MusicRadar

"Every time I think I'm out, they pull me back in."

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Kris Kristofferson The Rhodes scholar, hard drinker and folk-rock superstar penned early '70s hits like Me And Bobby McGee and Sunday Morning Coming Down. With his dark good looks and dangerous aura, he was a natural for films, turning in well-regarded performances in movies like Cisco Pike and The Last Movie. Playing the romantic lead opposite Barbra Streisand in the ill-fated remake of A Star Is Born almost nosedived his film career - and starring in the disastrous Heaven's Gate pretty much killed it dead. But Kristofferson rebounded with memorable turns in Lone Star and Blade. He even played a wise ol' grandpap in the family spooler Dreamer.

Mark Wahlberg Wahlberg caught the music bug from his New Kid On The Block brother (Donnie Wahlberg) and shot to superstardom as Marky Mark, he of the Funky Bunch, with his smash hit Good Vibrations. Cool dance moves and a rock-hard physique led to Calvin Klein underwear ads, and films soon beckoned. As Dick Diggler, the dim-witted porn star in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights, Wahlberg blew the screen apart. And in Martin Scorsese's Oscar triumph, The Departed, he gave a beguiling performance that netted an Oscar nomination. From executive producing hit TV shows (Entourage) to acting (he's got a half dozen projects in the hopper), one thing is clear: Wahlberg was born ready.

Steven Van Zandt The world loves a good second banana. Whether it's Jerry Lewis to Dean Martin, Abbot to Costello, or a bandanna-topped guitarist to rock icon Bruce Springsteen, it involves a magical kind of chemistry, the importance of which cannot be overstated. New Jersey's Steven Van Zandt was already a music Somebody when David Chase cast him as the Al Pacino-quoting Silvio Dante in the landmark cable series The Sopranos. By playing it straight, keeping his head down and knowing who his friends were, Van Zandt became a pop culture Somebody, and through 81 iconic episodes he had his say. His whacking of Adrianne ranks up there with the most shocking of all screen murders.

By Joe Bosso