1980–1989 mały|Laureaci z 2005: Julie Harris, Robert Redford, Tina Turner, Suzanne Farrell i Tony Bennett z prezydentem George’em W. Bushem i Laurą Bush 1980: Leonard Bernstein, James Cagney, Agnes de Mille, Lynn Fontanne i Leontyne Price 1981: Count Basie, Cary Grant, Helen Hayes, Jerome Robbins i Rudolf Serkin 1982: George Francis Abbott, Lillian Gish, Benny Goodman, Gene Kelly i Eugene Ormandy 1983: Katherine Dunham, Elia Kazan, Frank Sinatra, James Stewart i Virgil Thomson 1984: Lena Horne, Danny Kaye, Gian Carlo Menotti, Arthur Miller i Isaac Stern 1985: Merce Cunningham, Irene Dunne, Bob Hope, Alan Jay Lerner i Frederick Loewe oraz Beverly Sills 1986: Lucille Ball, Ray Charles, Hume Cronyn i Jessica Tandy, Yehudi Menuhin i Antony Tudor 1987: Perry Como, Bette Davis, Sammy Davis Jr., Nathan Milstein i Alwin Nikolais 1988: Alvin Ailey, George Burns, Myrna Loy, Alexander Schneider i Roger L. Stevens 1989: Harry Belafonte, Claudette Colbert, Alexandra Danilova, Mary Martin i William Schuman