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The 70s and 80s saw an influx of young, empowering female talent that has largely withstood the test of time as well as Hollywood’s supposed hex on ageing starlets. Here’s a look at some of the greatest female icons of the 70s and 80s, many of whom are fortuitously advancing and building upon their storied careers to this very day:
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Barbra Streisand
(David Buchan/Getty Images)
With a career spanning a whopping six decades, “Babs” is an internationally renowned and beloved singer and multifaceted performer, having achieved the elusive “EGOT” status with her Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony wins.
The young Jewish Brooklyn girl started her career as a soon to be hugely successful singer, she very easily tried her hand at acting in Funny Girl (1968) for which she won both the Oscar for Best Actress and a Golden Globe.
Streisand is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, showcasing over 68.5 million albums in the United States and with a total of 145 million records sold worldwide She is the only female artist in the top ten, and only artist outside of the rock ‘n’ roll genre, making her the best-selling female recognized by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Olivia Newton-John
(Paramount Pictures | Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
Newton-John’s role as the sweetly naive Sandy in the iconic musical Grease (1978) parlayed her into international stardom, thereafter enabling her transition into music with the workout hit “Physical” in 1981.
The British-Australian four-time Grammy Award winning singer, songwriter and actress amassed five 1# and ten other Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 singles, and two 1# Billboard 200 Solo Albums. Eleven of her singles (including two Platinum) and fourteen of her albums (including two Platinum and four Double Platinum) have been certified gold by the RIAA. She has sold an estimated 100 million records worldwide, making her one of the world’s best-selling artists of in all human history.
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Michelle Pfeiffer
(ABC Photo Archive/Getty Images | Clemens Bilan/Getty Images)
Pfeiffer had her first starring debut in the musical Grease 2 (1982), and her first major breakthrough alongside Al Pacino in the cult classic, Scarface, a year later. She’s been consistently acting ever since her heyday in the 80s, and remains a classic Hollywood beauty. Her German and Swiss genes have clearly served her well.
Pfeiffer was nominated for the an Oscar Award for Best Supporting Actress for her remarkable role in Dangerous Liaisons (1988), and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama for The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989). She received a third Oscar nomination for Love Field (1992). For many though, her most notable roll will be Catwoman aka Selina Kyle in Batman Returns (1992).
Goldie Hawn
(Ed Thrasher | Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
Hawn has been a lighthearted Hollywood mainstay since her breakthrough appearances on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In in the late 70s/early 80s. She experienced her peak after winning her first and only Oscar for her leading part in 1980’s Private Benjamin.
In 2003 Hawn founded the Hawn Foundation, a non-profit organization which provides youth education programs intended to improve academic performance through “life-enhancing strategies for well-being”. The Hawn Foundation has supported research studies conducted by external researchers to evaluate the effectiveness of its educational program for children, called MindUP.
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Faye Dunaway
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Coming off the heels of her iconic role in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde, Dunaway won her sole Oscar a decade later in 1976’s Network. She’s since been deemed an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by France and is the first-ever winner of the Leopard Club Award, which recognizes the best and most impactful talent in film.
Shielding her private life, Dunuway seldom grants interviews and public appearances are rare. After some romantic relationships with famous actors she married twice, first to singer Peter Wolf and then with photographer Terry O’Neill, with whom she had a son, Liam.
Jaclyn Smith
(Getty Images)
As one third of the butt-kicking trio of the original Charlie’s Angels (1976-81), Smith became a quintessential independent and empowered female icon of the 70s.
In September 2008, she launched the STYLE by Jaclyn Smith wig collection for Paula Young Wigs, several years after being diagnosed – and recovering – from breast cancer, and is back to acting in both film and television.
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Kim Basinger
(Warner Bros. | Larry Busacca/Getty Images)
Though she’s best known for her Oscar-winning role in 1997’s L.A. Confidential, Basinger began earning her bombshell person in made-for-TV movies in the late 70s, followed by her feature film debut in 1981’s Hard Country.
Basinger is a proud vegetarian and animal rights supporter. She has posed for anti-fur advertisements by PETA. She also filmed a public service announcement on downed farm animals for Farm Sanctuary, telling the tale of a calf born to a dairy cow and taken from her, “He should be with his mother.”
Dolly Parton
(Michael Marks/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images | Webster PR)
Strap yourself in, for the greatest Diva of all time: Dolly Parton is the most honored female country performer ever in history. Achieving 25 RIAA certified Gold, Platinum, and Multi-Platinum awards, she has had 25 songs reach No. 1 on the Billboard country music charts, a record for a female artist (tied with Reba McEntire).
She has 41 career top 10 country albums, a record for any artist, and has 110 career charted singles over the past 40 years. Her overall sales have topped $100 million worldwide. She has garnered nine Grammy Awards, two Academy Award nominations, ten Country Music Association Awards, seven Academy of Country Music Awards, three American Music Awards, and is one of only seven female artists to win the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year Award. Parton has received 46 Grammy nominations. This buxom country chanteuse recently received new wave of millennial fandom by teaming with Miley Cyrus for a special performance of her age-old hit, “Jolene.”
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Meryl Streep
(Dave Allocca/Starpix)
Her name alone speaks for itself. Streep moved to New York in 1975 following acting studies at Vassar and Yale, and the rest, they say, is history.
Vanity Fair commented that “it’s hard to imagine that there was a time before Meryl Streep was the greatest-living actress”.
Streep is well known for her ability to imitate a wide range of accents, from Danish in Out of Africa (1985) to English received pronunciation in The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), Plenty (1985), and The Iron Lady (2011); Italian in The Bridges of Madison County (1995); a Minnesota accent in A Prairie Home Companion (2006); Irish-American in Ironweed (1987); and a heavy Bronx accent in Doubt (2008). Streep has stated that she grew up listening to artists such as Barbra Streisand, The Beatles and Bob Dylan, and she learned a lot about how to use her voice, her “instrument,” by listening to Barbra Streisand’s albums.
Susan Sarandon
(Mike Windle/Getty Images)
While Sarandon remains a respectable mainstay on the Hollywood scene to this day, many fans are quick to recognize her principally for her role in the cult classic Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Age has done little to quell her acting chops, and Sarandon remains one of Hollywood’s most prized actresses.
After a rich career in cinema, Sanderdon refused to slow down and has broker into TV as a star as well: She is a five-time Emmy Award nominee, including for her guest roles on the sitcoms Friends (2001) and Malcolm in the Middle (2002), and the TV films Bernard and Doris (2007) and You Don’t Know Jack (2010). In March 2017, Sarandon began portraying Bette Davis in the first season of FX’s Feud.
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Raquel Welch
(Silver Screen Collection | Paul A. Herbert/Splash)
Welch became an international sex symbol following her short but highly memorable role in One Million Years B.C. (1966), which she used to her advantage for acting work and commercial partnerships from the 70s through the present day.
In 1995, Welch was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the “100 Sexiest Stars in Film History”. Playboy ranked Welch No. 3 on their “100 Sexiest Stars of the Twentieth Century” list. In 2011, Men’s Health ranked her No. 2 in its “Hottest Women of All Time” list.
Jodie Foster
(Columbia/TriStar | Neilson Barnard/Getty Image)
Foster has been a powerhouse actress since her career-changing role as a teen prostitute in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1977). She’s also an Oscar winner, a Yale graduate, and filmmaker in her own right.
Want to hear something crazy? During her freshman year at Yale, Foster was stalked by a man named John W. Hinckley, Jr., who had reportedly developed an fixation with her after watching Taxi Driver.
Hinckley relocated to New Haven and tried to get in touch with her both by telephone and written mail. On March 30, 1981, he attempted to assassinate U.S. President Ronald Reagan, wounding him and three other people, claiming that his motive was to impress Judie Foster.
After the incident, she had to be accompanied by bodyguards when on campus.
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Cher
(Bobby Bank/GC Images)
The “Goddess of Pop” is an ageless icon of song, screen, and stage, having earned her entertainment industry chops as one half of the “Sonny and Cher” pop duo as well as with her embodiment of female empowerment.
She is the only artist to date to have a number-one single on a Billboard chart in each decade from the 1960s all through the 2010s. Outside of her music and acting, she is noted for her political views, philanthropic endeavors and social activism, including LGBT rights and HIV/AIDS prevention.
Diane Keaton
(Michael Kovac)
Though she made her first major acting debut as a mob wife in The Godfather (1972), Keaton became much more widely known as a muse of and frequent collaborator with Woody Allen in iconic films including Love and Death (1975) and Annie Hall (1977), the latter of which earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
She is a successful writer, editor and photographer as well as a successful producer: In 2003, she produced the Gus Van Sant drama Elephant, about a school shooting.
If that wasn’t enough, she is also a serious art collector and even established herself as a real estate real estate developer: She has resold several mansions in Southern California after renovating and redesigning them.
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Loretta Swit
(Chester Maydole | John Shearer/WireImage)
As Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in M*A*S*H, this New Jersey native of Polish extraction won the hearts of all who watched her on one of the most beloved shows not only of the 70s, but in the history of television.
In the 1980s, Swit supported efforts of R Adams Cowley, founder of the shock trauma unit at the University of Maryland, the first of its kind in the United States. Swit helped bring attention to his use of helicopters to transport injured civilians to shock trauma centers since 1969.
Jane Seymour
(Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. | Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
This British-American beauty saw her greatest fame in the 70s and 80s, with major appearances in the James Bond film, Live and Let Die (1973), Somewhere in Time (1980), and East of Eden (1981). Over the past ten years, she’s been working with Kay Jewelers for special edition “heart” collections.
One of Seymour’s notable features is that she was born with heterochromia, making her right eye brown and her left eye green.
A 2.08-carat cushion-cut fancy vivid blue diamond in an 18-karat rose-gold-plated platinum setting was named The Jane Seymour in her honor by World Of Diamonds Group, who had mined it in Russia, cut and set it. The ring was presented to Seymour in April 2016 in Singapore while she was there to star in The Vortex.
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Ellen Burstyn
(Gene Trindl | Andrew Toth/Getty Images)
The 70s definitely treated Burstyn well: she earned two Oscar nominations for her work in The Last Picture Show (1971) and The Exorcist (1973), and proved that the third time’s a charm with her 1974 win for her starring role in Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
Her most intense performance for many will be noted as her perfect and crazy role as Sarah Goldfarb from Requiem for a Dream (2000), which slowly slips into depressing insanity.
Rene Russo
(Vogue | Mladen Antonov/Getty Images)
Though she didn’t start regularly landing film roles until the 90s, Russo became a familiar face in the 70s/80s pop culture imagination thanks to a modeling career that included cover appearances in the likes of major publications including Vogue and Cosmopolitan.
Interestingly, Russo never completed high school: She dropped out in the tenth grade. To help her family, she began taking a variety of part-time jobs including working in an eyeglass factory, and as a movie cashier.
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Lynda Carter
(Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images | Adriana M. Barraza/WENN)
The word “iconic” doesn’t begin to cover Carter’s role as the titular Wonder Woman from 1975-79; it likely didn’t hurt that she was crowned “Miss World USA” in 1972, either.
Linda Gray
(FOX LA)
Gray earned her spot in entertainment history first as the body double of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (1967), later followed by her longstanding role as the sultry, adulterous Sue Ellen Ewing on the CBS series Dallas (1978-89).
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Pam Grier
(Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. | Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Grier became one of the few female icons of African American descent in the 70s with a string of roles in action and blaxploitation films in the decade, finally culminating with her starring role in Quentin Tarantino’s homage to the genre, Jackie Brown (1997).
Carol Kane
(Columbia Pictures | Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
Kane’s popularity rose with her long-term role as Madame Morrible in Broadway’s Wicked, yet established herself as a film actress in the 70s with well received roles in Hester Street (1975), for which she received an Oscar nomination, and Annie Hall (1977).
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Teri Garr
(Hulton Archive/Getty Images | David Edwards)
Though younger audiences may know of Garr from her role as Phoebe’s eclectic, estranged mother in the sitcom Friends, she was a Hollywood regular decades before with films including Tootsie (1982), for which she received an Oscar nomination, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).
Cybill Shepherd
Before solidifying her acting career in big films such as The Heartbreak Kid and Taxi Driver, Shepherd parlayed high school beauty contest wins into a full-fledged modeling career as a young adult. More recently, she’s had guest starring credits on the TV shows The L Word and Psych, and otherwise devotes her time to social causes including LGBT and women’s rights.
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Sissy Spacek
Spacek will forever be associated with her role as the titular character of 1976’s Carrie, for which she earned an Oscar nomination. She would come to win the gold statue four years later for her work in Coal Miner’s Daughter, and was nominated an additional three times throughout the 80s. Spacek is still active in entertainment today, having recently appeared on the TV show Bloodline.
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Julie Andrews
Andrews is one of the most respected living actresses in the world today, having set the bar high in her famous early roles including The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. The English legend has more recently lent her voice to the animated films Shrek and Despicable Me.
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Maureen McCormick
McCormick was one of the most recognizable faces in 1970s television, thanks to her leading role as Marcia Brady on the classic family comedy series The Brady Bunch. Though she was able to land jobs relatively easily after concluding her career-defining tenure as Marcia, McCormick has expressed her difficulty growing up in the spotlight, which led to bouts of depression and drug use over the years.
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Donna Douglas
Douglas played the loveable Elly May Clampett on the beloved CBS series The Beverly Hillbillies, and later used her signature markers — big, blonde hair and colorful clothing — to nab her roles in films such as Career and Frankie and Johnny. Douglas passed away in January 2015, but she’ll always remain in the hearts of fans of the Clampett clan.
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Mary Tyler Moore
Moore turned the world on with her smile in her namesake show which aired over seven seasons for the majority of the 70s, but not before making her first big wave alongside Dick Van Dyke in his own namesake show starting in 1961. Though she passed away in January 2016, her legacy and memory live on in the hearts of fans across generations.
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Barbara Eden
Eden entered the homes and hearts of millions as the titular character on the classic series I Dream of Jeannie. She would later release a memoir in 2011 entitled Jeannie Out of the Bottle, which covered her personal life before, during, and after her tenure as the spirited blonde genie.
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Diana Rigg
The English actress first became known to the general public by playing Emma Peel in the 60s series The Avengers. She won a Tony Award in 1994 for playing the titular role in Broadway’s Medea, the same year in which she was granted the title of Dame.
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Catherine Bach
Bach became the poster pin-up dream girl of millions of adolescent boys and adult men with her career-defining role as the leggy Daisy Duke in the TV series Dukes of Hazzard. Bach’s All-American sex symbol status is still remembered to this day, although she’s put away the short shorts in favor of more age-appropriate attire. Since 2012, she’s played Anita Lawson on the soap opera The Young and the Restless.
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Nichelle Nichols
Nichols broke major barriers as Lieutenant Uhura in the Star Trek series from 1966-69 and the movie adaptations thereafter, being one of the first African American women to land a role other than that of a servant. Her starpower and groundbreaking feat even elicited praise from Martin Luther King Jr.
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Kate Jackson
You probably remember Jackson as one of the original leading ladies on Charlie’s Angels — but did you know that the actress actually came up with the title of the series herself? Though her star is no longer as bright as it was in her heyday in the 70s, Jackson has more recently earned television credits with Family Guy and Criminal Minds, and is currently in the process of penning her life story.
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Meredith MacRae
This All-American blonde bombshell made waves with her roles as Sally Morrison on My Three Sons and as Billie Jo on Petticoat Junction, two popular series in the 60s. She made countless guest appearances on series and game shows thereafter. She used her influence to start a career in TV journalism in the 80s, winning a local Emmy for her interviewing prowess on an LA-based news show, and creating/hosting Born Famous, a series in which she interviewed celebrity children.
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Jacqueline Bisset
Though the English beauty first garnered attention on film due to her looks, Bisset would prove to the world that she’s more than just a pretty face by giving stellar performances in films such as The Sweetest Ride, Murder on the Orient Express, and The Detective. More recently, she won a Golden Globe award in 2013 for her work on the BBC miniseries Dancing on the Edge.
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Liv Ullmann
Ullmann — who had an international upbringing living in Tokyo, Toronto, New York, and Oslo — couldn’t get her big break on the stage in Norway, yet would later find that her hard work and waiting would pay off. Famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman eventually took Ullmann under his wing, casting her in ten of his most revered films including Persona and The Passion of Anna. Following her role as muse to Bergman, Ullmann would eventually go on to direct stage productions.
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Charlene Tilton
Tilton made her biggest mark as Lucy Ewing, the “poisonous dwarf” — a nickname attributed to her rowdy character and petite frame at under five feet — on the hit series Dallas. Aside from dabbling in pop music in the 80s and posing for Playboy, Tilton has kept a low profile out of the limelight, and now instead focuses her attention on charitable work benefiting foster children.
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Victoria Principal
Principal’s greatest role was as Pamela Ewing in the TV series Dallas, which she faithfully played for over a decade. Following her time on the show, Principal started her own natural skincare line as well as a production company, and became a best-selling author.
(via Ultimate Dallas)
Dawn Wells
Wells made her mark as a bright-eyed brunette ingenue with her star-making role as Mary Anne on Gilligan’s Island; she and castmate Tina Louise (Ginger) remain the only living members of the classic series. Prior to acting, Wells was a regular on the pageant circuit, having won the title of Miss Nevada in 1959 and participating in Miss America the following year.
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Tina Louise
Louise got her first big break in the 1958 drama God’s Little Acre, for which she won a Golden Globe. She’d soon stumble onto the cast of Gilligan’s Island as the bombshell redhead Ginger, which would retrospectively prove to be her most memorable role.
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Talia Shire
Shire was born into a family consisting of Hollywood royalty, including the likes of Francis Ford Coppola and Nicolas Cage. Her blessed genes permitted her to be cast as Connie Corleone in The Godfather films, which solidified her as a Hollywood force to be reckoned with. She earned an Oscar nomination for this role, as well as for her participation in the Rocky movies as Adrian Balboa. Her most recent credit was in the 2016 film Dreamland, which was directed by her relative Robert Schwartzman.
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Sally Kirkland
Kirkland was born to a Vogue fashion editor in New York City, and first began acting in theater at the age of 19. Though she logged mostly small roles in the 70s, they included at least a few big budget films such as The Way We Were and A Star is Born. She’s been advocating for women whose health has been affected by breast implants, and now teaches acting in California.
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Melissa Gilbert
Gilbert was a child star given the role of a lifetime as Laura Ingalls on the classic series Little House on the Prairie, also appearing in The Miracle Worker and The Diary of Anne Frank during her tenure on the show. More recently, Gilbert was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars in 2012, and began to campaign for Michigan’s 8th congressional district in the 2016 election cycle before rescinding her candidacy six months shy of the vote due to health reasons.
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Melissa Sue Anderson
Before landing her breakthrough role as Mary Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie, Anderson made guest appearances on popular shows such as Bewitched and The Brady Bunch. Following her eight season tenure on Little House on the Prairie, Anderson found steady television work until she married in 1990, gave birth to two children, and resettled her family in 2002 to a quieter life in Canada far from the spotlight.
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Cloris Leachman
At 90 years young, Leachman continually proves to Hollywood that age is nothing but a number. Her involvement on The Last Picture Show proved to be one of Leachman’s greatest achievements, as she took home the Oscar for her role. More recently, she starred on the TV series Raising Hope and was the oldest cast member to have participated on Dancing with the Stars at the ripe age of 82.
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Barbara Feldon
Though the bulk of Feldon’s acting credits were in theater, she is primarily remembered for her role as Agent 99 on the 60s sitcom Get Smart. Like many actresses before and after her, Feldon first worked as a model before receiving stage and screen roles.
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Melinda Dillon
Dillon received one of her biggest bouts of praise in the original 1962 Broadway production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, for which she was nominated for an Emmy. Academy Award nominations would later come for her work in the films Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Absence of Malice. Dillon retired from acting in 2007, with her last billed credit in the film Reign Over Me!
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Hanna Schygulla
As one of the prime icons of New German Cinema, Schygulla served as director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s muse in nearly two dozen of his films, including the likes of Gods of the Plague, Jail Bait, and Love is Colder than Death. She’s still keeping busy on camera to this day, having appeared in the film Unless in 2016.
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Margit Carstensen
The German actress got her big break upon meeting German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder in 1969, appearing in the teleplay The Coffee Shop as her first collaboration with the seasoned industry player; she’s also remembered for her performances in Martha and Satan’s Brew. She’s no longer active on the acting scene, with her most recent credit being 2013’s drama Finsterworld.
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Stefania Sandrelli
This Italian beauty first made waves in her native country as a model and magazine cover girl before transitioning into acting in Italian comedy films. Her breakthrough role was in Divorce, Italian Style; she’s also recognized for her roles in dramatic pictures including 1900 and The Conformist.
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Irene Papas
The classic Greek beauty was discovered by Broadway director Elia Kazan at an early age, which would serve as a worthy platform from which to kickstart an international acting career. Her most memorable films include The Guns of Navarone, Z, and Zorba the Greek. Papas also released three music albums from the late 60s through late 80s, and retired from acting at the age of 81 in 2003.
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Stephane Audran
The French actress’s talent knows no bounds, as she’s starred in a host of films across different languages and borders. Her professional and personal union with French director Claude Chabrol — to whom she was married for 14 years — yielded a whopping 26 roles in his films, including La Femme Infidèle and Les Bonnes Femmes. Audran is greatly revered in her native country, where she’s been granted Officer of the National Order of Merit as well as knighted by the French Legion of Honor.
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Dominique Sanda
Sanda was born into a wealthy Parisian family, yet ran away at 16 to marry and started a life on her own upon divorcing two years later. She found work as a model and was employed by Vogue upon being casted for the 1969 drama A Gentle Woman, which earned her praise and set off a decades-long acting career. Other notable credits of hers include Beyond Good and Evil, Steppenwolf, and The Conformist.
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Isabelle Adjani
The French actress had her breakthrough role at age 19 in 1975’s The Story of Adele H., which earned her worldwide recognition and an Oscar nomination. Next, the 80s films Possession and Camille Claudel earned her a number of best actress honors at European film festivals. Adjani is still involved in cinema with her more recent credit being Sous les jupes des filles.
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Isabelle Huppert
Huppert is one of France’s most prized ingenues, even clinching the record for most Cesar award nominations at an astounding 15 count. Her greatest French films include Aloise and The Piano Teacher, whereas she’s known to English-speaking audiences for her roles in I Heart Huckabees and Heaven’s Gate. Huppert’s been active on stage and screen ever since, with over 100 credits to her name.
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Nancy McKeon
Nancy Justine McKeon is best known for her iconic role as Joanne “Jo” Polnaiczek, the tough-talking tomboy from the early 80’s NBC sitcom The Facts of Life. She is still active in the film industry and recently McKeon acted in the role of as Demi Lovato’s mother on the Disney Channel Comedy Sonny with a Chance. Though she was invited to do the Facts of Life Reunion film, McKeon in the end decided not to join the other actors in it, but did however attend a cast reunion at the TV Land Awards.
If you’re wondering to yourself “She kinda looks like Courtney Cox”, this isn’t a coincidence: She was tied with Cox for the role of Monica in Friends during early casting for the hit show.
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Erin Murphy
Erin Margaret Murphy first became famous when she starred in Bewitched, the sitcom which aired from 1964 to 1972. While she originally shared her role as Tabitha with her fraternal twin Diane Murphy, after the first season she played the role herself as the sisters’ appearances started drifting apart rendering them less identical to viewers.
When Bewitched closed its curtains, Murphy guest-starred in several shows including Lassie, and appeared in over 100 commercials and infomercials. Since then Murphy has worked as a casting director, a makeup artist, a fashion stylist, an acting teacher, a motivational speaker, and even as a stunt double for actress Virginia Madsen. Interestingly she now also designs and sells eco-friendly Alpaca sweaters.
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Nancy Kerrigan
If you’re too young to remember the early 90’s, ask a parent about Nancy Kerrigan. It’s a name everyone recognized, like OJ Simpson.
In 1994 arguably one of the dirtiest sports plays ever was aired on TV as figure skater Nancy Kerrigan stepped off the ice after a training session in the rink, only to be attacked by a mysterious stranger on her way to the locker room with a crack to the knee by a nightstick. The then 1992 Olympic Bronze medalist, and 1993 US National Champion quickly recovered though and went on to become 1994 figure skating Olympic Silver medalist. The orchestrator of the attack, Tonya Harding was shamed away from the sport, and her husband who hired the attack was sent to jail.
At least Harding will get to say she was played by the stunning Margot Robbie in an upcoming film about the fiasco named ‘I, Tonya’ set to release in theaters during 2018.
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Molly Ringwald
Many of you will recognize this redhead from her starring role in The Breakfast Club, others might from Sixteen Candles or Pretty in Pink. Molly Ringwald was a hit in the 80’s, queen of the brats.
In 2008 she starred in The Secret Life of an American Teenager, ABC’s family show, and is now married with three children.
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Alyssa Milano
Remember ‘Who’s the Boss?’? Tony’s daughter Samantha was played by the charming, Brooklyn born Alyssa Jayne Milano from 1984 all through 1992. She has since starred on WB’s Charmed and ABC’s Mistresses.
In 1998, she played Mark Hoppus’s love interest in the music video for Blink-182’s “Josie”, but if you really miss her, expect her in the cast of the upcoming show Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later.
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Cyndi Lauper
80’s music icon Cyndi Lauper was a brand name all over the world when she released her first solo album, She’s So Unusual, in 1983. In ’85, the “Time After Time” singer later was awarded a Grammy for Best New Artist.
Since then Cindy Lauper went on to compose music for Broadway musical Kinky Boots, for which she won a Tony award, and a Grammy award as well. She is also a very outspoken activist for LGBT rights.
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Monica Keena
Monica Keena became famous when she did too-good-a job portraying the hated yet desired antihero Abby Morgan on Dawson’s Creek. She used Abby’s character to influence her later role Entourage and even the evil woman in Devil’s Advocate alongside star Keanu Reeves.
In 2011 she played Dr. Sweetie Jones in The Ghost and the Whale.
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Andrea Barber
Some people don’t assume this, but Barber, who shined in her role as the loopy Kimmy Gibbler on Full House wasn’t new to the acting game; she already played major roles on Days of our Lives as a child start in the early 80’s/
The coolest part about Barber? Once Full House wrapped up its production she retired from acting to focus on her own life, graduating college with an English Degree and now has 3 children.
We wish her the best.
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Leanna Creel
Creel started her acting sprint as a temporary replacement for Tiffani Thiessen and Elizabeth Berkley in Saved By the Bell’s final season with a role of Tomboy Tori Scott. She never quite reached her co-stars’ stardom levels: Crel, one third of a set of acting triplets (seriously) reimagined her Tori character into new roles on Ned and Stacey and 2000’s The Cell.
Not so long after that, she left Hollywood to start a career as a wedding photographer, and later married her wife Rinat Greenberg in 2008.
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Larisa Oleynik
Larisa will be remembered by many as Alexandra Louise “Alex” Mack from The Secret World of Alex Mack, the early 90’s Nickelodeon hit that was played all over the world. Oleynick won the part over 400 contestants at the time, a great choice by the producers, as she continued her acting career which she keeps alive till today.
Unknown fact: She was granted a restraining order several years ago against a crazed fan who kept leaving her gifts at her mother’s home and even changed his last name to here. Creepy.
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Alisa Freindlich
Born to famous Russian actor Bruno Freindlich, Alisa always knew that she was destined to follow in her father’s footsteps. She received formal training at the Leningrad Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinema before making a name for herself in a diverse selection of films such as Office Romance, Stalker, and Agony. For her 70th birthday, then-president Vladimir Putin awarded her the honor of state decoration on behalf of the Russian Federation.
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