While Hollywood has always been about looks, talent sometimes wills out. For Kathy Bates, it took some twenty years before she truly broke through in films playing the deranged fan of a mystery writer (James Caan) in the screen adaptation of Stephen King's "Misery" (1990), directed by Rob Reiner. After copping a Best Actress Oscar, she continued to offer a series of finely detailed character roles as well as developing a burgeoning secondary career as a director.

The youngest of three daughters, Bates was born and raised in Tennessee. Possessed with fine porcelain skin, striking blue-green eyes