Career: Caine worked on stage and appeared in small roles on TV, often struggling to make ends meet. He was good friends with Terence Stamp during the early 1960s, before either became famous, and they often shared digs. Caine decided if he wasn't successful by the age of 30 he'd quit acting. Days before this milestone he landed the role in Zulu which made his name. The Harry Palmer spy movies, The Italian Job and Alfie secured his star status. Since then, he's made many films, many forgettable and, by his own admission, done for the money. Highlights include Get Carter, Sleuth (plus a remake), The Man Who Would Be King, Educating Rita, Little Voice, Mona Lisa, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Harry Brown and Interstellar. He won Oscars for Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules. He claims he will retire from showbusiness when he's 90.

Career: Sharif spent the next eight years appearing in Arabic movies. His first English-speaking role was playing Sherif Ali in 1962's Lawrence of Arabia (for which he was Oscar-nominated). It made him a star, and he reunited with the film's director, David Lean, for Doctor Zhivago three years later. Movies such as The Night of the Generals (1967), Funny Girl (1968) and its 1975 sequel Funny Lady, The Last Valley (1970) and The Tamarind Seed (1974) followed. TV series The Far Pavilions was a hit in 1984, but he made little else of note until 1999 movie The 13th Warrior. He also starred alongside Steve Coogan in The Parole Officer (2001). He died of a heart attack on July 10, 2015.

Career: Holden went on to star in several minor pictures before serving in the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War, where he acted in training films for the First Motion Picture Unit. His big break came when Billy Wilder cast him as screenwriter Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard (1950). The role earned Holden an Academy Award nomination. He went on to star in a number of acclaimed films, including Stalag 17 (1953), Sabrina (1954), Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), The Wild Bunch (1969), The Towering Inferno (1974) and Network (1976). He won an Academy Award for Stalag 17, and a Primetime Emmy in 1974 for The Blue Knight. He died in his Santa Monica apartment on November 12, 1981 at the age of 63.