Judd Nelson

Judd Nelson is an American actor and screenwriter whose four-decade career has produced multiple defining 1980s American film roles — particularly his 1985 lead role as John Bender in John Hughes's The Breakfast Club, the role that established him as a member of the 1980s American "Brat Pack" group of young actors. He was born Judd Asher Nelson on November 28, 1959, in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His father Leonard Nelson was a corporate-attorney and his mother Merle Royce Nelson was a county court judge in Hennepin County, Minnesota.

His education at the Saint Paul Academy and Summit School (graduated 1977) and Haverford College (1977–1980; without earning a degree) launched his early-career path. His 1981 New York City arrival and his subsequent Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting study produced his early-1980s American film and TV career. His 1984 first feature-film appearance in Marek Kanievska's Making the Grade launched his 1985–1986 American film breakthrough.

His 1985 supporting role as alcoholic-and-emotionally-troubled high-school student John Bender in John Hughes's The Breakfast Club — released February 15, 1985 — launched his 1985 American "Brat Pack" public profile. (The "Brat Pack" name was coined by journalist David Blum in his 1985 New York magazine cover story "Hollywood's Brat Pack," which profiled Nelson alongside Emilio Estevez and Rob Lowe across their 1985 New York Hard Rock Cafe interviews.)

His 1985 lead role as fast-talking yuppie Alec Newbary in Joel Schumacher's St. Elmo's Fire (which featured 1985 "Brat Pack" co-stars Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy, and Mare Winningham) produced his mid-1980s American film public profile. His subsequent late-1980s and 1990s film career produced multiple American supporting roles — particularly the 1986 dystopian science-fiction film From the Hip (1987), Blue City (1986), New Jack City (1991), and his voice role as Hot Rod / Rodimus Prime in the 1986 animated The Transformers: The Movie. His 1996–2001 lead role as Brooklyn District Attorney's Office prosecutor Brooklyn District Attorney Tommy Mulcahy on CBS's TV series Suddenly Susan (alongside Brooke Shields) produced his 1990s American TV public profile.

His name Judd derives from the Old English diminutive of Jordan (from the Hebrew Yarden meaning "to descend," the name of the Jordan River). Judd has been a popular American boys' name across the 20th century.