Whatever Happened to... By Special Guest Garth McLennan

 

 

Anthony Michael Hall

He played Brian Johnson, the “brain” in The
Breakfast Club, and has been one of the more
successful actors of the bunch. Now 40, he was

only 16 when filmed The Breakfast Club. More than
any of the others, Hall had the best acting resume
heading into the movie. He had previously starred as
Rusty Grizwald in National Lampoon’s Vacation.

Hall dated Molly Ringwald briefly in the 80’s,
when the two starred together in multiple John
Hughes movies, both before and after The Breakfast
Club. These movies, along with another landmark in
the teen genre, Weird Science, established him as one
of the premier geeks in Hollywood.

Hall would then join the SNL cast for a short
time in the mid-80’s and land starring roles in a
number of films, including Edward Scissorhands. He
faded badly in the 90’s before receiving an Emmy
nomination in Pirates of Silicon Valley in 1999. Hall
would be the star on the long running television
show The Dead Zone before making an appearance
in The Dark Knight. In 2006, Hall was voted number
four on VH1’s 100 greatest teen stars.

 

 

   

Judd Nelson

Nelson, 48, was the oldest of The Breakfast Club actors
when the film was made at 26. He played the breakout
character, the criminal-like John Bender.

Like most of the other stars from the movie, Nelson
landed a lot of mediocre roles shortly after The Breakfast
Club was released that cast him in exactly the same role
type that he’d had in The Breakfast Club. He starred in
such memorable masterpieces as Blue City, From the
Hip, Relentless and New Jack City. Don’t worry, nobody
else remembers these either.

The onset of the 1990’s brought a number of
multiple year breaks for Nelson. He’s acted briefly on
stage and has made a cameo appearance on CSI: Crime
Scene Investigation and has hosted a spoof on the show
Fear Factor. Nelson hasn’t done anything of substance
since...well, since The Breakfast Club and that doesn’t
look to change anytime soon.

  

   

Molly Ringwald

She played the spoiled Claire Standish in The Breakfast Club at
just 16 years old, and is a perfect example of the saying that “the
golden years really are in high school.”

After The Breakfast Club, Ringwald briefly dated co-
star Anthony Michael Hall and stuck with Club director John
Hughes in Pretty in Pink, another movie about teenage social
life. Feeding off of her one-time fame, Ringwald landed a
number of average roles and established herself as a classic 80’s
star that quickly faded away.

In 2006, she made several appearances on the stage,
including such plays as Cabaret and Enchanted April. She
also made a cameo in the teen movie parody Not Another Teen
Movie.

Now 40, she recently surfaced for the first time since 2003
with a starring role on another teen drama, the television show:
The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

Ringwald dated Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys in the
middle of the 80’s and is now married with a five-year-old
daughter.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emilio Estevez

  

 

Easily the most successful of The Breakfast Club crew, Estevez, 46, played the athletic Andrew Clark as a 21-year-old.
Unlike the rest of the Club stars, Estevez’s star took off after the 1985 hit. He starred in the late 80’s hits Young Guns and
Young Guns 2, and in 1992 landed what is considered to be his most notable role as Coach Gordon Bombay in the breakout hockey
film The Mighty Ducks. Estevez would reprise his role as Bombay in the 1994 sequel, D2: The Mighty Ducks. The Mighty Ducks
movies were so big that they inspired the creation of the actual NHL franchise owned by Disney, The Mighty Duck of Anaheim.
Estevez’s next big role came in the classic Mission: Impossible, where he starred alongside Tom Cruise. He made a cameo in
D3: The Mighty Ducks and then took a lengthy break before writing and directing the star-loaded Bobby in 2006.