Source: Entertainment Weekly

Break out the fudge and the provocative lamp: It’s time for our annual check-in with the Parkers. Since its release in 1983, A Christmas Story has turned into a family tradition, one of the essential films to watch around the holiday season. Capturing the nostalgic glow of childhood wonder and hijinks, the film — about an adult Ralphie looking back on one chaotic Christmas in 1940 — hits the sweet spot for viewers of all ages.

While most of the Christmas Story cast are primarily recognized for their roles in the film, each has led a wildly different career during the past four-plus decades. From Peter Billingsley to Ian Petrella and everyone in between, we’re looking at where the cast of A Christmas Story is now.

Although he technically only had a handful of lines in A Christmas Story — a muddled expletive being one of them — Peter Billingsley stayed on the Christmas movie circuit later in life, appearing in Elf (2003) and Four Christmases (2008) years after his iconic role.

“People ask me, ‘Why does this movie resonate?'” Billingsley told EW in 2022 of A Christmas Story. “Because it’s a real family, man. By the same token, it’s also not quite the super dark, indie, the ‘Oh, no, don’t open that family door.’ It’s not that family, but it’s also not the Bradys or Disney-fied.”

Billingsley also added a handful of TV appearances over the decades on shows like Who’s the Boss?, Punky Brewster, and The Wonder Years. He has primarily worked behind the scenes, as a director of films including Couples Retreat (2009) and Term Life (2016), and producer of projects like The Break-Up (2006), Iron Man (2008), The Opening Act (2020), Broke (2025), and the Netflix series F is for Family.

He also co-produced the original 2012 Broadway musical adaptation of A Christmas Story, and reprised his role as Ralphie in the 2022 HBO Max film A Christmas Story Christmas.

After his breakout role as Ralphie’s little brother Randy, Ian Petrella went on to appear on a string of television shows, including Diff’rent Strokes, Who’s the Boss?, Highway to Heaven, My Sister Sam, and Beverly Hills, 90210 (his last credit before a 15-year acting break).

The actor studied improv at the Groundlings Comedy Theater in Los Angeles and now focuses on animation and puppetry (having worked on the Henson Company’s ’90s series Brats of the Lost Nebula). He played Randy again in A Christmas Story Christmas.

Melinda Dillon was already a Tony-winning actress before she starred as Ralphie and Randy’s kind, eccentric mother in A Christmas Story, with two Oscar nominations under her belt to boot for Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Absence of Malice (1981).

After 1983, Dillon appeared in such films as Harry and the Hendersons (1987), Staying Together (1989), Captain America (1990), The Prince of Tides (1991), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), and Magnolia (1999). In 2005, Dillon guest-starred on Law & Order: SVU. She was last seen on screen in 2007, with the TV series Heartland and the film Reign Over Me alongside Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, and Jada Pinkett Smith.

Dillon died in 2023 at the age of 83.

Back in 1983, Darren McGavin helped to make a practically pornographic lamp an icon as Ralphie and Randy’s major-award-winning Old Man.

Following A Christmas Story, he appeared in films like Turk 182 (1985), Raw Deal (1986), Dead Heat (1988), and 1990’s Captain America — the latter alongside his former onscreen wife, Melinda Dillon. He played Adam Sandler’s billionaire dad in Billy Madison (1995) and was also nominated for an Emmy in 1990 for his guest appearance on Murphy Brown (other guest spots included Murder, She Wrote; The X-Files; and Touched by an Angel).

McGavin died of cardiovascular disease in 2006 at the age of 83.

After A Christmas Story, Scott Schwartz appeared in Kidco (1984) and the TV movie A Time to Live (1985) with Liza Minnelli and Corey Haim.

In the 1990s, Schwartz worked in the adult film industry both in front of and behind the camera, appearing in such films as Beauty and the Beast Part II (1990) and Scotty’s X-Rated Adventure (1996). He also starred in a few low-budget horror films, including 2021’s Normal Terror and 2025’s Scissors.

Schwartz is known for his line of celebrity-based trading cards and was even featured on a 2008 cover of Sports Card Monthly. He returned to the role of Flick in A Christmas Story Christmas.

Back in 1983, R.D. Robb made his acting debut by wearing a sock hat and issuing one of the more memorable, traumatizing acts of peer pressure in cinematic history.

Since then, he’s gone on to appear in films like The Brady Bunch Movie (1995) and Matilda (1996) and on TV shows including ER, Unhappily Ever After, Touched by an Angel, and The Goldbergs. In 1995, he wrote and directed the movie Don’s Plum, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire, both of whom tried to stop the movie from being released in the United States.

Later in his career, Robb served as executive producer for the series Siren on Freeform. He played Schwartz again in A Christmas Story Christmas.

Tedde Moore reprised the role of Miss Shields for 1994’s My Summer Story (originally released as It Runs in the Family), which was taken from the same book of vignettes as A Christmas Story. She was the only actor to appear in both films.

Moore later went on to appear in projects like RoboCop: Prime Directives (2001) and the 2011 miniseries The Kennedys. She was also in the film High-Rise Rescue and Hallmark’s Magical Christmas Ornaments in 2017.

Music fans might also know her as the mother of Canadian producer and actor Noah James Shebib, a.k.a. 40, who is best known for his work with Drake.

Prolific writer and radio host Jean Shepherd co-wrote the semi-fictional 1983 film and also served as its narrator. He also narrated the film’s sequel of sorts, My Summer Story.

Shepherd also lent his signature voice to Sesame Street in the animated “Cowboy X” segment that aired repeatedly over the years before his death in 1999 at the age of 78. In 2005, he was posthumously inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.

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