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Nicholas Cage grew up watching James Bond and realised, studying Sean Connery, that a career in action would keep him working. It’s not the Oscar he won for ‘Leaving Las Vegas,’ or his charming performances in ‘Adaptation’ and ‘Raising Arizona’ that fuel demand for him. It’s the roughly $2bn in revenue grossed by his blockbuster movies, some of which he had to be talked into making.

“I really didn’t want to make that,” he says of ‘Moonstruck.’ “I wanted to make ‘Vampire’s Kiss,’ because I was still trying to live my punk rock dreams. I did not want to be in a big splashy romantic comedy with Cher.”

My own favourite amongst his films – and a movie I return to every Xmas – is “Family Man.” He might not have realised it at the time, but in making a fresh interpretation of the theme explored in “It’s a wonderful life,” the actor was establishing a form of ‘seasonal immortality’ for himself; a celluloid legacy that will endure long past the wham bam action blockbusters.