POLICE ACADEMY
Steve Guttenberg, Michael Winslow, Bubba Smith, David Graf, Leslie Easterbrook, Marion Ramsey, G.W. Bailey, George Baynes.
In 1984 Police Academy was released, and over the next ten years there were a further six sequels, making it one of the longest running comedy franchises in movie history. The original grossed $81.2 million at the US box office and was the sixth biggest grossing film of 1984, not bad when you consider this was the year that also gave us Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Beverly Hills Cop and Ghost Busters. The film went on to gross approximately $146 million worldwide, with the sequels totalling around $150 million. The original is one of the funniest comedy films of all time and its gag per minute ratio must come close to rivalling that of Airplane!
The sequels may have progressively diminished in quality but the franchise still managed to attract some relatively big names; Kim Cattrall appeared as a cadet in the original, Sharon Stone appeared as Mahoneys love interest in 4, even Count Dooku himself Christopher Lee and Hellboy Ron Perlman appeared in Mission to Moscow. The franchise has always been looked upon with fondness, on the documentary on the Mission to Moscow DVD, the cast talk about how difficult it was filming in Russia at the time of a revolution and how they were constantly being stopped by the military, who refused to believe that they were filming a movie until Michael Winslow emerged with some of his trademark sound effects, at which point the Russian military would all scream Policia Academy and burst out laughing. Yet despite such a global appreciation of the films, the actors who starred as these larger than life characters have all struggled to ever emulate the success they had as part of Police Academy. The success of the franchise has more than likely been the downfall of the stars since the franchise ended; for they will all always be thought of as their Police Academy alter egos. Over the next few days we will take a look at how the careers of the principal Police Academy cast members have progressed and the projects they are currently involved in, beginning with the irrepressible Steve Guttenberg Click on the actor to find out WHERE ARE THEY NOW?PART I: STEVE GUTTENBERGPART II: MICHAEL WINSLOWPART III: BUBBA SMITHPART IV: DAVID GRAFPART V: LESLIE EASTERBROOKPART VI: MARION RAMSEYPART VII: G.W. BAILEYPART VIII: GEORGE GAYNES