Back in the summer of 1985, audiences of all ages were thrilled by a tale of a modern-day teenager leaping back to 1955 in a plutonium-powered DeLorean, trying to get his parents to meet and fall in love. Back to the Future was fun for kids who could relate to the teenager, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), and for their parents who could reminisce about their own 1950s childhoods.

It certainly helped boost the film careers of both director Robert Zemeckis and Fox, the two true stars of the show. But the original film featured many other actors with mixed fates. Some have been quietly working constantly, one has mounted a comeback after a long absence, and one has a weird tie to Michael Jackson. Plus, stick around for a couple of bonus honorable mentions. 

You don’t need a souped up DeLorean to find out Where are they Now? The Cast of Back to the Future.

11. ROBERT ZEMECKIS (CO-WRITER/DIRECTOR)

After scoring his first big hit in 1984 with the adventure comedy Romancing the Stone, director Robert Zemeckis was able to make a little more of a ion project, the first big-budget movie he co-wrote: Back to the Future. Obviously, it turned out to be a science-fiction-comedy classic, and it very much defined the rest of his enormously successful career.

He has used the combination of comedy, adventure, science fiction and innovative special effects constantly. As a follow-up, he brought cartoon characters from different studios together, along with live-action actors and settings, in Forrest Gump in 1994, which also sparked a collaboration with Tom Hanks that evolved into films like Cast Away and The Polar Express – the latter being the first entirely motion capture feature film. Coming up, Allied will hit theaters in November, a World War II thriller starring Brad Pitt.

10. HARRY WATERS JR. (MARVIN BERRY)

Harry Waters Jr. had one of the classic moments in the original Back to the Future. We knew Marvin Berry and the Starlighters were the band playing the Enchantment Under the Sea dance in 1955. But we didn’t know he was a Berry until Marty stepped on stage, grabbed a guitar and pulled some Chuck Berry licks, leading to Marvin calling Chuck and exclaiming, "Chuck, Chuck! It's Marvin! Your cousin, Marvin Berry! You know that new sound you were looking for? Well listen to THIS!"

After the first film, and a brief appearance in the second, Waters got some work, mostly guest parts on sitcoms like Amen and 227, but nothing major, though he did voice Tweedle Dee in 100 episodes of an early '90s cartoon called Adventures in Wonderland. He’s concentrated mainly on writing, teaching acting, and theater work, appearing in the first production of the Tony Award winning Angels in America back in 1991.

9. DONALD FULLILOVE (GOLDIE WILSON)

If you’re a Back to the Future fan, you probably already know one Michael Jackson connection: his appearance on the Cafe 80’s restaurant TV in 2015 in Part II. But did you know that actor Donald Fullilove, who played 1955-busboy/1985-mayor Goldie Wilson, voiced the cartoon version of Jackson in the 1971 show Jackson 5ive in his first acting job at the age of 13?

The awesomely named Fullilove continued to be the consummate character actor through the years, constantly popping up in bit parts on TV and on the big screen, including the American Dad!

8. WENDIE JO SPERBER (LINDA MCFLY)

When Back to the Future hit screens in 1985, Wendie Jo Sperber, who played Marty’s sister Linda, was one of the better known ing actors in the cast. She was well known for her hilarious role in the early Tom Hanks cross-dressing sitcom Bosom Buddies and appeared in the TV version of Private Benjamin.

She continued to act in similar roles, often as the goofy friend in sitcoms. While she couldn’t return for Part II because she was pregnant, she was in Part III. Sperber starred in a sitcom about three…er, not skinny…women called Babes in 1990-91, as well as the John Ritter sitcom Hearts Afire a couple years later, while also popping up with Ritter on 8 Simple Rules. Sadly, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997. While she fought valiantly and became a breast cancer activist, she ed away in 2005 at age 47.

7. JAMES TOLKAN (MR. STRICKLAND)

As Mr. Strickland, veteran character actor James Tolkan lived up to his character’s name as the super-strict vice principal at Marty’s school. He wasn’t afraid to shove Marty (he’d most certainly be fired for that these days) and call him a slacker. He had a reputation for playing tough, strict authoritarian characters in various movies and TV shows leading into Back to the Future, and that didn’t change afterwards.

The next year he had a hard-nosed part in Bone Tomahawk in 2015.

6. CLAUDIA WELLS (JENNIFER PARKER)

After appearing in the bookends of the original Back to the Future as Marty’s girlfriend, Jennifer, Claudia Wells was thrust into superstardom. Or not. Leading up to her big break, she was a regular as a teen actress in a short-lived Herbie, the Love Bug TV show. Just after the movie, she was in another short-lived show, playing the Phoebe Cates role in a TV version of Fast Times. But then she went quiet.

She chose not to play Jennifer in the sequels (more on who did later) due to her mother’s unfortunate diagnosis with cancer, along with the lingering effects of a car accident. However, after a 22-year absence from acting, she appeared in a low-budget 2011 sci-fi film called Alien Armageddon, as well as provided the voice of Jennifer in Back to the Future: The Game. She also appeared in an episode of The Mentalist and continues her comeback in a number of low budget films with awesome titles like My Cousin’s Ghetto Wedding and Break Dance Revolution. Oh, and how could we forget: she sells autographed Back to the Future t-shirts and photos on her website. 

5. TOM WILSON (BIFF TANNEN)

In his first major film role, Tom Wilson played the bully everybody loved to hate, Biff Tannen, in Back to the Future. While it didn’t thrust him to superstardom, it did lead him to a long, continuing career as a character actor, stand-up comedian and musician. Obviously, he reprised his role as Biff, as well as his ancestors and offspring, in the sequels.

From there, he took ing roles in films like the Carl Weathers vehicle Action Jackson. On TV, you’ve seen in as a coach on Batman series, plus video games (including Back to the Future titles). A well-rounded artist, he’s a somewhat successful painter and has had a podcast called Big Pop Fun.

4. CRISPIN GLOVER (GEORGE MCFLY)

Quirky character actor Crispin Glover has a strange relationship with the Back to the Future franchise. While he memorably starred as Marty’s father (both young and awkward in 1955 and older in ‘85), he did not reprise the role in the sequels, though the character returned. Glover says he had issues with the ending of the original movie and refused to participate in the sequels. So they used another actor, Jeffrey Weissman, in Glover-like makeup.

Glover is notoriously considered an odd bird, and his acting choices reflect that. He actually starred opposite Michael J. Fox in a couple of episodes of American Gods TV series next year, based on Neil Gaiman’s novel.

3. LEA THOMPSON (LORRAINE BAINES-MCFLY)

that whole theme in Back to the Future where Marty’s mom totally wanted to get it on with him? Yeah. It was funny, no doubt, but also super creepy. Just for a second, guys, imagine a young version of your mom flirting with you. We apologize if we just ruined your day. Anyway, onward. Lea Thompson was certainly a fetching Lorraine, as the young version in 1955, then aged with makeup for 1985. Many a teenage boy fell in love with her, where Marty did not…in that way.

It was Thompson’s breakthrough role, leading to key parts in films that were just so '80s, like Some Kind of Wonderful and Casual Sex? By 1995, she moved to “Must See TV” on NBC for four seasons, following Friends and Seinfeld as the lead in Caroline in the City, about a cartoonist looking for love in the Big Apple. In the mid-2000s, she starred in a long-running series of Hallmark Channel movies called Jane Doe. Most recently, she has been a regular on the ABC Family series Switched at Birth, which will wrap up with a final season in 2017 on the Freeform network. Now 54, Thompson has also caught the directing bug in recent years, trying her hand with a couple of installments of Jane Doe and two Switched at Birth episodes.

2. CHRISTOPHER LLOYD (DR. EMMETT BROWN)

Before starring as frantic inventor Dr. Emmett Brown, Christopher Lloyd had made a name for himself as the hilarious burnout Reverend Jim on 84 episodes of the sitcom Taxi. And just before Back to the Future, he buttered himself up to science fiction fans as Klingon Commander Kruge in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

Since his iconic turn as the manic, white-haired, bulgy-eyed Brown, Lloyd has been everywhere. First of all, though, don’t confuse him with the immensely successful producer Christopher Lloyd, whose credit you’d see on Modern Family, Frasier and Wings. No, our Lloyd has been everywhere as a character actor – and when we say everywhere, we mean everywhere, with 211 IMDB credits and counting. While he’s never really taken another star turn, he did notably reunite with Michael J. Fox on Spin City and The Michael J. Fox Show in guest spots, and has voiced Doc Brown in video games and on Robot Chicken. Plus, for the 30th anniversary of Back to the Future last year, he and Fox reprised their most famous roles for a spot on Jimmy Kimmel Live! He still works consistentlyistantly at age 77.