This member of the group of young actors dubbed by the media as the Brat Pack briefly cornered the market of playing smugly contentious, troubled young men, as in "The Breakfast Club" and "St. Elmo's Fire" (both 1985). After an upper-class upbringing (prepping at St. Paul's and college at Haverford), Nelson moved to New York to study with Stella Adler. Relocating to Los Angeles at the age of 25, he immediately hit the big-time with a starring part in the teen comedy "Making the Grade" (1984). After a similar farce, Kevin Reynolds' "Fandango" (1985), co-starring a neophyte Kevin Costner,