Career: Wayne began doing bit parts in westerns and adventures and appeared in about 70 movies before his breakthrough role in John Ford's Stagecoach (1939). He went on to star in more than 20 John Ford pictures, including Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Rio Grande (1950), The Searchers (1956) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). Other notable films included Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), The Alamo (1960), The Green Berets (1968), True Grit (1969) and The Shootist (1976). He died of stomach cancer on June 11, 1979 at the age of 72.

Career: After graduating from Berkeley, Peck went to New York to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse. To make ends meet, he worked at the 1939 World's Fair and as a tour guide for NBC at Radio City Music Hall. He made his Broadway debut in 1942 as the lead in The Morning Star. He was in high demand as an actor during the Second World War as he was exempt from military service due to a back injury. In 1947, he co-founded The La Jolla Playhouse with Mel Ferrer and Dorothy McGuire. Peck's first film, Days of Glory, was released in 1944. He received Academy Award nominations for The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and Twelve O'Clock High (1949). He went on to win an Oscar for his performance as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). Among his other films were Spellbound (1945), Moby Dick (1956), The Guns of Navarone (1961), Roman Holiday (1953), The Omen (1976), MacArthur (1977), The Boys from Brazil (1978) and Other People's Money (1991). Peck died in his sleep on June 12, 2003 at the age of 87.

Career: In Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Fonda landed his first professional role in the University Players production of The Jest. It wasn't long before he headed to New York. Along with roommate James Stewart, he developed his acting skills on Broadway and appeared in a number of stage productions between 1926 and 1934. Fonda got his big break when he made his first film appearance in The Farmer Takes a Wife (1935). His movie career took off and in 1936 he starred in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, the first Technicolor movie filmed outdoors. He went on to star in The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Rings On Her Fingers (1942), and The Ox-Bow Incident (1943). He served in the Navy during the Second World War. In 1948, Fonda won a Tony Award for playing the title role in Mister Roberts, a role he would later play on the big screen in 1955. He went on to star in War in Peace (1956), The Wrong Man (1956), 12 Angry Men (1957), How the West Was Won (1962) and Spencer's Mountain (1963). Fonda continued to act throughout his final years and he won his only Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in On Golden Pond (1981). He died a year later in Los Angeles at the age of 77.

Career: Reynolds made several forgettable films before being picked by Gene Kelly to play his love interest in 1952's Singin' in the Rain. She was not a professional dancer, but was trained by Kelly to cope with the routines. She followed it up with a series of lightweight musicals, and gained a Best Actress Oscar nomination for 1964's The Unsinkable Molly Brown, but her movie career waned as her frothy style went out of fashion. She remained in the spotlight thanks to TV series The Debbie Reynolds Show, and continued to make guest appearances on the big and small screens. The 1996 TV movie Mother brought her a Golden Globe nomination, and she won an Emmy Award in 2000 for her role of Bobbi Adler in the sitcom Will & Grace. Her daughter, Carrie Fisher, died on December 27, 2016. Reynolds died a day later at the age of 84.

Career: Widmark was performing in a stage production in Chicago when 20th Century Fox signed him to a seven-year film contract. His first movie role was Kiss of Death (1947), a part that earned him a Golden Globe and his only Academy Award nomination. His early films were The Street with No Name (1948), Road House (1948) and Yellow Sky (1948) and he quickly developed a reputation for playing movie villains. After demanding more diverse roles, he went on play a wide range of parts in the likes of Panic in the Streets (1950), No Way Out (1950), Night and the City (1950), Broken Lance (1954), The Alamo (1960), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and Madigan (1968). He made the transition to the small screen in 1971 with the TV movie Vanished, and he reprised his detective role from Madigan in six TV movies. After a career that had seen him star in more than 60 films, he retired from acting in 2001. After a long illness, he died in 2008 at the age of 93.