Kyra Sedgwick

Although she started out on a daytime soap as a teen, Sedgwick made her name in films playing a variety of smart, sassy and usually supporting characters. By the mid-1980s, she was working consistently both on screen and on the stage. In 1996, she took her first job behind the camera as a producer for hubby Kevin Bacon's directorial debut, Losing Chase. Sedgwick attempted to transition to television with the failed sitcom Talk to Me, but at 40 she gave the tube a second try as a prickly but effective deputy police chief on TNT's The Closer. The gamble paid off, and she landed a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in June 2009 and became a perennial awards-season contender. Off screen she maintains a low-key persona with her husband and their children. ~ Rovi