Career: Green made her film debut in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers (2003). She followed this up with French crime-adventure Arsene Lupin (2004) and Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven (2005). Her big break came in 2006 when she played Vesper Lynd in the James Bond film Casino Royale (2006). She teamed up again with Daniel Craig in The Golden Compass (2007). More recently, she has appeared in American TV drama Camelot and fantasy war film 300: Rise of an Empire (2014).

Career: Jackson's first film was Together for Days in 1972. He later spent two years as a stand-in on The Cosby Show, before starring in the original Broadway production of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson. A series of walk-on parts in films and on TV followed. Spike Lee cast him as the crack-addicted Gator in Jungle Fever, which gained him international acclaim. His most notable films have included Jurassic Park, Pulp Fiction (for which he was Oscar-nominated), Star Wars: Episodes One, Two and Three, Shaft, The 51st State, Unbreakable, Changing Lanes, Black Snake Moan, Django Unchained, Thor, The Avengers and many more. He is regarded as one of the most bankable assets in the movie business and always has a number of films in the pipeline.

Career: Stamp and his flatmate Michael Caine struggled to make ends meet for years. Then, in 1962, Stamp landed the title role in the film Billy Budd, for which he gained an Oscar nomination. He became one of the faces of the 1960s thanks to his roles in the likes of The Collector, Poor Cow, and Far from the Madding Crowd. He rarely worked during the 1970s, preferring to spend time in India. He returned to form playing the villainous General Zod in Superman and its sequel. Since then, Stamp has appeared in such movies as The Hit, Wall Street, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace, Bowfinger and The Limey. More recent work includes Get Smart, Valkyrie, The Adjustment Bureau and Song for Marion.

Career: O'Dowd made his TV and film debuts in 2003, in an episode of Red Cap and Conspiracy of Silence respectively. Other early roles came in Vera Drake, Festival, The Clinic and Showbands. Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd made him a star in the UK, while the movies The Boat That Rocked, Dinner for Schmucks and Bridesmaids raised his profile in the US. He then created, wrote and starred in the sitcom Moone Boy, which is loosely based on his own childhood. More recently he appeared in the films The Sapphires, This Is 40 and St Vincent.

Career: On Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward's advice, Janney enrolled at New York's Neighbourhood Playhouse, but she struggled to land decent roles. She made her big-screen debut in 1989's Who Shot Patakango? and also enjoyed a two-year stint in TV soap opera The Guiding Light. Small parts followed in Wolf (1994), The Ice Storm (1997), Primary Colors (1998) and American Beauty (1999). She won four Emmy awards for her role as CJ in The West Wing. She's since appeared in Hairspray (2007), Juno (2007), The Help (2011) and The Way Way Back (2013). Her recent TV credits include Mom and Masters of Sex.

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: Dench made her professional debut with the Old Vic Company before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1961, and has frequently worked on stage ever since. She became a household name in the 1980s thanks to sitcom A Fine Romance, for which she won a Bafta. She's also won the award for Four in the Morning, Talking to a Stranger, Iris, The Last of the Blonde Bombshells, Shakespeare In Love (for which she picked up an Oscar too), A Handful of Dust, Mrs Brown and A Room With a View. Other notable productions include Chocolat, Notes on a Scandal, J Edgar, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its sequel, and several Bond movies, including Skyfall, in which she bowed out as M.

Career: Having seen Frankenweenie, comedian Paul Reubens chose Burton to direct his 1985 movie Pee Wee's Big Adventure. That paved the way for his first blockbuster, Beetlejuice. Burton was entrusted with the long-awaited Batman movie, and when that became a huge hit in 1989, he pressed on with personal project Edward Scissorhands. A commercial and critical success, he followed it up with stylish sequel Batman Returns. Although 1994 offering Ed Wood was a commercial disaster, his biopic of the eponymous film-maker remains one of his finest works and also won Martin Landau an Oscar. Other hits include The Nightmare Before Christmas (which he produced), Mars Attacks!, Sleepy Hollow, Planet of the Apes, Big Fish, Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Alice in Wonderland was a huge commercial success when it was released in 2010.