80's Comedic Actors: Discussion

[Dr. Evil]

I'm hoping to get a conversation going about the comedic stars of the 80's. To me, that was one of the better groups of comedic actors out there. Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Bill Murray, Martin Short, Eddie Murphy, Tom Hanks, Michael J Fox and if you want to throw in John Belushi and Harold Ramis you can.

I threw Tom Hanks in there because of his resume back in the 80's. Hanks was in Splash, Bachelor Party, Dragnet, Big, Turner and Hooch, The Burbs, The Money Pit and Joe Versus the Volcano (okay that was 1990)...to name a few. That was before he became a serious actor in films like Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan and The Da Vinci Code and of course, before he voiced Woody in Toy Story.

Michael J Fox played Marty McFly in the film franchise most of us enjoy: Back to the Future. He was also in Teen Wolf. His role as Marty McFly should put him on the list of top comedic actors of the 80's.

Chevy Chase is making a minor comeback with the NBC show "Community" after being irrelevant for so long. In that show, he returns to the greatness that made him one of the top comedic actors of the 80's in roles like the Vacation movies, Fletch, Spies Like Us, Three Amigos and Caddyshack.

Bill Murray has branched out in recent years, doing Indie films mostly. He's shown a reluctance to do Ghostbusters 3 (which I don't think will happen). Murray did jump into a dumpster filled with Water on Letterman a few days ago.

Steve Martin co-hosted the last Oscars with Alec Baldwin and did a movie with Baldwin and Streep "It's Complicated" which did well at the box office. Of course, he's been around since the 70's doing movies (The Jerk in 1979), but he's been in some memorable 80's comedies like Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Three Amigos.

Martin Short recently did a dramatic turn on Damages. Aykroyd hasn't done much in movies or TV as of late, and we probably all miss John Candy and John Belushi and wonder what might have happened to them today if they had not died.

And then of course......Eddie Murphy. Other than Shrek and Dreamgirls (for which he got nominated for an Oscar) his career has been on a downhill slide for a long time (although Daddy Day Care, Dr. Doolittle and The Nutty Professor movies did decently and were funny movies, but did not match the great roles he had in the 80's). Eddie may need Quentin Tarantino or Judd Apatow to revive his career. Or maybe even Tyler Perry. He can't just voice Donkey from Shrek forever...can he?

Others from that era: Steve Guttenburg and Matthew Broderick. Guttenberg was in the Police Academy movies, Three Men and a Little Baby and Short Circuit. Broderick is of course...Ferris Bueller.

 

[The Executioner]

Yeah what happen to the comedy actors today?....they moslty suck....butyeah I loved the 1980s comedy actors...Eddie Murphy was my favorite from that time and its ashamed what he later became.

 

[Drizzle]

Michael Keaton did some great comedy stuff in the 80s.

 

[Jake Cassidy]

Eddie Murphy was the King back then.

 

[jmc]

So true, the 80's were a great time for comedies and comedic actors. When did the ball get dropped?

 

[Project862006]

the comedy changed is what happened they went to a more crude style

guys like nathan fillion and ryan reynolds is what comedic actors should be like

 

[CGHulk]

The comedians from the 70's and 80's were rebelling, most of them grew up in the 50's. The Ozzy and Harriet, Leave it to Beaver generation. The goody two shoes decade. People started rebelling then. There was this one comedian in the 50's that set the stage for all comedians, his name was Lenny Bruce. He was put in jail for using colorful metaphors on stage, he fought the good fight so all comedians could say whatever they wanted to say. My parents had that rebellious streak in them too, they thought they could say what every they wanted to say, and that they could change the world. Comedy was exactly that for their generation, it was a voice. Today comedy sucks because of political correctness, everyone wants to sue someone, and everyones afraid of being sued. It was around 1991-92 the very last cast of Saturday Night Live (with Dana Carvey and Mike Myers) that didn't dumbed down their material in fear that they might get NBC sued!

 

[LegendaryCaleb]

I think Downey Jr does a great job with the kind of comedy from the 80s and thats what made Iron Man pretty successful...but apart from that it isnt the same anymore
But I dont hate it...I like both kinds of comedy.

 

[Dr. Evil]

If you wanted to throw some females in that era of the 80's, maybe Goldie Hawn?

She doesn't do many projects anymore, and mostly it's been her children (Kate Hudson and Oliver Hudson) that have been acting.

Those 80's comedic actors had some very memorable characters: The Blues Brothers, Axel Foley, Marty McFly, Ferris Bueller, The Ghostbusters (Ray Stanz, Egon, Peter Venkman, Winston Zeddemore), Clark Griswold....to name a few. We all know something about those characters. I consider Ferris Bueller to be a memorable character.

 

[Heretic]

What this thread needs is some Guttenberg...

 

[The Executioner]

the comedy changed is what happened they went to a more crude style

guys like nathan fillion and ryan reynolds is what comedic actors should be like

Why so?....and I like the crude style of comedy...rather entertaining in a way.

 

[Catman]

Eddie Murphy pretty much dominated the decade. His stint on SNL, his stand-up comedy, and movies like Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop, and Coming to America.

 

[The Executioner]

Yeah Eddie Murphy RAW was great...so sad he fell down when te 90s came.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

there are still great comedians out there, they just need the right exposure. Human Giant is great, aziz ansari in particular, and i'm a huge patton oswalt fan, they just need the right vehicle is all.

 

[Catman]

If we're talking stand-up comedy then there's plenty of brilliant comedians. Chris Rock and Louis CK are a quick example. As for comedy actors, I think the Judd Apatow gang is great.

 

[The Executioner]

Micheal Jai White a good comedy actor...liked him in Black Dynamite and Why I Get Married movies.

 

[Project862006]

[/B]

Why so?....and I like the crude style of comedy...rather entertaining in a way.

i think it takes more skill to be comedic without an R Rating

 

[Commodore Schmidlapp]

I'm a huge fan of Chevy Chase's 80's stuff. Fletch is one of my all time favorite movies.

 

[The Executioner]

i think it takes more skill to be comedic without an R Rating

True...but if it works for someone then its no problem...everybody has different styles....Richard Pyror was R Rated....it worked for him...racial jokes and all.

 

[Thundarr]

True...but if it works for someone then its no problem...everybody has different styles....Richard Pyror was R Rated....it worked for him...racial jokes and all.

Richard Pryor was also very versatile. His stand up routines were all very R rated, but his movies were usually PG, and still pretty funny. I remember I used to love watching him in The Toy when I was a kid. Then there were movies like See No Evil, Hear No Evil, also PG, so he wasn't a one trick pony.

While I think The Adventures Of Ford Fairlane: Rock & Roll Detective is hilarious, Andrew "Dice" Clay can't do any other kind of comedy. He sucks when he tries to be politically correct.

Denis Leary can strike a balance. His stand up routines and movies are all R rated, but he's done TV shows that were PG and still quite funny, such as The Job.

I do miss the comedies of the 80's though. Eddie Murphy had some of the best movies of that decade. Even some of his movies that weren't big successes, like Coming To America, I found very entertaining.

 

[Thundarr]

True...but if it works for someone then its no problem...everybody has different styles....Richard Pyror was R Rated....it worked for him...racial jokes and all.

Richard Pryor was also very versatile. His stand up routines were all very R rated, but his movies were usually PG, and still pretty funny. I remember I used to love watching him in The Toy when I was a kid. Then there were movies like See No Evil, Hear No Evil, also PG, so he wasn't a one trick pony.

While I think The Adventures Of Ford Fairlane: Rock & Roll Detective is hilarious, Andrew "Dice" Clay can't do any other kind of comedy. He sucks when he tries to be politically correct.

Denis Leary can strike a balance. His stand up routines and movies are all R rated, but he's done TV shows that were PG and still quite funny, such as The Job.

I do miss the comedies of the 80's though. Eddie Murphy had some of the best movies of that decade. Even some of his movies that weren't big successes, like Coming To America, I found very entertaining.

 

[The Executioner]

Richard Pryor was also very versatile. His stand up routines were all very R rated, but his movies were usually PG, and still pretty funny. I remember I used to love watching him in The Toy when I was a kid. Then there were movies like See No Evil, Hear No Evil, also PG, so he wasn't a one trick pony.

While I think The Adventures Of Ford Fairlane: Rock & Roll Detective is hilarious, Andrew "Dice" Clay can't do any other kind of comedy. He sucks when he tries to be politically correct.

Denis Leary can strike a balance. His stand up routines and movies are all R rated, but he's done TV shows that were PG and still quite funny, such as The Job.

I do miss the comedies of the 80's though. Eddie Murphy had some of the best movies of that decade. Even some of his movies that weren't big successes, like Coming To America, I found very entertaining.

I agree about Eddie Murphy....and I think political comedians suck..

Do anybody like Joe Rogan of this era?...he is funny.