Jude Law was named after the conflicted hero of Thomas Hardy's Victorian novel Jude the Obscure.
Birthday: December 29, 1972
The strikingly handsome Jude Law found big-screen stardom as the worldly socialite murdered by Matt Damon in 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley. The film earned him an Oscar nod, a spot on PEOPLE's "Most Beautiful" list and more critically-applauded performances in Road to Perdition with Tom Hanks, Cold Mountain with Nicole Kidman (for which he earned his second Oscar nod), and Closer with Natalie Portman and Julia Roberts. But, it was the Brit's well-publicized affair with his children's nanny while engaged to actress Sienna Miller that grabbed the spotlight. He soon publicly apologized and endured a rocky off and on again relationship with Miller before finally calling it quits in late 2006.
