Career: After deciding to become an actor, Stallone struggled to find decent roles. After running out of money and being made homeless he appeared in soft-porn flick The Party at Kitty and Stud's and had bit parts in several mainstream movies before writing Rocky. He persuaded producers Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler to not only buy it, but also let him star in it. The film was a massive success, won three Oscars and was followed by five sequels. He's directed several other movies and had hits with the Rambo series, Cliffhanger and Cop Land. Other films include a remake of Get Carter, Paradise Alley and Judge Dredd. More recently he's starred alongside other macho stars in The Expendables and its sequel. He was also behind TV series The Contender.

Career: In 1973, von Sydow was cast in The Exorcist, which became one of his biggest hits to date. He didn't land another career-defining role until 1980 when he played Ming the Merciless in a much loved version of Flash Gordon. A string of hit-and-miss movies followed, including Conan the Barbarian, Never Say Never Again, Dune and Hannah and Her Sisters. He also turned his hand to directing in 1988 with the movie Ved vejen. In recent years he made a return to the world of blockbusters with Minority Report and Rush Hour 3, and also added dramatic weight to TV series The Tudors. His recent work includes Shutter Island, Robin Hood, and Truth & Treason.

Career: Lane began acting professionally at the age of six at the La MaMa Experimental Theater Club in New York. At 13 she turned down a role in Runaways on Broadway to make her feature film debut opposite Laurence Olivier in A Little Romance. A year later, she appeared on the cover of Time magazine, which declared her one of Hollywood's 'Whiz Kids.' One of the few child actors to make a successful transition into adult roles, Lane proved a hit with audiences in the back-to-back cult films The Outsiders and Rumble Fish. Streets of Fire (she turned down Splash and Risky Business for this film) and The Cotton Club, were both commercial and critical failures, and her career languished as a result. After The Cotton Club, Lane dropped out of the movie business and lived with her mother in Georgia. Lane returned to the business to make The Big Town and Lady Beware, but it was not until 1989's popular and critically acclaimed TV miniseries Lonesome Dove that people really took notice. For the past 20 years she has been one of Hollywood's most acclaimed actresses. She has starred in three hugely successful films with Richard Gere, including Nights in Rodanthe. More recent notable projects include Under the Tuscan Sun, Cinema Verite and Man of Steel.

Career: Schneider moved from writer to performer on SNL when he made his on-screen debut in October 1990. At the time, the main cast included Dana Carvey, Dennis Miller and Mike Meyers. After leaving SNL in 1994, he played supporting roles in a number of movies, including Judge Dredd (1995) and Down Periscope (1996) and starred in the short-lived American remake of British sitcom Men Behaving Badly. Schneider's first big success in a lead role came in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999). It cost $17million to make and went on to earn more than $90million at the box office. It spawned a sequel Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005). His other film credits include The Animal (2001), The Hot Chick (2002) and Grown Ups (2010). In 2012, he played the title role in short-lived sitcom Rob. Schneider has also had a long working association with Adam Sandler. They performed together on SNL and Schneider has had supporting roles in a number of Sandler's films, including The Waterboy (1998), Little Nicky (2000), 50 Dates (2004), The Longest Yard (2005) and Bedtime Stories (2008).

Career: Since then, Getty has rarely been out of work. He made his TV debut in a 1990 adaptation of The Turn of the Screw. Films such as Young Guns II, Where the Day Takes You, Natural Born Killers, Judge Dredd and White Squall followed. He also took one of the lead roles in David Lynch's acclaimed mystery Lost Highway. More recently he's concentrated on TV work, cropping up in Traffic, Charmed, Pasadena, Alias and Into the West. In 2006, he began starring in American drama Brothers & Sisters, playing eldest son Tommy Walker.