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: Gambon became a member of Laurence Olivier's first Royal National Theatre company, and made his movie debut in 1965's Othello, alongside the star. His role in long-running TV show The Borderers led to an audition for James Bond. Parts in such forgettable productions as The Beast Must Die and Nothing But the Night came next. It was The Singing Detective in 1986 that finally made him a star. He's worked steadily ever since in the likes of Maigret, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Gosford Park, Doctor Who, Quartet, Sleepy Hollow and Fortitude. He took over playing Dumbledore in Harry Potter following the death of Richard Harris. He's won BAFTA TV awards for Perfect Strangers, Longitude, Wives and Daughters, and The Singing Detective.

Career: After graduating from Rada, he made his West End debut in Another Country and enjoyed success in Northern Ireland with his appearances in three Belfast-set Play for Today productions. He then joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. Despite some big hits, he disliked the organisation's structure and so set up his own theatre company. TV series Fortunes of War made him a star in the UK, but it was his film version of Henry V that catapulted him to global fame. Other films include Peter's Friends, Dead Again, Love's Labours Lost, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. More recently, he's appeared in TV dramas Conspiracy, Shackleton, 10 Days to War and Wallander, and the movies Rabbit-Proof Fence, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and My Week with Marilyn. He also directed the revamp of Sleuth, The Magic Flute and had a huge hit with blockbuster Thor.

Career: Jones quickly gained a reputation as a fine character actor while working with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Early TV roles came in Z Cars, The Baron and The Avengers. His first film was Marat/Sade in 1967. He and Dudley Sutton are the only actors to have appeared in the original and revamped versions of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). Other TV work has come in the likes of Jackanory, Inspector Morse, The District Nurse and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole. Jones has become a cult hero thanks to his film work for legendary studio Hammer (Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed and The Satanic Rites of Dracula) and director David Lynch (The Elephant Man, Dune, Wild at Heart, On the Air and Hotel Room). Jones has played Sandy in Emmerdale since 2005.

Career: Richardson began her professional career on stage at Leeds' West Yorkshire Playhouse, although she had appeared briefly as a flower girl in her father's 1968 film, The Charge of the Light Brigade. She made memorable early TV appearances in Ellis Island and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, before 1986 movie Gothic gained her international recognition. She made several films, including Patty Hearst, The Handmaid's Tale, Nell, Widow's Peak, The Parent Trap, Maid in Manhattan, Asylum and The White Countess. Her best performances, however, came on the stage in The Seagull, Hamlet, Cabaret (for which she won a Tony award) and A Streetcar Named Desire. On March 16th, 2009, Richardson sustained a head injury after falling during a beginner skiing lesson at the Mont Tremblant Resort in Quebec, and passed away three days later.