Career: Bad Taste's surprise success was mirrored by that of 1989's Meet The Feebles, enabling Jackson to raise enough money to make zombie comedy Braindead (1992). He then surprised his fans by making the impressive but more mainstream Heavenly Creatures (1994), which received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. TV movie Forgotten Silver and big-screen offering The Frighteners (1996) followed, but it was The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001 to 2003) that made him a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood and won him several Academy Awards. He followed that with a remake of King Kong (2005) and The Lovely Bones (2009). His next big project was a trilogy based on JRR Tolkien's novel The Hobbit. The first of these films, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, was released in 2012.

Career: Lee hit the big time in 1957 when his formidable height landed him the role of the monster in Hammer's The Curse of Frankenstein. It marked the beginning of his horror movie partnership with Peter Cushing, which also included such films as Dracula, The Mummy, and The Gorgon. Lee went on to become one of the world's most prolific actors. Star Wars episodes II and III and The Lord of the Rings introduced him to a new generation of fans. Other significant titles include The Wicker Man, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Gremlins II, The Man with the Golden Gun and The Golden Compass. He also appeared in Alice in Wonderland, Burke and Hare, Season of the Witch and The Hobbit. He died on June 7, 2015, at the age of 93 due to respiratory problems and heart failure.