Between actor John Candy and writer/director John Hughes, the two men toed a line of that succinct '80s comedy that could get a PG then but would be pushing a PG13 if released today. Alongside their Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Uncle Buck is a perfect example of that. As the loud, rude, always smoking, and entirely unorthodox Buck, John Candy is the totally wrong candidate to look after his own nieces and nephew after their parents are out of town.
In a movie so comfortable with being the disruptor, not only is it very funny, but it remains a time capsule for what could have been. When the world lost John Candy in March 1994, a large chunk of comedy died with him. At just 43, Candy and his back catalog in hindsight present just a fraction of what Candy could have created if he was still alive today. Uncle Buck, however, remains a classic in the canon of John Hughes' work, widely down to the fact that John Candy is so perfect in the role.
6 Garrett M. Brown as Bob Russell
As Buck's brother, John Candy is the last option the man wants to look after his children. Carving out steady work, mostly via television, Garret M. Brown has featured in both NCIS and CSI, perhaps most noticeable now as playing Dave's totally passive and totally unaware of what's really going on dad in the Kick-Ass series.
5 Elaine Bromka as Cindy Russell
Most at odds with slacker, Buck as a carer, and in their home is Cindy played by Elaine Bromka. A reliable bit player, Bromka has had parts in The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Law and Order, and E.R., and was a series regular as Dr Riker on Days of Our Lives. Coincidentally, the actress was also featured in an episode of Girls, just like her on-screen daughter in Uncle Buck.
4 Macaulay Culkin as Miles Russell
Made famous by his roles in movies in the 1990s as one of the finest child stars perhaps ever, Macaulay Culkin famously would drop out of the limelight hard, shunning the guaranteed fame that he would be assured after hits in the likes of Home Alone (1990).
His brother Kieran has been soaking up the fame on the screen of late through Succession, and his other brother Rory featured in Scream 4 and more recently Donald Glover's Swarm, but Macaulay just can't stamp out the acting bug. He has had small roles here and there in a handful of episodes of American HorrorStory and The Righteous Gemstones. Culkin also plays in a band called The Pizza Underground, featuring songs and lyrics centered around, uh, all things pizza-related.
In 2015, he would make an unofficial sequel to Home Alone in the first episode of the online YouTube series DRYVRS. Check it out below.
3 Jean Louisa Kelly as Tia Russell
Rather like the rest of the cast here, Jean Louisa Kelly has rarely been out of work since the release of Uncle Buck, which in 1989 was her first official screen role. Of late, she is perhaps most famous for starring in one of the most successful films of the last 23 years, and "savior of cinema," via Top Gun: Maverick where she would play Iceman's doting wife.
2 Gaby Hoffmann as Maizy Russell
Similarly to co-star Culkin, Gaby Hoffmann became something of a go-to child star throughout the '80s and '90s. With turns in Field of Dreams, Sleepless in Seattle, and Volcano (all playing the main star's daughter), the actress made a name for herself as the inquisitive voice to bounce of off their parents going through a hell of a time.
From there, she has taken on theater and otherwise acted in film and television pretty frequently since. Perhaps most notably with a supporting role in HBO's Girls and then a starring role in the tremendously progressive Transparent. Focused on middle-aged Jeffrey Tambor's gender transition from male to female. the show was an awards darling with Hoffmann being nominated twice for Emmys for her performance as Ali on the show.
1 John Candy as Buck Russell
One of the finest talents of the 1980s, John Candy was the XXL face of Canadian comedy actors. Having already proven to the world he was a comic talent in Stripes (1981), Spaceballs and Planes, Trains... (both 1987), Uncle Buck arrived midway through Candy's long run of hits.
Candy would work again with director John Hughes on their Home Alone in 1990, and would manage the first Jamaican bobsled team in Cool Runnings in 1993. Perhaps most famous for his tremendous size and weight, Candy died a year later in 1994 from a heart attack. Performers have come and gone since, but few have managed to replicate the brash comedy stylings mixed with genuinely candid moments that Candy managed with ease.
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