One of Hollywood’s heartthrobs of the 1980s and 1990s was seen keeping himself in fine fettle with a jog in sweltering Los Angeles this week.
He was born to a showbiz family, including a grandfather who was one of the reigning sitcom stars of the 1950s, the decade TV exploded across America.
The ‘nepo baby’ achieved his breakthrough in his early 20s with a hit movie that made teen idols of its cast, and has now been turned into a Tony-winning Broadway show.
One of his co-stars in that film became his best friend, but the two men were subsequently enmeshed in a notorious love triangle over Julia Roberts.
In the early 1990s, he turned down what consequently became one of Tom Cruise’s best-remembered roles – corrupt lawyer Mitch McDeere in The Firm.
Now 60, with distinguished salt and pepper hair, he was spotted Tuesday in a casual ensemble of a t-shirt and shorts, going for a run through Brentwood.
Can you guess who he is?
One of Hollywood’s heartthrobs of the 1980s and 1990s was seen keeping himself in fine fettle with a Los Angeles jog this week
He was born in 1966 to a showbiz family, including a grandfather who was one of the reigning sitcom stars of the 1950s, the decade TV exploded across America
Now 60 with distinguished salt and pepper hair, he was spotted Tuesday in a casual ensemble of a t-shirt and shorts, going for a run through Brentwood
He is none other than Jason Patric, the dashing star of such films as the 1987 vampire picture The Lost Boys and the 1996 crime drama Sleepers.
His grandfather was Jackie Gleason, creator and star of The Honeymooners, which emerged as one of the biggest hit sitcoms of the 1950s.
Patric’s mother was Gleason’s daughter Linda, who herself became a Tony-nominated stage actress, while his father Jason Miller earned an Oscar nod for his role as Father Damien Karras in The Exorcist.
Meanwhile Patric became a star aged 21 in The Lost Boys, amid a cast including Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, Jami Gertz, Dianne Wiest and Kiefer Sutherland.
In a retrospective panel discussion with Sutherland, Patric confessed he had ‘turned down’ the picture ‘many times’ before the director Joel Schumacher ‘convinced me that he was gonna make this very interesting movie’ and give the cast ‘creative input.’
While Sutherland and Feldman were already boldface names, The Lost Boys propelled Haim, Gertz and Patric to the zenith of their Hollywood stardom.
Patric and Sutherland, fellow ‘nepo babies,’ became best friends, only to shortly thereafter find themselves at the center of a thunderous 1990s controversy.
Sutherland and Julia Roberts were engaged to be married on June 14, 1991 – but that day, he was seen moving out of their Hollywood Hills home and she was glimpsed on a date with none other than Patric, with whom she promptly jetted off to Dublin.
He is none other than Jason Patric, the dashing star of such films as the 1987 vampire picture The Lost Boys (pictured) and the 1996 crime drama Sleepers
Patric, pictured this week, is the grandson Jackie Gleason, creator and star of The Honeymooners, which emerged as one of the biggest hit sitcoms of the 1950s
While Sutherland and Feldman were already boldface names, The Lost Boys propelled Haim, Gertz and Patric to their peak of Hollywood stardom
Directed by Barry Levinson, Sleepers starred Patric (right) alongside Brad Pitt (left) as two of a quartet of juveniel delinquents who wind up behind bars
He acted with Sandra Bullock in Speed 2: Cruise Control in 1997 (pictured), and in the 1998 comedy Your Friends & Neighbors with Ben Stiller
In 1991, he and Jennifer Jason Leigh played undercover narcotics officers who go native and spiral into addiction in Rush, also featuring Sam Elliott
There followed a whirlwind of conjecture about the chronology of the romances, with reports claiming Roberts and Sutherland had called off the wedding ‘days before’ she was spotted on her romantic getaway with his closest pal.
Roberts insisted later that their marriage ceremony had ‘been canceled long before’ the appointed date, in an interview with Rolling Stone.
‘I’ve read “days before,” “hours before,” “minutes before,”‘ the Pretty Woman star said exasperatedly. ‘And the fact is, it doesn’t matter how many times you say it – he wasn’t waiting at the altar, it wasn’t the day before, somebody else didn’t tell him, he didn’t see it on TV – people don’t want to know.’
Roberts, having previously cultivated an ‘America’s Sweetheart’ image, said with a laugh later in that interview: ‘Oh, ask me anything. My reputation’s shot!’
She and Patric broke up about a year into their relationship, but the tantalizing speculation surrounding the love triangle trailed him for years.
Patric and Sutherland ultimately mended fences in the 2000s, and in 2011 they co-starred in a Broadway revival of the Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Championship Season, which was written by Patric’s father.
Three decades after the fact, Patric and Sutherland finally gave a joint podcast interview in which they discussed the Julia Roberts imbroglio.
Sutherland confessed the period in question was a ‘difficult time for me, and I think it was an uncomfortable time for them,’ on Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum.
In 1991 Patric and his best friend Kiefer Sutherland, with whom he had co-starred in The Lost Boys, became enmeshed in a love triangle over Julia Roberts; Patric and Roberts pictured 1991
Roberts and Sutherland, pictured in 1990, were engaged to be married on June 14, 1991, but he was seen that day moving out of their house and she was glimpsed on a date with Patric
As for his post-Julia Roberts love life, Patric enjoyed a five-year romance with supermodel Christy Turlington during her Supermodel heyday in the 1990s; pictured 1998
One oft-forgotten episode in Patric’s romantic history is a brief relationship with Robin Wright from 1987 to 1988, in the immediate wake of his The Lost Boys stardom
‘But look, honestly, the truth, where I’m coming from – you fall in love, you fall in love. There’s nothing you can do about that. And she’s an extraordinary person, and he is too, and timing is what it is and everybody moves on from there.’
Patric’s stardom survived the scandal intact, and in 1996 he starred in the Barry Levinson classic Sleepers about four imprisoned juvenile delinquents in New York.
Brad Pitt, Billy Crudup, Ron Eldard and Patric played the main roles, in a cast that also contained Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman and Minnie Driver.
Patric’s other movies included westerns like the 1992 release Geronimo: An American Legend with Robert DuVall and Gene Hackman and the 2004 picture The Alamo with Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton and Patrick Wilson.
In 1991, he and Jennifer Jason Leigh played undercover narcotics officers who go native and spiral into addiction in Rush, also featuring Sam Elliott.
He acted with Sandra Bullock in Speed 2: Cruise Control in 1997, and in the 1998 comedy Your Friends & Neighbors with Ben Stiller, Aaron Eckhart, Catherine Keener, Amy Brenneman and Nastassja Kinski.
Three decades after the fact, Patric and Sutherland finally gave a joint podcast interview in which they discussed the Julia Roberts imbroglio
As for his post-Julia Roberts love life, Patric enjoyed a five-year romance with supermodel Christy Turlington during her Supermodel heyday in the 1990s.
After their breakup in 1999, Patric conducted an on-off relationship with a masseuse called Danielle Schreiber between the years of 2002 and 2012.
In 2009 – while they were broken up – they welcomed a son called Gus via in vitro fertilization, and they reconciled as a couple two years later.
However, after their final split, they barreled into a bitter custody battle in which Schreiber argued that Patric had no parental rights because they conceived out of wedlock via in vitro fertilization and he was thus no more than a sperm donor.
Patric was recognized as Gus’ father in 2014, but the custody battle stretched on, with Patric staunchly denying Schreiber’s allegations of abuse.
One oft-forgotten episode in Patric’s romantic history is a brief relationship with Robin Wright from 1987 to 1988, in the immediate wake of his The Lost Boys stardom.
Last year, Patric’s mark on showbiz history was deepened by the opening of a Broadway musical of The Lost Boys, which this month won four Tony Awards.
Last weekend, he brought Gus to see The Lost Boys on Broadway and met with LJ Benet, who has stepped into the role Patric immortalized onscreen, via People.
