Sixteen Candles Cast: Where Are They Now?

Summary

• The surviving cast of
  Sixteen Candles
  have gone in many different directions since the release of the 1984 teen movie.
• Many members of the main cast are still acting, including prominent Brat Pack members Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall.
• Michael Schoeffling, who played love interest Jake Ryan, notably left Hollywood behind in the early 1990s.

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The cast of Sixteen Candles has gone in many different directions since the movie premiered in 1984. The project was the directorial debut of iconic director John Hughes, who had previously written screenplays for movies including Vacation, Mr. Mom, and National Lampoon’s Class Reunion. In addition to introducing one of the most iconic directors of the 1980s, the movie was a seminal Brat Pack movie, helping introduce several of the young actors who would dominate teen media for years to come.

Because the Brat Pack movie was filmed more than four decades before the time of writing, several members of the main Sixteen Candles cast have passed away. This includes Carlin Glynn, who played Brenda Baker, in addition to the actors who played the grandparents, namely Edward Andrews (Grandpa Howard Baker), Billie Bird (Grandma Dorothy Baker), Carole Cook (Grandma Helen), and Max Showalter (Grandpa Fred). However, the majority of the stars who played key characters in the movie are still alive, though not all of them remain in the entertainment industry.

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1 Molly Ringwald

Character: Samantha “Sam” Baker

Sixteen Candles was the first collaboration between Molly Ringwald and John Hughes. They would quickly follow the movie with the classic teen films The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink, cementing her as one of the premiere members of the Brat Pack. Ringwald, now 56, has since spread her wings considerably, both as an actor and otherwise, including roles in French productions in addition to work as both a singer and runway model.

In addition to recent roles including playing Archie’s mother Mary Andrews on Riverdale, Jeffrey Dahmer’s stepmother Shari Dahmer on Monster season 1, and Joanne Carson on Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, she has made waves as a writer. In addition to the 2012 young adult novel When It Happens to You: A Novel in Stories and two recent translations of French books including Philippe Besson’s Lie With Me, she penned a 2018 essay for The New Yorker examining the toxic tropes of her 1980s comedies.

2 Michael Schoeffling

Character: Jake Ryan

Michael Shoeffling, who played Sam’s love interest Jake Ryan, notably left Hollywood less than a decade after the premiere of Sixteen Candles, which was his first credited role after breaking into the business as a model and then holding an uncredited supporting role opposite former Fast Times at Ridgemont High co-stars Sean Penn and Nicolas Cage in Racing with the Moon. Although Shoeffling held a handful of other roles throughout the 1980s, including appearing in the movies Vision Quest and Longtime Companion, he retired after playing Al Carver in 1991’s Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken.

Shoeffling, now 63, moved to Pennsylvania and opened a woodworking shop after leaving the entertainment industry. However, not much information has been made public about his business, including whether or not it is still open at the time of writing. He has been married to fellow actor Valerie C. Robinson, with whom he has two children, for more than three decades.

3 Anthony Michael Hall

Character: Farmer Ted

Sixteen Candles provided young star Anthony Michael Hall with another early role to follow his appearance as Rusty Griswold in the John Hughes-penned Vacation in 1983. Along with Ringwald, he would become one of the most prominent actors in the Brat Pack throughout the 1980s. His follow-up teen movies included The Breakfast Club (in which he reunited with Ringwald) and Weird Science (which also starred Kelly LeBrock, Ilan Mitchell-Smith, and Bill Paxton).

Hall, now 56, has now long shed his dorky teen image. In recent years, he has taken on roles as tough, no-nonsense characters including the grown-up Tommy Doyle in the 2021 legacy horror sequel Halloween Kills. Since then, he has split his time between television series including The Goldbergs and Bosch: Legacy and movies such as Clerks III and Air Force One Down. He has also signed on to star in the upcoming Reacher season 3 as the rich and paranoid Zachary Beck.

4 Haviland Morris

Character: Caroline Mulford

Haviland Morris, who played Jake Ryan’s girlfriend Caroline Mulford, largely avoided the teen movie scene after appearing in Sixteen Candles. However, she held roles in quite a few major titles throughout the 1980s, including appearing opposite Madonna in Who’s That Girl, starring in an episode of the horror anthology Tales from the Darkside, and playing Billy’s Boss Marla Bloodstone in the 1990 sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

Morris, now 64, has followed Schoeffling’s lead and found a career outside the entertainment industry. She now works primarily as a real estate broker. At the time of writing, her LinkedIn reports that she is based out of New York City and works with Halstead Real Estate. However, she has not left the entertainment industry behind completely and has appeared in various roles over the years, most recently returning to the Gremlins franchise to voice Theodora in Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai.

5 Gedde Watanabe

Character: Long Duk Dong

Gary “Gedde” Watanabe’s connection with Sixteen Candles is fraught because of the racially insensitive nature of the depiction of his character, Chinese foreign exchange student Long Duk Dong. Throughout the 1980s, he held roles in other major titles including Vamp and UHF, but many of his roles from the remainder of the decade followed similar lines. In a recent PEOPLE interview celebrating the movie’s 40th anniversary, he reflected that “there wasn’t really anything out there for Asian actors at the time.”

Watanabe, now 68, is still a prolific actor. Many of his most recent performances have been in voice roles including joining the Kung Fu Panda 4 cast as Badger Crime Boss in addition to voicing characters in Ultraman: Rising, Patsy Lee & the Keepers of the 5 Kingdoms, and Blue Eye Samurai. Recent live-action roles for Watanabe include playing Professor Harpin in four episodes of The Sex Lives of College Girls and single-episode appearances on Call Me Kat and Magnum P.I.

6 Paul Dooley

Character: Jim Baker

Paul Dooley, who portrayed Sam’s father Jim Baker, was already playing more adult roles at the time of the movie’s release (including playing Wimpy in Robert Altman’s 1980 movie Popeye, adapting the comic strip of the same name), so he didn’t get swept up in the teen movie mania that Sixteen Candles helped ignite. However, that hasn’t prevented him from appearing in more than 200 movies and television shows over the course of his decades-long career.

Dooley, now 96, has been married to Winnie Holtzman (who wrote the book for the smash hit musical Wicked) since the same year that Sixteen Candles premiered. While he performs onscreen less frequently than he did in the period between the early 1970s and the late 2000s, he has appeared in five projects in the 2020s including an episode of Modern Family, the Michael Jr. comedy Selfie Dad, and the 2023 sci-fi movie Boy Makes Girl.

7 Justin Henry

Character: Mike Baker

On the other end of the spectrum from Paul Dooley, Justin Henry, who played Sam’s little brother Mike Baker in Sixteen Candles, was too young to play a major part in the teen movie boom of the mid-1980s. However, his career didn’t need the boost from the Hughes movie, as he had recently become the youngest nominee for a competitive Oscar when he was given a nod by the Academy for his supporting performance in Kramer vs. Kramer.

Henry, now 53, has only acted periodically since the 2000s. One of his last credited roles was in the 2014 horror movie Reaper, which also starred Danny Trejo and Vinnie Jones. At the time of writing, according to his LinkedIn page, he primarily works in media strategy, business development, and finance. As of 2023, he has been working with the digital video company Telestream. He also does work for companies including Worthington Media Group and N2 Media Holdings, Inc.

8 Blanche Baker

Character: Ginny Baker

Blanche Baker, who shares a last name with her Sixteen Candles character (Sam’s older sister Ginny Baker), played a variety of roles in projects throughout the end of the 1980s, including appearing opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in the action movie Raw Deal. She closed out the decade by playing Ofglen in the 1990 movie The Handmaid’s Tale, adapted from the Margaret Atwood novel of the same name that inspired the contemporary dystopian Hulu series, in which her character was played by Gilmore Girls‘ Alexis Bledel.

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Baker, now 67, has continued to act, though she has appeared onscreen with less frequency since the late 2010s. Her only feature-length project in the last five years has been the 2021 thriller Ashley Fades Away, in which she appeared opposite William Sadler and Ashley Shelton. Since 2003, she has been married to Mark Magill, with whom she has a son, her fourth child overall after having three children with her first husband.

9 Liane Curtis

Character: Randy

Liane Curtis, who played Sam’s best friend Randy in Sixteen Candles, became better known as a television actor after the movie’s release. Throughout the 1980s, she appeared in various roles in small screen titles including Another World, The Best Times, The Equalizer, Married… with Children, 21 Jump Street, Knots Landing, and The Bronx Zoo. She also appeared in the cult movies Critters 2: The Main Course and Girlfriend from Hell.

Curtis, now 58, has not acted onscreen since 2018 when she played a role in the short film Selfie. However, since Sixteen Candles, she has had a robust career creating various companies. Her businesses, many of which have shuttered since their founding, include production companies Vulcan A Productions and oy-oy-click-click.com as well as the event and management company Mackenzie Group Entertainment, Inc., which she co-founded with her husband Timothy J Mackenzie. According to her LinkedIn, her most recent venture is the record label Feather Rouge Music.

Source: The New Yorker, Haviland Morris/LinkedIn, PEOPLE, Justin Henry/LinkedIn, Liane Curtis/LinkedIn

Sixteen Candles
PG
Romance
Comedy

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In John Hughes’s directorial debut, Molly Ringwald stars as Samantha Baker, a high school student in suburban Chicago whose sixteenth birthday is marred when her whole family forgets to celebrate the occasion due to her older sister’s wedding. Navigating a school dance and a seemingly unrequited crush on an older boy, Sam’s sweet sixteen becomes a day to remember. Anthony Michael Hall, Michael Schoeffling, and Gedde Watanabe also star. 

Director John Hughes Release Date May 4, 1984 Studio(s) Universal Pictures Distributor(s) Universal Pictures Writers John Hughes Cast Molly Ringwald , Gedde Watanabe , Anthony Michael Hall , Haviland Morris , Michael Schoeffling Runtime 93 minutes Budget $6.5 million

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Category: Entertainment