Top 10 Movie Stars, Celebrity Trivia Facts »

10- Cary Grant

Archibald Leach was born in poverty in Bristol, 1904. His story is one of the most extraordinary in all cinema, and he was one of its greatest stars. Leach ran away from home aged 13 (his mother had departed four years before to a mental institution) to join a travelling acrobatic troupe, ending up in New York. He sang in England and on Broadway before making it to Hollywood. He starred suavely in countless classics, but his real personality always remained shrouded in mystery. His greatest role was that of Cary Grant, who was a fiction, as revealed in the self-produced, veiled autobiography of None But The Lonely Heart, where Grant played a poor, struggling man in an English slum.

9- Ewan McGregor

Ewan Gordon McGregor was born in 1971 in Perthshire, Scotland. Inspired to act by his afghan-sporting Uncle Denis (Lawson, who played Wedge in the Star Wars films), Ewan joined the Perth Repertory Theatre. A degree course at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama followed, and he was the star of Dennis Potter's TV musical Lipstick On Your Collar. He hit the big time in Trainspotting before taking the role of a young Obi-Wan Kenobi, and revealing a rather affecting, if untutored, singing voice in Moulin Rouge. He runs Natural Nylon, a production company, with his friends Jude Law, Sadie Frost, Jonny Lee Miller and Sean Pertwee.

8- Sean Connery

Born in Edinburgh in 1930 to a truck driver and a cleaner. He left school at 15 and after a stint in the navy worked as a lifeguard, coffin polisher and milkman while also representing Scotland in 1950's Mr. Universe. After winning a part in the chorus of South Pacific, acting replaced his footballing ambitions. TV work and bit parts followed, though he had the male lead in Darby O'Gill and the Little People. Fame hit after he pulled on the toupee and beat off Cary Grant and David Niven to play James Bond. Still a leading man and box office hit, he won an Oscar for The Untouchables in 1987. He was knighted in 1999.



7- Anthony Hopkins

Born in Port Talbot, South Wales, in 1937, Hopkins joined a local drama club at 17 before attending the Welsh College of Music and Drama. A RADA scholarship led to an audition in front of Olivier for a position at the National Theatre, which he won. His first major film role was that of Richard the Lionheart in 1968's The Lion In Winter, but the 70s and 80s provided mostly TV work. He hit the big time when Gene Hackman turned down the role of Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, and his Oscar-winning performance led to three more nominations in six years.

6- Jack Nicholson

Born in New Jersey, 1937, Nicholson was abandoned by his father and was raised believing that his grandmother was his mother and his mother his older sister. At 17 he worked as an office boy at MGM and after a few TV roles made his film debut in 1958 with Cry Baby Killer. He worked for Roger Corman through the 60s before his big break came when Rip Torn pulled out of Easy Rider. An Oscar nomination and a series of offbeat, intense roles followed, culminating in his Oscar-winning performance as Randale McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975. More recently he notched up another Oscar for his role in As Good As It Gets (1997).



5- Harrison Ford

If you hear a spot of midnight banging at Harrison Ford's ranch, the chances are that it is actually carpentry. The most famous carpenter since Joseph, Harrison Ford was born in Chicago in 1942. He signed with Columbia and then Universal, playing bit parts in TV series such as Ironside, before taking a disheartened break to go back to woodwork. On his return to Hollywood he starred in American Graffiti before Han Solo propelled him into space. Capitalising on Tom Selleck's contractual unavailability, he consolidated his A-list status with Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and then won an Oscar nomination for Witness.

4- Kevin Spacey

Kevin Spacey was born in 1959 in New Jersey. A naughty child – he set his sister's tree house on fire and was sent to military academy only to be thrown out of that – he joined the drama course at Julliard on the advice of former classmate Val Kilmer. Quitting after two years to perform in the New York Shakespeare Festival, he was on Broadway within a year and by 1986 had made his movie debut playing a thief in Heartburn. After the indignity of See No Evil, Hear no Evil he had to wait six years for his Oscar-winning turn as Verbal Kint in The Usual Suspects, following this soon after with a second gong for his take on middle class America gone wrong in American Beauty (1999).

3- Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks was born in Concord, California, July 1956. His parents split when he was five, and Hanks experienced a nomadic youth as his father looked for work. After dropping out of university his movie debut came in the 1980 slasher pic He Knows You're Alone. After two years in cross-dressing sitcom Bosom Buddies, he was remembered by Ron Howard from his bit part in Happy Days and invited to read for Splash. After his Oscar-nominated turn in Big, it was not until 1993 with Sleepless In Seattle and Philadelphiathat he could be counted as a major player. An Oscar regular ever since, he did give the rest a chance by turning down the lead in American Beauty.

2- Robert De Niro

Born in New York in 1943 to painters (as in artists, not decorators), De Niro caught the acting bug at 10 while playing the cowardly lion in The Wizard of Oz. Nicknamed Bobby Milk because of his complexion, he was so quiet as a young man, people thought he was autistic. He studied The Method with Lee Strasberg (who also taught Pacino) and worked off-Broadway before appearing in Brian De Palma's early films. Long-term collaborator and friend of Martin Scorsese, De Niro famously piled on 50lbs (over 3 stone) to play Jake "Raging Bull" LaMotta, for which he won an Oscar.

1- Al Pacino

Alfredo Pacino was born on 25 April 1940 in New York and brought up by his grandparents near the Bronx Zoo. Not allowed out of the house until he was seven, he was inspired at 14 by a performance of Chekhov's The Seagull. He took acting classes after leaving school and at 26 went to the Actors Studio to study with Lee Strasberg. Within three years he'd made his movie debut and on the strength of his second feature, Coppola offered him the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather. An Oscar nomination and movie stardom followed despite turning down Apocalypse Now, Kramer Vs. Kramer and the role of Han Solo.

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