There would be no eighties without these women, and it’s all because their movies managed to totally complete the decade.
The decade became her showcase
Meryl Streep was doing pretty well for herself when the decade started, but it was during the eighties when things really stepped up for her. She played two characters in The French Lieutenant’s Woman and then won a Best Actress Oscar for Sophie’s Choice.
That wasn’t all, as Silkwood put her into a completely different kind of role again. She also did Out of Africa with Robert Redford. Her movie work kept getting Oscar nominations through all of this. Put it this way, the difficult roles kept arriving, and Streep kept taking them. She’s that good.
Ripley was only part of it
Sigourney Weaver could very easily have spent the entire decade being known as Ellen Ripley from Alien the decade before. She didn’t do that. Weaver got a Best Actress Oscar nomination for the sequel Aliens, and then in 1988, she played Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist.
She played the wonderfully unpleasant Katharine Parker in Working Girl, too. Both of these performances got her Oscar nominations in the same year, and she won Golden Globes for both. It was a pretty amazing year, all in all.
Another statue joined the shelf
Sally Field was another incredible actress who spent the eighties playing very different types of roles. She worked in Absence of Malice opposite Paul Newman, and then she played a widowed Texas mother during the Great Depression in Places in the Heart.
It got her her second Best Actress Oscar. But Field didn’t start slowing down, no way, as she was opposite Tom Hanks in Punchline and ended the decade with Steel Magnolias in 1989.
One very busy Oscar night
1983 was a great year for Jessica Lange. She was nominated twice for an Oscar. The first was for Best Actress for Frances, and the second was Best Supporting Actress for Tootsie. She won for Tootsie. Before her, only three performers had managed nominations in two acting categories during the same year.
Lange refused to take things easy after that, as she kept picking demanding roles, including a struggling farm wife in Country. She also played Patsy Cline in Sweet Dreams and starred in Crimes of the Heart. Lange isn’t the kind of actress to pick easy material.
Hollywood kept changing the assignment
It’s kind of hard to believe that Kathleen Turner’s first film was Body Heat. She seemed like a natural star. The film made her a major name almost immediately, leading to other films like Romancing the Stone, where she acted opposite Michael Douglas.
Turner played a hit woman in Prizzi’s Honor, and woke up in her younger body in Peggy Sue Got Married. She won back-to-back Golden Globes and voiced Jessica Rabbit, too. All in all, it was a pretty successful decade for a new star.
Annie Hall was well behind her
Most people remembered Diane Keaton for her hat-and-tie image in 1977’s Annie Hall. She changed that image during the ‘80s. Keaton played journalist Louise Bryant and picked up another Best Actress Oscar nomination in Reds.
Then, she went for something far messier and more uncomfortable in Shoot the Moon, where she played a woman going through the collapse of her marriage. Keaton also took on lighter roles during the ‘80s, like in Baby Boom.
Music wasn’t the whole story
Cher was already pretty successful by the time the ‘80s rolled around. But what made it different for her was that she became an Oscar-winning actress. She appeared in Robert Altman’s Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, for one.
She also got an Oscar nomination for Silkwood, and played Rusty Dennis in Mask. She wasn’t happy leaving it at that, though, as she also did The Witches of Eastwick and Moonstruck. Her performance as Loretta Castorini in Moonstruck bagged her a Golden Globe and Best Actress Oscar.
The roles kept coming
The first film Debra Winger did during the ‘80s was Urban Cowboy, where she appeared with John Travolta. Then came An Officer and a Gentleman, which made her an Oscar nominee, and shortly after, she was Emma in Terms of Endearment. That got her another Best Actress nomination.
Winger had plenty more in the decade, too, including Cannery Row, Mike’s Murder, Legal Eagles, and Black Widow. Winger was the kind of actress who could be funny, irritated, romantic, and difficult, all at the same time.
Then came the late-Eighties rush
It took a little while for Michelle Pfeiffer’s career to really explode in the ‘80s. But boy, did it explode. One of her earliest famous roles was Elvira Hancock in Scarface, and she joined Cher in The Witches of Eastwick toward the end of the decade.
Pfeiffer appeared in Married to the Mob, Tequila Sunrise, and Dangerous Liaisons. The last film got her an Oscar nomination. She played Susie Diamond shortly after in The Fabulous Baker Boys and won a Golden Globe as a result.
The newcomer didn’t stay one long
Glenn Close’s first feature film came in 1982 with The World According to Garp, and she received an Oscar nomination for it almost right away. Then she did it again for The Big Chill, and again for The Natural. As the decade went on, her roles eventually became darker.
She was Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction, and the scheming Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons. All of that film work eventually got her five Oscar nominations across the entire decade. Not bad for someone who hadn’t even made a feature before the decade started.
Comedy remained serious business
Comedy was practically Goldie Hawn’s bread and butter during the eighties. Yes, she managed to do things that seemed completely believable while everything around her became ridiculous. Just look at Private Benjamin, for example.
She played a sheltered woman who joined the Army after her husband died. The role got her a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Later in the decade, she did Protocol and Wildcats, where she somehow ended up coaching high-school football. It all worked for her, somehow.
She never really left the front row
The 1980s didn’t make Jane Fonda a huge name. She already was one by the time the decade started. But the ‘80s gave her another period of time to shine, and she started with Nine to Five, playing opposite Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton.
She then turned around to make On Golden Pond with Katharine Hepburn and her father, Henry Fonda. It brought her another Oscar nomination. Agnes of God came shortly after, and The Morning After earned her a Best Actress nomination.
The old label stopped fitting
Nobody would’ve minded if Jamie Lee Curtis had stayed attached to the horror movies that first made her famous. But she chose not to. She completely changed the mood with Trading Places and held her own beside Eddie Murphy.
She then moved through Perfect with John Travolta and landed in A Fish Called Wanda. She got a Golden Globe nomination for that. Curtis made the transition to TV toward the end of the decade by doing television comedy with Anything But Love. This isn’t a woman who wants to stick to one lane, clearly.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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