Photo Gallery: Stand by Me Celebrates 28th Anniversary

In the 1986 film Stand by Me, a writer recalls the life-changing journey he took one summer as a 12-year-old with a ragtag group of friends. On a sunny afternoon, the boys set out to find a missing body—but as they trudge across fields, through forests, and along railroad tracks, they experience the kind of coming of age that can only arrive from deep talks, risk taking, and, well, looking for a dead kid. They return to town the next day a little older, a little wiser, and on their way to adulthood.
This year, the cinematic classic based on Stephen King's novella The Body celebrates its 25th anniversary. In Snakkle exclusive interviews, casting director Jane Jenkins and director of photography Thomas Del Ruth describe what an 11-year-old Jerry O'Connell was like at his audition, explain how a feeling of foreboding was achieved under a bright Oregon sun, and reflect on the loss of River Phoenix.

Memorable Stand by Me Line: "I brought a comb. If we get on TV, we want to look good, don't we?"
Snakkle Exclusive: Just as Feldman fit the role of Teddy, Jenkins says O'Connell was the embodiment of Vern Tessio, a chubby, hapless kid with a big heart. O'Connell at age 11 was "this innocent, funny kid. When he came in, he had no idea who Rob Reiner even was," Jenkins says (even though All in the Family was still popular in reruns at the time). "He was one of those children whose mother would pin their mitten onto their jacket so they don't lose their mittens, but then they lose the entire jacket. That was Jerry. And he literally did that—he left the audition and left his jacket behind and had to come back in. And then he looked at Rob—I'll never forget it, we all cracked up—he said, 'Hey! You're that guy. You're that guy that's on channel 5 every night, that Meathead guy.' He had not a clue until he came back in looking for his jacket."

Married to actress Rebecca Romijn and the father of twin daughters, O'Connell starred on the CBS legal dramedy The Defenders and released the post-Charlie-Sheen-meltdown video Since Stand by Me, he's had a steady stream of roles in films (Calendar Girl, Jerry Maguire, Tomcats, Baby on Board) and TV series (My Secret Identity, Sliders, Crossing Jordan) and even gotten in touch with his musical side with a cameo in Mariah Carey's 1999 video for "Heartbreaker." O'Connell is currently spoofing Shia LaBeouf's art exhibit with his own entitled #IAMSORRYTOO.

Memorable Stand by Me Line: "Going to see a dead kid.... Maybe it shouldn’t be a party."
Snakkle Exclusive: Looking back, casting director Jane Jenkins tells Snakkle, "All the boys had a great deal of the characteristics that they were portraying." Take her final choice for Gordie, Stand by Me's heart and soul: "Wil Wheaton was sensitive, sweet, sincere," she says. "All of those things that you needed for that Gordie Lachance character."

Known to geeks everywhere as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: Next Generation, he still appears as himself on shows like Family Guy (the animated version of himself) and The Big Bang Theory. But he's also worked regularly since Stand by Me, voicing video games (Grand Theft Auto) and animated TV series (Aqualad on Teen Titans and Cosmic Boy on Legion of Super Heroes) and doing an occasional guest role on shows like Numb3rs, Criminal Minds, and Eureka. In the nerdcore rap "Your Friend Wil," MC Frontalot outlines Wheaton's philosophy of gaming ("Don't be a dick"). Wheaton is, in fact, well known for his views on technology and gaming: Fans can follow his musings on his blog WWdN: In Exile and see him as one of the headliners of w00tstock, an evening of geeks and music, which was held on the opening night of Comic-Con in San Diego.

Memorable Stand by Me Line: "I just wish that I could go someplace where nobody knows me. I guess I'm just a pussy, huh?"
Snakkle Exclusive: "River was a very bright light," Jenkins tells Snakkle. At his Stand by Me audition, "he was fabulous. I asked him back to read for [director] Rob [Reiner], and he literally tore our hearts out. Everybody in the room was crying by the end of his audition—it was really powerful."

After Stand by Me, Phoenix was in both blockbuster and indie flicks such as The Mosquito Coat, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and My Own Private Idaho. Phoenix died tragically of a drug overdose in 1993 at the age of 23. "When River passed away, we all went to his funeral," Jenkins says. "It was a heartbreaking, heartbreaking thing to participate in the funeral of somebody so young, so talented, and the waste of such a promising life."

Memorable Stand by Me Line: "This is my age! I'm in the prime of my youth! And I'll only be young once."
Snakkle Exclusive: Say what you will about Feldman's overtime in the tabloids. Jenkins tells Snakkle she knew immediately that the actor would be perfect for the part of Teddy Duchamp—a zany kid who suffered at the hands of an abusive, alcoholic father. "When I first met Corey Feldman, [he] actually came in to read for the River Phoenix part of Chris Chambers. And while he was reading, I said to him, 'I think there's another part in this movie that you would be better for.' I gave him the scene and said he could either come back tomorrow or look at it right now. And he said, 'No, I'll look at it right now.' And he came back in and said to me, 'This is really interesting. This is like the Robert De Niro kind of part.' He was 12 years old and he said that."

After outgrowing his days as a teen heartthrob, Feldman continued to appear in television and film, including raunchy stuff like the 1993 thriller Blown Away and family-friendly fare like The Million Dollar Kid (2000). More recently, he appeared opposite his late friend and frequent costar Corey Haim on the A&E reality series The Two Coreys and performs with his band the Truth Movement.
Snakkle Snippet: Before their separation, Feldman and his wife Susie appeared in Moby's "We Are All Made of Stars" video and modeled for a "Give Peas a Chance" PETA ad.

Memorable Stand by Me Line: "You guys have two choices. You either leave quietly, and we take the body. Or you stay and we beat the s--t out of you, and we take the body."
Snakkle Exclusive: Ace's confrontation with Gordie and the boys occurs in the climactic scene in the forest, at the site of the dead body. "At the end of the journey, that had to be shot in overcast with a sense of wind and doom and storm to it," cinematographer Thomas Del Ruth tells Snakkle. In real life, however, Del Ruth was faced with sunshine so bright that "the only way we could do it was to silk the entire scene"—i.e., mount giant collars on every nearby tree and hang translucent sheets of fabric across the set area to filter the sunlight. And as for the breeze? Along with wind machines called Ritters, some 25 crew members and production assistants hid behind trees and bushes and shook them.

Sutherland is best known today for playing another tough guy: Agent Jack Bauer on Fox's long-running series 24. Following Stand by Me, Sutherland again shared the screen with Corey Feldman in The Lost Boys (1987) and went on to appear in a range of films, from Young Guns (1988) to A Few Good Men (1992) and The Sentinel (2006). In addition, he's stepping back into the shoes of Jack Bauer with 24: Live Another Day.

Memorable Stand by Me Scene: As the heavy hero of Gordie's fireside story-within-a-story, he turns a pie-eating contest into a pukefest of revenge.

Lindberg's only film credit since Stand by Me was God's Clowns, a 13-minute short described as "fart jokes in a monastery." See clips from his two films, as well as commercials for Nutrisystems and SUNY Purchase, on his video reel.

Memorable Stand by Me Line: "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12. Jesus, does anyone?"
Snakkle Exclusive: This is the last line of the movie—and Del Ruth's favorite. "I think that line was particularly significant, in terms of the whole arc of the movie," he says. "It was about young people, essentially—their camaraderie, their uncertain footsteps into teen years, and ultimately maturity. It was particularly memorable for me, because I grew up during the same period as these kids.... Friendship and external associations with people were far more significant in shaping your view of the world. The people from that generation tended to be a little more social than contemporary youth, who seem to be closed in the cocoon of electronics."

When Stand by Me was released, he'd already won an Oscar for 1977's Goodbye Girl, and he'd be nominated for another for 1995's Mr. Holland's Opus. Now in his 60s, Dreyfuss continues to be a prolific actor, appearing on TV shows like NBC's Parenthood and Showtime's Weeds. In Piranha 3-D (for which he shared billing with Jerry O'Connell), he unofficially reprised his memorable role in Jaws.