Where cast of Bugsy Malone are now – from EastEnders stars to tragic suicide and jail stint over ‘real-life Mafia plot’
IT may be nearly 50 years old but Bugsy Malone is still one of Britain’s best-loved movie musicals.
When Bafta-winning British director Sir Alan Parker initially pitched his idea of Chicago mobsters played by children, firing splurge guns filled with cream, studio bosses weren’t convinced.
But Sir Alan, who was better known as a director of TV commercials, used his earnings from adverts for Birds Eye beefburgers to finance pitches for his project.
The film was finally released in 1976 and a box-office hit, giving rise to West End stage versions. It also launched the Hollywood careers of the likes of Jodie Foster, who played sultry moll Tallulah and Dexter Fletcher, who starred as robber Baby Face.
This week, Jodie was pictured by in a rare outing with her son Kit, 21, after keeping him out of the limelight.
But where are the rest of the cast now? From an EastEnders gig to jail sentence and tragic suicide aged just 32, we reveal what the former child stars got up to.
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Scott Baio (Bugsy Malone)
Sir Alan had already cast the title role of Bugsy when Brooklyn-born actor Scott Baio auditioned, but the former child star bagged the job thanks to his "attitude”.
Scott later said: “I was 13 and sick of show business, sick of all these auditions. So when I went and auditioned for Alan, I threw the script at him and walked out. They’d already cast Bugsy, they said, but they liked my attitude.”
Chris, now 62, also claimed to have kissed Jodie Foster. Scott said: “We made out at the Holiday Inn in Slough.”
After Bugsy, he went on to play heartthrob Chachi in the hit sitcom Happy Days. The long-time bachelor also tried reality TV and starred in VH1's Scott Baio Is 45…and Single before marrying his wife Renee Sloan, who he met at the Playboy Mansion.
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In 2018, Baywatch actress and his former Charles in Charge co-star Nicole Eggert alleged she was sexually assaulted by Scott when she was a teenager and worked with him on the 1980s sitcom.
He denied the claims, saying he the pair had consensual sex when she was 18 and older.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined to press charges, stating: “The applicable statute of limitations to the crimes alleged by the victim have expired. Thus, the case is declined.”
Florence 'Florrie' Dugger (Blousey Brown)
Florrie got the part of the leading lady when the casting team visited RAF Chicksands, the air force base in Bedfordshire, where her American father was stationed.
The original Blousey had a sudden growth spurt and dwarfed co-star Scott so Florrie was drafted in as her replacement.
Now known by her married name Florence Garland, she shunned acting in favour of a ‘normal’ career.
Speaking in 2015, she explained: “I enjoyed the acting, and the camaraderie and the joy of memorising roles. But I didn't want to do it professionally.”
Aged 18, she enlisted in the military herself and became a medical administrator, serving in air force bases in the UK, South Korea and America.
Florence, 61, who now lives in Florida, left the military in 2001 and works for an ophthalmology practice.
She has said: “I’m very happy I didn’t go into acting. I love what I do and what I’ve done with my life.”
John Cassisi (Fat Sam)
Director Alan Parker discovered John Cassisi after going into a school in Brooklyn, New York, and asking for the naughtiest kid.
Alan later recalled: “In a Catholic school in Brooklyn, I asked: “Who’s the most badly behaved kid in the class?” Thirty kids pointed to one chubby little boy at the back. ‘Cassisi!’ they screamed. John Cassisi put his hands up and smiled.
"Although he had never acted before, he yelled out lines from the script with gusto. I knew right away we had our Fat Sam.”
After Bugsy, he went on to appear in the 1977 sitcom Fish but quit acting and moved into construction.
From 2012 until 2014, he was the Director of Global Construction for Citigroup, which involved overseeing the bank’s construction projects and the awarding of lucrative contracts.
But in 2015, the former child star, who played gangland boss Fat Sam in Bugsy, was accused of netting a half-million dollars in a kickback scheme authorities claimed was worthy of the real Mafia.
Cassisi, now 60, pleaded guilty to accepting bribes and money laundering, and was sentenced to up to six years in prison. At the time, a spokesman for Citigroup Inc. told The New York Times that the corporation was appalled by his actions.
Martin Lev (Dandy Dan)
Born in Liverpool, Martin Lev was 16 when he started acting and he’d already been in one film before getting the part of Fat Sam’s rival gang boss, Dandy Dan, in Bugsy.
But he decided not to pursue acting and started working as a designer. Martin had ME, also called chronic fatigue syndrome, a long-term condition with a wide range of symptoms.
He founded the patient group, Action for M.E., to help support other sufferers but tragically, he took his own life as a result of his illness in 1992. He was aged just 32.
Andrew Paul (O'Dreary the policeman)
East London-born actor Andrew Paul made his debut aged 14 in Bugsy Malone playing police officer O’Dreary. He later appeared in the 1979 film Scum, alongside Phil Daniels and Ray Winstone.
He played a copper again when he landed the role of the much-loved character PC Dave Quinnan in the long-running ITV drama, The Bill.
Andrew also had a brief stint as Maxwell Moon in EastEnders before going on to star in ITV's Where The Heart Is.
Most recently, the 62-year-old star stunned fans as he looked unrecognisable in a cameo in Netflix’s The Witcher.
Bonnie Langford (Lena Merelli)
British actress Bonnie Langford was just six when she won the talent contest Opportunity Knocks in 1970. She made her West End debut at the age of seven as Scarlett O'Hara's daughter in the musical adaptation of Gone With The Wind in 1972.
But Bugsy Malone was her first film and she played the squeaky singer Lena Marelli.
She went on to star as Violet Elizabeth Bott in Just William and as a companion to two Time Lords in Doctor Who.
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The West End star has had parts in Cats, Chicago and 42nd Street among other musicals and also competed in the 2014 series of ITV's Dancing On Ice but she is probably best known for her role as loveable Carmel Kazemi in EastEnders, which saw her at the centre of a controversial stabbing storyline.
Bonnie, now 58, has said: “I did this knife crime story, which was fabulous to do but people were saying, 'Gosh, I didn't know you could do that.”