Snakkle Celebrates Matthew Broderick at 50: The Man, the Movies, and the Musicals!

Before he played high schoolers, he was one. Looking at this young man filled with vim and vigor, one has to wonder what his class would have voted him—most likely to cut school? Most likely to sing on a parade float? Most likely to "succeed in business without really trying"? Whatever it was, neither his 30-year-plus acting career nor his 50 years seem to have cost him any of his spunk. Go, team Broderick!

Young Matthew might not have been able to imagine making it to 50 or having made a career out of playing teenagers, but I think if he met his 50-year-old self, he'd be proud of his eternal youth and the life he's built.

Making the first of many leaps from stage to screen, Matthew goes from Brighton Beach Memoirs with producer Neil Simon to his feature film debut… with producer Neil Simon. As Max Dugan’s grandson Michael, he becomes the lucky beneficiary of his estranged grandfather’s desire to try to make up for lost time with gifts like batting lessons from Chicago White Sox hitting coach Charley Lau. (Fun non sequitur: Kiefer Sutherland also made his film debut here with dad Donald.)

“Shall we play a game?” Okay, here’s a game for you: How did this fresh-faced kid with only one film under his belt go on to star in this one? “Luck.” Now, in case you weren’t around in the '80s (keep it to yourself, please), here’s a little recap for you: Before video games and hacking into government computers were the norm for teenagers, kids like David would hack only when it was worth it—like to change their grades or get a preview of the newest video game—only this time, what David thinks is the game "thermonuclear war" has actually started real-life World War III, and he has to prove he’s not a spy. C’mon, who wouldn’t believe that face?

His role as Eugene in Brighton Beach Memoirs wins this 21-year-old his first Tony. Bringing home the gold sure beats celebrating with a legal drink! Happy birthday once more, Matthew!

It’s as if this darling boy had a time machine and was studying the parade watchers as research for the float scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off—that or the prototype for Sloane’s character—with that long hair and made-up face, you are danke schoen, indeed! (Which I just learned actually means “beautiful” and not "thank you." You’re welcome.)

Bueller? Bueller? Yes, please! In perhaps his most iconic role, Matthew takes skipping school to new heights in this John Hughes flick, reminding us that "life moves pretty fast—you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." (And making parents everywhere think twice before letting you stay home "sick.") Though Matthew may consider his icon status "part of a virus," I say, “Thank you, Honda, for this glimpse into Ferris’s future.” With all of the sequels and remakes being done, I can’t believe it took a car commercial to make it happen—or that it’s been 26 years since the film came out—and I missed it! Maybe it’s time to start a Facebook page to get the Ferris Bueller, All Growds Up movie made. Hey, it got Betty White a hosting gig on SNL!

After a Tony-winning turn in Brighton Beach Memoirs, Matthew reprises his role as Eugene for the second installment of Neil Simon’s trilogy, both onstage and in Mike Nichols’s on-screen version, once again bringing his ability to lend sincerity and humor to any situation, as seen here when Eugene does "it" for the first time. Awkward has never been so charming.

Long before the Food Network’s Chopped was using secret ingredients to get ratings, Carmine Sabotini (Brando) was cooking up some mystery of his own and serving it to Broderick’s naive Clark Kellogg, among others. After Clark, a would-be filmmaker, gets ripped off and can no longer afford the textbooks for his film classes, Brando, much like his Godfather character, makes Clark an offer he can’t refuse and gives him a job, turning Clark’s simple money troubles into an elaborate caper involving endangered species and fine dining. Komodo dragon, anyone?

Be it their shared Broadway pasts (she once played the title character in Annie), their wisdom to keep their personal lives personal, or just the "special sauce" that keeps it together, this adorable twosome have been married since 1997 (for those of you who are numerically challenged, that’s 15 years—30 in Hollywood years!) In 2002, SJP gave birth to son James Wilke, and in 2009 they added twin daughters Tabitha and Loretta (born via surrogate) to the Broderick brood. I wonder if the kids will ever be able to pull off a sick day like dad.

Though playing an accountant might have been a stretch, Broderick is no stranger to the Broadway stage, or this play—his initial portrayal as Leo Bloom in The Producers (based on Mel Brooks’s 1968 film) earned him a Tony nom in 2001. (He also won a Tony for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying—and he seems to be doing that too!) Matthew sings again, literally and figuratively, in Mel Brooks’s updated on-screen version of this get-rich-quick scheme to produce the worst show possible—and what could be worse than “Springtime for Hitler,” right?

Well respected among fans and peers alike, even his fellow cast and crew, like director Brett Ratner and costar Eddie Murphy, show mad love for his skills—in general and as Mr. Fitzhugh, the numbers guy who helps them take down the man (in this case, Alan Alda’s character, Arthur Shaw) by stealing back the pension money he took from them.