Furst Things First

There was just something irresistibly likable about Stephen Furst, from his breakout performance as Kent Dorfman, the chubby college freshman who exuberantly gushed, "Oh boy, is this great!" amid the mayhem at the homecoming parade in 1978's "National Lampoon's Animal House" to his last acting role, as an ebullient college professor who inadvertently reawakens a millennia-old dragon in the 2006 Syfy channel movie "Basilisk: The Serpent King."

Stephen Furst succumbed to complications related to diabetes on June 16, 2017, at the age of 63. Born Stephen Nelson Feuerstein in Norfolk, Virginia, on May 8, 1954, he took an early interest in acting, playing roles in local theater while in high school, among them the Cowardly Lion in "The Wizard of Oz."


I. From Pizza Boxes to "Prime Time"

Furst studied drama at Richmond's Virginia Commonwealth University, where he met his future wife, Lorraine, also a drama major. They appeared together in a staging of Peter Shaffer's "Equus" and were married in 1976, eventually moving to Los Angeles.

Pictured here with husband Stephen Furst in 1989,
Lorraine became an entertainment lawyer.
She remained his wife until his passing.

In Los Angeles, Stephen Furst worked as a pizza delivery driver while looking for acting work. He included an 8x10 head shot of himself in the pizza boxes, which resulted in an uncredited bit part as a road construction worker on a 1975 episode of the trucker series "Movin' On," starring Claude Akins and Frank Converse.

Furst's screen debut was a small role - unceremoniously credited as "Fat Gin Player" - in an obscure 1977 comedy titled "Prime Time." In the mid-1970s, a movie genre arose from multiple skits spoofing movies and film trailers, as well as TV programs and commercials. These films included "The Groove Tube," "Tunnel Vision," "The Kentucky Fried Movie," and "Loose Shoes."

The director of "Prime Time," Bradley R. Swirnoff, a former director of commercials, had co-directed the above-mentioned "Tunnel Vision" with Neal Israel (best known as one of the creators of the "Police Academy" series of films), working with a cast of improv comedians including "Saturday Night Live's" Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman, Al Franken, Tom Davis, Second City's John Candy, Joe Flaherty, and Betty Thomas, The Committee's Howard Hesseman, The Firesign Theatre's Phil Proctor, as well as Gerritt Graham and Dudley Riggss' Brave New Workshop's Pat Proft.

We're not even going to guess what's happening in this bit from
"Tunnel Vision," but yes, that's "Hill Street Blues'" Sgt. Lucy Bates
(Betty Thomas) and "SCTV's" Joe Flaherty.

Unlike the other parodies' hodgepodge of unrelated skits, "Prime Time" attempted a meager wrap-around plot involving the U.S. president's attempts to track down the unknown transmission of tasteless, offensive, and often racist transmissions that are substituting regular TV shows and ads.

"Prime Time" features previews of upcoming series, including...

The sputtering chief executive was played by George Furth, a playwright, librettist (who collaborated with Stephen Sondheim on the hit musical "Company"), and familiar character actor (best known as Woodcock, the haplessly resolute railroad clerk in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid").

To put a face on a name, this is George Furth as
the sniveling Van Johnson in "Blazing Saddles."

The president's staff of top military advisors was cast with equally familiar faces from television, including original "Jeopardy!" host Art Fleming, along with Dick O'Neill and Herb Voland, both of whom guest-starred on TV's "M*A*S*H" variously as military brass-holes. As a matter of fact, there were several recognizable faces popping up in "Prime Time," among them Joanna Cassidy (Gene Hackman's costar in "Under Fire" and "The Package"), former NFL defensive end and future TV cop "Hunter" Fred Dryer, Murphy Dunne (best known as the leader of Murph and the MagicTones in "The Blues Brothers"), singer-humorist Kinky Friedman, comedian-radio host-voice actor Harry Shearer, and acclaimed stage and screen actor Harris Yulin (well-known to fans of "Scarface" as crooked cop Mel Bernstein).

One of the most questionable bits in "Prime Time" was a parody of sportscaster Curt Gowdy's series "The American Sportsman." Comedic actor Robert Ridgely (best known for his Karloff impression as Boris the Hangman in Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles" and "Robin Hood: Men in Tights") appeared as the host of "Celebrity Sportsman," accompanying Warren Oates to the top of a university tower in Austin, Texas, for "The Charles Whitman Invitational" (pictured below).

It was little more than a decade earlier when real-life "Texas Tower Sniper" Charles Whitman, after murdering his wife and mother, killed 14 people and wounded 31 before being shot and killed by police.

A second's distraction will result in missing Stephen Furst's one line in an overlong, humorless takeoff on "Charlie's Angels" called "Manny's Nymphs," featuring a trio of plus-sized undercover crime-fighters.

On the other hand, the comedy does offer more than an eyeful of Laurie Zimmer in a dress-dropping spoof of laundry detergent commercials. Sometimes billed as Laurie Fanning, she appeared in only two domestic motion pictures, one French short film, a French feature, and one made-for-television movie before retiring from acting, but it was her portrayal of the ballsy gunslinging LAPD secretary in "Halloween" director John Carpenter's breakthrough feature "Assault on Precinct 13" that garnered her cult film immortality (pictured below).

Laurie Zimmer seemingly disappeared in 1979 as abruptly as she
had flashed across the screen in 1976's "Assault on Precinct 13." 

In the 2003 documentary "Do You Remember Laurie Zimmer?" French filmmaker Charlotte Szlovak, who cast the actress as the lead in 1977's "Slow City, Moving Fast," chronicled a search for her long-lost star and friend, whom she ultimately discovered working as a teacher near San Francisco, married, with two sons. But we digress...


II. The Slobs Against the Snobs

Matty Simmons was a hotshot credit card executive for Diner's Club and the successful publisher of Weight Watchers and National Lampoon magazines. One of Stephen Furst's pizza-box photos found its way to Simmons, who was planning on embarking on motion picture production, and after a few months of auditions, the young actor was cast as the blundering Delta fraternity legacy aptly dubbed "Flounder" in "National Lampoon's Animal House."

Frat alpha slob Bluto Blutarsky (John Belushi) reacts to
Kent Dorfman's pledge photo in "Animal House,"

Perhaps not too kindly but succinctly, The New York Times critic Janet Maslin remarked, "Stephen Furst does some very successful scene-stealing as the house blimp." In its obituary for Furst, The New York Times deemed him "one of the film's most reliable sources of comic relief. Cluelessly upbeat and charmingly idiotic, he's taken under the wing of John Belushi's character, Bluto Blutarsky, who alternately torments and comforts him."

Incidentally, the store clerk that Flounder requested 10,000 marbles from before the homecoming parade was played by his wife, Lorraine (pictured below).

Stephen Furst's eldest son, Nathan Furst, a prolific composer of scores for television movies, said that "in a way," his father "built a whole career from that role, because many of the characters he played were different versions of the same energy that character had."

Dean Vernon Wormer: "Fat, drunk, and stupid
is no way to go through life, son."

Indeed, Furst followed "Animal House" with not dissimilar performances in a string of variations on the tried-and-true slobs-vs.-snobs formula that hails back to the Marx Brothers and The Three Stooges...

In 1979's "Take Down," a tidy "Little Engine That Could" tale, a very young Edward Herrmann (twice Emmy Award-nominated for television portrayals of President Franklin D. Roosevelt) portrayed an erudite high school English teacher saddled with coaching a newly formed wrestling team in a small town. Before his featured role on the prime-time soap opera "Falcon Crest," Lorenzo Lamas (son of '50s Latin heartthrob Fernando Lamas), was cast as the particularly troubled teen who sacrifices grades and graduation to cover his alcoholic father's job at the local steel mill.

Kathleen Lloyd provided a sweet portrait of Herrmann's sympathetic wife in "Take Down." After a promising breakthrough role as a rancher's independent-thinking daughter in the 1976 revisionist western "The Missouri Breaks" (pictured below), in which she more than held her own in the company of Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando, she thanklessly contended with a demon-possessed Lincoln Continental in "The Car," mutant monster babies in "It Lives Again," and Leif Garrett on wheels in "Skateboard" before finding steady employment in a number of TV movies and series, including a recurring role as Assistant DA Carol Baldwin on "Magnum, P.I."

Maureen McCormick satisfactorily sidestepped her Marcia-Marcia-Marcia Brady persona in a disarming performance as the privileged girl with a soft spot for Lamas' character.

We couldn't find a picture of Maureen McCormick in 1979's "Take
Down," so here she is in hot pants from that same year's "Skatetown,
U.S.A." Patrick Swayze made his film debut here as bad guy Ace.

There are interesting stories behind some of the other young performers taking it to the mat in "Take Down." Salt Lake City native Darryl Peterson, who played Ted Yacabobich, the heavyweight anchor of the wrestling team, dabbled in amateur wrestling from high school to college before making his professional debut in World Championship Wrestling as Maxx Payne.

In 1993, Darryl Peterson (Maxx Payne) joined
Mick Foley (Cactus Jack) in a formidable tag team.

When the video game publishers of "Max Payne" accused Peterson of stealing his name and neo-noir image, Peterson, in turn, filed a $10 million lawsuit against Rockstar Games, among other software developers. The case was settled out of court, and when Peterson was recruited by the WWF in 1995, he debuted as Man Mountain Rock, brandishing an electric guitar shaped like the federation's logo.

Darryl Peterson - aka Maxx Payne, aka Beater,
Blacksmith, Buffalo Peterson, Heavy Metal Buffalo,
Lucifer Payne, Maximum Payne, and Man Mountain
Rock - retired from professional wrestling in 2004. 

Kevin Hooks went from wrestling mats to the plywood of basketball courts as Morris Thorpe in the late 1970s series "The White Shadow." He later became a prolific director of various television series, including "24" and "Prison Break."

Capably handling the tear-jerking function in the story was a young actor named Vincent Roberts, as Maureen McCormick's kid brother, the undersized team mascot with a terminal disease. Roberts appeared in only three roles before, tragically, he died from a gunshot wound to the head during a robbery at a Hollywood fast food restaurant where he was working.

Maureen McCormick, Lorenzo Lamas, and Edward Herrmann tend
to an injured Vincent Roberts in a scene from "Take Down."

Stephen Furst reliably provided comic relief as a tuba player (what else?) in the high school band who is reluctantly recruited as a substitute wrestler (pictured below).

"I'm not a wrestler, I'm a musician!" Stephen Furst whines
shortly before forfeiting his first bout by running away.

Will the pedantic coach finally be respected by the ragtag squad? Will the rich girl help the boy-from-the-other-side-of-the-tracks "punch through" to redeem himself?  And what chance do the small-town grapplers have in a showdown with their big-city rivals? If we told you the writer-producer-director, Kieth Merrill, was a longstanding active member and former missionary of the Mormon church, would that answer your questions? Merrill, incidentally, won the Oscar for his 1973 rodeo documentary titled "The Great American Cowboy."

In the end, "Take Down" is innocuous, predictable, and occasionally corny - in other words, the ideal family film.

Another new coach attempts to turn another squad of underdogs into champions after a seven-year losing streak in 1979's "Swim Team," a sophomoric comedy worth mentioning only for the "Animal House" cast reunion of Stephen (Flounder) Furst and James (Greg Marmalard) Daughton.

When it was released in Spain, "Animal House" was titled "Desmadre
de la Americana," which roughly translates as "American Screw-up."
Come "Swim Team," those wacky Spaniards decided to call it
"American Screw-up II."

Dismissed as a water-logged "Meatballs"-wannabe, "Swim Team" was written, produced, and directed by James Polakof, the auteur responsible for 1982's "Satan's Mistress" (aka "Demon Rage," "Dark Eyes," "Incubus," and "Fury of the Succubus"), starring Britt Ekland, Lana Wood, and John Carradine, as well as 1983's "Rich & Powerful" (aka "Balboa"), with Tony Curtis, Carol Lynley, Chuck Connors, Sonny Bono, and Cassandra ("Elvira") Peterson.

"Swim Team" director James Polakof's "Satan's Mistress" finds
Natalie Wood's baby sister Lana Wood performing the obligatory
shower scene-in-a-thriller with a twist - using
a handheld shower head! 

The supporting cast of "Swim Team" featured 1930's Olympics swimming gold medalist Buster Crabbe (noteworthy as the only actor to portray top pulp heroes Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers) and Mickey Newbury, a songwriter-singer best known for writing "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" for Kenny Rogers and The First Edition" and for writing and recording "An American Trilogy," which later became a hit for Elvis Presley.

"Scavenger Hunt" was directed by Michael Schultz, who made 1976's
"Car Wash" (deemed by Roger Ebert "a wash-and-wax M*A*S*H"),
as well as 1978's dreadful "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club
Band" and 1987's humorless "Disorderlies," with rap's The Fat Boys.

For his third film appearance in 1979, Stephen Furst was part of an ensemble cast in "Scavenger Hunt," a comedy that so desperately wanted to be the "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" for the '70s. However, whereas the cast of "Mad World" was rife with a who's who of comedy's top bananas, "Scavenger Hunt" featured a melange of celebrities more than likely to show up as guests on "Murder, She Wrote," namely Willy Aames, Dirk Benedict, Richard Benjamin, James Coco, Scatman Crothers, Ruth Gordon, Cloris Leachman, Cleavon Little, Roddy McDowall, Robert Morley, Richard Mulligan, Tony Randall, and Carol Wayne. Did we mention guest stars Meat Loaf, Vincent Price, and Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Prior to his breakout role in "An American Werewolf in London," David Naughton starred in 1980's "Midnight Madness," which featured Stephen Furst, Eddie Deezen, Paul Reubens, and the film debut of Michael J. Fox (pictured below).

The movie, coincidentally, had been originally titled "The All Night Treasure Hunt" but was changed to avoid confusion with the aforementioned "Scavenger Hunt."

This time out, Stephen Furst, as Harold, is the antagonistic snob
of the story, playing the leader of the Blue Team of cheaters.

Also from 1980, "Getting Wasted" (pictured below) found Stephen Furst cast as a cadet in a military academy of goof-offs in the '60s who get high smoking banana peels and meet girls in miniskirts! The cast included Brian Kerwin, the naive white-bread deputy in the '70s sitcom "The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo" who went on to portray Emma Stone's father in 2011's "The Help," Cooper Huckabee (best known for his diverse roles in "The Funhouse," "Gettysburg," and "Django Unchained"), and - somewhere in the mix - a young David Caruso.

Four years after "Animal House," National Lampoon released its second feature film, 1982's "Class Reunion," a misfired attempt to blend comedy with slasher-horror elements, with Stephen Furst as one of the alumni at a 10-year high school reunion. The former students of Lizzie Borden High are terrorized by a deranged classmate who was the victim of a sadistic senior-year prank in the first produced screenplay by John Hughes.

Miriam Flynn, Stephen Furst, Fred McCarren, Gerritt Graham,
Mews Small, and Zane Busby confront the killer in "Class Reunion."

The class beauty (Shelley Smith) is threatened by the class psycho,
played by Blackie Dammett (real name John Kiedis, father of Red
Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis). This is the scene where
Stephen Furst asks, "Can we see her naked before you kill her?"

John Hughes would go on to write and direct such hit motion pictures as "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," and "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," but he was not proud of "Class Reunion." As a matter of fact, he claimed he had been fired from the film. "They didn't even want me around, and I was shocked when I saw the movie," Hughes later recalled. "My screenplay had been completely butchered, and my name will nevertheless be on the credits forever."

In 1984, Stephen Furst was reunited with his "Animal House" antagonist, Mark Metcalf, who played "sneaky shit" Neidermeyer, in the music video for Twisted Sister's "I Wanna Rock" (pictured below).

Actually, over the years, Furst and Metcalf, along with other cast members from "Animal House" attended various reunions at anniversaries and conventions.

"A pledge pin?! On your uniform!"

See? It was all make-believe. They're really good friends...

Also in 1984, Stephen Furst costarred in yet another slobs-vs-snobs comedy that could best be described as "Animal House"-Meets-"Porky's"-Meets-"Superman: The Movie." "Up the Creek" featured Tim Matheson ("Otter" from "Animal House"), Dan Monahan ("Pee Wee" from the "Porky's" films), and Jeff East (who played teenaged Clark Kent in the 1978 Christopher Reeve "Superman" picture...although, the young actor's voice was unwittingly overdubbed by Reeve).

Tim Matheson, Dan Monahan, Jennifer Runyon, and
Stephen Furst face peril in "Up the Creek."

Matheson, Monahan, and Furst (as Gonzer) are students at Lepetomane University (Le Pétomane was the stage name of an old-time French performer who entertained audiences as a professional flatulist - in all seriousness, the name translates as "fart-maniac") who, for plot point purposes only, are coerced into participating in a collegiate raft race. Frankly, at 37, Tim Matheson was too long in the tooth to keep pulling off the role of the campus playboy, while writer Jim Kouf  ("The Hidden," "Rush Hour," "National Treasure") said director Robert Butler (Disney's "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes," "The Barefoot Executive") "was not a great comedy director, he missed a lot of jokes."

Perhaps Stephen Furst's last fling with slob comedies was a cameo as a doctor in the 2003 made-for-TV movie "Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure," scripted by National Lampoon founder Matty Simmons and starring Randy Quaid and Miriam Flynn (who has played Eddie's wife, Catherine, in three of the theatrical "Vacation" films).

The supporting cast of "Christmas Vacation 2" featured Edward
 Asner, Fred Willard, Eric Idle, and Dana Barron ("National
Lampoon's Vacation's" original Audrey Griswold).

III. Playing Against Type

Throughout his career, Stephen Furst occasionally attempted to elude the slovenly roles that seemingly typified his career. In the 1980 thriller "The Unseen," he portrayed "Junior" Keller, the cellar-dwelling mutant offspring of an incestuous brother and sister.

(Top) Stephen Furst's special makeup effects for "The Unseen" were
created by Craig Reardon, noted for his work on such  films as
"Poltergeist," "The Goonies," "Dick Tracy," and "Oz the Great and
Powerful." (Bottom) Sydney Lassick, who played Junior's pop, was
best known for his portrayals of Cheswick in "One Flew Over the
Cuckoos' Nest" and Mr. Fromm the English teacher in "Carrie."

"The Unseen" was written and directed by Danny Steinmann, who would make "Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning" and the vigilante flick "Savage Streets" (pictured below), featuring Linda Blair as a Rambella action figure, singlehandedly waging a war against LA street thugs.

"Silent Rage" (1982) was a combination science-fiction thriller and cop action adventure starring Chuck Norris as a Texas sheriff who attempts to stop the killing spree of a mute psychopath rendered indestructible in a genetic experiment by a mad doctor. As Charlie, Chuck's faithful deputy, Stephen Furst provides some comic relief before getting his back broken by the superhuman mutant.

 

Coincidentally, "Silent Rage" was directed by Michael Miller, who also directed the aforementioned "National Lampoon's Class Reunion."

In 1989's "The Dream Team," Stephen Furst performed in an ensemble comedy alongside Michael Keaton, Christopher Lloyd, and Peter Boyle (pictured below), the four of whom portrayed mental institution inmates stranded without supervision in New York City during a field trip to Yankee Stadium gone awry. The likable entertainment was directed by the late Howard Zieff, a quirky filmmaker whose comedic résumé included "Slither," with James Caan, Peter Boyle, and Sally Kellerman; "The Main Event," with Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal; and "Private Benjamin," with Goldie Hawn.

Michael Keaton, more or less, channels the spirit of Jack Nicholson's
Randle Patrick McMurphy from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"
as the quartet's "head bull-goose loony" in "The Dream Team." Not
coincidentally, Keaton costarred that same year with Nicholson
in "Batman."

Stephen Furst further expanded his thespian range with a recurring role as Dr. Elliot Axelrod in nearly 100 episodes of the NBC medical drama series "St. Elsewhere," from 1983 to 1988.

Comedy veteran Louis Nye guest stars on "St. Elsewhere"
as Stephen Furst's father.

Despite proving himself as a competent physician, the overweight, awkward Dr. Axelrod was initially an annoyance to the staff, before bonding in particular with the wacky intern played by Howie Mandel. When the character Dr. Axelrod died after heart surgery at the end of the sixth season, his colleagues failed to clear their schedules to attend his memorial service, and the morgue attendant placed a sandwich beside his remains.

Dr. Axelrod (Stephen Furst) and intern Dr. Fiscus (Howie Mandel)
pose with 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis,
who played himself on an episode of "St. Elsewhere."

From 1994 to 1998, Stephen Furst appeared on 110 episodes of the science fiction series "Babylon 5," portraying Vir Cotto, an alien ambassador from the planet Centauri Prime on the titular diplomatic space station. Described as being akin to the Everyman character of medieval morality plays, Vir Cotto was depicted by Furst as an ordinary individual contending with good and evil influences who constantly struggles with moral choices.

Vir Cotto (Stephen Furst) poses with fellow "Babylon 5" ambassadors
Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik), Kosh Naranek (voiced by Adwight
Chamberlain), Delenn (Mira Furlan), Lennier ("Lost in Space's" Bill
Mumy), and G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas).

Initially presented as a member of a family of minor nobility, Vir Cotto rose to become the Emperor of the Centauri Republic. At one time, Stephen Furst was reportedly amused that supreme leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un modeled his haircut after Vir Cotto's hairstyle on "Babylon 5."

IV. The Specter of Diabetes

Both of Stephen Furst's parents died from complications of diabetes. At 17, Stephen was diagnosed with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes. By the age of 40, he reached a weight of 320 pounds. The actor did not personally confront the condition until a foot infection in the mid-1990s led doctors to tell him he could be facing amputation.

"Like most severely overweight people," Furst said in a later interview, "I had to hit a rock-hard bottom before I'd take responsibility for the consequences of neglecting my own health." The wake-up call led to a significant weight loss. After 1996, he reduced his weight from 260 pounds  to 175 pounds.

Stephen Furst's midseason weight loss during production of
"Babylon 5" created a dilemma of wardrobe downsizing.

Furst began to take a leading role in educating others about diabetes. He eventually became a spokesperson for the American Diabetes Association and authored the book Confessions of a Couch Potato. "I thought I was more powerful than the disease of diabetes," he noted, "but in reality, I was letting it take control of me. Now, I've decided to take control of my life."

V. Curmudgeon Films

In 2000, Stephen Furst launched his own production company as founder and chairman of Curmudgeon Films. His youngest son, Griff, served as co-chairman, vice president, and CFO.

Griff Furst poses with proud papa Stephen.

Their first production was a cheesy horror western called "Stageghost," starring Edward Albert (best known for his breakout role in 1972's "Butterflies Are Free," costarring Goldie Hawn) and Christopher Atkins (best know for his breakout role in 1980's "The Blue Lagoon," costarring Brooke Shields). Griff Furst acted in the movie, while his brother, Nathan Furst, composed the score.

Dana Barron (Audrey Griswold in "National Lampoon's
Vacation") costars in "Stageghost." The film features a
cameo by John Vernon (Dean Wormer in "Animal House").

Perhaps Stephen was influenced by his tenure on "Babylon 5," but a large share of output from Curmudgeon Films went directly to the Syfy channel, including "Lake Placid 3," "Lake Placid vs. Anaconda," "Jersey Shore Shark Attack," and "Trailer Park Shark."

Griff Furst himself has directed 15 pictures, among them the above-mentioned "Lake Placid 3" and "Trailer Park Shark," as well as "100 Million B.C.", "Alligator Attack," "Swamp Shark," and "Ghost Shark." As an actor, he has appeared in over 80 films, TV movies, and series. Among the mainstream releases he performed in are "Battleship," "Terminator Genisys," "Trumbo," and "The Magnificent Seven."

Look quick: Griff Furst gets his close-up as "Master of Ceremonies"
in 2015's "Trumbo."

Curmudgeon Films took a step into the big time as one of the production companies responsible for the 2009 drama "My Sister's Keeper," with Stephen Furst as a co-executive producer and son Griff as a co-producer. Roger Ebert called the film "an immediate audience-grabber as we learn that an 11-year-old girl was genetically designed as a source of spare parts for her dying 16-year-old sister."

Abigail Breslin (known for her Oscar-nominated Best Supporting Actress role as Olive in 2006's "Little Miss Sunshine") and Sofia Vassilieva (best known for her starring role in 2003's "Eloise at the Plaza") portrayed the younger and older siblings in a cast that featured Cameron Diaz, Jason Patric, Alec Baldwin, E.G. Daily, and Joan Cusack. Nick Cassavetes directed.

Stephen Furst likewise dabbled in directing. After directing and starring in 1994's "Magic Kid II," a sequel to a 1993 rip-off of "Karate Kid" (also starring Furst), which featured Dana Barron, William Daniels, and Howie Mandel, he directed a handful of episodes of "Babylon 5."

Dana Barron costars with poor-man's Ralph Macchio,
Ted Jan Roberts, in "Magic Kid II."

Stephen Furst also directed "Dragon Storm" and "Path of Destruction," featuring, respectively, Syfy channel stock company players John Rhys-Davies (best known as Sallah in the "Indiana Jones" pictures and as the dwarf Gimli in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy) and David Keith (best known as the suicidal Navy pilot washout in "An Officer and a Gentleman").

Yancy Butler (a Syfy Channel favorite as the resilient deputy Reba
in the made-for-television "Lake Placid" sequels), appears as the
femme fatale Hannah in "Basilisk: The Serpent King." Seconds
after having her red dress snatched away in the jaws of the
mythical reptile, Hannah - conveniently left in a skimpy bra and
panties - foolishly snaps,"That was an original Versace, you son of
a bitch!" before being promptly chomped in two.

Furst's final directing assignment, as well as his last performance, came in the 2006 Syfy channel production "Basilisk: The Serpent King." Behind the camera, he was credited as Louie Myman. Onscreen, he played an irrepressibly cheerful university don.

Griff Furst fills in the role of nerdy archaeologist
Rudy Skeeter in "Basilisk: The Serpent King."

Appropriately for the family affair that was "Basilisk: The Serpent King," the music score for the film was composed by Nathan Furst (pictured below).

VI. A Gift for Lighting up a Room

In a 40-plus-year career, Stephen Furst appeared in over 25 films, over 15 made-for-television movies, and four video shorts. He was a regular cast member of eight series (including the ill-fated "Delta House" spinoff of "Animal House") and guest-starred in 30 episodes of various series. He was, as well, an active director and producer.

Stephen Furst (far right) attended a 2015 reunion of some cast
members from "Animal House" in Great Barrington, Massachusetts,
including Peter Riegert, Karen Allen, Martha Smith, and
Mark Metcalf, with Judith Jacklin Belushi, John's widow.

After Stephen Furst passed, his sons, Nathan and Griff, issued this statement: "Steve had a long list of earthly accomplishments. He was known to the world as a brilliant and prolific actor and filmmaker, but to his family and many dear friends, he was also a beloved husband, father and kind friend whose memory will always be a blessing.

"To truly honor him, do not cry for the loss of Stephen Furst. But rather, enjoy memories of all the times he made you snicker, laugh or even snort to your embarrassment. He intensely believed that laughter is the best therapy, and he would want us to practice that now.

"If you knew him personally, remember his gift for lighting up a room. And no matter who you are, when you think of Steve, instead of being sad, celebrate his life by watching one of his movies or use one of his bits to make someone else laugh - really, really hard."

Kevin Smith, the director of "Clerks" and the creator of the stoner duo Jay and Silent Bob, commented, "As an awkward round kid, Flounder was the Delta I most identified with in 'Animal House,' my favorite comedy."