If every time a villain urges his victim to confess you wait for him to count that time he vomited in the cinema, Gordi is also your favorite character in the mythical ‘The Goonies’. What happened to Jeff Cohen?
From goonie to lawyer
Born in 1974 in Los Angeles (USA), Jeffrey Bertan McMahon (he took his stage name from his mother’s surname) took his first steps in audiovisuals in the ‘Child’s Play’ and ‘Body Language’ contests. His film debut was at the age of 9.with the tv movies ‘Little Shots’.
After brief appearances in series such as ‘Tales from the dark’ or ‘The facts of life’, Cohen found the role that would immortalize him in the imaginary moviegoer: that of Gordy (Chunk in English) in Richard Donner’s eighties classic ‘The Goonies’.
According to the actor, all his previous roles included a Hawaiian shirt and plaid pants, something that the director thought was a great idea and decided to incorporate into the film. looks of the character. Besides, just before filming he contracted chickenpox but decided not to tell anyone so as not to lose the role. The chickenpox marks can be seen in the “supermeneo” scene.
The movie was a real success. catapulting actors who are as well known today as Josh Brolin, Sean Astin or the returnee Ke Huy Quan. Nonetheless, Cohen’s performing career spanned just over a decade.
The following roles of the Californian were practically cameos, in series like ‘Amazing Tales’, ‘Family ties’ and ‘The Sheriff Woman’and as a dubbing actor in the series ‘Popeye and son’ and in ‘Scooby-Doo and the Ghost School’. His last job was in 1991, in the TV movie ‘perfect harmony’.
The summer after the premiere of ‘The Goonies’, Cohen took advantage of the contacts he had obtained thanks to the film to go doing office work in the world of cinema.
This is how he discovered his vocation: the laws. After graduating with a business degree from Berkeley, he asked Richard Donner for a letter of recommendation and went on to earn a law degree from UCLA. He opened his own law firm in 2002. and began his career as a lawyer in show business.
Since then, he has not set foot on a set as an actor again, but he has made a name for himself in the legal professionrecognized as one of the most influential executives of his generation by Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.
To finish closing the circle, it was precisely he who was in charge of negotiating the contract of Ke Huy Quan In ‘Everything at once everywhere’: “When the producer of the film was closing the deal, he told us that he never imagined that he would have to discuss it with Gordi and Data” recalled his partner goonies.
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