These big stars made the 80s better but disappeared from the limelight the following decade….
Grab your neons, shoulder pads, ripped sweater and your aviators. It’s time to venture back to the 1980s on a nostalgic journey to a simpler time. A time you could buy a house for the price of a cup of coffee in 2024. Fame is hoisted upon people, whether it’s a Hawk Tuah girl or a Turkish hitman posing as a Silver Medal-winning Olympic shooter, and the moment can be fleeting.
In film and TV, the impact of some stars can still be felt decades later, even if their star shone brightest over a few years or a decade. For an 80s-90s kid like myself growing up, many icons I grew up watching had a profound impact on me. There were a number of stars who stood out above many peers for a moment, only to see their platform fade or in some cases, step away of their own accord.
Sometimes, just sometimes as we saw with Ke Huy Quan, those legends get a comeback worthy of the joy they gave to kids growing up in the 80s. Certainly, for the kid who played Short Round and Data, it was a well-deserved return to the spotlight.
Here are 10 great 80s stars who were massive in the 80s only to be unfairly forgotten by the end of the following decade…
Mr. T
Most guys my age will have grown up watching The A-Team. You may even have been electrified with such excitement at the sound of the theme tune that you leapt around your living room and on your sofas like Tom Cruise professing his love on Oprah. I definitely was.
Mr. T with his larger-than-life persona and image might have cultivated an image of being unapproachable and fearsome, but he was revered by youngsters growing up in the 80s and early 90s.
The King of Bling was the star attraction on The A-Team, as B. A. Baracus, the muscle of the four-man unit of DIY enthusiasts. He was also a memorable part of Sly Stallone’s iconic Rocky franchise, built on rip-roaring fights and training montages, where Rocky needed legendary foes. Clubber Lang was certainly that and though T didn’t have the longevity of Dolph Lundgren (as Ivan Drago in the following movie) his legacy isn’t easily forgotten.
Back in the day I’d watch anything with Mr. T, whether it was D.C Cab, the short-lived Cartoon he had, or innumerable cameos that followed in the 90s and beyond but I also have a soft spot for the little-known TV movie, The Toughest Man in the World, where Mr. T plays a bouncer who helps troubled inner city kids with fitness and discipline whilst training to compete for the titular competition. It’s cheesy but great and T even sings the terrible but catchy (I still sing it to myself on occasion almost 40 years later) theme tune.
Michael Winslow
The Police Academy franchise was a regular TV fixture. It almost felt like there was barely a month that went by in the late 80s and early 90s when one was showing on TV. The original film, celebrating its 40th birthday this year remains easily the best of the whole shebang. It helped make Steve Guttenberg a star (with some help from the Stone Cutters I believe).
Let’s be real though folks, everybody’s favourite Academy graduate was Larvell Jones (played by Michael Winslow), better known as “the sound effects guy.” He’s the highlight of most of the films (alongside a commandingly alluring Leslie Easterbrook) and used in sparing doses to deliver comical sound effects, not limited to imitating gunfire, doing bad kung-fu dub impressions and throwing his voice to make people look ridiculous. Could a solo movie have eeked that routine out effectively for 90 minutes? Probably not, but be it as Jones, or in films like Spaceballs, Winslow was always a joyous presence and still raises a chuckle when rewatching these films now.
Bit parts aside and a short run in the late 90s on a Police Academy series, Wincott was all too rarely seen in the mainstream until a brief comeback as a contestant on America’s Got Talent. Though he remained a regular fixture as a stand-up comic.
Bobcat Goldthwait
Speaking of Police Academy and stand-ups, another man who became a regular in the franchise was Bobcat Goldthwait. He’s the guy who’d probably narrate my life, particularly now that Gilbert Gottfried has departed the mortal coil. With a voice you’ll definitely recognise, Goldthwait in full character, popped up a few times in the 80s. He was the antagonist in Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment, before joining the force in the third and fourth movies. Probably sensibly, he ducked out of the fifth, sixth and seventh instalments.
Goldthwait also had a memorable turn in the festive favourite, Scrooged as an office flunky tormented and driven to insanity by Bill Murray. Any prospects of Goldthwait becoming a leading star in comedy faded with Shakes The Clown (I’ll admit, it’s a guilty pleasure), a leading man project he wrote and directed which bombed at the box office. Though you might not have seen quite so much of Goldthwait through the past 30 years, he’s directed a number of films and remained busy with a few bit parts but regular voice work including his part in Disney’s Hercules. So you’ve definitely heard him.
Lou Ferrigno
At one time, Lou Ferrigno was one of the biggest stars on TV with the man mountain starring as Marvel legend, the Hulk. He was a comic book and cartoon brought to life and his hulking frame did the source material justice, even if the hair department did him dirty with that dodgy mullet.
The show ran from the late 70s into the 80s, a decade Ferrigno was feverishly active. Cannon Films briefly foisted him as a leading man in the movies as the headliner in cheap Italian-made fantasy films like Hercules (and a sequel), The Seven Magnificent Gladiators and Sinbad of the Seven Seas (all regular fixtures on TV in the late 80s/early 90s).
His TV stardom never quite translated to the kind of film appeal that his once rival, Arnold Schwarzenegger was getting and sadly his hearing issues (around 80% deaf) made it difficult not only to perform in these movies but for studios to invest in him (he was dubbed in most of his Italian made actioners). Though most of his cinematic offerings were low-budget, the fantasy films have a certain charm and low-budget brawler, Cage was also a solid outing.
Ferrigno has become a cameo specialist since the 90s, often appearing as himself (regularly on The King of Queens) and having walk-ons in the Hulk solo movie adaptations for Marvel. Though we don’t see him in the spotlight nearly enough, he remains hugely popular and always a welcome presence when he cameos in films like I Love You Man.
Phoebe Cates
Seemingly everywhere in the 80s, Phoebe Cates was a generational first crush. She never hit superstardom status but her parts in cult films like Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Gremlins made her a mainstream presence who had a unique style different to a lot of her peers. She could effortlessly slip between playing a variation of the high school clique personas (and the same with young woman archetypes). She could be the hot girl, or the career-driven girl or the nerdy girl and everything in between. Always managing to be delightful and magnetic on screen.
‘That’ sequence in Ridgemont High was infamous but she’s also part of so many cult favourites (like Drop Dead Fred) that she remains a popular figure of warming nostalgia. Fred was a rare leading role up to that point and a few years later Princess Caraboo marked another film where she was the main attraction. After an underwhelming response and box office, Cates then stepped away from movies altogether to focus on family life (with husband Kevin Kline). A brief comeback in 2001 (with The Anniversary Party) aside, Cates has been away from the public eye for 30 years and fans still long for a comeback.
Rick Moranis
Despite being surrounded by assholes, Rick Moranis was a constant and welcome fixture in 80s cinema. He often played haphazard losers as part of the supporting cast but there were rare and enjoyable variations, including his leading man turn in Corman movie turned stage musical turned movie-musical, Little Shop of Horrors. Then of course, he revelled in spoofing Darth Vader in Mel Brooks’ Star Wars pastiche, Spaceballs.
Moranis was a performer you just liked. He exuded affability with every role, even when he played the villain. After getting a good run in the early 90s as the main man with Honey I Shrunk The Kids (and subsequent sequels), Moranis, like Cates took a step away from the Hollywood machine following the death of his wife. Despite retiring from live-action, he still lends his voice to a number of projects to remain active behind the scenes.
Every new addition to the Ghostbusters IP also inevitably brings the same question: Will Moranis return as Louis? As yet the answer has been no.
Mia Sara
She had a day off with Ferris Bueller as his impossibly cool girlfriend and she battled a terrifying Tim Curry with help from Tom Cruise in Legend. Mia Sara may have been the love interest in two huge studio movies, but her career trajectory didn’t take her where she deserved. She had a unique presence which gave her an eclectic range of places she could go in terms of characters and archetypes, but the roles didn’t seem to offer that range.
After a few appearances in films that went by largely unnoticed, such as Apprentice To Murder (with the late great Donald Sutherland), Sara continued working steadily in the 90s with very few films having an impact at the box office. An exception was her role opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme in Timecop, which was a runaway success but playing the wife of a Van Damme hero has its limitations as a performer wanting a three-dimensional character to work on.
You probably didn’t see any of the movies she did in the 90s or 00s but one TV series, Birds of Prey was certainly a point of interest. Long before the explosion in Marvel and DC content, this short-lived show (based on the Batman universe comic) featured Sara as Harley Quinn. Like most comic-based shows of that time, it was a one-season wonder.
Corey Haim
For a time it felt like there wasn’t an American film that went by without a Corey in it. Sometimes two. Corey Haim was prolific in the 80s as his fresh-faced charm and charisma made him popular in a variety of films, including Silver Bullet (the Stephen King adaptation) and most famously, The Lost Boys.
Hollywood can be cruel to child stars for a host of reasons, and in Haim’s case, some particularly horrible reasons came to light after his untimely death. Initially, it seemed like he’d transition (where so few couldn’t) from young child actor to adolescent star in films like License to Drive. The step into adulthood as a star just never happened in the 90s with waning box office appeal compounded by off-screen issues.
Appearing largely in walk-on parts (often as himself), blink-and-you-‘ll-miss-it cameos or straight-to-video trashtaculars (Fast Getaway 1 and 2 with Cynthia Rothrock are a lot of fun), Haim’s one moment back in the spotlight was brief but welcome, in Crank: High Voltage. Sadly he died the following year.
Corey Feldman
As for the other Corey, Feldman had an even more prolific and successful run in those early years. A friend of and regular co-star of Haim, Feldman was everywhere. He was always a memorable presence, with an early knack for getting onto films that would go on to have cult followings. Stand By Me, The Goonies, The Burbs, The Lost Boys, Gremlins and voicing Donatello in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.
His frequent team-ups with Haim in the early days were also brimming with chemistry, something they’d later try to replicate with an attempt to recapture their interplay in the late 90s with Busted, an awful straight-to-video cop comedy directed by Feldman himself.
Like Haim, Feldman was chewed up and spat out by an awful system that protected predators but though he’s been away from the mainstream he’s managed to remain relentlessly active achieving some more recent infamy for his musical career.
Jennifer Grey
Jennifer Grey seemed to have it all in the 80s. She’d worked with Coppola, starring in The Cotton Club and John Milius in Red Dawn. Then she was an antagonist in the aforementioned Ferris Bueller, starring as the title character’s jealous older sister.
Her big shot came with Dirty Dancing and was a huge success. The film was almost instantaneously launched into pop cultural significance. An out of the gate smash full of quotable lines, and iconic sequences, even if it might be argued that the primary demographic watching were there for a smouldering Patrick Swayze. Still, every young woman wanted to be Baby (and probably some young men too in fairness).
It’s a legendary part of Hollywood mythos that Grey torpedoed her blooming status by getting a nose job. That part was certainly true but just how much it affected her career is debatable. There wasn’t a hit for her following in the wake of Dirty Dancing which was another factor. Despite remaining busy, she’s not appeared in any films that broke big and captured a wide audience.
Who is your favourite forgotten star of the 80s? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Tom Jolliffe