A love letter to baby boomers, Lawrence Kasdan’s “The Big Chill,” which celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2023, served as an early platform for notable 1980s actors like Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, William Hurt, Jeff Goldblum, and Tom Berenger. The movie tells the tale of a group of college buddies who reunite for the burial of one of their fellow classmates who committed suicide 15 years after they graduated from the University of Michigan. After the funeral, they congregate in one of their large South Carolina homes where they spend the weekend talking about the past, flirting, listening to old songs, eating, drinking, and doing drugs. The film received praise for its candid depiction of the anguish of 30-something professionals on campuses during the turbulent 1960s who desired to change the world, and it has been regarded as an inspiration for the well-liked ABC series “Thirtysomething.”
Three Oscar nominations, including best picture, were given to “The Big Chill.” Its soundtrack was renowned for including timeless tunes from the 1960s and 1970s by artists including Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. According to The New York Times, one of the movie’s stars, William Hurt, tragically passed suddenly on March 13, 2022, at the age of 71, from complications related to prostate cancer. We examine the surviving players, their accomplishments since “The Big Chill,” and their current situations.
Glenn Close
For her portrayal of Dr. Sarah Cooper, who welcomes the couple’s former college pals into their house along with her husband Harold (Kevin Kline), Glenn Close won the second of eight Oscar nods. When she was chosen for the role of Robin Williams’ feminist mother in “The Big Chill,” Close had just made her triumphant feature film debut.
After “The Big Chill,” Close appeared in “The Natural,” “Jagged Edge,” “Fatal Attraction,” and “Dangerous Liaisons,” becoming one of the most active actresses of the 1980s. Close made her acting debut in the five-season FX drama “Damages” in 2007. With “Albert Nobbs,” which she co-wrote, co-produced, and featured in as a woman who lives her life as a man in 19th-century Ireland, Close brought a passion project to the big screen in 2011.
With roles in the Broadway musicals “The Real Thing,” “Death and the Maiden,” and “Sunset Boulevard,” Close has had a distinguished stage career. Three Emmys, three Golden Globes, and three Tony Awards have been given to Close, but the Oscar has escaped her for a very long time. She shares the record for the most Oscar nominations without a victory with the late Peter O’Toole. Close told The Associated Press shortly after losing her final nomination for best supporting actress in 2020’s “Hillbilly Elegy”: “First of all, I don’t think I’m a loser.” “Who is the loser in that group? You are among the five people recognised by your colleagues for the work you have accomplished. What is superior than that?”
Jeff Goldblum
By the time he received widespread recognition in “The Big Chill” as Michael, a would-be novelist who makes his living writing flimsy articles for People magazine while fantasising about running a posh nightclub, Jeff Goldblum had more than a dozen big-screen credits. Despite the fact that he has his own girlfriend back home, he develops feelings for Chloe (Meg Tilly), the girlfriend of his deceased comrade Alex. Goldblum has since gone on to star in some of the highest-grossing movies of all time and has established himself as a beloved figure in popular culture. In David Cronenberg’s 1986 adaptation of “The Fly,” which also starred Geena Davis, who Goldblum was married to from 1987 to 1991, Goldblum played the performance that has garnered him the greatest praise.
Goldblum is a popular talk show host and has twice hosted “Saturday Night Live.” He is tall and lanky with a continuously bewildered expression on his face.
He has been a favourite target of many impressionists thanks to his distinctive look and odd demeanour. For his direction of the live-action short film “Little Surprises” in 1996, Goldblum received an Oscar nomination. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2018. Goldblum most recently appeared as the fictitious spokesperson for Apartments.com, Brad Bellflower, in a number of TV advertisements.
JoBeth Williams
JoBeth Williams, a well-known face in movies in the early 1980s, added “The Big Chill” to a filmography that already had the hits “Kramer vs. Kramer,” “Stir Crazy,” and “Poltergeist.” Williams portrayed homemaker Karen Bowens, who previously harboured aspirations of becoming a writer. She is in an unhappy marriage, which causes her to flirt with Sam (Tom Berenger), an old acquaintance and the college love of her life. Williams was in mind when writer-director Lawrence Kasdan created the character of Karen; he had been pleased by her performances in “Kramer vs. Kramer” and “Poltergeist.” Williams stated in “The Big Chill: A Reunion” that she “wanted to play the part that Mary Kay [Place] portrayed, the lawyer who wanted to have a baby and felt her clock ticking and all that because it was something I could really identify to.”
The renowned 1983 TV movie “Adam,” the miniseries “Baby M,” and two cameo appearances on “Frasier” in 1994 are among Williams’ notable television roles (all three earned Williams Emmy nominations).
She was nominated for an Oscar for “On Hope,” a 1994 live-action short film that she co-produced and directed.
Kevin Costner
Kevin Costner does not appear in “The Big Chill” at all. He was, as they say, “dead on arrival.” Although Costner filmed the sequences, they weren’t included in the final product. He was cast as the body of Alex Marshall, the guy whose unexpected death draws his old college friends together. This would have been a fatal blow for the majority of actors, but Lawrence Kasdan put Costner in “Silverado” two years later, and by the end of the 1980s, he was one of Hollywood’s hottest stars.
As Eliot Ness in the 1987 motion picture adaptation of “The Untouchables,” Costner enjoyed great success. Later, he appeared in “Bull Durham” (1988) and “Field of Dreams,” two of the greatest sports movies ever filmed, which were both about baseball. Fans and detractors alike admired him for his good looks and down-to-earth personality. With “Dance with Wolves,” he took a significant gamble by producing and directing a lengthy three-hour Western epic, but it paid off. It received positive reviews and helped Costner win two Oscars that year for best director and best picture, beating Martin Scorsese and “Goodfellas” in the process. Costner would go on to star in both popular films and duds, including Whitney Houston’s “The Bodyguard,” “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” and “JFK,” as well as the universally disliked “Waterworld” and “The Postman.”
Costner was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003. He received an Emmy in 2012 for his performance in the miniseries “Hatfields & McCoys.” He presently plays the lead in the Western TV series “Yellowstone” on Paramount+.
Kevin Kline
Kevin Kline was a well-known Broadway performer who was just beginning to make a name for himself in the film industry thanks to his powerful film debut in 1982’s “Sophie’s Choice.” He would later win an Oscar for best supporting actor in 1988’s “A Fish Called Wanda,” a rare recognition of a broad comic performance. Since then, Kline has earned a reputation as one of America’s most versatile performers, acting with equal skill in comedies and dramas.
Harold and Sarah Cooper, played by Kline and Glenn Close, are a married couple who welcome their former college pals into their house while they grieve the loss of their comrade Alex. Harold is a prosperous businessman who occasionally speaks too freely and shares insider trading secrets with friends. Klein loved being a part of the cast and has nothing but good things to say about William Hurt. Bill is occasionally beautifully impossible, Kline said to Bobby Wygant. “never on location. On the set, he behaves quite professionally. If you argue with Bill off the set, be prepared for a serious trip. He is extremely intelligent and passionate.”
Kline has received four Tony Award nominations and has won three of them, most recently in 2017 for the revival of “Present Laughter” by Noel Coward.
One of the longest marriages in recent memory in the entertainment industry, Kline has been wed to fellow actor Phoebe Cates since 1989. Owen, an actor, writer, and director, and Greta, a musician, are the couple’s two children. Kline most recently appeared in “The Good House” alongside Sigourney Weaver, who he had previously worked with in “The Ice Storm” and “Dave.”
Mary Kay Place
The role of Meg, a lawyer whose biological clock is ticking so loudly it wakes the neighbours, is played by veteran character actress Mary Kay Place. During the weekend gathering for the funeral of their friend Alex, she sets her sights on her male college buddies as a way to make it happen. Meg is the most intricate and well-developed female character in “The Big Chill.” It’s understandable why Glenn Close and JoBeth Williams both expressed interest in the part after reading the screenplay.
Place began her career writing on television, penning stories for “M*A*S*H,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” and “Phyllis.” She co-starred in “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” a parody soap opera from the 1970s, for which she won an Emmy. In 1977, she was nominated for a Grammy Award for best female country vocal performance for the album “Tonite! At the Capri Lounge… Loretta Haggers,” on which she sang as her “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” persona. She is also a skilled country vocalist. Beginning in the late 1980s, Place began helming episodes of various TV shows, including “Friends” (1995), “Dream On,” and “Arliss,” both for HBO. She starred in the independent film “Diane” in 2018, for which she received best actress awards from the National Society of Film Critics and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
Meg Tilly
Meg Tilly is a quirky actress who rose to prominence for her role as Chloe in “The Big Chill.” She received praise for her supporting role as a gullible nun in the 1985 film “Agnes of God,” for which she received a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar nomination. Alex, a friend from college who committed suicide, was dating Tilly’s Chloe. She is flighty, inexperienced, and younger than the rest of the gang. She and Alex had only been together for four months, and she didn’t appear to be grieving his passing. Michael (Jeff Goldblum), who is interested in Chloe after she captures his attention, approaches her, but she is more intrigued by the drug-addicted, drug-impaired, and emotionally damaged Nick (William Hurt).
According to KTLA, Tilly took a 15-year break from acting to raise her children. She made a comeback in 2010 for a number of TV projects, including two seasons of the Canadian drama series “Bomb Girls.” Between 1994 and 2018, she published seven novels as an author. Tilly has had three marriages. She started dating fellow actor Colin Firth in 1989, and they were together for five years before having a kid. She appeared in two episodes of “Chucky,” a horror series on Syfy and USA Network, as a guest star in 2022.
Tom Berenger
In “The Big Chill,” Tom Berenger portrayed Sam Weber, a well-known TV actor modelled after Tom Selleck. Sam is the star of “J.T. Lancer,” a weekly action/detective programme that obviously pays homage to “Magnum P.I.” After delivering a strong performance in Oliver Stone’s 1986 film “Platoon,” Berenger went on to get a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nod for best supporting actor. Lawrence Kasdan, the writer-director of the film, recalls, “I had loved Tom Berenger in [‘Butch and Sundance: The Early Years,’ in which he played a young Paul Newman and was very good. He had a lot of charm, and I believed he would be hilarious as Sam the TV star.
The movies “Major League,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” “Gettysburg,” and “Inception,” among others, that Berenger has starred in are also noteworthy. For the television show “Cheers,” Berenger was nominated for an Emmy in 1993 for his performance as a guest actor. In 2012, he won the award for the miniseries “Hatfields & McCoys.” After seeing Jane Fonda in “Barbarella,” Berenger admitted to Larry King that he had a boyhood love on the actress. Berenger has six kids from four different marriages.
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