WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Where is the cast of 'Oliver!' now?

A scene from "Oliver!"

(PEOPLE) -- The bleak tale of a 9-year-old orphan who falls in with a gang of thieves is not exactly the stuff of light musical fare. Yet the lavish 1968 screen adaptation of Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist" was nominated for 11 Oscars -- and won five, including Best Picture.

Ron Moody, who played Fagin, the pickpockets' mentor, says he had no idea the film would be a hit, but "the publicity man said, 'I can smell Oscars.'"

Mark Lester: Oliver

When he learned he'd won the role of Oliver Twist, an 8-year-old Mark Lester thought, "That's brilliant, no more school."

Not quite. With three hours of lessons a day and a lot of waiting for scenes to be set up, Lester, now 43, found filming dull, preferring to be "outside mucking about" during the six-month shoot.

He followed "Oliver!" with a dozen films but quit acting at 18. These days the Oxford-born Lester has an osteopathy practice with his wife, Jane, 44, in Cheltenham, England, where they live with their four children, ages 2 to 10.

Though he recently attended Liza Minnelli's star-studded wedding, Lester doesn't miss show business. "It's quite amusing to see that world," he says, "but it's quite nice to be on the outside of it."

Ron Moody: Fagin

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"It was the most wonderful summer," Ron Moody says of the "Oliver!" shoot at Britain's Shepperton Studios. "All the boys and girls were out there sunbathing. It was a joyous film to make."

But the London-born Moody, 78, who starred as Fagin in the original West End stage production in 1960, had to drag himself to the film's first screening. "I thought I was terrible," he says. "All I could see was disaster, all that work for nothing -- and all around me people were cheering."

The role earned him an Oscar nomination but, ironically, may have hobbled his career. "I was spoiled by 'Oliver!'," he says. "I didn't want to do anything that would be less. I should have done everything."

He has continued to work in U.S. and British television as well as in small films and stage productions, but nothing except his home life has rivaled the success of "Oliver!"

Married for 16 years to Therese Blackbourn Moody, the father of six children, ages 5 to 15, now attends a weekly Pilates class taught by his wife near their home in Southgate, London, England. "I love it when I finish it," he says, laughing. "I'm a lazy so-and-so."

Shani Wallis: Nancy

Born in North London, Shani Wallis was a musical veteran already living in Los Angeles, California, when she landed the role of Nancy, the evil Bill Sikes's partner in crime and passion.

After a year of tryouts, Wallis, now 68, convinced producers she could do a Cockney accent -- her own.

She remembers a lively set, thanks to the children who played the street urchins. "You had to keep them in line," she says.

Together for 37 years with her husband, agent Bernie Rich, 70, Wallis is stepmother to three, mother to Rebecca, 30, and grandmother to 8-month-old McKenna.

She has done some TV work ("Columbo"; "Murder, She Wrote") but is most proud of "Oliver!" "People have told me it made such an impression on their lives."