'80s Stars Who Completely Disappeared

Stranger Things. Mirrored sunglasses. The Americans. Pegged jeans. San Junipero. Synth scores. The reboot of every name brand '80s television show and movie ever made. Donald Trump. Eighties nostalgia is back, baby, and the cultural fixation on the decade that brought us slap bracelets and the mixtape shows no signs of slowing down.

The decade also launched the careers of actors, some hailed as "next big thing," who eventually saw their last significant role go out the door of a Blockbuster Video, but have you ever wondered where some of the most prominent '80s stars are today? There are quite a few from that neon-drenched era who have seemingly disappeared into obscurity. Some for personal reasons. Others due to their marketability going the way of the Trapper Keeper. If you're wondering what happened to the people in those '80s flicks you know and love, here are some who completely disappeared faster than a Walkman.

As one-fifth of the brain, beauty, jock, rebel, and recluse, Emilio Estevez shot to fame in 1985's The Breakfast Club, forever cementing himself as part of a movie that transformed the way teen dramas were made and marketed. His next prominent role was his turn as the horrible Coach Bombay in The Mighty Ducks, but since D3: The Mighty Ducks in 1996, his film career has floundered. That is, unless you count third-billing on an animated made-for-television holiday movie called Abominable Christmas as not floundering. 

Estevez did write, direct, and produce Bobby, the film about the assassination of Robert Kennedy that received horrible reviews, but other than that, his career never reached the levels of his more famous father. Apocalypse Now, anyone? Estevez also managed to get overshadowed by his brother, Charlie Sheen. That would be difficult to overcome even if you injected yourself with tiger blood. 

Kirk Cameron. Where do we start? His poster covered nearly every teenage girl's wall thanks to his time as girl-chasing, trouble-making Mike Seaver on the hit ABC sitcom Growing Pains. During the show's latter seasons, Cameron became a born-again Christian and insisted that story lines be stripped of anything he deemed "too adult or racy." 

He's now an evangelical Christian focusing on faith-based projects such as 2008's Fireproof and 2015's Saving Christmas. He's also a minister and runs his own religious organization called Way of the Master. In 2017, he suggested that Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma weren't merely storm systems. He then proceeded to read Job 37:13, the biblical passage stating that God "causes [storms] to happen for punishment, or to water his land and demonstrate his faithful love." We bet he's fun at parties.

Bonus trivia time: Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt appeared in 26 episodes of Growing Pains between them. They did not appear in Fireproof or Saving Christmas.

Making his film debut in Class, Andrew McCarthy quickly became Hollywood's go-to nice guy in the '80s, starring in such decade-defining flicks as Mannequin, Weekend at Bernie's, Pretty in Pink, Less Than Zero, and St. Elmo's Fire. He spent the '90s appearing in a slew of unforgettable television movies, and the early 2000s saw him guest star in Law & Order, Royal Pains, and Gossip Girl.

But in the 2010's, McCarthy's career surged from the director's chair. Helming episodes of Gossip Girl, The Blacklist, and Alpha House, McCarthy found his groove, directing eleven episodes of the Emmy Award-winning series Orange is the New Black. For McCarthy, being behind the camera was just a natural progression. "There's certain [a] camaraderie that I already have built in with an actor," he told Deadline. "You just want to create an ally, and you want to make the environment as good as possible so they can do as well as they can do."

Fun fact: McCarthy's son, Sam, starred in the 2018 indie film All These Small Moments. The actor playing his mother? Molly Ringwald, McCarthy's love interest in Pretty in Pink. Insert mind blown dot gif.

Chances are if you were alive in the '80s, you had a crush on Jamie Gertz. Whether it be on television in Square Pegs, or on the big screen in Crossroads, Less Than Zero, Sixteen Candles and Quicksilver, Gertz was the doe-eyed brunette you wanted to ask to the dance. Then came The Lost Boys, and you may have wanted to up that offer to a marriage proposal. It was in that movie that Gertz appeared in what might be the most '80s scene of all time.

Gertz kicked off the '90s by turning down the role of Monica Geller in Friends. (Let that sink in for a moment.) She then went on to appear in an episode of Seinfeld ("can't spare a square") and had a recurring role as Dr. Nina Pomerantz in the 1997 season of ER. The 2000's welcomed a five-episode arch on Ally McBeal and four seasons on the CBS sitcom Still Standing. 

She doesn't need to worry about acting paying the bills anymore, because in 2015, she became a minority owner of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks. She made her return to the small screen in 2018, when she represented the Hawks at the NBA Draft Lottery.

Forever known as Cameron Frye, the hypochondriac best friend in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Alan Ruck has worked steadily over the years — you just might not recognize him. Ruck managed to nab small roles in a few '90's blockbusters such as Young Guns II, Speed, and Twister before turning his sights to television. After a couple of flops, he found a home, appearing in 140 episodes of the Michael J. Fox political sitcom Spin City. 

It's been television ever since: Scrubs, Psych, Burn Notice, Ghost Whisperer, Stargate Atlantis, Justified, Fringe, Hawaii Five-O, Masters of Sex, CSI, and NCIS: Los Angeles, and a whole lot more. Pick a show; Ruck has probably been in it. In 2016, he joined The Exorcist as a series regular. Say what you will about Ruck's career, but his Ferris co-star, Matthew Broderick, once did that horrible Godzilla movie. That's what Ferris gets for wrecking Cameron's dad's car.

Wax on, wax off. Sweep the leg. Fear does not exist in this dojo, does it? Not since 1984, sensei. Star of the very '80s The Karate Kid trilogy, we assume Ralph Macchio can't go anywhere without someone asking him to block a kick like his character, Daniel LaRusso.

Macchio found success again with the comedy hit My Cousin Vinny, and he appeared in several episodes of Ugly Betty, but he never quite escaped his past as the Jersey boy turned California karate master. Set 30 years after the memorable events of the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament, Macchio reprised the role in the 2018 YouTube Red series, Cobra Kai, where Daniel squares off again against Johnny Lawrence. 

Saying the show "pays homage to the legacy," Macchio was happy to put on the iconic headband again for one more fight. He told Deadline, "Those films, whether I look back at them or not, they follow me around everywhere I go, in a good way. Generations have embraced this movie. It's become a slice of everyone's childhood, so I feel that this is the fans' show, just like I feel the film has become the fans' movie."

The year 1984 seemed like the start of a long career for Jennifer Grey. Making her film debut in Reckless, she had a small role in Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club, then finished the year off with the teen war film Red Dawn. Not bad. Two years later, she played the jealous sister in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but it was in 1987 that Grey became a household name as Frances "Baby" Houseman in Dirty Dancing. The film was an astronomical success, but Grey was unable to enjoy her newfound stardom. 

Two weeks before the film's release, Grey and her then-boyfriend, Matthew Broderick, were involved in a head-on collision in Northern Ireland that killed a mother and daughter in the other vehicle. Suffering from "survivor's guilt," she told People that everything changed after that day. "My body was never the same, my head was never the same, my ambition was never the same."

In the early '90s, Grey underwent two rhinoplasty procedures that changed her appearance so much it effectively ended her career. "I went in the operating [room] a celebrity — and come out anonymous. It was like being in a witness protection program or being invisible," she told People (via Contact Music). She added, "I'll always be this once-famous actress nobody recognizes...because of a nose job."

With a little cosmic help from Patrick Swayze, Grey won the 11th season of Dancing with the Stars. She married Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Clark Gregg in 2001.