1984 in film
The following is an overview of events in 1984 in film, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies and festivals, a list of films released and notable deaths.
The year's highest-grossing film was Beverly Hills Cop. Ghostbusters overtook it, however, with a re-release the following year. It was the first time in five years that the top-grossing film did not involve George Lucas or Steven Spielberg although Spielberg directed the third placed Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and executive produced the fourth placed Gremlins.
U.S. box office grosses reached $4 billion for the first time and it was the first year that two films had returned over $100 million to their distributors with both Ghostbusters and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom achieving this. Beverly Hills Cop made it three for films released in 1984 after its performance during 1985 took it to rentals of $108 million. Other popular films included The NeverEnding Story, which was the most expensive film produced in West Germany, The Karate Kid and Romancing the Stone. A high number of sci-fi/fantasy films were released in 1984.
Highest-grossing films (U.S.)
The top ten 1984 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows:Rank | Title | Distributor | Box-office gross |
1 | Beverly Hills Cop | Paramount Pictures | $234,760,478 |
2 | Ghostbusters | Columbia Pictures | $229,242,989 |
3 | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom | Paramount Pictures | $179,870,271 |
4 | Gremlins | Warner Bros. | $153,083,102 |
5 | The Karate Kid | Columbia Pictures | $90,815,558 |
6 | Police Academy | Warner Bros. | $81,198,894 |
7 | Footloose | Paramount Pictures | $80,035,402 |
8 | Romancing the Stone | 20th Century Fox | $76,572,238 |
9 | Paramount Pictures | $76,471,076 | |
10 | Splash | Buena Vista/Touchstone Pictures | $69,821,334 |
International
Events
- February 15 - The Walt Disney Studios establishes Touchstone Pictures to release films with more mature subject matter than the traditional Walt Disney Pictures banner.
- March 30 - Romancing the Stone is released and propels stars Kathleen Turner, Michael Douglas, and Danny DeVito and director Robert Zemeckis to super-stardom. The film also gave Zemeckis his first box office hit, which gave Universal Pictures confidence to allow him to direct his next film, Back to the Future.
- April 6 - Tri-Star Pictures, a joint venture of Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS, releases its first film, Where the Boys Are '84.
- May 4 - The first of the year's breakdancing musicals is released, Breakin. It is soon followed by Beat Street and its sequel, '.
- July 1 - The Motion Picture Association of America institutes the PG-13 rating, as a response to violent horror films such as Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
- July 27 - Prince's first film Purple Rain is released.
- August 25 - Ghostbusters becomes the biggest grossing comedy film of all-time in the United States exceeding Tootsie's $177.2 million going on to gross $229.2 million in its initial run. It is overtaken by Beverly Hills Cop in summer 1985 but regains the record after its re-release in August 1985. It also became the biggest grossing film released by Columbia Pictures.
- September 22 - Michael Eisner leaves Paramount Pictures to become head of Walt Disney Productions, while Frank Wells became chief operating officer and Jeffrey Katzenberg was later named chairman.
- October 8 - Ned Tanen becomes president of Paramount Pictures motion picture group.
- December 5 - Beverly Hills Cop is released. It will go on to become the 6th highest-grossing film of all time in the U.S. at the time, the highest grossing comedy of all time at the time, as well as the highest grossing R-Rated film of all time, a record it would hold for 19 years.
- Annie's Coming Out'' wins 3 Australian Film Institute Awards including the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film.
Awards
Palme d'Or :
Golden Lion :
Golden Bear :
1984 Wide-release films in the U.S.
January–March
April–June
July–September
October–December
Notable films released in 1984
unless stated#
- 1984, directed by Michael Radford, starring John Hurt and Richard Burton -
- 2010, directed by Peter Hyams, starring Roy Scheider, John Lithgow, Bob Balaban, Dana Elcar, Helen Mirren
A
- Aaj Ki Awaaz, directed by Ravi Chopra, starring Raj Babbar, Smita Patil, and Nana Patekar
- , directed by Masayuki Suo, starring Ren Osugi
- The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, directed by W. D. Richter, starring Peter Weller and Jeff Goldblum
- After the Rehearsal, directed by Ingmar Bergman, starring Erland Josephson, Ingrid Thulin, Lena Olin -
- Against All Odds, directed by Taylor Hackford, starring Jeff Bridges, Rachel Ward, James Woods, Alex Karras, Richard Widmark, Jane Greer
- All of Me, directed by Carl Reiner, starring Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin
- Alley Cat, co-directed by Victor M. Ordonez, Eduardo Palmos, and Al Valletta, starring Karin Mani, and Robert Torti
- Amadeus, directed by Miloš Forman, starring F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce - Academy and Golden Globe Awards for Best Picture
- The Ambassador, directed by J. Lee Thompson, starring Robert Mitchum, Rock Hudson and Ellen Burstyn
- American Dreamer, directed by Rick Rosenthal, starring JoBeth Williams
- Annie's Coming Out, starring Angela Punch McGregor -
- Another Country, starring Rupert Everett and Colin Firth -
- The Annunciation -
- Asesinato en el Senado de la Nación -
B
- Bachelor Party, starring Tom Hanks, Adrian Zmed, Tawny Kitaen
- Bad Manners, aka Growing Pains, starring Martin Mull and Karen Black
- Balkan Spy -
- Ballad of the Little Soldier, a documentary film about child soldiers directed by Werner Herzog -
- The Bay Boy, starring Liv Ullmann and Kiefer Sutherland - - Genie Award for Best Canadian Motion Picture.
- Bayan Ko:This Is My Country -
- Beat Street, starring Rae Dawn Chong
- Before Stonewall, a documentary film
- Best Defense, starring Dudley Moore, Eddie Murphy, Kate Capshaw
- Beverly Hills Cop, directed by Martin Brest, starring Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, Ronny Cox, John Ashton, Bronson Pinchot
- Beyond the Walls -
- Bianca, directed by and starring Nanni Moretti -
- Bicycles Are for the Summer -
- Birdy, directed by Alan Parker, starring Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage, music from Peter Gabriel
- Blame It on Rio, directed by Stanley Donen, starring Michael Caine, Joseph Bologna, Demi Moore, Michelle Johnson
- Blind Date, starring Kirstie Alley
- Blood Simple, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, starring John Getz, Dan Hedaya, Frances McDormand, M. Emmet Walsh
- Body Double, directed by Brian De Palma, starring Craig Wasson, Melanie Griffith, Deborah Shelton, Gregg Henry
- Bolero, starring Bo Derek
- The Bostonians, directed by James Ivory, starring Christopher Reeve, Vanessa Redgrave, Jessica Tandy -
- The Bounty, directed by Roger Donaldson, starring Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson -
- Breakin
- '
- Broadway Danny Rose - directed by and starring Woody Allen, with Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, Danny Aiello
- The Brother from Another Planet, directed by John Sayles, starring Joe Morton
- The Buddy System'', starring Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon, Wil Wheaton, Nancy Allen
C
- C.H.U.D., starring John Heard and Daniel Stern
- Cal, starring John Lynch and Helen Mirren -
- Camila, directed by María Luisa Bemberg -
- Cannonball Run II, starring Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Shirley MacLaine, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra
- , a television film starring Warwick Davis
- Carmen, a cinematic opera directed by Francesco Rosi, starring Plácido Domingo -
- The Chain, directed by Jack Gold -
- Chaos -
- The Children, directed by Marguerite Duras -
- Children of the Corn, starring Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton
- Choose Me, directed by Alan Rudolph, starring Lesley Ann Warren, Geneviève Bujold, Keith Carradine
- Ciske de Rat -
- City Heat, directed by Richard Benjamin, starring Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Madeline Kahn, Jane Alexander, Richard Roundtree, Rip Torn
- Cloak & Dagger, starring Henry Thomas and Dabney Coleman
- Comfort and Joy, directed by Bill Forsyth, starring Bill Paterson -
- The Company of Wolves, directed by Neil Jordan, starring Stephen Rea, Angela Lansbury, Sarah Patterson -
- Conan the Destroyer, directed by Richard Fleischer, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Wilt Chamberlain, Grace Jones, Olivia d'Abo
- The Coolangatta Gold -
- Le Cop, starring Philippe Noiret -
- The Cotton Club, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane, James Remar, Bob Hoskins, Fred Gwynne, Nicolas Cage
- Country, directed by Richard Pearce, starring Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard
- Crackers, directed by Louis Malle, starring Donald Sutherland and Sean Penn
- Crimes of Passion, directed by Ken Russell, starring Kathleen Turner and Anthony Perkins
D
- The Dark Glow of the Mountains, directed by Werner Herzog -
- The Descendant of the Snow Leopard -
- La diagonale du fou, starring Michel Piccoli - - Academy Award for Foreign Language Film
- Diary for My Children -
- Draw!, starring Kirk Douglas, James Coburn, Alexandra Bastedo, Graham Jarvis, Derek McGrath, Linda Sorenson
- Dreamscape, starring Dennis Quaid, Kate Capshaw, Max von Sydow, Christopher Plummer
- Dune, directed by David Lynch, starring Kyle MacLachlan, Sting, Sean Young, Francesca Annis, Jürgen Prochnow, Kenneth McMillan, José Ferrer, Max von Sydow
E
- Electric Dreams, starring Virginia Madsen and Bud Cort
- The Element of Crime, directed by Lars von Trier -
- The Evil That Men Do, directed by J. Lee Thompson, starring Charles Bronson
F
- Falling in Love, directed by Ulu Grosbard, starring Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep
- Farewell to the Ark -
- Fear City, directed by Abel Ferrara, starring Tom Berenger and Billy Dee Williams
- Finders Keepers, starring Michael O'Keefe, Beverly D'Angelo, Louis Gossett Jr.
- Firestarter, directed by Mark L. Lester, starring Drew Barrymore, David Keith, George C. Scott, Martin Sheen, Heather Locklear
- Firstborn, starring Peter Weller, Christopher Collet, Teri Garr
- The Flamingo Kid, directed by Garry Marshall, starring Matt Dillon and Héctor Elizondo
- Flashpoint, starring Kris Kristofferson, Treat Williams, Rip Torn, Kevin Conway, Jean Smart, Tess Harper, Kurtwood Smith, Miguel Ferrer
- Flowers of Reverie -
- Flügel und Fesseln, directed by Helma Sanders-Brahms -
- Footloose, directed by Herbert Ross, starring Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, John Lithgow, Chris Penn, Dianne Wiest
- Formula of Love -
- Frankenweenie, directed by Tim Burton
- , directed by Joseph Zito, starring Kimberly Beck and Corey Feldman
- Full Moon in Paris, directed by Éric Rohmer -
- The Funeral aka Death Japanese Style -
G
- Gallavants
- Garbo Talks, directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Anne Bancroft, Ron Silver, Carrie Fisher, Catherine Hicks
- Ghostbusters, directed by Ivan Reitman, starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis, Ernie Hudson
- Give My Regards to Broad Street - written by and starring Paul McCartney, with Ringo Starr -
- Grandview, U.S.A., starring Jamie Lee Curtis, C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze
- Gremlins, directed by Joe Dante, starring Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates
- , directed by Hugh Hudson, starring Christopher Lambert, Andie MacDowell, Ralph Richardson in his final role -
H
- Hard to Hold, starring Rick Springfield
- Harry & Son, directed by and starring Paul Newman, with Robby Benson, Ellen Barkin, Judith Ivey, Ossie Davis, Joanne Woodward
- Heartbreakers, starring Peter Coyote, Nick Mancuso, Kathryn Harrold, Max Gail, Carol Wayne
- Henry IV, starring Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale - Italy
- The Hit, directed by Stephen Frears, starring John Hurt and Terence Stamp -
- The Holy Innocents -
- The Hotel New Hampshire, directed by Tony Richardson, starring Rob Lowe, Jodie Foster, Nastassja Kinski, Beau Bridges, Matthew Modine
I
- Iceman, directed by Fred Schepisi, starring Timothy Hutton, John Lone, Lindsay Crouse
- The Ice Pirates, starring Robert Urich and Mary Crosby
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Harrison Ford and Kate Capshaw
- Irreconcilable Differences, starring Ryan O'Neal, Shelley Long, Drew Barrymore
J
- The Jesse Owens Story, starring Dorian Harewood
- John the Fearless -
- Johnny Dangerously, starring Michael Keaton, Marilu Henner, Joe Piscopo, Danny DeVito, Maureen Stapleton, Peter Boyle
- Just the Way You Are, starring Kristy McNichol
K
- The Karate Kid, directed by John G. Avildsen, starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita
- Kidco, starring Scott Schwartz
- The Killing Fields, directed by Roland Joffé, starring Sam Waterston, John Malkovich, Haing S. Ngor - - British Academy Award for Best Film
- Klassenverhältnisse, directed by Straub-Huillet -
L
- Lassiter, starring Tom Selleck and Jane Seymour
- The Last Days of Pompeii, TV miniseries, starring Laurence Olivier, Olivia Hussey, Siobhán McKenna, Franco Nero, Ned Beatty, Nicholas Clay, Ernest Borgnine
- The Last Starfighter, starring Lance Guest, Robert Preston, Catherine Mary Stewart
- The Little Drummer Girl, directed by George Roy Hill, starring Diane Keaton
- Loafing and Camouflage -
- The Lonely Guy, starring Steve Martin and Charles Grodin
- Love and Pigeons -
- Love Letters, starring Jamie Lee Curtis
- Love Streams, directed by and starring John Cassavetes, with Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel - Golden Bear award winner
M
- MacArthur's Children -
- -
- Making the Grade, starring Judd Nelson
- The Man from Majorca, directed by Bo Widerberg -
- A Man of Principle -
- Man Under Suspicion, starring Maximilian Schell -
- Maria's Lovers, starring Nastassja Kinski, John Savage, Robert Mitchum
- Mashaal, starring Dilip Kumar and Anil Kapoor -
- Mass Appeal, starring Jack Lemmon, Željko Ivanek, Charles Durning
- Meatballs Part II, starring Richard Mulligan, Hamilton Camp, John Mengatti, Kim Richards, Archie Hahn, Misty Rowe, John Larroquette, Paul Reubens, Joe Nipote, Jason Hervey, Elayne Boosler, Nancy Glass, Felix Silla, Donald Gibb
- Mermaid Legend -
- Micki & Maude, directed by Blake Edwards, starring Dudley Moore, Ann Reinking, Amy Irving
- Mike's Murder, directed by James Bridges, starring Debra Winger
- The Miracle of Joe Petrel -
- Missing in Action, starring Chuck Norris
- Misunderstood, starring Henry Thomas and Gene Hackman
- Moscow on the Hudson, directed by Paul Mazursky, starring Robin Williams
- Mrs. Soffel, directed by Gillian Armstrong, starring Diane Keaton and Mel Gibson
- The Muppets Take Manhattan, directed by Frank Oz
- My First Wife, starring John Hargreaves -
N
- The Naked Face, starring Roger Moore, Rod Steiger, Elliott Gould, Anne Archer, Art Carney
- The Natural, directed by Barry Levinson, starring Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Barbara Hershey, Kim Basinger, Wilford Brimley, Richard Farnsworth
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind -
- The NeverEnding Story - directed by Wolfgang Petersen, starring Barret Oliver and Noah Hathaway -
- Night of the Comet, starring Catherine Mary Stewart and Robert Beltran
- A Nightmare on Elm Street, directed by Wes Craven, starring Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley
- Night Patrol, starring Linda Blair and The Unknown Comic
- The Ninja Mission -
- Nothing Lasts Forever, starring Zach Galligan, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd
- Nothing Left to Do But Cry
O
- Oh, God! You Devil, starring George Burns
- Old Enough, starring Rainbow Harvest and Danny Aiello, Sundance Grand Jury Prize
- On the Top of the Cherry Tree -
- Once Upon a Time in America, directed by Sergio Leone, starring Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Joe Pesci, Tuesday Weld, Treat Williams -
- Opasen char -
- Over the Brooklyn Bridge, starring Elliott Gould, Shelley Winters, Sid Caesar
- Oxford Blues, starring Rob Lowe, Ally Sheedy, Gail Strickland
P-Q
- Paris, Texas, directed by Wim Wenders, starring Harry Dean Stanton and Nastassja Kinski - Palme d'Or winner
- A Passage to India, directed by David Lean, starring Judy Davis, Victor Banerjee, Peggy Ashcroft, James Fox - - Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film
- Pehlivan -
- The Philadelphia Experiment, starring Michael Paré and Nancy Allen
- Places in the Heart, directed by Robert Benton, starring Sally Field, Danny Glover, John Malkovich, Ed Harris, Lindsay Crouse, Amy Madigan
- Police Academy, directed by Hugh Wilson, starring Steve Guttenberg, Kim Cattrall, Bubba Smith
- The Pope of Greenwich Village, directed by Stuart Rosenberg, starring Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke, Daryl Hannah, Kenneth McMillan, Geraldine Page
- A Private Function, directed by Malcolm Mowbray, starring Michael Palin and Maggie Smith -
- Protocol, starring Goldie Hawn, Chris Sarandon, Gail Strickland
- Purple Hearts, directed by Sidney J. Furie, starring Ken Wahl and Cheryl Ladd
- Purple Rain, starring Prince
- Quilombo -
R
- Raaj Tilak, starring Raaj Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Dharmendra -
- The Razor's Edge, starring Bill Murray, Theresa Russell, Catherine Hicks, Denholm Elliott
- Reckless, starring Aidan Quinn and Daryl Hannah
- Red Dawn, directed by John Milius, starring Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, Lea Thompson
- Repentance -
- Repo Man, directed by Alex Cox, starring Emilio Estevez, Dick Rude, Harry Dean Stanton
- The Return of Godzilla -
- Revenge of the Nerds, starring Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards, Curtis Armstrong, Timothy Busfield
- Rhinestone, starring Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton
- The River, directed by Mark Rydell, starring Sissy Spacek and Mel Gibson
- The Road to Bresson, starring Robert Bresson, Louis Malle, Andrei Tarkovsky, Orson Welles -
- Roadhouse 66, starring Willem Dafoe and Judge Reinhold
- Romancing the Stone, directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner - Golden Globe Award for Best Picture
- Ronia, the Robber's Daughter -
- Runaway, directed by Michael Crichton, starring Tom Selleck
S
- Saaransh, directed by Mahesh Bhatt -
- Secret Honor, directed by Robert Altman, starring Philip Baker Hall
- Sharaabi, directed by Prakash Mehra, starring Amitabh Bachchan -
- Sheena, starring Tanya Roberts
- Silent Night, Deadly Night
- Sixteen Candles, written and directed by John Hughes, starring Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Michael Schoeffling, Gedde Watanabe
- Slapstick of Another Kind, starring Jerry Lewis, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman
- Slunce, seno, jahody -
- A Soldier's Story, directed by Norman Jewison, starring Howard E. Rollins Jr., Adolph Caesar, Denzel Washington
- The Snowdrop Festival, directed by Jiří Menzel -
- Solomon Northup's Odyssey
- Songwriter, starring Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Lesley Ann Warren
- Splash, directed by Ron Howard, starring Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah, John Candy
- , directed by and starring Leonard Nimoy, with William Shatner, DeForest Kelley, Christopher Lloyd, Judith Anderson
- Starman, directed by John Carpenter, starring Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen
- Stop Making Sense, a concert film directed by Jonathan Demme featuring Talking Heads
- Stranger Than Paradise, directed by Jim Jarmusch
- Strangler vs. Strangler -
- Streets of Fire, directed by Walter Hill, starring Michael Paré, Diane Lane, Rick Moranis, Amy Madigan, Willem Dafoe
- A Summer at Grandpa's -
- A Sunday in the Country, directed by Bertrand Tavernier -
- Supergirl, starring Helen Slater, Faye Dunaway, Peter O'Toole
- Swing Shift, directed by Jonathan Demme, starring Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Christine Lahti, Ed Harris, Fred Ward
- Szaffi -
T
- The Tale of Tsar Saltan -
- Tank, starring James Garner and Shirley Jones
- Le Tartuffe, directed by and starring Gérard Depardieu -
- Teachers, starring Nick Nolte, JoBeth Williams, Judd Hirsch
- The Terminator, directed by James Cameron, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton
- Terror in the Aisles, starring Donald Pleasence and Nancy Allen
- Thief of Hearts, starring Steven Bauer, Barbara Williams, George Wendt
- This Is My Country -
- This Is Spinal Tap, directed by Rob Reiner, starring Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest
- Tightrope, starring Clint Eastwood and Geneviève Bujold
- Top Secret!, directed by Jim Abrahams and starring Val Kilmer
U-V
- Ultraman Story -
- -
- Under the Volcano, directed by John Huston, starring Albert Finney and Jacqueline Bisset
- Unfaithfully Yours, starring Dudley Moore, Nastassja Kinski, Armand Assante, Albert Brooks
- Until September, starring Karen Allen
- Up the Creek, starring Tim Matheson and Jennifer Runyon
- Veneno para las hadas -
- Vigil -
- Voyage to Cythera -
W
- W's Tragedy -
- What Have I Done to Deserve This?, directed by Pedro Almodóvar, starring Carmen Maura -
- Wheels on Meals, starring Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung -
- When the Raven Flies -
- Where the Boys Are '84, starring Lisa Hartman, Lorna Luft, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Wendy Schaal
- Where the Green Ants Dream, directed by Werner Herzog -
- Where the Toys Come From
- The Wild Life, starring Chris Penn, Eric Stoltz and Lea Thompson
- The Woman in Red, directed by and starring Gene Wilder, with Gilda Radner, Charles Grodin, Judith Ivey, Kelly LeBrock
- Wreaths at the Foot of the Mountain -
Y
- A Year of the Quiet Sun - - Golden Lion winner
- Yellow Earth, directed by Chen Kaige -
Births
- January 6 - Priit Loog, Estonian actor
- January 12 - Taraneh Alidoosti, Iranian actress
- January 25 - Kaiji Tang, voice actor
- February 12 - Alexandra Dahlström, Swedish actress
- February 13 - Brina Palencia, voice actress
- February 24 - Nicholas Saputra, Indonesian actor
- March 2 - Ian Sinclair, voice actor
- March 7 - Brandon T. Jackson, American stand-up comedian, rapper, actor, and writer
- March 10 - Olivia Wilde, American actress
- March 20 - Christy Carlson Romano, American stage and film actress and singer
- March 25 - Katharine McPhee, American singer and actress
- April 2 - Ashley Peldon, American actress
- April 3 - Chrissie Fit, American actress and singer
- April 8
- * Taran Noah Smith, American actor
- * Kirsten Storms, American actress
- April 10
- * Cara DeLizia, American actress
- * Mandy Moore, American singer-songwriter and actress
- April 18 - America Ferrera, American actress
- May 17 - Alejandro Edda, Mexican-American actor
- June 13 - Phillip Van Dyke, American actor
- June 19 - Paul Dano, American actor
- June 24 - Lucien Dodge, voice actor
- June 30 - Fantasia Barrino, American singer and actress
- July 7 - Ross Malinger, American actor
- July 11 - Serinda Swan, Canadian actress
- July 14 - Britta Soll, Estonian actress
- July 19 - Andrea Libman, Canadian actress, voice actress, pianist, and singer
- July 27
- * Taylor Schilling, American actress
- * Kenny Wormald, American actor
- July 30 - Gina Rodriguez, American actress and director
- September 3 - Garrett Hedlund, American actor
- September 18 - Nina Arianda, American actress
- September 19 - Kevin Zegers, Canadian actor and model
- September 22 - Laura Vandervoort, Canadian actress
- September 22 - Jordan Vogt-Roberts, American film director
- September 23 - Anneliese van der Pol, Dutch-American actress and singer
- September 27 - Avril Lavigne, Canadian singer-songwriter
- October 3 - Ashlee Simpson, American actress and singer
- October 25 - Katy Perry, American singer-songwriter and actress
- October 27 - Kelly Osbourne, English actress and singer
- November 16 - Kimberly J. Brown, American actress
- November 17 - Lauren Maltby, American actress
- November 21
- * Lindsey Haun, American actress and singer
- * Jena Malone, American actress
- November 22 - Scarlett Johansson, American actress
- November 23 - Lucas Grabeel, American actor and singer
- November 28 - Mary Elizabeth Winstead, American actress
- December 5 - Lauren London, American actress
Notable deaths
Film debuts
- Jesse Bradford - Falling in Love
- Jennifer Connelly - Once Upon a Time in America
- Jon Cryer - No Small Affair
- Johnny Depp - A Nightmare on Elm Street
- Tate Donovan - No Small Affair
- Rupert Everett - Another Country
- Colin Firth - Another Country
- Sarah Michelle Gellar - Over the Brooklyn Bridge
- Bobcat Goldthwait - Massive Retaliation
- Heather Graham - Mrs. Soffel
- Seth Green - Billions for Boris
- Jennifer Grey - Reckless
- Corey Haim - Firstborn
- Val Kilmer - Top Secret!
- Andie MacDowell - '
- Kyle MacLachlan - Dune
- Mary McDonnell - Garbo Talks
- Frances McDormand - Blood Simple
- Connie Nielsen - Par où t'es rentré ? On t'a pas vu sortir
- Chazz Palminteri - Home Free All
- Lou Diamond Phillips - Interface
- Martha Plimpton - The River Rat
- Prince - Purple Rain
- Aidan Quinn - Reckless
- Tim Robbins - No Small Affair
- Tim Roth - The Hit
- Ernie Sabella - City Heat
- Charlie Sheen - Red Dawn
- Elisabeth Shue - The Karate Kid
- Helen Slater - Supergirl
- Ice-T - Breakin
- Jennifer Tilly - No Small Affair
- Marisa Tomei - The Flamingo Kid
- Jean-Claude Van Damme - Breakin'
- Ken Watanabe - MacArthur's Children
- Damon Wayans - Beverly Hills Cop
- Alicia Witt - Dune
- Michelle Yeoh - The Owl vs Bombo''