Whatever Happened To The Members Of The Brat Pack?

For quite some time in the 1980s, anyone who went to see a coming-of-age film could expect two or three of eight specific actors to be billed. These actors were Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, Andrew McCarthy, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, and Ally Sheedy, otherwise known as the Brat Pack. The name was a riff on the Rat Pack from the 1950s, and it was first used in an article called "Hollywood's Brat Pack," written by David Blum, which appeared in a 1985 issue of New York Magazine.

The article shook Tinseltown. Some of the actors weren't thrilled with the appellation, and a handful of others mentioned in the original article managed to escape membership (Tom Cruise, Sean Penn, Nicolas Cage, and Matthew Broderick, for example, were all named, but in retrospect aren't included as core members). Enrollment in the unofficial group shifted over time, too; of the three women, Moore was the only one included in the article, with Sheedy and Ringwald joining later, though at the behest of the public, not their own wishes. But for better or worse, those eight actors are etched in Hollywood history as part of the Brat Pack. And what's happened to them since? Take a closer look at where the members of the Brat Pack are today.

Emilio Estevez, the older brother of Charlie Sheen, had a lot going for him in the 1980s. Not only was he a member of the Brat Pack thanks to his work in films like "The Breakfast Club" and "St. Elmo's Fire," he was also a nepo baby thanks to the work of his father, Martin Sheen. When the 1980s ended, Estevez's career stayed busy, but the roles he became known for changed as he was no longer a teenager. One of his most famous characters outside of the Brat Pack was Gordon Bombay in the hockey film "The Mighty Ducks" and its sequels, and in 2021, after decades of acting rather intermittently, Estevez reprised the part for the Disney+ spin-off series "The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers." At the time of its release, Estevez was excited for the world to see the series. "It feels like we're at a point where people are feeling nostalgic for different reasons. The country has suffered incredible and painful losses, and I think people want to tuck into something that feels like comfort food," he told Yahoo! Entertainment.

While the series was well received by fans and renewed for another season, Estevez wasn't part of the second set of episodes because of a contract dispute and creative differences. Feeling remorse over what happened behind the scenes, Estevez wrote a script for a fourth "Mighty Ducks" film. However, Disney wasn't interested in it, and with that, Estevez's involvement in the franchise officially ended.

Demi Moore's involvement with the Brat Pack wasn't as substantial as some other members, but she was clearly destined to be a movie star. Moore was just as successful in film in the '90s as she was in the 1980s, but the 2000s saw her take a step back from the industry. Though Moore continued acting in the 2010s and 2020s, none of her roles were as culturally impactful as anything she had done earlier in her career, leaving many to believe that the best days of her career were behind her.

Moore had those same thoughts. "I went through a period where I didn't quite find where I belonged. The material I was seeing, it was like nothing was bad, but nothing was great. My question became, is this part of my life complete? Have I done what I was supposed to do here? And then I realized that if I didn't have the answer to that question, I have to then inject the focus and energy to answer that question," the actor said in a roundtable discussion for the Los Angeles Times. 

Then came 2024's "The Substance." A body horror film from French writer and director Coralie Fargeat, "The Substance" somewhat mirrored Moore's own relationship with Hollywood. Unlike the fate of the character Moore played, the film reinvigorated Moore's career. The actor received her very first Oscar nomination for her performance, and it put her in a category of actors she had previously been left out of. Moore credits a mind shift to her success. "As soon as I made that shift, 'The Substance' two weeks later arrived across my desk. And it was the first piece of material in a very long time that I felt moved by," Moore said.

Rob Lowe was a very active member of the Brat Pack, and he steadily made films throughout the 1990s. However, starting with his turn in "The West Wing," Lowe's career from the 2000s on has been defined by his roles in television, with "Brothers & Sisters," "Parks and Recreation," and "Code Black" among his other notable projects. "When I started in the business ... I think, pound for pound, the best storytelling was probably in the movies. Somewhere that shifted, and I think it's pretty clear, from my perspective, that pound for pound, the best storytelling is in television," Rob told CineXpress about making movies versus television in the modern era.

These days, television might be more meaningful to Rob because of who he gets to collaborate with. Rob's son John Owen Lowe is in the entertainment industry, too, and the two have worked together on multiple projects, including the series "Unstable." The Netflix sitcom, which aired for two seasons, starred Rob and John as a father and son, and the two were also credited as creators, writers, and producers on the series. "It's a dream, personally and professionally," Rob told People of working with his son. "I just have such pride in Johnny, in his ability to co-create a show like that, and the notion that my kid grew up to write a show and a character for me is [amazing]. Johnny's work in season 2 is next level." Rob's other son, Matthew Lowe, is not in the entertainment industry, but he does work with his father on other business ventures. (Here's everything else you need to know about Rob Lowe's sons.)

Judd Nelson was one of the most notable members of the Brat Pack thanks to being part of the iconic cast of "The Breakfast Club." That and "St. Elmo's Fire" were two of Nelson's very first jobs in the entertainment industry, but they certainly weren't his last. After the Brat Pack metaphorically disbanded, Nelson continued acting steadily. Though none of his subsequent projects have been as commercially successful as anything he did at the beginning of his career, Nelson has seemingly had no trouble continually booking gigs. "The Engagement Plan," "South of Hope Street," and "Dante's Hotel" are among some of his projects from the 2020s.

Nelson is aware that some of his best working experiences happened early on. When speaking to AV Club in 2016 about his time on set of "The Breakfast Club," Nelson said, "I thought that was going to be how movies were done. I didn't really know how lucky we all were. We had a director that liked actors. I didn't know that was going to be rare." Nelson credits the experience to the late legendary writer and director John Hughes, who brought "The Breakfast Club" to life, as well as "Sixteen Candles," "Pretty in Pink," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "Home Alone," and more. "[John Hughes] was the first filmmaker that could look at someone who was young without seeing them as being less ... Hughes really wanted it to sound authentic. He was a real collaborator. He encouraged us to bring to the material things we thought were maybe more truthful," Nelson said.

The members of the Brat Pack didn't take particularly different paths post-adolescence; they all stayed in the entertainment industry in one way or another. But many of them did try their hand at something other than acting. Andrew McCarthy, for example, whose contributions to the group's filmography included "Pretty in Pink" and "St. Elmo's Fire," among others, began directing in the mid-2000s. He managed his directing gigs alongside his acting work, but he arguably found more success as a director, with projects like "Grace and Frankie," "Orange is the New Black," and "The Blacklist."

In 2024, McCarthy debuted another directing project, one that was very close to his heart — a documentary called "Brats." Per the name, the documentary told the story of the Brat Pack — its members, its films, and just how influential they were at the time. In an interview for A.frame, McCarthy offered his perspective on the Brat Pack, noting that none of the members were particularly close friends, and that at the time of filming the documentary, many of them hadn't seen or spoken to each other in over 30 years. Still, everyone he reached out to was willing to speak about their experience. "[The Brat Pack] was this seismic event in our lives that we've never discussed, and I know it was a big deal for them, because I know how big a deal it was for me," McCarthy said. "I wasn't interested in interviewing anyone; I just wanted to have a very subjective, human talk about... what was your experience back then? And how do you feel about it now?" he added.

When asked to name one member of the Brat Pack, the first to come to mind might be Molly Ringwald. The actor emerged as America's sweetheart thanks to her starring roles in films like "Pretty in Pink," "Sixteen Candles," and "The Breakfast Club." While the movies made Ringwald a star, they also somewhat pigeonholed her. Her filmography combined with her age post-Brat Pack put Ringwald in a strange position. "I didn't really feel like darker roles were available to me. The ones that I wanted to do, I didn't get. I was too young for certain roles. I was at this weird in-between stage," Ringwald said to The Guardian of her career in the 1990s.

Ringwald continued working throughout the decade and into the early 2000s, though nothing she did at the time was particularly noteworthy. Then, for personal reasons, Ringwald took a step back from acting for a few years, only to return in 2008 to co-star in the wildly popular Freeform (then ABC Family) series "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" alongside Shailene Woodley. With that role, Ringwald was officially back in the zeitgeist. However, that role wasn't particularly satisfying for the actor. Ringwald shared that she took the gig, in part, to support her children, but she wanted to explore other creative outlets (like narrating an audiobook many fans never knew about) that were fulfilling and broke the image that she had had since the 1980s. "I tried to do things that were interesting to me outside [acting]. That's when I got really serious about doing music, writing books, writing essays. Eventually, people had to see me as something other than America's sweetheart," Ringwald said.

Anthony Michael Hall's career got off to a great start thanks to his work in films like "Sixteen Candles" and "The Breakfast Club," but his career hasn't always been quite so fruitful. In an interview with The Guardian, Hall opened up about the strange reality of being such a success at a young age, and how it somewhat warped his perspective of life for most people in the entertainment industry. "[I had to learn] the value of what had happened to me, and that came through hard work. I had to really earn it. There's a certain point where the stuff you do as a kid doesn't work any more, so I had awkward periods and I struggled through my 20s to keep going," Hall said.

And work he did. Hall has never stopped acting, and anymore, some of his biggest projects are outside of his Brat Pack work. Among Hall's credits are "The Dark Knight" and "Foxcatcher," both of which were nominated for Oscars, with the former taking home two of the heralded prizes. Hall has also expanded his body of work to include producing, with his most notable credit in that area coming from the six-season mid-2000s series "The Dead Zone," which he also starred in. Through his career, Hall has always maintained perspective thanks to some good advice. "My [stepfather] was really great. He would say, 'Hang in there, keep chipping away at it, stay accessible.' His point was: keep working," Hall said.

When the 1980s ended, for all intents and purposes, so did the Brat Pack. As previously noted, the members of this elite squad of young actors weren't particularly close with each other (aside from Rob Lowe and Demi Moore having a brief fling, as well as Moore and Emilio Estevez), and their careers all went different ways when the 1990s hit. The path of Ally Sheedy, who went from the Brat Pack to motherhood after starring in hit films like "The Breakfast Club" and "St. Elmo's Fire," was filled with TV movies and episodes of TV series, but she had the unique experience of reuniting with some of her fellow Brat Pack members for various projects.

One of Sheedy's reunions came in 2003 when she guest starred in an episode of Anthony Michael Hall's TV series "The Dead Zone." Another reunion came 20 years later: In 2023, Molly Ringwald joined Sheedy for an episode of the series "Single Drunk Female," which Sheedy was co-starring in. "I really wanted her to come on the show and play that part. I was so happy that she decided to. We had a wonderful time together," Sheedy said of Ringwald on an episode of "Kyle Meredith With..." "There are four other people in the world that went through an experience that I went through that nobody else ever went through. "It's just a specific thing, and I think it's one of the reasons I have this very deep history with Molly. We lived through something together," Sheedy said of the connection she has with her former co-star.