“Hey guys!” is a rallying cry familiar to every ’80s kid, shouted triumphantly by Sloth (John Matuszak) in “The Goonies” as he springs into action with his new best friend Chunk (Jeff Cohen). The warped, unwanted middle child of the bumbling Fratelli clan was always my favorite part of the movie as a kid, injecting boisterous humor and energy every time he’s on screen. True to the brawling spirit of the character himself, the actor who played him needed a shadow shift to keep him from getting into bar fights.
The film came about after Steven Spielberg asked himself a simple question while filming “The Color Purple”: What kind of adventures do kids go on on rainy days? The result was “The Goonies,” a raucous Indiana Jones-style quest that follows a group of young people on the trail of long-lost pirate treasure hidden near their soon-to-be-demolished homes in Astoria, Oregon. Unfortunately, the gold’s trapped location is beneath the hideout of the comically evil Fratellis, who are hot on their heels once they catch wind of the loot.
After tapping “Superman” director Richard Donner, the filmmakers assembled an exceptional cast of young actors to play the Goonies: Sean Astin, Corey Feldman, Josh Brolin, Martha Plimpton, Ke Huy Quan, Jeff Cohen and Kerri Green. In the opposite corner you had the wonderful Anne Ramsay as Mama Fratelli and Robert Davi and Joe Pantoliano as her bickering sons. In the middle was the movie’s wild card, Sloth, unloved and chained in a basement until Chunk came along and showed him some kindness. To play this gentle-natured brute, Donner turned to former NFL star John Matuszak, a true anarchic giant.
John Matuszak was an unlikely movie star
Standing 6 feet 8 inches tall and weighing about 300 pounds, John Matuszak was a maverick defensive end who regularly partied harder than he played after being selected as the No. 1 overall draft pick by the Houston Oilers in 1973. To compensate for the litany of injuries he suffered throughout his football career, he drank painkillers along with gallons of alcohol and other medications. He also racked up a police record and cycled through three NFL teams before finding his natural home with the Oakland Raiders, the rowdy California underdogs who won two Super Bowls under John Madden and Tom Flores.
While still playing for the Raiders, “The Tooz” made his screen debut in “North Dallas Forty,” a football comedy in which he memorably chewed out Charles Durning with an expletive-laden speech that seemed to come straight from the heart. He made many other appearances in films and TV shows in the ’80s, but the role he will always be remembered for is as Sloth in “The Goonies.”
Much like in his playing career, Matuszak suffered for this role. Sloth’s prosthetic head, with its radio-controlled eye and movable ears, required him to sit in the makeup department for about five hours at a time while the mask was applied. Nonetheless, he didn’t complain and was a hit with his young co-stars. Jeff Cohen, who spent the most time with him on the film, described Matuszak as “a gentle giant around us kids.” But the imposing Tooz wasn’t so gentle during his off-set downtime.
John Matuszak’s double was on wrestling duty
Despite his eventful football career, John Matuszak still needed a body double for the action scenes in “The Goonies.” That role fell to Randell Widner, who soon discovered the job also involved becoming the “John Wrangler” when the two flew to Astoria together. The stuntman, who kept the former football player in tune with his martial arts skills, accompanied Matuszak to bars in an attempt to avoid any trouble (via Willamette Week): “‘I’d drink Coca-Cola and make sure he didn’t beat up the whole place.’ Although Matuszak had a reputation as a brawling bad boy, Widner didn’t seem to think his drunken commotions with the locals were malicious. He recalled:
“[Matuszak] He was a big kid with very few boundaries in how he behaved, but he was a little too big to play rough with people. […] He was on painkillers, and when you put a gallon of wine on it, you sometimes have a hard time controlling yourself. He was like a lost child in many ways. »
Whatever Matuszak’s potential to stir up trouble, he obviously took the role of Sloth seriously, viewing it as a unique opportunity to work with Richard Donner and Steven Spielberg. Sloth only has a handful of scenes in “The Goonies” but, despite the heavy layers of prosthetics, Matuszak’s exuberant nature shined through and endeared the character to so many moviegoers. Sadly, Matuszak died in 1989 at the age of just 38, so a long-rumored sequel to one of the best adventures of all time will miss his presence if it ever gets off the ground.
