These stars of the 1980s are also stars of the 2020s.
They’re still going strong after all these years, though many of them are seen more often lately on streaming services than in theaters. That’s just a sign of the time.
Join us in saluting these stars of the 1980s.
Winona Ryder
Winona Ryder recently returned to one of her most iconic roles in the hit Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. It was the sequel to the original Beetlejuice that made her the dark princess of the stars of the 1980s — a reputation she secured with Heathers before moving on to grown-up roles like one in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Her other standout roles have included 1990’s Edward Scissorhands (above), directed by Beetlejuice helmer Tim Burton, as well as Little Women and The Age of Innocence.
Her recent roles have included a key role on the megahit Stranger Things, which wrapped earlier this year.
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford has carried as many blockbusters as anyone, but always does it with understated cool. After kicking off the ’80s with The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Blade Runner, he earned critical acclaim for the drama Witness and the romantic comedy Working Girl, proving himself as a leading man who can do pretty much anything.
In 2023 year he not only starred in the fifth and final Indiana Jones film, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, but also on the Yellowstone spinoff 1923. And he joined the Marvel Universe last year in Captain America: Brave New World.
He currently stars on the Apple TV+ series Shrinking.
That’s him above with Kate Capshaw in the underrated Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which fares high on our list of the best Indiana Jones movies.
Kevin Costner
Kevin Costner was mostly left on the cutting-room floor of The Big Chill, but recovered nicely by becoming one of the biggest stars of the 1980s with an astonishing 1980s run that included The Untouchables, No Way Out, Bull Durham and Field of Dreams.
In the following years, he remained a giant, starring in The Bodyguard and Oliver Stone’s JFK , as well as winning Best Picture and Best Director for 1990’s Dances With Wolves.
After a highly publicized exit from Yellowstone, the biggest show on television, he struck out on his own to direct Horizon: An American Saga.
Jamie Lee Curtis
Talk about peaking late in your career: Curtis won her first Oscar in 2023 for Everything Everywhere All at Once, and hasn’t slowed down. She was excellent in The Bear, and had a lot of fun in the recent sequel Freakier Friday.
Though a child of Hollywood, Curtis paid her dues in a run of scream-queen roles starting with her 1978 debut in Halloween. She became one of the greatest stars of the 1980s with a remarkable run included Trading Places, Perfect and A Fish Called Wanda.
Of course she also had a massive hit opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1994 James Cameron blockbuster True Lies.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
A star of bodybuilding and a successful entrepreneur before he even starred in a movie, Ahhhhnold broke out with Conan the Barbarian and became a superstar with The Terminator (above) — not the biggest movie of 1984, the year it was released, but a massive VHS hit the year after. He then continued as one of the biggest (and strongest) stars of the 1980s with hits like Commando, The Running Man, and Predator.
His ’90s were even bigger: He starred in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and True Lies, among other hits. In the next decade, And the next decade, he got elected governor of California and earned pretty high marks.
He’s reportedly returning soon as an older and perhaps wider Conan.
Sylvester Stallone
Sly was chronically underestimated, and has never stopped punching: Let’s not forget that he didn’t just star in Rocky — he wrote it, thereby creating one of the most beloved screen underdogs.
Arnold’s old rival KO’d the 80s box office with both the Rocky and Rambo franchises, calling his own shots and doing a lot of painting on the side. He was cool in Cobra (above), too. He eventually joined forces with his Austrian-born rival for the Planet Hollywood franchise, and brought new life to Rocky with his role in the Creed franchise.
The star of the Expendables franchise also leads Paramount+’s Tulsa King and is reportedly collaborating with Quentin Tarantino on a new series.
Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy returned recently to the Beverly Hills Cop franchise for Netflix with Axel F.
He still looks young, maybe because he started so young. Murphy was still in his teens when he joined Saturday Night Live, and basically saved the show after the departure of the original cast.
He went on to a a phenomenal film career that stared with 48 Hrs. (above), and continued with Trading Places, the Beverly Hills Cop movies and Coming to America.
He can still score massive laughs, as you know if you saw 2019’s Dolemite Is My Name. One of the most still prolific stars of the 1980s, he also just starred in the heist film The Pickup.
Meryl Streep
Streep is widely considered the greatest actress of all time, and it’s easy to see why. She won the second of her three Best Actress Oscars for Sophie’s Choice in 1983, years after breaking out in 1978’s The Deer Hunter, which she followed with 1979’s Kramer vs. Kramer (for which she won her first Oscar).
Her chameleonic ’80s run saw her bouncing from Out of Africa to Ironweed to Heartburn (above)to She-Devil.
After comical work as a heartless president of the United States in 2021’s Don’t Look Up, she turned to streaming in the Amazon series Extrapolations and Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, with the next star on our list.
Earlier this year she reminded everyone she’s still got it at the box office by starring in the hit comedy The Devil Wears Prada 2.
Steve Martin
It’s hard to believe it, but Steve Martin had some lean years as a writer, offbeat standup and banjo player before his explosive popularity following a Saturday Night Live hosting gig in October 1976. From there he packed arenas and made his first film, 1979’s The Jerk, a huge hit despite many critics’ failure to recognize its brilliance.
He struggled a while for another film hit as Pennies From Heaven, The Man With Two Brains and All of Me were box office disappointments, but then he hit a groove that still continues. His ’80s run included Three Amigos (1986), Roxanne (pictured) and Planes, Trains and Automobiles (both 1987), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), and Parenthood (1989), and since then he’s starred in Bowfinger (1999) the Father of the Bride films, the Pink Panther films, and It’s Complicated (2009).
Now 80, he’s doing some of the funniest work of his career in Only Murders in the Building opposite his old Three Amigos pal Martin Short.
Jodie Foster
The two-time Best Actress Oscar winner for 1988’s The Accused and 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs is fresh off another Oscar nomination for the recent Nyad, and won an Emmy for True Detective: Night Country, for which she received near-unanimous praise.
Jodie Foster broke into show business with a Coppertone ad at age three in the mid-1960s, then proved herself a young master of her craft when she starred in both Freaky Friday and Taxi Driver in 1976, when she was barely a teenager.
After conquering acting, she became a director known for films including Little Man Tate and Money Monster, as well as one of the most provocative episodes of Black Mirror. She has nothing to prove but keeps going strong.
She recently starred in A Private Life, which she performed in French.
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh broke through as Stacy in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, a film that made Roger Ebert wonder, “Don’t they know they have a star on their hands?” given her empathetic handling of a complex character in crisis.
Leigh proved herself one of the most versatile film actors in movies ranging from Last Exit to Brooklyn to Backdraft to Single White Female to Dorothy Parker and the Vicious Circle to The Anniversary Party, which she co-wrote, co-directed, co-produced and acted in. She was stood out in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight.
She devoured the scenery in the latest season of Fargo, and was by far the highlight of the show, her old-time transatlantic accent standing out from all the Minnesota and North Dakota accents around her. She’s a star of the 1980s who still impresses us as much as ever.
Leigh appeared earlier this year in Crime 101.
Meanwhile, her Fast Times co-star Phoebe Cates (right), is a great example of a star who quit acting on their own terms.
Tom Cruise
Will someone tell Tom Cruise he can stop doing his own stunts? It wouldn’t matter — he wouldn’t listen. The ageless dynamo is still flying planes and jumping off cliffs on motorcycles in his 60s.
Breaking out in the ’80s with films like All the Right Moves and Risky Business, then becoming a superstar with Top Gun, he matured into dramatic roles like Born on the Fourth of July and A Few Good Men, while also knocking out classics like Jerry Maguire and Eyes Wide Shut.
Amazingly, he had his biggest success to date with 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, in which he co-starred with Jennifer Connelly — another star of the 1980s who is still going strong. And he just starred in what is probably the final film in the Mission: Impossible franchise.
Later this year he’ll star in Digger.
That’s him with Kelly McGillis in 1986’s Top Gun, above.
Al Pacino
One of the standout actors of the 1970s, Pacino had a lighter film schedule in the 1980s — but popped off the screen as crime lord Tony Montana in Scarface, a gangster movie classic. Though his 1985 film Revolution was a critical and box office disappointment, he was very good in 1989’s detective story Sea of Love.
His career came roaring back in the ’90s, when he won a Best Actor Oscar for Scent of a Woman.
Now 86, he’s still going strong: He was excellent in Michael Keaton’s recent Knox Goes Away, and was terrific in last year’s Dead Man’s Wire. He has an impressive six upcoming roles listed on IMDb.
Robert De Niro
Pacino’s old pal similarly rose to stardom in the 1970s, thanks in large part to an astonishing role in The Godfather Part II. He kicked off the ’80s with Raging Bull (above), which won him the Best Actor Oscar. Other strong ’80s roles included Midnight Run and The Untouchables.
His list of achievements in every decade is too long to list, but he’s working as hard as ever. He just earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his longtime collaborator Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, and returns soon in Focker-in-Law.
He’s one of the biggest stars of the 1980s… and ’70s, ’90s, 2000s… you get the idea.
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer has been a star since 1982’s Grease 2, but really popped in 1983’s Scarface, playing Elvira, the wife of Al Pacino’s Tony Montana. The three-time Oscar nominee is almost always the best part of any film she’s in — from Batman Returns to Married to the Mob to the Fabulous Baker Boys.
She continues to show off her acting chops with meaty roles in recent films like The Wizard of Lies and French Exit.
She’s currently thriving on the Apple TV+ series Margot’s Got Money Troubles, in which she stars as the title character’s ex-Hooters waitress mom. It was created by her husband, David E. Kelley.
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Editor’s Note: Corrects main image.
Main image: Michelle Pfeiffer in a promotional image for Scarface. Universal Pictures.