The 1970s gave us some of the most unforgettable faces in entertainment history. The shows we watched every week. The movies we saw on opening night. The voices on the radio we still know word for word.
The decade’s biggest box office draw, according to multiple sources, was Robert Redford, whose 1970s films earned more than $3 billion adjusted for inflation, thanks to hits like The Sting, The Way We Were, and All the President’s Men. Redford passed away in 2025 at the age of 89.
But what about everyone else? Here is a look at 25 of the brightest stars, curated by Mental Floss, of that golden decade and where life has taken them since.
The TV Icons
Alan Alda started on Broadway before becoming a household name as Hawkeye Pierce on M*A*S*H, which debuted in 1972 and ran for over a decade, eight years longer than the actual Korean War. He also wrote and directed many of the show’s episodes. Its finale remains one of the most watched broadcasts in television history. Alda went on to roles in The Aviator, Bridge of Spies, and Marriage Story, and celebrated his 90th birthday in 2026.
Loretta Swit played Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan alongside Alda on M*A*S*H, earning an Emmy nomination for every single season and winning twice, in 1980 and 1982. After the show, she returned to the stage, including a long-running tour of Willy Russell’s one-woman play Shirley Valentine. She passed away in 2025 at the age of 87.
Henry Winkler became one of the decade’s coolest figures as Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli on Happy Days, which ran for 10 years before ending in 1984. Largely typecast for years after, Winkler found a late-career resurgence with beloved roles in Arrested Development, Parks and Recreation, and HBO’s Barry. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2025, the same year he turned 80.
Larry Hagman was already well known from I Dream of Jeannie in the 1960s, but the whole world learned his name when he became J.R. Ewing on Dallas in 1978. The series ran until 1991 and became a global phenomenon. Hagman underwent a life-saving liver transplant in 1995 and returned briefly to the Dallas reboot on TNT in 2012. He died that same year at the age of 81.
Richard Thomas will always be John-Boy Walton to many of us. He played the role on The Waltons from 1972 to 1977, then went on to a remarkable career on stage and screen, including the original miniseries of Stephen King’s It, FX’s The Americans, and Netflix’s Ozark. He earned rave reviews playing Atticus Finch in a national tour of To Kill a Mockingbird, and at 75, picked up a Tony nomination for The Balusters in 2026.
Melissa Gilbert spent nine years as Laura Ingalls Wilder on NBC’s Little House on the Prairie, from 1974 to 1983, becoming one of the most recognized faces on American television. She has continued acting ever since, with her most recent credit being the Hallmark Western series When Calls the Heart in 2026.
David Cassidy swept into the nation’s living rooms as the teen idol star of The Partridge Family, which ran from 1970 to 1974. Outside the U.S., he became a pop star with a string of Number 1 singles. At the height of his fame, he was rumored to be the highest-paid entertainer in the world. Cassidy publicly revealed a diagnosis of dementia in 2017 as he stepped back from performing. He died that same year at the age of 67.
Susan Dey was Cassidy’s longtime co-star on The Partridge Family, and she went on to a long-running role on L.A. Law through the 1980s and 1990s. She has since retired from acting and serves on the boards of several charitable and nonprofit organizations in New York.
Paul Michael Glaser became a breakout star as Sergeant David Starsky on Starsky & Hutch, which ran for more than 90 episodes from 1975 to 1979. He has continued to work as an actor, director, and artist ever since and held his first U.S. exhibit of paintings and photography in 2018. Now in his 80s, his recent acting credits include Grace and Frankie and Ray Donovan.
David Soul played Sergeant “Hutch” Hutchinson opposite Glaser on Starsky & Hutch, while simultaneously building a pop career that produced a worldwide Number 1 single (Don’t Give Up on Us) in 1976. He capped the decade with a lead role in the original miniseries of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot in 1979. Soul relocated to the UK in the 1990s, where he built a long career in West End theatre and British television. He died in London in 2024 at the age of 80.
Lindsay Wagner became a major star when she was cast as The Bionic Woman in 1976, a spinoff of Lee Majors’ The Six Million Dollar Man. The show earned her an Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations. She has continued acting in television movies and guest roles ever since, with appearances in Warehouse 13 and Grey’s Anatomy.
Lee Majors was already a household name from the 1960s Western series The Big Valley before achieving a new level of fame as the title character in The Six Million Dollar Man starting in 1973. The series ran for four years and spawned television movies well into the 1990s. Now in his 80s, Majors has continued to appear in film and television and even provided a voice for the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
The Big Screen Stars
Clint Eastwood made his acting debut in 1954, built his legend in spaghetti Westerns during the 1960s, and then expanded into new territory in the 1970s. He made his directorial debut with the noir thriller Play Misty for Me in 1971. Now an 11-time Oscar nominee, Eastwood has won four Academy Awards: Best Picture and Best Director for both Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby. He confirmed his retirement from filmmaking in 2026, at the age of 96, after more than 70 years in the business.
Dustin Hoffman was already one of Hollywood’s biggest names at the start of the decade, and kept the momentum going with Oscar nominations for Midnight Cowboy and Lenny in the 1970s. He won the Oscar for Kramer vs. Kramer in 1980 and again for Rain Man in 1989, earned a Tony nomination for The Merchant of Venice in 1990, and made his directorial debut with Quartet in 2012. He is set to star in Peter Greenaway’s Tower Stories in 2027, the same year he turns 90.
Burt Reynolds ranked right alongside Robert Redford as one of the decade’s top box office draws, thanks to blockbuster roles in Smokey and the Bandit and Deliverance. He made his film debut back in 1961, and kept working across five more decades, even earning a late-career Oscar nomination for Boogie Nights in 1997. Reynolds died in 2018 at the age of 82.
John Travolta pulled off something almost no actor ever has: three defining roles in three consecutive years. Carrie in 1976, Saturday Night Fever in 1977, Grease in 1978. He stayed one of Hollywood’s biggest names through the 80s and 90s with Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty, Face/Off, and Primary Colors, and appeared in the big-screen adaptation of Hairspray in 2007. In more recent years, his film output has included a number of direct-to-video releases, and he has maintained a lower profile in Hollywood through the 2020s.
Olivia Newton-John made her film debut in the mid-1960s but became a global superstar with her role as Sandy in Grease in 1978. Her 1981 hit “Physical” was Billboard’s highest-ranking Hot 100 single of that entire decade. After a breast cancer diagnosis in 1992, she spent 30 years as a fierce advocate for cancer research, channeling proceeds from her books and records into establishing The Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre in Melbourne. Her work earned her both a damehood and the Order of Australia. Having beaten the disease twice before, Newton-John passed away in 2022 at the age of 73.
Sissy Spacek earned the first of her six Oscar nominations for her breakout role in Carrie in 1976, then won four years later for The Coal Miner’s Daughter. Her most recent Oscar nomination came for In the Bedroom in 2001. She has continued acting into the 2010s and 2020s, and in 2018 appeared in the music video for LCD Soundsystem’s “Oh Baby.”
George C. Scott made history in 1970 by declining the Best Actor Oscar for his role in Patton, stating that actors’ performances cannot be compared to one another. It remained the peak of his four-decade film career. As his movie roles slowed in later years, Scott returned to the theatre and earned a record fifth Tony Award for Inherit the Wind, just three years before his death in 1999 at the age of 71.
Farrah Fawcett became one of the decade’s biggest stars through her roles on The Six Million Dollar Man from 1974 to 1978 and Charlie’s Angels from 1976 to 1981. She moved into more serious drama in the 1980s and 1990s, earning Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for miniseries including The Burning Bed and Small Sacrifices. She returned to television in the 2000s with roles in Ally McBeal and Spin City. Fawcett was diagnosed with cancer in 2006 and died three years later at the age of 62.
The Comedy Legends and Music Stars
Mel Brooks had already been in the entertainment business since the 1940s when he won the Oscar for Best Screenplay for The Producers in 1967. The 1970s gave us three of his most beloved comedies: Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and High Anxiety. He earned an EGOT in the early 2000s when the stage adaptation of The Producers swept the Tony Awards. A sequel to his Star Wars spoof Spaceballs (titled Spaceballs: The New One) is set for release in 2027. Brooks, who appears in a dual role in the film, turned 100 in June 2026.
John Cleese reached worldwide fame as part of BBC’s surrealist comedy series Monty Python’s Flying Circus, which ran from 1969 to 1974, and appeared in all the subsequent Monty Python films. He cemented his comic legend status with the classic hotel sitcom Fawlty Towers, which ran from 1975 to 1979. He earned an Oscar nomination in 1989 for his screenplay for A Fish Called Wanda, and now in his mid-80s, he has continued to write and perform comedy ever since.
Carly Simon dominated the pop charts throughout the 1970s with hits including “Anticipation,” “You’re So Vain,” and “Nobody Does It Better”, her theme to the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. Born in New York in 1943, Simon is now in her 80s and still creating music. Her twenty-fourth album, Comes in Waves, was released to critical acclaim in 2026.
Richard Attenborough (brother of naturalist Sir David Attenborough) made his stage debut in 1937 and his film debut in 1942. By the 1970s, he was one of the most acclaimed figures in show business, knighted in 1976, with his films earning three Oscar nominations and 15 BAFTA nominations that decade alone. He delivered a chilling performance as a real-life serial killer in 10 Rillington Place in 1971, and directed hits including A Bridge Too Far. He made Hollywood history with the epic biopic Gandhi in 1982, played John Hammond in Jurassic Park in 1993, and directed his final film, Closing the Ring, in 2007. He died in 2014 at the age of 90.
Mary Tyler Moore was already beloved from The Dick Van Dyke Show in the 1960s when The Mary Tyler Moore Show became one of the decade’s biggest series, winning a staggering 29 Emmy Awards over its run from 1970 to 1979. She went on to earn an Oscar nomination for Ordinary People in 1980, three Tony Awards across the 1980s, and an Emmy for her role in Stolen Babies in the early 1990s. She died in 2017 at the age of 80.
Twenty-five faces. Decades of memories. Some are still going strong, and a few we lost along the way. But the work they did in the 1970s? That stays with us forever.
