Cinema in the 1980s

The Tin Drum wins the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Peter Sellers dies in London aged 54.

Death of Steve McQueen

Winner of the Oscar for best actress, "Norma Rae"

At the 1980 Oscars, Sellers is nominated for Actor in a Leading Role for Being There.

Stars in Any Which Way You Can and directs Bronco Billy alongside Sondra Locke.

Stars in, "Borderline"

Clint Eastwood directs and plays the title role in Bronco Billy alongside Locke, Scatman Crothers, and Sam Bottoms

Clint Eastwood directs and plays the title role in Bronco Billy alongside Locke, Scatman Crothers, and Sam Bottoms

Earns his first Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of country singer Loretta Lynns husband, Doolittle "Mooney" Lynn, in the popular Coal Miners Daughter

Stars in "Fort Apache the Bronx"

Sellers wins the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Being There.

Awarded the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival for Kagemusha

Directs Heavens Gate, the film is several times over budget; the result IS a financial disaster that nearly bankrupts the studio

Kurosawas Kagemusha

Plays John McVicar in the film, "McVicar", also Producer

Directs, New York, Raging Bull

Starts in "Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back"

Directs, "Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back"

Stars in "Stir Crazy"

Directs The Candidate.

Stars in The Elephant Man

Directs The Elephant Man, a biographical drama about Joseph Merrick in Victorian London.

Sellers plays the title villain Fu Manchu in The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu.

Sellers also portrays Fu Manchu's adversary Nayland Smith in his final completed film.

Stars in The Island

Stars in The Long Good Friday

Appears in The Mirror Crackd. Appears in The Long Good Friday

Directs The Shining, adapting Stephen King's novel into a psychological horror film.

Seijun Suzuki makes a comeback, beginning with Zigeunerweisen

Death of Nargis Dutt

Pink Floyd play Earls Court, the performance is filmed for inclusion in the film of "The Wall"

Pink Floyd play Earls Court, the performance is filmed for inclusion in the film of "The Wall"

Death of William Wyler

Directs Lola.

Death of Natalie Wood

Stars in "Absence of Malice"

Appears in "Annie"

Stars in Back Roads, a comedy

Plays a drifter opposite Sally Field in Back Roads, a comedy

Autobiography, "Before I Forget"

Directs Circle of Deceit.

Tom Cruises first film role comes in a small role in Endless Love, a drama/romance film starring Brooke Shields

Tom Cruises first film role comes in a small role in Endless Love, a drama/romance film starring Brooke Shields

Stars in Escape to Victory

Writes & directs, "Looker"

Co-creates the Indiana Jones character and serves as executive producer on Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Walken stars in the action adventure The Dogs of War, directed by Jack Cardiff

Cimino wrote the script for The Dogs of War starring Christopher Walken and was also signed to direct but subsequently abandoned the project, the film is eventually made with a heavily rewritten script in 1981

Walken stars in the action adventure The Dogs of War, directed by Jack Cardiff

John Cleese & Michael Palin appear in "Time Bandits", directed by Terry Gillam

John Cleese & Michael Palin appear in "Time Bandits", directed by Terry Gillam

John Cleese & Michael Palin appear in "Time Bandits", directed by Terry Gillam

Death of Takashi Shimura

Directs Veronika Voss.

Directs Fitzcarraldo.

Death of Romy Schneider

Parker's film adaptation Pink Floyd The Wall premieres in London

The world premiere of "The Wall" takes place at The Empire, Leicester Square

The world premiere of "The Wall" takes place at The Empire, Leicester Square

Death of Henry Fonda

Death of Ingrid Bergman

Death of Grace Patricia Kelly

Offered the starring role in a television mini-series, A Woman Called Golda, about the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. It was to be her final acting role and she was honored posthumously with a second Emmy Award for Best Actress

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress in Sophies Choice

Directs Blade Runner, creating an influential dystopian vision of a future Los Angeles.

Stars in, "Missing", Best Actor Award (Cannes Film Festival)

Awarded the Career Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival

Stars in, "Death Wish 2"

Offered the starring role in a television mini-series, A Woman Called Golda, about the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. It was to be her final acting role and she was honored posthumously with a second Emmy Award for Best Actress

Directs Evil under the Sun

Directs and stars in Firefox, a Cold War aviation thriller.

Directs and produces Gandhi, the biographical epic about Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi.

Directs and stars in Honkytonk Man, a Depression-era musical road drama.

Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor, Night Shift

Stars in, "Missing"

Moves to Southern California and rose to popularity in the United States playing the title role in the NBC romantic detective series Remington Steele

Appears in "Shoot the Moon"

Michael Palin writes and stars in The Missionary, co-starring Maggie Smith

Michael Palin writes and stars in The Missionary, co-starring Maggie Smith

Directs "The Verdict"

Stars in The Verdict

Trail of the Pink Panther is released posthumously using previously filmed Sellers footage as Inspector Clouseau.

Stars in Victor Victoria as a performer who gains success by presenting herself as a male female impersonator.

Death of Sue Carol

Roger Waters receives a BAFTA award for "Another Brick In The Wall Part II"

Roger Waters receives a BAFTA award for "Another Brick In The Wall Part II"

Death of David Niven

Death of Ralph David Richardson

Wins the Academy Award for Best Director for Gandhi, which also receives the Best Picture award.

Winner of the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Educating Rita

Stars in, "Death Wish 3"

Stars in Educating Rita

Wins an Emmy for Best Actor for his performance as murderer Gary Gilmore in a TV adaptation of Norman Mailers The Executioners Song

Directs, "Never Say Never Again"

Directs Silkwood

Starts in "Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi"

Directs and stars in Sudden Impact, the fourth Dirty Harry film and his final screen collaboration with Sondra Locke.

Clint Eastwood directs and stars in the fourth Dirty Harry film, Sudden Impact, considered the darkest and most violent of the series, by this time Eastwood received 60 percent of all profits from films he starred in and directed, with the rest going to the studio, Sudden Impact is his final on-screen collaboration with Locke

Shohei Imamura wins the Golden Palm at Cannes for The Ballad of Narayama

Walken plays schoolteacher-turned-psychic Johnny Smith in David Cronenbergs adaptation of Stephen King's The Dead Zone

Walken plays schoolteacher-turned-psychic Johnny Smith in David Cronenbergs adaptation of Stephen King's The Dead Zone

Appears in "The Dresser"

Wins an Emmy for Best Actor for his performance as murderer Gary Gilmore in a TV adaptation of Norman Mailers The Executioners Song

Directs, New York, The King of Comedy

Has a prominent role in The Osterman Weekend. Has a prominent role in Rumble Fish

One of many teenaged stars to appear in Francis Ford Coppolas The Outsiders. Cruises breakthrough comes after Risky Business is released, which helps to propel Cruise to stardom

Directs The NeverEnding Story.

Paris, Texas wins the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

Death of James Mason

Death of Richard Burton

Places his handprints and footprints in cement at Graumans Chinese Theatre.

Death of Sam Peckinpah

Starts in "A Passage to India"

Returns to feature direction with A Passage to India after a fourteen-year gap between theatrical films.

Appears in A Private Function

Appears as Tommy Judd in Another Country, one of his earliest major film roles.

Winner of Best Actress BAFTA Award for her role as Joyce Chilvers in A Private Function

BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, A Private Function

Makes her feature-film debut in Blood Simple, playing a woman caught in a violent marital conspiracy.

Stars with Burt Reynolds in the period crime comedy City Heat.

Cimino was at the helm of Footloose for four months, making more and more extravagant demands in terms of set construction and overall production, Paramount realized it potentially had another Heavens Gate on its hands & fires Cimino

Stars in Garbo Talks

Awarded the Legion dHonneur

Stars in "Greystoke - The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes"

Awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Actress of the Year in a Revival in 1984 for The Aspern Papers

Hayao Miyazaki adapts his manga Nausica„ of the Valley of Wind into a feature film

Writes & directs, "Runaway"

Stars in, "The Evil That Men Do"

Stars in "The Verdict"

Stars in Tightrope, a crime thriller set in New Orleans.

Birth of Keira Christina Knightley

Directs Manner, an international breakthrough for West German comedy.

Death of Simone Signoret

Death of Rock Hudson

Death of George Orson Welles

Death of Yul Brynner

Appears in A Room with a View

Walken plays a James Bond villain, Max Zorin, in A View to a Kill

Best Original Score for Out of Africa

Winner of the Acadremy Award for Best Director, "Out of Africa"

Presented an Academy Honorary Award, "for his fifty years of memorable performances, for his high ideals both on and off the screen, with respect and affection of his colleagues"

Directs, New York, After Hours

Hogan is awarded Australian of the Year and was also appointed a Member of Order of Australia (AM)

Wins best best screenplay for "Broadway Danny Rose"

BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, A Room with a View

Directs the television film Death of a Salesman.

Stars in "Golden Girls" (1985-1992)

Bosnans portrayal of Robert Gould Shaw II garnered him a 1985 Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor

Bosnans portrayal of Robert Gould Shaw II garnered him a 1985 Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor

Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture, A Room with a View

Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band for The Cotton Club

Appears in the fantasy film Legend directed by Ridley Scott

Hogan is awarded Australian of the Year and was also appointed a Member of Order of Australia (AM)

Directs and stars in Pale Rider, reviving the western at the mid-1980s box office.

Kurosawas Ran

Cimino wrote an adaptation of the French bicycle marathon novel The Yellow Jersey with Dustin Hoffman committed and slated to go into production at Lorimar in 1985 but is dropped

Death of Ray Milland

Death of Cary Grant

Death of Smita Patil

Appears in A Room With A View

Wins best screenplay for "Hannah and Her Sisters"

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Hannah and Her Sisters

Wins an Academy Award for best actor for his performance in the 1986 Martin Scorsese film The Color of Money

Winner of the Acadremy Award for Best Director, "Platoon"

Wins best screenplay for "The Purple Rose of Cairo ". Wins best best film for "The Purple Rose of Cairo "

Writes and directs Blue Velvet, exploring violence beneath the surface of a small American town.

Appears in Derek Jarman's Caravaggio, beginning a long creative association with the filmmaker.

Wins a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in Crocodile Dundee. Hogans first film, Crocodile Dundee featuring a similarly down-to-earth hunter traveling from the Australian Outback to New York City, was privately funded by Hogan and a group of private investors

Directs, "Dandelion"

Wins a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in Crocodile Dundee

Best Instrumental Composition for Out of Africa

Writes & stars in, "Hannah and Her Sisters"

Directs and stars in Heartbreak Ridge as a veteran Marine sergeant.

Stars in Mona Lisa. Stars in Hannah and Her Sisters

Stars in Mona Lisa

Stars in, "Murphys Law"

Appears in Peggy Sue Got Married

Makes his feature breakthrough with She's Gotta Have It, which he writes, directs and stars in.

Plays Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy, establishing his reputation for intense character performances.

Stars in "The Color of Money"

Directs, New York, The Color of Money

Stars in Top Gun which becomes the highest grossing film of the year, taking in US$354 million in worldwide figures

Death of Rita Hayworth

Directs Wings of Desire.

Death of Lee Marvin

Academy Award for Best Actress in 84 Charing Cross Road

Winner of the Acadremy Award for Best Director, "The Last Emperor"

Wins best screenplay for "Hannah and Her Sisters". Wins best Dirrector for "Hannah and Her Sisters"

BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne

Appears in Cry Freedom

Stars in, "Death Wish 4: The Crackdown". Stars in, "Assassination"

Stars in Dirty Dancing

Gains international attention as a child actor playing Jim Graham in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun.

Winner of a Golden Globe

Stars in Richard Marquand's film Hearts of Fire as Billy Parker.

Plays a jaded English synth-pop star in Hearts of Fire.

Directs Near Dark, blending vampire horror with the visual language of the western.

Portrays playwright Joe Orton in the biographical drama Prick Up Your Ears.

Directs The Sicilian

Plays the dangerous pimp Fast Black in Street Smart and receives his first Academy Award nomination.

Appears in The 4th Protocol

Stars on The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne

Death of Raj Kapoor

Directs Bagdad Cafe, released in Germany as Out of Rosenheim.

Death of John Carradine

The film "A Fish Called Wanda" is written by John Cleese & stars Michael Palin

The film "A Fish Called Wanda" is written by John Cleese & stars Michael Palin

Starts in "A Handful of Dust"

Winner of the Acadremy Award for Best Director, "Rain Man"

Stars in Beetlejuice

Directs Bird, a biographical film about jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker.

Receives the Golden Globe Cecil B DeMille Award for career contribution to entertainment.

Stars in the lighthearted drama Cocktail. Stars in Martin Scorseses The Color of Money along with Paul Newman

Directs Colors

Directs A Fish Called Wanda

Stars in Gotham

Directs High Hopes, a bittersweet portrait of class and social change in London.

Stars as Sarah Tobias in The Accused, a legal drama about the aftermath of sexual assault.

Stars in Terry Gilliams The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Makes his final appearance as Harry Callahan in The Dead Pool.

Directs, New York, The Last Temptation of Christ

Stars in Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Directs Working Girl

Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson marry for 2nd time

Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson marry for 2nd time

Death of Laurence Olivier

Death of Bette Davis

Coming Out premieres in East Berlin on the night the Berlin Wall falls.

The Accused earns Foster her first Academy Award for Best Actress.

Winner of the Acadremy Award for Best Director, "Born on the 4th of July"

Walken plays the leading role of Whitley Strieber in Communion, an autobiographical film written by Streiber that was based on his claims that he and his family were subject to alien abductions

Walken plays the leading role of Whitley Strieber in Communion, an autobiographical film written by Streiber that was based on his claims that he and his family were subject to alien abductions

Kidmans breakthrough is in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm

Writes and directs Do the Right Thing, depicting racial tension during a hot day in Brooklyn.

Stars as chauffeur Hoke Colburn in Driving Miss Daisy.

Stars in Flashback

Portrays Private Trip in Glory, a Civil War drama about the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment.

Directs and stars in Henry V, bringing Shakespeare's history play to the cinema.

Stars in, "Henry V"

Writes & directs, "Physical Evidence"

Stars in Pink Cadillac, an action comedy released near the end of the 1980s.

Stars in Rain Man, which also starred Dustin Hoffman and was directed by Barry Levinson, the film is praised by critics and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, and won four, including Best Picture and Best Actor

Stars in "See No Evil, Hear No Evil "

Appears in The Tall Guy

Plays the title character in Milos Forman's period drama Valmont.