When it comes to ’80s cinema, you’ve got your hunks and your heartthrobs.
Tom Cruise in “Top Gun?” Hunk. Andrew McCarthy in the whole decade? Heartthrob.
While we’re proud of McCarthy for his turn as an award-winning travel writer — he is now an editor at large for National Geographic Traveler and has a new book out, “The Longest Way Home” — there is no denying his films of the 1980s still manage to get our palms sweating. Here are the five we swoon over.
“Pretty in Pink” (1986): High-school shy girl Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald) must choose between her childhood friend Duckie (Jon Cryer) or Blane McDonnagh (a baby-faced Andrew McCarthy), the popular yet sensitive rich guy on campus.
“St. Elmo’s Fire” (1985): Seven friends occasionally stumble as they navigate through life and friendship following college graduation. McCarthy plays Kevin, a struggling writer who lives with roommate Kirby (Emilio Estevez), an aspiring lawyer who works at the bar, St. Elmo’s Fire.
“Less Than Zero” (1987): McCarthy plays Clay, a student back from his first term in college to spend Christmas vacation with his broken-up family in Los Angeles. His former girlfriend, Blair (Jami Gertz), is now involved with his ex-best-friend, Julian (Robert Downey Jr.), who is drowning in huge debts and a cocaine addiction.
“Weekend at Bernie’s” (1989): McCarthy was all lank and charm in this comedy, where he dodges the hit man who killed his boss, Bernie Lomax, even when he follows them to Lomax’s vacation home in the Hamptons.
“Mannequin” (1987): It’s hard to forget our dream boat as Jonathan Switcher, a young artist who builds and falls in love with a perfect mannequin who later comes to life as Emmy, an ancient Egyptian beauty (Kim Cattrall).
