Career: At the age of 10, Christian made his West End debut in The Nerd, opposite Rowan Atkinson. He was hand-picked from 4,000 auditionees to take the lead role in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun in 1987. Unlike many child stars, he has successfully made the transition to serious grown-up actor. Films since include Little Women, The Portrait of a Lady, Velvet Goldmine, American Psycho, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Shaft, Reign of Fire, Equilibrium and The Machinist. His status soared after playing Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins and its sequels. His other recent films have included The Prestige, 3:10 to Yuma, Terminator Salvation, Public Enemies, The Fighter (for which he won an Oscar) and American Hustle.

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: Neeson's professional debut was on stage in The Risen People. He was spotted in a play at Dublin's Abbey Theatre by director John Boorman, who cast him in movie Excalibur in 1981. He made a name for himself in Krull, A Woman of Substance, Ellis Island and The Mission. Other leading roles came in Suspect, The Dead Pool and The Big Man. However, he didn't become a major star until Schindler's List in 1993. Since then he's featured in Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace, Gangs of New York, Love Actually, Kinsey and the brilliant action film Taken. He was also seen in the big-screen version of The A Team and has several blockbusters in the pipeline.

Career: After sending off audition tapes for pilot TV shows, one of them helped her land the role of Joey Potter in Dawson's Creek. That series became one of the biggest hits of the 1990s. She also appeared in the movies Disturbing Behaviour, Go and Wonder Boys. Recent projects include The Gift, Phone Booth, Pieces of April, The Singing Detective, First Daughter and Batman Begins. In 2011, she played Jackie Kennedy in TV miniseries The Kennedys.

Career: In 1996, Murphy made his professional stage debut in Enda Walsh's Disco Pigs. The runaway success of the play prompted him to leave university and quit his band, and led to him landing an agent. Between 1997 and 2003, he busied himself in an array of indie productions, but it was his powerful performance in the 2002 thriller 28 Days Later that really got him noticed. Since then, he has notched up impressive performances in a number of diverse films, including The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Sunshine, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Cold Mountain, Red Eye, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Inception and Tron: Legacy. He's also the star of the BBC's Peaky Blinders.

Career: Following a successful spell on stage he turned to movies, making a massive impact as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy in 1986, and Prick Up Your Ears a year later. Alcoholism threatened his career, but he has now quit booze. His roles include playing Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK, the title role in Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Mason Verger in Hannibal. Other projects include Lost in Space, Leon, and The Fifth Element. His directorial debut, the acclaimed Nil By Mouth, was a heart-breaking, semi-autobiographical movie about his childhood. Oldman suffered a career slump around the Millennium, when he concentrated more on raising his young family than he did on acting. But he came back stronger than ever with roles in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Tinker Tailor Solider Spy (for which he was Oscar nominated) and the Batman franchise.

Career: Freeman's first credited big-screen appearance was in 1971's Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow?, before he landed a regular role on children's show The Electric Company. In the mid-1980s, Freeman started getting more prominent roles in movies. Among his biggest hits have been Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption, Se7en, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Glory, Amistad, Deep Impact and Bruce Almighty. He is also an in-demand voice-over artist, lending his dulcet tones to sci-fi blockbuster War of the Worlds and the Oscar-winning documentary March of the Penguins. Freeman received an Academy Award of his own for his supporting role in Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby. A prolific actor, he has more recently appeared in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy and always has several films in pre-production.

Career: Wilkinson made his TV debut in the mid-1970s, and went on to appear in programmes including First Among Equals and A Pocket Full of Rye. However, it was his role as Mr Pecksniff in the BBC's 1994 adaptation of Martin Chuzzlewit that really put the actor on the map. Three years later Tom won a Bafta for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in The Full Monty, and the 1990s also saw him appear in such notable films as Shakespeare in Love, In the Name of the Father and Wilde. More recently, he played the gangster Carmine Falcone in Batman Begins, gained great critical acclaim for In the Bedroom, starred alongside George Clooney in Michael Clayton and played German army officer Friedrich Fromm in Valkyrie. He won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Benjamin Franklin in the miniseries John Adams. His recent work on the big screen includes roles in The Ghost, Burke and Hare, The Green Hornet and The Conspirator.

Career: After declaring himself mentally unfit for military service, Hauer returned to acting, making his film debut in 1969's Monsieur Hawarden. Film and TV work in his native Holland followed, and by 1981, a series of excellent performances in such projects as Soldier of Orange and Spetters led him to be cast in his first US movie, Nighthawks, opposite Sylvester Stallone. A year later, Blade Runner made him an international star. Films such as Ladyhawke, The Hitcher, and Blind Fury followed. He fell out of favour during the 1990s, following a string of disappointing movies, but has never stopped working. In 2002, he was in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, had a small role in Batman Begins in 2005 and was in season six of True Blood.

Career: The success of Following, made for £3,000, led to Nolan directing Memento (2000), which he co-wrote with his brother Jonathan. The film was a box-office success and was nominated for two Academy Awards. He followed this up with box-office success Insomnia (2002). In 2005, he rebooted the Batman franchise with Batman Begins. It was a critical and commercial success. The sequel, The Dark Knight (2008), cemented Nolan's position as a leading director when it took more than $1billion at the worldwide box office. His trilogy of Batman movies ended with The Dark Knight Rises (2012), which also generated more than $1billion at the box office. Nolan has also had success with The Prestige (2006), Inception (2010) and Interstellar (2014).