Where Are They Now, Actors from Kids Sports Movies Part 3 - Little Giants

In 1994 the movie “Little Giants” was released. A football film about pee wee football pitted two brothers against each other. One was athletic, the other not so much. Ed O’Neill played the part of Kevin O’Shea with Rick Moranis, his little brother Danny. After Kevin O’Shea rejected his younger brother’s daughter Becky from playing on his team, spurned by his daughter’s idea to create a new team and challenge the Urbania Cowboys coached by O’Neill’s brother, a rag tag team named the Giants formed.

On IMDB the movie rated 6.5 out of 10 and was written by James Ferguson and directed by Duwayne Dunham. Interestingly enough, Ed O’Neill is a former football player having spent his college career at Youngstown State University. Now 79 years old O’Neill had a tryout with my favorite team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, in 1969 after being signed as an undrafted free agent.

He never made it through training camp which was also Chuck Noll’s first year as head coach. As a defensive lineman, O’Neill had to compete for a roster spot with his competition Joe Greene and L.C. Greenwood. He never stood a chance. With football over, he became a schoolteacher then went into acting where he famously became Ed Bundy on Married with Children repeatedly in episodes bragging about his high school football career where he scored four touchdowns in a single game.

In 1986, O’Neill married actress Catherine Rusoff who he is still married to today and the couple has two children. O’Neill is also a black belt in Brazilian ju-jitsu. His last movie came in 2020 appearing in The Last Shift. Most of his filmography is on television, including last year’s Finding your Roots and Clipped. Not yet released will be his appearance in All’s Fair.

As for the remaining stars of Little Giants, the main actors and actresses follow.

Rick Moranis (Danny O'Shea)

Rick Moranis. A Canadian by birth, Rick Moranis was born on April 18, 1953. Many might remember him not just from Little Giants but also from Honey I Shrunk the Kids. But Moranis has starred in many big movies like Little Shop of Horrors (the remake), Ghostbusters, Spaceballs, and The Flintstones just to name a few,

Ironically, Moranis married Ann Belsky the same year Ed O’Neill got married. Sadly, Belsky died from cancer in 1991. His last film role was 19 years ago when he was in the movie Brother Bear 2. Moranis has lent his voice to video games (The Flintstones and Brother Bear) and has not been on television since 2020 although a TV special called “An Afternoon with SCTV” had not been assigned a release date as of now.

Rick Moranis has even done some music with three albums and being a part of the infamous Second City TV duo, Bob and Doug McKenzie where two songs were produced.

Shawna Waldron (Becky O’Shea)

Waldron’s nickname in the movie was “Icebox.” This was her debut film. She was 12 at the time. Today she is 43 and her last movie role came in the film Dead Man Rising released in 2016. Three years earlier she was on television in Police Guys. Waldron has also produced three films. She has won three film awards, two of which came for her performance in Police Guys. Her screenplay for “To Kill a Mockumentary” also won an award.

Devon Sawa (Junior)

When you think about the ages of the cast in this movie as they are today, it’s mind boggling as it seems like yesterday when this movie came out. But Sawa is now 43 and was 16 in 1994. Another Canadian actor in the film in 2001 Sawa won a Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Young Actor for his part in Final Destination. Sawa has remained a busy actor appearing in two movies in 2024 and Heart Eyes released this year.

Sawa also was in the television show Murder in a Small Town last year and appeared in Hacks in 2022. In Eminem’s music video “Stan,” Sawa played the part of Stanley.

Courtney Peldon (cousin Debbie O’Shea)

Peldon’s character was a flirtatious one causing Shawna Waldron’s character to pose as a cheerleader to gain the attention of Junior. Peldon has a younger sister also an actress. An interesting trivia bit about Peldon is she is a graduate of Skidmore College majoring in abnormal psychology with a minor in film studies.

For three seasons she played the part of Taylor Thomas’s girlfriend Lauren on Home Improvement. She has won multiple movie and television awards, and her last film appearance came in 2018 when she lent her voice to Spider Man: Into the Spider Verse.

Playing themselves in this movie were John Madden and former NFL players Steve Emtam, Bruce Smith, Emmitt Smith, and Tim Brown. Actor Sam Horrigan played the role of “Spike” Hammersmith and while he has had a long acting career, he has battled some personal demons.

The remaining cast included Todd Bosley (Jake Berman in the movie) who many might remember as the nerdy, big glasses kid from not just this film but also with Robin Williams in “Jack.” Still working as an actor, most of his work these days is on television. Other actors and actresses were Marcus Toji (Marcus), Brian Haley (Mike Hammersmith), and Mary Ellen Trainor (Karen O’Shea).