Career: Hawthorne returned to England in 1951 and landed a job as an assistant stage manager in Buxton, Derbyshire. Later the same year, he made his London stage debut in You Can't Take It With You, but found other roles hard to come by. In 1957 he returned to South Africa and managed to secure a number of leading roles. He came back to London in 1962 and made his first West End appearance in Talking to You. He made his Broadway debut in 1974 in As You Like It and won a Tony Award in 1991 for his role in Shadowlands. In a varied career, he mixed his stage work with appearances in a number of TV shows and films. He won four Bafta TV awards for his work on Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, and was awarded Bafta film gongs for The Madness of King George (1994) and The Fragile Heart (1996). He was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on The Madness of King George. He was knighted in 1999. He died from a heart attack on December 26, 2001 at the age of 72.

Career: Mirren was snapped-up by the Royal Shakespeare Company and tackled numerous classical parts. She's continued to appear on stage throughout her career, alongside TV and film roles. Her most famous TV role is Jane Tennison in police drama Prime Suspect. Her first movie was Herostratus in 1967. More famous parts came in Caligula, The Long Good Friday, Excalibur, The Mosquito Coast, Calendar Girls and Elizabeth I. In 2003 she was made a Dame and three years later won an Oscar for The Queen. She's also been nominated for The Madness of King George, Gosford Park and Hitchcock. Other big-screen outings include State of Play, The Last Station, The Tempest, Brighton Rock, Red and the remake of Arthur.

Career: Everett made his TV debut in The Manhood of Edward Robinson; his first film role came a year later in A Shocking Accident. Following the success of Another Country (both on stage and on film) and Dance with a Stranger in the 1980s, Everett took the potentially risky decision to openly declare his homosexuality. He enjoyed a successful stint as a model and published two novels before playing Julia Roberts' gay confidant in 1997's My Best Friend's Wedding, which helped revitalise his career. Since then he's appeared in such movies as Shakespeare in Love, An Ideal Husband, Stardust, St Trinians and Wild Target.

Career: Donohoe made her TV debut in 1985's Star Quality. Her first film, Foreign Body, came a year later. Notorious 1987 movie Castaway made her famous. Movies such as The Lair of the White Worm (1988), The Rainbow (1989) and Paper Mask (1990) followed before the actress moved to Los Angeles. In 1992, she won a Golden Globe for her performance as a bisexual lawyer in LA Law. Since then, she's starred in The Madness of King George (1995), Liar Liar (1997), and One Night Stand (1997). On the small screen, she was a regular in Bad Girls in 2006, and joined the Emmerdale cast in 2009. A year later she returned to the stage, appearing in Star Quality. More recently, she has appeared in Toast of London and Pramface.

Career: Holm's first professional appearance was as a spear carrier in a 1956 production of Othello. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was said to be the most likely successor to Laurence Olivier. His first memorable screen appearance came in 1968's A Midsummer Night's Dream. His most famous movies since include Alien, Chariots of Fire, Greystoke, Brazil, The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Day After Tomorrow.

Career: Rejoined Merchant Ivory in 1987 to play a homosexual in Maurice, alongside James Wilby and Hugh Grant. The controversial role gained him fans of both sexes. He has tackled numerous challenging parts since, including a transvestite villain in Open Fire and the lover of a sex-change male in Different For Girls. He won the Best Actor award at the Montreal Film Festival for his part as a naive young man seduced by an older woman in Intimate Relations. Other notable productions include The Madness of King George, Mrs Dalloway, The Blonde Bombshell, Take A Girl Like You and Fortunes Of War. Graves has appeared on Broadway in Closer, and The Elephant Man. Has become a regular in a raft of top-notch detective shows, including Wallander, Lewis, and Sherlock and is very much in-demand.

Career: Rhind-Tutt's breakthrough role was playing the Duke of York in The Madness of King George (1994). He followed this up with roles in The Saint (1997), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), Notting Hill (1999), and The Trench (1999). He is best known for playing Dr Mac Macartney in Channel 4 sitcom Green Wing. His more recent credits include Gambit (2012), Rush (2013) and Lucy (2014). He also had a recurring role on the BBC TV comedy Blandings. On Radio 4, he has starred in The Maltby Collection, and The Norman Conquests.