Career: After graduating from Berkeley, Peck went to New York to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse. To make ends meet, he worked at the 1939 World's Fair and as a tour guide for NBC at Radio City Music Hall. He made his Broadway debut in 1942 as the lead in The Morning Star. He was in high demand as an actor during the Second World War as he was exempt from military service due to a back injury. In 1947, he co-founded The La Jolla Playhouse with Mel Ferrer and Dorothy McGuire. Peck's first film, Days of Glory, was released in 1944. He received Academy Award nominations for The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and Twelve O'Clock High (1949). He went on to win an Oscar for his performance as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). Among his other films were Spellbound (1945), Moby Dick (1956), The Guns of Navarone (1961), Roman Holiday (1953), The Omen (1976), MacArthur (1977), The Boys from Brazil (1978) and Other People's Money (1991). Peck died in his sleep on June 12, 2003 at the age of 87.

Career: Widmark was performing in a stage production in Chicago when 20th Century Fox signed him to a seven-year film contract. His first movie role was Kiss of Death (1947), a part that earned him a Golden Globe and his only Academy Award nomination. His early films were The Street with No Name (1948), Road House (1948) and Yellow Sky (1948) and he quickly developed a reputation for playing movie villains. After demanding more diverse roles, he went on play a wide range of parts in the likes of Panic in the Streets (1950), No Way Out (1950), Night and the City (1950), Broken Lance (1954), The Alamo (1960), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and Madigan (1968). He made the transition to the small screen in 1971 with the TV movie Vanished, and he reprised his detective role from Madigan in six TV movies. After a career that had seen him star in more than 60 films, he retired from acting in 2001. After a long illness, he died in 2008 at the age of 93.