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: Athletic roles in Wildcats gave way to tough guy parts in New Jack City (1991), and to the action hero in Passenger 57 (1992). He went on to star alongside some of Hollywood's most famous leading men, all of whom hand-picked him for the roles. He further came to audiences' attentions in White Men Can't Jump (1992), Demolition Man (1993), Rising Sun (1993) and One Night Stand (1997), before landing the lead role in Blade (1998). Two more Blade films were made. He made a number of straight-to-DVD movies before returning to form in Brooklyn's Finest (2010). In 2008, Snipes was sentenced to three years in prison for failing to file federal income tax returns. After his conviction was upheld after an appeal, Snipes reported to federal prison in December 2010. He was released in April 2013. He returned to the big screen in 2014 in The Expendables 3.

Career: Bullock moved to New York and studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Student films were followed by the Off-Broadway play No Time Flat. She went to Hollywood to appear in TV movie Bionic Showdown in 1989, and thought her big break had come when she landed the lead in a small-screen version of hit movie Working Girl. Sadly, the series flopped. Things began looking up in 1993 when she landed a role in Demolition Man; a year later she was a massive star thanks to Speed. Hits since include While You Were Sleeping, Miss Congeniality (and its sequel), Crash, Premonition and The Proposal. She won an Oscar for her performance in The Blind Side. Her recent credits include The Heat and Gravity.

Career: Hawthorne returned to England in 1951 and landed a job as an assistant stage manager in Buxton, Derbyshire. Later the same year, he made his London stage debut in You Can't Take It With You, but found other roles hard to come by. In 1957 he returned to South Africa and managed to secure a number of leading roles. He came back to London in 1962 and made his first West End appearance in Talking to You. He made his Broadway debut in 1974 in As You Like It and won a Tony Award in 1991 for his role in Shadowlands. In a varied career, he mixed his stage work with appearances in a number of TV shows and films. He won four Bafta TV awards for his work on Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, and was awarded Bafta film gongs for The Madness of King George (1994) and The Fragile Heart (1996). He was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on The Madness of King George. He was knighted in 1999. He died from a heart attack on December 26, 2001 at the age of 72.

Career: That resulting concert film No Cure for Cancer made him an instant star in Hollywood. He made a series of guest appearances on Jonathan Ross's show Saturday Zoo in 1993 and was snapped up for a series of movies cashing in on his wise-talking image. However, Demolition Man and Hostile Hostages failed to turn him into a superstar. In 1999, he played the New York cop trying to catch Pierce Brosnan in The Thomas Crown Affair remake. While researching that part, he was so inspired by the cop he hung around with, he created TV series The Job. He co-produced and helped write the Johnny Depp movie Blow, and also provided voiceovers for the films A Bug's Life and Ice Age. He's a driving force behind The Leary Firefighters Foundation after his first cousin and a childhood friend were killed tackling a fire in his hometown. He played veteran firefighter Tommy Gavin in American drama Rescue Me from 2004 to 2011. Issues dealt with in the series included post 9/11 trauma, and the final episode aired fours days before the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Career: Bratt made his professional debut at the Utah Shakespeare Festival before starring in TV pilot Juarez, which failed to make it into a full series. He had a regular role in Police Story: Gladiator School in 1988 and became a familiar face on the small screen in Knight Watch and Nasty Boys. He became a household name in the US by landing a role in hit show Law and Order in 1995. Other roles since then have included parts in such movies as Red Planet, Miss Congeniality, Traffic, Catwoman and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs as the voice of Manny. TV credits include Frasier, The Cleaner, Modern Family and Private Practice.

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).