Whatever Happened To Buzz From Home Alone?
We all remember him as Buzz McCallister from the first two "Home Alone" movies, but actor Devin Ratray has been around for a long time. With parents who are also actors, it wasn't surprising that Ratray made his way to the movies. His first role was in the mystery thriller "Where Are The Children?" when he was 9 years old, and from there he continued to appear in various movies and television programs until his breakout role as Buzz in 1990's "Home Alone," and its sequel "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York."
Always synonymous with the bully older brother of Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin), Ratray has become a holiday staple as the only actor to appear in three of the five "Home Alone" movies. But whether you thought that Buzz was just the worst or that he deserved a second chance, the truth is that you don't see much of Devin Ratray these days. The child star went from appearing in projects like "Little Monsters" and "Dennis the Menace" to falling into obscurity. At least, for a while.
If you ever wondered what happened to Devin Ratray, he's still around, but his career has taken some pretty odd turns over the years. The "Home Alone" star hasn't disappeared completely, but his choice of roles hasn't done him many favors. We take a look at why the actor has struggled to find work since his appearance in the holiday classic.
Ratray mostly took on small parts in Hollywood
By the late 1990s, Devin Ratray fell off the map after a series of child roles didn't do much for his career. He was still predominantly known as "Kevin's older brother" from "Home Alone," which meant that the actor needed to reinvent himself — and prove he could take on different roles — while taking some time off. Returning to the big screen in 2004, Ratray landed a role in the Julia Stiles rom-com "The Prince and Me," where he played Scotty, Edvard's (Luke Mably) roommate. From there, Ratray continued to land small parts in bigger features, such as the forgotten Bruce Willis action flick "Surrogates," where he played Bobby.
For a while, Ratray played the line between serious and comedic roles pretty well. Throughout the early 2000s and into the 2010s, he continued to appear in movies like the supernatural comedy "R.I.P.D.," the Zach Galifianakis-led "Masterminds," and the crime drama "Blue Ruin." Perhaps his most notable feature film role during this stage in his career, though, is the 2013 black and white road picture "Nebraska," where he played Cole, the nephew of Bruce Dern's Woody Grant.
Even though Ratray wasn't cast as the leading star in any of the films he landed parts in, for a time he didn't let this deter him. As recently as 2022, Ratray appeared in the Steven Soderberg-directed "Kimi," which was headlined by Zoë Kravitz. Ratray is no stranger to acting opposite big-name stars, but there always seemed to be something getting in the way of him becoming one himself.
He bounced around a lot as a TV guest star
While Devin Ratray was taking smaller parts in bigger movies and alongside notable stars, he also found himself bouncing around various television projects as a one-time guest star. Landing parts in shows like "Conviction," "Third Watch," "The Good Wife," and "Person of Interest," Ratray stretched his skills but rarely got beyond one episode. He even showed up in a fan-favorite episode of "Supernatural" in a notable performance where he played a fan cosplaying as Jensen Ackles' Dean Winchester. While his feature film career wasn't progressing beyond small roles, Ratray's work in television was starting to go somewhere.
After appearing in two different episodes of "Law & Order" — and later showing up in spin-offs "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," also as new characters — Ratray landed a two-episode stint on Marvel's "Agent Carter," officially entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, his tenure as Sheldon McFee in the MCU didn't last long. Soon after, he was back to the same one-off roles on shows like "Blue Bloods," "Louie," and HBO's "Girls."
In 2018, Ratray reprised his prior role as Kevin Costa from "The Good Wife" on the spin-off/sequel series "The Good Fight," which marked the first time he returned to a role from one show to another. But along the way, Ratray made some pretty strange career choices for himself, especially when he stepped directly into the spotlight.
He has a weird obsession with Condoleezza Rice
Possibly the oddest turn that Devin Ratray's career took was when he shifted from actor to associate producer when starring in the musical documentary film "Courting Condi." This 2008 romance drama follows Ratray as a somewhat fictionalized version of himself who is madly in love with the then U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. This movie is as weird as it sounds, and even stranger when you realize that Ratray followed her all around the country in his one-sided attempts to woo her, tossing "love discs" — love letters with music and pictures involved — at her wherever she roams.
Self-described as a "spin on the Rapunzel fairy-tale," "Courting Condi" is one of the strangest fake documentaries/political satires you'll ever see, and somehow it gets even weirder. Continuing his obsession with the U.S. political figure, Ratray went on to co-write the 2011 follow-up "True Bromance" with "Courting Condi" director Sebastian Doggart, a journalist-turned-filmmaker who himself has a degree in political science. Just as in the documentary, this strange comedy follows Ratray as he continues to win Rice's heart, and it even uses much of the same footage.
Of course, "Courting Condi" and "True Bromance" are the only films in which Devin Ratray stars in the leading role. Maybe it's the strangeness of the material or the specific type of humor (or political messaging) that attracted him to these projects, but they didn't do much for his career in the long run and did little to prove to Hollywood that he would be a good choice for a leading man.
He also played a detective on Mosaic
After years of guest starring, Devin Ratray landed a recurring role in HBO's interactive murder mystery project "Mosaic." The show, helmed by director Steven Soderbergh (who Ratray would work with again in 2022's "Kimi") and writer Ed Solomon (of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" fame), investigates the murder of a children's author (Sharon Stone) in the snowy Park City, Utah. Ratray plays Nate Henry, the detective assisting in the murder investigation, who isn't quite close enough to everything to put the pieces together all by himself.
Ratray appeared in all six episodes of "Mosaic" — which were first released as an interactive app event before finding its way onto HBO's streaming platform — and the actor does an excellent job on screen. Unlike some of his other roles where he had less to do, Ratray's time as Nate Henry pushed the actor further into the spotlight in a whodunnit for the ages. "It sounded so complicated at first," Ratray explained in an interview promoting the interactive miniseries. "As soon as you see a layout of it, you get it, you understand it."
Overall, the series was received well by critics, though the audience score left a little to be desired. Despite praise for the miniseries' initial app release, the interactive platform was decommissioned in 2019. Still, a slightly shortened version of "Mosaic" — with the original ending still intact — can be streamed on Max.
Ratray was a regular on The Tick
After years of struggling to land a consistent role, Devin Ratray found himself cast as a homeless man named Tinfoil Kevin on Amazon's live-action reboot of "The Tick." The show ran for only two seasons on the streaming platform, though was a favorite among fans. Ratray appeared on 15 episodes between the two seasons, though received credit for the pilot despite not appearing on screen. This tinfoil hat-making character does more than just wander around the city, however, as it's revealed in the second season that he was experimented on back in the day by A.E.G.I.S.
As a result of his dark past, Kevin can make things (including himself) invisible, which is a pretty useful power for someone who doesn't have a roof over his head. Unfortunately, Ratray wasn't given the chance to explore Kevin (arguably his most well-rounded character) any further after the show was canceled. Despite a pretty impressive fan campaign pushing Amazon to renew the series for a third season, "The Tick" was canceled in 2019. "After much door-knocking we have found no new home for 'The Tick' series in this current market," series creator Ben Edlund revealed on X, formerly known as Twitter, back in 2019. "We will look for other opportunities to continue this story with this cast, but the current series must I'm afraid come to its end." So far, the cast has yet to be reunited.
With both "Mosaic" and "The Tick," the fact that Ratray's appearances as a recurring character were short-lived is perhaps suggests that Hollywood and television networks don't view him as a viable prospect for a long-running show, and speaks to his wider struggle to get and keep roles.
Ratray had a very small part in Red Dead Redemption II
Not many people will know that Devin Ratray also ventured into video games, and the actor appears in the critically acclaimed Western shootout "Red Dead Redemption II." While there's a lot we could say about how impressive the "Red Dead" sequel is, the funny thing about Ratray's involvement is that you'd have no idea he lent his vocal talents to the game had a Reddit user — claiming to be his brother-in-law — not revealed it in a post.
"I'm at lunch with my brother-in-law, who was an actor in RDR2," u/ScathachtheShadowy posted on a Reddit form. "He plays a guy you run into in the swamp, who tells a story about his brother, who is a deformed alligator creature." In the scene in question, Arthur Morgan (Roger Clark) comes across a man who has gotten himself caught in his own bear trap and rescues him from losing his leg. Well, unless you choose to mercy-kill him instead. As far as we can tell, there's no monologue about an alligator creature, but maybe that comes into play elsewhere.
Either way, Ratray isn't credited as a specific person in the "Red Dead" sequel, but rather as a member of the "Local Pedestrian Population." Does this mean that Ratray lent his vocals to more than one character? It's possible, but at this time we don't know, and because he isn't credited as a specific character, his first and only venture into video games was pretty lackluster. Considering Ratray pretty much flew under the radar with his minor appearance in such a huge video game is indicative of the actor always being on the verge of success but never quite making it.
His return to the Home Alone saga didn't end well
Nearly 30 years after his last appearance as Buzz McCallister in "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York," Devin Ratray returned as our least favorite older brother for the Disney+ feature film "Home Sweet Home Alone" in 2021. Revisiting the role that first made him famous, Ratray played a very different Buzz this time around, and we learn the former bully brother grew up to be an officer of the law.
Somehow, Officer McCallister is still an antagonist in the sixth "Home Alone" film as the latest child left unattended, Max Mercer (Archie Yates), believes his parents will be arrested if Buzz finds out they left him. Nevertheless, Buzz believes that the report about Max being home alone is nothing but a bogus call that his brother Kevin (who sadly does not appear this time around) called in. Turns out, Kevin went into the home security business, which is the perfect gig for Macaulay Culkin's most famous character.
Despite the return of Buzz and the nods to the original films, "Home Sweet Home Alone" was lambasted by critics and audiences alike upon its release and is considered one of the worst in the franchise — which is saying something since the other sequels aren't great either. Not even the return of an original cast member could save this one, and original film director Chris Columbus was quoted saying, "What's the point? The [original] movie exists, let's just live with the movie that existed" (via CinemaBlend).
He last appeared on 'Better Call Saul'
Although "Home Sweet Home Alone" was a critical failure, Devin Ratray continued to sporadically find work, heading back to television for an episode of "Better Call Saul" which just so happened to be a crossover with the original "Breaking Bad." While Episode 11 of "Better Call Saul" Season 6, is notable primarily for the return of Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), it also details the behind-the-scenes events from the "Breaking Bad" Season 2 episode aptly titled "Better Call Saul." If that's too confusing, let's just say that the timelines between the two shows eventually match up here.
In the episode, Ratray plays Alfred Hawthorne Hill, an insufferable drunk whom Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) — under the alias of Gene Takavic — targets as one of his victims of an identity theft scheme. This wasn't the first time Ratray and Odenkirk played opposite one another, as they both appeared in the 2013 crime drama, "Nebraska." There's even a touch of irony to Ratray's appearance in "Better Call Saul" as the scenes take place in the state of the same name, and just like in "Nebraska," their scenes were also filmed in black and white.
To date, the "Breaking Bad" episode of "Better Call Saul" is the last credit listed on Ratray's IMDb page. The episode, which premiered in 2022, is also among his highest-rated works. Unfortunately, the timing couldn't have been worse for the actor, who got himself in a different sort of trouble off-screen.
Devin Ratray is in some serious legal trouble
The most obvious reason that we don't see Devin Ratray around much these days is because of the serious legal issues he's been facing. Ratray was arrested on December 21, 2021 on a domestic violence charge after an altercation with his girlfriend. According to the police on the scene, Ratray "turned himself in and was processed through and bonded out" (via Fox23). The two of them were in Oklahoma City at the time attending the OKC Pop Christmas Con when everything happened.
Since then, it's been one legal battle after another for Ratray, who was later under investigation for allegedly raping Lisa Smith back in 2017, though the actor pleaded "not guilty." "We did not have sex," Ratray told CNN after the allegations were made, recalling that they did enjoy an evening together with friends. "Seeing that he was accused of assaulting someone else made me realize that I needed to do whatever I could to prevent him from hurting even more women," Smith told the news outlet afterward, noting that Ratray had allegedly drugged her that same night before assaulting her.
Ratray is slated to go to trial in January 2024. There is no other news about his case at this time, but it's safe to say that he likely won't be appearing in any new projects any time soon.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).