Known for: “Rocket Man” Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, “Tiny Dancer,” “Candle in the WInd” and Lion King
Net worth: $500 million
The Seventies and Eighties unofficial mascot, Elton John, defined the era with his songs, by the clothes he wore and with his flamboyant array of eyeglasses. At age four he picked up piano. By the 1970s the pop music icon released seven consecutive No. 1 albums in the United States. It’s practically unprecedented. Sir Elton John and songwriter Bernie Taupin met through a weekly newspaper ad. They were 20 and 17 when they met, respectively, and their union of piano and lyric created almost 400 songs in the decades since. Before the serendipitously epic collaboration, John played in a band called Bluesology.
He’s won every major award: A Grammy, a Tony, an Academy and a Golden Globe. His song “Circle of Life” in The Lion King film won him an Academy Award for Best Original Song. The soundtrack included other sensational hits like “Hakuna Matata” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” making him a smash hit of the 1990s as well. He produced Gnomeo & Juliet, the precious animated kids’ film featuring his tunes. Of all the iconic media the 1980s produced, one element of the decade stands out in a terrible contrast, the AIDS epidemic. People were dying, mysteriously at first. When the epidemic came into its full, terrifying light, the research was shocking. Having unprotected sex and other fluid transfer causes it, and there is no cure. The diagnosis was a death sentence. Elton John says he risked having unprotected sex in the ’80s and realizes now he is lucky to be alive. With friends dying around him, he lived to support the cause of AIDS eradication. After his friend Freddie Mercury died in 1991, John founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
Jon Bon Jovi
Known for: Bon Jovi
Net worth: $410 million
Jon Bon Jovi, lead singer of the New Jersey rock band Bon Jovi, is a staple of the 1980s. Without his songs “Bad Medicine,” “Livin’ on a Prayer,” and “You Give Love a Bad Name” wafting through the airwaves, would the Eighties have been the Eighties? Well, let’s not get too philosophical. The band formed in 1983 and became a super-pop-sensation from the hard rock/metal genre. Their third album Slippery When Wet was a worldwide smash hit selling 20 million copies. In all, the band released 14 studio albums and have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame and the U.K. Music Hall of Fame.
Jon Bon Jovi branched out into a solo career and in movies and television shows. He made appearances in Sex and the City and The West Wing. Bon Jovi is also recognized for his charitable endeavors. With too many causes to list, he formed his own foundation, The Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, and helps out with Habitat for Humanity, the Special Olympics, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and has raised money for Oprah’s charity.
Liza Minnelli
Known for: Cabaret
Net worth: $50 million
Born in Hollywood to Judy Garland and director Vincente Minnelli, Liza Minnelli befell a charmed life. She was fourteen months old when she debuted in the film on In the Good Old Summertime (1949). At sixteen, when she was trying to make it on her own in N.Y.C., she received some recognition for the play “Best Foot Forward.” But it was when her mother invited her to sing with her at a show at the London Palladium when serious recognition bumped her career. Shows sold out, audiences adored the mother/daughter duo, and it was announced to the world that Liza was coming-of-age with her own talents.
At nineteen, Liza won a Tony, and at 23 she was nominated for an Academy Award playing Pookie Adams in The Sterile Cuckoo. Her greatest performance was saved for Cabaret. Liza won an Oscar, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe for her performance as Sally Bowles. The Seventies were very busy for the pop star. Her stage duets with Frank Sinatra were well-loved. But it was in Scorsese’s, New York, New York where she so memorably shined with her signature song.
Sally Kellerman
Known for: M*A*S*H*. and Major “Hot Lips”
Net worth: $2 million
M*A*S*H is an Indispensable 1970s television series. But without the award-winning1970 film about the medical personnel who manned the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in the Korean War, there may never have been that decade-long bestowal to television.
Sally Kellerman dazzled audiences as Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan, a severe Korean War nurse in M*A*S*H*. Her performance as head nurse of the 4077th earned an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In other awards, she won the Golden Laurel for Best Comedy Performance. The film jump-started her career, although she turned down a bulk of the roles in order to focus on her singing career. She signed a contract with Verve Records and dated Grand Funk Railroad rocker Mark Farner, but we remember her best in movies like Welcome to L.A., The Player, Prêt-à-Porter and in her Twilight Zone roles.
Anthony Hopkins
Known for: The Silence of the Lambs
Net worth: $160 million
Sir Anthony Hopkins, knighted in 1993 by the late Queen Elizabeth, yet terrifies us by his horrifying portrayal of Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Decades on, a mere thought of the psychological mastermind sends shudders of fright down one’s spine. Hopkins’ depiction of that mad serial slayer (or is it “splayer”?) is an immortal fixture in the halls of American cinema, never mind that it was brought to us by a man from Wales. His accent only made him sound more terrifying. Suffice it to say he won the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Hopkins’ acting career began many years before he starred with Jodie Foster in that iconic 1991 horror film. He studied stage acting under the renowned Sir Laurence Oliver until he transitioned to television in 1967. He played an impressive Richard I in a 1968 movie called The Lion in Winter. It was nominated for Best Picture and starred Katherine Hepburn as well. It got him noticed. He starred in The Remains of the Day, The Elephant Man and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.