See The Cast Of 'Cheaper By The Dozen' 20 Years Later
Cheaper By The Dozen, which starred Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt as the long-suffering parents of 12 rambunctious children, charmed audiences worldwide in 2003. It was actually a remake of a 1950 picture, which was itself based on the real-life Gilbreth family: two of its number had penned a novel about their unusual, yet magical, living situation. The movie cast was packed with current and future stars, as well as a host of youngsters playing the kids. And 20 years later, some faces are still very familiar to us, while others have vanished from the spotlight.
Steve Martin
In the ‘90s and ‘00s, legendary comedian Steve Martin made a string of family comedies which would stand the test of time, first with the Father of the Bride series and then with Cheaper By The Dozen.
The icon had been a fixture in showbusiness from as far back as the ‘70s, when his outlandish stand-up shows had made him a comedy rock star. In fact, his routines were so famous that Elvis Presley reportedly ventured backstage after one show to tell him, “Son, you have an oblique sense of humor.”
Still culturally relevant
In 2023 Martin is just as culturally relevant as he’s ever been. His Hulu show Only Murders in the Building — alongside long-time partner-in-crime Martin Short — will soon enter its third season as an Emmy award-winning comedy powerhouse, and he has a new book, tour, and documentary in the works.
As for the future, he told Variety magazine, “When this television show is done, I’m not going to seek others. I’m not going to seek other movies. I don’t want to do cameos. This is, weirdly, it.”
Bonnie Hunt
By the time Bonnie Hunt starred as Kate Baker in Cheaper By The Dozen, she already had a stacked list of movie credits to her name. In the ‘90s, she had a string of hits including Beethoven and Beethoven’s 2nd, Now and Then, Jumanji, Jerry Maguire, and The Green Mile.
She also displayed her comic chops in two star-vehicle sitcoms — 1995’s Bonnie and 2002’s Life with Bonnie — and she had also ventured into voice work with A Bug’s Life.
Her own talkshow
Hunt’s subsequent big-screen credits have predominantly been in voice work: she played Sally Carrera in the Cars franchise and Dolly in the Toy Story series, and also featured in Zootopia and Monsters University. On top of that, she had her own daytime talk show from 2008-10, starred in Escape at Dannemora, and created family sitcom Amber Brown.
In 2022 her mom passed away and she revealed they had spent the pandemic as roommates. In hindsight, she admitted she was grateful that they had been able to spend that important time together.