Pierfrancesco Favino

As Inspector Olivetti in the 2009 sequel "Angels and Demons," Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino was not a familiar face to North American audiences. But the reason he got the role opposite Tom Hanks and under the direction of Ron Howard is that he is an accomplished star of Italian film and TV who has worked steadily since the early 1990s.

Favino made his first major Hollywood crossover in 2006 when he played the part of explorer Christopher Columbus in the Ben Stiller comedy "Night at the Museum." This began a series of English-language roles. He was General Glozelle in the second Narnia series film, "Prince Caspian," in 2008, and played Peppi "The Great Butterfly" Grotta in Spike Lee's World War II drama "Miracle at St. Anna." (Unfortunately, the latter turned out to be one of the least successful films of Lee's long, illustrious career.)

In 2010, Favino tackled a role for an Italian TV miniseries biopic of famed opera singer Luciano Pavarotti.