Stephen Dillane

A University of Exeter alumnus and former journalist who launched a second career as an actor after studying at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Stephen Dillane was born in London on Nov. 30, 1956, to a British mother and an Australian father.

He honed his skills in the theater, staging a one-man "Macbeth" (2005) and eventually winning a Tony Award for his performance in the 2000 revival of Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing." But the chameleonic character actor also packed his resume with meaty supporting roles in films like Hamlet (1990), Welcome to Sarajevo (1997) and The Hours (2002). He played legendary professional golfer Harry Vardon in The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005) as well.

In 2008, Dillane earned an Emmy nod for his portrayal of would-be president Thomas Jefferson in the HBO miniseries John Adams.

The Hours

2002 PG-13

This gripping drama follows the parallel lives of three 20th-century women: incomparable writer Virginia Woolf, an unsatisfied 1950s housewife and a modern-day book editor who's losing her former lover to AIDS.