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Eighties Celebrities

Where are they now?

Boris Becker (80s Tennis Star)

Boris now works as a tennis commentator for the BBC. On 28 February 2009 Becker announced that he and Dutch model Sharlely “Lilly” Kerssenberg would be getting married on 12 June 2009 in St Moritz, Switzerland, which they did!

David Bowie (Musician)

This guy was huge in both the 70s and 80s, although his commercial success was somewhat of a rollercoaster ride.  Bowie had a UK number one single in 1980 with "Ashes to Ashes" and  teamed up with Queen for the 1981 UK chart-topping single "Under Pressure", which was later sampled by Vanilla Ice with his "Ice Ice Baby" single.

David Bowie reached a commercial peak in 1983 with the album "Let's Dance" which yielded the hit singles "Let's Dance", "China Girl" and "Modern Love". He has experimented with many musical styles since then, and fronted the band "Tin Machine" who were (undeservingly) slated by the music media.

Holly Johnson

(Frankie Goes To Hollywood)

Holly Johnson was most famous in the 80s for being the frontman of controversial pop band Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

Holly was busy during 2009 promoting the "Frankie Say Greatest" album. An expanded version of Blast! was released at the start of 2011. He has also been busy exhibiting his art at various galleries across the UK.

Holly was interviewed by Jools Holland on his radio two show in April 2011, and also performed live.

Janet Ellis

(80s Blue Peter Presenter)

Janet Ellis is the mother of singer Sophie Ellis Bextor and was a presenter on the BBC childrens show "Blue Peter".

In May 2008 she appeared naked (unfortunately, that photo was copyright and I couldn't use it!) in a magazine in support of PETA and in June of the same year she won The Weakest Link (Blue Peter Special) celebrity charity special. She donated the winnings of £13,150 to Maggie's Centers, a cancer care charity. She has also appeared in a 2009 episode of Hotel Babylon and makes occasional appearances on Reality TV Shows.

 Linda Lusardi (80s Page 3 model)

The former 80s Page 3 model and Emmerdale actress regularly appears on reality TV shows. In January 2008 she joined the Dancing On Ice series on ITV where she finished in sixth place.

Nigel Mansell

(Formula One Racing Driver)

Mansell is the most successful British Formula One driver of all time in terms of race wins with 31 victories.

What is he doing now? Well he is the current President of one of the UK's largest Youth Work Charities, UK Youth.

On July 3, 2009, Mansell tested his son's (Greg) World Series Renualt at Silverstone and on August 19, 2009, it was announced that Mansell would be taking part in the last round of the 2009 Le Mans Series, the 1000km of Silverstone, driving Team LNT's Ginetta-Zytek GZ09 alongside his son Greg and team boss Lawrence Tomlinson.

In 2010, Nigel teamed up with the Iranian-British comic Omid Djilali in an UK TV advert for the price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com. At the end of the first ad, Djalili put a fake moustache on Mansell's upper lip.

Phillipa Forrester (TV Presenter)

Phillipa first worked as a presenter on Childrens BBC alongside Toby Anstis from July 1990 until 1994. After this, she hosted many programmes including Tomorrow's World, The Heaven and Earth Show and Robot Wars.

Samantha Fox (80s Singer and Model)

In the 80s, Samantha Fox was the most famous Page 3 model in the UK, and also a successful pop star. Now she spends much of her time appearing on reality TV shows and attending celebrity events. In August 2009, Samantha Fox announced her plans to have a civil partnership with her long term girlfriend and manager, Myra Stratton.

Sebastion Coe, Steve Cram

and Steve Ovett

To this day, Steve Ovett holds the UK record for 2 miles (3,219 m), which he set in 1978. He makes occasional appearances and commentaries for TV during athletics events.

Steve Cram is a TV presenter and athletics commentator for the BBC.

Seb Coe was an MP between 1992 and 1997, but when London announced its bid to hold the 2012 Olympics, Coe became an ambassador for the effort and a member of the board of the bid company. Coe became the chairman for the latter phase of the bid.

Tina Turner

Tina Turner was a huge pop star back in the 80s, with hits including "Simply The Best", "We Don't Need Another Hero" and "What's Love Got To Do With It?".

Turner performed with Beyonce at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2008, and this was her first major public performance since her record-breaking "Twenty-Four Seven Tour". On May 5, 2008, she performed in a concert at Caesar's Place in Las Vegas with long time friend Cher.

On October 1st 2008, Turner started her 50th Anniversary Tour at Kansas City and also saw the release of "Tina! Her Greatest Hits" 

Wendy James (Transvision Vamp)

Wendy James was the sultry-voiced lead singer of 80s pop band Transvision Vamp. In 1986 the band was signed by MCA and released "Tell That Girl To Shut Up" in late 1987. But their first UK top ten hit was in 1988 with the follow-up single "I Want Your Love", and the hit album Pop Art.

However, 1989 was the band's most successful year, with the number 3 UK hit single "Baby I Don't Care" and the No.1 album Velveteen, which was a hit worldwide.

More recently, Wendy formed a band in 2004 called Racine who released two albums entitled Number One and Racine, Vol 2. She is about to release a new album entitled I Came Here To Blow Minds" and this is due out on 19th October 2010 according to her facebook page.