Actors Turned Directors

The Actor: Robbins began as a bit-part player in teen comedies before hitting his stride as The Player, before The Shawshank Redemption catapulted him into cinematic immortality

The Director: The same year as The Player, Robbins' unleashed his political satire Bob Roberts before shepherding long-term partner Susan Sarandon to an Oscar in Dead Man Walking.

The Actor: Wild child who had a reputation for trouble even before he married Madonna, but who gradually showcased a range and depth to warrant the attention he received, in films like Colors and Casualties Of War.

The Director: 1991 debut The Indian Runner was based on a song by Bruce Springsteen, and subsequent films The Crossing Guard, The Pledge and Into The Wild have furrowed the same intense furrow.

The Actor: Favreau couldn't get a break, until he wrote and starred in Swingers, a film about how he couldn't get a break. It was a hit, and he got his break.

The Director: Favreau made his debut with the semi-sequel to Swingers, Made, but quickly escaped the indie comedy ghetto with family-friendly hit Elf, before Iron Man made him an unlikely go-to guy for blockbusting

The Actor: Precocious star cited as 'the next big thing' around the turn of the millennium, who then squandered his goodwill on poor movie choices and the media circus of his relationship with J. Lo.

The Director: What had been forgotten in the backlash was that Affleck's calling card was his and Matt Damon's Oscar-winning screenplay for Good Will Hunting. So really we shouldn't have been surprised when Affleck showed real talent behind the camera. So far, he has a three-for-three strike rate from Gone, Baby Gone, The Town and Argo.

The Actor: "The new Gary Cooper" - a decent, middle America Everyman who liked baseball (Bull Durham, Field Of Dreams) and fought bad guys (The Untouchables, JFK).

The Director: Costner caught everyone unawares with the old-school elegance of Dances With Wolves but then frittered away the goodwill with The Postman and a reputation for being a back-seat driver on projects he produced.

The Actor: American-born, Aussie-raised hellraiser who became an icon twice over for his performances as Mad Max and Martin Riggs and one of the biggest stars of the 1980s and 1990s.

The Director: Gibson made a low-key debut with The Man Without A Face before conquering the box office and the Academy Awards with old-school epic Braveheart.

The Actor: Comedian who followed in the footsteps of actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara with his cult TV sketch show, The Ben Stiller Show.

The Director: Stiller's Hollywood calling card was his Gen X state-of-the-nation dramedy Reality Bites, followed by The Cable Guy - the first Jim Carrey vehicle to earn less than its predecessor.

The Actor: As A-list as they come, Redford was the golden-haired icon of 1970s cinema thanks to Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, The Sting and All The President's Men.

The Director: Redford's debut, Ordinary People, was an unexpectedly sober, contemplative family drama that earned the novice an Oscar - much to the surprise of Martin Scorsese, whose Raging Bull had seemed a shoo-in

The Actor: The 'Italian Stallion' fought his way out of a career playing heavies by writing himself his dream role as underdog boxer Rocky Balboa, earning Oscar nominations as writer and actor.

The Director: Rocky's success made it inevitable. He made his debut with 1978's Paradise Alley, before more lucrative gigs making sequels to his most famous roles

The Actor: Canadian child actress who impressed in The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen before embarking on an interesting indie-flavoured career (The Sweet Hereafter, Splice) mixed in with the occasional multiplex hit (Dawn Of The Dead).

The Director: A specialist at emotionally complex relationship dramas after Away From Her and Take This Waltz, she has extended the same theme to her own family in documentary Stories We Tell.

The Actor: French star who seemed destined for art-house success after Three Colours: White before becoming an unexpected icon of American indie cinema thanks to Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise.

The Director: After being Oscar-nominated for co-writing Before Sunset, Delpy has made a run of similarly low-key, talky affairs like 2 Days In Paris and its New York-bound sequel.

The Actor: British star whose career roughly divides into thirds: chameleonic impersonator of real-life figures; OTT Hollywood villain; mild-mannered good guy.

The Director: Just the one outing, but arguably the project that comes most from the heart - his semi-autobiographical portrait of growing up in London, Nil By Mouth.

The Actor: Diminutive New Yorker who got noticed in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and then became a star on TV thanks to sitcom Taxi before finding his niche as a reliable comic actor in Twins and Get Shorty.

The Director: DeVito has directed sporadically since the mid-1980s, occasionally enjoying a hit (The War Of The Roses, Matilda) and sometimes not (Death To Smoochy)

The Actor: TV cowboy who took a working holiday in Europe with Sergio Leone when bigger names bailed and created a new kind of action hero - amoral, laconic and ice-cool - and then did it all over again in Hollywood with Dirty Harry.

The Director: A student of regular collaborator Don Siegel, Eastwood adopted a 'less is more' approach to directing, hopping genres with abandon but maturing until he was ready to become the elder statesman who made Unforgiven and Mystic River.

The Actor: TV heart-throb turned movie superstar, Clooney atoned for Batman And Robin by embarking on a mission to work with Hollywood's hottest directors (Soderbergh, Russell, Reitman, the Coens).

The Director: His growing confidence as a producer made this inevitable, but Clooney has revealed himself to be a class act behind the camera, making intelligent liberal films like Good Night And Good Luck.

The Actor: The child star of The Andy Griffith Show became a teen icon in American Graffiti and Happy Days - a symbol of old-fashioned virtue and decency.

The Director: Howard made his first film - Grand Theft Auto - for Roger Corman, but his heart belonged to the mainstream, achieving near-total box office domination from Splash onwards

The Actor: Pretty boy with a near-mythical penchant for the ladies, Beatty served notice of his ambition by producing as well as starring in era-defining classic Bonnie And Clyde.

The Director: It was only a matter of time, but Beatty finally took a directing credit (alongside Buck Henry) for 1978's Heaven Can Wait. In doing so, he became the first person since Orson Welles to be Oscar nominated for producer, director, actor and writer on the same film, and then he did it again with Reds.

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