Biography

Rob Lowe

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Rob Lowe was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, to Barbara Lynn (Hepler), a schoolteacher, and Charles Davis Lowe, a lawyer. His brother is actor Chad Lowe. He has German, as well as English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh ancestry. Lowe's family moved to Dayton, Ohio, when he was a child. Rob broke into acting in his teens. He spent the 1980s as a member of the "Brat Pack", a group of young, powerful and reckless actors and actresses that included Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen and Judd Nelson, among others. In 1988 Lowe was involved in a scandal centering around a sexually explicit videotape which involved a minor, for which he did 20 hours of community service in Dayton. He subsequently sought help for his problems with drugs and alcohol and has re-emerged in the 1990s as a clean and sober husband and father.
- IMDb mini biography by: ritay@embarqmail.com

2011: Lowe told USA Today that if he did not dye his hair, it would be entirely grey. He said he went grey at age 24.
He is deaf in his right ear, from a virus as an infant.
On the television show, Who Do You Think You Are? (2010), he found out some interesting things about his mother's family. There was an application for admittance into the "Daughters of the American Revolution" from someone in Rob's family because of his five times great-grandfather, John Christopher East. However, the application was denied because there was no proof that he fought in the Revolutionary War. Rob uncovered that John Christopher East (or Johan Christoph Oeste in German) was a Hessian soldier who fought for the British in the Battle of Trenton and was captured by George Washington. John Christopher East settled in the United States rather than return to Germany. While doing some digging, there was a record of John Christopher East on the side of the United States so the DAR accepted Rob's ancestor as a patriot. Consequently, the "Sons of the American Revolution" invited Rob to become a member. Rob found it very interesting that his ancestor actually fought on both sides of the war.
Was one of the nine original members of the 1980s "brat pack", along with Judd Nelson, Demi Moore, Anthony Michael Hall, Sean Penn, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez and Andrew McCarthy.
During his teenage years, he was very good friends with Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen.

When I was young and crazy, I was young and crazy. It can be hard enough just to BE in your teens and 20s. Then add fame, money, access, and every single person telling you that you're the greatest person who ever was, and it can be a recipe for disaster. Some people literally don't survive it.
[on his short-lived sitcom, A New Kind of Family (1979)] It was notable only for how bad it was.
... One of the great gifts we get (as actors) is that we live on, frozen in time, forever... Truly, the most fulfilling moments I've ever had are on the stage. If you can't have that as an actor, then you might as well at least have that other great thing, which is immortality.
A few years ago I got to a point where I realized that the only way you can tell someone's age is how they live their life. The candles on the cake mean absolutely nothing.
[on the death of James Gandolfini] James Gandolfini gave the greatest performance in the history of television. He was also a kind man. Condolences to his family.