Career: Travolta eventually moved to Los Angeles to further his acting career. His big break came with sitcom Welcome Back Cotter; he also made an early movie appearance in Carrie. Saturday Night Fever and the film version of Grease proved he was a major force to be reckoned with. More big-screen outings followed but, despite the success of Look Who's Talking, a string of flops in the 1980s meant he fell out of favour until Quentin Tarantino cast him in Pulp Fiction in 1994. He's since made various hits, including Swordfish, Primary Colors and Get Shorty. Over the past few years he's appeared in Wild Hogs, Hairspray, From Paris with Love and The Taking of Pelham 123. He remains an A-list star.

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: Thurman made her mark in Dangerous Liaisons, and has been a star ever since. She made the controversial Henry and June in 1990, followed by more mainstream offerings Final Analysis and Mad Dog and Glory. Pulp Fiction proved she was more than just a pretty face in 1994. Over the course of her career, she has taken roles in the disastrous Batman and Robin and The Avengers, but fared better with the likes of Gattaca, Sweet and Lowdown, Paycheck, the Kill Bill movies, Be Cool and The Accidental Husband. In 2007, she was made a knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Away from acting, Thurman is an active supporter of several charitable organisations. She is working on a third Kil Bill film and is one of Hollywood's biggest stars.

Career: Willis started out on stage and had small parts in movies and on TV before landing a lead role in hit series Moonlighting in 1985. The show's success led to major film roles and a brief stint in music. In 1988 he scored a massive hit on the big screen with Die Hard. Other successes include Pulp Fiction, Twelve Monkeys, Armageddon, The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. In 2001 he announced he was steering clear of violent roles, but relented and went on to star in Hostage, Sin City and 16 Blocks. He scored another major success with A Good Day to Die Hard, and always has several movies in the pipeline (a fifth Die Hard film is being developed). Other recent films include Moonrise Kingdom, Red 2 and Sin City: A Dame to Die For.

Career: After landing roles in off-Broadway productions, Keitel met Martin Scorsese, an up-and-coming filmmaker, who cast him in his student project before handing him the lead in Mean Streets (1973). Despite an amazing performance, it was co-star Robert De Niro who profited most. Keitel's career took something of a nosedive toward the end of the 1970s, but received a shot in the arm in 1992 thanks to the films Bad Lieutenant and Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. This made him hot property, with Keitel going on to star in films such as The Piano (1993), Cop Land (1997), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) and National Treasure (2004) and its 2007 sequel. He also appeared in the short-lived US version of Life On Mars. More recently, he has starred in Inglourious Basterds (2009), Little Fockers (2010), Moonrise Kingdom (2012) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014).

Career: Roth made his screen debut in 1982 playing a 16-year-old skinhead in acclaimed drama Made In Britain, followed by a collaboration with Gary Oldman in Mike Leigh's TV movie Meantime two years later. A string of well-received films followed including The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. Roth moved to America in 1990 and hit the big time in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, reuniting with the director for his Oscar-winning 1994 drama Pulp Fiction. Roth picked up a Bafta for Rob Roy the following year and made his directing debut in 1999 with The War Zone. He stole the show in Tim Burton's revamp of Planet of the Apes in 2001 and his other films include Dark Water, Even Money, Funny Games and The Incredible Hulk. He played the lead role in American TV drama Lie to Me.

Career: Rhames first appeared on Broadway in the play The Winter Boys in 1984. Ving continued his rise to fame through his work in soap operas. He found work as a supporting actor, and came to the attention of the general public by playing the role of Marsellus Wallace in Pulp Fiction (1994). Major hits like Con-Air and the three Mission Impossible movies followed. He won a Golden Globe in 1998 for best actor in a TV miniseries for his performance in HBO's Don King: Only in America - and memorably presented it to Jack Lemmon. Other hits include Bringing Out the dead and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. He played the title role in a short-lived remake of Kojak.

Career: Stoltz's professional career began on the stage, including a stint at the Edinburgh Festival. He made his movie debut in 1982's Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and gained a Golden Globe nomination for his performance as a deformed teenager in 1985's Mask. Roles in Some Kind of Wonderful, Say Anything, Memphis Belle, Singles, Pulp Fiction and Rob Roy followed. More recently, he's appeared in The House of Mirth and The Honeymooners. He was most recently seen on-screen in short-lived sci-fi series Caprica.

Career: In 1990, Tarantino sold the script for True Romance for $50,000 and he was going to use most of this money to make a low-budget version of his screenplay for Reservoir Dogs. However, a friend of a friend showed a copy to Harvey Keitel, who raised the extra money needed to increase the budget to $1.5million. The film was released in 1992 to critical acclaim. Tarantino's second film as a director, Pulp Fiction, was a huge commercial success, winning the Palme D'Or at the Cannes film festival and an Oscar for Best Screenplay. Projects since then include From Dusk Till Dawn, Jackie Brown, the Kill Bill movies, Death Proof, Inglourious Basterds, and Django Unchained. He has also directed work for TV, notably earning an Emmy nomination for directing an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.