Please Rewind Talent Wall

Andrew McCarthy

Andrew McCarthy’s career reaches well beyond the 1980s films that first made him widely recognizable. Born on November 29, 1962, in Westfield, New Jersey, he found an early route into acting at the Pingry School, where he played the Artful Dodger in Oliver! He later enrolled at NYU to study acting, though his time there ended after two years. His first major film role came opposite Jacqueline Bisset in the 1983 comedy Class. McCarthy subsequently became associated with the group of young actors labeled the “Brat Pack” by the media, appearing in St. Elmo’s Fire and Pretty in Pink. That period also included Michael Dunn in Heaven Help Us, followed by two notably different 1987 releases: the comedy Mannequin and Less than Zero, adapted from Bret Easton Ellis’s novel. Fresh Horses and Kansas arrived in 1988, while Weekend at Bernie’s gave him another comedy success the following year. McCarthy’s work has never been confined to film. He made his Broadway debut in The Boys of Winter and later returned to Broadway for Side Man, whose production won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Play. His television acting has included Kingdom Hospital, E-Ring, Lipstick Jungle, White Collar, The Family and a recurring role in Good Girls. In 2022, he joined The Resident as Ian Sullivan, a renowned pediatric surgeon and the estranged father of Cade. Alongside acting, McCarthy has built a substantial career behind the camera as a director, screenwriter and producer. His television directing credits include episodes of Gossip Girl, White Collar and The Blacklist. Taken together, those roles reveal the shape of a career that began in front of the camera but continued to expand across film, television and the stage.