The 50 Best Movie Performances of the ’80s

If there’s one thing we hope that this year’s ‘80s Week package better illuminates, it’s the incredible depth and range on display in the films of the decade. While the iconic movies and stars of the totally radical ‘80s tend to most easily remembered for neon-tinted, big-haired, Tangerine Dream-set turns, consider this: the decade included all-time work from major performers like Meryl Streep, Ossie Davis, Jessica Lange,  Robert De Niro, Gena Rowlands, Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Newman, Jackie Chan, and Whoopi Goldberg.

These are the kind of stars who show up and show out no matter the year, but it’s in the ‘80s in which they all captured the incredible essence of what makes them greats.

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But they’re hardly alone on this list, which also includes indelible work from stars like David Byrne, Sandrine Bonaire, Babak Ahmadpour, Seret Scott, Mieko Harada, Ken Ogata, and even Divine — all names that deserve more recognition, both then and now. Not convinced? One last shot: this list doubles the performances we spotlighted from the ‘90s — doubles! — an ask that proved to be almost too easy. The only problem? We had more performances we wanted to include, a true embarrassment of riches.

Selected from a decade that boasts iconic performances, indelible breakouts, and the best work of some talents who only ever churn out top-tier work, here are the 50 performances that we can’t help but champion.

This article includes contributions from Carlos Aguilar, Alison Foreman, Susannah Gruder, Jim Hempill, Guilherme Jacobs, Sean Malin, Vikram Murthi, and Mark Peikert.

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