- published: 08 Mar 2015
- views: 62657
Judd Asher Nelson (born November 28, 1959) is an American actor, screenwriter, and producer. He is known for his roles as John Bender in The Breakfast Club, Alec Newbary in St. Elmo's Fire, Hot Rod and Rodimus Prime in The Transformers: The Movie and Transformers: Animated, Nick Peretti in New Jack City, Billy Beretti in Empire, and Jack Richmond in Suddenly Susan.
Nelson was born in Portland, Maine, the son of Merle (née Royte), a court mediator and former member of the Maine state legislature, and Leonard Nelson, a corporate lawyer. His family is Jewish, and his father was the first Jewish president of the Portland Symphony Orchestra. He has two sisters, Eve and Julie. He went to school at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and Waynflete School in Portland, Maine, and studied at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, leaving during his sophomore year. He subsequently moved to Manhattan to study acting with Stella Adler.
Nelson began acting in the mid-1980s, starring in Making the Grade (1984) and Fandango (1985), the latter in which he starred opposite a young Kevin Costner. It was his roles in John Hughes's The Breakfast Club (1985) and Joel Schumacher's St. Elmo's Fire (1985) - and his affiliation with the Brat Pack - that made Nelson a star (along with Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy). The St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion) music video - also directed by Joel Schumacher - reached #1 in the USA (1985) written by David Foster and John Parr and performed by John Parr; Nelson appears in the video. A subsequent article in New York magazine, which focused primarily on the success of these films, resulted in the term "Brat Pack" being coined.