Tragic story of guy who played Sloth in The Goonies as sequel movie is announced

The Goonies is just one of those absolutely classic movies that you’re left speechless over if you find out your mate hasn’t watched it.

Despite it coming out 40 years ago, it was a staple in many of our childhoods from doing the Truffle Shuffle in the playground to shouting ‘hey you guysss’ at any given opportunity.

And it’s lamenting its cult status with the announcement of a sequel film. Yep, according to ScreenRant, The Goonies 2 is in development.

Chris Columbus is set to come back for it and pen a treatment, having written the screenplay for the original hit.

But while we might not yet know the details of this new movie, there’s one stand-out character in particular who we can sadly be sure won’t return - Sloth.

The deformed son of villain Mama Fratelli, the guy who played him has a tragic story.

Sloth (Warner Bros.)

John Matuszak was best known as the iconic character but also appeared in films like One Crazy Summer and North Dallas Forty.

Primarily though, he was a professional NFL player and mostly played with the Oakland Raiders before retiring after his second Super Bowl win in 1981.

Matuszak sadly died at the age of just 38 in 1989 following misfortune after misfortune.

Before even reaching adulthood, he lost two brothers to cystic fibrosis, with one dying two months after birth and another dying at the age of two.

The actor, who would spend five hours getting into prosthetics and makeup to become Sloth, was an imposing man with a height of 6ft 8. And that came in pretty handy on the football field.

But while the sport brought him plenty of success, it also brought chronic pain, beginning with an injury that he suffered while playing in college.

This initial injury - a shoulder separation - at the University of Missouri was followed by multiple back injuries that eventually led to surgery in the early eighties.

Matuszak was a professional football player before he started acting (George Rose/Getty Images)

By this point, the footballer was in so much pain that he was put on the reserve list before retirement.

Matuszak resorted to self-medicating with drugs and prescription medications, which resulted in addictions.

During an autobiography published in the eighties, Cruisin' With The Tooz, he said he did get clean at one point.

"I abstain from cocaine, and any other foreign substance, entirely now," Matuszak wrote. "I take nothing, not even sleeping pills. I've hit damn near bottom. I don't ever want to go back."

However, he sadly due to an accidental overdose.

Following his death, his parents spoke of Matuszak’s pain being a major contributing factor in his death, while his ex-girlfriend added he was also in ‘a lot of emotional pain’.

LADbible has contacted Warner Bros. for comment on The Goonies sequel.

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