Blessed with the acting chops of her father, Richard Burton, and the delicate features of her mother -- Burton's first wife, Sybil Williams -- Kate Burton was born in Geneva, Switzerland, on Sept. 10, 1957, but was raised largely in New York in the wake of her parents' divorce.

After appearing alongside her father in an uncredited role in Anne of a Thousand Days (1969), Burton abandoned ambitions of becoming a diplomat for the stage and soon found steady work in film and television, eventually earning a Daytime Emmy for the after-school special "Notes for My Daughter" (1996). She went on to win high-profile, recurring roles on Emmy-caliber dramas such as "The Practice," "Law & Order," "Rescue Me" and "Grey's Anatomy."

Big-screen credits include Big Trouble in Little China (1986), The Ice Storm (1997), Unfaithful (2001), Swimfan (2002) and the critically acclaimed Sherrybaby (2006).