

Opening Logo courtesy of Benjamin J. Colón (Soul Exodus)

Last week, I started a look at The Monster Squad to see where the cast members are today. I’m wrapping that up this week, looking at the two biggest monsters and the rest of the main cast. Let’s not waste any time!

Duncan Regehr

Role: Count Dracula

Before: Duncan Regehr’s lived quite a life. When he was a teenager, he was a champion figure skater and had his own radio program. He was also a boxer and a classically trained Skaespearean actor. This was all before he started working in film. He’s also a painter and first displayed his work in 1974 at the Stratford Festival in Ontario. As far as film and TV goes, before The Monster Squad he had some TV roles (including a recurring role on something called Matt and Jenny) and was in the TV miniseries The Last Days of Pompeii, as well as four episodes of V.

After: He went right back to painting and acting in TV roles. He played Zorro in the 90-93 series of the same name, had several Star Trek appearances and showed up in Air Bud 3. His most recent film appearance was a short film called The Strange Case of DJ Cosmic. He released an art book called The Dragon’s Eye: An Artist’s View, whihc received critical acclaim. He still regularly displays his art, which you can find at his official website.

Tom Noonan

Role: Frankenstein’s Monster

Before: Tom Noonan is also a classically trained actor, as he graduated from Yale and founded the Paradise Theatre in 1983. He started out big with his acting career, with appearances in the notorious bomb Heaven’s Gate, as well as supporting roles in Wolfen and F/X. In the same year as The Monster Squad, he played Francis Dolarhyde in Manhunter.

After: He’s made a name for himself playing villain roles thanks to his work in Manhunter and presumably, part of his work with this film. He went on to play Cain in Robocop 2 and Ripper in Last Action Hero. He also appeared in everything from Heat and The Astronaut’s Wife to Synecdoche, New York and The House of the Devil. He also had a regular TV role in Damages as Detective Victor Huntley and another on Hell on Wheels as Reverend Nathaniel Cole. His most recent role was as the Pallid Man on Syfy’s 12 Monkeys show. He’s also worked as a writer and director, most notably (to horror fans like us, anyway), two episodes of Monsters.

Jon Gries

Role: Desparate Man (Wolfman’s Human Form)

Before: Before I list what he’s been in, I have to say that research Gries led to the most interesting results, for me anyway. It’s weird finding out who people went on to play. Anyway, Gries started out all the way back in 1967 in a Western called Will Penny. Nearly a decade later, he appeared in TV shows like The Jeffersons and the 80s version of The Twilight Zone while showing up in movies like Real Genius and TerrorVision. You may recognize him as O.D., the stereotypical 80s rocker that the sister is dating. Or maybe only I would, since I’ve seen TerrorVision more times than I’ll admit.

After: He’s Uncle Rico! Seriously, he went on to play Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite. I don’t even like that movie, but it was still cool to find that out. He was also in Fright Night Part 2 and played Shawn in Martin. If that’s not enough, he had a recurring role as Broots in The Pretender and showed in movies like Get Shorty, Men in Black and The Rundown. He also played Roger Linus in Lost and had a role in all three Taken movies. His most recent role is a TV show called Dream Corp LLC, which is currently in post-production.

Stephen Macht

Role: Del Crenshaw

Before: Hey look, it’s another character actor that had a lot of work over the years. Macht is yet another classically trained actor who was starring at a Canadian Shakespeare festival when he was discovered. He had roles in TV shows like Serpico (which apparently was a TV show), Kojak and The Six Million Dollar Man before going on to appear in films like The Last Winter and a wide variety of made-for-TV movies.

After: He appeared in one of my personal guilty pleasures, Graveyard Shift, as Warwick. You may remember him as the character who got annihilated by Pennywise in our Stephen King Knockout tournament last October. Macht went on to appear in Full Moon’s Trancers sequels, Amityville: It’s About Time and several unrelated episodes of Murder, She Wrote. After the 90s, he got a regular role on the soap opera General Hospital, playing Trevor Lansing, among other various TV and film appearances. His most recent role was an episode of Suits, where he once again played Henry Gerard.

Mary Ellen Trainor

Role: Emily Crenshaw

Before: If you grew up in the 80s, you probably saw Mary Ellen Trainor a lot. She played a lot of moms back then. She actually started out working at radio stations before appearing in an episode of Cheers in 1983. She went on to have roles in Romancing the Stone, The Goonies and Lethal Weapon, and that was all before this movie. She was also married to director Robert Zemeckis, which could be why she appeared in several of his movies.

After: She kept going. She came back for the other three Lethal Weapon movies, had a recurirng role in Parker Lewis Can’t Lose and once again showed up in family movies like Little Giants and Freaky Friday. She can also be seen in Congo, Executive Decision and the show Roswell.

Sadly, Trainor passed away last year (almost a year ago, May 20) due to complications of pancreative cancer. Her final film role was a TV movie called McBride: Requiem in 2008.

Jason Hervey

Role: E.J.

Before: E.J.’s a really small role but I had to include it because of who plays him. Jason Hervey started acting at the age of four, showing up in over 250 commercials. He also had small roles in Back to the Future and Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, along with recurring role on Diff’rent Strokes.

After: I think anyone who grew up at the same time I did remembers Hervey as Wayne Arnold, the big brother from hell, on The Wonder Years. I saw him in reruns of that show before I ever saw The Monster Squad. That show ran for six seasons before it finally wrapped up in 1993. He didn’t act a whole lot after that, although he did voice the title character in 10 Deeds for Eddie McDowd. His last acting role was voicing Dove on Justice League, reuniting him with Fred Savage (who voiced Hawk).

He’s actually had a lot of work as a producer, including an executive producer for both WCW and TNA (hi wrestling fans!). He’s also produced a number of reality shows, working directly with Eric Bischoff. His most recent produced show is The Devil’s Ride. The two have their own production company called Bischoff Hervey Entertainment.

Lisa Fuller

Role: Patrick’s Sister

Before: Lisa Fuller mostly acted in the late 80s, so that’s where the bulk of her work is. Before The Monster Squad, she mostly had guest roles in TV shows like Mr. Belvedere and 21 Jump Street.

After: She’s still acting and also works as a talent agent. She’s also married to actor/director Dan Gauthier. As far as what she’s been in, she appeared in an episode of Freddy’s Nightmares (and reading that gave me some serious PTSD from March). She was also in Earth Girls Are Easy, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Teen Witch. Her final acting role was in 2008 (after a sixteen year hiatus), a short film called The Art of Getting Over It.

Jack Gwillim

Role: Van Helsing

Before: Our final entry is another classically trained actor, who actually didn’t start theatre until he was middle-aged. He was busy serving in the Royal Navy for 20 years, becoming a Commander (one of the youngest ever to get that rank). Oh, and if that wasn’t enough he was a boxer and rugby player. So before he ever got into acting he had one hell of an exciting life. Once he transitioned into film and TV, he showed up in the 1950s, in a variety of different things. He acted for a half century, it’s difficult to pick out a ton of notable roles from that.

He had a bit part in Lawrence of Arabia, a supporting role in Jason and the Argonauts and even an uncredited role in Thunderball. That was just the 60s, and it wasn’t even all of it. As the decades continued, he had roles in Patton and Clash of the Titans, among others.

After: He actually didn’t act a whole lot in film after The Monster Squad. He had some TV movie roles and a short film or two, but nothing huge. He did act a lot on the stage, and was happily married. He passed away at the age of 91 in 2001 after living lives for approximately five different people. I don’t think he died so much as needed a break from being awesome all the time.

Next week, it’s time to revisit another show! I’m tackling Tales From the Crypt, but due to the sheer amount of episodes I won’t be able to do it in a month like I did with Freddy’s Nightmares. Instead, I’m going to pace myself and do a season at a time. Season one is the shortest, so you get that next week!

Ending Notes:

That’s it for me. Leave some comments here, on my Twitter or my Facebook.



Closing Logo courtesy of Kyle Morton (get your own custom artwork and commissions at his Etsy account)

A Bloody Good Time: The Store is now officially open! Like this design? You can now find it on most of my merchandise! Click here to find shirts, posters and more!

For those interested in more of my movie reviews, I’ve created a new blog! Check out the brand new Not-So-Bloody Good Time!

See you next week!