Where Is the Cast of 'American Graffiti' Now? See the Stars 50 Years Later

American Graffiti is turning 50!

That means that the young men and women who starred in the film are no longer quite so young. The car-loving high school students of 1973 when the movie came out are now all senior citizens. So are the cast members who made such an indelible mark on theatergoers five decades ago. Since American Graffiti raced its way onto the big screen, however, many of its stars have gone on to illustrious Hollywood careers. Here's the cast of American Graffiti then and now, plus what they've been up to over the last 50 years.

American Graffiti Cast Now and Then

Richard Dreyfuss

As Curt Henderson, Richard Dreyfuss, now 75, found his early breakout role before going on to more than 120 movies, including Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Goodbye Girl, for which he received a Best Actor Oscar. His most recent movie is Sweetwater, released in April, a biographical sports drama about a former Harlem Globetrotter who became the first Black player to sign a contract with the NBA.

Ron Howard

Ron Howard, 69, was already a successful child actor before landing a leading role as Steve Bolander, who longs to leave his hometown and go on to bigger, better things. Howard also went on to bigger things, as an actor in the hit TV series Happy Days and then as a director with a long string of hit movies. (The fact that Howard’s Graffiti character seems a lot like Richie Cunningham, whom he’d later play in Happy Days, is likely because the movie producers saw him in the pilot, which was already “in the can” but waiting for a TV greenlight. After the success of American Graffiti, Happy Days was rushed into production as a full-fledged series.)

One of his three daughters, Bryce Dallas Howard, followed his footsteps into a successful acting career, and Howard’s films have often featured appearances by his younger brother, Clint (also an actor), and their father, Rance.

Paul Le Mat

Paul Le Mat, 77, a U.S. Army veteran who’d served in Vietnam, had been working as a boxer when he scored his debut film acting role in American Graffiti role as John Milner, the town’s hot-rod champ with “the fastest car in the valley.” His character was based in part on director George Lucas’ own teenage street-racing years, and named in honor of John Milius, a rugged 1970s screenwriter and director. Le Mat, who received a Golden Globe nomination for Graffiti, would receive more high praise for the movie Melvin and Howard (1980) and the TV miniseries The Burning Bed (1984), which brought him a Golden Globe award.

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Charles Martin Smith

Charles Martin Smith, 69, began his career with a guest spot on TV’s The Brady Bunch. would later appear in numerous other TV shows and films, including The Untouchables, The Buddy Holly Story, Starman and Herbie Goes Bananas. He directed a pair of Dolphin Tale movies, the Disney flick Air Bud and the kickoff episode of TV’s Buffy, The Vampire Slayer. In 1975, he was a groomsman at the wedding of Graffiti costar Ron Howard.

Cindy Williams

Best known for her later work starring as Shirley in the TV sitcoms Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley, Cindy Williams got her start in TV commercials. She wasn’t initially excited about the role director George Lucas wanted her to play: Laurie, the all-American good-girl cheerleader girlfriend of Ron Howard’s character. “I at first said no,” Williams once recalled in an interview. “I said, ‘Laurie is no fun. The other girls, that’s where the fun is. Debbie, that’s the part I want.” But with encouragement from Lucas, she reconsidered. She’d reteam with the movie’s producer/director Francis Ford Coppola the following year, in his acclaimed film The Conversation, and she continued acting in movies and on TV until 2020. She died in January 2023 at the age of 75.

Candy Clark

Candy Clark, 76, was the ditzy, gum-chewing good-time girl Debbie Dunham, a role that earned her an Oscar nomination (she lost to Tatum O’Neal for Paper Moon). Her American Graffiti performance followed her well-received debut a year earlier in director John Huston’s boxing drama Fat City alongside Jeff Bridges, whom she briefly dated. In addition to other movie and TV appearances over the years—including costarring with rocker David Bowie in his extraterrestrial love story The Man Who Fell to Earth—she’s also sold real estate, operated a Hollywood limousine service and made appearances at car shows, where nostalgic Graffiti fans could meet “Debbie” face to face.

Mackenzie Phillips

She wasn’t even a teenager yet when she was cast as Carol, the “little twerp” who hops in uninvited for a cruise around town with John Milner (Paul Le Mat). Mackenzie Phillips, now 63, was spotted by the movie’s casting agent performing with a band at the famed Troubadour nightclub in Los Angeles. Her dad, The Mamas & the Papas singer John Phillips, put her on a plane with a suitcase and allowed one of the producers to become her official guardian—as required by California law for minors—during filming. Just two years after Graffiti, she would star alongside Valerie Bertinelli on TV’s One Day at a Time. More recently, she’s dealt with her addiction and recovery in a 2009 memoir, High on Arrival, and an appearance on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.

Wolfman Jack (Robert Weston Smith)

The real-life Wolfman Jack (Robert Weston Smith) was cast as the raspy cool-cat DJ who ruled the late-night airwaves with an alter-ego nickname partially inspired by bluesman Howlin’ Wolf. Later he’d host the weekly rock performance late-night series The Midnight Special and his own syndicated variety show and get a major musical salute in the 1974 hit single “Clap for the Wolfman” by the Guess Who. He died in 1995 at age 57 from a heart attack.

Bo Hopkins

South Carolina-born Bo Hopkins played Joe Young, the leader of an intimidating greaser gang known as the Pharaohs. He built a 40-year career as a supporting actor in more than 100 TV shows and movies, including The Wild Bunch and Midnight Express. He died following a heart attack in 2022 at the age of 84.

Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford, 80, was a struggling actor working as a carpenter when he landed the role of Bob Falfa, a boastful (slightly older) cowboy of the night trying to make a name for himself as a street racer in his roaring black ’55 Chevy. Now we know Ford as a one of the biggest stars on the planet, embodying the blockbuster characters Han Solo and Indiana Jones. Most recently, he’s starred as a wisecracking psychotherapist in the Apple TV+ series Shrinking, and in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the fifth movie adventure of the franchise.

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Suzanne Somers

She has only a couple of moments in the film and a small amount of dialogue, and her character doesn’t even have a proper name. But Suzanne Somers, 76, made a major impression as the hot “Blonde in T-Bird” who sparks Curt’s imagination and spurs his night-long odyssey, becoming iconic cinematic shorthand for unattainable love. She’d go on to star as Chrissy in TV’s Three’s Company, and in the 1980s series She’s the Sheriff; she appeared nude (twice) in Playboy, cohosted a revival of Candid Camera, anchored her own talk show and authored several self-help and diet books.