Can you believe the guy that played Stiles is now in his 50s? Stuart Fratkin played the wisecracking, fast-talking friend of Todd Howard in Teen Wolf Too, a movie that probably won’t go down in history as one of the greatest cult classics since it followed on the heels of the movie that made it possible, the original Teen Wolf. Looking at the Teen Wolf series of today one has to wonder just how things got so dark in such a hurry when the original movie was so light-hearted and fun. Stiles was your typical huckster though, doing whatever he could to make a dollar and not always in a way that was completely on the up and up. But he was a good pal to Todd in the movie and eventually found himself getting dumped on by the same friend once Todd came to realize that his fame and popularity had gone way past what Stiles was capable of giving him. This was the same lesson that Scott Howard had to learn in the first movie however and like the first movie it happened that the main character came to find out that people enjoyed his company for the wolf and not much else since he was kind of a one-note character that didn’t offer much else, whereas his human persona had a lot more going for him.
Stuart went on to keep acting and is at this point still in the business as his bio reads. He’s even been featured as a guest star on several TV shows throughout the years. But while he’s stayed in the business unlike a few other stars he’s worked with in the past, Stuart has seen his popularity decline over the years as he’s been a guest star and a supporting actor for the most part. That hasn’t hurt his net worth thankfully since he’s been doing well enough to earn a healthy amount of money that’s kept him in the kind of lifestyle that a lot of people can only dream about. Likely as not though he’s had something else to keep him going since his acting credits don’t extend that far, which means he’s either been doing something to keep himself busy or has been making wise investments along the way. Whatever it’s taken to get him to this point he’s done well and he’s been sticking around as much as he can. Taking the time to stop and look at the careers of older actors from decades ago isn’t always something that people tend to do since they want to be involved with whats now and what’s happening at the moment. Some people might even question the wisdom of even bothering to remember folks like Stuart in the first place, but the one thing that can be said is that they were in the right place when they were needed, as supporting actors are just as important as lead actors, sometimes even more so. Sometimes supporting actors make the lead actors look that much better.
In Teen Wolf Too it might not have worked quite as well since the whole thing was great when it first came out and a lot of us were young enough to be excited about such a movie. But watching it now we might actually cringe and say ‘yeesh’. It was a low-budget movie to be honest and something that was kind of slapped together using the same formula as the last movie save for the fact that it was in a college setting instead of high school and focused on boxing instead of basketball. Just a thought, it might have been better if the second movie had been able to focus on football or another contact sport since it might have made a little more sense. But the powers that be chose boxing so that was that. The character of Stiles was kind of sleazy in a way but also a decent friend that was there for Todd when he needed him and was also the kind of guy that cared more than he let on sometimes. A lot of times an actor’s style will show through and will eventually be seen in just about every role they play, but Stuart managed to switch things up enough throughout the years and as a result a lot of his roles are different enough that they don’t sound like another version of Stiles. That’s definitely a trick that some actors get and others don’t, since some happen to act the same way with every role. A good example would be Jason Statham, who acts like the tough guy with a shady or storied past in almost every other movie. Stuart is one of those that moved beyond this and managed to put something different in each role, and it’s obviously served him pretty well to date.
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