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: 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.