zpostcode
Brat Pack
Apr 4, 2025 6:36 AM

  

Brat Pack1

  St. Elmo's FireActors (from left) Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, Mare Winningham, and Andrew McCarthy in the film St. Elmo's Fire (1985), directed by Joel Schumacher. An interview with Estevez, Lowe, and Nelson shortly before the film's release led to them being dubbed (along with several other actors) “the Brat Pack.”(more)Brat Pack, the name of a group of actors who starred alongside one another in several coming-of-age films throughout the 1980s. The term was originally disparaging, though it came to be embraced by some fans. The members of the Brat Pack vary depending on which source is consulted, but they typically are considered to have been:

  Emilio EstevezAnthony Michael HallRob LoweAndrew McCarthyDemi MooreJudd NelsonMolly RingwaldAlly SheedyVarious combinations of these actors appeared in movies throughout the decade, though the entire group never featured together in one film. Classic Brat Pack films include The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire (both 1985).

  New York magazine and the Brat Pack label

  

Brat Pack2

  The Breakfast ClubActors (from left) Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, and Anthony Michael Hall in the film The Breakfast Club (1985), written and directed by John Hughes.(more)The term Brat Pack was coined by New York magazine writer David Blum in a profile of several up-and-coming actors published in June 1985. That spring, Blum flew from New York City to Los Angeles to interview Emilio Estevez, a son of Martin Sheen and brother of Charlie Sheen (both of whom are also actors). Estevez had appeared in several films, including Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders (1983), the action-comedy Repo Man (1984), and the high-school drama The Breakfast Club. Blum’s initial goal was to write solely about Estevez, but, when the two met, Estevez invited Blum out with his friends, Rob Lowe and Judd Nelson, both of whom had just finished working with Estevez on the soon-to-be-released film St. Elmo’s Fire. (Lowe had also worked with Estevez in The Outsiders, and Nelson had starred with him in The Breakfast Club.)

  From this night on the town with Estevez and his friends, Blum composed his New York cover story, titled “Hollywood’s Brat Pack,” as a critical glimpse into the lives of the young actors. Blum dubbed Estevez “the unofficial president of the Brat Pack,” playing off of the iconic 1960s-era “Rat Pack,” which included famous carousers such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr. Blum classified the newly anointed Brat Pack as the Rat Pack’s ’80s equivalent, “a roving band of famous young stars on the prowl for parties, women, and a good time.” The profile described the pack’s night out in detail, portraying them as privileged and haughty. Blum named success as the most critical aspect of the Brat Pack’s lives, writing:

  For one of the pack, [failure] is a mortal sin—because what makes you a member, what makes you a Brat, is the ability to be in a position where Hollywood needs you more than you need Hollywood.

  Blum also proclaimed Taps (1981), a drama about military cadets that featured Tom Cruise, Sean Penn, and Timothy Hutton, to have been the first Brat Pack film. He listed several other actors whom he considered to be part of the Brat Pack, noting their connections to one another and to big players in Hollywood. His list included Cruise, Penn, Hutton, Matt Dillon, Andrew McCarthy, and Nicolas Cage. Blum did not include any actresses, only briefly mentioning Demi Moore (a St. Elmo’s Fire cast member) and Melissa Gilbert (former star of the TV show Little House on the Prairie) in terms of their romances with Estevez and Lowe, respectively.

  Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now Impact of the Brat Pack label Many young actors of the 1980s became associated with the Brat Pack label, including:

  Kevin BaconMatthew BroderickJon CryerJohn CusackRobert Downey, Jr.Corey FeldmanJami GertzJennifer GreyCorey HaimDiane LaneRalph MacchioMary Stuart MastersonMatthew ModineSarah Jessica ParkerCharlie SheenJames SpaderEric StoltzKiefer SutherlandPatrick SwayzeLea Thompson Following the article’s publication, many of the actors mentioned, particularly Estevez, Lowe, and Nelson, felt betrayed by Blum’s depiction of them. Despite their objections, “Brat Pack” quickly became the common name for the group of actors. Ironically, a number of actors who came to be regarded as Brat Pack members—namely, Anthony Michael Hall, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy—did not feature in the story, but the title stuck to them regardless. As a result, the friendships that had formed between some of the actors were damaged because quite a few of them did not want to be caught in public hanging out together. In Susannah Gora’s book You Couldn’t Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation (2010), Sheedy said the article “just destroyed [the group]. I had felt truly a part of something, and [Blum] blew it to pieces.” Other Brat Packers, especially Hall and Nelson, insisted there was no Brat Pack; in fact, Hall and McCarthy had never even met each other.

  Some actors named in the article, such as Cruise and Penn, managed to shake off the association easily, such that many film fans and critics came to forget they had ever been considered part of the group. At the same time, the label continued to be applied throughout the 1980s to numerous other young actors and actresses, many of them being tagged with the label simply because of their age and because they had, at some point, been cast in a film that was geared toward teenagers or young adults. In 2024 McCarthy told reporters that the label “represented a seismic cultural shift” in which “movies were suddenly about kids.…Some people loved that, and some people thought we were brats.”

  Brat Pack films

  

Brat Pack3

  The OutsidersActors (from left) Ralph Macchio, C. Thomas Howell, and Matt Dillon in The Outsiders (1983), directed by Francis Ford Coppola.(more)Despite Blum’s claim that Taps was the first Brat Pack movie, many film buffs classify a Brat Pack flick as being one in which multiple members of the classic Brat Pack lineup appear together. Moreover, all Brat Pack movies feature a coming-of-age plotline. According to that definition, there are 12 Brat Pack films, released between 1983 and 1990. The collaborations began with Estevez and Lowe in The Outsiders, a story of rival teen gangs in Oklahoma in the 1960s that also starred Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, and Diane Lane. Other Brat Pack films that meet this definition include Class (1983), Sixteen Candles (1984), Oxford Blues (1984), Pretty in Pink (1986), Blue City (1986), About Last Night… (1986), Wisdom (1986), and Fresh Horses (1988).

  The most prominent Brat Pack films, however, are John Hughes’s The Breakfast Club and Joel Schumacher’s St. Elmo’s Fire. These two films feature over half of the classic Brat Pack lineup and, notably, complement each other in terms of the life stages that they address. The Breakfast Club, which starred Estevez, Hall, Nelson, Ringwald, and Sheedy, centers on five high-school students who become unlikely friends while assigned to all-day detention. St. Elmo’s Fire, which starred Estevez, Lowe, Nelson, McCarthy, Moore, and Sheedy, follows the lives of recent college graduates struggling with adulthood. (Mare Winningham also starred in the film, and yet, in what remains an unsolved mystery of the 1980s, she fully dodged the Brat Pack label.) Betsy’s Wedding (1990), a romantic comedy featuring Ringwald and Sheedy, is considered to be the last film in the Brat Pack genre.

  All the Brat Pack actors continued to do notable work, as actors, directors, or writers, though with different career peaks and valleys. Their careers also continued to overlap occasionally. Both Moore and Nelson had recurring roles on the television series Empire (2015–20), and Ringwald and Sheedy reunited in an episode of Single Drunk Female (2022–23). In 2024 Ringwald and Moore appeared in the miniseries Feud: Capote vs. the Swans.

  In early 2024 McCarthy announced that a documentary titled Brats would air on Hulu later that year. Inspired by McCarthy’s memoir Brat: An ’80s Story (2021), the documentary promised to feature interviews with his fellow Brat Packers Moore, Sheedy, Estevez, and Lowe, as well as with Blum, the journalist who gave them their infamous name.

Comments
Welcome to zpostcode comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Recommend >
Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi
     Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi World Heritage site (more) Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi royal burial ground, Uganda Ask the Chatbot a Question Ask the Chatbot a Question Also known as: Kasubi Tombs Written by Meg Matthias Meg Matthias is Senior Video Production Manager at Encyclopædia Britannica. Meg Matthias Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia...
John Calipari
     A Hall of Fame coach John Calipari cutting down the net after Kentucky defeated Kansas, 67–59, in the championship game of the 2012 NCAA tournament. (more) John Calipari American basketball coach Ask the Chatbot a Question Ask the Chatbot a Question Also known as: John Vincent Calipari Written by Fred Frommer Fred Frommer is a sports historian, author, and...
Advent calendar
  Advent calendar Christmas custom Ask the Chatbot a Question Ask the Chatbot a Question Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and...
Silk Road
  Silk Road online black market Actions Share Share Share to social media Facebook X URL https://www.britannica.com/topic/Silk-Road-marketplace Ask the Chatbot a Question Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Information Recommendation
National Women’s Soccer League
     National Women's Soccer League Bay FC forward Princess Marfo (center) drives the ball during the first half of the NWSL football (soccer) match against the Chicago Stars FC in San Jose, California, on May 5, 2024. (more) National Women’s Soccer League American sports organization Ask the Chatbot a Question Ask the Chatbot a Question Also known as: NWSL Written...
Girl Scout Cookies
     Girl Scout Cookies Girl Scouts selling cookies at a stand in Midtown Manhattan, 2013. (more) Girl Scout Cookies food Ask the Chatbot a Question Ask the Chatbot a Question Written by Laura Payne Laura Payne is a freelance writer whose work covers many topics. She is a former Wayne State University linguistics instructor. Laura Payne Fact-checked by The Editors...
Ham
     Mercury-Redstone 2 Launch of Mercury-Redstone 2 on January 31, 1961, on a suborbital flight with the chimpanzee Ham on board. The flight paved the way for the first American astronauts. (more) Ham chimpanzee Ask the Chatbot a Question Ask the Chatbot a Question Written by Frannie Comstock Frannie Comstock is a writer based in Chicago. Frannie Comstock Fact-checked by...
An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage
     Frederick Douglass American abolitionist and author Frederick Douglass, daguerreotype made c. 1850 from a c. 1847 original. (more) An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage article by Frederick Douglass, primary source Ask the Chatbot a Question Ask the Chatbot a Question Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they...
Miracle on Ice
     Miracle on Ice Members of the United States Olympic men's hockey team celebrating their remarkable victory over the Soviet Union's team at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York, on February 22, 1980. The Soviet Union's goaltender Vladimir Myshkin is at left. (more) Miracle on Ice Olympic hockey game Ask the Chatbot a Question Ask the...
givinostat
  givinostat drug Ask the Chatbot a Question Ask the Chatbot a Question Written by Kara Rogers Kara Rogers is the senior editor of biomedical sciences at Encyclopædia Britannica, where she oversees a range of content from medicine and genetics to microorganisms. She joined Britannica in 2006 and... Kara Rogers Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee...
Essential Elements of Music
     Janet Jackson With bold, beat-heavy, catchy songs, Janet Jackson's music defines the punch and power of 1980s dance and pop. (more) Essential Elements of Music Ask the Chatbot a Question Ask the Chatbot a Question Written by Kara Rogers Kara Rogers is the senior editor of biomedical sciences at Encyclopædia Britannica, where she oversees a range of content from...
Battle of Jaffa
     Richard I at Jaffa, 1192 Richard I (Richard Coeur de Lion) landing at Jaffa to lift the Saracen siege. © Photos.com/Getty Images. (more) Battle of Jaffa Middle Eastern history [1192] Ask the Chatbot a Question More Actions Print Cite verifiedCite While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to...