Robbins is a movie star, liberal activist, and self-appointed defender of the American Way. He can often be spotted spouting half-coherent political rants to the nearest camera.

Robbins was born in California but grew up in Manhattan. For several years, Robbins subsisted on small parts in movies and TV shows (like St. Elsewhere) before star status arrived in 1988 with the role of Nuke LaLoosh in Bull Durham, a movie that also brought him together with Susan Sarandon. A series of well-regarded performances followed in films like Spike Lee's Jungle Fever and The Shawshank Redemption. Robbins proved himself equally capable behind the camera, earning a Best Director Oscar nomination for 1995's Dead Man Walking. He's been dividing his time between acting and directing ever since. His most critically acclaimed role in recent years was in 2003's Mystic River, for which he won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

Despite his boyish leading-man charm, Robbins has become more prominent as one of Hollywood's leading-and most self-congratulatory-liberals and social activists. A longtime bête noire of Republicans, he lost many Democratic fans after his switch to the Green Party and his highly-publicized 2000 vote for Ralph Nader. More recently, he's become one of Hollywood's most vocal critics of the war in Iraq.

Robbins had been involved with Sarandon, who's eight years his senior, since 1988. Although they never married, the pair split in 2009. They have two children together. [Image via Getty]