My Beautiful Laundrette (1986)
Day-Lewis played Johnny, a tough, peroxided London street punk — who was also the gay lover of Asian immigrant Omar (Gordon Warnecke). Together, they defy sexual and racial boundaries to turn their business, a laundromat, into a neighborhood hotspot. The film was part of the one-two punch (along with A Room With a View; see next photo) that made moviegoers sit up and take notice of the chameleonic actor.

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