WATN: The Cast of Weird Science

“So what would you little maniacs like to do first?”

In 1985 John Hughes presented Weird Science to the world, a teenage take on Frankenstein but with added extras.

Weird Science

When all-round nerds Wyatt and Gary get ‘pantsed’ in front of a gymnasium of hot girls, they decide to create their own dream girl…from a computer.

Giving her the body of a glamour model and the brain of Albert Einstein, Gary and Wyatt also give her the gifts of memory manipulation, reality warping, teleportation, time manipulation, and weather manipulation. As you do.

Cue the mayhem, underage drinking, and mutant bikers….weird? You betcha! But where are the cast of Weird Science these days?

Anthony Michael Hall – “Gary Wallace”
Firmly a member of the ‘Brat Pack’ nerd number one Gary aka Anthony Michael Hall also starred in John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles.

After a brief drinking problem in the early 90s, Hall had many minor roles in television and film including Edward Scissorhands, Freddy Got Fingered and Touched by an Angel. He also portrayed Bill Gates in the television film Pirates of Silicon Valley.

In 2002 Hall won the starring role in The Dead Zone – a series based on a Stephen King novel featuring a coma patient who wakes up with psychic abilities.

Most recently Hall played the Gotham City television news anchor Mike Engel in The Dark Knight.

Here’s what he looks like these days.  So serious.

Ilan Mitchell-Smith – “Wyatt Donnelly”
If we all had computer’s like Wyatt’s the world would be overrun by freakishly talented hot women. But we don’t so there’s no point in moaning…much.

After Weird Science Ilan Mitchell-Smith went on to appear in a couple of other 80s movies including The Chocolate War and Journey to the Centre of the Earth but his last outing as an actor was in 1991 in a television episode of Silk Stalkings whatever the hell that was.

Mitchell-Smith is now an assistant professor of English at California State University Long Beach. He is also married with two children.

Here’s a mug shot of him in later years.

Kelly LeBrock – “Lisa”
Named after a girl who kicked Gary in the nuts, Lisa was the boys’ epic creation – Frankenstein, “but cuter” and with a few more tricks up her sleeveless tops.

We’ve already found out what happened to Ms LeBrock. Head on over to her very own ‘Where Are They Now’ page to see what became of lil’ Lisa.

Bill Paxton – “Chet Donnelly”
What kind of a name is ‘Chet’ anyway? Chet was Wyatt’s military-schooled elder brother with a fondness for making his little brother’s life hell and insulting him with ‘donkey-dick’ put downs. “You two donkey-dicks couldn’t get laid in a morgue.” Classic.

Despite having one of the most annoying mugs on screen, Bill Paxton has had a movie career spattered all over the 80s and 90s including being a favourite of James Cameron having parts in some of his greatest films like Aliens, The Terminator and Titanic. In fact he’s only one of two actors who can say they’ve starred alongside a Terminator, an Alien and a Predator.

Paxton has had main roles in Twister, Apollo 13 and True Lies (where he classically pissed himself in front of the Governator Schwarzenegger) and also attempted a musical career. He wisely stuck to the acting.

Billy currently stars in the HBO drama Big Love about a polygamous family in Utah.  This is what he looks like nowadays.

Suzanne Snyder – “Deb”
Deb (played by Suzanne Snyder) and Hilly were the objects of Gary and Wyatt’s affections but sadly they were otherwise engaged with the popular pains-in-the-ass Ian and Max.

Sadly though success couldn’t beckon for all our cast members evident with Snyder’s more successful films including Killer Clowns from Outer Space, Return of the Living Dead Part II – enough said I think…

Despite cropping up a few times on television in Murder She Wrote and Seinfeld Snyder left acting in 1997 but apparently has recently appeared in Dancing on a Dry Salt Lake, a film about a cosmologist fired from NASA for trying to hear God back at the time the universe was created or something…sounds bad? Probably is.

Judie Aronson – “Hilly”
Judie Aronson who played Hilly was first noticed in Friday the 13th: The Last Chapter where things got off to a bad start as she contracted hypothermia on set! After Weird Science, Aronson went on to feature in a number of random American TV series’ we’ve never heard of including funnily enough Silk Stalkings like Ilan Mitchell-Smith (you never hear of the show and then two people in the same film end up in it!).

More recognisable shows Aronson has found herself in include Beverley Hills: 90210, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, JAG and Las Vegas. She had a minor role in Hannibal and in 2005 she appeared in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang opposite her old Weird Science beau Robert Downey Jr.

This is her in later life.

Robert Downey Jr. – “Ian”
Yep a baby faced Robert Downey Jr. can be seen in one of his earliest roles in Weird Science playing one of the bullies that torment our nerdish protagonists. Click here to see his youthful chops (far left).

Unless you’ve been living under a slimy rock for most of your life then you won’t have seen this truly talented and equally troubled actor featuring in a plethora of silver and small screen roles: *Takes a deep breath* Saturday Night Live, Chaplin, Natural Born Killers, U.S. Marshals, Ally McBeal, A Scanner Darkly, Zodiac, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Good Night, and Good Luck, Iron Man, Tropic Thunder, The Soloist and Sherlock Holmes to name but a few!

Robert Downey Jr. returns in Iron Man 2 in 2010.

Robert Rusler – “Max”
Bully number two, Max was played by Robert Rusler.

Not quite as successful as his co-stars, Rusler went onto have minor films roles in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge and The Whole Ten Yards opposite Bruce Wills and Matthew Perry.

He’s also cropped up in a host of television series including 24, Enterprise, Dragnet, Medium, The Unit and was a regular in season 2 of Babylon 5.

Here’s what he looks like today.

Rusler’s still working and we expect big things from him soon…maybe.