This is truly amazing:
FOR SOME OF THE ACTORS, "THE OUTSIDERS" WAS ONE OF THEIR FIRST, SECOND, OR THIRD ACTING JOBS.
For many of our favorite actors in this movie were just building their careers. For C. Thomas Howell (Ponyboy Curtis), "The Outsiders" was his SECOND acting job. Can you believe that? His second, twice, duos, TWO. He had only been in one other movie before that, and it was (One of my favorite '80s movies aside from"The Outsiders"), E.T Extra-Terrestrial, playing as Tyler, one of Mike's friends (Tyler has and always will be my favorite character, and he was before I even knew what "The Outsiders" was. My loyalty to him is good). For Rob Lowe, this was his... drum roll... FIRST EVER ACTING ROLL. Surprising, right? He did a spectacular job of playing the beautiful and secretly broken Sodapop Curtis. As for everyone else, their best roles would come later in their life by a few years (For Ralph Macchio (Johnny Cade) he starred in many other movies back to back after "The Outsiders," like "The Karate Kid" and "Teachers").
C. Thomas Howell (Ponyboy Curtis) playing Tyler (far left) in the 1982 movie "E.T, Extra-Terrestrial"
Ralph Macchio (Johnny Cade) playing Eddie (the badass bad boy from school) in the 1984 film "Teachers"
Ralph Macchio (Johnny Cade) playing Daniel Larusso in the classic film "The Karate Kid"