“What kind of a host invites you to his house for the weekend and dies on you?” An acclaimed actor, television director and travel writer, there is little Andrew McCarthy can’t and doesn’t do exceptionally well. First rising to fame in Hollywood in the 1980s as part of the Brat Pack. McCarthy’s breakout role came in the 1983 film Class before he starred in St. Elmo’s Fire, Pretty in Pink and Weekend at Bernie’s.
By the 1990s, his popularity on the silver screen took a sharp turn for the worse as. He returned to the Broadway stage with appearances in Tony Award-winning plays like Side Man. Along the way, he’s returned to television as an actor and director while reinventing himself as a travel writer with National Geographic Traveler in addition to publishing his memoir, The Longest Way Home. What exactly inspired his acting and writing careers? Let’s take a look at the 54-year-old’s story—then and now!
Get to know Andrew McCarthy background
A New Yorker at heart, Andrew Thomas McCarthy was born on November 29, 1962 in Westfield, New Jersey. Where his father handled stocks and investments in the financial industry while his mother worked at the local newspaper. Enjoying a rather ordinary childhood and attending the Pingry School and Bernards High School. McCarthy set his sights on acting after high school graduation.
He landed his first starring role at 19 years old in the 1983 feature film, Class. With his good looks and boy-next-door charm. The film put McCarthy on the map as his career flourished in the 1980s. He joined Brat Pack stars like Rob Lowe, Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson for hits like Pretty in Pink and St. Elmo’s Fire.
Setting out on his own path beyond the Brat Pack with films like Heaven Help Us opposite Kevin Dillion and Donald Sutherland. Andrew McCarthy also made his Broadway debut in the 1985 production of The Boys of Winter. He later returned to Hollywood for box office hits like Less Than Zero, Fresh Horses and Mannequin. Before appearing in his last major silver screen hit—Weekend at Bernie’s—in 1989. Although the film was a flop among critic. It earned moderate success at the box office and became a cult classic with fans still quoting the film nearly three decades later.
With his success in television and film waning throughout the 1990s with Year of the Gun, Only You, The Joy Luck Club and Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. McCarthy returned to Broadway and starred in Side Man, which earned a Tony Award for Best Play in 1999. By the new millennium, he was back to work in television with appearances in a few episodes of Law and Order: Criminal Intent but was later fired after ongoing disagreements on the set with co-star Vincent D’Onofrio. Fortunately, Andrew McCarthy refused to let the event derail his career as he proved his talents as a director with hit television series like Lipstick Jungle and Gossip Girl.
Finding a New Career
Amid reinventing himself as a director. Andrew McCarthy also discovered another passion for travel and writing. Which set him on a new career trajectory as a travel writer with National Geographic. “I was traveling a fair amount for my acting and I liked it,” he told GoWorldTravel.com. “Then I walked the Camino de Santiago trail in Spain years ago and had a transformative experience there. It changed my view of the world. I wanted more travel, more of that feeling, that feeling of being more alive and awake. Eventually, I began to write little stories about the scenes I experienced. A guy who took me around Hanoi on the back of his scooter or an American girl I saw being obnoxious in Laos. Then, I’d put the stories in the back of a drawer.”
Writing stories of his travels and keeping them only for himself for about a decade. He eventually convinced an editor at National Geographic Traveler to let him write a piece. “That led to more work,” McCarthy admitted. “I didn’t know why I did it. I just knew I liked it. Travel changed my life and I wanted to write about that.” Doing exactly that over the last few years.
McCarthy recently published his memoir titled The Longest Way Home: One Man’s Quest for the Courage to Settle Down. Where he shares his deepest thoughts on his need to separate from the world. While balancing meaningful relationships with everyone from his college sweetheart and ex-wife to his current wife and three children.
“The book describes my effort to come to terms with my tendencies to separate,” McCarthy said. “How do we come together, yet remain separate? For me, the question wasn’t ‘if’ I would get married, but rather ‘how’ I would get married.”
