Popular Stars Of The 1970s Then And Now

The 1970s may be best known as the era of bell-bottoms, disco, political turmoil, and significant cultural change. Along with it came a shift in people’s tastes in fashion, music, and entertainment, giving rise to a new generation of young, talented, Hollywood stars who would go on to blaze a trail in television, movies, and on stage.

Though some celebrities who first found fame in the 1970s have since faded from the spotlight, others remain active in Hollywood, appearing on numerous TV shows and movies over the years. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular stars of the 1970s and see what they’ve been up to lately.

Barbi Benton: Then

Barbi Benton, born Barbara Lynn Klein, began her career as a model, appearing in Playboy magazine and on the show Playboy After Dark at age 18. Though she first appeared on the show as an extra, she would later become a co-host after Hugh Hefner – who was nearly 30 years her senior – fell in love with her.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Benton made numerous television appearances, either as a guest star or lead actress on shows like Hee Haw, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, and Sugar Time!. She also appeared in movies like The Naughty Cheerleader in 1970 and Hospital Massacre in 1980. In the mid-1970s, Benton achieved some success as a country singer, with hits like “Brass Buckles” and “Ain’t That Just The Way.” 

Diane Keaton had already been nominated for a Tony Award when she made her film debut in the 1970 romantic comedy Lovers and Other Strangers. Her breakthrough role came two years later when she played Kay Adams, the love interest of Michael Corleone, in the critically-acclaimed crime movie The Godfather.

Keaton reprised her role as Kay Adams for a second time in The Godfather Part III, released in 1990. Some of her most popular movies over the years include Father of the Bride (1991), Father of the Bride Part II (1995), The First Wives Club (1996), Morning Glory (2010), Finding Dory (2016), and Book Club (2018).

Cybill Shepherd previously worked as a model before becoming an actress. Her first acting role was in the 1971 coming-of-age drama movie The Last Picture Show, which won two Academy Awards and earned Shepherd a Golden Globe nomination. The following year, she starred in The Heartbreak Kid alongside Charles Grodin. Two years later, she launched her music career, releasing an album called Cybill Does It...To Cole Porter. 

Shepherd resumed her Hollywood career in 1983, starring in shows like The Yellow Rose and Moonlighting, which won her two Golden Globe Awards. She appeared in several more movies before starring in her sitcom, Cybill, which aired on CBS from 1995 to 1998. In 1997, she received her third Golden Globe Award. From 2007 to 2009, Shepherd appeared on The L Word as Phyllis Kroll. In 2012, she made her Broadway debut in a revival of the 1960 play The Best Man.

Jodie Foster has been in show business since she was a toddler. Her first TV appearance was in a Coppertone commercial when she was just three years old. Her first appearance in a TV show came in 1968 in the sitcom Mayberry R.F.D., which starred her older brother Buddy.

Foster would go on to land other unforgettable roles following her performance in Taxi Driver. In 1988, she played a rape survivor in the legal drama film The Accused, a role which earned her numerous awards, including an Oscar and a Golden Globe. A few years later, she won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA for her role as Clarice Starling in the 1991 psychological thriller The Silence of the Lambs.

Kate Jackson studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City before landing a supporting role in the supernatural daytime soap opera Dark Shadows in 1970. Her performance caught the attention of the show’s creator, who then cast her in the lead role in the horror movie Night of Dark Shadows.

Jackson hit the big time in 1976 when she was cast in another TV show by Rookies producers Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg. The show was originally going to be called The Alley Cats, but it was reportedly Jackson who suggested the name Charlie’s Angels. The show was an instant success, earning Jackson numerous Golden Globes and Emmy nominations.

After graduating from high school in 1959, Barbra Streisand set out to try and get roles on Broadway. She worked menial jobs, sang at nightclubs, and acted in smaller productions before getting cast as a secretary to the lead actor in I Can Get It for You Wholesale, which received rave reviews. Streisand received a Tony nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role.

In 1983, Streisand became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a movie with the release of Yentl, a romantic musical drama. She received a Golden Globe Award for Best Director, becoming the first and only woman to do so.

Goldie Hawn was a professional dancer before she became an actress. Hawn rose to fame as a cast member of the sketch comedy show Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, which aired on NBC from 1968 to 1973. In 1969, Hawn won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Cactus Flower.

Hawn remained a popular actress in the decades that followed, appearing in numerous movies and TV shows throughout the 1980s until the 2010s. In the early 1990s, Hawn took a break from show business to take care of her ailing mother who died in 1994. In 1995, she returned from her hiatus and produced the satirical comedy Something to Talk About starring Julia Roberts and Dennis Quaid. In 1997, Hawn made her directorial debut in the made-for-television movie Hope. Eight years later, her memoir, A Lotus Grows in the Mud, was published.

Cher burst onto the music scene in 1965 as one-half of the folk-rock duo Sonny & Cher with Sonny Bono, who she would later be married to between 1969 and 1975. Their debut single, “I Got You Babe,” was a commercial success, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

With her music career waning by the 1980s, Cher decided to focus on acting. She appeared on movies like Silkwood and Mask, and on the Broadway production Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. By the end of the decade, she had become one of Hollywood’s most bankable actresses.

Susan Dey was a model before being cast as Laurie Partridge in the musical sitcom The Partridge Family, which aired on ABC from 1970 to 1974. Her first movie role was in the 1972 disaster movie Skyjacked, where she played a passenger onboard a hijacked airliner. In 1977, she played a disturbed young mother in the made-for-television movie Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night, and starred in the comedy-drama movie First Love with William Katt.

Dey would make appearances in other movies and TV shows throughout the rest of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, earning three Emmy Awards nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. By 2004, Dey has had enough of acting and decided to retire. Her last TV appearance was in the NBC Crime Drama Third Watch, where she played Dr. Breene in two episodes.

Fabio Lanzoni rose to fame in the early 1970s when he was in his early teens. He was spotted while working out at a gym in his hometown of Milan, Italy by a photographer, who hired him as a model for one of his projects. At 19, he signed a contract with Ford Modeling Agency and moved to New York City.

Lanzoni also had several acting roles, such as in the syndicated series Acapulco H.E.A.T. in 1993. He also made multiple appearances in the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful as the close friend of Sally Spectra, played by his real-life close friend Darlene Conley.

Alison Arngrim’s acting career started in 1974 when she was 12 years old, landing the role of the antagonist Nellie Oleson in the NBC series Little House on the Prairie. Arngrim was a child model who appeared on several commercials before becoming an actress. Her father, Thor, was a Hollywood manager, while her mother, Norma, was a voice actress for animated children’s shows like Casper the Friendly Ghost, Gumby, and Underdog.

Arngrim appeared on other shows like The Love Boat and Fantasy Island and recorded a comedy album called Heeere’s Amy before becoming a stand-up comedian. In one of her stand-up routines years later, she described playing Nellie on Little House on the Prairie as “like having PMS for seven years.”

Susan Sarandon’s first acting role was in the 1970 drama movie Joe, where she played a rebellious young woman who gets caught up in the seedy underworld. This was followed by appearances in the soap operas A World Apart and Search for Tomorrow. She would also make her Broadway debut in the play An Evening with Richard Nixon in 1972. 

Sarandon’s acting career would continue to flourish in the 1980s and 1990s. She earned four Academy Award nominations between 1991 and 1994, before winning her first Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Sister Helen Prejean in the crime drama Dead Man Walking.

Talia Shire, born Talia Rose Coppola, was born into what would later become a powerful family composed of filmmakers and actors. In 1972, she was cast as Connie Corleone in The Godfather, directed by her brother, Francis Ford Coppola. She would reprise her role as Connie in The Godfather Part II 1974 and The Godfather Part III in 1990. 

Shire would go on to appear in other movies and TV shows in the decades that followed, but none of her subsequent roles would be in the same magnitude as her roles in The Godfather and Rocky. In 2016, she appeared in her son Robert Schwartzman’s directorial debut, Dreamland. In 2020, she played Iola Parkes in the drama movie Working Man, written and directed by Robert Jury.

Pam Dawber was born in Detroit and came to New York City to become a model. She signed with the modeling agency Wilhelmina Models and appeared in TV commercials for brands such as Noxzema, Neet, Fotomat, and Underalls in the 1970s. Dawber screen-tested for the lead role in Tabitha, a Bewitched spin-off, but this role would instead go to Lisa Hartman.

Though Dawber was largely known for her work on television, she was also cast in several movies, including in the 1992 comedy Stay Tuned and the 1999 family drama I’ll Remember April, where she starred alongside her husband Mark Harmon.

Ellen Burstyn’s acting career began on Broadway in 1957. Ten years after her Broadway debut, she joined Lee Strasberg’s The Actor’s Studio. Burstyn appeared on numerous television shows during the 1960s, including Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare, The Big Valley, and The Doctors.

Burstyn appeared in other critically-acclaimed movies, including the 2000 psychological drama Requiem For a Dream. Her strong performance as a lonely drug-addicted woman earned her nominations for an Academy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. 

Carol Kane’s acting career began in 1971, playing the role of Jennifer in the comedy-drama movie Carnal Knowledge. Her role as Gitl in the 1975 romantic movie Hester Street would earn her a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1977, she played Allison Portchnik in Annie Hall.

Between 2005 and 2014, Kane played evil headmistress Madame Morrible on various productions of Wicked. She also starred in the off-Broadway play Love, Loss, and What I Wore in 2010. A year later, she starred in a revival of Lillian Helman’s play The Children’s Hour at the Harold Pinter Theatre at London’s West End.

Olivia Newton-John launched her singing career in the 1960s after winning a talent contest on the Australian TV show, Sing, Sing, Sing. Her first single, “Till You Say You’ll Be Mine,” was released in 1966. Five years later, she released her first album, If Not For You. Newton-John would go on to release more albums and earn multiple awards.

Newton-John changed her look and her music style after Grease. Her songs were edgier and had a more aggressive and uptempo sound. In 1981, she released her most successful album, Physical. Its title track was certified platinum and became widely regarded as the biggest song of the decade.

Rene Russo began her career as a model in the 1970s after she was supposedly spotted at a Rolling Stones concert. She signed with Ford Modeling Agency and soon became one of the top models of the decade, appearing on the cover of magazines like Vogue and Cosmopolitan as well as on ad campaigns for various perfume and cosmetics brands.

Russo’s breakthrough role was in the 1992 buddy cop action movie Lethal Weapon 3, where she played a female assassin. She appeared in many other successful movies throughout the 1990s, including In the Line of Fire, Outbreak, and Get Shorty. In 1998, she reprised her role as an assassin in Lethal Weapon 4. In 2005, she produced and starred in Two For The Money and took a break from acting after its release.

Stefania Sandrelli’s acting career started in 1961 at 14 years old when she played Angela in the Italian drama-comedy movie Divorce Italian Style, directed by Pietro Germi. She would then go on to appear in three more of Germi’s movies, including Seduced and Abandoned (1963), L’immorale (1967), and Alfredo, Alfredo (1970).

In 1980, Sandrelli was awarded the Nastro d’Argento for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Giovanna in Ettore Scola’s La Terrazza. In 1983, she appeared in the erotic movie The Key. This was soon followed by other appearances in a series of successful erotic movies.

Candice Bergen started her career as a model, following in the footsteps of her mother, Frances. She eventually decided to turn to acting, taking lessons at HB Studio in New York City. In 1966, she debuted on the big screen playing a university student in the social satire The Group.

Bergen remained active in show business throughout the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, with roles in shows like Murphy Brown, Sex and the City, and Boston Legal, as well as movies like Sweet Home Alabama, Miss Congeniality, and Bride Wars. In 2008, she became a contributor for wowOwow.com, a now-defunct women’s website. She also starred in the Broadway revivals of The Best Man in 2012, and Love Letters in 2014.

Who can ever forget Adrienne Barbeau? This actress began her career in 1968 on Broadway. She debuted in Fiddler on the Roof. Then, she won a Tony award for her potrayla of Rizzo in Grease on stage. But most of all, she is remembered for TV roles — one hit after another!

As it turns out, Adienne is still a busy actress. It's impressive: All these years have gone by without any gap in her resume. She has been in TV and film consistently, and younger fans might know her for The Drew Carey Show or the voice of Catwoman on Batman: The Animated Series. She has even dabbled in local television, as a book reviewer and host for KABC radio in Los Angeles. Busy, busy!

The sensual and sassy Charo is impossible to leave out fo the 70s. Any discussion in the decade must include this latin lady! Blond and buxom like no one else, she appeared on The Love Boat, as well as Chico and the Man, and Ironside. What was her real name, though?

According to the actress: ''I love audiences. They are my oxygen. I only breathe with audience. When I'm alone, I am normally a miserable you-know-what.'' Making good on this promise to reach fans, Charo has been pretty busy in the business.

Lola Falana took America by storm after her discovery by Sammy Davis, Jr. He became a friend and mentor, casting her in his Broadway show: Golden Boy. A talented singer and performer, and this led to albums and movie roles galore. Eventually, even Playboy magazine noticed. A sensual sensation in a 1970 edition, she was iconic for her time.

Sometimes, life doesn't go as planned — even for those living a charmed life. Unfortunately, Lola suffered form health problems later on in her career. She was diagnosed wth multiple sclerosis in 1987, and has experienced periodic relapses. But that hasn't stopped her from pursuing meaningful work. The Vegas performer has become a bit religious, actually!