Chris Hemsworth

His younger brother Liam reportedly made it further than him in the initial Thor casting sessions, which is the kind of thing that either breaks a sibling relationship or sharpens someone's approach to auditions. Chris came back with 20 more pounds of muscle and a stronger read, and Kenneth Branagh cast him. Before that, he'd spent three years on the Australian soap Home and Away and picked up a small role in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek (2009), but neither was going to make him famous. Thor (2011) grossed $449 million worldwide, and his self-deprecating take on the God of Thunder was exactly what the franchise needed.

The MCU kept him employed for over a decade, but it's the stuff around it that defines him now. He moved his family from Los Angeles to Byron Bay, built a wellness app called Centr, and starred in the National Geographic docuseries Limitless (2022), where he revealed he carries two copies of the APOE4 gene, putting him at significantly higher Alzheimer's risk. The media tried to spin it as a retirement announcement. He pushed back hard. He's in Avengers: Doomsday, due December 2026, and joined Taron Egerton in Kockroach, a New York crime picture. Not exactly someone winding down.

His father Craig has Alzheimer's, the same disease his genetic testing flagged as a personal risk. He grew up moving between twelve schools before he turned sixteen, the family constantly chasing work before settling near the ocean in Phillip Island. His brothers Liam and Luke are both actors, and all three bought property in or around Byron Bay. The fitness app Centr is a real business: the company acquired a fitness equipment manufacturer and Hemsworth functions as its actual operating voice, not just a face on the packaging.