Hanks

Tom Hanks is the golden boy of the American cinema. In fact, everything he touches seems to turn to gold -- but his personality is so winning, his style so down-to-earth that it would be tough to begrudge him another Oscar for his performance in Steven Spielberg's war epic. A win this year would be the third for Hanks, who won two years in a row this decade, taking the 1994 Best Actor for "Forrest Gump," which showcased his comic timing and simple-man charm, and the 1993 award for his portrayal of a gay lawyer dying of AIDS in "Philadelphia."

A native Californian, Hanks was born July 9, 1956, in Concord. When he was five years old, his parents divorced, and he spent time moving around northern California with his father, an itinerant cook, before settling in Oakland. Hanks is married to actress Rita Wilson.

The zany, wiry Benigni is one of Italy's most beloved actors, previously best known to American audiences for playing the son of Inspector Clouseau (the late Peter Sellers' famous bumbling detective) in "Son of the Pink Panther." Benigni wrote, directed and starred in "Life is Beautiful," a film that has been hailed as "a masterpiece" by various movie critics. A comedy improbably set during one of mankind's darkest moments, it tells the story of a man who uses humor to try to get his family through the Holocaust.

Benigni has worked with such directors as Federico Fellini and Costa-Gavras. He is married to actress Nicoletta Braschi, his co-star in "Life is Beautiful."

English-born Ian McKellen has long been acclaimed for his performance in the West End and on Broadway, but this nod for his role in "Gods and Monsters" is his first nomination for an Academy Award. McKellen has won admiration for his stage interpretations of Shakespeare and a Tony award in 1981 for his performance in the Broadway production of "Amadeus." This is his first Oscar nomination in this category.

In addition to his substantial acting commitments, McKellen is also known for his work in promoting gay and lesbian rights, notably through the U.K. group Stonewall, which he helped found.

Nolte

Although Nick Nolte quickly became a movie star after appearing in the 1976 TV miniseries "Rich Man Poor Man," it took some time for him to win his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor. That came for his performance in "Prince of Tides," the 1991 film version of Pat Conroy's novel. Like that earlier, but less stark, film, "Affliction" casts Nolte as a son struggling to come to terms with the legacy of his father's abuse.

A blond, burly actor with a tough guy image and a gravelly voice, Nolte wasn't exactly groomed to be a thespian. Born February 8, 1934 in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of an Iowa State football player, Nolte was a high school athlete who won a football scholarship to Arizona State but didn't maintain passing grades. He played sports -- but neglected his studies -- at four other schools before quitting college altogether. After a spell as an ironworker in Southern California, he discovered the theater and toured the country with regional companies for 14 years before finding fame as a film actor.

Yale-educated Edward Norton was inspired to pursue an acting career by one of his fellow nominees. Sir Ian McKellen's performance in "Acting Shakespeare" helped propel a younger Norton toward an off-Broadway career that included performing in Edward Albee's "Fragments." (Much earlier, when he was 5 years old, Norton was similarly enthralled by a performance of "Cinderella.") His performance as a sociopath in his screen debut, the 1996 thriller "Primal Fear," won him an Academy Award nomination for supporting actor. Now, he is nominated for Best Actor for his role as a repentant skinhead in "American History X."

Norton was born in 1970, in Columbia, Maryland. His father is a noted lawyer and his mother a high school teacher. He is said to have won his breakthrough role in "Primal Fear" by pretending to be a simple man from the South, like his character in that movie.

Coburn

He's been acting in feature films since 1959, when a Columbia Pictures western called "Face of a Fugitive" started a series of supporting roles, often as a gunslinger. Coburn has played many considerably more memorable roles: He was a scheming con man the Cary Grant-Audrey Hepburn romantic thriller "Charade," and in the late '60s was the popular star of series of light Western spoofs, "Our Man Flint" and "In Like Flint."

Yet despite his lengthy acting career and sometimes illustrious co-stars, Coburn's role as Nick Nolte's screen dad in "Affliction" earned him the first Academy Award nomination of his career.

The son of an auto mechanic, Coburn was born in 1928 in Laurel, Nebraska. Married twice, he has a son and a stepdaughter from his first marriage.

Duvall's supporting actor nomination comes on the heels of his best actor nomination just last year for "The Apostle," which he wrote, directed and starred in; he lost that category to Jack Nicholson ("As Good As It Gets"). Duvall, 68, ranks among the most respected character actors and jack-of-all trades in the movie industry today. He has taken billing in past movies as actor, producer, director, writer and composer.

His part as a defense attorney in "A Civil Action" is just the latest role in a film career that started with a part in 1962's "To Kill A Mockingbird," in which he played Gregory Peck's feeble-minded next-door neighbor. Nominated six times for an Academy Award, his only Oscar win to date was for his portrayal of country-western singer Mac Sledge in the 1983 movie "Tender Mercies."

Harris, who played the godlike TV producer running "The Truman Show," is better known for space-bound roles in two other films: He played John Glenn -- a role that would help shape his career -- in the 1983 film "The Right Stuff," and later played Apollo mission ground-control manager Gene Kranz in "Apollo 13" (1995).

Making a relatively slow start in the entertainment industry, Harris finished his bachelor's degree at the California Institute of the Arts when he was 25, and made his screen debut in 1978, three years later. That feature-film debut was "Coma," in which he played a no-doubt illustrious "Pathology Resident #1." Clearly his profile has risen substantially since then; this is the second time he's been nominated for an Academy Award ("Apollo 13" was his first).

Rush, previously Oscar-winning for his lead performance as a brilliant but disturbed pianist in "Shine," is this time recognized for his role as the priggish but well-connected suitor in pursuit of Gwyneth Paltrow's Viola in "Shakespeare in Love."

Born in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia in 1951, Rush is an Australian film king -- but lately, his movies have been getting notice outside his island continent. Take "Oscar and Lucinda," which he narrated; "Children of the Revolution," another Australian film, this one about a woman whose love child with Josef Stalin brings Australia to the brink of civil war; and -- who could forget -- his part as a piano genius in "Shine."

Shine and fellow Oscar nominee Cate Blanchett, incidentally, both belong to Company B, an Australian acting company.

Actor, director, writer: Thornton has won respect for his talents in all three areas. He won an Oscar in 1997 for his Sling Blade" screenplay, and was nominated for his heartrending portrayal of a mentally disabled man who starts a new life in a small town after years of hospitalization. Now comes his role as Bill Paxton's brother and co-cash finder in "A Simple Plan."

Thornton, a native of Hot Springs, Arkansas, was born in 1955.

Streep

Perhaps no actress in the modern era has stolen hearts in so many different roles. Among her Oscar-nominated performances, Streep has played a tragic Polish siren in "Sophie's Choice," for which she won best actress; an Italian -- and lovestruck -- farmer's wife in "The Bridges of Madison County"; and a cold American mother in the 1979 divorce dance "Kramer vs. Kramer," for which she won an Oscar for best supporting actress. She has been nominated for an Oscar a total of 11 times, more than any other actress in this category.

Her most recent Oscar achievement comes in the movie "One True Thing," in which she stars as a cancer-stricken mom.

Streep, born in 1951 in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, majored in drama at Vassar, went on to graduate work at the Yale School of Drama, and starred on Broadway in the 1970s, earning a Tony nomination in 1976 for her work in "27 Wagons Full of Cotton."

Blanchett seemingly came out of nowhere to claim the throne in "Elizabeth," a role that has earned her a first Oscar nomination. But Blanchett's acting career has been building steam for some time. Now 29, she was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, attending the National Institute of Dramatic Art, wowing audiences -- and fellow actor Geoffrey Rush -- with her performance in "Electra" during her third year at school. "You're seeing somebody who's already, even in drama school, having a kind of consummate facility to actually be able to do it," Rush recently told Vanity Fair.

After graduating, she eventually made the transition to the big screen, starring in several films before capturing Hollywood's attention opposite Ralph Fiennes in 1997's "Oscar and Lucinda." That role led directly to her title role in "Elizabeth": Shekhar Kapur, the director of "Elizabeth," had been searching for months for his Elizabeth before stumbling on "Oscar and Lucinda," seeing Blanchett, and immediately deeming her his virgin queen.

Blanchett is married to Australian screenwriter Andrew Upton.

Paltrow

It used to be that people talked more about the screen hunk she was dating than they did about her. But now, removed from a tabloid-fevered relationship with Brad Pitt, the 20-something Paltrow has blossomed into one of the leading actresses of her generation, while topping "favorite screen ingenue" lists of millions of American males.

She has starred in over a dozen movies in the 1990s, including "Se7en," "Emma" and "Sliding Doors." But in "Shakespeare in Love," her role as Viola De Jesseps, the love interest of Shakespeare who inspires the bard to pen "Romeo and Juliet," has wowed critics and audiences alike.

Paltrow has Hollywood in her blood: her mom is actress Blythe Danner; her father is producer Bruce Paltrow.

Playing a lonely and cynical woman who befriends a child who lost his mother, Brazilian-born actress Fernanda Montenegro shines in "Central Station." It was a part that seems made for her -- indeed, director Walter Salles says he conceived the movie with Montenegro in mind.

Montenegro, born in 1929 as Arlete Pinheiro, has starred on the stage, in the movies and television, but this is her first Oscar nod. The role has already earned her acclaim from other groups, including a best actress award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

If Montenegro wins, she will become on the second actress to win an Oscar for a foreign-language film. Sophia Loren won an Oscar for "Two Women" in 1961.

Montenegro has been married to Fernando Torres since 1954, and they have two children.

Watson

Born January 14, 1967 in London, England, Emily Watson didn't get into acting until after college, earning her first professional job at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1992. Her career took off with her Oscar-nominated performance in her big screen debut, 1996's "Breaking the Waves." In that, she played a saintly woman who sleeps with other men at the request of her paralyzed husband.

Her latest Academy honor comes for her work in "Hilary & Jackie," which adds to her reputation for picking dark roles. The movie tells the true story of a genius cellist who is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and her often disturbing relationship with her sister.

While waiting to catch her big break into acting in the 1970s, Kathy Bates once took a job as a singing waitress at a Catskills, New York restaurant. Her persistence and enthusiasm paid off. After working in off-Broadway projects and various small silver-screen roles, Bates earned a Tony nomination in 1983 for her role as a suicidal daughter in "'night, Mother."

Her big film break came several years later, when Rob Reiner cast her as the psychopathic fan in 1990's "Misery." The performance garnered Bates, now 50, an Oscar for best actress.

Her second Academy nomination comes for her supporting role in "Primary Colors, in which she plays a take-charge, pistol-packing spin doctor with a conscience.

Brenda Blethyn's performance as the floozy mother of a young woman with an incredible talent in the movie "Little Voice" has earned her a second Oscar nomination in three years. Her first came in the 1996 film "Secrets and Lies."

The acclaim has been a long time coming. Born February 20, 1946 in Ramsgate, England, Blethyn was a bank secretary before switching careers at 27 and soon joining the Royal National Theater. Since then, she has starred on stage, television and in the movies.

Dench

Like Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench earned an Oscar nod this year for portraying Queen Elizabeth. Unlike Blanchett, Dench's interpretation of the queen in "Shakespeare in Love" was only seen in an estimated 10 minutes of scene-stealing, blustery screen time.

Dench embraced the role, a trait that she has developed a reputation for since her acting career began. Born December 9, 1934, Dench made her stage debut in Ophelia in an Old Vic Liverpool production of "Hamlet." Meanwhile, her film career took off in the 1960s. Though she has yet to win an Oscar, the York, England native has won three British Academy Awards, including best actress for 1997's "(Her Majesty) Mrs. Brown," which also earned Dench her first Oscar nomination.

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Rachel Griffiths has developed a following through her strong work in supporting roles in movies like "Jude," "Muriel's Wedding," and "My Best Friend's Wedding." And now the Academy has recognized her talent. She's up for best supporting actress in the true-to-life tale "Hilary & Jackie," playing the character of Hilary du Pré, sister to genius cellist Jaqueline du Pré. To prepare for the role, however, Griffiths says she chose not to meet with the real Hilary, whose memoir "A Genius in the Family" inspired the film.

"I just felt like I had to make her true for myself," Griffiths has said.

Griffiths has appeared in a dozen films; this is her first Oscar nomination.

"I'm just over the moon," Lynn Redgrave gushed shortly after finding out she had been nominated for best supporting actress for her work in "Gods and Monsters." And Redgrave, a veteran actress, has reason to gush. Her last Oscar nomination came in 1967 for her lead role in "Georgy Girl."

Redgrave, who plays a German housekeeper in "Gods and Monsters," has since the '60s enjoyed a steady career on the stage, in film and television. She was born March 8, 1943 in London, and is the sister of actress Vanessa Redgrave.