Dirty Dancing at Twenty: A Retrospective

It's been twenty years since audiences watched in awe as Johnny Caste (Patrick Swayze) hoisted Baby Houseman (Jennifer Grey) above his head at the stuffy Catskills summer resort, nailing the elusive "lift" as a troupe of steamy dancers shook it to "I've Had the Time of My Life." In the summer of 1987, the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, which included "Hungry Eyes" by Eric Carmen, "She's Like the Wind" by Swayze, and the time-of-my-life anthem by Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley, became an 80s music staple; the phrase "no one puts Baby in a corner" entered into the pop-culture lexicon; and teenagers learned to dance like no one was watching.

The film -- which has been called Star Wars for girls -- has earned more than $170 million in ticket and DVD sales combined. Its 1960s retrospective soundtrack shot past Bruce Springsteen's Tunnel of Love and Michael Jackson's Bad for the number one seat on the Billboard Music charts. The Warnes and Medley duet won an Oscar for best original song. The tale of forbidden love undoubtedly inspired countless numbers of teens to at least want to take dance lessons.

This spring, Lions Gate films is releasing an anniversary edition of the DVD, complete with interviews, out-takes, and music videos. Fans can yet again relive Baby shedding off her intellectual, Mount Holyoke-bound reserve for skimpier-by-the-scene outfits and hotter-by-the-second dance sessions with Johnny, all to the backdrop of 1960s family and sexual politics. With all of the fanfare, which includes theater screenings in select cities, we wonder, where are our heroes now?

Since Dirty Dancing, Grey, daughter of actor Joel Grey, has undergone rhinoplasty and starred in some less-than-notable films like Wind (1992) and Bounce (2000). She has made appearances on Friends as Rachel's ex-best friend Mindy and Tales from the Crypt. Grey gave birth to a daughter, Stella, in 2001 with actor Clark Gregg. Her other memorable film roles occurred pre-Dirty Dancing as Ferris Bueller's conniving sister in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and, again, opposite Swayze in the 1984 fictional World War III drama, Red Dawn.

Swayze, on the other hand, has had continued success in films and television since he wooed Baby onto the dance floor. He played opposite Demi Moore in Ghost (1991); a bad-boy surfer in Point Break (1991); televangelist Jim Cunningham in Donnie Darko (2001); and, perhaps most hilariously, Chris Farley's competition for a dancing job at Chippendale's on Saturday Night Live. He also starred as a dance instructor on the 2004 Dirty Dancing sequel, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights and as a leading role in this year's drama JUMP! "She's Like the Wind" is the most that came out if Swayze's musical exploits, though the song is sampled on the recent Lumidee hit by the same name.

Some of the more minor characters have garnered the most post-Dirty Dancing fame. Baby's mother, Marjorie Houseman, was played by Kelly Bishop, who is now the biting yet side-splitting, loquacious mom of Lorelai Gilmore on the CW's hit show Gilmore Girls. An even more minor character, the Kellerman's house comedian Stan -- who got laughs from no one but himself -- was played by Wayne Knight. In addition to roles in Jurassic Park, Toy Story, and Cheaper By the Dozen, Knight became none other than Seinfeld's notoriously devilish mailman Newman. Neal Jones, Johnny's watermelon-carrying cousin, has appeared on The Sopranos, Sex in the City, Law and Order, and, most recently, Crossing Jordan.

The cast of Dirty Dancing has also lost several of its members over the past two decades. Stage and screen veteran Jerry Orbach, who was most recently known as Detective Lennie Briscoe on Law and Order, died of prostate cancer in 2004. He was Baby's father, Dr. Jake Houseman, who saved Penny after her barbaric appointment with the abortion doctor, told Baby to take all of her make-up off before her mother saw her, and, most memorably, put Baby in the corner of that banquet hall before Johnny came to her rescue. Max Cantor, the brown-nosing Robbie Gould who dated Baby's sister and then cheated on her, died of a heroin overdose in 1991 while doing research on heroin addicts for The Village Voice. Jack Weston, who was Max Kellerman, the owner of the fateful Catskills resort, succumbed to lymphoma in 1996. Both of the Schumachers, the wallet-stealing elderly couple played by Alan Myerovich and Paula Trueman, passed away in the mid-90s, as did Charles "Honi" Coles, who was the hip band leader Tito Suarez.

The Dirty Dancing 20th Anniversary will be released May 8 on DVD and Blue Ray, available wherever movies are sold.