From Luck Dragons to Childlike Empresses, they brought the world of Fantasia to life. Now 40 years later, the cast of The NeverEnding Story looks nothing like what you might remember... and you won't be seeing a few of them on screen anytime soon.
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00:00From luck dragons to childlike empresses, they brought the world of Fantasia to life.
00:05Now, 40 years later, the cast of The NeverEnding Story looks nothing like what you might remember,
00:11and you won't be seeing a few of them on screen anytime soon.
00:15Barrett Oliver got his big Hollywood break playing the wonderfully curious scamp Bastion
00:19Bucks in The NeverEnding Story, but the former child star is nowhere near Hollywood today.
00:24Instead, Oliver is now a photographic historian who specializes in 19th-century photographic
00:29technology.
00:30He literally wrote the book on the Woodbury-type printing process of that era.
00:35The NeverEnding Story wasn't Oliver's only foray into film.
00:38He went on to claim starring roles in Tim Burton's 1984 short film Frankenweenie, 1985's
00:44family sci-fi film Daryl, and Ron Howard's Cocoon.
00:48Oliver stepped away from the spotlight to pursue his more academic interests after 1989's
00:53scenes from The Class Struggle in Beverly Hills.
00:55His experience appearing in front of the cameras has since come in handy, though, since he
00:59starred in a 2012 short film about his craft called In the Usual Manner.
01:03Atreyu is something of a comeback kid in The NeverEnding Story.
01:07He endures the depressing death of his horse and still manages to battle back the forces
01:11of existential destruction.
01:12When do I begin?
01:15His real-life counterpart, Noah Hathaway, had already made something of a name for himself
01:19before he became the fabled hero of the movie.
01:22His prior credits included 1978's Battlestar Galactica and its TV follow-up, as well as
01:27appearances on a ton of then-popular shows like Mork & Mindy and Chips.
01:31It's true.
01:32My dad was a hero before he died.
01:35He quit the business after starring in 1986's Troll because, as he told the News Tribune,
01:40he wanted to live normally.
01:42After his career as a child star, Hathaway worked in finance and tattoo artistry.
01:47He decided to return to the business in 2012 when he landed a role in Sushi Girl.
01:52Hathaway's comeback didn't amount to many roles, but he did manage to reprise the one
01:56that made him famous.
01:58In 2016, he appeared in a Spotify commercial, reprising his role from The NeverEnding Story.
02:02I can't believe after all these years people are still listening to this song!
02:07The childlike empress might have relied on the boys in her life to give her a name, but
02:11Tammy Stranach has no such identity crisis.
02:14The actor had no screen experience to speak of when she nabbed the role.
02:18Atreyu, why do you look so sad?
02:24She explained to SlashFilm that it was actually something of a fluke that she was offered
02:27the movie in the first place.
02:29Although she's had a few other credits since, Stranach's current occupation and passion
02:33is professional dancing.
02:35She studied dance in college and graduate school, and now runs her own company in New
02:38York.
02:40Stranach's decision to pursue a mostly non-Hollywood life was intentional.
02:43She told SlashFilm,
02:44I really love dancing.
02:46I made a decision that I would throw myself into dance and that if I really missed acting,
02:50I would return to it as an adult when I was in charge of my life and I wasn't upsetting
02:54my parents, who both had really active, full careers and couldn't just give over all their
02:58time to pursue being my manager.
03:00That's exactly what she did.
03:02Stranach ended up frequenting the stage for several years and helped develop the Paper
03:05Canoe Company, which performs across the country.
03:08In more recent years, she and her husband, Greg Steinbruner, have tapped into the growing
03:12nostalgia surrounding the never-ending story.
03:15The couple developed Man and Witch, the Dance of a Thousand Steps, a throwback fantasy film
03:19that features many popular 80s actors.
03:22Stranach told Deadline,
03:23This film is full of nostalgia for fans of classic 80s fantasy.
03:28Deep Roy is one of those character actors who's appeared in dozens of movies and TV
03:32series, though most people didn't know his name for years.
03:35His career began in the 1970s, and he soon took on the role of Teenie Weenie in The Never
03:39Ending Story.
03:40We are on the same mission.
03:43After all, if the Empress can't save us, who could?
03:47Roy has continued working in Hollywood since The Never Ending Story, playing various characters
03:52on the sidelines or in the background while also working as a stunt performer.
03:56Eventually, people started noticing the actor's talent regardless of whatever makeup or costume
04:00he found himself in, and he's become a well-known and sought-after character actor.
04:05Roy plays Keenser in the rebooted Star Trek franchise, but he is probably best known these
04:09days for portraying every Oompa Loompa in Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
04:15Gerald McRainey's turn as Bastion's dad in The Never Ending Story was brief, but the
04:19actor has enjoyed a lot more screen time in his subsequent projects.
04:23McRainey had developed quite a small-screen resume before landing the small supporting
04:26role in the movie, and he's since continued to thrive on television.
04:30Most notably, he starred in Simon & Simon for eight seasons before becoming the titular
04:34father figure in the hit sitcom Major Dad.
04:37McRainey continued expanding his small-screen stature by appearing in various high-profile
04:41programs.
04:42He earned a nomination from the Screen Actors Guild for his work on House of Cards and took
04:46home a Primetime Emmy Award for playing Dr. Nathan Katowski on This Is Us.
04:50And you thought I just delivered babies.
04:54It was McRainey's first nomination, but he had presented at the Emmys before, so he was
04:58familiar with how it all worked.
05:00He told Gold Derby,
05:01"'What I didn't expect was my wife's reaction to it.
05:04I've never seen anything like it.
05:06I refer to it as projectile crying.'"
05:09The voice actor responsible for most of the memorable non-human characters in The Never-Ending
05:13Story, including The Rockbiter, Falkor, and G'mork, was Alan Oppenheimer, who's had an
05:18illustrious career in front of the mic and the camera.
05:21I like children.
05:24His screen appearance credits include Hogan's Heroes, but his voice credits are far more
05:28numerous.
05:29He's perhaps best known for his work on Flash Gordon, Ghostbusters, The Legend of Prince
05:33Valiant, and The Transformers.
05:36One of his most recent roles was in 2022, when he voiced King Grayskull in three episodes
05:41of Netflix's He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.