The Big Picture
- The success of the Home Alone movies was largely due to the chaos of Kevin McCallister’s large family, who left him behind twice.
- Kevin’s brother Buzz is his biggest nemesis and tormentor, while his other siblings, Jeff, Megan, and Linnie, have memorable scenes and interactions with Kevin.
- Uncle Frank is even worse than Buzz. He and his wife have four children of their own who also dislike Kevin.
In the fall of 1990 came a movie that would change the holiday season forever and become a staple for families to watch every Christmas. Written by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus, Home Alone was a colossal hit at the box office, earning a staggering $285 million in the United States alone, and turning young Macaulay Culkin into the biggest child star since Shirley Temple. Two years later, that success was nearly replicated with Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, which made another $173 million domestically.
Though Culkin’s Kevin McCallister was the unquestionable star of those films, none of what happened in the plots would have been possible without the chaos of his family. It’s the size of the McCallister clan which made it possible for Kevin to get left behind not once, but twice. Some of his family members we remember, but there are other McCallisters that are barely seen. Here is a breakdown of the McCallister family tree.
In ‘Home Alone’, Kevin McCallister Has Four Siblings
The McCallister family in Home Alone is centered on the brothers of Peter (John Heard), Frank (Gerry Bamman), and Rob (Ray Toller). Kevin McCallister is the youngest son of Peter and his wife Kate (Catherine O’Hara). Peter is a rich man (how in the heck did he afford that house?!), but he needs money with all the kids he has. Kevin is just one of his five children.
The son we see the most of is the oldest, Buzz (Devin Ratray). Buzz is Kevin’s nemesis, an older brother who just doesn’t tease his younger sibling, but torments him relentlessly. He’s into sports and has a pet tarantula, but being a bully is his biggest hobby. In Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, he terrorizes Kevin during a school play, leading to more chaos among the McCallisters.
There are three other children of Peter and Kate that we see here and there in memorable scenes. There is a red-headed son named Jeff (Michael C. Maronna), a daughter, Megan (Hillary Wolf), and a younger daughter, Linnie (Angela Goethals). Jeff is a bit of a mini Buzz, a self-centered jerk who likes to belittle others, including Kevin. His biggest line is telling Kevin, “You’re such a disease.” Megan might pick on Kevin a bit, calling him helpless for not being able to pack his own suitcase, but she also worries about him both times he is left behind. Linne is a bit of a know-it-all, warning Kevin that the cousin he has to sleep with wets the bet, and hilariously saying to her brother, “You’re what the French call les incompétents.”
‘Home Alone’s Frank McCallister and Family Aren’t Fans of Kevin
If there’s anyone worse than Buzz McCallister, it’s his Uncle Frank, Peter’s older brother. He’s a grumpy man, going so far as to say to Kevin, “Look what you did you little jerk!” after his little nephew accidentally makes a big mess during dinner in Home Alone. Later, we see him on the airplane to France stealing the cutlery. In Home Alone 2, Frank laughs when Buzz plays a prank on Kevin, but he gets his comeuppance when Kevin records him on his Talkboy singing in the shower. Frank is married to Leslie (Terrie Snell), but she is a kind woman, the opposite of her husband. In Home Alone, we see her joking around with Kevin and saving her kids from harm after the chaos at dinner. On the plane, she refuses to steal, and in Home Alone 2, when Frank is laughing at the prank played against Kevin, a serious Leslie tried to get her husband to knock it off.
‘Home Alone’ Became a Christmas Classic With These Five Minutes
“Merry Christmas, sweetheart.”
Frank and Leslie have four children of their own. The oldest daughter is Tracy (Senta Moses), who spends the first two Home Alone films looking annoyed with Kevin or her parents every time we see her. Their second born is another daughter, Sondra (Daiana Campeanu), who is presented in the films as little more than background and another family member who doesn’t like Kevin. The youngest daughter is the bespectacled Brooke (Anna Slotky), whose most memorable scene is her staring up with her mouth hanging open at Joe Pesci‘s Harry when he shows up at the McCallister home posing as a concerned cop. The youngest child to Frank and Leslie is none other than Fuller, played by Macaulay Culkins’ real life brother and future Succession and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World star Kieran Culkin. Fuller has glasses way too big for his face, and he, of course, loves his Pepsi. “Fuller! Go easy on the Pepsi!”
We Barely Meet Heather and Rod McCallister’s Family in the Home Alone Movies
The last of the three McCallister brothers is Rob. We barely get to know Rob at all in the first two Home Alone movies. We spot him in the background in the original film decorating a Christmas tree in the family’s Paris apartment. Rob’s most important part of the movies is owning the under-renovation home in New York City where Kevin tries to hide from Harry and Marv (Daniel Stern) in Home Alone 2. Rob has a wife named Georgette (Virginia Smith), who we meet one time in Home Alone when she tells her brother-in-law Frank to go easy on eating the shrimp.
The eldest child of Rob and Georgette is Heather (Kristin Minter), the oldest of anyone’s kids. Heather is a college student home for the holidays, and she is the catalyst for Home Alone‘s events. As everyone is rushing to the airport van in the morning, it’s her job to count the kids and make sure everyone is accounted for, but she mistakenly counts a nosy neighbor kid as Kevin, thus mistakenly resulting in her little cousin being left behind. The only sibling of hers we get to know is her younger brother Rod (Jedidiah Cohen). He is shown hanging out with Buzz in his room during the first film, looking at his pet tarantula, and then gawking at Old Man Marley (Roberts Blossom) with Buzz and Kevin at the window. In Home Alone 2, it’s he who Buzz turns to when he wants to know if there are any nude beaches open in Miami.
Heather and Rod actually have three siblings, but you probably don’t know it. They have a little brother named Steffan (Matt Doherty), shown briefly opening presents in Paris in Home Alone. In a deleted scene for the first film, two young unnamed twin girls (Porscha and Brittany Radcliffe) are shown with their family waiting at the Paris airport. With a McCallister family tree so big and confusing, it’s no wonder Kevin was so excited to be left alone, where he could finally get some time to himself.
Home Alone is available to stream on Disney+ in the U.S.
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