25 Years Later: “How Much Is Enough?” The Cast Of 1987 Oscar-Winning Wall Street—Where Are They Now?

Who could forget about Gordon Gekko, the silver-tongued villain of Wall Street. Gekko famously quipped, “Lunch is for wimps,” proving time really is money to people like him. Michael Douglas nailed the wealthy stockbroker with a criminal streak to a T, earning him a coveted Oscar Award for his convincing performance.

1987 was a good year for Michael Douglas. He’d achieved commercial success with the 1984 romantic comedy Romancing The Stone, but scoring Wall Street and Fatal Attraction in the same year? Douglas was worth his weight in Oscar gold. He starred alongside Sharon Stone in the iconic Basic Instinct in 1992 and even reprised his old Gordon Gekko character again in 2010 for the sequel movie Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Douglas was diagnosed with an aggressive form of throat cancer in 2010 and is still in treatment. He lives with wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones and their two children.

Talk about hitting it big fast: While her fans initially knew her as as attorney Jessica Griffin on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns (she played the role from 1987 - 2009—over 20 years!). In 1987, while still acting on TV, Tamara landed the role of "Carolyn" in Oliver Stone's Wall Street—one of her earliest roles in film.

She went on to act in many other films, including two with Al Pacino: City Hall (1996) and as the possessed wife in The Devil's Advocate (1997). She is best known to TV fans today for her role as medical examiner Dr. Melinda Warner on the NBC police drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Charlie Sheen played the ambitious stockbroker with stars in his eyes. Buddy admires Wall Street star Gordon Gekko, and strives to impress Gekko until Fox realizes the cost of such quick financial gain. Buddy decides to beat Gekko at his own game, even if it means he loses everything in the process… In Buddy’s case, coming clean is worth more than dirty money.

Sheen’s relatable portrayal of Buddy Fox in the greedy world of Wall Street made him a household name. Sheen continued to gain momentum when in 2000, he replaced Michael J. Fox on the last two seasons of Spin City (fwhich he won a Golden Globe for) and then scored his biggest recurring role in 2003 as Charlie Harper in Two And A Half Men. He was paid nearly $2 million an episode of Two And A Half Men, an eye-popping sum, but his highly publicized struggles with substance abuse led to his replacement on the show by Ashton Kutcher in 2011. He is currently in filming for the fifth installment of the Scary Movie film.

The notorious actress Sean Young had a small role in the film as the wife of Michael Douglas' character, Kate Gekko. If you thought this role should have been bigger, the wife of the larger-than-life money-hungry Gordon Gekko, so did writer-director, Oliver Stone. So what gives? According to an article in 2008 on EW.com with Young about her struggles in Hollywood, it seems her role was originally intended to be larger, but was drastically reduced after clashing with Oliver Stone. In fact, she irritated the Stone so much, "that he wrapped her scene early and had her dropped off at the bus station." Ouch!

Sean burst onto the Hollywood scene with back-to-back roles in Stripes, Blade Runner, and the box office hit No Way Out, in which she was gorgeous and oozing sex appeal with her equally sexy co-star Kevin Costner. However,  Sean's star started to diminish after 1987's Wall Street. First, she broke her arm falling off a horse during rehearsals for 1989's Batman and was replaced by Kim Basinger. Then, she was fired in 1990's from the Tess Trueheart role in Dick Tracy. But her Hollywood troubles did not end there: soon after, she crashed the Warner Bros studio lot wearing a homemade Catwoman suit to try and land a role in the sequel Batman Returns and attempted to confront Tim Burton and actor Michael Keaton. As if that wasn't enough, another low point was reported in 2006, when she was escorted from a Vanity Fair Oscar party through the back door, after crashing it as well (sans latex cat suit). More recently, to add insult to literal injury, Young was voted off 2010's Skating with the Stars, after two big televised falls on the ice. While her fans still eagerly anticipate Sean's comeback to the big screen, for now, she keeps busy with various TV roles and more B-list TV movies projects.

Oliver Stone is not the first director to make a cameo in his own movie. You may remember him as one of the office traders, busy at his desk buying and selling for clients of the firm where Buddy works. Perhaps a lesser-known fact is that Stone’s father was stockbroker in Manhattan, New York… definitely some real-life inspiration!

After graduating from NYU, Stone wrote and directed the cult classic Scarface (1983) and Year of the Dragon (1985). He is known for addressing controversial and real-life inspired issues (he was addicted to cocaine while writing Scarface) like the Vietnam War (which he participated in as an infantry soldier). After Wall Street, Stone has continued to write and direct award-winning films like W (2008) and has a total of nine Academy Awards, no small feat. His most recently released film was the 2012 feature, Savages.

Darryl Hannah played the beautiful, sweet-seeming but well meaning Darien Taylor. An interior decorator with expensive taste and Gordon Gekko’s ex-lover, Darien is a prize that Buddy wants to win.

Daryl Hannah wowed audiences with her breakout performance in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner in 1982. The hottie with a gymnastic body (she did her own stunts!) then went on to star in Summer Lovers, Splash and Wall Street, which put her on the map. After Wall Street, Hannah found cult fame in 2003 and 2004 after starring in Quentin Tarantino’s two Kill Bill films as Elle Driver, the one-eyed assassin. She is an enthusiastic environmental activist and strives to raise awareness about global warming; she was recently arrested for protesting a proposed oil pipeline while on private property.

Martin Sheen, Charlie Sheen’s real life father, played Carl Fox in Wall Street. Buddy’s humble, hard-working father believes that good things come to those who wait, impressing this idea upon his son. Carl Fox is a maintenance foreman for Bluestar Airlines, one of the major players in the twisted game of buy-sell involving Gekko and Buddy.

Celebrated actor, Martin Sheen, already had a slew of impressive roles behind him before he starred in Wall Street, one of his most famous being Benjamin L. Willard in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. After Wall Street, Sheen continued to star in major features such as The Thin Red Line, Catch Me If You Can, The Departed, and the 2012 film, The Amazing Spiderman. He and his wife of 51 years, Janet Templeton, have four children together who are all actors.

John C. McGinley played Marvin, a fellow stockbroker and sort of friend. Marvin gets left out of the “big score” when Buddy starts raking in the cash with Gekko’s guidance. Buddy apologizes later and tips Marv off about his big Bluestar buy. Marv delivered some much-needed sarcasm and comic relief with lines like “we’re all just one trade away from humility.”

John C. McGinley is a fast-talking, well-equipped actor who hasn’t run out of projects since Wall Street. One of his more memorable roles is as the often-offensive Dr. Perry Cox on Scrubs which ran for nine seasons. He recently joined the cast of Burn Notice as the character Tom Card and is also acting in a Broadway revival of Glengarry Glen Ross.

Roger Barnes is one of Buddy’s friends with his nose in a lot of businesses… it is his job after all! But there’s knowing and then there’s sharing, which Roger seems to do too much sometimes, albeit to Buddy’s benefit.

James Spader was an ‘80s star, landing a string of major movie roles playing extreme characters like Steff in Pretty In Pink or Graham Dalton in Sex, Lies, And Videotape. After his supporting role in Wall Street, Spader found success in TV. He played a lead as Alan Shore for the two series The Practice and Boston Legal, which he won an Emmy Award for, meaning he won two Emmys for playing the same character in two different shows! Spader continues to expand his resumé and since 2011, is part of The Office cast as Robert California.

Hal Holbrook played Lou Mannheim, one of the higher ups at the firm. Lou represents an alternative mentor figure to contrast Gekko’s. Just like Buddy’s father, he reminds the rookies “good things, sometimes, take time.”

Wall Street was on the later end of a successfully arcing career for Hal Holbrook. He actually started out in theater, acting as Mark Twain in the play Mark Twain Tonight. Believe it or not, he’s toured with the show both domestically and abroad, repeatedly and as recently as 2005, since 1957 (more than 2000 shows!). After Wall Street, Holbrook starred in all manner of TV and film productions, most recently Water For Elephants and Lincoln. When he’s not in traveling for work, Holbrook spends his time in McLemoresville, Tennessee.