Peters starred opposite Steve Martin in "The Jerk" (1979), in a role that he wrote for her, and again in "Pennies from Heaven" (1981), for which she won the Golden Globe Award as Best Motion Picture Actress in a Comedy or Musical. In "Pennies from Heaven", she played Eileen Everson, a schoolteacher turned prostitute. Of her performance in "Pennies From Heaven", John DiLeo wrote that she "is not only poignant as you'd expect but has a surprising inner strength." Pauline Kael wrote in "The New Yorker": "Peters is mysteriously right in every nuance." Kael further noted that "The dance numbers are funny, amazing, and beautiful all at once; several of them are just about perfection."