Early-life: Hugh Michael Jackman was born on October 12, 1968, in Sydney, Australia. He's the youngest of five children. His parents are English. They split up when Hugh was eight. His mother returned to England, leaving him and his siblings to be raised by their father in Australia. He has a younger half-sister from his mother's remarriage. After leaving school, he gained a degree in communications from the University of Technology in Sydney. He used an inheritance from his grandmother to pay for further studies at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

Early-life: Rachel Hannah Weisz was born on March 7, 1970, in London, to parents George, a Hungarian inventor, and Edith, an Austrian psychoanalyst. She became a model at the age of 14, and didn't take up acting until she was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge; Ben Miller, Sacha Baron Cohen and Sue Perkins were among her contemporaries. She formed a university theatre company, Talking Tongues, which won a Guardian Award at the 1991 Edinburgh Festival, but disbanded two years later.

Early-life: Edna Rae Gillooly was born on December 7, 1932, in Detroit, Michigan. At 14 she worked as a cook, and after graduating from Detroit's Cass Technical High School, she modelled in Texas. She was also a showgirl on The Jackie Gleason Show in New York, and was a nightclub dancer in Montreal. In 1957 she made her Broadway debut in Fair Game, and three years later starred in an episode of 1960 TV series Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. A string of TV dramas followed, including Dr Kildare, Perry Mason and 77 Sunset Strip. By 1971 she made an impression in Peter Bogdanovich's acclaimed drama The Last Picture Show, and also impressed in Jack Nicholson drama The King of Marvin Gardens. However, it was William Friedkin's blockbuster The Exorcist that really put her on the map in 1973.