Career: Helena's professional debut came at 16 in a TV commercial, swiftly followed by small-screen movie Pattern of Roses. The film Lady Jane followed, but it was 1985's A Room with a View which made her a star. Roles in Hamlet, Howards End and Frankenstein followed, and she was Oscar-nominated for 1997's The Wings of the Dove. The actress went on to prove she could do more than just period drama in projects such as Fight Club, Planet of the Apes, Big Fish, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and lent her voice to animated movies Corpse Bride and Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. She made her musical debut in the big-screen version of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. She's since appeared in Dark Shadows, Les Miserables and Burton & Taylor, and played Bellatrix Lestrange in several of the Harry Potter movies.

Career: Smith rose to prominence on stage during the 1950s thanks to regular West End roles. Her first film, 1956's Child in the House, didn't set the box office alight, but she eventually gained international acclaim thanks to her role in Othello nine years later. She won an Oscar for 1969's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and has since appeared in such acclaimed productions as California Suite (for which she picked up another Academy Award), A Room with a View, and Gosford Park. She became a Dame of the British Empire in 1990. More recently, Smith gained a new fan base thanks to her role as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter movies, appeared in the films Ladies in Lavender and Keeping Mum, and TV series Downton Abbey. She has also battled breast cancer.

Career: Elliott made his film debut in Dear Mr Prohack (1949) and went on to play a wide range of parts, usually in a supporting role. He won Bafta TV awards for BBC2 Playhouse (1974), Tales of the Unexpected (1979) and Blade on the Feather (1980). For his work on the big screen, he won Bafta film awards for Trading Places (1983), A Private Function (1985), A Room with a View (1985) and Defence of the Realm (1986). Other notable credits included the films Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and the TV miniseries Codename: Kyril (1988) and Bangkok Hilton (1989). He died at his home in Spain on October 6, 1992 at the age of 70.

Career: Day-Lewis concentrated on theatre work with the Bristol Old Vic and Royal Shakespeare Company. He had a small role in the movie Gandhi in 1982. He followed it with The Bounty (1984), My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) and A Room with a View (1985). The Unbearable Lightness of Being turned him into a sex symbol in 1988. A year later he won an Oscar for My Left Foot. The Last of the Mohicans (1992), The Age of Innocence (1993), In the Name of the Father (1993) and The Crucible (1996) were also successful. Day-Lewis then took a five-year break from acting, before returning in 2002's Gangs of New York. He's since made The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005), and won Oscars for There Will Be Blood (2007) and Lincoln (2012).

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: Following spells at Belfast's Queen's University and London's Drama Centre, Callow worked in the Old Vic's box office after being recommended for the post by Laurence Olivier. Acclaimed stage roles followed, as did several small parts in such TV shows as The Sweeney and Carry On Laughing! He had the lead in 1984 sitcom Chance in a Million, and made his film debut the same year in Amadeus. Since then he's continued to appear regularly on stage and TV. His most notable movies include A Room with a View, Postcards from the Edge, Shakespeare in Love, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and The Phantom of the Opera. He was also a judge on the show Popstar to Operastar in 2011.