After recently completing a reading of Nick De Semlyen’s fascinating book ‘The Last Action Heroes’ I have lined up a rewatching of many of the films covered in that book.  It of course includes many Stallone films, which I often watch anyway, and many Arnold Schwarzenegger films, many of which I rewatch often also, but some which I haven’t seen for a few years.  One of those films is John McTiernans Last Action Hero, a film which went head to head with Spielbergs dinosaur epic Jurassic Park back in 1993 and unfortunately didn’t win that fight. I personally had room in my life and viewing schedule for both films, and enjoyed them both. I still enjoy them both (but have seen Jurassic Park more times than Ive seen Last Action Hero)

For those who haven’t seen Last Action Hero, its an insane meta action film that I think the phrase ‘over the top’ most definitely applies to and that’s partly why I love it so much. It aims for the moon- and even though it doesn’t quite hit its mark, its still a ton of fun. The cast list also aims for the moon and features so many names.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, F Murray Abraham, Charles Dance, Ian McKellen, Jim Belushi, Chevy Chase, Robert Patrick, Sharon Stone, Jean Claude Van Damme, Damon Wayans, Tina Turner, Danny DeVito and even MC Hammer, to name just a few. The film also stars Austin OBrien in the role of Danny, the kid who gets his hands on a magical cinema ticket which takes him into the fictional world of his favorite action movie character Jack Slater (played by Arnold). Its such a fun film, action packed to the gills and is definitely worth a revisit if you haven’t seen it for a little while (or a big while)

After reading Nick’s book I wondered what happened to Austin OBrien, as I hadn’t seen him on screen for a while, and so I went down the rabbit hole to try find out.

Well the good news is that Austin is fine. After Last Action Hero, he appeared on screen in a few films and shows, notably  The Babysitters Club, My Girl 2 (as Nick Zsigmond ) and Ron Howards Apollo 13 (in the role of Whiz Kid) Austin also appeared in a season 2 episode of the iconic medical drama E.R, four episodes of Touched by an Angel, an episode of Bones, and his final (so far) acting appearance was in the 2015 short film All Our Yesterdays by Jacob Strunk.

Austin has now swapped the sides of the camera and then set up a photography business where he focuses on events, and weddings in the Chicago area but also takes some amazing creative shots of landmarks too. https://www.aobrienphotography.com/

There are some stunning shots on his website so i would recommend you take a peek! and if you are in that area and need a wedding photographer, How amazing would be it have Austin take care of that for you. 

He then became a UX product designer and currently works at the Great American Insurance Group as well as I’m guessing, running his photography business. 

I always find it fascinating to know where peoples lives take them, Watching 1993s Last Action Hero today, we would see the 12 year old Austin OBrien, now 31 years later, It was interesting to see where Austin’s life has taken him.  I hope that if he does see this article. He doesn’t mind me having written these words. I was just wondering ‘What Happened to the kid from the Last Action Hero’