Career: While working in a department store in LA, Lansbury met a casting director through her mother. He offered her a role in the 1944 film Gaslight; she was just 18, but it landed her an Oscar nomination. Roles in National Velvet, Blue Hawaii and Bedknobs and Broomsticks followed. She gained further Academy Award nominations for The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Manchurian Candidate. She's also worked extensively on stage, winning a record five Tony Awards. But it was playing Jessica Fletcher in the long-running TV series Murder, She Wrote, that turned her into a household name. More recently, Lansbury has appeared in Nanny McPhee and Mr Popper's Penguins.

Career: Neil's first big break came in 1989 when he landed the lead role as a teenage doctor in comedy drama Doogie Howser, MD. When the show ended in 1993 after four seasons, Neil took up stage acting. He continued to make guest appearances in various TV shows, but he didn't hit the small-screen jackpot again until 2005 when he was cast as Barney Stinson in popular sitcom How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM). HIMYM ran for nine seasons, clocking up more than 200 editions. More recently, Neil has starred on the big screen in The Smurfs (2011) and its sequel The Smurfs 2 (2013), The Muppets (2011) and American Reunion (2012). He won two Emmy Awards in 2010 for a guest appearance in an episode of Glee and for hosting the 63rd Annual Tony Awards. He also won Emmys for hosting the 65th and 66th Tony Awards.