When the big-screen adaptation of Matilda barrelled onto cinema screens all the way back in 1996, nobody could ever have anticipated what a childhood staple the heartwarming film would become.
Adapted from Roald Dahl’s 1988 book and directed by Danny DeVito, who also starred in the film as Mr Wormwood, Matilda followed the life of Matilda Wormwood (Mara Wilson), a brilliant young girl with telekinetic powers who suffered at the hands of a family who didn’t understand her.
After struggling to keep her in line and failing to nurture her clear intellectual gifts, her parents send her off to Crunchem Hall Elementary School, where Matilda meets the kind-hearted teacher, Miss Honey (Embeth Davidtz), and locks horns with the terrifying principal, Miss Trunchbull (Harry Potter's Pam Ferris).
While many people know the leads in the film, such as Wilson, who has also taken a different career path, Devito and Rhea Perlman, who portrayed her mother, one cast member who managed to steal the spotlight before vanishing altogether is Jacqueline Steiger.
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Known best to fans as Amanda Thripp, the blonde-haired youngster who is launched across the playground by her pigtails on Matilda’s first day at school – Steiger’s small but memorable part is one of a handful of iconic scenes that first springs to mind when thinking of the ’96 classic.
Aged just ten when the film was released, Steiger continued to act for the next twenty years, appearing in Dennis the Menace Strikes Again and An American Rhapsody before branching into commercials and several television roles.
As she grew older, Steiger expanded beyond the camera to take on behind-the-scenes work, becoming an adult production coordinator, writer, and web actor.
Once well known for performing her own stunts and a self-professed sci-fi and fantasy fan, she may surprise many fans to learn that she has since branched out of the entertainment industry to pursue a different career altogether.
These days, she owns Magic Hour Content, an educational design firm that creates curriculum and video content for nonprofits and small creative businesses, according to her website.
She also regularly shares updates on her life and travels on social media, particularly Instagram.
In 2013, Steiger, along with several of her castmates, reunited for a 21-minute documentary in which Ferris and Bruce Bogtrotter actor Jimmy Karz re-enacted the famous cake-eating scene from the film.
Steiger and Ferris also re-enacted their scene, minus the pigtail throwing, however. She also opened up on the filming of that scene, revealing that it was largely her own hair except for one part, which was 'mostly extensions'.
Steiger further revealed that she was also in a 'body cast' and a harness when she was 'hooked up to the crane' which lifted her in the air, adding: "I loved it. I was nine years old and I got to fly."
Topics: Film and TV
Phoebe Tonks