Look up Lowe or lowe in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Lowe is a common surname in English. See List of people with surname Lowe.

Lowe may also refer to:

Places[link]

• Lowe, Delaware
• Lowe Township, Moultrie County, Illinois

Other uses[link]

• Lowe Alpine, an American outdoor equipment manufacturer and supplier
• Löwe Automobil, a German car-part manufacturer
• Division of Lowe, an Australian Federal government electoral division
• Lowe (band), a Swedish synthpop band
• Lowe Worldwide, a global advertising agency network headquartered in London
• The Lowe, traditional name of the assistant to the Scharfrichter (executioner)

See also[link]

• Lowe's, a home improvement store chain in North America
• Lowes Foods, a grocery store chain in the USA
• Lowe's Oculocerebrorenal Syndrome
• Löw, Löwe
• Low (disambiguation)
• Lowes (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Nick Lowe
Lowe performing at the Kursaal in November 2008
Background information
Birth name	Nicholas Drain Lowe
Born	(1949-03-24) 24 March 1949 (age 63) Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England
Genres	Rock, pub rock, New Wave,[1] Power Pop[1]
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano/keyboards, bass
Years active	1966–present
Labels	Columbia Records, Demon Records, F-Beat Records, Radar Records, Reprise Records, Upstart Records, Yep Roc Records, Stiff Records, Proper Records (current).
Associated acts	Brinsley Schwarz, Rockpile, Elvis Costello, The Attractions, The Imposters, Huey Lewis and the News, Noise To Go, The Cowboy Outfit, Johnny Cash, Little Village, Bill Kirchen
Website	nicklowe.net

Nicholas Drain "Nick" Lowe (born 24 March 1949), is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer.

A pivotal figure in UK pub rock, punk rock and new wave,^[1][2] Lowe has recorded a string of well-reviewed solo albums. Along with vocals, Lowe plays guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica. He is best known for his songs "Cruel to Be Kind" (a US Top 40 single), and "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" (a top 10 UK hit), as well as his production work with Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, and others. Lowe also wrote "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding", a hit for Costello.^[3] He currently lives in Brentford, London, England.

Career history[link]

Songwriter[link]

Nick's best-known songs (mostly known for cover versions) include:

• "(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding"
• "The Beast in Me"
• "I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass"
• "All Men Are Liars"
• "Cruel to Be Kind"
• "So It Goes"
• "I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock 'n' Roll)"

Producer[link]

Lowe produced Elvis Costello's first five albums, including My Aim Is True, This Year's Model, and Armed Forces. He also produced The Damned's first single, "New Rose", considered the first English punk single, as well as the group's debut album, Damned Damned Damned.

His early 'rough and ready' production style earned him the nickname Basher (as in 'bash it out now, tart it up later'). Upon moving from Stiff to Jake Riviera's Radar and F-Beat labels, Lowe became selective in his choice of production tasks.

Bands[link]

Influence[link]

A 2011 article in The New York Times starts "The 40-year career of the English singer-songwriter Nick Lowe constitutes a paradox: the songs he has written are better known than he is."^[3]

Some musicians claim to have been influenced by Lowe. Alex Turner, of the Arctic Monkeys, said that he is 'blown away' and 'back to square one' by Lowe's songwriting^[4]

Biography[link]

Lowe attended the independent Woodbridge School in Suffolk^[5] and he began his musical career in 1967, when he joined the band Kippington Lodge, with his school friend Brinsley Schwarz. They released a few singles on the Parlophone record label as Kippington Lodge before they renamed the band Brinsley Schwarz in late 1969, and began performing country and blues-rock. Lowe wrote some of his best-known compositions while a member of Brinsley Schwarz, including "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding", a hit for Elvis Costello in 1979, and "Cruel to Be Kind", a solo hit for Lowe in 1979.^[6]

After leaving Brinsley Schwarz in 1975, Lowe began playing in Rockpile with Dave Edmunds. In August 1976, Lowe released "So It Goes" b/w "Heart of the City", the first single on the Stiff Records label where he was an in-house producer.^[6] The single and thus the label was funded by a loan of £400 from Dr. Feelgood's Lee Brilleaux. The label's first EP was Lowe's 1977 four-track release Bowi, apparently named in response to David Bowie's contemporaneous LP Low. (The joke was repeated when Lowe produced The Rumour's album Max as an 'answer' to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours). Lowe continued producing albums on Stiff and other labels. In 1977 he produced Dr. Feelgood's album, Be Seeing You, which included his own song, "That's It, I Quit". The following year's Dr. Feelgood album, Private Practice, contained a song Lowe jointly penned with Gypie Mayo – "Milk and Alcohol". Along with "I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass", "Milk and Alcohol" is one of only two Lowe compositions to ever reach the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart.^[7]

Because the two main singers in Rockpile had recording contracts with different record labels and managers, albums were always credited to either Lowe or Edmunds, so there is only one official Rockpile album, which was not released until the waning days of the collaboration: 1980's Seconds of Pleasure, featuring the Lowe songs "When I Write The Book" and "Heart". However, two of the pair's most significant solo albums from the period; Lowe's Labour of Lust and Edmunds' Repeat When Necessary, were effectively Rockpile albums (as was Carlene Carter's Lowe-produced Musical Shapes album).

Lowe was quoted as saying that he had "escaped from the tyranny of the snare drum" in No Depression, (September–October 2001) when explaining his move away from regular pop music that would get played on mainstream radio.^{[citation needed]}

Other well-known Lowe songs include "I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass", "All Men Are Liars", and Cruel to Be Kind, co-written with Ian Gomm and originally recorded with Brinsley Schwarz, a re-recording of which was his only US Top 40 hit, reaching #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1979.^[6]

In 1979, Lowe married country singer Carlene Carter, daughter of fellow country singers Carl Smith and June Carter Cash and stepdaughter of Johnny Cash.^[8] He adopted her daughter, Tiffany Anastasia Lowe. The marriage ended in 1990, but they remained friends, and Lowe remained close to the Carter/Cash family. He played and recorded with Johnny Cash, and Cash recorded several of Lowe's songs.

After the demise of Rockpile, Lowe toured for a period with his band Noise To Go and later with The Cowboy Outfit, which also included the noted keyboard player Paul Carrack. Lowe was also a member of the short-lived mainly studio project Little Village with John Hiatt, Ry Cooder and Jim Keltner, who originally got together to record Hiatt's 1987 album Bring the Family.^[6]

In 1992, "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" was covered by Curtis Stigers on the soundtrack album to The Bodyguard, an album that sold about 44 million copies world-wide.^[3]

A New York Daily News article^[9] quoted Lowe as saying his greatest fear in recent years was "sticking with what you did when you were famous". "I didn't want to become one of those thinning-haired, jowly old geezers who still does the same shtick they did when they were young, slim and beautiful," he said. "That's revolting and rather tragic." Rock critic Jim Farber observed: "Lowe's recent albums, epitomised by the new At My Age, moved him out of the realms of ironic pop and animated rock and into the role of a worldly balladeer, specialising in grave vocals and graceful tunes. Lowe's four most recent solo albums mine the wealth of American roots music, drawing on vintage country, soul and R&B to create an elegant mix of his own."

In 2008, Yep Roc and Proper Records released a thirtieth anniversary edition of Lowe's first solo album Jesus of Cool (entitled Pure Pop for Now People in the US with a slightly different track listing). The re-issue includes tracks from the British and American releases in addition to several bonus tracks. In March 2009, he released a 49 track CD/DVD compilation of songs which spanned his entire career. Proper Records released it in the UK and Europe, entitled Quiet Please... The New Best of Nick Lowe.

In September 2010 Yep Roc issued The Impossible Bird, Dig My Mood and The Convincer on vinyl for the first time, and after a one-night reunion concert with Elvis Costello in October in San Francisco,^[10] Lowe embarked on his first non-solo United States tour "this millennium." His backing band comprised Geraint Watkins (keyboards), Robert Treherne (drums), Johnny Scott (guitar) and Matt Radford (bass). In March 2011, Yep Roc reissued Lowe's 1979 solo album Labour of Lust.^[11]

Lowe played Glastonbury 2011, performing a short solo set of Brinsley Schwarz tracks on The Spirit Of 71 stage, where they played back in 1971, before heading to the Acoustic Stage for a full band show.

Lowe performed as an opening act for Wilco in their North American tour, September 2011. He performed solo with acoustic guitar.

Lowe is married to Peta Waddington, a designer and DJ. The couple have a son, Roy Lowe, who was born in 2005.

Discography[link]

Lowe performing with Rockpile in 1980

Studio albums[link]

• Jesus of Cool (1978, UK) (released in the US as Pure Pop for Now People)
• Labour of Lust (1979)
• Nick the Knife (1982)
• The Abominable Showman (1983)
• Nick Lowe & His Cowboy Outfit (1984)
• The Rose of England (1985)
• Pinker and Prouder than Previous (1988)
• Party of One (1990)
• The Impossible Bird (1994)
• Dig My Mood (1998)
• The Convincer (2001)
• At My Age (2007)^[6]
• The Old Magic (2011) - UK: #66

Live albums[link]

• Untouched Takeaway (2004)

Singles[link]

^[6]

EPs[link]

• Bowi, 7" 45 rpm (Stiff 1977)
• Nick Lowe & Dave Edmunds Sing the Everly Brothers, 7" 33⅓ rpm (F-Beat/Columbia 1980)^[6]

Compilation albums[link]

• A Bunch of Stiff Records (One track, "I Love My Label")
• Live Stiffs Live (1978) (Nick Lowe's Last Chicken In The Shop got two tracks, "I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock 'n' Roll)" and "Let's Eat", on this live compilation of the first Stiff Records' tour.)
• 16 All Time Lowes (1984)
• Nick's Knack (1986)
• Basher: The Best of Nick Lowe (1989)
• The Wilderness Years (1991)
• The Doings (1999)
• Quiet Please... The New Best of Nick Lowe (2009)^[6]

Other appearances[link]

• "Baby It’s You," duet with Elvis Costello, on single "The Only Flame In Town" by Elvis Costello and the Attractions (1984)
• "In The Middle Of It All" on Adios Amigo: A Tribute to Arthur Alexander (1994)
• "I’m Coming Home" on Rig Rock Deluxe: A Musical Tribute to the American Truck Driver (1996)
• "From Now On" on Original Soundtrack: Mumford (1999)
• "Shake That Rat," bass on album Sing Along With Los Straitjackets by Los Straitjackets (2001)
• "Arrête Pas La Musique" on Evangeline Made: A Tribute to Cajun Music (2002)
• "Don’t Let The Cold," backing vocals on album Sentimental by Tanita Tikaram (2004)
• "It’s All In The Game" on Sweetheart: Love Songs (2004)
• "Only A Rose," duet with Geraint Watkins on album In A Bad Mood by Geraint Watkins (2008)
• "A Man In Love," guest vocals on album The Guest List by Martin Belmont (2009)
• "Shelly’s Winter Love," guest vocals, duet with Paul Carrack, on album Word To The Wise by Bill Kirchen (2010)
• "Changing All Those Changes" on Rave On Buddy Holly (2011)

Tributes[link]

• Labour of Love: The Music of Nick Lowe (Telarc, 2001) (features Dar Williams, Tom Petty, and Elvis Costello, among others).
• Lowe Profile: A Tribute To Nick Lowe (Brewery, 2005) (two-disc, 30 song collection featuring Dave Alvin, Foster & Lloyd, Ian Gomm, among others).
• 5 songs on "The Stiff Generation: If it Ain't Stiff it Ain't Worth a Tribute" (Groove Disques, 2002).
• 5 songs on "Happy Doing What We're Doing" (Freedom [City Hall], 2005) by Elizabeth McQueen and the Firebrands.

Uses in media[link]

• "Without Love" from the album "Labour of Lust" appeared on the soundtrack of the film "Americathon".
• "(I Love the Sound of) Breaking Glass" was used on the soundtrack album of the film "That Summer".
• His recording of "So It Goes" appeared on the soundtrack of the Roger Corman movie "Rock 'N' Roll High School", which featured the Ramones.
• "We Want Action" from the album "The Abominable Showman" appeared on the soundtrack of the film "Easy Money".
• An original song "Little Cat (You've Never had it So Good)" was written for the British rock opera film "Absolute Beginners", which starred David Bowie and Sade.
• The music video for "All Men Are Liars" was featured in The Brothers Grunt episode "The Ugly Gruntling".
• His recording of "The Beast in Me" was used in the pilot episode of The Sopranos.
• The song "All Men Are Liars" was featured in the Australian film All Men Are Liars written and directed by Gerard Lee and starring Toni Pearen, David Price and John Jarratt.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nick Lowe (musician)

• Official website
• The Old Magic UK page
• Batty for Music podcast
• Allmusic
• Nick Lowe at the Internet Movie Database
• Electronic press kit for "Quiet Please..."
• Return of the Man Who Used to Rock - NY Times 9-13-11

Daryl Hall (born October 11, 1946) is an American rock, R&B and soul singer, keyboardist, guitarist, songwriter and producer, best known as the co-founder and lead vocalist of Hall & Oates (with co-founder/guitarist/songwriter John Oates). Hall scored several Billboard chart hits in the 1970s and early 1980s, and is regarded as one of the best soul singers of his generation.^[1] Guitarist Robert Fripp,^[2] who collaborated with him in the late 1970s and early 1980s, has written, "Daryl's pipes were a wonder. I have never worked with a more able singer." Since late 2007, he has hosted the web television series, Live From Daryl's House. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004.^[3]

Early life and career[link]

Daryl Franklin Hohl was born in Pottstown, a Pennsylvania borough 40 miles from Philadelphia. He started a recording career during and after attending Owen J. Roberts High School, from which he graduated in 1965 and entered Philadelphia's Temple University, majoring in music, while working with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff as both an artist and session musician. Pursuing his goals in the big city, Hall quickly formed creative affiliations with such artists as Smokey Robinson, the Temptations and many other top soul singers of the 1960s.

In 1967, he met John Oates, also a college student from Temple, and embarked on a 30-odd year creative journey. According to Daryl Hall they met when, "We got in the middle of a fight at a dance - I have no idea what the fight was about. I guess the Greek letters on one gang's jackets didn't appeal to the other gang. We both beat it out the back and met on the elevator while leaving the place rather quickly." Hall was already a senior, while Oates was a freshman, and both had played it out temporarily, until Oates transferred schools, at only 19. Daryl did not let this discourage his musical career as he worked in a short-lived rock band Gulliver. By 1969, just one year after his dropout from college, Hall went back to concentrating on recording other artists, which led them into signing their very first record contract, early in 1972.

Hall & Oates[link]

Signed to Atlantic by Ahmet Ertegun and managed by Tommy Mottola in the early 1970s, Hall & Oates have sold more albums than any other duo in music history. Their second album, Abandoned Luncheonette, produced by Arif Mardin and released in 1973, yielded the single, "She's Gone", which went to #7 in the U.S. Top 10 on re-release in 1976 after reaching #1 on the R&B charts when it was covered by Tavares. The duo recorded one more album with Atlantic, War Babies (produced by Todd Rundgren), before they were dropped and promptly signed to RCA. During their tenure at RCA the duo catapulted to international superstardom.

From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, Hall & Oates would score six U.S. #1 singles, including "Rich Girl" (also #1 R&B), "Kiss on My List", "Private Eyes", "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" (also #1 R&B), "Maneater" and "Out of Touch" from their six multi-platinum albums - Bigger Than Both of Us, Voices, Private Eyes, H2O, Rock 'n Soul Part 1 and Big Bam Boom - the last five of which were released consecutively. The era would also produce an additional five U.S. Top 10 singles, "Sara Smile", "One on One", "Family Man," "You Make My Dreams", "Say It Isn't So" and "Method of Modern Love".

Solo projects[link]

In addition to his work with Oates, Hall has made music as a solo artist as well as recording with Robert Fripp in the late ‘70s, working on Fripp’s critically praised, Exposure album from 1979. 1977 Fripp produced and performed on Hall's debut solo album, the much-acclaimed Sacred Songs. This album was released 1980.

In 1984, he co-wrote and produced, with Arthur Baker, the single Swept Away for Diana Ross, which reached US #19, US R & B #3 and US Dance/Club Play #1.

In 1985, Hall performed two songs in the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois.^[4] Hall participated in the We Are the World session as well as closing the Live Aid show in Philadelphia. He also made an album with Dave Stewart that year, Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine. He has recorded such solo works as Soul Alone in 1993 and Can't Stop Dreaming in 1996, both of which were received well internationally.

In July 2005, Hall was diagnosed with Lyme Disease causing him to cancel a majority of Hall & Oates' summer tour. The duo released a Christmas album in October 2006 titled Home for Christmas.

In 2007, Hall guest starred on the HBO series Flight of the Conchords, portraying an MC of a world music fest.

On November 14, 2007, Hall appeared on the Howard Stern Show, discussed his hatred of deer and rabbits, prompted by his career-threatening bout with Lyme Disease, sang acoustic versions of "Sara Smile' and "Rich Girl", and talked about his new monthly performance webcast called "Live from Daryl's House". The webcast has so far featured appearances by KT Tunstall,Rob Thomas, Eric Hutchinson, and Gym Class Heroes' Travis McCoy, as well as a holiday special featuring songs from the Hall and Oates release, Home for Christmas. The show featured guests Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger of The Doors.

Speaking of his reasons for starting the Live From Daryl's House webcast, in June 2008 Hall told noted UK R&B writer Pete Lewis of the award-winning Blues & Soul: "For me it was sort of an obvious thing. I've been touring my whole adult life really, and, you know, you can't be EVERYWHERE! Nor do I WANT to be everywhere at this point! I only like to spend so much time per year on the road. So I thought 'Why don't I just do something where anyone who wants to see me anywhere in the world CAN?! And, instead of doing the artist/audience performance-type thing, I wanted to deconstruct it and make the audience more of a fly-on-the-wall kind of observer... I mean, what I've always done onstage is very natural. I talk to the audience and it's a very sitting-roomy kind of thing. So I just thought I'd basically bring that to the web."^[5]

On March 12, 2008, Hall played a well-received set with his band at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.^[6]

Hall was slated to sing the National Anthem before Game 5 of the 2008 World Series at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park but, due to an illness, could not appear, and Oates filled in for him.^[7]

In 2009, Hall guest starred on the Independent Film Channel series, Z-Rock (as himself).

In 2010 Hall was back in the studio working on a solo recording with bassist and musical director, T-Bone Wolk. Wolk died of a heart attack on February 28, 2010, hours after completing a session with Hall. Hall released a statement about the death of his bassist of nearly 30 years: “It’s not if I will go on, but how? T-Bone was one of the most sensitive and good human beings that I have ever known.”^[8]

On June 11, 2010 Hall shared the stage with electronic duo Chromeo for a special late night set at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. The groups had previously collaborated in a 2008 episode of Live from Daryl's House. Their Bonnaroo set consisted of a mix of both Hall & Oates and Chromeo tracks with the encore featuring Fancy Footwork and You Make My Dreams.

Hall hosted WGN America's 2010 New Year's Eve coverage as a Live from Daryl's House special. The special featured clips of previous Live from Daryl's House episodes. Steve Dahl, a Chicago radio host, praised the special as the best New Year's Eve special on television for 2010–11, but criticized the show's lack of a live countdown to midnight.^[9]

On September 27, 2011 Daryl Hall released "Laughing Down Crying" on Verve Records.

In August 12, 2011 UK Electronic duo Nero released their debut album "Welcome Reality", which features guest vocals by Hall on the track "Reaching Out", which also samples Hall & Oats 80's hit Out of Touch. Reaching Out was released as the sixth single on December 6, 2011.

Personal life[link]

Hall had a 30-plus year relationship with Sara Allen (the inspiration for the song "Sara Smile") which ended in 2001 for undisclosed reasons. They were never married nor had any children. Hall does have one son, Darren, from another relationship. He was married to Bryna Lublin from 1969 to 1972. He is now married to Amanda Aspinall and lives with her and his two step-children, March and Orson. March does backing vocals on songs "Save Me," "Message To Ya" and "Eyes For You" on Daryl's 2011 album, Laughing Down Crying.^[10]

Hall restores and preserves historic homes in both the United States and England. In 2008, he purchased the 18th century Bray House, in the Maine town of Kittery.^[11] and is in the process of restoring it.^[12] He also has restored a Georgian-style home in London, England, first built in 1740, one of only 50 houses with direct waterfront access to the River Thames.^{[citation needed]} He purchased two homes located near Hartford, Connecticut – one built in 1771, the other in 1780 – and had them moved to the same property in New York's Dutchess County where they were combined and restored; the new structure was later sold.^[13] After having the houses moved, he discovered that both homes, by coincidence, were connected to the same family.^[13]

Hit singles[link]

Hall has written or co-written 11 Billboard Number One songs, "She's Gone" (with John Oates as covered by Tavares), "Rich Girl", "Kiss On My List" (with Janna Allen), "Private Eyes" (with Sara Allen, Janna Allen & Warren Pash), "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" (with John Oates & Sara Allen), "Say It Isn't So", "Maneater" (with John Oates & Sara Allen), "Out of Touch" (with John Oates), "Everytime You Go Away" (covered by Paul Young) and "Do It For Love" (with John Oates).

Hall also sang lead vocals and has written or co-written 8 more popular Billboard songs that also made it to the Top 10, such as: "Adult Education" (with John Oates & Sara Allen), "Sara Smile" (with John Oates - a song that refers to Hall's ex-girlfriend), "Method of Modern Love" (with Janna Allen), "You Make My Dreams" (with John Oates & Sara Allen), "Everything Your Heart Desires", "One on One", "So Close" (with Jon Bon Jovi & Danny Kortchmar) and "Did It in a Minute" (with Sara Allen & Janna Allen). He has also had hits as a vocalist, reaching #12 with his 1980 rendition of The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Loving Feeling," and #6 with 1983's "Family Man," written by Mike Oldfield.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Official Hall and Oates Website
• Live From Daryl's House
• Daryl Hall at the Internet Movie Database

Rob Lowe
Lowe at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Knife Fight
Born	Robert Hepler Lowe (1964-03-17) March 17, 1964 (age 48) Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1979–present
Spouse	Sheryl Berkoff (1991–present; 2 children)

Robert Hepler "Rob" Lowe (/ˈrɒb ˈloʊ/; born March 17, 1964) is 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.

Early life[link]

Lowe was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, the son of Barbara Lynn (née Hepler), a teacher, and Charles Davis Lowe, a trial lawyer.^[1] 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.^[2] His father is of German , English and Irish ancestry and his mother was of German,^[3] English, Welsh, and Scottish descent. He was raised in a "traditional midwestern setting"^[2] in Dayton, Ohio, attending Oakwood Junior High School, before moving to the Point Dume area of Malibu, California with his mother and brother.^[4][5] 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.^[6][7]

Early career[link]

Lowe at the Governor's Ball party after the 1989 Academy Awards

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 Supporting Actor in a TV Movie/Miniseries". Lowe made his film debut in Schoolboy Father, followed by Class with Andrew McCarthy. His breakthrough came in 1983, when he and Emilio Estevez were cast in Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders. Lowe played the role of Sodapop Curtis, the brother of the main character Ponyboy Curtis (C. Thomas Howell) and Darrel Curtis (Patrick Swayze). 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).

Later work[link]

Television[link]

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^[8] nomination 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. In 2011, Lowe appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and stated that he left the show because he did not feel he was being respected, when the other lead characters received a raise and he did not.^[9]

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.^[10]

Despite his two canceled 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. He continued to appear in the series until the end of the 2009–2010 season. Unhappy with the stories and his lack of screen time in the fourth season, Lowe announced he would leave. In an episode broadcast on May 16, 2010, his character was part of a multi-vehicle crash involving a large truck and was put into a coma, the storyline was wrapped up in the first episode of the fifth season; Lowe did not appear in the episode.

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. (In the advertisement campaign, he was usually pictured in a white tee-shirt printed with the California state flag.)

Lowe had a supporting role in the 2009 movie The Invention of Lying and a leading role in Too Late to Say Goodbye.

In 2010, he appeared in the biography of the Brat Packers called: Brat Pack: Where Are They Now? He also appeared on The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien.

Lowe is currently teaming up with 44 Blue to produce a reality series entitled Potomac Fever about young adults living in Washington, DC.^[11]

In July 2010, it was announced that Lowe would be providing the voice for the superhero Captain Marvel in the upcoming animated series, Young Justice.^[12] It was also announced in July 2010 that Lowe would become a series regular on the series Parks and Recreation.^[13]

In 2011, Lowe guest starred in a recurring role on Showtime's comedy Californication. Lowe featured as the troubled but in-demand actor Eddie Nero - a character based upon "about ten people", according to Lowe^[14] but somewhat contradicted by sources at Showtime itself^[15] - employed to portray Hank in a film version his book, Fucking and Punching.^[16]

Other work[link]

In 2011, Lowe wrote a memoir titled Stories I Only Tell My Friends, which was released in May 2011.^[11][17] During Lowe’s promotional tour for Stories I Only Tell My Friends, Lowe told Australian radio show The Kyle & Jackie O Show that during his 5-day press visit to Australia in 1990, he was so badly affected by the overuse of pain-killers that the only two things he remembers from the trip was being at the Sydney Zoo and getting a tattoo.^[18]

Personal life[link]

Lowe with wife Sheryl Berkoff in 2003

Rob Lowe is a fan of the NFL football team the Indianapolis Colts.^[19] On January 18, 2012 Lowe erroneously reported via Twitter that NFL quarterback Peyton Manning was retiring.^[20]

Family and relationships[link]

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.^[21] 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 of Monaco, 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.^[22]

Lowe married makeup artist Sheryl Berkoff in July 1991; they have two sons: Edward Matthew Lowe (b. Sept 24, 1993), and John Owen Lowe (b. Nov 6, 1995).^{[citation needed]} They live in Venice Beach, California.

Sex tape controversy[link]

In 1988, Lowe was involved in a sex scandal over a videotape of him having sex with two women, one of whom was 16 and the other being 22. She was filmed with Lowe during the night before the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. Lowe has asserted that he did not know that the second girl was underage, and it was confirmed that the two had met at a bar.^[23] At the time, Lowe was campaigning for Michael Dukakis.^[24]

Another part of the same tape was leaked at the time, showing Lowe and his friend Justin Moritt, later the line producer, both having sexual intercourse and oral sex with a young American model named Jennifer, in a hotel room in Paris. This part of the original tape was sold as one of the first commercially available celebrity sex tapes, damaging his public image.^[25] Eventually, his career rebounded and Lowe mocked his own behavior during two post-scandal appearances as host of Saturday Night Live.

Nanny lawsuit cases[link]

Rob Lowe in 2008

In April 2008, Lowe filed separate lawsuits against three former employees accusing them of breach of contract, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Lowe accuses an ex-nanny of engaging in a scheme to hurt the couple by spreading "malicious lies". Another ex-nanny is accused of falsely claiming to have had a personal and intimate relationship with Lowe, and also repeatedly expressing romantic interest in Rob, claiming that Lowe sexually harassed her and that Sheryl Lowe was an abusive employer. Lowe claims a former chef engaged in sex on their bed with third parties when the family was out of town, stole prescription drugs from the Lowes, broke several security cameras, overcharged them for food, and allegedly made statements to various people that Sheryl was heartless, cold and unclean.^[26]

Jessica Gibson, 24-year-old former nanny for Lowe, made 12 allegations against Lowe involving sexual harassment claims and labor-code violations. On June 19, 2008, Santa Barbara, California, Superior Court Judge Denise de Bellefeuille dismissed two allegations regarding labor-code violations due to lack of legal basis.^[27]

The legal battle ended in May 2009, the press reported that court records showed that lawsuits filed by both nannies and Lowe have been dismissed in Santa Barbara. Attorneys for both women and Lowe sought the dismissals.^[28]

Charity work[link]

Lowe was the first male spokesperson for the 2000 Lee National Denim Day fundraiser, which raises millions of dollars for breast cancer research and education. His grandmother and great-grandmother both suffered from breast cancer, and his mother died of the disease in late 2003.

Lowe is a founder of the Homeowner's Defense Fund, a Santa Barbara County non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to local control of land-use planning and transparency in government. The average price of tract homes in Santa Barbara in early 2006 was $1,100,000, which motivated some to propose denser housing on existing lots. While in favor of increasing housing density, he has sought to build a 14,260-square-foot (1,325 m²) mansion for himself in Montecito, California.^[29] Lowe's protest over the appearance of the address of the empty lot in the Santa Barbara News-Press precipitated a mass resignation of senior employees at that newspaper on July 6, 2006,^[30] and was a proximate cause of the Santa Barbara News-Press controversy.

Filmography[link]

Film[link]