Background

Ethnicity: Rob Lowe is of approximately half German ancestry (both of his parents were of part German descent). Rob also has English, Irish, Welsh, and Scottish ancestry.

Rob Lowe was born on March 17, 1964, in Charlottesville, Virginia, the United States, to Barbara, a teacher, and Chuck Lowe, a trial lawyer. Lowe's family moved to Dayton, Ohio, when he was a child. His younger brother Chad also became an actor, and at one point was married to actress Hilary Swank.

Education

Lowe grew up in Southern California and attended Santa Monica High School, where his classmates included actors Charlie Sheen and Sean Penn.

Career

Rob Lowe began his acting career at the age of eight in local television and theater. After his family relocated to Los Angeles, he began his national acting career at the age of 15, starring in the television series A New Kind of Family. Lowe quickly achieved heartthrob status. When the series ended, he easily made the leap to feature film stardom with a debut in Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders and began hanging out with a group of talented young performers who became known as "The Brat Pack", along with Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, and Judd Nelson.

Working his way back into the public eye, Lowe made appearances in the feature films Wayne's World (1992), Contact (1997), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) and The Specials (2000). However, his true comeback as an actor and star came in 1999, when he returned to the small screen to appear alongside Martin Sheen in the well-reviewed TV drama series The West Wing. Lowe was cast in the ongoing role of Sam Seaborn, Deputy Communications Director. In 2002, he announced he was leaving the hit show as a result of stalled salary negotiations.

Lowe added producer, writer, and director to his credits, producing and starring in the feature film Frank & Jesse and the short-lived TV series The Lyon's Den and Dr. Vegas. He wrote and directed the short film Desert's Edge, which debuted at the Santa Barbara Film Festival and the Los Angeles International Film Festival, and subsequently aired on Showtime.

In September of 2005, Lowe made his West End stage debut starring in Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men, earning rave reviews. Additional theater credits include the Broadway production of Little Hotel on the Side and Three Sisters.

For four seasons, Rob starred in the critically acclaimed political drama series The West Wing. During that time Lowe was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama and received his third and fourth Golden Globe Award nods. Lowe and the ensemble cast were nominated three times for the Screen Actors Guild Award, winning twice.

The actor regained his footing as Senator Robert McCallister on the drama Brothers & Sisters, progressing from a part-time to a featured role during the show's five seasons. He enjoyed a similar run while flexing his comedic chops on the sitcom Parks and Recreation, initially appearing in a guest role in 2010 before becoming a regular cast member.

In 2013, he played Paul Turner in Knife Fight, which also starred Julie Bowen and Jennifer Morrison. In the meantime, he churned out two memoirs, Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography (2011) and Love Life (2014). From 2015 to 2016, he starred as a TV actor who plays a lawyer on the side-splitting sitcom The Grinder alongside Fred Savage as his lawyer brother. His performance as Dean Sanderson, an actor who takes advantage of his family-oriented younger brother, played by Fred Savage, was a hit with critics and garnered him a Golden Globe nomination. However, it never resonated with TV viewers and was canceled in 2016.

Lowe returned to the small screen in fall 2016 with the season 2 debut of Code Black, injecting another dimension into the medical drama as a military transplant fresh off the battlefield. That same year he took on the voice role of Simba in the animated series The Lion Guard, which aired through late 2019.

In 2017, Lowe and his sons plunged into the world of reality TV in the A+E series The Lowe Files, which chronicles their cross-country travels and explorations into unsolved mysteries. The actor continued to push into new territory the following year, this time taking on the director's chair for the first time in the television remake of the 1956 film The Bad Seed.

A busy 2019 had Lowe hosting the game show Mental Samurai and starring in the short-lived Wild Bill, as an American transplant hired as chief constable of a town in Lincolnshire, England. He closed out the year by co-starring with Kristin Davis in the Netflix romantic comedy Holiday in the Wild, before opening 2020 with the lead role in the Fox procedural series 9-1-1: Lone Star.

Achievements

• 

  Robe Lowe is the recipient of two Screen Actors Guild Awards and has been nominated for six Golden Globes Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2000, People magazine featured him on the list of 50 Most Beautiful People in the World.
  
  Lowe was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6667 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on December 8, 2015. In December 2017, Lowe was chosen to receive the Horatio Alger Award for 2018. The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans recognizes people who have overcome personal challenges to achieve personal and professional success.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Love Life

    (Love Life serves up another delicious selection of intima...)

    3014

• movie

  • Monster Trucks

    (When high school senior Tripp discovers a gas-guzzling cr...)

    2016
  • Square Dance

    (Director Daniel Petrie's poignant coming-of-age drama, ba...)

    1987
  • Pocket Listing

    (Double crosses, adultery, murder, mistaken identity, and ...)

    2016
  • Masquerade

    (Rob Lowe and Meg Tilly star in this psychological drama a...)

    1988
  • Jane Doe

    (Jane Doe (Hatcher) is the real name of arms manufacturer ...)

    2001
  • Prosecuting Casey Anthony

    (Rob Lowe stars as Florida prosecutor Jeff Ashton in this ...)

    2013
  • Oxford Blues

    (Rob Lowe stars as a Las Vegas casino worker who finagles ...)

    1984
  • Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

    (First, he fought for the Crown, now he's fighting for the...)

    1999
  • Illegally Yours

    (A juror (Rob Lowe) is surprised to find the unrequited lo...)

    1988
  • I Melt With You

    (When four 40-something college friends meet up for their ...)

    2011
  • Mune: Guardian of the Moon

    (In this breathtaking fantasy adventure, an unlikely littl...)

    2017
  • How To Be A Latin Lover

    (Eugenio Derbez and Salma Hayek head an all-star cast in t...)

    2017
  • Thank You for Smoking

    (Based on Christopher Buckley's acclaimed 1994 novel of th...)

    2006
  • Sex Tape

    (Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz star in this fun and racy co...)

    2014
  • Frank and Jesse

    (After the defeat of the South in the Civil War and the mu...)

    1994
  • Behind the Candelabra

    (Michael Douglas and Matt Damon star in this film that rec...)

    2013
  • Proximity

    (An inmate serving time for vehicular homicide, overhears ...)

    2001
  • Drew Peterson: Untouchable

    (The story of Drew Peterson, who is charged with the death...)

    2012
  • The Invention of Lying

    (In a world where people speak the truth and have no conce...)

    2009
  • Beautiful And Twisted

    (Based on the shocking true story, Beautiful & Twisted is ...)

    2015
  • A Perfect Day

    (A family man and suddenly-successful author encounters a ...)

    2006
  • The Outsiders

    (Hinton's best-selling classic, starting Tom Cruise, Patri...)

    1983
  • Youngblood

    (Handsome young men whack each other in the face with stic...)

    1986
  • About Last Night

    (A couple (Rob Lowe, Demi Moore) deals with the downside o...)

    1986
  • Living in Peril

    (Ambition and treachery are an explosive combination when ...)

    1997
  • Wayne's World

    (Metal head slackers Wayne and Garth sell their basement c...)

    1992
  • Stir Of Echoes 2: The Homecoming

    (A soldier returns home from the Iraq war only to be haunt...)

    2007
  • Class

    (A naive prep-school boy's attempts to meet girls are fore...)

    1983
  • Bad Influence

    (Financial analyst Michael is smart, successful and engage...)

    1990
  • View From The Top

    (A small-town girl sets her sights on becoming an internat...)

    2003
  • St. Elmo's Fire

    (Fresh from college, seven friends search for their places...)

    1198
  • The Hotel New Hampshire

    (Beau Bridges heads the zany Berry clan on a global self-d...)

    1984
  • Outrage

    (Tom Casey reports to the police some youngsters stealing ...)

    1988
  • Knife Fight

    (Rob Lowe stars as a wildly successful campaign strategist.)

    2012
  • The Dark Backward

    (Judd Nelson and Bill Paxton star in this cult classic. Ga...)

    1991
  • Thursday's Child

    (Life is about to change for young Sam Alden. Life itself ...)

    1983
  • Austin Powers in Goldmember

    (After Dr. Evil and his accomplice Mini-Me escape from a m...)

    2002

• TV series

  • The Grinder: The Complete First Season

    (The Grinder is a comedy about two brothers: Dean (Lowe) i...)

  • You, Me And the Apocalypse

    (In this bold, adrenaline-fueled comedy-drama, the news th...)

  • West Wing: The Complete Series Collection

    (The West Wing is an American serial political drama telev...)

  • Brothers and Sisters: The Complete Collection

    (Brothers & Sisters is an American television drama series...)

  • The Lowe Files

    (The Lowe Files follows Rob Lowe and his two sons, Matthew...)

  • Parks and Recreation: The Complete Series

    (Settle down in Pawnee, Indiana, with Golden Globe winner ...)

  • Code Black: Season 1 & 2

    (In the country’s busiest emergency room, you’re either lo...)

• TV show

  • Mental Samurai

    (A competition series hosted by Rob Lowe that pushes every...)

Religion

Lowe was baptized an Episcopalian, though his maternal grandparents were Methodists. Lowe says he grew up in a "traditional midwestern setting, surrounded by large, Catholic families" and admits that his family wasn’t too religious and rarely attended church.

Politics

Lowe is a self-described political junkie, and has been since childhood where he grew up listening to his step-father "bitch about Richard Nixon." His financial political contributions (a mere $1,000) all went to Democrats and he was a huge supporter of Democrat Michael Dukakis’ 1988 presidential campaign, even joining Dukakis on the campaign trail to stump for him and calling him "a profoundly decent, earnest man."

He also supported Barack Obama, saying: "God speed to POTUS Obama. We are looking to you to help get this nation to live within its means and grow our economy. Go get ‘em!"

Views

Rob Lowe raises money for breast cancer research and education. In 2003 he became the first male spokesman for the 2000 Lee National Denim Day fundraiser. He’s an active campaigner for cancer research because his mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother were all diagnosed with breast cancer.

Lowe is also 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.

Quotations: "There's this unbelievable bias and prejudice against quote-unquote good-looking people, that they can't be in pain or they can't have rough lives or be deep or interesting. They can't be any of the things that you long to play as an actor. I'm getting to play those parts now and loving it. When I was a teen idol, I was so goddamn pretty I wouldn't have taken myself seriously."

Personality

In 1988, Lowe made headlines with a scandal that involved a video camera and a female minor. He claimed he didn't know the girl was underage, having met her at a bar. He was eventually sentenced to 20 hours of community service and went to rehab for drug and alcohol addiction. Following the incident, Lowe took a couple of years off and retreated to Santa Barbara, California, where he overcame a drug and alcohol problem and concentrated on being a family man.

In April 2008, Lowe was involved in a legal battle with 3 of his former nannies over charges of breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and defamation. His former nanny, Jessica Gibson made charges of sexual harassment and labor-code violation against him. Due to the lack of a legal basis, the labor-code violations were dismissed. It was reported that both the parties sought dismissal in May 2009.

He was a member of the original Brat Pack in the 80’s which included names like Emilio Esteves, Sean Penn, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Charlie Sheen, Demi Moore, Anthony Michael Hall, Andrew McCarthy, and Judd Nelson. The pack involved 9+ actors and actresses who were known to be young, reckless and powerful at the time.

Physical Characteristics: Robe Lowe is deaf in his right ear, from a virus as an infant. Lowe also admits he began dyeing his hair after going completely gray at age 24.

Interests

• fishing

• Politicians

  Michael Dukakis, Barack Obama

• Writers

  This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral by Mark Leibovich, Mrs. Kennedy and Me by Clint Hill, Lisa McCubbin, My Lunches with Orson: Conversations between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles by Peter Biskind

• Sport & Clubs

  basketball, baseball, golf, tennis

• Athletes

  Rafael Nadal

• Music & Bands

  Bruce Springsteen

Connections

In 1991 Rob married makeup artist Sheryl Berkoff. Lowe and Berkoff met each other in 1983 on a blind date. They met for the second time while he was shooting for Bad Influence in 1989. The couple got married in 1991. They have two sons together: Matthew Edward Lowe (b. 1993) and John Owen Lowe (b. 1995).

Father:

Chuck Lowe

Mother:

Barbara Lowe

Spouse:

Sheryl Berkoff

Brother:

Chad Lowe

Son:

Matthew Edward Lowe

Son:

John Owen Lowe

colleague:

Patrick Swayze

colleague:

Demi Moore

colleague:

Winona Ryder

colleague:

Gwyneth Paltrow

colleague:

Mark Ruffalo

colleague:

Katie Holmes

colleague:

Arielle Kebbel

colleague:

Liv Tyler

References

• Rob Lowe on Instagram
• Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography
  2011
• Socs and Greasers: Behind The Scenes of The Outsiders from Rob Lowe's Stories I Only Tell My Friends
  2012
• Love Life
  2014