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"It is a career of make-believe, of masks. We all have masks in life." It's true that everyone wears metaphorical masks of some type, and Judd Nelson wears them well. He has played some of the most iconic roles that occurred in the 1980s, and has continued his career into the 1990s and 2000s on his own terms by taking on roles that meant something to him or in which he found value. Playing John Bender in The Breakfast Club (1985) got him noticed, and that was closely followed by his role as Alec Newbary in St. Elmo's Fire. He enjoyed a high level of fame throughout the 1980s for both of those roles and movies.

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While fans loved the movies, the critics also generally liked them. That helped ensure that Nelson would have plenty of time and opportunity to practice make-believe if he wanted to. Like many actors who were extremely popular in the 1980s, though, Nelson's career was strong and then dropped off to a level that wasn't the same as the height of stardom he had enjoyed from the classic movies he had been a part of. Still, fans of Nelson look forward to what he will do next, and the abilities he has to write and produce quality work in addition to his acting. How did he get started, and what's he doing now? Read on to find out.

A Love of Acting From an Early Age

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Judd Nelson was born in Portland, Maine. His mother was a court mediator and had been a Maine state legislature member. His father was a corporate attorney. Nelson has two sisters, and he attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire along with Waynflete School in Portland. After high school he went to Pennsylvania and attended Haverford College. During his sophomore year he left the school and moved to Manhattan. There he studied acting with Stella Adler and worked to hone his craft so he could take on roles that he would enjoy and that would give him opportunities.

In the mid-1980s, Nelson broke into acting with a starring role in 1984's Making the Grade. In 1985, he starred opposite Kevin Costner in Fandango. His stardom came from St. Elmo's Fire and The Breakfast Club in 1985, along with his affiliation with what was termed the "Brat Pack." This group included Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Andrew McCarthy, and Molly Ringwald. Nelson was also in the St. Elmo's Fire music video, and in a number of articles and interviews written and conducted with the movies and their commercial success in mind.

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"I am very grateful to make my living doing what I would do for free," Nelson has said, as he enjoys acting just for the sake of it. He didn't become an actor for fame or money, but rather to wear the metaphorical masks and take on the roles that he found important, meaningful, or simply enjoyable. In 1986, Nelson voiced Hot Rod / Rodimus Prime in The Tramsformers: The Movie. He was also in Blue City, and narrated Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam. The war documentary received critical acclaim.

A Hero in His Own Right

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"Heroes always make the right decision; I find that seldom happens in my life." While Nelson may not be a hero, necessarily, he became an icon to legions of fans around the world who remember him from the movies of the 1980s. But Nelson's career didn't stop there. Throughout the 1990s and the 2000s, he had many roles in feature films and on television. His TV credits include The Outer Limits (2000), CSI: NY (2007), and Eleventh Hour (2008), among a number of other series. He also had a recurring role on Charlie Sheen's Two and a Half Men (2010).

Nelson was making the right decisions about his career in the 2000s, as he was very busy with both TV and movies. His film credits during that time include Brookwood Sleazebags (2010), and Bad Kids Go to Hell (2012). He was also in Transformers Animated (2009) and Cabin by the Lake (2000). Nelson has appeared on Family Guy, and voiced a number of other characters associated with the transformers and Ben 10: Omniverse. He also starred in and co-wrote a short film entitled The Spin Room: Super Tuesday.

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He writes books, as well, and authored four of them that were released on Kindle in 2013. He was in Nikita's final season, and starred as Santa Claus / Chris Frost in a Hallmark movie called Cancel Christmas (2010). It's clear that fans haven't seen the last of Nelson, and while he may not be as in-the-press as he was in 1985, he's clearly built a life and a career around quality roles and the values he holds as an actor and a professional in the industry.