Michelle Pfeiffer

Checking groceries at a Vons supermarket in Orange County doesn't usually end in Scarface, but Pfeiffer entered a beauty pageant in 1978, got spotted by a Hollywood agent on the judging panel, and started collecting bit parts. Grease 2 was a commercial embarrassment, but Scarface (1983) proved she could hold her own opposite Al Pacino without disappearing into the wallpaper. The role that actually locked her career in was The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989): singing on top of a piano in a red dress, doing her own vocals, making Jeff and Beau Bridges look like supporting players.

At 67, she's one of the few actors from the 1980s still landing genuine leading roles instead of awards-bait cameos. She's currently starring in The Madison (Paramount+, 2026), a Taylor Sheridan drama opposite Kurt Russell. Before that, she became one of the very few to have played major roles in both DC and Marvel: Catwoman in Batman Returns (1992) and Janet van Dyne in the MCU. Not bad for someone whose career peaked once in the '80s, then kept peaking.

Early in Hollywood, she got swept into a controlling metaphysics cult. Her first husband, actor Peter Horton, helped her leave it. Turning down Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs because the script felt 'too evil' handed Jodie Foster an Oscar. Henry Rose (2019) is the fragrance brand she built around ingredient transparency after learning what most perfumes actually contain. The roughly 10 years she spent not wearing any fragrance before launching the line tells you how much she means it.