Career: Landed a role in soap Love of Life to help pay his college fees, and appeared on stage with Katharine Hepburn. He became so busy he was forced to quit Julliard in his final year. Made his big-screen debut with a small role in 1976 movie Gray Lady Down, then landed the part which would make him famous - Superman. He played the comic-book hero four times, but because of its enormous popularity, he found it difficult to escape its shadow and his career suffered. In 1995, he was paralysed in a horse riding accident. Subsequently, he worked tirelessly, lobbying for better treatment for disabled people and improved research. Reeve continued to act, appearing in TV movie Rear Window and TV series Smallville, based on the Superman mythology, before his death in 2004.

Career: In 1956, Vaughn was signed by Burt Lancaster's production company, but was drafted into the army shortly afterwards. On his return to Hollywood, he spent the next few years playing small roles in movies and TV series such as The Ten Commandments and Gunsmoke. In 1960 he received an Oscar nomination for The Young Philadelphians and was one of The Magnificent Seven. TV show The Lieutenant followed, and he became a major global star thanks to The Man from UNCLE in 1964. Vaughn has also starred in Bullitt, The Towering Inferno, Battle Beyond the Stars, and SOB, and continues to regularly crop up on the big and small screens. He starred in as con-artist Albert Stroller in the BBC drama Hustle between 2004 and 2012, before shifting his attention to Coronation Street to appear as rich American Milton, the love interest of Sylvia Goodwin.