Career: Willis started out on stage and had small parts in movies and on TV before landing a lead role in hit series Moonlighting in 1985. The show's success led to major film roles and a brief stint in music. In 1988 he scored a massive hit on the big screen with Die Hard. Other successes include Pulp Fiction, Twelve Monkeys, Armageddon, The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. In 2001 he announced he was steering clear of violent roles, but relented and went on to star in Hostage, Sin City and 16 Blocks. He scored another major success with A Good Day to Die Hard, and always has several movies in the pipeline (a fifth Die Hard film is being developed). Other recent films include Moonrise Kingdom, Red 2 and Sin City: A Dame to Die For.

Career: Mirren was snapped-up by the Royal Shakespeare Company and tackled numerous classical parts. She's continued to appear on stage throughout her career, alongside TV and film roles. Her most famous TV role is Jane Tennison in police drama Prime Suspect. Her first movie was Herostratus in 1967. More famous parts came in Caligula, The Long Good Friday, Excalibur, The Mosquito Coast, Calendar Girls and Elizabeth I. In 2003 she was made a Dame and three years later won an Oscar for The Queen. She's also been nominated for The Madness of King George, Gosford Park and Hitchcock. Other big-screen outings include State of Play, The Last Station, The Tempest, Brighton Rock, Red and the remake of Arthur.

Career: In 1980 Malkovich moved to New York to further his career, and won great acclaim in 1984 for his performance opposite Dustin Hoffman in Death of a Salesman. Early films include Places in the Heart, The Killing Fields and Empire of the Sun, but it was 1988's Dangerous Liaisons that made him a star. Further plaudits came for Of Mice and Men and In the Line of Fire. He played a version of himself in Being John Malkovich. He continues to appear on both stage and screen in a variety of projects, including blockbuster hits RED and its sequel, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Career: Hopkins's first professional work was on stage. He later joined Laurence Olivier's National Theatre, but left to make acclaimed movie The Lion in Winter. A steady stream of TV and film work followed (as well as some theatre appearances), including War and Peace, The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case, The Bunker, A Bridge Too Far, The Elephant Man, and Across the Lake. But Hopkins didn't become a major Hollywood star until after giving up alcohol. He won an Oscar for 1991's The Silence of the Lambs, and since then has starred in such hits as The Remains of the Day, Howards End, Hannibal, Shadowlands, Thor and Hitchcock.

Career: In 1991, Zeta-Jones became a household name in the UK after starring in the hugely popular The Darling Buds of May on TV alongside David Jason. She then played supporting roles in a variety of films, before Steven Spielberg spotted her and offered her a major part in The Mask of Zorro. Credits have since included The Haunting, Entrapment, High Fidelity and Traffic. In 2002 she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in Chicago. Since then, she's appeared in The Terminal, Intolerable Cruelty and Ocean's Twelve. She reprised her role as Elena de la Vega in The Legend of Zorro. She returned to the stage in 2009 and won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance on Broadway in A Little Night Music.

Career: Cox's earliest TV appearances were as an extra in cult TV series The Prisoner. He has been a mainstay in the world of TV and film ever since, popping up in Hammer House of Horror, Minder, Frasier and Deadwood. He played Hannibal Lecktor in Manhunter, Michael Mann's adaptation of Red Dragon. (The name was later spelled Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs). He has appeared in a string of major Hollywood offerings, including The Long Kiss Goodnight, X-Men 2, Troy, The Bourne Supremacy, Zodiac and Red. On the stage he has appeared in Titus Andronicus, Taming of the Shrew and King Lear. He has also voiced characters in the video games Killzone and Manhunt.