Matthew Broderick

Playing a computer-hacking teen who nearly starts World War III in WarGames (1983) was a weird fit for a Greenwich Village kid trained by Uta Hagen, but it worked. He'd already won a Tony that year for Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, making him a Broadway name before he was a movie star. Then Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) turned him into a generational symbol. That character followed him everywhere, which is both a compliment and a trap.

Godzilla (1998) answered a question no one was asking: what if Matthew Broderick were an action hero? Widely panned, sequels scrapped, he never recaptured the Hollywood lead. What he built instead was a theater career that outlasted the film stumble. He'd won a second Tony for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 1995, starred in The Producers in 2001, was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2017, and keeps working on stage. An Emmy nomination for Only Murders in the Building in 2024 suggested the screen hadn't completely written him off.

In August 1987, he was driving with girlfriend Jennifer Grey through Northern Ireland when he crossed into oncoming traffic, killing two women: a 63-year-old widow and her 28-year-old daughter. He was charged with causing death by dangerous driving. He pleaded to careless driving. The fine was roughly $175. It didn't end his career, which is either a story about Hollywood's tolerance or the nature of accidents.