Career: Cage changed his name from Coppola to Cage (inspired by Marvel comic hero Luke Cage) so he could achieve success in his own right. However, he got some of his earliest breaks in the movies Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club and Peggy Sue Got Married, which were directed by his uncle Francis. The actor won critical acclaim for films including Raising Arizona, Moonstruck and Wild at Heart, before picking up an Oscar in 1995 for his portrayal of an alcoholic in Leaving Las Vegas. After that, he branched out into action films, making Con Air, The Rock and Face/Off, but returned to his offbeat roots with movies like Adaptation, Lord of War, The Weather Man and World Trade Center. Since then he has made a string of big-budget movies, including National Treasure: Book of Secrets (a sequel to his 2004 hit National Treasure), The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and Season of the Witch. His 2011 film Drive Angry was a box-office flop, but he always has a number of films in the pipeline.

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: Isaacs' film debut came in The Tall Guy in 1989. Other early roles came in Capital City, Inspector Morse and Taggart. His first major film was 1997's Event Horizon, but it was small part in the blockbuster Armageddon a year later that cemented his position as a noteworthy actor, and he hasn't looked back since. Movie projects include The Patriot, Black Hawk Down, Divorcing Jack, Event Horizon and the Harry Potter franchise. On TV he's appeared in The West Wing, Brotherhood, Awake and Case Histories.

Career: O'Connor's other film credits include Thank God He Met Lizzy (1997), Mansfield Park (1999), Bedazzled (2000) and A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001). Work on the small screen includes roles in Blue Heelers, Madame Bovary and Vegas. In 2013, she began playing Rose Selfridge in ITV drama Mr Selfridge.

Career: He gained international recognition in 1996 for his role as one of the kidnappers in Fargo. He went on to star in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Armageddon (1998), Mercury Rising (1998), The Big Lebowski (1998), Chocolat (1999), Minority Report (2002), Bad Boys II (2003) and The Brothers Grimm (2005). From 2005, he had a recurring role in Prison Break as John Abruzzi. He continues to be heavily in demand for film and TV roles. Some of the TV shows he has starred in include CSI, Monk, Weeds, Covert Affairs, Wilfred, Leverage and NCIS: Los Angeles. He has also voiced a number of characters in video games.

Career: Ruffalo was in the original cast of Kenneth Lonergan's stage play This is Our Youth, which premiered Off-Broadway in 1996. He went on to star alongside Laura Linney in Lonergan's Academy Award-nominated movie You Can Count on Me (2000). Film roles followed in XX/XY (2002), In the Cut (2003), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Rumour Has It (2005), Zodiac (2007) and Where the Wild Things Are (2009). He won an Academy Award nomination for The Kids Are All Right (2010) and went on to star in Shutter Island (2010), Date Night (2010), The Avengers (2012), Now You See Me (2013) and Begin Again (2014).