Career: Following his debut movie, The First Turn-On, in 1983, D'Onofrio became a member of the American Stanislavski Theatre Company and appeared in acclaimed productions of The Petrified Forest, Of Mice and Men, and Sexual Perversity in Chicago. His Broadway debut came in 1984's Open Admissions, and he hasn't looked back since. Films include Full Metal Jacket (for which he gained 70 pounds to play troubled Private Pyle), JFK, Malcolm X, Ed Wood, Men in Black, and The Cell. In 2001, D'Onofrio began playing Detective Robert Goren in TV series Law & Order: Criminal Intent. He quit the role in season nine, but returned in the final season of eight episodes.

Career: Erbe was nominated for a 1991 Tony Award as Best Actress in Broadway play The Speed of Darkness. The same year she appeared in the Bill Murray movie What About Bob. A string of hit and miss projects followed, including Rich in Love, Breathing Lessons, D2: The Mighty Ducks, Kiss of Death and The Addiction. She gave a memorable turn in the Kevin Bacon chiller Stir of Echoes and had a recurring role in the TV series Oz. In 2001, Erbe landed the part of Detective Alexandra Eames in Law & Order: Criminal Intent and went on to star in more than 140 episodes.

Career: The exposure working with Crystal gained her led to roles in such hit TV series as St Elsewhere, MacGyver and Cheers. Her first film was 1986's Weekend Warriors. Parts in Spaceballs, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Skin Deep followed. In 1991, Strong featured in several episodes of Twin Peaks, alongside her future Desperate Housewives co-star Kyle MacLachlan. Since then she's cropped up in Party of Five, ER, The Craft, Seinfeld and Everwood. The latter, in which she played a dead woman, also featured another Wisteria Lane resident, Marcia Cross. Strong replaced Sheryl Lee, who starred in the pilot, as Mary Alice Young in Desperate Housewives, and although the character committed suicide in the first episode, she appears often in flashback and narrates every edition. More recently, she starred in TNT drama Dallas.