In the summer of 1985, a teenager, a plutonium-powered DeLorean and an eccentric scientist sent moviegoers back to 1955, and audiences loved the trip. Back to the Future opened in U.S. theaters on July 3, 1985, and became the highest-grossing film of the year worldwide. It won the Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing, and in 2007 the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry. Decades later, many of the people who brought Hill Valley to life are still working, creating and greeting fans. Here's where they are now.
Billy Zane
Before he played a famous villain on the Titanic, Billy Zane was one of Biff's tough-guy friends in Hill Valley. Born February 24, 1966, in Chicago, Zane played Match, a member of Biff's 1955 gang, in Back to the Future, and he returned to the role in Back to the Future Part II in 1989. His breakout came that same year with the thriller Dead Calm, where he played the villain opposite Nicole Kidman and Sam Neill. He went on to play John Justice Wheeler in the second season of Twin Peaks and the title hero of The Phantom in 1996. In 1997 he played Caledon Hockley, Rose's wealthy fiancé, in Titanic. He has kept busy since, playing Marlon Brando in Waltzing with Brando in 2024. He is also an abstract expressionist painter who has shown his work in many exhibitions.
Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox was born June 9, 1961, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He was already a TV star as Alex P. Keaton on NBC's Family Ties when he stepped in to play Marty McFly in Back to the Future. Family Ties won him Emmy Awards in 1986, 1987 and 1988, and his Back to the Future role earned a Golden Globe nomination. He later starred as Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty on ABC's Spin City and won another Emmy in 2000. That year he also founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation to fund Parkinson's disease research. He received the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 2022 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2025. His life and career are the subject of the 2023 documentary Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. He has written several books, including Lucky Man and Future Boy, and in 2025 he was cast in the third season of Shrinking.
Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Lloyd was born October 22, 1938, in Stamford, Connecticut. He won two Primetime Emmy Awards for playing "Reverend" Jim Ignatowski on the sitcom Taxi. He then created one of film's best-loved scientists, Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown, in the Back to the Future trilogy, which ran from 1985 to 1990. He also played the villainous Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values. Lloyd has stayed remarkably busy in recent years. He played David Mansell in the action film Nobody and its 2025 sequel, appeared in season three of The Mandalorian, and earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for a guest role on Hacks. In 2025 he joined Wednesday as Professor Orloff.
Lea Thompson
Lea Thompson was born May 31, 1961, in Rochester, Minnesota, and trained in ballet with American Ballet Theatre before turning to acting. She played Lorraine Baines McFly, Marty's mother, across the Back to the Future trilogy. She also starred in Howard the Duck and as Amanda Jones in Some Kind of Wonderful, and later played the title role in the NBC sitcom Caroline in the City from 1995 to 1999. Younger viewers know her as Kathryn Kennish on Switched at Birth, which ran from 2011 to 2017. Thompson has built a second career as a director, with credits including episodes of Star Trek: Picard and Resident Alien. She and her husband, director Howard Deutch, have two daughters, Madelyn Deutch and Zoey Deutch, and both are actresses.
Crispin Glover
Crispin Glover was born April 20, 1964, in New York City and moved to Los Angeles at age five. He is the son of actor Bruce Glover. His role as Marty's awkward father, George McFly, made him famous, but he did not return for the sequels. After footage of him was reused in Part II without his permission, he sued, and the case settled out of court. The case led to Screen Actors Guild contract rules that restrict this kind of reuse. Glover went on to play the Thin Man in Charlie's Angels, the title role in Willard and the Knave of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland. He played Mr. World on Starz's American Gods. He also directs his own art films and tours them with live slide shows. His third feature premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in 2025.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_to_the_Future
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Zane
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Billy_Zane.jpg
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Billy_Zane_(54690208409).jpg
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_J._Fox
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michael_J._Fox_1985_(cropped).jpg
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michael_J._Fox_2012_(cropped).jpg
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Lloyd
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christopher_Lloyd_2012.jpg
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christopher_Lloyd_C2E2_2024_6.jpg
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lea_Thompson
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lea_Thompson_by_Gregg_Bond_(2008)_(cropped).jpg
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lea_Thompson_February_2015_(cropped).jpg
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispin_Glover
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crispin_Glover.JPG
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crispin_Glover_at_Indiana_University_Cinema,_Bloomington_IN,_2013.jpg
