Career: Cult movies Heathers and Pump Up The Volume helped boost his profile, while blockbuster Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves proved he had star appeal. An avid Trekkie, he realised a personal dream in 1991 when he landed a cameo in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Kuffs failed to impress critics, but True Romance, Interview with the Vampire, Broken Arrow, Hard Rain and Very Bad Things helped his career no end. By the turn of the millennium, his appeal was starting to wane in Tinseltown, and although he gave impressive turns in TV hits Alias and The West Wing, movie projects such as Windtalkers, Churchhill: The Hollywood Years and Alone in the Dark failed to impress. On stage he has appeared in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Glass Menagerie. He is still working hard in Hollywood, however, and his recent films include Slipstream, He Was A Quiet Man, Love Lies Bleeding and Dolan's Cadillac. He returned to the small screen in 2011 in the American sitcom Breaking In.

Career: Arquette went on to star in the critically acclaimed movies True Romance (1993), Beyond Rangoon (1995), Ethan Frome (1993), Lost Highway (1997) and Flirting with Disaster (1997). In 2005, she made her TV debut, playing the lead role in Medium. The role earned her an Emmy Award in 2005. The series ran for seven seasons until 2011. In 2013, she joined the cast of HBO drama Boardwalk Empire. A year later, she received widespread acclaim for her role in Boyhood, a project that Arquette had worked on for 12 years. She picked up an Academy Award nomination for Boyhood.

Career: Hopper featured in more than 150 films and TV programmes, including Rebel Without a Cause and Giant (both with James Dean), and the iconic Easy Rider, which he also directed. However, years of drug and alcohol abuse took their toll, and his film work foundered during the 1970s (with the notable exception of Apocalypse Now) and early 1980s. David Lynch's disturbing 1986 drama Blue Velvet gave Hopper's career a kick-start, after which he worked steadily on both the big and small screen until his death in May 2010, notably Speed, True Romance and Land of the Dead.

Career: After working on stage, Kilmer got his big break in 1984 comedy Top Secret!, in which he also sang all the songs. After a year spent backpacking through Europe, Kilmer landed the role of Iceman in Top Gun, and his career took off. Films including Willow (in which he met his future wife Joanne Whalley), The Doors, Tombstone, Batman Forever and The Island of Dr Moreau followed. After the failure of Dr Moreau, Kilmer turned his attention to crafting character parts, and won praise from critics for his turns in The Salton Sea and Kiss Kiss, Bang, Bang. Other films include The Bad Lieutenant: Port Call of New Orleans, MacGruber and Kill the Irishman.

Career: Early roles came in Dallas, Growing Pains, Head Of The Class and several TV movies. Pitt's big break was playing young stud JD in Thelma And Louise. Hits include True Romance, Se7en, Interview With The Vampire, Snatch, Fight Club, Ocean's Eleven and Spy Game. Keen to stretch himself, he turned down a role in Apollo 13 to make Twelve Monkeys, for which he received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Since then his films include Mr & Mrs Smith, two sequels to Ocean's Eleven, Babel, Burn After Reading and The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford. He received an Oscar nomination for The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button in 2008. His recent work includes Inglourious Basterds, Moneyball, World War Z, 12 Years a Slave and Fury.

Career: For the next few years, Walken appeared in musical productions. After 1966's Barefoot in Athens, small roles in The Anderson Tapes and Annie Hall followed. His big break came in 1978 when he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The Deer Hunter. He's been in demand ever since. Other films include A View to a Kill, Batman Returns, True Romance, Pulp Fiction and Catch Me If You Can. He continues to be an in-demand character actor, excelling in both comedy and serious drama. Dancing in Fat Boy Slim video Weapon of Choice introduced him to a new generation of fans. More recent work includes Wedding Crashers, Man of the Year, Hairspray and Seven Psychopaths.

Career: Following a successful spell on stage he turned to movies, making a massive impact as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy in 1986, and Prick Up Your Ears a year later. Alcoholism threatened his career, but he has now quit booze. His roles include playing Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK, the title role in Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Mason Verger in Hannibal. Other projects include Lost in Space, Leon, and The Fifth Element. His directorial debut, the acclaimed Nil By Mouth, was a heart-breaking, semi-autobiographical movie about his childhood. Oldman suffered a career slump around the Millennium, when he concentrated more on raising his young family than he did on acting. But he came back stronger than ever with roles in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Tinker Tailor Solider Spy (for which he was Oscar nominated) and the Batman franchise.

Career: Jackson's first film was Together for Days in 1972. He later spent two years as a stand-in on The Cosby Show, before starring in the original Broadway production of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson. A series of walk-on parts in films and on TV followed. Spike Lee cast him as the crack-addicted Gator in Jungle Fever, which gained him international acclaim. His most notable films have included Jurassic Park, Pulp Fiction (for which he was Oscar-nominated), Star Wars: Episodes One, Two and Three, Shaft, The 51st State, Unbreakable, Changing Lanes, Black Snake Moan, Django Unchained, Thor, The Avengers and many more. He is regarded as one of the most bankable assets in the movie business and always has a number of films in the pipeline.

Career: Gandolfini's early film outings included roles in True Romance (1993), Get Shorty (1995) and She's So Lovely (1997), but his breakthrough came on the small screen in 1999 when he began playing gangster boss Tony in HBO's acclaimed TV series The Sopranos. He won three Emmys, two Screen Actors Guild awards, and a Golden Globe for the role. High-profile movie offers followed and he went on to star in The Mexican (2001), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), The Last Castle (2001), In the Loop (2009), The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Enough Said (2013) and The Drop (2014). He died on June 19, 2013, during a holiday in Italy.