What The Cast Of 50 First Dates Looks Like Now

After having such great chemistry with Drew Barrymore in "The Wedding Singer," Adam Sandler reteamed with a female co-lead for the first time ever when the two reunited for "50 First Dates." Beyond the many things that the movie completely gets wrong about retrograde amnesia (per Psychology Today), using that as the hook that forces Sandler's character, Henry, to rethink his lothario ways and have to make Lucy (Barrymore) fall for him over and over again every day is a pretty sweet premise for a romantic comedy. 

Like most Sandler movies, the cast of "50 First Dates" is a combination of his recurring co-stars and new additions to the Sandlerverse. Some of those additions are character actors that you definitely recognize even if you might not be able to name them, while others are famous names — and, in true Sandler movie fashion, a few of them are being much sillier in the movie than they'd been before or have been since. 

"50 First Dates" is close to joining the club of Adam Sandler films that are 20 (!) years old, which means that the cast has changed quite a bit since making the movie in beautiful Hawaii back in 2003. Here's how all of the main cast of "50 First Dates" look today, compared to their appearance in the movie itself. 

As previously mentioned, Drew Barrymore plays the part of Lucy in "50 First Dates," a woman suffering from retrograde amnesia after being in a serious car accident. She is unable to make any new memories since her accident, and she forgets everything that happened each day once she goes to sleep. Her father and brother decide to protect her from this painful realization by recreating the day of her accident over and over again, which they eventually come to realize is a façade that they can't keep up forever.

Barrymore comes from a family of performers and has been acting herself since she was a child. That has continued since "50 First Dates," with Barrymore adding many additional movie credits to her resume as well as making the jump to the small screen with HBO's "Grey Gardens" (which won her a Golden Globe), Netflix's "Santa Clarita Diet," and her own self-titled syndicated talk show. Her only major film role since 2015 has been in the 2020 movie "The Stand In," suggesting that perhaps Barrymore no longer feels as strong of a pull toward the big screen as she used to. 

Sue, the manager of the café where Henry first meets Lucy and starts to woo her, is instantly skeptical of Henry's flirtations. As one of the people who plays a part in deceiving Lucy about her condition, she knows that a relationship is going to be difficult for Lucy and can only assume that Henry's intentions aren't noble and aren't designed to last beyond a one-night stand. Sue was a friend of Lucy's late mother and made a pledge to look after Lucy, and this extends to making sure Lucy doesn't get her heart broken.

Sue is played by actor Amy Hill, whose resume is likely much more familiar to people than her name. Hill has been acting in movies and on television since the '80s, though her first breakout role was on the short-lived but acclaimed and influential Margaret Cho sitcom "All-American Girl." Since "50 First Dates," Hill has remained just as busy as she was before, including main or recurring roles on "American Dad!," "My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," "Just Add Magic," "Cleopatra in Space," and the rebooted version of "Magnum P.I." On the big screen, she is technically a part of the MCU as she had a minor role in "Spider-Man: Homecoming."

Lucy's dad, Martin, just wants to spare his daughter as much pain and anguish as he can. That includes the major amount of work and patience that it takes to essentially relive the same day over and over again just to protect her — even though that means eating the same cake every day, watching "The Sixth Sense" (and having to pretend to be shocked by the ending) every day, and painting his shed white so Lucy can put a mural on it every day.

Blake Clark, who plays Lucy's well-intentioned father, has become a Sandlerverse regular — appearing in 10 Sandler movies from "The Waterboy" through "Hubie Halloween." Though his film debut was in 1985's "St. Elmo's Fire," Clark first became a household name via his recurring roles in "Boy Meets World" and "Home Improvement." In addition to continuing to work with Sandler since "50 First Dates," Clark has also starred in a number of other movies and TV shows. Those include taking over the role of Slinky Dog in the "Toy Story" franchise following the death of Jim Varney, as well as recurring roles in the series "SMILF" and "United States of Al."

Henry already knows that Lucy's prognosis is bleak in terms of ever being able to make new memories, but he insists on hearing the news himself from the same doctor that originally diagnosed Lucy's amnesia. In visiting the Callahan Institute, Henry meets a man known as Ten-Second Tom, so nicknamed because his short-term memory resets every 10 seconds or so. The idea is to show Henry that the severity of Lucy's amnesia could be much worse, and at least he is able to have an entire day with her at a time before she forgets him again.

Ten-Second Tom is played by longtime Sandler collaborator and pal Allen Covert, who has known Sandler since college and has appeared in almost all of his movies in roles of varying sizes. After starring in his own film, "Grandma's Boy," Covert has seemingly been happy to play only relatively small roles in movies and now largely focuses on his work as a writer and producer with Sandler's Happy Madison Productions. That said, he does still make cameos in most Happy Madison movies, most recently playing a referee in the 2022 Kevin James-led sports comedy "Home Team."

In addition to Lucy's dad, her brother Doug also has to go through the motions each day of reconstructing the day of her accident over and over again. On top of that, Doug is the main source of comic relief in the movie next to Rob Schneider's Ula. Doug constantly wears ridiculous clothing to show off the work he's done on sculpting his pecs — which he can make dance — while also admitting to a bedwetting problem as a possible side effect of his steroid usage.

Sean Astin, who plays Doug, is another member of the "50 First Dates" cast who has been acting since he was a child — his film debut was in the 1985 adventure film "The Goonies." Astin avoided the professional difficulties that many of his young peers faced, continuing to work steadily well into adulthood. In addition to landing the coveted role of Sam in Peter Jackson's epic "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, Astin has also been a prolific voice actor, playing Raphael in the 2012-2017 "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" series and voicing the DC character Shazam in multiple animated films. Most recently, he appeared as Bob in the third season of "Stranger Things" and Pete Andrews on two episodes of "Supergirl."

Though she only has a small role, Noreen is an important character in "50 First Dates." Henry has long had this scheme where he spends the evening ordering his dates non-alcoholic drinks. The women still choose to "act" drunk in order to justify having a one-night stand with him, while Henry doesn't have to feel guilty about taking advantage of an actual drunk woman. (There's a reason it's a PG-13 comedy, after all.) Henry tries that with Noreen in an attempt to forget about Lucy, but he can't go through with it — even though she's still willing after learning how not drunk she truly is.

Noreen is played by the criminally underrated Missi Pyle, a fantastic character actor who really does deserve to be a much bigger star. It's not that she doesn't keep busy, however — far from it. She currently has 189 acting credits on her IMDb page. Since "50 First Dates," Pyle has had sizable roles in movies like "Dodgeball," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "The Artist," and "Gone Girl." On television, Pyle has had main or recurring roles on "Dirty John," "Mom," "Bordertown," and "Another Period."

Ula is the token wacky best friend character in "50 First Dates." Married with children, he lives vicariously through Henry's exciting dating life, and is the only person Henry really opens up to about his relationships both casual and serious. Ula also provides much of the movie's physical humor, whether it's getting beaten up by Lucy in a botched scheme or pantomiming intimate acts while floating in a water tank.

Rob Schneider might not have put his best foot forward when playing the Asian minister in "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry," but his portrayal of Ula is a lot more respectable. Schneider is also part Filipino, so he at least has some Pacific Islander in him to play a Hawaiian man without it being completely inappropriate. Schneider has been in many of Sandler's movies and other Happy Madison productions before and since "50 First Dates," which makes up a large chunk of his non-animated filmography. He's also tried his hand at two different titular television shows — the 2012 CBS sitcom "Rob," and the 2015-2017 Netflix sitcom "Real Rob." In 2021, he was a contestant on "The Masked Singer," where he performed as the Hamster. 

While the ambiguity of Alexa's gender as well as their sexual orientation are unfortunately played for punchlines through much of "50 First Dates," it still represented a gender-fluid character in a mainstream movie way back in 2004. Baby steps, right? At least Alexa is still a genuinely interesting and funny character who gets a lot of good moments and funny jokes that aren't strictly at their expense. 

Alexa is played by actor Lusia Strus, who was born and raised in Chicago and got her start in the city's live theater scene while also playing small roles on television. Although she had appeared in a few movies beforehand, "50 First Dates" was definitely her first major big screen role. Since then, she has continued to appear somewhat sporadically in film and on television while also continuing to perform on stage. In 2020, she voiced an uncredited role in Pixar's "Soul" and also appeared in several episodes of the TBS-turned-HBO-Max series, "Search Party" (per IMDb).

The doctor that has the unfortunate duty to confirm to Henry that Lucy will likely never be able to remember him naturally is Dr. Joseph Keats. He explains Lucy's condition, introduces the gang to Ten-Second Tom, tells Doug that he needs to lay off the steroids, and makes a joke about the size of walrus genitalia. He's got quite the sense of humor for a doctor that specializes in serious brain disorders, but that's what you get when you cast Dan Aykroyd.

Surprisingly, it was Aykroyd's first appearance in a Sandler movie, but it would not be his last: he showed up in "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" three years later. As far as what else Aykroyd has been up to, he's the kind of actor that doesn't exactly need a refresher on his career. However, it is worth noting that he revived the role of Ray Stantz in 2021's "Ghostbusters: Afterlife," alongside his fellow original Ghostbusters Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, and a CG version of the late Harold Ramis. 

Nick is the chef at the café where Henry first meets Lucy. He ends up making an ongoing bet with Henry as Henry tries different things to win Lucy over, much to the chagrin of café manager Sue (Amy Hill). He also seems to be a master at different Spam-based dishes, and takes to calling Henry "Peanut Butter Cups" throughout the film. Nick (and Sue) also make it clear that Nick isn't afraid to use his meat cleaver on Henry should Henry break Lucy's heart.

After making his screen debut playing ukulele in an episode of the reality series "The Mole," Nick was the first real acting role for Hawaiian native Pomaika'i Brown. He has since only appeared in a handful of other films and TV shows, including a few episodes of "Hawaii Five-O" and the Tim Burton film "Big Eyes." But Brown didn't want to leave his home and move to Los Angeles to go full-time Hollywood, and has instead been content playing music and being a father to his eight children (per Keola magazine).

Adam Sandler's character Henry begins "50 First Dates" as a man who wants to keep his relationships brief and mostly physical so as not to interfere with his career goals, but ends up completely rethinking his plans when he meets Lucy. That he is willing to do so much to not only make Lucy fall in love with him the first time, but re-fall in love with him every single day, says a lot about him and just how deeply he cares for her.

Sandler might not be consistently releasing #1 hit comedies like he was during his '90s and early 2000s heyday, but he has recently began to take acting more seriously. From his acclaimed role in "Uncut Gems" to the raves he is already earning for "Hustle," Sandler is proving that he truly can act, and act well, when given the right material. Of course, he hasn't forgotten his roots or his original fans, continuing to release goofy comedies in the same style as his classics, most of which have gone directly to Netflix. He eventually teamed with Barrymore a third time, for 2014's "Blended."