Bridget Laudien · CC BY-SA 3.0

An actress who became one of the defining faces of 1980s teen cinema as part of the so-called "Brat Pack," starring in The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire (both 1985) after earlier turns in WarGames and Oxford Blues. After a career lull, she won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead playing a drug-addicted photographer in High Art (1998), a comeback built on real range rather than nostalgia. She has since taught at the City College of New York and published two novels, the first written when she was twelve.