Career: Redgrave's first professional job was at Frinton Summer Theatre. She made her West End debut opposite her father in A Touch of the Sun, and starred alongside him in 1958's Behind the Mask, her film debut. She became a face of the 1960s thanks to movies such as Blowup, Isadora and Camelot before winning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1977 for Julia. Redgrave has continued to appear on the big screen in productions such as Agatha, Yanks, Wetherby, Howards End, Mission: Impossible, Wilde, Venus, Atonement, Song for Marion and Ralph Fiennes' acclaimed film version of Coriolanus. She's also an activist who works tirelessly for various causes, often creating controversy with her forthright views.

Career: Dalton joined the Birmingham Rep and began gaining TV work in the mid-1960s. Peter O'Toole recommended him for a role in Oscar-winning movie The Lion in Winter in 1968. He turned down Bond around this time, claiming he was too young for the part and made several forgettable films instead, including Mary, Queen of Scots, Cromwell, and Sextette. He refused Bond again in the early 1980s, eventually taking the role in 1987's The Living Daylights. Licence to Kill was his second and final outing as 007. Other career highlights include Agatha, Jane Eyre, Hawks and Cleopatra. In recent years he has appeared on the big screen in Hot Fuzz, Toy Story 3 (as Mr Pricklepants), and The Tourist, and on the small screen in Doctor Who, Chuck and Penny Dreadful.

Career: After making his mark on the London stage, McGoohan appeared in his first film, The Dam Busters, in 1954. He later gained contracts with the Rank Organisation and Walt Disney, but it was the TV play The Greatest Man in the World that led to him being cast in spy series Danger Man in 1960. Its huge success made him Britain's highest-paid TV actor. McGoohan created surreal cult hit The Prisoner in 1967 before moving to the US. Afterwards his output was sporadic, but he appeared in, directed and written episodes of Columbo, had his own series called Rafferty, and starred in the films Ice Station Zebra, Escape from Alcatraz, Silver Streak and Braveheart. McGoohan died on January 13, 2009, in Santa Monica, California, following a brief illness.

Career: Holm's first professional appearance was as a spear carrier in a 1956 production of Othello. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was said to be the most likely successor to Laurence Olivier. His first memorable screen appearance came in 1968's A Midsummer Night's Dream. His most famous movies since include Alien, Chariots of Fire, Greystoke, Brazil, The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Day After Tomorrow.