"Little Giants" will always be a classic football movie. It's an underdog story on the surface, because a group of misfits and outcasts come together to take down the mighty Urbania Cowboys coached by Heisman Trophy winner Kevin O'Shea (played by Ed O'Neill).
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The 1994 sports film wasn't necessarily a box office hit, but it was a terrific because it portrayed a tomboy girl as the best football player on the field. Everyone remembers Becky "Ice Box" O'Shea.
Becky is cut from tryouts for the Cowboys pee wee football team because she's a girl even though she's the most talented player. Ice Box and her friends then form the Little Giants and convince her father and Kevin's brother, Danny O'Shea (Rick Moranis), to coach his own team.
Becky briefly quits the team to become a cheerleader to impress cannon-armed quarterback Junior Floyd, but she rejoins the team against the Cowboys. The Giants beat the Cowboys on one of the most memorable plays in movie history, which is dubbed "The Annexation of Puerto Rico" and inspired by Tom Osborne's well-known "Fumblerooski."
It's been more than 25 years since Becky O'Shea made the goal line tackle that led to that famous touchdown, but where is the actress who played her now?
Who Played Becky "Ice Box" O'Shea?
Actress of the day: Shawna Waldron pic.twitter.com/NhTLdQv1eN
— Steve Hasting (@durandurantulsa) November 23, 2015
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Becky was played by actress Shawna Waldron.
Waldron was 11 when "Little Giants" was released by Warner Bros. on October 14, 1994.
Janet Hirshenson, a casting director for the movie, said she was perfect for the role of Ice Box.
"I think immediately she was my favorite, she just I thought was perfect. I don't know if I knew Shawna before or not. But she quickly became my favorite because I needed a little, non-prissy girl. She was a football player. She was terrific," Hershenson told ESPN.
Waldron told ESPN that when she was little she liked all the things boys usually do.
"I was more kind of it's whatever... building forts, roughhousing, and kind of I remember wanting to play basketball with the boys in my school, and they were making it really hard," she said.
Shawna Waldron Had a Successful Acting Career
It's been almost 27 years since Becky dropped the pom poms to help the Little Giants — consisting of Junior Floyd (Devon Sawa), Rashid "Hot Hands" Hanon (Troy Simmons), Rudy Zolteck (Michael Zwiener), Tad Simpson (Danny Pritchett), Johnny Vennaro (Jon Paul Steuer), Jake Berman (Todd Bosley), Timmy Moore (Christopher Walberg), Marcus (Marcus Toji) and Nubie (Mathew McCurley) — take down Spike Hammersmith (Sam Horrigan) and the Urbania Cowboys in Ohio.
Now, Shawna Waldron is 40 years old and has received numerous acting jobs since Little Giants.
She immediately played roles in "The American President" (1995) alongside Michael Douglas and on the TV shows "Family Rules" in 1999 and "Ladies Man" in 2000.
Most recently, Waldron starred in "Poison Ivy: The Secret Society" (2008), "NightLights" (2014), "Dead Man Rising" (2016) and "Teacher" (2019). She even has a nude scene in Poison Ivy, but you'll have to go Google that one yourself.
According to her Facebook profile, Waldron is married to a man named Adam Dick and has worked as a freelance filmmaker and Nikola Tesla Advocate. She lives in Los Angeles, California.
Shawn Waldron's most iconic role may forever be Becky "Ice Box" O'Shea and that's perfectly fine. She's stated in interviews that she was glad she could inspire young women across the country.
"I think the message was really strong with little girls, and it really means a lot to me when I hear things from people that affected them. There was one father who was like, 'My daughter's nickname is Icebox, she's a football player getting this award and would you come.' I told her, 'You're better than that character will ever be, you're better than me, you're better than my character. It's great that you have that nickname but you're the real thing. I was just an actor in a movie. You're a badass, don't ever think that you have to live up to this fictional character.' And it's like almost a weight is lifted off their shoulders. If that movie can do anything. If that's the one thing that this movie does, man that makes me really happy," Waldron told ESPN.
To all the little Ice Boxes out there, keep kicking ass.
