Jennifer Beals

This biracial beauty was studying American literature at Yale when picked to star in the 1983 romantic blockbuster Flashdance. Playing a straight man's fantasy — welder by day, sexy dancer by night — Beals became an instant pinup girl with her exotic beauty and signature sweatshirt-off-the-shoulder style. But her career soon faltered, and although she worked consistently in mostly low-level projects for the next two decades — notably as a femme fatale in Devil in a Blue Dress and a slew of independent films, many directed by her ex-husband, Alexandre Rockwell — she remained indelibly linked to her seminal role. In 2004 she shattered that 20-year-old image when she signed on to The L Word as a workaholic lesbian, a part that revitalized her career and landed her on People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People list.