{"id":2322771,"date":"2026-03-11T09:26:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T09:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2322771"},"modified":"2026-03-11T09:26:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T09:26:04","slug":"40-years-of-stand-by-me-stars-discuss-film-honoring-rob-reiner-at-strathmore-screening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/40-years-of-stand-by-me-stars-discuss-film-honoring-rob-reiner-at-strathmore-screening\/","title":{"rendered":"40 years of \u2018Stand By Me\u2019: Stars discuss film, honoring Rob Reiner at Strathmore screening"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Three of the film\u2019s stars \u2014 Jerry O\u2019Connell, Corey Feldman and Wil Wheaton \u2014 are back together for a national tour celebrating its 40-year anniversary.<\/p>\n

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\n “Stand by Me” stars Jerry O’Connell, Corey Feldman and Wil Wheaton are touring to celebrate the film’s 40th anniversary.(Courtesy of Mills Entertainment)<\/p>\n

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\n “Stand by Me” stars Jerry O’Connell, Corey Feldman and Wil Wheaton are touring to celebrate the film’s 40th anniversary.(Courtesy of Mills Entertainment)<\/p><\/div>\n

No worthy list of classic coming-of-age movies is complete without director Rob Reiner\u2019s 1986 film, \u201cStand by Me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The tale of four friends who find a dead body in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Oregon, is based on the Stephen King novella \u201cThe Body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three of the film\u2019s stars \u2014 Jerry O\u2019Connell, Corey Feldman and Wil Wheaton \u2014 are back together for a national tour celebrating its 40-year anniversary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now in their 50s, the tour brings the former teenage buddies to The Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, Maryland, on Saturday night. They will take part in a Q&A discussion after the movie showing.<\/p>\n

Wheaton told WTOP that the trio took the tour on a test drive last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cHanging out together in this bus between cities, catching up on the last 40 years, and revisiting our memories from being on the set was really special,\u201d he said. \u201cI had hoped that we were all going to unlock memories for each other in a weird \u2018Rashomon<\/a>\u2018 sort of way and that is exactly what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tone of the tour changed dramatically Dec. 14, when Reiner and his wife Michelle were fatally stabbed in their Los Angeles home.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a shock. I\u2019m still processing it,\u201d Wheaton said. \u201cThe murder of Rob Reiner is a tragedy for the world, it is a tragedy for the arts, it is a terrible loss and it is an unspeakable tragedy for his family and the people who were very close to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of the interview, Wheaton told WTOP that he and his co-stars were figuring out an appropriate tribute for Reiner at Strathmore on March 14. One night later, Wheaton and O\u2019Connell will take part in a tribute to Reiner at the Academy Awards.<\/p>\n

Reiner\u2019s death was not the first time the film\u2019s cast experienced tragedy. Their co-star, River Phoenix, died from a drug overdose in 1993, seven years after the film came out. He was 23.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved River,\u201d Wheaton said. \u201cHe was the big brother I always wanted. He was kind and he was protective. I did not know what he had been through in his life already.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have an empty chair on the stage for River,\u201d Wheaton said. \u201cI lost a friend and the world lost a generational talent. \u2026 May his memory be a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday night, the three actors will balance celebration of a timeless classic with reflections on their lost comrades and their own experiences with the film.<\/p>\n

For Wheaton, who played Gordie Lachance, watching his younger self raises complicated feelings.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then I had so much more in common with Gordie than I knew,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd to see that little boy and look back that sadness in my eyes that I tried to hide from myself. \u2026 It\u2019s 1985 all over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tour has given Wheaton, now a writer and audiobook voice actor, time to reflect on the impact of making the movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing that I\u2019ve done in my life that has this level of significance, really, was adopting my kids,\u201d Wheaton said. \u201cAnd when I think about what that means to me and what a significant, momentous event that was, it\u2019s not surprising to me that \u2018Stand By Me\u2019 pulls all these very complicated memories right up to the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source wtop.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three of the film\u2019s stars \u2014 Jerry O\u2019Connell, Corey Feldman and Wil Wheaton \u2014 are back together for a national tour celebrating its 40-year anniversary. “Stand by Me” stars Jerry O’Connell, Corey Feldman and Wil Wheaton are touring to celebrate the film’s 40th anniversary.(Courtesy of Mills Entertainment) “Stand by Me” stars Jerry O’Connell, Corey Feldman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2322772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[360611,315793,450180,348970,359403,418398,52282,365240],"class_list":["post-2322771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-corey-feldman","tag-jerry-oconnell","tag-music-center-at-strathmore","tag-river-phoenix","tag-rob-reiner","tag-stand-by-me","tag-stephen-king","tag-wil-wheaton"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/40-years-of-\u2018Stand-By-Me-Stars-discuss-film-honoring.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2322771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2322771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2322771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2322773,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2322771\/revisions\/2322773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2322772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2322771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2322771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2322771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}