Retro Randomness. Born in 1981!
Wednesday, May 6, 2020 at 8:00AM Since we're celebrating 1981 this week, let's look at who was born that year! Happy 39th birthday to all of 'em and if YOU were born in '81 say so in the comments. Look at these lovelies you share it with!
The Oscar Winners
In chronological order...
• Jennifer Hudson (Best Supporting Actress, Dreamgirls)
• Natalie Portman (Best Actress, Black Swan)
• Ryan Bingham (Best Original Song, Crazy Heart)...
• Graham Moore (Best Adapted Screenplay, The Imitation Game)
• Rami Malek (Best Actor, Bohemian Rhapsody)
• Matthew A Cherry (Best Animated Short, Hair Love)
Actress Who Shoulda Won the Oscar Last Season
Cho Yeo Jeong (Parasite)
Oscar Nominees:
In chronological order:
• Catalina Sandino Moreno (Best Actress, Maria Full of Grace)
• Rinko Kikuchi (Best Supporting Actress, Babel)
• Lukasz Zal (pictured above. Best Cinematography nominations for Ida and Cold War)
• Ciro Guerro (Best Foreign Language Film, Embrace of the Serpent)
Yes, we realize the directors aren't *technically* nominees for that category but they should be!
• Fred Berger (Best Picture, La La Land)
Emmy Winners:
• Uzo Aduba (Orange is the New Black)
• Alexis Bledel (The Handmaid's Tale)
• Amy Schumer (Inside Amy Schumer)
Tony Nominees or Winners (who also do TV & Film)
• Leslie Odom Jr (Hamilton)
• Nikki M James (The Book of Mormon)
• Megan Hilty (Noises Off)
Spawn of Celebrity
• Bryce Dallas Howard (actress daughter of Ron Howard)
• Jonas Cuarón (writer/director son of Alfonso Cuarón)
Three Actresses Who Deserve Mainstream Showbiz Trophies and Currently Have (gasp) None*
• Michelle Dockery (4 Emmy nods... * has won SAG but as part of an ensemble, Downton Abbey)
• Carrie Coon (1 Emmy nod, 1 Tony nod)
• Andrea Riseborough (*has won SAG but as part of an ensemble, Birdman)
Top Ten Actors Born in 1981 Most Likely to Make Us Quiver Under Our Bodice:
Chris Evans 🇺🇸 (Knives Out, Captain America, Snowpiercer, Defending Jacob)
O-T Fagbenie 🇬🇧 (Looking, Maxxx, The Handmaid's Tale, Black Widow)
Jérémie Renier 🇧🇪 (Double Lover, Saint Laurent, Summer Hours, Amour Fou)
Roy Chiu 🇹🇼 (Dear Ex, Detective Chinatown, The 9th Precinct)
Russell Tovey 🇬🇧 (Looking, Being Human, Years and Years, The Good Liar)
Michiel Huisman 🇳🇱 (Black Book, Game of Thrones, Age of Adaline, The Other Lamb)
Tahar Rahim 🇫🇷 (Un Prophète, The Eddy, Mary Magdalene, The Past)
Allen Leech 🇮🇪 (Downton Abbey, Imitation Game, Bohemian Rhapsody)
Jesse Williams 🇺🇸 (Grey's Anatomy, Little Fires Everywhere, Jacob's Ladder)
Alexander Fehling 🇩🇪 (Labyrinth of Lies, Homeland, A Hidden Life)
Still More Actors Born in 1981: Fan Bingbing, Chris New, Tom Hiddleston, Jess Weixler, Elijah Wood, Raphaël Personnaz, Sienna Miller, Krysten Ritter, Michael Pitt, Kate Lambert, Taylor Kitsch, Julia Stiles, Hayden Christensen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rupert Friend, Boyd Holbrook, Matthias Schweighöfer, Jessica Alba, Coco Martin, Sammy Sheik, Ben Barnes, Summer Glau, Josh Gad, Elodie Young, Tom Burke, Kim Rae-won, Nora Zehetner, Fran Kranz, Swann Arlaud, and Amit Shah.
Other Celebrities: Beyoncé, Sharon Needles, Alicia Keys, Britney Spears, Meghan Markle, Justin Timberlake, Paris Hilton, Beth Ditto, Josh Groban, Brandi Carlile, Kelly Rowland, Anna Kournikova, Brandon Jenner, and Brandon Flowers
Writers and/or Directors: Ali Abbasi (pictured, director of the amazing Swedish Oscar submission and Best Makeup nominee Border), Aaron Kats (Land Ho!), Jon Watts (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Joe Swanberg (Happy Christmas, Hannah Takes the Stairs), Justin Chon (Gook), Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim), and Mia Hansen-Løve (Eden), Lisa Brühlmann (Killing Eve).
Our Verdict? 1981 was a good vintage!
More from our 1981 retrospective
- The 1981 Supporting Actress Smackdown
- Katharine Hepburn's fourth Oscar
- Meryl's first Best Actress nomination
- Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Jessica Harper in Pennies From Heaven
- Marilia Pera in Pixote
- Only When I Laugh and the Razzies
- Kathryn Harrold in Modern Romance
- Vintage: Pop Culture in 1981
- Kathleen Turner's sizzling debut in Body Heat
Reader Comments (22)
Unfortunately not one of those chaps would make me quiver.
mark -- good lord. not one? better have your pulse checked ;)
Tom Hiddleston doesn't make you quiver??? Fine, more for me!
I also laughed at the notion that Beyonce is an "other celebrity"
Srsly. 1981 was a good year for hot men... some of whom I’m actually surprised aren’t older (Jeremie Renier for example — not that I’m complaining!).
Michiel Huisman may not be an amazing actor but good Lord is that man h-o-t.
I’m a 1981 baby! Last high school class of the millennium and 40 next year.
JS -- haha.It's the perversity of caring about the movies so much that minor character actors are way bigger stars to you than the biggest star in music ;)
Rami Malek (Oscar and Emmy winner) was born in 1981.
I don't know her birthday, but Joanna Natasegara was 36 when she won the Oscar for Documentary Short in the 2017 ceremony. This would make her birth year 1981 IF her birthday is on or before February 26. (If it's not, then she was born in 1980.)
Well maybe Russell cos he's British the others are a No No.
happy 39th year Doug!
Just Chris Evans' deep, beautiful voice makes me.....I feel faint.
That's a whole lot of actors I'd love to see be nominated/nominated again in the future.
And that list is making mad all over again that Rinko Kikuchi got no traction for Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter. In what world?
Robert G - Rinko is SUBLIME in Kumiko The Treasure Hunter yet still only scrapes my Top 10 - lead actressing in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2019 is sickeningly deep in strength...
Second thought - Beyoncé just screams “late career Oscar nomination” to me... she’s not a bad actress and has always (even in Dreamgirls) played such thankless characters so far...
Third thought - maybe it’s the cumulative memories of Manderlay and that Black Mirror episode (Nosedive?) but I think that Bryce Dallas Howard is very much overdue her first Oscar nomination - she needs THAT role to join the “The Help” club...
@kermit_the_frog - I agree with you on Bryce Dallas Howard. I think she should have at the very least been nominated for "Nosedive", and I'd been ecstatic if she had won since she's phenomenal there. I would have nominated her in Supporting Actress for "The Help" as well. I believe many think of her as an example of nepotism but she's a great, underrated actress to my mind; she just needs to get into more high-profile, serious projects to get THAT role, as you say.
Saw the Jérémie Renier pic first thing in the morning and oh well, I haven't been very focused, sort of speak.
Yep, 1981 born here. I love the film experience! Love to all of you!
KD -- happy birth year!
Peggy Sue -- it's not his fault he looks like that!
Brevity -- i couldn't find her birthday anywhere so couldn't include her. might be inaccurate.
Another 1981 birthday here! It was actually a couple weeks ago, a quarantine birthday.
no bears? oh, ok
Paranoid -- happy belated.
laepo -- i only had 'born in 1981 + famous actor' to work with. point me to a sexy bear i missed and I shall be happy to reconsider.
Paul -- what is "nosedive"?
Russell Tovey yes- they need to bring back "Looking"
I absolutely ADORE Jérémie Renier