Career: Sheen toured Europe with the Living Theatre group in 1961 and starred on Broadway before moving to Hollywood. His big break came in Terrence Malick's 1973 cult classic Badlands. He had a heart attack while filming 1979's Apocalypse Now, and later became a passionate campaigner on human rights issues. He's since featured in projects such as Gandhi, miniseries Kennedy, Wall Street (alongside son Charlie) and Catch Me If You Can. Sheen starred as a White House aide in romantic comedy The American President, which led to him being cast as the US leader in acclaimed TV drama The West Wing. He had a small but eye-catching part in Oscar-laden cop movie The Departed. He has also starred in Bobby and The Way, both directed by his son Emilio Estevez. He played Ben Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012).

Career: Brando started making a name for himself on Broadway in the late 1940s, achieving stardom as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams's 1947 play A Streetcar Named Desire. Warner Brothers came knocking and asked him to do a screen test. His first film role was as a bitter paraplegic veteran in The Men in 1950 and his big break came when he brought Stanley Kowalski to the big screen in A Streetcar Named Desire. This role quickly established Brando as a Hollywood sex symbol. He went on to star in Viva Zapata! (1952), Julius Caesar (1952), On the Waterfront (1954) and The Wild One (1953). Other highlights in a highly distinguished career include The Godfather (1972), Last Tango in Paris (1972), Superman (1978) and Apocalypse Now (1979). Despite announcing his retirement from acting in 1980, he continued to act and appeared in A Dry White Season (1989), The Freshman (1990) and The Score (2001). He died on July 1, 2004 at the age of 80.

Career: Duvall's first professional work came on stage. His TV debut was in a 1959 episode of Armstrong Circle Theatre, while his first film was 1962's To Kill a Mockingbird. Other early movies were The Chase, Bullitt, True Grit and MASH. In 1972, he received his first Oscar nomination for The Godfather. Nominations since have been for Apocalypse Now, The Great Santini, The Apostle (which he also wrote and directed) and A Civil Action. He won the Best Actor award for Tender Mercies in 1983. Other films include The Godfather: Part II, Sling Blade, Open Range, Secondhand Lions, Thank You for Smoking, Crazy Heart and Get Low.

Career: Hopper featured in more than 150 films and TV programmes, including Rebel Without a Cause and Giant (both with James Dean), and the iconic Easy Rider, which he also directed. However, years of drug and alcohol abuse took their toll, and his film work foundered during the 1970s (with the notable exception of Apocalypse Now) and early 1980s. David Lynch's disturbing 1986 drama Blue Velvet gave Hopper's career a kick-start, after which he worked steadily on both the big and small screen until his death in May 2010, notably Speed, True Romance and Land of the Dead.

Career: Laurence lied about his age to ensure he got a part in the epic Apocalypse Now, and enjoyed a minor role in Steven Spielberg's acclaimed The Color Purple. Since then, Fishburne has established himself as a character actor of some note - with roles in School Daze, Boys N the Hood, What's Love Got to Do With It? (for which he received an Oscar nomination) and The Matrix films. In 2008, he returned to TV work, accepting a lead role in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, but is also due to appear in the upcoming movies Predators and 4Chosen.

Career: After being hired to make cabinets for George Lucas, Ford was cast in the director's 1973 film American Graffiti. They reunited for the original Star Wars trilogy, which made both their names. His role as intrepid archaeologist Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark and its sequels cemented his position as one of the world's best-loved heroes. Ford was Oscar-nominated for Peter Weir's thriller Witness. He worked with the director again on 1986 project The Mosquito Coast, which despite being a flop remains one of his favourite movies. Other notable projects include The Fugitive, Blade Runner, Working Girl, Patriot Games and Cowboys & Aliens.