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Strollerderby
Imagine being four-years-old, auditioning to play the spawn of Satan and actually getting the part. In other words, a filmmaker and a casting director looked at you, as a child, and said, “Yeah, I can see this kid being the antichrist.”
That’s more or less what happened to Harvey Stephens, the young British child who played Damien Thorn in 1976′s “The Omen.” And, as part of our month-long Halloween-themed series of Rich or Rehabs, I have attempted to find out what that little son of a devil has been up to since.
As mentioned in last week’s Rich or Rehab, I am devoting the month of October to tracking down child stars of the horror genre. Which brings us to this week’s subject: Alex Vincent, the boy who starred as Andy in the first two “Child’s Play” movies.
First of all, it could not have been easy being a 7-year-old kid and having to share so many scenes with Chucky, easily the ugliest doll in toy history. And I’m talking even before he started cursing at people and trying to murder them. Seriously, that little @*!#ing thing was just not attractive. But somehow Vincent managed to survive the experience. So where is he now?
Only a few child actors have been nominated for an Academy Award. Tatum O’Neal, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Justin Henry and Anna Paquin are among them. And so is Quinn Cummings.
In 1977, when she was just 9-years-old, she appeared in “The Goodbye Girl” as Marsha Mason’s daughter. She landed an Oscar nod as Best Supporting Actress for her role, but Vanessa Redgrave ultimately took the prize for her work in the film “Julia.” So what happened to Cummings after her big night in the Oscar spotlight?
In last week’s Rich or Rehab, I wrote about five of the musically gifted kids who starred in “School of Rock.” This week I attempt — and not always successfully — to track down a few more.
Without further delay, let’s get rockin’.
In 2003, a group of prep school kids joined Jack Black and, through the power of rock ‘n’ roll, urged a nation of moviegoers to stick it to The Man.
Since then, the preteens who starred in “School of Rock” have grown up and now find themselves in different places in their lives, although several of them still seem pretty committed to making music. In part one of a two-part Rich or Rehab — think of it as the Strollerderby equivalent of a cliffhanger — I attempt to track down 10 of the key School of Rockers.
If you watched “Welcome Back, Kotter” when you were a kid, you probably had a favorite Sweathog. Some preferred John Travolta’s Vinnie Barbarino because, let’s face it, he was pretty hot. Others admired the “Hi there” smoothness of one Freddie “Boom Boom” Washington. And still others stood in quiet awe of Juan Epstein and his unsurpassed ability to forge notes from his mother.
Then there was Arnold Horshack, the goofy, guffawing, naive and sweet Sweathog who won the nation’s heart with his constant enthusiasm for answering questions in class. Horshack was played by a young actor named Ron Palillo. Does anyone want to know what he’s up to now? Please, don’t all raise your hands and shout, “Oooh! Oooh!” all at once.
Of all the mean girls in the history of television, the meanest might have been Nellie Oleson from “Little House on the Prairie.”
I mean, look at her picture over there. Just look at it. You want to punch her in the face, don’t you? Or at least convince Laura Ingalls (aka Melissa Gilbert) to swat her senseless with her braided pigtails, right?
Well, here’s the thing about that obnoxious, ringlet-haired, self-righteous, arrogant little Miss Oleson. She was played by a young actress named Alison Arngrim, who, by all accounts, seems to be completely unobnoxious. Which means you can’t, in good conscience, really want to hit her, back then or now.
Speaking of now, you may be wondering what Arngrim has been up to since she stopped regularly terrorizing sweet little girls with nicknames like Half Pint. Allow me to bring you up to speed.
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