Gwyneth Paltrow surprised fans of the classic 1980s comedy Sixteen Candles by revealing an unexpected milestone for iconic heartthrob Jake Ryan.
Director John Hughes’s 1984 movie celebrated its 40th anniversary in May 2024 and remains one of the most enduring romantic comedies of the era. In the film, high schooler Samantha Baker (Molly Ringwald) harbors a secret crush on popular classmate Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling) while fending off the affections of geeky friend Farmer Ted (Anthony Michael Hall).
Paltrow, 52, is seemingly a huge fan of Sixteen Candles, as she recently shared via her Instagram Story that Jake Ryan would be celebrating an important birthday in 2025.
“Jake Ryan turns 65 this year … in case you haven’t felt betrayed enough by 2025,” reads text shared by Paltrow alongside a clip from the film.
The Academy Award-winning actress is mostly correct as Michael Schoeffling, the actor who played Jake Ryan, will be celebrating his 65th birthday this December.
However, Schoeffling was actually a few years older than his Sixteen Candles character Jake Ryan, who was around 17 or 18 in the movie. This means that Jake would likely be turning 58 this year.
Schoeffling followed up his breakthrough role in Sixteen Candles by playing a bruising high school wrestler in Vision Quest and later as the romantic lead in Cher’s 1990 comedy Mermaids.
He told reporter Bobbie Wygant in a 1985 interview that it was important to separate himself from Jake Ryan after the immense success of Sixteen Candles.
“I suppose I brought something to the character that people liked,” he said. “Vision Quest was a big stretch from Sixteen Candles. I need to make those stretches as an actor and I think I get the parts because I can bring something to the character that, maybe, somebody else couldn’t.”
Schoeffling walked away from Hollywood following the release of 1991’s Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken to open his own woodworking shop in a small town in Pennsylvania.
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He has two children with model and actress Valerie C. Robinson, including a daughter, Scarlett Schoeffling, who has ventured into the entertainment industry as a model and actress. Scarlett costarred with Twilight’s Ashley Greene and Scream star David Arquette in the 2020 sports drama Blackjack: The Jackie Ryan Story.
Schoeffling’s Sixteen Candles costar Ringwald, 56, for her part, has reflected on the complicated legacy of the romcom four decades after its initial release.
Many have criticized the 1984 blockbuster for its use of offensive stereotypes, including its depiction of Chinese exchange student Long Duk Dong as portrayed by Japanese-American actor Gedde Watanabe.
Ringwald addressed those complaints in an interview with Andy Cohen where she argued Sixteen Candles shouldn’t be “erased” because of its outdated depictions.
“I feel like that’s what makes the movies really wonderful, and it’s also something I wanted to go on record talking about — the elements that I find troubling and that I want to change for the future,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean at all that I want them to be erased. I’m proud of those movies, and I have a lot of affection for them. They’re so much a part of me.”
Ringwald was supportive when it was announced in 2022 that Selena Gomez was developing a Sixteen Candles-inspired streaming series for Peacock. Fifteen Candles reinterprets the ‘80s classic for a new generation with the trials and tribulations of modern-day Latina teenagers starting high school and celebrating their quinceaneras.
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“I am so happy about that [reboot],” Ringwald told Deadline at the time. “I really do feel like when people always ask me about rebooting my movies, I am like, ‘No those movies were wonderful.’”
She went on: “But what they should do is take inspiration from them and do something completely different but inspired, so that just sounds fantastic.”
Sixteen Candles is currently streaming on Netflix.
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