The Sherwood Forest romp made £270million at the box office and sparked one of the most successful singles of all-time in Bryan Adams’ ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It For You’. But 25 years on from the movie’s release, what happened to Robin, Marian and the Merry Men?
Kevin Costner – Robin Hood
Costner had another couple of glory years with ‘JFK’ released the same year and then ‘The Bodyguard’ in 1992.
But the gossip rags’ attack on ‘Waterworld’ dulled his star and despite some intermittently great entries since – ‘Thirteen Days’, ‘The Upside of Anger’, ‘Open Range’ – the actor is still reaching for another iconic role.
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He may not care, thanks to seven kids and a focus on environmental philanthropy.
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio – Marian
The actress stepped into the role at the last-minute, after first choice Robin Wright had to drop out when she got pregnant.
An Oscar nominee for ‘The Color of Money’, the now-57-year-old actress had had a tough time on the set of her James Cameron collaboration ‘The Abyss’ in 1989 and was also known for her performance as Al Pacino’s sister in ‘Scarface’.
She’s been married to BAFTA-winning Irish director Pat O’Connor for 26 years and the pair have two kids. While maintaining a sporadic presence on the big screen, including 2000’s ‘The Perfect Storm’ with George Clooney, Mastrantonio has focused more on TV and the stage. She was nominated for a Tony for her Broadway performance in musical ‘Man of La Mancha’ and frequently crops up as law enforcement authority figures in everything from ‘Law and Order: Criminal Intent’ to the small screen adaptation of ‘Limitless’.
Alan Rickman – Sheriff of Nottingham
One of the most indelible baddies in screen history, Rickman famously improvised some of his funniest dialogue having turned the role down twice before being told he could do whatever he wanted with the character.
His distinguished screen career ran the gamut from romantic weepy ‘Truly, Madly, Deeply’ to 2016 sequel ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’, via probably his most iconic role as Professor Snape in the ‘Harry Potter’ series.
He sadly died of cancer aged just 69 in January 2016.
Michael Wincott – Guy of Gisborne
The absurdly gruff-voiced actor has been a successful Hollywood character actor since graduating from Juilliard in 1986.
Now 58, apart from ‘Robin Hood’, he’s probably best-known for playing a villain in ‘The Crow’ and as one of the doomed crew in fourquel, ‘Alien: Resurrection’.
He was also briefly tabloid fodder in the early Noughties when he dated Mick’s daughter Elizabeth Jagger, 26 years his junior.
Most recently, he featured in Terrence Malick’s showbiz satire ‘Knight of Cups’ and is currently filming ‘Ghost In The Shell’ opposite Scarlett Johansson.
Daniel Newman – Wulf
Now 40 – yes really – Newman missed most of his last year of school to play the cheeky young merry man who helps stick it to the Sheriff.
Married (and subsequently divorced) at 18, he has two daughters and having appeared alongside Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder in ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’, he spent most of his acting career on UK telly, in episodes of ‘Doctors’, ‘Judge John Deed’ and ‘Holby City’.
However, his main job now is as a personal trainer in Wimbledon, having rebranded himself as Dan. His website calls him “professional, exciting and effective”. His business acumen certainly seems to be the latter – he employs ten other trainers and has two gyms with a third on the way.
Nick Brimble – Little John
The 71-year-old Bristolian actor was a child performer and taught at the University of Baghdad before making it as an actor.
Other than ‘Prince of Thieves’, his biggest film role was playing the monster in 1990 horror, ‘Frankenstein Unbound’ opposite John Hurt.
He’s been a regular on British TV though – he’s recently been in the BBC adaptation of ‘War & Peace’ and three episodes of gentle crime drama ‘Grantchester’. Which is probably better than his 2003 effort ‘Never Say Never Mind: The Swedish Bikini Team’, in which he starred alongside Gimli from ‘Lord of the Rings’. And some blonde women in swimwear.
Morgan Freeman – Azeem
The Hollywood legend was still a comparatively little-known actor when he played Robin’s best buddy, having finally made his mark as a film performer two years previously in ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ and ‘Glory’.
Since then, he’s become one of the most beloved stars – and voices – ever, winning an Oscar for ‘Million Dollar Baby’ in 2004.
We’d probably prefer to see him in more films like that and ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ than ‘London Has Fallen’ and ‘Now You See Me 2’, but hey, he’s 79, he can do what he likes.
Christian Slater – Will Scarlett
Slater’s movie career took a bit of a dive in the mid-90s, not helped by an substance abuse problem which resulted him in being convicted of trying to take a gun on a plane, as well as assaulting his girlfriend and a police officer.
In amongst the cheese of ‘Kuffs’ and ‘Bed of Roses’ were quality efforts like ‘True Romance’ and ‘Broken Arrow’, as well as ‘Interview With The Vampire’, in which he took over the role of the reporter after his friend River Phoenix, who was initially cast, died.
The Noughties was even leaner cinematically, with a slew of direct-to-DVD flicks like ‘Mindhunters’ and ‘Hollow Man 2’.
The 46-year-old is now married to Brittany Lopez, 17 years his junior and has finally found a hit TV vehicle after years of trying in the excellent ‘Mr Robot’. Mind you, he was also sued in February this year by his dad for £14m for saying Slater Sr. suffered from “manic-depressive schizophrenia”.
Brian Blessed – Lord Locksley
THE LOUDEST ACTOR IN THE UNIVERSE managed to avoid his trademark bellow for most of his role as Robin’s dad in ‘Prince of Thieves’.
Post-1991, Blessed’s acting career has been a mixed bag, voicing the fourth-most-annoying character in ‘Star Wars: The Phantom Menace’, featuring in Kenneth Branagh’s filmic version of ‘As You Like It’ and lending his dulcet tones to 2012 animation ‘The Pirates! Band of Misfits’.
He’s spent more time becoming a hirsute national treasure and released his memoir in 2015 in which he admitted throwing away a Picasso painting worth £50million and delivering a baby in a park before biting through its umbilical cord.
Mike McShane – Friar Tuck
Most famous for his appearances on improv comedy show ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?’, the performer has a dedicated following for showing up in cult classics like ‘Office Space’, as well as Seinfeld.
He’s a well-regarded voice actor and got good notices for playing Audrey II (aka the killer plant) in the London revival of ‘Little Shop of Horrors’, although no doubt his proudest moment on the British stage was starring opposite Les Dennis in a play at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2006.
He’s even survived a death scare – after British TV actor Paul Shane died in 2013, Radio Five Live announced that McShane was the one who passed away before an embarrassed withdrawal.
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Image credits: Rex_Shutterstock