John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest

John Lithgow: John Lithgow was already a Tony-winning Broadway actor (for 1973's 'The Changing Room') and a two-time Academy Award nominee (for his roles in 'The World According to Garp' and 'Terms of Endearment') when he was cast in 'Footloose' as Rev. Shaw Moore, father to wild child Ariel and the religious leader behind his small town's ban on dancing. Playing his wife Vi was Dianne Wiest, with whom he'd co-starred on stage in Christopher Durang's 'Beyond Therapy.' After 'Footloose,' Lithgow became a frequent movie villain in such films as 'Raising Cain,' 'Ricochet,' 'Cliffhanger,' Broadway's 'The Sweet Smell of Success' (for which he won his second Tony in 2002) and TV's 'Dexter,' where he won an Emmy for playing the Trinity Killer in 2009. But Lithgow also has a comic, even goofy side that he showed most famously as pompous alien Dick Solomon on long-running sitcom '3rd Rock From the Sun') but also in movies ('Buckaroo Banzai,' 'Harry and the Hendersons,' 'Shrek'), stage (his Tony-nominated performance in 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels') and the many books and records he's made for children. Lithgow has been married twice, to Jean Taynton (1966 to 1980) and to Mary Yeager (since 1981). The 65-year-old actor's most recent movie role was as James Franco's Alzheimer's-afflicted father in 2011's 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes.'

Dianne Wiest: In the early 1980s, Dianne Wiest was a veteran stage actress who had co-starred with James Earl Jones in 'Othello' and John Lithgow in Christopher Durang's comedy 'Beyond Therapy.' Her first big break onscreen was 'Footloose,' where she played Vi Moore, the wise and compassionate wife of the preacher played by her former stage co-star Lithgow. After 'Footloose,' Wiest specialized in playing put-upon moms trying to maintain an air of cheerfulness in such movies as 'The Lost Boys,' 'Parenthood' (for which she earned an Oscar nomination), 'Edward Scissorhands,' 'The Birdcage' and 'Rabbit Hole.' She played against type in the five movies she did with Woody Allen, winning Best Supporting Actress Oscars for two of them, playing a scattered caterer-turned-playwright in 'Hannah and Her Sisters' (1986) and a grand stage diva in 'Bullets Over Broadway' (1994). On TV, Wiest won two Emmys, for guest-starring on 'Road to Avonlea' (1989) and for her supporting role as Gabriel Byrne's therapist on 'In Treatment' (2008). Off-screen, Wiest had a longterm relationship with legendary talent agent Sam Cohn, who died in 2009. She has never married but adopted two daughters, now grown. The 63-year-old actress reunites with 'Parenthood' co-star Steve Martin in the new movie 'The Big Year,' released on the same day as the new 'Footloose.'