Weekend Box Office: 'Real Steel' Stomps 'Footloose,' Thwacks 'The Thing'

Kevin Bacon

Kevin Bacon: Bacon's film debut was as a snotty freshman in 1978's 'Animal House,' but he didn't really get noticed until he played reckless rich kid Fenwick in 'Diner' (1982). That led to his lead role in 'Footloose' as Ren McCormick, the big-city teen who persuades a Bible Belt town to kick off its Sunday shoes and lift a ban on dancing. Since then, Bacon's never been far from the spotlight. In the past 27 years, he's made more than 50 big-screen features -- notably, 'A Few Good Men,' 'Murder in the First,' 'Apollo 13,' 'Wild Things,' 'Mystic River,' 'The Woodsman,' and 2011's 'X-Men: First Class,' in which he played mutant supervillain Sebastian Shaw. He's also made a handful of TV movies, including 'Lemon Sky' (where he met Kyra Sedgwick, his wife since 1988) and 'Taking Chance.' He's been so ubiquitous that he inspired the trivia game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, based on the notion that he's worked with seemingly everyone in film and in every genre of movies. One thing the 53-year-old hasn't done much of on screen since 'Footloose' is dance, though he demonstrated in a 2002 episode of 'Will & Grace' (guest-starring as himself) that he still knows Ren's moves.

Lori Singer

Lori Singer: Before she landed the role of rebellious Ariel, Singer was a Juilliard-trained cellist best known for her role as cello student Julie Miller on TV's 'Fame.' 'Footloose' would prove to be the peak of her career. Though a couple of mainstream movies followed ('The Falcon and the Snowman,' 'The Man With One Red Shoe'), Singer soon found herself co-starring in little-seen indie movies. Arguably, her biggest role of the last quarter century was in the ensemble of Robert Altman's sprawling 'Short Cuts' (1993, co-starring fellow "Footloose' hoofer Chris Penn), in which she played a suicidal cellist -- a role Altman created with her in mind. Over the last 15 years or so, she seems to have spent more time on her classical music career and raising a family than on acting. In the spring of 2011, the 53-year-old resurfaced in a guest spot on TV's 'Law & Order: SVU,' playing the mother of a kidnapped child. In a 2010 interview, Singer said she didn't mind being identified primarily with 'Footloose.' "I'm proud to be that rebel forever," she said. "It reminds me to carry that spirit with me."

Chris Penn

John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest

John Lithgow: John Lithgow was already a Tony-winning Broadway actor (for 1973's 'The Changing Room') and a two-time Academy Award nominee (for his roles in 'The World According to Garp' and 'Terms of Endearment') when he was cast in 'Footloose' as Rev. Shaw Moore, father to wild child Ariel and the religious leader behind his small town's ban on dancing. Playing his wife Vi was Dianne Wiest, with whom he'd co-starred on stage in Christopher Durang's 'Beyond Therapy.' After 'Footloose,' Lithgow became a frequent movie villain in such films as 'Raising Cain,' 'Ricochet,' 'Cliffhanger,' Broadway's 'The Sweet Smell of Success' (for which he won his second Tony in 2002) and TV's 'Dexter,' where he won an Emmy for playing the Trinity Killer in 2009. But Lithgow also has a comic, even goofy side that he showed most famously as pompous alien Dick Solomon on long-running sitcom '3rd Rock From the Sun') but also in movies ('Buckaroo Banzai,' 'Harry and the Hendersons,' 'Shrek'), stage (his Tony-nominated performance in 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels') and the many books and records he's made for children. Lithgow has been married twice, to Jean Taynton (1966 to 1980) and to Mary Yeager (since 1981). The 65-year-old actor's most recent movie role was as James Franco's Alzheimer's-afflicted father in 2011's 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes.'

Dianne Wiest: In the early 1980s, Dianne Wiest was a veteran stage actress who had co-starred with James Earl Jones in 'Othello' and John Lithgow in Christopher Durang's comedy 'Beyond Therapy.' Her first big break onscreen was 'Footloose,' where she played Vi Moore, the wise and compassionate wife of the preacher played by her former stage co-star Lithgow. After 'Footloose,' Wiest specialized in playing put-upon moms trying to maintain an air of cheerfulness in such movies as 'The Lost Boys,' 'Parenthood' (for which she earned an Oscar nomination), 'Edward Scissorhands,' 'The Birdcage' and 'Rabbit Hole.' She played against type in the five movies she did with Woody Allen, winning Best Supporting Actress Oscars for two of them, playing a scattered caterer-turned-playwright in 'Hannah and Her Sisters' (1986) and a grand stage diva in 'Bullets Over Broadway' (1994). On TV, Wiest won two Emmys, for guest-starring on 'Road to Avonlea' (1989) and for her supporting role as Gabriel Byrne's therapist on 'In Treatment' (2008). Off-screen, Wiest had a longterm relationship with legendary talent agent Sam Cohn, who died in 2009. She has never married but adopted two daughters, now grown. The 63-year-old actress reunites with 'Parenthood' co-star Steve Martin in the new movie 'The Big Year,' released on the same day as the new 'Footloose.'

Sarah Jessica Parker

Sarah Jessica Parker: As a young Broadway and TV actress best known for co-starring in the short-lived junior-high sitcom 'Square Pegs,' Sarah Jessica Parker got her first big break in movies as 'Footloose's fun-loving Rusty. (She and Chris Penn, six months her junior, were the only ones among the movie's four teenage leads who were actually still teenagers.) Still, her film career didn't really take off until her flashy comic supporting turn in 1991's 'L.A. Story.' She starred in romantic comedies throughout the '90s (including 'Honeymoon in Vegas' and 'Miami Rhapsody'), only to gain even greater fame on TV as the star of 'Sex and the City,' which ran for six years and then made a hugely successful transition into a movie franchise in 2008. Today at 46, Parker (who married fellow 1980s teen star Matthew Broderick in 1997) is as popular as ever, whether as a style icon and pitchwoman or as a Broadway and film actress. Her characters of late have been variations on 'Sex's' Carrie Bradshaw, including her starring role in September 2011's 'I Don't Know How She Does It.'

Kenny Loggins

Kenny Loggins: Throughout the '80s, the former Loggins & Messina folkie was a one-man soundtrack factory, cranking out hit pop tunes for such smashes as 'Caddyshack' and 'Top Gun.' Most memorable of all was his theme song to 'Footloose,' which he co-wrote with Dean Pitchford, and which earned him an Oscar nomination. He and Pitchford also co-wrote another song for the movie, 'I'm Free (Heaven Help the Man),' which Loggins performed. In recent decades, as the 63-year-old has become a staple on the oldies concert circuit (including a 2005 reunion tour with Jim Messina), 'Footloose' probably remains his most popular tune and the only one to have spent several weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart. He's been married twice, to Eva Ein (from 1978 to 1990) and to colon specialist Julia Cooper (from 1992 to 2004). These days, Loggins records with country trio Blue Sky Riders, with whom he also recently made some (NSFW) Funny or Die videos spoofing his '80s soundtrack career. At the Hollywood premiere for the new 'Footloose,' Loggins offered lukewarm praise for Blake Shelton's cover of the song and continued to marvel at the original film's success. "We figured it would be lucky if it got any attention at all," he said.

Dean Pitchford

Dean Pitchford: In 1979, Dean Pitchford, then a Broadway and cabaret songwriter best known for his collaborations with Peter Allen, read a news article about Elmore City, an Oklahoma town that had just ended an 80-year ban on dancing. The story inspired Pitchford to write the screenplay that would become 'Footloose' five years later. In the meantime, his work with songwriter Michael Gore on the 1980 film 'Fame' (they co-wrote three of its tunes) led to a Best Song Oscar for the movie's theme song. That and the Grammy recognition for his pop songwriting gave him the clout to make 'Footloose,' for which he also co-wrote all nine of the songs. The 'Footloose' soundtrack would go on to sell 17 million copies, spawn six hit singles and rule the Billboard album chart for 10 weeks. The title track and 'Let's Hear It for the Boy' would earn Pitchford two more Oscar nominations. In the years that followed, Pitchford would enjoy continued success as a pop songwriter and earn one more Oscar nomination (for the song 'After All,' from 1989's 'Chances Are'). As with 'Footloose,' he wrote the screenplay and all the songs for the film 'Sing,' but the movie went nowhere. Same with his re-teaming with Gore on the Broadway musical 'Carrie,' a legendary flop. For years, Pitchford struggled to bring 'Footloose' to Broadway (he and 'Let's Hear It...' co-composer Tom Snow wrote nine more songs for the stage version), an effort that finally paid off in 1988. The show ran for two years in New York and spent the next decade touring the globe. In 2007, Pitchford embarked on a new career as a children's author, writing the novels 'The Big 1-0' and 'Captain Nobody.' The 60-year-old will publish his next book, 'Nickel Bay Nick,' in 2013, and next spring will see an Off-Broadway revival of 'Carrie.'

Herbert Ross

Herbert Ross: Before 'Footloose,' Herbert Ross already had a reputation as a director who specialized in Broadway adaptations (especially from Neil Simon plays), musicals and dance-oriented films. A former Broadway choreographer who had been creating dance sequences for movies since 1954's 'Carmen Jones,' Ross had directed such dance-driven pictures as 'Goodbye, Mr. Chips,' 'Funny Lady,' 'The Turning Point' (for which he earned his sole Best Director Oscar nomination), 'Nijinsky' and 'Pennies From Heaven.' He was in his mid-50s when he made 'Footloose,' but he had no trouble adapting to a youthful cast, a pop soundtrack and MTV music video-ready montage sequences. After 'Footloose's success, he made eight more movies, including the hits 'The Secret of My Success' and 'Steel Magnolias.' The last of the 25 movies he directed was 1995's 'Boys on the Side.' He was married for nearly 30 years to ballerina Nora Kaye, who died in 1987. The following year, he married Lee Radziwill (Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' sister); they remained together until shortly before his death in 2001 at age 74.