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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAs a teenager, he fell in love with performing, even as he struggled to fit in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
he once recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After high school, he enrolled at NYU to study acting \u2014 and quickly flamed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
he admitted later. He was expelled after two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just weeks later, everything changed. Andrew answered an open casting call in a newspaper for a film called Class, starring Jacqueline Bisset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His performance as Jonathan, the prep school student having an affair with his roommate\u2019s mother, made Hollywood pay attention. NYU suddenly came calling again:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brat Pack fame and private pain<\/p>\n\n\n\n The mid-\u201980s turned Andrew McCarthy into a full-blown teen idol. He starred in St. Elmo\u2019s Fire (1985) alongside Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, and Demi Moore; then came Pretty in Pink, where his quiet, understated charm opposite Molly Ringwald cemented his heartthrob status. Films like Mannequin and later Weekend at Bernie\u2019s made him one of the most familiar faces of the decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet for all the attention, he never felt built for fame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Being labeled part of the \u201cBrat Pack\u201d didn\u2019t help. The media lumped him in with a crowd of young actors often portrayed as entitled party kids, whether it truly fit or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Behind the scenes, Andrew was grappling with something darker: alcohol. He\u2019d started smoking weed in high school and drank socially, but as his fame grew, so did his dependence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Talking about Pretty in Pink, he later admitted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLike in Pretty in Pink for example, people said, \u2018Oh, he\u2019s so sensitive and lovely in that movie.\u2019 I was so hungover for that whole movie\u2026 I\u2019m thinking, \u2018God, I got a headache. I am just dying here. I got to go lay down\u2019. But on film I came across a certain way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Alcohol gave him a kind of counterfeit confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf I was frightened, it gave me good Dutch courage,\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI felt confident and sexy and in charge and in control and powerful \u2014 none of those things I felt in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n He dabbled briefly in cocaine too:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you had it, I did it,\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n he admitted \u2014 though he rarely used it on set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was anxious enough \u2014 I didn\u2019t need to be adding cocaine.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Hitting bottom and starting over<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1989, just before filming Weekend at Bernie\u2019s, McCarthy quit drinking cold turkey and retreated from the social scene. For an introvert, isolation wasn\u2019t the hardest part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m very comfortable being alone and I\u2019ve always been comfortable being alone,\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n he said years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI find that people go to great lengths to avoid being alone and they get themselves into a lot of trouble. I find that a lot of unhappiness is from trying not to be alone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Still, sobriety didn\u2019t stick right away. While filming Jours tranquilles \u00e0 Clichy, he accepted a beer from a co-star\u2014and watched his hands shake as he lifted the can. What followed were three \u201clost and painful\u201d years, ending with him collapsed on a bathroom floor, violently hungover and shaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At 29, he checked himself into rehab, went through detox, and committed to a life without alcohol or drugs. That decision quietly changed everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reinventing himself: director, writer, traveler, dad<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the years passed, Andrew McCarthy shifted away from the glossy teen-idol spotlight into a quieter, more multifaceted career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He directed episodes of major TV series like Orange Is the New Black and Gossip Girl, and focused more on independent film. Off-screen, he discovered another passion: travel writing. In 2010, he was named Travel Journalist of the Year and has since written for outlets such as National Geographic Traveler and Men\u2019s Journal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople say, \u2018How does an actor become a travel writer? That\u2019s interesting. They are so different.\u2019 But they are exactly the same to me. They manifest in the same way in that they\u2019re both storytelling, and that\u2019s how I communicate. They\u2019re both some expression of creativity,\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Travel, he says, brings out his best self.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m just a better version of myself when I\u2019m traveling,\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n he told NJ Monthly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2019re more vulnerable, you\u2019re present in the world, your \u2018Spidey sense\u2019 is up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n His personal life has had its own chapters. He married his college sweetheart, Carol Schneider, in 1999 after reconnecting decades later:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI ran into someone who said they had seen Carol and her boyfriend and they seemed really happy, and for some reason it bothered me for a week. I called her and asked her if she was really with this guy and asked her out for coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n They welcomed a son, Sam, in 2002 before divorcing in 2005. In 2011, he married Irish writer and director Dolores Rice; together they have two children, Willow and Rowan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, McCarthy lives a relatively normal family life in New York\u2019s West Village. He\u2019s directed nearly a hundred hours of television, raised three kids, and built a second career with words instead of lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking back without nostalgia<\/p>\n\n\n\n Decades after his \u201980s heyday, Andrew McCarthy remains a beloved figure for fans who grew up watching him on VHS and cable reruns. Commenters still swoon over his photos:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cStill as gorgeous as ever But he himself doesn\u2019t dwell much on the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s nice,\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n he says about the enduring love for his old films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s their experience, but it doesn\u2019t have a lot to do with me particularly at this point. I don\u2019t have a lot of nostalgia for my past.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n His features have sharpened, his expression deeper, more lined, but there\u2019s a steadiness there that wasn\u2019t present in his early fame. After watching so many young stars burn out, his journey \u2014 through addiction, recovery, reinvention, and fatherhood \u2014 feels nothing short of remarkable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI adore my children, naturally,\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n he says simply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The boy who once made millions of teenagers swoon didn\u2019t just survive Hollywood; he outgrew it on his own terms \u2014 proving that sometimes the most compelling story isn\u2019t the rise, but what you choose to do with your second act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" He was the kind of boy who ended up taped to bedroom walls and tucked into school binders \u2014 the soft-spoken, soulful face of countless \u201980s crushes. With tousled dark hair, a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-viral-tales"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dailypositive24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-139915079.jpg\")
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\u201d
\u201cHe\u2019s aged very well indeed \u201d
\u201cGosh, you\u2019re gorgeous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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