The hair! There were way too many women to have combined them like I did earlier into 1 group, the 70s AND 80s. So I split them up. Besides, the feel of the decades were so different. The first 4 years of the 70s (70, 71, 72 & 73) in my mind are linked to the 60s. The post-Watergate years of the 70s were their own and in no way part of the 80s. The 80s struck me as a very superficial decade. Big hair, shoulder pads, spandex, glitter, teen movies. Glitz. MTV was okay back then, they actually played music. I remember the media hated Ronald Reagan. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were living basketball legends in the 80s. The movies? Very macho, looking back on them. Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, Arnold Schwarzenegger. That generations “Brat Pack” with Molly Ringwald and crew (Good golly, Miss Molly is 51!).
The women here are a fascinating mixture. I’d love to know if there was a book on this group? These aren’t the ‘Oscar Winners’ of Hollywood for the most part. These are the women that looked good in bikinis. Jeans. Tight sweaters. Short dresses. Leotards and tights. These are the women that men dream of. They may not have been tough as leather when they got to Hollywood, but they were by the time they left. They quickly found out Hollywood was going to use them, so they turned the tables and used Hollywood. I have nothing but respect for these women. Ladies if you prefer. The words in the title of this post, “Most Beautiful”, are interchangeable with “Most Sexy”. They knew the game, and they survived it.
They knew what their bargaining chip was for the big screen (or small), and the limited time they had to “get theirs”. Most of them seemed to have retained their humanity, kept themselves sane and are just really topnotch people. In fact as I scroll down through the pictures below, I see only one that might be a barracuda. The rest just seem like really fine people. Virtually everyone of them at their peak ruled the “bombshell” roost. Their popularity for a year, maybe 2 was phenomenal! The posters, the magazine covers, the adulation, they each must have had a very wild ride at one time! They were huge.
Like I said earlier, a book needs to be done on this bunch, “Queens of the Tabloids!” or some such. With nothing but utmost respect intended. The women who won Oscars in the 80s were women like Sally Field, Sissy Spacek, Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, Jodie Foster. Fine people no doubt, but not the type that make men’s hearts pound. Its hard to explain but men know what I mean. I’ve done a separate post on Meredith Dawn Salenger, I intend to do separate ones for Brooke Shields, Lydia Cornell and Heather Thomas. I’d really love to dig deeper. To get beyond the façade. And for a good many of these photos I sincerely apologize, they don’t begin to do justice to them.
LOS ANGELES – 1983: Actress Ola Ray poses for a portrait in 1983 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry Langdon/Getty Images)
Ola Ray (Thriller)
Meredith Dawn Salenger
Jennifer Beals
Brooke Shields (There’s a gazillion good shots of her, this one is nice.)
Nia Peeples (I finally found one of her that is worthy! You should see her in 23 Minutes to Sunrise.)
Lisa Bonet
Tanya Roberts (To not capture that red hair and blue eyes is a sin.)
Linda Blair (animal rights activist/actress and all around hottie.)
Justine Bateman – I had a picture of Justine here, but she seemed in her interviews such a fan hating egotist, I couldn’t in good conscience leave it up.
Valerie Bertinelli
Markie Post
Brigitte Nielsen
Rachel Ward (“Here, let me adjust you”) She’s a bit of an odd duck for me. Of all the beautiful and sexy women on this page she sticks with me the most. Why? I saw a grand total of 1 of her movies (Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid), a couple a dozen photos while researching this post. No interviews or anything. She’s one of those people like Nia Peeples whose eyes are truly a window to the soul, and its a good view. From what I can tell she hasn’t had any “work” done, and that is so cool. She seems so down to earth and sensible.
Lydia Cornell
Molly Ringwald
Joan Jett
Michelle Pfeiffer
Kathleen Beller (find a picture of her in a swimsuit, unreal) She was on an episode of Barnaby Jones this morning: ‘Run Away to Terror!‘ Great 70s TV! I read up on her at the link above. When I first did this 80s post I completely overlooked her! So did Hollywood in a way. I don’t know how either of us did, one of the strangest stories in Hollywood. She did okay, kept busy. She did 3 years of Dynasty, they wrote her out! How is that even possible?? No woman on that show even came close!
Marisa Tomei
Linda Purl
Heather Locklear
Heather Thomas
80s goddess Heather Thomas, not much you can say about that. She comes across as nice, pretty, nothing better than that.
[The photos I used really are a mish mash of photographic failure. 4 of the most epic failures were the ones I was forced to use for Linda Purl, Linda Blair, Meredith Salenger and Lisa Bonet. The one of Valerie Bertinelli really suffered from being scanned into digital. Tanya Roberts I couldn’t get a decent color shot that wasn’t a bikini pic. Such is life. Digital didn’t begin to appear until the nineties. Getty Images buys up the really topnotch ones. The good news is this 80s list is so much more complete than my ridiculous earlier attempt. 21 by the way, not 10. Imagine a big primal scream of ‘Nooooooooo!’ That’s what I felt like when I was going through photos and I’d see a current photo of one of my dream girls and she had undergone the plastic surgery knife. I hate that! Its like women who get boob jobs, you’re beautiful as you are! I realize a woman hits 50, 55, 60, that’s okay. We’d much rather see the natural you, not the stretched, unnatural and sometimes unrecognizable you. The big surprise for me (who started out the decade a young and dumb 21), was Heather Thomas! I knew of her at the time of course, she was everywhere. But little did I even begin to appreciate what an amazing beauty she was. Simply amazing.]
Iowa life 