Take A Look Back at the Original Cast of 'Road House' Ahead of the Amazon Prime Reboot!

Jake Gyllenhaal is about to muscle in — quite literally — on Patrick Swayze’s Road House, his 1989 action film that’s now a cult favorite. “It’s been an incredible experience working with actual real fighters, reimagining a classic. There’s been a lot of the physical,” Gyllenhaal told Entertainment Tonight of his role of Dalton, an ex UFC fighter turned bouncer caught up in simmering battles involving a gang of bikers and outlaws down in the Florida Keys.

The film, which hits Amazon Prime Video on March 21 and co-stars Daniela Melchior (The Suicide Squad) and Jessica Williams (Shrinking), also marks the acting debut of former Ultimate Fighting Championship legend and mixed martial artist Conor McGregor.

The hard-hitting fighting scenes required Gyllenhaal to get into incredible physical shape to go head to head with the likes of McGregor and the other brutes in the cast of Road House. One of his secrets? Intense VersaClimber training at his trainer Jason Walsh’s Rise Nation studio in New York, according to talkSPORT. “We started training early 2022, and we didn’t wrap until early 2023,” Walsh noted on Instagram of the actor’s dedication.

Gyllenhaal’s muscles sure look big enough for the role, but how about his feet? “They’re big shoes to fill,” the actor told Good Morning America about stepping into one of Swayze’s most iconic roles in the cast of Road House. But he hopes to do his Donnie Darko co-star proud. “Patrick was a friend when he was here,” Gyllenhaal shared. “He was always so loving and lovely to me. I take that all to heart in playing the role and there are some things I take from him, but generally we made a whole new movie and I'm really excited about it.”

We’re sure the rest of the cast of Road House can’t wait to see the premiere of their version. But until then, let’s take a look at the original 1989 cast of Road House, which Swayze once described as “a modern-day western.”

See the original Road House cast then and now

The original road house, that is now a cult classic and starred Swayze as a cooler for at a newly refurbished roadside bar who protects a small town in Missouri from a corrupt businessman. With an ensemble cast, we can't wait to see if the reboot will be as good as the original. Catch up with the 1989 cast here!

Patrick Swayze as John Dalton

“A big part of the reason why I agreed to do this movie is that, in Texas, I grew up with this mentality,” Swayze told The Moving Picture Show of the film’s scrappy, fisticuffs energy. “It was all around me. Probably, subconsciously, I still wanted to work out, hopefully, the last of my angry young man syndrome. So Road House was very much a cathartic experience.”

The Houston-native beautifully balanced his toughness with artistry, thanks largely in part to the influence of his choreographer mother. He even starred as Danny in the original production of Grease on Broadway before transitioning into TV and films.

His most notable projects include 1983’s The Outsiders, 1984’s Red Dawn, the 1985 miniseries North and South, 1987’s sleeper hit Dirty Dancing, 1990’s Ghost, 1991’s Point Break and 1995’s To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. Along the way he also did a guest spot on M*A*S*H in 1981, danced in Toto’s 1982’s “Rosanna” video and did another stint on Broadway in 2003, lacing up the dancing shoes of Billy Flynn for the hit revival of Chicago.

MUST-READ: Patrick Swayze Movies: Celebrating the Charismatic Star’s Most Iconic Roles

Swayze sadly passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2009 at the age of 57. “Patrick was a really good man, a funny man and one to whom I owe much that I can’t ever repay. I believe in Ghost’s message, so he’ll always be near,” his co-star Whoopi Goldberg told People upon his death.

Kelly Lynch as Elizabeth Clay

“It was fantastic. It was one of the best times I’ve ever had,” Kelly Lynch, who played Dalton’s love interest Dr. Clay, said on The Rich Eisen Show about her experience being in the cast of Road House. “First of all, Sam Elliott and Patrick Swayze.… How many guys are ballerinas and quarterbacks who played football?” she asked, praising Swayze for doing all his own stunts in the film.

The former Minnesota-born model transitioned to film with success in such titles as 1988’s Bright Lights, Big City and Cocktail, 1989’s Drugstore Cowboy (for which she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead), 1991’s Curly Sue, 1995’s Virtuosity, and 2000’s Charlie’s Angels.

On TV, she had a recurring role on Showtime’s The L Word from 2004 through 2009, and appeared for a season of The CW’s 90210 in 2010. Most recently, she did a a guest spot last year on Physical, the Apple TV comedy-drama starring Rose Byrne and Zooey Deschanel.

Sam Elliott as Wade Garrett

“It’s like the ultimate male fantasy,” Sam Elliott said of being in the cast of Road House, in which he played Wade Garrett, a mentor to Swayze’s Dalton. “I loved Patrick. I thought his grace…just spoke volumes about what kind of a man he was. He was a real southern gentleman, Patrick, a gentle man to be around, and somebody who would kick your ass and get it done at the same time. It was a lot of fun to watch him work.”

Elliott made his film debut as a minor player in 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and he went on to be a popular star on TV (1979’s The Sacketts, 1982’s The Shadow Riders, 1983’s The Yellow Rose) and in films such as 1985’s Mask, opposite Cher, 1993’s Tombstone, 2017’s The Hero, and 2018’s A Star Is Born.

On TV, he’s won a Critics’ Choice Television award for his work on Justified, and he’s been voicing Wild Wild West on the animated series Family Guy since 2019. In 2021, he saddled up —and won a Screen Actors Guild award — for playing Shea Brennan on Taylor Sheridan’s 1883, starring Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. He recently finished providing voice work for the documentary The Gettysburg Address, which is due out next year.

MUST-READ: '1883' Star Sam Elliott: 12 Photos of His Life, Love & 50 Years as a Silver-Screen Cowboy

Ben Gazzara as Brad Wesley

When Ben Gazzara first read his character’s part of Brad Wesley in the script for Road House, it “made me laugh, and I figured, ‘I’ve got to do this, it’s too delicious,’” he told a reporter during a press junket at the time of playing the local business baddie. “I never worried about going over the top, because he was so much fun to play. You just worry about being the predictable villain. So, you try to find a sense of humor, the opposite colors to play, to play against the evil — and to have some fun with the part.”

Gazzara, who died in 2012 at the age of 81, started his career on the stage, starring in the original production of 1955’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and earning a Tony nomination for A Hatful of Rain that same year.

Soon, he’d make his debut star turn in film as Jocko De Paris in 1957’s The Strange One, going on to wow audiences in 1959’s Anatomy of a Murder, 1960’s The Passion Thief, 1961’s The Young Doctors, 1976’s The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, 1981’s They All Laughed (opposite Audrey Hepburn, with whom he had a brief affair), 1998’s The Big Lebowski, and 1999’s The Summer of Sam.

He’d return to both the stage — earning Tony award nominations for both 1975’s Huey/Duet and 1976’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? — and TV throughout his career, starring in 1985’s An Early Frost and doing a 2001 guest spot on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In 2003, he won an Emmy for his supporting role in the HBO movie Hysterical Blindness, which co-starred Gena Rowlands, Uma Thurman, and Juliette Lewis.

Kevin Tighe as Tilghman in the original cast of Road House

The actor who played Frank, the owner of the Double Deuce biker bar in Road House, is probably best known for his role as firefighter-paramedic Roy DeSoto on TV’s Emergency! (1972-1979). Kevin Tighe also appeared as Anthony Cooper on several seasons of ABC’s Lost (2005-2010).

Having made his film debut as an extra in 1967’s The Graduate, he went on to star 1989’s K-9, 1990’s Another 48 Hrs., and 1993’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, among others. In addition to making a couple of TV appearances on Law & Order: SVU, Tighe is scheduled to appear in the upcoming project Spirit Water, about a Native American trying to visit his son’s grave in Normandy.

Marshall Teague as Jimmy in the original cast of Road House

This martial arts specialist and Vietnam veteran of the U.S. Navy started taking acting lessons during his civilian life, when he was working undercover for a sheriff’s office. Bit by the acting bug, he moved to LA and his role as tough guy Jimmy in the Road House cast was his big breakthrough.

“[Swayze] and I hit each other pretty hard throughout…the movie,” he recently told TMZ. “I tried to take it easy on the others, and he did, too. But when it came to he and I, we poleaxed each other, basically, is the word.” And he has nothing but great memories of his time with Swayze. “I love him to death. I miss him every day.… I feel very honored to have had the opportunity to do that film with him.”

Teague went on to star in other films, such as 1996’s The Rock and 1998’s Armageddon, but he had bigger success on TV, where he had recurring roles on Walker, Texas Ranger (1993-2001) and Babylon 5 (1994-1998). His long list of guest spots include such series as Moonlighting, Quantum Leap, Who’s the Boss?, MacGyver, Star Trek: Voyager, Friday Night Lights, The Bold and the Beautiful, and Days of Our Lives.

Kathleen Wilhoite as Carrie in the original cast of Road House

“It was a lot of fun to make. I really had a blast," Kathleen Wilhoite, the actress who played Carrie in Road House, toldPopGeeks about the classic film. Wilhoite got her start in film with 1983’s Private School, then moved on to roles in 1986’s Murphy’s Law, opposite Charles Bronson, 1987’s Angel Heart, 1988’s Crossing Delancey, 1992’s Lorenzo’s Oil, 1993’s Fire in the Sky, 1997’s The Edge, and 2000’s Nurse Betty and Pay It Forward.

In 1994, she had a recurring role on ER as Chloe Lewis, and she also played Liz Danes on The Gilmore Girls starting in 2003. More recently, she’s recurred on CSI: Vegas. Other notable TV credits through her career include Twin Peaks, Will & Grace, Grey’s Anatomy, Jane the Virgin, and Yellowstone, on which she played Carolyn Nelson.

Wilhoite, a gifted singer and musician, also voiced the title character of the Cathy cartoons for a series of TV movies in the 80s, as well as for the title character on the Disney Channel’s Pepper Ann (1997). She’s released two CDs of her own music, Pitch Like a Girl (1997) and Shiva (2000).

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