The Breakfast Club made stars out of its young cast, including Judd Nelson as "criminal"
and resident bad boy John Bender. Since his Brat Pack days, Nelson has been keeping plenty
busy with film and television appearances. Here's what he's been up to throughout the
years.
Many audiences might think that Nelson's first film appearance was in The Breakfast Club.
But it wasn't. He appeared in three films before The Breakfast Club: Rock 'n' Roll Hotel,
Making the Grade, and Fandango.
Rock 'n' Roll Hotel has largely been lost to time, but some '80s moviegoers may recognize
Nelson from the second two titles. In 1984's Making the Grade, Nelson played a small-time
con artist who must impersonate a rich prep-school kid to earn $10,000.
In 1985's Fandango, he played a nerdy member of a group of college friends who take one
last trip before graduation. The cast also included a young Kevin Costner in his first
starring role. The film, however, failed at the box office.
Though Nelson had yet to find much success in the film world, both Making the Grade and
Fandango set him up perfectly for his next project.
Judd Nelson's big breakthrough came in 1985 with writer/director John Hughes' The Breakfast
Club. The cast included Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Anthony Michael Hall, Emilio Estevez,
and Nelson as high school students stuck in Saturday detention.
You through?"
"Not even close bud."
"Good! You got one more right there."
The Breakfast Club was a smash hit, making instant stars out of each of the five main
actors, including Nelson. Later that year, he rejoined many of his cast members in Joel
Schumacher's St. Elmo's Fire. That film, about recent Georgetown University graduates, added
Demi Moore and Rob Lowe to a cast that also included Sheedy and Estevez.
The stars of these films became so immediately notorious that a New York magazine reporter
coined the term "the Brat Pack," after seeing some of the young actors get mobbed in public.
None of the actors, including Nelson, liked the label, but the term, inspired by Sinatra's
"Rat Pack," stuck for years to come, and remains associated with many of them today.
Even though Nelson never officially returned to the Brat Pack, throughout his next series
of film and television appearances, he would occasionally reunite with some of his former
co-stars. In 1986, Nelson lent his voice as Hot Rod and Rodimus Prime to the cartoon Transformers:
The Movie, which has since become a cult classic despite a poor box office performance.
After re-teaming with fellow Brat Packer Ally Sheedy in the 1986 revenge drama Blue City,
Nelson took a different approach by appearing in the universally praised Dear America: Letters
Home from Vietnam, a documentary where actors read correspondences from the war.
He then starred in the two-part NBC TV movie Billionaire Boys Club, which earned Nelson
a Golden Globe nomination for his leading role. Ultimately, he finished out the 1980s
with a few other film appearances, including the road trip film Never on Tuesday, which
also featured Emilio Estevez.
Nelson stayed quite busy throughout the 1990s, thanks to a long stretch of film and television
work. After working with famed actor Max von Sydow in the World War II-inspired Hiroshima:
Out of the Ashes, he played the worst comedian in recorded history in The Dark Backward.
Following that, he appeared in Mario van Peebles' 1991 gangster film New Jack City, which co-starred
rapper turned actor Ice-T. As Ice-T's partner on a police investigation, Nelson found both
commercial and critical success.
1994 gave Nelson a chance to flex his comedy chops alongside a young Adam Sandler in Airheads.
The film received mostly negative reviews from critics, but has since gained a cult
following in some circles.
To close out the '90s, Nelson returned to the gangster genre with the 1999 film Light
It Up, appearing as a high school history teacher who helps troubled teens.
During the 1990s, Nelson took a bit of a breather from his film work to take a starring role
in the hit sitcom Suddenly Susan. Premiering in September of 1996, Suddenly Susan starred
Brooke Shields as a newly single magazine writer.
Nelson played the role of Susan's boss, Jack Richmond. Moving away from his '80s bad boy
image, Nelson got to stretch his acting muscles as Jack, by building on story arcs involving
his character's troubled marriage.
Suddenly Susan was a ratings hit in its first season, but lost viewers by season two and
never fully recovered. Nelson left the show at the beginning of season four.
Throughout the 2000s, Nelson appeared in a number of recurring stints on television shows,
including spots on both CSI and CSI: NY, Las Vegas, The Outer Limits, and the detective
comedy Psych.
He also snagged a recurring guest role as a comically jealous ex-husband on the eighth
season of Two and a Half Men. Coincidentally, Nelson appeared alongside Charlie Sheen on
the series, the brother of his fellow Brat Packer Emilio Estevez.
Thanks to his signature role as John Bender, Nelson was also able to snag some roles in
the beginning of the 21st century. In addition to making a significant cameo in Jay and Silent
Bob Strike Back, Nelson revived the Bender character for an uncredited role in the Star
Wars-themed Family Guy episode "Blue Harvest."
"Yeah, I got a question: Does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe?"
Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, Nelson kept up his career in both film and television,
mixing made-for-TV movies with studio productions and animated shows. He returned to the Transformers
franchise in 2009, playing Rodimus Prime for the Cartoon Network series, while also voicing
multiple roles for the animated series Ben 10 Omniverse.
Nelson has also dabbled in Hallmark films, including Santa Jr. in 2002 and 2010's Cancel
Christmas. In the latter film he plays Chris Frost, who is, of course, secretly Santa Claus.
In 2009 he appeared in the sequel The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. Much like its predecessor,
however, the sequel was met with negative reviews.
Nelson's biggest starring role in the 2000s was the television movie Cabin by the Lake.
It aired on the USA Network in 2000 and starred Nelson as a screenwriter who moonlights as
a serial killer. The following year he starred in its sequel, Return to Cabin by the Lake,
though neither film fared particularly well with critics.
In recent years, Nelson has sought out new and challenging roles on some of television's
most interesting shows. In 2013, during the fourth and final season of Nikita, Nelson
played a deep cover operative unknowingly working for the terrorist organization known
as the Shop.
Nelson later took a role on the hugely popular hip-hop drama, Empire. In the show's wildly
successful first season, Nelson played a cutthroat and competitive CEO named Billy Beretti.
Thanks to the show's major success, Nelson found himself back in the spotlight, and with
a great new credit to boot.
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