He followed up the gig with an appearance in 1984’s Gremlins and a turn as Det. The biggest little known actor in Fast Times was easily Nicolas Cage, whose character basically stood around and high-fived Judge Reinhold throughout the entire flick. While Cage’s career has definitely taken a huge turn towards the ridiculous, he has also given us some stellar performances since he high-fived his way through Fast Times. Prepare to get Jackson Browne stuck in your head for at least a few days. Filming & Production | While Spicoli was using the restroom, Russo’s random robber guy entered the gas station, and threatened the increasingly unhinged new employee, Brad Hamilton, with a gun. Some posit Cage’s turn to direct-to-video flicks has much to do with a bit of trouble he got into with the IRS due to some unpaid taxes, but whatever fiscal issues he has had, he still gave us Face Off and Con Air, so we'll love him forever. He appeared in everything from 2000’s Loser to the soap opera Santa Barbara to the contemporary classic Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol.
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Since Fast Times ended, Reinhold has continued to work steadily in the business, with memorable parts in both television and film, from Detective Billy Rosewood in the Beverly Hills Cop series to his guest appearances on Arrested Development to his role as Neil Miller in The Santa Clause movies. Then a relatively unknown actor, Forest Whitaker nabbed his second movie gig with Fast Times at Ridgemont High. She has worked steadily since Fast Times ended, and most recently, she has appeared in guest starring spots on shows like Major Crimes and Murder in the First. Amanda Wyss found her spot in Fast Times at Ridgemont High as Lisa, Brad’s high school girlfriend. Phoebe Cates is an actress ‘80s movie buffs know quite well.
Brian Backer made his movie debut in 1981, appearing in The Burning. Cage, who was then billed as Nicolas Coppola, his birth name, decided to change his last name to Cage after the film—a move that was at least partly influenced by the comic character Luke Cage—and get serious about acting. Since the early ‘80s, Whitaker has starred in droves of quality films, from his Oscar winning turn as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland to his role as Saw Gerrera in Rogue One last year. gave us Fast Times’ most legendary pick-up line when he placed his food order, asking Stacy for “a meatball sandwich, a medium Coke, and your phone number?” Smooth, Ron, smooth.
Recently, she had a memorable turn in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, earning the first Oscar nomination (for Best Supporting Actress) of her career. Reinhold ran into a minor bit of legal trouble when he was arrested in December 2016 for a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge at a Dallas airport. Phoebe Cates first hit the big screen in 1982, playing Sarah in Paradise and the daring popular student Linda Barrett in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Later in his career, Stoltz branched out, expanding his portfolio to include producing and directing. The actor’s post-Arnold roles include turns in Johnny Dangerously (1984), The Couch Trip (1988), Mr. Jones (1993), Twister (1996), Blast from the Past (1999), Vamps (2012), and the Police Academy movies, in which he played Chad Copeland. Revisit Ridgemont and catch up with the cast of the teen classic, Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection; Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images, Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection; Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images, Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection; Mark Davis/Getty Images, Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection; Michael Tullberg/Getty Images, Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection; Kevin Mazur/WireImage, Carlos Osorio/Toronto Star via Getty Images. Before he became a household name as Tom Cruise’s doomed radar intercept officer, Anthony Edwards was Spicoli’s other Stoner Bud, a lowly, floppy haired surfer with a mere cigarette to his name. He followed up that role with a turn as Mark “Rat” Ratner in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, a student attempting to woo the beautiful Stacy. But there’s one thing we’re left wondering: is he still looking for those Earth, Wind, and Fire tickets? Consensual statutory rape is still statutory rape, after all.