Known for: My Cousin Vinny
Net worth: $20 million
Another “totally ’80s” actress is Marisa Tomei. The girl with an Italian background and a Brooklyn accent so pronounced her mom had to remind her to tone it down, simply enamored audiences. The adorable accent came in handy playing Mona in, My Cousin Vinny . Tomei was funny as heck and won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
In 1984, she had a role in The Flamingo Kid with verifiable “Brat Packer,” Matt Dillon from The Outsiders. It was a small part with one line, but it got her recognized, as did the 1980s TV shows, A Different World and the daytime soap opera, As the World Turns. Though co-starring with Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny (1992) was a high point, she earned a SAG nomination for Unhook the Stars. And was listed as one of the twelve most “Promising New Actors of 1991.”
Molly Ringwald
Known for: Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club
Net worth: $11 million
“Brat Pack” high priestess, Molly Ringwald, is an ’80s teen icon who is known for her extensive work with John Hughes, the director of epic Gen X films such as Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club . Ringwald starred in both films. She was the birthday girl in the former and the lead “cool” chick in the latter.
Writing for the New Yorker, Ringwald described the film saying, The Breakfast Club is “a movie about five high-school students who befriend one another during a Saturday detention session, with plenty of cursing, sex talk, and a now-famous scene of the students smoking pot.” She goes on to describe how awkward it was to view the film with her coming-of-age daughter, especially the scene in which her character smokes pot for the first time. She wasn’t the only pot-smoker. The all-star cast included Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, and Anthony Michael Hall. Today she’s the mother of Archie on the CW series Riverdale, and prior to becoming the queen of teen, she starred on the 1970s hit TV series The Facts of Life.
Valerie Perrine
Known for: Lenny and Superman
Net worth: $6 million
Galveston, Texas-born army-brat, Valerie Perrine grew up on a military base in Japan but also bounced around to Paris and Rome, ending up in Arizona as a teen. Not too far down the road was Las Vegas, so she started her career in entertainment as a Vegas showgirl. A Playboy spread led to television roles. She’s the first woman to fully expose her breasts on TV.
In 1972, she portrayed soft-core porn actress Montana Wildhack in the film version of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. Her big break came with Lenny, playing Honey Bruce, the wife of old school comedian and social satirist, Lenny Bruce. She won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival, a BAFTA Newcomer Award, and was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar, as well as the Golden Globe Award.
Richard Dreyfuss
Known for: Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and What About Bob?
Net worth: $5 million
Richard Dreyfuss has had an astounding career in the film industry. He debuted in The Graduate, but he had a tiny part. It was only one line! After that, it’s a list of blockbuster hits. He scored a role in American Graffiti , Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jaws . A drug habit veered him off course for a few years, but he came back strong with memorable roles in comedy Down and Out in Beverly Hills , Stand by Me , and the hilarious, What About Bob? And, of course, we recall his fabulous performance in Mr. Holland’s Opus .
Brooklyn-born and Queens-raised, Richard Dreyfuss was brought up by a Jewish family with a father who was an attorney and a mother who was a peace activist. His father wasn’t fond of New York, so they moved to Europe and then to Los Angeles. Dreyfuss found himself in the Hollywood area, attending Beverly Hills High School. He began acting at the Temple in Beverly Hills and soon picked up small acting parts. Dreyfuss is very active politically, so much so that he founded his own non-profit called The Dreyfuss Civics Initiative to improve such involvement in high school. He’s savagely opposed to a Trump presidency but is vexed by Hollywood liberals and regrets his vote for Hillary.
Winona Ryder
Known for: Beetlejuice
Net worth: $18 million
The darling of the 1980s grew up on a Northern California commune with no electricity during the 1970s. Winona Horowitz’s parents were friends with Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary who is her godfather. When she was ten, the family moved to Petaluma, and she enrolled in acting classes. In 1985 she auditioned for a movie by sending a VCR recording of herself reciting a monologue she found in a J.D. Salinger novel. She didn't get the part, but the director was impressed and cast her in Lucas . It was then she decided on “Winona Ryder.” The movie was her breakout film, co-starring with Charlie Sheen.
Her goth-chick performance in Beetlejuice was undeniably lovable. In Reality Bites, she nailed eighties attitudes. She was the perfect “Jo” in Little Women. She won an Oscar nomination for The Age of Innocence and Little Women. Audiences still adore her in the sci-fi, horror, Web/TV Netflix series, Stranger Things. Ryder dated Johnny Depp, Matt Damon, and Soul Asylum’s frontman Dave Pirner. Today she’s, like, married to Keanu Reeves. Philanthropically, she’s been active supporting indigenous people’s rights.