What happened to the cast of Weird Science? One gave up ‘diamonds for dirt’, another carried on in Hollywood and one is a legally blind professor

A great example of the ’80s sci-fi comedy genre, Weird Science has gained a new fan base four decades after its first popular theatrical release.

The movie tells the story of two nerdy students who create the girl of their dreams using a doll and some old-school computer programs.

Considered by many to be a hidden classic, it was relegated to the backseat to the 1985 teen comedy The Breakfast Club; both films written and directed by the legendary John Hughes within months of each other.

Grossing $38.9 million (£29 million) against a budget of $7.5 million (£5.6 million), Weird Science was met with positive reviews and enjoyed by schoolchildren and their parents alike.

It also launched the careers of its fledgling leading ladies and even boasted some names among its supporting cast who went on to become Hollywood’s leading stars.

So where is the cast of the weird but funny TV series Strange Science now?

Of all the stars created by the hard-hitting comedy movie, Kelly LeBrock was the name on most viewers’ lips as they left the theater.

She played Lisa, a doll-turned-woman who achieves her goal of finding leads Gary and Wyatt’s girlfriends and reconciling the latter with his evil brother Chet.

The movie tells the story of two nerdy students who create the girl of their dreams in order to cope with the dementors in high school (LR in the picture: Robert Rusler, Robert Downey Jr and Hall)

The American actress, who grew up in Kensington, west London, was a Christian Dior model before landing her first role as the ‘perfect’ woman – the first of many – in 1984’s The Woman In Red.

The romantic comedy was written and directed by Gene Wilder (aka the original Willy Wonka) and stars Kelly as the comedy legend’s love interest.

Following this and the success of Weird Science, Hollywood executives raced to find the actor for their latest blockbuster.

However, Kelly made a shocking decision to take a break from acting until she returned to the big screen in 1990 with her husband Steven Seagal in the movie Hard To Kill.

Over the next two decades, she appeared in a number of films, including Wrongously Accused, Zerophilia and the British film The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and even appeared in an episode of Hell’s Kitchen in 2007.

The woman, who has two children with Steven, son Dominic and daughter Arissa, married retired investment banker Fred Steck in 2007 and filed for divorce before splitting from him the following year.

This month, Kelly talked about giving up ‘diamonds for dirt’ while enjoying a rare night on the town at the Vanderpump Dog Gala.

Wearing a cowboy hat and boots personalized with his initials, the star, now 65, spoke exclusively to The Daily Mail about his idyllic life farming livestock in the countryside.

Kelly played Lisa, who has morphed into the real-life woman in the picture, left, but recently said she was giving up ‘diamonds for dirt’ at a show in Los Angeles this month, right

‘Dinner, drinks. “Just seeing everyone,” he said when asked what he was looking forward to that evening. “I don’t go out much anymore. I’m a bit of a recluse, but I like it that way.”

‘I left the diamonds for the land; “I have a big farm with horses, cattle, dogs and chickens, and I take care of it myself,” he said. ‘I have a man who comes and helps one day a week.’

The property is located behind a lake in the Santa Ynez Valley, which Kelly describes as a ‘little gem’.

‘Behind the lake. Its own little gem. I live in church. “The countryside there is so incredible,” he said.

Kelly also talked about her past health issues, particularly skin cancer.

The star was promoting a new skin care product for animals while addressing her past health issues.

He added: ‘I had a huge skin cancer here, they put a big hole in me and it was completely gone. You can’t even see it.”

Kelly said he had contracted the disease ‘several times’.

Anthony was just 17 years old when he played Gary, pictured on the left. In 2023, the actor pictured waxed poetic about his wife Lucia and welcoming his first child two years ago.

In Weird Science, the people responsible for creating Kelly-Lisa are underdog teenagers Gary and Wyatt.

Tired of being humiliated by their high school’s alpha males, Ian and Max, and jealous of their cheerleader friends, the duo are inspired by watching Frankenstein and decide to create their own beings that are a little less monster-like.

Lisa manages to bring the kids out of their shells by throwing parties and driving them around in her Cadillac and Porsche.

And thanks to Lisa’s cunning plan, her mission is accomplished when the duo wins the affections of their tormentors’ girlfriends, Deb and Hilly.

The computer-programmed woman singles out some scary bikers who take Deb and Hilly hostage, but when Gary and Wyatt stand up to the bad guys, the girls fall for the heroes.

Anthony Michael Hall was just 17 years old when he played Gary and was a key member of John Hughes’ ‘Brat Pack’, a group of young actors who starred in films such as The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles.

In an effort to shake off the geek type, Anthony played the school’s star quarterback in Johnny Be Good, then starred opposite Johnny Depp in the disturbing gothic fantasy Edward Scissorhands.

After a quiet decade in the ’90s, the actor returned to the public spotlight by starring in USA Network’s science fiction series The Dead Zone between 2002 and 2007.

Ilan played Wyatt in Weird Science, pictured left, and was only 16 at the time, but the star, pictured right, has given up the screen to become an academic since 2013.

Anthony also played a supporting character in 2008’s critically acclaimed adaptation of Batman, The Dark Knight, and appeared in a number of roles in the 2010s.

This year, he starred as the main character in the third season of Amazon’s hit series Reacher, leaving fans in awe, many of whom hadn’t seen him since the ’80s.

Hall became engaged to Slovak-Canadian actress Lucia Oskerova in 2019, and they had a son named Michael in 2023.

He said of fatherhood: ‘Everything everyone tells you is pretty true: you’ll lose sleep and it’s the craziest time, but it’s the best time. So we really enjoy it.”

Anthony waxed poetic about Lucia, saying her ‘tiger mother instincts kicked in and she was on top of things.’

‘He does great research and we read tons of books and at the same time we’re just learning the business, getting involved,’ he said. ‘We loved it, it was really great to be in full parent mode.

‘I couldn’t be happier because even as a young man I always knew I wanted to start later. Here I am 55 years old and completely committed. I am excited. My wife and I are really interested in parenting and diving into it.’

Earlier this year, Anthony reminisced about his time working on 1983’s National Lampoon’s Vacation, in which he starred opposite Saturday Night Live legend Chevy Chase.

Robert plays school jock Ian in the popular sci-fi series, seen left, and the star, seen right, became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in October.

On Chevy’s behavior on set, he said: ‘Adolescence has begun for me. I was one step taller and like a different kid.

‘Guess who brought this shit up right away and made me feel really good about it on set?’

Ilan Mitchell-Smith played Wyatt in Weird Science and was only 16 years old at the time.

But his film career was already well underway, starring in Sidney Lumet’s Daniel in 1982 and starring in The Wild Life in 1984.

None of his subsequent films were as popular as Weird Science, leading Ilan to cap it off with a cameo in 1991’s Silk Stalkings.

Echoing his nerdy character in Weird Science, the New Yorker earned a degree in Medieval Studies from the University of California, Davis, in 1991 before earning a master’s degree from Fordham University.

The former actor later earned his doctorate from Texas A&M University in 2005.

Since 2020, he has served as an associate professor of English at California State University, Long Beach, and also teaches at a Texas university.

In addition to his work on cinema, television, and video game versions of medieval culture, Ilan has published articles on chivalry in the late Middle Ages.

He took his interest in that period to a different area by writing articles on the popular computer game Dungeons & Dragons and writing articles for game magazines.

The Weird Science graduate married psychotherapist Susannah Demaree in 1995, and the couple’s children were born in 1998 and 2000.

Ilan became legally blind after being diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa in 2014.

Having slightly more success after his star turn in Weird Science was Ilan’s fellow young star, Oscar-winning Hollywood star Robert Downey Jr.

The actor plays school jock Ian in the sci-fi hit and based on his performance, he embarked on an illustrious career that continues to this day.

He also appeared in the Brat Pack film Less Than Zero in 1987, but left the group to play Charlie Chaplin in 1992’s Chaplin, for which he won a BAFTA and was nominated for an Academy Award.

Robert’s burgeoning film career was put on hold in 2000 after he was sent to Corcoran Substance Abuse Treatment on drug charges and was kicked out of the TV series Ally McBeal following more drug arrests.

He won a Golden Globe for his role as Sherlock Holmes in the 2009 film of the same name, and became Hollywood’s leading actor with his role as Iron Man in 10 films between 2008 and 2019.

The star was the industry’s highest-paid actor from 2013 to 2015, and in 2023, he received critical acclaim for his role as Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer, for which he won an Oscar.

After divorcing singer Deborah Falconer, he married film producer Susan Levin in 2005. They have two children, and Robert has another child from his first marriage.

The star spoke about his time in prison in 2023, saying prison had ‘evil in the air’ and that it was the ‘most dangerous place’ he had ever been.

Delano described a facility in California as a reception center where he was present and that it was “probably the most dangerous place I’ve ever been in my life.”

The center housed all inmates before they were assigned to specific prisons, and Downey said they were especially dangerous because the most serious criminals were incarcerated along with people convicted of nonviolent or misdemeanor crimes.

Robert has been sober since 2003.