Career: Costner believed his break would come in 1983's The Big Chill - but he was cut from the final film. However, director Lawrence Kasdan cast him in Silverado, which boosted his career. His first major leading role arrived in 1987 in The Untouchables. Since then he has picked up a Best Director Oscar for Dances with Wolves, and had box-office hits with The Bodyguard, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Field of Dreams and JFK. He has struggled to find successful projects in recent years, but Open Range in 2003, which he starred in as well as directing and producing, was a return to form. He won a 2012 Emmy Award for his role in miniseries Hatfields & McCoys. He's also appeared in Mr Brooks, The Guardian and Man of Steel.

Career: After graduating from Rada, Rickman worked in repertory theatre. His big break came when he was nominated for a Tony Award in the Broadway production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. He was passed over for the film version, instead making his big screen debut in Die Hard as the villain Hans Gruber. He went on to play a wide variety of roles on the stage and on the big screen. His other film credits included Truly, Madly Deeply, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Sense and Sensibility, the Harry Potter films, Love Actually and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Rickman also directed the movies A Little Chaos and The Winter Guest, and maintained a strong stage career. He died from cancer on January 14, 2016 at the age of 69.

Career: Freeman's first credited big-screen appearance was in 1971's Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow?, before he landed a regular role on children's show The Electric Company. In the mid-1980s, Freeman started getting more prominent roles in movies. Among his biggest hits have been Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption, Se7en, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Glory, Amistad, Deep Impact and Bruce Almighty. He is also an in-demand voice-over artist, lending his dulcet tones to sci-fi blockbuster War of the Worlds and the Oscar-winning documentary March of the Penguins. Freeman received an Academy Award of his own for his supporting role in Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby. A prolific actor, he has more recently appeared in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy and always has several films in pre-production.

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: Brimble started his acting career in theatre, beginning with a job as youth theatre organiser at the Marlowe Theatre and also acting in some of the theatre's plays. He went on to perform in theatre productions by a number of companies. In 1973, he started landing TV roles, starting with Wessex Tales. Following this, he appeared in such TV productions as The Sweeney, The Professionals and Dempsey and Makepeace. His film roles included Sweeney! (1977), Silver Dream Racer (1980) and Who Dares Wins (1982) before he was cast as Little John in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). Since then, he has appeared in such films as Loch Ness (1996), Seven Days to Live (2000) and A Knight's Tale (2001). Meanwhile, in TV, he has appeared in To Play the King, Ivanhoe, Emmerdale, The Bill and Grantchester.

Career: While still a bodybuilder, Sean was offered the chance to appear in a West End production of South Pacific, which kick-started his acting career. His film debut came in 1955's Lilacs in the Spring, but he didn't become a major star until he appeared as Bond in 1962's Dr No. It remains his most famous role, despite hits including The Man Who Would Be King, Rising Sun, A Bridge Too Far, Time Bandits, Highlander, The Rock, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Entrapment. He won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The Untouchables in 1987.