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You might recognize these adult actors playing the Full House kids
The adult Tanner girls were cast in everything from Happy Days to hit movies.
In the third season of Full House, there was an episode that many fans today consider foreshadowing of the Fuller House reboot.
In “Those Better Not Be the Days,” Full House delivered an episode that went into the future to imagine the Tanner girls all grown up, casting adult actors to play each of the iconic TV siblings.
For fans of classic TV, you might recognize some of these actors from guest spots they did on earlier hit sitcoms and even featured roles in a major comedy movie franchise. Here, we break down exactly where these grown-up Tanner girls came from.
1. Jayne Modean, the adult Michelle Tanner
Image credit: NBC
You might not remember the short-lived TV series Trauma Center, where Jayne Modean played a nurse on a hospital TV show cast alongside James Naughton and Lou Ferrigno, but everybody loved the Cheers episode “Christmas Cheers” where she played a pretty stewardess named Tracy.
In that episode, Modean’s character is responsible for a gifting mishap where Sam gives Rebecca a nice pair of diamond earrings and ends up romantically linked to Woody by episode’s end.
For Modean, who appeared in a handful of Eighties TV and movie roles, her Full House appearance was one of her last, only appearing once more on TV before stepping out of the spotlight in 1991.
2. Julia Montgomery, the adult Stephanie
Image credit: The Everett Collection
Perhaps the most recognizable of the grown-up Tanner girls is Julia Montgomery, who rose to fame in the soap opera One Life to Live and wound up on the big screen, cast in a major role in the comedy franchise Revenge of the Nerds.
Montgomery played Betty Childs, a cheerleader and sorority girl who ends up dumping Ted McGinley’s jock character and siding with the nerds, ultimately marrying a nerd and portraying his wife in the third and fourth installments.
On TV, Montgomery also guest starred on shows in the Eighties like In the Heat of the Night and Columbo, and she continues to act in movies and TV shows today.
3. Melanie Vincz, the adult D.J.
Image credit: ABC
As the oldest Tanner girl, Full House cast Melanie Vincz, a pretty actor who got her start on a very memorable episode of the Seventies sitcom Mork & Mindy.
In “Hold That Mork,” Mork decides he wants to become a Denver Broncos cheerleader, and Vincz played Kathy, the only cheerleader willing to help him realize his goal.
It’s said that she was one of the only non-cheerleaders cast for the part, so she must’ve impressed Garry Marshall’s crew!
In the Eighties, Vincz appeared on plenty of hit shows, including Three’s Company, The Dukes of Hazzard and Night Court, but her role on Full House would also become one of her last.
In 1991, she joined the cast of a short-lived soap opera called Dangerous Women, then seemingly retired from acting, never taking a role since.
4. Rhonda Shear, as adult Kimmy Gibbler
Last, but certainly never least, playing Kimmy Gibbler was a former beauty queen named Rhonda Shear whose earliest TV appearance was in a Happy Days episode called “Joanie Busts Out.”
The episode finds Joanie attempting to start a modeling career. Shear plays a pretty model who catches Fonzie’s eye.
Shear began her onscreen career by joining Gilbert Gottfried while hosting screenings of B movies on USA. After Happy Days, she continued appearing on Eighties shows like Cheers, CHiPs and Dallas before Full House came calling.
She’s acted in TV and movies right up to 2013, but today, she might be better known for creating the Home Shopping Network’s popular “Ahh Bra.” She sold 25 million after it was introduced in 2010, becoming a multimillionaire by inventing the bestselling bra in the whole world.
