“I was totally unprepared for any kind of success when I was a young person. I didn’t know anyone who was successful in that way in show business, or famous,” he once shared, reflecting on his sudden ascent. He added a critical insight: “I also temperamentally wasn’t particularly suited for it. Attention made me recoil.”

While his high school years clearly revealed a growing passion for performing, his time at school was not exactly smooth sailing. “I just felt sort of very lonely at school. I just didn’t feel like I belonged there,” he recalled. After graduating, he enrolled at NYU to study acting, though his academic career was cut short when he was expelled after only two years. As he later put it with characteristic frankness, “I didn’t really go [to class].”

An Instant Leap: From Expulsion to Stardom

Given that he had just been unceremoniously kicked out of university, nothing could have prepared the young, aspiring actor for the startling speed with which he would break into the movie business. Just a few weeks after being dismissed, he decided to respond to an “open call” advertised in the newspaper for a role in the film Class, which starred the established actress Jacqueline Bisset.

“I waited for hours with 500 other kids and they call me back. It was so out of the blue,” he recalled of the whirlwind transformation. “One week I was in school and the next week I’m in bed with Jacqueline Bisset. I thought, ‘I’m doing something right here.’”

After playing the role of Jonathan in Class, where his character famously romanced his prep school roommate’s mother, the New Jersey-born actor instantly became the talk of the town. The attention was swift and overwhelming. “[NYU] then offered that I come back, pay the tuition and I could use [the movie] as independent study. I told them to go f*** themselves.”

A few short years later, he hit the definitive big time with St. Elmo’s Fire in 1985. Despite receiving harsh critical reviews, the film was a massive box-office hit and featured a powerhouse ensemble cast including Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, and Demi Moore.

Our star was undeniably a box-office draw, but his reputation suffered from being lumped together with other high-profile young actors—some of questionable talent and many notorious for their arrogance and partying. They were quickly dubbed the infamous “Brat Pack.” By 1986, his place as a premier teen heartthrob was fully cemented. Acting opposite Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink, he became celebrated for his quiet charm and a sensitive, understated screen presence that won over audiences across the country.

And now, the mystery is solved: the heartthrob who defied expectations is none other than Andrew McCarthy.

The Secret Battle Behind the Sensitive Image

In his candid memoir, Brat: An 80s Story, Andrew McCarthy opens a revealing window into the glamorous Hollywood whirlwind he was abruptly thrown into. Stays at the opulent Chateau Marmont and attendance at wild, chaotic parties at the home of Sammy Davis Jr. became routine. Recalling one hotel bash, he noticed a “cute young woman with a pixie haircut” but noted that “Courteney Cox was having none of me.”

Today, Andrew McCarthy is recognized as a respected, enduring actor and a lasting icon of his generation—ranked No. 40 on VH1’s list of the 100 Greatest Teen Stars of All Time. Beyond his acting career, he has successfully branched out as an acclaimed director, notably for his work on the hit series Orange Is the New Black.

However, when he first burst onto the scene in the ’80s, the rapidly rising star was secretly battling a much tougher, more debilitating struggle. Neither his co-stars, the press, nor even he himself fully realized the extent to which he was sliding into full-blown alcoholism. He had been smoking cannabis since high school and drinking socially, but the habit eventually spiraled out of control, quickly becoming a necessity.

“Like in Pretty in Pink for example, people said, ‘Oh, he’s so sensitive and lovely in that movie.’ I was so hungover for that whole movie… I’m thinking, ‘God, I got a headache. I am just dying here. I got to go lay down.’ But on film I came across a certain way,” Andrew revealed to ABC’s 20/20 in 2004.

He has also shared the root cause of why alcohol became such a vital crutch for him. “If I was frightened, it gave me good Dutch courage,” McCarthy admitted. “I felt confident and sexy and in charge and in control and powerful—none of those things I felt in my life.”