The Breakfast Club was a huge coming-of-age comedy-drama and its teen actors became stars overnight. But what’s happened to the Brat Pack in the four decades since its release?
Friday marks 40 years since the premiere of comedy flick The Breakfast Club, which catapulted its talented young actors to fame and fortune.
The hit 1985 movie tells the story of five teens serving a detention at school.
Together with other newbies from Eighties coming-of-age films, a new term was coined for these hot Eighties stars… the Brat Pack!
But what happened to them? Here JAMES MOORE reveals the ups and downs of their lives.
Molly Ringwald
Playing spoiled ‘princess’ Claire Standish in The Breakfast Club, Ringwald also starred in 1986 school rom-com Pretty in Pink.
But, as a victim of sexual harassment in the industry, she later shunned Hollywood and moved to France.
Having dated Breakfast Club co-star Anthony Michael Hall and Beastie Boys singer Ad-Rock in the 1980s, she wed and divorced a French writer, before marrying Greek author Panio Gianopoulos.
Now a 56-year-old mum-of-three, she’s returned to mainstream screen roles, recently starring in a TV series about US serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
Emilio Estevez
Son of movie legend Martin Sheen, he starred as ‘athlete’ Andrew Clark in The Breakfast Club and as Kirby in college movie St Elmo’s Fire too.
The actor was engaged to fellow Brat Packer Demi Moore and also dated model Carey Salley, acknowledging paternity of the pair’s two children following a lawsuit.
Estevez married singer Paula Abdul in 1992, but they divorced two years later.
Now 63, he’s starred in Stakeout and The Mighty Ducks movies as well as becoming a successful director.
Demi Moore
Starring as party girl Jules in St Elmo’s Fire, she also appeared in other Brat Pack movies like 1986’s About Last Night.
As her career took off, Demi would battle drug and alcohol abuse, but go on to become a huge Hollywood star in movies like Ghost and Indecent Proposal.
As well as her romance with Estevez she’s been married to rocker Freddy Moore, and had three children with second hubby, actor Bruce Willis.
She wed Just Married star Ashton Kutcher in 2005. They divorced in 2013.
Now 62, Moore recently won a Golden Globe for her role as an ageing celeb in 2024 movie The Substance.
Rob Lowe
The heartthrob played ‘frat boy’ Billy in St Elmo’s Fire and recently revealed he had a brief fling with Demi Moore after they co-starred together in About Last Night.
In 1988, the then 24-year-old was involved in a sex tape scandal with a 16-year-old girl, though denied he knew that was her age and wasn’t charged with any crime.
Lowe went on to beat drug and booze addictions and marry makeup artist Sheryl Berkoff in 1991. The pair are still together and have two sons.
The 60-year-old also rebuilt his career with roles like Sam Seaborn in hit TV show The West Wing.
Ally Sheedy
In The Breakfast Club, she played Allison Reynolds – the ‘basket case’ kid who wasn’t in detention but goes anyway. She also starred in St Elmo’s Fire as budding architect Leslie.
Despite screen success, Sheedy went to rehab for a sleeping pill addiction and also suffered with an eating disorder and depression.
She dated Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora and has a son with ex-husband David Lansbury.
Sheedy had roles in movies like Short Circuit, but hated the Brat Pack tag and now, aged 62, concentrates on teaching acting.
Anthony Michael Hall
Only 16 when he played Brian Johnson, the ‘brain’, in The Breakfast Club, he also starred in films like Weird Science and Edward Scissorhands and more recently in TV series like The Dead Zone.
He took a two-year break from acting for a drinking problem, before going sober in 1990. In 2016 he was sentenced to three years of probation and 40 hours of community service for assaulting a neighbour.
Hall, now 56, married actress Lucia Oskerova in 2020 and the pair have a son together.
Judd Nelson
Starring in the The Breakfast Club as bad boy John Bender – and in St Elmo’s Fire, he’s since had roles voicing Rodimus Prime in the Transformer movies and in TV shows like Suddenly Susan.
He’s previously dated the likes of Beverly Hills 90210 star Shannen Doherty. Now 65, Nelson keeps a relatively low profile, largely avoiding social media.
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