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).

Souvenirs from Noordwijk (2)

This summer, we visited postcard seller Jac Verloop and his wife at their home in Noordwijk, a lovely coastal town in the Netherlands. Verloop is specialised in French postcards, which he buys in Belgium and France. We found some wonderful postcards, which we share with you in two posts. Last week Ivo did a selection of his finds. For today's post, I chose my 15 souvenirs from Noordwijk.


American postcard. Sent by mail in France.

Film historians consider The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter, 1903) to be the first American action film and the first Western. Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson played three roles in The Great Train Robbery. It became the first blockbuster and was one of the most popular films of the silent era until the release of The Birth of a Nation in 1915. This unknown Western must have been made between these two milestones. There were many ink dots on the card, so I put quite some work into the scan, but I love the result.


French postcard by S.I.P., no. 918/1. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.

Beautiful Manon Loti, or Manon Loty, was an opera singer and actress. She was also a noted courtesan. At least one of her liaisons has been written about. She had a short, passionate affair with the dashing and wealthy Russian nobleman, Nikolay Felixovich Yusupov. The two were 'inseparable' during their affair in Paris. Nikolay’s brother, Prince Felix, described Loti as a beautiful and famous courtesan who lived in great luxury. Loti employed a dwarf as her servant and 'mascot'. Loti was a popular entertainer. She was often seen at Maxime’s, a Paris gathering spot for wealthy royals and industrialists. Men made arrangements with the Belle Epoque courtesans who gathered there. A 1910 article in Pearson’s magazine mentions her as an example of a “mercenary woman”.


French postcard by Établissements photographiques du Boulogne-sur-Seine. Photo: H. Manuel. Caption: Casino de Paris.

French actress and singer Mistinguett (1875-1956) captivated Paris with her risqué routines. She went on to become the most popular French entertainer of her time and the highest-paid female entertainer in the world. She appeared in the cinema more than 60 times.

Max Dearly (1874-1943) was a French actor, famous for his roles in 1930s French sound films but also for his previous career in Parisian Vaudeville.


French postcard. René Poyen as Bout de Zan.

René Poyen (1908-1968) was a famous child star in silent French cinema. At the age of four, he started at the Gaumont film company as the popular character Bout-de-Zan, a child dressed in adult clothing. Most of his burlesque comedies were filmed by Louis Feuillade.


French postcard by Imp. Phot. Neurdein et Cie, Paris. Photo: Cinéma Éclair. M. Teddy as Corporal Parisot and Josette Andriot as the spy in Les Poilus de la 9me (Rémond, 1916).

Édouard Pinto alias Teddy (1887-1965) was a Portuguese-born actor and acrobat. In 1904, whilst in Barcelona, Teddy met Segundo de Chomón. Chomón filmed him in a sketch in Spain as a clown reading his newspaper, while his sidekick sets the pages alight and ends up setting fire to the clown’s hat. Till 1923, Teddy starred in many French films, often for the Eclair company.

Josette Andriot (1886–1942) was a French film actress of the silent film era. From 1911, she did 60 films for Eclair and became known as the accomplice of Zigomar in the eponymous crime series. Yet, she is best known for playing Protéa in a series of espionage films made between 1913 and 1919. She dressed in a close-fitting black jersey, two years before Musidora would do so as Irma Vep in Louis Feuillade's Les Vampires.


French postcard by Cine Cartes, no. 1. Photo: Film Aubert. André Feramus as Gilbert de Kéradec in Sarati le terrible / Sarati the Terrible (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1923). Caption: Gilbert de Kerradec on the quays of Algiers.

Sarati le terrible / Sarati the Terrible (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1923) was an adaptation of a novel by Jean Vignaud. A man of humble origins, César Sarati (Henri Baudin) has made his fortune in the coal trade in Algiers. He ruthlessly exploits the indigenous labourers at the port, to whom he rents out, at exorbitant prices, slum dwellings in his large house in the Casbah, and lends money at interest.


French postcard in the Les Vedettes du Cinéma series by Éditions Filma, no. 84. Photo: Films Aubert.

Sessue Hayakawa (1889–1973) was a Japanese Issei actor who starred in American, Japanese, French, German, and British films. He was the first Asian actor to find stardom in the United States and Europe. His 'broodingly handsome' good looks and typecasting as a sinister villain with sexual dominance made him a heartthrob among American women. Several years before Rudolph Valentino, he was Hollywood's first male sex symbol. During those early years, Hayakawa was as well known and as popular as Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, although today his name is largely unknown to the public.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 395.

American actress Clara Bow (1905-1965) rose to stardom as an uninhibited flapper in silent films during the 1920s. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the film It (1927) brought her global fame and the nickname 'The It Girl'. Bow came to personify the Roaring Twenties and is described as its leading sex symbol.


French promotion card in the Les Vedettes de l'Ecran series. Erich von Stroheim in Ultimatum (Robert Wiene, Robert Siodmak, 1938).

Was Austrian-born Erich von Stroheim (1885-1957) a Hollywood movie star or a European film star? (Who cares!) As the sadistic, monocled Prussian officer in both American and French films, he became ‘The Man You Love to Hate’. But maybe he is best known as one of the greatest and most influential directors of the silent era, known for his extravagance and the uncompromising accuracy of detail in his monumental films.


French card by Massilia. Photo: Filmsonor.

French film actor Roger Duchesne (1906-1996) appeared in 30 films between 1934 and 1957. He is best remembered as the silver-haired gangster Bob in Jean-Pierre Melville's Policier Bob le flambeur / Bob the Gambler (1956).


French card by Folies-Bergère. Photo: Louis Silvester. Card from a set of 4 cards.

The Folies-Bergère (French pronunciation: [fɔli bɛʁʒɛʁ]) is a famous cabaret music hall in Paris, France. The house was at the height of its fame and popularity during the Belle Époque from the 1890s through the 1920s. The Folies-Bergère Revues featured extravagant costumes, sets and effects, and often nude women.


French postcard by Edition Chantal, Paris, no. 585.

Beautiful Nita Raya (1915-2015) was a French dancer, singer and actress. She was a lead dancer at the Folies-Bergère. For ten years, she was the companion of Maurice Chevalier.


French postcard, no. 205. Photo: Studio Harcourt. Signed in 1946.

French actor Pierre Brasseur (1905–1972), who appeared in some 150 films and TV productions, was renowned for playing charming and flamboyant characters. He is best known as 19th-century actor Frédérick Lemaître in Les Enfants du Paradis / Children of Paradise (1945) and as Docteur Génessier in the Horror film Les Yeux sans visage / Eyes Without a Face (1960). Brasseur was also a poet and playwright.


French postcard by Greff, Paris, no. 4. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

French actress Michèle Morgan (1920-2016) was a classic beauty and one of her country's most popular leading ladies for over five decades. The delicate, sophisticated, and detached star was especially noted for her large, expressive eyes.


French postcard by Editions Publistar, no. 796. Photo: Gérard Neuvecelle / Disques Président.

The Spotnicks were a Swedish instrumental guitar rock band which formed in the late 1950s and enjoyed great popularity in the first half of the 1960s. The band is best known for the space suits they wore during their performances.

Pierre Richard-Willm

Elegant French actor Pierre Richard-Willm (1895-1983) starred in 40 films during the 1930s and the first half of the 1940s. The good-looking jeune premier excelled in the foreign legion melodrama Le Grand Jeu / The Great Game (1934) and as Edmond Dantès in Le Comte de Monte-Cristo / The Count of Monte-Christo (1943).


French postcard, no. 31. Photo: publicity still for Stradivarius (Albert Valentin, Géza von Bolváry, 1935).


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 1117. Photo: Raymond Voinquel.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 609. Photo: Studio Lorelle.


French postcard by Editions Chantal, no. 31. Photo: R. Voinquel / Flora Films / Productions Max Glas.


French card. Pierre Richard Willm in Un Carnet de Bal / Dance Program (Julien Duvivier, 1937).


French postcard by EC, no. 43.


French postcard, no. 43.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2174/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Rudolph, Paris.

Charming spectators of all ages

Pierre Richard-Willm was born as Alexander Pierre Richard in south-western France in the city of Bayonne in 1895. His mother, Elisabeth-Fanny Willm, died at the age of thirty-one, and from 1905 on, he was raised by his maternal grandmother in Bordeaux.

He attended the école des Beaux-Arts in Nantes. Theatre was his passion, and in 1911, he started as an amateur at the Théâtre du Peuple de Bussang. In 1916, he joined the army and fought during World War I at Verdun. 

After the war, he became a sculptor, and in 1921, he started playing bit roles on the professional stage. From 1925 on, he worked at the Odeon in Paris in plays like 'La dame aux camélias' under the pseudonym Richard Willm, the combined name of his father and mother.

His film debut as a jeune premier came in the Paramount production Toute sa vie / Sarah and Son (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1930), followed by another film by Alberto Cavalcanti for Paramount, Les Vacances du diable / The Devil's Holiday (1931).

With his elegance and good looks, he charmed spectators of all ages. In the next years, he made dozens of films, including French versions of Ufa productions, including Autour d'une enquête / Preliminary Investigation (Pierre Chomette, Robert Siodmak, 1931) starring Annabella, and La fille du régiment / The Daughter of the Regiment (Pierre Billon, Carl Lamac, 1933) starring Anny Ondra.


French card.


French postcard by EC, no. 985. Photo: Studio Rudolph, Paris.


French postcard by Editions et Publications cinematographiques, no. 29. Photo: Forster.


French postcard by Viny, no. 81. Photo: Studio Rudolph.


French postcard by Viny, no. 84. Photo: Studio Rudolph.


French postcard by Erpé, no. 578. Photo: Raymond Voinquel. 578. Pierre Richard-Willm in Les nuits moscovites / Moscow Nights (Alexis Granowski, 1934).


French postcard, no. 31. Pierre Richard Willm in La maison dans la dune / The House on the Dune (Pierre Billon, 1934).

French promotion card by L'ermitage, Paris. Pierre Richard Willm in La route impériale / The Imperial Road (Marcel L'Herbier, 1935).


French postcard, no. 134. Photo Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 134. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Count of Monte Cristo

Pierre Richard-Willm’s breakthrough was the Foreign Legion melodrama Le Grand Jeu / The Great Game (Jacques Feyder, 1934), in which he starred opposite Charles Vanel and Marie Bell.

In the following years, he often played the partner of diva Edwige Feuillère in such films as Stradivarius (Albert Valentin, Géza von Bolváry, 1935), Barcarolle (Gerhard Lamprecht, Roger Le Bon, 1935), La Dame de Malacca / Woman of Malacca (Marc Allégret, 1937) and La Duchesse de Langeais / Wicked Duchess (Jacques de Baroncelli, 1942).

Famous director Max Ophüls directed him in Yoshiwara (1937) and Werther (1938). A big hit was Un Carnet de bal / Dance Program (Julien Duvivier, 193) in which Marie Bell stars as a woman who decides to find out about the men (including Pierre Richard-Willm) who once danced with her during a ball that was a turning point in her life.

His most famous role was Edmond Dantès in two episodes of Le Comte de Monte-Cristo / The Count of Monte-Cristo (Robert Vernay, 1943), based on the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas père. He starred as composer Franz Liszt in Rêves d'Amour / Dreams of Love (Christian Stengel, 1942-1947), for which film he also designed the sets.

In 1946, he decided to retire from the cinema and to dedicate himself completely to his beloved Theatre Vosgien. In 1975, he published his memoirs, 'Loin des Étoiles' (Far from the stars), in which he wrote that the cinema had only been a nice intermission for him. Pierre Richard-Willm died in 1983 in Paris and is buried at the cemetery in Bussang.


French collector card by Massilia. Photo: Filmsonor. Pierre Richard Willm in La dame de Malacca / Woman of Malacca (Marc Allégret, 1937).


French collector card by L'Olympia. Pierre Richard Willm in Yoshiwara (Max Ophüls, 1937).


French card. Pierre Richard Willm in Un Carnet de Bal / Dance Program (Julien Duvivier, 1937).


Yugoslav (now Croatian) leaflet by Re-Ka-Pa, Zagreb. Suzy Prim and Pierre Richard-Willm in the Franco-Italian co-production La principessa Tarakanova / Tarakanowa / Betrayal (Fyodor Ozep, Mario Soldati, 1938), a film famous for its early use of pan-focus cinematography. In Yugoslavia, the film was presented as Kneginja Tarakanova. Russian Empress Catherine the Great (Suzy Prim) sends her dearest aide, Alexei Orloff, on a mission to unmask the throne pretender Elisabeth Tarakanova (Annie Vernay), but the story becomes a tragedy when Orloff falls in love with the young woman. The film was shot in Italy in both a French and an Italian version. The American release title was Betrayal.


French postcard by Ed. Chantal, Paris, no. 43. Photo: Discina, Paris. Pierre Richard-Willm in La loi du nord / Law of the North (Jacques Feyder, 1939).


French postcard by Ed. Chantal, Rueil, no. 43B. Photo: Roger Richebé.


French postcard, no. 633. Photo: Chromos Film.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 20. Photo: Teddy Piaz.


French postcard by O.P., Paris, no. 2. Photo: Studio Piaz.


French postcard by S.E.R.P., Paris, no. 22. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by EPC, no. 134. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


Belgian postcard by P.E. (Photo Édition), no. 152. Photo: Studio Cayet.

Sources: Caroline Hanotte (Cineartistes - Now defunct), Franck Richard (Now defunct), Wikipedia and IMDb.