Robert De Niro

Date of Birth

17 August 1943, New York City, New York, USA

Birth Name

Robert Anthony De Niro Jr.

Nickname

Bobby Milk (childhood, due to his pallor)
Kid Monroe (given to him by Robert Mitchum)
Bob
Bobby D

Height

5' 9½" (1.77 m)

Mini Biography

Robert De Niro, who is thought of as one of the greatest actors of his time, was born in New York City in 1943 to two artists. He was trained at the Stella Adler Conservatory and the American Workshop. He first gained fame for his role in Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), but he gained his reputation as a volatile actor in Mean Streets (1973), which was his first film with directorMartin Scorsese. In 1974 De Niro received an Academy Award for best supporting actor for his role in The Godfather: Part II (1974) and received Academy Award nomations for best actor in Taxi Driver (1976), The Deer Hunter (1978), and Cape Fear (1991). He won the best actor award in 1980 for Raging Bull (1980). De Niro currently heads his own production company, Tribeca Film Center, and made his directorial debut in 1993 with A Bronx Tale (1993).

How to make a computer faster

How to make a computer faster: 5 ways to speed up your PC

By following a few simple guidelines, you can maintain your computer, help increase your PC speed, and help keep it running smoothly. This article discusses how to use the tools available in Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP Service Pack 3 to help make your computer faster, maintain your computer efficiently, and help safeguard your privacy when you're online.

Note: Some of the tools mentioned in this article require you to be logged on as an administrator. If you aren't logged on as an administrator, you can only change settings that apply to your user account.

1. Remove spyware, and help protect your computer from viruses

Spyware collects personal information without letting you know and without asking for permission. From the websites you visit to user names and passwords, spyware can put you and your confidential information at risk. In addition to privacy concerns, spyware can hamper your computer's performance. To combat spyware, you might want to consider using the PC safety scan from Windows Live OneCare. This scan is a free service that helps check for and remove viruses.

Download Microsoft Security Essentials for free to help guard your system in the future from viruses, spyware, adware, and other malicious software (also known as malware). Microsoft Security Essentials acts as a spyware removal tool and includes automatic updates to help keep your system protected from emerging threats.

The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool is another utility that checks computers running Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 for infections by specific, prevalent malicious software, including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom, and helps remove any infection found.

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2. Free up disk space

The Disk Cleanup tool helps you to free up space on your hard disk to improve the performance of your computer. The tool identifies files that you can safely delete and then enables you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files.

Use Disk Cleanup to:

• Remove temporary Internet files.
• Delete downloaded program files, such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets.
• Empty the Recycle Bin.
• Remove Windows temporary files, such as error reports.
• Delete optional Windows components that you don't use.
• Delete installed programs that you no longer use.
• Remove unused restore points and shadow copies from System Restore.

Tip: Typically, temporary Internet files take the most amount of space because the browser caches each page you visit for faster access later.

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3. Speed up access to data

Disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk as a file is opened (to piece it back together). The response time can be significantly longer.

Disk Defragmenter (sometimes shortened to Defrag by users) is a Windows utility that consolidates fragmented files and folders on your computer's hard disk so that each occupies a single space on the disk. With your files stored neatly end to end, without fragmentation, reading and writing to the disk speeds up.

When to run Disk Defragmenter
In addition to running Disk Defragmenter at regular intervals (weekly is optimal), there are other times you should run it, too, such as when:

• You add a large number of files.
• Your free disk space totals 15 percent or less.
• You install new programs or a new version of the Windows operating system.

Running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter on a regular basis is a proven way to help keep your computer running quickly and efficiently. If you'd like to learn how to schedule these tools and others to run automatically, please read Speed up your PC: Automate your computer maintenance schedule.

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4. Detect and repair disk errors

In addition to running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to optimize the performance of your computer, you can check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility.

As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult or even impossible. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.

If you use your computer daily, you should run this utility once a week to help prevent data loss.

5. Learn about ReadyBoost

If you're using Windows 7 or Windows Vista, you can use ReadyBoost to speed up your system. A new concept in adding memory to a system, it allows you to use non-volatile flash memory—like a USB flash drive or a memory card—to improve performance without having to add additional memory

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Manually cleaning out the Temp folder in Windows

Time Required: Manually cleaning out the Temp folder in Windows XP usually takes less than 5 minutes
Here's How:
Click on Start and then Run.

In the text box in the Run window, type %Temp% and click OK. A folder full of files and other folders will appear.

All of the folders and files you see in this Temp folder are no longer being used by Windows XP and can safely be deleted.

To remove individual folders or files, hold down your Ctrl key while left-clicking on each item you want delete. Release the Ctrl key when you're finished.

To delete these items, hit your Delete key or choose File and then Delete from the menu.

Confirm that you want to delete the files by clicking Yes on the Confirm Multiple File Delete window that opens.

If you'd instead like to remove everything inside the Temp folder, choose Edit and then Select All from the menu.

Note: If you're prompted that there are hidden files in this folder, just click on OK to bypass the message. A few hidden files hanging out in the Temp folder probably aren't important enough to worry about.

Now that all of the files and folders are selected, hit your Delete key or choose File and then Delete from the menu.

Confirm that you want to delete the files by clicking Yes on the Confirm Multiple File Delete window that opens.

After all of the files have been deleted you can close the window and empty your Recycle Bin, permanently removing the files from your PC.

Tips:
You may receive a Error Deleting File or Folder message while the files are being deleted. This just means that one of the files is in use by a program right now. Click OK, close all open programs, and repeat the steps above. If you still receive the message, try restarting your PC and repeating the process again.

Johnny Depp

Date of Birth

9 June 1963, Owensboro, Kentucky, USA

Birth Name

John Christopher Depp II

Nickname

Mr. Stench
Colonel

Height

5' 10" (1.78 m)

Mini Biography

Born John Christopher Depp in Owensboro, Kentucky, on June 9, 1963, Johnny Depp was raised in Florida. He dropped out of school at age 15 in the hopes of becoming a rock musician. He fronted a series of garage bands including The Kids, which once opened for . iggy pop Depp got into acting after a visit to Los Angeles, California, with his former wife, Lori Anne Allison (Lori A. Depp), who introduced him to actor Nicolas Cage. He made his film debut in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). In 1987 he shot to stardom when he replaced Jeff Yagher in the role of undercover cop Tommy Hanson in the popular TV series "21 Jump Street" (1987).

In 1990, after numerous roles in teen-oriented films, his first of a handful of great collaborations with director Tim Burton came about when Depp played the title role in Edward Scissorhands (1990). Following the film's success, Depp carved a niche for himself as a serious, somewhat dark, idiosyncratic performer, consistently selecting roles that surprised critics and audiences alike. He continued to gain critical acclaim and increasing popularity by appearing in many features before re-joining with Burton in the lead role of Ed Wood (1994). In 1997 he played an undercover FBI agent in the fact-based film Donnie Brasco (1997), opposite Al Pacino; in 1998 he appeared in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas(1998), directed by Terry Gilliam; and then, in 1999, he appeared in the sci-fi/horror film The Astronaut's Wife (1999). The same year he teamed up again with Burton in Sleepy Hollow (1999), brilliantly portraying Ichabod Crane.

Depp has played many characters in his career, including another fact-based one, Insp. Fred Abberline in From Hell (2001). He stole the show from screen greats such as Antonio Banderas in the finale to Robert Rodriguez's "mariachi" trilogy, Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003). In that same year he starred in the marvelous family blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), playing a character that only the likes of Depp could pull off: the charming, conniving and roguish Capt. Jack Sparrow. Now Depp is collaborating again with Burton in a screen adaptation of Roald Dahl's novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).

Jim Carrey

Date of Birth

17 January 1962, Newmarket, Ontario, Canada

Birth Name

James Eugene Carrey

Height

6' 1½" (1.87 m)

Mini Biography

The youngest of four children born to Percy (an accountant and aspiring jazz saxophonist) and Kathleen, Jim Carrey was an incurable extrovert from day one. As a child he performed constantly, for anyone who would watch, and even mailed his résumé to "The Carol Burnett Show" (1967) at age 10. In junior high he was granted a few precious minutes at the end of each school day to do stand-up routines for his classmates (provided, of course, that he kept a lid on it the rest of the day).

Carrey's early adolescence took a turn for the tragic, however, when the family was forced to relocate from their cozy town of Newmarket to Scarborough (a Toronto suburb). They all took security and janitorial jobs in the Titan Wheels factory, Jim working 8-hour shifts after school let out (not surprisingly, his grades and morale both suffered). When they finally deserted the factory, the family lived out of a Volkswagen camper van until they could return to Toronto. Back on firmer ground, Carrey decided to strike out into the comedy club scene. He made his (reportedly awful) professional stand-up debut at Yuk-Yuk's, one of the many local clubs that would serve as his training ground in the years to come. He dropped out of high school, worked on his celebrity impersonations (among them Michael Landon and James Stewart), and in 1979 worked up the nerve to move to Los Angeles. He finessed his way into a regular gig at The Comedy Store, where he impressed Rodney Dangerfield so much that the veteran comic signed him as an opening act for an entire season.

During this period Carrey met and married waitress Melissa Womer, with whom he had a daughter (Jane). The couple would later go through a very messy divorce, freeing Carrey up for a brief second marriage to actress Lauren Holly. Wary of falling into the lounge act lifestyle, Carrey began to look around for other performance outlets. He landed a part as a novice cartoonist in the short-lived sitcom "The Duck Factory" (1984); while the show fell flat, the experience gave Carrey the confidence to pursue acting more vigorously.

He scored the male lead in the ill-received Lauren Hutton vehicle Once Bitten (1985), and a supporting role in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), before making a modest splash with his appearance as the alien Wiploc in Earth Girls Are Easy (1988). Impressed with Carrey's lunacy, fellow extraterrestrial Damon Wayans made a call to his brother, Keenen Ivory Wayans, who was in the process of putting together the sketch comedy show "In Living Color" (1990). Carrey joined the cast and quickly made a name for himself with outrageous acts (one of his most popular characters, psychotic Fire Marshall Bill, was attacked by watchdog groups for dispensing ill- advised safety tips).

Carrey's transformation from TV goofball to marquee headliner happened within the course of a single year. He opened 1994 with a starring turn in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), a film that cashed in on his extremely physical brand of humor (the character's trademark was talking out his derrière). Next up was the manic superhero movie The Mask (1994), which had audiences wondering just how far Carrey's features could stretch. Finally, in December, he hit theaters as a loveable dolt in the Farrelly brothers' Dumb & Dumber (1994) (his first multi-million dollar payday).

Now a box-office staple, Carrey brought his manic antics onto the set of Batman Forever (1995), replacing Robin Williams as The Riddler. He also filmed the follow-up to his breakthrough, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995), and inked a deal with Sony to star in The Cable Guy(1996) (replacing Chris Farley) for a cool $20 million--at the time, that was the biggest up-front sum that had been offered to any comic actor. The movie turned out to be a disappointment, both critically and financially, but Carrey bounced back the next year with the energetic hit Liar Liar (1997). Worried that his comic shtick would soon wear thin, Carrey decided to change course. In 1998, he traded in the megabucks and silly grins to star in Peter Weir's The Truman Show (1998) playing a naive salesman who discovers that his entire life is the subject of a TV show, Carrey demonstrated an uncharacteristic sincerity that took moviegoers by surprise. He won a Golden Globe for the performance, and fans anticipated an Oscar nomination as well--when it didn't materialize, Carrey lashed out at Academy members for their narrow-minded selection process.

Tom Cruise

Date of Birth

3 July 1962, Syracuse, New York, USA

Birth Name

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV

Height

5' 7" (1.70 m)

Mini Biography

If you had told 14 year old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV that one day in the not too distant future he would be considered one of the top 100 movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and told you that his ambition was to become a priest. Nonetheless, this sensitive, deeply religious youngster who was born in July 1962 in Syracuse, New York, was destined to become Tom Cruise, one of the highest paid and most sought-after actors in screen history. The only son (among four children) of nomadic parents, young Tom spent his boyhood eternally on the move, and by the time he was 14, had attended 15 different schools in the US and Canada. He finally settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, with his mother and her new husband. While in high school, he developed an interest in acting and abandoned his plans of becoming a priest, and at age 18 headed for New York and a possible acting career. The next 15 years of his life are the stuff of legends. He made his film debut with a small part in Endless Love (1981) and from the outset exhibited an undeniable box office appeal to both male and female audiences. Within 5 years Tom Cruise was starring in some of the top grossing films of the decade including Top Gun (1986); The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988) andBorn on the Fourth of July (1989). By the 1990s and 2000s he was one of the highest paid actors in the world earning an average 15 million dollars a picture in such blockbuster hits as Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996), Mission: Impossible II (2000), Mission: Impossible III (2006), Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Collateral (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), and Jerry Maguire (1996) - for which he received an Academy Award Nomination for best actor. In 1990 he renounced his devout Catholic beliefs and embraced The Church Of Scientology claiming that Scientology teachings had cured him of the dyslexia that had plagued him all of his life. A kind and thoughtful man well known for his compassion and generosity, Tom Cruise is one of the best liked members of the movie community. He was married to actress Nicole Kidman until 2001. Thomas Cruise Mapother IV has indeed come a long way from the lonely wanderings of his youth.

Spouse

Katie Holmes	(18 November 2006 - present) 1 child
Nicole Kidman	(24 December 1990 - 8 August 2001) (divorced) 2 (adopted) children
Mimi Rogers	(9 May 1987 - 4 February 1990) (divorced)

Trade Mark

Often plays romantic leading men with an edge.

Trivia

Older cousin of actor William Mapother, Katherine Mapother and Amy Mapother.

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#41) (1995).

Ranked #3 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list (October 1997).

Chosen by "People" magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world (1997).

Voted Best Dressed Male Movie Star (1997).

Stopped to help a hit and run victim and paid her hospital bills. The victim was aspiring Brazilian actress Heloisa Vinhas (1996).

Caused a stir in the medical community when he claimed, in an interview, that Scientology cured him of his dyslexia (1992).

While he was working with Paul Newman in the The Color of Money (1986), he engaged in much conversation with the politically active actor. The resulting conscious raising changed him from an actor who ignored the jingoistic tone of Top Gun (1986) to a performer who chose a film with a strong anti-war tone, Born on the Fourth of July (1989) to counter his contribution to the former film.

Has three sisters: Marian, Lee Anne De Vette and Cass. Lee Anne became his publicist in 2004 after he left Pat Kingsley and left in 2005 to concentrate on production matters for his production company.

Chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world (1991).

Chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world (1990).

Graduated from Glen Ridge High School in New Jersey (June 1980).

At age 14, he enrolled in a seminary to become a priest. He dropped out after one year.

He took up acting after losing his place on a high school wrestling team due to a knee injury.

He has two adopted children with Nicole Kidman: Isabella Jane Cruise (born December 22, 1992) Connor Antony Cruise (Connor Cruise) (born January 17, 1995).

Is right handed when writing, but does most things left handed.

Mission: Impossible (1996) gave him a total of $70 million with percentage of gross included.

Enjoys skydiving, scuba diving, and piloting his Pitts Special S-2B stunt plane

Recently restored an older home in the township of Biltmore Forest, a town within the city limits of Asheville, North Carolina (2000).

Chosen "Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine (1990).

Received the John Huston Award for Artists Rights in 1998.

Was considered for the lead in The Matrix (1999).

Cruise earned roughly $75 million for Mission: Impossible II (2000). He did this by turning down any upfront salary, for instead taking a back-end deal that landed him 30% of the film's gross for both his producing and acting duties.

Attended Packanack School in Wayne, New Jersey from first through third grade.

Filed a $100 million defamation lawsuit against Michael Davis, a man who allegedly offered to sell videotapes of himself having sex with the actor. The lawsuit accuses Davis of making the statements "in order to hurt the plaintiff and gain widespread publicity for himself." (May 2001).

Lived together with Vanilla Sky (2001) co-star Penélope Cruz from 2001 to 2004.

Suffers from dyslexia.

Earned his pilot's license in Toronto, Canada in 1994.

He didn't stay for the remainder of the 2002 Academy Awards after opening them because it was his turn to look after his and ex-wife Nicole Kidman's children. He reportedly left the Kodak Theatre by a back door after opening proceedings and dashed home to watch the rest of the event on TV with his kids Conor and Isabella.

For 1988, he became the first actor to have the distinction of starring in both the year's Oscar winner for Best Picture, Rain Man (1988) and the year's Razzie "winner" for Worst Picture, Cocktail (1988).

Ranked #14 in Premiere's 2003 annual Power 100 List. Had ranked #16 in 2002.

Ranked #4 in Star TV's Top 10 Box Office Stars of the 1990s (2003)

Born to Thomas Mapother III (15 October 1934 - January 1984), an electrical engineer, and his wife Mary Lee Pfeiffer, a special education teacher.

Has two dogs called Basil and Murray and a cat called Harvey.

(1992, on A Few Good Men and working with Rob Reiner) I finished Far and Away and started immediately on it. So, the first time I met Rob Reiner-I'd been told, "You know, Tom, he's a pretty aggressive guy." He's a big guy. Big hands. Very bright, articulate. When he talks his points, he gets very loud because he gets very excited. He's just so fucking smart. He's very intense, but he's also like a teddy bear you want to hug. We read the script together-I'd already planned on doing it, but we were working on things like structure- and he would read it imagining the nine different characters. And he started imitating Jack Nicholson. That's how he found out that Jack Nicholson should play the role. The character I play, Kaffee, is a very tough, complex role to play. You're either going to hit or miss with this guy. All of the scenes, all the rhythms, come from character and even though Rob worked so hard on it himself, he trusts the actors to breathe life into their roles. You'll look over at him on the set and he's saying the lines along with the actors. You become really bonded with this guy because there's nothing more he wants for you than to be great. And you feel that.

Matt Damon

Date of Birth

8 October 1970, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Birth Name

Matthew Paige Damon

Height

5' 10" (1.78 m)

Mini Biography

Matt Damon was born in 1970. His father, Kent Damon, a tax preparer, and his mother,Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a college professor, are now divorced. His older brother, Kyle (b. 1967), is a sculptor. Matt's first film role was a one-line part in Mystic Pizza (1988). Hollywood's power brokers realized his potential as a serious actor when they saw him play a Gulf War vet-turned-heroin addict in Courage Under Fire (1996). One of Matt's closest childhood friends was fellow young thespian Ben Affleck, who starred in Chasing Amy (1997). Damon and Affleck collaborated on the screenplay for Good Will Hunting(1997), in which they co-star.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Dennis Lewis 

Mini Biography

Matthew Paige Damon, or better known to fans as Matt Damon was born in Boston Massachusetts, USA to Kent Damon, a stockbroker, Realtor and tax preparer, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an early childhood education professor at Lesley University. Matt has an older brother named Kyle who is now a sculptor. Unfortunately for Matt and his brother, their parents divorced in the year 1973.

The 5'10" star is of English, Finnish and Scottish ancestry. While his parents were still together, their family lived in Newton, before eventually settling for a divorce, where Damon and his brother moved with his mother to Cambridge. He grew up in a stable community back in Massachusetts. Matt also grew up near actor Ben Affleck, when he was younger.

Matt attended Cambridge Ridge and Latin School which is located in Cambridge and he performed in a number of theater productions during his time there. Later on, he was accepted into Harvard University as an English major in the fall of 1988 and was supposed to graduate with the class of 1992. While in Harvard, he kept on skipping classes to pursue acting projects, which included the TNT original film, Rising Sun (1993), and prep-school drama, School Ties (1992). It was until his film, Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), was expected to be a big success that he decided to drop out of university completely.

Arriving in Hollywood, Matt managed to get his first break with a part in the romantic comedy, Mystic Pizza (1988). However, the film did not do too well and his film career failed to take off. Not letting failure discourage him from acting, he went for another audition, and managed to get a starring role in School Ties (1992).

Up next for Matt was a role as a soldier who had problems with drug-addiction in the movie, Courage Under Fire (1996). Matt had, in fact, lost forty pounds for his role which resulted in health problems. The following year, he garnered accolades for Good Will Hunting (1997), a screenplay he had originally written for an English class at Harvard University. Good Will Hunting (1997) was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, one of which, Matt won for Best Original Screenplay along with Ben Affleck.

In the year 1998, Matt played the title role in Steven Spielberg's film, Saving Private Ryan (1998), which was one of the most acclaimed films in that year. Matt had the opportunity of working with Tom Hanks and Vin Diesel while filming that movie. That same year, he starred as an earnest law student and reformed poker player in Rounders (1998), starring opposite Edward Norton and John Malkovich.

The next year, Matt rejoined his childhood friend, Ben Affleck and fellow comedian, Chris Rock, in the comedy Dogma (1999). Towards the end of 1999, Matt played "Tom Ripley", a working-class young man who tastes the good life and will do anything to live it. Both Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow also starred in the movie. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) earned mixed reviews from critics, but even so, Matt earned praise for his performance.

Matt lent his voice to the animated movie, Titan A.E. (2000) in the year 2000, which also earned mixed reviews from the public. He also starred in two other movies, All the Pretty Horses (2000) and the golf comedy-drama, The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), starring alongside Will Smith.

In the year 2003, he signed on to star in The Informant! (2009) by Steven Soderbergh and the Farrelly Brothers' Stuck on You (2003). He also starred in Gerry (2002), a film he co-wrote with his friends, Gus Van Sant and Casey Affleck.

One of Matt's most recognizable work to date is his role in the "Bourne" movie franchise. He plays an amnesiac assassin, "Jason Bourne", in The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007).