What '80s Star Andrew McCarthy Looks Like Now

In the early days of his career, Andrew McCarthy was a member of the so-called "Brat Pack" — a legendary group of young actors who played a key role in defining '80s pop-culture, primarily through their roles in super popular coming-of-age films. McCarthy scored his first major big-screen role in the 1983 movie "Class," opposite Rob Lowe, with the duo reuniting to appear in 1985's "St. Elmo's Fire" alongside their fellow Brat Pack members Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, and Judd Nelson, all of whom previously shared the screen in "The Breakfast Club" earlier that same year too. Speaking of which, McCarthy then starred opposite Molly Ringwald herself in 1986's "Pretty in Pink." He rounded out the '80s with a lead role in the oft-parodied dark comedy "Weekend at Bernie's." 

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As fans of McCarthy likely know, he's continued to find steady acting work in the ensuing decades, appearing in films like "Weekend at Bernie's II" and "The Spiderwick Chronicles," as well as TV shows such as "13 Reasons Why" and "The Resident." Andrew McCarthy even starred in a couple of Hallmark movies along the way for good measure. However, the '80s icon is primarily a television director these days, having helmed episodes of hit shows like "Orange Is the New Black," "New Amsterdam," "Condor," and "The Blacklist" (the latter of which he also later starred in an episode of). All of this is to say that, in general, McCarthy has very much remained in the public eye over the years. The photo above, for instance, was taken when he attended the premiere of "Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band" in late 2024. He's obviously aged, but it's clearly still him.

Andrew McCarthy's directing skills feel particularly relevant when discussing the trajectory of his life, image, and career, given that the Brat Pack member used them to create an acclaimed retrospective on his and his peers' experience as young actors in the 1980s. More specifically, McCarthy directed the 2024 documentary "Brats," which chronicles the rise of the group, as well as where the various members of the Brat Pack ended up after the fact. The doc was generally well received by critics, and holds an approval rating of 85% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing. 

The site's critical consensus describes it as an "insightful overview of a bygone Hollywood era, as well as a deeply personal journey for director Andrew McCarthy," and "a bittersweet reflection on childhood stardom." In general, the "Pretty in Pink" star seems to view his former teen idol status as a mixed blessing. In a May 2024 op-ed for The New York Times, the actor-director shared that while he and many of his fellow Brat Pack members deeply resented that moniker and everything it seemed to imply about them, he eventually came to embrace what it meant to audiences.

"We hated the tag. We were now members of a club none of us wished to join," he confessed. However, as McCarthy later acknowledged, "I didn't understand something. While I might have felt the term was pejorative and diminishing, the young people of my generation loved it. Being in the Brat Pack meant that I was one of the ultimate cool kids." The eighties star explained that his own complicated relationship with fame made him wonder if the other members had gone on a similar journey while coming to terms with their early days as actors. Hence, the doc.