HOT GALLERY: The Stars of My Girl—Where Are They Now?

Is it possible that there was a more adorably precocious character than Vada Margaret Sultenfuss inMy Girl? Vada, who likes her name, is convinced she is dying, and only hangs out with people she finds "intellectually stimulating". She was played perfectly by Anna Chlumsky, a child model who had done only one other film (1989's Uncle Buck, which starred Macaulay Culkin) when My Girl was released in 1991.

Chlumsky found fame and plenty of work after My Girl, including the sequel (My Girl 2, 1994) and the TV movie A Child's Wish, co-starring Three's Company's John Ritter and featuring a cameo by then-President Bill Clinton (playing himself). She then took a break from show business, getting a degree in International Studies from the University of Chicago, followed by "non-glamorous" jobs such as a fact-checker for the Zagat restaurant guide, according to People Magazine. She has since found her way back to acting; she was in the off-Broadway play The Fabulous Life of a Size Zero (co-starring Gillian Jacobs of NBC's Community) and is in the HBO series Veep.

Dan Aykroyd made a smooth transition from original Saturday Night Live cast member to big-time movie star. He had been in films as varied as Ghostbusters (1984) and Driving Miss Daisy (1989) when he played Vada's quirky but lovable dad, the ever-embalming Harry Sultenfuss.

After My Girl, Aykroyd continued his career as an actor and screenwriter, even stopping by his old stomping grounds on SNL every now and then. In 1992, he co-founded The House of Blues nightclub chain, and still hosts The House of Blues Radio Hour, in the guise of his Blues Brothers character Elwood Blues. Aykroyd most recently voiced the title role in Yogi Bear.

Griffin Dunne played the role of Mr. Bixler, Vada's unreachable love interest/English teacher. The fact that he is engaged is only part of the reason Vada won't ever land this fish. There's that whole "enormous difference in their ages" thing.

Griffin Dunne had already done (pun intended) films like An American Werewolf in London (1981) and produced and starred in After Hours (1985; directed by Martin Scorsese) when My Girl was released. He's had an interesting career post-My Girl, continuing to act (watch Dunne as Frank Zappa in the 2002 TV movie Warning: Parental Advisory) and produce films, including Game 6 (2005), written by Don DeLillo. He recently turned up on the TV series Damages, and directed a filmed version of his aunt Joan Didion reading from her newest memoir, Blue Nights, which Dunne calls an "audiobook for the eyes".

Like Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis was already a big star when she made My Girl—heck, she had been in Halloween I (1978), II (1981), and had an uncredited cameo in III (1982). Anyone who wasn't already a Curtis fan after her hilarious roles in Trading Places (1983; opposite Mr. Aykroyd) and A Fish Called Wanda (1988) probably became one after this movie, in which she played the mortuary makeup artist Shelly DeVoto who fell for Vada's funeral director father.

Curtis came back for My Girl 2 (1994), and starred as Arnold Schwarzenegger's wife in True Lies (1994), and joined Aykroyd once again in Christmas with the Kranks (2004). She now writes children's books and blogs regularly at Huffington Post.

Not to sound like a broken record/corrupted MP3 file, but Macaulay Culkin was also a household name by the time My Girl was released. Admittedly it had only just happened; Home Alone (1990) was only one year before he played the adorable Thomas J. Sennett. Want to see something cute? Watch Culkin and Chlumsky enjoy their first on-screen kiss. Aww.

Culkin became a megastar, then took a bit of a break from acting after Richie Rich (1994). He came back to it in 2000, first doing a play in London (Madame Melville), then made his movie comeback as convicted murderer and drug dealer Michael Alig in Party Monster (2003). Bonus video #1: watch Macauly read from his semi-autobiographical "experimental" novel, Junior, in 2006. Bonus video #2: watch Culkin—and Bruce Willis, Ringo Starr, and many others—in this 2009 ad for the British insurance company Aviva; if you just want to see Macauly's line, click here. It's a good one. By the way, Culkin is only 31 years old as of this writing.

Peter Michael Goetz is also one of those actors you think you've seen before, and you're probably correct. In My Girl, Goetz played Dr. Welty, who was tasked with frequently informing Vada that she was not, in fact, dying from various ailments such as an imaginary chicken bone stuck in her throat, nor does she possess a prostate.

Goetz played John MacKenzie in Father of the Bride (1991) and it's sequel (1995) alongside Steve Martin. He continues to work on screen and on stage, appearing many times at Minnesota's Guthrie Theater, where his roles include several stints in the holiday classic A Christmas Carol.

Richard Masur is one of those actors you see and say, "hey, I know him. He was in that movie/TV show..." One of those movies is My Girl. Masur played Vada's uncle, Phil Sultenfuss. This screencap immortalizes one of his great lines from the film: "Your father's a savage."

Masur kept right on working after My Girl, appearing in the sequel, the TV series Picket Fences (1994-1995), and two films directed by Billy Crystal—Forget Paris (1995) and 61* (2001). He made his return to Broadway in Michael Frayn's highly acclaimed play Democracy (2004).