Heroes and Stars of Ladder 49

His performances have been called devilishly hypnotic, intense and edgy. Acting since he was a child, he honed his craft in dozens of TV shows in the 1980s and dozens of movies in the 1990s. For Ladder 49, Joaquin took his role so seriously that he trained for two months with the Baltimore Fire Department, putting out actual fires.

Joaquin admits that he was afraid of heights before he started making this film. "I got to the pole and I looked down and I couldn't do it. But you go through the training and it exposes your fears and helps you to overcome them. We ended up rappelling off a six-story tower and that really helped."