Rob Lowe

Biography: An American actor. Lowe came to prominence after appearing in films such as The Outsiders, Oxford Blues, About Last Night, St. Elmo?s Fire, and Wayne?s World. On television, Lowe is known for his role as Sam Seaborn on The West Wing and his role as Senator Robert McCallister on Brothers & Sisters. He is currently a main cast member of Parks and Recreation, playing the role of Chris Traeger. Early in his career Lowe gained notoriety as a life-in-the-fast-lane playboy, ending up in the spotlight for various personal indiscretions and tabloid scandals, including one of the first "sex tape" scandals to hit Hollywood.

Lowe was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, the son of Barbara K. (née Hepler), a teacher, and Charles Davis Lowe, a trial lawyer; his parents divorced when Lowe was young. He has a brother, actor Chad Lowe, and two half brothers. Because of a virus during infancy, he is deaf in his right ear (he later played a deaf character in Stephen King?s The Stand). Lowe was baptized into the Episcopal church, though his maternal grandparents were Methodists. He was raised in a "traditional midwestern setting" in Dayton, Ohio, attending Oakwood Junior High School, before moving to the Westside of Los Angeles with his mother and brother. 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 Emilio Estevez were cast in Francis Ford Coppola?s The Outsiders. Lowe and Estevez reunited in St. Elmo?s Fire, making them the two more prominent actors from the group known as the Brat Pack. About Last Night... followed, with Demi Moore (who had starred with Lowe in St. Elmo?s Fire). He then received his second Golden Globe nomination for "Best Supporting Actor" for his role as the mentally disabled Rory in Square Dance (1987).

Women - Lowe, a little-known actor at the time, and Little House on the Prairie actress Melissa Gilbert briefly met at age 14 in 1978 in the halls of the CBS Television Studios. In 1981, when both were 17, she spotted Lowe stopped at the red light next to her car and the two began dating. The relationship was rocky and fraught with infidelity. During the filming of 1984?s The Hotel New Hampshire, Lowe began an affair with Nastassja Kinski. In Gilbert?s 2009 autobiography, Prairie Tale: A Memoir, she talks about sleeping with Lowe?s then-best friend, John Cusack, while Lowe was away filming. According to Gilbert, she caught Lowe in Kinski?s hotel room and then slept with Cusack out of revenge. Lowe broke up with Gilbert in 1986 when he began dating Princess Stéphanie, but when the relationship with the princess ended, Gilbert and Lowe reunited. The two quickly got engaged and were to be married in the summer of 1987. But when Gilbert informed Lowe that she was pregnant, he broke up with her for good. She miscarried only days later.

Lowe married makeup artist Sheryl Berkoff in July 1991; they have two sons: Matthew Edward Lowe (born Sept 24, 1993), and John Owen Lowe (born Nov 6, 1995). They live in Santa Barbara, California