Youngblood actors went on to solid careers
Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze among cast members who did quite well in Hollywood
It has been 30 years since the best/ worst hockey movie was released into North American theatres, with Youngblood blending the synth-pop of the mid-80s with a hyperbolic view of violence in the ranks of junior hockey.
Here is a look at what five of the principal actors have done since: Rob Lowe
Character: Dean Youngblood, hotshot American forward
When filming began in Toronto, Lowe was just a few years removed from filming after-school specials for ABC. He was on the rise, though, having appeared in St. Elmo’s Fire a year before Youngblood hit theatres. In 1989, a tape surfaced showing him having sex with two women, including one who was only 16 years old. Today, he stars in the television series The Grinder, playing . . . a television star. Patrick Swayze
Character: Derek Sutton, grizzled but caring veteran
Even though he was almost a decade older than Lowe in real life, Swayze played a teammate who was only a few years older in Youngblood, becoming a mentor. Swayze would go on to appear in several films that could fall into the best/worst categories of their genre, with Point Break and Road House each being redeem-ably terrible.
He died of cancer in 2009. He was 57. Ed Lauter
Character: Murray Chadwick, hardnosed coach
A prolific character actor, Lauter played the one-dimensional coach of the Hamilton Mustangs, who openly loathed his young American star.
Lauter had also appeared in another sports-themed movie, in The Longest Yard, and worked regularly until his death of cancer three years ago. “A lot of people say, ‘I know you,’ but they don’t know my name,” he told the Los Angeles Times. Keanu Reeves
Character: Heaver, French-Canadian goaltender
In one of his first film roles, Reeves displayed perhaps one of the worst French Canadian accents in modern movie history, as the goaltender on the team. Reeves, who grew up in Toronto, would go on to bigger roles, including the Matrix series. He would also appear in another movie with Swayze, in the 1991 surf-and-adrenaline caper Point Break. Cynthia Gibb
Character: Jessie Chadwick, erudite coach’s daughter
As the well-read daughter of the team’s head coach, Gibb’s character was in many ways years ahead of her time, deploring the egregious acts of violence unfolding on the ice — an early adopter of concussion awareness.
Gibb has since built a career around appearances in television movies, and in a handful of television series. She has also been working as an acting and singing coach.