Career: After a few stage gigs and a handful of made-for-TV movies, he scored a supporting role in the Rob Lowe hockey flick Youngblood (1986), which was filmed in Canada. His first popular success came in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure three years later. He then showed his range with more dramatic roles in My Own Private Idaho and Much Ado About Nothing. He truly hit the big time with action flick Speed and struck box-office gold again a few years later with the Wachowski siblings' cyber-adventure The Matrix and its sequels. Reeves' first film as director, Man of Tai Chi, was released in 2013.

Career: Berry had a regular role in TV series Living Dolls in 1989, followed by a two-year stint in Dallas spin-off Knots Landing. Early films include Jungle Fever, Boomerang, and The Flintstones. She received acclaim for her performance in Bullworth in 1998, and a year later won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for playing the lead in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Projects since include Swordfish, Die Another Day, X-Men and its sequels, and Monster's Ball, for which she won a Best Actress Oscar. In 2005, she was given a worst actress Razzie award for Catwoman - and is one of the few stars to turn up to the ceremony to accept it. Other projects include Perfect Stranger, Things We Lost in the Fire, Frankie and Alice, Could Atlas, The Call and X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Career: McShane's first film was 1962's The Wild and the Willing. After that, he built a reputation as a fine stage actor thanks to various West End productions. His first starring role came in 1966's Skywest and Crooked, which co-starred Hayley Mills and was directed by her actor father John. He played Heathcliff in an acclaimed TV adaptation of Wuthering Heights and gained plaudits for such productions as Roots, Jesus of Nazareth and Disraeli. McShane became a household name thanks to Lovejoy in 1986, and even appeared in Dallas. Other projects include Deadwood (for which he won a Golden Globe award), Sexy Beast, Kings, 44 Inch Chest, The Pillars of the Earth, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Jack the Giant Slayer.

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.