Brat Pack

***The Brat Pack*** is a nickname given to a group of young actors who frequently appeared together in teen-oriented coming-of-age films in the 1980s.

### Members

The term "Brat Pack", a play on the Rat Pack from the 1950s and 1960s, was first popularised in a 1985 New York magazine cover story, which described a group of highly successful film stars in their early twenties. David Blum's article "Hollywood's Brat Pack" ran on June 10, 1985, written after Blum witnessed several young actors (Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, and Judd Nelson) being mobbed by groupies at Los Angeles' Hard Rock Cafe. The group has been characterised by the partying of members such as Robert Downey Jr., Estevez, Lowe, and Nelson.

When the piece ran, the actors all felt betrayed, especially Estevez. The article mentioned people in several films but focused on Estevez, Lowe, and Nelson, and portrayed those three negatively. The "Brat Pack" label, which the actors disliked, stuck for years afterward. With the increased negative attention to them, the actors soon stopped socializing with one another. On the group's camaraderie, Ally Sheedy later said, "[The article] just destroyed it. I had felt truly a part of something, and that guy just blew it to pieces."

Despite the actors named in the article, an appearance in one or both of the ensemble casts of John Hughes' The Breakfast Club and Joel Schumacher's St. Elmo's Fire is often considered the prerequisite for being a core Brat Pack member.

#### Molly Ringwald

***Molly Ringwald*** (born February 18, 1968) is an American actress, singer, and author. She was cast in her first major role as Molly in the NBC sitcom *The Facts of Life* (1979–80) after a casting director saw her playing an orphan in a stage production of the musical *Annie*. She and several other members of the original *Facts of Life* cast were let go when the show was reworked by the network. She subsequently made her motion picture debut in the independent film *Tempest* (1982), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination for New Star of the Year.

After appearing in the successful John Hughes films Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), and Pretty in Pink (1986), Ringwald became a teen icon.

Find out more at iammollyringwald.com. Follow Molly on Twitter and Facebook.

***Career Highlights***

* Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983)
* Sixteen Candles (1984)
* The Breakfast Club (1985)
* Pretty in Pink (1986)
* Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)
* The Pick-up Artist (1987)
* Fresh Horses (1988)
* Strike It Rich (1990)
* Betsy's Wedding (1990)
* The Stand (TV, 1994)

### Unofficial Members

The initial New York article covered a group of actors larger, or more inclusive, than the currently understood meaning of the term "Brat Pack". For example, most of the cast members of The Outsiders were mentioned, none of whom starred in any other 1980s movies with any "core" Brat Packers, besides Patrick Swayze. Charlie Sheen appears in several lists – more for his family relationship to Brat Pack leader Emilio Estevez and his partying than for his collaborative film work with other members.

James Spader and Robert Downey, Jr. have also been considered members, and performed alongside other Brat Packers: both of them with Andrew McCarthy in Less Than Zero; Spader with McCarthy in Mannequin and with McCarthy and Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink; and Downey with Anthony Michael Hall (Weird Science and Johnny Be Good; and the cast of Saturday Night Live) and with Molly Ringwald (The Pick-up Artist). Other actors who have been linked with the group include Kevin Bacon, Matthew Broderick, Jon Cryer, John Cusack, Jami Gertz, Mary Stuart Masterson, Sean Penn, Kiefer Sutherland, and Lea Thompson. In her autobiography, Melissa Gilbert connects herself with the Brat Pack, as her social life centred on Estevez and Lowe (both of whom she was engaged to). Through frequent collaborative work, the actor Harry Dean Stanton, then in his late 50s, became a mentor for the group of young actors.