Career: Wayne began doing bit parts in westerns and adventures and appeared in about 70 movies before his breakthrough role in John Ford's Stagecoach (1939). He went on to star in more than 20 John Ford pictures, including Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Rio Grande (1950), The Searchers (1956) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). Other notable films included Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), The Alamo (1960), The Green Berets (1968), True Grit (1969) and The Shootist (1976). He died of stomach cancer on June 11, 1979 at the age of 72.

Career: Hepburn won an Academy Award for Morning Glory (1933) and her next film, Little Women (1933), was a big hit. A string of flops followed but she bounced back with Alice Adams (1935), which gave the actress her second Academy Award nomination. She went on to star in a number of poorly received movies and she would eventually buy herself out of her contract for $75,000. She resurrected her career in 1939 when she took to the stage in Philip Barry's The Philadelphia Story. It was a big hit and ran for 417 performances on Broadway. She would star in the movie version alongside Cary Grant and it was one of the biggest hits of 1940. She picked up her third Academy Award nomination for the picture. She received another nomination for Woman of the Year (1942), her first role alongside Spencer Tracy. They would eventually make nine movies together in a screen-partnership that lasted 25 years. She picked up her fifth Academy Award nomination for The African Queen (1951). She won further nominations for Summertime (1955), The Rainmaker (1956), Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) and Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962). She would win Academy Awards for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968) and On Golden Pond (1981). Her final appearance on the big screen was alongside Annette Bening and Warren Beatty in Love Affair (1994). She died on June 29, 2003, at the age of 96.