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: Despite moving back to LA in 1985, Mullally's efforts to hit the big time came to nothing. Instead, she made ends meet appearing in small roles in such films as About Last Night and Risky Business, and TV series Murder, She Wrote and China Beach. Regular parts in The Ellen Burstyn Show and My Life and Times also failed to make her a star. In 1994 she appeared in an acclaimed stage version of Grease. From then, Mullally began getting better roles and, in 1998, became a household name thanks to Will & Grace. After Will & Grace ended in 2006, she hosted a short-lived talk show. Since then, she has popped up in various shows, including 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, and Childrens Hospital. Away from acting, she is the member of the band Supreme Music Program.