Rob Lowe

Robert Hepler "Rob" Lowe (born March 17, 1964) is an American actor. He became known after appearing in popular 1980s movies such as The Outsiders and St. Elmo's Fire, which included other members of the Brat Pack. Lowe is also known for his role as Sam Seaborn on The West Wing and as Senator Robert McCallister on Brothers & Sisters.

Lowe was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, the son of Barbara (née Hepler), a teacher, and Charles Lowe, a trial lawyer; Rob's parents divorced when Lowe was young. His mother took Lowe and his younger brother, actor Chad Lowe, to California. He also has two step- siblings. Because of a virus during infancy, he is deaf in his right ear. Lowe was baptized into the Episcopal church, though his maternal grandparents were Methodists. He was raised in a "traditional midwestern setting" in Dayton, Ohio; having attended Oakwood High School before moving to the Westside of Los Angeles. He attended Santa Monica High School, the same high school as fellow actors Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen, Sean Penn, Chris Penn and Robert Downey Jr.

One of Lowe's earliest roles came in the 1983 TV movie Thursday's Child, for which he received his first Golden Globe nomination for "Best Actor in a TV Movie/Miniseries". Lowe made his film debut in Schoolboy Father, followed by Class. His breakthrough came in 1983, when he and Estevez were cast in The Outsiders, which remains one of his most famous roles. Lowe and Estevez reunited in St. Elmo's Fire, making them the two more popular boys of the Brat Pack. One of Lowe's earliest roles came in the 1983 TV movie Thursday's Child, for which he received his first Golden Globe nomination for "Best Actor in a TV Movie/Miniseries". Lowe made his film debut in Schoolboy Father, followed by Class. His breakthrough came in 1983, when he and Estevez were cast in The Outsiders, which remains one of his most famous roles. Lowe and Estevez reunited in St. Elmo's Fire, making them the two more popular boys of the Brat Pack. He followed it up with About Last Night. He also received a second Golden Globe nomination for "Best Supporting Actor" for his role as the mentally disabled Rory in Square Dance (1987).

Lowe is infamously remembered for performing a duet with an actress playing the part of Snow White at the 1989 Academy awards opening montage.

Lowe is also known for playing Sam Seaborn in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2003. His performance in the show garnered Lowe an Emmy and two Golden Globe Award Nominations for Best Actor in a Drama Series. When the show premiered, Seaborn was considered the lead, and the pilot centered on the character. But the acclaimed cast of the show—including Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, Dulé Hill, John Spencer, Bradley Whitford, Martin Sheen (whose President Bartlet was initially scripted as a small role) and Stockard Channing (whose First Lady was initially scripted as a guest role)—meant that Sam Seaborn could no longer be considered the lead character.

While he reluctantly accepted his demotion, Lowe and series creator Aaron Sorkin soon found themselves at odds over the network's meddling with the show, most notably the network demanding changes in the Sam Seaborn character. Eventually, Lowe left the series, not long before Sorkin and director/executive producer Thomas Schlamme unceremoniously quit over a dispute with NBC. During the final season of The West Wing, Lowe returned to his role of Sam Seaborn, appearing in two of the final four episodes.

After leaving the show, Lowe was star and executive producer of a failed NBC drama, The Lyon's Den (2003). In 2004, he tried again in a series entitled Dr. Vegas, but it also was quickly canceled. In 2005, he starred as Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee in a London West End production of Sorkin's play A Few Good Men, the first time the two had worked together since The West Wing. Although Lowe had expressed unhappiness about his decreased role on that show at the time of his departure, he has now repeatedly said that any animosity between them is over and that he was pleased to be working once more with Sorkin, whose talents as a writer Lowe highly regards. Lowe passed on the role of Dr. Derek Shepherd of Grey's Anatomy, which eventually went to Patrick Dempsey.

Despite his two cancelled TV series and flops like View From the Top and the made-for-TV movie Perfect Strangers during his post–West Wing run, Lowe found success in the TV miniseries genre. 2004 marked his return to this genre; he had appeared in 1994's The Stand, based on Stephen King's book of the same name. In 2004, Lowe starred in the TNT remake of the Stephen King miniseries Salem's Lot which was the highest rated cable program of that summer and the highest ratings TNT original programming had at the time. In 2005, Lowe starred in the miniseries Beach Girls on the Lifetime network, based on the Luanne Rice novel of the same name. The series premiere received the highest ratings for a movie premiere in Lifetime history. In that same year, Lowe filmed his critically acclaimed role as super movie agent in the 2006 independent film Thank You for Smoking. In 2006, he filmed The Perfect Day for TNT, in which he took a pay cut to film in New Orleans in order to help the hurricane ravaged area. That same year, Lowe filmed Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming, the "sequel" to the 1999 Kevin Bacon thriller Stir of Echoes.

In 2006, it was announced that Lowe would join the cast of Brothers & Sisters for a guest run of several episodes. In January 2007, ABC announced that Lowe would be staying on Brothers and Sisters as a "special guest star" for the rest of season 1 after Lowe's initial appearance on the show in November 2006 brought the best ratings and demographic showing for the show since its premiere. Soon after ABC announced an early season 2 renewal for Brother & Sisters in March 2007, Lowe announced he would be returning for the show's second season.

In June 2006, he was the guest host for an episode in the third series of The Friday Night Project for the United Kingdom's Channel 4.

Lowe has also appeared in a televised advertisement for 'Visit California', along with other celebrities including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.