What The Cast Of Pulp Fiction Looks Like Today

In 1994, Quentin Tarantino was one of the most exciting young directors in Hollywood thanks to the success of his directorial debut, Reservoir Dogs. Everyone was waiting to see what Tarantino would do next, and what he delivered was a new classic. 

Pulp Fiction combined Tarantino's knack for endlessly quotable dialogue and unpredictable action with a nonlinear, interconnected set of stories, a killer soundtrack, and a fantastic ensemble cast to deliver a film immediately hailed as a game-changer. Pulp Fiction went on to win the Palme d'Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, and won Tarantino and Roger Avery an Oscar for their writing. A quarter century later, Pulp Fiction remains a modern classic, an essential film of the 1990s, and one of the most rewatchable movies you're every likely to come across. 

In celebration of its 25th anniversary, here's what ten of the film's biggest stars, from Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta to Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer, are up to now.

John Travolta first became a star on television as Vinnie Barbarino on the hit sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, but movie stardom wasn't far behind. The show led to roles in films like Carrie and to his breakout hits Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Travolta closed out the 1970s as one of the biggest stars in the world, then continued his success in the 1980s with films like Urban Cowboy, Blow Out, and Look Who's Talking.

Travolta's career slowed a bit in the late '80s and early '90s, but then Quentin Tarantino — a longtime Travolta fan who considers Blow Out one of his favorite films of all time — came calling, and offered Travolta the role of Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction. The role earned Travolta his second Oscar nomination and reignited his career, spawning films like Face/Off, Broken Arrow, Michael, and Primary Colors. 

Today, Travolta continues to work regularly, and in 2016 he achieved acclaim yet again for his work as Robert Shapiro in American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson. His 2019 projects include the films The Fanatic, The Poison Rose, and Trading Paint.

Samuel L. Jackson's prolific screen acting career began with small roles in the 1970s and continued to progress throughout the '80s. By the early '90s, he caught the eye of some of the biggest directors and rising star filmmakers in cinema, leading to roles in Goodfellas (directed by Martin Scorsese), Jungle Fever (directed by Spike Lee), and True Romance (directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino). Then came Pulp Fiction, and the role of Jules Winnfield, which earned Jackson Oscar and Golden Globe nominations and won him the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor. 

Pulp Fiction helped Jackson rise to a new level of stardom, and he's never looked back. The rest of the 1990s brought him roles in Die Hard with a Vengeance, Jackie Brown, Sphere, The Negotiator, and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. The 2000s brought more hits, including the rest of the Star Wars prequel trilogy and his introduction as Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as continued work with Tarantino in films like Kill Bill Vol. 2 and Django Unchained. Today, Jackson has nearly 200 film and television credits to his name, and is the highest-grossing actor of all time thanks to the cumulative box office totals of his many films.

Bruce Willis rose to superstardom in the late 1980s thanks to the dual success of his TV series Moonlighting and the action movie classic Die Hard. As Butch Coolidge, the boxer who's supposed to throw the fight, Willis became a key part of Pulp Fiction's success, carrying the "Gold Watch" segment of the film as his character was put through hell by a series of orchestrated events and chance encounters. 

Willis has remained a high-profile movie star ever since. He's continued the Die Hard franchise with four sequels (and counting) and starred in numerous other classics over the last three decades, including The Fifth Element, The Jackal, Unbreakable, The Sixth Sense, The Whole Nine Yards, Twelve Monkeys, Bandits, Sin City, Moonrise Kingdom, Looper, and many more. He continues to work steadily at a rate of at least two films each year, and his most recent credits include Death Wish, Glass, and Edward Norton's upcoming new film, Motherless Brooklyn.

Uma Thurman's screen acting career launched in the late 1980s, and she quickly proved her versatility with roles in everything from Johnny Be Good to Dangerous Liasons to The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Then came Pulp Fiction, and like every other major star in the film, Thurman was catapulted to a new level of attention by its success. She was nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA Award for her performance in the film, and she and John Travolta shared the MTV Movie Award for "Best Dance Sequence" for the film's famous twist contest scene. 

The success of the film helped generate many other opportunities for Thurman, including roles in Beautiful Girls, The Truth About Cats and Dogs, Les Miserables, Batman & Robin, and many more.

In the years following Pulp Fiction, the relationship between Thurman and Tarantino was mythologized as people dubbed her his muse, and another collaboration was frequently teased. It finally arrived in 2003 with Kill Bill, an epic two-part revenge saga in which Thurman played a wronged woman seeking justice with a katana. She has since continued to work regularly, and most recently was seen in the Netflix original series Chambers.

Ving Rhames' career as a prolific character actor began in the 1980s with projects like the TV series Men and the film Casualties of War. As Marsellus Wallace, the mob boss who tasks Vincent Vega with taking his wife out for a night on the town, Rhames got to play both the mysterious man in power and the violent, revenge-seeking gangster thanks to the varying tones of the film's stories. 

As with other stars of Pulp Fiction, Rhames was noticed even more after the film's release, and among his next major projects was a role in Mission: Impossible, as Ethan Hunt's colleague and friend Luther, a role he continues to reprise. He remains a prolific film and television star with dozens of credits, including ER, Kojak, Bringing Out the Dead, Con Air, Out of Sight, Dawn of the Dead, Monday Mornings, Lilo & Stitch, and many more. He was most recently seen in the 2018 installment of the Mission: Impossible series, Fallout, and the 2018 TV movie Cagney and Lacey. 

Christopher Walken was already one of the most celebrated and respected actors on the planet by the time Pulp Fiction came along. With a career stretching back into the 1950s, his earlier credits included everything from Annie Hall to Heaven's Gate to The Deer Hunter, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His career in the 1980s continued to bring him big roles in films including A View to a Kill (his take on a Bond villain), At Close Range, and The Dead Zone. 

In 1993, Walken's first Tarantino collaboration arrived with True Romance (directed by Tony Scott and written by Tarantino), in which he played Sicilian mobster Vincenzo Coccotti. Then came Pulp Fiction, in which Walken was called upon to act in just a single scene. It's one of the film's most memorable, though, as Walken delivers an unbroken, lengthy monologue about a gold watch hidden up the rectums of soldiers during the Vietnam War. The scene became both a signature Walken moment and a classic example of Tarantino's writing. 

In the years since, Walken has remained one of the world's most celebrated actors, and the internet has helped to mythologize his quirky characterizations and distinctive voice. He continues to work in both big and small films, and his notable post-Pulp roles include The Prophecy, Suicide Kings, Sleepy Hollow, Catch Me if You Can, Wedding Crashers, Hairspray, Balls of Fury, The Jungle Book, and more.

Tim Roth rose to prominence in the 1980s as one of a group of talented, promising young actors from the UK who were dubbed the "Brit Pack," appearing in films like Vincent & Theo, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. He earned even greater international attention and acclaim in 1992 when he starred as Mr. Orange in Tarantino's directorial debut, Reservoir Dogs. He then joined Tarantino for his follow-up as "Pumpkin," part of a couple robbing a cafe in the opening and closing scenes of Pulp Fiction. 

Since then, Roth has continued to work with Tarantino, appearing in the anthology film Four Rooms as Ted the Bellhop and playing a key role in The Hateful Eight. He also remains an in-demand actor for both films and television, with credits including the TV series Lie To Me, the Marvel blockbuster The Incredible Hulk, the period drama Selma, and the 2017 revival of Twin Peaks. He will next appear in writer Paul Scrhaeder's upcoming revenge drama The Jesuit.

Amanda Plummer first rose to major acclaim and stardom on the stage, winning a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 1982 for her performance in Agnes of God. She quickly made the leap to film and television, and landed roles in films and series including The World According to Garp, Moonlighting, L.A. Law, and The Fisher King. 

In Pulp Fiction, she gives the first impression of the violent, unpredictable nature of the film as Yolanda, the other half of the couple robbing the restaurant, and gets the last line before the film's opening credits begin. 

Since Pulp Fiction, Plummer has continued to work regularly in both film and television, including work in Battlestar Galactica, Phineas & Ferb, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Hannibal, and The Blacklist. She will soon be seen alongside Sarah Paulson in the Netflix Original Series Ratched, a new take on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Harvey Keitel is one of the most celebrated actors of his generation, first rising to prominence in the 1970s alongside his frequent collaborator, director Martin Scorsese, in the early Scorsese films Who's That Knocking at My Door?, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, and Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. He remained an acting powerhouse throughout the '80s, and in the '90s was instrumental in getting major financing for Tarantino's feature directorial debut, Reservoir Dogs, after he was passed the script through friends. Keitel starred in Reservoir Dogs as Mr. White, then went on to co-star in Pulp Fiction as Winston Wolfe, the legendary fixer tasked with helping Vincent and Jules clean up their car after Vincent shoots Marvin in the face.

Since then, Keitel has continued to work regularly, and has become a frequent collaborator of director Wes Anderson, co-starring in his films Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Isle of Dogs. He's also reunited with Scorsese, and will soon be seen in the director's Netflix film The Irishman.

Eric Stoltz rose to fame in the 1980s as the star of films like Mask and Some Kind of Wonderful, and was famously cast as Marty McFly in Back to the Future before he was replaced by Michael J. Fox. By the time Pulp Fiction came around he'd become part of the booming indie film scene of the early 1990s thanks to films like Killing Zoe, and caught the eye of Tarantino. As Lance, Vincent Vega's drug dealer, he became a key part of the film's most famous scene, in which Mia Wallace is stabbed through the heart with a syringe full of adrenaline. 

Since then, Stoltz has continued to act regularly, with credits including Little Women, Jerry Maguire, Anaconda, Mad About You, Chicago Hope, Grey's Anatomy, and more. He's also become a prominent director in the TV world, helming episodes of Private Practice, Glee, Nashville and more. Most recently he played a key creative role in the TV series Madam Secretary, serving as executive producer, frequent director, and recurring guest star.