Summary
The Brat Pack was a group of actors who were known for starring in 1980s teen movies.
Members of the Brat Pack now range in age from the 56-year old Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall to the 64-year-old Judd Nelson.
Secondary members of the Brat Pack include the 65-year-old Mare Winningham and the 64-year-old James Spader.
The stars of the Brat Pack have aged out of their iconic roles from the 1980s. The members of the group, which was named in a New York magazine story by David Blum in 1985, were a cadre of popular young actors who were known for starring in teen movies throughout the decade. The group was the center of Hulu’s Brat Pack documentaryBrats, which premiered on June 13, 2024, and was directed by another well-known 1980s actor, Andrew McCarthy.
To be considered a main member of the Brat Pack, a star generally had to meet two criteria. The first criterion was to either be featured in the St. Elmo’s Fire or The Breakfast Club cast. The pair of seminal movies were both released in 1985, directed by Joel Schumacher and John Hughes respectively. The other criterion, which didn’t apply in every case, was to have appeared in at least one other movie with at least one other member of those ensemble casts.
Related The Brat Pack Origins Explained: Why Members Hated The Nickname
The trailer for the new Hulu documentary on the “Brat Pack” revealed some interesting information about how the members feel about the nickname.
Molly Ringwald
56 Years Old
Brat Pack star Molly Ringwald was one of the two youngest members of the group. Born on February 18, 1968, she was 15 years old when she filmed her breakout role in John Hughes’ directorial debut Sixteen Candles, turning the same age as her character in 1984, the year it was released. Unusually for a star of teen movies, she was actually in her teenage years while filming her other biggest titles, as she was 16 when filming The Breakfast Club and 17 during production of Pretty in Pink. At the time of writing, she is now 56 years old.
Emilio Estevez
62 Years Old
Estevez, who was viewed as the leader of the Brat Pack, was born on May 12, 1962. This means that he would have turned 20 over the course of shooting his early teen role in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders. The star was one of the performers to appear in both The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire, and though he would have been 21 while filming The Breakfast Club, he had turned 22 by the time production on St. Elmo’s Fire kicked off. Estevez is now 62 years old.
Anthony Michael Hall
56 Years Old
Anthony Michael Hall is one of the members of the group with the most Brat Pack movies under his belt. Born on April 14, 1968, Hall was also 15 when he starred opposite Molly Ringwald in Sixteen Candles, the movie that kicked off the directorial career of John Hughes and is largely responsible for the teen movie boom of the mid-1980s. Hall turned 16 during production on The Breakfast Club, the same age he was when filming his lead role in Weird Science. Hall is now 56 years old.
Although Hughes wrote roles for Hall in
Pretty in Pink
and
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
, the star turned them down to prevent himself from being typecast.
Rob Lowe
60 Years Old
Rob Lowe, who was born on March 17, 1964, co-starred with Emilio Estevez in both The Outsiders and St. Elmo’s Fire. As he was roughly two years younger than his co-star, he had just turned 18 when he started shooting the Coppola movie and was 20 years old during production on the Schumacher classic. Lowe is now 60 years old.
Judd Nelson
64 Years Old
The oldest member of the Brat Pack, Judd Nelson was born on November 28, 1959. Although he didn’t appear in many other teen movies of the era, he has the distinction of having starred in both The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire. He was 24 at the time he shot the former and would have turned 25 shortly after principal photography began on the latter. Nelson is now 64 years old.
Ally Sheedy
62 Years Old
Ally Sheedy was born on June 13, 1962. She is another Brat Packer who starred in both The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire, though she was a teenager during neither production. She was 21 while filming the former, and had turned 22 by the time production on the latter began. She would have been 20 while filming her earlier role opposite Matthew Broderick in 1983’s WarGames. Sheedy is now 62 years old.
Demi Moore
61 Years Old
Demi Moore, who was at one point engaged to prominent Brat Pack actor Emilio Estevez, was born on November 11, 1962. This means that she would have turned 22 just one month after the beginning of production on her movie St. Elmo’s Fire. She was the same age when she performed opposite Rob Lowe in the next year’s About Last Night…, though she turned 23 while filming. Moore is now 61 years old.
Andrew McCarthy
61 Years Old
The director of Brats was born on November 29, 1962. This means he would have been 22 while filming St. Elmo’s Fire, 23 while making his follow-up Pretty in Pink with Molly Ringwald, and just about to turn 24 when he began performing his lead role in 1987’s Less than Zero. McCarthy is now 61 years old.
Brat Pack “Fifth Beatles”
There Are Several Secondary Brat Pack Members
Mare Winningham is 65 Years Old – Mare Winningham is the only member of the St. Elmo’s Fire cast to not appear in another teen movie with any of her co-stars or any of the Breakfast Club cast.
Tom Cruise is 61 Years Old – Tom Cruise, who was mentioned in Blum’s original article for his role in Taps, also appeared in the seminal 1983 teen movie Risky Business.
Charlie Sheen is 58 Years Old – Sheen, who is Emilio Estevez’s brother, held a small role in John Hughes’ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in addition to playing teenage roles in movies including The Boys Next Door and Red Dawn.
James Spader is 64 Years Old – James Spader starred in a variety of movies opposite main Brat Packers including Pretty in Pink, Less than Zero, Mannequin, and Bad Influence.
Robert Downey Jr. is 59 Years Old – Robert Downey Jr. co-starred with James Spader and Andrew McCarthy in Less than Zero in addition to appearing in movies including The Pick-up Artist and Back to School and collaborating with Anthony Michael Hall three times, in Johnny Be Good, Weird Science, and Saturday Night Live.
Timothy Hutton is 63 Years Old – Timothy Hutton’s Taps role opposite Tom Cruise also earned him a mention in Blum’s New York article, though neither of the stars were popularly considered to be members of the Brat Pack outside of the piece where the term was coined.
Related Where To Watch Timothy Hutton’s Ordinary People After The Brat Pack Documentary
The Hulu documentary Brats explores the lives and careers of the illustrious Brat Pack, including Timothy Hutton, who starred in Ordinary People.
Other Stars Who Have Been Linked To The Brat Pack
The Brat Pack Has A Wide Sphere of Influence
Other stars have been linked to the Brat Pack, generally by starring in a movie with at least one core member of the group. Other teen stars who worked with John Hughes are likewise sometimes considered to be connected to the group, like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off star Matthew Broderick (62). Other tertiary Brat Packers include John Cusack (57) and his sister Joan Cusack (61), Jami Gertz (58), Sean Penn (63), Kevin Bacon (65), Jon Cryer (59), Nicolas Cage (60), Lea Thompson (63), Mary Stuart Masterson (57), Melissa Gilbert (60), and Kiefer Sutherland (57).