cometh" by Eugene O'Neill. He is best known, however, for his lovable sitcom personae. Following a five-year run in "Taxi" (1978), he starred in "Who's the Boss?" (1984) for eight seasons. He also starred in the comedy series "Hudson Street" (1995) and "The Tony Danza Show" (1997), for which he was executive producer. His additional television credits include an acclaimed performance opposite George C. Scott and Jack Lemmon in the remake of the film classic 12 Angry Men (1997) (TV) and the television movies The Garbage Picking Field Goal Kicking Philadelphia Phenomenon (1998) (TV), Noah (1998) (TV), The Girl Gets Moe (1997), North Shore Fish (1997) (TV) and Deadly Whispers (1995) (TV). Danza's additional stage credits include the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's Tony Award-winning "A View From the Bridge". His theatrical debut in "Wrong Turn" at Lungfish earned him an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination. Among his motion picture credits are Angels in the Outfield (1994), She's Out of Control (1989), A Brooklyn State of Mind (1998), Glam (1997) and Illtown (1996). He also wrote, directed and starred in the short film Mamamia (1998) and continues to garner accolades performing in his song-and-dance stage show, which debuted in Atlantic City in 1995. He has since taken it on the road to major venues throughout the country, from Las Vegas to New York. Danza earned a bachelor's degree in history education from the University of Dubuque, which he attended on a wrestling scholarship. Shortly after graduation, he was discovered by a producer at a boxing gymnasium in New York, and "Taxi" (1978) rolled into his life. Danza was born in Brooklyn, New York, and lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Tracy, and three children. Grew up in a Long Island suburb, Malverne, New York.
Rob Brown was born in Harlem and raised in Brooklyn, New York. A natural who never studied acting and who had no professional acting experience, made his acting and motion picture debut in Finding Forrester (2000). Rob celebrated his 16th birthday just before the start of production. He is a talented athlete in high school playing both basketball and football.
Jeremy Luke was born and raised in South Beach, Staten Island. After trying the traditional route (5 high schools in 4 years) Jeremy became a nightclub promoter and in his free time started acting as an outlet. He began studying in earnest at the College of Staten Island and continued his career in Los Angeles in 2000. In addition to TV, he has performed in numerous plays and has studied extensively with Joe Palese at The Actor Space in Sherman Oaks. His mother Ester is a physician's assistant at Staten Island Hospital and his father Joseph is a retired sandy hook pilot.
For the past fourteen years, she has said that family has been the most important thing to her and she has set most of her time aside to be a "present" mother to her son. Movies, plays and television are chosen, for the most part, when they occur in town or on a school break. She has taken the current year to homeschool her son for his seventh grade. But it wasn't always this way. She was raised in New York City and wanted to be an actress from the time she was a child, graduating with acting honors from the High School of Performing Arts. She chose to opt out of studying acting in college and attended a small college in Europe, majoring in art history and literature, knowing that acting would take up a great deal of her life and that her college years would be her only real time to learn about something else. Upon graduation, she returned to New York City but a chance trip to Chicago inspired her to move there and become a part of its budding theatre community. It was in a production of "Curse of The Starving Class", directed by Robert Falls and co-starring John Malkovich, that she was first seen by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and, subsequently, asked to join their troupe. She did and learned what it really was to be an actress on her feet, performing in all kinds of roles in both comedy and drama. During this time, she won four Joseph Jefferson awards for best supporting actress. With a return move to New York, she received a Theatre World Award for "best newcomer" for her role in "the Philanthropist" at the Manhattan Theatre Club and appeared in "Extremities" with Susan Sarandon. This was followed by her appearance in the very successful Steppenwolf production in New York of "Balm in Gilead". She then starred on Broadway opposite Kevin Kline and Raul Julia in "Arms & the Man", directed by John Malkovich, her husband at the time. She was cast in several smaller films including Nadine (1987), Making Mr. Right (1987) and Paperhouse (1988) as well as "Lonesome Dove" (1989) for television for which she received her first of two Emmy nominations for best supporting actress. But her breakout film performance was in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), in which she played the cunning "victim", who gets the best of con artists Michael Caine and Steve Martin. This led to her being cast in the blockbuster comic strip parody, Dick Tracy (1990), in which she portrayed the girlfriend, "Tess Trueheart", to Warren Beatty's lead. She went on to appear in the films Mr. Holland's Opus (1995) opposite Richard Dreyfuss, Mortal Thoughts (1991) opposite Demi Moore, 2 Days in the Valley (1996), What's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001), Breakfast of Champions (1999), Around the Bend (2004) and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004). On television, she had a recurring part on "ER" (1994) and "Monk" (2002) and was in the short-lived sit-com "Encore! Encore!" (1998) with Nathan Lane and Joan Plowright. She was in the live theatrical presentation of "On Golden Pond" as the troubled daughter of Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews and also appeared in the telefilms Women vs. Men (2002) (TV), My Own Country (1998) (TV) and Pronto (1997) (TV), among others. She received her second Emmy nomination for best supporting actress for Bastard Out of Carolina (1996), directed by Anjelica Huston. Her most recent appearances were in the films The Amateurs (2005) (aka "The Amateurs"), The Namesake (2006), Comeback Season (2006), Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008) and The Joneses (2009).