Debbie Harry
Known for: Blondie, “Rapture” and “Call Me”
Net worth: $20 million
Best known as Blondie, Debbie Harry shot to fame after the band of the same name came together. Straight out of the 1970s New York punk scene, Debbie Harry and all-girl band, the Stilettos, were rocking the stage in a downtown club in 1974 when Chris Stein discovered her. He was captivated. Together they formed Blondie. As lovers, bandmates and wonderful friends, they created a unique style of music that jolted the scene. Selling over 40 million albums, tunes like, “Atomic,” “The Tide is High,” “Heart of Glass” and “Call Me” continue to inspire generation after generation. Her song “Rapture” is considered the first rap song to hit number one on the charts.
Debbie Harry actively promotes supporting women. In 1980, she hosted a tea party inviting all the prominent women musicians of the time. There weren’t many, but Chrissie Hynde and Siouxsie Sioux were there. The girls had a fabulous time. She’s memorialized by Andy Warhol. His acrylic and silkscreen ink portraits of her are considered one of Warhol’s most accomplished celebrity portraits. Today one print is worth over $6 million. When the pop icon sat for Warhol at The Factory she said, “He was the master of understatement.” The two met when they bumped into each other on Broadway and 13th Street.
Jeff Bridges
Known for: The Last Picture Show and “The Dude”
Net worth: $70 million
Born in Los Angeles to a silver screen family, Jeff Bridges quite literally grew up in Hollywood. As a child, he was in and out of studios and on and off film sets tagging along with his parents and older brother. Bridges had his big break with The Last Picture Show playing Duane Jackson in a coming-of-age role that earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. It typecast him as a clever slacker with a loose-cannon tendency that would find its climax as “The Dude” in The Big Lebowski , a pop-cult phenomenon.
He was also nominated for an Oscar in Starman, although his performance in Fearless is considered his best by some. Bridges has studied Buddhism and practice Transcendental Meditation. Politically, he supports ending childhood hunger. He was the spokesman for the No Kid Hungry campaign for Share Our Strength. He’s also a supporter of the environment and backs the Amazon Conservation Team.
Alan Arkin
Known for: The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming
Net worth: $15 million
Brooklyn-born and L.A.-transplant, Alan Arkin, moved out West with his family when he was 11. His father lost his teaching job in the early 1950s for refusing to answer questions about his political affiliation. It was young Alan’s introduction to the “Red Scare.” Arkin loved music and played the guitar. In 1956, he co-wrote the famous “Banana Boat Song.” His fame would come later. Acting lessons began at age 10, and he hooked up with the Second City comedy and theatre troupe in the Sixties.
It happened in 1966 with The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming. His performance as a Soviet submariner earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination. He was nominated again for The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. He received a BAFTA and an Oscar for Best Actor in Little Miss Sunshine, cracking us up as a foul-mouthed grandpa. In TV he was recognized for his part in The Pentagon Papers with a Primetime Emmy and, more recently, he’s been nominated three times for Best Supporting Actor in The Kominsky Method, two SAGs, and one Golden Globe.
Judd Nelson
Known for: The Breakfast Club
Net worth: $8 million
Inveterate “Brat Packer” Judd Nelson debuted his bad-boy persona on The Breakfast Club. It came to life in 1985, when “Brat Pack” architect John Hughes’ totally ’80s flick hit the big screen rousing teen infatuation everywhere. The obsession mounted as another Hughes movie called, St. Elmo’s Fire , starring Nelson alongside Rob Lowe, Demi Moore and Andrew McCarthy opened. Sixteen Candles kicked off the frenzy over Hughes’ trademark style a year previous.
Judd Nelson was raised in middle-class, Portland, Maine. He studied philosophy at the university, but after he graduated he took off to New York City for an acting career. Hitting it big was not what he expected. Reflecting back he is famously known to have said, “My Brat Pack buddies and I didn’t exactly handle celebrity very well. Success at an early age is far more difficult to handle than failure.”
Robert Downey Jr.
Known for: Less Than Zero
Net worth: $300 million
Child actor, Robert Downey, Jr. appeared in his first movie at age 5. On the rise with our pack of 1980s teen icons, he starred in John Hughes’ classic sci-fi comedy Weird Science. Downey peaked in the quintessential Gen X role from Less Than Zero (1987), the Eighties-era opus.
In Chaplin , a maturing Downey earned an Oscar nomination and won the BAFTA for Best Actor. Drug abuse problems derailed his career to a degree, but his comebacks, most significantly with Marvel, have erased any losses. He’s one of the highest-grossing actors in the world. Robert Downey, Jr., was born in Manhattan to a filmmaker father and an actress mother. Drugs and alcohol were everywhere growing up. His dad let him smoke pot at six. He played in amazing 1990s flicks like Natural Born Killers with Woody Harrelson, and Scent of a Woman with Al Pacino.