Iconic ‘Brat Pack’ star whose ‘prison’ character turned symbolic of the 80s appears unrecognizable throughout a uncommon public outing

He’s an 80s heartthrob to the teenagers who swooned over his juvenile delinquent persona in a cult-classic movie. 

That film would go down as one of the most iconic teen films in history, cementing itself as emblematic of the rebellious 80s – especially due to his classic ending scene which saw him punching the air as the credits rolled in.

His rugged, dark looks made him a favorite among young stars in that era, his name even being mentioned alongside Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald and Rob Lowe. 

Now, in character with his associated rebellious edge, he’s often seen riding his chopper around Beverly Hills. 

But the star was recently spotted looking unrecognizable with a long gray beard and glasses as he emerged from his car in a private parking area on a rare outing in Los Angeles. 

Can you guess who it is?

It’s Judd Nelson!

The one-time heartthrob was seen walking around a car parking lot as he ran errands. 

The 64-year-old actor sported a buzzed hairstyle and was wearing a gray long-sleeve shirt, a black LL Bean vest, boot-cut jeans and black slip-on sneakers.

Nelson is best known for his appearance as John Bender in the 1985 cult classic film The Breakfast Club.

The film gathers the stereotypical archetypes of 80s high school together for a Saturday detention: the ‘princess’, ‘athlete’, ‘geek’, ‘basket-case’ and ‘criminal’. Arguably, Nelson’s masterful characterization as Bender playing the ‘criminal’ is best remembered out of that star-studded cast.

When he receives the final kiss and a diamond earring as memorabilia from Molly Ringwald’s ‘princess’ character, Claire Standish, a monologue begins playing in the background that directly juxtaposes the labels each character has been given by the power-hungry principal, Paul Gleason’s character, Richard Vernon.

Bender puts in the earring and as the now famous song, ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’ rises to a crescendo while the sun begins to set, the delinquent raises his fist into the air as an act of triumph – with the movie pausing on this powerful frame as the credits roll in.

Even Nelson didn’t realize how cemented in pop culture that film would become, telling the Today show in 2015 that he was surprised, but pleasantly so.’

Shortly after wrapping up filming The Breakfast Club, Nelson would go on to star in another cult classic, St. Elmo’s Fire, where a group of recent college graduates go on a series of misadventures in the real world.

He played the politically-driven Alec Newbury who pushess his girlfriend Leslie, played by Ally Sheedy, away with his aspirations and cheating.

He was dubbed a member of the ‘Brat Pack’ by a New York magazine reporter who coined the name after seeing him and other young actors such as Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy, being mobbed in public by fans.

The term was ripped from Frank Sinatra’s famed ‘Rat Pack’ and has been closely associated with those actors since then.

Nelson took a different shift after the success of these two movies and plunged into the world of animation – starring as Hot Rod in the first film of the Transformers franchise, The Transformers: The Movie.

Also symbolic of this shift was when he appeared in the universally praised Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam – a documentary which to this day sits at a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating.

Nelson earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a mini-series from the 1987 two-part television film Billionaire Boys Club.

Other movies from the 80s he starred in were Blue City (1986), From the Hip (1987), , Relentless (1989) and Far Out Man (1990).

The 90s also proved to be successful for Nelson. He started out the decade in Hiroshima: Out of the Ashes (1990) starring opposite Max von Sydow. Then switched to laughs as the worst stand-up comedian in history in The Dark Backward (1991).

The film with the most commercial success from that era was the gangster film New Jack City where he starred as rapper-turned-actor Ice-T’s partner on a police investigation.

Closing out the 90s, Nelson returned to the gangster genre with the 1999 film Light It Up as a teacher who helped troubled teens.

He moved away from his 80s bad boy persona and shifted towards TV roles such as  Suddenly Susan, where he starred as Brooke Shield’s boss Jack Richmond. Even though the first season was a hit, rating viewership gradually went down and he left at the beginning of season four.

Since then he’s mainly taken television roles, Hallmark films and voiced in animated shows.

Nelson is the son of court mediator and former member of the Maine House of Representatives Merle Nelson and corporate lawyer Leonard Nelson. He grew up in a conservative Jewish home in Portland, Maine.

When he left to pursue acting he studied under famed Broadway actress and teacher Stella Adler.

Adler’s teachings on the Stanislavski system, also known as method acting, may have been why there were reports that his method acting nearly got him fired from The Breakfast Club.

Even when the cameras weren’t rolling, Nelson stayed in character – to the disapproval of director John Hughes who disliked how his muse, Molly Ringwald, was being taunted and teased by Nelson between takes.