George Clooney

Clooney worked for years in television, including a long run on a hit medical drama, before breaking through as a film leading man in the late 1990s and building one of the most recognizable careers of his generation.

He played Frank Walker, a disillusioned former boy-genius exiled from a hidden city of the future — a rare Clooney role built around weary disappointment rather than easy charm. He took on a role deliberately written against his usual effortlessly charismatic screen persona.

The film marked one of his more overtly science fiction-oriented roles in a career otherwise dominated by drama and comedy.