Sixteen Candles Trivia

Beth Ringwald was an old girlfriend and neighbor of Adam Carolla (radio personality and "Man Show" host). On the May 26, 2006 episode of his show she called in and described her small part in Sixteen Candles. She was the girl at the dance who got picked up and carried out of the coat room by the football player. (I posted a screen capture here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adams-musings/340075868/.) According to Beth, she had more parts but decided during filming that her football player boyfriend looked too old to be a high school kid so most of her parts, along with his, ended up on the cutting room floor.

This was John Cusack's 2nd film role after his debut in "Class" (1983).

Anthony Michael Hall, who plays one of the main characters, is listed as "The Geek" in the credits. During the movie his name is never revealed, although he calls himself Farmer Ted and other characters refer to him as "Ted".

Anthony Michael Hall recalled of Sixteen Candles: "I love the work and I would never disparage it," he said. Far from the nerd in real life, he grew up to be a solid 6-foot-2!! He also released a CD, a rock/blues compilation that he wrote himself. His first single was played on mp3.com. He is determined to increase his range and visibility. Recently, he played Bill Gates in Pirates of Silicon Valley and he also stars in Hitched, a USA Network movie Hall likened to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

At 33, Anthony Michael Hall has already appeared in 37 movies and several Broadway productions. He says "it's fear that drives him".

Anthony Michael Hall appeared on the USA hit Show Dead Zone as lead character Johnny.

Havilland Morris also played Wendy Worthington in "Who's That Girl" (1987).

Gedde Watanabe, who played "Long Duk Dong" in Sixteen Candles, was in an episode of "Everwood" Season 3, #66 ("Oh The Places You'll Go"). He played Art, the owner of "Mama Joy's" diner that he is selling to move to Las Vegas. He has a brief scene with Nina (Stephanie Niznik) who is shocked that the diner is closing and he gives her a big bonus check before leaving.

When Samantha gets on the bus, the boy sitting behind her who waggles his eyebrows is sure looks like Sean Penn...

Many people criticized the character of Long Duk Dong as being harshly racist and sterotypical of Asian people. In fact, you could argue that all John Hughes' characters in this film are racial stereotypes.

The Long Duk Dong character is suspiciously similar to another character in a story John Hughes wrote for National Lampoon magazine titled "Christmas '59". The story, which seemingly also formed the storyline for the "Christmas Vacation" movie, has "Grandma & Grandpa Swenson" visiting for Christmas with exchange student "Xgung Wo" along for the ride. Echoing the racial stereotyping in the film, Xgung Wo mispronounces English phrases to comic effect.

Justin Henry (Samantha's obnoxious brother Mike) was nominated for an Oscar for his work in Kramer vs Kramer.

Long Duk Dong, Gedde Watanabe, has been seen on episodes of "ER."

Long Duk Dong, Gedde Watanabe, is actually an American from Utah.

John Hughes actually has a very small cameo appearance in this film. When Samantha realizes her sister left her veil in the church she goes back in to get it. As she is going back in, the last guy out of the church is John Hughes. He turns to look at her and you get a clear shot of his face for less than 2 seconds.

Haviland Morris has appeared in several episodes of "Law and Order". Her name is featured in the credits as the episode begins and she has red hair instead of the blond hair she sported in "Sixteen Candles". She now sells real estate in NYC.

The groom in the movie (Rudy Ryszczyck) played by John Kapelos is also the same actor who plays the janitor in another John Huges movie "The Breakfast Club", and a bar pimp in "Weird Science".

John Kapelos also appeared in Weird Science as the Dino.

Blanche Baker (Samantha's sister Ginny) is the daughter of famed actress Carroll Baker (Tennessee Williams' Baby Doll. Blanche appeared in 70s miniseries Holocaust.

Paul Dooley (Samantha's father) always seems to play father roles (Breaking Away, My So-Called Life, etc.)

Haviland Morris was also seen in "Home Alone 3" as the little boys mother.

Haviland Morris was in an episode of Sex and the City in the episode called "The Turtle and The Hare". She is the bride and friend of Sarah Jessica Parker.

Gedde Watanabe (Long Duk Dong) was also in 80's horror comedy VAMP.

Michael Schoeffling also played the boy Winona Ryder had a crush on in the movie "Mermaids" in 1990, Cher was her mother and Christina Ricci played her little sister.

Unlike many TV and movie hunks of the 80's and 90's that came and went, the elusive Michael Schoeffling proved to be a timeless phenomenon that screwed up an entire generation of girls who got all hopeful that men that perfect really existed. In fact, on Valentine's Day 2004 (20 years after the film's release), a Washington Post article called "Real Men Can't Hold A Match To Jake Ryan" was published; citing that waiting for that perfect man has been referred to as "spending my whole life waiting for my Jake Ryan to come get me".

Ironically, while most of the cast of Sixteen Candles went on to other huge films and TV projects (namely Molly Ringwald's long collaboration with John Hughes), Schoeffling only went on to star in minor films before completely giving up acting in 1991-- he hit a pinnacle with the Jake Ryan role and felt nothing could surpass it. (In spite of how many teenage hunk roles calling for the timelessly tall, dark, and handsome existed in the late 80's and early 90's?)

Several of the obsessive fans who felt this movie screwed them up have made even more efforts trying to track down Schoeffling than the Glenn Miller search party! He was last known to be living near Wilkes-Barre, PA with his wife the former model Valerie Robinson, and their two teenage children and reportedly owns a furniture store that no one seems to know the exact location of.

Sometime around 2003, Molly Ringwald announced she'd be producing a sequel called 32 Candles. The last any news was heard of this was some time around 2005. Anthony Michael Hall supposedly agreed to star in the film but fans complained that it wouldn't be the same without Schoeffling reprising the role of Jake Ryan.

Molly Ringwald almost lost the part of "Samantha" to Ally Sheedy.

Gedde Watanabe owned the 80's as the "Token Japanese Guy." In addition to the other roles already mentioned on this page, he hosted "Wheel of Fish" in the Weird Al Yankovic movie UHF and had a much larger role in Ron Howard's Gung Ho where he played the Japanese executive sent to manage "Hassan Motors" with Michael Keaton.

Steven Monarque, who palyed a Jock looking through the hole in the floor at the party, went on to play Johhny Ventura in "Friday the 13th: The Series".

The license plate on Jake's car says "21850" which is director John Hughes' birthday (2/18/50).

The strange girl on the bus in the neck brace is Joan Cusack, sister of John. She has appeared in many of his movies including "Say Anything" and "Grosse Point Blank".

Molly Ringwald's sister Beth (Patty) is the blonde girl at the dance who is being carried off by the football player when "Sam" and "Jake" are standing by the coat table.

Not only did Anthony Michael Hall release a Blues/Rock n Roll Album, he acted in a Rock n Roll film, alongside Supermodel Amber Valetta in the VH-1 Original Movie "Hysteria : The Def Leppard Story". Hall played legendary music producer Robert John 'Mutt' Lange, (who has produced AC/DC, Bryan Adams and his wife, Shania Twain). Amber Valetta played Supermodel of the 80's, Lorelei Shellist (girlfriend of legendary Leppard guitarist Steve Clark).

Jami Gertz makes an early appearance as "Robin".

Haviland Morris (Caroline) and Gedde Watanabe (Long Duk Dong) would be reunited 6 years later in the classic sequel "Gremlins 2: The New Batch". Haviland played chain-smoking corporate go-getter Marla Bloodstone and Gedde played a tourist-turned-news cameraman named Mr. Katsuji.

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Beth Ringwald plays one of Caroline Mulford's friends. She plays the girl who is at the party walking upstairs with Jake Ryan's mom's pearls on and she says: "What? I don't do that!" and the pearls break. She is also the girl that cuts Caroline's hair when it was stuck in the door.

I'm sorry, this is incorrect. Elaine Wilkes plays the part of the pearl-wearing friend who cut Caroline's hair. Elaine also played Colleen in the movie "My Chauffeur" with Deborah Foreman.