9 Anthony Michael Hall Roles You May Have Forgotten
Anthony Michael Hall will always be tied to Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Weird Science, but his résumé did not stop with those John Hughes classics. He was working before them, tried to shake off the teen-comedy image almost as soon as it arrived, and later found a whole new audience on TV, headlining his sci-fi drama.
Here are nine Hall roles you may have forgotten…
1982: Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn
CBS/Everett Collection
Before his best-known 1980s movies, Hall played Huckleberry Finn in the CBS TV movie Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Patrick Creadon played Tom Sawyer, and the cast also included Cynthia Nixon, Anthony Zerbe, and Ed Begley Jr. It aired in February 1982, one year before Hall turned up as Rusty Griswold in National Lampoon’s Vacation.
1982: Six Pack
Everett Collection
Hall also appeared in Six Pack, the 1982 racing comedy-drama starring Kenny Rogers. Rogers played Brewster Baker, a race car driver who gets mixed up with a group of kids, and Hall played Doc Aikens. Diane Lane played Heather “Breezy” Aikens, making this an early big-screen role for both young actors.
1985-86: Saturday Night Live
NBC/Everett Collection
After Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, Hall joined Saturday Night Live for the 1985-86 season. He was 17 at the time, making him the youngest cast member in the show’s history. His season also included Robert Downey Jr., Joan Cusack, Randy Quaid, Jon Lovitz, Nora Dunn and Danitra Vance, but Hall’s run on the show lasted only one season.
1986: Out of Bounds
Columbia Pictures/Everett Collection
Hall took on a darker lead role in Out of Bounds, a 1986 thriller directed by Richard Tuggle. He played Daryl Cage, an Iowa teen who heads to Los Angeles and gets pulled into a dangerous crime story after a baggage mix-up. He was starting to actively move away from the awkward teen roles he was known for.
1988: Johnny Be Good
Everett Collection
In Johnny Be Good, Hall played Johnny Walker, a high school football star being chased by college recruiters. Downey Jr. played Johnny’s best friend, Leo Wiggins, while Uma Thurman played Georgia Elkans, Johnny’s girlfriend. It reunited Hall with Downey Jr. after their Saturday Night Live season and gave him another very 1980s teen role, this time centered on football.
1990: Edward Scissorhands
20th Century Fox Film Corp./Everett Collection
Hall went against his typecasting again in Tim Burton‘s Edward Scissorhands. Johnny Depp played Edward, Winona Ryder played Kim Boggs, and Hall played Jim, Kim’s boyfriend. Instead of the sweet, awkward kid, Hall played one of the movie’s nastier human characters.
1994: Hail Caesar
Hall starred in and directed Hail Caesar, a 1994 comedy and his feature directing debut. He played Julius, the lead singer of a rock band who works in an eraser factory while dreaming of a record deal. The cast also included Downey, Samuel L. Jackson, Frank Gorshin, and Judd Nelson.
1999: Pirates of Silicon Valley
Everett Collection
Hall later played Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in the 1999 TV movie Pirates of Silicon Valley, about the early rivalry between Apple and Microsoft. Noah Wyle played Steve Jobs, Joey Slotnick played Steve Wozniak, and John DiMaggio played Steve Ballmer.
2002-07: The Dead Zone
Philippe Bosse/Lions Gate Television/Courtesy: Everett Collection
Hall found a major TV role with The Dead Zone, the USA Network series based on Stephen King‘s novel. He played Johnny Smith, a science teacher who wakes up from a coma with psychic abilities. The series ran for six seasons from 2002 to 2007, and he appeared in all 81 episodes.
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