Here’s What The Crocodile Dundee Stars Have Been Up To

Readers, we want you to use your imagination a little. It is 1986 and Whitney Houston is playing on all the radios. When it comes to the big screen, Paul Hogan is dominating the scene in the role of Crocodile Dundee, Australian crocodile hunter. From out of nowhere, Crocodile Dundee shot to box office success before it went on to become the cult classic that it is! The film delivered a rather odd premise, though that did not stop it from snagging an Oscar nomination before the story was expanded into a trilogy! Fans are now wondering what the cast members have been up to. There’s no need to fear as we are here to show you what the stars of Crocodile Dundee have been up to!

The first movie came out in Australia on April 30, 1986. Meanwhile, it hit theaters in America on September 26, 1986. That same year, it ended up becoming the second highest grossing film both in the United States and worldwide! Overall, they were able to sell 46 million tickets across the nation. Apparently, two versions of the film exist : there’s the Australian version and then the international version. In the latter, they decided to cut out some of the Aussie slang, and replace them with more commonly used terms. The first film was followed by two installments: Crocodile Dundee II in 1988 and then Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles in 2001. However, the latter installments failed to come close to the success attained by the original film, though this is the case for most sequels in the industry.

It is interesting to learn how the movie came to be. Paul Hogan, the lead actor and story writer, explained that he received inspiration for the story when he was traveling around New York. He started to wonder what life would be like in the City That Never Sleeps for a bushman hailing from the Northern Territory. Hogan thought to himself, “There’s a lot about Dundee that we all think we’re like; but we’re not, because we live in Sydney. He’s a mythical outback Australian who does exist in part—the frontiersman who walks through the bush, picking up snakes and throwing them aside, living off the land who can ride horses and chop down trees and has that simple, friendly, laid-back philosophy. It’s like the image the Americans have of us, so why not give them one?… We’ve always been desperately short of folk heroes in this country. Ned Kelly is pathetic. So are the bushrangers.”

Let us now go and take a look at what the stars have been doing to keep busy ever since the movie first came out!

John Meillon

John Meillon stole the spotlight when he portrayed Wally, Dundee’s partner. Meillon actually reprised the character in the next film of the trilogy, Crocodile Dundee II. However, it ended up becoming his final acting credit. The actor passed away in 1989 after suffering cirrhosis of the liver. Before this, however, he managed to attain a considerable amount of success as a theater actor.