The Brat Pack

'The Brat Pack' is a term used to describe a generation of highly successful film stars in their early twenties who made their mark in teen-oriented coming-of-age films in the early to mid-1980s. They often appeared together in the same films. The actors also socialised in their private lives and were known as wild party-goers. The term is a play on words on ‘Rat Pack’ from the 1950s and 1960s, and was first used in 1985 by David Blum in an article in New York magazine. In the coming weeks, we'll post about several official and unofficial members of The Brat Pack.


Vintage postcard, no. FA 240. Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall in The Breakfast Club (John Hughes, 1985).


British postcard by Paramount. Photo: Paramount. Mollie Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Jon Cryer and James Spader in Pretty in Pink (Howard Deutch, 1986).


British postcard by Athena International, no. 0334313. Photo: Morgan Creek Productions Inc.Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen, Dermot Mulroney and Casey Siemaszko in Young Guns (Christopher Cain, 1988).


Australian postcard by TV Hits. Photo: N. Moran / Sygma / Austral International. Photo: Patrick Swayze, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, C Thomas Howell, Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise in The Outsiders (Francis Coppola, 1983).


Australian postcard by TV Hits. Sent by mail in 1992. The Brat Pack: Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, River Phoenix, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Ralph Macchio, Corey Feldman and Corey Haim.

Who were the Brat Pack?

According to the postcard from Australian teen magazine TV Hits, the group consisted of Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, River Phoenix, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Ralph Macchio, Corey Feldman and Corey Haim. The postcard was probably published in 1992, which explains why Phoenix, Feldman and Haim are included. They had their breakthroughs after 1985.

According to the Dutch version of Wikipedia and the website Brat Pack, the Brat Pack’s most notable films are the teen films The Breakfast Club (John Hughes, 1985) and St. Elmo’s Fire (Joel Schumacher, 1985), and the members of the Brat Pack are: Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy.

The term ‘Brat Pack’ is also used to describe films that only became well-known years after their release, due to the emergence of actors who were unknown at the time but later achieved A-list status. This usually involves around five to seven actors appearing in the film. Examples are Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Amy Heckerling, 1982), starring Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Forest Whitaker and Eric Stoltz, and Diner (Barry Levinson, 1982), starring Kevin Bacon, Paul Reiser, Mickey Rourke and Steve Guttenberg. The collaboration between the members of the Brat Pack dates back, in some cases, to their school days. Charlie Sheen, Sean Penn, Chris Penn, Emilio Estevez and Rob Lowe were already making Super 8 films together as teenagers.

German Wikipedia refers to the eponymous article in New York magazine by David Blum that initially included Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, Tom Cruise, Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillon, Nicolas Cage, Sean Penn and Matthew Broderick in the Brat Pack. It adds that their films were mostly aimed at a teenage audience, whose enthusiasm for most of these actors waned as both the viewers and the characters grew up.

Only later did the core group come to be defined by the leading actors in The Breakfast Club (1985) and St. Elmo’s Fire (1985). Beyond these two primary films, there is no generally accepted list of Brat Pack movies. While Blum's article credits Taps (Harold Becker, 1981) as the first Brat Pack movie, English Wikipedia lists The Outsiders (Francis Ford Coppola, 1983) as the first one. The young stars of the latter film, C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Diane Lane, and Tom Cruise are often counted among the Brat Pack. Furthermore, Robert Downey Jr., Lea Thompson, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, and James Spader are also often considered Brat Pack members.


American postcard by American Postcard, no. 993. Photo: Ponyboy Inc. C. Thomas Howell as Ponyboy, Matt Dillon as Dallas and Ralph Macchio as Johnny in The Outsiders (Francis Coppola, 1983).


British postcard by Santoro Graphics Ltd, London, no. C 289. Emilio Estevez.


British postcard by Santoro Graphics Ltd, London no. C 245. Rob Lowe.


German autograph card by Kino. Ally Sheedy.


Spanish postcard in the Collección Estrellas de Actualidad by Cacitel, S.L., no. 151. Retail price: 100 pts. Demi Moore.

A wild partying group of young actors in their 20s

The term ‘the Brat Pack’ was an allusion to 'the Rat Pack'. This was an informal group of singers that, in its second iteration, ultimately made films and appeared together in Las Vegas casino venues. The Rat Pack centred on Frank Sinatra, and included Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, and others. They appeared together on stage and in films in the 1950s and 1960s, including the films Ocean's 11 (Lewis Milestone, 1960) and Sergeants 3 (John Sturges, 1962). After Lawford's expulsion, they filmed Robin and the 7 Hoods (Gordon Douglas, 1964) with Bing Crosby in what was to have been Lawford's role. The term 'Rat Pack' is said to have been first dubbed as such by Lauren Bacall.

The term ‘Brat Pack’ first appeared in a cover story in New York magazine on 10 June 1985. In this article, titled 'Hollywood's Brat Pack', author David Blum described the wild partying of a group of young actors in their 20s who, in varying combinations, had been appearing together in various films since the early 1980s. Blum wrote the article after witnessing several young actors being mobbed by groupies at Los Angeles' Hard Rock Cafe. The article partly highlights the talent of the young actors, whilst also citing the lack of formal acting training as a criterion for membership.

From the mid-1980s onwards, a series of debut novels by promising young writers were aggressively marketed as the ‘literary Brat Pack’.The media initially included the following authors and works in this loose group: Jay McInerney – 'Bright Lights, Big City'(1984), Bret Easton Ellis – 'Less Than Zero' (1985), Tama Janowitz – 'Slaves of New York' (1986) and Mark Lindquist – 'Sad Movies' (1987). The authors dealt with the process of growing older and themes such as drug abuse, consumerism, heartbreak and a sense of disorientation. Their novels shared a generally reflective, and at times cynical, perspective on social classes. The literary Brat Pack became hugely successful in the wake of this hype, and their books were filmed. In some cases, even with members of the Brat Pack, like Less Than Zero (Marek Kanievska, 1987) starring Andrew McCarthy and Robert Downey Jr.

In his New York article, David Blum is also highly critical, particularly in his description of the group’s behaviour and their star allure. Most of the actors labelled as such therefore disliked the term, and some even blamed the article for the decline of their careers. The article was originally supposed to be just about Emilio Estevez, but one night, Estevez invited Blum to hang out with him, Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, and others at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was a typical night out for the group, who had gotten close while filming St. Elmo's Fire. That night, Blum decided to change the article's focus to an entire group of young actors at the time. 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 stuck for years afterwards. With the increased negative attention to them, the actors soon stopped socialising 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." During the late 1980s, several of the Brat Pack actors had their careers more or less derailed by problems relating to drugs like Robert Downey and Corey Haim, alcohol (think Charlie Sheen), and, in Rob Lowe's case, a sex tape. By the 21st century, the term Brat Pack had lost its negative connotation. Andrew McCarthy directed the documentary Brats (2024), about the Brat Pack. Brats reflects on the careers and lasting impact of the Brat Pack. It features interviews with Estevez, Lowe, Demi Moore, Sheedy, and David Blum. Brian Tallerico at Roger Ebert.com: "I’m just old enough to remember the explosion of fame that greeted the Brat Pack, who some may forget were barely old enough themselves to know what was happening. The well-spoken Lowe makes an intriguing case that the Brat Pack were the main driving force in an entire cultural shift to stories of young people, which gives Brats unexpected poignancy in that these actors and actresses who made such an impact were reduced to an undeniably insulting label. Brats is a reclamation and a reshaping of that label. And it’s overdue."


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/193. Photo: Terb Agency. The Rat Pack: Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Frank Sinatra.


British postcard by Classics Postcards London, no. 59. Matt Dillon and Mickey Rourke in Rumble Fish (Francis Coppola, 1983).


British postcard by Paramount. Photo: Paramount. James Spader, Jon Cryer, Mollie Ringwald and Andrew McCarthy in Pretty in Pink (Howard Deutch, 1986).


British postcard by Paramount. Photo: Paramount. Jon Cryer, James Spader, Mollie Ringwald and Andrew McCarthy in Pretty in Pink (Howard Deutch, 1986).


Spanish postcard. Photo: CB Films / Trans World Entertainment. Andrew McCarthy in Kansas (David Stevens, 1988). The Spanish title is Kansas, dos hombres, dos caminos.

Sources: Brian Tallerico (RogerEbert.com),  The Brat Pack, Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English).