In America today, most kids likely wish for an iPhone or another high-tech goodie for Christmas. But in 1940's Indiana, a certain Ralphie Parker very specifically wanted "an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock, and this thing which tells time."
Ralphie (played by Peter Billingsley), of course, is the nine-year-old protagonist seemingly destined to shoot his eye out in 'A Christmas Story,' the madcap 1983 Christmas comedy about the salt-of-the-earth Parker family. But where is actor Billingsley and the rest of the cast and crew now? In honor of the holiday season, Moviefone tracked them down.
Then: In a crucial scene in the movie, the two villainous elves manhandle children waiting to sit on the lap of Santa, who then inadvertently scares the kids and shoves them down a slide (trust us, it's funny). Hocevar and Johnson had no professional acting experience, but both had worked at one time or another as elves at Higbee's, a department store in Ohio (where the film was shot). As for Gillen, he had appeared in several of director Bob Clark's earlier movies, such as 'Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things' and 'She-Man.'
Now: Like many others, Johnson, Hocevar and Gillen reached their thespian zenith with 'A Christmas Story.' Gillen created Great Southern Studios, a production company in North Miami Beach, Florida, and was its president until 1995, when he suffered a fatal heart attack. Patty Johnson and Drew Hocevar continue to live in Ohio, where both are employed as teachers.
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