Whatever Happened To The Cast Of Dirty Dancing?

Jennifer Grey starred as Baby, the teen protagonist whose boring summer in the Catskills takes a turn when she falls for her dreamy dance instructor. Grey is still best known for the iconic role. Fans of '80s films will also remember her as bad girl Jeanie Bueller, Matthew Broderick's sister, in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." In 1995, she appeared in an episode of "Friends" as Mindy, Rachel's best friend who slept with her fiancée back before the show began. You might have also spotted her as Abbey, a new mother with a mystery illness on an episode of "House M.D.," as Carol, the mother of a runaway soccer star on "Grey's Anatomy," or as Sharon, Jules' mother on "Dollface." 

As Grey later recalled to The Guardian, "Dirty Dancing" felt like fate — as she put it, it "felt like it was made for me." Even that iconic lift was pretty magical for Grey. "I'd never done it before that moment," she said. "They had three cameras going and we only did it once. It was ridiculous because I couldn't rehearse it. I couldn't make myself do it and I hated myself for not trying it. There was something really emotional about it, too. You can see it on my face: I'm like: 'Oh my God, I f***ing did it!'"

In "Dirty Dancing," Jerry Orbach played Jake Houseman, Baby's strict but supportive father. Orbach was already known for his extensive career on stage, which began with a number of Broadway roles in the '50s. He also landed a number of roles in the '60s and '70s in TV and film. However, his role in "Dirty Dancing" would turn out to be one of his most memorable. He also found fame as the voice of Lumière, the French candelabra in "Beauty and the Beast." His longest-running role, though, was playing Detective Lennie Briscoe on "Law & Order," a role he took on in 1991 and continued to play until his death in 2004.

His "Dirty Dancing" co-star, Patrick Swayze, once said in an interview with the American Film Institute that he looked up to Orbach as an inspiration. "Jerry Orbach has been one of the most successful actors that ever lived to make that transition from musical theater into real, organic, break-your-heart kinds of reality in his work as a film actor, but transition back and forth seamlessly," said Swayze.

Kelly Bishop starred as Baby's mother, Marjorie Houseman. She had initially started out as a dancer and actor on Broadway, getting her big break in the original cast of "A Chorus Line." She went on to act on stage and, eventually, TV and film. After "Dirty Dancing" came a recurring role on "As the World Turns," among other guest roles. She landed another huge role in 2000 when she was cast as Emily Gilmore, Rory's snobbish grandmother, on "Gilmore Girls." She went on to play the role for seven years. She later reprised the role in 2016 in "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life." Other more recent projects have included "Bunheads," "Friends With Kids," "Art of Falling in Love," and a short stint on "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." At this point, Bishop is a TV legend.

Even though Bishop can count "Dirty Dancing" as one of her biggest roles, at the time, Bishop was worried about the film. "We didn't think it was going to be a good movie. We didn't," she confessed to CTV News. However, despite her hesitations about the film, it went on to become a huge success. It even helped Bishop break out of a typecasting rut. "What was good about the role was that I'd always played the other woman, that character I was cast for originally, and this changed me into more of a mom, which broadened my outlook a little bit," she said.

You might remember Lonny Price as Neil Kellerman, the nephew of resort owner Max Kellerman. Although Price went on to appear in a few more films and TV shows, including "Law & Order" and "2 Broke Girls," most of his acting career has been spent on stage. Throughout the '80s, he appeared on Broadway in shows like "Merrily We Roll Along," "The Survivor," and "Rags."

After a while, though, he turned his attention to directing. "I was limited by my physicality and constantly playing short, bald Jews who were either nerds or accountants," he later told Backstage of his decision to stop acting. "I thought I had more to say and the roles that were coming my way were less and less interesting." So, he became a prolific Broadway director, helming productions both on Broadway and the West End, such as "Pal Joey," "Finian's Rainbow," "Candide," "Anyone Can Whistle," "Sunset Boulevard," "Carousel," and many others.

As a former actor, Price takes an actor-centric approach to directing. After all, he knows what it's like. "I was an actor for many years, and I think my best work was done in a room where I wasn't afraid, where I was encouraged to try things and allowed to fail, and even fail big," he told Roundabout Theatre, adding, "For me, the acting is always paramount."

When he appeared as Stan, the goofy camp activities coordinator, in "Dirty Dancing," Wayne Knight was hardly a household name — in fact, he had only appeared in a few small film roles. However, after the success of "Dirty Dancing," Knight went onto find fame as Newman, Jerry's nemesis, in "Seinfeld," as assistant district attorney John Correli in "Basic Instinct," and as Dennis Nedry in "Jurassic Park." After that, his career took off: He now has over a 120 credits to his name. 

In spite of all of his successes, Knight still looks back on "Dirty Dancing" as his big break. In fact, when he first got the audition, he couldn't believe it. "I went in to audition for this thing, and I kind of ad-libbed some jokes or whatever, and ... Stan was going to be this small, nothing role in the movie, but it's a movie!" he recalled to AV Club. "I'm gonna be in a feature!" Knight went on to add that making the film was an extremely fun experience. "We're trapped in these lodges in these dry counties in the South with Jack Weston and Jerry Orbach and Kelly Bishop and all these dancers. ... And they have trucks going down the hill to other places to bring back alcohol, 'cause there's nothing to do there except to just watch what happens when you mix young dancers with alcohol," he said. "Lemme tell ya, it's fantastic!"

In "Dirty Dancing," Neal Jones played Billy Kostecki, Johnny's cousin. After years of acting on stage, it was the actor's first onscreen role but not his last — he went on to appear in "Romeo Is Bleeding," "Glengarry Glen Ross," and "In America." He also popped up in episodes of "Criminal Minds," "Law & Order," "Generation Kill," "Rescue Me," "The Sopranos," and "Sex and the City." 

"I hadn't really been interested all that much in the cinema or in television," Jones told HoboTrashcan of his time filming "Dirty Dancing." "I was kind of a theater geek. But I began to go audition for various things that were TV and film and lo and behold, one of the first ones I went on was the audition for 'Dirty Dancing.' And I managed to get an offer." Although you've probably seen Jones in a few projects over the years, he's never quite become a household name — and apparently, that's the way he likes it. "That was always my dream and my avowed intention, to be able to act a variety of roles without the audience having to be taken out of the project by thinking, 'Oh, that's that guy from whatever' ... I always was very anxious to try to do things that were, in my opinion, interesting and varied."

As of 2023, he hasn't taken on a new screen role in over a decade.