1980s
| Year | Film | Subject(s) | Lead actor or actress |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Breaker Morant | Breaker Morant | Edward Woodward |
| 1980 | Coal Miner's Daughter | Loretta Lynn | Sissy Spacek |
| 1980 | The Elephant Man | John Merrick | John Hurt |
| 1980 | Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones | Jim Jones | Powers Boothe |
| 1980 | Heart Beat (film) | Neal Cassady | Nick Nolte |
| Carolyn Cassady | Sissy Spacek | ||
| Jack Kerouac | John Heard | ||
| 1980 | The Hunter | Ralph "Papa" Thorson | Steve McQueen |
| 1980 | The Jayne Mansfield Story | Jayne Mansfield | Loni Anderson |
| Mickey Hargitay | Arnold Schwarzenegger | ||
| 1980 | Nijinsky | Vaslav Nijinsky | George de la Peña |
| 1980 | The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd | Samuel Mudd | Dennis Weaver |
| 1980 | Raging Bull | Jake LaMotta | Robert De Niro |
| 1980 | The Secret of Nikola Tesla | Nikola Tesla | Petar Božović |
| 1980 | A Time for Miracles | Elizabeth Ann Seton | Kate Mulgrew |
| 1980 | Where the Buffalo Roam | Hunter S. Thompson | Bill Murray |
| 1981 | Agony | Grigori Rasputin | Alexei Petrenko |
| 1981 | The Bunker | Adolf Hitler | Anthony Hopkins |
| 1981 | Chariots of Fire | Harold Abrahams | Ben Cross |
| 1981 | Christiane F. – We Children from Bahnhof Zoo | Christiane F. | Natja Brunckhorst |
| 1981 | Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story | Dorothy Stratten | Jamie Lee Curtis |
| Paul Snider | Bruce Weitz | ||
| 1981 | Egon Schiele - Exzesse | Egon Schiele | Mathieu Carrière |
| 1981 | Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy | Jacqueline Kennedy | Jaclyn Smith |
| 1981 | Lion of the Desert | Omar Mukhtar | Anthony Quinn |
| 1981 | Mommie Dearest | Joan Crawford | Faye Dunaway |
| 1981 | Peter and Paul | Paul of Tarsus | Anthony Hopkins |
| Peter the Fisherman | Robert Foxworth | ||
| 1981 | Reds | John Reed | Warren Beatty |
| 1982 | Flight of the Eagle | Salomon August Andrée | Max von Sydow |
| 1982 | Frances | Frances Farmer | Jessica Lange |
| 1982 | Gandhi | Mahatma Gandhi | Ben Kingsley |
| 1982 | Grace Kelly | Grace Kelly | Cheryl Ladd |
| 1982 | The Grey Fox | Bill Miner | Richard Farnsworth |
| 1982 | Missing | Charles Horman | John Shea |
| 1982 | The Return of Martin Guerre | Arnaud du Tilh | Gérard Depardieu |
| Bertrande de Rols | Nathalie Baye | ||
| 1982 | The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana | Charles, Prince of Wales | Christopher Baines |
| Diana, Princess of Wales | Catherine Oxenberg | ||
| 1982 | The White Rose | Sophie Scholl | Lena Stolze |
| 1982 | A Woman Called Golda | Golda Meir | Ingrid Bergman |
| 1983 | Adi Shankaracharya | Adi Shankara | Sarvadaman D. Banerjee |
| 1983 | Banović Strahinja (film) | Strahinja Banović | Franco Nero |
| 1983 | Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess (film) | Rita Hayworth | Lynda Carter |
| 1983 | Cross Creek | Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings | Mary Steenburgen |
| 1983 | Champions | Bob Champion | John Hurt |
| 1983 | Danton | Georges Danton | Gérard Depardieu |
| 1983 | Dempsey | Jack Dempsey | Treat Williams |
| 1983 | Heart Like a Wheel | Shirley Muldowney | Bonnie Bedelia |
| 1983 | Kennedy | John F. Kennedy | Martin Sheen |
| Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy | Blair Brown | ||
| 1983 | Living Proof: The Hank Williams, Jr. Story | Hank Williams, Jr. | Richard Thomas |
| 1983 | Sadat | Anwar El Sadat | Louis Gossett, Jr |
| 1983 | The Scarlet and the Black | Hugh O'Flaherty | Gregory Peck |
| 1983 | Silkwood | Karen Silkwood | Meryl Streep |
| 1983 | Star 80 | Dorothy Stratten | Mariel Hemingway |
| Paul Snider | Eric Roberts | ||
| 1983 | Wagner | Richard Wagner | Richard Burton |
| 1984 | Amadeus | Antonio Salieri | F. Murray Abraham |
| Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Tom Hulce | ||
| 1984 | The Bounty | Captain William Bligh | Anthony Hopkins |
| First Mate Fletcher Christian | Mel Gibson | ||
| 1984 | The Jesse Owens Story | Jesse Owens | Dorian Harewood |
| 1984 | The Killing Fields | Sydney Schanberg | Sam Waterston |
| Dith Pran | Haing S. Ngor | ||
| Jon Swain | Julian Sands | ||
| 1984 | The Miracle Continues | Helen Keller | Mare Winningham |
| 1984 | Puccini | Giacomo Puccini | Robert Stephens |
| 1984 | Samson and Delilah | Samson | Max von Sydow |
| Delilah | Belinda Bauer | ||
| 1985 | Colonel Redl | Alfred Redl | Klaus Maria Brandauer |
| 1985 | Dance with a Stranger | Ruth Ellis | Miranda Richardson |
| 1985 | God Rot Tunbridge Wells | George Frideric Handel | Trevor Howard |
| 1985 | King David | King David | Richard Gere |
| 1985 | Marie | Marie Ragghianti | Sissy Spacek |
| 1985 | Mask | Florence Dennis | Cher |
| Roy L. Dennis | Eric Stoltz | ||
| 1985 | Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters | Yukio Mishima | Ken Ogata |
| 1985 | Robert Kennedy & His Times | Robert F. Kennedy | Brad Davis |
| 1985 | Out of Africa | Karen Blixen | Meryl Streep |
| Denys Finch Hatton | Robert Redford | ||
| 1985 | Sweet Dreams | Patsy Cline | Jessica Lange |
| 1985 | Sylvia | Sylvia Ashton-Warner | Eleanor David |
| 1985 | Wallenberg: A Hero's Story | Raoul Wallenberg | Richard Chamberlain |
| 1986 | The Boy in Blue | Ned Hanlan | Nicolas Cage |
| 1986 | Castaway | Gerald Kingsland | Oliver Reed |
| Lucy Irvine | Amanda Donohoe | ||
| 1986 | George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation | George Washington | Barry Bostwick |
| 1986 | Heartburn | Nora Ephron | Meryl Streep |
| Carl Bernstein | Jack Nicholson | ||
| 1986 | Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer | Henry Lee Lucas | Michael Rooker |
| 1986 | Lady Jane | Lady Jane Grey | Helena Bonham Carter |
| 1986 | The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James | Frank James | Johnny Cash |
| Jesse James | Kris Kristofferson | ||
| 1986 | Romanza final | Julián Gayarre | José Carreras |
| 1986 | Sid and Nancy | Sid Vicious | Gary Oldman |
| Nancy Spungen | Chloe Webb | ||
| 1986 | Thérèse | Thérèse of Lisieux | Catherine Mouchet |
| 1986 | A Winner Never Quits | Pete Gray | Keith Carradine |
| 1987 | The Betty Ford Story | Betty Ford | Gena Rowlands |
| 1987 | 84 Charing Cross Road (film) | Helene Hanff | Anne Bancroft |
| Frank Doel | Anthony Hopkins | ||
| 1987 | A Child Called Jesus | Jesus | Matteo Bellina |
| 1987 | Cry Freedom | Steve Biko | Denzel Washington |
| 1987 | Impossible Spy | Eli Cohen | John Shea |
| 1987 | La Bamba | Ritchie Valens | Lou Diamond Phillips |
| 1987 | LBJ: The Early Years | Lyndon B. Johnson | Randy Quaid |
| 1987 | The Last Emperor | Pu-Yi | John Lone |
| 1987 | Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story | Barbara Hutton | Farrah Fawcett |
| 1987 | Prick Up Your Ears | Joe Orton | Gary Oldman |
| Kenneth Halliwell | Alfred Molina | ||
| 1987 | Shaka Zulu | Shaka | Henry Cele |
| 1987 | The Untouchables | Eliot Ness | Kevin Costner |
| Al Capone | Robert De Niro | ||
| 1987 | Waiting for the Moon | Gertrude Stein | Linda Bassett |
| Alice B. Toklas | Linda Hunt | ||
| 1987 | Walker | William Walker | Ed Harris |
| 1988 | Bird | Charlie Parker | Forest Whitaker |
| 1988 | Bloodsport | Frank Dux | Jean Claude Van Damme |
| 1988 | Camille Claudel | Camille Claudel | Isabelle Adjani |
| 1988 | A Cry in the Dark | Lindy Chamberlain | Meryl Streep |
| 1988 | David | David Rothenberg | Matthew Lawrence |
| Marie Rothenberg | Bernadette Peters | ||
| 1988 | Elvis and Me | Elvis Presley | Dale Midkiff |
| Priscilla Presley | Susan Walters | ||
| 1988 | Gorillas in the Mist | Dian Fossey | Sigourney Weaver |
| 1988 | Hanna's War | Hannah Szenes | Maruschka Detmers |
| 1988 | The Legendary Life of Ernest Hemingway | Ernest Hemingway | Victor Garber |
| 1988 | Lincoln | Abraham Lincoln | Sam Waterston |
| 1988 | Onassis: The Richest Man in the World | Aristotle Onassis | Raul Julia |
| 1988 | Patty Hearst | Patty Hearst | Natasha Richardson |
| 1988 | Stand and Deliver | Jaime Escalante | Edward James Olmos |
| 1988 | Tucker: The Man and His Dream | Preston Tucker | Jeff Bridges |
| 1988 | Young Guns | Billy the Kid | Emilio Estevez |
| 1989 | Billy the Kid | Billy the Kid | Val Kilmer |
| 1989 | Blaze | Earl Long | Paul Newman |
| Blaze Starr | Lolita Davidovich | ||
| 1989 | Born on the Fourth of July | Ron Kovic | Tom Cruise |
| 1989 | Communion | Whitley Strieber | Christopher Walken |
| 1989 | Francesco (film) | Francis of Assisi | Mickey Rourke |
| 1989 | Great Balls of Fire! | Jerry Lee Lewis | Dennis Quaid |
| 1989 | Henry V | Henry V of England | Kenneth Branagh |
| 1989 | The Karen Carpenter Story | Karen Carpenter | Cynthia Gibb |
| 1989 | Lean on Me | Joe Louis Clark | Morgan Freeman |
| 1989 | My Left Foot | Christy Brown | Daniel Day-Lewis |
| 1989 | Paganini | Niccolò Paganini | Klaus Kinski |
| 1998 | Romero | Óscar Romero | Raúl Juliá |
| 1989 | Triumph of the Spirit | Salamo Arouch | Willem Dafoe |
| 1989 | Winter of '54: Father Pierre | Abbé Pierre | Lambert Wilson |
| 1989 | Wired | John Belushi | Michael Chiklis |
Read more about this topic: List Of Biographical Films