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Thursday, July 7, 2011
Keri Russell was born on 23March 1976 in Fountain Valley. Her father was an automotive executive, which led to several family relocations including a move to Mesa, AZ when she was young. While in Mesa, Russell began studying ballet and jazz dance, eventually touring the country with a dance and drill team.
A chance discovery by a talent scout who saw photos of her performing led to various television appearances and culminated in a three-year gig as a regular performer on The Disney Channel's "Mickey Mouse Club" from 1991 through 1994. Russell's co-stars during her tenure included fellow future stars Justin Timberlake.
Eventually, Russell left the Disney fold to try her hand at different television series and movies, including the short-lived Dudley Moore sitcom "Daddy's Girls" (1993-94). She moved on to play an innocent babysitter trapped in a web of deceit when she is framed for her employer's murder in "The Babysitter's Seduction" (1996), and snared a starring role in the indie "The Lottery" (1996), a small town thriller loosely based on the Shirley Jackson short story.
Back on television, she played a high school senior and single mom determined to build a better life for her and her child by going to college in "When Innocence Was Lost" (Lifetime, 1997). After a guest spot on "7th Heaven" (WB, 1996-2007), Russell made another attempt at landing steady series work with the offbeat "Roar" (Fox, 1997), a medieval action-drama for teens that featured an up-and-coming Heath Ledger.
Sarah Jessica Parker was born on 25 March 1965 in Nelsonville, Ohio. The fourth of eight siblings, Parker grew up in relative poverty.After her parents divorced, she was raised by her mother, a school teacher, and her often out-of-work stepfather.
At the American Ballet Theater and the New York Professional Children's School along the way, Parker started to gain national attention in the early 1980s. She made her film debut in 1979 with Rich Kids, co-starring John Lithgow, Trini Alvarado and Olympia Dukakis.
Shortly after, she received further celebrity with her supporting role in the 1984 hit Footloose. The following year, she starred alongside a very young Helen Hunt in Girls Just Want to Have Fun. The actor's success in both films paved the way for steady work, both on the big screen and on TV with such shows as Equal Justice, through the rest of the decade.
Then earning both critical and cult credibility as Nicholas Cage's fiancée in Honeymoon in Vegas (1992). She also played the wife of schlockmeister Ed Wood in Tim Burton's celebrated 1994 film.The mid-1990s saw Parker in a handful of middle-of-the-road supporting roles, including Miami Rhapsody (1995), The First Wives Club and Mars Attacks! (both 1996).
