The Cast Of 'A League Of Their Own,' 30 Years After Its Debut

It wasn’t just Cavanagh who would go on to have screen success after A League of Their Own. Several of her fellow former ballplayers are big stars even now. And while some of the cast were relatively unknown back then, others already had established careers. Take Tom Hanks, for example, who played the Peaches’ manager, Jimmy Dugan.

The aptly named Big had arguably been Hanks’ greatest success before A League of Their Own. But although that movie had put the young actor firmly on the Hollywood map, his meteoric rise to superstardom didn’t occur until a little later. In fact, Hanks’ popularity would take a real hit after a few damaging silver-screen flops.

All the while, though, Hanks’ performances were solid. And after a series of underwhelming box-office efforts, the tide turned — and he saw a return to form after his role in A League of Their Own. Now, Hanks’ filmography includes such iconic movies as Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, and Saving Private Ryan. He’s also known as perhaps the nicest guy in Hollywood!

Another star to have risen from A League of Their Own is actress and TV host Rosie O’Donnell. She plays Doris Murphy, Mae Mordabito’s best friend. And as with Cavanagh, the role was O’Donnell’s Hollywood debut, though she’d had a few TV appearances before landing her part in the movie. Do you remember how she got her big break?

Full marks to you if you remember O’Donnell on Star Search! Since then, she’s become a professional comedian and an author. From 1996 to 2002 she even hosted The Rosie O’Donnell Show, although she later came under fire for her time as the moderator on The View. And she has another claim to fame, too.

O’Donnell earned a reputation as a philanthropist after she founded the charity For All Kids. Dubbed the “Queen of Nice” for her selfless work, she is also a passionate supporter of LGBT rights and gay adoption. She originally came out in 2002, a couple of months before her self-titled chat show went off the air.

Geena Davis, meanwhile, played the role of Dottie, catcher for the Rockford Peaches. And unlike O’Donnell, Davis had already made quite a name for herself before appearing in A League of Their Own. Fans had seen her in such acclaimed films as 1986’s The Fly, Beetlejuice, and, of course, the iconic Thelma and Louise in 1991.

And since starring in A League of Their Own, Davis has enjoyed a steady career in both TV and movies. She lit up the screen in 2017’s Marjorie Prime and played herself in the comedy Don’t Talk to Irene. Fans of Grey’s Anatomy and the TV version of The Exorcist may remember her roles in those shows, too.

Lori Petty, who plays Dottie’s sister, Kit, is another familiar face from both the small and big screens. After making her movie debut in the 1988 short film ...They Haven’t Seen This..., she rose to co-star alongside Robin Williams in 1990’s Cadillac Man and Keanu Reeves in Point Break the following year. Not bad, right?

Petty also landed the starring role in 1995’s post-apocalyptic movie Tank Girl. And her list of TV appearances is even more diverse, including both voiced and regular roles. Her most notable recent appearance has perhaps been as inmate Lolly Whitehall in Netflix’s Orange is the New Black. You may have also seen her pop up in HBO’s Station Eleven.

Then there’s Madonna, of course! Memorably, in A League of Their Own, she played “All the Way” Mae Mordabito. And when she wasn’t releasing records and touring, she landed roles in a range of other movies — from her acclaimed turn as the title character in 1996’s Evita to the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day.

Madonna has even directed two films herself: Filth and Wisdom in 2008 and historical drama W.E. three years later. And while her last film role was a voice part in animation Arthur and the Invisibles in 2006, she’s hardly been out of the spotlight after returning to her first love: music. Always a provocateur, the “Queen of Pop” still reigns supreme.

But what about Megan Cavanagh? Well, it’s been three decades since she portrayed homely fan-favorite character Marla Hooch. And given how much things have changed for her A League of Their Own co-stars over the years, we’re wondering: is Cavanagh still recognizable as Hooch? Does she still look like her famous alter ego, and do they have anything in common?

Well, the answers to those questions are both yes and no. For starters, Cavanagh is far more of a social butterfly than Hooch ever was in the movie. And she doesn’t share the baseball player’s distinct lack of style, either. From time to time, you may even see her glammed up to the nines on the red carpet!

Cavanagh actually appears very confident and upbeat, which, personality-wise, makes her quite a way from her movie alter ego’s withdrawn disposition. Apparently, though, that’s still not a good enough disguise to fool some more avid A League of Their Own fans. Yes, on the street, the actress is still approached by Hooch supporters to this day!

“I don’t have a problem with being recognized. It’s very humbling,” the actress told The Buffalo News in 2017. And she feels she owes a lot to her debut role. “I feel so unbelievably blessed to have played this part,” Cavanagh elaborated. “I feel loved by so many people I don’t even know. They want hugs. That character touched them.”

But the humble actress has had other roles that have left their impression on the arts. Yes, while A League of Their Own was her big-screen debut, it certainly wasn’t her last appearance on screen. You may have seen her in the cult classic Robin Hood: Men in Tights or Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous in 2005.

Cavanagh isn’t just known for her more typical performances, either. She’s also a gifted voice actress! She has lent her vocal cords to Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and its subsequent TV spin-off, for instance. Cavanagh has played characters in multiple video games, too, including Hitman: Absolution. You may recognize her voice before you recognize her face!

After playing Hooch, though, Cavanagh eventually returned to her first love: theater. More specifically, she took to the stage in an informative, tongue-in-cheek stage show called Menopause: The Musical. The show opened off-Broadway in April 2002, and Cavanagh joined it two years later. It also addresses a theme that wasn’t often mentioned on stage when it debuted.

“Menopause wasn’t a topic that was talked about very much,” Cavanagh told The Buffalo News. “And I think that women are really glad to know they’re not going crazy. Menopause is not a bad word. We all have bodies, we all bleed, and we all urinate and break bones. Our bodies are here for just a limited amount of time. And what [they] go through is being honored with this show.”

“It wasn’t honored in the past,” Cavanagh added. “It was shunned, and women are [now] refusing to accept that. We have so many more years to contribute and so much more left in us.” Some people, however, were hesitant at first to accept a show about a subject that is still considered taboo by some.

“I think that there’s less shock now because the show has been around for so many years,” Cavanagh continued. “When we were doing this in 2004, we would go to a city, and some people would walk out because it was too shocking, although it’s not at all — but to some people it was.”

“It’s amazing to me that it still resonates,” Cavanagh added. “There are more and more women coming into menopause every day. This show really brings [women] to a place that celebrates that your best years are not behind you. You are fabulous the way you are. You can still enjoy and laugh and have a great time.”

And although Menopause: The Musical and A League of Their Own obviously cover very different topics, there are a few parallels between the two characters Cavanagh plays. For one thing, both are strong, independent females fighting for empowerment in their respective fields. But is this link simply a coincidence — or was it deliberate?

Well, according to Cavanagh, the connection wasn’t actually intentional. As she told The Buffalo News, “I have not put them together. It’s funny because [A League of Their Own] was my first movie, and I was young. I threw all my own balls. I was really an athlete.” Then, however, the actress had a moment of clarity.

“Recently, I was watching [A League of Their Own] at a ballpark,” Cavanagh continued. “I was making an appearance. And I [looked] at the older versions of our characters, who are my age now, and I thought, ‘Oh, how sweet. They’re so sweet.’ But I am the older person in the story now. Inside, I’m 25. I can’t believe I’m the same person.”

Cavanagh’s still rocking it, though — even 30 years on from A League of Their Own! And while you may not be seeing her much in movies these days, the same could be said for her former co-star Geena Davis. She started appearing in the films her third husband Renny Harlin made, and unfortunately this turned out to be a major career misstep.

The first film that Davis worked on alongside Harlin was 1995’s Cutthroat Island, and that production was troubled practically from the start. Initially, Michael Douglas was cast alongside Davis; before too long, though, he quit, allegedly complaining that Davis’ character was getting more screen time and attention than he was. So, Douglas was ultimately replaced with Matthew Modine.

But things only got worse during filming. For example, a tank for the actors to film water scenes in was flooded with sewage at one point. During another incident, Harlin fired his chief camera operator, with multiple other people then deciding to walk off the set in protest. And, apparently, the director wanted his stars — even his wife — to do their own stunts if possible.

Crucially, though, Cutthroat Island utterly underperformed after its release — enough for the film to be awarded a Guinness World Record for biggest box-office bomb. The adventure movie was such a disaster, in fact, that it actually stopped Hollywood from greenlighting any more pirate movies for a while. Well, until the Pirates of the Caribbean series, of course...

The next Davis/Harlin production didn’t do well, either. This was 1996’s The Long Kiss Goodnight, in which Davis starred alongside Samuel L. Jackson. And though the thriller received fairly good reviews, it, too, proved to be a flop with audiences. So, despite Davis’ long record of awards and hits, her career appeared to be affected by the commercial duds she made with Harlin.

For two years or so, Davis was pretty much absent from the big screen. She reflected on this troubled period in a 1998 interview with The New York Times, saying, “I don’t go back and second-guess my choices. It’s all about making endless choices — large and small. You have to keep moving on. The only thing I had planned for my next parts was definitely not doing action.”

Then, in 1999, Davis appeared in a role quite unlike those she had previously taken on. In Stuart Little, she portrayed a sweet housewife and mother — not a pirate or a gun-wielding woman on the lam. And perhaps that had something to do with Hollywood itself. According to Davis, good female roles had proved harder to come by after she had turned 40.

In a 2016 interview with Vulture, the star explained, “Film roles really did start to dry up when I got into my 40s. If you look at IMDb, up until that age, I made roughly one film a year. In my entire 40s, I made one movie, Stuart Little… I was getting offers, but for nothing meaty or interesting like in my 30s.”

Yet Davis did have other things to occupy her during that time in the career wilderness. Most notably, she took up archery — even practicing with her bow on the Stuart Little set. And the actress turned out to be very good at the sport, too. In 1999 Davis was actually at a level that enabled her to compete for the U.S. Olympic archery team!

Sadly, Davis didn’t get onto the team in the end. But there was happier news on the horizon. In 2001 Davis married for the fourth time to surgeon Reza Jarrahy. The couple would also go on to expand their family with the birth of daughter Alizeh in 2002; twin boys Kian and Kaiis arrived two years later.

Now a working mom, Davis turned to television to find good roles. In 2005 she portrayed the first female President of the United States in the ABC series Commander in Chief, even earning a Golden Globe for her performance. But although the show debuted to good reviews, the ratings soon plummeted — meaning Commander in Chief was canceled before it even got a second season.

In her 2016 Vulture interview, Davis said of Commander in Chief’s axing, “I was devastated. I still haven’t gotten over it. I really wanted it to work. It was on Tuesday nights opposite House, which wasn’t ideal. But we were the best new show that fall.” She added, “I put a lot of time and effort into getting [Commander in Chief] on another network, too, but it didn’t work.”

Behind the scenes, though, Davis began working on a project intended to highlight the gender imbalance in children’s entertainment. The actress sponsored a study at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. And, interestingly, the results of the survey showed that there were far more male characters on TV than female ones.

So, Davis collaborated with a non-profit called Dads and Daughters in a bid to increase the number of female characters on kids’ TV. In 2007 the star even launched a venture of her own: the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Its aim? To work towards better representation of women in the TV and movie industries — particularly when it came to productions aimed at children.

And a 2017 interview with the Los Angeles Times saw Davis speak about how women are depicted in popular culture. Apparently, while the actress had been filming A League of Their Own, members of the media had come to the set to speak to the cast. Davis added, “I noticed immediately that [the reporters] all asked at some point, ‘Do you think this is a feminist movie?’ Sort of conspiratorial, like, ‘I’m not really saying this out loud’ sort of a thing, and like, ‘Wouldn’t it be weird if you actually said yes?’”

Davis went on, “Are things much better now? No, although I don’t think they’d whisper the question. But as far as the perception of [A League of Their Own] — when it came out, I noticed there was so much prognosticating that this would change everything.” Even so, the star continued, that didn’t turn out to be the case.

Regarding her own career, though, the veteran actress said, “I even felt some compunction to not complain about not having enough parts, saying, ‘Oh, I’m just taking a vacation or a break’ or ‘I’m just really fussy.’ Which I am, but don’t ever admit that there aren’t enough parts, or you might seem unpopular.”

Yet in recent years Davis’ career appears to have gotten back on track. In 2016 she played a major role in the TV version of The Exorcist, which seemed to have earned enough positive reviews to put the star on Hollywood’s radar once again.

Davis was also singled out for her performance in the critically acclaimed 2017 sci-fi flick Marjorie Prime. Most notably, Vanity Fair praised the actress in its review of the movie, saying, “Lois Smith, Tim Robbins, Jon Hamm, and especially Geena Davis shine in an artsy meditation on life and technology.”

Then 2019 saw the debut of documentary This Changes Everything, which put a spotlight on the work done by Davis’ institute. At around the time of the movie’s release, the actress sat down with The Daily Beast to talk about women in Hollywood and the effects of the #MeToo movement. And, strikingly, she mentioned one uncomfortable incident in her past that had involved veteran director Sydney Pollack.

As Davis went on to explain, most of her time on screen during Tootsie had been spent “in her bra and underwear.” At one point during filming, she had also been asked to sit on Pollack’s lap to rehearse a scene. And while this request was relevant to a particular part of the movie, Davis still believed that there had been “no way to say no.” She also hadn’t known at the time “what [was] allowed or not allowed.”

However, in a 2019 conversation with Vogue, Davis considered the roles that she had been getting. Not long before, she had been cast in the female-focused wrestling show Glow, and it appeared that she was delighted her character was popular.

Davis also told the magazine that back in her early days, there’d briefly seemed to be a “wave” for female actors. She explained, “When Thelma & Louise came out, the press all said, ‘This changes everything now. We’re going to see so many more movies starring women about women.’ And I was sure that would happen… until it didn’t. Everybody seems very eager to think we’re done, but it absolutely isn’t.”

And Davis recognized that there were risks to speaking out in the film industry. She continued, “I think my peers and I always felt like you shouldn’t complain… You can think of some examples of people whose careers really suffered when they became outspoken.” Now, though, people finally seem to be sitting up and paying attention.

You see, in October 2019 Davis received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award — an honorary Oscar — in recognition of her work on women in the film industry. Then, months later, The Casting Society of America announced that the star would be honored with the Lynn Stalmaster Award for Career Achievement. Why? Well, for her contribution to gender equality, of course.