Child star of hit ’80s comedy, 57, who left film for music is unrecognizable on rare outing… can you guess who?

DAILYMAIL • 2h ago

By BRIAN MARKS, US ASSISTANT SHOWBUSINESS EDITOR 13:10 30 Sep 2026, updated 23:13 30 Sep 2026

This former child star who was prominently featured in an iconic 1980s comedy was spotted on a rare outing in Los Angeles earlier this week.

After appearing in the blockbuster spoof, he went on to appear in an Oscar-nominated post-apocalyptic drama that proved his acting chops.

This film star was also featured on several popular TV shows in the ’80s, including a main role on a short-lived sitcom.

But even before he stepped away from Hollywood in the early 2000s, this performer had a second career as a musician in an experimental band that played with acclaimed alternative acts in the 1990s.

More recently, he has distinguished himself as an in-demand photographer who has shot stars including Zendaya, Laura Dern, Pharrell and Lily Collins while working with brands like Levi’s, Adidas and Lancôme.

Can you guess who this former child star-turned-musician and photographer is?

I’m Andrew Court, LA Showbiz Editor and celebrity connoisseur.

I’ve spent the past decade chasing down celebrity scoops and scandals, and now I’m bringing the best of them straight to your inbox.

In response to the Daily Mail’s request for comment, Harris noted that he shares his latest projects with his fans on Instagram.

Harris, who was born Richard Harris but was often credited as Rossie, was featured in the 1980 box-office hit as a precocious child who got a tour of the airplane cockpit.

He played the straight man to the captain (Peter Graves), who asked him a series of hilariously inappropriate questions, and he broke the fourth wall when he recognized that First Officer Roger Murdock was actually LA Lakers superstar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Harris was spotted earlier this week in Los Angeles as he got a car wash and grabbed some lunch.

The former actor looked unrecognizable thanks to his white hair and close-cropped beard.

He sported a casual, relaxed look with a black linen shirt, brown trousers and beige boat shoes.

Harris, who was born in 1969 in Ventura, California, got his start in the film and television industry when he was just six years old.

In the mid-to-late ’70s he was featured in more than 100 commercials, and he had roles in the film Another Man, Another Chance and the TV movie Christmas Miracle in Caufield, USA (both 1977).

After appearing in a handful of episodes of Days of Our Lives, he got his big break when he was cast in Airplane! in 1979.

The film, a spoof of disaster movies that also starred Leslie Nielsen, Julie Hagerty, Robert Hays and Robert Stack, was shot on a modest budget of around $3.5 million, but it became the fourth-highest-grossing film of 1980.

Airplane! eventually earned an impressive $170 million (more than $695 million in today’s dollars when controlling for inflation).

After his memorable turn in the hit comedy, Harris had guest roles on popular TV shows including Little House on the Prairie, CHiPs, TJ Hooker and Hart to Hart.

One of his most acclaimed projects was the post-apocalyptic drama Testament, which was originally shot for public television before it was released theatrically in 1983.

The film follows the survivors of a nuclear attack that destroys much of the US, though their community outside San Francisco is seemingly unscathed.

Harris played the teen son of a family that quickly realizes that the effects of the blasts are far from over as they and their neighbors begin to succumb one by one to radiation poisoning.

The small-scale drama was a hit with critics, and Jane Alexander, who played Harris’s mother, was nominated for Best Actress at the 1984 Oscars.

In 1985, Harris took over the title role of Spencer Winger on NBC’s Spencer from its original star, Chad Lowe.

After Harris took over the role, the show was retitled Under One Roof, but it was canceled after just 13 episodes.

Harris went on to appear on television and films much more sporadically in the late ’80s and early ’90s, before disappearing almost entirely from the screen.

But in that period he began to focus on music as a member of the space-age electronic music act Sukia.

The band toured with artists including Beck and Stereolab and released the LP Contacto Espacial con el Tercer Sexo [Space Contact with the Third Sex] in 1997.

Later, Harris co-founded the sample-heavy group DJ Me DJ You, but he also found himself working behind the camera as a director of music videos.

Among those were two music videos for the late singer-songwriter Elliott Smith for Coming Up Roses and his song Miss Misery, which earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song after it was featured in Good Will Hunting.

Harris showed off multiple talents in his collaborations with Beck, as he played on the singer’s first two albums and also handled some of their photography.

Later, Harris made a rare return in front of the camera when he appeared on MTV’s Jackass, where he was credited as Ross Angeles.

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