The Sun'll Come Out

Forste takes Parker and her siblings to New York City to audition for the Broadway play The Innocents. Parker and her brother Timothy both land roles, prompting the family to relocate to New York, and Parker is enrolled at Manhattan's Professional Children's School. Three years later, she lands the title role of the spunky redhead in the Broadway production of Annie. She is the third actress to play Little Orphan Annie on Broadway.

February 17

Footloose and Fancy Free

Parker transitions to film in Footloose, playing Chris Penn's girlfriend Rusty. This is the first of a few roles Parker takes as the skinny sidekick with frizzy hair in the '80s. She tells In Style she felt she was "not pretty enough to play the lead." In 1985, she lands her first lead role in Girls Just Want to Have Fun, as Janey Glenn, a sheltered underdog competing against a stuck-up rich girl for a dancing spot on local TV show.

October 26

First Love in Firstborn

Parker meets her first love, Robert Downey Jr., when working alongside the troubled actor on the film Firstborn. She begins dating Downey – who was battling an alcohol and cocaine addiction – and decides to move in with him that same year.

Fall

Breaking Up & Vegas

After seven years together and repeated efforts to help Downey kick his drug habit, Parker calls it quits. She tells Redbook, "I just found his [drug use] incredibly difficult to deal with." Downey tells Playboy that his substance abuse "was just confounding for her. But... there was a surprisingly high percentage of normal days as well. I love her and I always will." Afterward, Parker shoots Honeymoon in Vegas opposite Nicolas Cage, playing his voluptuous bride. She has a brief onset romance with Cage and also briefly dates John F. Kennedy Jr.