Career: Royal Variety and pantomime performances made Andrews a famous name in the UK. In 1954, she was offered the lead in The Boy Friend on Broadway. That led to her being cast in the first production of My Fair Lady in 1956, but she lost out on the movie role to Audrey Hepburn. Instead, she won an Oscar for Mary Poppins - her first film. The Sound of Music was a massive hit in 1965, but a string of flops dogged her through the late 1960s and mid-1970s; even her award-winning variety-style TV show The Julie Andrews Hour, was cancelled after one season. Movies since include 10, SOB, Victor/Victoria, The Princess Diaries and its sequel, and three Shrek movies. She writes children's books under her married name of Julie Edwards, and won a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 2010. Andrews returned to the London stage for a one-off concert later that year.

Career: Plummer made his Broadway debut in 1953 in The Starcross Story - a play that lasted just one night. He had better luck with his next show, Home is the Hero, which lasted for 30 performances. He has since appeared successfully on stages around the world, including London. Plummer's film career began in 1958 when he was cast in Stage Struck, but it was The Sound of Music in 1965 that made him an international star. Since then, he has been a heavily in-demand character actor and appeared in a number of notable films, including The Night of the Generals (1967), The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), Malcolm X (1992), The Insider (1999), A Beautiful Mind (2001) and The Lake House (2006). He received his first Academy Award nomination in 2009 for The Last Station, but lost out to Christoph Waltz. He had better luck in 2012 when he won an Oscar for his performance in Beginners (2010). His recent credits include Priest (2011) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011).