Career: Attenborough's film debut was 1942's In Which We Serve, playing a cowardly sailor; in real life, he served with the RAF's Film Unit, sustaining permanent ear damage in the process. He became a post-war star thanks to hits such as Brighton Rock (1947),The Great Escape (1963), and I'm All Right Jack (1959). He and Bryan Forbes formed a production company in the early 1960s, which made films including The Angry Silence (1960) and Whistle Down the Wind (1961). Attenborough directed his first film, Oh! What a Lovely War, in 1969, won an Oscar for Gandhi in 1982, and also directed the acclaimed movies A Bridge Too Far (1977), Chaplin (1992) and Shadowlands (1993). He returned to acting in the 1990s to appear in Jurassic Park (1993), Miracle on 34th Street (1994), and Elizabeth (1998). He was knighted in 1976 and made a life peer in 1993. He died on August 24, 2014, at the age of 90.

Career: Coburn raised his profile following appearances in The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963), Charade (1963), The Americanisation of Emily, and Major Dundee (1965). His other film credits include A Fistful of Dynamite (1972), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) and Cross of Iron (1977). Rheumatoid arthritis limited his output in the 1980s but he enjoyed a career resurgence in the 1990s with supporting roles in the likes of Young Guns II (1990), Hudson Hawk (1991), Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), Maverick (1994), Eraser (1996), The Nutty Professor (1996), and Affliction (1997), for which he won an Academy Award. He died of a heart attack on November 18, 2002, at the age of 74.

Career: Garner quickly moved into TV and got his big break playing the role of professional gambler Bret Maverick in the comedy Western series Maverick, a role he played from 1957 to 1960. Film roles followed in The Thrill of it All (1963), The Great Escape (1963), The Americanization of Emily (1964) and Hour of the Gun (1967). In the 1970s, Garner returned to TV and appeared as private investigator Jim Rockford in the hugely popular The Rockford Files. He played the role for six seasons and was rewarded with an Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1977. He received an Oscar nomination for his role in Murphy's Romance (1985). In the 1990s, he reprised his role as Jim Rockford in eight TV movies. In his later years, Garner starred in My Fellow Americans (1996), Space Cowboys (2000) and The Notebook (2004) and TV sitcom 8 Simple Rules. He died of natural causes on July 19, 2014, at the age of 86.

Career: In 1950, Bronson married and moved to Hollywood, where he took acting classes and began landing small roles. He made several TV guest appearances during the 1950s in the likes of The Doctor, Waterfront, Treasury Men in Action, The Sheriff of Cochise, and US Marshall. His profile increased when he was cast as one of the seven gunfighters in the movie The Magnificent Seven (1960). Prominent films after that included The Great Escape (1963), The Dirty Dozen (1967), and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). In 1974, he made the film he is most associated with, Death Wish. It was a box-office hit and led to four sequels. After his health deteriorated, he retired from acting in 1998. He suffered from Alzheimer's in his final years and died of pneumonia on August 30, 2003, at the age of 81.

Career: McCallum became an assistant stage manager, but National Service interrupted his career. He made his film debut in 1957's These Dangerous Years, and appeared in numerous British movies before moving to Hollywood in the early 1960s. He landed roles in Billy Budd and The Great Escape but it was his performance as Illya Kuryakin in The Man from UNCLE that made him a household name in 1964. The series ran until 1968, and a spin-off TV movie was made in 1983. He also released four albums in the 1960s. Other major projects include Colditz, The Invisible Man, Sapphire and Steel, Mother Love, Hear My Song, and Cluedo. Since 2003, he has starred in popular American drama NCIS, playing forensics expert Dr Donald 'Ducky' Mallard.