A Goonies Star's Stunt Double Had To Shadow Him Off-Set To Prevent Drunken Bar Brawls

"Hey you guys!" is a rallying call familiar to all children of the '80s, triumphantly yelled by Sloth (John Matuszak) in "The Goonies" as he swings into action with his new best pal Chunk (Jeff Cohen). The deformed and unwanted middle child of the bumbling Fratelli clan was always my favorite part of the movie when I was a kid, injecting rambunctious humor and energy whenever he's onscreen. True to the brawling spirit of the character himself, the actor who played him needed shadowing off-set to prevent him from getting into bar fights.

The movie came about after Steven Spielberg asked himself a simple question while making "The Color Purple:" What kind of adventures do kids get involved in on rainy days? The result was "The Goonies," a boisterous Indiana Jones-style quest following a group on youngsters on the trail of long-lost pirate treasure stashed near their soon-to-be-demolished homes in Astoria, Oregon. Unfortunately, the gold's booby-trapped location is beneath the hideout of the comically villainous Fratellis, who are hot on their heels once they get wind of the loot.

After enlisting "Superman" director Richard Donner, the filmmakers assembled a cracking 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 comes along and shows him some kindness. To play this sweet-natured brute, Donner turned to former NFL star John Matuszak, a real-life anarchic giant.

Standing 6 feet 8 inches tall and weighing around 300 pounds, John Matuszak was a maverick Defensive End who regularly partied harder than he played after he was chosen as first draft pick by the Houston Oilers in 1973. To offset the litany of injuries he suffered throughout his football career, he chugged painkillers along with gallons of booze and taking other drugs. He also amassed quite a rap sheet with the police and went through three NFL teams before finding his natural home at the Oakland Raiders, the rowdy Californian 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 where he memorably chewed out Charles Durning with an expletive-laden speech that appeared to come directly from the heart. He made numerous other appearances in movies and TV shows in the '80s, but the role he will always be remembered for is Sloth in "The Goonies."

A little like in his playing career, Matuszak suffered for the part. Sloth's prosthetic head, with its radio-controlled eye and movable ears, required him to sit in the makeup department for around five hours each time while the mask was applied. Nevertheless, he didn't complain and he 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 hulking Tooz wasn't quite so gentle in his downtime off set.

Despite his brawling football career, John Matuszak still needed a stunt double for the action scenes in "The Goonies." That role fell to Randell Widner, who soon found that the job also involved becoming the "John wrangler" when the pair flew up to Astoria together. The stuntman, who kept the former footballer in line with his martial arts skills, accompanied Matuszak to bars in an attempt to avert 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 rowdiness with the locals was malicious. He recalled:

"[Matuszak] was a big kid with very few limitations about how he conducted himself, but he was a little too big to play rough with people [...] He was taking painkillers, and when you put a gallon of wine on top of that, you have trouble controlling yourself at times. He was like a lost child in a lot of ways."

Whatever potential Matuszak had for troublemaking mayhem off-set, he evidently took playing Sloth seriously, regarding it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with the likes of Richard Donner and Steven Spielberg. Sloth only has a handful of scenes in "The Goonies" but, despite the heavy layers of prosthetics, Matuszak's rollicking nature shone through and made the character beloved for so many movie fans. Sadly, Matuszak passed away in 1989 aged just 38 years old, so a long-mooted sequel to one of the best adventures ever will miss his presence if it ever gets off the ground.