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McCarthy played adrift Georgetown University grad Kevin in St. Elmo's Fire—and then, in Pretty in Pink, rich high school senior Blane, who falls for Ringwald's outcast-because-she's-not-rich-and-makes-her-own-clothes (i.e. way too cool for this school) Andie.

Then it was onto playing a window dresser whose muse comes to life in Mannequin and a disaffected college student in Less Than Zero (with RDJ and Pretty in Pink costar James Spader, both considered Brat Pack-adjacent), while Weekend at Bernie's remains a no-explanation-necessary reference.

McCarthy's film highlights after the 1980s included The Joy Luck Club and Mulholland Falls, but he also leaned into theater (he was in Long Day's Journey Into Night when he told People in 1999 that the Brat Pack wasn't a real thing) and became a busy director, working on Gossip Girl, Orange Is the New Black, The Blacklist, The Sinner and Good Girls.

In 2022, he joined The Resident for a season and was in the 2023 indie film Grace Point with John Owen Lowe.