Rob Lowe

For other people named Robert Lowe, see Robert Lowe (disambiguation).

Rob Lowe
Rob Lowe, 2003
Born	Robert Hepler Lowe
Spouse	Sheryl Berkoff (22 July 1991–present) 2 children

Robert Hepler Lowe (born March 17, 1964) is an American actor. He became famous after appearing in popular 1980s movies such as The Outsiders and St. Elmo's Fire, which included other members of the Brat Pack. Lowe is also known for his role as Sam Seaborn on The West Wing and as Senator Robert McCallister on Brothers & Sisters. He is deaf in his right ear.

Biography

Early life

Lowe was born to parents: Barbara (née Hepler), a teacher, and Charles Lowe, a trial lawyer; the two divorced when Lowe was young and have since re-married. He has a younger brother, actor Chad Lowe, and two step-siblings. Lowe was baptized into the Episcopalian church, though his maternal grandparents were Methodists. He was raised in a "traditional midwestern setting" in Dayton, Ohio and on the Westside of Los Angeles, attending Santa Monica High School, where one of his classmates was fellow Brat-Packer Emilio Estevez. He was voted "most spirited" in high school.

Career

Lowe's early roles included such hit films as The Outsiders (where he played Sodapop) the main character's (Ponyboy's) older brother , St. Elmo's Fire, and About Last Night. Lowe was one of the most popular members of the Brat Pack, partially because of his good looks, which made him a popular actor with many. including my freind kala who thinks he is totaly sexy

Lowe is perhaps best known for playing Sam Seaborn in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2003. His performance in the show garnered Lowe an Emmy and two Golden Globe Award Nominations for Best Actor in a Drama Series. When the show premiered, Seaborn was considered the lead, and the pilot centered on the character. But the acclaimed cast of the show—including Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, John Spencer, Bradley Whitford, Martin Sheen (whose President Bartlet was initially scripted as a small role) and Stockard Channing (whose First Lady was initially scripted as a guest role)—meant that Sam Seaborn could no longer be considered the lead character.

While he reluctantly accepted his demotion, Lowe and series creator Aaron Sorkin soon found themselves at odds over the network's meddling with the show, most notably the network demanding changes in the Sam Seaborn character. Eventually, Lowe left the series, not long before Sorkin and director/executive producer Thomas Schlamme unceremoniously quit over a dispute with NBC—a move which saw the show's style change greatly, resulting in decreased ratings and mostly negative reactions from critics and fans. During the final season of The West Wing, Lowe returned to his role of Sam Seaborn, appearing in two of the final four episodes.

After leaving the show, Lowe was star and executive producer of a failed NBC drama, The Lyon's Den (2003). In 2004, he tried again in a series entitled Dr. Vegas, but it also was quickly canceled. In 2005, he starred as Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee in a London West End production of Sorkin's play A Few Good Men, the first time the two had worked together since The West Wing. Although Lowe had expressed unhappiness about his decreased role on that show at the time of his departure, he has now repeatedly said that any animosity between them is over and that he was pleased to be working once more with Sorkin, whose talents as a writer Lowe highly regards. Lowe passed on the role of Dr. Derek Shepard of Grey's Anatomy, which eventually went to Patrick Dempsey.

Despite his two canceled TV series and flops like View From the Top and the made-for-TV movie Perfect Strangers during his post–West Wing run, Lowe found success in the TV miniseries genre. 2004 marked his return to this genre since 1994's The Stand which was based on Stephen King's book of the same name. In 2004, Lowe starred in the TNT remake of the Stephen King miniseries 'Salem's Lot which was the highest rated cable program of that summer and the highest ratings TNT original programming had at the time. In 2005, Lowe starred in the miniseries Beach Girls on the Lifetime network which was based on the Lunann Rice novel of the same name. The series premiere received the highest ratings for a movie premiere in Lifetime history. In that same year, Lowe filmed his critically acclaimed role as super movie agent in the 2006 independent film Thank You for Smoking. In 2006, he filmed The Perfect Day for TNT, in which he took a pay cut to film in New Orleans in order to help the hurricane ravaged area. That same year, Lowe filmed Stir of Echoes: The Homecoming, the "sequel" to the 1998 Kevin Bacon thriller Stir of Echoes.

In 2006, it was announced that Lowe would join the cast of Brothers & Sisters for a guest run of several episodes. In January 2007, ABC announced that Lowe would be staying on Brothers and Sisters as a "special guest star" for the rest of season 1 after Lowe's initial appearance on the show in November 2006 brought the best ratings and demographic showing for the show since its series premiere. Soon after ABC announced an early season 2 renewal for Brother Sisters in March 2007, Lowe announced he would be returning for the show's second season which premiered in the fall of 2007. Starting in season 2, in the program's listing of main cast members (of which there are 13), his name appears in alphabetical order like everyone else's, receiving no special "And" billing.

In June 2006, he was the guest host for an episode in the third series of The Friday Night Project for the United Kingdom's Channel 4.

Sex tape controversy

In 1988, Lowe was involved in a sex scandal over a videotape of him having sex with two females, one of whom was sixteen, in Atlanta while attending the 1988 Democratic National Convention. Lowe has asserted that he did not know that the second girl was underaged, and it was confirmed that the two had met at a bar, which the girl entered by lying about her age.

Further complicating the issue was another part of the same tape that leaked at the time, showing Lowe, a young American model called "Jennifer," and "Justin Morris" having a ménage à trois in a hotel room in Paris. This part of the original tape was made commercially available, and was sold as one of the first commercially available "celebrity sex tapes," damaging his public image.

Lowe's career was damaged by the scandal, and he later entered a rehabilitation clinic for alcohol and sex addiction. Eventually, his career rebounded, and Lowe mocked his own behavior during two post-scandal appearances as host of Saturday Night Live.

Personal life

Lowe is married to Sheryl Berkoff with whom he currently has two children, Edward Matthew Lowe (b. Sept 1993), and John Owen Lowe (b. Jan 1995). They live in Montecito, California.

Lowe was the first male spokesperson for the 2000 Lee National Denim Day fundraiser, which raises millions of dollars for breast cancer research and education. His grandmother and great-grandmother both suffered from breast cancer, and his mother succumbed to the disease in late 2003.

Lowe is a founder of the Homeowner's Defense Fund, a Santa Barbara County non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to local control of land-use planning and transparency in government. The average price of tract homes in Santa Barbara in early 2006 was $1,100,000, which motivated some to propose denser housing on existing lots. While in favor of increasing housing density, he has sought to build a 14,260 square-foot mansion for himself in Montecito, California. Lowe's protest over the appearance of the address of the empty lot in the Santa Barbara News-Press precipitated a mass resignation of senior employees at that newspaper on July 6, 2006, and was a proximate cause of the Santa Barbara News-Press controversy.

Lowe accidentally killed a goldfinch, the Iowa state bird, while golfing in a charity tournament.

Filmography

• Schoolboy Father (1980)
• Class (1983)
• The Outsiders (1983)
• Oxford Blues (1984)
• The Hotel New Hampshire (1984)
• St. Elmo's Fire (1985)
• Youngblood (1986)
• About Last Night... (1986)
• Square Dance (1987)
• Illegally Yours (1988)
• Masquerade (1988)
• Bad Influence (1990)
• The Finest Hour (Film) (1991)
• Wayne's World (1992)
• The Stand (1994)
• Tommy Boy (1995)
• Frank & Jesse (1995)
• On Dangerous Ground (1996) (TV)
• Contact (1997)
• For Hire (1997)
• Hostile Intent (1997)
• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) (cameo)
• Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
• The West Wing (1999-2003, 2006)
• Atomic Train (1999)
• Proximity (2000)
• The Specials (2000)
• The Christmas Shoes (2002)
• Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)
• View from the Top (2003)
• Framed (2003)
• 'Salem's Lot (2004)
• Beach Girls (TV Miniseries) (2005)
• The Christmas Blessing (2005)
• Thank You for Smoking (2006)
• Brothers & Sisters (2006 -)
• A Perfect Day (2006)

External links

• Official Rob Lowe Fan Website
• Rob Lowe at IMDb
• Photos from Wireimage
• Bio of Rob Lowe