Side-By-Side Pics Of The Most Legendary 1970s Heartthrobs In Their Heyday And Decades Later

While teenagers today keep up with their favorite swoon-worthy celebrities via TikTok or YouTube, back in the '70s, you had to buy an issue of Tiger Beat at the checkout line or swap cassette tapes with a friend to get the latest on Leif Garrett or David Cassidy. In the era of Watergate and disco, many long-haired, leather-donning heartthrobs were around, but only a few legacies have stood the test of time — and some are still releasing music or acting to this day. Some of these '70s heartthrobs may look totally different today, but others look like they've just hopped out of a time machine from 1975. What have "The Fonz," Danny Zuko, and Indiana Jones been up to lately? Read on to find out and to see their side-by-side transformations from the '70s to today.

Actor Harrison Ford made his film debut in 1966, but it wasn't until 1977 that he became a household name portraying Han Solo in the "Star Wars" franchise. A few years later, he was cast as Indiana Jones in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," wresting the role from fellow heartthrob Tom Selleck. Ford would go on to star in the series's four sequels through 2023. He has made a name for himself in the action genre, but in the last few years, he has shown a softer side as therapist Paul Rhoades in the Apple TV series "Shrinking."

Ford is humble in speaking about his legacy. After winning the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2026 Actor Awards, he said (per Entertainment Tonight), "I think about work. I don't think about legacy ... But this makes me think about the amazing good fortune that I've had for the last 50 years, and how much I was supported by other actors and people in the business and how grateful I am for the opportunities that I've had."

In August 2026, it was revealed that Ford would reprise his role as Indiana Jones for an upcoming thrill ride at Disney World called Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent, which is set to open in 2027. "For the first time ever, I'm the actual model" for the attraction, Ford said, per EW.

Donny Osmond gained fame as a teenage singer in the '70s, landing solo hits like a cover of Paul Anka's "Puppy Love" and finding success with his sister, Marie, as hosts and singers of their show "Donny & Marie," which ran from 1976 to 1979. He graced the covers of Rolling Stone and Tiger Beat, which ran multiple issues dedicated to Osmond. His 1978 marriage to Debbie Glenn was thought to put an end to his teen-idol career, with Osmond recalling to The Guardian, "By the time I was 19, I knew I was in love and had to do something right for me. When I told my dad, he said: 'Well, there goes your career.'"

In 2024, Tiger Beat's longtime editor Ann Moses recalled to Woman's World, "There was a period in the early '80s, shortly after Donny got married, where he didn't want anything to do with Tiger Beat." But it all came full circle when Moses and Osmond happily reunited at one of his shows in 2024, she recalled.

Osmond was warned that his career would end if he got married, but he balanced both: He has enjoyed a successful Las Vegas residency since 2021, which was recently extended through to December 2026, and he and Glenn have remained married for 48 years and love to spend time with their 16 grandchildren. "I consciously make an effort to take a back seat and just be grandpa, not a celebrity," Osmond told People.

In 1977 and 1978, John Travolta captured hearts with back-to-back leading performances in "Saturday Night Fever" and "Grease," respectively. For the former, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor; in the latter, his chemistry with co-star Olivia Newton-John led received critical and fan acclaim and secured his status as a heartthrob. 

"[Travolta] is a particularly charismatic screen personality," the Hollywood Reporter's original review of "Grease" stated, citing his "vulpine grin, the greasy-kid-stuff hairdo and the air of easy amiability that invests his persona" and adding, "Travolta is a presence, as were Brando, Dean and Presley in their day."

Travolta has endured some tragic losses throughout his life; his son, Jett, passed away in 2009 at the age of 16 after hitting his head during a seizure, and his wife, Kelly Preston, passed away from breast cancer in 2020. Travolta turned to art to cope with his grief and directed his first feature film, "Propeller One-Way Night Coach," which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2026 and stars his daughter Ella. "I dedicated the film to Kelly, to my son Jett, to my brothers and sisters, to my mother and my father, because they are the model from which this film was born," he told Italian newspaper La Repubblica (per People). "I'm not made to remain absorbed in the darkness. I can look at the darkness, but I don't choose to die in that darkness."

Singer Rod Stewart joined Faces in 1969 and broke through to the mainstream with his solo hit "Maggie May" in 1971. As the '70s progressed, Stewart's image transformed from folksy, raspy-voiced rock singer to glam rock. Though the change was surprising at the time, Stewart reflected that he has become known for these more showy antics: "I don't think people expect Bruce Springsteen to come out in a pink satin jacket, but Rod Stewart, they do," he said, per Far Out Magazine. "I'm a very flamboyant person."

This image shift culminated in the 1978 disco-tinged single "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?," which remains a polarizing song. "It's probably the most popular song that I've ever recorded," Stewart said to AXS TV in 2024. "They thought I had left rock and roll, I was a traitor to rock and roll because I recorded a disco song." He added, "Was it a huge hit? Amazingly huge. Do people still like it? Of course they do, so f*** it."

Fans hoping to dance to "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" in 2026 may be disappointed, however: Though Stewart's One Last Time Tour has been packing venues since March 2025, he was forced to cancel the year's remaining shows to recover from a medical procedure in August 2026. "I look forward to getting back on stage and having a good time with you all again soon," he said, per USA Today.

Kurt Russell has enjoyed a lengthy and diverse career since breaking through in the 1979 made-for-TV biopic "Elvis," for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award. That film's director, John Carpenter, collaborated with Russell on action films like 1981's "Escape From New York" and 1986's "Big Trouble in Little China." In recent years, Russell has leaned more toward television roles, providing his voice to the Marvel series "What If...?" and co-starring with his son Wyatt on "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters." Since March 2026, Russell has starred as Preston on Taylor Sheridan's series "The Madison." "It's relatable on a human level. Being able to play someone I'm quite similar to in many ways felt great. It felt really right," he told Men's Health.

Russell may have become a Hollywood hero, but fans seem more taken with his 43-year-long romance with Goldie Hawn. "I look at these pictures of her, boy, talk about the whole package ... if you don't [love Goldie], there's something wrong with you," Russell said to Esquire.

 Russell brings this relationship dynamic to "The Madison," where his character Preston is married to Stacy, played by Michelle Pfeiffer. "Goldie and I have had very similar conversations" as Preston and Stacy have on the show, Russell told Men's Health. "It's a truly loving relationship. It's not like there's another shoe to drop." Though Russell and Hawn aren't married, they've stated that it's actually the secret to their lasting relationship.

The son of Oscar-winning Shirley Jones and Tony Award winner Jack Cassidy, Shaun Cassidy, along with his brother David, inspired fervor in teenage girls everywhere in the 1970s. While David was starring on "The Partridge Family," Shaun won hearts as Joe Hardy on "The Hardy Boys" and shot to the top of the Billboard charts with songs like "That's Rock 'n' Roll" and "Da Doo Ron Ron." After appearing in Broadway shows throughout the '80s and '90s, he largely retreated from the spotlight in favor of writing on shows like NBC's "New Amsterdam." Cassidy later likened his wild fame as a teenager to a roller coaster: "If you like roller coasters, it's thrilling and exhilarating ...," he said, per Oprah. "And if you don't like roller coasters, you can get sick. He added, "I think it's all of those things all sort of blown together."

After David passed away in 2017 from liver failure, Shaun wrote on Twitter, "I will carry him, along with all of the funny/sad/extraordinary days we shared, none more filled with love than these last few at his side" (per Country Living). Nine years later, he is doing just that on his tour, which kicked off in September 2025. "I talk about David a lot in my show, and my mom. I feel like I'm kind of carrying the torch for my whole family in the show," he said on the podcast "Nostalgia Tonight With Joe Sibia."

With his voluminous hair and wide smile, Leif Garrett became a mainstay on teen-magazine covers after appearing on shows like "The Odd Couple" and "Three for the Road" in the early 1970s. In the latter half of the decade, he started releasing music, including his top-ten single "I Was Made for Dancin'." "I think I did have talent because I was a successful actor before music. I was selling magazines, Tiger Beat and 16 and stuff like that, so obviously part of it was because of the look," Garrett told Smashing Interviews Magazine when asked how he had managed to become "famous for being famous." "But if you can't back it up with some talent, which is why you'd still be out in the public eye, then you can't be there for just the way you look," he continued.

Garrett faced legal troubles throughout the years; he was convicted of drunk driving after an accident in 1979 that left his friend paralyzed, and he faced several drug charges in the 2000s, culminating in a 2010 appearance on "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew." "I think part of my drug use was that I didn't want to get older," he said, per ABC News. "I wanted to stay that rebellious 18-year-old, just thinking I was superman or, you know, indestructible. But things catch up to you."

The former teen idol disappeared from Hollywood for many years, but he resurfaced with an autobiography, "Idol Truth," in 2019. He is set to make his next public appearance in October 2026 at a reunion panel for the 1970s sitcom "Family," on which he played Zack.

Before breaking through in the U.S. with his number-one hit "Jessie's Girl" in 1981, Rick Springfield became popular in his native Australia as a member of the band Zoot and for playing a version of himself in the 1970s cartoon series "Mission Magic." He expressed some dismay at initially being marketed as a teen idol, telling WhatzUp, "It was confusing to me because we didn't have magazines dedicated to 12-year-old girls in Australia ... I was disappointed in the direction and eventually left those managers that were pushing me that way. It was great to have a hit so fast in the U.S., but it was dissed as a teenybopper song as I was dissed as a teenybopper artist." Luckily, "Jessie's Girl" was a hit with all ages, and Springfield's career took off from there; he went on to win a Grammy Award in 1982 and landed a long-running role on "General Hospital" as Noah Drake.

Springfield has spent much of the past year on tour and has found time to complete a new album. "It's coming out probably in about a month or two," he told Inlander in August 2026. "It's got a lot of energy. It's probably much more rock than the last couple of albums I've done." Even more impressive is the fact that he is doing it all while facing medical issues. He told People in 2025 that an MRI scan showed he had brain damage from a fall he suffered onstage in 2000. "I'm working on trying to repair that," he said. "That was a giant message to me: If you want to live long, you have to be prepared for some bad news now and then."

Henry Winkler has been cast in everything from "Arrested Development" to "Barry," but he once thought he'd never break away from his character Fonzie in the 1974–1984 sitcom "Happy Days." As a leather-jacket-wearing, greaser-type guy, Fonzie proved so popular that Winkler appeared in all 255 episodes of the show. "There were eight or nine years at a time when I couldn't get hired ... because I was typecast," he said, per Today. He added, "I loved playing 'The Fonz.' I love those people." Winkler's character became so iconic that his famous jacket is on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, whose curator summed up Fonz's legacy: "Fonzie was a representation of cool at a time when you were learning about what cool was."

After "Barry" — for which he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor — ended in 2023, Winkler has mostly kept busy with voice-acting roles and hosting "Hazardous History with Henry Winkler." He has also opened up about living with dyslexia and has written more than a dozen installments of his children's series "Hank Zipzer," about a child with dyslexia. In May 2026, he gave the commencement speech at his alma mater, Emerson College, telling new graduates, "Tenacity will get you where you want to go, and gratitude will make you enjoy the journey, no matter how bumpy."

Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger earned adoring fans thanks to his bluesy voice and onstage swagger, not to mention his glam and colorful outfits. "Mick Jagger, of course, is no ordinary guy; he's probably the most famous male sex symbol in the whole world," Rolling Stone (the magazine) wrote in 1975. Jagger viewed his public image with some reluctance. "All that side of it is hilarious but that's just one side to it," he told The Guardian. "Being sort of sexy is one thing but I certainly never wanted to be perceived as a jet-setter."

Though he hopes to be remembered for his music, Jagger doesn't miss an opportunity to connect with his audience and performs with the same kind of zeal to this day. During the Rolling Stones' 2024 tour, Reuters noted that Jagger only seemed to get more energetic as the night went on, despite being in his 80s. "I just enjoy it," he told the outlet. "You get this back and forth with the audience. You can see they're having a good time, you're having a good time, and it gives you a lot more energy." In August 2026, Jagger proved he can still hold his own in the club with a clip he uploaded to Instagram of himself dancing under a disco ball. "Enjoying the summer, hope you are too," he captioned the video.