I used to shoot a tremendous amount of film, and I still have a couple of favorites.
Ilford Pan F 50 ISO is an amazing film, particularly for long-exposure night shots. The tonality is very rich, even on RC paper. Its critical to bracket your exposures with this film though -- you'll see why when you get into the darkroom.
Ilford HP5 400 ISO is my favorite 400 speed B&W film, and I've tried LOTS of them. It isn't as forgiving as Tri-X 400, which is what most people seem to be learning on these days. With HP5 you'll need to be more careful about getting good exposures, but the results can be very satisfying, and englarged to REALLY big print sizes; the biggest I used it for was 20"x30".
T-Max 400 is nice, but HP5 is about the same price and much more fun to work with in the darkroom. T-Max 100 is good for situations where Pan F 50 is just too slow.
Tri-X 400 can, however, be push-processed up to 1600. Run it with T-Max developer for good results.
I have a little of my work posted here:
http://public.fotki.com/photoben
My film body is a Canon EOS A2, and its a workhorse. If you want a serious professional-grade film SLR and don't mind buying used equipment, an A2 could be for you. There is also the A2e which comes with eye-controlled focus, and the grey market version which is called the EOS 5. Its basically an A2e, but includes a couple of minor differences and one extra feature which is patented here in the US by Some Random Guy but not in Japan.
My digital body is an EOS D60, which I love. If you're getting into photography to get serious about it down the line, get yourself a 6+ megapixel digital SLR body. You'll save thousands in film and be able to tweak your work more effectively. I've shot about 18,000 frames on my D60 in the last year and a half without a single failure.