WITH a slew of box office triumphs and awards, Beetlejuice remains one of the best dark fantasy movies ever produced.
It took over £60million at the box office and cemented the careers of many stars, including Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis.
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Director Tim Burton will be looking to create the magic of the original movie with Friday’s release of a sequel, 36 years later.
Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara have reprised their roles, with new cast members Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe, and Jenna Ortega joining them.
Conspicuous by their absence in the new instalment is Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis.
Earlier this week, Tim said he wanted to go in a different direction in the new movie although Geena has said she believes they were left out because “ghosts don’t age.”
The film’s huge success helped propel the cast on to greater things – including a lead in Batman for Michael Keaton – but their lives have also been plagued by controversies and scandals.
From a shocking shoplifting arrest to a husband’s dumbfounding betrayal, the stars of the classic comedy horror have faced their own dark shadows.
Here, we look at some of the biggest dramas they have been involved in.
Shoplifting drama
Winona was just 16 when she starred as Lydia Deetz and revealed she was an awkward teen who hoped she would be accepted by classmates after the film’s release.
“But it made things worse,” she told Marie Claire. “They called me a witch.”
She dated Rob Lowe and Christian Slater before falling for Johnny Depp when they met on the set of Edward Scissorhands in 1989, when she was just 17. Johnny, then 27, proposed after five months.
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Winona went on to film Mermaids in 1990 but caught a respiratory infection on set which meant she had to drop out of Godfather Part III, leaving many fearing she had scuppered her own career.
But she proved them wrong with a role in the hit 1992 film Dracula.
Troubled times were ahead, however, with a heartbreaking split from Depp in 1993 which she called her “Girl, Interrupted, real life” – referring to her role as a teenager with mental illness in the iconic film released six years later.
Her career hit the skids in 2001 when she was arrested for shoplifting, having allegedly stolen more than £4,000 worth of designer clothes and accessories from Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills.
She was put on probation and ordered to do 480 hours of community service, pay over £8,000 in fines and undergo psychological and drug counselling.
In 2016, while talking about the incident, she said: “Psychologically, I must have been at a place where I just wanted to stop. I won’t get into what happened, but it wasn’t what people think. And it wasn’t like the crime of the century!
“But it allowed me time that I really needed, where I went back to San Francisco and got back into things that… I just had other interests, frankly.”
She also said physical pain, mental health and over-prescribed medication all clouded her judgment.
Since 2016, Winona has enjoyed a career resurgence, largely thanks to her role as Joyce Byers on Netflix’s Stranger Things. It has garnered her critical acclaim and led to other shows such as The Plot Against America.
She has been in a relationship with fashion designer Scott Mackinlay Hahn for 15 years.
Set tragedy
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Alec Balwin, who played Barbara’s husband Adam – became a household name after the film, despite predicting it could end his career.
“I had no idea what it was about,” he told GQ in 2019. “I thought my, all of our careers are going to end with the release of this film. Maybe we’re all going to be dead.”
Alec went on to star in The Hunt for Red October in 1990 and met future wife Kim Basinger working on 1991’s The Marrying Man.
They made it official in 1993 and welcomed daughter Ireland two years later.
But their split in 2000 was one of the most toxic break-ups in Hollywood history with a long and public court battle which Alec complained cost him over £1million.
Seven years into the legal battle he was slammed after the release of a phone message to Ireland, then 11, where he called her a “rude, thoughtless little pig”.
Alec said he was left suicidal after the call was leaked to the public.
Other film credits include The Cooler (2003), The Departed (2006), and the 2004 movie The Aviator. He also starred in Tina Fey’s series 30 Rock from 2006 to 2013.
In 2012 he married current wife Hilaria and the pair now have seven kids.
In recent years Alec, now 64, has starred in Blue Jasmine and Still Alice, but his career has been marred by a tragic death on the set of his Western epic Rust in 2021.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died after a real bullet was fired from the actor’s prop gun. Alec was initially charged with involuntary manslaughter, and faced up to five years in prison.
The charges were dropped in April 2023, pending further investigation, and filming resumed. Alec was again indicted for the charge in January 2024.
His trial began on July 9, but the case was dismissed with prejudice just three days later when it was discovered that prosecutors had withheld evidence.
Although he no longer faces the possibility of going to prison, Halyna’s family are currently pursuing a civil lawsuit against him.
Shocking betrayal
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Geena, 67, played newlywed Barbara Maitland, who returns as a ghost to her lonely farmhouse with her husband after they are both killed in a car crash.
Three years after the film Geena starred with Susan Sarandon in her biggest hit, Thelma and Louise, before landing a role in A League of Their Own in 1992.
Named as the ’90s ‘It girl’, Geena’s love life away has been less than smooth – with four divorces behind her.
She wed New York restaurateur Richard Emmolo in 1981, but they divorced three years later.
She went on to date Jurassic Park star Jeff Goldblum and the pair married in 1987 but he filed for divorce after three years – although Geena still calls the romance “a magical chapter in my life”.
In 1993, she tied the knot with Finnish filmmaker Renny Harlin, who directed her in the 1995 pirate romp Cutthroat Island, which was an expensive box office flop and The Long Kiss Goodnight.
Their relationship fell apart when Geena discovered that Renny was having an affair with another woman – who turned out to be Geena’s own personal assistant Tiffany Browne.
The actress filed for divorce on August 26, 1997 – the day after Tiffany gave birth to a child fathered by Harlin.
She later began dating surgeon Reza Jarrahy, 15 years her junior at 52, – with whom she shares daughter Alizeh, 20, and fraternal twin sons Kaiis and Kian, 18.
They ‘wed’ in 2001, and Geena told Good Housekeeping. “I did say to Reza, ‘You’re about to become someone’s fourth husband. What on earth are you thinking?’ But as for myself, I wasn’t nervous at all.
“It was exciting to know I was marrying someone who I can be cranky or selfish in front of and he doesn’t run screaming from the room or judge me for it.”
While Reza insisted they were legally married Geena claimed, after their 2017 separation and bitter custody battle, that they never officially tied the knot.
Geena dialled back her career while her kids were young and has recently starred in Fairyland.
Close call
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Canadian Catherine O’Hara was a TV comedian when she was asked to audition for Delia Deetz, her first Hollywood role, but she missed her audition after getting lost en route to meeting Tim Burton in Burbank, and was offered the role anyway.
“It’s a good trick. If you’re bad at auditioning, just don’t go,” she joked.
The movie put her on the Hollywood map, leading to roles in the 1990 smash Home Alone, Best in Show (2000) and the 2002 movie Orange County.
Beetlejuice was also where she met husband Bo Welch, a production designer. The couple wed in 1992 and have two sons – Matthew, born in 1994, and Luke, born in 1997.
Earlier this year, she recalled a horrifying incident where she and Bo were almost separated from her sons.
Speaking to People magazine, she said: “We were in New York once; I think it was New York. Bo and I got on the subway, we turned around, the doors are closing and they weren’t on.
“I screamed and people screamed with me. Everybody joined in.”
Although the doors reopened and her boys got on the train, the incident shook her.
She added: “What happens? You’re on the train, it goes to the next stop. And you think, are they going to stay in that spot? Are they going to be safe? Will we go back? Will they think, ‘Oh, I’ll get on the next train and go there?’ We didn’t have phones.”
Catherine, now 70, landed arguably her most iconic role in 2015 – as eccentric matriarch Moira Rose in the long-running comedy Schitt’s Creek.
Child pornography arrest
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Well-known character actor Jeffrey Jones had already starred as the headmaster in teen smash Ferris Bueller’s Day Off when he played Lydia’s dad Charles Deetz in Beetlejuice.
He also appeared in other Tim Burton movies, including 1994’s Ed Wood and the 1999 smash Sleepy Hollow.
His career came to an abrupt end in 2001 when a 14-year-old boy reported him to the Los Angeles Police Department, claiming the actor made him pose for sexually explicit photos.
He was charged with sexual offences involving a minor and pleaded no contest.
Jeffrey was sentenced to five years probation and counselling and forced to renew his entry on the sex offenders register every year.
He faced another charge in 2010 for not updating his sex registry data and the disgraced actor was charged with 250 days of community service.
The 77-year-old is the father of actor Julian Coutts, whom he fathered with Lloy Coutts, a Canadian vocal coach who died in 2008.
Tragic heartbreak
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Sylvia Sidney won a Saturn Award for best supporting actress for her role in Beetlejuice. Her legendary career made her one of the most respected actresses of her generation.
After Beetlejuice, she starred in three other movies before her final project in 1996. Although she was not involved in any major scandals, she suffered many heartbreaks.
Sylvia was married three times – her longest marriage lasted eight years to actor Luther Adler.
She had her only child, Jacob, in 1939, but he tragically died in 1987 of motor neurone disease at age 48.
Sylvia died 12 years later of oesophageal cancer at a hospital in Manhattan. She was 88.
‘Normal life’
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Already an established actor, Michael turned down the title role three times because he didn’t understand the concept but was finally persuaded by pal Tim Burton.
He later said he shaped the iconic look of the malevolent phantom, telling the make-up team: “I want mould on my face. My hair has to look like I stuck my finger in an electric socket.”
The actor went on to land the lead in the 1989 comic book hit Batman and its sequel Batman Returns, and also starred in The Paper (1994), Multiplicity (1996) and the 1997 movie Jackie Brown.
He suffered a career lull in the Noughties, although he later said it was a conscious decision to take a step back because he fancied “taking a pause” to enjoy “having a normal life”.
While filming Beetlejuice, Michael was married to Caroline McWilliams and they share a son, Sean, now 42. They divorced in 1990 after eight years and she sadly passed away in 2010 from blood cancer.
Michael also dated Friends star Courteney Cox for five years, until 1995 and has been dating Marni Turner for eight years.
Although outspoken about issues close to his heart, Michael has managed to steer clear of major scandals throughout his career.
Who is in Beetlejuice’s sequel?
The new film sees some cast members reprising their roles as well as new stars.
- Michael Keaton – He reprises his role as Betelgeuse after 38 years. Michael and Tim decided to keep the character politically incorrect.
- Winona Ryder – Winona is back as Lydia Deetz, the former teen goth who almost wed Betelgeuse in the original film.
- Catherine O’Hara – The Canadian actress returns to the movie as Delia Deetz, Lydia’s stepmum.
- Jenna Ortega – Jenna, known for her roles in dark fantasy films stars as Astrid Deetz.
- Justin Theroux – Another new addition, Justin plays Rory, Lydia’s current husband.
- Monica Bellucci – She stars as Delores, Betelgeuse’s ex-wife.
- Willem Dafoe – Known for his villainous roles in several films, Willem portrays Wolf Jackson, a ghost detective.