80’s Teen Heart Throbs

I am here to bring you up to speed on who the teen idols of the 80’s were.  Obviously, most are no Zac Efron, Robert Pattinson or Ashton Kutcher but a few would certainly give those guys a run for their money by today’s standards.  On the other hand, however, most of the teen actors in the 80’s were pretty down to earth and “normal” looking.  By ‘normal’ I mean no plastic surgery, no zoom teeth whitening, etc.  We accepted them with their crooked smiles, noses and freckles.  So here, I pay homage to my great teen boy idols, who are now all grown up and married, woodworkers, lawyers.. some are totally hot and some are well,  totally not. 

Because there were a few different “looks” in the 80’s, I’m going to categorize this post by a creating an overall, cohesive look for each teen heart throb group.  I’ll first start with our “Average Joe’s”.  For some reason, the mid-80’s produced an influx of dark-haired boys that all looked very west coast (Jersey, New York). After thinking a little about this, I realized this “trend” was a predecessor of none other than: Rocky Balboa and John Travolta from the very late 70’s. Moms swooned over these two boys from Jersey, so naturally, we girls got these:

        
Scott Baio, John Stamos, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Dempsey, Matthew Broderick and Johnny Depp.

The “Greasers/Bad Boy Club”. These were the tough guys who we all know as “The Outsiders”. And Patrick Swayze and Tom Cruise were both very good at being a bad boy in the 80’s,  a la Roadhouse, Risky Business and Dirty Dancing.

 
Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Rob Lowe, Ralph Macchio (again), Emilio Estevez

We then move into our “Prep Club“.  These were the guys driving the Porsches and BMW’s to Hollywood High School.
Andrew McCarthy and James Spader were notably, the most popular snobs in the 80’s.  “Jake Ryan” from Sixteen Candles never made it past that film and is now a happily married woodworker in Pennsylvania.

 

“The Geeks” were probably my favorite group of guys because they were so utterly desperate and  sweet.  Certainly not considered “Heart Throbs” but I felt as though they all deserve an honorable mention.  The obvious: Anthony Michael Hall, Jon Cryer (aka Ducky), Booger and  Arnold Poindexter (Revenge of the Nerds), John Cusack and Long Duk Dong.

 

   

 Ahh..all of this 80’s talk has got me feeling nostalgic. I may have to break out Sixteen Candles and take a walk down Memory Lane.

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