# Hot '80s actresses with fading careers **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 18, 2002, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-80s-actresses-with-fading-careers/132898 "2002-10-18T21:37:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![WavyDavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3da27b/32.png) [@WavyDavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WavyDavy)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-80s-actresses-with-fading-careers/132898/41 "2002-10-23T14:17:18Z")
Diane Lane…I can still feel the heat from that woman. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-80s-actresses-with-fading-careers/132898/42 "2002-10-23T14:23:35Z")
Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Ark) is also living a laidback life, acting when she gets a good part but mostly enjoying her life. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-80s-actresses-with-fading-careers/132898/43 "2002-10-23T14:30:07Z")
Sam Stone > [@](#): > > How about Ione Sky? She was great in ‘Say Anything’, but didn’t really do I forced myself to watch this this weekend, since it was on a lot of Best 10 lists. Mr. Singular and I were so distracted by her buck teeth and speech impedement that we could barely hear her dialog. KidCharlemagne > [@](#): > > Jami Gertz is now on the new sitcom “Standing Still.” actually, it’s “Still Standing”. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-80s-actresses-with-fading-careers/132898/44 "2002-10-23T14:42:47Z")
Jamie Gertz’s last big movie, AFIAK, was Twister, in which she played the ex of Bill Paxton’s character. Mia Sara was never a good actress. Good looking, yes. Good actress, no way. She really didn’t do much after Ferris Bueller - Timecop and Queenie spring to mind. I remember when Ally Sheedy had a comeback of sorts in Betsy’s Wedding, and I thought then that seemed like a good launching pad for a good second career - but it never really happened. Ione Skye did appear in Gas Food Lodging back in '92, but I haven’t seen much of her lately, either. Wasn’t Megan Follows Anne of Green Gables? She did an update of it a few years back, something like “Return to Avonlea.” Definitely agree about Diane Lane. She hot. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-80s-actresses-with-fading-careers/132898/45 "2002-10-23T14:52:38Z")
Renee Russo is the one exception on RickJay’s list to my rule of when an actress has to break through. Russo didn’t even start getting good movie roles till her late thirties, and yet it looks like she’ll be getting decent roles all through her forties, despite the fact that she’s not bankable. Note though that those roles are as the hero’s girlfriend. It doesn’t look like she is going to be known as a leading role actress. Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman are two of the three or four bankable actresses in the world today. (Meg Ryan is probably bankable now, and Cameron Diaz is close to becoming bankable.) “Bankable” means that the actress always gets at least $15 million for every role and is so popular that they can get a movie made purely because of their signing on for the film. As I said, there are always something like three or four actresses like this whose careers can continue successfully into their forties. Sometimes an actress loses her bankability, either from stupid film choices or because they get tired of the hassle. Jody Foster and Demi Moore have dropped out of bankability. Jessica Lange is a mid-range actress. She doesn’t get lead roles in top movies anymore. She’s another example of an actress in her forties who takes any decent TV and movie role she can get in hopes that eventually she’ll get a good one and become hot again. Sharon Stone may still be a sex symbol (although that’s largely on the basis of people’s memories of her, not on her current roles), but the fact is that she’s not getting roles in films anymore. I think that I would class Catherine Zeta-Jones as a mid-range actress. It would be interesting to see if she continues to get good roles after having her second baby. It would also be interesting to know her true age. Ellen Barkin’s time as a lead actress was very short. She appears to be out of acting now. She’s done what’s probably the best thing for a once-hot actress who’s fallen out of the limelight: She’s married a billionaire and gotten out of the business. Sigourney Weaver is an odd case. Yes, she’s still a star in the _Alien_ films, but nowhere else. If she wants to do another film in that series, she can get it made and probably get $15 million for it, but outside that series, she’s a mid-range actress. In her other roles she’s just taking whatever she’s offered. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-80s-actresses-with-fading-careers/132898/46 "2002-10-24T00:17:07Z")
My vote goes to [Blair Brown.](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Brown,+Blair) Not generally thought of as ‘hot’, she was still gorgeous. Great actress too. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2002, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-80s-actresses-with-fading-careers/132898/47 "2002-10-24T02:34:05Z")
> [@](#): > > Ione Skye did appear in Gas Food Lodging back in '92, but I haven’t seen much of her lately, either. > > Wasn’t Megan Follows Anne of Green Gables? She did an update of it a few years back, something like “Return to Avonlea.” Ione Skye recently appeared in an episode of _The Twilight Zone_. Megan Follows appeared in _Anne of Green Gables: The Contiuning Story_. IIRC, she once said she wouldn’t do any more Anne stories after Colleen Dewhurst died. They last appeared together in the dismal _Termini Station_. In that, Dewhurst (in one of her last roles) played a delusional alcoholic. Follows was a down-on-her-luck part-time prostitute with a big-ass chip on her shoulder. Yep, happy times for all. :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hot-80s-actresses-with-fading-careers/132898.md?page=2)