Entertainment Weekly
The Running Man cast: See what's become of the 1987 cult classic's bruisers, stalkers, and smooth talkers
The cartoonish action flick is getting a new rendition from director Edgar Wright and star Glen Powell.
By Randall Colburn Published on July 1, 2025 03:41PM EDT
Nestled in a neon-drenched corner of Arnold Schwarzenegger's iconic run of action flicks is The Running Man, a gonzo story about a game show in which the players are fighting for their lives.
Directed by Starsky & Hutch alum Paul Michael Glaser, the 1987 film is a (very) loose adaptation of Stephen King's book of the same name, published in 1982 under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.
Where King's novel is grim and humorless, Glaser's film is like Flash Gordon with chainsaws, as Schwarzenegger's Ben Richards, an enemy of the totalitarian regime lording over this dystopian vision of the United States, fights costumed villains on a popular game show in which criminals attempt to earn their freedom via televised battles.
Critics at the time mostly greeted The Running Man with shrugs. But the goofy slugfest has aged gracefully, partly due to the popularity of similarly themed projects like The Hunger Games. Entertainment Weekly even ranks it among the best Stephen King adaptations, which our critic called "timely, prescient, and highly underrated."
With Paramount Pictures hyping a star-studded new riff on King's story from Edgar Wright (Baby Driver) and Glen Powell (Twisters), let's see what The Running Man's cast of heroes, stalkers, and former game show hosts have done since the film's 1987 premiere.
01
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Arnold Schwarzenegger as Ben Richards
Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in The Running Man as Ben Richards, a police captain who's arrested after refusing to shoot unarmed citizens during a food riot. He links up with a resistance movement looking to topple the police state, but is soon thrust onscreen to battle for his life against an army of monstrous "stalkers."
The actor delivered a handful of memorable lines, one of which — "I hope you leave enough room for my fist, because I'm going to ram it into your stomach and rip out your spine!" — he recreated for fans in 2013.
Schwarzenegger was transitioning from action to comedy around the time of The Running Man's release, with macho flicks like The Terminator (1984), Commando (1985), and Predator (1987) in his rearview and Twins (1988), Total Recall (1990), and Kindergarten Cop (1990) on deck.
His status as an industry titan was shaken, however, by the critical and commercial failure of Last Action Hero (1993), on which he served as both star and executive producer. He was still pumping out hits — True Lies (1994) and Eraser (1996) among them — but movies like Junior (1994), End of Days (1999), and Collateral Damage (2002) underperformed, and the actor turned his interests elsewhere.
In 2003, Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy for governor of California, won the election, and served as the "Governator" until 2011. After his spell in politics, he returned to Hollywood in films like The Last Stand (2013), Sabotage (2014), and two Terminator sequels.
"I love the idea that they're doing a sequel to Running Man, or a remake," Schwarzenegger told Comic Book Resources while promoting season 2 of FUBAR. "I think [The Running Man] would have been great if we would have been better prepared for this movie, if we would have had more money for this movie, and if we would have had then... the visual effects, the technology of visual effects, that they have today, all of those things I wished after the movie came out, I felt like it could have been better."
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María Conchita Alonso as Amber Mendez
The formidable María Conchita Alonso costars in The Running Man as Amber Mendez, a composer for the state broadcaster who finds herself fighting alongside Ben.
The Venezuelan actress appeared in several action flicks and gritty dramas following the film, fighting aliens in Predator 2 (1990) and leading a revolution in McBain (1991).
Her other notable credits include Caught (1996), Robert Redford's The Company You Keep (2003), and Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem (2012), as well as 62 episodes of the telenovela Saints & Sinners (2007).
Alonso is also a Grammy-nominated musician, having released a dozen studio albums of Latin pop since 1980.
In 2017, she appeared at the New York Film Academy to celebrate The Running Man's 30th anniversary.
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Richard Dawson as Damon Killian
Richard Dawson began his career as an actor on Hogan's Heroes (1965–1971) before his charisma as a Match Game panelist scored him a spot hosting the game show Family Feud (1976–1985, 1994–1995). Nearly everyone who's seen The Running Man agrees that his turn as The Running Man emcee Damon Killian is truly special.
"Playing off of his cuddly, Cockney kissing-bandit persona from The Family Feud, Dawson might have been the unlikeliest bad guy in a decade crawling with unlikely bad guys," EW's critic wrote of his performance in 2007. "By playing a sadistic game show host, he was just messing with us. And clearly having a blast doing so."
Following The Running Man, Dawson struggled to find a new show to host — he nearly led a revival of You Bet Your Life in 1988, but it didn't pan out — and ended up returning to Family Feud for the final season of its second run.
In 1991, he married his second wife, Gretchen Johnson, whom he met when she was a contestant on Family Feud. The pair had a daughter the year before. Dawson briefly returned to public life in 2000 to narrate TV's Funniest Game Shows on Fox.
He died in 2012 at age 79 due to complications from esophageal cancer.
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Jesse Ventura as Captain Freedom
The gruff Jesse Ventura was a successful professional wrestler and announcer when he appeared as stalker Captain Freedom in The Running Man. It was a reunion for Ventura and Schwarzenegger, who became pals on the set of Predator, which was Ventura's film debut.
Ventura spoke to the film's prescience in a 2014 interview, saying, "With reality TV like it is today and you look at where we're at right now... in 2017, The Running Man might be real."
He also spoke about Schwarzenegger asking Ventura to be in the film while they were filming Predator. "When the star wants you in the film, that means you've got some leverage when it comes time to negotiate, and believe me, I exploited that leverage," he cracked.
Ventura acted in a handful of films in the years following The Running Man, taking roles in action flicks like Ricochet (1991) and Demolition Man (1993), but his real-life personality was so magnetic that he often ended up playing himself. No Holds Barred (1989), Major League II (1994), Ready to Rumble (2000), and Stuck On You (2003) all feature Jesse Ventura playing Jesse Ventura.
Like Schwarzenegger, Ventura sought to put his silver tongue to use in politics. He served as the mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minn., from 1991 to 1995 and then held office as the state's 38th governor from 1999 to 2003, winning both seats as a third-party candidate.
In the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, Ventura endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris while taking swipes at another former professional wrestler, Hulk Hogan, a supporter of Donald Trump.
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Yaphet Kotto as William Laughlin
Yaphet Kotto, a veteran of classics like Blue Collar (1978) and Alien (1979), appears in The Running Man as resistance fighter William Laughlin.
Kotto appeared in numerous TV movies throughout the '80s, '90s, and '00s, as well as films like Midnight Run (1988), Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991), and Two If By Sea (1996). He spent the latter part of his career on TV as Lieutenant Al Giardello on NBC's acclaimed Homicide: Life on the Street (1993–1999), as well as its 2000 TV movie.
The actor died in 2021 at the age of 81.
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Jim Brown as Fireball
Before becoming an actor, Jim Brown was a champion football player, emerging as a powerhouse running back in the '50s and '60s. He put his physicality to good use onscreen, specifically as the flamethrower-wielding Fireball in The Running Man.
Brown, a civil rights activist and leading star in the blaxploitation era of cinema throughout the '60s and '70s, worked with a number of exciting filmmakers in the years after The Running Man, from Keenen Ivory Wayans (I'm Gonna Git You Sucka) and Tim Burton (Mars Attacks!) to Spike Lee (He Got Game, She Hate Me) to Oliver Stone (Any Given Sunday).
He also released a memoir, Out of Bounds, in 1989, and was the subject of a 2002 documentary, Jim Brown: All American, directed by Lee. Aldis Hodge played Brown in Regina King's One Night in Miami (2020), a story about the evening in 1964 when Cassius Clay defeated Sonny Liston and celebrated with Brown, Sam Cooke, and Malcolm X.
In the years leading up to his death in 2023 at age 87, numerous retrospectives cited Brown as one of the greatest football players of all time. His last film role was a cameo in Michael Jai White's Outlaw Johnny Black (2023).
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Mick Fleetwood as Mic
In one of the legendary musician's few turns on screen, Fleetwood Mac's Mick Fleetwood appears in The Running Man as resistance leader Mic.
Fleetwood recalled working with Schwarzenegger in a 2008 interview, noting the actor's documented love of pranks. "His main thing in life is going from one prank to the next," he said. "I’d get involved in some of them. I’d go into his trailer on the set like it was a military operation, and then you’d be sworn to secrecy as the pranks unfolded. Mostly it was all in good humor, but a couple of things would make you go, 'Whoa.' Funny guy."
He went on to appear in episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Wiseguy, both in 1989, and even played a baddie in the 1994 action movie Zero Tolerance.
Fleetwood, however, eventually bailed on acting to shift his focus back to music. He co-authored a book with Stephen Davis on Fleetwood Mac's legacy, 1990's Fleetwood — My Life and Adventures with Fleetwood Mac, and contributed to the solo albums of his former bandmates, including Stevie Nicks, Bob Welch, Christine McVie, and Lindsey Buckingham. He also released his own music as Mick Fleetwood's Zoo and the Mick Fleetwood Band, and continues to tour with Fleetwood Mac.
In 2021, Buckingham told Entertainment Weekly that Fleetwood was hoping to get the original five members back together. After McVie's death in 2022, however, Nicks said she saw "no reason" to tour without her.
These days, Fleetwood lives in Maui. In 2023, wildfires in the region destroyed Fleetwood's on Front St., the restaurant he opened on the island in 2012.
He recently celebrated his 78th birthday on Instagram, writing, "A birthday in the sun!! And wishing ALL a great summer! The beat goes on… life goes on… and the lesson learnt… Live life to the fullest!!"
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Dweezil Zappa as Stevie
Dweezil Zappa, the son of iconoclastic musician Frank Zappa, was still a teenager when he appeared as beret-wearing Stevie in The Running Man. Since then, he's carved out a career that encompasses music, acting, hosting, and tabloid celebrity.
As an actor, Zappa's voice can be heard as Ajax on Duckman (1994–1997), a role he played across 65 episodes. He also appeared opposite Michael Keaton in the 1998 family film Jack Frost and guested on a series like According to Jim (2001) and Son of the Beach (2001). He also composed and performed the theme music for The Ben Stiller Show.
He bookended the '90s with a pair of projects made in collaboration with his siblings. In 1990, he and his sister Moon Unit Zappa starred on a CBS sitcom, Normal Life, which EW called "a looser, goosier version of Family Ties." It lasted only one season, as did 1999's Happy Hour, a USA series that EW's critic characterized as a "frat-boy romp" that's "part variety show, part game show, and all creep-out." The project was hosted by Zappa and his brother, Ahmet Zappa.
As a musician, Zappa has worked with artists like "Weird Al" Yankovic and Todd Rundgren, among many others. He's released seven solo LPs, as well as several albums with Zappa Plays Zappa — renamed Dweezil Zappa Plays Frank Zappa — in which he plays his father's music with a rotating lineup of guests.
Over the past decade, Zappa has been embroiled in legal issues regarding the Zappa family trust, which has resulted in ongoing turmoil for the family, per The Washington Post.
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Kurt Fuller as Tony
As Tony, Kurt Fuller, one of the great character actors of the last 50 years, served as the right-hand man to Dawson's Killian. It was the prolific actor's first film role.
"I was really still sort of awestruck then, because it starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, it was directed by Paul Michael Glaser, who played Starsky in Starsky And Hutch, and I was working with Richard Dawson!" Fuller told The A.V. Club in 2014, lamenting (unnecessarily) what he considers a poor performance. "And there I am — again overacting! — and Paul Michael Glaser was very nice to me, and I was again told, 'Do less and less and less and less.' And I still was bad!"
He continued, "I’ll go back and look at it, and I can’t even watch it. I have to look through my fingers, because I just see myself acting all over the place."
Fuller has been a consistent presence in film and TV over the past 40 years, with notable roles like Jack Hardemeyer in Ghostbusters II (1989) and TV producer Russell Finley in 1991's Wayne's World ("My guys! You're my guys!").
He reunited with Schwarzenegger in Red Heat (1988) and Ventura in No Holds Barred (1989). The actor also appeared in Scary Movie (2000), Paul Schrader's Auto Focus (2002), and The Pursuit of Happyness (2006).
On the small screen, he's featured in some of the most popular shows of the century thus far, from Ally McBeal (1999-2002) and Desperate Housewives (2005–2006) to Psych (2009–2014) and Supernatural (2009–2019).
Most recently, Fuller helped lead the cast of the Paramount+ series Evil (2019–2024).
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Marvin J. McIntyre as Harold Weiss
Along with Kotto's William, Marvin J. McIntyre appears in The Running Man as resistance fighter Harold.
McIntyre continued acting throughout the '80s and '90s, reuniting with Schwarzenegger for Twins (1988) and appearing in films such as Back to the Future III (1990), Only the Lonely (1991), and Wagons East (1994). His last credited role is in a 2001 episode of Nash Bridges.
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Erland Van Lidth as Dynamo
Erland Van Lidth was born into Dutch nobility, later finding success as an opera singer and amateur wrestler. His golden voice and physicality are both on display in The Running Man, which cast him as the mellifluous (and deadly) Dynamo.
Prior to his appearance, he appeared in films like The Wanderers (1979), Stir Crazy (1980), and Alone in the Dark (1982). He died of heart failure at age 34, just months after wrapping The Running Man.
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Gus Rethwisch as Buzzsaw
Actor and strongman Gus Rethwisch played the buzzcut-sporting, beef-necked Buzzsaw, who, as his name implies, is handy with a chainsaw.
Rethwisch and Schwarzenegger teamed up yet again for Twins (1988). The actor also played bruisers in House II: The Second Story (1987), The Ride (1997), and The Scorpion King (2002).
In 1999, Rethwisch founded the World Association of Benchers and Dead Lifters.
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Professor Toru Tanaka as Subzero
Charles J. Kalani Jr., a.k.a. Professor Toru Tanaka, was well-known in the squared circle by the time he joined The Running Man as the hockey-playing Subzero.
Tanaka, who retired from wrestling just a year before the film's release, would go on to act in films like Dead Heat (1988), The Perfect Weapon (1991), and 3 Ninjas (1993), as well as works from acclaimed filmmakers Sam Raimi (Darkman) and Ridley Scott (Black Rain).
He and Schwarzenegger crossed paths again in 1993's Last Action Hero, which was one of Tanaka's final film roles.
The performer died in 2000 at age 70 from a heart attack, leaving behind Doris, his wife of 47 years, as well as three children and six grandchildren. His ashes were scattered at sea in Hawaii.
In 2019, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
Where can I watch The Running Man?
The Running Man is currently available to stream on Paramount+.
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