Jeff Cohen
What failed
Cast in a much-loved film at ten, he was finished by puberty. He grew, changed shape, and the roles stopped. His last acting credit came in 1991. There was no second act as a performer.
What happened next
The film's director introduced him to the business side of the industry, which became studio summer jobs during college. He went to university, then law school, and in 2002 co-founded an entertainment law firm where he still practises — negotiating, among other things, the contract of a former co-star's Oscar-winning comeback.
The point
He took the one asset the failure left him — knowing everyone in the building — and built a different career on it. The useful outcome of failing at something is rarely a bigger version of the thing you failed at.
The sequence
1 documented failure, shown with the successes in between. Every entry carries its own source — the wins are part of the record, and leaving them out is how these stories get distorted.
- 1985
Appears in a film that becomes a lasting favourite.
- 1991
Puberty ends his acting career. His final credit, the television film Perfect Harmony, airs on 31 March 1991, when he is sixteen.
- 1990s
Studies at Berkeley and, through introductions from the film's director, takes summer jobs on the business side of film studios.
- 2002
Co-founds an entertainment law firm.
- 2020
Negotiates a former co-star's contract for the film that marks his return to acting. The casting is announced in January 2020, and the part wins the co-star an Oscar in March 2023.
Sources
- Jeff Cohen: Chunk from The Goonies, lawyer (Chambers Associate)
Puberty forced me into early retirement from my first one as a child actor.
- Jeff Cohen (actor) (Wikipedia)
Jeffrey Bertan Cohen (né McMahon; June 25, 1974) is an American attorney and retired child actor best remembered for appearing as Chunk in the 1985 Steven Spielberg production The Goonies.
- Perfect Harmony (film) (Wikipedia)
Release: March 31, 1991
- The Goonies (Wikipedia)
Principal photography on The Goonies began on October 22, 1984, and lasted five months.
- Child actor parlays his connections into an entertainment law practice (ABA Journal)
Donner introduced Cohen to the business side of Hollywood, and Cohen parlayed that introduction into summer jobs at movie studios during college.
- Ke Huy Quan (Wikipedia)
In January 2020, Quan was announced as a cast member of Everything Everywhere All at Once.
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