Honey I Shrunk The Kids: Then and Now
Have you ever wondered what happened to the cast of 1989 family sci-fi comedy ‘Honey, I Shrunk The Kids’?
Where are they now? What are they doing? Did their careers get super-sized or miniaturised?
Read on to find out…
Rick Moranis - Wayne Szalinski
A gifted comedian and nerd poster child, Moranis was incredibly talented and always essential to any movie he touched - we use the past tense because he retired in 1997. Voice work aside, Moranis packed in acting after the tragic death of his wife from breast cancer. “I found that it was too difficult to manage raising my kids and doing the traveling involved in making movies,” said Moranis. “So I took a little bit of a break. And the little bit of a break turned into a longer break, and then I found that I really didn’t miss it."
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There was talk of him returning for 'Ghostbusters III’ back when that was a prospect. "I wouldn’t not do it but it’s got to be good,” he said. “I guess I’m interested in where [Louis Tully] is now. I sort of see him as being Bernie Madoff’s cellmate in jail. Both of them being so orderly that they race to get up and make their beds.” Moranis released the musical comedy album 'My Mother’s Brisket & Other Love Songs’ in 2013.
Marcia Strassman - Diane Szalinski
As the faithful and long-suffering wife of Rick Moranis’s inventor Wayne, Marcia Strassman was put through the wringer by her husband’s antics, but no struggle would compare to that which she faced finding work in a post 'Honey I Shrunk The [Blank]’ universe. The former hippy musician never really found her groove, but she did make appearances in 'Tremors: The Series’, 'Highlander: The Series’ and emergency services TV drama 'Third Watch’.
Her last movie was the unfortunately-titled horror film 'Reeker’ about a demon who stank and killed people on the toilet. Sadly, like Moranis’s real wife, Strassman also died of breast cancer, bowing out aged 66 in her California home in 2007.
Robert Oliveri - Nick Szalinski
After his award-nominated turn as Szalinski boy Nick in 'Honey, I Shrunk The Kids’ - he was nominated for a Saturn award and a Young Artist award - Oliveri went back to the well to star in the sequel, 'Honey, I Blew Up The Baby’ (where he got to snog debut actress Keri Russell) and the 4D live-action show 'Honey, I Shrunk The Audience’, which showed at several different Disney theme parks including the Epcot Center.
Alas, the entertainment industry wasn’t for him, and he quit acting soon after. Oliveri lives in Florida with his wife, son and daughter, and appears to have zero online footprint. For some reason, there are various people pretending to be his family members on his IMDb message board. Don’t go there.
Amy O'Neill - Amy Szalinski
Edged out of the sequel 'Honey, I Blew Up The Baby’ after being packed off to college in the first scene, Amy continued plugging away in Hollywood until the decent roles dried up and she started getting offered work as an adult “that required nudity”. Her last movie role was in National Lampoon flick 'Attack Of The 5 Ft 2 Inch Women’ as 'German Skater’.
O'Neill hooked up with an old school friend turned circus ringleader and ended up catching the big top bug, joining a performance art troupe called 'Girls On Stilts’. The profile picture on her MySpace page has her dressed in clown make-up. https://myspace.com/amyoamyoamy
Matt Frewer - Russ Thompson, Sr.
A recognisable face if not a recognisable name, the man who played 'Honey, I Shrunk The Kids’’ butthead neighbour Russ is still finding work thanks to his sterling work in sci-fi on both small screens and large. Frewer - whose most famous role was arguably that of “computer-generated” 80s TV host Max Headroom - most recently played a supporting role in the first two seasons of breakout TV success 'Orphan Black’, but he also popped up as Moloch The Mystic in Zack Snyder’s adaptation of 'Watchmen’.
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You might have also seen Frewer in Steven Soderbergh’s medical HBO show, 'The Knick’. Rumours still fly that Max Headroom is poised to make a return. Fear those rumours.
Kristine Sutherland - Mae Thompson
When an actress’ Wikipedia page has to specify that she is “not related to Donald Sutherland or his son Kiefer Sutherland”, it’s fair to say that her life hasn’t exactly been incident-packed since her heyday. Though Sutherland did play Buffy’s mother for 58 episodes in Joss Whedon’s 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ series (she also had a different part in the 1992 movie), her role as the 'Honey, I Shrunk The Kids’ neighbour is still her stand-out achievement in Hollywood terms.
She does, however, win at the Kevin Bacon game, being just one degree separated, after a one-episode appearance in his terrible TV cop show 'The Following’.
Thomas Wilson Brown - Russ Thompson, Jr.
The Wyoming-born actor is now 43 and has long since lost his boyish looks from when he played 'boy next door’ Russ. Brown has actually had a successful career when compared to his co-stars, finding TV work in the likes of 'E.R.’, 'Nash Bridges’ and 'CSI’ - and he sports a cracking pout in his latest IMDb headshots.
He grew up on his parents’ ranch and was a bareback horse rider in his youth, but Brown now lives with his wife and children in New Mexico. Though he played a minor role in 'Pearl Harbor’ - the Michael Bay movie, not the actual bombing - his career highlight was undoubtedly a role alongside Steven Seagal in 'Urban Justice’, which we’re pretty sure is the name of all Steven Seagal movies released since 2002.
Jared Rushton - Ron Thompson
You most likely knew him as Tom Hanks’ childhood friend Billy in 'Big’ - he of the ginger mullet and the 'Ice Cream Soda Pop (Vanilla On The Top)’ rap - but actor Jared Rushton did his time in TV soaps, 'Roseanne’ and 'Cagney & Lacey’ before playing neighbourhood kid Ron in 'Honey, I Shrunk The Kids’.
Work was hard to come by by the end of the 90s - an episode of 'Cracker’ here (not the Robbie Coltrane version), an episode of 'Dr Quinn: Medicine Woman’ there - so by 2000 he’d all but retired. Rushton currently plays guitar in a rock band called Deal By Dusk - they currently have 981 likes on Facebook. Let’s try to get them to 1,000!
Carl Steven - Tommy Pervis
As Tommy, the kid who almost chopped our heroes to bits with a lawnmower, Carl Steven wasn’t the movie’s biggest star, but he did reach a most tragic end. A child actor who starred as Young Spock in 'Star Trek III’ and voiced Young Fred in an animated Scooby Doo prequel, Steven’s last role was a recurring one in the TV series of 80s comedy 'Weird Science’.
He retired from acting as an adult, but a routine tonsillectomy led to him getting addicted to painkillers. Steven stole to feed his addition and in 2010 he was arrested for armed robbery and jailed for 13 years. Aged just 36, Carl Steven died of a heroin overdose in a Tucson prison in 2011 - a sad end to a promising life.
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Image credits: Rex Features/Walt Disney Pictures
