Early life

Nelson was born in Portland, Maine, the son of Merle (née Royte), a court mediator and former member of the Maine state legislature, and Leonard Nelson, a corporate lawyer. His family is Jewish, and his father was the first Jewish president of the Portland Symphony Orchestra. He has two sisters, Eve and Julie. He went to school at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and Waynflete School in Portland, Maine, and studied at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, leaving during his sophomore year. He subsequently moved to Manhattan to study acting with Stella Adler.

Career

1980s

Nelson began acting in the mid-1980s, starring in Making the Grade (1984) and Fandango (1985), the latter in which he starred opposite a young Kevin Costner. It was his roles in John Hughes's The Breakfast Club (1985) and Joel Schumacher's St. Elmo's Fire (1985) - and his affiliation with the Brat Pack - that made Nelson a star (along with Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy). The St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion) music video - also directed by Joel Schumacher - reached #1 in the USA (1985) written by David Foster and John Parr and performed by John Parr; Nelson appears in the video. A subsequent article in New York magazine, which focused primarily on the success of these films, resulted in the term "Brat Pack" being coined.

In 1986 Nelson provided the voice of Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime in The Transformers: The Movie and teamed up with Breakfast Club alumna Ally Sheedy for a third time in Blue City. He also provided narration for Bill Couturie's Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam, a critically acclaimed war documentary that featured a cast including Tom Berenger, Robert De Niro, Willem Dafoe, and Matt Dillon. Film critic Roger Ebert praised the documentary, and it maintains a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. He starred opposite Burt Reynolds in the ABC Afterschool Special Shattered If Your Kid's On Drugs, which also featured Megan Follows and Dermot Mulroney. 1987 saw him starring in the Bob Clark courtroom comedy From the Hip, which co-starred John Hurt and Elizabeth Perkins; he also provided a stand-out performance in Billionaire Boys Club, a courtroom thriller based on actual events; his performance earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Mini-Series. In the Fall of 1988 he played Konstantin in Chekhov's The Seagull directed by Charles Marowitz at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, earning praise as did the entire production. Nelson closed the 1980s with the William Lustig thriller, Relentless (1989), in which he plays a Los Angeles serial killer being hunted by two cops (Robert Loggia and Leo Rossi); he provided a cameo in the Adam Rifkin road film Never on Tuesday (1989) along with Nicolas Cage, Cary Elwes, Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen; and appeared in Tommy Chong's Far Out Man (1989) with Rae Dawn Chong and C. Thomas Howell.

Key TV roles in the 1980s included Moonlighting (1986) - episode Camille - in which he played a police officer opposite Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis.

1990s

Nelson began 1990s with a starring role opposite Max von Sydow in the World War II drama Hiroshima: Out of the Ashes (1990); the film focused on the horror of the Hiroshima bombing; it co-stars Mako Iwamatsu and Pat Morita. In the Fall of 1990 he appeared on stage in Chicago and New York in Jules Feiffer's Carnal Knowledge with Jon Cryer. He then worked for a second time with Adam Rifkin, this time starring in The Dark Backward (1991) with Bill Paxton; this quirky comedy also featured fellow actor Rob Lowe, as well as Lara Flynn Boyle, James Caan, and Wayne Newton; Nelson plays the worst comedian in stand-up comedy history. In 1991, he had a starring role in the Mario Van Peebles-directed New Jack City, an urban gangster film with Wesley Snipes, Ice-T, Vanessa A. Williams, and Chris Rock; the film was a commercial success. He then had a special guest appearance in the popular HBO TV series Tales from the Crypt - on the episode What's Cookin (1992) - with Christopher Reeve and Meat Loaf, followed by a starring role with Richard Jordan in the thriller Primary Motive (1992), and a similar role in Entangled (1993) opposite Pierce Brosnan, which was set in Paris.

In 1994 Nelson appeared with Steve Buscemi, Chris Farley and Adam Sandler in the comedy Airheads, with Gina Gershon in the psychological thriller Flinch, and with then partner Shannen Doherty in the thriller Blindfold: Acts of Obsession; he further wrote, produced, and starred in the thriller Every Breath in which he co-starred with Joanna Pacula. He headlined the Australian thriller, Blackwater Trail (1995), with Peter Phelps before receiving a starring role on the NBC television sitcom Suddenly Susan (1996), which saw success for a four-season run; this was followed by a starring role in the Shaquille O'Neal movie Steel (1997); the film also starred Annabeth Gish and Richard Roundtree (Steel was a commercial flop). Nelson wrapped up the 1990s with another urban gangster thriller, Light It Up (film) (1999), which featured an ensemble cast including R&B singer/actor Usher Raymond (in his first leading role), Rosario Dawson, Forest Whitaker, and Vanessa L. Williams; he also played Alan Freed in the latter's life story, Mr. Rock 'N' Roll: The Alan Freed Story (1999) opposite Mädchen Amick and Paula Abdul.

2000s

In the 21st century, Nelson has appeared in such TV series as The Outer Limits (2000), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2006), CSI: NY (2007), Las Vegas (2007), Eleventh Hour (2008) as a psychologist researching soldiers returning from Iraq who suffer from Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Psych (2010), and a recurring role in Two and a Half Men (2010) with Charlie Sheen.

Films have included the Psychological thriller Cabin by the Lake (2000), its sequel Return to Cabin by the Lake (2001), and a cameo appearance in the 2001 film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back; the film's writer/director, Kevin Smith, had been a long-time fan of Nelson and the "Brat Pack" films. In 2002 he co-starred with Lauren Holly in Santa, Jr. and reprised his role as John Bender in an episode of Family Guy (2007). Later, Nelson reprised his role of Rodimus Prime in Transformers Animated (2009) and appeared in The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009), the latter with Julie Benz, Billy Connolly, Sean Patrick Flanery, and Peter Fonda.

He portrayed Father Charley Lock on Brookwood Sleazebags (2010), a pilot he did for HBO. In 2012, Nelson played the role of Headmaster Nash in the live-action feature film Bad Kids Go to Hell, based on the best-selling graphic novel of the same name. The same year, Nelson co-wrote and starred in the short film The Spin Room: Super Tuesday. Nelson reprised his role as Rodimus in Transformers: Animated and voiced Ben 10,000 and Eon in Ben 10 Omniverse.

In 2013 Nelson authored four books released on Kindle: "The Power of Speech", "Nine of Diamonds", "The Gig" and "Water Music".

Nelson played a pivotal role in the final season of Nikita.

Popular culture

Nelson is frequently mentioned in relation to the 1980s due to the popularity of his early films The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire (1985). Nelson appeared at the 2010 Academy Awards to pay tribute to the late John Hughes along with other cast members of Hughes' films.
The character of Nelson Muntz on Matt Groening's animated series The Simpsons was said to be named after Nelson in honor of his portrayal of John Bender in The Breakfast Club.

As of 2015, Nelson is starring alongside Zimbabwean actress Chloe Traicos in the comedy The Death and Life of Johnny G. While Nelson had the experience the prior year of a fake news story claiming his death, this film is about an aging star who deliberately fakes his own death to gain publicity.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1982	Rock 'n' Roll Hotel	Rocker Johnny
1984	Making the Grade	Eddie Keaton
1985	The Breakfast Club	John Bender	Won - MTV Movie Silver Bucket of Excellence Award
1985	St. Elmo's Fire	Alec Newbary
1985	Fandango	Phil Hicks, Groover
1986	The Transformers: The Movie	Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime	Voice
1986	Blue City	Billy Turner
1986	From the Hip	Robin 'Stormy' Weathers
1989	Relentless	Arthur 'Buck' Taylor
1990	Hiroshima: Out of the Ashes	Pete Dunham	Television movie
1991	New Jack City	Nick Peretti
1991	The Dark Backward	Marty Malt
1992	Primary Motive	Andrew Blumenthal
1993	Conflict of Interest	Gideon
1993	Entangled	David
1994	Every Breath	Jimmy	Writer, producer
1994	Hail Caesar	Prisoner One
1994	Airheads	Jimmie Wing
1994	Flinch	Harry Mirapolsky
1994	Blindfold: Acts of Obsession	Dr. Jannings	Television movie
1994	Caroline at Midnight	Phil Gallo
1995	Circumstances Unknown	Paul Kinsey	Television movie
1995	Blackwater Trail	Matt
1996	For a Few Lousy Dollars	Hitman
1997	Steel	Nathaniel Burke
1999	Mr. Rock 'n' Roll: The Alan Freed Story	Alan Freed	Television movie
1999	Light It Up	Ken Knowles
2000	Endsville	Rufus the Buck-Toothed Sluggard
2000	Falcon Down	Harold Peters
2000	Cabin by the Lake	Stanley	Television movie
2000	The Spiral Staircase	Phillip Warren	Television movie
2000	The New Adventures of Spin and Marty: Suspect Behavior	Jack Hulka	Television movie
2001	Strange Frequency	Martin Potter	Television movie
2001	Lost Voyage	Aaron Roberts	Television movie
2001	Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back	Sheriff
2001	Return to Cabin by the Lake	Stanley	Television movie
2001	Dark Asylum	Quitz
2001	The Cure for Boredom	Max
2002	Cybermutt	Alex	Television movie
2002	Deceived	Jack Jones
2002	Santa Jr.	Darryl Bedford	Television movie
2003	White Rush	Brian Nathanson
2004	Ray	Music Producer
2005	Lethal Eviction	Shep
2005	The Lost Angel	Father Brian
2005	Three Wise Guys	George	Television movie
2006	Black Hole	Eric	Television movie
2007	Netherbeast Incorporated	Steven P.D. Landry
2007	Nevermore	Jonathon Usher
2007	The Kidnapping	Glen	Television movie
2008	The Caretaker	Ella's dad
2008	Infected	Malcolm Burgess	Television movie
2008	The Day the Earth Stopped	Charlie
2009	Dirty Politics	Billy
2009	A Single Woman	Jewish reporter
2009	Little Hercules in 3-D	Kevin
2009	The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day	Concezio Yakavetta
2010	The Terror Experiment (Fight or Flight)	Agent Wilson
2010	Endure	Emory Lane
2010	Mayor Cupcake	Donald Maroni
2011	Cancel Christmas	Santa / Chris Frost	Television movie
2012	Bad Kids Go to Hell	Headmaster Nash
2013	Last Chance Holiday	Glenn Cartwell
2013	Down and Dangerous	Charles	Nominated - Maverick Movie Award
2014	Nurse 3D	Dr. Morris
2014	Bigfoot Wars	Dr. Smith
2014	Private Number	Sheriff Stance
2016	Billionaire Boys Club	Ryan Hunt	Filming
2017	Cojot	Narrator	In development

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	Moonlighting	Policeman	Episode: "Camille"
1987	Billionaire Boys Club	Joe Hunt	2 episodes Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film
1992	Tales from the Crypt	Gaston	Episode: "What's Cookin'"
1996-1999	Suddenly Susan	Jack Richmond	71 episodes
2000	The Outer Limits	Harry Longworth	Episode: "Something About Harry"
2006	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Mick Sheridan	Episode: "Time of Your Death"
2007	Las Vegas	Ollie	Episode: "Fleeting Cheating Meeting"
2007	CSI: NY	Cigarette Company Executive	Episode: "The Ride In"
2006	Family Guy	John Bender	Episode: "Meet the Quagmires"
2009	Phineas & Ferb	The Guru	Episode: "Bubble Boys"
2009	Transformers Animated	Rodimus Prime	Episode: "TransWarped Part 1"
2010	Psych	Dr. Steven Reidman	Episode: "Death Is in the Air"
2010	Two and a Half Men	Chris	2 episodes
2013-2014	Ben 10: Omniverse	Eon/Ben 10,000	5 episodes
2013	Nikita	Ronald Peller	2 episodes
2015-present	Empire	Billy Beretti	4 episodes

Charities

Judd Nelson supports the following charitable causes: Heart Disease, Children.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]