Where Is Robert MacNaughton Now? From E.T. to the Mail Route

By CelebPaid Research · Updated October 7, 2026 · 8 min read

Robert MacNaughton at a fan convention. The former E.T. star retired from acting in 2002 and worked as a mail carrier.Image via Wikimedia Commons

Every kid in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) is iconic, but Michael — Elliott's older brother, the kid who plays Dungeons & Dragons with his friends while an alien hides upstairs — holds a special place. Robert MacNaughton won the 1982 Young Artist Award for the role, then did something unusual for a Spielberg-anointed child star: he became a serious theater actor. And then, in 2002, he retired from acting entirely and became a mail carrier.

It is one of the most striking second acts in Hollywood history — from the biggest movie ever made (at the time) to the mail route in Phoenix and Jersey City. This is the verified story of where Robert MacNaughton is now.

The Peak: Michael in E.T. (1982)

Born December 19, 1966, in New York City, MacNaughton was primarily a theater actor before and after E.T. — which makes his casting in the film of the decade even more interesting. As Michael, he brought a natural, unforced older-brother energy to scenes that have become cultural touchstones, and the Young Artist Award for Best Young Supporting Actor confirmed the industry noticed.

He followed it with the lead role of Adam Farmer in I Am the Cheese (1983), based on Robert Cormier's young-adult novel — a serious, demanding part that showed his range. But rather than chasing film stardom, MacNaughton doubled down on the stage: the Circle Repertory Company (where he originated the role of Buddy Layman in Jim Leonard's The Diviners), Henry V with Kevin Kline at the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park, Hally in Athol Fugard's Master Harold...and the Boys for South Coast Repertory, plus the Long Wharf and Seattle Repertory theaters. Television work included Dennis Potter's Visitors for the BBC, Vietnam War Story for HBO, Newhart, and Amen.

The Exit: Retirement and the Mail Route (2002)

In 2002, MacNaughton retired from acting. What came next is the detail that made him a trivia answer for the ages: he worked as a mail carrier — a mail handler at bulk facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, and Jersey City, New Jersey. The Mirror noted it as early as 2002: the kid from E.T. delivering the mail in Phoenix.

There is no tragedy in the story, though tabloids have occasionally tried to manufacture one. By every available indication, the retirement was a choice — the decision of a theater actor in his mid-thirties to stop hustling for roles and take a steady job with a pension. The mail route is honest work with regular hours, and for someone who had been performing since childhood, the appeal is not hard to understand.

The Brief Return (2013–2015)

Retirement, it turned out, had an asterisk. In 2013, MacNaughton came out of retirement for two films: Kamal Ahmed's Laugh Killer Laugh (co-starring his wife, actress Bianca Hunter) and Damien Leone's Frankenstein vs. The Mummy (released 2015). Both are low-budget indie horror — about as far from Amblin Entertainment as one can get — and both suggest the return was about fun and family rather than career.

He is married to Bianca Hunter (wed 2012), with whom he has a son, Noah, plus three stepsons. Since the mid-2010s, he has stepped back again — appearing at conventions and E.T.-related events, including Nightmare Weekend in Richmond, VA in 2023, but otherwise living privately.

Where Is Robert MacNaughton Now?

As of 2026, Robert MacNaughton lives a private family life with his wife Bianca Hunter. His acting career effectively ended with the 2013–2015 indie return; his working years since 2002 have been defined by the postal service, not the screen. He appears occasionally at fan conventions, where E.T. devotees still line up to meet Elliott's big brother.

His story is the workingman's version of the child-star arc: the theater kid who touched the biggest movie in history, then chose the steady job and the quiet life — and seems to have no regrets.

The Theater Years: A Serious Stage Career

What gets lost in the mail-carrier headline is that MacNaughton was, by any measure, a serious theater actor — and that the stage was always his first home. Before E.T., he was already working in New York theater; after it, he went back. The Circle Repertory Company — one of the great American theater institutions of its era — gave him the role of Buddy Layman in Jim Leonard's The Diviners, a part he originated. Originating a role at Circle Rep in the early 1980s meant working at the center of the American theatrical avant-garde, alongside playwrights and directors who defined the era.

The credits accumulate into a résumé most stage actors would envy. Henry V at the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park — performing Shakespeare outdoors, in the city's most storied theatrical tradition, opposite Kevin Kline. Hally in Athol Fugard's Master Harold...and the Boys for South Coast Repertory — one of the great roles in modern drama, a part that demands everything from a young actor. The Long Wharf Theater, the Seattle Repertory — the regional-theater circuit at its most prestigious. This was not a film star slumming on stage between movies; this was a theater actor who happened to have been in the biggest film ever made.

The television work filled the gaps the way TV always has for stage actors: Dennis Potter's Visitors for the BBC — Potter being among the most revered television dramatists in British history — Vietnam War Story for HBO, Newhart, Amen. Solid, professional, unglamorous. The pattern of MacNaughton's career is the pattern of the working actor who never chased stardom: good parts, good companies, no tabloids.

Which reframes the 2002 retirement entirely. This was not a burnout or a failure; it was a craftsman deciding the workshop had closed. The theater economy of the 1990s and 2000s was brutal — regional companies folding, funding drying up, film roles for former child actors scarce and condescending. At 35, with a family to think about, MacNaughton chose the mail route: steady pay, benefits, regular hours, a pension. It is the same calculation millions of Americans make, and there is no reason a former child star should be exempt from making it.

The 2013–2015 return, viewed in this light, looks like exactly what it probably was: fun. Laugh Killer Laugh with his wife Bianca Hunter, Frankenstein vs. The Mummy from indie-horror director Damien Leone — these are lark projects, the kind of thing you do because someone you like asked and the shoot sounds enjoyable. He did them, had his fun, and went back to his life. The theater kid from Circle Rep got one last curtain call on his own terms, and then the house lights came up for good — leaving behind one of the most quietly dignified second acts in the business.

Then vs Now: Two Chapters

Robert MacNaughton went from the biggest movie ever made to the mail route — and the mail route, by all accounts, suited him just fine.

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