Daisy Ridley
Ridley began her career with minor roles in the television programmes "Youngers", "Toast of London", "Silent Witness", "Mr Selfridge", and "Casualty". She appeared in the short film "Blue Season", which was entered into the Sci-Fi-London 48-Hour Film Challenge. Ridley played the lead in film three of "Lifesaver", an interactive film which was nominated for a BAFTA Award. She also appeared in the music video for Wiley's song "Lights On", playing the character of Kim. Ridley made her film debut in the 2015 British independent horror film "Scrawl", after her scenes from the British comedy film "The Inbetweeners 2" were removed in the final cut.
In April 2014, Ridley's casting as Rey, one of the lead characters in "", was announced. She was chosen for the film in February 2014. At the time of her casting she was, according to "Rolling Stone", a "total unknown." Her choice by director J. J. Abrams was seen as a repeat of George Lucas's move of casting relatively unknown actors for the lead roles in the first "Star Wars" film in 1977. Ridley began filming her scenes in May 2014 at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, and prior to the film's release in December 2015, she appeared at the launch of a set of "Star Wars" postage stamps issued by the UK postal service Royal Mail, with her character Rey featuring on a stamp along with the droid BB-8. With international revenues of over $2 billion, "The Force Awakens" was a major box-office hit and the highest-grossing film of 2015. After an early screening of the film, Brian Viner of the "Daily Mail" called Ridley the "real star of the show", adding that her performance as Rey should "send her career into orbit." Her performance received critical acclaim, with Richard Roeper describing her portrayal as "a breakout performance" and adding "Ford has a terrific father figure chemistry [shared] with Ridley and [John] Boyega".
Dolores Gray
Her career commenced as a cabaret artist in restaurants and supper clubs in San Francisco. In 1945 she appeared in her own radio program. While she was appearing in "Annie Get Your Gun" in London (1947 – 1950), she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1948. As a fundraiser to help rebuild the RADA theatre, she appeared as Nell Gwynne in "In Good King Charles's Golden Days" at Drury Lane Theatre (Oct 1948). She appeared at the London Palladium in 1958 while doing a concert tour of Europe and in cabaret at The Talk of the Town in February 1963. Among her many stage roles, she appeared in "Two on the Aisle" (1951), "Carnival In Flanders" (1953); "Destry Rides Again" (1959); "Sherry!" (1967); and "42nd Street" (1986). She also performed the lead role in "Annie Get Your Gun" in its first London production (1947). Gray won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical for her role in "Carnival in Flanders", even though this Broadway musical, with a script by Preston Sturges, ran for only six performances. She therefore holds a record that is unlikely to be broken: briefest run in a performance which still earned a Tony. She is the first person to have sung the English version of the French song "C'est si bon" in a movie : "" directed by John Nasht.