Evan Handler

Best known as the lovable bald schlub who won Charlotte's heart on Sex and the City, Handler evokes on-screen laughter even though his personal life has been filled with drama. After training at the prestigious Juilliard School, he began landing stage and big-screen roles (Taps, The Chosen) and was understudying Matthew Broderick in Biloxi Blues on Broadway when he was diagnosed with supposedly incurable leukemia at age 24. After a five-year battle, the actor emerged cancer-free and turned his harrowing story into the acclaimed autobiographical solo show Time on Fire, which he subsequently adapted into a memoir. In the '90s, Handler picked up where his career left off with only a few bumps in the road — he quit the 1991 Broadway show I Hate Hamlet in mid-performance after his erratic costar Nicol Williamson struck him with a sword. By the end of the decade, he was all over the small screen (usually playing Jewish characters), including a recurring role on Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing. Sorkin then cast him as a disgruntled writer on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.