St Elmo’s Fire Cast: Where Are They Now?

Summary

• St. Elmo’s Fire
  is one of the iconic 1985 movies that helped cement the Brat Pack.
• The majority of the
  St. Elmo’s Fire
  cast is still alive and working, including Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy.
• Many cast members have held prominent recent roles, including Rob Lowe’s long-term stint on
  9-1-1: Lone Star
  .

The St. Elmo’s Fire cast has worked quite a bit in the nearly four decades since it premiered. The movie, which was helmed by The Phantom of the Opera and The Lost Boys director Joel Schumacher, was one of two 1985 releases – along with John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club – that helped cement the idea of the Brat Pack, a term that was coined by David Blum in an article for New York magazine. The Brat Pack was a group of young actors who made a variety of movies about teens and young adults throughout the mid to late 1980s.

The entirety of the main cast of St. Elmo’s Fire is still alive, and in fact, of the entire ensemble, the only major player to have passed away is Martin Balsam, who played Wendy’s father, Mr. Beamish. Thus, the leads of the Brat Pack movie are still prominent in the industry, though they have since scattered in many different directions across both the big and small screens. For some of them, their 1980s work is still their most recognized, but all of them have appeared in prominent titles within the last five years at the time of writing.

Emilio Estevez

Character: Kirby Keager

Prominent Brat Pack actor Emilio Estevez, who played St. Elmo’s Bar waiter Kirby Keager, has continued to act in addition to directing more than half a dozen movies. However, he has taken some time away from the spotlight since 2021, the year he reprised his role as Coach Gordon Bombay in the Disney+ sports sequel series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers. He left after season 1 due to creative differences, and while he has movies including Guns 3: Dead or Alive (which he is also set to direct) in pre-production, for the time being, they have not come to fruition.

Emilio Estevez originally played the character Gordon Bombay in the 1992 movie
The Mighty Ducks
and reprised the role in its two sequels.

Rob Lowe

Character: Billy Hicks

Rob Lowe, who played immature saxophonist Billy Hicks, found another major role in the early 2010s when he joined the Parks and Recreation cast as the indefatigable Chris Traeger. He has continued to hold major television roles in the meantime, particularly starring as Owen Strand in 9-1-1: Lone Star, which was recently renewed for season 5. He also played a satirical version of himself on Netflix’s The Pentaverate and starred opposite his son John Owen Lowe in the streamer’s comedy Unstable, which premiered in 2023 and has also been renewed for a new season.

Andrew McCarthy

Character: Kevin Dolenz

Andrew McCarthy, who played Kirby’s roommate Kevin Dolenz, has also split his time between directing and acting. As an actor, his longest-running recent role was playing Dr. Ian Sullivan in the medical drama The Resident, though he has also held prominent roles in The Blacklist, Good Girls, and 13 Reasons Why. As a director, McCarthy most recently helmed the documentary Brats, which featured interviews with many members of the Brat Pack and tracked the rise of the group as well as the individual members’ reactions to being considered Brat Packers.

Demi Moore

Character: Jules Van Patten

Demi Moore, who played banker Jules Van Patten, continued to be both a prominent actor and tabloid figure after her role in St. Elmo’s Fire. Most recently, she has played supporting roles in projects as varied as the Nicolas Cage meta comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and the low-budget indie musical Please Baby Please. She also played Ann Woodward, one of the titular socialites in Feud: Capote vs. the Swans, opposite former Brat Packer Molly Ringwald. Her next major role will be playing the lead of the horror drama The Substance, from Revenge director Coralie Fargeat.

Demi Moore became a major tabloid figure partially due to being romantically linked with other major stars including her former husbands Bruce Willis and Ashton Kutcher.

Judd Nelson

Character: Alec Newberry

Judd Nelson, who played the politically minded Alec, is one of the most prolific former Brat Packers in the modern era. Since 2019, he has appeared in 15 different projects across both movies and television. His most prominent role was likely his four-episode appearance as Billy Beretti on the hip-hop drama Empire. However, he has also appeared in titles including The Downside of Bliss, Girl in the Basement, 2022’s The Most Dangerous Game, and South of Hope Street.

Ally Sheedy

Character: Leslie Hunter

Ally Sheedy, who played architect Leslie Hunter, has been less prolific in recent years than her St. Elmo’s Fire and The Breakfast Club co-star Judd Nelson. Since 2019, she has only appeared in three projects. However, one of those projects was a major role in the main cast of the Freeform comedy Single Drunk Female, in which she played the mother of Sofia Black-D’Elia’s title character. So far, she hasn’t held another role since the show ended in 2023.

Mare Winningham

Character: Wendy Beamish

Mare Winningham, who played social worker Wendy Beamish, was nominated for an Oscar a decade after her appearance in St. Elmo’s Fire for her performance in 1995’s Georgia. More recently, she has split her time between movies and prestige television, including playing Jeannie Anderson opposite Ben Mendelsohn in 2019’s The Outsider and Darlene Kiger opposite Mark Ruffalo in that same year’s Dark Waters. She has taken on fewer projects in the 2020s, but after a roughly three-year hiatus following an eight-episode role as Diane Mallum on Dopesick, she took a supporting role in the Chiwetel Ejiofor-directed 2024 drama Rob Peace.

Mare Winningham is one of the only stars in the main cast of
St. Elmo’s Fire
not to be popularly considered to be part of the Brat Pack, because she didn’t have any other major collaborations with the main members.

Andie MacDowell

Character: Dale Biberman

Andie MacDowell, who played Kirby’s love interest Dale Biberman in St. Elmo’s Fire, followed that performance with a major role opposite Bill Murray in 1993’s Groundhog Day. More recently, she has outpaced even Judd Nelson, appearing in 18 projects since 2019. These include the 2019 Radio Silence horror outing Ready or Not, the Ted Danson sitcom Mr. Mayor (in which she played herself), and the Hallmark time travel drama The Way Home.