Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio was already a teen idol at the time he was cast in Titanic. Having played Romeo in Baz Luhrmann's William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet a year prior, DiCaprio was uniquely suited to assume the role of the male lover in a story that resembles Shakespeare's play in many ways. DiCaprio's youthful, carefree energy contrasts with the rigid and highly controlled mannerisms of Rose and her circle. The release of Titanic helped intensify what became known as "Leo-Mania"—a cult of popularity around the young star.
Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet was a twenty-year-old British actress at the time she was cast as Rose Dewitt Bukater in James Cameron's Titanic. Although she was not Cameron's first choice for the role, Winslet lobbied persistently for the part of Rose, sending Cameron handwritten messages and telephoning him until he agreed that she was the right choice to play Rose. Having previously starred in smaller productions like Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility and Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures, her role in Titanic catapulted her to global stardom.
Billy Zane
Billy Zane is an American actor who was cast as Cal Hockley, beating out other contenders like Matthew McConaughey and Rob Lowe. He plays the heir to a Pittsburgh steel fortune who is increasingly infuriated by his fiancée Rose's affair with Jack. Billy Zane was best known for playing the lead role in the 1996 superhero movie The Phantom.
Frances Fisher
Frances Fisher is an English-born American actress who was James Cameron's first choice to play Rose's overbearing and snobbish mother, Ruth. Fisher began her career in the 1980s on the soap opera Guiding Light, and has appeared in dozens of Hollywood films over the last three decades.
Gloria Stuart
Gloria Stuart was an American actress who began her career as a contract player in 1930s Hollywood, appearing in numerous musicals and horror films. James Cameron wanted an elderly actress with ties to Hollywood's golden age to play the role of 101-year old Rose Dawson Calvert, initially considering Fay Wray of King Kong fame. At the age of 87, Stuart became the oldest woman to receive the Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Bill Paxton
Bill Paxton is an American actor who was a fixture in James Cameron's production stable, appearing in his previous blockbuster films The Terminator and Aliens. Paxton did considerable research for his role as deep-sea explorer Brock Lovett. Paxton plays Brock Lovett as a cynical treasure hunter who is transformed by Rose's dramatic tale.
Kathy Bates
Kathy Bates is an American actress who plays Molly Brown, one of the most famous passengers aboard the ill-fated Titanic, with a likable sense of grit and verve. Bates, who was perhaps most famous for winning the Academy Award for her portrayal of villain Annie Wilkes in Rob Reiner's 1990 horror film Misery, portrays Molly as a good-hearted woman with a moral center that many of her peers lack.
Victor Garber
Victor Garber is a Canadian actor who had co-starred in Hollywood productions like The First Wives Club, Exotica, and Sleepless in Seattle, before winning the role of British shipbuilder Thomas Andrews in Titanic. Garber plays Thomas Andrews as a humane, compassionate man who is the first to realize definitively that the ship will sink.
Jonathan Hyde
Jonathan Hyde is an Australian-born English actor, who was typecast in 1990s Hollywood for playing pompous aristocrats like Herbert Arthur Runcible Cadbury in the 1994 film Richie Rich. Hyde plays J. Bruce Ismay as a selfish coward who helps initiate the disaster by convincing Captain Smith to speed up the ship, then sneaks onto a lifeboat designated for women and children.
Ewan Stewart
Ewan Stewart is a Scottish actor whose first major role was in the 1979 made-for-TV movie All Quiet on the Western Front. Stewart was once in the running to take up the role of James Bond, before landing the role of Titanic's First Officer William McMaster Murdoch. Although the real Murdoch's fate is not known, Stewart plays him as a guilt-ridden man who takes his own life.
