What happened to the cast of Jurassic Park?

Steven Speilberg’s landmark ‘Jurassic Park’ is back in UK cinemas this week, finally getting the 3D treatment it deserves. So, to celebrate the rerelease we find out what the original cast are up to, 20 years after escaping Isla Nublar.

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Sam Neill
Before Neill stepped into Alan Grant’s dusty shoes, William Hurt, Richard Dreyfuss and Harrison Ford had all been courted for the role – making New Zealand’s Neill , one-time runner-up to Timothy Dalton for Bond, a definite compromise on star power. Still, previous impressive credits included ‘The Omen III: The Final Conflict’, ‘The Hunt For Red October’ and Oscar-magnet ‘The Piano’. After the seismic impact of ‘Jurassic Park’, Neill settled into the character actor’s life with a raft of solid supporting gigs. Highlights include a guest spot on ‘The Simpsons’ (voicing ageing cat burglar Malloy), cult sci-fi/horror ‘Event Horizon’, and playing Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in historical BBC romp ‘The Tudors’.  Annoyingly, Neill also had to turn down the part of Elrond in ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ becayse he was reprising Grant in ‘Jurassic Park III’. He currently lives in Queenstown, NZ, where he owns and runs independent winery, Two Paddocks.

Jeff Goldblum
Best known for cult horror ‘The Fly’, Goldblum’s wise-cracking rock star/mathematician, Dr Ian Malcolm, should have been prime dino-bait. Instead he became ‘Jurassic Park’s’ prophetic voice of reason, eventually leading the way on ‘The Lost World’. And, after all that on-set flirting with Laura Dern, the pair actually started seeing each other, and were engaged for two years. Goldblum’s biggest role to date though came in Roland Emmerich’s White House hatin’ alien invasion spectacular, ‘Independence Day’. He’s all set to reprise the role as world-saving wiz-kid David Levinson in the sequel ‘ID Forever’, due to land 2015.

Laura Dern
‘Blue Velvet’ star Dern out-auditioned an army of future A-listers to play paleobotanist Dr Ellie Sattler, including Sandra Bullock, Gwyneth Paltrow, Julianne Moore and Helen Hunt – and it’s arguably her biggest gig to date. She then returned to the franchise in 2001 for a short cameo in ‘Jurassic Park III’  - a slightly depressing scene with fellow survivor and one-time partner Grant, in which we find out the pairs’ relationship broke down after the first movie. Dern has since built an impressive CV of supporting roles though, earning a Golden Globe for 2008 TV movie ‘Recount’. She most recently appearing in Oscar nominated ‘The Master’, and spends her spare time working as a spokesman for numerous charities.

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Lord Richard Attenborough
As the mastermind behind the park, the billionaire entrepreneur John Hammond, Attenborough bought a serious sense of class to Spielberg's fantastical proceedings. He was a lovable dreamer in the film, unlike the more fearsome character in Michael Crichton's novel. His glittering directorial and acting career in Hollywood – he won two Oscars for 'Ghandi' – will ensure his place as one of the pivotal figures in British movie history. Sadly, his health began to deteriorate in 2008, after he suffered a stroke, leaving him confined to a wheelchair. In March this year, it emerged that he had moved into Denville Hall, a retirement home for professional actors in West London to be with his wife, Sheila.

Ariana Richards
Before 'Jurassic Park' turned her into a star – as Hammond's granddaughter Lex – it was the likes of b-movie horror films like 'Tremors' for Ariana Richards. But after 'Jurassic Park' and then reprising her role in 'The Lost World', the acting roles deserted her (other than 'Tremors 3: Back To Perfection', of course). She had already released an album in 1993 as a hopeful teen pop star, and returned to music in 2009, recording a cover version of Canadian musician and producer David Foster's song 'The Prayer'. These days she has turned to art. She won the US National Professional Oil Painting Competition in 2005, and currently lives in Salem, Oregon, apprenticing under a professional painter.

Joseph Mazzello

As a button-cute child actor, Mazzello starred in a number of hit films including 'Presumed Innocent', 'River Wild' and 'Shadowlands'. While he failed an audition for Spielberg's 'Hook', the director remembered him and promptly offered him the role of junior geek Tim Murphy in 'Jurassic Park'. After appearing in 'The Lost World', the movie roles dried up for a while. However, following his directorial debut, the 2007 drama 'Matters of Life and Death', things picked up. Spielberg came knocking once again, and cast him in the follow-up to acclaimed mini-series 'Band of Brothers', the excellent 'The Pacific'. He also starred in David Fincher's Facebook biopic 'The Social Network'. More recently he appeared as Mouse in 'GI Joe: Retaliation' and has pitched up in the excellent FX series 'Justified'.

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Samuel L. Jackson
Coming just a year before his biggest break, in 'Pulp Fiction', Sam Jackson's turn as chain-smoking IT man John Raymond Arnold was one of many solid cameos for Spielberg. He has, of course, since gone on to become a serious Hollywood support man, appearing in the 'Star Wars' prequels, playing Nick Fury in the 'Iron Man', 'Thor' and Captain America' movies for Marvel and back once again with Tarantino in 'Django Unchained'. He's Nick Fury once again in the forthcoming 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' and has spots in the 'Robocop' remake, the 'Oldboy' remake with Spike Lee and, reportedly, the hotly-anticipated 'The Secret Service'.

Bob Peck
Bob Peck was a straight-up scene stealer, his grave words of warning as game-keeper Robert Muldoon to Sir Richard Attenborough set the audience off balance the moment he walked on screen. And his line 'clever girl', before he's shredded by velociraptors, is among the most memorable of the film. A sturdy RSC actor through the 70s and 80s (alongside the likes of Sir Ian McKellen and Judi Dench) he will always be best known for playing Muldoon, as well as winning the Best Actor Bafta in 1986 for classy crime drama Edge of Darkness. Sadly, Peck was diagnosed with cancer in 1994. He died in 1999, aged just 53.

Wayne Knight
The man who brings down the park with his grasping greed, Dennis Nedry's clammy deceit was superbly executed by Wayne Knight. Since JP, he's continued his career as a solid jobbing actor in both drama and comedy. He's guested on shows like 'Bones', 'Torchwood', 'Seinfeld', '3rd Rock from the Sun' and 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'. Last year he played Santa in 'Elf The Musical' on Broadway and starred in the Charlie Sheen-produced comedy 'She Wants Me' with Josh Gad and Hilary Duff. Best of all, perhaps, was his turn as frenzied toy collector Al, of Al's Toy Barn, in 'Toy Story 2'.