Rob Lowe: biography and filmography

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Rob Lowe is an American actor, producer, screenwriter, singer and director. He rose to fame in the 1980s with roles in The Outcasts, St. Elmo's Fire and What Happened Last Night? Later he began to work successfully on television. He is best known for his roles on The West Wing, Siblings and Parks and Recreation.

Childhood and youth

Rob Lowe was born March 17, 1964 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Full name is Robert Hapler Lowe. The father of the actor is a lawyer, his mother is a teacher. After the divorce of his parents, Rob and his brother Chad - also a popular actor in the future - moved to the city of Dayton, Ohio.

A few years later, Lowe moved his family to California, where in high school he met Charlie Sheen and his brother Emilio Estevez, with whom he would work several times.

Career start

In 1979, Rob Lowe got one of the main roles in the sitcom "A New Kind of Family", which was canceled after the first show.season due to low ratings. The young actor later appeared in several music videos and commercials.

The first notable work in the filmography of Rob Lowe was the TV movie "Thursday's Baby". For this performance, he received his first Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie.

First successes

Rob Lowe's breakthrough film was Francis Ford Coppola's youth drama The Outcasts, which launched the careers of many young actors, in particular, Emilio Estevez and Tom Cruise. In 1985, Lowe played one of the main roles in the romantic drama St. Elmo's Fire, which became a box office hit.

A year later, the actor received a central role in the melodrama "What happened last night?". In 1987, Lowe appeared in the drama Quadrille, for which he received a second Golden Globe nomination.

A period of failures

In 1988, a recording of Rob Lowe's sexual act with a sixteen-year-old girl appeared in the public domain, after some time another recording with another girl was leaked to the press. This scandal has seriously damaged the reputation of the actor, who was considered one of the most promising stars in Hollywood.

A year later, Rob appeared in the opening musical number of the Oscars, his work and the whole number in particular were panned by critics and ordinary viewers.

At that time began not the most successful period in the film career of Rob Lowe. The actor took part in several relatively successful projects, such as the thriller The Bad Influence and the comedy Wayne's World, but most of the films with his participation turned out to be not too kind to the press and the audience. The actor was one of the favorites for the role in the film "Titanic", which later went to Billy Zane.

Return

In 1999, Rob Lowe appeared in the comedy "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me", which became a hit at the box office. In the same year, he landed a leading role in Aaron Sorkin's political series The West Wing.

The project lasted seven seasons, but Rob Lowe left it in 2003. This was due to the fact that his character - originally the main character of the series - was relegated to the background, and the channel, moreover, refused to raise the salary of the actor. He later returned to the role for several final episodes. Lowe has received numerous nominations for prestigious awards for this project.

After leaving The West Wing, Rob Lowe received an offer to star in Grey's Anatomy, but instead the actor joined The Lion's Den, which was canceled after the first season. The same fate befell Lowe's next project, Dr. Vegas.

In subsequent years, Rob did not act in films too often, we can note his participation in the sequels to "Austin Powers",small roles in the comedies The View from Above is Better and There's Smoking in Here and work in several television films. The next television project of the actor was the series "Brothers and Sisters". In the first season, Rob Lowe was not a member of the main cast, but later his character became one of the main ones.

In 2011, Rob Lowe joined the main cast of the comedy series Parks and Recreation, but left the project a few seasons later, returning in the final episode. The actor also appeared as a guest star in several episodes of Californication.

Recent Projects

In 2015, two TV series starring Rob Lowe were released: the legal comedy Crusher and the fantastic project Me, You and the Apocalypse. Both series were canceled after the first season, despite good reviews from critics.

Since 2016, Lowe has appeared in twenty-nine episodes of the medical drama Reanimation. He also launched a reality show that focuses on his relationship with his sons.

In 2018, the actor played a major role in the TV movie Bad Blood. This project was also his directorial debut.

Private life

The actor's personal life has been the subject of intense media attention since the beginning of his career. Photos of Rob Lowe often appeared on the front pages of newspapers and the covers of glossy magazines.

In 1983, Rob met make-up artist Sheryl Berkoff. They started dating for six years, thenmarried in 1991. The couple have two sons, Matthew and John. In 2008, the actor became involved in a scandal when several nannies, at various times working for the Lowe family, filed a lawsuit, accusing the actor of emotional abuse, sexual harassment and unlawful termination of the contract. Rob denied all allegations and the case was ultimately dismissed by the court.

Rob Lowe has written two books of memoirs and also launches his own skin care line for men. Actively involved in political life: supported Arnold Schwarzenegger in the election of the Governor of California.