Career: During the early 1990s, McConaughey combined his studies with appearances in adverts, before winning an eye-catching part in the cult movie Dazed and Confused. He made an even bigger splash in 1996, when he won the starring role in the John Grisham adaptation A Time to Kill, which was a major hit worldwide. He's been a popular Hollywood leading man ever since, and his movie credits include Amistad, EDtv, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Sahara, Failure to Launch, Tropic Thunder, and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. In more recent years McConaughey has proved his versatility with roles in more challenging movies, Magic Mike, Bernie, The Dallas Buyers Club, for which he won an Oscar, and Interstellar. He also starred in the first season of acclaimed TV series True Detective.

Career: After landing roles in off-Broadway productions, Keitel met Martin Scorsese, an up-and-coming filmmaker, who cast him in his student project before handing him the lead in Mean Streets (1973). Despite an amazing performance, it was co-star Robert De Niro who profited most. Keitel's career took something of a nosedive toward the end of the 1970s, but received a shot in the arm in 1992 thanks to the films Bad Lieutenant and Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. This made him hot property, with Keitel going on to star in films such as The Piano (1993), Cop Land (1997), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) and National Treasure (2004) and its 2007 sequel. He also appeared in the short-lived US version of Life On Mars. More recently, he has starred in Inglourious Basterds (2009), Little Fockers (2010), Moonrise Kingdom (2012) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014).

Career: Paxton returned to Los Angeles, and began winning parts in movies including Stripes, Weird Science and Streets of Fire, as well as making the acclaimed short film Fishheads. During the early 1980s, he struck up a friendship with aspiring director James Cameron, who would go on to cast him in The Terminator, Aliens, True Lies and Titanic. His other notable flim appearances include Predator, Apollo 13, Twister and Spy Kids 2. He reportedly turned down the lead role in The Da Vinci Code to star in the acclaimed American TV series Big Love. On February 25, 2017, Paxton died of a stroke following complications from heart surgery.

Career: Kretschmann caught the eye of Hollywood casting directors when he played Captain Wilm Hosenfeld in Roman Polanski's The Pianist (2002). Since then, he has starred in Downfall (2004), Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), King Kong (2005), Valkyrie (2008), The Young Victoria (2009) and Cars 2 (2011) as the voice of Professor Z. On the small screen, he starred in short-lived American supernatural drama The River. He can currently be seen playing Abraham Van Helsing in TV horror drama Dracula.