Nancy Travis
Nancy Travis played Sylvia Bennington, Jack’s British baby mama and one-time fling who somehow had the Batman-like detective skills in the pre-internet ’80s to find his luxury apartment, gain access to it while transporting a baby in a bassinet, then leave the little one behind for a few months. And no, she’s somehow not the villain of this movie. In fact, she has the stones to come back at the end and reclaim baby Mary, at which point the guys somehow collectively agree that she probably won’t just drop her off somewhere else when the going gets rough again. But by the laws of ’80s movie resolutions, the guys come to their senses and rush to the airport, and Sylvia eventually agrees to move in with them so they can all raise the baby together in some kind of weird reverse Sister Wives situation.
It wasn’t a huge role for Travis, but it was one of her first, and it would jump-start a long and prolific TV career that would see her reunite with Danson on Becker and land her a solid role as Tim Allen’s wife on Last Man Standing (2011-) aka Home Improvement 2: This Time the Kids are Girls.
Lisa Blair & Michelle Blair Ontonovich
Baby Mary didn’t have a whole lot of acting to do for this role since the twins who played her were just four months old, but her character was undoubtedly the massive “awe factor” that sold almost $170 million worth of movie tickets for this thing. According to their mom, Geriann Blair, it was a total spur of the moment decision that led to their role in the blockbuster. During an interview on Today, she said, “I was just bored at home on [maternity] leave, and I heard about this casting call. I thought it was just a scene in a movie.” And since they were literally infants who do nothing but eat, sleep, pee, and poop, guess what kind of anecdotes mom has from the set?
That’s right, momma Blair had not one, but two urination stories locked and loaded in the chamber. We already discussed Selleck’s unfortunately realistic wet spot on the movie poster, but there was another scene in which Michelle was rigged up with tubing that was supposed to simulate those fantastic surprise baby pee cannons every parent knows about, but it wasn’t working. So, like a true professional, baby Michelle actually peed right on cue as Selleck was holding her. Amazingly, all of these wonderful behind-the-scenes stories of the magic of filmmaking caused neither girl to catch the acting bug. According to the Daily Mail, Lisa works in insurance and Michelle has “a career in customer service,” so let’s hope their days of unexpectedly drenching their coworkers with urine are long behind them.
Margaret Colin
Despite the guys having declared themselves perpetual bachelors—at one point they joyously deliver their motto, “So many women, so little time”—Peter has a long-term casual relationship with Rebecca, played by Margaret Colin. She has the perfectly ’80s movie job of “New York City attorney,” so she’s supposedly cool with she and Peter’s vague status because her career monopolizes most of her time, yet she clearly wants something more. It’s quite a subplot for a character who’s barely in the movie after the first 15 minutes, but she does avoid getting soaked with baby pee, so Rebecca at least has that going for her.
Probably best known after Three Men and a Baby for her role as Blair’s mom, Eleanor Waldorf, on Gossip Girl (2007-12), Colin also played Constance Spano, the press secretary in Independence Day (1996) who was also Jeff Goldblum’s character’s ex-wife. She was one of the only cast members who didn’t return for the 2016 Independence Day sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence which, according to the internet, was because her character was killed off in a book sequel to Independence Day, so obviously you don’t want to interrupt that continuity. Colin didn’t seem to mind. In an interview with WTOP, she said “The only ones who don’t make it that lived through the whole (original) film was Will Smith and myself. Everybody else is back…I’m boycotting it. I’m not in it! I’m dead. I actually called them up and said, ‘A flashback? You know? Something?’ No.” She was joking, but we can tell it still stings a little.