What Happened To The Cast Of The Flintstones Movie?

Pop culture of the 1990s was heavy on nostalgia for the 1960s, and one of the biggest ways that manifested was in all the '90s movies based on '60s TV shows. "The Adams Family," "The Beverly Hillbillies," "Mission: Impossible," and "The Fugitive" were just a few examples of that trend. In some cases, the show in question hadn't ever really left the public consciousness — and such was the case with "The Flintstones," which not only saw the original animated series still in heavy rerun rotation but also served as a licensing point for cereals, video games, and of course, those iconic vitamins. So it didn't feel especially jarring that there was a big-budget, live-action "The Flintstones" movie released in 1994. 

Critics weren't bowled over, but "The Flintstones" was a massive box office hit and felt ever-present that entire summer due to all the movie's tie-in products and promotions. Much of the charm of "The Flintstones" came by way of the fully-committed performances of its cast, led by John Goodman (Fred), Rick Moranis (Barney), Elizabeth Perkins (Wilma), and Rosie O'Donnell (Betty). There were also a number of scene-stealing supporting performances of both veteran actors and then-rising stars, playing a combination of new and legacy characters. 

It's now been over 30 years since the release of "The Flintstones," which is as good a time as any to see where the cast's careers took them after their romp in Bedrock. That is, the cast of the original — not the totally pointless prequel movie, "Viva Rock Vegas," that was released in 2000 with an almost entirely new cast. 

Animated mothers often get left out of conversations of the best sitcom moms in TV history, and that's a major oversight. Especially when Wilma Flintstone had to not only be a matriarch in the stone age, but had to both care for man child Fred and actual child Pebbles. In "The Flintstones" movie, Wilma also ends up saving not only the day, but also the literal lives of both Fred and his pal, Barney. The movie version also elevates Wilma a bit beyond her roots as just being a perpetually annoyed, put-upon housewife in the vein of Alice Kramden. 

This is thanks in no small part to the decision to cast Elizabeth Perkins in the role. Perkins had already played a high-powered executive in "Big" and held her own in sometimes misogynistic '80s rom-coms like "About Last Night" and "He Said, She Said." After "The Flintstones," Perkins continued to demonstrate her range by appearing in films of almost every genre, even joining the superhero world as the voice of Aunt May in 2023's "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse." 

But the role that may end up going down as her most iconic was a small screen performance. Perkins played Celia Hodes for the first five seasons of Showtime's acclaimed series "Weeds," earning her three Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations. 

The token demanding boss of "The Flintstones" universe is Mr. Slate, who fulfilled that role on the cartoon and returned to do so in live action for the film. But he was never really a true antagonist in the original series, just not always a particularly nice boss to Fred, Barney, et al — so it was a good move to have another employee of Bedrock, Slate, & Co. serve as the villain for the movie while even allowing Mr. Slate to actually play a part in saving the day.

The film version of Mr. Slate was played by Dann Florek, who audiences up to that point best knew from his recurring role on "L.A. Law." He returned to the world of legal dramas post-"The Flintstones" as Captain Donald Cragen on "Law & Order," Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," and most recently, "Law & Order: Organized Crime," which is now most certainly the character with which Florek is most associated. He was never a particularly prolific movie actor, though he did play a small role in the 2023 Disney+ sci-fi film "Crater." 

Barney Rubble is certainly in the pantheon of fiercely loyal best friend sidekick characters, both on television and in film. Though Fred unfortunately does often take advantage of Barney's good nature, the two still have a friendship to be envied. The movie version of Barney also stands up to Fred a little more and has increased agency and independence, which makes him arguably the best iteration of Barney.

Of course, a lot of that is heavily influenced by Barney being played by beloved comedian and actor Rick Moranis — who, not surprisingly, absolutely nailed Barney's aww shucks demeanor and iconic voice. Nobody knew it at the time, but "The Flintstones" would prove to be among the final handful of on-screen appearances by Moranis before he quit Hollywood for a sad reason – struggling with balancing being a single father and a full-time actor following the death of his wife. 

But Moranis never officially retired from acting, he just no longer felt an obligation to it. He notably declined to appear in any of the three most recent "Ghostbusters" movies. The bulk of his credits in the 2000s and beyond have been voice roles, but he shocked the world in 2020 when he signed on to appear in a "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" reboot — though that ended up being canceled anyway. 

That aforementioned Bedrock, Slate, & Co. antagonist? That's Cliff Vandercave, a new character created specifically for "The Flintstones" movie. Despite being the kind of person whose sliminess, greed, and lack of empathy for anyone but himself is visible from a mile away, Cliff nonetheless manages to sweet talk Fred into not only helping him with his schemes but even getting Fred to take the fall for his actions. To be fair, Cliff was played by Kyle MacLachlan, who is definitely believable as someone who can hide a sinister nature behind a charming facade.

Though Kyle MacLachlan faced a major career setback after the failure of David Lynch's "Dune," Lynch was determined to make the world see what he saw in MacLachlan and continued putting the actor in his projects — up through MacLachlan's breakthrough as the coffee-loving Dale Cooper in "Twin Peaks." MacLachlan then followed "The Flintstones" with "Showgirls," a jolting juxtaposition the likes of which marked the actor's fascinating career going forward. But although he has remained a prolific film actor, MacLachlan's most well-known characters are the ones he plays on television — with notable recurring roles on "Sex and the City," "Desperate Housewives," "Portlandia," and "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." He also earned raves for his two-episode stint on the 2024 Amazon Prime Video series "Fallout" as Hank MacLean.

One of the first sources of conflict in "The Flintstones" comes when Barney and Betty Rubble can't afford to adopt a child, and have to borrow money from Fred and Wilma Flintstone to do so. This eventually creates a rift between the two couples, though it all works out in the end — and also ensures that Bamm-Bamm joins the Rubble family and becomes an eventual BFF to Pebbles. Facilitating that adoption is social worker Mrs. Pyrite, whose role is small but significant. And that's to be expected with an actor like Sheryl Lee Ralph playing Mrs. Pyrite and giving the minor character more gravitas by default.

When people were trying to figure out why Barbara from "Abbott Elementary" looked so familiar, they probably forget that one of the places they recognized Ralph from was her performance in "The Flintstones." Her more famous roles were in the TV show "Moesha" and the movie "Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit." Ralph is also a Tony-nominated stage performer – she was in the original Broadway production of "Dreamgirls" and did a stint as Madame Morrible in "Wicked" in the mid-2010s.

While Betty Rubble was often the least-utilized member of the main foursome of "The Flintstones" TV show, she was made an almost equal member of the group for the film. And not unlike Wilma, movie Betty was also given a lot more to do as a character, being more than just Wilma's best friend, Barney's wife, and Bamm-Bamm's mom.

While only an occasional actor and far more often a comedian and TV host, Rosie O'Donnell typically shines when she does star in a film — and her performance of Betty was no exception, right down to doing a pitch-perfect version of the animated version's signature giggle. Her breakout role as an actor was her film debut, 1992's "A League of Their Own," and she tended to make mostly interesting choices in her acting roles until she began to scale back on movies towards the end of the decade. 

She remained slightly more active in TV acting roles after that, but overall, O'Donnell has been much more known for her stand-up comedy, her self-titled daytime talk show, and her stint on "The View." 

Fred and Barney aren't the only two employees of Bedrock, Slate, & Co. Nor are they the only men who are part of the main social circle of Bedrock in general. Among that cohort is Hoagie, one of Fred and Barney's co-workers as well as a fellow member of the Loyal Order of Water Buffalo and its connected bowling team. Hoagie is a tall, intimidating figure — even among a group of burly cavemen — and he often takes the lead when things get physical.

Hoagie was played by Richard Moll, who spent his career trading on his ability to portray a combination of impressive physical size and a goofy, aloof demeanor. It was something he did across his many years as a character actor in film and on television, often playing monsters, tough guys, and the like, but typically with a lighthearted edge to them. Moll also had a booming voice to match his presence, utilized for roles like Two-Face in "Batman: The Animated Series," Abomination in the 1990s "Incredible Hulk" animated series, and Death in the video game "Dante's Inferno."

Sadly, the "Night Court" star and prolific movie actor died at 80 in October 2023 of undisclosed causes. He had declined to appear in the 2023 "Night Court" revival series as his character "Bull" Shannon, which was in its hiatus between Season 1 and Season 2 when Moll passed away. 

Another friend, co-worker, and fellow bowler to Fred, Barney, and Hoagie was Joe Rockhead. In what was no doubt an intentional choice, Joe was essentially the physical opposite of Hoagie — short and stocky to Hoagie's tall and muscular. It was always a humorous sight to see the two side by side, though they could both mug for the camera in equally exaggerated measure. And not unlike Hoagie, Joe Rockhead was also played by a longtime character actor who landed most of his roles through his unorthodox appearance and his ability to make extremely silly faces.

Irwin Keyes spent much of his career playing nameless characters, and was typically credited as either a physical description or job title — bouncer, guard, gangster, and so on. One of his first named roles that wasn't just a background movie character or one-episode appearance on a show was a five-episode stint as Hugo on "The Jeffersons." Keyes was also one of the only actors to actually reprise his role from "The Flintstones" for prequel "Viva Rock Vegas," where he again played Joe Rockhead. He mostly returned to smaller character work after that, though he remained extremely busy and eventually amassed over 100 screen credits. 

Keyes passed away in 2015 at age 63 of complications from acromegaly, the same bone growth disorder that lent him his distinctive jawline and teeth but also caused chronic pain and other ongoing health issues. 

As it often goes with a reboot, there was a new version of the original theme song for "The Flintstones" recorded for the movie. And who better to perform that cover than The B-52s, who already had a retro, 1960s-inspired sound? So the B-52s did their own spin on the theme song, which was featured as the end credit theme and was also released as a single. Not only that, but the B-52s also appeared as themselves in the film, sort of — they technically played the BC-52s, complete with era-appropriate garb, but were still just the real-life B-52s in all but name.

The various members of the B-52s have made scant appearances in small roles as actors in various projects, but music has always been their main thing. Former touring member Pat Irwin composed the theme song for "Rocko's Modern Life," which was performed by the band. Founding member and longtime vocalist Fred Schneider performed the theme song for Season 6 of "Captain Planet and the Planeteers," also voicing a character in one of the episodes. Fellow founding member and vocalist Kate Pierson sang a song for an episode of "Phineas and Ferb." And the whole band got together to perform "Glove Slap," a parody of their hit song "Love Shack" for an episode of "The Simpsons." 

The band performed as part of the "Saturday Night Live: 50th Anniversary Special" in February 2025, and still do shows and projects together despite their global touring days being behind them.

Pearl Slaghoople is your typical sitcom mother-in-law — she adores her daughter (Wilma), while constantly ragging on her son-in-law (Fred). No matter what Fred does, he'll never be good enough for Wilma in her eyes. Not that Fred tries very hard to prove Pearl wrong after a certain point. And of course, there's the inevitable scene where marital strife causes Wilma to take Pebbles and go stay at her mom's house, which is a delightful development for Pearl despite how clearly upset the situation is making Wilma.

In what would end up being her final film appearance, Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor played Pearl Slaghoople in "The Flintstones" film, notable because the veteran actor was at least 15 years beyond any sort of regularity with her acting career. Regardless of who might have been the hottest actor in the cast at the time, Taylor was no doubt the biggest legacy star on that set. She continued to make sporadic television appearances through the rest of the decade — typically in cameos as herself — before her making her final credit of any kind in the 2001 TV movie "These Old Broads." 

After significantly reducing her public appearances going into the late '90s and beyond due to various health struggles, Taylor passed away from complications of congestive heart failure in 2011 at age 79. 

Another of the original creations new to "The Flintstones" movie is the cleverly named Sharon Stone. She is the secretary of Cliff Vandercave, and uses the effect that her beauty and her flirtatious nature has on men in helping Cliff achieve his ends — something that Fred seems to be especially suspectable to. As it turns out, actor Sharon Stone was originally meant to play the character that shares her name, but scheduling conflicts prevented it. So instead, the role was offered to Halle Berry, only a few years into her movie career but already very much a household name.

Berry earned immediate notice for her acting skills right from her film debut in Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever," and she subsequently showed off her comedic chops in movies like "Boomerang" and "CB4." Her star power continued to rise as the decade went on, and going strong into the 2000s with major roles in "X-Men," "Die Another Day," and her Oscar-winning turn in "Monster's Ball." 2004's much-derided "Catwoman" didn't do her career any favors, but Berry weathered the storm just fine as evidenced by her eventually joining big franchises like "John Wick" and "Kingsman." After mostly just dabbling in television up to that point, Berry took on her first major small screen role in the 2014 sci-fi series "Extant," also serving as executive producer. 

The success or failure of a "Flintstones" movie was ultimately going to hinge on Fred himself. And the movie version hit all the right notes for the character, initially playing Fred as a bit selfish and immature but eventually learning all the necessary lessons about friendship, marriage, and life itself. The animated version definitely had a larger-than-life quality, one that was always going to be a bit tough to pull off in live action while not becoming too much of a ridiculous caricature. 

Enter actor John Goodman who, despite feeling somewhat trapped into the role by producer Steven Spielberg and initially resenting the project as a result, still played Fred with all the charm and gusto that was required. At the time, Goodman was most closely associated with another beloved television patriarch: Dan Conner of the sitcom "Roseanne." But film buffs were already well aware of his big screen talents, thanks in no small part to his many collaborations with filmmakers the Coen brothers. And that collaboration would continue to be a bright spot in his varied and expansive filmography for years to come, through "The Big Lebowski," "O Brother, Where Art Thou?", and beyond.

Goodman also continued to balance television work with his movie roles, playing recurring roles on "Damages," "Community," "Treme," and more. He reprised the role of Dan Conner first on the 2018 return of "Roseanne," and then on follow-up show "The Conners." From 2019 to 2025," Goodman played the role of Eli Gemstone on the HBO comedy series "The Righteous Gemstones."