Jon Cryer

Jonathan Niven "Jon" Cryer (born April 16, 1965) is an American actor, screenwriter, film director, and film producer. He is the son of Gretchen and David Cryer. Cryer made his motion picture debut in the 1984 romantic comedy No Small Affair, but found greater fame in the 1986 John Hughes-written film Pretty in Pink. In 1998, he wrote and produced the independent film Went to Coney Island on a Mission from God... Be Back by Five. Although Cryer gained subsequent fame by starring in these films, it took several years to find success on television. The shows in which Cryer starred, such as The Famous Teddy Z, Partners, and The Trouble with Normal, did not last long. In 2003, Cryer was cast as Alan Harper on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men, for which he won two Primetime Emmy Awards in 2009 and 2012. Cryer received a star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television in 2011. --- Cryer was born in New York City, New York. His mother, Gretchen (née Kiger), is a playwright, songwriter, actress, and singer; his father, Donald David Cryer, is an actor and singer who originally studied to be a minister. Cryer's paternal grandfather, Rev. Dr. Donald W. Cryer, was a well-known Methodist minister. He has two sisters, Robin and Shelly. He also has a step-sister, Hannah Douglas-Cryer. When Cryer was twelve years old, he decided that he wanted to become an actor. When his mother heard this, she thought he should have a backup plan, and joked: "Plumbing is a pretty good career." Cryer attended Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center for several summers as a teenager, and is a 1983 graduate of the Bronx High School of Science. He was classmates with screenwriter and film director Boaz Yakin. To his mother's "great disappointment", Cryer skipped college and went to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, United Kingdom. --- Cryer's first professional acting effort was as David in the Broadway play Torch Song Trilogy, replacing Matthew Broderick, who he "closely resembled". Cryer was later an understudy and replacement for Broderick in Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs in 1989. This resemblance to Broderick became something of a running joke, even referenced numerous times on his hit series Two and a Half Men, where his character posed as Broderick in order to get star treatment on various occasions. Cryer at the Los Angeles premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest in 2006 At age 19, Cryer appeared in the 1984 romantic comedy film No Small Affair, in the lead role as Charles Cummings.  He went on to have small roles in films and television movies, and he made his breakthrough as Phil "Duckie" Dale in the John Hughes-scripted film Pretty in Pink. --- Cryer married British actress Sarah Trigger in 1999, with whom he has a son, Charlie Austin. The pair divorced in 2004. In February 2007, on an episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, he announced that he would marry entertainment reporter Lisa Joyner; the couple married in Mexico in June 2007. On September 29, 2009, Jon and Lisa announced that they adopted a baby girl, whom they named Daisy.