Anthony Michael Hall

Anthony Michael Hall was born as Michael Anthony Thomas Charles Hall on April 14, 1968 in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, a neighborhood of Boston. He is the son of jazz & blues singer Mercedes Hall and her first husband, Larry, whom she divorced when Anthony was six months old. He has a half-sister, Mary, from his mother's second marriage.

He began acting at age 7, appearing in ads for Honeycomb cereal, Bounty paper towels, and various toys. His mother was his manager, and he continued acting through high school. Later, his step-father became his manager. After he graduated, he decided to skip college to farther his career in acting.

In 1978, at the age of 10, Anthony landed his first major role as Rusty Griswald in National Lampoon's Vacation, which garnered attention from John Hughes. Six years after, at the age of 16, he starred in John Hughes's Sixteen Candles, as a geeky, desperate teen who was in love with the main character, played by Molly Ringwald (who Hall would later date). A year later, he went to star in The Breakfast Club as the nerdy Brian Johnson ("the brain"), with fellow Sixteen Candles star Molly Ringwald, and also starred Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, and Paul Gleason. The film was also directed by John Hughes. Later that same year, he starred in Weird Science (yet again directed by John Hughes) as a misfit named Gary. With those three films, Hall was a main member of the beloved Brat Pack.

After his "Brat Pack" success, Hall began to party a lot, and developed a drinking problem; he eventually became sober in 1990. He later auditioned for Saturday Night Live, and became the youngest cast member to date (at age 17). He was only on the show for one season; he was unable to create any memorable characters, and the show was too competitive for him. He was offered roles in two more John Hughes films, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Pretty in Pink, both roles yet again the stereotypical nerd. He turned them down to avoid being typecast, and instead starred in the action/thriller Out of Bounds, which was a box office disappointment. In 1988, Hall starred in the comedy Johnny Be Good, playing the main character, who was a high school quarterback, which differed from his previous roles. Two years after, he went on to play the antagonist in the Tim Burton film, Edward Scissorhands. He continued to vary his roles, playing a gay man in Six Degrees of Separation, a wannabe rock-star in Hail Caesar, and a young Bill Gates in the Emmy-nominated television movie, Pirates of Silicon Valley.

In 2002, Hall starred in The Dead Zone as the main character, Johnny Smith, which was based on the novel of the same name by horror writer Stephen King. The show was a ratings success, and in the third season, he tried his first shot at directing an episode. Besides acting, he co-produced a small film called Funny Valentine in 2005, and produced the 2007 film, Aftermath, which was Chris Penn's final role before his death in 2006. The Dead Zone aired its last episode in September 2007.