Rare And Nostalgic Photos Of The Brat Pack

To most people, the Brat Pack consisted of Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, Anthony Michael Hall, Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Rob Lowe, and Andrew McCarthy. Most of them starred together in two defining 1980s teen movies — St. Elmo’s Fire and The Breakfast Club — and many of them made other films together. For a time, they were the princes and princesses of Hollywood.

In 1999 Melissa Gilbert — Lowe’s girlfriend at the height of the Brat Pack’s fame — told People magazine, “We went to each other’s birthday parties, premieres, everywhere.” Jay Roach — the director who later worked with Lowe on the Austin Powers movies — had an outsider’s view on the group. He said, “They seemed charmed in the way the Rat Pack seemed charmed.”

Ah yes, the Rat Pack. This was, of course, the group of Las Vegas singers in the 1950s and 1960s led by Frank Sinatra. Journalist David Blum, who coined the term “Brat Pack,” was obviously inspired by Sinatra’s crew. But despite the term being fondly remembered today, it may surprise you to know it was originally created to criticize the young actors — and they’ve always hated it.

Both The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire were released in 1985 and are considered the nexus point of the Brat Pack. But there were a few movies in the years leading up to ’85 that first saw certain members work together. For instance, Lowe starred with McCarthy in 1983’s Class, as well as Sheedy in Oxford Blues in ’84.

Hall and Ringwald first shared the screen in Sixteen Candles in ’84, the year before they reunited in The Breakfast Club. Interestingly, they were also supposed to star in 1986’s Pretty in Pink as well, but Hall turned down the part of Duckie, which went on to make Jon Cryer famous. Amazingly, Hall also said no to the lead role in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off!

You see, Hall — the loveable geek in those movies — was scared of being typecast that way forever. He saw Pretty in Pink as effectively being a rehash of Sixteen Candles, as he explained to the Insider website in 2021. “The girl wants the handsome kid, and the dorky kid is after her,” he explained. But Hall did admit to regretting turning down Ferris, which he was actually forced to do because of scheduling.

To many fans’ delight, Hall and Ringwald shared a youthful romance after filming The Breakfast Club. Susannah Gora’s book You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation explained how it happened. She wrote, “Although the entire group was growing close, Anthony Michael Hall and Molly Ringwald spent the most time together of any cast members.”

“Not only because they had already worked together, but because they were the only actual teens in the cast,” Gora continued. “They were required to spend many hours together with their on-set tutor.” In 2020 Hall fondly reminisced to Page Six, “It was puppy love.” He then chuckled, “She didn't have the time of day for me when we made Sixteen Candles.”

And “puppy love” is definitely how the relationship is described in Gora’s book. She wrote about how Hall’s mom — who actually cameoed as his mother in the movie — recalled Ringwald saying to her, “I think I’m falling in love with your son.” She replied, “That’s so sweet. Why don’t you tell him?” The two lovestruck teens were holding hands the very next day!

Hall and Ringwald weren’t the only Brat Pack romance, either. While shooting St. Elmo’s Fire, Moore and Lowe had a one-night stand. She then hooked up with Estevez, and the couple were soon engaged. They planned to marry late in 1986, but it was called off after Moore found out Estevez had been unfaithful.

Interestingly, Estevez and Moore got together after she stopped drinking and taking drugs, something that she struggled with for years. She’s since admitted that one of the main reasons she planned to marry Estevez was because of his family — including famous actor father Martin Sheen. She believed they had a “good influence” on how she lived her life.

In 2019 Moore told Howard Stern, “The whole thing was definitely intoxicating, because it was seeing something that was very clearly different than what I had. And seeing how they were these formidable figures, you know, parental figures, and that they had influence and guidance. I just really appreciated how they were.”

Moore actually believes St. Elmo’s Fire saved her life — because she was told she had to undergo substance abuse treatment if she wanted the role. In her memoir Inside Out, she wrote, “I had something much bigger than me to fight for. And so, I did… I never wanted to experience that moment of waking up and trying to remember what I had done the night before again.”

“I didn't want any more embarrassment,” Moore continued. “I wanted to be present, not dulled by alcohol or sped up by cocaine, and I dedicated myself fully to the process. St. Elmo's will always be the movie that changed my life. If I hadn't gone to rehab to make that film, I really wonder if I'd still be alive.”

Now, with romances out of the way, let’s return to Blum and his New York magazine article, which could be called the birth and death of the Brat Pack. It was so devastating that Estevez reportedly phoned him to say, “You’ve ruined my life.” You see, the piece — which Blum wrote in 1985 — was initially supposed to be a simple profile of Estevez. But it turned into much, much more.

Blum was ostensibly meant to be profiling Estevez as one of the most prodigious young talents to hit Hollywood in years. He’d just inked a deal to write, direct, and play the leading role in That Was Then…This is Now at just 23 years of age. By way of comparison, Orson Welles was 25 when he made wrote, directed, and starred in Citizen Kane!

While being interviewed by Blum, Estevez began to worry that he was giving the impression of being overly somber. He wanted to show the journalist that he wasn’t po-faced and pretentious — he liked to have fun just as much as every other young guy! So, he invited Blum out to dinner and drinks with some of his buddies — who turned out to be Lowe and Nelson.

Blum then got a front row seat to watch three young Hollywood stars having a great time. They ate and drank at the Hard Rock Café, before partying with the many women who were drawn to them like moths to a flame. Then they went to a punk rock club, where their celebrity status saw them escorted into the venue ahead of all the regular folk standing in line. Soon, though, they decided they’d had enough and departed.

Even though none of their behavior was particularly scandalous, Blum was left with the impression that the group cared more about partying and being famous than they did for the art of acting. So he wrote an article that dubbed Estevez, Lowe, and Nelson the “Brat Pack,” because he perceived them as vacuous and entitled — essentially “bratty.” And when it was published, the young actors felt blindsided.

An unflattering portrait had been painted by Blum, and a label had been attached that the young stars felt was undeserved. They were all trying to make names for themselves in Hollywood as serious actors — people who cared about their work — and the article shot that notion to pieces. It was potentially devastating to how the industry, as well as the world at large, perceived them.

Sadly, the stars were soon being discouraged from associating with each other — both professionally and privately. During a 2013 appearance on the Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, Nelson revealed, “These were people I worked with, who I really liked as people — funny, smart, committed to the work. I mean, no one was professionally irresponsible.”

“After that article, not only are we strongly encouraged not to work with each other again — and for the most part we haven’t — but it was insinuated we might not want to be hanging out with these people,” Nelson continued. “And it was like, I didn’t know that good friends are so easy to come by in this world that they should be tossed asunder.”

Considering how hard the Brat Pack tag would stick, it’s strange that none of the actresses commonly associated with the group — Moore, Ringwald, and Sheedy — were even referred to in the article. On top of that, McCarthy and Hall were only mentioned briefly. McCarthy was also brushed off as a minor member of the group who kept to himself, and Hall was branded as their mascot!

In the end, perhaps the article created a false impression. McCarthy told People magazine in 1999, “The media made up this sort of tribe. I don’t think I’ve seen any of these people since we finished St. Elmo’s Fire.” As an illustration of his point, he then admitted something that may upset diehard Brat Pack fans: “I’ve never met Anthony Michael Hall.”

Sheedy agreed with McCarthy’s sentiments when she spoke to The Independent in 2020. Of Blum and his article, she said, “The ladies weren’t there! I think he got one particular angle when the truth is that the guys would hang out a bit, but we weren’t hanging out as one big group. We weren’t young actors running around town spending all our time together.”

During 2011 Estevez admitted to The Hollywood News website, “I never saw it as a term of endearment. I suppose if I had been more egotistical and self-promotional, the article never would have seen the light of day… Personally, the biggest disappointment about it is that ‘Brat Pack’ will somehow figure in my obituary at the hands of every lazy and unoriginal journalist.”

Yet while Estevez might have a lasting problem with the term “Brat Pack,” something fascinating has happened over the years. By the time the early 2000s rolled around, the name had lost any derogatory undertones — especially for fans. In fact, most people simply see it as a catch-all term for their favorite 1980s teen movies and those films’ stars.

The films made by Brat Pack members are seen as teen classics today, especially the ones written and/or directed by John Hughes. Author Susannah Gora once told USA Today, “These movies remain timeless because he captured teenagers perfectly — the longing, the passion, the wondering who you are… You still hear quotes from The Breakfast Club.”

In her book You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried, Gora summed it up perfectly. She wrote that the movies “changed the way many young people looked at everything from class distinction to friendship, from love to sex and fashion to music.” To her, they’re “among the most influential pop cultural contributions of their time.”

Indeed, during the 2000s and 2010s many members of the Brat Pack reunited at events to delight fans. They don’t all have bad memories about being viewed as a group, either, as Ringwald explained to WTOP in 2016. In fact, when asked about her old co-stars, she revealed, “I see them from time to time.”

“Like I went to South by Southwest when we celebrated the 30th year and I got to hang out with Ally Sheedy, who I love,” Ringwald continued. “All of them, I don’t get to see them that often. But whenever I do, I feel like even though it was just three months of our lives that we spent making the movie… we’re sort of inextricably linked because it had such a profound effect on us.”

Another interesting thing about the Brat Pack is that several other actors have been linked to the group at times but aren’t considered “official” members. For instance, in Blum’s initial article he links a host of other young male stars of the period. In fact, one of them was none other than Tom Cruise — whom Blum dubbed “The Hottest of Them All!”

Cruise’s link stems from his role in 1983’s The Outsiders, which also starred Estevez and Lowe. Oh, and a veritable who’s who of future Hollywood leading men — including Nicolas Cage, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, and The Karate Kid’s Ralph Macchio! The names of Dillon and Cage also found their way into Blum’s article, despite them never starring with any of the other core Brat Packers.

James Spader — known to TV viewers these days as Raymond Reddington in NBC’s The Blacklist — was sometimes linked to the group. He starred in Pretty in Pink with Ringwald and Mannequin with McCarthy. Then there was Mare Winningham, who was one of the gang in St. Elmo’s Fire, but didn’t make another movie with any Brat Packers.

Another future Hollywood A-lister who was a Brat Packer in certain people’s eyes was Robert Downey Jr. Yes, Iron Man himself once romanced Ringwald in The Pick-Up Artist, a late 1980s teen romance! He also shared the screen with Anthony Michael Hall in Johnny Be Good and beloved sci-fi comedy Weird Science.

For the Brat Pack, the late 1980s saw some growing pains. They’d come to prominence depicting teenagers, but all wanted to make that transition into more grown-up roles. In 1986 Ringwald and McCarthy would portrayed teens once again in Pretty in Pink, but the rest of the group all played adults in movies released that same year.

Nelson and Sheedy starred in the action thriller Blue City, while Estevez and Moore appeared in his directorial debut Wisdom. Each of the movies bombed at the box-office and were savaged by critics. Both Michelle Manning — Blue City’s director — and Moore spoke about a Brat Pack backlash contributing to the negativity displayed towards the films.

In the end, the actor who escaped his teen-star image the quickest was one only loosely associated with the Brat Pack — Cruise. In 1986 he had the lead role in Top Gun, the biggest hit of the year and the movie that made him a bona fide leading man. It’s especially impressive when you consider the 24-year-old was only three years removed from playing teens in The Outsiders, All the Right Moves, and Risky Business.

Moore, of course, became a star every bit as big as Cruise with 1990’s Ghost. By the mid-’90s, she was Hollywood’s highest-paid leading lady. Estevez would also graduate to adult stardom with 1988’s Young Guns, and he went on to enjoy a career as a director. In fact, in a wonderful nod to their past, he cast his old fiancée and co-star Moore in his 2006 drama Bobby!