Andrew Thomas McCarthy (born November 29, 1962)[1] is an American actor, travel writer, and television director. He is most known as a member of the Brat Pack, with roles in 1980s films such as St. Elmo's Fire, Pretty in Pink, Mannequin, and Weekend at Bernie's. He is ranked No. 40 on VH1's 100 Greatest Teen Stars of all-time list. As a director, he is known for his work on Orange Is the New Black.
Early life and education
McCarthy was born in Westfield, New Jersey, the third of four boys. His mother worked for a newspaper, and his father was involved in investments and stocks.[2] McCarthy moved to Bernardsville, New Jersey, as a teenager and attended Bernards High School and the Pingry School, a preparatory academy.[3][4] At Pingry, he played the Artful Dodger in Oliver!, his first acting role. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at NYU for acting, but was expelled after two years.[5]
He returned to Broadway to star in Side Man, and the production won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Play. In 2003, McCarthy was set to guest star in two episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Due to bad relations with actor Vincent D'Onofrio, series creator Dick Wolf decided against it. Wolf later stated, "Mr. McCarthy engaged in fractious behavior from the moment he walked on the set." McCarthy fired back in a statement of his own saying, "I was fired because I refused to allow a fellow actor to threaten me with physical violence, bully me and try to direct me."[7] Despite this incident, he later guest starred in a 2007 episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent (with Chris Noth, not D'Onofrio).[8] In 2004, he played Dr. Hook in Kingdom Hospital. He appeared in five episodes of the 2005 NBC television series E-Ring. In 2008, he starred in the NBC television series Lipstick Jungle as billionaire Joe Bennett and had a minor role in The Spiderwick Chronicles.
McCarthy directed several episodes of the hit CW television series Gossip Girl, including "Touch of Eva" in the fourth season.
In 2010 and 2011, he appeared in the hit USA show White Collar. He returned to the series in the next season to direct the episode "Neighborhood Watch". In 2015, he directed three episodes in Season 2 of the NBC hit television show The Blacklist starring James Spader and Megan Boone. In 2016, he starred in the short-lived ABC drama The Family.
From 2020 to 2021, he had a recurring role in NBC's TV series Good Girls. In 2022, McCarthy joined the cast of The Resident as Ian Sullivan, a renowned pediatric surgeon and Cade's estranged father.[9][10]
Writing
McCarthy began travel writing and served as an Editor at Large at National Geographic Traveler magazine.[11][12] In 2010, McCarthy was escorted out of an underground church in Lalibela, Ethiopia, for entering the site without documentation. He had been in the church on assignment for the travel magazine Afar.[13] McCarthy's book The Longest Way Home: One Man's Quest for the Courage to Settle Down was published in 2012.[14]
In February 2015, National Geographic published McCarthy's account, titled "A Song for Ireland", of his return to the house in the townland of Lacka West in the parish of Duagh in County Kerry in Ireland from which his great-grandfather John McCarthy had emigrated in the late 1800s.[15][16]
McCarthy has received several awards from SATW (Society of American Travel Writers), including Travel Journalist of the Year in 2010.[17]
In 2017, Algonquin Books published McCarthy's YA novel, Just Fly Away.[18] The novel became a New York Times bestseller.[19]
McCarthy's memoir about his life and career in the 1980s, titled Brat: An '80s Story, was released in May 2021 by Grand Central Publishing.[20]
In 2023, Grand Central Publishing released Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain, McCarthy's memoir about walking the Camino de Santiago with his son Sam in the summer of 2021.[21]
Personal life
McCarthy with wife Dolores Rice at the premiere of Shrek Forever After, 2010
In 1992, McCarthy entered a detoxification program and has been sober since that time.[22] In 2004, he announced that he once had a serious alcohol problem, which began at age 12.
On October 9, 1999, McCarthy married his college sweetheart Carol Schneider almost 20 years after they first dated. He later stated his reasons for tracking her down after they had drifted apart: "I 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." In 2002, Schneider gave birth to a son, Sam, who also became an actor. McCarthy and Schneider divorced in 2005.
On August 28, 2011, McCarthy married Irish writer and director Dolores Rice. They have two children, Willow and Rowan.[23][24]
2004: Won, Grand Prize for "Best Short Film" – News for the Church – qualifying it as an Official Entry with the Academy Awards for Best Live Action Short Film
^Schwartz, Lexi. "Celebrity Then And Now: Andrew McCarthy"[usurped], Albany Daily News. Accessed September 5, 2019. "Enjoying a rather ordinary childhood and attending the Pingry School and Bernards High School, McCarthy set his sights on acting after high school graduation and landed his first starring role at 19 years old in the 1983 feature film, Class."
