Kathleen York

A tall, slender, redheaded beauty, Kathleen York is what's known in show business as a triple threat. In addition to being a burgeoning screenwriter and an accomplished musician, she's enjoyed a decades-spanning career as a character actress who's no stranger to television or indie cinema. Ten years after getting her start as a youngster on the 1984-'85 season of the frothy prime-time soap "Dallas," she began a flux of recurring roles on such network hits as the unconventionally structured police procedural "Murder One" and the scandalous suburban dramedy "Desperate Housewives."

She's probably turned the most heads, however, with her sharp, deeply felt performance as conflicted congresswoman Andrea Wyatt on the galvanizing political series "The West Wing." In the 2000s, York began writing and recording original music for films like the drifty afterlife thriller "Sublime" (in which she also appeared) and the enigmatic, Will-Smith-starring tale of redemption "Seven Pounds." Her pensive, cathartic soundtrack contribution to the emotional race-relations mosaic "Crash" ('04) brought her an Oscar nomination. Because of her ability to sing like one, she sometimes goes by the name Bird York.