National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation Cast Then and Now

Thirty-six years after a man strapped 25,000 Christmas lights to his suburban home and nearly electrocuted himself, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation remains the definitive holiday comedy—a film that understands Christmas isn't about perfection, but about surviving your family with humour intact.

Released 1 December 1989, the film follows Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) as he attempts to create the perfect family Christmas, only to watch it descend into spectacular chaos involving exploding turkeys, incinerated cats, and a kidnapping. Produced by John Hughes and directed by Jeremiah Chechik, it earned $77.9 million domestically against a $28 million budget and is now an annual tradition for millions of households.

From an 81-year-old comedy legend battling memory loss to a child actor who became TV's highest-paid star, here's where the cast ended up.

Chevy Chase (Clark Griswold)

Then: In 1989, Chevy Chase was 46 and at the peak of the National Lampoon's Vacation franchise. The original Saturday Night Live breakout star (1975-1976) had Caddyshack (1980), Fletch (1985), and the first two Vacation films behind him. As Clark Griswold, he perfected the well-meaning but catastrophically incompetent father—a character that would define his legacy.

Now: The Complicated Twilight

Where is Chevy Chase today? At 81, he's touring American theatres with Christmas Vacation screenings, appearing onstage for Q&A sessions with his wife Jayni.

The glossy surface hides a darker reality.

In 2021, Chase suffered near-fatal heart failure that hospitalised him for five weeks. The aftermath brought memory loss—a condition he's publicly acknowledged but whose severity remains unclear. He's still performing. He just can't always remember why.

His reputation preceded his health decline. Director Chris Columbus famously walked away from Christmas Vacation due to personality clashes with Chase, later using the experience to create Home Alone. Imagine being so difficult that someone creates the most successful Christmas film of all time specifically to avoid working with you again.

On the set of Community (2009-2014), Chase's difficult behaviour led to his departure and widespread industry criticism. Cast member Donald Glover diplomatically noted that working with Chase was "challenging." In Hollywood, "challenging" translates to "complete nightmare."

The physical comedy that built his career? "You don't see me doing a lot of pratfalls lately," Chase told Parade in 2024. "I'm getting up there." His 2023 fall during a Christmas Vacation talk wasn't a bit—it was age catching up.

Yet he continues appearing at screenings, memory issues and all, perhaps understanding that Clark Griswold is his most enduring legacy.

Beverly D'Angelo (Ellen Griswold)

Then: Beverly D'Angelo was 38 when she reprised her role as Ellen Griswold, the long-suffering wife who somehow maintains sanity amidst Clark's chaos. Golden Globe-nominated for playing Patsy Cline in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), she brought warmth and comic timing to the role.

Now: The Steady Professional

D'Angelo, now 73, appeared in American History X (1998), earned an Emmy nomination for A Streetcar Named Desire (1984), and maintained steady television work.

In 1981, she married Italian Duke Lorenzo Salviati in Las Vegas—a marriage that was explicitly open from the start. "We'd go off and have our own fun, but if there were any crises, we'd come back together," she explained.

Fifteen years of that arrangement.

Then in 1996, she met Al Pacino on a flight to New York. Their relationship produced twins in 2001 before ending in 2003. "The greatest gift that Al ever gave me was to make me a mother," she told People. Becoming a mother at 49 with one of Hollywood's most notorious bachelors took serious confidence.

She's currently in the 2025 indie romance The Heart Brake and reunited with Chase for a 2020 Ford commercial spoofing the iconic house-lighting scene. Unlike her onscreen husband, D'Angelo maintains a relatively private life.

Randy Quaid (Cousin Eddie)

Then: Randy Quaid's Cousin Eddie—the RV-dwelling, Dickie-wearing relative who empties his chemical toilet into storm drains—stole every scene. At 39, Quaid was an Oscar-nominated serious actor (The Last Detail, 1973) who could play lovable idiots without condescension.

Now: The Spectacular Unravelling

The trajectory from Oscar nominee to international fugitive is rarely linear.

Quaid's descent began slowly—erratic behaviour, claims of "star whackers" murdering celebrities, increasingly paranoid statements. By 2010, he and his wife Evi fled to Canada, seeking asylum and claiming Hollywood assassins were targeting them. The Canadian government, to its credit, was having none of it.

After multiple arrests for unpaid hotel bills and vandalism charges in California, Quaid remained in exile until 2021. He occasionally surfaces on social media with rambling videos that make you wonder if Cousin Eddie wasn't character work at all, just Quaid being himself twenty years early.

He's a ghost of the actor who once held his own against Jack Nicholson. The man who made emptying a chemical toilet into a storm drain somehow endearing now can't get arrested—except when he literally does get arrested.

For a comprehensive look at Quaid's complete career trajectory and most iconic roles, see our full ranking: Randy Quaid's Most Iconic Roles Ranked.

Johnny Galecki (Rusty Griswold)

Then: At 14, Johnny Galecki inherited the role of Rusty from Jason Lively and Anthony Michael Hall. He'd already appeared in Roseanne.

Now: The $1 Million Per Episode Man

Johnny Galecki became one of television's highest-paid actors.

When The Big Bang Theory premiered in 2007, producers originally wanted Galecki for Sheldon Cooper. He insisted on playing Leonard Hofstadter instead—a decision that earned him $1 million per episode by the show's final seasons and a $100 million net worth from salary and backend deals. Sometimes trusting your instincts pays off. Sometimes it pays off to the tune of nine figures.

After 12 seasons (2007-2019), Galecki left Los Angeles entirely. "I never felt like much of an Angeleno," he told Architectural Digest in 2024. He relocated to Nashville with his wife Morgan Galecki and their children, born in 2019 and 2024.

He occasionally reunites with Kaley Cuoco for commercials, but Galecki seems content with his Nashville life, earning over $10 million annually from syndication. That's the dream, isn't it? Get obscenely wealthy, move somewhere normal, never audition again.

Juliette Lewis (Audrey Griswold)

Then: At 16, Juliette Lewis played Audrey with the sullen teenage energy that would become her trademark. The daughter of actor Geoffrey Lewis, she'd been working since age 12. Christmas Vacation was a pit stop.

Now: The Indie Icon

Two years later, Lewis earned an Oscar nomination for Cape Fear (1991), playing opposite Robert De Niro under Martin Scorsese's direction. She was 18. She followed with Natural Born Killers (1994), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), and August: Osage County (2013).

But film was never enough.

In 2003, Lewis formed the rock band Juliette and the Licks, touring internationally before going solo in 2009. She's released multiple albums whilst maintaining her acting career—a genuine dual-threat who refuses to be boxed into one medium. Hollywood wanted her to choose. She told them to get stuffed.

At 52, she's working in Yellowjackets (2021-2023) and the 2025 A24 film Opus. The teenage girl from Christmas Vacation grew into exactly the kind of artist who operates on her own terms.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Margo Chester)

Then: Julia Louis-Dreyfus was 28 when she played Margo, the snobbish neighbour appalled by the Griswolds' working-class chaos. She'd spent three years on Saturday Night Live (1982-1985) and was building a reputation as a skilled comedic actress. Her defining role was a year away.

Now: Television's Most Decorated Actress

In 1990, Louis-Dreyfus was cast as Elaine Benes on Seinfeld. Over nine seasons, she earned one Emmy Award (1996), a Golden Globe (1994), and sitcom immortality.

She won another Emmy for The New Adventures of Old Christine (2006) before taking the role that would cement her as television's greatest: Selina Meyer in Veep (2012-2019).

Six consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. Six. A record that may never be broken.

As producer, she won three more Emmys. Eleven total—the most for any performer in Emmy history. At some point, the Television Academy should have just retired the category.

She's since established herself in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, hosts the acclaimed podcast Wiser Than Me (named Apple's Best Podcast of 2023), and survived breast cancer in 2017. At 64, she's worth an estimated $250 million.

The annoying neighbour from Christmas Vacation became the most honoured actress in American television history.

Doris Roberts (Frances Smith)

Then: Doris Roberts was already a legend when she took the small role of Frances, one of Clark's in-laws. The Tony Award-winning stage actress had won an Emmy for St. Elsewhere (1983) and was known for her Remington Steele role (1983-1987). She was 64.

Now: A Legacy Remembered

Roberts would find her defining television role seven years after Christmas Vacation when she was cast as Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-2005). As the overbearing, meddling mother-in-law, she won four Emmy Awards and appeared in all 210 episodes over nine seasons.

Over 100 actresses auditioned. Roberts was the only one who could make Marie's intrusive behaviour somehow endearing.

"She was able to nuance a character that was not a caricature, but someone with layers and levels," creator Phil Rosenthal explained. Roberts worked into her late 80s, appearing in The Middle (reuniting with Patricia Heaton), Grey's Anatomy, and Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection (2012). Most people are slowing down in their 80s. Roberts was appearing in Tyler Perry films.

On 17 April 2016, Roberts died in her sleep at her Los Angeles home following a stroke. She was 90 years old and had suffered from pulmonary hypertension for years. Ray Romano remembered her as someone with "an energy and a spirit that amazed me. She never stopped."

Her final years were spent advocating against age discrimination in Hollywood, testifying before Congress in 2002 about the entertainment industry being "the worst perpetrators of this bigotry." She wasn't wrong.

Supporting Players: The Deep Bench

Brian Doyle-Murray (Frank Shirley)

Bill Murray's older brother played Clark's tyrannical boss who cancels the Christmas bonus that drives the film's third act. At 79, Doyle-Murray works steadily in television and film. His gruff, intimidating screen presence made him a go-to for playing bosses, cops, and anyone who needed to bark orders convincingly. He's worked steadily for five decades without ever becoming famous—which is exactly how some character actors prefer it.

Diane Ladd (Nora Griswold)

At 92, Ladd played Clark's mother despite being only six years older than Chase. The three-time Oscar nominee showed up to auditions wearing a dress that belonged to her friend Shelley Winters' mother and secured the role over June Allyson and Alice Ghostley.

That's the Hollywood game right there—wear the right dead woman's dress, get the part.

She earned her most recent Oscar nomination for Wild at Heart (1990) and has appeared in films through the 2020s.

William Hickey (Uncle Lewis)

Hickey's Uncle Lewis—muttering incomprehensibly and setting fire to the Christmas tree with his cigar—provided one of the film's most memorable running gags. The gravelly-voiced character actor had earned an Oscar nomination for Prizzi's Honor (1985). That voice. Once heard, never forgotten.

He died from emphysema and bronchitis in 1997 at age 69.

Mae Questel (Aunt Bethany)

Questel, the original voice of Betty Boop and Olive Oyl, was 81 when she played Aunt Bethany. Think about that timeline—she voiced Betty Boop in 1930s cartoons, then showed up in 1989 to ask if they could say grace over the Jell-O mould.

Christmas Vacation was her final film role. She passed away in 1998 at age 89, closing out a career that spanned seven decades from 1930s animation booths to 1980s film sets. The woman who brought cartoon sex symbols to life ended her career playing a senile aunt. Hollywood, everybody.

Nicholas Guest (Todd Chester)

Guest played Todd Chester, Margo's equally pretentious husband. The British-American actor, now 72, works steadily in television without ever breaking through to leading roles. The Chesters represented everything the Griswolds weren't—wealthy, sophisticated, and utterly miserable.

Ellen Hamilton Latzen and Cody Burger (Ruby Sue and Rocky)

The Eddie kids both left acting after childhood. Latzen, famous for Fatal Attraction (1987), retired from Hollywood entirely. Burger disappeared from public life after the 1980s.

Smart move, honestly. Get out before Hollywood gets weird about you growing up.

Why We Keep Coming Back

Somewhere right now, someone's watching Clark Griswold nail 25,000 Christmas lights to his house. A family's quoting "Hallelujah, holy shit" whilst wrapping presents. A couple's arguing about whose relatives are more like Cousin Eddie.

Christmas Vacation wasn't supposed to become this. Critics dismissed it. The box office was respectable but unremarkable. Yet every December, it plays in millions of homes—not despite its chaos, but because of it.

Because Christmas isn't Martha Stewart perfection. It's your mum burning the turkey whilst your dad tries to fix lights that worked last year. It's relatives you only see once annually arriving with baggage. It's the desperate hope that this year, finally, everything will go according to plan.

It never does. And that's the point.

The actors who brought that truth to life went different directions. Some found greater glory. Others found tragedy. Chase battles memory loss whilst touring with the film that defined him. D'Angelo works steadily, privately. Quaid exists in exile. Galecki counts his millions in Nashville. Lewis rocks stages between film sets. Louis-Dreyfus collects Emmys. Roberts rests in peace.

But on Christmas Eve, when your own family gathering descends into the predictable chaos of too many people in too small a space with too much history, you'll probably think of the Griswolds. You'll remember that the perfect Christmas was never the goal.

Survival was. Survival with humour intact.

Thirty-six years later, Clark's still plugging in those lights. The bulb still explodes. And we're still watching, grateful that our dysfunction looks positively functional by comparison.

Merry Christmas. Shitter was full!