Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio (born June 30, 1959) is an American actor, director, film producer, writer, and singer. Often referred to as an actor's actor, his work as a character actor has earned him the nickname "The Human Chameleon". He first gained attention for his role as Private Leonard Lawrence in the war film Full Metal Jacket and later for his role as Detective Robert Goren in the crime TV series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Vincent D'Onofrio was born in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, to Gennaro (Gene) D’Onofrio, an interior designer and theater production assistant, and Phyllis, a waitress and restaurant manager. The couple met while Gene was stationed in Hawaii with the U. S. Air Force; they later relocated to New York.^{[citation needed]} In 1956 they had their first child, Antoinette, who now owns the Rib City restaurant in American Fork, Utah. She was followed by Elizabeth (1957), an actress and drama coach now residing in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, then by Vincent.

Robert John Downey Jr. (born April 4, 1965) is an American actor who made his screen debut in 1970 at the age of five, appearing in his father's film Pound, and has worked consistently in film and television ever since. During the 1980s, he had roles in series such as coming of age films associated with the Brat Pack. His role in Less Than Zero (1987) was the first time Downey's acting would be commended by critics. After Zero, Downey was cast in starring roles in bigger films, such as Air America (1990), Soapdish (1991), and Natural Born Killers (1994). He played Charlie Chaplin in the 1992 film Chaplin, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

Between 1996 and 2001, Downey was frequently arrested on drug-related charges. After being released from the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in 2000, Downey joined the cast of the hit television series Ally McBeal playing the new love interest of Calista Flockhart's title character. His performance was praised and received accolades, but his character was written out when Downey was fired after two drug arrests in late 2000 and early 2001. After one last stay in a court-ordered drug treatment program, Downey finally achieved lasting sobriety and his career began to take off again. He appeared in semi-independent films such as The Singing Detective (2003), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), and A Scanner Darkly (2006). He also had supporting roles in the mainstream films Gothika (2003) and Zodiac (2007). In 2004, Downey released his debut studio album The Futurist.

Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is a German-born American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles. He is well known for the role of John McClane in the Die Hard series, which were mostly critical and uniformly financial successes. He has also appeared in over sixty films, including box office successes like Pulp Fiction (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995), The Fifth Element (1997), Armageddon (1998), The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000), Sin City (2005), Over the Hedge (2006) and Red (2010).

Motion pictures featuring Willis have grossed US$2.64 billion to 3.05 billion at North American box offices, making him the ninth highest-grossing actor in a leading role and twelfth highest including supporting roles. He is a two-time Emmy Award–winning, Golden Globe Award–winning and four-time Saturn Award–nominated actor. Willis was married to actress Demi Moore and they had three daughters before their divorce in 2000, following thirteen years of marriage. He is currently married to model Emma Heming, with whom he has one daughter.

Kathryn Elsbeth Erbe (born July 5, 1965) is an American actress known for her role as Det. Alexandra Eames in Law & Order: Criminal Intent, a spin-off of Law & Order, and death row inmate Shirley Bellinger in the HBO series Oz.

Erbe was born the oldest of three children in Newton, Massachusetts. Her mother, Elisabeth Magnarelli, was a vice-president of a Boston management firm, and her father, Dr. Richard Erbe, is an internist at the University at Buffalo subspecialized as a medical geneticist.

She graduated from New York University in 1989. She was formerly married to actor Terry Kinney, with whom she has two children: daughter Maeve (born 1995) and son Carson Lincoln (born 2003).

While an undergraduate student at NYU, Erbe was cast as Lynn Redgrave's daughter on the sitcom Chicken Soup. Following the series, she became a member of the Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company and has starred in many of their productions, including A Streetcar Named Desire, Curse of the Starving Class, My Thing of Love, and The Grapes of Wrath, which ran for six months and won the 1990 Tony Award for Best Play. Erbe earned a Tony Award nomination in 1991 for her portrayal of Mary in The Speed of Darkness, written by Steve Tesich. She has also performed in many world premiere productions by playwrights such as Tom Donaghy and Alex Gersten.

Matthew Avery Modine (born March 22, 1959) is an award-winning American actor. His film roles include Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, the title character in Alan Parker's Birdy, high school wrestler Louden Swain in Vision Quest, football star turned spy Alec McCall in Funky Monkey and the oversexed Sullivan Groff in Weeds.

Modine, the youngest of seven children, was born in Loma Linda, California, the son of Dolores (née Warner), a bookkeeper, and Mark Alexander Modine, who managed drive-in theaters.

His first film role was in John Sayles' Baby It's You. His performance caught the eye of director Harold Becker, who cast him in Vision Quest (Crazy for You) based on the novel by Terry Davis. He appeared in the sex comedy Private School, co-starring Phoebe Cates and Betsy Russell. The director Robert Altman propelled Modine to international stardom with his film adaptation of David Rabe's play Streamers. Modine and his fellow castmates won an unprecedented Best Actor prize from the Venice Film Festival for the tragic story of young American soldiers about to be shipped to Vietnam. Modine played Mel Gibson's brother in Mrs. Soffel and starred with Nicolas Cage in Alan Parker's Birdy. The film was awarded a prize at the Cannes Film Festival.