Many years ago, using the weekly TV guide that came with the Sunday Chicago Tribune, I started keeping track of all of the movies I had seen over the course of my lifetime. The guide would list the two main stars for each movie, and that is a tradition that I’ve carried on in my database ever since. So, given those guidelines, it is time to look at the most prolific actors that have starred in the movies that I have seen in the first half of the decade of the 1980s. Given I was born late in 1974, this should be a short-ish list.
1981
| Name | Films |
|---|---|
| Charles Grodin | 1 |
| William Katt | 1 |
| Robert Kulp | 1 |
We kick things off with the stars of the 2 movies that I know that I saw in 1981, the pilot to The Greatest American Hero and the second feature film starring the Muppets.
1982
| Name | Films |
|---|---|
| Albert Finney | 1 |
| Dustin Hoffman | 1 |
| Jessica Lange | 1 |
| Aileen Quinn | 1 |
| Henry Thomas | 1 |
| Dee Wallace Stone | 1 |
We are up to 3 movies for 1982, but still no repeat actors from E.T., Tootise, and Annie.
1983
| Name | Films |
|---|---|
| Peter Billingsley | 1 |
| Harrison Ford | 1 |
| Mark Hamill | 1 |
| Darren McGavin | 1 |
We fall back down to 2 films in 1983, with the last film of the original Star Wars trilogy and a soon-to-be Christmas classic.
1984
| Name | Films |
|---|---|
| Dan Aykroyd | 1 |
| George Burns | 1 |
| Kate Capshaw | 1 |
| Phoebe Cates | 1 |
| Robert Duvall | 1 |
| Harrison Ford | 1 |
| Zach Galligan | 1 |
| Tom Hanks | 1 |
| Daryl Hannah | 1 |
| John Lithgow | 1 |
| Aubree Miller | 1 |
| Bill Murray | 1 |
| Robert Redford | 1 |
| Roy Scheider | 1 |
| Sylvester Stallone | 1 |
| Mr. T | 1 |
| Eric Walker | 1 |
| Ted Wass | 1 |
As I turned 10 years old, the number of films I saw increased, but still no repeat performances, leading to a loooong list.
1985
| Name | Films |
|---|---|
| Eileen Brennan | 1 |
| Wilford Brimley | 1 |
| Raymond Burr | 1 |
| James Coco | 1 |
| Elizabeth Daily | 1 |
| Barbara Hale | 1 |
| David Huddleston | 1 |
| Lauren Hutton | 1 |
| Cleavon Little | 1 |
| Dolph Lundgren | 1 |
| Aubree Miller | 1 |
| Dudley Moore | 1 |
| Martin Mull | 1 |
| Paul Reubens | 1 |
| Joan Rivers | 1 |
| Cybill Shepherd | 1 |
| Sylvester Stallone | 1 |
| Bruce Willis | 1 |
Another long list of singletons stemming out of 1985, drawing this week’s entry to a close.