Jason Gedrick

This Chicago native was just a teen when he broke into showbiz as a movie extra. Boyishly appealing and extremely determined, he quickly graduated to speaking roles, beginning with the soppy 1985 comedy Heavenly Kid. For the rest of the decade he languished as a B-movie lead (Iron Eagles I and II, the embarrassing capoeira movie Rooftops), although he occasionally landed smaller roles in A-list projects (Born on the Fourth of July). In the '90s he turned to the small screen, where his ruggedly handsome, working-class looks usually got him typecast as a cop or a criminal. Aside from his critically acclaimed, one-season stint as a troubled star on Murder One, he had more flops (Class of '96, EZ Street, Boomtown, Falcone, which he also produced) than Ted McGinley. Undaunted, Gedrick kept at it, joining the cast of the ensemble drama Windfall in 2006.