Gremlins
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It was one of the biggest films of the 1980s and one that’s still beloved to this day. “Gremlins” introduced us to actor Zach Galligan, who many felt was poised to be a breakout star thanks to his leading role in the film where he faces off against creatures that you’re not supposed to feed after midnight or get wet. However, Galligan never became that A-list talent that many expected, but he has enjoyed a long career in Hollywood with plenty of work to his name.
Galligan was born on February 14, 1964 in New York City into a bright family that was rather successful, and Galligan himself is quite smart. He started trying to break into the business at a young age, landing roles after he finished high school. When his career started, Galligan was an Ivy League student who stayed in New York City to attend Columbia.
Galligan’s first experience with on-screen acting came in 1983 when he was in a television movie called “Jacobo Timerman”. The next year was a huge one, starring in the sci-fi horror-ish hit “Gremlins”, directed by Joe Dante. “Gremlins” was made with an $11 million budget, and pulled in over $150 million at the box office. It wasn’t just audiences that loved it, as critics also called it an instant classic in the genre.
“Before ‘Gremlins’, I was a normal person, then within two weeks of the movie coming out, I couldn’t walk into a store without people turning around and staring,” Galligan said. “It’s exciting and also scary because everyone starts telling you how amazing you are...After ‘Gremlins’ came out, I should have packed up everything, moved to Los Angeles from New York and dedicated myself to being a full time actor. I had the world at my feet.”
That same year, another sci-fi film was made with Galligan as the star called “Nothing Lasts Forever” that also starred some big names like Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd. However, the film got pushed back to the point where it was never released in theaters and wasn’t leaked into the internet until 2011. That period was brief as the film was taken down, and was then aired on TV for the first time in 2015.
For the rest of the 1980s, Galligan had done a television movie and a trilogy in a miniseries called “The Lawrenceville Stories”. He then rounded out with the big screen film “Waxwork”. To kick off the 1990s, “Gremlins” was revived after a long hiatus with the sequel “The New Batch”. This film was much darker than the first, and ended up being a flop with a $41.5 million box office pull on a $50 million budget. That same year, Galligan also starred in the forgettable “Mortal Passions”.
Over the course of the next few years, Galligan appeared in many smaller budget films including “All Tied Up”, “Caroline at Midnight” and “Cyborg 3”. Meanwhile, Galligan had guest appearances on shows like “Melrose Place” and nearly landed a TV series of his own with “For Love and Glory”, but it wasn’t picked up.
The remainder of the 1990s saw many more guest appearances on TV, including “Star Trek: Voyage”, “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” and “The Net”. He added films at the time with “Storm Trooper” and “Prince Valiant”. Since the 2000s, there haven’t been many TV spots for Galligan, making cameos in the early 2000s with “7th Heaven” and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” in 2003, but his only role since then with in “The Keith & Paddy Picture Show”.
Galligan has been involved with many low budget movies, many of which have been released straight to video. It did keep him busy, but in the 2010s has pulled back on his schedule quite a bit. He started off the decade with “Jack Falls” but his only role since then was in the 2013 slasher film “Hatchet 3”.
When it comes to his most famous role, Galligan said that it wasn’t his acting that set the film apart and made it a classic, but the creatures instead. “If you stop and think about who was in the ‘Lassie’ movies, it’s difficult to think who was in them, apart from Elizabeth Taylor,” Galligan said. “You remember the dog, not the people. So if you’re going to be in a movie, and it’s called ‘Gremlins’, it’s going to be about Gremlins, and what people are going to remember are the Gremlins.”
The actor added that he knew that he wasn’t going to reach the expected type of stardom during the middle of the 1980s, too. “Three years is a lifetime in Hollywood,” he said. “If your career starts slipping in L.A., you can really feel it. All of a sudden, the people that you were beating for a part start beating you.” He admits that he could’ve worked harder, as well. “I had a blast in the 90s, perhaps too much fun, and maybe I should have worked a lot harder and partied a lot less, but I definitely don’t regret the 12 years I spent living out in L.A.”
Galligan knows that his first film was lightning in a bottle, and is able to appreciate how popular and well-made it was. “I think one of the reasons ‘Gremlins’ lasts and some other films don’t is because I don’t think the movie has a whole lot of dated things - sure, the cars, my hair, and few things here and there that date the movie - but it takes place in a sort of everytown, in a sorta non-specific time, and that gives the movie a timeless quality.”
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