Iconic 80s movie star looks unrecognizable 40 years after hit movie
CHUNK TO HUNK Iconic 80s movie star looks unrecognizable as he steps out in LA 40 years after smash hit movie – do you recognise him?
ICONIC 80s movie star Jeff Cohen looked totally unrecognizable this week as he stepped out in Los Angeles.
Best known for playing Chunk, the beloved truffle-shuffler from the 1985 Spielberg-produced hit, The Goonies, Cohen looked world's away from his onscreen persona.
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Jeff looks unrecognizable from his Goonies days
Credit: BackGrid
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The former child star says that his career stopped when he went through puberty
Credit: BackGrid
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The Goonies will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year
Credit: Alamy
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Jeff's played Chunk in the iconic film
Credit: Alamy
Now 50, the one-time child star currently works as a successful entertainment lawyer.
Dressed in a suit jacket, jeans, and a maroon fedora, Jeff was a far cry from the ice cream-obsessed, Hawaii-shirt-wearing-mischief-maker he played as a kid.
Before leaving acting behind, Cohen appeared in hit TV shows like Family Ties, The Facts of Life, and Webster, but he says it was puberty that ended his Hollywood dream.
"There were basically about four fat kids in town, so every time there was a fat kid role, you saw the same people at the audition," Jeff once shared.
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"It was survival of the fattest. But when I hit puberty, it was a career ender for me. I was transforming from Chunk to hunk and I couldn't get roles any more."
He added: "It was terrible. My first love was acting, but puberty had other ideas. It was a forced retirement. I didn't give up acting. Acting gave me up."
Cohen, who studied at UC Berkeley and later went to UCLA School of Law, co-founded Cohen Gardner LLP in 2002.
Despite his fame as a child, he says clients have no problem taking him seriously.
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"My clients get a kick out of the fact their lawyer is Chunk. They dig it," he said. "With my job, I'm dealing with legitimately famous people, so it's just silly and fun.
"I'm usually only the fifth most famous person in the room at any one time."
Cohen's memories of making The Goonies remain vivid.
"It was great," he recalled. "For me, the best part about it was Richard Donner the director. He was big on letting the kids be kids and I think that's one of the reasons the movie stands up today."
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He continued: "People still watch the movie themselves or watch it with their own kids. Even though it's very eighties in the fashions, it's still kids being kids.
"Richard Donner wanted us to improvise, talk over each other, push and shove and kind of do our thing.
The Goonies Andy actress Kerri Green is unrecognisable 37 years after the movie
"I think that's one of the reasons people like it. It doesn't seem like kids acting. It's just kids being themselves, which Richard really encouraged. He wanted us to be comfortable."
Recalling one particular moment with Donner, Jeff said: "In the scene where Sloth picks me up while I'm strapped to a chair, I was told he wasn't going to pick me up because John Matuszak's back hurt.
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"But of course, John was so strong it was nothing to him, so he just picked me up and kissed me. My shock and horror was real. I wasn't that good an actor – that was actual terror on my face."
Earlier this year, Jeff reunited with his co-stars to celebrate fellow Goonie Ke Huy Quan, who played Data, as he was honored at the TCL Chinese Theater.
Cohen, along with Corey Feldman, Josh Brolin, Kerri Green, and screenwriter Chris Columbus turned out to support Quan, who won an Oscar last year for Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Jeff, now Ke Huy Quan's entertainment lawyer, gave his friend a proud bear hug as the group relived their childhood memories on the red carpet.
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The cast got together to celebrate Ke Huy Quan
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The first Sylvia Young Theatre School was set up in 1981 in Drury Lane in the heart of London's theatre district. Two years later, it moved to a former church school in Marylebone in central London, where most of its famous pupils got their start. Even though it is fee-paying, everyone has to pass an audition — and only one in 25 applicants are successful. 15 Dua Lipa, who has won seven Brit awards and three Grammys Credit: Redferns 15 She did not know she could sing until a teacher at the Sylvia Young Theatre School told her how good she was Credit: Instagram 15 Emma Bunton joining the Spice Girls was thanks to Sylvia's school Credit: Getty 15 It was thanks to talent scouts and casting agents putting up requests on the notice board at the school Credit: Shutterstock Editorial It costs up to £7,000 per term for full-time students and only has places for 250 pupils aged ten to 16. There are bursaries and fee reductions for pupils from less well-off backgrounds, plus a Saturday school and part-time classes. Sylvia was always keen to avoid it being a school for rich kids. When she took an assembly she would ask pupils, 'What mustn't we be?', and they would shout back, 'Stage school brats'. Keeping kids level-headed when stardom beckoned was also important for the teacher. She said: 'I offer good training and like to keep the students as individual as possible. 'We develop a lot of confidence and communication skills. Of course they want immediate stardom, but they're not expecting it. You don't find notices up here about who's doing what. It is actually played down tremendously.' 'Baby Spice was lovely' A need for discipline even applied to Sylvia's daughter Frances, who she expelled from the school. Frances clearly got over it, going on to have a career in musical theatre and representing the United Kingdom in the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing tenth. Those genes were strong, with Frances' daughter, stage name Eliza Doolittle, having a Top Five hit with Pack Up in 2010. The ever-rebellious Amy Winehouse, who died in 2011 aged 27 from accidental alcohol poisoning, claimed to have been kicked out, too. She said: 'I was just being a brat and being disruptive and so on. I loved it there, I didn't have a problem, I just didn't want to conform. 'And they didn't like me wearing a nose piercing.' But Sylvia did not want Amy to leave. She said: 'She would upset the academic teachers, except the English teacher who thought she'd be a novelist. She seemed to be just loved. But she was naughty.' Other singers were clearly inspired by their time at the school, which moved to new premises in Westminster in 2010. 15 Billie Piper had her acting skills honed thanks to Sylvia Credit: Getty 15 Billie attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd 15 Sylvia was loved by her former pupils, many of whom paid tribute to the 'backstage matriarch' Credit: Alamy Dua Lipa, who went to the Saturday school from the age of nine, was asked to sing in front of other pupils shortly after joining. She said, 'I was terrified', but that the vocal coach 'was the first person to tell me I could sing'. Talent scouts and casting agents would put up requests on the notice board at the school. One such posting led to Emma Bunton joining the Spice Girls. Of Baby Spice, Sylvia said: 'She got away with whatever she could. But she was a lovely, happy-go-lucky individual with a sweet singing voice.' Groups were also formed by Sylvia's ex-pupils. All Saints singer Melanie Blatt became best friends with Nicole Appleton at Sylvia Young's and brought her in when her band needed new singers in 1996. But Melanie was not complimentary about the school, once saying: 'I just found the whole thing really up its own arse.' Casting agents did, however, hold the classes in very high regard. The professionalism instilled in the students meant that producers from major British TV shows such as EastEnders and Grange Hill kept coming back for more. Hundreds, if not thousands, of less well-known performers treading the boards of Britain's stages also have the school's ethos to thank for their success. Those achievements were recognised in the 2005 Honours List when Sylvia was awarded an OBE for services to the arts. Sir Cameron Mackintosh, who has produced shows including Les Miserables and Cats, said: 'The show that provided the greatest showcase for the young actors she discovered and nurtured is undoubtedly Oliver! which has featured hundreds of her students over the years. 'Sylvia was a pioneer who became a caring but formidable children's agent.'
