Early-life: Born Walter Bruce Willis on March 19, 1955, in Idar-Oberstein, Germany. He is the oldest of four children. His father was a US soldier who married a local woman. After his father left the military, the family moved to Carneys Point, New Jersey. As a child he had a crippling stutter. He attended Montclair State University, but dropped out to pursue acting. While working as a barman, Willis was spotted by a New York casting director.

Early-life: Born Benjamin Geza Affleck-Boldt on August 15, 1972, in Berkeley, California, but was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His mother was a teacher, while his father had a number of jobs, including social worker, mechanic and janitor. Ben's younger brother, Casey, is also an actor, and they've worked together several times. Ben met Matt Damon at the age of eight; they attended the same school and lived near each other. On graduating from high school, Ben attended Occidental College in LA and the University of Vermont.

Early-life: Born Liv Rundgren in New York on July 1, 1977. Her mother is model and rock chick Bebe Buell, and Liv grew up thinking Todd Rundgren was her dad. However, at the age of 11, she met Steven Tyler's daughter Mia and was struck by how alike they looked, prompting her mum to come clean and admit the Aerosmith frontman was her biological father. She began modelling in her early teens, and was cast in the Aerosmith video Crazy after the director spotted her in shampoo advert, unaware she was the lead singer's daughter.

Early-life: Born William Robert Thornton on August 4, 1955, in Arkansas, the eldest child of a teacher father and a mother who supposedly had psychic abilities. He had three brothers: James Donald (who died at the age of 30 after suffering a heart attack), James Bean and John David. They were raised alongside other members of their family in a shack that had no plumbing or electricity. His dream of becoming a baseball star was cut short by injury, so Thornton turned to acting, eventually moving to Los Angeles in 1981 with friend Tom Epperson (who became his writing partner) to pursue his career. He also sought work as a musician.

Early-life: Michael Clarke Duncan was born on December 10th, 1957. He was raised by his single mother on Chicago's South Side - a notorious community. He resisted drugs and alcohol, instead concentrating on school. He wanted to play football in high school, but his mother wouldn't let him, fearing he would get hurt - despite his enormous bulk. He then turned to acting, dreaming of becoming a Hollywood star. After graduating from high school and attending community college, he worked digging ditches at Peoples Gas Company in Chicago. When he quit his job and headed to Hollywood, he landed small roles while working as a bodyguard for the likes of Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J and the Notorious B.I.G. He let a friend take over for him the night Notorious B.I.G. was shot, which prompted him to quit that line of work.

Early-life: Steven Vincent Buscemi was born on December 13, 1957, in Brooklyn, New York. He has three brothers; one of them, Michael, is also an actor. Their father John worked for New York's sanitation department. After graduating from high school, Buscemi studied liberal arts at Nassau Community College before dropping out. To make ends meet, he worked as a waiter, stand-up comedian, ice-cream seller, petrol station attendant and fireman while studying acting at Manhattan's Lee Strasberg Institute.

Early-life: Born into a tight-knit Jewish community in Liverpool on June 6, 1963, Jason moved at the age of 11 to London with his family; his parents later emigrated to Israel. He's the third of four children. His brothers grew up to become a lawyer, a doctor and an accountant respectively. Jason initially also studied law, but gave it up after becoming hooked on acting while at Bristol University. He went on to train at London's Central School of Speech and Drama.

Early-life: Born Rolf Peter Ingvar Storm on August 27, 1953, in Sweden, he began his acting career with the Swedish Royal Dramatic Theatre. He remained there for 11 years before, in 1990, taking up the position of Associate Artistic Director at the Tokyo Globe Theatre. Three years later he relocated to New York and focused on English-language productions.