Career: Early in his career, Washington landed small parts on TV, and made his movie debut in 1981's Carbon Copy. A starring role in St Elsewhere led to bigger projects such as Cry Freedom, Glory (for which he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar), and Mo' Better Blues. The eponymous role of Malcolm X made him a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood in 1992. Since then, he's starred in Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, The Hurricane, Training Day (picking up a Best Actor Oscar for his role as a crooked cop), American Gangster, The Book of Eli, Crimson Tide, Unstoppable, Flight, 2 Guns and The Equalizer. He continues to act on stage whenever his schedule allows.

Career: Patton made the switch to acting and her first role was a small part in Hitch (2005). Her big break came a year later when she was cast in Denzel Washington-fronted action thriller Déjà Vu. She went on to star in Swing Vote (2008), Mirrors (2008), Precious (2009), Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) and 2 Guns (2013).

Career: After working on stage, Kilmer got his big break in 1984 comedy Top Secret!, in which he also sang all the songs. After a year spent backpacking through Europe, Kilmer landed the role of Iceman in Top Gun, and his career took off. Films including Willow (in which he met his future wife Joanne Whalley), The Doors, Tombstone, Batman Forever and The Island of Dr Moreau followed. After the failure of Dr Moreau, Kilmer turned his attention to crafting character parts, and won praise from critics for his turns in The Salton Sea and Kiss Kiss, Bang, Bang. Other films include The Bad Lieutenant: Port Call of New Orleans, MacGruber and Kill the Irishman.

Career: Caviezel's first stage work came in Seattle, where he'd originally moved to play basketball. He had a small role in the film My Own Private Idaho in 1991 before relocating to Los Angeles. Parts in Wyatt Earp, Murder, She Wrote and The Wonder Years followed. His breakthrough performance came in 1998's The Thin Red Line, but he didn't become famous until he played the lead role in Mel Gibson's surprise blockbusting hit The Passion of the Christ in 2004, but he suffered for his art - during filming he was struck by lightning, and suffered both pneumonia and hypothermia. He turned down the chance to play Cyclops in X-Men to take the lead in Frequency instead. Other film projects include Madison, Long Weekend and Transit; he also starred in a remake of The Prisoner on TV and crime drama Person of Interest.