50 Fun Facts About Rob Lowe

Which Fox trivia game show, played on a giant grid of LED squares, did Rob Lowe begin hosting in 2024?

The Floor is an American version of a Dutch format, yet its first season was taped thousands of miles from Hollywood, at Ardmore Studios in Bray, Ireland.

On The West Wing, Rob Lowe played which deputy communications director, a gifted speechwriter for President Bartlet?

Sam Seaborn was conceived as the show's lead, and the pilot centered on him, before the ensemble around him grew more popular and the focus shifted.

Rob Lowe named his 2020 podcast after which word, his Parks and Recreation character's favorite adverb?

Literally is the word his ever-cheerful city manager stresses and mispronounces in almost every scene, and the interview podcast Lowe launched in June 2020 borrowed it for a title.

In The Outsiders, Rob Lowe played which greaser, the middle of three orphaned brothers in 1960s Tulsa?

Sodapop Curtis was Lowe's first feature film role, in a young cast that also included Patrick Swayze, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio and Diane Lane.

Rob Lowe was a leading member of which group of young 1980s film stars, named by New York magazine?

Brat Pack was a label the actors disliked; writer David Blum's cover story grew out of a night watching several of them being mobbed by fans at the Hard Rock Cafe in Los Angeles.

At the 1989 Academy Awards, Rob Lowe sang a notorious opening duet with an actress dressed as which fairy-tale heroine?

Snow White was played by Eileen Bowman without Disney's blessing, and the studio sued the Academy over the number, dropping the case only after an apology.

Rob Lowe turned down the part of Dr. Derek Shepherd, later played by Patrick Dempsey, in which medical drama?

Grey's Anatomy lost Lowe to Dr. Vegas, a CBS series he chose instead, which was canceled after only five of its episodes had aired.

Which future Two and a Half Men star did Rob Lowe befriend as a classmate at Santa Monica High School?

Charlie Sheen and Lowe were, by Lowe's own account, both nerds at school, and the future sitcom star's ambition back then was to play professional baseball.

Rob Lowe's younger brother Chad was married for about ten years to which two-time Oscar-winning actress?

Hilary Swank famously forgot to thank her husband when she accepted her first Academy Award, for Boys Don't Cry, in 2000.

In a 2017 advertising campaign, Rob Lowe dressed as an astronaut version of which fast-food icon?

Colonel Sanders, in Lowe's hands, gave a mock presidential speech about launching a chicken sandwich into space. Lowe said his grandfather had taken him to meet the real Harland Sanders as a child.

Which relentlessly upbeat Parks and Recreation city manager, a fitness fanatic, was played by Rob Lowe?

Chris Traeger was meant to last eight guest episodes before Lowe signed on as a regular. The character exercises constantly in the hope of becoming the first human to live to 150.

Rob Lowe's Parks and Recreation character falls for nurse Ann Perkins, a role played by which actress?

Rashida Jones's nurse and Lowe's city manager leave town together to be nearer her family in Michigan, and later have a son named Oliver.

In 9-1-1: Lone Star, Rob Lowe played which fire captain, a New Yorker rebuilding a firehouse in Austin?

Owen Strand had done the job once before: he rebuilt his own Manhattan firehouse after the September 11 attacks, then was asked to repeat the feat for Station 126 in Texas.

Which future Top Gun star played greaser Steve Randle alongside Rob Lowe in The Outsiders?

Tom Cruise, by Lowe's account, went ballistic at being told to share a room with him during the auditions.

Which director filmed The Outsiders, Rob Lowe's first movie, after a school librarian's students petitioned him?

Francis Ford Coppola had no plans for a film about teen angst until Jo Ellen Misakian, a librarian in Fresno, California, wrote to him on behalf of her seventh and eighth graders.

Which actor shared the screen with Rob Lowe in both The Outsiders and St. Elmo's Fire?

Emilio Estevez played Two-Bit Mathews in the first film and Kirby, a law student hopelessly infatuated with a hospital intern, in the second.

In St. Elmo's Fire, Rob Lowe's reckless former frat boy Billy Hicks is a musician who plays which instrument?

Saxophone player Billy is the group's irresponsible charmer, and the performance won Lowe a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor.

Rob Lowe starred opposite which actress in About Last Night, a romance adapted from a David Mamet play?

Demi Moore and Lowe played Chicago yuppies trying a committed relationship for the first time. The Mamet play behind the film has a blunter title, Sexual Perversity in Chicago.

Rob Lowe played a farmhand chasing an ice hockey career in which film, Keanu Reeves's first feature?

Youngblood forced Lowe to learn to skate, a process he later said he hated, and doubles handled many of his scenes on the ice.

Which US president did Rob Lowe portray in a 2013 National Geographic film based on a Bill O'Reilly book?

John F. Kennedy was Lowe's part, with Ginnifer Goodwin as the First Lady and Michelle Trachtenberg as Marina, the wife of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

In Tommy Boy, Rob Lowe played the scheming stepbrother of the title character, played by which comedian?

Chris Farley's Tommy gains a stepbrother who is really his new stepmother's husband: the pair, played by Lowe and Bo Derek, are married con artists with criminal records.

Which Tommy Boy cast member served as Roast Master at the 2016 Comedy Central Roast of Rob Lowe?

David Spade presided over a dais that mixed comedians with quarterback Peyton Manning, singer Jewel and Ralph Macchio, Lowe's old castmate from The Outsiders.

Rob Lowe played sleazy television producer Benjamin Kane in which comedy based on a Saturday Night Live sketch?

Wayne's World remains the highest-grossing film based on a Saturday Night Live sketch. Lowe's smooth villain buys the basement cable show from its two hosts for $5,000 each.

In two Austin Powers sequels, Rob Lowe played the young Number Two, a role played in old age by whom?

Robert Wagner plays Dr. Evil's second-in-command in the present day, and Lowe's younger version turns up when the villain travels back in time to 1969.

Rob Lowe played plastic surgeon Dr. Jack Startz in Behind the Candelabra, an HBO film about which flamboyant pianist?

Liberace was played by Michael Douglas, with Matt Damon as his young lover Scott Thorson. Lowe's turn as the surgeon who remodels Thorson's face earned him a Golden Globe nomination.

On Brothers & Sisters, Rob Lowe's senator Robert McCallister marries Kitty Walker, a role played by which actress?

Calista Flockhart's Kitty ended up a widow: Lowe quit after the fourth season, unhappy with his screen time, and the senator was written out after a multi-vehicle crash.

In The Grinder, Rob Lowe played a TV actor convinced that his long-running role qualifies him for which profession?

Lawyer is what Dean Sanderson believes he has become after years of playing one on television, to the dismay of his brother Stewart, a real attorney played by Fred Savage.

Rob Lowe voiced which grown-up lion, the father of young hero Kion, in Disney's The Lion Guard?

Simba is king of the Pride Lands by the time of the series, which began with the 2015 television film Return of the Roar; Lowe voiced him from that first outing onward.

Rob Lowe hosted which Fox quiz show whose contestants answered from a capsule swung by a giant robot arm?

Mental Samurai billed itself as an obstacle course for the mind. Its rotating capsule even had a name, Ava, and the show lasted two seasons.

Rob Lowe has been deaf in his right ear since infancy because of which undiagnosed childhood illness?

Mumps went undiagnosed when Lowe was a baby. Decades later he asked to play the deaf and mute Nick Andros in The Stand, feeling the unusual part would be a great challenge.

Born in Charlottesville, Virginia, Rob Lowe grew up in which Ohio city, the hometown of the Wright brothers?

Dayton is where a 12-year-old Lowe won his first professional part, an errand boy in a summer-theater Sherlock Holmes, after phoning every local theater to ask for a child's role.

Sheryl Berkoff, who married Rob Lowe in 1991 and later founded a jewelry line, formerly had which Hollywood profession?

Makeup artist Berkoff first met Lowe on a blind date in 1983, and the two crossed paths again years later on the set of his thriller Bad Influence.

Rob Lowe and his son John Owen Lowe created and starred in which Netflix comedy about a biotech founder?

Unstable casts the real father and son as a fictional one: Lowe is eccentric chief executive Ellis Dragon, and John Owen plays Jackson, the shy son who comes to work for him.

Rob Lowe starred in TV miniseries of The Stand and Salem's Lot, both adapted from novels by which author?

Stephen King wrote both books. Lowe played the deaf-mute Nick Andros in the 1994 version of The Stand and the returning writer Ben Mears in TNT's 2004 remake of Salem's Lot.

Rob Lowe reunited with which West Wing creator for a 2005 London stage production of A Few Good Men?

Aaron Sorkin wrote the courtroom play, and Lowe took the part of Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, the pair's first work together since the White House drama.

Rob Lowe starred opposite Jodie Foster in The Hotel New Hampshire, a film adapted from which novelist's book?

John Irving said he was thrilled that director Tony Richardson wanted to film the book. The cast also included a ten-year-old Seth Green in his first movie.

In Oxford Blues, Rob Lowe played a Las Vegas casino worker who joins which sports team at Oxford University?

Rowing is his way to impress Lady Victoria, the aristocrat he has followed to England. Ally Sheedy co-stars as Rona, the crew's American coxswain.

Rob Lowe played a manipulative stranger opposite which actor's meek yuppie in the thriller Bad Influence?

James Spader's timid office worker is coaxed into exploring his dark side by Lowe's charming drifter. Lowe said his strongest gut reaction on reading the script was to the villain.

On Who Do You Think You Are?, Rob Lowe learned a Hessian ancestor was captured at which Revolutionary War battle?

Trenton was an American victory won on the morning after Christmas 1776. Lowe's ancestor, Christopher East, was taken prisoner there and chose to stay in the United States.

Rob Lowe made his feature directing debut with a 2018 Lifetime remake of which classic thriller about a murderous child?

The Bad Seed had Lowe directing himself as David Grossman, father of the lethal Emma, played by Mckenna Grace. The story began as a 1954 novel by William March.

Which Sex and the City star played opposite Rob Lowe in the Netflix Christmas romance Holiday in the Wild?

Kristin Davis plays a former vet whose second honeymoon to Zambia becomes a solo trip, where she meets Lowe's pilot at an elephant sanctuary. Lowe's son John Owen plays her son.

In the ITV drama Wild Bill, Rob Lowe played a former Miami police chief posted to which English county?

Lincolnshire's town of Boston is where Chief Constable Bill Hixon lands with his teenage daughter. ITV canceled the series after a single season of six episodes.

Rob Lowe played super-agent Jeff Megall in Thank You for Smoking, which starred which actor as a tobacco spokesman?

Aaron Eckhart led the satire as Nick Naylor, Big Tobacco's chief spin doctor. Director Jason Reitman talked him, Lowe and other stars into working for minimum pay.

Rob Lowe earned a Golden Globe nomination as intellectually disabled Rory in which 1987 drama starring Winona Ryder?

Square Dance also starred Jason Robards and Jane Alexander. Lowe's part had first been earmarked for a friend, who dropped out to direct a film of his own and passed him the script.

Rob Lowe joined which CBS emergency-room drama in its second season as army doctor Colonel Ethan Willis?

Code Black is set in the understaffed emergency room of the fictional Angels Memorial Hospital, where Lowe's colonel arrives with medical techniques learned on the battlefield.

Rob Lowe played Richard Rank in which Jodie Foster science fiction film, adapted from a novel by Carl Sagan?

Contact puts Lowe's character on the debate show Crossfire opposite Ann Druyan, playing herself. She was Sagan's wife and had been developing the story with him since 1979.

Rob Lowe starred in 2014 commercials, opposite odd alter egos who had cable, for which pay-TV provider?

DirecTV pulled the ads in April 2015 after rival Comcast complained and an advertising watchdog found the claims about quality and customer satisfaction less than truthful.

On Californication, Rob Lowe played movie star Eddie Nero, hired to portray the novelist played by which series lead?

David Duchovny's Hank Moody is the troubled writer whose book is being filmed, and Lowe's in-demand but erratic actor is the man cast to play him on screen.

In 2018 Rob Lowe became the face of which long-running diet brand?

Atkins picked Lowe because of what the company called his low carb lifestyle, and its advertisements with him were still appearing six years later.

Rob Lowe's Parks and Recreation character arrives as a state auditor to fix the budget of which fictional Indiana city?

Pawnee is in such financial trouble that the state sends in two auditors, played by Lowe and Adam Scott, who joined the cast in the last two episodes of the second season.