The Cast of 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off': Where Are They Now?

July 2, 2010 — -- "Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

It's true, life has moved pretty fast for the cast of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." The stars of Jon Hughes' 1986 hit movie have grown and changed -- some for the better (Matthew Broderick, who uttered the iconic line above), others for the worse (Jeffrey Jones, sex offender) -- since their whirlwind jaunt through Chicago 24 years ago.

Below, check out where the stars of "Ferris Bueller" are now.

Matthew Broderick

Matthew Broderick may have made his name as a character who plays hooky, but in his career, he hasn't taken many days off. Broderick shot to fame at age 23 after portraying the school-skipping, happy-go-lucky Ferris Bueller, parlaying his part in the movie into well-received roles in 1989's "Glory," 1996's "The Cable Guy" and 1999's "Election." He also provided the voice of Simba in 1994's "The Lion King."

While he won fans through film, Broderick's background is Broadway, and he returned to the stage in the '90s with a Tony-award winning run in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." He also scored a Tony nomination playing the mousy accountant Leo Bloom in Mel Brooks' 2001 Broadway version of "The Producers," and later reprised the role in the 2005 big screen adaptation. He teamed up again with his "Producers" co-star, Nathan Lane, for Broadway's "The Odd Couple," and appeared on stage last year as a college professor in "The Philanthropist."

"Ferris Bueller" brought Broderick together with co-star Jennifer Grey, but their love didn't last. He married fellow '80s actor and "Sex and the City" star Sarah Jessica Parker in 1997; they have three kids together.

Jeffrey Jones

While Ferris has prospered, his principal, Edward R. Rooney, is in peril. Jeffrey Jones played the crotchety dean of students who was determined to bust Broderick's character. He cemented his status as the most memorable crank of the '80s with such lines as "I did not achieve this position in life by having some snot-nosed punk leave my cheese out in the wind." Jones used his "Ferris" fame to score roles in a number of movies through the '80s and '90s, including "Beetlejuice," "Ed Wood" and "Stuart Little."

But in 2003, he was arrested for possession of child pornography and accused of hiring a 14-year-old boy to pose for pornographic photos. Jones pleaded no contest to a felony charge. His punishment: five years probation, counseling and the mandate that he must register as a sex offender. Jones, now 63, has been arrested twice for failing to update his sex offender status, first in Florida in 2004 and in California on Wednesday.

Jennifer Grey

Playing Ferris' jealous older sister, Jeanie Bueller, Jennifer Grey spat spiteful insults intended to cut her victims to the core. In real life, Grey was one of the charmers of the '80s. After "Ferris," she landed the role of a lifetime opposite Patrick Swayze in "Dirty Dancing" -- Frances "Baby" Houseman.

But in the '90s, an extreme nose job that rendered Grey almost unrecognizable halted her career and required her to undergo a second procedure to fix the damage. A handful of movie and TV appearances followed -- on an episode of "Friends," she played Mindy, Rachel's best friend who gets engaged to Barry, Rachel's ex-fiance -- but none bumped her back up to her '80s level of stardom. Grey managed to meld family and career with the 2006 Lifetime movie, "Road to Christmas" -- she co-starred in it with her husband, actor/director Clark Gregg. They married in 2001 and have a daughter together.

Charlie Sheen

Yep, that was Charlie Sheen in the police station next to Jennifer Grey, cracking his knuckles and looking oh-so-bad in a black leather jacket. Though his character never mentions his name (Garth Volbeck), he drops some of the movie's choice lines, including, "You wear too much eye makeup. My sister wears too much. People think she's a whore."

Life imitated art as Sheen grew up and took on his "Bueller" bad boy role, seducing women and getting in trouble for drugs. (Sheen took things a bit further, though -- he's currently embroiled in a domestic abuse case after allegedly brandishing a knife at his wife, Brooke Mueller.)

Despite Sheen's rocky relationship with women and addictive substances, his career remains in good health. He appeared in a handful of movies and TV series through the '80s and '90s before landing a starring role on the CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men," once again playing a loose version of himself -- a guy who just can't help loving lots of ladies. As the highest paid actor in prime time TV, Sheen will reportedly bank between $1.8 and $1.9 million per episode for the next two years.

Ben Stein

Ben Stein was pretty accomplished before "Bueller" -- he cut his teeth in politics as a speechwriter for Presidents Nixon and Ford -- and he maintained an impressive resume after. As Ferris' economics teacher, when the school-skipping student doesn't show up for class, Stein gets the most memorable line of the film: a monotone "Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?"

Hollywood loved his deadpan delivery; following "Ferris," Stein enjoyed fame with wide and varied projects. Among them: hosting the Comedy Central game show "Win Ben Stein's Money," helming the VH1 reality competition, "America's Most Smartest Model," and serving as the spokesperson for Clear Eyes eyedrops ("The difference is clear…Clear Eyes"). He's also written a veritable library of books dispensing financial and life advice. But "Bueller" remains a feather in his cap: in an interview featured in the "Bueller, Bueller" DVD edition of the movie, Stein reveals, "I've said to my wife repeatedly, I just want on my gravestone, 'He loved dogs' and 'Bueller? Bueller?'"

Mia Sara

As Sloane Peterson, Ferris' brunette beauty of a girlfriend, Mia Sara made hearts beat a little faster in the '80s. But after "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," she all but fell off the face of the acting earth. Her most prominent role after 1986 was as Jean Claude Van Damme's wife in 1994's "Timecop."

While she may not have lasted in the biz, Sara has a thing for the offspring of Hollywood's rich and famous. She was married to Jason Connery, the son of actor Sean Connery, from 1996 to 2002, and has a son with him. Sara is currently dating Brian Henson, son of Muppet creator Jim Henson -- they have a daughter.

In 1987, still glowing from her newfound "Ferris" fame, Sara told the Chicago Tribune, "This business makes you believe in fate ... So many things happen that aren't just coincidence, so you find that there are certain things you're meant to do." For Sara, perhaps remaining an '80s vestige is one of them.

Alan Ruck

Alan Ruck played Cameron Frye, Ferris' hypochondriac best friend and subject of the movie's unforgettable, booming lyric, "When Cameron was in Egypt's land, let my Cameron go!" Though he was 29 years old at the time, Ruck looked every bit the nervous, 17-year-old Cameron, paranoid about his father's Ferrari and Ferris' thirst for trouble.

Ruck has kept a steady acting career going since "Ferris Bueller," appearing in such films as "Speed" (as the annoying tourist on the bus) and "Twister" (as a storm chaser). He's also ventured into TV: from 1996 to 2002, he co-starred in the ABC sitcom "Spin City" alongside Michael J. Fox. He currently plays the lead character in the new NBC drama "Persons Unknown."

In 2005, Ruck reprised his role as Broderick's right-hand-man -- sort of. He took on the role of Leo Bloom that Broderick launched in the Broadway version of "The Producers."