Bill and Ted star unrecognisable since his days with Keanu Reeves

Alex Winter, 46, enjoyed a fair bit more than his 15 seconds of fame following the unexpected success of the 1989 sci-fi comedy Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

25-year-old fledgling actor Keanu Reeves got one of his first leading roles as the titular Ted Logan, showing off what would become his rarely-seen comedy chops and even rarer bowl-cut.

Alongside Keanu, on the same rollercoaster of newfound fame, was Alex Winter as Bill Preston.

At the time, Keanu was actually thought to be living in the shadow of Alex’s stardom as the actor had already earned the title of Hollywood heartthrob thanks to his role in The Lost Boys and had been a Broadway star since he was just 13.

So, what happened to the curly-haired brown-eyed actor seemingly destined to outshine his costars?

In short, Alex had been dabbling with directing, writing and producing movies while he was becoming an icon of the 1980s film industry.

Following the 1991 sequel featuring the dynamic duo, Alex thrust himself wholeheartedly behind the camera.

While Keanu was quickly gaining traction with iconic roles like Neo in The Matrix and demonologist John Constantine, Alex found his unexpected passion for documentary filmmaking and all but abandoned his acting career.

In the 32 years since, the Hollywood star has mainly only appeared in documentaries alongside a sparse few cameo roles in bigger blockbusters like The Borrowers.

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Alex’s drastic career shift happened so suddenly that the actor didn’t appear on-camera at all between 1999 and 2013, instead focusing on documentaries with a personal impact as well as passion-project feature films.

The former actor has been the mastermind behind hit films like the 2007 live-action Ben 10 adaptation and its sequel, the technology documentary Deepweb and the bombshell doc The Panama Papers.

One of his most recent documentaries, Showbiz Kids, features some of the most well-known names in the industry who started as child actors with the likes of Jada Pinkett Smith, Milla Jovovich and Finn Wolfhard, even posthumously including the late Cameron Boyce.

Although Alex hasn’t kept up his movie-star looks as well as Keanu, the acclaimed writer, producer and director has since worked with countless A-listers in front of the camera too, including the likes of Brooke Shields, Laura Dern and Keifer Sutherland.

Alex was reunited with Keanu in 2020’s Bill & Ted Face The Music, with the former heartthrobs now portraying middle-aged dads three decades on in the same roles that first thrust them into the spotlight.

The iconic duo have remained close friends ever since their first Excellent Adventure, most recently teaming up at the 2023 MOCO Gala in April.

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