Michael Douglas (Dan Gallagher)

Michael Douglas (Dan Gallagher)

After more than a decade of trying, Douglas became a bona fide movie star in the mid-1980s with the "Romancing the Stone" pictures, playing a man of action not unlike the roles made famous by his father, Kirk Douglas. But it was the one-two punch of 1987's "Wall Street" (for which he won the Oscar) and "Fatal Attraction" that made him an archetype: the embodiment of white, male, American privilege. For years, Dogulas' movies tended to be allegorical portrayals of such privilege under siege, as in "Black Rain," "The War of the Roses," "Basic Instinct," "Falling Down," "Disclosure," "The American President," "The Ghost and the Darkness," "The Game," "A Perfect Murder," "Wonder Boys," and "Traffic." In the 2000s, he ceded lead roles to others and started to take on character parts and supporting roles ("You, Me and Dupree," "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past," and his most recent movie, 2012's "Haywire.") After his recent cancer scare, the 67-year-old is starting to take on starring roles again, in the recent "Solitary Man," 2010's "Wall Street" sequel, and the upcoming Liberace TV biopic "Behind the Candelabra."

Glenn Close (Alex Forrest)

Glenn Close (Alex Forrest)

Before "Fatal Attraction," Close was known for good-girl roles in "The Big Chill," "The Natural," and "Jagged Edge." Eager to change her image, she jumped at the chance to play Alex Forrest in "Fatal Attraction," a woman who was sexy, dangerous, and perhaps evil or insane. The ploy worked. Her performance was such a surprising stretch that it earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination and made her the go-to actress for sexy villainesses and crazy ladies from then on, starting with "Dangerous Liaisons" (which earned her another Oscar nod the following year) and including "Reversal of Fortune," "The Paper," two "101 Dalmatians" movies (where she played Cruella De Vil), "Cookie's Fortune," "The Stepford Wives," and most recently, TV's "Damages," where she's spent five seasons starring as ruthless lawyer Patty Hewes. The 65-year-old's most recent movie was last year's "Albert Nobbs," a project she spent many years shepherding to the screen, whose drag lead performance earned Close her sixth Oscar nomination.

Anne Archer (Beth Gallagher)

Anne Archer (Beth Gallagher)

The daughter of actors John Archer and Marjorie Lord, Anne Archer had been kicking around Hollywood for more than 15 years, mostly as a TV actress, before she finally became a star as the fiercely protective Beth Gallagher in "Fatal Attraction." The role earned her an Oscar nomination and a number of loyal wife and girlfriend roles, most notably in "Patriot Games" and "Clear and Present Danger," where she was married to Harrison Ford's CIA agent Jack Ryan. There were similar roles in "Body of Evidence," "Short Cuts," and "Man of the House." In recent years, she's done several TV movies and series, most recently starring as a glamorous tycoon on the 2008-09 series "Privileged." Her most recent movie appearance was in 2009's "Ghosts of Girlfirneds Past" (a reunion of sorts with Douglas), but the 65-year-old recently finished filming the independent comedy-drama "Lullaby," due in theaters next year.

Ellen Hamilton Latzen (Ellen Gallagher)

The tomboyish little girl who played Douglas and Archer's bunny-loving daughter in "Fatal Attraction" was discovered in an open casting call for the movie. She went on to make a couple more films of note, 1988's "Mr. North" and 1989's "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," where she stole scenes as Cousin Eddie's (Randy Quaid) daughter, Ruby Sue. There were also some small TV parts and a rolein John Guare's Tony-nominated 1992 Broadway play "Four Baboons Adoring the Sun." Once she hit her teen years, however, Latzen left show business. In a 2010 interview, Latzen said she thought about attending film school for a while but never followed through. Today, she is 32 and working in a white-collar job.

Jane Krakowski (Babysitter)

Krakowski, who had a small role in "Fatal Attraction" as a babysitter, had made her film debut a few years earlier in "National Lampoon's Vacation" as Cousin Eddie's (Randy Quaid) daughter. (Who'd have guessed that, two years after "Attraction," Ellen Hamilton Latzen would do the same, in "Christmas Vacation"?) . She didn't become a household name until a decade later, on TV's "Ally McBeal." In 2003, she won a Tony for her song-and-dance work in the Broadway musical "Nine." For the last six years, of course, Krakowski, now 43, has starred as vain TV actress Jenna Maroney on "30 Rock."

Ellen Foley (Hildy)

Ellen Foley (Hildy)

Foley, who played Hildy in "Fatal Attraction," came from the rock world, where she had a brief solo career but was best known for duetting with Meat Loaf on his epic "Paradise by the Dashboard Lights." The tough-chick persona was evident in the character parts she played throughout the '80s, most memorably, for a whole season as public defender Billie Young on TV's "Night Court," but also in "Tootsie," "The King of Comedy," and, in the years after "Attraction," in "Cocktail" and "Married to the Mob." She also worked on Broadway and taught musical theater classes in New York. Last year, she popped up in a guest spot on "Body of Proof." This past summer, the 61-year-old filmed the upcoming drama "Lies I Told My Little Sister," due in theaters in 2013.

Adrian Lyne

Adrian Lyne

The British-born Lyne has always made sexually provocative films, from Jodie Foster's girls-in-trouble drama "Foxes" (his 1980 debut) to the trendsetting "Flashdance." But it was 1986's "Nine ½ Weeks" and 1987's "Fatal Attraction" that made his reputation as a director who liked to court controversy with hot-button-pushing sexual storytelling. After his Oscar-nominated work on "Fatal Attraction," he made the hallucinatory "Jacob's Ladder," then returned to his forte with the hit "Indecent Proposal" and the flop "Lolita" (a version of Vladimir Nabokov's lyrical tale of pedophilia that was so much more faithful to the book than the 1962 Stanley Kubrick version that no distributor would touch it). He rebounded with 2002's "Unfaithful," an explicit tale of adultery and violence that earned Diane Lane an Oscar nomination and jump-started her career much as "Attraction" had for Glenn Close and "Nine ½ Weeks" had for Kim Basinger. Lyne hasn't released a movie in the decade since "unfaithful," but the 71-year-old recently got the financing to make a thriller called "Back Roads," with Kristen Stewart supposedly being interested in starring.