Kate Beckinsale

With actors for parents, this shapely British brunette had performing in her DNA. After tackling a handful of roles on the BBC, Beckinsale made an auspicious film debut as an ingenue in the 1993 adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing — although a decade later she would become known for playing much less innocent parts. During the '90s Beckinsale appeared in numerous stage and screen projects in her homeland before snagging her first big Hollywood role in 2001's Pearl Harbor, which primarily used her as eye candy. Her sexy turn as a vinyl-clad vampire in the surprise 2003 box-office smash Underworld earned her legions of fan boys and a husband, director Len Wiseman (even though her longtime boyfriend, Michael Sheen, was her costar in the film). As her star rose, the stunning actress seemed to undergo a series of makeovers, prompting gossipmongers to speculate about how much time she'd spent under the knife — rumors she vehemently denied.