Film Classics

Elvis Aaron Presley (born in Tupelo, Mississippi, on January 8, 1935) was an American singer and actor who began his music career in 1954 at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience. His first RCA Victor single, "Heartbreak Hotel", was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the US. His self-titled debut album became the first rock and roll album to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart, a position it held for ten weeks. With a series of successful television appearances and chart-topping records, he became the leading figure of the newly popular rock and roll. The audience response at his shows became increasingly fevered. The title of his first motion picture, the 20th Century Fox musical Western Love Me Tender (1956), was changed to capitalize on his latest number-one record, "Love Me Tender", even though he was not top-billed as the youngest Reno brother. To further take advantage of his popularity, four musical numbers were added to what was originally a straight acting role. The film was panned by critics but did very well at the box office - he received top billing on every subsequent film he made. Drafted into military service in 1958, he relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. He devoted much of the 1960s to making soundtrack albums and Hollywood films, most of which were financially successful but critically derided, except for one, King Creole (1958), a 1958 American musical teen drama by Paramount Pictures. In the film based on the 1952 novel A Stone for Danny Fisher by Harold Robbins, his performance as Danny Fisher, an angry and confused young man, earned him the best reviews of his acting career. He returned to the stage in the acclaimed NBC television comeback special Elvis, which led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and several highly profitable tours. In 1973, Presley gave the first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast around the world, Aloha from Hawaii.  Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he  is one of the best-selling music artists in history, having sold an estimated 500 million records worldwide and is widely regarded as one of the most culturally significant figures of the 20th century. He won three Grammy Awards and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and the Grammy Trustees Award and ranked third on Rolling Stone's list of greatest artists. He holds several records, including the most Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)-certified gold and platinum albums, the most albums charted on the Billboard 200, the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the UK Albums Chart, and the most number-one singles by any act on the UK Singles Chart. Despite his success in music, his dream of becoming a serious actor dramatic actor did not come to fruition. His final film role was in Universal's crime drama musical Change of Habit (1969) as Dr. John Carpenter.

Years of substance abuse and unhealthy eating severely compromised his health, and he died in August 1977 at his Graceland estate at the age of 42. He has been inducted in countless halls of fame, including the the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986), the Rockabilly Hall of Fame (1997), the Country Music Hall of Fame (1998), the Gospel Music Hall of Fame (2001), the UK Music Hall of Fame (2004), the Christian Music Hall of Fame (2006), Memphis Music Hall of Fame (2012), the Mississippi Hall of Fame (2016), and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame (2016). He also has seven songs in the Grammy Hall of Fame, the fifth highest number for any musician. He was given the keys to numerous cities, including Memphis and Macon. Graceland was listed by the National Historic Landmark and National Register of Historic Places. His longtime residence, Graceland, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1991 declared a National Historic Landmark in 2006.

10 Selected Works:

Love Me Tender (1956) as Clint Reno

Loving You (1957) as Jimmy Tompkins / Deke Rivers

Jailhouse Rock (1957) as Vince Everett

King Creole (1958) as Danny Fisher

G.I. Blues (1960) as Tulsa McLean

Blue Hawaii (1961) as Chad Gates

Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962) as Ross Carpenter

Fun in Acapulco (1963) as Mike Windgren

Viva Las Vegas (1964) as Lucky Jackson

Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born in San Francisco, California on May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director who was drafted into the United States Army during the Korean War. After being discharged, he enrolled at Los Angeles City College to study economics and pursue acting. He signed a contract with Universal, but only had minor acting roles until he was cast in the CBS western series Rawhide (1959-1965), the career breakthrough he had long sought. He seized all opportunities to break into feature films and inevitably became a major movie star and a sought-after talent. He established Malpaso Productions, which has produced all but four of his American films 1967. His directorial debut came in the neo noir psychological thriller Play Misty for Me (1971), in which he also starred. In the next decades, he experienced success in producing, directing, and acting. His most important films to date are both with Warner Bros.: the revisionist Western Unforgiven (1992) and the sports drama Million Dollar Baby (2004), both of which won him Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture and a nomination for Best Actor. In the former, he plays an aging outlaw William Munny and in the latter, he plays a gruff but well-meaning elderly boxing trainer. In addition to directing many of his own star vehicles, he has directed films in which he did not appear, such as the mystery drama Mystic River (2003) and the war film Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), for which he received Academy Award nominations. Over his career, he has received several accolades including four Academy Awards (out of 13 nominations), four Golden Globe Awards (out of eight nominations), three César Awards (out of six nominations) as well as nominations for three BAFTA Awards and a Grammy Award. He has also been honored numerous prizes such as the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1996, the Honorary César in 1998, the Honorary Golden Lion in 2000, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2000, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2003, the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award in 2006, the Honorary Palme d'Or in 2008. Moreover, he was elected in 1986 as the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

For his contributions to the arts, he was made a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1994 and a chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in 2007 and awarded a National Medal of Arts in 2009, a Navy SEAL Foundation Patriot Award, and an Order of the Rising Sun. He was also inducted in the California Hall of Fame in 2006. In 2003, his character, Harry Callahan, is listed as the 17th greatest hero in AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains.

Ten Selected Works:

A Fistful of Dollars as Joe

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as Blondie

Dirty Harry (1971) as Harry Callahan

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) as Josey Wales

Escape from Alcatraz (1979) Frank Morris

Unforgiven (1992) as William 'Will' Munny

In the Line of Fire (1993) as Secret Service Agent Frank Horrigan

The Bridges of Madison County (1995) as Robert Kincaid

Million Dollar Baby (2004) as Frankie Dunn

Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born August 25, 1930 in Edinburgh, Scotland) was a Scottish actor who worked a variety of odd jobs after being discharged from the Royal Navy at 19 on medical grounds, including as a film and TV extra. After several years with not much success, he hired an agent, who got him his first film role. His breakthrough eventually came in the role of the fictional British secret agent James Bond. He originated the iconic role in Dr. No (1962) and continued starring as Bond in five more Eon Productions films and one non-Eon-produced Bond film between 1962 and 1983. All seven films were commercially successful, and his global popularity grew so much that he shared a Golden Globe Henrietta Award with Charles Bronson for "World Film Favorite – Male" in 1972 and was voted by People magazine as the "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1989 and the "Sexiest Man of the Century" in 1999. Although Bond had made him a star, he grew tired of the role and the pressure the franchise put on him and starred in other films. His most critically-acclaimed portrayal was as Officer Jimmy Malone, a hard-nosed Irish-American cop, in Paramount Pictures' crime film The Untouchables, for which he got a BAFTA nomination and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1987. In addition to these accolades, he also has three more BAFTA nominations and a Golden Globe nomination. He also received honorary awards such as the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1987, the BAFTA Fellowship in 1998, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1999, the European Film Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005, and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2006. His final onscreen appearance was as the legendary adventurer Allan Quatermain in the steampunk superhero film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) by 20th Century Fox, for which he also served as Executive Producer.

He died in his sleep due to pneumonia and respiratory failure on October 31, 2020, aged 90, at his home in the Lyford Cay community of Nassau in the Bahamas. He was made a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France and a knight by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to drama in the 2000 New Year Honours. James Bond, as portrayed by him, was selected as the third-greatest hero in cinema history by the American Film Institute. In 2024, the Edinburgh International Film Festival established an annual award in his honour, the Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence.

Ten Selected Works:

Dr. No (1962) as James Bond

From Russia with Love (1963) as James Bond

Marnie (1964) as Mark Rutland

The Hill (1965) as Joe Roberts

Diamonds Are Forever (1971) as James Bond

The Name of the Rose (1986) as William of Baskerville

The Untouchables (1987) as Officer Jimmy Malone

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) as Henry Jones Sr.

The Hunt for Red October (1990) as Captain Marko Ramius

John Joseph Nicholson (born in Neptune City, New Jersey on April 22, 1937) is an American actor who trained at the Players Ring Theater in Los Angeles after being discharged from the California Air National Guard. With his acting career foundering, he seemed resigned to a career behind the camera as a writer/director and found some success in it. Nevertheless, acting was still his first love, and he finally got his first big acting break in the independent film Easy Rider (1969), playing alcoholic lawyer George Hanson, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. A legendary five-decade-long career was launched, with numerous accolades, including three Academy Awards (out of 12 nominations), three British Academy Film Awards (out of seven nominations), six Golden Globe Awards out of 17 nominations, a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, a David di Donatello Award, and a Grammy Award for Best Children's Music Album for The Elephant's Child in 1988. His 12 Oscar nominations make him the most nominated male actor in the Academy's history, and he is one of only two actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting in films made in every decade from the 1960s to the 2000s (alongside Michael Caine). Regarded as one of the greatest actors of the 20th century, he possesses incredible versatility across genres, magnetic on-screen presence, and consistent ability to portray complex characters. His defining role, out of countless memorable ones, is widely considered to be Randle McMurphy, the rebellious and charismatic protagonist in the psychological comedy-drama One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) for United Artists, a performance that won him his first Academy Award for Best Actor. As of 2025, his last film appearance is in the Columbia Pictures romantic comedy How Do You Know (2010).

His secluded compound on Mulholland Drive in Beverly Hills has been his main residence since the 1960s. He has been inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2008 and the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2010. He was also honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1994, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1999, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2001. In 2003, his characters, Jack Torrance from The Shining (1980) and The Joker from Batman (1989), are listed as the 25th and 45th greatest villain in AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains.

Ten Selected Works:

Five Easy Pieces (1970) as Robert "Bobby" Eroica Dupea

The Last Detail (1973) as Signalman 1st Class Billy L. "Badass" Buddusky

Chinatown (1974) as J. J. "Jake" Gittes

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) as Randle Patrick "Mac" McMurphy

The Shining (1980) as Jack Torrance

Terms of Endearment (1983) as Garrett Breedlove

Ironweed (1987) as Francis Phelan

Batman (1989) as Jack Napier / The Joker

As Good as It Gets (1997) as Melvin Udall

James Byron Dean (born in Marion, Indiana on February 8, 1931) was an American actor who dropped out of the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was studying drama, to pursue acting full-time. He made his television debut in a Pepsi commercial, but struggled to gain acting roles, so he studied in the Actors Studio to learn method acting under famed acting coach Lee Strasberg. He signed a contract with Warner Brothers soon after. He became a household name as the Cain-like brother, Caleb Trask in the period drama East of Eden (1955), based on John Steinbeck's novel of the same name. For this role, he became the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Sadly, his last two films: the coming-of-age melodrama film Rebel Without a Cause, where he played his most famous role, Jim Stark, a disillusioned teenager, and the epic drama Giant, where he played a poor ranch hand who became a rich oil tycoon, were released posthumously due to his untimely demise. For the latter, he earned a second Oscar nomination, making him the only actor to receive two posthumous acting nominations. He also earned two posthumous BAFTA nominations and two honorary Golden Globe Awards. Despite a career that lasted only five years, he has become one of the most influential figures in Hollywood in the 1950s, and the world was left to wonder what more he could have achieved.

Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon (born in Sceaux, France on November 8, 1935) was a French actor who joined the French Navy at age 17. After his naval service, he appeared in his first French film without much training. In 1960, he appeared in Plein Soleil, released in the US as Purple Noon, which was based on the novel The Talented Mr. Ripley. He played protagonist Tom Ripley to critical acclaim and launched him as an international movie star. He focused on his international career for the next several years. Nevertheless, he remained a massive star in France and was one of the biggest foreign stars in Japan, Iran, Russia and Ukraine. However, he could not make headway in the US market where he was typecast as a "Latin lover." He returned to French cinema, with his most iconic performance in the neo-noir crime thriller Le Samouraï (1967), where he embodied the cool, self-contained hitman Jef Costello. He was nominated for his first César Award for Best Actor in 1976 and won in 1985. His final acting role was in the international fantasy comedy film Astérix aux Jeux olympiques in 2008.

Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born in Santa Monica, California on August 18, 1936) is an American actor who attended the University of Colorado in Boulder before beginning an acting career in New York City, where he also studied painting at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and graduated at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He had big success in Broadway and even reprising one of his roles for his film debut. In Hollywood, he starred in multiple hits before finding the niche he was seeking in the 20th Century-Fox Western buddy film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) as the American outlaw, the Sundance Kid. The movie earned him a BAFTA Award and also cemented him as a major bankable movie star. Despite his unprecedented success in the 1970s, he had long harbored ambitions to work on both sides of the camera. The Warner Bros. biographical political thriller All the President's Men (1976), in which he played Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, was a landmark film for him because he was also its executive producer, and it landed eight Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture and Best Director, and winning four awards. His first film as director was the drama film Ordinary People (1980), one of the most critically and publicly acclaimed films of the decade, winning him an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Director. In the next decades, he continued to act and direct in commercially and critically successful films. On top of winning Best Director, he was also presented with an Oscar Honorary Award in 2002 and was nominated for three more in different categories. He also received with the Cecil B. DeMille Award by the Golden Globes, along with four nominations for Best Director and two nominations for Best Actor, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, the Kennedy Center Honors. Additionally, he founded the Sundance Institute, Sundance Cinemas, Sundance Catalog, Sundance Channel, Sundance Productions, and Sundance Film Festival, which became the largest and most prestigious festival for independent films. His last onscreen appearance is a cameo in Marvel Studios' superhero film Avengers: Endgame (2019), the highest-grossing film of all time.

Before his passing, he mostly split his time in Sundance, Utah and Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he owned a fine art gallery and an arts and conservation nonprofit called The Way of the Rain. It was in the former where he died in his sleep at his home on September 16, 2025, Redford at the age of 89. For his contributions to the arts, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1996 and a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 and appointed chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur. In 2003, the American Film Institute named his characters Sundance Kid and Bob Woodward as the 20th and 27th greatest hero of all time in its AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains special. He was also named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2014.

Ten Selected Works:

Barefoot in the Park (1967) as Paul Bratter

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) as Sundance Kid

Downhill Racer (1969) as David Chappellet

The Way We Were (1973) as Hubbell Gardiner

Three Days of the Condor (1975) as Joseph Turner / The Condor

All the President's Men (1976) as Bob Woodward

Out of Africa (1985) as Denys Finch Hatton

The Horse Whisperer (1998) as Tom Booker

All Is Lost (2013) as Our Man

Terrence Stephen McQueen (born in Beech Grove, Indiana on March 24, 1930) was an American actor who, with financial assistance under the G.I. Bill (which he was eligible for due to his time in the U.S. Marines), studied acting in New York at Sanford Meisner's Neighborhood Playhouse and at HB Studio under Uta Hagen. A few years later, he headed for Los Angeles to seek acting jobs in Hollywood. He signed with talent agent, Hilly Elkins, who soon put him in B movies and TV shows. His breakout role was the title character in the CBS TV series Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958-1961), where he played bounty hunter Josh Randall. He became the first TV star to cross over into comparable status on the big screen. In all his subsequent films, he got top-billing and his antihero persona, emphasized during the height of 1960s counterculture, made him a top box office draw, nicknamed the "King of Cool." In addition to a string of hits, an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination and four Golden Globe nominations, he starred as Detective Frank Bullitt in the Warner Bros. movie Bullitt (1968) – his best-known film and his personal favorite, whose groundbreaking car chase scene a new standard for action sequences and influenced countless films that followed. His last completed film was The Hunter (1980) for Paramount, where he starred as another bounty hunter, Ralph "Papa" Thorson.

On November 7, 1980, at 50 years old, he died of a heart attack at a  Ciudad Juárez, Mexico hospital after surgery to remove metastatic tumors due to his pleural mesothelioma. He was inducted into the the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Hall of Great Western Performers in 2007.

Ten Selected Works:

Wanted Dead or Alive (1958-1961) as Josh Randall

The Magnificent Seven (1960) as Vin Tanner

The Great Escape (1963) as Captain Virgil Hilts

Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) as Rocky Papasano

The Sand Pebbles (1966) as Machinist's Mate First-Class Jake Holman

The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) as Thomas Crown

Bullitt (1968) as Lieutenant Frank Bullitt

The Reivers (1969) as Boon Hogganbeck

Papillon (1973) as Henri Charriè

Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor who studied at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music before he decided to go into acting, for which he trained at the Pasadena Playhouse. He then studied at Actors Studio and appeared in numerous theater and television productions. He received an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination for his first major role as Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate who has an affair with a much older woman, in the independent film The Graduate (1967), considered a key movie in the formation of New Hollywood. He moved smoothly into the 1970s and the 1980s with his versatile portrayals of diverse roles, most with critical praise, in the movies, TV, and the theater. He closed out the 1980s with his second Best Actor Oscar win for a convincing depiction of a middle-aged autistic savant in Rain Man (1988) by United Artists. Among his numerous accolades are two Academy Awards (out of seven nominations), four BAFTA Awards (out of eight nominations), five Golden Globe Awards (out of 12 nominations), and two Emmy Awards as well as a nomination for a Tony Award. While he may not be as active as in his younger years, he continues to take on roles in film and television and has three films in production. As of 2025, he was last seen in Francis Ford Coppola's latest film with Lionsgate, a dystopian science fiction epic Megalopolis (2024).

Today, he primarily lives in his Malibu, California home. He was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1997, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999, the Honorary César in 2009, and the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2012. The American Film Institute ranked his character Carl Bernstein in All the President's Men (1976) is listed as the 27th greatest hero in American cinema in 2003.

Ten Selected Works:

The Graduate (1967) as Benjamin Braddock

Midnight Cowboy (1969) as Enrico Salvatore "Rico" Rizzo

Little Big Man (1970) as Jack Crabb

Lenny (1974) as Lenny Bruce

All the President's Men (1976) as Carl Bernstein

Marathon Man (1976) as Thomas Babington "Babe" Levy

Kramer vs Kramer (1979) as Red Kramer

Tootsie (1982) as Michael Dorsey / Dorothy Michaels

Rain Man (1988) as Raymond Babbitt

Robert John Wagner Jr. (born in Detroit, Michigan on February 10, 1930) is an American actor who was signed by infamous talent agent Henry Willson and put under contract with 20th Century Fox. After playing support in his first few movies, he was promoted to leading man status and made a number of commercially successful movies. He received critical acclaim for the lead in A Kiss Before Dying (1956), where he played a villainous yet charming murderer. In addition to a successful American film career, he also made movies in Europe. With the rise of the television in the late 1960s, he accepted TV roles, the most memorable of which is playing Jonathan Hart, a wealthy and glamorous amateur detective, in the ABC mystery series Hart to Hart (1979-1984), earning him an Emmy nomination and four Golden Globe nominations. He became a beloved star in both media. Reflecting on his long career, he wrote three memoirs: Pieces of My Heart: A Life (2008), You Must Remember This: The Life and Style of Hollywood's Golden Age (2014), and  I Loved Her in the Movies: Memories of Hollywood's Legendary Actresses (2016). He last acted in 2017 in the science-fiction film What Happened to Monday on Netflix.

Largely retired from acting, he still occasionally makes appearances, but spends most of his time in Aspen, Colorado, his home since 2007.

Ten Selected Works:

Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953) as Tony Petrakis

Prince Valiant (1954) as Prince Valiant

A Kiss Before Dying (1956) as Bud Corliss

The Pink Panther (1963) as George Lytton

It Takes a Thief (TV Series, 1968-1970) as Alexander Mundy

Colditz (1972–1974) as Flight Lieutenant Phil Carrington

Switch (TV Series, 1975-1978) as Pete T. Ryan

The Concorde... Airport '79 (1979) as Kevin Harrison

Hart to Hart (TV Series, 1979-1984) as Jonathan Hart

Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite in Rotherhithe, London, England on March 14, 1933) is an English actor who served in the British Army's Royal Fusiliers. In the 1950s, having wanted to become an actor since a young child, he worked at a few theatres in England and performed bit parts until his career took him to London, where he was able to get roles on television and movies. His title role in Alfie (1966), distributed by Paramount, as a charming womanizer got him front and centre and introduced him as a movie star to the American audience. His versatility allowed him to transition seamlessly between various roles in a variety of genres, from epic dramas to action thrillers to comedies. As the 1970s dawned, he had undeniably become a big international star, and as a sort of coming home to British cinema, he portrayed Jack Carter, a gritty, cold-blooded London gangster in Get Carter (1971), one of his most career-defining performance. Since the 1990s, he mostly did incredible work as a supporting actor. His eight decade-long career has seen numerous awards, including two Academy Awards out of six nominations), a BAFTA Award out of eight nominations and a BAFTA Fellowship, three Golden Globe Awards out of 12 nominations, and countless nominations; he is one of only two actors nominated for an Academy Award for acting in every consecutive decade from the 1960s to 2000s (alongside Jack Nicholson). Moreover, he has received the European Film Award Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015 and the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 2017. He also wrote four memoirs across several decades: What's It All About? (1992), The Elephant to Hollywood (2010),  Blowing the Bloody Doors Off (2018), and Don't Look Back, You'll Trip Over: My Guide to Life (2024). He announced his retirement from acting days after the release of his final film, the British biographical comedy-drama The Great Escaper (2023), which came out the next month. He published his first novel in 2023, a thriller called Deadly Game soon after.

Since his retirement, he divides his time between residences in Wimbledon and Chelsea Harbour, West London. As of 2017, the films in which he has appeared have grossed over $7.8 billion worldwide. He is widely regarded as a British cultural icon and appointed as Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1992 Birthday Honours and as Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2011. In the 2000 Birthday Honours, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

Ten Selected Works:

The Ipcress File (1965) as Harry Palmer

Alfie (1966) as Alfie Elkins

Get Carter (1971) as Jack Carter

Sleuth (1972) as Milo Tindle

Educating Rita (1983) as Dr. Frank Bryant

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) as Elliot

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) as Ebenezer Scrooge

The Cider House Rules (1999) as Dr. Wilbur Larch

The Quiet American (2002) as Thomas Fowler

Henry Warren Beatty (born in Richmond, Virginia on March 30, 1937) is an American actor who left his liberal arts studies at Northwestern University after a year to move to New York to study acting under the famous acting coach Stella Adler. He started his career making appearances on television, and on his sole Broadway appearance, he garnered a Tony Award nomination. His film debut as the rich and popular football star in Splendor in the Grass (1961) earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor nomination. He followed this with a string of critical and commercial hits. At 29, he produced and acted as notorious American outlaw, Clyde Barrow, in his most significant movie, the biographical crime film Bonnie and Clyde (1967), for Warner Bros., considered to be a milestone in American movie history as it kicked off the New Hollywood era. He continued to direct, produce, write, and act in films, many of which received nominations and awards: 14 Oscar nominations, including four Best Actor, four Best Picture, two Best Director, three Original Screenplay, and one Adapted Screenplay – winning once for Best Director; two BAFTA nominations; 10 Golden Globe nominations, winning one for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and another for Best Director. He also received the Irving G. Thalberg Award in 1999, the BAFTA Fellowship in 2002, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2007, and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2008. He was last seen reprising his role as Dick Tracy in the Turner Classic Movies TV special Dick Tracy Special: Tracy Zooms In (2023).

At 88, he currently lives in Los Angeles, out of the limelight and only making rare public appearances. For his contributions to the arts, he has been honored with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1992 and inducted in the California Hall of Fame in 2013. In 2003, his character, Clyde Barrow, is listed as the 32nd greatest villain in AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains.

Ten Selected Works:

Splendor in the Grass (1961) as Bud Stamper

Lilith (1964) as Vincent Bruce

Bonnie and Clyde (1967) as Clyde Barrow

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) as John McCabe

Shampoo (1975) as George Roundy

Heaven Can Wait (1978) as Joe Pendleton

Reds (1981) as John Reed

Dick Tracy (1990) as Dick Tracy

Bugsy (1991) as Bugsy Siegel

George Richard Chamberlain (born in Los Angeles, California on March 31, 1934) was an American actor who attained the rank of sergeant while serving in the United States Army after graduating from Pomona College, where he received a degree in art history and painting. He co-founded an LA–based theater group Company of Angels, and began appearing on TV guest roles. In 1961, he gained widespread fame as the young intern Dr. James Kildare in the NBC/MGM medical series of the same name. He sang the "Theme from Dr. Kildare (Three Stars Will Shine Tonight)," which reached No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts in 1962 and also won a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Star – Male. After the show ended, he did theater domestically and abroad. His performance in Hamlet was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Recording. He later had starring roles in several popular television mini-series (earning him a nickname of "King of the Mini-Series"), including the second most watched miniseries in history - the ABC romantic drama The Thorn Birds as the young ambitious priest, Father Ralph de Bricassart, which won him his third Golden Globe. He led a fruitful career on TV, the movies, and the theater, receiving multiple Golden Globe and Emmy nominations, and published his 2003 autobiography Shattered Love: A Memoir. His final acting credit was with the independent film Finding Julia (2019).

He passed away from complications from a stroke in Waimānalo, Hawaii, on March 29, 2025, at the age of 90.

Ten Selected Works:

Dr. Kildare (TV series, 1961-1966) as Dr. James Kildare

The Three Musketeers (1973) as Aramis

The Count of Monte Cristo (TV movie, 1975) as Edmond Dantès

The Last Wave (1977) as David Burton

Centennial (TV miniseries, 1978-1979) as Alexander McKeag

Shōgun (TV miniseries, 1980) as John Blackthorne

The Thorn Birds (TV miniseries, 1983) as Father Ralph de Bricassart

King Solomon's Mines (1985) as Allan Quatermain

Wallenberg: A Hero's Story (TV movie, 1985) as Raoul Wallenberg

Anthony Perkins (born in Manhattan, New York on April 4, 1932) was an American actor who began his acting career as a teen in summer stock theatre. He appeared in films prior to his Broadway debut when he transferred to Columbia University. He was scouted on Broadway to appear on Friendly Persuasion (1956), which was a critical and commercial success and earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a contract with Paramount Pictures, where he was regarded as the studio's last matinee idol. He released three music albums through Epic and RCA Victor - his most successful single, "Moon-Light Swim," reaching number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1957. As a life member of the Actors Studio, he continued to pursue Broadway roles, receiving a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play nomination in 1958, even during the peak of his Hollywood career. His portrayal of psychopathic serial killer Norman Bates in the Paramount classic Psycho (1960) became his most iconic role. The success of Psycho led to typecasting, prompting him to move briefly to France, where he received even more acting awards, including a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor. He returned to the US and had a long and successful career, even collaborating with longtime friend Stephen Sondheim in writing the film The Last of Sheila (1973). His final acting role was in the NBC TV movie In the Deep Woods, which aired a month after his death.

He died at his Los Angeles, California home on September 12, 1992, from AIDS-related pneumonia, aged 60. The American Film Institute named Norman Bates as the second greatest villain of all time in its AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains special in 2003.

Ten Selected Works:

Friendly Persuasion (1956) as Josh Birdwell

Fear Strikes Out (1957) as Jim Piersall

Tall Story (1960) as Ray Blent

Psycho (1960) as Norman Bates

Goodbye Again (1961) as Philip Van der Besh

The Trial (1962) as Josef K.

Pretty Poison (1968) as Dennis Pitt

Catch-22 (1970) as Chaplain Tappman

Play It as It Lays (1972) as B.Z. Mendenhall

Bruce MacLeish Dern (born in Chicago, Illinois on June 4, 1936) is an American actor who studied at the Actors Studio, alongside esteemed acting coach Lee Strasberg when he dropped out of the University of Pennsylvania. After starring on Broadway, he had minor film roles before rising to prominence during the New Hollywood era. He mainly had supporting roles, but most were received with critical acclaim and acting awards, even an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the romantic war drama Coming Home (1978). His role of a lifetime, however, came when he was 77 years old, playing Woody Grant, an aging, booze-addled elderly man, in the Paramount road film Nebraska (2013), which earned him his second Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Despite being in his late 80s, he continues to act and has multiple projects in various stages of production, garnering a number of awards, including a BAFTA Award and a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor. His last one to date being Palm Royale (2024), an Apple TV+ period comedy-drama miniseries.

He currently resides in Los Angeles, where he continues to work in the entertainment industry at 89 years of age.

Ten Selected Works:

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) as James Bates

The Cowboys (1972) as Asa Watts

Silent Running (1972) as Freeman Lowell

The Great Gatsby (1974) as Tom Buchanan

Family Plot (1976) as George Lumley

Black Sunday (1977) as Michael Lander

Coming Home (1978) as Captain Bob Hyde

That Championship Season (1982) as George Sitkowski

Big Love (TV Series, 2006–2011) as Frank Harlow

Peter Seamus O'Toole (born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England on August 2, 1932) was an English actor who attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London on a scholarship after serving as a signaller in the Royal Navy. He began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor before making his TV debut in 1954 and his film debut in 1960. His defining role was his portrayal of T. E. Lawrence in the epic Lawrence of Arabia (1962), which catapulted him to international stardom and earned him critical acclaim and his first of eight nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor. His second and third Oscar Best Actor nominations were for playing King Henry II in Becket (1964) and The Lion in Winter (1968). He went on to become one of the most honoured and highly regarded film and stage actors of his time, having won a BAFTA Award, an Emmy Award, and four Golden Globe Awards. In 2002, he was awarded the Academy Honorary Award for his career achievements, but still holds the record (8) for most competitive Oscar nominations for a lead actor without a win. His final film performance was a cameo in the international adventure film Diamond Cartel (2015), which was released two years after his death.

He retired from acting in 2012 owing to a recurrence of stomach cancer and died on December 14, 2013 at the Wellington Hospital in St John's Wood, London, at the age of 81. In 1987, he was offered knighthood but turned it down for personal and political reasons. In 2003, the American Film Institute named T.E. Lawrence the 10th greatest hero of all time in its AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains special.

Ten Selected Works:

Lawrence of Arabia (1962) as T. E. Lawrence

Becket (1964) as Henry II of England

The Lion in Winter (1968) as Henry II of England

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969) as Arthur Chipping

The Ruling Class (1972) as Jack Gurney, 14th Earl of Gurney

The Stunt Man (1980) as Eli Cross

My Favorite Year (1982) as Alan Swann

The Last Emperor (1987) as Reginald Johnston

Joan of Arc (TV miniseries, 1999) as Bishop Pierre Cauchon